The Twins on Thursday: Insomnia by J.R. Johansson

"The Twins on Thursday" is reserved for the Twins' joint reviews. It is a special feature of our blog that discusses books that we either both like, dislike, or have mixed feelings about. This is also the day where we post reviews for books (and ARCs/Galleys) that have been sent to us by authors/galley sites/publishing houses. And because we don't believe much in uniformity, we'll be trying to mix things up a bit by adding random stuff in relation to our review (well, mostly for books we purchased anyway).

Title: Insomnia
Author: J.R. Johansson
Format Acquired: eARC

Publication Date: June 8, 2013

Publishing House: Flux

ISBN: 9780738735931
Source of Copy: Requested from publisher via NetGalley

Summary:

Instead of sleeping, Parker Chipp enters the dream of the last person he's had eye contact with. He spends his nights crushed by other people's fear and pain, by their disturbing secrets - and Parker can never have dreams of his own. The severe exhaustion is crippling him. If nothing changes, Parker could soon be facing psychosis and even death.

Then he meets Mia. Her dreams, calm and beautifully uncomplicated, allow him blissful rest that is utterly addictive. Parker starts going to bizarre lengths to catch Mia's eye every day. Everyone at school thinks he's gone over the edge, even his best friend. And wen Mia is threatened by a true stalker, everyone thinks it's Parker.

Suffering blackouts, Parker begins to wonder if he is tuning into someone dangerous. What if the monster stalking Mia is him after all?

(Image and information courtesy of Goodreads; Summary lifted from actual book)

Review:

Parker's got a gift - or a curse, really - that allows him to enter the dreams of the last person who's eyes he looks into. He has no choice but to watch their memories, fantasies and nightmares play out and is totally helpless about it. He can't exactly sleep because while his body is resting, his brain is still functioning and so Parker's technically "awake" for four years, and it's actually a wonder that he's still alive. But when he meets Mia whose dreams are so peaceful that he can actually fall asleep in them, an altogether different brute seems to awaken.

We love reading about dreams. Heck, we even tell our dreams to each other if we can remember them. It's not really surprising then that we were actually looking forward to reading Insomnia, because Parker seems to have this awesome power of actually witnessing people's dreams, except for the downside that the poor guy seems to be always alert and can't catch a break. Four years of getting no sleep seems downright dangerous, after all. Then of course, there's also someone out there who seems to want Parker to be blamed for certain misdemeanors.

There's no other way to go about it, but Insomnia has lackluster characters, save for Finn and Addie. There was no emotional investment on our part because the characters lacked the oomph to make them connect to readers. We found Parker to be strange and outright creepy thanks to his approach towards Mia. Why couldn't he think of another approach?  We understand that sleep deprivation does wonders to the human body but come on, he's been in that state for four years and we're pretty sure he meets new people all the time. AND He's co-captain of the boy's soccer team and a pretty popular guy. We're pretty sure he can come up with a non-creepy way of making sure he can look into her eyes.

Mia, the newcomer, is boring. We pitied her getting harassed and we get that what happened to her in the past was quite traumatizing, but it does not negate the fact that she was just... there. While others think that Parker is after her for obvious reasons, he's really after her because of her ability to put him to sleep. 

The pace was alright, but there wasn't really much about the story that bugged us to turn page after page after page. For us, the "twist" was random and bizarre, because there was no build-up to it. It felt like the "twist" was put there just so that the case could be resolved, and we really weren't buying it.

While Parker may have trouble getting some sleep, his story in Insomnia, for sure, won't keep us awake.

Insomnia is expected to hit bookstands on the 8th of June.

Rating:

MICHELLE'S REVIEW: Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Title: Nobody
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Format Acquired: Hardcover

Publication Date: January 22, 2013

Publishing House: EgmontUSA

ISBN: 9781606843215
Source of Copy: Purchased from Fully Booked

Summary:

The most dangerous people in the world... are the one you don't even see.

Some people are Nobodies: ignored, unloved, practically invisible in every way. No one notices them. No one cares about them. They exist under the radar, forgotten as soon as you turn away. No one sees them coming. No one sees them leave.

That's why Nobodies make the perfect assassins.

Seventeen-year-old Nix is very good at his job. So when the organization he works for sends him after a teenage girl named Claire, he doesn't ask questions. He's a killer. She needs to die.

For sixteen years, Claire has led a normal live being overlooked. Her parents are absent. She doesn't have any friends. She has no idea what she is, or why anyone would want her dead. But she's about to find out, because from the moment Nix attempts to carry out his mission, the two are caught up in a conspiracy of murder, cover-ups, and betrayal.

Nix is a killer. Claire is his target. But when he sets eyes on her, everything changes, because only the two of them can truly see each other - and two Nobodies are more dangerous than one.

(Image and information courtesy of Goodreads; Summary lifted from actual book)

Review:

I got all excited over this one when I was browsing through other people's Waiting on Wednesday posts. The way the summary was written intrigued me a lot, and it was right up there on my list of books to run to the bookstore for.

Not sooner have I cracked open the book to find out that Nobody wasn't for me. 

Claire is a nobody. She's the nobody of nobodies, if you want to get more specific on just how bad her situation is. Her parents are never home, and she has no friends to speak of.   Seems like easy prey to Nix. He's a Nobody. But more importantly, he's a Nobody that has to kill Claire because she's actually an undetected Nobody - a minor blip on their radar that the Institute is determined to 'fix'. Nix can be pretty creative with his killings, why should it be any different with Claire? As it turns out, she's very different. She's the only one who truly sees him, and Nix is the only person who acknowledges her. Of course they're going to fall madly in love with each other. The only thing is, the Institute isn't too happy with the changes in the plan. Together, Nix and Claire are unstoppable, and they will stop at nothing the bring the Institute down - especially when there's more at stake than the Institute initially lets on.

What ticked me off right from the bat was the over-dramatization of events. I get it, Claire. You're a.) invisible to everyone, and b.) Nix is the most beautiful boy you've ever seen. Time and time again, my attention was called to these two points, but I guess I couldn't fault the author in bringing a touch of just how bad things are for Claire and Nix. I was also annoyed with the way that Claire and Nix instantly connected and how they claimed to already be in love with each other, given the short amount of time they knew each other. I get that everybody sees past you guys and nobody - and I really do mean nobody at all - will ever acknowledge your presence and treat you the respect you deserve as a human. What could be worse than a nobody being an actual Nobody? Getting the silent treatment is possibly one of the worst possibly punishment anyone can ever get, because it makes the message that you are temporarily nonexistent to the other person loud and clear. No, my gripe is not with that. The reason I badly wanted to tear out my hair is because they had to fall in love in a snap of a finger. The only thing I can think of as to why they fell in love, aside from the fact that they are both gorgeous, is because they didn't want to be end up alone. If Nix hadn't found her, Claire would have grown separate from other people forever. If Claire hadn't seen him aiming a gun at her, Nix probably would have shot her, even at the expense of his guilty conscience.

Another thing I found cumbersome was the pace of the plot. The start was leisure-like, and the reader is not spared the bombardment of suffocating emotions and feelings. The plot began picking up pace by the second half. Just when there were only about a few chapters left, a new turn of events developed, and the ending was tied up with a big red bow. I somehow felt cheated by it, as I felt that I could have done without all the cheesy emotions and feelings Claire was developing just by looking at Nix.

Strictly speaking, this book had a hard time capturing my attention. I caught myself glazing over a lot of the parts of the story simply because it was pulling my attention into different directions. However, Nobody is not entirely without its good parts. All the talk about nobodies and Nobodies had me thinking about the very social need in us to be acknowledged. Everyone seems to crave validation, proof that you are affecting them in the same way that they affect you. I understood Claire and Nix's craving to be accepted, and I really did quite feel bad for them. 

While this book had some interesting things to ponder over, the over-dramatization and  weird pacing of the book pretty much made me sure that I will not revisit Nobody any time soon.

Rating:

          

MICHELLE'S REVIEW: Lucid by Adrienne Stoltz, Ron Bass

Title: Lucid
Author: Adrienne Stoltz, Ron Bass
Format Acquired: Hardcover

Publication Date: October 2, 2012

Publishing House: Razorbill

ISBN: 9781595145192
Source of Copy: Purchased from Fully Booked

Summary:

What if you could dream your way into a different life?

Sloane is a straight-A student from a small coastal town. 

Maggie is a glamorously independent up-and-coming actress in New York.

The two girls couldn't be more different - except for one thing. At night, they dream they're each other. They live each other's lives, they know each other's secrets. They each fall in love. But their two lives have never converged - until now.

Which life is just a dream? Which is real?

Eventually, they will have to figure out the answer, or risk spiraling into insanity.

But for one girl, that means giving up everything - her life, her love, herself - just when she finally has something worth holding on to.

          (Image and information courtesy of Goodreads; Summary lifted from actual book)

Review:

It's not so much as a secret that I love books that make me think. These kinds of books garner high ratings from me, most especially when I'm stuck in a loop, just thinking about what I've read. Imagine this. It's been five minutes since I had just finished the book. My mind had just been folded and refolded many times over, and my heart has long been rendered numb. Sunlight was streaming in, homework had to be done, and the only thing you could hear was the gentle hum coming from the fan. And my soft murmur of wow. That's how good Lucid is.

Sloane and Maggie are two very different personas inhabiting two vastly different worlds. Where Sloane resides in a town so small that had just been rocked by a death of a well-liked teenager, Maggie lives it up fabulously in New York, like the ultimately posh sophisticate that she is. Despite their distinct personalities, Sloane and Maggie are each other's secret - when either girl dreams, they dream of living the other's life - and it's definitely something they'd want to keep to themselves. Sloane knows exactly how Mystic, Connecticut will respond to her erratic behavior, and Maggie can't risk dirtying her reputation right now, especially when she's this close to getting a role in a television series. Just as Sloane and Maggie are comfortable with being best friends, the two girls fall in love, and they're finding the parallels of their lives getting harder and harder to ignore. Now that both of their lives are slowly converging and turning into a horrible mess (or is it?), they must come to terms if either is a fantasy, a reality, and maybe even have to decide if any girl should stay at all.

I loved Maggie. She was very much in control of herself, and you could even say that she wielded her grasp on it like a weapon. Maggie is very much confident, and gives off a mature vibe, which she undoubtedly has harnessed from taking care of her little sister, Jade. If there's anyone who could take the world by storm, it is people like Maggie, who exudes confidence, even if she hesitates in the love department. Sloane would be the more   normal (by societal standards) of the two girls, so it's not a surprise that I'm not exactly jumping up and down for her. The only thing that Sloane has to look forward to right now is the attention of a boy who shares the same interest in F. Scott Fitzgerald's works. Maggie and Sloane, Sloane and Maggie - different as night and day. The love interests Bass and Stoltz introduce vary in their appeal too. We are introduced to Thomas, Maggie's older suitor, but we also meet sweet and witty Andrew whom I was all flipping the pages for. Gordy, Sloane's childhood friend, is pretty much stuck in the friend zone, where as the new guy, James, catches Sloane's attention simply for being gorgeous and her literary equal. However, while I have no biases against guys who are both gorgeous and smart - seriously, who would? - I just couldn't see why Sloane was in over her head with this guy. Most of the time, he acted like he was playing some sort of cat-and-mouse game with her, and I just couldn't connect him with the guy that Sloane is making out to be.

It is during the last thirds of the book that things begin to go haywire. This part, while confusing, is definitely interesting, as the authors will not bother to spoon-feed you with the current situation. Lucid will bother you and make you draw your own conclusions, and I surmise that people will have different interpretations of what has actually transpired.

The ongoing battle with identity fits the target audience quite nicely, as teens are expected to be confused during this age with regards to identity and ambitions in life. Maggie and Sloane both want something that the other has, and while one is a little shaky, but mostly confident about herself, the other is still stuttering and bumbling about her life decisions. The novel is aptly called Lucid, as both the reader and the main characters themselves cannot distinguish which girl is the real deal. The reader is invited to learn a lot about these two female protagonists, but will have a hard time differentiating the facts from the make-believe. I must admit that even I myself am both stumped and mystified at how much I am bent around both Stoltz' and Bass' fingers. The complexity of the subject matter these two authors offer is delicious, intriguing, and confusing.

"I'm practicing," she says. "For when you're far away and I have to pretend we're together."

 "When that happens," I tell her, "if that happens, we both have to work very hard at understanding something. We're not pretending we're together. We're realizing that we actually are together in the ways that count the most." - p. 339

But more than trumping the readers and leaving them stupefied, Stoltz and Bass do not deviate from their intent, and that is to deliver a solid attempt at reconciling love, acceptance, death, and with it, rebirth. 

Bass' and Stoltz' writing is impeccable and riveting, which is hardly surprising as they have written screenplays together for years, and Bass is in actuality, an *Academy Award-winning screenwriter. 

If you're the type who rereads books because they take a different meaning the second or third time around, I'd strongly urge you to pick up this thought-provoking novel. While I do not have the luxury of rereading books as I do currently have a lot in my to-read pile, you have my word that I will sneak this one in between my other reading sometime, and catch up again with Maggie and Sloane. 

Rating:

          

*Reference: IMDB

The Twins on Thursday: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

"The Twins on Thursday" is reserved for the Twins' joint reviews. It is a special feature of our blog that discusses books that we either both like, dislike, or have mixed feelings about. This is also the day where we post reviews for books (and ARCs/Galleys) that have been sent to us by authors/galley sites/publishing houses. And because we don't believe much in uniformity, we'll be trying to mix things up a bit by adding random stuff in relation to our review (well, mostly for books we purchased anyway).

Title: Pushing the Limits
Author: Katie McGarry

Format Acquired: eGalley

Publication Date: July 31, 2012

Publishing House: Harlequin Teen

ISBN: 9780373210497

Source of Copy: NetGalley

Summary: 

So wrong for each other... and yet so right.

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outside with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal. But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible. Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

Review:

When Echo Emerson is ushered into the new guidance counselor's office with her father and pregnant new stepmother in tow, she thinks that no adult can be of actual help to her. She has pretty big issues, and nobody likes those. When Noah Hutchins finds out that the only thing standing in his way of getting custody of his brothers is him cleaning up his act and being Echo's tutee, he knows it won't be easy, and getting Echo out of his mind won't be any easier. Pushing the Limits tries to push two unlikely people and somehow makes it work by involving real issues, like custody battles, abuse, and the after-effects of divorce. 

McGarry's characters were fairly well-crafted. We didn't fall in love with them and we were mostly dispassionate to their romance but what we did appreciate though was how real Echo and Noah were. The author did a good job building up the characters, giving readers a peek into the trauma and fear that Echo must have experienced, and still does actually, and Noah's constant battle to be reunited with his brothers and create a family of his own. Echo is needy, and while this should have been annoying it isn't because we think we would be too if the same thing - blood and nightmares and fear induced by someone you should've been able to trust - were to happen to us. Noah on the other hand is rebellious and has major trust issues and has a problem with authority and all but it fits his character to a tee because he's basically lost and broken and, aside from wanting his siblings back, has nothing much left to look forward to in life. 

We did expect that the strange attraction to be fully accounted for, save for the fact that they were both the stereotypical Young Adult hero/heroines with their good looks and killer bodies. But then, like most stereotypical Young Adult romances, the insta-love is off-putting and uninteresting.  If you ask us why they fell in love, we wouldn't know why either. (We've been asking each other the same question!)

The romance may be a little off, but the approach to real-life situations is careful and thoughtful, and may as very well be why this book was not hard to read at all. Readers can get an actual feel for the characters and all the issues they have to put up with, which is something that we think is highly commendable for a Young Adult title. Readers will not have a hard time following the story as well. We would recommend this to people who have read Jamie McGuire's Beautiful Disaster and were left disappointed (like us). If you want  people with real, gritty issues, read this one. 

The sequel, Dare You To, comes out in May 2013.

Rating:

MICHELLE'S REVIEW: Nerve by Jeanne Ryan

Title: Nerve
Author: Jeanne Ryan
Format Acquired: Hardcover 

Publication Date: September 13, 2012

Publishing House: Dial Books (Penguin) 

ISBN: 9780803738324

Source of Copy: Purchased from Fully Booked

Summary: 

Are you playing the game? Or is the game playing you?

Vee doesn't know if she has the guts to play NERVE, an anonymous online game of dares. But whoever's behind the game knows exactly what she wants, enticing her with lustworthy prizes and a sizzling-hot partner. With Ian on her team, it's easy to agree to another dare. And another. And another. At first it's thrilling as the Watchers cheer them on to more dangerous challenges. But suddenly the game turns deadly. Will Vee and Ian risk their lives for the Grand Prize dare, or will they lose NERVE?

           (Image and information courtesy of Goodreads; Summary lifted from actual book)

Review:

With the overabundance of reality shows where people basically bare all - pun not intended - in front of the camera in order to satisfy millions of viewers who have unknowingly ventured and reveled in capitalist voyeurism, the first thing that Ryan's Nerve throws in the reader's face is: When will NERVE become a reality?

NERVE is a game where people complete dares, capture the footage on video, and upload them online for all to see. These dares are issued by an anonymous group who trade your completed dares for all your heart could possibly desire. The more popular and trending you are, the better the prizes get, and the more dangerous and risky the dares eventually become. Vee, our female protagonist, is sick of playing second-fiddle to her attention-loving best friend, Sydney. Feeling particularly bold, she then chooses the same night she gets her heart broken by the sleaziest guy ever (who, of course, wants in on her best friend's pants) to claim her share of a little limelight. When her unintentionally risque video becomes viral, NERVE begins to slowly hook her in with promises of limited edition shoes, makeovers, and a full ride to fashion school. Vee's descent into the eventual mantra of addicts worldwide ("What's one more hit/drink/shoe?") is then inevitable. Throw in the cliched "hottest guy everrr" as her partner, and you've got a heroine who's basically throwing her dignity and life and friends and sense and family away to get the material things she wants, and get some time with the aforementioned guy.

I have genuinely mixed feelings about this book. While I did not particularly care for the characters at all (ego-centric, whiny heroines who have a sense of entitlement paired with male love interests who aside from having absolutely no character and depth are not my thing), I couldn't help but think if this was Ryan's intended outcome in the first place. Ryan puts together characters who are intent on giving up their individual piece of humanity to stake a claim that they are real, they are alive, and that they exist. Isn't that how reality TV operates anyway? Nerve hits a raw spot in today's society. How often have we watched brutality at its finest in the form of reality TV, and applauded each other for the worst comments we could ever think of? How many times has society climbed all over each other just to gnaw at the juicy dangling piece of flesh? Isn't it striking how humanity has succumbed to such low extents, by behaving like cretins, in order to claim the golden apple that would enable one to flaunt one's superiority over others? 

However, I am still quite disappointed that this isn't the book I thought it would be. I thought the dares would be really exhilarating and interesting, but all the readers get would be sleazy dares masquerading as "thrilling". This book introduced me to different kinds of irritating. Ian was just plain annoying. A "perfect guy" like that has got to have skeletons in the closet, and there were enough hints in the book to point toward that direction. But does Ryan expound on his story? Nope. All I read about Ian are comments about his being eye candy. And who wants to be that guy who's only good for his looks? Uh, no thanks. Vee, on the other hand, is wring-her-skinny-little-neck irritating. So she's looking for some excitement in her life, and some little attention. But does that mean that she has to go far as to sacrifice her moral values, AND have to keep whining about it? And just like any run-of-the-mill heroine, all guys - old, young, rich, poor - just have to salivate over her when she's obviously always throwing a pity party for herself. Then she starts to complain that the guys who are drooling over her are total creeps. News flash, girl. When you parade yourself as a streetwalker, you are bound to encounter creeps. When you do this in front of the camera, well, you can only expect that the dividing line between what is real and what is staged can be blurred. 

Altogether, Nerve is both frustrating, and thought-provoking - I seriously pondered on what kind of low-level intelligence, bloodthirsty creatures we were slowly turning into - I found that the selling point of Nerve isn't the base storyline itself, but the actual concept that we are already shelling out money to act / look like the people we see in the media, who in turn, want to become the people who are already thrust in the spotlight. Pick this up if you're angry at the media, capitalists, and whatnot, but if you're looking for more with regards to the actual storyline, well, you might be left a little peeved.

Rating: