dystopia – The Caffeinated Reader

Ready Player One Review

March 9, 2019March 11, 2019 TheCaffeinatedReader18 Comments

Hey Everyone! So, another review, I know, so many this week, it makes for a boring read. I’m sorry! But I’ll have a different sort of post tomorrow! I just really wanted to finish this so I could focus on my eARCs. [Especially Descendant of the Crane] Not to mention I really wanted to see what was going to happen next. I would say if I was giving it a harder look I’d give it a half instead of full rating on my last planet. And that’s because of a few issues that really just kind of kept jumping out at me. So, know, I enjoyed this 4/5 but I’m giving it 3.5/5 on this review so I can point out the flaws I think are important to note.

So here we go again, me being a cynic, but Parzival and Art3mis just didn’t gel well for me. I just feel like Art3mis felt more animosity than affection which is within her right all the way, but, it doesn’t make for a great romance when it’s like that through like 89% of the book.

Aech was definitely my favorite, I mean, hands down as their avatar and in real life, Helen was amazing. I also felt it was heartbreaking that in order to do well in even a virtual reality world, Helen became Aech and hid the color of her skin. But, the reasoning is sadly logical from the point of where her Mother was coming from in advising her to do that.

I freakin loved the 80s references, I’m an 80s baby which means my early life is plagued by 80s, and even now my hair naturally looks like I’m from an 80s hairspray commercial, which is…sad, but you know, what you can do. My nickname at Uni was Flashdance (no, I didn’t strip, I just like to wear legwarmers, probably could have paid off debt if I had decided to strip.)

But, let me break this down in my usual style.

Pros:
– 80s, 80s everywhere
– The connection of living a slightly isolated life made me feel for the protagonist and his buds more.
– There is a sharp hint of today’s society in that our world is crumbling around us and we are seeking refuge in the only places we can. So good job Cline, and this has only gotten even more realistic since published in 2011.
– The OASIS is awesome, and I love the idea of having haptic chairs that can move and the treadmills as well, it makes for a much better visual of what it was like when you were reading
– Halliday at the beginning was amazing in his video to announce the contest, it made me want to go watch a Hughes movie
– Art3mis really kicked butt and was super smart (as long as we kept her away from Parzival where she then became either catty or mushy and it was, see this listed in the cons)
– Aech is a better friend than Parzival deserves
– It really captured how helpless the poor would have felt and once more it made sense why people would run to the Oasis.
– I loved that the red button at the end.
– Ogden was amazing, he has a dance club, let’s think about that, he loves to go jamming and DJing still.
– Did I mention 80s references galore?

Cons:
-Parzival should have known how much the IOI were capable of, so I get angry that he put himself in such a dumb situation. This isn’t so much a con as me venting lol.
– Halliday being in love with Kira was such an eye roller, BUT I have to give credit, he didn’t tell Ogden or try to steal her, he just brooded in silence so that was nice.
– This didn’t need romance from the High Five peeps at all, this probably would have been a solid 4/5 without Parzival and Art3mis.
– ^ The romance also takes away from Art3mis being badass, and Parzival is useless in love, so, I’m glad Art3mis was stronger than him.
– We could have had more of Aech
– There were some distasteful jokes I didn’t care for.
– Uh…what was with very stereotyped and hyperfocus look at our two Japanese characters who we barely got to know but my god, Cline wanted you to be sure they were ‘really’ Japanese when they were in the book. Probably my biggest issue. It’s a vast culture, why pinpoint it to some small parts? Not to mention with all the Japanese pop culture references, there should have been more of them in general.
– I could have used more of Wade realizing just how lonely his life was outside the OASIS and what that exactly meant.

Toodles!

Charity Shop Finds!

February 23, 2019March 16, 2019 TheCaffeinatedReader16 Comments

I know this seems like it just happened last week, and that’s because it did!

But this time we were down our own high street and decided to mosey along in to see if they had anything new as we hadn’t been in a month.

And holy cow we struck gold!

So these were originally .50P each but the shop does a deal, 2 for .99P

The Tom Sawyer edition is from 1958/1959 and was a school prize to someone back in the day, the award plate was still in it! We had just recently bought Far From the Maddening Crowd but couldn’t decide if this cover was nicer so we picked it up to compare, we’re keeping both lol.

I have never read a book by Carrie Fisher and I picked this one up as my husband spotted it, I can’t wait to get to it! [You know, eventually]

Every time we go down the High Street we all like to wander around Waterstones, and while walking around I had paused to look at the copy of Ulysses, it was 10 quid and we just didn’t want to spend that on it, at least not at the moment so we passed it by. Then, we went to the charity shop next to it, and lo and behold, this was 50P on its own but since we bought so many we scored it for 49.5P lol. The book next to it is called Wellington: The Years of the Sword.

I’ve been eying this Mandela biography for a while now, we saw it at a charity shop last week and I had spied it at the library but I’m holding off on more nonfiction from the library until I return my Romanovs survey. So! This was meant to be!

I own Maze Runner and I found it enjoyable and though I have the others on my Kindle I couldn’t help myself. I would have bought Maze Runner again if they had it and it matched and donated my other copy, but, they didn’t. These things are basically brand new and they have such nice covers! The copy I bought was out my library store back in Texas and is lovely but just has some notes scribbled in, and some highlights, I don’t mind though, it’s fun to read what they thought lol. Okay getting off track, anyway look at these pretty books!!! LOOK AT THEM ALL!

In the end, we got 9 books for £4.46, four on the 2 for .99P deal and one ‘full’ price at .50P

There we have it! The post is late today because honestly I was super busy and mini-me had a birthday party. I’m off to watch more of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

[I’ll have a review tomorrow]

My Top 5 YA Dystopia Picks!

February 19, 2019 TheCaffeinatedReader14 Comments

Here we go, guys! My top 5 YA Dystopia picks!

My Classic 5 Dystopia picks can be found here.

5. Across the Universe

Beth Revis’s Across the Universe trilogy has such a neat plot, I mean yes a lot of Dystopian novels have the same elements [that’s why I love them] but I loved that this one’s setting was on a freakin ship! Best of both worlds; more sci-fi and all Dystopia! My only issues were with the style of writing, sometimes it was just a bit too awkward how she wrote the dialogue and the feelings were a little too well controlled at times for our lovely protagonist. I would say this has the lowest rating on my top 5 only because of this, otherwise, I really do enjoy it!

4. Matched

Condie’s Matched trilogy is not only on my top 5 but it’s one of the few series that I love to reread. This is the one that Eden Chip reminded me of a bit [no spoilers though] where science/statistics is used to give you the most compatible partner, but what if there was a glitch and you knew? What if there was someone else who could have been it? I really loved how she set it up and it was so chillingly good, had a bit of an echo of The Giver in it as well to me. The turmoil the characters go through is always one that tugs on my heartstrings a lot and is one of the reasons I reread it. It’s got your typical love triangle trope but I think it does a great job of the nuances of feelings people go through in said love triangle. I could go on forever about this, but I’ll refrain and move on.

3. The Uglies

I have loved The Uglies trilogy since it came out, and yes there is a fourth book in the series but it’s not connected to the characters…at all…and even the issues in it don’t really connect…so…I don’t connect it to the first three. Think about it! A world where beauty is valued over everything [sound a little familiar? Lol] and once you finally hit 16 you’re no longer an ‘ugly’ someone who has kept their natural appearances, you get to become a ‘pretty’ you’re made into a beautiful person…..so what happens if you don’t go through with it? Is there anyone else left aside from the pretties and uglies?

2. The Giver

I loved this book and not to mention it was my first dystopian novel and I didn’t realize it! I read this in elementary when it was still new! Now, I’ve not said The Giver series as I’ve said with the others because frankly, I haven’t read the others yet, this was shown as a standalone novel for so long I didn’t even realize it was a series! So! I have to get to that but, I still think it works great as a standalone. A world with suppressed emotions and colors, where people are picked to give birth, others picked to raise those children, everything neat and tidy, and then the role of the Giver is given to a young boy who seeks answers and finds out more than he bargained for. LOVE IT.

1. The Hunger Games

And finally, The Hunger Games trilogy. Another one I love to reread. I think Suzanne Collins does such a freakin precise representation of how corrupt power can be the most deadly tool of all. Yes we all know that, but look at it, it happens today, people pull strings, they show you news to distract you from other news, they use stories to cover up the darkness they don’t always want us to see. Not to mention I love Katniss, the love triangle in this is fun for me. Katniss doesn’t care about love triangles, she cares about food. Tell me I’m wrong. Not to mention she doesn’t do her actions with the intent to start a rebellion, it happens and she takes on the mantle, and not always because she wants to. Ugh. Another one I could gush over all day.

Okay, there you have it, my top 5 YA dystopian novels/series! I’m currently over halfway through Dead Man’s Blues so hopefully, I’ll be reviewing that soon! But I do have a lot going on this week, two more rehearsals, a concert, and then another concert next Sunday too, so, I’ll try to keep up every day!

Toodles, guys!

Top Ten Tuesday

February 12, 2019 TheCaffeinatedReader17 Comments

Another Top Ten Tuesday from ThatArtsyReaderGirl!

This week? Top 10 favorite bookish couples in honor of Valentine’s coming up this week.

I’ll be doing these in no particular order!

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Anne and Gilbert Blythe from Anne of Green Gables
Clary and Jace from The Mortal Instruments series
Daine and Numair from The Immortals
Katniss and Peeta from The Hunger Games
Ito Miura and Makoto Narita from W Juliet
Gemma and Kartik from The Gemma Doyle Trilogy
Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks from Harry Potter
Young Jolyon Forsyte and Irene Forsyte from The Forsyte Saga
Camille and Nathaniel from the Camille duology
Li Lan and Er Lang from The Ghost Bride

That’s it from me today, I am writing up a review of The Spitfire Girls, I finished it last night and well, it was fluffy and heartwarming and ugh. Yuck. But I mean, kudos to those who like that!

Toodles!

My Top 5 CLASSIC Dystopia Picks!

February 11, 2019 TheCaffeinatedReader15 Comments

I’ve decided to divide this by Classics and YA, I couldn’t lump them all together and pick from them all as it’s one of my favorite genres after all! So here we go! [Next week I’ll do my favorite YA dystopia picks!]

5. 1984

Big Brother is watching, guys, and I love this book. Now, I wouldn’t say it was the best Dystopia novel of that era but it was still impactful and well, still is today. This isn’t the sort of novel where you come out with a happy ending and I think that’s one of the reasons I love dystopia, you never know what sort of ending you’ll get. Our protagonist finds love in a world where he’s one of the few not to be brainwashed into loving Big Brother, and where independent thinking isn’t allowed, more than that it really just doesn’t happen.

4. The Handmaid’s Tale

I cannot sing Atwood’s praises enough on this. She took something most other authors just didn’t even conceive of, writing this tale with a female perspective (and not just because Atwood’s female, but because her protagonist is) this one actually made me uncomfortable to read because in truth I felt that it hit too close to home, this was all too probable when you see how much power others have over women’s bodies. Not to mention we now have an amazing show because of it and Atwood is involved with it. Rumor is she’s going to maybe write a sequel.

3. Anthem

Admittedly I haven’t read this or a couple of others since 10th grade which was a very long time ago but I remember this being the only Ayn Rand book I actually liked. Now don’t get me wrong she writes with a power that is undeniable but I utterly hated Atlas Shrugged, I still have nightmares about it though I hear good things about The Fountainhead which is now on my list. Anyway, I have a funny feeling George Orwell may have gotten a few ideas from Ayn, where in her book Equality 7-2521 dares to dream of individualism and to love the woman that he chooses. It’s great and fast-paced, and just imagine, she published in 1938!

2. Fahrenheit 451

My man! Ray Bradbury!! I freakin’ LOVE The Halloween Tree (admittedly love the movie more but he had a hand in that as well so I don’t feel guilty about that). But before I loved The Halloween Tree, I loved Fahrenheit 451. This actually reminds of things that have happened before and seem just so plausible to happen again, we have our Firefighter Montag who burns books that are forbidden. But he finds himself wondering, thanks to the question of another, what’s in the books he burns? Montag never questioned it before it was his job and he just did it, but what if he peeked into those forbidden tomes? Honestly how easy is it to imagine a world where instead of seeking out knowledge we easily if not eagerly destroy it? (No matter the form it comes in)

1. Brave New World

I’ve read this at least twice, there may have been a third time during pregnancy but we’ll contribute memory loss to foggy prego-brain. This book rattled me to my core. This world seemed so foreign and scary to me the first time I read it when I was in middle school. Now though, it is ten times scarier and not nearly as foreign. We watch politics going crazy all over the world, people so scared that they are angry and ready for something easy to take away all the pain. And the ending, the reaction I had the first time I read it has never left me, I still feel that same reaction every time.

That’s the thing with all these dystopia novels, no matter if they’re classic or YA, they’re all so plausible in a world that’s so full of turmoil. Whether it’s a world where we only live for pleasure, one that takes away the core of our individualism, or one that takes away the complications of emotions that plague us.

There we go my 5 favorite Dystopia classics, I do plan on doing some more dystopia reading this year of both old and new so who knows what this list will look like by 2020!