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254 reviews
The Light by D.J. MacHale
3.0
In spite of a few flaws in character development and overall writing structure, I found The Light to be a very captivating tale with a fresh spin on a good old-fashioned haunting. I didn't realize or remember until talking to the friend that recommended this author and series that the author created the TV series Are You Afraid of the Dark?, which aired on Nickelodeon in the 1990s. I found that reading this novel was almost like watching an episode of that series, but I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing. Some of the scares were predictable, not to mention a choppy inner monologue for the main protagonist, Marshall Seaver (Marshall asks himself so many questions in EVERY chapter that it's almost like the author made those paragraphs chock-full deliberately because he doesn't trust his readers to be smart enough to ask those questions themselves).
Those things aside, the book did several things well. The first element that stood out to me was a good, sturdy establishment of the kind of relationship Marshall shares with his best friend, Cooper. Although Cooper is only around briefly in the early chapters of the book, MacHale crafts his part of the story alongside Marshall's to really establish a sort of "unspoken" connection between the two. You really get the idea that these guys know everything about each other and are the best of friends without really having to reiterate the point. I also was able to really connect with Marshall's character. It's rare that I connect that well with a main protagonist, as I usually find some supporting character that I'm more drawn to. But, in Marshall's case, I found what I like to call a literary brother. I felt his pain – the pain of worrying about a best friend, having a huge crush on the best friend's sister and, oh yeah, that little thing where he's haunted by his own creepy drawings.
I felt a little let down by the "big bad" of the story, who revealed himself in the last two or three chapters. I felt that the lead-in to his revelation was all for naught. The build-up and suspense were incredible...and then when you get to the main antagonist, it doesn't seem to fit with what's been established in terms of the fear and gripping suspense that have been employed in the story. In a way, I guess this may be good looking forward to the sequel, because the story sort of evolved from your typical horror tale into something a little different...something that rides the tight line between horror and action thriller stories.
I am anxious to pick up The Black and continue the story, which I understand is a re-telling from Cooper Foley's point of view. His is a character I am looking forward to seeing developed. Stay tuned for a review on that one as well...and for now, pick this one up if you are looking for a classic scare with an interesting twist at the end that will leave you in more of a wondering state than a guessing one...
Those things aside, the book did several things well. The first element that stood out to me was a good, sturdy establishment of the kind of relationship Marshall shares with his best friend, Cooper. Although Cooper is only around briefly in the early chapters of the book, MacHale crafts his part of the story alongside Marshall's to really establish a sort of "unspoken" connection between the two. You really get the idea that these guys know everything about each other and are the best of friends without really having to reiterate the point. I also was able to really connect with Marshall's character. It's rare that I connect that well with a main protagonist, as I usually find some supporting character that I'm more drawn to. But, in Marshall's case, I found what I like to call a literary brother. I felt his pain – the pain of worrying about a best friend, having a huge crush on the best friend's sister and, oh yeah, that little thing where he's haunted by his own creepy drawings.
I felt a little let down by the "big bad" of the story, who revealed himself in the last two or three chapters. I felt that the lead-in to his revelation was all for naught. The build-up and suspense were incredible...and then when you get to the main antagonist, it doesn't seem to fit with what's been established in terms of the fear and gripping suspense that have been employed in the story. In a way, I guess this may be good looking forward to the sequel, because the story sort of evolved from your typical horror tale into something a little different...something that rides the tight line between horror and action thriller stories.
I am anxious to pick up The Black and continue the story, which I understand is a re-telling from Cooper Foley's point of view. His is a character I am looking forward to seeing developed. Stay tuned for a review on that one as well...and for now, pick this one up if you are looking for a classic scare with an interesting twist at the end that will leave you in more of a wondering state than a guessing one...
The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore
4.0
**WARNING: This review contains SPOILERS for I AM NUMBER FOUR and THE POWER OF SIX. Read at your own risk!**
In the break-neck-paced, thrilling "three-quel", we return to the real world as seen through the eyes of the Lorien Garde - ten aliens, now reduced to seven, who journeyed to Earth following the destruction of their homeworld by the ravenous Mogadorians of, you guessed it, Mogadore. I'll spare you my lectures about contrived names/locations. If you really REALLY want to know my thoughts on it, check out my review on the second book in the series, POWER OF SIX.
OK, back to this book. Wow! What can I say? The first thing that comes to my mind in terms of the overall experience of consuming this volume of the I AM NUMBER FOUR series (seemingly retconned from the original LORIEN LEGACIES naming, although the original series titling still appears on the outside of the bound pages) is its extreme pace. The book is thrilling, fast, and action-packed. It's absolutely everything that fans of this series, like myself, could have hoped for out of the story.
We pick up almost right where we left off in the previous book, with Six, Marina, Ella and Crayton getting out of dodge in Spain, where they've just had the fight of their lives against a Mogadorian contingent that ended up killing off Marina's Cepan, Adelina, and her close friend, Hector. Now, the four of them head out in search of another Garde member, who they suspect is hiding in India. There are momentary reflections by Six and Seven - two of the three voices employed in the novel - and then it's straight to business.
Then, and quite seamlessly I might add, we head back to the United States, where we see the fallout of John Smith and Nine's escape from the Mogadorian prison/base in West Virginia. Now, the boys are hiding, recuperating, and trying to plan their next move. What I immediately loved about John's narration took me back to what I enjoyed so much about the first book. I'm drawn to John's personality because I see myself in a lot of how he deals with the world around him, and the situations he has to put up with. In addition to that, his interactions with Nine, their quarrels and arguments, and ultimately the development of their close friendship made John's narrative sections really enjoyable and something I would look forward to getting back to when the point of view changed back over to Six or Marina.
While I'm on the subject, I'd like to revisit something I pointed out about VOICE in my review of POWER OF SIX. I was floored by the author(s)' use of even TWO voices in that novel, and now we get a THIRD voice in this one. I believed then, and still believe to this day, that it's dangerous territory when writers start trying to put all of these voices and narrative points of view into a single volume to move one story forward, but here's why it works:
The way these books are laid out, at least in my opinion, it's almost as if they are constructed like big-budget feature films. You have a short first act that re-hashes what's happened to your heroes up to this point, and at the end of that first act you get introduced to your main problem. In RISE OF NINE, that problem is how the Garde are going to end up reunited before they face off against the Mogadorian leader Setrakus Ra.
Then, you have a much longer second act that highlights the struggles of all of your heroes and sets up the plot points that move them closer toward the ultimate confrontation. In the book's case, this "second act" consists of the journey of Marina, Six, Ella, Eight and Crayton (until his tragic demise in the Lorien prophecy cave at the hands of the Mogs) to get back to the United States and reunite with John Smith and Number Nine. Meanwhile, you also have John and Nine's intermittent journey to a place of refuge (Nine's former Chicago home) to keep the plot moving from the other side. And, just as in any great film, your second act ends with a huge setback for the heroes which will toss the story in a new direction. That setback was Six getting separated from her group during one of Eight's teleportations.
That's where the third act of our film-like novel begins: with Six by herself, stranded in the desert. The positive? She's EXACTLY where she needs to end up, exactly where the party was trying to get to. The really, really negative? She's got no one to depend on but herself and she ends up captured by the federal government, which is shown to be working in tandem with the Mogs in exchange for alien technology that will put the United States back on the map in terms of world domination.
That gets us back to the book's effective use of voice. Just as a film switching between different scenes and characters, this series has made an excellent use of switching between narrators (still maintaining that awesome change of font-face when it does) and each of the three voices still manage to be distinguishably different. The other great thing about it is that the authors chose the three MOST different characters. We have strong, courageous but flawed John Smith, struggling to jive with Nine on their journey and disagreeing with Nine's refusal to save Sam, John's best friend who was left behind in the Mog prison. Then you have soft, kind Marina, who is easily my favorite voice in both POWER OF SIX and RISE OF NINE, who has grown so much since we first met her in Spain last year.
And finally, we got our newest voice: the sexy, badass awesomeness known as Six. I have to admit that I have wanted to get in her head since we first met her in I AM NUMBER FOUR, and I was delightfully surprised at all we were able to learn from her and about her. We got to see, most surprisingly, that there is some emotion and some softness to her edgy personality after all which, to me, made her that much more attractive.
True to the overall saga, we got a pretty epic battle at the end of this one, wherein our heroes finally met their ultimate foe, Setrakus Ra. The infiltration of the secreat "Dulce" base in New Mexico and the ultimate showdown in the end did, in my opinion, trump the final struggle in POWER OF SIX in terms of how action-packed it was (but of course, I think the ending to the last book was supposed to be more emotionally involved than physical anyway), but it still didn't really live up to the blitz-ish and destructive feel of the high school battle in I AM NUMBER FOUR. Also, it's not the end of the struggle between Garde and Mog, and it should be interesting to see how the US Government plays into that, now that we know they've been brainwashed by the Mogs and bribed into the war.
As I wind this down, I will say that my one disappointment with the book was that it wasn't any longer. Yes, yes, I understand that every author of a series has to construct the perfect cliffhanger these days, and usually I find myself listing every scene that could have been cut from a longer-than-average novel. But this seemed like it could have been a little bulkier and explored some scenes a little further. Of course, this could easily have hampered the fast-paced, nail-biting grit of the story, and that's a trademark that definitely doesn't need to be abandoned in this series.
All in all, I loved RISE OF NINE and I can't wait to see what happens in the next volume.
PS: My burning questions? Who is REALLY the new Pittacus? I honestly can't decide between Eight and Four. We know it's not Ella (she is the new Loridas, given her aging ability). Who knows, though. Four and Eight may not be the only contenders. For all we know, Marina could end up being the new Pittacus Lore.
Oh, and are we EVER going to meet Number Five? Perhaps our newest voice in the next novel? We shall see...but I don't know if the series can push the envelope to FOUR voices in a single book...and I would really hate to lose any single one of the three we already have...
In the break-neck-paced, thrilling "three-quel", we return to the real world as seen through the eyes of the Lorien Garde - ten aliens, now reduced to seven, who journeyed to Earth following the destruction of their homeworld by the ravenous Mogadorians of, you guessed it, Mogadore. I'll spare you my lectures about contrived names/locations. If you really REALLY want to know my thoughts on it, check out my review on the second book in the series, POWER OF SIX.
OK, back to this book. Wow! What can I say? The first thing that comes to my mind in terms of the overall experience of consuming this volume of the I AM NUMBER FOUR series (seemingly retconned from the original LORIEN LEGACIES naming, although the original series titling still appears on the outside of the bound pages) is its extreme pace. The book is thrilling, fast, and action-packed. It's absolutely everything that fans of this series, like myself, could have hoped for out of the story.
We pick up almost right where we left off in the previous book, with Six, Marina, Ella and Crayton getting out of dodge in Spain, where they've just had the fight of their lives against a Mogadorian contingent that ended up killing off Marina's Cepan, Adelina, and her close friend, Hector. Now, the four of them head out in search of another Garde member, who they suspect is hiding in India. There are momentary reflections by Six and Seven - two of the three voices employed in the novel - and then it's straight to business.
Then, and quite seamlessly I might add, we head back to the United States, where we see the fallout of John Smith and Nine's escape from the Mogadorian prison/base in West Virginia. Now, the boys are hiding, recuperating, and trying to plan their next move. What I immediately loved about John's narration took me back to what I enjoyed so much about the first book. I'm drawn to John's personality because I see myself in a lot of how he deals with the world around him, and the situations he has to put up with. In addition to that, his interactions with Nine, their quarrels and arguments, and ultimately the development of their close friendship made John's narrative sections really enjoyable and something I would look forward to getting back to when the point of view changed back over to Six or Marina.
While I'm on the subject, I'd like to revisit something I pointed out about VOICE in my review of POWER OF SIX. I was floored by the author(s)' use of even TWO voices in that novel, and now we get a THIRD voice in this one. I believed then, and still believe to this day, that it's dangerous territory when writers start trying to put all of these voices and narrative points of view into a single volume to move one story forward, but here's why it works:
The way these books are laid out, at least in my opinion, it's almost as if they are constructed like big-budget feature films. You have a short first act that re-hashes what's happened to your heroes up to this point, and at the end of that first act you get introduced to your main problem. In RISE OF NINE, that problem is how the Garde are going to end up reunited before they face off against the Mogadorian leader Setrakus Ra.
Then, you have a much longer second act that highlights the struggles of all of your heroes and sets up the plot points that move them closer toward the ultimate confrontation. In the book's case, this "second act" consists of the journey of Marina, Six, Ella, Eight and Crayton (until his tragic demise in the Lorien prophecy cave at the hands of the Mogs) to get back to the United States and reunite with John Smith and Number Nine. Meanwhile, you also have John and Nine's intermittent journey to a place of refuge (Nine's former Chicago home) to keep the plot moving from the other side. And, just as in any great film, your second act ends with a huge setback for the heroes which will toss the story in a new direction. That setback was Six getting separated from her group during one of Eight's teleportations.
That's where the third act of our film-like novel begins: with Six by herself, stranded in the desert. The positive? She's EXACTLY where she needs to end up, exactly where the party was trying to get to. The really, really negative? She's got no one to depend on but herself and she ends up captured by the federal government, which is shown to be working in tandem with the Mogs in exchange for alien technology that will put the United States back on the map in terms of world domination.
That gets us back to the book's effective use of voice. Just as a film switching between different scenes and characters, this series has made an excellent use of switching between narrators (still maintaining that awesome change of font-face when it does) and each of the three voices still manage to be distinguishably different. The other great thing about it is that the authors chose the three MOST different characters. We have strong, courageous but flawed John Smith, struggling to jive with Nine on their journey and disagreeing with Nine's refusal to save Sam, John's best friend who was left behind in the Mog prison. Then you have soft, kind Marina, who is easily my favorite voice in both POWER OF SIX and RISE OF NINE, who has grown so much since we first met her in Spain last year.
And finally, we got our newest voice: the sexy, badass awesomeness known as Six. I have to admit that I have wanted to get in her head since we first met her in I AM NUMBER FOUR, and I was delightfully surprised at all we were able to learn from her and about her. We got to see, most surprisingly, that there is some emotion and some softness to her edgy personality after all which, to me, made her that much more attractive.
True to the overall saga, we got a pretty epic battle at the end of this one, wherein our heroes finally met their ultimate foe, Setrakus Ra. The infiltration of the secreat "Dulce" base in New Mexico and the ultimate showdown in the end did, in my opinion, trump the final struggle in POWER OF SIX in terms of how action-packed it was (but of course, I think the ending to the last book was supposed to be more emotionally involved than physical anyway), but it still didn't really live up to the blitz-ish and destructive feel of the high school battle in I AM NUMBER FOUR. Also, it's not the end of the struggle between Garde and Mog, and it should be interesting to see how the US Government plays into that, now that we know they've been brainwashed by the Mogs and bribed into the war.
As I wind this down, I will say that my one disappointment with the book was that it wasn't any longer. Yes, yes, I understand that every author of a series has to construct the perfect cliffhanger these days, and usually I find myself listing every scene that could have been cut from a longer-than-average novel. But this seemed like it could have been a little bulkier and explored some scenes a little further. Of course, this could easily have hampered the fast-paced, nail-biting grit of the story, and that's a trademark that definitely doesn't need to be abandoned in this series.
All in all, I loved RISE OF NINE and I can't wait to see what happens in the next volume.
PS: My burning questions? Who is REALLY the new Pittacus? I honestly can't decide between Eight and Four. We know it's not Ella (she is the new Loridas, given her aging ability). Who knows, though. Four and Eight may not be the only contenders. For all we know, Marina could end up being the new Pittacus Lore.
Oh, and are we EVER going to meet Number Five? Perhaps our newest voice in the next novel? We shall see...but I don't know if the series can push the envelope to FOUR voices in a single book...and I would really hate to lose any single one of the three we already have...
The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore
4.0
Sequels can be tough because they honestly can go two different ways in terms of quality and how faithful they are to their overlying series. I have to say that Power of Six, in the best sense of the phrase, far exceeded the first installment in the LORIEN LEGACIES series. In fact, now that I have read it, I find myself returning to my review of the first book, I Am Number Four. In hindsight, after reading Power of Six, the first book now seems to fall flat in many ways that weren't apparent when I first read it. Don't get me wrong, it was the beginning to a new series that has, so far, proven to be EPIC. I can best compare it to going back and reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone now that the whole series is published. It was a riveting beginning to a worldwide phenomenon. However, that first novel, looking back at it, really only gets its praise because of the series it kicked off. It really isn't a strong novel by itself, and certainly isn't as flattering as later installments in the Harry Potter series. I Am Number Four will suffer the same fate, I believe.
If I could sum up my two favorite things that Power of Six did, they'd be VOICE and RELATIONSHIPS. The pseudonym-veiled author(s) took a BIG chance when he decided to employ two very different and EXTREMELY independent and strong voices to unfold the story line in Power of Six...complete with two different font faces depending on the narrator. I'm normally very skeptical of novels that try to do this, and I have often shied away from doing it in my own writing because it can have disastrous consequences with your readers. Stephenie Meyer tried it in the Twilight series, although briefly, and ended up making Jacob, the one who got a brief chance to narrate, more enjoyable than whiny Bella. Fail. Michael Scott tried it in The Alchemyst, which lent itself to reminding us EXACTLY who was speaking practically every other sentence. FAIL. James Patterson tried it in Witch & Wizard, and even though he swore they were two different narrators, one a boy and one a girl, I honestly could not tell the difference and felt the whole story could have been told from a single point of view, with the other character dying a miserable death and readers never missing that character. EPIC FAIL!
What I'm getting at is that John's voice and Marina's voice were so distinctive, and the way their individual stories were unfolded meshed perfectly until they (sort of?) converged. I don't want to spoil anything, but the typical thing that happens in stories with multiple narrators DOES NOT happen in Power of Six, which, in itself, was a refreshing change.
Characterization of relationships within the LORIEN LEGACIES story world got a great start in I Am Number Four. Thankfully, this second novel drew on that trend even more, and made things even more complex. Let's just say this: no good story with a fair bit of romance is complete without a love triangle, and you'll certainly find one within these pages. Fortunately, the story doesn't dwell on it too hard, and sticks to the on-the-run action and piecemeal fight scenes that the series has come to be known for. And speaking of those fight scenes...there's a LOT MORE of them in this book, and they are described so very well that it's not daunting to read at all. Actually, it's quite enjoyable.
In terms of character, best friends John and Sam have forged a great connection that has something to do with Sam's dad, plus Sam has developed quite a crush on Six....but then, so has John and, in spite of his love for Sarah, which he believes is permanent and that he'll never fall for anyone else, he really can't help the feelings he's been having for Six since they went on the run after their epic battle at Paradise High School.
Sarah makes a comeback, too, albeit a very brief one. And let's just say...you won't like it. I'll leave it at that.
We also get introduced to a brand new setting: the high, mountainous altitudes of northern Spain. I've never had a particular desire to visit Spain, but after reading Marina's portion of the story, I find myself wanting to go. The way she describes her home makes it sound very serene, but yet there is also this impending sense of trouble and a desperate need for Marina to get out away from where she is and join the other members of the Garde in their fight against the Mogadorians.
That brings me to my final point, and because it was established in the first book, it's probably going to be the reason for a maximum 4-star rating for every book in this series, providing they are all as compelling as the first two. It's the made-up names of these people and places. Honestly, I find myself trying to come up with different ones to substitute them in my own head. I mean, right out of the gate we have LORIEN. As in LOTHLORIEN, from Lord of the Rings? Elves? Ring a bell? Plus, like, EVERYTHING dealing with the planet, including names of its Elders and many of its species and people, all derive from LOR somehow. That's really my only complaint. The nomenclature in this series seems so contrived and, well, just pesky.
But all in all, I can't honestly say that it distracts me enough to even get CLOSE to even THINKING ABOUT dismissing this great new series. I'll deal with pesky naming, because I'm too invested in the characters. And if you've read any of my other reviews, or if you read books at all yourself, you'll know that's of prime importance. If you don't have sturdy, believable characters who you feel for and with whom you suffer, it just won't work.
If I could sum up my two favorite things that Power of Six did, they'd be VOICE and RELATIONSHIPS. The pseudonym-veiled author(s) took a BIG chance when he decided to employ two very different and EXTREMELY independent and strong voices to unfold the story line in Power of Six...complete with two different font faces depending on the narrator. I'm normally very skeptical of novels that try to do this, and I have often shied away from doing it in my own writing because it can have disastrous consequences with your readers. Stephenie Meyer tried it in the Twilight series, although briefly, and ended up making Jacob, the one who got a brief chance to narrate, more enjoyable than whiny Bella. Fail. Michael Scott tried it in The Alchemyst, which lent itself to reminding us EXACTLY who was speaking practically every other sentence. FAIL. James Patterson tried it in Witch & Wizard, and even though he swore they were two different narrators, one a boy and one a girl, I honestly could not tell the difference and felt the whole story could have been told from a single point of view, with the other character dying a miserable death and readers never missing that character. EPIC FAIL!
What I'm getting at is that John's voice and Marina's voice were so distinctive, and the way their individual stories were unfolded meshed perfectly until they (sort of?) converged. I don't want to spoil anything, but the typical thing that happens in stories with multiple narrators DOES NOT happen in Power of Six, which, in itself, was a refreshing change.
Characterization of relationships within the LORIEN LEGACIES story world got a great start in I Am Number Four. Thankfully, this second novel drew on that trend even more, and made things even more complex. Let's just say this: no good story with a fair bit of romance is complete without a love triangle, and you'll certainly find one within these pages. Fortunately, the story doesn't dwell on it too hard, and sticks to the on-the-run action and piecemeal fight scenes that the series has come to be known for. And speaking of those fight scenes...there's a LOT MORE of them in this book, and they are described so very well that it's not daunting to read at all. Actually, it's quite enjoyable.
In terms of character, best friends John and Sam have forged a great connection that has something to do with Sam's dad, plus Sam has developed quite a crush on Six....but then, so has John and, in spite of his love for Sarah, which he believes is permanent and that he'll never fall for anyone else, he really can't help the feelings he's been having for Six since they went on the run after their epic battle at Paradise High School.
Sarah makes a comeback, too, albeit a very brief one. And let's just say...you won't like it. I'll leave it at that.
We also get introduced to a brand new setting: the high, mountainous altitudes of northern Spain. I've never had a particular desire to visit Spain, but after reading Marina's portion of the story, I find myself wanting to go. The way she describes her home makes it sound very serene, but yet there is also this impending sense of trouble and a desperate need for Marina to get out away from where she is and join the other members of the Garde in their fight against the Mogadorians.
That brings me to my final point, and because it was established in the first book, it's probably going to be the reason for a maximum 4-star rating for every book in this series, providing they are all as compelling as the first two. It's the made-up names of these people and places. Honestly, I find myself trying to come up with different ones to substitute them in my own head. I mean, right out of the gate we have LORIEN. As in LOTHLORIEN, from Lord of the Rings? Elves? Ring a bell? Plus, like, EVERYTHING dealing with the planet, including names of its Elders and many of its species and people, all derive from LOR somehow. That's really my only complaint. The nomenclature in this series seems so contrived and, well, just pesky.
But all in all, I can't honestly say that it distracts me enough to even get CLOSE to even THINKING ABOUT dismissing this great new series. I'll deal with pesky naming, because I'm too invested in the characters. And if you've read any of my other reviews, or if you read books at all yourself, you'll know that's of prime importance. If you don't have sturdy, believable characters who you feel for and with whom you suffer, it just won't work.