Church book group: Ender's Game and Fallen

Last night my church book group met to discuss Ender's Game.  I read it way back in 2006 (see my review here), and while I didn't feel like completely re-reading it  (I had other things to read...like Mockingjay), I did find the time to read some summaries online and go over the last few chapters of the book again to refresh the story in my mind.  We had a great discussion--one of our best yet.  Not everyone loved the book like I did (although a couple of women did), but it got pretty good reviews from the other gals.

Anyway, someone asked what next month's book, Fallen, is about, and since I've read it already, I decided to give a little summary of sorts.  But for the life of me, I couldn't remember a single thing.  A couple of the other women are reading it now, and one other has already read it, so I asked them to tell me the names of the main characters in hopes that I could remember something.  (I've been so anxious for Mockingjay to come out that everything else has leaked from my brain, it seems.)  To make sure that I have at least one resource to look back on next month when book group comes around, I decided that I should write my Fallen review before I completely forget everything about the book.  As it is, I don't remember much, which is quite sad, considering I read it a little over a week ago.

I'll just go ahead and use the synopsis from the back of the book, since I don't feel any summary I write will do the book justice:

There's something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.

Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price's attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He's the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move.

Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce—and goes out of his way to make that very clear—she can't let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret . . . even if it kills her.

Dangerously exciting and darkly romantic, Fallen is a page turning thriller and the ultimate love story.

I found another synopsis online that gives a better feel for the book, but it is definitely spoiler-ish, so highlight it if you'd like to know more about Fallen:

Seventeen-year-old Luce is a new student at Sword & Cross, an unwelcoming boarding/reform school in Savannah, Georgia. Luce's boyfriend died under suspicious circumstances, and now she carries the guilt over his death with her as she navigates the unfriendly halls at Sword & Cross, where every student seems to have an unpleasant, even evil, history.


It's only when she sees Daniel, a gorgeous fellow student, that Luce feels there's a reason to be here though she doesn't know what it is. And Daniel's frosty cold demeanor toward her? It's really a protective device that he's used again . . . and again. For Daniel is a fallen angel, doomed to fall in love with the same girl every 17 years . . . and watch her die. And Luce is a fellow immortal, cursed to be reincarnated again and again as a mortal girl who has no idea of who she really is.

I wanted to like Fallen a whole lot more than I did.  I waited and waited for something to happen, but the story dragged on so slowly.  Fallen has a very interesting premise, but it took far too long for anything to happen.  I know it's the first book in a series, but come on.  The last 100 pages (out of 452), when we find out Daniel and Luce's story, are what made the book enjoyable for me, and it's those last chapters that make me eager to read Torment when it comes out.  I really hope things work out for Luce and Daniel!

3.25/5

Mockingjay!

I was SO EXCITED to get my hands on this book!  My husband brought it home for me bright and early (2:30) yesterday morning, and all I wanted to do was spend the day devouring it.  Unfortunately, life got in the way and I wasn't able to really delve into the story until yesterday evening.  I was sucked in, of course, because I love the characters and couldn't wait to find out what would happen to them.  I stayed up until 1:15 this morning to finish the book.  And...just as with Breaking Dawn, I was left with a feeling of disappointment.  Mockingjay was definitely not the conclusion I had hoped for.  Maybe my expectations were too high.  It's just that The Hunger Games and Catching Fire were both so amazing that I just knew Mockingjay had to be, too.  Only it wasn't.  At least not in my opinion.

Yes, the story was good and very well-written.  I understand that war is not a pretty thing, and Suzanne Collins did a great job describing just how horrific war is.  But I didn't feel that connection with any of the characters that I had in the first two books.  They seemed so different.  I wasn't as emotionally involved as I had previously been.

SPOILERS to follow, so read at your own risk!!  (Highlight to read.)


I actually ended up liking Gale so much more in this book.  I could see why some fans would want he and Katniss to end up together.  I don't think his character was developed much in the first two books, but in Mockingjay we get a real sense of who Gale is, and he really grew on me.  But, he could never take Peeta's place in my heart, or in Katniss' (or so I hoped!).


So, on to Peeta: I didn't like what Collins did to Peeta.  At all.  He wasn't the Peeta I'd fallen in love with.  He was just a shell of himself, and I know that there's good reason he was like that, given what he experienced at the hands of the Capitol people.  But I had a hard time connecting with him in Mockingjay.  There were times that I just wanted to cry for what had been done to him.  I didn't give up hope that he'd return to his normal kind, happy self after being hijacked, but that didn't happen.  Sure, by the end he seemed okay, but I still don't feel that he was the same Peeta.  And I missed that Peeta terribly.


Katniss wasn't herself at the end, either, it seemed.  After all the atrocities of war, of losing her friends and Prim, I understand why she would go a bit crazy.  But she'd been so strong and such a fighter for such a long time that I expected her to always be strong.  Maybe it was naive on my part, but I'd hoped she'd pull through everything and still have that fighting spirit to her.  She seemed so broken at the end, and I absolutely understand why, what with Prim being killed and her mom and Gale abandoning her.  But there was just something about Katniss that didn't sit right with me.  I'm glad that Haymitch, Greasy Sae, and Peeta didn't give up on her, though.


I was really sad when Finnick died!  He was one of my favorite characters.  On the contrary, I have to admit that I didn't mourn Prim's death much.  I'm glad we got to know her better in this book, but I didn't ever really connect with her as I did with other characters--characters I'd "known" for a longer period of time.  But, Finnick... that broke my heart.


I was confused when the parachute bombs went off toward the end, when all the children were corralled in front of Snow's mansion.  I didn't really understand what was going on, and was even more confused when Katniss woke up and so much time had passed.


I was shocked when both Katniss and Haymitch voted to have another Hunger Games with the Capitol children.  After all they went through, I thought for sure they'd be against it.  I know Katniss was mourning Prim and wanting revenge for her death, but I didn't see she or Haymitch being "for" another Hunger Games.


I'm so, SO happy that Katniss and Peeta ended up together!  Having Katniss and Peeta finally--finally!--be together was one of the better moments in the book.  I wish it had been under different circumstances, though.  I felt like they were both so changed from who they once were.  But I guess that can be seen as a good thing, too, since they ended up together even though they had both experienced such horrific things and been changed in such momentous ways.  Still, I really miss the old Katniss and Peeta.  I missed the romance.


I LOVED the ending, where Peeta says "You love me.  Truth or not truth."  And Katniss answers, "Truth."  Loved it!  Thought it was the perfect ending.  Of course, then came the epilogue... a lot of people are saying that they felt the epilogue was unnecessary and that they didn't like it.  I don't think it was necessary, but I also didn't have a problem with it.  I enjoy knowing that Katniss and Peeta had children.  I think it brings everything to a nice conclusion.  And being Team Peeta since book one, it's nice to see that he and Katniss spent many happy years together!


END SPOILERS


So, while I didn't like Mockingjay anywhere near as much as I adored The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, I still thought it was a good book and I'm still glad I read it.  It wasn't the book I wanted, but I can live with it.  Maybe a re-read will improve my opinion of it, maybe not.  It can never compare to the first two books.  I hate giving it such a low rating, but I can't help it.

3.5/5

The Dark Divine

Grace Divine, daughter of the local pastor, always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared—the night she found her brother Jude collapsed on the porch, covered in his own blood—but she has no idea what a truly monstrous secret that night held.

The memories her family has tried to bury resurface when Daniel returns, three years later, and enrolls in Grace and Jude's high school. Despite promising Jude she'll stay away, Grace cannot deny her attraction to Daniel's shocking artistic abilities, his way of getting her to look at the world from new angles, and the strange, hungry glint in his eyes.

The closer Grace gets to Daniel, the more she jeopardizes her life, as her actions stir resentment in Jude and drive him to embrace the ancient evil Daniel unleashed that horrific night. Grace must discover the truth behind the boy's dark secret...and the cure that can save the ones she loves. But she may have to lay down the ultimate sacrifice to do it—her soul.

 

Isn't the cover gorgeous?  And I love the title of the book, too.  The cover is what initially drew me to this book, so I was somewhat disappointed (though I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised) to discover that the cover has nothing to do with the actual story.  But enough about that.
 
What started out as a slow-moving story actually ended up being fairly entertaining.  The latter half of the book was especially good.  There was just something about Grace and Daniel's relationship that touched me.  No matter what others were telling them, they knew how they felt about each other.  They understood that their relationship was dangerous -- Grace, more so as the book progressed -- but they couldn't stay away from each other, and it was that love that overcame everything in the end.

While some parts of the book were a bit "churchy" -- Grace and Jude's father is a pastor, after all, and they attend a church school -- I liked that Grace wasn't ashamed of who she is.  She wasn't afraid to stand up for her beliefs.
 
There's a sequel coming out in December, and while I initially didn't think I'd care to read it (as I said, The Dark Divine wasn't pulling me in as much as I wanted it to at first), I'm actually excited to see what's next for Grace, Daniel, and Jude.
 
4/5

Linger

Linger is the second book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls series by Maggie Stiefvater.  (FYI, I read on Maggie's blog that Stiefvater is pronounced "Steve-otter."  In case you were wondering.)  While I wasn't all that impressed with the first book, Shiver, I thought Linger was even worse.

Linger picks up where Shiver left off, with Sam no longer a wolf because of the bacterial meningitis that gave him a horribly high fever.  Sam continues to worry that this "cure" won't be permanent, that the cold Minnesota air will turn him back into a wolf.  That isn't his only concern, though.  Something is very wrong with his girlfriend, Grace, and while Sam thinks he knows what it is, he doesn't want to believe it because it would mean that Grace could no longer be with him.

I really had a hard time caring about anything that happened in this second book.  It felt more like it was written simply to be a bridge between the first and third books.  Things moved very slowly, and I wasn't at all interested in what was occurring until the last 40 pages of the book.  Also, Linger was written from four different points of view, and with multiple characters narrating the same chapter at times, it was difficult to keep the narrator straight.  I got confused so many times that I had to look back to remind myself who was narrating the section I was reading.

The only things I really liked about Linger were the cover (I love the bright green, with the girl walking into the woods and the wolf watching her) and the green ink the book was printed in.  I'm so disenchanted with this book that I don't know if I want to read the final book when it's released.  I will most likely skim it, but only to have some kind of closure.

2.25/5