Film Review - Mockingjay: Part 1

Mockingjay: Part 1
Director: Francis Lawrence
Genres: Science Fiction | Young Adult
Duration: 123 minutes
Release Date: 21st November 2014
IMDB Rating: 
Butterfly Rating: 
Trailer: See Here

With the Games destroyed, Katniss Everdeen, along with Gale, Finnick and Beetee, end up in the so thought 'destroyed' District 13.

Under the leadership of President Coin and the advice of her friends, Katniss becomes the 'Mockingjay', the symbol of rebellion for the districts of Panem.

Fire is catching.. and if the districts burn, Panem burns with them.

Book Review - Mind Games

Mind Games
Author: Teri Terry
Standalone
Genres: Dystopian, Science Fiction | Young Adult
Release Date: 5th March 2015
Publishers: Orchard Books
No. Pages: 448
Source: Review Copy - Orchard Books
Rating: 

Luna is a no-hoper with a secret: in a world of illusion, she can see what is real. But can she see the truth before it is too late?

Luna has always been able to exist in virtual and real worlds at the same time, a secret she is warned to keep. She hides her ability by being a Refuser: excluded by choice from the virtual spheres others inhabit. But when she is singled out for testing, she can’t hide any longer.

The safest thing to do would be to fail, to go back to a dead-end life, no future. But Luna is starting to hope for something better, and hope is a dangerous thing..

Book Review - Starters

Starters
Author: Lissa Price
Series: Starters #1
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 13th March 2012
Publishers: Delacorte
No. Pages: 384
Source: Gifted
Rating: 

You can’t get them out of your head.

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie.

Callie’s only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man. He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders - seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie’s head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter.

Callie soon discovers that her renter intends to do more than party - and that Prime Destinations' plans are more evil than she could ever have imagined

Book Review - The Infinite Sea

The Infinite Sea
Author: Rick Yancey
Series: The 5th Wave #2
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 16th September 2014
Publishers: Penguin
No. Pages: 336
Source: Borrowed
Rating:
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How do you rid the Earth of seven billion humans?
Rid the humans of their humanity.

Surviving the first four waves was nearly impossible. Now Cassie Sullivan finds herself in a new world, a world in which the fundamental trust that binds us together is gone. As the 5th Wave rolls across the landscape, Cassie, Ben, and Ringer are forced to confront the Others’ ultimate goal: the extermination of the human race.

Cassie and her friends haven’t seen the depths to which the Others will sink, nor have the Others seen the heights to which humanity will rise, in the ultimate battle between life and death, hope and despair, love and hate.

Book Review - Into the Still Blue

Into the Still Blue
Author: Veronica Rossi
Series: Under the Never Sky #3
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 6th Febuary 2014
Publishers: Atom
No. Pages: 291
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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Their love and their leadership have been tested. Now it's time for Perry and Aria to unite the Dwellers and the Outsiders in one last desperate attempt to bring balance to their world. The race to the Still Blue has reached a stalemate. Aria and Perry are determined to find this last safe-haven from the Aether storms before Sable and Hess do - and they are just as determined to stay together.

Meanwhile, time is running out to rescue Cinder, who was abducted by Hess and Sable for his unique abilities. And when Roar returns to camp, he is so furious with Perry that he won't even look at him, and Perry begins to feel like they have already lost. Out of options, Perry and Aria assemble a team to mount an impossible rescue mission - because Cinder isn't just the key to unlocking the Still Blue and their only hope for survival, he's also their friend.

And in a dying world, the bonds between people are what matter most.

Book Review - The Jewel

The Jewel
Author: Amy Ewing
Series: The Lone City #1
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 4th September 2014
Publishers: Walker Books Ltd
No. Pages: 368
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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"Today is my last day as Violet Lasting.
Tomorrow I become Lot 197."

Sold for six million diamantes, Violet is now Surrogate of the House of the Lake in the centre of the Lone City, the Jewel. Her sole purpose is to produce a healthy heir for the Duchess – a woman Violet fears and despises.

Violet is trapped in a living death, her name and body no longer her own. She fights to hold on to her own identity and sanity, uncertain of the fate of her friends, isolated and at the mercy of the Duchess.

Book Review - The 5th Wave

The 5th Wave
Author: Rick Yancey
Series: The 5th Wave #1
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 7th May 2013
Publishers: Penguin
No. Pages: 480
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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After the 1st wave, only darkness remains.
After the 2nd, only the lucky escape.
And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive.
After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker.

Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother - or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

Book Review - Through the Ever Night

Through the Ever Night
Author: Veronica Rossi
Series: Under the Never Sky #2
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 8th January 2013
Publishers: Atom
Pages: 341
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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Aria has struggled to build a life for herself outside Reverie. It hasn't been easy adjusting to life in the wilderness but that struggle has been worth it with Perry by her side. But Perry has other challenges. His people are looking to him for answers. Answers about what happened to his nephew and what's happening to their world. And they don't trust the priviledged Aria, one of the enemy, in their midst.

Soon he'll be forced to chose between the tribe that looks to him for leadership and the girl that looks to him for love. Can Perry make that decision, and can he trust Aria?

Book Review - Cipher

Cipher
Author: Aileen Erin
Series: The Shadow Ravens #1
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 14th October 2014
Publishers: Ink Monster LLC
No. Pages: 210
Source: Review Copy - Ink Monster LLC
Rating: 
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In the not-too-distant future, the color of your helix tattoo shows exactly how your DNA was modified - green for super-smart scientists, black for pumped-up warriors, white for the immortal Seligo - but Cipher’s red helix is a death sentence. It’s a sign of unstable DNA, which is probably the reason she can manipulate electricity.

When she was eight years old, Cipher made the mistake of showing her uncle the tattoo. In return, he killed her parents and tried to kidnap her. She’s been on the run ever since, and twelve long years later, Cipher is tired of hiding. Survival isn't enough anymore. She wants her life back.

Hacking into the Citadel mainframe is a huge risk, but it pays off when she finds a database on red helixes. Before she can copy it, she loses control of her power, charring her last processor, and the only person in the Arizona Voids that can get her back online is her oldest friend, Knightly. She hasn't seen him in person since she started running, and Knightly 2.0 is fully upgraded with a six-pack and knee-melting smile.
For a girl like Cipher, trust doesn't come easily, but Knightly makes her yearn for a life she knows she can’t have, especially when every secret she reveals endangers them both.

Book Review - Awaken

Awaken
Author: Katie Kacvinsky
Series: Awaken #1
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 17th April 2012
Publishers: HMH Books
No. Pages: 320
Source: Purchased
Rating:
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Maddie lives in a world where everything is done on the computer. Whether it’s to go to school or on a date, people don’t venture out of their home. There’s really no need. For the most part, Maddie's okay with the solitary, digital life - until she meets Justin. Justin likes being with people. He enjoys the physical closeness of face-to-face interactions. People aren't meant to be alone, he tells her.

Suddenly, Maddie feels something awakening inside her - a feeling that maybe there is a different, better way to live. But with society and her parents telling her otherwise, Maddie is going to have to learn to stand up for herself if she wants to change the path her life is taking.

In this not-so-brave new world, two young people struggle to carve out their own space.

Book Review - Red Rising

Red Rising

Author: Pierce Brown

Series: Red Rising Trilogy #1

Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopia | Young Adult

Release Date: 25th September 2014
Publishers: Hodder & Stoughton

No. Pages: 382

Source: Review Copy - Hodder & Stoughton

Rating: 

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The Earth is dying. Darrow is a Red, a miner in the interior of Mars. His mission is to extract enough precious elements to one day tame the surface of the planet and allow humans to live on it. The Reds are humanity's last hope.

Or so it appears, until the day Darrow discovers it's all a lie. That Mars has been habitable - and inhabited - for generations, by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. A class of people who look down on Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought.

Until the day that Darrow, with the help of a mysterious group of rebels, disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their command school, intent on taking down his oppressors from the inside. But the command school is a battlefield - and Darrow isn't the only student with an agenda.

Book Review - Adaptation

Adaptation

Author: Malinda Lo

Series: Adaptation #1

Genres: Science Fiction, Aliens | Young Adult

Release Date: September 18th 2012

Publishers:  Little Brown

No. Pages: 386

Source: Review Copy - Little Brown

Rating: 

Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

Reese can’t remember anything from the time between the accident and the day she woke up almost a month later. She only knows one thing: She’s different now.

Across North America, flocks of birds hurl themselves into airplanes, causing at least a dozen to crash. Thousands of people die. Fearing terrorism, the United States government grounds all flights, and millions of travelers are stranded.

Reese and her debate team partner and longtime crush David are in Arizona when it happens. Everyone knows the world will never be the same. On their drive home to San Francisco, along a stretch of empty highway at night in the middle of Nevada, a bird flies into their headlights. The car flips over. When they wake up in a military hospital, the doctor won’t tell them what happened, where they are—or how they’ve been miraculously healed.

Things become even stranger when Reese returns home. San Francisco feels like a different place with police enforcing curfew, hazmat teams collecting dead birds, and a strange presence that seems to be following her. When Reese unexpectedly collides with the beautiful Amber Gray, her search for the truth is forced in an entirely new direction—and threatens to expose a vast global conspiracy that the government has worked for decades to keep secret. 

Book Review - Still Point

Still Point
Author: Katie Kacvinsky
Series: Awaken #3
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 2nd September 2014
Publishers: HMH Books
No. Pages: 345
Source: Review Copy - HMH Books
Rating: 
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In the final installment to the trilogy begun with 'Awaken', Maddie returns home to make her final stand against Digital School, but uncovers deeply guarded secrets about her family and new truths about herself that will push herself, her friendships and her love with Justin to the brink. Can she really have her middle ground?

Book Review - Cress

Cress
Author: Marissa Meyer
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #3
Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 4th February 2014
Publishers: Puffin
No. Pages: 550
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice. When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

Book Review - Middle Ground

Middle Ground
Author: Katie Kacvinsky
Series: Awaken #2
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 13th November 2013
Publishers: HMH Books
No. Pages: 336
Source: Purchased
Rating: 
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For four weeks Maddie has been living in Los Angeles, trying to be good. But no matter how hard she tries, something inside her won't be sated. She can't live a life of half-truths and false pretenses. So one night, she says how she really feels..

That's all it takes. One night. One bad decision, and Maddie is thrown into a detention center where she's forced to undergo secretive treatment meant to squash her rebellious streak. The powers that be call it rehabilitation. Maddie calls it torture.

Alone, Maddie will not survive. But if she can find something to hold on to - an image of Justin, their love - maybe she can fight. And if she's really lucky, maybe she'll even win.

Film Review - Catching Fire

Catching Fire
Director: Francis Lawrence
Genres: Science Fiction | Young Adult
Duration: 146 minutes
Release Date: 22nd November 2013
IMDB Rating: 
Butterfly Rating: 
Trailer: See Here

A year after winning the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and her partner, Peeta Mellark must go on what is known as the Victor's Tour wherein they visit all the districts. But before leaving, Katniss is visited by President Snow who fears that Katniss defied him a year ago during the games when she chose to die with Peeta. With both Katniss and Peeta declared the winners, it is fueling a possible uprising. He tells Katniss that while on tour she better try to make sure that she puts out the flames.. else everyone she cares about will be in danger.

Can Katniss prove her undying love for Peeta, or will she add more fuel to the fire?

Book Review - Mockingjay

Mockingjay
Author: Suzanne Collins
Series: The Hunger Games #3
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 25th August 2010
Publishers: Scholastic
No. Pages: 458
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans - except Katniss. The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay - no matter what the personal cost.

Book Review - Scarlet

Scarlet
Author: Marissa Meyer
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #2
Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 7th February 2013
Publishers: Puffin
No. Pages: 452
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
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Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. The police have closed her case. The only person Scarlet can turn to is Wolf, a street fighter she does not trust, but they are drawn to each other. Meanwhile, in New Beijing, Cinder will become the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive – when she breaks out of prison to stay one step ahead of vicious Queen Levana.

As Scarlet and Wolf expose one mystery, they encounter Cinder and a new one unravels. Together they must challenge the evil queen, who will stop at nothing to make Prince Kai her husband, her king, her prisoner..

Book Review - Legend

Legend
Author: Marie Lu
Series: Legend #1
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopian | Young Adult
Release Date: 2nd February 2012
Publishers: Speak
No. Pages: 295
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | The Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbours. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic's wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country's most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.

From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths - until the day June's brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family's survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias's death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

Film Review - The Hunger Games (2012)

The Hunger Games
Director(s): Gary Ross
Genres: Science Fiction | Young Adult
Duration: 142 Minutes
Release Date: 23rd March 2012
IMDB Rating: 
Butterfly Rating: 
Trailer: See Here
Buy From: Amazon | Ebay

In a dystopian future, the totalitarian nation of Panem is divided between 12 districts and the Capitol. Each year two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal retribution for a past rebellion, the televised games are broadcast throughout Panem. The 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors while the citizens of Panem are required to watch.

When 16-year-old Katniss's young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta, are pitted against bigger, stronger representatives, some of whom have trained for this their whole lives. Will they survive, and will the the odds be ever in their favour?