7/1/12

IMM (44)


 In My Mailbox idea from Kristi @ The Story Siren, IMM is a meme in which I post the books and/or swag I won, received, for review, bought, borrowed, or etc. over the course of week!



BOUGHT:


The Last Airbender: Volume 2 by Michael Dante DiMartino
The Devouring by Simon Holt
The Fledgling Handbook 101 by P.C. Cast and Kim Doner



Spud: The Madness Continues by John van de Ruit
The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan



Devil May Cry by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Bad Moon Rising by Sherrilyn Kenyon



Review: 100 Girls by Adam Gallardo and Todd Demong

by Adam Gallardo, Todd Demong

Paperback, 208 pages
June 17th 2008 by Simon Pulse

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Details from Goodreads

Adopted, supersmart, and bumped up two grades -- it's no wonder Sylvia's always felt different. But recently she's been going through some major physical changes, and they're not of the typical teenager kind.
Sylvia has no idea why she can move like a gymnast and punch like a heavyweight, and the strange nightmares she's been having are completely freaking her out. But there are people who have the answers she's looking for, and Sylvia's determined to find them.

Trouble is, they've already found her....


REVIEW:

Sylvia Mark is just another a thirteen year-old girl who feels separated from her peers. It is more than the fact that she has been moved up two grades and is sometimes freakishly strong -- she also feels incomplete and she has weird dreams night after night that seem to be harbingers of something dark. What Sylvia doesn't know is that she's just one of one hundred girls bred as part of a genetics experiment that gives normal humans extraordinary powers. Thirteen years ago, four girls were kidnapped and sent to families around the country to be raised and Sylvia is determined to find out why...

The first four issues of 100 Girls have been collected in the new volume The First Girl, which introduces the protagonist, Sylvia Mark. Sylvia is one of a hundred super-powered female clones -- each with their own unique power -- and one of a handful who were kidnapped from the laboratory where they were created. After a school tussle goes very badly indeed, thanks to Sylvia's super-strength, she goes on the run, pursued by the agents of the scientists who created her.

 Todd Demong's artwork in 100 Girls is particularly good; stylized and angular, with little exaggerations that enhance the characters' expressiveness. There's nothing muddy or hard to follow, and the action is well-paced. It's also refreshing to see teenage characters that don't look like supermodels; the Sylvia and the other Girls are a little gawky, a little plain, and rough around the edges, like most thirteen-year-olds.

 The writing is solid as well; the dialogue is crisp and often funny. Sylvia is an engaging -- if precocious at times -- thirteen-year-old; if there's any complaint about her characterization, it's that she adapts a little too quickly to the sudden bursts of ultraviolence that interrupt her previously staid (by adolescent standards, anyway) life. She is exceptional, of course, but she doesn't seem quite as shaken by, say, breaking the necks of mutant hounds as a suburban girl with a hitherto average upbringing might be.

 Then again, we are operating in the Girls Kicking Ass genre, and part of that is accepting that our heroine is going to start pounding the bad guys sooner rather than later. It does help that Sylvia is a fun character to follow around; her supporting cast is also strong. Especially notable is the creator of the Girls, Dr. Tabitha Carver, who could have easily been a cardboard Evil Scientist; in her own way, she loves the Girls, and is trying to do what she thinks is right. She's drawn as an attractive femme d'un certain age, a rarity indeed in most SF/superpower comics.

Review: I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga


I Hunt Killers (Jasper Dent Book 1)
by Barry Lyga

ebook, 282 pages
April 3rd 2012 by Little, Brown

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Details from Goodreads

What if the world's worst serial killer...was your dad?

Jasper (Jazz) Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say.

But he's also the son of the world's most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could--from the criminal's point of view.

And now bodies are piling up in Lobo's Nod.

In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret--could he be more like his father than anyone knows?

REVIEW:


I Hunt Killers is the story of Jasper (Jazz) Dent, a teenager boy who had been spoon-fed by his Dad a steady diet of murderer's calculation, false charm and bloody camouflage - a finest new type of serial killer. Just like daddy of course. After Bill Dent arrested with a three digit kills, someone is recreating his dad horrific crimes, and who fits the bill (No pun intended) better than Billy's own son. So Jazz does the only thing possible under the circumstances - hunt the killer along with his hemophiliac sidekick. Talk about suicidal.

This book is so creepily fantastic! The concept alone is interesting but what I liked more in this book is the main character's narration. There's something fresh and quaintly addictive to it. The author takes us on a sprawling battle of Jasper's inner demons. He always known to himself that he can do it - manipulate and charm the others in order to get his way- but do he really wanted to be like his father? Can he resist the urge of doing the things he grown up to? Well, that said Barry skillfully weaver together Jazz's struggle providing a full picture of a troubled teenager boy whose identity, past and present are called into question. And that deserve a clap! clap! clap!

 Definitely one of the best books I read this year.

6/3/12

IMM (43)

In My Mailbox idea from Kristi @ The Story Siren, IMM is a meme in which I post the books and/or swag I won, received, for review, bought, borrowed, or etc. over the course of week! 

RECEIVED:

Harry Potter Box Set by J.K. Rowling
Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
Doraemon Volume 1-7 (Comics)

The Starbucks Experience by Joseph A. Michelli
Public Speaking Success
(all gift from my dear mother. love you mom :D)



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