Giveaway ends February 7, 2016

#veronicaroth   #scifi  #yafiction

1. (+) Aria, a protagonist - Aria's character arc over the entire series is probably my favorite element. I started off Under the Never Sky not really liking her but eventually grew to like her as she adapted to her circumstances. And now, in Into the Still Blue, she's become my favorite character. She's fierce and fights for the people she loves and the future she wants. She struggles under the weight of leadership and the unhappy consequence from Through the Ever Night, but with the support of her friends, she pushes past her difficulties to emerge stronger, more assertive, more open-minded, and more capable than before. She's the kind of main character who's not so extremely smart or strategic or x and x that it's hard to believe that she exists; no, she's the opposite. It's easy to relate to her and it's easy to find some bit of yourself in her or to identify with her and how she responds. In some senses, she's like a more active, less recklessly selfless version of Bella Swan - very personable, very ordinary and extraordinary.

2. (+) Perry, a protagonist - Oh, Peregrine. How I'll miss him. We're exposed to more of his past as certain events (from previous novels and in this novel) bring them to light and add extra shades to his character. He also gets his own arc as he learns to cope with what happened in Through the Ever Night to both his relationship with Aria and Roar, and with the pressures of leadership in a dying world. TtEN laid out the necessity for a plan besides the temporary he concocted, and he follows through with that challenge in this book and more. His friendship with Cinder is as adorable as before, his relationship with Aria as supportive despite the difficulties with Roar, and Perry... I wish there were more romantic interests / main characters like him.

3. (+) World-building - This book does what Mockingjay did: introduces us to another setting, one that we've been imagining for ourselves over the past two books... and familiarizes us with details in the settings of the first books. You get a bit of the cave life, life outside the Dome but inside hovers, life at the Still Blue. You get an explanation for the Aether and some back story on the Unity Wars and the Still Blue. It's a good mix of explanation/back story and smaller, more local details about the settings. (Plus this series was always more about the characters, I think, than the world). I commend Rossi for rounding out the world that she'd established in the previous two novels.

4. (+) Side Characters - The side cast helps make this series stand out from the rest in young adult. It's rare to find an author who will pay attention to the side characters and give them their own character arcs without sacrificing other plot/character/mood/etc. details. The most famous example has to do with Neville from Harry Potter, and I am reminded of that here - Rossi does a great job of giving her side cast character arcs equally in line with the plot. Roar's arc works well with Perry's as they cope with what happened. Brooke, Soren, Cinder, the Six, Hess -- especially Cinder and Soren -- they too get their time in the spotlight. There are some characters who I didn't remember, but Rossi takes the time to shade their personalities as well. Even the dynamic between the villains gets some development, though Sable, to me, still felt foreign (which worked for the story at any rate).

5. (+) The Romance - Ah, the romance. This review is all about me saying what I appreciate in this series, and I definitely appreciate the dynamic Rossi has created between Aria and Perry. For one, though both characters are slightly insecure and jealous at times, it doesn't push them away from each other; instead they're confident in the other person, and that makes all the difference, makes their relationship that much smoother and more enjoyable to read. The trials they face also feel organic since they arise as a result from actions they took in the previous novels - nothing is contrived to push them apart. This is a beautiful romance with both characters supporting the other, and I would be glad to read more like it in YA.

6. (+) The Plot - Rossi takes quite a few risks and kills off some characters without pause. As the summary implies, this is a dying world... and she amps up the stakes to match that fact. What I particularly liked about the plot was that I knew where the story was going to go but that Rossi's way of getting there would surprise me. By the end of a series, it's more about building the anticipation and following through with the various arcs that have been outlined. Rossi's good at that, at adding in unexpected details and inserting sly plot twists. Another thing I appreciated was that Rossi respects you as a reader. She laid out the foreshadowing and quickly got to some reveals rather than drawing them out.

7. (--) Anticlimactic - The book was anticlimactic in two parts: the ending and the actual Still Blue crossing. The book builds and builds to both of these major plot events, which in turn don't seem to take that many pages or maybe just didn't have as guttural of an impact as I had expected. Is that a bad thing? Not really. The ending bothered me more than the crossing because it seemed rushed and slightly unrealistic, but in all truthfulness by that point I no longer cared because the entire story was beautiful and satisfying. (For more discussion of this element, see this thread.)

8. (+) Writing - The thing I like most about Veronica Rossi's writing is that it's got a good balance of everything. She's good at building tension -- she uses a lot of questions and quick sentences for that effect but still uses enough narrative for Aria and Perry to have more unique perspectives, also different from one another. There are just enough sensory details to let you visualize the world she's created too.

9. (+) Pacing - My judgement of the pacing is probably skewed since I didn't reread TtEN and felt like everything was new... but at any rate, it seemed like there was always something happening or something about to happen that kept me hooked with the characters and advancing plot.

10. (+/-) The Cover - I don't really like the US covers for this series, but I do like the consistency, the colors, the title font, and how they've emphasized whose character arcs get the most attention in each book.

Into the Still Blue is both satisfying and enjoyable for Rossi fans. If you like genre benders within YA that develop characters and romance without expense to the main plot, try out the Under the Never Sky trilogy. Highly recommended. (In some ways this series reminds me of the Legend trilogy; both are executed well in their own right, and both make my recommendation lists for hesitant and avid YA readers alike. Though I haven't gotten the *feels* that others have from this series, I would still recommend it.)

(Side note: I did not reread the sequel before reading this. I was somewhat confused for the first 20%, since I could not remember what exactly had happened, but then I got hooked and absorbed in the story. If you need everything to be clear from the start, you might want to do a cursory skim of the last fourth in Through the Ever Night... OR look through these summaries from the wonderful Recaptains blog.)

Other Reviews:

[4.5 stars] Lauren at Love Is Not a Triangle - "Into the Still Blue, goes out on a quiet note, and though selfishly I wanted more and more, I closed this book with a satisfied smile."
[4 stars] Sam at Realm of Fiction - "A completely satisfying conclusion."
[DNF/2 stars] Emily May at The Book Geek: "...after trying at least ten times to read this book, I've had to put it aside indefinitely. I was finding it so dull that I started skim-reading."

Christina Reads Your Recommendations is a regular Monday feature here (inspired by A Reader of Fictions' Sadie Hawkins Sunday) in which you, my readers, get to choose what book I will read and review next. Got a book that you love and want everyone to read and review? That you're not sure what to think of and want a second opinion on? That you think I'll love or that I should have already read? Send in your recommendations via this form!

May contain spoilers for Under the Never Sky!

Ten Likes/Dislikes:

1. (+) Aria, a protagonist - The thing that I like most about Aria is that she could be any one of us. It's not that she doesn't have a personality--no, far from that. She's strong, sarcastic, determined, smart, but above all, she is still a teen trying to deal with grief and make her way in the world. Some characters come off as too loud, too intense, but Aria comes off as just right and perfectly believable. She also shows more confidence in her abilities as a fighter, singer, and survivor than she did in the first book, though she is not free of other doubts about herself and her status in Perry's life.

2. (+) Perry, a protagonist - What's not to like about Perry? He had to do something terrible towards the end of Under the Never Sky that I immediately sympathize with and he snaps at people and gets tempted to do things because of the stress he's put under and yet... Perry is Perry. As determined, loyal, smart, capable, strong as Aria when it comes to leading and making the right choices. I think what I like most about Perry is how well he matches with Aria and how well their POVs work together for the story.

3. (+) World-building -I'd read some reviews that suggested that there wasn't enough to explain the Aether in Under the Never Sky -- not so here. You learn more about it and experience its brutality. You learn more about the history of the world and how people had separated into such disparate cultural groups. You learn more about various powers, people, tribes, and the dire situation that's pushing this world to the brink of destruction. There's also a lot of sensory and survivalist detail about certain geographical locations and the way some tribes live and die out on their own.

4. (+) Romance - There aren't too many romantic scenes in this book, but there's a reason why Aria and Perry are together on the last cover, and that's because this book does not fall prey to the Second Book Syndrome where couples suddenly seem to forget how much they love each other or all the forces in the world conspire to keep them apart, etc. etc.. There's a lot that Perry and Aria have to deal with in this book, but by far the best aspect is that they retain faith in each other. (Well, besides the slow burn, supportive nature of their relationship). That's not something you see a lot in YA.

5. (+) Plot - This is what I wanted from Under the Never Sky. The predecessor focused on the trip Aria and Perry make and how their love blossomed. This novel focuses on another trip, but the plot threads get twisted so that the romance is not at the forefront; it fades to the back, providing character motivation and tension to complicate the situation. Everything gets complicated. There were twists I could predict and some that I could not. More importantly there was enough tension and conflict to give forward momentum and drive me towards the conclusion with bated breath.

6. (+) No Recap & the Ending - I'd not reread Under the Never Sky before reading this one, so I was a tad confused because I didn't remember some of the characters, but it was better this way. The confusion didn't last for long, and the story got started from page 1. Both books also ended perfectly, setting up the main conflict for the next books in a reasonable way, not leaving it to the last page.

7. (+) Character Cast - I was surprised by how much larger the character cast got in this sequel, but what I think is even more impressive is that I came to care for a good deal of the side characters like Reef and Cinder (Roar was up there from the first book). The three I listed, among others, probably get developed the most, but there was in general a nice mix of characters we got to know better and characters who you sense clearly have a back story? Also, did you know that there's a novella soon to be released about Brooke? I admit that of all the Through the Ever Night characters, I probably would not have expected a novella focused on her, but I'm intrigued. I may take a look at Roar and Liv soon.

8. (+) Writing - It's not sparse prose per say, but it's beautiful in its simplicity, in the way it evokes your first experiences of the ocean or of an Aether strike, or what it's like to scent others' tempers or experience a virtual reality world. You know how in a dual POV book you might grow to like one POV more than the other? Also not the case here.

9. (+) Pacing - There was not one moment where I felt bored or restless because there was always something happening. The pacing did not relent for one moment, always building towards the climax.

10. (+/-) The Cover - I get that it's probably very hard to make the Outside or the Pods appear realistic on a cover... but I am a bit miffed as to why Perry's wearing those clothes. Don't they seem not only too modern but also not appropriate for someone from the Tides? They could control the clothes, right? I love the colors and how the covers go together but hmmmmm.

I'd read a bunch of reviews around the release date that suggested this title was better than its predecessor. It was. Much better. Any issue I'd had with the first novel was rapidly erased in this one. Packed with action, unforgettable characters, and stunning consequences, Through the Ever Night is a gem among sequels.

As always, feel free to send in more recommendations!