Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #2) by Rick Riordan

book blurb (from Goodreads)
YOU CAN'T TELL BY LOOKING AT ME THAT MY DAD IS POSEIDON, GOD OF THE SEA.

It's not easy being a half-blood these days. Even a simple game of dodgeball becomes a death match against an ugly gang of cannibal giants - and that was only the beginning.

Now Camp Half-Blood is under attack and, unless I can get my hands of the Golden Fleece, the whole camp will be invaded by monsters. Big ones...







My review: 
I did not enjoy this book as much as the first book to be honest but it was still good, because like everyone says: It's Percy Jackson! 
The plot in this book was equally as interesting and intriguing as the first book, but in my opinion, not as well carried out. I enjoyed the sense of rebellion that went was there throughout the book, like, You told me not to do it, so I am going to do it anyway...  The ending really sped by and it was a challenge to put down, however the beginning was a bit slow (even though we did get a good brief fight seen). There is a large difference between the sizes of the two books, (The first is thicker then the second). Whilst I do not mind this I still found the second book a little too short. I would of liked some explaining chapters to make it a bit longer, but that might just be me being a bit greedy since I don't have the third book yet and I want more. 
The characters were still awesome. Percy was still funny and had a sharp tongue however I found that I didn't have as many laugh out loud moments as the first book, but that might just be my strange sense of humor. I liked Annabeth a lot more in this book. I found that she was more easygoing and not a tense around Percy so we got some good conversations out of them. We did not see so much of Grover in this book which was a little bit disappointing, however when we did see him it was good funny action scenes at the end so I am not complaining (that much). Tyson was a nice new edition to the characters in this book, whilst he didn't have any appealing characteristics (well to me) I found that he was good for Percy and I liked having him around. 
I give this book 3 out of 5 stars:

Death Cure (The Maze Runner #3) by James Dashner

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
Thomas knows that Wicked can't be trusted, but they say the time for lies is over, that they've collected all they can from the Trials and now must rely on the Gladers, with full memories restored, to help them with their ultimate mission. It's up to the Gladers to complete the blueprint for the cure to the Flare with a final voluntary test.

What Wicked doesn't know is that something's happened that no Trial or Variable could have foreseen. Thomas has remembered far more than they think. And he knows that he can't believe a word of what Wicked says.

The time for lies is over. But the truth is more dangerous than Thomas could ever imagine.
Will anyone survive the Death Cure?

My Review 
This book was an amazing finish to the trilogy. It was full of action, right from the beginning. New characters were introduced, old ones brought back and the main characters were as awesome as always. There were some major sad parts in the book, when people died, not necessarily important characters, but the way James Dashner wrote sad parts in the book made me cry, especially in one bit when Minho was saying "When did the world become so shucked?" That made me cry, because Minho was always the funny one and now he was so depressed and sad. Also this book became a guessing game. You didn't know who to trust and nothing is as it seems.
The characters were interesting. Thomas was fainting a lot in the second book, but in this book Thomas became so bad-ass, when  he did awesome ninja fighting moves. This started at the very beginning of the book. Teresa was a different case. I was annoyed at her and really didn't like her, mostly because of Thomas. But near the end of the book I just started feeling sorry for her because Thomas just ignored her. Minho was as awesome as always. He had amazing comebacks and was as snarky as always. Newt was my favourite character still even though he was a little grumpier and impulsive in this book.
Overall I liked this book and my advice is to watch out for the sad parts. But because this was such an emotional read and the plot was amazing, I give it 5 out of 5 stars!

Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2) by Sarah J. Maas

Book Blurb (from goodreads) 
From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena's world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie...and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.

My review: 
This book was full of twists and turns and full of exhilarating scenes. I would not say that it was better than Throne of Glass but it was defiantly not bad. 
The plot of this book was interesting. It was going one way and just when we were accepting the information that we were given the book took a violent turn in a different direction. Their were plot twists at the end of the book which I will talk about at the end in a spoiler part of this review. This book defiantly had some brilliant fight scenes which got your heart speeding. It was a page turner from start to finish. If I were to pick one place that annoyed, me it would be how Celaena had reacted to a specific event and would not leave her room. I did not enjoy the time where she was just sat and felt sorry for her. You're Adarlan's Assassin! Pull yourself together! Okay, maybe that is a bit harsh. However, it did not have to go on for as long as it did. Even here I am being a bit picky to find something to try  and complain about. I don't really think that I am doing very well at it though because I understand how Celaena reacted and I respect that. 
There was defiantly some developments in the characters throughout the book which were interesting to watch. I will start of with Dorian since I think that he probably developed the most. I loved how Dorian has stuck with his humor and is still a bit rebellious towards the king/his dad. I wish that we could of seen more of him like we did in throne of glass. He defiantly managed to get his head together and become wiser and focus on the things that are important. Celaena, to be honest, scared me in this book. The fighting scenes where she got the killing calm were eery but also extremely bad ass. I found that, we found a lot more interesting things about her past and origin. I also found that, she seemed a bit confused in this book, as in, what she actually wanted. We got to see a lot more of Chaol in this book as well. I found his past interesting (since it was mentioned multiple times in the book) and liked the scenes with his farther. I preferred how he acted when he was around Celaena and vice versa. I wish that he were a bit more like Dorian, humor wise, but it didn't matter because I felt like Dorian was Chaol's missing half and I like to see them talk together. I just wish that they were not arguing half the time. Nehemia was again one of my favourites. I liked how she was so into the rebellion and she really showed more passion for it in this book. She kept a sense of mystery throughout the book which kept you guessing about her. Mort, the skull, was hilarious. He was by far the funniest character in this book. He had snide remarks at the most inappropriate times which made the book have huge laugh out loud moments. I think that every book needs a character like Mort. He was my other favourite, next to Nehemia 
SPOILER CAREFUL DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK!!!!!!!!!
So this plot twist at the end. I was not expecting Celaena to be Fae and the heir to the Terrasen throne. At first I was angry about this because I felt like I had been cheated. It was so big that it should of been hinted at least once in the book. Then I sat back I looked back at my memories of text from both of the the books, and realized that there were actually so many subtle clues. The way how Nehemia had said to Celaena at the end of the first book, magic calls to magic. Celaena also had such a talent with the Wyrd marks and never talked about her past. I also never really thought about it but when it was mentioned that the rightful queen of Terrasen was working with the rebel group, Celaena was so certain that, that person was a fraud. And it makes sense because she is the heir. The clues all fit and now I am just astounded at how blind I was to not fit all of the clues together. The plot twists were defiantly well placed and done.
SPOILERS ARE OVER YOU CAN CONTINUE READING NOW!!!!!!!! 
I give this book 4 out of 5 stars: 

Across the Universe (Across the Universe #1) by Beth Revis

Book Blurb (from Goodreads)
A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder. 

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone - one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship - tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

My review:
 If you have seen Alecto's 5th wave review you will know about the reading arrangement the we made. If you haven't here is a brief explanation: We saw that we did not have many books in common that we both loved so we each chose three books from our favourites and the other had to pick one book out of the three to read. Alecto chose the 5th wave and I chose Across the Universe by Beth Revis, purely because it sounded like something that I would like. Do I regret my decision? Unfortunately yes...
I love dystopians, I love Sci-fi put them together and you have made the perfect book for me right? Wrong. The plot for me in this book, was to stretched out and boring. I could identify parts of the book which were suppose to be exciting but unfortunately were not. There was two chapters in this book (one after the other were something unnerving happened to Amy) which were exciting and got my adrenaline pumping. I finally thought that the book was going to get better but alas, it did not. It only lasted for two chapters and then everything calmed down again. I wish that Beth Revis had pulled out that section of the book a little bit more because it was the only part of the book which I generally liked. 
This next paragraph will contains a large spoiler! Please do not read this if you have not read the book!
Beth Revise had a attempt at a plot twist which is great, good for her, but I do not think that it worked out quite in her favor. At the end, we found out that it was in fact Elder who had taken Amy out of the chamber. This is all good and that, but my problem with it is that a secret was not hinted in the book. The was no guilt in Elder no should I tell her should I not. Not even a hint of remorse until the end of the book! That is not right. You can not just suddenly give the character a huge secret that has been there from the beginning. This probably frustrated me more than it should and I don't know why. Another thing that bothered me about this is when he does tell Amy about this 'secret' she is okay with it so fast. That would of been the perfect time for some good old conflict between characters but no. Unfortunately not. 
Okay spoiler bit is over you can read from here on!
I am going to talk about Amy and Elder at the same time. They are both so similar it was annoying. If you are going to make a book a duel perspective you have to do it right and give the two completely different  personalities and characteristics. I should be able to open the book to a random page and be able to go ah that its Amy's perspective or ah that is Elder's perspective. I was not able to do that. I sometimes had to go back to the beginning of the chapter to check whose perspective I was reading from. I found Elders character bland and although Amy had her brief sassy moments she was a bit bland and boring as well. 
Overall I would say that I would say that I am just one of those people that end up not liking a popular book. I am sure that it is a great book to some people and I would recommend that if the book blurb does sound interesting to you go give it a shot. Do not let my review put you of, it is just my personal opinion. 
I give this book 1 out of 5 stars.

The 5th Wave (The Fifth Wave #1) by Rick Yancey

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
The 1st Wave took out half a million people.

The 2nd Wave put that number to shame.

The 3rd Wave lasted a little longer, twelve weeks... four billion dead.

In the 4th Wave, you can't trust that people are still people.

And the 5th Wave? No one knows. But it's coming.

On a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs. Runs from the beings that only look human, who have scattered Earth's last survivors.

To stay alone is to stay alive, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan may be her only hope.

Now Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death.

My Review
Let's start by explaining what Jessie and I agreed on, one day. We noticed that we don't have a lot of books in common. So we recommended books to each other and then we had to choose on of the recommendations and we had to read that chosen book. So, I chose "The 5th Wave".
Basically, this book is about aliens invading and destroying the Earth and killing the humans. Their attacks were called "waves". The book is told out of many different perspectives, like Cassie's, Zombie's, Sammy's and the Silencer's.
I love Cassie's perspective. She is so sassy and her commentary is hilarious. One of her funny lines in the book was Oh there's an alien apocalypse, quick grab the beer! That was really funny.
Evan Walker was a slightly irritating character. He was so timid it was so frustrating and weird and then he started going all killer-style and then he becomes a really cool character.
The plot of the book was generally really good. On my newly invented machine, the Excite-ometre, out of a scale 1 out of 10, 10 being "Omg, I can't take it anymore!" I would give this book 5 or 6 because there was action but not necessary a lot. But I liked the idea of aliens taking over and the book was pretty original.
Overall, with the hilarious commentary and the plot, I can give this book 4 out of 5 stars!

GESS Grade 10 Book Donation

Hi! I want to talk about some event that is happening in school right now.
The grade 10s are going to India for project week and the school is coming up with different ways to raise money. Examples of that are the Christmas Bazaar and many others. In this Christmas Bazaar though, the school is coming up with more creative ways to raise money. So they were thinking that we could donate books to sell on the Christmas Bazaar. These books can be:

• for any gender
• for any age
• any genre
• must apply with the Singaporean Convention Law

Ok, that's all. Have fun at the Christmas Bazaar!

A message for students of GESS

Hi,
If you are looking at this blog and are from GESS, I would like to remind you of the grade ten India project and their idea to sell second hand books to collect the money needed. If you happen to have any books which you do not want anymore please give them to your homeroom teacher so they can go towards a good cause.

The Wizard Heir (The Heir chronicels #2) by Cinda Willamas Chirma

Book Blurb (from goodreads)
Sixteen-year-old Seph McCauley has spent the past three years getting kicked out of one exclusive private school after another. And it's not his attitude that's the problem: it's the trail of magical accidents - lately, disasters - that follow in his wake. Seph is a wizard, orphaned and untrained, and his powers are escalating out of control.

After causing a tragic fire at an after-hours party, Seph is sent to the Havens, a secluded boys' school on the coast of Maine. Gregory Leicester, the headmaster, promises to train Seph in magic and initiate him into his mysterious order of wizards. But Seph's enthusiasm dampens when he learns that training comes at a steep cost, and that Leicester plans to use his students' powers to serve his own mysterious agenda. 



My review: 
This book is too long! Cinda Willamas Chirma could have easily cut of 150 pages of this. It started of good and exciting and ended with long conversations about wizard politics...
The original plot of the book was good and could of been stretched out over a longer period of time. The beginning felt a bit rushed which was a pain because it was the only part of the book where adrenaline was really pumping through my body which is a feeling which I really like whilst reading and I feel like I have been robbed of it in a book which had the potential to give the reader that feeling 24/7. The ending on the other hand just seemed to go on forever. It was all about wizard politics and what was going on. Which was great for history and would be good in small doses, but do not revolve the whole second half of the book about it. Yes you still had action but not as much as I was hoping for. 
Seph was my least favourite character. Which sucks because he was the main character and I had to see the most of him. His character felt a little bland and like there was something missing. I could not relate to him in any circumstances which is a trait which most main characters should have to help make the book appealing to readers. I was glad to see Jack and Ellen come back into the story. It felt like old friends were coming back from the dead. I love their characters and my only complaint for them would be that we didn't get to see enough of them. I would of liked to have some clearer updates on their life together. 
The descriptions in this book were very clear and easy to imagine. Although it was hard to keep up with who was talking because the point of views were switching back and forth without warning. At the end we even got the point of view from someone who we barely know anything about! I had to retrace y 'steps' and figure out just who exactly was talking. 
I give this book 2 stars. I defiantly suffered the-curse-of-the-second-book-in-a-series-of-5-books-which-could-really-just-be-one-book. 

Abhorsen (Old Kingdom #3) by Garth Nix

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
When the ninth gate calls, who can resist its summons?

An old evil has arisen - freed from its subterranean prison and seeking to escape the binding silver hemispheres which prevent it from finally unleashing its terrible powers.

Lirael, newly come into her inheritance as the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, knows that the fate of the world is in her hands. With only a vision from the Clayr to guide her, and the uncertain help of her companions — Sam, the Disreputable Dog, and Mogget — Lirael sets out on her perilous mission.

Then answer must be found somewhere in Life or Death - but can a former Second Assistant Librarian possibly discover the means to defeat the Destroyer...before it is too late?

My Review
This time I wasn't that reluctant to start reading this book, because Lirael, Sameth, Mogget and the Disreputable Dog are all still in this book. This time, in the prologue, there is a major shock and the book jumps immediately into the action. Since the last book, Lirael, there has been a lot of character development taking place. Prince Sameth isn't the coward he once was, he is braver, fights more in battles and he even wielded the panpipes and bells when needed even though he was absolutely terrified of them ever since his incident with Hedge.
In this book, I also noticed that a lot of secret names were revealed and when I was sitting there, thinking about names in the book and I noticed that a lot of names ended in -ael or-el. Like Sabriel, Lirael, Astarael and many others.
The ending of the book was very, very sad! You can't end a book like that! It just breaks one's heart!
This book had a lot of action in it and I am giving this book 5 out of 5 stars!

Lirael (Old Kingdom #2) by Garth Nix

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
Lirael has never felt like a true daughter of the Clayr. Now, two years past the time when she should have received the Sight that is the Clayr's birthright, she feels alone, abandoned, unsure of who she is. Nevertheless, the fate of the Old Kingdom lies in her hands. With only her faithful companion, the Disreputable Dog, Lirael must undertake a desperate mission under the growing shadow of an ancient evil.

In this sequel to Sabriel, winner of the Aurealis Award for Excellence in Australian Science Fiction, New York Times best-selling author Garth Nix weaves a spellbinding tale of discovery, destiny, and danger.



 

My Review 
I was slightly reluctant to start reading this book, because I really liked Sabriel and her personality, so I didn't really want to meet a new hero just yet. But I did end up liking Lirael. There are two completely different sites of her: first, she is timid, shy and quiet with other people like the Clayr. But with her friend the Disreputable Dog, she is brave, talkative and has some sense of humour. I am still very happy, that Sabriel and Touchstone are still in this book.
And of course, our favourite star, Mogget, is back with all his talk, comments and sneers, just a bit (a lot) more sleepier, because he is under the influence of Ranna. Now I also liked the Disreputable Dog because she is almost as indirect and painfully truthful as Mogget. She also stays cheerful, even in very grim situations. Prince Sameth was a bit annoying though, because he was always so meek and timid and so very weak. Now, I understand that part of his spirit was ripped away and he is scared, but I was just really annoyed when he acted like that.
The adventure started a bit late in the book, but it made up for it with all the magic, danger and numerous near-death-experiences.
Overall, I think that I can give this book 4 out of 5 stars!