Ok hold on folks 'cause this is gonna be a long one; it will include the first three posts I missed (I've been rereading...) plus the one due today.

To start, I'll go with the last two books of the Maze Runner series. I got The Death Cure and The Kill Order for Christmas, so I did a lot of reading over break. I'll start with The Death Cure.

The Death Cure was the concluding book to the series. While it was a pretty good book, i think most people agree the ending was bad. Throughout the book the pace was expertly throttled up and down, right from the start. There was plenty of action to go around, but as with most apocalyptic plots, it was fraught with loss, pain, and desperation. I won't give any spoilers, but it was a sort of situation you hate to watch, but can't tear your eyes away. It was quite a ride all the way up until the end: after that i feel like he lost his touch, or tried to rush the ending. It does fit the apocalyptic theme, but the costs are immense on all counts. It threw me for a twist at every turn, and it was hard to put down. Overall, 3/5, maybe 3.5/5. The series on the whole deserves at least a 4/5, mainly in the first two books, but oh well. It was a good read.

The Kill Order is a prequel to the whole series. Again, right off the bat Patterson has you thinking and throws in plenty of action. The plot starts with a teenager in the ravaged little town in what uses to be unsettled areas in the Appalations. The solar flares forced people away from coasts and into the mountains. The conditions are miserable, but at least the worst of it is over. Or is it?n,  Now we are plunged into the story behind The Flare, the terrible bio-engineered disease that eats away everything that makes a person human, attacking the brain, or killzone. In a matter of days or sometimes weeks, it can make a perfectly healthy person become a raving, bloodthirsty lunatic who's only goal is survive and kill as many things as they can. As if the world needs more problems. Well, they get a few million of them very quickly. The rest of the book is tracing the people who caused it, to find the cure that exists only questionably at best. Mark and a few allies and friends set out to solve the most deadly mystery of all time. Again, a really good book, 4.5/5 stars. give it a read.


During the time for the second missed post I got my hands on The Blood of Olympus: the long anticipated ending to the Percy Jackson spin-off series. I absolutely loved it, especially since I've been reading this series since what, sixth grade? Anyway, I've been trying to get my hands on a copy for weeks. So when my brother bought it, I was dying to get my hands on it. unfortunately, he reads reeeeealy sloooow. But at long last, I got to finish the series. Riordan did not disappoint. Right away there was action (notice a trend going on here? ;) that was intense for the beginning of a book. And it only escalated. The group was reunited once again, a very important detail to their power. But then it started getting kinda strange; I realized that none of the old characters perspectives were being shown. That immediately took away from the book, and then, coupled with the fact that Riordan portrayed the gods as strangers and so distant didn't help, plus they ended up splitting. I thought Riordan didn't perform as he usually does. Rating by my standards for Riordan, 2.5 or less. by any other standard, tho, 3.5/5. Its still a good read, just not my favorite.


I read 1984 for my history teacher, Mr. Reid. now this was one of the older books I've read, and had some... questionable ideas and themes, to say the least. It had some interesting ideas when it was appropriate, though. It was a good read about a totalitarian state, and why and how that might work and feel. It was a dark and twisted plot, where Big Brother is always watching you, and even in the best of times, all but the top officials were poor. But no one realized it. Everyone knew the terrible things the government did, but they did nothing. It was a perfect totalitarian state, where everybody knew what happened in the torture chambers, but supported it, through some twisted logic. we follow one of the few exceptions, but he didn't do anything about it. He meets a girl who understands what he feels. They do fall in love eventually, especially to defy the state. When they are discovered, that's where it all falls apart, and comes out, how the state can be so successful. The government always changes what they say, but leave no record of the truth. They are always right, always the superior, unstoppable force. They can MAKE you see it their way. Its very complicated, but id recommend it. Its a hard book to wrap your mind around coming from such a perspectiver as the one we have, but it has some interesting ideas,




Now onto the third missed post. I didn't have very much time in this time, plus an utter lack of books. I managed to re-immerse myself in The Hunger Games, a long-time favorite of many. I have never read this series analytically before, so i figured what the heck. plus, with Snow Week, I was REALLY bored. I knocked out the whole series in three of four days. I'm just going to talk about the series as a whole. When I looked at the plot development overall, it didn't take much to figure out how expertly paced the plot was, with enough twists to keep a reader into it but not enough to make it too confusing and messy. It was a good reread for me, as an analytical read, as I picked up on many strategies for my own writing. She had good plot, twists, but not enough to make the story ridiculous. the writers craft is very good, yet casual. That is the style of writing I would attempt to emulate, so my readers don't have to over-think things to get the meaning. Obviously there are no research papers or anything. its a read purely for fun. if anyone hasn't read it, I'd certainly recommend it.


WHEW! Long post. I don't know how my grammar does throughout the post; sorry for any typos! Anyway, give me a review, maybe a comment? Have a nice day, hope you always have a book in your hands and time to read it.