Title: The Here and Now
Author: Ann Brashares
Rating: 4 stars
Pages: 242
A thrilling and romantic novel where future meets present. Seventeen year old Prenna James is not the usual immigrant - she hasn't traveled from a different place but, from the future. A time where a mosquito-born illness has turned into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruin. Prenna and her community are forced to follow a number of strict rules which include never to reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history and definitely do not become intimate with anyone outside their community. This 17 year old sticks to the rules believing she can help prevent the plague. Until she meets Ethan Jarves and everything changes.
This is an unique and very well written novel that I got addicted to quite quickly. I enjoyed all the characters, plot and subplots. In particular, I found the occasional letter throughout the story that Prenna writes (to someone who is only evident in the last letter or so) a nice addition. I also thought the plot regarding her father was an interesting twist and the relationship between Ethan and Prenna sweet. In my opinion, Ann Brashares painted a great picture of the future and it was easy to delve into that world. I would recommend this young adult novel to anyone enjoys science-fiction and not too sloppy romances.
Thursday 28 August 2014
Wednesday 27 August 2014
Doppelgänger
Title: Doppelgänger
Author: Michael Parker
Rating 1 star
Doppelganger is an Australian novel that follows the story of Andrew, a young man in his late teens living in Sydney. Suddenly, there's a clash of two colliding Sydneys; very different from each other and Andrew is transported between his ordinary safe world and another strange, dirty and dangerous life with gang wars. Here he meets Josh, the nasty twin of his best friend who is the leader of one the drug-crazed gangs. Josh intoxicates all of his members, including Andrew, and induces them to kill the other group, Inner Station. Consequently, if someone gets hurt or murdered in one Sydney, it also happens in the other. It's up to Andrew to break the spell, stop the clashing of the two worlds and save as many innocent people as he can.
This is certainly the strangest book I have ever read and my opinion of it is quite terrible. However, even though I feel that the plot and characters are very annoying, Michael Parker did jump straight to the point and I was able to be drawn in by the first sentence in the prologue - "it was a few weeks before I killed my first person that the dizziness started." To open the novel with a quote from the Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad would make any writer familiar with Conrad's work smile. Overall, though, I definitely won't be going back to read anymore of Parker's novels. I especially find the way the traveling between each Sydney is written immensely tedious. And the plot regarding what Andrew thinks he needs to do to his best friend is stupid. Doppelgänger is a book for people with quirky tastes and I'm afraid I am just not one of them.
Author: Michael Parker
Rating 1 star
Doppelganger is an Australian novel that follows the story of Andrew, a young man in his late teens living in Sydney. Suddenly, there's a clash of two colliding Sydneys; very different from each other and Andrew is transported between his ordinary safe world and another strange, dirty and dangerous life with gang wars. Here he meets Josh, the nasty twin of his best friend who is the leader of one the drug-crazed gangs. Josh intoxicates all of his members, including Andrew, and induces them to kill the other group, Inner Station. Consequently, if someone gets hurt or murdered in one Sydney, it also happens in the other. It's up to Andrew to break the spell, stop the clashing of the two worlds and save as many innocent people as he can.
This is certainly the strangest book I have ever read and my opinion of it is quite terrible. However, even though I feel that the plot and characters are very annoying, Michael Parker did jump straight to the point and I was able to be drawn in by the first sentence in the prologue - "it was a few weeks before I killed my first person that the dizziness started." To open the novel with a quote from the Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad would make any writer familiar with Conrad's work smile. Overall, though, I definitely won't be going back to read anymore of Parker's novels. I especially find the way the traveling between each Sydney is written immensely tedious. And the plot regarding what Andrew thinks he needs to do to his best friend is stupid. Doppelgänger is a book for people with quirky tastes and I'm afraid I am just not one of them.
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