REVIEW: Free to Fall by Lauren Miller

            What if there was an app that told you what song to listen to, what coffee to order, who to date, even what to do with your life—an app that could ensure your complete and utter happiness?

            What if you never had to fail or make a wrong choice?

            What if you never had to fall?

            Fast-forward to a time when Apple and Google have been replaced by Gnosis, a monolith corporation that has developed the most life-changing technology to ever hit the market: Lux, an app that flawlessly optimizes decision making for the best personal results.

            Just like everyone else, sixteen-year-old Rory Vaughn knows the key to a happy, healthy life is following what Lux recommends. When she’s accepted to the elite boarding school Theden Academy, her future happiness seems all the more assured. But once on campus, something feels wrong beneath the polished surface of her prestigious dream school.

            Then she meets North, a handsome townie who doesn’t use Lux, and begins to fall for him and his outsider way of life. Soon, Rory is going against Lux’s recommendations, listening instead to the inner voice that everyone has been taught to ignore—a choice that leads her to uncover a truth neither she nor the world ever saw coming.

            This review is a little difficult for me to write, because I honestly on the fence about Free to Fall by Lauren Miller. It was good, but it did not enthrall me. There was never really a point when I absolutely could not put the book down. The writing wasn’t bad or boring, and neither was the plot. Yet again and again I found reasons to put the book down. This is one of the reasons why the book did not get a higher rating.

            Another reason was the love story. A young adult book should never end with a couple in a position where they’re basically already in “old-married-couple” status. That’s just not how it works. Love develops in YA because that’s how the real world is: you love and you learn. So it definitely iffed me when they were such a set-in-stone couple but they barely knew each other. On top of that, Rory kept a major secret from North for basically the entirety of the book and somehow it didn’t bother him nearly enough when he found out. I’m not buying it. And then North is a hacker? How convenient is that?

            The next thing was Dr. Tarsus’ allergy to gelatin. It just felt one of those things that got added in to heighten the intensity and elevate the plot. If Dr. Tarsus is allergic to gelatin then she’s allergic to a lot more because you have no idea what animal byproducts you’re getting when you consume gelatin. It was a rushed add-in, and there was not enough research put into it. While the product the gelatin was put into was well researched (all the bio-tech products were well written), I’m mainly speaking of Dr. Tarsus when I throw out the words “not well researched”. Her character was written as a shapeshifter, and she served that purpose well but was not well written I feel.

            I wasn’t a huge fan of Hershey’s character. I’ve read some reviews where she was a lot of peoples’ favorite, but she was a rat to me. She was a rat in the beginning, a rat when Rory found out her secret, and a rat in the end when she was…you guessed it, a rat. Yet everyone quickly forgave her in the end and I almost threw the book out the window. I just wanted to shake Rory till her head fell off.

            The next thing was Miller’s description of the Fibonacci sequence that tied her whole book together. I never ever understood what picture she was trying to paint in my mind. I had no idea what the sequence looked like throughout the entire book. I literally just looked it up because I forgot to every time it came up in the story (which was a lot mind you). Could she not have alluded it to a conch shell or something?

            The last thing that really got me was Rory’s mother’s knowledge of the secret society. It was sort of explained in the book, but I didn’t like how it was just thrown in. How could Rory’s mom know about the layout of the secret society’s lair? The girl must have had an IQ greater than 10 Einsteins combined. I think I would have liked to read her story more.

            I actually had a lot more bad to say than I initially thought I did. I didn’t think I’d end up with such a long review, but here we are. The bad reasons and my lack of a desire to stay invested in the book are really what brought the book down to three stars. What gave it that redeeming half star, you ask? What brought the book from mere mediocrity to decency? The detail.

            While I’m not a huge conspiracy-thriller reader, this book made me appreciate the genre. There are a lot of twists that need to occur, and big reveals that need to happen. That’s something that Miller did incredibly well. The world felt very real. It seems like a completely plausible reality for our very near future. So the detail with the conspiracy and the biotech world really sold the book for me. While I was not a huge fan of the interpersonal relations between all of the characters, the plot and world inevitably sold me the book.

XOXO Tia

REVIEW: The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Everything is going to change….

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. He has no recollection of his parents, his home, or how he got where he is. His memory is empty.

But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade, a large expanse enclosed by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning, for as long as anyone can remember, the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night, for just as long, they’re closed tight. Every thirty days a new boy is delivered in the lift. And no one wants to be stuck in the Maze after dark.

The Gladers were expecting Thomas’s arrival. But the next day, a girl is sent up—the first girl ever to arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers. The Gladers have always been convinced that if they can solve the maze that surrounds the Glade, they might find their way home…wherever that may be. But it’s looking more and more as if the Maze is unsolvable.

And something about the girl’s arrival is starting to make Thomas feel different. Something is telling him that he just might have some answers—if he can only find a way to retrieve the dark secrets locked within his own mind.

I don’t tend to read YA books written by male authors, something about their synopses just never catches my eye. Odd considering the fact that the first book to make me fall in love with reading was a Sci Fi written by a male author (he later became my first favorite author). So I wasn’t originally set on reading this book until I heard about the film adaptation and that the love of my life, Dylan O’Brien, would be starring as Thomas. So I decided to read the book. Have I no shame? None.

I have to say that I am so glad I picked up this book. Not only did it re-spark my respect for YA male authors, but it kick-started my fast-dying love of dystopian books. This book kind of had a little bit of everything I love in it. It was kind of like Lord of the Flies meets The 100. It had all the new civilization dynamics of both, but with no background knowledge. All these boys and the one girl end up in the Glade with no knowledge of their pasts, and yet they still form a working and stable civilization with rules and everything.

James Dashner did a great job in creating this first book. There was so much intrigue and mystery surrounding the lift, WICKED, the girl, the Maze, and Thomas. All the characters were really well developed and the book didn’t end up as a giant info-dump-lopedia, as a lot tend to when there’s a character in a brand new place. The character has to ask questions to figure out what’s going on, and it wasn’t overdone in this book.

Another thing I love about the book was the mix of animal with machine, as most of the creatures in the Maze were. They were gruesome and downright terrifying even though they weren’t nearly as large as they were portrayed in the film. The film’s Maze creatures were so stupid, honestly.

Also, the way to figure out the Maze was genius. I would not have been able to figure is out, which is why I wouldn’t have been alive to get put in the Glade in the first place (plus I’m not Theresa). Sure, there were a few loose ends left untied, but what book one doesn’t have that. It’s definitely one I would recommend. It’s a quick read and a lot of things happen, and tons of secrets are revealed that make for a brilliant read.

XOXO Tia