"LIFEL1K3" by Jay Kristoff

LIFEL1K3 is a heart-pounding non-stop-action sci-fi novel with multiple unexpected plot twists and suspense-filled situations. The setting is the future where cyborgs, robots and androids are commonplace, The main character Eve has had a share of her own body modifications. After a near fatal gun shot to the head, she has had a series of chips inserted into her skull that help her remember her childhood.

When I initially picked up the novel, I did not think I'd like it. I was afraid it would be too sci-fi for me. However, a few pages in, I was hooked. Eve and her sidekicks Lem, Kaiser and Cricket are likable, hilarious and just plain fun to watch. Thus, the novel has an engaging and interesting plot and a great cast of characters.

I also loved the nod to the legend of the miraculously saved Romanov princess Anastasia. If you are not familiar with the story, the last Russian emperor, his wife and five children were brutally murdered and dumped in an abandoned mine in Siberia by the bolsheviks in 1918. Over the years, there were countless rumors that the youngest girl Anastasia miraculously survived and lived under an alias in the West. The last name of the main character in Kristoff's book - Monrova - is an anagram of Romanov. Her name is Ana - short for Anastasia. The father's name is Nicholas and he keeps referring to her as "Princess". The names of the other siblings also closely match the Romanovs': Olga (Olivia in the novel), Tatyana (Tania), Mary (Marie) and the boy Alexey (Alex in the book). Ana's childhood was spent in what she refers to as a modern-day palace. She was sheltered from the outside world and basked in luxury until a tragedy occurred that led to the murder of her entire family.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. 5 out of 5 stars. I received an e-ARC from Netgalley.

"Notice Me" by Emem Uko

This is a contemporary YA novel that is perfect for fans of boy bands and overall the music industry and the making of a band. The main character Anders becomes a lead vocalist almost by chance and the band he is a part of is catapulted into fame almost overnight.

I liked the beginning of this novel. The surprise message an author receives from a mystery celebrity was a good way to pull a reader in. However, once the identity of the celebrity is established the book abruptly switches to past events and recounts in excruciating detail his journey to fame and his everyday life as a member of a popular boy band.

One thing I could not understand was where most of the novel was taking place and why it was not revealed. Anders gets recruited by a foreign entertainment company that specializes in creating and promoting bands. You can sort of guess from the text that it is based in Asia (I would say Japan or Korea), but the author never identifies the country or the language, and I could not understand why. I think it takes away from the book and creates an annoying distraction (at least it did for me).

In addition, after the initial set-up that included a hint at unrequited love, we move into a detailed account of Anders' life as a lead singer of a boy band and do not come back to the love interest until the last quarter of the book. Moreover, there is no literary tension of any kind until about half way of the book and I did start to wonder whether anything interesting would happen any time soon. The plot definitely gets more interesting tn the second half of the book, despite the fact that the author still tends to be very detailed in her accounts of individual events.

I would say this book will appeal to anyone who likes boy bands, nice likable characters, detailed accounts of celebrities' lives and unsuspecting Cinderella stories, where an insanely popular musician falls in love with an ordinary fan. Overall, 3 out of 5 stars.

"Ghost Talkers" by Mary Robinette Kowal

This was another pick by a local Sci-Fi and Fantasy book club that I am a member of. Ghost Talkers is billed as perfect for fans of Naomi Novik's Uprooted and the show Downton Abbey. Although, I am a fan of both Novik's novel and the TV series, I did not get distinct vibes of either one.

Ghost Talkers is a historical fantasy/mystery novel set in Europe during WWI. As you can guess from the title, ghosts and mediums are real and both are in fact in England's service in the Great War. Here are the points that I really liked about this book:

• The historical setting. I thought Kowal did a great job creating the atmosphere of a British military base in France during WWI. The attitudes and notions of characters were also on point for the era, and even the language, I thought, was contemporaneous to the setting.
• The main character Ginger. As a medium serving in the Spirit Corps, Ginger is not strictly part of the military. However, she accesses information provided by ghosts of British fallen soldiers that is of vital strategic importance to the British military forces. Ginger gets her fair share of not being taken seriously by the military brass not so much due to her occupation (in this world no one questions the reality of ghosts and mediums) as due to her gender. But she is obstinate, determined and in the end no one has doubts about her abilities, intelligence and strategic thinking.
• The mystery twist. Apart from being a historical fantasy, this novel has a major mystery plot line. There is a traitor in the British camp and both Ginger and her fiance (who works for the military intelligence) are on a mission to find and neutralize the spy before vital information about the Spirit Corps' operation is leaked to the Germans. The mystery line was not predictable, which is always a huge plus. I did not figure out who the traitor was and was just as blown away as Ginger when it happened.

Now on to the things that I thought did not work so well:

• Side characters. There were several characters introduced early on about whom we got a fair amount of details but who never reappeared in the story. I am talking about the newly arrived mediums. Some of them seemed interesting enough to warrant a bigger role in the narrative so I was a bit confused that we never went back to them. 
• The romance. I don't want to spoil anything, but let's just say ghost stories are not quite my thing.
• The attempt at diversity. Kowal introduces a West Indian medium in the story, as well as an East Indian regiment that ends up playing a critical role. Although both the West and East Indians make major contributions to the war effort in the novel, the racial discrimination they suffer is painful and indisputable. Even though I salute Kowal for thinking of introducing some diversity to her characters, they were still relegated to playing a second fiddle. We do not get much of a background story on them and they are not as well developed as they could be. Token diversity is what I kept thinking when reading the novel. I would really like them to be a bigger presence in the story as that would provide a very interesting and unexplored perspective.

Overall, I rated this book 3 out of 5 stars. I do recommend it particularly if you like historical fiction and ghosts. I do like the former but not so much the latter. I am, however, curious about Kowal's other books and hope to get to them at some point soon.

"Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

Since I really enjoyed Sara Gruen's At the Water's Edge, I decided to pick up her popular Water for Elephants, which I've had on my shelf for several years. What a treat! The novel has two parallel timelines. One is set in a modern-day nursing home, where a "90- or 93-year old" Jacob Jankowski is living out his days. The other is Jacob's trip down memory lane to the spring of 1931, when as a student at Cornell University, he was about to graduate and start his career of a veterinarian in his father's vet practice. Those plans vanish in an instant when his parents are killed in a car accident and Jacob learns that they were entirely broke. He is so crushed by the news that he does not sit for his finals and instead runs away with a circus.

I loved this book. I also really enjoyed the voices of both Jacobs. As a young man traveling with the circus, he is idealistic, naive and loyal. He makes friends, falls in love and eventually finds his way in life. He also witnesses lots of suffering and injustice. His 3-month stint with the Benzini Brothers show is truly a wilderness experience, from which he emerges restored and ready to live.

The old Jacob is frail and forgetful, but still full of life and spirit. Even at this old age, he fights to preserve his dignity and right to make his own decisions. Books about old age and frailty scare me. The idea that someone who was full of life and energy is now helpless and weak is very depressing. Jacob Jankowski, however, is not one to tolerate pity. He might be old, but he is still alive and not afraid to remind of this to others.

I highly recommend this book to everyone who enjoys historical fiction. It has a cast of unforgettable characters, a dramatic and complex story line and an epic romance. 5 out of 5 stars.

Rating Books, Negative Reviews and the Book that Inspired This Post: "Space Opera" by Catherynne M. Valente

I recently realized that the overwhelming majority of my reviews are positive or very positive in nature. It is very rare for me to (a) give an extremely low rating to a book, and (b) write a review that is entirely negative. After all, someone took the time and effort to write a book. So I in turn try very hard to find something positive in their work. Such an approach, although well-intended, could be misleading to those who are trying to decide whether or not to read a certain book.

I have already reviewed a book by Catherynne M. Valente on my blog. However, I chose not to rate it at the time rather than give it a very low rating. I did, however, provide reasons as to why it was not for me. Well, I have now made a second attempt to read a book by this author.

Space Opera is supposed to be a humorous sci-fi novel set in a world where the intergalactic community decides on whether or not a newly discovered species is "sentient" and thus worthy of existence via participation in an intergalactic talent show. The book starts out with aliens arriving on Earth and informing the humans of these terms.

I am not sure, I am fully qualified to talk about this book as I gave up on it at the 60% mark on my e-reader. The book reads like a mash-up of Douglas Adams and Dr. Seuss but with a marked absence of a plot or characters. At about 30% mark, I realized I could not keep all the various species and planets straight in my head. At 50% - they were an endless blur with no visible end to descriptions.However, I was still hoping for our human characters to finally do something. Nope, no such luck! At 60%, I just stopped caring. And I never DNF ("do not finish") books... There is always a first. I am still marking it as "read" since this was the time I'll never get back. One out of five stars.