Shut Out

Shut Out By: Kody Keplinger
Most high school sports teams have rivalries with other schools. At Hamilton High, it's a civil war: the football team versus the soccer team. And for her part, Lissa is sick of it. Her quarterback boyfriend, Randy, is always ditching her to go pick a fight with the soccer team or to prank their locker room. And on three separate occasions Randy's car has been egged while he and Lissa were inside, making out. She is done competing with a bunch of sweaty boys for her own boyfriend's attention Then Lissa decides to end the rivalry once and for all: She and the other players' girlfriends go on a hookup strike. The boys won't get any action from them until the football and soccer teams make peace. What they don't count on is a new sort of rivalry: an impossible girls-against-boys showdown that hinges on who will cave to their libidos first. But what Lissa never sees coming is her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling...
Do you ever get annoyed when you read multiple books by the same author, and discover the main characters are always the same? I do. But, thankfully, that was not the case with Shut Out. I recently finished The DUFF, and liked it so much I started Shut Out right away. The two novels are set in the same town, but you don't need to read one to enjoy the other. There was no mention of Bianca and Wesley (which I would have liked), and Lissa, Cash, and Randy were nothing like them. There are similarities between Lissa and Bianca, like a little OCD and living with their dads, but besides that I think they had different voices. Cash and Wesley were not mirrored, with the only difference being their name. Randy wasn't the stereotypical bad boyfriend making you incapable of understanding why Lissa was with him. I'm not saying I liked the guy, but I could understand why they were together. Like The DUFF, Shut Out had the whole "overcoming labels" theme. The book was mainly about sex, or lack thereof, and explored many of the girls take on it. I thought this was especially interesting. A lot of this book felt like a conversation I would have with my best friend.  So, give it a read! And let me know how you like it :-]

Partials

Partials By: Dan Wells
The human race is all but extinct after a war with Partials--engineered organic beings identical to humans--has decimated the population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by RM, a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island while the Partials have mysteriously retreated. The threat of the Partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to RM in more than a decade. Our time is running out. Kira, a sixteen-year-old medic-in-training, is on the front lines of this battle, seeing RM ravage the community while mandatory pregnancy laws have pushed what's left of humanity to the brink of civil war, and she's not content to stand by and watch. But as she makes a desperate decision to save the last of her race, she will find that the survival of humans and Partials alike rests in her attempts to uncover the connections between them--connections that humanity has forgotten, or perhaps never even knew were there.
This book looks awesome, right? The cover, the description. Awesome. I'm really happy I read Partials. It was a lot like The Terminator, only there was also a disease and no time traveling. The surviving members of the war with the partials are living on Long Island, surviving only because the partials decided to leave them alone. Even though RM didn't kill the surviving humans, it has made them unable to have kids. Every newborn dies within days, making the extinction of the human race seem inevitable.  Does it seem like I'm giving out spoilers? I'm not. You learn the majority of this in the first chapter or so.  This story contains a lot of interesting ideas. I just got frustrated, because Dan Wells spelled everything out as if the readers were idiots. You learn everything that's going on in the world when Kira and her friends sit in a circle and just talk and talk and talk about it. It seems extremely pointless, as they're all a bunch of teenagers with no actual power. It's like how during the presidential election, everyone suddenly thinks they know everything about politics. Kira and her friends were those people. Half of them are soldiers, half medics. But they think they know everything. They're huge conspiracy theorists, and I just wanted to tell them (Especially Haru. Gosh I hated him) to kindly shut the hell up. I'm not saying the conspiracies were or were not right. I'll let you figure that out for yourself. I'm just saying they had no actual basis for anything they were talking about. They jumped the gun constantly, especially when soldiers questioned her adoptive mother, Nandita, about where she travels when she leaves long island. "That's none of your buisness," said Kira... "You think you can just barge into someone's front yard and ask anything you want? What if she went somewhere you don't like -- are you going to arrest her?" "Nobody is talking about arrest," said the soldier. "We're just asking questions. Calm down." "Just asking questions," said Kira. "Well, what if she refuses to answer?" (starting on page 99)  And then the soldiers tell her off, saying they're just doing their jobs trying to protect the city, which is more important than "wasting" her time. Kira responds vulgarly, which made me cover my face in embarrassment.  I'm pretty sure if one of my friends ever did something so obnoxious next to me, I would die of humiliation. To be fair, Nandita tells her she was wrong as well, and Kira admits she probably overreacted. But it's just a great example of how Kira and her friends jump to conclusions about things with no actual knowledge. It was extremely frustrating. There's something else that I'm not quite sure I love or hate. Dan Wells is not afraid to kill people off. In fact, I don't remember the last time I read a book where so many characters died. This was cool, because I think there are times when a character should die. You read a book and just think, "yeah right, like they would have survived that". I mean, would Lord of the Rings have been so good if Boromir had lived? Maybe. But I like to think it was necessary for certain character and plot development. I just hated how the characters died so easily. I mean, it was no big deal. So-and-so died, whatever, move on. I was somewhat annoyed with it during the first few deaths, but when Wells killed off the only character I truly liked, as if it was nothing, I was beyond frustrated. When a main character dies, it's supposed to be a big deal. People are supposed to be pissed when that happens. They should be crippled in grief. They should fight back as their hearts broke. Whatever. They should not shrug it off. Even if you know they died for a good cause, it's still supposed to matter! Yet even with these complaints, I still thought the book was pretty good. I still went looking for Fragments, the sequel, right away. I'm insanely curious about certain things, and want the answers a.s.a.p. I definitely recommend it.

The Iron King

The Iron King (The Iron Fey #1) By: Julie Kagawa
Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined. Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home. When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change. But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart
I remember seeing this book in stores when it first came out. I thought it sounded awesome, but for some reason never bought it or got it from the library. I kind of forgot about it until I came across the series at the library a few weeks ago. I liked the book. I'm into the fae/fey theme, especially after reading the Fever series. That doesn't mean the two series are anything alike, because they aren't. This series is aimed at teens, which no longer includes me. Fever would most definitely be rated R, no doubt about it. I respect how Kagawa created this whole new world. Writing fiction is hard, especially when you've creating a new world to go with it. Yes, Puck and a few characters are based off A Midsummer Night's Dream. Still, Kagawa must have done an insane amount of research and organizing. Yet I found myself getting annoyed, sometimes. I don't know how every mythical creature is supposed to look. I felt more description was needed in multiple parts of the book. Of course, a big part of this series is the whole Team Puck vs. Team Ash. I don't even know. I was Team Puck from the beginning. What did people see in Ash that I missed? Is it because some girls are into the bad boy? Because in the majority of this book, I just didn't find him likable. I mean, let's take a look: Meghan: You tried to kill me! Ash: ...you just happened to be there. But yes, if I'd had the shot, I would have taken it. And let's not forget: Meghan: What will happen then? Ash: I'll kill you. And this is within the first ten minutes of meeting him. Call me crazy, but I don't find death threats attractive. I also thought the whole Meghan and SOMEONE falling in love was just incredibly fast. It felt more like Kagawa said they had fallen in love, and that was it. But I didn't see it. I thought the relationship was incredibly shallow. Now, because this book is the first in a series, I feel I have to mention the others as well. But don't worry, I'm not going to spoil anything. I'm just going to say, I'm glad them. Book two was meh, but I really think book three made the series worth it. (Even if book four was forced and I kind of hated it). Three and a half stars.