Illusive

 

Illusive by Emily Lloyd-Jones

I impulse bought this book and it's sequel, Deceptive, because I really enjoyed Emily Lloyd-Jones' book THE HEARTS WE SOLD. But, if you read the labels, I marked this book as unreadable.

I even did the thing that I never do, which is to skip ahead a few pages to see if that helped.... and then I opened the book to random spot further along the line... and I just couldn't read it. I don't know. Random moment of defective reading in this pandemic? You betcha.

Anyways, here's the amazon summary so you can understand why I was intrigued, "When the deadly MK virus swept across the planet, a vaccine was created to stop the epidemic, but it came with some unexpected side effects. A small percentage of the population developed superhero-like powers, and Americans suffering from these so-called adverse effects were given an ultimatum: Serve the country or be declared a traitor.

Some people chose a third option: live a life of crime.

Seventeen-year-old Ciere Giba has the handy ability to change her appearance at will. She's what's known as an illusionist. She's also a thief. After crossing a gang of mobsters, Ciere must team up with a group of fellow super powered criminals on a job that most would have considered impossible: a hunt for the formula that gave them their abilities. It was supposedly destroyed years ago--but what if it wasn't?

Government agents are hot on their trail, and the lines between good and bad, us and them, and freedom and entrapment are blurred as Ciere and the rest of her crew become embroiled in a deadly race that could cost them their lives." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

 So, since I didn't read the whole book, I will just talk about to the point where I remember and why I was frustrated. So Ciere is a criminal who works with other criminals to pull off larger heists so they can survive the world. She has the ability to disguise herself. Ciere is accosted by essentially a mob, in a very crowded area who has noticed she used her ability. Ciere and her companion Daniel, are roped in by the mobsters to essentially do a job for them.

And I'm just going to stop because I'm already annoyed.

The premise of the book is that a deadly virus swept across the planet, and an epidemic has come and gone.... but there are still people just being in super crowded areas with each other? I know we, unfortunately have gone through a pandemic now in our lifetime, and are currently still in the process, and the book was written back in 2015.... but it just feels eerily wrong.

The dialogue of this book comes across as long really terrible old mobster movie dialogue. Like, how you would think people would talk versus how they actually talk. There's just a lot of exposition or unnecessary elements discussed by the characters.

It's also written from a third person perspective, so you get to jump around into the different characters heads... and their abilities, but the downfall is that no one sounds unique enough to really do that. Everyone has the same tone and nearly same thought process for the situations they're presented with.

So I gave up. This will be going back to the bookstore. Still going to try to read more by Emily Lloyd-Jones though, love some of their other work.

Happy reading!

Bloom

 

Bloom by Kenneth Oppel

I normally don't tend to go for spooky books, but this had science fiction mystery and terraforming and general weirdness going on that I was like FINE. LETS DO IT.

An amazon summary, "The invasion begins--but not as you'd expect. It begins with rain. Rain that carries seeds. Seeds that sprout--overnight, everywhere. These new plants take over crop fields, twine up houses, and burrow below streets. They bloom--and release toxic pollens. They bloom--and form Venus flytrap-like pods that swallow animals and people. They bloom--everywhere, unstoppable.

Or are they? Three kids on a remote island seem immune to the toxic plants. Anaya, Petra, Seth. They each have strange allergies--and yet not to these plants. What's their secret? Can they somehow be the key to beating back this invasion? They'd better figure it out fast, because it's starting to rain again...." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

Anaya, Petra, and Seth all have strange allergies; like being allergic to every pollen ever, water, and stuff of that nature. There is a strange rainfall one day and they all react pretty well to it despite their allergies. ...until the strange plants start showing up... and eating people. Pretty soon it's a race for survival as all the teenagers start developing strange things on their bodies... like fur, scales, or feathers. Dun dun dunnnnn

Honestly, that's enough summary.

This book was a very fast read because the characters were so boring and flat. They all had strong symptoms of, "I'm a teenager! Puberty is hard! Where are my parents who I begrudgingly love?" Seth was the only one who happened to be in foster care, but even that wasn't used to paint his situation, it was used as a plot device. Poo poo, I say, poo poo.

The most interesting part was to read about the Earth slowly being invaded by these plants, and everyone dying from the pollen they were releasing, and the world just going to crap. It was kind of hilarious to read about the military being a mess, as well as the scientists being a mess. It kind of wound up into this big like Scooby Doo sense of like, "Zoinks! I hope people stop dying so we can solve this mystery!"

It was fun? It just wasn't anything more than that.

Happy reading!