The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer

4 stars -- I like it

I did not know that this book, the second in a series, existed. I read Life as We Knew It, the first book, ages ago, and I loved it. The idea just stuck in my head, and it was so well-written--straight from a girl's diary, but with enough detail to have the story make sense--that when I saw that the third book, This World We Live In, was out, I had to get this one immediately and continue following the series.

The idea, carried out in The Dead and the Gone as well, is that an asteroid hits the moon. In Life as We Knew it, it's clear that everyone is aware of what's going to happen, and they treat it like a fun meteor shower-watching event. In The Dead and the Gone, it seems like the general public of New York is mostly unaware of the asteroid collision. What no one in either book expects is that the asteroid drastically shifts the moon's orbit, which causes changes in the tides, which in turn leads flooding and tsunamis, and in the tetonic plates, which causes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The clouds of ash block the sun, killing crosp, and winter arrives early, with colder-than-normal temperatures. Supply lines, satellites, communications, and even electricity is avilable only sporadically. Plagues emerge and starvation is prevelant.

I was amazed at the scope and magnitude of disaster such a seemingly innocuous event could cause. It comes together in a perfectly logical manner (at least to my unscientific mind), and I applaud Susan Pfeffer for pulling it all together in such a believable way.

The only real difference between Life as We Knew It and The Dead and the Gone is that the first story takes place in the country and follows Miranda's story, while The Dead and the Gone takes place in New York City and follows Alex Morales. The same events occur, and the same tragedies take place, but the setting and characters are so different that each story is equally captivating.

I am particularly pleased with how Pfeffer glosses over the horror without diminishing it. She casually throws in that the 17-year-old boy is down to 78 pounds (or some other absurdly low number), which makes the reader realize the situation is much worse than the storytelling seems to imply. It's a brilliant juxtaposition that works beautifully.

This is another one of those terrifyingly beautiful stories of survival and hope that I highly recommend. I have to admit that I think the first story is stronger, but this is a commendable companion book.

Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor

4 stars -- I liked it

A small collection of short stories (only three, to be exact), Lips Touch is "different." Each story is preceded by a couple of wordless graphic novel-type pages that are hard to decipher until you read the story, but still beautifully and hauntingly drawn.

The first story in the book, "Goblin Fruit," was my least favorite of the three, and it ends rather disappointingly. I would have preferred some follow-up, though the ending is quite clear what happens, just to see how everything played out. But as it is, the ending leaves the story with a bit of mystery, a bit of longing, and some heartbreak and sorrow.

The second story, "Spicy Little Curses," was by far my favorite story in the collection. The two female protagonists are strong characters, and I love how a seemingly hopeless situation is turned around. There's romance here as well, and a lot of follow-up so the ending feels solid.

And finally, "Hatchling" was an interesting read. I couldn't quite predict what was going to happen, which I love (I hate it when plots are easy to see through), and the back story(ies, really) was just as interesting as the main storyline.

I also appreciated how unlike each other each of three stories were despite have similar themes and, of course, the same author. A reader can't say that each story has a happy ending, nor do they all have sad endings. It's a coin toss, really, as to how the story will go. And each idea is unique and different, which is played up by the short "graphic novels" at the beginning of each chapter--it's not often that publishers are willing to pay for the extra print colors or put the effort into such an unusual idea (though it's becoming more frequent now as they're seeing it pay off, in some cases at least), so I applaud this publisher's "going out on a limb" to do this book.

Overall, I think this is a nice collection of stories to have about for a quick read.

Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta

2 stars -- Didn't really care for the story

I've been agonizing for weeks on how to review this book, and it's really put me off reviewing the other million books I've read since I last posted. See, I've grown to like Melina Marchetta's fiction stories. I rated Looking for Alibrandi 4 stars and Saving Francesca 5 stars. Ms. Marchetta can tell a really fabulous story, but I can't say anything about this one except, "It's boring."

The difference is that those two stories were realistic fiction, and Finnikin of the Rock is straight-out fantasy. Marchetta obviously put a lot of work into coming up with a different world with different races and languages and history, but for the life of me, I could not get into it. I thought the storytelling was so slow and boring, full of details that did not matter and that were repeated far too frequently, full of obvious foreshadowing so that I knew who was whom from the very beginning and the plot held no surprises. I was driven to distraction by the main two characters' love story. It was full of pettiness and anger, and they would ignore each other for days and then they'd be fine and unable to get enough of each other, only to take offense at the smallest unintentional slight and start the cycle all over again. I wanted to shake them both and yell, "Get over it already! It's not a big deal! We all know you're going to get together anyway!"

Now this is my person opinion. I know the book got starred reviews from Booklist and School Library Journal, so other people obviously loved it to pieces, but I just didn't. I don't feel anything but disappointment (and not to any severe degree) when I think back on this book.

So read it or don't. Obviously others have found it to their taste, but I didn't. I'd love to hear your take on it.