Infinity

By Sherrilyn Kenyon

At fourteen, Nick Gautier thinks he knows everything about the world around him. Streetwise, tough, and savvy, his quick sarcasm is the stuff of legends…until the night when his best friends try to kill him. Saved by a mysterious warrior who has more fighting skills than Chuck Norris, the teenaged Nick is sucked into the realm of the Dark Hunters: immortal vampire slayers who risk everything to save humanity.

Nick quickly learns that the human world is only a veil for a much larger and more dangerous one: a world where the captain of the football team is a werewolf and the girl he has a crush on goes out at night to stake the undead. But before he can even learn the rules of this new world, his fellow students are turning into flesh-eating zombies—and he’s next on the menu. As if starting high school isn’t hard enough…now Nick has to hide his new friends from his mom, his chain saw from the principal, and keep the zombies and the demon Simi from eating his brains, all without getting grounded or suspended. How in the world is he supposed to do that?

I picked up the audiobook version of this popular YA series, and was impressed by the narrator. This book has plenty of snark, attitude, and supernatural beings. Nick Gautier is a kid who would do anything to please his mom, tries his best to not let the kids as his fancy prep school get him down for being poor, and is doing what he can to figure out a whole new world where he discovers zombies, werewolves, vampires, and vampire hunters exist…and maybe possibly demons and gods.

This book had plenty of teenage southern sass in it, which probably wouldn’t come across as well to someone who just read the book versus someone who listened to the audiobook. As a whole, this book was entertaining and introduced some mysteries to hook readers into figuring out just what the future holds for Nick. My biggest hang up about it was the swearing and the tone. If it weren’t for Nick’s near constant sarcasm, this book would be too dark for me. As it stands, I’ll not be reading the rest of the series. The sexual comments, liberal profanity, and demons, murdering, and the promise of even more mayhem as the series progresses turned off my desire to continue the series. However, if you like horror, demons, sassy southerners, immortals, and mysteries, you should probably pick this up. It’s a fast paced good read if you don’t mind the above mentioned content.

I give it a 3 out of 5

City of Bones

By Cassandra Clare

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder—much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing—not even a smear of blood—to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It’s also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace’s world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundane like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know…

 

So, with the impending movie, and having watched the trailer, and having had some friends tell me I must read this series, I decided to start.  My initial thought was: Why are they making a movie out of this book when there are so many other amazing titles out there? It’s really just a re-hash of what’s popular at the moment with a few interesting twists.  Basically it’s about a girl who finds out she has ‘the sight’ and has to rescue her mother from the villain, all the while meeting a gorgeous guy (why can’t he be ugly for once?) and feeling an inexplicable attraction. There are vampires, werewolves, monsters, and hunters.  This book is entertaining and I plugged away and finished it pretty fast, that being said, I was left sorta confused as to how I felt about it. I liked the werewolf part, but I’m strangely partial to wolves. I thought the relationship between Jace and Clary was a little weird and random.  She thinks he’s a jerk, but all I could see was that he was abrupt. It kinda made her look like a dunce, but hey, I’ll admit that people are stupid when they like someone else.  All in all, I’ll probably eventually read the other books, but I admit, I had to sneak a peek on the internet to find out one certain fact if I continued the series…so yes I actually spoiled it for myself.  If you’ve read these, you know what I’m talking about.

 

I give it a 3 out of 5 because it was average for what’s hot right now.

Here's the Trailer for the movie that comes out this summer.

The Vampire's Assistant (#2)

By Darren Shan

Darren Shan was just an ordinary schoolboy - until his visit to the Cirque Du Freak. Now, as he struggles with his new life as a Vampire's Assistant, he tries desperately to resist the one temptation that sickens him, the one thing that can keep him alive. Blood. But destiny is calling... the Wolf Man is waiting.

Okay, so, this book clinched it for me. Read Cirque du Freak? NO! Holy gross, horrific and simply wrong. At the risk of a little spoiler: a kid gets his guts eaten while he is still alive. I was sickened. It was described fully and grotesquely. I guess I asked for it by deciding to read these books. Lots of people like them, but that was just way too much gore and I don’t think that is healthy for kids to be reading. It was just sick pure and simple. It didn’t scare me, it just made me wrinkle my nose is abject disgust. I wouldn’t let a kid within a hundred miles of this book just because it is so violent and nasty. Sheesh, what is the world coming to people?

Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare

By Darren Shan

Darren's best friend, Steve, finds a flier for an illegal freak show, which they sneak out one night to attend. Among acts such as a wolf-man (who bites off the hand of a woman in the audience) and a snake-boy, they see the vampire Mr. Crepsley and his trained poisonous spider. Darren is smitten with the spider and returns to steal her. When Steve is bitten by her, only Mr. Crepsley has an antidote to her poison. But there's a price, and Darren becomes a half vampire, learning the vampire ways, sometimes following the Cirque, and other times joining Mr. Crepsley on secret errands.

I had heard of this series in high school, but was never inclined to read a book about circus freaks. It sounded rather sinister to me. I picked up this book for one reason only, that being, I saw the movie that was released a while back called The Vampire’s Assistant and loved it. It was so fun and interesting, so I thought, why not? I read this first book with the thought of, how strange that this author is writing to a younger audience but seeking to creep-out, gross-out and pretty much scare them to death. I’ve never gotten why people seek ways to scare themselves. I always thought it was rather self-destructive. I hate scary movies. The most scary movie I’ve seen is The Sixth Sense. Well, this first books follows Darren Shan as he goes to a freak show with his best friend, only to steal a poisonous spider from an infamous vampire. The spider ends up biting his friend and the only way the vampire will save him is if Darren becomes his assistant. It was interesting, but a little weird. It ended on a strange shifting ledge. You pretty much have to read the second one if you read the first. But…as I continue to review the second one, you will see why I don’t recommend these books to just anyone.

Midnight Sun

By Stephanie Myers

This is the story of Twilight…from Edward’s perspective. What’s a vampire to do when the one girl he’s ever fallen for happens to also be the one person in the world with the blood that the monster in him craves the most?

Yeah, yeah I know, I read it of my own free will. I guess curiosity can get you to do anything against your own better judgment. At first I thought, wow this is a whole lot better than Bella telling the story. Basically because I frequently got sick of Bella comparing Edward to a god. Edward’s perspective is a lot better. He has a lot more depth as a character. I must be a little sadistic because I liked this better than twilight because it was basically Edward constantly wanting to kill Bella and drink her blood, but at the same time him falling in love with her. It was interesting. Although, as it got to the end he became just as obsessed with her as she does with him. He stalks her for heavens sake! Anywho, it doesn’t go through all the events of Twilight, just about to after Bella finally finds out he’s a vampire. I just kept thinking, ‘I could’ve been reading something better than this’. Oh well, not my thing.