Top Ten YA Novels 2013 #7: Light by Michael Grant

A brutal, bloody, and glorious (literally) last installment of the bestselling Gone series. Hmm... one of the best endings ever.

The seventh place belongs to:

Light by Michael Grant

Synopsis:

It's been over a year since all the adults disappeared. Gone.

In the time since everyperson over the age of fourteen disappeared from the town of Perdido Beach, California, countless battles have been fought: battles against hunger and lies and plague, and epic battles of good against evil. And now, the gaiaphage has been reborn as Diana's malicious mutant daughter, Gaia. Gaia is endlessly hungry for destruction. She yearns to conquer her Nemesis, Little Pete, and then bend the entire world to her warped will. As long-standing enemies become allies, secrets are revealed and unexpected sacrifices are made. Will their attempts to save themselves and one another matter in the end, or will the kids of Perdido Beach perish in this final power struggle?

Light, the sixth and final book in the New York Times bestselling Gone series by Michael Grant, creates a masterful, arresting conclusion to life in the FAYZ.

***

I feel a need to post all three trailers of Light, because they're just way too awesome to be true:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3: 

***

Date Read: June 14, 2013

My Review: 

http://smoking-hot-books.blogspot.com/2013/06/light-review.html

My Rating: 9.5/10

***

Top 5 Reasons Why I Like It:

1. The Glorious Ending... Literally

I don't want to spoil you guys. But the ending is radiant. Literally. It's... unbelievable.

2. Gaia

Yep, she... IT is a sick son of a bitch. But it takes brutal and bloody to a whole new level. And hey, Gone series is supposed to be brutal. So it's perfect.

3. Aftermath

What can I say? The aftermath is hilarious. And if you know me, you know that I love hilarious stuff.

4. The Last Battle

Chaos. Death, Slaughter. Kids from Perdido Beach fighting back. This is one of the best battles ever. 

5. The Breeze

Okay, Brianna is always awesome. But she, doing a certain drastic thing on Drake/Brittney creature? I seriously want to hug her and help her... zoom all the pieces of the Drake/Brittney creature around :)

***

Why I recommend this book/series:

It's not just Light. It's the whole series that I recommend. Gone starts with a boom. Like, how can you just say “One minute the teacher was talking about the Civil War. And the next minute he was gone. There. Gone. No 'poof.' No flash of light. No explosion.” without making anyone's jaw drop off? And after the massive disappearance, everything just gone crazy. And the apocalypse just gets crazier, bloodier in the following books. If you think The Hunger Games is brutal, you obviously haven't read Gone yet.

***

Do I Like The Cover?

It looks typical, but I actually like it. After all, we have Gaia on it!

***

Top 3 Favorite Scenes: (Beware Spoilers)

1. This one:

Caine tried to roll to his feet, but something was jabbing him in the crouch. He shook off the stars and saw Edilio standing over him. Edilio had the business end of his automatic rifle in a very sensitive place.
"If you move, Caine, I will shoot your balls off," Edilio said. "Toto?"
"He will," Toto said, "Although he's not sure it will be just your balls.”

Well, this is one of the most hilarious scene ever :)

2. The End Game where Caine/Nemesis fights Gaia
It's glorious and very sad. After all, how can you make me like Caine again just to kill him!

3. Caine's letter to Diana
It's truly touching. I can't believe it's short. But it's heartbreaking

***

OTP:

Caine and Diana!

Announcement: Top Ten YA Novels 2013

The end of 2013 is coming soon. And of course there's the annual announcement: my top ten YA novels released this year!

List (arranged in order):

1. Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices #3) by Cassandra Clare [Rating: 11 10/10]

2. Sentinel (Covenant #5) by Jennifer L. Armentrout [Rating: 10/10]

3. Allegiant (Divergent #3) by Veronica Roth [Rating: 9.5/10]

4. Origin (Lux #4) by Jennifer L. Armentrout [Rating: 9.5/10]

5. The Eternity Cure (Blood of Eden #2) by Julie Kagawa [Rating: 9/10]

6. Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #1) by Sarah J. Maas [Rating: 9/10]

7. Light (Gone #6) by Michael Grant [Rating: 9.5/10]

8. The Iron Traitor (The Iron Fey: Call of The Forgotten #2) by Julie Kagawa [Rating: 9/10]

9. Through The Ever Night (Under The Never Sky #2) by Veronica Rossi [Rating: 9/10]

10. Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles #2) by Marissa Meyer [Rating: 9/10]

What is your choice of novels this year? I'm curious to know!

P.S. My posts for these novels will be released starting from December 21, 2013 (UTC/GMT +8 hours). Stay tuned!

Top Ten Tuesday #3: Top Ten Books To Read During Halloween

Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today's question is top ten books to read during Halloween. It's supposed to be all about creepy stuff. But I'm not too fond of creepy stuff. I'd go with mysterious things.

1. The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa

This is my dystopian pick. Dystopian stories are normally not that creepy. But when you mix vampires with it, then it's an entirely different story. Besides, I read it in the middle of the night, and it gave me chills! Surely it will be one of my choices.

2. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

My paranormal book of choice. Shadow and Bone has a mysterious streak in it. And guess what? The combination of Russian folk tale and the Shadow Fold is intriguing and dark by default. Although it doesn't give me chills, my heart always beats harder whenever I read this book! 

3. The Falconer by Elizabeth May

Fae? Totally! And anticipation for trouble while reading The Falconer was brimming. Besides, it's Scotland, a land full of bloody folk tales and dark cautionary tales. One can never simply not like reading it on Halloween when The Falconer is about darkness and rage.

4. Light by Michael Grant

Actually I meant to say Gone series in general. But Light is the best of all. Brutal, intense, and exceptionally bloody. Hey, it adds a dystopian and sci-fi streak in Halloween too. Gotta be one of the best series to read in Halloween.











That's all I can think of now. What are your books of choice for Halloween? Sound off in the comments :)

Top Ten Tuesday #1: Top Ten Best/Worst Series Enders

Hi! This is my first Top Ten Tuesday post. The bookish meme is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today's question is my top ten best/worst series enders.

Best 5:

1. Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

It's as beautiful as it is heartbreaking. I'm still hurting over what is inevitable and the new happiness that Tessa gains. There are no words to explain how much I love the ending of The Infernal Devices.

2. Boundless by Cynthia Hand

Another one of those endings that have you grinning broadly for at least an hour after reading the ending. And it wraps up perfectly.

3. Light by Michael Grant

A very impressive ending. Stunning, dynamic and very brutal. The perfect ending for a series as crazy and terrifying as Gone series.

4. Requiem by Lauren Oliver

Unlike many readers out there, I actually like the ending. It leaves space for imagination of the world after the success of the resistance. (Spoiler!) I mean, you can't just have Lena diving for one of the two guys at the end of the book (or diving for both). It will be unfair to both Alex and Julian (End of spoiler)

5. The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

Okay I must say this is an ending of HEA and I'm familiar with HEA endings. I'd say the plot itself is better than the ending, but the ending fits because Ash and Meghan are just too adorable to not to be together :)

***

Worst 5 Endings:

1. Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Sorry, the ending is just way too predictable. I mean, BEAUTIFUL REDEMPTION? You are practically saying Ethan and Lena are having a HEA together and... to be honest, I'm not a shipper of Ethan and Lena.

2. Everlasting by Alyson Noel

Okay seriously this is one of the most disappointing endings ever. What the heck is going on in this novel? Honestly, I have no idea.

3. Destined by Aprilynne Pike

Nope, I just can't. (Confession: I actually like David more than Tamani. And not only the fact that Laurel is rooting for Tamani annoys the hell out of me, I think the ending is just so typical)

4. Ceaseless by Abbi Glines

Look, I actually like this book. But for some reason the ending just doesn't do it for me.

5. Rapture by Lauren Kate

All I can say is the ending is not what I imagine and I'm quite pissed off by the ending.

Which series has the best or the worst ending in your opinion? Sound off in the comments!

Light: Review

Synopsis:

It's been over a year since all the adults disappeared. Gone.

In the time since everyperson over the age of fourteen disappeared from the town of Perdido Beach, California, countless battles have been fought: battles against hunger and lies and plague, and epic battles of good against evil. And now, the gaiaphage has been reborn as Diana's malicious mutant daughter, Gaia. Gaia is endlessly hungry for destruction. She yearns to conquer her Nemesis, Little Pete, and then bend the entire world to her warped will. As long-standing enemies become allies, secrets are revealed and unexpected sacrifices are made. Will their attempts to save themselves and one another matter in the end, or will the kids of Perdido Beach perish in this final power struggle?

Light, the sixth and final book in the New York Times bestselling Gone series by Michael Grant, creates a masterful, arresting conclusion to life in the FAYZ.

***

I'm speechless. 

Seriously. I'm speechless. That has never happened to me before. Not even after reading Clockwork Princess. Hell, not even after reading Apollyon, which I considered "crazy enough" those days. Apparently I'm not use to all-hell-breaks-loose and completely-out-of-control. Crazy barely covers the whole book right now. In fact calling it tremendous doesn't even cover it well. It's like, what, craziness and tremendousness and all the adjectives about exciting stuff all rolled into one. 

The plot is more focused this time. It's about Gaia, the mutant daughter of Diana and the sort-of human form of the gaiaphage. And defeating Gaia, of course. Yeah, that beautiful girl on the cover is Gaia, not Diana. Don't let her face fool you. She's the most horrible thing I can ever imagine. Torturing her own mother, ripping an arm from an accidentally-fell-in-the-FAYZ adult, and shooting light beams at random to kids. You might say, "hey, this is the gaiaphage, of course whatever it does is horrible!" Oh, you have no idea. You have to read the book in order to find out how gruesome those parts are.

And then, there's Caine. Yep, the fraternal twin of Sam's. I can't say I love him or even like him now, but I definitely don't hate him anymore. You have no idea what he does at the end of the book. It's... glorious. Literally. Oh, did I mention the scene is way more breath-taking than the others? It's like you're really seeing that scene rolling. That's one hell of a memory I won't forget. 

For the second time, there's some mentions about adults on the other side and... um, inside the FAYZ. Yeah, the first time is in Fear, but actually I don't pay particular attention to them except the last part, where they see the brutal killing scene and a look of disgust crosses their faces. This time, they have officially screwed up everything. The adult in the FAYZ barrier? Oh he is as tough as cotton balls. Wetting himself in front of the gaiaphage? Good move, man, no wonder the gaiaphage sees you as food. And the adult outside are completely ignorant. They have no idea what's been going on inside the FAYZ and they try to stop them from going out? But the kids eventually make it out. In your face, adults! (Defiance is my second nature, by the way :D)

I have to say I'm crying and laughing at the same time after reading the book. It's overwhelming to see so much going on in just about 450 pages and how drastic things turn out. Gone is officially one of my favorite series now. Maybe even better than Divergent (That's one hell of a declaration because my all time favorite dystopian series is Divergent... until now). As much as it's overwhelming, I can't get enough of nature-defying-the-laws-of-physics and craziness in a busted-up certain area. Yes, I will never get tired of reading this series over and over again.

Rating: 9.5/10

P. S. After reading Light, I can only come up with one thing:

The FAYZ is so wrong. And the outside? Somehow it's more wrong than the FAYZ. I almost wish they will never get out. Almost.