Review: A Touch of Death by Rebecca Crunden

A Touch of Death by Rebecca Crunden
Self-Published

Publication Date: February 24th, 2017

Ebook. 306 pages

About A Touch of Death:

"A thousand years in the future, the last of humanity live inside the walls of the totalitarian Kingdom of Cutta. The rich live in Anais, the capital city of Cutta, sheltered from the famine and disease which ravage the rest of the Kingdom. Yet riches and power only go so far, and even Anaitians can be executed. It is only by the will of the King that Nate Anteros, son of the King’s favourite, is spared from the gallows after openly dissenting. But when he’s released from prison, Nate disappears. 

A stark contrast, Catherine Taenia has spent her entire life comfortable and content. The daughter of the King’s Hangman and in love with Thom, Nate’s younger brother, her life has always been easy, ordered and comfortable. That is, where it doesn’t concern Nate. His actions sullied not only his future, but theirs. And unlike Thom, Catherine has never forgiven him. 

Two years pass without a word, and then one night Nate returns. But things with Nate are never simple, and when one wrong move turns their lives upside down, the only thing left to do is run where the King’s guards cannot find them – the Outlands. Those wild, untamed lands which stretch around the great walls of the Kingdom, filled with mutants and rabids."

A Touch of Death combines elements of dystopia, sci-fi, a few post-apocalyptic vibes, and a touch of romance thrown in, all of which result in an unpredictable adventure following a few characters on a journey to not only save their lives, but to find some answers about the world they inhabit.

This story takes place in a world that seems similar to our own, but that is much more dystopian in style and lives under the rule of a rather brutal monarchical reign. I found the world-building to be one of the most intriguing components of this book and I felt Crunden did a great job at both developing its realism and also building up a strong atmosphere that really sets the somewhat bleak and cruel tone of both the world and the story. There is a huge privileged vs. poor struggle at the core of this world that added so much to the compelling nature of the story and that also contributed to many of the strong themes. My only sort of 'complaint' (which isn't really a complaint at all) is that I'd love to just learn even more about this world; Crunden lays everything out well, but I'm just so intrigued by how this world developed and all the components that I'm completely open to learning even more and wish I could more.

The two main characters we follow are Catherine and Nathaniel (aka Nate). Catherine was 'matched' and in a relationship with Nate's brother, Thom, and isn't Nate's biggest fan at the start of this story (or for much of it as it continues, either), but the intense and unpredictable events that occur in this story force them to spend more time together than they could have ever expected. Catherine was a surprisingly strong character who experienced some important explorations in finding her own strength to persevere in this story. I found her choices a little confusing at times, but for the most part I really enjoyed following her on this journey and seeing how she adapted to the crazy situations thrown at her.

Nate is a pretty good foil to Catherine in most aspects. He is more of a troublemaker and has a tumultuous and somewhat dodgy past, some of which is why Catherine isn't his biggest fan. He has a mysterious air to him and I really would love to learn more about him and specifics of his past. The beginning of this book has a brief bit that touches on one major event from his past, but I would even love to read some sort of prequel or short story that explores more of his character, as he really was a compelling figure. There are a number of secondary characters that appear in A Touch of Death that I thought were all developed well and that I thought only added good things to this story.

A Touch of Death has strong pacing that wasn't ever too fast or too slow, but rather had a nice balance of moments that slowed down when necessary, but still kept the pace and created a smooth reading experience. Crunden has a lovely writing style that balances eloquent descriptions of setting and emotion with a readable prose that makes it easy to follow the story in the best way.

I don't really have many issues with this story, I'm happy to say! My only minor issues would be that I would have appreciated a bit more background to a few of the main events that happens and information about the world, especially some about the "mutants" that exist and the various places mentioned in this world. There were a few moments where the intensity of the stakes seemed uncertain or confusing, but this really didn't affect my enjoyment and were mostly minimal.

Overall, I've given A Touch of Death 4.25 stars! I really had a highly enjoyable time reading this book and I sincerely look forward to seeing what's next. I wouldn't necessarily call the ending a firm cliffhanger, but it absolutely left me wanting to know what was going to happen next in this story since it is far from over.

*I received a copy of A Touch of Death courtesy of the author in exchange for an honest review. This has no effect on my rating of the novel.*

Amazon | Book Depository 

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde. Penguin Group Viking Adult, 2009. Hardcover. 400 pages. 

After many, many years of this book sitting on my shelves, I finally picked it up... and immediately found myself enamored with this book.  The only other book I've read by Jasper Fforde is The Eyre Affair, which was also a lot of fun and incredibly well-written. Shades of Grey, in my opinion, was even better.

The best part about Shades of Grey is simply the world itself. Fforde has used so much detail that it's almost hard for me to focus on the story because I'm so impressed by the everyday aspects of the world he has created. In Shades of Grey, being able to see different colors to their fullest extent is not a natural ability. For the inhabitants of this world, the higher on the color spectrum you can see of a specific color, the higher your social standing is as well.

This book throws you right into the story with no training wheels, so I was a little lost in the first chapter or two, but eventually you will learn to catch on. There are some references and comments that I never fully understand, but I'm not sure if we are meant to anyway.

In addition to the fantastic world and overarching ideas presented in this book, there are an abundance of fantastic, wholly unique characters. We have Eddie, our protagonist, his father, a woman named Jane, and an entire cast of fellow town inhabitants that bring so much color (pardon the pun) to this world. Almost everyone has ulterior motives, some harmless and some fairly harmful. I was particularly drawn to the depiction of Eddie's character due to his rather calm, but incredibly relatable nature. He is such a sharp thinker (as are most of these characters, if we're being honest), but also finds himself puzzled by some of the odd behaviour of those around him. At the same time, he's pretty good at  accepting that certain figures are just who they are and continuing on with his life.

This entire book was so original and vivid that I never wanted to leave its pages and do anything else. Instead, I just wanted to keep exploring this quirky world that has endless surprises and random circumstances that I could never predict or expect. That is also why there is absolutely no way I can possible try to explain or summarize this book in any way. The best way to understand it is from this part of the book's summary:

"Eddie's world wasn't always like this. There's evidence of a never-discussed disaster and now, many years later, technology is poor, news sporadic, the notion of change abhorrent, and nighttime is terrifying: no one can see in the dark. Everyone abides by a bizarre regime of rules and regulations, a system of merits and demerits, where punishment can result in permanent expulsion.

Eddie, who works for the Color Control Agency, might well have lived out his rose-tinted life without a hitch. But that changes when he becomes smitten with Jane, a Grey, which is low-caste in this color-centric world. She shows Eddie that all is not well with the world he thinks is just and good. Together, they engage in dangerous revolutionary talk."

This book goes much deeper than you might expect--it was far deeper than I expected, anyway. I loved the different ideas that Fforde played with, all of which really worked well to make me stop and think. The ending itself has a lot of information, and I'm still not sure if I have completely figured everything out, but that only makes it more entertaining in my personal opinion.

Overall, I've given Shades of Grey five stars! I truly enjoyed this book and sincerely hope that Fforde will continue the series sometime!

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Gilded Cage by Vic James

*Gilded Cage by Vic James is available Tuesday, February 14th!*

Gilded Cage by Vic James. Del Rey Books, 2017

I am so excited to finally share this review of Gilded Cage with all of you! I've had this galley since October of last year and it feels as though it has taken ages for the release date to finally get here. But the wait is finally over, so let me tell you about this awesome book.

Much like I stated in my review of Scythe by Neil Shusterman, I've been pretty burnt out on dystopians for a while now, but I decided to take a chance on Gilded Cage because of how interesting it sounded, as well as the many positive reviews I had seen. (I actually read Gilded Cage before Scythe, which is part of why I even decided to give Scythe a chance in the first place.)

Gilded Cage takes place in an alternate modern-day England where there is a divide between the Skilled and un-Skilled, aka those who can perform what we might call 'magic' and those who cannot. (I also found it interested how Skill is indeed believed to be something genetic, rather than 'random' chance) All of those born without skill must participate in ten years of 'slavedays' at some point in their life, which is what sets Gilded Cage in motion as the Hadley family decide to begin their slavedays.

Gilded Cage is definitely action-packed and will absolutely keep you turning the pages. There are some intense, dramatic moments that will definitely shock you, and I felt that there was a fairly good mix of heavy, darker content, and content meant to maintain a lighter tone so as not to drag down the entire story, as it's not exactly a lighthearted plot. I absolutely understand why this book has received so many good reviews and is poised to become a huge success for YA dystopians.

This was one of those books that really played with the notion of good and bad and had fun with the grey area in which one must ask - is there an in-between? There are characters that seems solely bad, some that seem good, and some that are hard to classify.

The worldbuilding was done really well. I particularly liked that international politics were a part of the many discussions, as well as the fact that we are given brief tidbits regarding the notion that there are other countries in this world that do not function in the same manner as the country in which our main characters live. Most dystopians usually seem to focus on only one particular continent and completely ignore the rest of the planet, so it was nice to see that there are different things gong on in this world. The only downside I had in regards to the worldbuilding and background information in Gilded Cage was the immense amount of info-dumping that we get throughout the entire story, but particular in the first half. The story would be progressing swimmingly, and then I would suddenly discover that I was starting to zone, and I realized that it was because all I was being given were political backgrounds, historical information, etc. While this is useful to the story, it was done in such large chunks and so often that it became tedious and hard to even remember all of it; I'm not sure if all of it was crucial to the story itself.

Gilded Cage provides more than a few character POVs, which was surprisingly helpful in understanding the lives of both the Skilled and those who are living as slaves. What is most interesting to understand is that although each character undergoes different extremes of types of obstacles, they do all suffer in one way or another, and that aspect brought a lot of depth to the novel. Abi and Luke both have starkly different roles as slaves, and I though James developed both characters extremely well. Abi is a smart girl, and despite the mistakes she makes or any poor judgments she might have, she's not someone to underestimate. Luke, similarly, is not someone to think you can just bowl over. He starts out as a rather mild-mannered character, but he soon learns that his current situation is wrong and he begins to want to branch out and take a stand for his beliefs. Of course, that never works out well in dystopians, but it was exciting to see the changes occur throughout Luke's progression in the story.

The 'high class' Skilled POVs that we get to experience were also quite interesting, and fortunately were all rather distinct. I loved the divergence in personalities among the Skilled, particularly how some were still relatively 'normal' and down to earth, whereas others were ready to take their power roles and use their Skill to their advantage. One thing I did notice, however, that all of our POVs were white characters - unless I overlooked some details - which does seem a bit unfortunate. I think adding in the element of race would have added even more depth to this story - for instance, would race play a factor in the role of any of these character? It's just another element that would be useful to add, and would probably add in some more realism.

The main issue I would say I had with this book was my confusion around slavedays. I think it's somewhat odd that people can choose when to do their slavedays. The younger you do them, I think the more beneficial it is for you, but then if you screw up while doing them, you could get stuck in there for life, whereas if you had completed them when you're in your sixties, it wouldn't be as long if that happened. But then, hard work in late age is definitely harder, so... I'm not sure. The concept was really hard for me to fully accept as realistic, but I was able to accept it enough to enjoy the story and disregard my questioning of the system.

And one other tiny issue I had was the minor bit of romance. Was it really necessary? I know it sets up more plot and intrigue and allows for more drama to ensure in this book and forthcoming novels, but it was just... odd. I really don't think it was necessary, and quite frankly, do you really think crushing on someone would be at the forefront of your mind when you're working as a slave and you have no idea what could be happening to some of your family members? Personally, I wouldn't think so, but maybe it's a nice distraction.

Overall, I am giving Gilded Cage four stars for all of the reasons stated above! I would recommend this to anyone who loves or has enjoyed dystopians in the past, or anyone who enjoys a unique world system and action-packed excitement.

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Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine

Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine

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Paper and Fire will be released Tuesday, July 5th!

Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine. NAL, 2016. 368 pages. Ebook.

**I received an ARC of Paper and Fire courtesy of NetGalley and NAL publishers in exchange for an honest review**

Take the intensity of Ink and Bone, amp it up about ten times, and you have Paper and Fire. This second installment to The Great Library series is even stronger than Ink and Bone and adds even more depth and intrigue to this unique setting.

Initially, I was worried that I wouldn't understand what was going on since it feels like I read Ink and Bone so long ago, but fortunately I was able to fall right back into the world with great ease.World-building within the world of Paper and Fire is incredibly detailed and somehow even more thrilling than I remembered from Ink and Bone.

The world itself is so intricate and unique - what book lover wouldn't love a premise in which the Library of Alexandria still exists? But then there's that flipside where, oh yeah, no one is allowed to read a majority of those books. No one is even allowed to own physical books for that matter - everything is all on a tablet device with a somewhat limited collection - you know, limited to what the government deems appropriate.

The first thing that stands out to me about Paper and Fire is how much I love learning about the various positions and roles that people can take within this society, such as the High Garda and working in the Iron Tower. These roles tell so much about the strict world Jess lives in and to what extent the Library will go to in order to make sure their rules are followed.

Where Paper and Fire  fell flat for me, however, was the lack of connection I felt towards some of the main characters and story itself. I'm not sure how this is possible, but I feel like I'm losing my grip on Jess. He has a very distinct, sharp character, but he's not exactly interesting - or overly likable, to be honest. There is often so much else going on with other characters that it almost appears as if he is left behind. He's become a rather bland, emotionless character that, quite frankly, I didn't find myself caring much about. However, one thing I did notice and appreciate about Jess was how much he seemed to mature from the first book, and even throughout Paper and Fire. He is no longer as rash and naive, but instead knows how to handle himself and take things more seriously.

I'm much more interested in some of the secondary characters, such as Kahlia, who is quiet, intelligent, and fierce, and Glain, a hard-nosed leader who takes everything she does very seriously. Santi and Wolfe are also still fascinating characters that bring so much depth to every scene they are in; they have such conflicting ideas about what they should sometimes do, but every argument or uncertainty is a direct result of the deep love they have for one another.

The weirdest aspect of reading Paper and Fire was that I never felt overly excited while reading this book, but I somehow couldn't stop reading it. I would put it down and think, 'hm, I guess I'll come back to it sometime later,' with very little emotion, but somehow I always seemed to pick it right back up and be unable to put it down. Caine has a way of using her words just right to keep you ever so slightly hooked at all times, regardless of your feelings about the book. Her prose is smooth and flows effortlessly, which leads to a thrilling reading experience.

Overall, I am giving Paper and Fire three stars, because despite the writing talents of Caine, the characters and overall story fell a bit flat and left me rather disappointed with this series.

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The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

The Queen of the Tearling. Harper; 2014. 453 pages

Overall rating: 6/10

The first news I heard about The Queen of the Tearling was that Emma Watson is going to both produce and star in the upcoming Hollywood movie. As a big fan of both Emma Watson and fantasy, this definitely caught my attention. That being said, I was left immensely disappointed upon completion of this novel. After being compared to Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, and Games of Thrones, I was expecting so much more than there ended up being. Now, I never take reviews and blurbs that make those claims too seriously because, really, you just can’t even begin to compare. Especially not to Harry Potter. Anyway, I can definitely see this book being made into a wonderfully exciting movie, but as a book, not so much.

The Queen of the Tearling is set in a post-apocalyptic world and focuses on Kelsea Glynn, a young woman who is heir to the throne of the land of Tearling, but has been raised in seclusion her entire life. The book begins after Kelsea’s nineteenth birthday when she is retrieved by the Queen’s Guard and whisked away to travel back to the crumbling city of Tearling and retake control of the kingdom from her uncle, who had been acting as regent. 

                I would definitely say that this book should be targeted towards young adults and more mature audiences. There is a fair amount of language, dark subject matters, and a fair amount of some rather graphic violence. Now, on to the review!

                As I was reading, I found myself wondering at what point the world/character setup would finish and the meat of the plot would begin; I also realized this when I was more than halfway through the book. The setting of this novel is meant to be in a futuristic dystopian world; it is supposed to be set in futuristic setting that strongly resembles medieval times. I knew about this before I started the book, but I had forgotten by the time I started the novel. I was about halfway through before I realized this, which is an extremely unique and challenging concept to attempt.

                Johansen does a remarkably detailed and intricate job of describing the worlds she creates, as well as creating elaborate histories and backstories for all of her characters. She definitely does not leave any detail untouched, which is really nice for readers who enjoy having a complete history or knowledge of a book’s setting or current political and economic situation. That being said, if you are not someone who likes a vast amount of detail and slow-paced book, then this is likely not going to be the best option.

                Despite the slow-moving qualities of this book, it is surprisingly action-packed, with many fighting and chase sequences that could easily satisfy most action lovers. In spite of this, one large area that I felt this book was rather deficient in was character development. I really did not notice too much change in the characters’ attitudes or personalities. I will say, however, that Kelsea’s confidence throughout the novel does grow stronger, and she does also seem to become a slightly better leader. But for the most part, however, she just appears to bounce onto the scene with an extremely strong and stubborn personality that remains with her throughout the story. I never felt ant strong connection to Kelsea, I just knew that I should be rooting for her to save the day. The supporting cast also stays relatively static throughout the novel as well, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does not particularly lend for exciting characters either.

                A second area in which I feel Johansen did not execute well was her use of multiple POVs. I have always been very picky about the use of multiple POVs; if an author is going to use this technique, they must go all the way and use it extremely carefully. Unfortunately, Johansen did not. The use of multiple POVs was extremely sporadic, and only seemed to be used whenever Johansen felt she needed to add in some backstory information that would help the readers later in the novel. To be completely honest, I groaned inwardly whenever I realized that the next chapter or section was going to be from another POV. None of the characters were overly likeable or relatable, and I just had a hard to really investing myself in the novel.

As I said before, I really do think that this will make a really great and popular movie, especially with Emma Watson as the star. Unfortunately, the book itself lacks a great deal of energy and substance. Overall, I did find it a interesting idea and storyline, but the plot itself could have used better execution. This book left me disappointed and not overly satisfied, but for some reason it has left me curious to see where Johansen is going to go with the rest of this series. I will more than likely give the second book a read when it comes out, because there are many series where the first few books are a bit sluggish to get through. If you enjoy books revolving around strong female leaders, magic, monarchs, strategy, or war, then this book is definitely one that you should check out.