Bruised and Beaten Down

Still busy reading everything I can get my hands on! I have also been working very hard on my other blog, problemsofabooknerd.tumblr.com, day in and day out, which now has over 900 followers. Check it out! Today I thought I would give you all a review of one of my favorite books of the past year, Bruiser, by Neal Shusterman.
Bruiser, or Brewster, as he is called by those who care about him (and there are few), is different. When Brontë starts dating Brewster, her twin brother Tennyson isn't pleased. Come on, his sister is dating the guy voted "most likely to get the death penalty"? But as he starts hanging around more, the twins start to notice things happening. Unexplainable things. Their cuts and scrapes heal unnaturally quickly, right in front of their eyes. And Brewster is at the center of it all.
This was one of my favorite books that I read last year. Neal Shusterman was a really big deal at school this whole year because he came in November and had this big event. We all got to talk to him, and he signed our books. Bruiser was one of the books that seemed to stay on the shelf, so I decided to read it. It is so beautifully written. A story about someone who distances himself to protect everyone, including himself. And his brother means more to him than anyone. I love the way this book is written. It is original and odd, and such a sweet story about love without being a romance. There is more than one way to write about love, and this is the way to do it right.

Rating: 4.5/5

Birthmarked

Ah, welcome to a new year, filled with new books. My life, as always, is full of reading, and I am reading a nearly obscene number of books right now, because of school and my own silliness. I am reading Twelfth Night (again, for school), Persuasion, Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, It's Kind of a Funny Story, and Bless Me, Ultima. Yes, I am reading 5 things at once, but I'll finish them all soon and be ready to read new stuff. But onto my review of the day. Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien.
Birthmarked is a dystopian story (I know, it seems like I read nothing else!) about a girl named Gaia Stone. Scarred at birth, she lives outside the wall of the Enclave with her mother and father. Gaia and her mother are midwives who "advance" the first 3 children born outside the wall each month to the Enclave, where they will grow up with adopted families. This was the world Gaia trusted, until her mother and father are taken captive by the Enclave. Inside the wall, desperate to save her parents, Gaia is faced with the truth of the Enclave, and something bad brewing from the advanced babies.

Birthmarked was a very cool dystopian story, one that is originally seen as something that may have taken place in the past. A place of ruin, only just being built. But the Enclave shows that this society is advanced, very advanced. The government in this book is not quite as sinister as those that appear in The Hunger Games or Uglies, but it is a controlling government just the same. This book is so cool, and sweet because it revolves around a connection between mother and daughter, unlike most dystopian books now. And it still has that romantic storyline running through it that we all seem to crave. Great story, great characters, great dystopian fiction.

Rating: 4/5