Book Review: Atlantia by Ally Condie

Title: Atlantia

Author: Ally Condie

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile

Publication Date: October 28, 2014

Synopsis:
Can you hear Atlantia breathing?

For as long as she can remember, Rio has dreamt of the sand and sky Above—of life beyond her underwater city of Atlantia. But in a single moment, all her plans for the future are thwarted when her twin sister, Bay, makes an unexpected decision, stranding Rio Below. Alone, ripped away from the last person who knew Rio’s true self—and the powerful siren voice she has long hidden—she has nothing left to lose.

Guided by a dangerous and unlikely mentor, Rio formulates a plan that leads to increasingly treacherous questions about her mother’s death, her own destiny, and the complex system constructed to govern the divide between land and sea. Her life and her city depend on Rio to listen to the voices of the past and to speak long-hidden truths.

My Review:

Atlantia by Ally Condie is the story of two orphaned sisters, Rio and Bay, who live in an underwater city called Atlantia. They've spent their whole lives there, one dreaming of going above, and one wishing to stay below. It's also the story of lies and deception and a heroine will rise to save her world.

I really wanted to like this book, especially after reading the first few chapters from NetGalley. Unfortunately, I just feel like too many things went wrong for me to like it. 

I'll admit that I like it a lot better than Condie's Matched trilogy, but once again, Condie's writing style is lackluster. When I was reading, especially at certain points in the novel, I felt like Condie was trying to write to little kids instead of the target teen audience. When I read, I want to feel like the author is really trying to say something. Most of the time that is done by including sentences of varying length. In Atlantia, there are way too many sentences of the same length in a row. It makes reading difficult, like someone is trying to beat you in the head to get you to understand what is going on.

The introductory chapters in Atlantia are indeed great at capturing a reader's attention, but the pace slowed soon after. It was almost as if all the life were sucked out of the book. Much of the middle of the book is boring. There were many times that I wanted to put it down. The book eventually picks up the speed and action again in the last third, but at this point, salvaging an enjoyable read was out of the question for me. It was a chore to read this book.

Condie does create an interesting world in Atlantia, but only for The Below. She describes the city well, and I was able to imagine much of it in my head. It's hard to say that her world building is superb when she fails to give The Above half of the detail that she gives The Below.

The characters in Atlantia were okay. Rio really didn't impress me; I feel like Condie could have explored her a little more or at least made her a bit more interesting. Rio's sister, Bay, is mentioned a lot in the book, but I felt like I barely knew her at all. Atlantia also features many supporting characters, and some of them are interesting and characterized well, but I didn't really enjoy reading about them.

I think at this point, it's safe for me to say that Ally Condie is not the writer for me. I don't know if I'll be reading anything else from her in the future after this proved to be a book that bored me for weeks.

It's Monday! What are You Reading? (11)

"It's Monday! What Are You Reading?" is a weekly meme brought to you by BookJourney. Each Monday, you get to share what you're currently reading and what you plan on reading this week with the rest of the book blogosphere. When you've finished your post, go to BookJourney, and add your post's link to the link up tool. Readers of YA and teachers can also share their link on the link up tool on Teach Mentor Texts.

Now I know in my last few "It's Monday" posts, I've planned on reading quite a few books, but I am having such a hard time getting through one that I told you about a while ago. It's depressing, actually. It never takes me this long to read a book. So... I'm still reading it, but I really hope to finish it today because I've got an ARC on it's way!

What I'm Reading This Week:

Title: Atlantia

Author: Ally Condie

Synopsis:
Can you hear Atlantia breathing?

For as long as she can remember, Rio has dreamt of the sand and sky Above—of life beyond her underwater city of Atlantia. But in a single moment, all her plans for the future are thwarted when her twin sister, Bay, makes an unexpected decision, stranding Rio Below. Alone, ripped away from the last person who knew Rio’s true self—and the powerful siren voice she has long hidden—she has nothing left to lose.

Guided by a dangerous and unlikely mentor, Rio formulates a plan that leads to increasingly treacherous questions about her mother’s death, her own destiny, and the complex system constructed to govern the divide between land and sea. Her life and her city depend on Rio to listen to the voices of the past and to speak long-hidden truths.

Title: Positively Beautiful

Author: Wendy Mills

Synopsis:
16-year-old Erin is a smart if slightly dorky teenager, her life taken up with her best friend Trina, her major crush on smoky-eyed, unattainable Michael, and fending off Faith, the vision of perfection who’s somehow always had the knife in for Erin. Her dad, a pilot, died when she was very young, but Erin and her mom are just fine on their own.

Then everything changes forever one day after school when Erin’s mom announces she has breast cancer. And there’s even worse news to come. Horrified, Erin discovers that her grandmother’s death from cancer is almost certainly linked, the common denominator a rare gene mutation that makes cancer almost inevitable. And if two generations of women in the family had this mutation, what does that mean for Erin? The chances she’s inherited it are frighteningly high. Would it be better to know now and have major preemptive surgery or spend as much life as she has left in blissful ignorance?

As Erin grapples with her terrible dilemma, her life starts to spiral downwards, alleviated only by the flying lessons she starts taking with grumpy Stew and his little yellow plane, Tweetie Bird. Up in the sky, following in her dad’s footsteps, Erin finds freedom chasing the horizon. Down on the ground it’s a different story, and facing betrayal from Trina, humiliation from Faith, and a world of disappointment with Michael, Erin knows she must discover the truth about herself. Sure enough, she’s positive for the gene that’s slowly killing her mom.

Suddenly, Erin’s life has turned into a nightmare, and the only person she can truly talk to is a girl called Ashley who she meets online. But when, in a moment of madness, Erin flies away with Tweetie Pie to find her new friend, she finds herself on a journey that will take her through not only shock and despair - but ultimately to a new understanding of the true meaning of beauty, meaning, and love.

So that's what I'm reading this week. I'd like to thank On the Same Page ARC tours for the opportunity to read Positively Beautiful.

What are you reading this week? Feel free to let me know in the comments, and as always, feel free to leave a link to your "It's Monday" post so I can check them out.

Happy reading!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading (10)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme brought to you by BookJourney. Each Monday, you get to share what you're reading this week with the rest of the book blogsphere. When you've finished your post, go to BookJourney, and add your post's link to the link up tool. Readers of YA and teachers can also share their link on the link up tool on Teach Mentor Texts.

Last week, I was reading Zodiac by Romina Russell, and I planned to read Flawless by Sara Shepard. I didn't start the second Pretty Little Liars book because I forgot all about wanting to read another book.

Unfortunately, I got extremely sick over the weekend, and took a trip to the emergency room, so I don't know how much reading I'll actually get done this week.

What I'm Reading This Week:

Title: Atlantia

Author: Ally Condie

Synopsis:
Can you hear Atlantia breathing?

For as long as she can remember, Rio has dreamt of the sand and sky Above—of life beyond her underwater city of Atlantia. But in a single moment, all her plans for the future are thwarted when her twin sister, Bay, makes an unexpected decision, stranding Rio Below. Alone, ripped away from the last person who knew Rio’s true self—and the powerful siren voice she has long hidden—she has nothing left to lose.

Guided by a dangerous and unlikely mentor, Rio formulates a plan that leads to increasingly treacherous questions about her mother’s death, her own destiny, and the complex system constructed to govern the divide between land and sea. Her life and her city depend on Rio to listen to the voices of the past and to speak long-hidden truths.

Waiting on Wednesday (4)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly book meme hosted by Breaking the Spine. On Wednesdays, we get to share a book (or two) that aren't released yet, but we can't wait to get our hands on them. Get it?

This is a leap of faith for me this week, but I'm curious about a certain book by a certain author who I didn't really enjoy the last time I read her books. I know this is probably going to end badly, and that I should just stop. I'm just a terribly curious person. Are you confused? It's okay because I'm still confused about actually wanting to try this book with the terrible reading behind me.

The book I'm waiting on is Atlantia by Ally Condie. For those of you who have read my review for the Matched trilogy, I assure you that I am not crazy! The synopsis actually makes this book seem interesting, so I am willing to give it a fair chance. I've also seen a decent amount of positive reviews from advance readers, so I think it's safe to say that I'll be picking this book up. And if I hate it, I can always sell it to Half Price Books.

Atlantia is due to hit shelves in bookstores on October 28, 2014.

I'll be sure to post a review of it. I really hope it's good. I really want to like Ally Condie.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
Can you hear Atlantia breathing?

For as long as she can remember, Rio has dreamt of the sand and sky Above—of life beyond her underwater city of Atlantia. But in a single moment, all her plans for the future are thwarted when her twin sister, Bay, makes an unexpected decision, stranding Rio Below. Alone, ripped away from the last person who knew Rio’s true self—and the powerful siren voice she has long hidden—she has nothing left to lose.

Guided by a dangerous and unlikely mentor, Rio formulates a plan that leads to increasingly treacherous questions about her mother’s death, her own destiny, and the complex system constructed to govern the divide between land and sea. Her life and her city depend on Rio to listen to the voices of the past and to speak long-hidden truths.

So what are  you waiting on this week? Let me know in the comments or leave a link to your post. I'll check them out. Who knows... Maybe I'll add some more books to my TBR list.

A Book Farewell

I'm sure that it's happened to all of us. We're told by friends and fellow book bloggers to read a book. They say that it's stellar and that they think you'll enjoy it. So you buy it. Why not add another beautiful book to your collection, right?

Wrong.

I haven't really fallen for the book trap many times, but I have. You buy a book (or an entire series) because people assure you that it'll be the next book you'll fall in love with. Then you read it, and you're upset because you feel like you could have spent that money on something else.

Today, I will tell you the tale of my latest adventure in book selling. I'm sure many of you have thought about it or have even done it. It is sad to let go of something you purchased, but when it's all done, you have a few extra bucks.

Me... I'm not really one to list my own books up for sale on Ebay or the Amazon Marketplace. It's just not for me. I feel like it would be too much of a hassle to make a few dollars. Instead, I usually donate or sell my used books to Half Price Books.

There have been times when I have been offered very, very little, so I take the books back home and wait for another day. But yesterday, I needed to clear some space from my shelves. I took a few failed recommendations and some books that I've had sitting around since some college classes.

Alright... so the books I just had to get rid of that made me upset:

The whole Matched trilogy was a bust. I'm really not sure how anyone liked them because nothing happened. I was even unfriended on Goodreads by the person who recommended them to me! You can see my review of the whole series here. I couldn't have them wasting space in my house any longer.

I'm just glad to be rid of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. This was a thrift store find from my grandma, and she let me borrow it after she read and hated it. I tried to read it, and was disgusted, so I put it down. I felt guilty about it, so I finally read and finished it. It read like a really bad Lifetime movie. I finally called my grandma to see if she needed it back, and she said no, so I sold it.

 

The last of the books that I really just needed to get rid of is Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins. I didn't like the narrator at all, so I hated the book. I felt like way too much was being pushed on me and I was more confused by her lack of explanation of things in the book.

 

After unloading all of my books, I only made $11.25, but in the end, it was worth it. I was never going to read the books again, and now I have some money that I can put towards new books that I hope I'll enjoy. 

I've had one really successful offer from Half Price Books, but that was when I sold the whole Mortal Instruments series back to them for more than I paid. Yeah.

What about you? Do any of you take advantage of selling books you disliked? Do you donate them or let them sit on your shelves? Let me know in the comments.

Series Review: Matched

Title: Matched

Series: Matched

Author: Ally Condie

Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: November 30, 2010

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.