Hungry ~ H.A. Swain (earc) review [@FeiwelFriends @MacKidsBooks]

Hungry
Feiwel & Friends
June 3, 2014
384 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depo/or Amazon

In the future, food is no longer necessary—until Thalia begins to feel something unfamiliar and uncomfortable. She’s hungry.

In Thalia’s world, there is no need for food—everyone takes medication (or “inocs”) to ward off hunger. It should mean there is no more famine, no more obesity, no more food-related illnesses, and no more war. At least that's what her parents, who work for the company that developed the inocs, say. But when Thalia meets a boy who is part of an underground movement to bring food back, she realizes that most people live a life much different from hers. Worse, Thalia is starting to feel hunger, and so is he—the inocs aren’t working. Together they set out to find the only thing that will quelleir hunger: real food.

H. A. Swain delivers an adventure that is both epic and fast-paced. Get ready to be Hungry.

Hungry started a little bit slow for me. The concept was immediately intriguing but the story did not grab me right away. Once I got farther in it became a very gripping story. I was, also, glad that all of the bits that had seemed a little slower had been included. They give a great introduction to the characters and their world and a necessary basis for the happenings of the rest of the novel.

H.A. Swain has created a well thought and thought provoking dystopian world. In Hungry food is on more - it is neither present nor needed. There is a reason for the lack of actual food and it is something that also plays very well into other parts of the book. The if-then-statements of Hungry are incredibly well done.

Thalia has access to gadgets, innovations, science that seem like the techno-filled future of some people's dreams. While this part of the story is definitely a lot of fun to read - as well as imagine - things aren't that simple. It's how all of that technology and science plays into the human side of those future humans where the tale gets really good. It's a world where they think they have everything figured out, but when something - Thalia's hunger - doesn't fit, things start to look not quite so perfect. Little does Thalia know just how imperfect everything will soon seem.

Hungry is a vision of a thought provoking future that asks more questions than just those you notice at first; from the simpler ones of science to deeper ones on emotion and humanity. It's not a story - or characters - that you will soon forget.


Rating: 8/10


Other books you may also enjoy: When We Wake books by Karen Healey, Delirium by Lauren Oliver and Plus One by Elizabeth Fama






book received through NetGalley, thanks to publisher for review

The Last Princess ~ Galaxy Craze (eARC) review

The Last Princess
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
May 1, 2012
295 pages
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After the Seventeen Days destroyed almost all that Eliza - and the rest of England (and likely the world - knew as modern civilization, people are left struggling for things they used to find commonplace. Clean water to drink is now a luxury, nearly all of the animals (save the snakes, worms and leaches) have died out of the forests, a coal powered train had to be brought out of a museum and used for transportation. Electricity is gone. People are scavenging for food.

Isolated from the rest of the world and what may or may not be going on there, Britain is a desolate place.

Meanwhile, though, Eliza and the rest of her family, the British royal family, is still living relatively well. They have more food than the others. They're still throwing a ball. It will be a far cry from the balls thrown for previous courts, but it's still a ball.

And it angers some people. Including the revolutionaries determined to overthrow the royals.

When blood is shed in the palace, Eliza is the only one able to escape. Determine not only to rescue her family - whom she hopes are still alive - but also to extract revenge on the man who has caused her grief, Eliza sets out on a journey. A journey that will cause her more pain, lead to more bloodshed and cause her to make choices she never thought she would have to make.


A great mix of a young royal - almost like Anastasia with shades or Marie Antoinette - with a bit Joan of Arc thrown in to the mix. With family relationships, friendships and personal struggles mixed in with the violence that comes and the post-apocalyptic Britain, The Last Princess should appeal to a wide audience - in both and gender.

With The Last Princess readers get a bit of the royal flavor - that bit extra that Eliza and her siblings enjoy thanks to their father being the King of England - but it's tampered  by the book being set after the Seventeen Days. While we never get an exact description of all that the Seventeen Days entailed, it all but destroyed the world. Britain is still reeling from it and trying to recover - and perhaps the King could make a few more concessions than he has.

Perhaps it's the way Eliza is forced to go out on her own and feels vengeful but it reminds me almost of Avi's Cripsin series a bit or perhaps of Darren Shan's Larten Crepsley series (just, you know, minus the vampire bit). I will say that Eliza seems stronger than both of those characters. (Likely due to her starting circumstance and the writers goal for the characters.)

The characters - Eliza, especially - in this novel are well written and their relationships are strong and not only make sense, but assist the story. The plot was great (a revolution much like the French moved to England after a sort of apocalypse) was incredibly logical and fun to read about. There were things that seemed to not ever get completely explained (like what the Seventeen Days was, who the Roamers were - or how they came to be) that left me wondering a bit and a few things were predictable. Other than that, though, things were greatly enjoyable and the little details (the lamps, the snakes, etc were nice inclusions.

While Eliza is a princess - and the title, of course, mentions that - The Last Princess' content should appeal to male YA (and possibly upper MG) readers as well. She's a female main character, but she's a tough  one - both physically and mentally - as she fights to make sure she is not, in fact, The Last Princess.


Rating: 9/10


thank you to LBYR and NetGalley for my egalley of this title

172 Hours on the Moon ~ Johan Harstad (eARC) review

172 Hours on the Moon
Tara F. Chace (Translator)
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
April 17, 2012
355 pages
add to Goodreads/buy on Book Depository/or Amazon

What better day to review 172 Hours on the Moon than the day that the shuttle Discovery made its way to the Smithsonian atop a specially outfitted 747? (And a Space Shuttle keychain is part of my SBBS Thank You giveaway, too.)

Hoping to renew interest in the space program - something that has lost both funding and public interest in recent years - NASA comes up with what seems like a crazy plan: they're going to send people back to the moon. Not just astronauts, either. They're planning to send three teenagers to the moon.

It's been nearly forty years since anyone last went to the moon and now Antoine, Midori, and Mia, teenagers from across the globe will travel there with trained astronauts.

Just before their trip, they each experience a strange, unexplained event . . . and they may be about to find out there was a reason it's been almost four decades since NASA has sent anyone to the moon.


172 Hours on the Moon, a Norwegian novel translated into English is an amazing, suspenseful and downright creepy read. I was drawn to it because I really do miss being able to see/hear shuttle launches (they're nice on TV but when you can literally hear the sonic boom and see the smoke in the sky it . . . can't be explained). While I knew this wasn't going to be a yay!space book, I was itching for anything spacey.

launch photos (please don't copy)

Little did I know this would also fulfill my need for a creepy/suspense/almost-horror read as well. And so well, too.

172 Hours does a brilliant job introducing us to Mia, Midori and Antoine before the launch (even before their selection for the trip) and then showing some of their training. While the suspenseful/scary parts of the book later on are fantastic they're made much better by the readers ability to be invested in the characters emotionally. Without that earlier information about each of the characters the later parts would be nice (and probably still have some suspense but have as much of an impact).

I haven't read this in the original Norwegian so I can't say how true the translation is but it reads incredibly well and sounds great. Both the author Harstad and the translator Chace have dome incredibly well.

The ending of 172 Hours on the Moon is superb. Everything leads up to it just about flawlessly and it ends with a knock out. I love it.


Rating: 9/10


They're TV/movies but if you like this you might enjoy Doctor Who (Fourth Series with David Tennant specifically) and possibly Another Earth

Books you might also enjoy: Human.4 by Mike Lancaster or Across the Universe by Beth Revis



thank you to LBYR and NetGalley for my egalley of this title :)