Anyone Normal is Ugly

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

I loved this book.  From the very beginning to the very end I enjoyed the journey that we went on with Tally.  I loved how she introduced us to the uglies and the pretties.  Uglies starts with Tally completing a “trick” that no Ugly has ever completed before.  She went to a Pretties party.  She really went to find her long lost best friend Peris who not so long ago was ugly too.  Since he moved to New Pretty Town and became pretty himself, she has been lonely and just wanted to see him.   During this trick she meets Shay.  Shay isn’t satisfied with the status quo and is not excited about surgically becoming pretty like society has deemed necessary.  This starts the domino of Tally’s life when all she ever wanted was to become pretty and live her life the way she is supposed to.  The question becomes, what are they changing when their patients are under the knife?     

Ok, so now I’ve lost all of my readers in my intro paragraph.  Here’s the deal.  The book was very good.  As my readers know, I love young adult fiction and this was sci-fi –ish, which I love as well.  Therefore, with all of the times I saw other bloggers praising this book, I decided to read it and I’m glad I did.  Of course I got it from the library, but the next book in the series was unavailable and I bought Pretties, the second book in the series at Half Price Books (love that store!).  I plan on getting the rest of the series from the library and of course I will keep you posted on how they are going. 

My favorite character in the book is Tally.  I loved how she was such an incredible character that has all of these great attributes and she cannot see them for herself.  David comes into her life and shows her all of these great abilities that she has and how she can use them for the greater good and she can hardly believe it herself.  I enjoyed the relationship that developed between David and Tally.  He was sweet to her and got to know her even though she couldn’t understand why he would even care with her still being ugly.  Of course disarray takes place and they are separated from family and friends and their relationship grows stronger during this time.  When the crap hits the fan, will he want to stay with her?  I guess we won’t know until the next book.  Keep Reading my Friends!

REM had it right, It is the End of the World as we KNOW IT!

The Island at the End of the World by Sam Taylor

The song that comes to mind after finishing this book is “It’s the end of the world as we know it.”  This is a post-apocalyptic journey about a family surviving in the wild after the world as they know it was destroyed by a flood.  Eight years later everything in this perfect world that Ben, the father of this family, is compromised as a stranger is washed up on the shore of their island. 

This book was a first for me.  I have never read a published book by a person that I know.  Sam Taylor is a member of the Olive Books Book Club and married to Kathy, a charter member of the club.  So, I was excited to finally read one of his books.  I have to be honest, I am so glad that I liked the book, because I would be horrified to either tell him the truth that I didn’t like it or lie and tell him I liked it.  Thankfully it was an excellent read and the characters were well developed and the plot was complex and riveting.  I loved how the story was written from several perspectives.  I enjoyed Finn’s inner voice the most.  At first it was very hard to read Finn’s perspective because it was written like a ten year old would write it.  Everything is very phonetically written and so my eyes did not want to read the word that was meant to be read, but instead my brain wanted to read the correct spelling of the word.  During part 2 of the book, I missed Finn very much.  I longed to read his innocence that was lacking from Alice’s point of view.

The book was divided into two sections, up to part 2 we have a father and his three children living life.  They have chores and daily projects that must be completed in order for the delicate balance of their lives to stay that way.  In part 2, two stories collide and the truth comes out, but not necessarily for the betterment of the island and its inhabitants.    

Within the story, Sam would have no ending to his sentences, especially as the story concludes.  I enjoyed this because no ending to sentences, created suspense and the need for the reader’s imagination.  I didn’t know what the character was thinking and therefore I had to fill it in with my thoughts, which can be a crazy place to get the missing pieces from.   

At the very end of the book, I have so many questions.  I want to ask Sam what his thoughts are about the ending.  What really happens?  No worries, I’m not going to give spoilers, but next time I see him, I’m going to make sure that I ask him what happened, I have only one big question, and I guess I can believe whichever way I want, but I want to know what he intended when he finished the book.  What was the ending?  Also, am I the only person that is highly disturbed that Will shows up, he knows his relationship with the last surviving family, yet…disturbing. 

Go buy Sam’s book The Island at the End of the World or any of his other great novels.  I have already received The Amnesiac, and I can’t wait to get it read.  Keep Reading my friends!