Review: The 100 by Kass Morgan

"In the future, humans live in city-like spaceships orbiting far above Earth's toxic atmosphere. No one knows when, or even if, the long-abandoned planet will be habitable again. But faced with dwindling resources and a growing populace, government leaders know they must reclaim their homeland... before it's too late. 
Now, one hundred juvenile delinquents are being sent on a high-stakes mission to recolonize Earth. After a brutal crash landing, the teens arrive on a savagely beautiful planet they've only seen from space. Confronting the dangers of this rugged new world, they struggle to form a tentative community. But they're haunted by their past and uncertain about the future. To survive, they must learn to trust - and even love - again."

Title: The 100
Author: Kass Morgan
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Length: 323 pages
Release Date: September 3, 2013 


I really wanted to like this book. I'd heard pretty good things about it, and though I've never seen the TV show it inspired, I'd also heard that it was actually kind of great (for the CW, at least). The plot looked interesting, if a bit campy, and I thought it had the potential to be something really good. I suppose you could say I had really high hopes for it; unrealistically high.

It's not that The 100 was bad, per se, it just didn't live up to my hopes. That's probably partly my fault for getting them up so high in the first place, to be honest. Still, the book was okay. Not good, not great, but not terrible either. It felt like an outline of something that could have been so much better than it actually was. The biggest reason I can think of for this was the sheer number of characters. Between her four narrators (Clarke, Bellamy, Wells, and Glass) and considerably short length (323 pages), there were too many voices for Ms. Morgan to work with in not nearly enough time. I do understand that this book is the first in a series and therefore not everything has to be perfectly developed and resolved, but it still felt sorely lacking in depth. The four voices sounded fairly similar, and their respective storylines were alternately repetitive of one another and completely disjointed and unrelated. Glass, one of the main narrators, doesn't go down to Earth with the others, and while I did enjoy having her perspective of life on the ship, she felt like an unrelated afterthought to the love triangles and survival stories going on down below. To be fair, Glass was one of my two favorite voices, and I thought she was one of the most surprisingly fleshed out of the bunch, but I almost wished she had her own book, rather than being sidelined the way she was.

That was my biggest problem with The 100, I think. There was too much going on but not enough development, and the result was a flat, half-drawn sketch of something promising. None of the events actually really sunk in as important to me; they all felt quite underwhelming and almost nonexistent. I can quite honestly say that it feels like nothing happened in the book at all, despite there being quite a bit of action. However, what action there was felt a bit gimmicky and forced. Look back to the premise of the book: a hundred juvenile delinquents travel to Earth, which may or may not be safe for human habitation (Because why? No one cares about teenagers? They're the best ones for the job? [actually, I think it's because they killed all the adult convicts, but that's besides the point]), and are left to their own devices. What happens is pretty much what you would expect, a sort of post-apocalyptic reality TV show. It is cool, but it's thin. It's faddish. It's just not quite substantial enough to hold its own the way I hoped it would.

That said, it's not all bad. The 100 actually has quite a bit of good in it, too. When given the opportunity, Ms. Morgan shows some rather unique world-building, especially in relation to the spaceship on which the humans now live. She's worked out a complex set of laws, customs, and social norms, and it really does feel like a living, breathing society. There were a few times that had me sit back and think "We could actually very well end up like this, at the rate we're going." Her backstory, too, was great. It was muddled down underneath love triangles and teenage angst, but it was there, and it was tragic and kind of beautiful. It was that driving force, the story of how humanity has ended up where it has, that kept me reading. I didn't care about whether or not Clarke ended up with Bellamy or Wells (for the record, I'm pro-Wells), I cared about the survival of the human race. It's that survival story that will keep me reading on through the series, albeit with significantly lowered expectations.

I was provided with a copy by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. (Thank you!)

Review: Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

"There is danger in dreaming. But there is even more danger in waking up. 
Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs. 
The trick with found things though, is how easily they can be lost.  
Friends can betray. Mothers can disappear. Visions can mislead. Certainties can unravel."

Title: The Raven Cycle #3: Blue Lily, Lily Blue 
Author: Maggie Stiefvater 
Publisher: Scholastic Press 
Length: 391 pages 
Release Date: October 21, 2014

I'm going to come right out and say it: Maggie Stiefvater is one of my absolute favorite authors. I was lucky enough to meet her on her initial The Raven Boys tour, and she was delightful (and I can successfully say I've been challenged by a New York Times best selling author to cry at a piece of her writing); I've been enamored ever since. Of course, I was beyond excited for Blue Lily, Lily Blue and had resigned myself to pre-ordering it the day I received an ARC from the publisher. I went into this book with high hopes, and Stiefvater didn't disappoint.

This book was told in the same lyrical prose as the last two, creating a lush fantasy setting complete with ghosts and sentient forests. I'm not entirely sure I understand the lore of the series, as it doesn't seem to be very clearly defined or have many strict rules, but I think that's the point. It makes me love it all the more. It's an incredible magical realism, somewhere between our world and something else altogether that only Maggie Stiefvater can create. I don't think I've read something so lovely since The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender. 

Atmosphere aside, Blue Lily, Lily Blue progressed the series monumentally. It was once again told out of multiple points of view, but while The Dream Thieves was Ronan's and The Raven Boys Gansey's, Lily was both Adam's and Blue's. I wanted it to be Blue's entirely at the outset, but I feel that I've gotten plenty of her, and am so, so happy that we got to see as much of Adam as we did. He's come so far since the beginning of the series; he's no longer quite the scared little boy he used to be, and I couldn't be more proud. Unfortunately, more Blue and Adam meant less Ronan and Gansey, which, while understandable, was still a bit disappointing. As a whole though, I feel honored to be able to spend so much time with these characters. They're beautifully crafted, entirely three-dimensional, and devastatingly memorable. I'm not sure how much I can say about their development without spoiling too much, but there are a lot of puzzle pieces clicked into place here, finally beginning to solve some of the mysteries of their backstories, and creating even more in their wake. Knowing that I can't save any of them makes it hurt all the more.

What makes this series work so well is how intricate it is, and seeing every little detail revealed and fall into place is nothing short of mystifying. This latest installment brings us closer than ever towards the resolution of the final mysteries: where is Glendower, and how will they find him? As well as the quest for Blue's heritage. At the outset, Maura has disappeared in pursuit of "Butternut," Blue's father, and has been missing for over a month. School is resuming for the characters-- reminding me that not only are they supernatural explorers but they're also teenagers who have to deal with awful teachers and college funds-- and they might finally have a lead on Glendower's location. As well, we are introduced to Colin Greenmantle and his wife, Piper, a pair of utterly despicable and completely mesmerizing people on the quest for supernatural things to aid their inflated egos. I loathed them whole-heartedly, but at the same time, I absolutely adored them. We were introduced to other characters I loved even more, but saying much about them would give away a handful of key plot points.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue was intoxicating, enthralling, devastating; it was beautiful in nearly every sense of the word, and yet it seemed to be missing something. Perhaps it was because I'd gone into the book thinking it was the last, as I had incorrectly believed the series to be a trilogy. When it concluded with so many loose ends, I sat blinking, confused, wondering what I'd missed. I then learned that it was a quartet, and was relieved. However, that didn't shake the sort of anti-climatic feeling of it as a whole. It was a lot of setup, a couple of resolutions, and many, many more questions left unanswered. As the penultimate book in the series, that was its purpose, and it accomplished it very well, but I am still left wanting something more. That something is probably book number 5, and 2015 can't come fast enough.

I was provided with an advance copy by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately, I was unable to get my review finished by the time of the book's release.