Rick Yancey has a lesson for the people of Earth, an invasion is coming and they are going to use any mean necessary to take Earth:
The first wave was darkness, they took away electricity; The second wave they used mother nature against humans; The third wave a plague where only a few survived; The fourth wave you cannot trust anyone but no one was prepared for the fifth. Cassie was one of the "lucky" ones most of her family was able to survive the waves but not everyone made it. Now with her brother and father they make their way through the world to a camp where everything is about to change.
I will admit that I watch the movie before I read this book, so I knew basically how things were going to play out and true to form there were things in the book that did not make it to the movie, but overall I think that the movie was a fairly good representation of the book. It was an interesting premise and I how smart the Aliens were in their approach to eliminating the human, really I cannot think of better ways in the end. Although, typical that the invading species underestimates the other.
I never felt really attached to any of the character like I think Yancey wants you to be. I will say that Cassie was the biggest disappointment for me. I did not mind Cassie in the beginning, I actually thought that she was going to be the strong female lead in this book, but I could not be more wrong. The further I read in the book I found she became a weaker character, she relied way too much on Evan and went against her gut feeling too many times. She does have some redeeming qualities in that she is loyal to a fault especially towards her brother and she does have times of bravery, but the whole middle portion of the book really just had her portrayed as a weaker character. Overall, she was not the strong female protagonist that I wanted her to be.
This leads me to the wish that there was a point of view from Ringer as she is who I wanted Cassie to be. She is tough, at time ruthless and smart enough to know there is more going on and she does not second guess her gut like Cassie does. She also has a compassionate side that is under played at times due to the situation but you can see that it is there.
Although I liked the Alien invasion aspect of the this book, I really could not get invested in any of the main characters in any way. So I do not think at this time that I would continue on with this series, although I might consider it if the next book had Ringer point of view.
Cheers!!
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Pippa Dacosta takes the Gods of old and transports them to our time, where they indulge and rule like never before:
The Gods call him the nameless one, others call him the soul eater, both would be right. Kicked out from the underworld and cursed to walk the Earth for eternity, Ace does everything he can to stay away from Gods. Ace tries to spend his time helping people avoid Gods and demons, but not even he can avoid the callings of his ex-wife, Bastet Queen of Cats. Bastet hires Ace to find out who is slaughtering her blessed women and Ave finds himself caught in-between more than one powerful deity.
I picked up this book as I wanted to read something with a Male lead. I really enjoyed this book as it was a lot darker than I thought it would be. I also liked that I had not heard of of the Gods in this book, so their evilness and calculating manners were refreshing. I believe I read in another review that the Gods are from Egypt, which makes since with Bastet, so this now makes them even more interesting to me as I really know nothing about Egyptian Gods. However, I do think that the underworld part of the look was lacking in world building. "Above ground" it is normal with demons and gods roaming around so I was hopeful that DaCosta would expand the underworld. Hopefully in future books in the series she will take us back to the underground and expand on not only the world but the Caste system that appears to be in place there. Really even after this book I feel like the underworld is still a blank slate for her to play with and create.
I liked Ace as a main character, he is almost the anti-hero as he has some dark points of views, really he likes to play if off that he is just out for himself, but he has the ability to see the light of people's souls and he does not want to hurt those who have that lightness. However, he has no qualms with people that he feels need to be killed but due to some unfortunate circumstances some innocents are murdered along the way. His struggle is very interesting in regards to the curse that he is under. He is unable to refuse the bidding of one of the Gods and the pain he goes through when he is forced to do something that he is very much against is very real. You can tell that not all of Ace's powers are displayed in this book and I look forward to learning more about them and his sword.
Did this book need a sex scene? I do not think so, as it did not add anything to the story. I understand why DaCosta had some sex in regards to the Gods, as one was the God of fertility and was just wielding his power over a pitiful human but I do not think that there needed to be one between Ace and Bastet. You could tell where there relationship was before and where it was going with out the scene. As this book is on the shorter side, I can only think that it was included in order to make the book longer.
I liked the darkness that this book has and the interaction between Ace and the Gods, however, I found the world building severely lacking. That said this book was able to keep me entertained and I'm looking forward to continuing on in the series.
Enjoy!!!
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I do not read a lot of biography or autobiography books, however, Amy Schumer has been and up and coming comic/actress for awhile now and I personally find her hilarious so I thought I would give her book a read. If you are looking for the top ten Amy Schumer jokes, move along, this is not what this book is about. If you are looking for just one joke or funny story after the other, this is not the book for you, move along. If you are looking for all of those things go see her live (this based upon what I have heard and a bit from her book. When she was in my town I could not afford tickets to her show...but next time look out), as this is what her shows are about.
What this book is a more in depth look into Schumer, her beginning, her life, how she became a comic and the things that she has triumphed and struggled with along the way. It is by no means a full inclusive story but just a glimpse in to who she is, people have a right to keep some things to themselves even celebrities, but Amy does shine a light on several topics throughout her life. I never would have known that she was an introvert and all the anxieties that come with that especially when it is your job to perform live and in front of thousands of people as well as mingle with people at events when all you really want to do is sit in the corner (I share that trait with her on some level, though I would like a book in the corner with me, lol).
I appreciated some of the life lessons that Schumer discusses in her book, from her Dad's illness, to being in an abusive relationship to being raped. The latter two listed are not violent or as explosive physically as those words bring images to mind, but they do happen in this way and people need to know that in whatever form they take it is not okay in any relationship. Many of those topics are common in autobiography, biography or memoir; I found that Schumer discussed these topics not only with class but with some humor in a way that did not minimize the experiences that she had gone through (something that is very tough to do). Is Schumer crass at at different point in the book, I think you'd be surprised if I said No. Of course she is Crass and proud of it, this is what people would expect from her book, but I think more importantly Schumer shows that Yes she is human, Yes she has and does make mistakes, Yes she is happy with what she looks like and F you for thinking she needs to lose weight and Yes she probably does not want to talk to you all that much at a party. These things all make her human; we are all flawed, we all hate ourselves at some point in our lives but eventually we accept who we are and what we look like and I think this is one of the most important messages that Schumer has in her book..
There were some things in the book that felt like she was just trying either a little too hard or just trying to make the book longer, especially the lists. I did not really find that there was any interesting information in them that Schumer does not talk about in the book.
This is the first book that I have read by a comedian and I know it will not be my last, there are a few out there now that I would like to pick up. Even though I have not read a lot in the genre I still really recommend this book, it was really enjoyable and I enjoyed the little peek that Schumer let us have in to her world.
Enjoy!!!
Side Note:
While reading this I had no idea how many female comedians these days were writing
this type of book. Maybe I was in my own little world here but I really
had no idea that this was now the "IT" thing to do. If you have any you have read and recommend please let me know.
