Review: Pariah Comic #2 - Aron Warner

Name: Pariah Comic #2

Author: Aron Warner

General Release Date: August 2011

Date I finished it: 24th August 2011

Type: PDF File

From: Review Copy from publishers

My Rating: 4/5 stars

A big thank you to Sea Lion books for sending me a copy of this to review!

This is the second comic in the Pariah series and this time around the story is told from Lila Elllerman's point of view.

Lila is a sixteen year old Vitro who was working in the Marinus lab when the disaster struck, so we see a first hand experience of what happened in the labs at the time.

Lila also discovers that she is the one being framed for the disaster, when she knows that she had nothing at all to do with those virus experiments. She takes her team on the run and makes a game out of who can find the best and more secure internet connection to ensure no one tracks them down, but someone has tracked them down!

I really liked seeing a different character's perspective in this issue, and especially a female perspective.

The art work is really great, as it was in issue one.

I'm looking forward to starting the third comic in this series now!

Review: Beauty Queens - Libba Bray

Name: Beauty Queens

Author: Libba Bray

General Release Date: 24th May 2011

Date I finished it: 25th August 2011

Type: Hardback (US edition)

From: The Book Depository

My Rating: 3/5 stars

When I first got Beauty Queens months ago I was super excited by it, but for some reason it got put near the end of my urgent TBR list. I don't really know why that is.

So I picked it out as one of my books for Project 10 Book. (If you want to know more about this challenge check out my You Tube videos)

I have not read any of Libba Bray's books before, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect.

Beauty Queens follows a pack of teenage beauty queens whose plane crash lands on what seems to be a deserted island. After they finally realise that no help is coming their way the girls decide to have some fun while trying to survive. They turn building huts and weapons into a competition and use their skills to create safe drinking water and create a regular food supply.

But everything is not as it seems, there is in fact a secret compound on the island full of Corporation employees, the same Corporation who run the teen beauty pageant they were all meant to take part in!

I did enjoy this book, it was strange to get into at first as almost every chapter is from a different beauty queen's perspective. It was a bit confusing at first as there is so many of them, after a while though I soon saw who the main characters were and their stories were the ones that stuck n my head the most.

In between chapters there is also fact sheets on each of the girls, which does make it a little less confusing to remember who everyone is. There are also adverts and press releases from the Corporation, which at first I wondered why on earth those things would be in the book, but as I read more they made sense.

I did like how each beauty queen had their own little quirks and personalities and from a readers perspective, even though it got confusing I liked hearing from each of them.

I really liked how diverse the range of girls stranded on the island was as well, it's not often in books (tv shows, anything really) that you see a wide mix of girls from completely different backgrounds, cultures and ethnicities.

The story itself is pretty unbelievable, especially when the pirates showed up! But it was a fun read.

If you are looking for something light-hearted that doesn't make you think too much, this is it!

BelleBooks Catch up Challenge

I have talked about this challenge on Facebook and Goodreads, but now it's finally time to make it official (well almost).

I have bought, swapped and received so many great books this year and there are quite a few that I am desperate to read, but haven't quite found the time to read them. So I am setting myself a challenge to catch up with these books, hence the name Catch Up Challenge!

The challenge runs from the 1st of September till the 31st of December 2011.

I would love for people to join me with this challenge!

I am aiming to read 25 books during this challenge, which works out at about 6 books a month, to me thats an achievable number.

You don't need to read 25, you could set yourself a target of 3 books if you like!

I haven't quite chosen all of the 25 books I'd like to read yet, I think I might choose my first 15 and see how I go from there. Even picking 15 is tough! Luckily I still have about a week till the challenge starts to decide so I will do another post nearer the time with the full details of my first 15 books.

If you want to join in with the Catch Up Challenge, enter the linky below!

That way everyone can see who is taking part!

Review: Hunger (Horsemen of the Apocalypse #1) - Jackie Morse Kessler

Name: Hunger (Horsemen of the Apocalypse #1)

Author: Jackie Morse Kessler

General Release Date: 18th October 2010

Date I finished it: 23rd August 2011

Type: Paperback

From: The Book Depository

My Rating: 3/5 stars

Hunger follows seventeen year old Lisabeth Lewis as she realises she has been picked to become one of The Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Famine.

It's no surprise really that she has been chosen to play the role of Famine as Lisabeth is used to the feeling of being hungry all the time, she is anorexic.

Lisa works hard to keep her family and friends at a distance so they don't figure out her secret.

Being Famine is just another way for Lisa to escape her life, get away from all those prying eyes, hunger pains and the guilt.

When she is Famine she feels more powerful than ever before, travelling the world on her majestic steed and creating havoc. However Lisa soon realises that bringing pain and death to the world is not what she truly wants, in order to get out this situation Lisa has to face War, another horseman (horsewoman/horseperson?).

I didn't rate this book very highly, I have it three stars.

The story line was good, I liked seeing the two different sides to Lisa, her normal self and her Famine role.

I think the book itself was too short and too rushed, it could have been longer and certain scenes could have had more details in them.

I didn't really feel a connection with Lisa as a main character like I usually do with most books I read.

I don't really know why that is, I think I would have liked a bit more of a background story before Lisa became Famine.

I did however all all the little Nirvana touches in the book, especially when Death was singing "Come as you are" in Kurt Cobain's voice.

Overall, a quick but enjoyable read. I am looking forward to reading the second book in the series and hoping it will be better than Hunger, as it touches on a subject very close to my heart.

Follow Friday #8

This weeks question is:
In books like the Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) series the paranormal creature in question "comes out of the closet" and makes itself known to the world. Which mythical creature do you wish would come out of the closet, for real?
Urmmm....Can I say Shadowhunters?I would love it if Shadowhunters came "out of the closet" and let the world know they they were real and show us how hard they fight on a daily basis to protect us all!I mean think about it, there must be Shadowhunters in every city in the world!!! There must be loads of them!