ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell 144 pp. Penguin Group. £8.99. (Ages 13 and up) ISBN 9780141182704 Rating: ? Stars This book is set in a future when animals are much cleverer than now. And because of their cleverness, the pigs started a revolution against the humans. Pigs could speak fluently in English unlike the other animals, and that gave them the power to be leaders. But, the story that follows only happened a few years after that... Their first leader, Old Major, was kind and fair who knew animals should be equal. But when Napoleon became the leader it was very unpleasant. He made a rule that allowed the pigs to have better food and that forced all of the other animals to work crazily hard every day and night. That wasn’t enough, Napoleon wanted more power. He decided to kill his brother, Snowball, so that he would be the only leader. Snowball was admired because he came up with a clever idea to build windmill. Sn...
Release Date: March 5, 2013
Pages: 416
From Goodreads: "Haven Terra is still recovering from an internship that brought her literally to the brink of hell when a trip to New Orleans leads to more trouble. Graduating early from high school leaves the spring semester free, so Haven and her friends Dante and Lance head to the Big Easy to volunteer with community service projects. But their true mission becomes clear when they run across an enclave of devils known as the Krewe. New Orleans is a free-for-all for these shape-shifting devils, who are more reckless and vicious than any Haven, Lance, and Dante have encountered. And they soon discover their French Quarter housemates are also angels-in-training, and together they must face off with the Krewe in their quest for wings. But Haven’s resolve is tested when Lucian, the repentant devil with whom she was infatuated, resurfaces and asks her for help escaping the underworld. Can he be trusted? Or will aiding him cost Haven her angel wings—and her life? Thrilling, romantic, and full of surprises, this gripping sequel to Illuminate takes the battle of good and evil to the next level."
As becomes evident in my review of "Illuminate" I absolutely loved it- admittedly I hadn't expected much from it, and that was perhaps the best part, it exceeding my expectations by tenfold. Therefore, as you can imagine, I was super excited to delve into this book, its sequel. However, after having finished it I must admit that it wasn't near as satisfying as I had found the first- I think that this book lost a lot of the magic from its predecessor.
I think that my largest complaints of this book was the drama, lack of emotions, and general busyness. Everywhere I turned in this book there was drama and I felt that almost all of it was extremely forced/ unnecessary- drama between Haven and Lance, drama between Haven and her roommate, Sabine, drama between the teens and their mentor, Connor, and so forth. The characters had just graduated high school, however it felt like they were still stuck in it. As for emotions, I experienced none while reading the book- no swoon, no heart-pounding during the moments of action, no hair-raising during the creepy parts of the many cemetery scenes- nothing. Finally, on the note of busyness, it felt like a lot happened in this novel, however, when I sat back and considered it, not much did. I felt like very little was accomplished and that that was was glossed over (for instance, the summer camps that the teens helped to run, their time at the library, and so forth).
That being said, I obviously enjoyed the book enough to finish it- I did enjoy seeing the characters coming into themselves and their powers more (Dante especially, he always makes the books for me). Furthermore, I loved seeing Lucian's progression from being of the Underworld to something more. I also love/ appreciate the fact that Aimee featured a setting which few YA authors do- that of New Orleans. I have found that in her writing she is always able to transport the characters to the setting with all of the minute (yet not overwhelming) details.
All in all, while I do believe that this book did suffer from second book syndrome, to a degree, I did enjoy it enough that I will continue on with this series. I can't wait to see how Haven and the boys try to get out of their next predicament next!
Rating: 3/5
I received this book from the publisher to read and honestly e
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