Review of Bait, by Courtney Farrell

Bait, by Courtney Farrell, is the story of sixteen-year-old Jack and her crew of boys living in an apocalyptic dystopia. A pox has spread across the United States and the world. It's taken women and girls first, then the infection spreads through animals or other humans to men as well. Jack must protect her crew from the pox and from other crews, as well as defending herself as one of the few remaining females left on earth. 

Women are a valuable commodity, and once Jack is "outed" as a female, the stakes are higher, and Jack must protect herself as well as her adopted children. The crew's ability to survive the pox rests on Jack's shoulders, but how will she keep them safe with the pox targeting her -- specifically her?

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review of the novel.

This is actually going to be a tough review to write, and I want to talk to you personally and intimately about the book instead of in my usual "stiff," way. I'd like for my readers to be able to trust my reviews, but this is tough for me, so bear with me. 

I really enjoyed Bait as a young adult dystopian novel. It is exceptionally well-edited (unusual among indy authors). In the beginning I felt that it read like a series of short stories rather than one cohesive story, but this changed as the book went on and relationships established themselves over the course of time. Jack is a strong central character, and Farrell has a clear understanding of the characters in the book.

The trouble is that there were times reading this that I wasn't sure she had a clear direction for the story. It read like a series of short stories because in the beginning, it seems as though the author wasn't sure where she was going with the book, and then once she decided, it felt a bit rushed. 

On the other hand, I loved it. It would be impossible not to like Jack and her crew, or even Dr. Stuart. Jack has a clear voice, and the concept of the pox interested me because the zombification of the infected people wasn't so overdone that this became a zombie novel instead of a dystopian novel. 

In short, it's complicated.

I do think that this book is worth reading, and I do recommend it. 

However, as I said in my reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and Shelfari, there's one big issue I struggled with, and this is the reason I couldn't give the book five stars. The author uses certain words ("array" and "construct" in particular) in a way that is inconsistent with their dictionary definition without giving a sufficient definition of her own. This is confusing and frustrating to me as a reader. It clearly doesn't bother other readers, and it might not bother you, either, so I do recommend you give this book a try!

As always, I want to point out what parents might want to think about when considering giving this book to their teenage children. In this case, I highly recommend a pre-read of the book before giving it to teenagers. Though the main character is sixteen and surrounded by children as young as three, this is not a book I would give to my teenage stepchildren!

• It's sexual. There are points where the sexual situations are understated (one character touching Jack's hair or her back) and there are points where it's over-stated (and I mean that the way that it sounds!). If you don't want your child reading about teen sexuality (with teens as young as fourteen), then have them skip this one.
• It's explicit. At least one explicit sex scene between a sixteen-year-old and a younger teenager is described in detail in the novel, and this might be something you'd prefer for your child not to read. After all, you probably don't want to encourage them to engage in this sort of behavior themselves.
• It's scary. While this might not be a problem for older teens, it could be an issue for some younger teenagers. There are points in this novel when it could be described as a "horror" story more than a science fiction story, so keep this in mind as well with younger teens. 
• It uses odd definitions of English words. I repeat this again because I'm still not clear on what an "array" or a "construct" is in this book, or how they are used in terms of "real" English. This could confuse young readers working on vocabulary.

I'm not sure yet whether or not I'm going to be reading the next book in this series. Finish it and you might see why.

What are your thoughts on Bait? Did you have the same trouble I did with strange word use? Was it easy for you to understand how the compound was laid out? Will you be reading the next book?

Review of Divergent, by Veronica Roth

Divergent, by Veronica Roth, is the story of Beatrice, a sixteen year old girl from the faction Abnegation in dystopian Chicago. In her sixteenth year, she will take an aptitude test that will show her which faction she belongs in, and she will have to make a choice of which faction to give her life to. It seems simple, but it's not. Changing her faction means leaving her family behind, because the factions teach "Faction over Family." 

The choice that she makes now will influence the rest of her life, but with unusual aptitude test results, she has the choice between choosing safety with her family or making the choice that will make her the happiest in the long run.

I loved this book. I went into this without the highest of expectations, particularly considering that I was approaching it from the point of view of being a Hunger Games Trilogy knockoff. After all, what Dystopian Teen novel doesn't want to be THE trilogy these days? Being such a huge Hunger Games fan, I figured that there wasn't a chance that this book could even come close to touching its wonderfulness. 

But I was wrong. I was very, very wrong. 

In some ways, I think that I like Divergent even better.

Let me begin by saying that I like Tris. This is a big deal, considering that I didn't find Katniss all that likable. Tris is amazingly strong female lead, who has her own decisions to make. Each decision that she makes has the power to change her life for better or for worse and she doesn't always know what the results of her choices are going to be before she makes them. One of the things that makes her divergence so special is that it means that she has multiple strong personality traits, including courage, intelligence, and selflessness, all of which lead to her being an amazing heroine who is able to get the job done.

But Tris is far from perfect; she is violent, she is sometimes arrogant, and she is driven by the opinions of others. In short, she is very typically sixteen. Which is something else I loved about this book; the characters are believable and they are neither perfect nor perfectly imperfect. One has to love Young Adult fiction that diverges (pardon the pun!) from the stereotypical Mary Sue or Gary Stu hero(ine). 

All of these things make me favor this novel over The Hunger Games. I may one day go into a comparison of the two so that I can be as clear as possible, but that's not the purpose of this review. There are some problems with the book as well, and I wouldn't be fair to readers if I didn't tell you what problems I found.

The story is written in a very juvenile way. It reads like it could have been written for the mid-grade reading class, but it is utterly violent. Those who have discussed the violence of the aforementioned dystopian trilogy need to have a read of Divergent to see real violence. This book is violent and it's cruel, but it isn't written at the same level as other Young Adult novels. I surely wouldn't let a young child read this novel, and I'm not sure that I would let my young teenage step-children read this book either -- at least not for another year or so.

As always, I want to point out what parents might want to think about when considering giving this book to their teenage children.

• It's violent. There is a lot of fighting in this book. While there isn't necessarily as much killing as there is in some Teen novels, there is a lot of fighting in this book and the descriptions of the aftermath and injuries is very graphic. I personally found it somewhat distasteful, even if it did illustrate the Dauntless faction relatively well.
• It's sexy. While there are no explicit sex scenes, the book does describe a near-rape and some heavy petting. The characters are somewhat more sexual than I would anticipate for a young adult novel that I would be comfortable giving to my teenagers. I recommend that parents read this book before giving it to their children to read.
• It's political. Most Dystopian novels are. However, some reviewers have missed the connection to the Soviet Union and the workings of the political and economic systems of the Soviet Russia and Berlin while the Wall was up. This book has serious educational potential, if you're willing to explore it with your children/students. This is something to consider if you want to read the book ahead of your children.

I personally believe that parents should read this book before they give it to their children.

As far as my recommendations, I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys dystopian fiction, provided that he or she is able to get around the fact that the writing is somewhat juvenile. It is a fast-paced novel and there is something happening at every turn. You will be consistently entertained and I believe that most fans of dystopian fiction will tear through this book very rapidly.

Yes! I will definitely be reading Insurgent!

What are your thoughts on Divergent? Do you think it is comparable to The Hunger Games?  What did you enjoy about it?