I have mixed feelings about this book. Yes, it was so good, I had to read one chapter after another, but I'm also really confused. I'm not sure I liked it. Does it make any sense? How do I rate it?

I've been thinking about it. I liked the excitement and new characters. The story was well paced and the setting just as spooky or even more than in the first book. But still, I'm confused, and I don't like it - the confusion, and the fact I have to wait a few months until the third book is being translated into Estonian. Because I started it in my mother tongue, I'm going to finish the series in my mother tongue as well. 
I still have my doubts but here and now 4 stars. You can be sure that five minutes from now it would be 3 stars. I am confused :( 

Well, that was MUCH more interesting that the movie version!

The plot of this one is so drastically different, with only one or two events the same as the film, that I was able to sink into it much easier, because I couldn't anticipate what might happen next. I found it intriguing that the plot started by telling us that none of them are immune, like it claimed in the film, then ended by suggesting that *some* are immune, but some aren't. That was a really nice twist to end with.

I loved seeing Aris again, as I liked him in the movie, but he and Brenda as so much better in the book. Much more interesting and complex. And Brenda is more of a teenager here, than she was in the film. I also loved Jorge, and have no idea why they didn't keep him more along the lines of the book character, because he was sooo funny and twisty. I'm intrigued to see how he and Brenda fit in.

I thought the whole tattoo idea was great. At first, I wondered at how much it really gave away, how they all worked to what the tattoos said, and if that would only play into WICKED's hands. Then the signs around the city made it clear that some things just aren't what they seem. Like the kids were told. The manipulation was excessive, and at times I wondered if it was just too much for one book, but it all came together in the end.

Truthfully, I never liked Teresa. Not in the films, not in the story so far, so I really don't mind at all that she's called The Betrayer, and that she keeps breaking Thomas' heart. Or that she ended up lip-locking with Aris.

It was interesting to see that the Cranks were people infected by The Flare, but who weren't exactly the zombies that the movie made them out to be. They were basically mindless, violent, human-eating freaks in the movie, but here they're much more complex. There are stages to the infection, they retain a somewhat human mind, able to rationalise and plan, to group together and work as a team, even if their minds have reverted back to a purely animalistic mentality. I also loved the explanation that it was an *existing* disease that had been released from a disease-control facility, that adapted into The Flare. That makes it less alien, less strange, when you consider that it was an existing, manufactured or natural infection already in the world. I also liked the idea of the Bliss - a numbing agent for the rich. That was a nice added detail.

The flashbacks were a nice addition. They really gave us an insight into how deeply Thomas was embroiled in WICKED's actions, and planning. Almost like he was in charge.

The story was almost two halves - one where Teresa had barely any page-time, and one where she dominated, even if only by influence. The fact that she wasn't there for the entire first half left me wondering why, and what she was up to, but that was answered in the second half, which was great. We weren't left waiting too long to get answers.

Overall, a nicely complex and rounded section to the overall plot. Once again, the story arc of this book was complete and well written, well put together and explored, while adding even more to the overall arc of the trilogy.

~

Favourite Quote

"Oh, muchacho, you're one lucky sucker I like you. Not sure why, but I do. Otherwise I would've killed you three times already."
"Can you do that?" Thomas asked.
"Huh?"
"Kill someone three times."
"I'd figure out a way."
"Then I'll try to be nicer."

I am so behind in my blogging!!  I've got three major posts to write and they all need to be done ASAP as they are all late.

 

My household had a dreadful problem with mysterious middle of the night internet usage that led to everyone being ordered to turn their devices off whenever they walked away from them for more than an ad break's length of time so that we didn't go over our data limit and in order to keep track of who was using the Internet when.  The next problem happened when it was decided that our password needed to be changed to eliminate the possibility of a hacker getting into our system in the middle of the night.  For unknown reasons after the password was changed our modem extender was no longer recognised by our devices, which meant that internet usage was restricted to only one end of the house (unfortunately, not the end I tend to sit in).

 

With all these problems and restrictions I got out of the habit of logging on to Goodreads and Booklikes every morning and started eschewing the trials of trying to use the Internet for the fun of continuing a large cross stitch project that I put aside about five years ago.  Now that the mysterious midnight internet surfer has been foiled and the extender has decided to behave itself again I've gotten back into my old 'internet all day, every day' habit, but I hope to continue on with doing my craft projects.  There's enough time in the day for three hobbies, right (reading, wiritng, and sewing)?  With the occasional day off from one activity to focus more intently on another?  Anyway, that's what I'm going to be attempting for the rest of the year, which will mean slightly less time on the Internet.  So, while I will continue to review every book I read (that's a lifelong goal), I won't be around to comment as much as I have previously been.  So please don't think I'm ignoring any of you, I will reply to your comments/questions/messages, it just might not be today.

 

Anyway, to the books I read way back in May.  May was a pretty good month for me, 13 books, although that did include two DNFs which ended up being the last two reads of the month which caused mixed feelings of disappointment that the month ended on a sour note and relief that I was done forcing myself to read books I wasn't enjoying.  You can find links to my reviews of those books below.

 

1. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, you can read my review here

 

2. Divergent (Divergent, #1) by Veronica Roth, you can read my review here

 

3. The Choice by Nicholas Sparks, you can read my review here

 

4. Ender's Game (Ender's Saga, #1) by Orson Scott Card, you can read my review here

 

5. The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner, #2) by James Dashner, you can read my review here

 

6. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, you can read my review here

 

7. Where Sea Meets Sky by Karina Halle, you can read my review here

 

8. City of Bones  (The Mortal Instruments, #1) by Cassandra Clare, you can read my review here

 

9. Vision in Silver  (The Others, #3) by Anne Bishop, you can read my review here

 

10. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Sisterhood, #1) by Ann Brashares, you can read my review here

 

11. Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, #1) by Cassandra Clare, you can read my review here

 

12. The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, you can read my review here

 

13. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, you can read my review here

 

My Reading Stats for May

 

• 13 books in 31 days, that's an average of 0.41 books per day
• 5135 pages in 31 days, that's an average of 165.64 pages a day (that's quite an achievement!) and 395 per book
• 13 books with an average rating of 3.3 stars
• My fastest read was Vision in Silver, 400 pages in less than 24 hours.  It was such a fantastic book that I could probably repeat that performance every time I read it (which I will do every year or so as it's likely this series will become my all-time favourite series)
• My best is a no-brainer, clearly it's Vision in Silver.
• My worst is also pretty clear.  I may have more than one single star read of the month and two DNFs, but the award has to go to the book that will stick with me (in the worst way possible) for the longest - Lolita.  Even now, two months after I finally finished it (not the first time I tried to read it, but that's a whole other story that you can read more about in my review) some of Humbert's words/ideas still make me shudder.  As soon as I finished  I immediately had to start reading a happy book to try to erase those horrible images.

 

Well, that's another month done, now immediately on to June's post as I'm running a bit behind with these things.  Talk to you all later and have a great day.

SPOILERS!!!!!!

6/5 - Some of my friends have found this to be a disappointment and some have enjoyed it as much as they did the first book. I really hope I'm in the latter group. To be continued...

7/5 - Okay, I'm on page 41 and the boys have just found the brick walls and the dead bodies and everything's very mysterious - I feel about as confused as Thomas must right now. My theory for what the hell is going on and where the bodies and walls came from is that somehow they've been transported to another location exactly the same as the one they woke up in, just in pristine condition. Somehow someone 'beamed them up' without them realising it was happening. To be continued...

8/5 - Wow! Was Thomas this irritating in the first book? Rereading my review I can see that I was annoyed by him, but there was only one sentence that mentioned it, so it can't have been that bad. Maybe I'm older and wiser than I was last year and it's getting on my nerves more than it did with the last book. Anyway, whatever it is I am absolutely sick of Thomas' internal voice, the way he constantly asks himself the stupidest hypothetical questions (like 'Are my friends all dead?') and then answers them with the next sentence (like 'Possibly, but I still have to go on just in case they aren't'). It wouldn't be so bad if it were only every so often, but questions like that are being asked and answered at least every page, sometimes more than once on the same page.

I'm also irritated with Dashner's insistence on using "I have no idea what's going on" as a theme. Having Thomas, and therefore the reader, completely clueless as to what's going on for the whole book was kind of exciting the first time around, but it's gotten old now. I want proper explanations that I can trust. At the moment, as I'm reading I'm remembering what The Rat Man said about not being able to trust anyone, so I'm not sure that what Brenda has said about the way the world is now is true. My theory on what's going on has gotten wilder since yesterday, now I'm wondering if it isn't all some kind of virtual reality brought on by a drug or some kind of machine. What WICKED is getting the two groups of Gladers to do is all just too crazy and I don't really see how any of it is going to help with the fight against the Flare.

I don't understand why none of the Gladers seem to remember what The Rat Man said about not being able to trust their senses or any of the people around them. Why doesn't Thomas see that Brenda is almost certainly a plant set to test him? She attempted to tempt him out of getting to the 'safe haven' by using sex, she separated him from the other Gladers and then tried to get him to forget them, she put him in a situation that forced him to kill someone - it's all a test to see what his reactions are, what he'll choose to do.

I'm halfway between 'excited to see what happens next' and 'near-quitting-point-frustrated with not knowing what's going on' and something spectacular will have to happen at the end (like getting believable answers) to get more than an average rating. To be continued...

 

Spoilers!! Don’t read further if you don’t want to know the ending.

12/5 - Such an irritating book! Full of lies and false promises of explanations. Don’t believe David when he tells you that everything will be fully explained, because it won’t. It’s the same situation as at the end of The Maze Runner, promise after promise and then right at the end you realise it’s a fake out and you’re left with a gigantic cliff hanger. It’s déjà vu all over again.

I enjoyed the story, but the appearance of another humungous cliff hanger and the absence of any real explanations has really ticked me off. Also the fact that I thought this was a trilogy (possibly my own fault) and it turns out to be a quartet, so that’s at least one more book wherein I assume nothing much will be explained (a hint here and there, but no complete explanations) followed by a cliff hanger. Someone should tell Dashner that this isn’t THE formula to get his readers coming back for more, it’s THE formula to annoy the hell out of his readers so that they rage quit in the middle of his series.

I can't deny I don't like it, it is amazing.

The effects just like in the first movie are greats;

the new cast, like Brenda or Jorge,are so perfect;

and the soundtrack was just marvelous...

But why they have to change so much the plot!!!!!
x.x
once again I have to say the post- apocalyptic city is awesome *O*
I think the party was my favorite part! o(*^▽^*)o

 

By the way I promise to finish my updates this week e.e