Scookie Reviews

THE SCORCH TRIALS by James Dashner 4 Stars Verdict:  Action packed, just don't overthink it! #1 - The Maze Runner #3 - The Death Cure Out of the maze and into the frying pan, Thomas and his friends now have to make it across the scorched earth if they want to be cured of the Flare. To get there, they'll have to survive the Cranks who already have the flare, and some are more Gone than others... This series is very readable, even though it doesn't give a lot of answers or make a lot of sense. The chapters are short, most ending on a slight twist or revelation, and there's plenty of action, drama, and danger. The characters also come out of their shells a bit more, and the true world starts to rears it's scorched head, constantly throwing new challenges in Thomas' way. I had the same issues with this book as the last. Thomas's journey is very entertaining, but the answers are loose tie ins that will fall to bits if you pull at them. It just doesn...

MAGIC BITTER, MAGIC SWEET by Charlie M. Holmberg 3 Stars Verdict: A strange way to bake a cake. Note: I listened to the audio-book for this one, which was a new experience for me. Maire is a baker who can infuse her creations with emotions, enriching the eater with love, happiness, luck, strength - anything she puts her mind to. She only has memories of the last four years, and so doesn't know how she acquired this skill, and is happy to work in a small shop, selling her cakes for little or nothing. When marauders raid her village and turn her into a slave, Maire meets Allemus, a strange man who can see the magic in her and wants to use it in bizzare and nefarious ways. I think chapter one was my favourite. I loved the descriptions of the magical cake baking and the emotions it involved. The idea is simple yet beautiful, and created a world of ideas which I couldn't wait to explore. Most of the rest of the book I found...odd. There were bits to enjoy here and there...

SECONDBORN by Amy Bartol 2 Stars Verdict: Hard to connect. Although Rosella is royalty, she is also secondborn in a society that only has room for firstborns. At eighteen, Rosella's rights are stripped, her last name is changed to 'Sword', and she is sent to the front line to serve her country. This one started strong and had a lot of creatives little ideas - the black and red disks for the medical bots, the fusion blades, the secondborns' surnames changed to 'Sword' - but it never really set itself apart from the dystopian mass in terms of plot, characters, and setting. At times it felt like the Capital in Hunger Games: blue lips, interviews with a girl sent off to die, special outfits designed for the occasion, face of the rebellion...Other times, it felt all over the place, and it never really came together to form a coherent story. Things kept happening that didn't fully make sense. For example, Rosella's mother orders her to die...

READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline 4 Stars Verdict: The most predictable book I wouldn't be able to write. The hunt is on to find the egg, hidden inside an endless virtual world known as the OASIS, and shrouded in eighties references. Whoever finds it will inherit the creator's empire and entire fortune, which naturally means an evil corporation is playing dirty to win the contest. However, it's Wade, a poor orphan obsessed with OASIS's creator, who finds the first key. Game on! This had a slow start, probably because of the predictable plot and generous heaps of exposition and references. At first, Wade talked a lot about OASIS without being able to explore it, but it's clear that's where the story is going. It didn't help that I correctly predicted the first 100 pages with ridiculous accuracy, or that the prologue tells us how the story will kick off, but Wade is in no hurry to get there. I knew the hoops we'd need to jump through for the rest ...

TO KILL A KINGDOM by Alexandra Christo 5 Stars Verdict:  A killer little mermaid retelling. Lira is a murderous siren known as the Prince's Bane, for each year she steals the heart of a promised ruler to add to her collection. Her horrid mother, the sea queen, enjoys tormenting her, and thinks that the mercy Lira shows her victims makes her unfit to rule the sea. Prince Elian is a siren killer. He travels the seas with a band of misfits - similar to a pirate, minus the plunder, pillaging, and general illegal behaviour - but one day must return to rule Midas. He finds his impending duties suffocating, but when he hears  whispers of a relic that could kill the sea queen herself, he barters his freedom away to find its location. When Lira washes aboard Elian’s ship with legs instead of fins, the pair are thrown together in a quest to find the second eye of Keto, a powerful crystal strong enough to kill the sea queen. So it’s a little mermaid with a dark twist, w...