Song Stuck In My Head Saturday (14)

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Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly Review

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From Goodreads: Sixteen-year-old, music- and sound design-obsessed Drea doesn’t have friends. She has, as she’s often reminded, issues. Drea’s mom and a rotating band of psychiatrists have settled on “a touch of Asperger’s.”

Having just moved to the latest in a string of new towns, Drea meets two other outsiders. And Naomi and Justin seem to actually like Drea. The three of them form a band after an impromptu, Portishead-comparison-worthy jam after school. Justin swiftly challenges not only Drea’s preference for Poe over Black Lab but also her perceived inability to connect with another person. Justin, against all odds, may even like like Drea.

It’s obvious that Drea can’t hide behind her sound equipment anymore. But just when she’s found not one but two true friends, can she stand to lose one of them?

Rating: 5/5

Plot: 5/5

Characters: 4/5

Ending: 4.5/5

Asperger's is one of the many things in the world I think I know everything about, but am always proven wrong. First why I picked up this book, I was interested about Drea and also, as a romantic, how her love story would work. Again, judging a book by it's description was a bad idea. I thought the book would be the first of many that wrote of topics that many teens aren't familiar of, but that it wouldn't be a wonderfully written YA book with substance. I knew from the first few pages that my impression was wrong. It's actually interesting how my impression of the book can be compared to people's impression of Drea once they find out why she's a little different than everybody else.

Most of the characters in this book were realistic and I could see how the dynamics could play out in my life, in my school. As I said, most of the characters were realistic, but the events and how everything happened seemed unrealistic in my mind, but Tara Kelly did a great job so that it didn't seem odd or out of place and in a way you still loved the characters.

Discussion Wednesday (3)

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This meme, created by moi, is for the purpose of discussing the books I've reviewed in the past week because I can't be spoilery in my reviews if one of my followers hasn't read it yet. So here's my solution!! You can leave comments and subscribe to them if you want to join in on the discussion :-)

This week, the only book I reviewed was The Hunted of 2060 by Ami Blackwelder--I blame it on my teachers for prepping us for the PSSAs. God, I hate those...

April and Robert: I loved the idea of them as a couple but their relationship never transferred to through the pages. First, and this is the biggie, at the end when April finds out she's pregnant I had no thought of who could be the father because she and Robert never had sex, so who else could it be? But apparently, they did have sex because Robert thought he was the father. WHEN DOES IT SAY ANYWHERE IN THE BOOK THAT THEY DO ANYTHING OTHER THAN KISSING??? And they barely kiss at all! I just thought their relationship wasn't correctly portrayed. It's not just about the words the character speaks and how they say they feel, but what they do. And April shows barely any affection towards Robert. Another reason I favored Arken.

Plot: Very original but it was not written very well. At some times, it was nicelt paced, but at others it was really fast. It was hard to believe all of it was going on and hard to keep up with it. I also liked the idea of everything in the plot twists but it just wasn't presented well. :-(

The Hunted of 2060 by Ami Blackwelder Review

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From Goodreads: Set in Alaska 2060. 3 Lovers. 2 Species. 1 Way to Survive.

Summary: Set in Alaska in 2060, when April enters her Sophomore year at University, she thought Robert might be the love of her life, but as she discovers, she is hiding something inside her, something the rest of the world believes to have died out. She struggles with who she was and who she is becoming as she learns of a family she never knew existed and of enemies she will have to outrun, outfight or outwit to survive. As April embraces her new identity, will she have to leave the life she loves behind?

With underlining themes of how prejudice breaks human connections and animal/wildlife conservation, this novel which has received rave reviews will leave the reader flipping through the pages of April’s story.

Rating: 3.5/5

Plot: 5/5

Characters: 4/5

Ending: 4/5

Amy Blackwelder, what a cool name, right?, did an amazing job with coming up with her characters and the concept and all the details of her story. It was very original and was set in the future. I think half the book for me was marveling at the future technology and the hybrids skin, and just trying to picture everything-- I think this book would do very well as a movie! April was a great character and her life was very interesting. I was hooked from the first few pages wanting to know more.

With all this said I did have a few problems with it...April's personality doesn't always seem to mesh. Some of her traits are contradictory-like she's shy but all of a sudden is alright with taking the lead and kissing Robert. As I'm writing this it seems like this really wasn't the problem. I think the author just didn't give us enough information on the characters current or pasts lives. A lot of the problems I had actually were caused by this. The writing wasn't magnificent but still better than sone published author I've read. The plot was very cool but didn't seem to live up to my expectations. And the characters all had potential but weren't written well enough to really get to know them.

I did though enjoy the book despite all it's flaws and will, no doubt, read more of the series and the author.