Completely Classic: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Completely Classic is a feature (started here!) that discusses modern and other Classic literature.

Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs, all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone in feeling discontent. Harbouring an unnatural desire for solitude, and a perverse distaste for the pleasure of compulsory promiscuity, Bernard has an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations, where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress.… Huxley's ingenious fantasy of the future sheds a blazing light on the present and is considered to be his most enduring masterpiece.

I had to read this book for one of my English classes, and being that it is a well known modern classic, I was pretty excited to finally be let in on all the hype. The book overall, was a pretty good utopian/dystopian read, although it lacked a little bit of excitement as far as my tastes go.

I think that that book describes an insightful and fresh society that differs from any other dystopian civilisation that I've ever encountered. It was also surprising that it doesn't come across as so horrific as others in the genre. Huxley's projected view on the future definitely begs to be considered a plausible option, and shows a very different side to relationships, families and friendships.

I loved the characters, with all of their differing insights and lives. I also enjoyed the biographical information, learning in detail about the society and how everything works and came about.

Overall, I think this book is a must-read, obviously it has a reputation for being a classic. It may not be the most thrilling read, but it definitely makes the reader think long after the novel is finished, and, like any good dystopian novel, leaves some deep (almost allegorical) questions.

Still thinking--Cheers & Enjoy♥

Fever

Ahhh!

So probably my favourite book of this year, Wither, is part of The Chemical Garden Trilogy. Yes, we know this. But did you know that the second one, Fever, is coming out in February 2012, and the coverart will be released this July?! Well it is, and I am so freakin' excited!

So anyway, you can read all about it on Lauren DeStefano's (the amazing author behind it all) website by clicking here.

I am sooooo excited guys, and cannot wait until I can read the next installment in the rivetingly deletable dsytopian series that is The Chemical Garden Trilogy.

Let me know how you feel--Cheers & Enjoy♥

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.
 When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can't bring herself to hate him as much as she'd like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband's strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?           -Chapters Canada

I wanted to read this book as soon as I saw the cover. I know this seems shallow, but come on, who would not take the time to notice this beauty. You'd have to be crazy not to! This is possibly one of my favourite covers ever! (Ok, rant complete). So not only was the cover dynamically fantabulosa and high-fashion-esque, the description made my hair stand on end. I love dystopian novels, and this one spoke to me like Nutella on a spoon!

Let's just say it did not let me down. I loved the premise of the book, obviously, and it was so completely refreshing and novel, which is always uber-important to me. The polygamy aspect (which I somehow did not pick up on until I started reading the novel) was the cherry on top of this bloody sundae, and I loved all of the references to 'sister wives'. The romance aspect was in some ways not quite strong enough, but overall came out as frothy perfection, if that makes any sense. Romance is pretty much the first thing I look for, and was not as evidently strong at first, but seemed to be woven in just the right way to complete the other themes present throughout: sister wife comraderie, secret longing, and dealing with inevitable death.

My one teensy-weensy complaint (which kills me to mention, for fear of ruining the happy mood) is that the ending somehow seemed eerily easy. I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but it somehow rang a little bit off with me. I will just have to wait for more action in the follow-up...

Overall, great read, and I recommend especially to fans of dystopian fiction, but also to anyone looking for their next great read!

Spolier Alert: Don't read past this point if you don't want to know specific book details!

The book starts out with immediate action, right when Rhine is captured, which makes me a little bit sad that we didn't get to see Rowan, Rhine's twin brother who gets left behind, at all, but also makes me think it was genius to have this element, as I'm sure that in the future, if/when we do get to see Rowan, the reunion will be even more epic!

We then get introduced to this amazing dystopia which takes place sometime in the future, when everyone lives to either the age of 20 (for females) or 25 (for males). Basically, our generation has screwed up (which is a theme that I never tire of learning in dystopian novels) and messed up the world. Girls are coveted because there is such need to keep the population going; cue pilagamy theme. Rhine has just been captured, and is luckily chosen out of about 20 girls to become one of the wives of a rich Governor. Rhine stays conscious just long enough to hear the rest of the unchosen girls being executed.

When Rhine gains consciousness again, she is at a palatial 'plantation' of sorts, where she is quickly married off to a rich Linden whose current wife is dying of the virus (that's what they call the thing that is ending everyone's life). But Rhine is not the only captive, she has two sister wives: Cecily, who is tragically too young to be so desperate for their husband's affections; and Jenna, whose sisters were among the girls killed, and has accepted that she will die in two year's time.

As the book plays out, we see the dynamic of this strange modern family. Rhine maintains a short-lived friendship with Linden's first wife, and watches as she tragically dies, and holds onto the wisdom she passes on. We see Cecily lose her innocence and bear a child to Linden, only to see her suffer when Vaughn (Linden's creepy psychopathic father) slowly takes the baby away. We see Rhine struggle through all of these intricate and complex emotions that throughout the entire book just seem ridiculously unfair.

At the same time, people are struggling to find a antidote to the 'virus', and Housemaster Vaughn is supposedly trying to find it, but is eerily secretive and violent. As more and more secrets come to light, it only just builds onto the thirst of truth that I am dying to be quenched in the coming installments.

And on top of everything else is love. Love: which Rhine is desperately trying to understand. The love that she clings to from her twin she had to leave behind. The love for her new sister wives through all the trials they face. The confusing love for her husband who is frustratingly innocent throughout the whole book. And finally the love for Gabriel, which is so forbidden, and I'm sure is about to get more dynamic as this trilogy unfolds.

DeStefano has woven so many complex themes together to produce such an amazing tapestry of dysfunction. I love the tragedy of everything, and I am longing to venture into more of the brilliant fiction of The Chemical Garden Trilogy.

Still high on hope--Cheers & Enjoy♥

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

Nine of us came here.  We look like you.  We talk like you.  We live among you.  But we are not you.  We can do things you dream of doing.  We have powers you dream of having.  We are stronger and faster than anything you have ever seen.  We are the superheroes you worship in movies and comic books-but we are real.

Our plan was to grow, and train, and become strong, and become one, and fight them.  But they found us and started hunting us first.  Now all of us are running.  Spending our lives in shadows, in places where no one would look, blending in.  We have lived among you without you knowing.
But they know.

They caught Number One in Malaysia.
Number Two in England.
And Number Three in Kenya.
They Killed them all.

I am Number Four.  I am Next.                                                 -Chapters Canada


This book was pretty amazing.  I did see it a lot before I decided to read it, the movie tie-in version that is (which I loathe for any book!), as I passed by chapters, and a little bit on the Internet.  There were some factors that made me want to read it, though, as with any book.
 
First of all, I realized that it is a movie as well.  Both I had been aware of, but hadn't really put together that they were one and the same until about two weeks before the movie release.  I instantly knew I had to read it, because of course any book-to-movie fandango needs to be book then movie, in that order, and that order only.  Also, the fact that Alex Pettyfer plays the lead in the movie was pretty persuasive, as I can see that he is gonna be like THE hit new face around Hollywood for at least the next little while (you really do not even want me to elaborate on my prediction).  Thirdly, the author(s), whom are cleverly anonymiscized by the pseudonym Pittacus Lore, is made up in part by James Frey.  This intrigues me immensely, as I have of course read A Million Little Pieces (and only part of My Friend Leonard, probably the only book EVER that I have not finished) and am terribly familiar with the Oprah controversy that surrounds Frey.  I also have a certain fondness for Diana Agron (she plays the love interest in the movie) due to her being one of the stars of Glee.. and come one, I would die for Glee..

Anyway, so now you know some of the background.
Having said that, this book was marvelous, had me hooked from the beginning.  It is sci-fi, but in a very humanistic and subtle way, I found.  Kinda of dystopian as well, which made me reminiscent of The Uglies trilogy/saga by Scott Westerfeld, in the way that they mention Earth in a very allegorical way, that serves to warn us ready, subtly, of the harm we cause our planet every day, and the possible consequences.  Love that.

I also want to mention, before I get into detail, that the romantic aspect was delicious, and I hope to see it carried through the series :)


Spoiler Alert: Don't read after this point if you don't want to know specific book details!


The book starts out very intriguingly, introducing us into the novel ideas that surround John and Henri, and their planet, Lorien.  We learn quite fast that they are in danger.  John especially, since he is Number Four in line, the first three already killed.  When John gets the third tattoo on his leg, he knows that Number Three is dead.  This means that they need move again, which is all that they really know since arriving on Earth, when their planet and race were absolutely obliterated by Mogadorians.  There are many other important details that I'm not going to get into now, but I find them all interesting and new, and that is pretty important to me, as, since I've read so many books, I rarely run into book concepts that don't remind me of another book and are completely unique in themselves.

After moving to Paradise, Ohio, it doesn't take John long to fall for fair Sarah Hart.  This is really quite obvious, but still in a very obvious way.  So John is continually told by Henri (his guardian from Lorien) to keep a low profile, so that they won't be tracked by the Mogadorians, but John's Legacies (powers) are just now emerging, and he of course cannot help but to use them at various times to save Sarah.

Of course this leads to the Mogadorians arriving, right after John is forced to tell Sarah the truth about himself.  The books ends shortly after this, after an almost too good to be true fight (almost was too easy, but I guess I can let it go, just this once).  Number Six shows up, and Henri dies, which I still don't quite want to believe is the truth :(  .  The book is a series, and now I guess that John and Six are gonna meet up with the remaining four numbers, to battle it out with the Mogadorians, so they can save the Earth and return to their planet.

I just hope John comes back for Sarah.
And does not fall for Six, which was subtly foreshadowed in the novel.
Although, I may have to come back and remind myself of what I am thinking now, because we all know how easily swayed I am by a little romance :D


Wanting to continue--Cheers & Enjoy♥

Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright

The body of a young girl is discovered in a field of wheat. Her flesh mutilated by telltale claw marks. The Wolf has broken the peace. When Valerie learns that her sister has been killed by the legendary creature, she finds herself at the center of a dark mystery, one that has plagued her village for generations. It is revealed that the werewolf lives among them, and everyone in the village immediately becomes a suspect. Could her secret love Peter be behind the attacks on her town? Is it her betrothed, Henry? Or someone even closer to her? As the men in the village hunt for the beast, Valerie turns to her grandmother for help. She gives Valerie a handmade red riding cloak, and guides her through the web of lies and deception that has held her town together for so long. Will Valerie discover the werewolf's identity before the town is ripped apart? This is a dangerous new vision of a classic fairy tale, the happy ending could be hard to find.                
                                                                               -Fantastic Fiction

So I read this book a few weeks ago after seeing it in Chapters and realizing that it was tied in with the upcoming movie.  What I didn't know was that the book is actually based on the movie, not the other way around, which is usually the case.  Although this presented both pros and cons, overall, I think it was a pretty good book.

Fun Fact: the movie, therefore the book, stemmed from Leonardo DiCaprio's idea.  Yummm..

So since it happened to be based on the movie, I felt that it wasn't that rich in detail.. or something that I just can't quite pinpoint.  It's kind of the opposite of when a book gets turned into a movie, and you have to leave stuff out because there is no way that so much content can fit into 2 measly hours.  In this case, about 2 hours did not make for very thick (the only word I can come up with to describe this sentiment I cannot explain) reading.  It seemed to just fly by, and obviously, when I go to watch the movie, there will be nothing coming as a surprise.  This can be construed as either good or bad.

Having said that, a very good idea was leaving out the last chapter, which I am assuming will be released at the same time as the movie, as to not completely spoil the movie for people that have read the book.  I think this is genius, and cannot wait to find out how this romantic yet creepy histoire concludes.

Spoiler Alert: Don't read past this point if you don't want to know specific book details!

So the book starts out with an introduction to the main character, Valerie, and her family.  We also get a little insight into the crazy lifestyle of the village where she lives. (I always love a little dystopian creepiness).  Basically, there is a wolf living somewhere, that only agrees not to slay the townspeople if they offer him sacrifices every once in a while.  At a very young age, Valerie has a close encounter with the Wolf, thus already flagging her as weird.  I thought that it would turn out that the Wolf was really just misunderstood and he was actually gentle and loving (too many werewolf books for me I guess!)

This is sooooo not the case.

Basically the wolf kills Valerie's sister pretty early on, during the Blood Moon, which apparently is not all that common in the little village.  So they bring in some recruits.  The creepy renound Father Soloman is brought in to slay the wolf, and basically, after the Wolf kills a whole bunch more people, tells the people that the Wolf is stronger than he has ever seen.  Oh and also that it is one of the towns-people. 

So things take a turn for the scandalous when the Wolf takes a liking to Valerie, we never really do find out why-perhaps in the movie?-and wants her to leave the village with him, saying he will spare the rest of the inhabitants.  At the same time though, Valerie is struggling with trying to figure out whose eyes the Wolf's eyes remind her of.  Is it Henry, her basically arranged marriage; Peter, her unrequited lover; or her Grandmother, who has always been a little off.

Of course, Father Soloman finds out that Valerie has been communicating-sort of-with the Wolf, and predictably decides to use her as a sacrifice for the village, deciding that this is the only option, because the Wolf is too strong.  She escapes.

This is pretty much where the book ends, and I am super pumped to find out who she chooses to stay with, whether they are the wolf or not.

Follow-up to come--Cheers & Enjoy♥