Nerve by Jeanne Ryan ~ A Book Review

After suffering a disappointing blow from one of her best friends, Vee decides to take a chance on something that is far out of her comfort-zone. Participating in an internet sensation, Nerve, a game where players compete rounds of dares for prizes, she is paired up with a boy named Ian who has his own mysterious reasons for playing. As the game progresses, the dares are seemingly harmless, and the prizes are things that Vee can’t resist. As the game progresses, Vee learns that Nerve may know more about her than she realized, and Ian may or may not be on her side. As her life is being pulled apart, will she be able to leave the game or will she have fallen too deep?

Essentially, shy, awkward girl who doesn’t fit in with her peers does something out of the ordinary causing her to meet a dark, mysterious boy who challenges her to perform insane, life-threatening feats as they fall in love. Said boy's reasons for playing are that he is trying to get away from his abusive father. Sound familiar, Divergent fans? 

Stepping away from its formula plotting, I will say that I genuinely enjoyed this book. However, I unfortunately watched the movie first, not realizing that it was a book, and it was one of those rare instances when the book was disappointing in comparison to the movie. While it’s true that the book better developed characters by giving more background information and customizing Nerve prizes to their specific desires, the movie took some dramatic liberties that made the book seem too straightforward. In fact, the only points that the movie kept were the characters’ names and the basic idea of the Nerve game.

While in the book, the game was only described as being online with vague descriptions of an app the players had to download onto their phones and some chat windows to upload videos. The movie created this entire scheme where Nerve was on the deep web and it couldn’t be stopped as long as people were watching it. This made it more exciting and less vague. Also, in the movie, the competition aspect of Nerve was clearer and we saw other players’ dares and how they affected the plot.

I will say that the book was exciting in its own right, and if I hadn’t seen the movie first, I believe I would have liked it more. It was quick paced and a fast read for me. While the book will be just another of the many I’ve read, the movie has become one of my favorites and I will watch it many times I’m sure. 

My Year of Books: 2017

I enjoy recording what I read on Goodreads, and the past two years they have published a page called Your Year of Books, and I really enjoy the opportunity to reflect on the books I've read over the past year.

My favorite part is the longest to shortest meter, and the most popular to least popular. My favorite of the reads this year would have to be Fantastic Beasts, but I have to say that it was a good year in books entirely. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was for extra credit in one of my classes, and it was a very enlightening while comical read. I also reread many books this year, including, Miss Peregrine's Home of Peculiar Children and The Bad Beginning. The Miss Peregrine one was for a book club at my college's library, and it gave me an opportunity to refresh before reading the last of the trilogy as I hadn't had the chance yet. As before mentioned, this was a great year in books and I can't wait for the next one. 

Over and out.

Skinjacker Trilogy by Neal Shusterman - Review

I recently finished reading The Skinjacker Trilogy by Neal Shusterman, and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was.

The Skinjacker Trilogy is set in Everlost, an in-between world where kids who have died go when they haven't yet reached the "light." The main characters are Nick and Allie who find themselves in Everlost after an ill-fated car accident.

Everlost: In the first book, Allie and Nick are thrown into Everlost after knocking into each other on the way to the light. Once in Everlost, they meet an array of characters, ranging from Mary, the self-imposed Queen of Everlost, to the McGill, monster of Everlost, and the Haunter, whom you'd better please if you don't want to be locked in a pickle barrel for all of eternity.

I really enjoyed the first book of this series, but it was just a kicker for the other two books. After reading Everwild and Everfound, I realized that Everlost was just setting up the basic ground work for the rest of the series. That being said, the other two books are awesome!!!

*If you have not yet read the series, and do not wish for anything to be spoiled for you, stop reading now!*

Everwild: The fate of the children of Everlost hangs in the balance between Mary Hightower and Nick, who both have very different ideas of the purpose of Everlost. Nick believes that each and every afterlight should know that they have a pathway to the light if they are ready to take it, however Mary believes that the children don't need to know about the path and that they should make their eternal home in Everlost. Meanwhile, Allie and Mikey travel in search of Allie's parents. Along the way, they meet other skinjackers and Allie learns from them things that will change her perspective on Everlost and her fate.

*Major spoilers!!!* There is a moment in Everwild where I wanted to throw the book across the room! It was one of those moments that remind me why I love reading so much, and it was the moment I realized why Neal Shusterman is such a valued author. Allie is still alive. About halfway through the book, it is revealed that skinjackers are actually still alive, they are just in comas, which is why they have the ability to skinjack. Neal Shusterman built up to this revelation so well, I honestly did not see it coming and it was a phenomenal moment in the book.

Everfound: As the children of Everlost wait for Mary's reawakening, her skinjackers continuously reap souls so that Mary will have more followers upon her return. When a tragic twist of fate awakens Mary too soon, it is quickly revealed what her true intentions for Everlost are. As a war wages with Allie, and her band of misfit characters, versus Mary, and her band of loyal followers, who will win as all life on Earth hangs in the balance?

I found Everfound to be a bit of a slower read compared to Everwild because all of the characters had to come back together. However, Neal Shusterman did this seamlessly, making each twist and turn hold new surprises. I found a few things in this last book a little disturbing however, such as when they trapped Jill in the prize pig. I don't know why, but that didn't set well with me. However, Jix frees her before the book ends, so that made me feel better about it. One thing I loved in this book was how Mary finally went down. She sunk herself into the earth in a locked fridge! That was an awesome ending! If she had gone into the light or been extinguished by the scar wraith, that would have been too predictable. But the fact that she sunk to the center of the earth, in a locked fridge, and she did it to herself rather than have Allie do it was amazing!!!

I give these books and Neal Shusterman a 10/10, and I look forward to reading more of his books in the future.