Thursday 20 June 2013

Goddess - Josephine Angelini (2013)

5 stars

After devouring both Starcrossed and Dreamless in a few hours each I wasn't going to be left in the dark about how it all ends, and what was most important to me, finding out why Daphne was such a terrible person. Fortunately for me, this book did not let me down and was just as riveting as the other two books in the trilogy.

It is told mostly from Helen's perspective but is told from other character's perspectives when needed. I personally find Lucas' perspective the most interesting to read as you can understand how strong his morals are and see his inner battles between those morals and his own desires. When I was reading this book, I found it very easy to think I'd only read a few pages but when I checked I'd really read one hundred. I think this is a mark of how good Angelini's writing and plot were that I could get that interested in the story and not notice how much I'd read. My favourite character in this book was probably Hades (never thought I'd say that), he was written so I never doubted him or his motives, unlike most other characters, and learning that his compassion for humans was the greatest out of all the Gods really endeared his character to me.


This book starts about one hour after the last one ended with Helen descending to the underworld to try to get Zach to the Elysian Fields, after Hades promises her he will get him there and tells her she is a worldbuilder she returns to the Delos' house to recover from her injuries. Once there she dreams memories of past Helen's, including Helen of Troy and Guinevere and learns that she always ends up with Lucas they've never been cousins in any past life, only other obstacles in their way. They then learn that Orion is a shield to the fates, when he is around anyone the fates can't see them, or in Cassandra's case, possess them. After a couple of days all the other Scion's meet at their house to discuss what they must do now all the Gods have been released from Olympus when Phaon draws a sword, which isn't allowed, Helen gets angry and accidently summons her lightning. To stop her Lucas holds onto her and dies from the lightning, Helen then creates her own world and takes Lucas there so he can heal and Daedelus ends up challenging Phaon to a fight to the death. The next day when Helen returns with Lucas and everyone is relieved after thinking he was dead, they go out to watch the fight. After Daedelus wins, the Gods all appear and Zues challenges her. When she says that she knows an immortal cannot challenge a mortal he picks Achilles as his champion. Matt shows up with the spirit of Achilles in him wanting to kill Helen, and an army of Myrmidons behind him. The scions all then pick a side, with or against Helen, and Hector says he'll fight for Helen as he is her champion. When he slices Matt's heel nothing happens and Matt says it was the "wrong heel" even though he tries both heels, and many other parts of his body Matt doesn't die and instead kills Hector. Lucas then steps up as he was Hector's second and shoots an arrow into the heels of Matt's hand and he dies. Lucas then travels to the underworld and says he'll take Hades' place as head of the underworld in return for Hector's life. When Hector returns Daphne breaks down saying it wasn't meant to be him, she thought Orion was Hades son and would bargain the life of his girlfriend's father from him so she could have Ajax back and everyone learns of her deceit. Helen then goes to the underworld and gets the Eumenides to help her get Lucas out of his promise, she eventually gets them to agree to him not taking the position now, but he will have to do it eventually. Helen then makes herself immortal so she can battle Zeus, she traps him in Everyland (the world she created) and that scares the Gods into stopping the fight on the rest of the Scions. The epilogue ends with her and Lucas spending each day like it's their last on this earth.

Tuesday 18 June 2013

The Maze Runner - James Dashner (2009)

3 stars

I'd heard so much about this book and knew it was becoming a movie next year so I thought I'd read it and see if it was worth all the hype, I was a bit disappointed.

I think the best part of the book was the last fifty or so pages when they actually (finally) tried to escape the maze. Up until that point I thought it was a lot of build up and background information that is probably going to be helpful in the later books in the series, but was probably the main reason it took me so long to get through it. The end of the book was also where I really got invested in the storyline and it made me want to buy the next two, although I hope they give me more answers than this book did. My favourite character was Minho, I thought he was smart and nice and I hope he survives the rest of the trials. I would recommend this book to any dystopia fans, especially fans of The Hunger Games because I can see a lot of parallels and similarites between the two series.


Thomas wakes up in the Glade with no memories, only knowing his name. He learns that every month a new boy is put in the Glade and they have no way of getting out as they are surrounded by a giant maze that is filled with grievers, evil robotic creatures that can sting and kill people. Thomas learns the ways of the Gladers and almost immediately realizes he wants to be a "runner" someone whose job is to run the maze every day and look for an exit or a change. The second day he's there, a girl comes out of the box saying that she's the last one, everything will change. Thomas realizes that he knows the girl, Teresa, and thinks they were lovers in the past. Together they work out that the maze is a code and is repeating six words over and over, Thomas also decides to get stung by a griever so he can have memories and once he does he remembers how to get out. The other Gladers have to fend off grievers as he, Teresa and Chuck jump through the griever hole to type the code the maze was spelling out into a computer that shuts down the grievers. Once they've done that about 20 boys are left, and then as the leader of the operation they were part of is talking to them she is assassinated and they are taken to a building just outside of the "scorch" and told that they will be able to cure the disease that is plaguing the world. The epilogue is a letter from the leader of WICKED saying that all things are for a purpose and test group A results were very promising and her fake assassination and the groups capture was showing very good results, the next trials will show who their leader will be.