The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes – Suzanne Collins

You might remember from my Hunger Games review that I gave it an 8/10. You might also remember that it dropped points for its ending… Suzanne Collins returns to the land of the Hunger Games and brings us a prequel. I heard about this the day it was published and immediately bought it on my kindle.

Plot

As said, above, this is a prequel to the Hunger Games Trilogy. We are in the Capitol and are 10 years after the war that started the Hunger Games and divided Panem the way it was.

We are following a young Snow. We learn his family had money but they had invested it all in District 13 – now meaning that they have no money as it was destroyed in the war. We find out that Snow’s mother died in childbirth and his father died in battle. Snow and his cousin Tigris (remember her?) are raised by their mentally ailing grandmother. Because of the lack of money, Snow is hoping to do well at school to get a free scholarship to the university. The family can no longer afford to send him there on their own anymore.

This year is the 10th Hunger Games. They are very different to those that we learned of in the trilogy. Still in its infancy and raw form. This year, they have decided to have the last year students be mentors for the districts to get the Capitol interested in them as no one is. In a seemingly public slight of Snow, he is given District 12’s girl to mentor. The worst one tribute. Snow must now battle with his own morals, the law and his unquenchable desire to win to succeed, not only in the games, but in life too.

Opinion

This book is a bit of a mixed bag. I thought following Snow around in his early years was interesting. What makes such an evil man evil? And to be honest, I’m still wondering.

As you get into the book, the pacing is the same as the previous trilogy and makes for a great read. The relationships and character building that Collins has shines again.

But this, this is the problem… She creates these amazing worlds and characters and had you invested and then fizzles at the end. Again. I don’t think the reason for Snow starting down the path of evil was good enough. The stakes not high enough. Yes he was always selfish and you can see that throughout but how evil we know him to go doesn’t work for me.

Honestly, I think she should have made it a new trilogy. This book has a natural split. Easy to make it into 2 books and flesh them out a little. That would leave time for a 3rd where it could answer some questions. I was fine with these questions being not being answered from the last trilogy but Collins opened it up when she made this prequel and has left me disappointed. How does the Capitol turn into such a preening place? Why does Tigris turn on her own cousin? How does Snow go so deep into the evil we see in the trilogy? How does he become President? I think another book, set a few years after the end of this one would be welcomed.

Giving a score is a hard one for this. On the one hand, it was great to read for 4/5’s of it. But I was left disappointed. It also didn’t have 2 previous books to help temper the ending. 6.5/10. That ending 😦

Ash Princess Trilogy – Laura Sebastian

You may have surmised from the below posts that I like YA fantasy. You are not wrong. It is one of my favourite genres at the moment. Just a shame you have to go to the children’s section in book shops! I don’t need a fancy different ‘adult’ cover, just put it more in the middle rather than next to Horrid Henry!

Plot

We join Theo as her mother is killed and the Kalovaxians take over Astrea. Theo becomes Thora and the Ash Princess. We see that the Kalovaxians are not peaceful rulers but rather come and make the natives slaves and take all the natural resources from a country and then move onto the next one. We eventually find many countries that have been through a Kalovaxian rule and many people are now displaced.

Theo is friends with a Kalovaxians girl, Cress. However, Cress’s father is the Theyn, the right hand (and sword) of the ruler. He is the one that killed Theo’s mother in front of her. So a bit of a strange friendship! Theo does wonder if she is little more than a pet to Cress but she has literally no one else. That is until three Astrean’s sneak into the castle to rescue their Queen. Blaise, Heron and Artemisia (or Art) become Theo’s new guards (after eradicating the previous ones) called Shadows who follow her every move. This is to gather information for the resistance and try and bring down the Kaiser. During this time, the Kaiser’s son, Soren, starts to ‘date’ Theo. Theo initially uses Soren to be in a trap but once they have left the palace (he as a prisoner) she realises his loyalty to her and he becomes part of her inner circle.

As the books go on, you discover that Theo has access to power herself, able to control fire.

Opinion

I haven’t really delved into the plot for the other books in the trilogy because doing so would be major spoilers and I think you should learn about the book for yourself. I loved this series. I’ve seen from reading other reviews that some people think that Sebastian’s use of the Germanic light skinned invaders and the darker skinned natives along with the love triangle and other themes throughout the series are lazy and copy-cat like. Whilst I can understand that and it is true to an extent, for me it didn’t take away my enjoyment of the book. Unlike other books, such as Eragon or Lord of the Rings, the other languages shown you would never be able to ‘learn’ like some people know the full elfish language etc. For me that is better. I don’t need to learn a new language in my light reading. Maybe it doesn’t add as much depth as those other worlds but these books are much shorter and a more standard length, especially when compared to the Eragon series.

The books didn’t drag, keeping a believable pace all the way through. Sometimes Sebastian had our main character/s knocked out or in a deep sleep to make a few weeks pass and then we get an overview which is both slightly lazy but also a clever way to make time and action pass quickly.

The main 5 lead heroes are definitely written well and Heron’s homosexuality is so normalised it isn’t even a thing which I think is well done.

For those who have read some previous posts (thinking along the line of the Hunger Games review etc) then you know I have an issue with endings! I think they are the hardest thing to write in a series and all this anticipation has been built up throughout however many books and now you have to end it. I think this one was relatively well done. It was slightly predictable. The person who obviously had to die at some point did and pretty much everyone else survived but sometimes it is nice to have a relatively happy ending and not have a random death placed in (looking at you Tonks and Lupin!).

Overall, an 8.5/10. A great series I would highly recommend.

YA – My top 10

Hello, Hope this post finds you all well! So much is happening in real life that I’m struggling to find time to post to all you lovely people. My sister is getting married in just under 1 week  so it is a very exciting time for the family :).

Young Adult literature can be traced back to WWII where our teens found themselves needing a form of book that could bridge the gap between childhood and adulthood. Many books can be seen as YA (The Lord of the Rings, Catcher in the Rye) but it has been the sudden increase in popularity (thanks to Harry Potter) that has seen an emergence of some great YA books.

Today I thought I would share my top 10 of YA books and series. Some of them will have been reviewed on here but some haven’t so take a look and see if you would add any to this list! (not in a particular order)

#1 – The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Yes I thought I would start with the most obvious YA series and one that is on everyone’s list. The Hunger Games is a great trilogy and I feel that the films are just as good (quite an anomaly). It follows Katniss as she volunteers for her sister in the 74th annual Hunger Games, a disgusting reminder of the power the Capitol has over the districts of Panem after the destruction of the USA and the uprising that occurred. Portrayed as a ‘competition’, this is really a way for the government to remind the citizens that they can kill anyone who crosses out of line. Unfortunately for Katniss, in trying to keep alive she unwittingly becomes the face of the new revolution.

#2 – Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

An excellent series that has spawned the spin off of Dangerous Creatures. Far superior to the film (which completely changes the ending). Whilst I haven’t really enjoyed Garcia and Stohl’s stand alone novels, Beautiful Creatures has great main and supporting characters, interesting plot and well crafted romances.

#3 – Shiver Trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater

This trilogy was just equisitly written. A werewolf romance story is the basic storyline but it is so much more. When the tempreture gets below a certain level, Sam has no choice but to be a wolf. He is ripped from his human form no matter the place or time. If he wishes to stay human for longer, then he needs to stay warm and not just pull a jumper on warm. Grace has always seen the wolves near her garden, in fact she had a strange interaction with one when she was little and now always sees him as her wolf. When she discovers what he is, they fall in love but can they cope with the pressures of this lifestyle and can Sam keep returning into his human form?

#4 – Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

From my last post you could have probably surmise that Vampire Academy was going to make it onto this list. The story of friendship, love and high school mixed with vampires and guardians makes Mead’s first foray into YA a truly great one. The characters are great, the twists surprising and the plots enjoyable. A series of 6 and it seems to end too soon.

#5 – Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

Luckily, Mead must have thought it ended too soon to as she carries on the world forged in Vampire Academy in Bloodlines. Instead of following Rose, Dimitri and Lissa, we follow Sydney, Adrian and Jill. Sydney was a secondary character appearing in a few of the VA books. It’s interesting to see her as she is so anti-Vampires to begin with and has to overcome this prejudice but in return is shunned by her own people for this acceptance. A very different problem to that of VA but one that seems much more realistic and poignant in today’s world.

#6 – The Girl in the Box series by Robert J Crane

Robert J Crane is a self-published author and someone who has been kind enough to help me with my MA. He recently answered some questions for me towards one of my case studies. Besides being a lovely man, he is also a great writer. The Girl in the Box Series is excellently written, edited and set out. It’s very professionally done and I would highly recommend that if you have never read a self published work before, start with Crane’s. Writing with a female protagonist as a man must be hard but Crane has managed to get all the teenage girl angst so true and congratulations to him for being the only male writer on this list!

#7 – Legend Trilogy by Marie Lu

The Legend Trilogy is like a cross between The Hunger Games and The Divergent Trilogy. There is the shunned part of the city (as District 12 is) and the elite part of the city (think Panem). However, there are classes like there are in Divergent that the elite can partake in. We see that this new country is flawed and our two protagonists are thrown together. The ending is better than both of the above mentioned books. It doesn’t let you down as much as The Hunger Games does and it doesn’t destroy you as Divergent does. Great solid trilogy and a worthy option within this list.

 

#8 – Duff by Kody Keplinger

This is coming out this year as a film and I felt I should get the book in before that occurred. From the trailers I can already see that they have changed certain parts of the book so I am not too happy about that. This book is one that I feel all girls will be able to relate to. Duff stands for Designated Ugly Fat Friend and whilst the Duff doesn’t need to be fat or particularly ugly, she is the one who isn’t as pretty as her friends. However, we see that all girls feel that they are the Duff at some point in their lives. All girls seem to have this ability to only see the bad in themselves and see how perfect that is in one of our friends whether it be they have better legs or eyes, when in reality you have better hair and smile. As a girl, give this a go and as a boy, read it to discover that what bad you say will stick with girls longer than the multitude of good things you say and do.

#9 – The Host by Stephanie Mayer 

If anyone has read my review of The Host will know, I found this highly superior to the Twilight series. The storyline of a love box in three bodies is excellent. How you are never confused between Wanda and Melanie shows just how strong the characters are when they share the same body and space. Mayer may have hit gold with Twilight in terms of fans and money but it is this book that should be her crowning moment. Better written, better characters and a nicer love story, The Host is the Mayer book you should be reading.

#10 – The Testing Trilogy by Joelle Charbonneau

A very recent read of mine and an excellent one at that. Similar to the other’s in that it is dystopia, we find people who are chosen by the city to be potentially educated at the University. Here, the 16 year olds must pass tests of logic, memory, ruthlessness and leadership. They forge alliances, create friendships, enemies and learn how far they are willing to go. Once successful, their memories wiped and they know nothing of the horrors of what they have done… or do they? A brilliant read.

I could have added Harry Potter but I feel everyone knows that this will always be in any book lovers top 10 so I felt it needed to let other books take centre stage! If there are any you think I should have added, let me know in the comments!

Legend Trilogy – Marie Lu

As you do when you have a blog, you look at other people’s blogs. I stumbled upon The Infinite Power in 26 Letters. This blog is quite interesting. A book review blog and more. I stumbled across one of the posts and it was recommending YA fiction series’. From the previous reviews on here, you should be able to surmise that I am a big YA fan. The Hunger Games Trilogy, Beautiful Creatures, Twilight, Harry Potter are all great YA novels. So when I saw this post I decided to follow it’s advice and read some of its suggestions. One if these was the Legend Trilogy by Marie Lu. Brilliant suggestion. Read all three in two days!

Plot

We start off with Legend where we meet Day and June. The most wanted boy in the Republic of America and she, the golden girl of the Republic. It seems there is a plague affecting the poorer sectors of Los Angeles. Obviously not  very good, especially as we see Day’s home being marked as a home of the plague. Day decides to try and save his brother from the plague so breaks into the local hospital to steal some of the  plague medicine. However, here we run onto trouble. Whilst escaping, a guard follows him and Day throws his knife into his shoulder and makes his escape. This turns out to be a catalyst for the rest of the series. This man happens to be June’s brother and it seems Day’s throwing ability is off. Metias is now dead and a grieving June is taken from school and given the task of tracking down Day and bringing him to the authorities.

Prodigy starts us off where Legend left. June and Day are now on the run with Day’s brother held in captivity and being tested on. They run to the rebellious group of the Patriots, apparently funded by the Colonies. Here, in Las Vegas, they agree to help the Patriots in return for fixing Day’s leg which became injured during their flight from LA. June’s mission is to return to the Republic and try and befriend the new leader and Day is to rally the citizens and ultimately kill the new leader. However, June realises that the Patriots are wrong and her and Day turn on the rebels and again are fleeing for their lives. June catches some unknown disease and Day saves her by taking her to the Colonies. Whilst staying there, they realise that the Colonies are just another form of  a suppressed people and would be no better a rule than the republic. June and Day make it their destiny to help change the republic for the better and to do this they must return and throw all their support behind the leader.

In Champion we have June as the golden girl once again. She is now an advisor of the Elector and Day is trying to find a cure for his terminal illness. The Colonies decide to try and invade the Republic whilst it is still relatively weak with a new Elector and rebellious citizens. This calls for June to ask Day for permission to use his brother against a new plague that the Colonies seem to have and blame the Republic for. Of course, due to his own history of being a lab rat and the more recent experiments on his brother, he denies this request but does promise to help in anyway he can, despite his failing health. June discovers this medical ailment and realises it is the reason behind his sudden departure from her life. She also realies that Day can never truly forgive her for her part in the murder of his mother and older brother and it kills him to be in love with her. Day sacrifices himself to save the Republic against the Colonies and ends up with memory loss. He remembers certain people but not June. Should she stay with him and help him remember her? Or leave and takeaway the pain of loving someone who helped to kill your family?

Opinion

I really liked these books. Like I said above, I read all three in two days. It is a dystopian reality with a love story at its core. Similar to The Hunger Games it is a scarily realistic future that could happen to us. With the melting ice caps, the world would change indefinitely and who is to say that this future is not a possibility?

The connection between all the characters is fantastic and you believe them all. I was shocked by one of them as I didn’t see that relationship revelation at all. Maybe I am just naive. Or it was excellent writing. The writing throughout is flawless and really brings you into the story. Having said that, I’m unsure as to whether I like the ending. I think I do. It is definitely better than The Hunger Games ending which if you have read my post on that then you shall know my thoughts on its disappointing finale. So it is good but just not what I thought would happen.

All in all a great read. It made me regret my speed in reading as this meant I had finished them too quickly. My verdict: 9/10. Give it a go!

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games is probably as big as Twilight and Harry Potter. All three have been made into films and have all sold 50-450 million books. Phenomenal when you see series’ such as Discworld have sold over 55 million copies and have been written since the 80’s. The power of film has done this for these. Harry Potter would always have been a high grossing book series but Twilight and The Hunger Games have hugely benefited from the films. Having said that, I read this series long before it became a film.

Plot

We meet Katniss, our heroine, and discover a few important things. One, when her father died it was left to her to raise herself and Prim (sister) due to their mother’s depression. Two, she did this by hunting in the forest by her district. Three, the Captiol makes the district “give up” two of its teenagers to compete in a bloody and barbaric “Hunger Games”. These three points are important in understanding the start of this trilogy and indeed the end. Katniss loves her sister, can shoot with a bow and arrow and the Capitol leaders are evil. During the reaping (the choosing of the teenagers), Prim’s name is called. Katniss volunteers for her sister and in doing so puts herself into the Games. The boy tribute for District 12 is Peeta. They journey off together, along with their mentor, Haymitch, and battle against 22 other young people to be crowned victors. In a twist,  Katniss severely undermines the Capitol and becomes the face of the rebellion.

During Catching Fire Katniss is in no better a position than before the Games. Yes, her family is now rich and have a fabulous new house but she is under severe scrutiny. Her freedom to chose who she wishes to be her husband has been taken away from her. District 12 now has new law keepers and is punishing the whole district for Katniss’ success. Snow wants her dead and makes it so Katniss has to enter into her nightmares, a second Hunger Game. This time she makes it her mission to keep Peeta alive, knowing she will never have a life with the Capitol in power.

Mockingjay brings us to the final and ultimate climax of the series. Katniss has been rescued from the
games but at the price of Peeta. She becomes the poster girl for the rebellion. Katniss is once again used by higher powers in their games of dominance when all she wants to do is stop fighting and live a normal life.

Opinion

I loved these books. Obviously had to like the first one to keep reading the series. The films are pretty good too. This is a world not to distant to us. Humanity has basically torn itself apart and the Capitol is the area that won at the end of it. The Hunger Games were designed to keep the districts subdued and it is a very feasible path that is not out of the realm of possibilities humanity could take. I think the moral and political issues behind the book are very intricately woven into the plot and hold a hidden meaning; humanity could almost wipe itself out and what we are left with won’t be pretty.

The love triangle is exquisitely done and you never feel that it is forced or contrite by Collins. The fight scenes are detailed gruesomely and you feel Katniss’ pain and revulsion for what she witnesses and what she is forced to do. I definitely didn’t see the ending coming and was shocked when it occurred. However here comes my main vital flaw for this trilogy. The last chapter. Horrendous. It was almost as bad as “And they all woke up and it was just a dream”. Collins had built up this epic suspense and had us all on the edge of our seats and then boom, a very wimpy way to end it. However, I don’t really see any other end to the books. She wrote herself into a corner and this is the result. Unlike the Harry Potter books where I felt a kind of closure for the characters, here I just felt loss and confusion. If it wasn’t for this ending these books are excellent and very much a 10/10. Due to this my verdict is: 8/10. Still epic but just not there.

List of Best-Selling Book Series

Hello readers! This is a quick overview of the top book series sales from across the globe. You can find reviews of some of these books on this blog. Happy reading 🙂

Over 100 Million Copies
Book series	Author	First published	Approximate sales
Maigret	Georges Simenon	1931-1972	853 million
Harry Potter	J.K.Rowling	1997-2007	450 million
Perry Mason	Erle Stanley Gardner	1933 — 1970	300 million
Goosebumps	R. L. Stine	1992–1997–present	300 million
Berenstain Bears	Stan and Jan Berenstain	1962 — present	260 million
Sweet Valley High	Francine Pascal and ghostwriters	1983–2003	250 million
Choose Your Own Adventure	various authors	1979 — 1998	250 million
Robert Langdon	Dan Brown	2000–present	200 million
San-Antonio	Frédéric Dard	1949–2001	200 million
The Railway Series (spawned Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends)	Rev. W. Awdry, Christopher Awdry	1945–2011	200 million
Nancy Drew	various authors as Carolyn Keene	1930 — present	200 million
Noddy	Enid Blyton	1949–present	200 million
The Baby-sitters Club	Ann Martin	1986 — present	172 million
Star Wars	various authors	1977 — present	160 million
Peter Rabbit	Beatrix Potter	1902–1930	150 million
Chicken Soup for the Soul	Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen	1997 — present	130 million
Frank Merriwell	Gilbert Patten	1896 –	125 million
Mr. Men	Roger Hargreaves, Adam Hargreaves	1971 — present	120 million
The Chronicles of Narnia	C. S. Lewis	1949–1954	120 million
American Girl	various authors	1986 — present	120 million
宮本武蔵 (Musashi)	Eiji Yoshikawa	1935–1939	120 million
Dirk Pitt	Clive Cussler	1973 — present	120 million
Twilight	Stephenie Meyer	2005–2011	116 million
Clifford the Big Red Dog	Norman Bridwell	1963 — present	110 million
Martine	Gilbert Delahaye, Marcel Marlier	1954 — present	100 million
James Bond	Ian Fleming	1953–1966	100 million
Between 50 million and 100 million copies
Book series	Author	First published	Approximate sales
Nijntje (Miffy)	Dick Bruna	1955 — present	85 million
Fear Street	R. L. Stine	1989 — present	80 million
The Vampire Chronicles	Anne Rice	1976-2003	80 million
Pippi Longstocking	Astrid Lindgren	1945-2001	80 million
OSS 117	Jean Bruce	1949–1992	75 million
Diary of a Wimpy Kid	Jeff Kinney	2007–present	75 million
Winnie-the-Pooh	A. A. Milne; illustrated by E. H. Shepard	1926–1928	70 million
Magic Tree House series	Mary Pope Osborne	1992–present	70 million
Fifty Shades of Grey	E. L. James	2011–2012	70 million
Left Behind	Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins	1996 — 2007	65 million
A Series of Unfortunate Events	Lemony Snicket aka Daniel Handler	1999–2006	65 million
Little House on the Prairie	Laura Ingalls Wilder	1932–2006	60 million
Jack Reacher	Lee Child	1997–present	60 million
Discworld	Terry Pratchett	1983–present	55 million
Where’s Wally?[164]	Martin Handford	1987–present	55 million
Millennium Trilogy	Stieg Larsson	2005–2007	53 million
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus	John Gray	1992–present	50 million
The Hardy Boys	various authors as Franklin W. Dixon	1927–present	50 million
The Bobbsey Twins	various authors as Laura Lee Hope	1904–1979	50 million
Tarzan	Edgar Rice Burroughs	1914–1995	50 million
The Hunger Games trilogy	Suzanne Collins	2008–2010	50 million
Between 30 million and 50 million copies
Book series	Author	First published	Approximate sales
A Child’s First Library Of Learning	various authors	1980 –	45 million
Junie B. Jones	Barbara Park	1992 –	44 million
The Wheel of Time	Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson	1990 – 2013	44 million
Harry Bosch	Michael Connelly	1992 –	42 million
Harry Hole	Jo Nesbø	1997–present	40 million
连环画 铁道游击队 (Picture-and-story book Railway Guerilla)	original author: Liu Zhixia	1955–1962	36.52 million
Paddington Bear	Michael Bond	1958–present	35 million
The Inheritance Cycle	Christopher Paolini	2002–2011	33 million
徳川家康 (Tokugawa Ieyasu)	Sohachi Yamaoka	1950–1967	30 million
Ramona	Beverly Cleary	1955–1999	30 million
The Dark Tower	Stephen King	1982-2012	30 million
The Destroyer	Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir, various authors	1971–present	30 million
Between 20 million and 30 million copies
Book series	Author	First published	Approximate sales
ノンタン (Nontan)	Sachiko Kiyono	1976–2006	28 million
Curious George	Hans Augusto Rey andMargret Rey	1941–present	27 million
グイン・サーガ (Guin Saga)	Kaoru Kurimoto	1979–2009	26 million
Captain Underpants	Dav Pilkey	1997–present	26 million
三毛猫ホームズシリーズ (Calico Cat Holmes series)	Jirō Akagawa	1978–present	26 million
Rich Dad, Poor Dad	Robert Kiyosaki Sharon Lechter	1997-	26 million
Kurt Wallander	Henning Mankell	1991–2002	25 million
Sagaen om Isfolket (The Legend of the Ice People)	Margit Sandemo	1982–1989	25 million
The Sword of Truth	Terry Goodkind	1998–2007	25 million
鬼平犯科帳 (Onihei Hankachō)	Shōtarō Ikenami	1968–1990	24.4 million
The Shadowhunter Chronicles	Cassandra Clare	2007–present	24 million
Brain Quest series	various authors	1992–present	23.7 million
かいけつゾロリ (Kaiketsu Zorori)	Yutaka Hara	1987–present	23 million
South Beach Diet	Arthur Agatston	2003–present	22 million
竜馬がゆく (Ryoma ga Yuku)	Ryōtarō Shiba	1963–1966	21.5 million
Artemis Fowl	Eoin Colfer	2001–2012	21 million
ズッコケ三人組 (Zukkoke Sanningumi)	Masamoto Nasu	1978–2004	21 million
Shannara	Terry Brooks	1977–present	21 million
Redwall	Brian Jacques	1986–present	20 million
Maisy	Lucy Cousins	1990–present	20 million
Dragonlance	various authors	1984 — present	20 million
幻魔大戦 (Genma Taisen)	Kazumasa Hirai	1979–1983	20 million
青春の門 (The Gate of Youth)	Hiroyuki Itsuki	1970–present	20 million
The Foundation Trilogy	Isaac Asimov	1950–1953	20 million
Horrible Histories	Terry Deary	1993–present	20 million
Rainbow Magic	Daisy Meadows	2003–present	20 million
Morgan Kane	Louis Masterson	1966–	20 million
The Southern Vampire Mysteries	Charlaine Harris	2001–2013	20 million
Between 15 million and 20 million copies
Book series	Author	First published	Approximate sales
科学のアルバム (Kagaku no album)	various authors	1970–present	19 million
剣客商売 (Kenkaku Shobai)	Shotaro Ikenami	1972–1989	18 million
Erast Fandorin	Boris Akunin	1998–present	18 million
吸血鬼ハンターD (Vampire Hunter D)	Hideyuki Kikuchi	1983–present	17 million
涼宮ハルヒシリーズ(Haruhi Suzumiya Series)	Nagaru Tanigawa	2003–present	16.5 million
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy	Douglas Adams, plus a final book by Eoin Colfer	1979–2008	16 million
Bridget Jones	Helen Fielding	1996–present	15 million
The Riftwar Cycle	Raymond E. Feist	1982–present	15 million
Percy Jackson & the Olympians	Rick Riordan	2005–2009	15 million
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency	Alexander McCall Smith	1999–present	15 million
ぼくらシリーズ(Bokura series)	Osamu Soda	1985–present	15 million
His Dark Materials	Philip Pullman	1995–2000	15 million
銀河英雄伝説 (Legend of the Galactic Heroes)	Yoshiki Tanaka	1982–1989	15 million
Der Regenbogenfisch (Rainbow Fish)	Marcus Pfister	1992–present	15 million
A Song of Ice and Fire	George R. R. Martin	1996–present	15 million

All sourced from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books

Beautiful Creatures – Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

I first found Beautiful Creatures as a film. Although it took me a while to get into the film, I found it to be very enjoyable so obviously, once I saw the film was based on a book, I had to have it. I then found out it was a book series of four; Beautiful Creatures, Beautiful Darkness, Beautiful Chaos and Beautiful Redemption. As I bought the series as one for my e-reader I shall review them as one.

These books are written by two authors. Unusual but not unheard of. In fact, some of my favourite series’ are written by two authors. Women’s Murder Club has two and PJ Tracy is the mother/daughter writing duo. Therefore this duel authorship is nothing to deter readers.

When deciding whether to buy the books as a whole or see if I should just buy the first to see if I liked it and would want to carry on reading the series, I stumbled onto a review. This reviewer said if you liked the Twilight Saga and  The Hunger Games Trilogy then these were the books for you. I agree and I’ll add my own to that mix too. If you like these and the Inheritance Cycle, then you will also like Beautiful Creatures. Its an epic love story, a struggle against evil/darkness, mythical creatures, a mythical world and much more.

Plot

We start of meeting Ethan Wate living in a small country town in the heart of America’s Southern states. Mainstream bible basher belt. Like all towns in this area, change is slow and hard to adjust too. Ethan is a high school jock who plays basketball but has a secret love of reading. His best friend, Link knows all of his secrets and just rolls with them all – a true best friend! One day, the niece of old man Ravenwood arrives and joins school. Ethan has literally met the girl of his dreams and obviously wants to know more about her. He tries to do so and ends up falling in love. Little does he know that she is really an adolescent castor, waiting until her 16th birthday to find out if she will go “dark” or “light”. Alongside this main storyline, there is the story of the “curse”. One that involves Lena’s ancestors and Ethan’s. This adds an extra twist to Lena’s future moral compass.

Beautiful Darkness carries on from the last and we see the town dealing with the shock of Macon Ravenwood’s death. In particular, we see Lena struggling with her Uncle’s death and obviously blames herself for his death. This puts a strain on Lena and Ethan’s relationship and she begins to hang around with Ridley and another boy, John. Liv moves to town and becomes a trainee Keeper under the tutelage of Marion. Lena runs away with John and Ridley, leaving Ethan little choice but to follow his one true love. However, Liv and Ethan begin to have feelings for one another and Ethan realises that if this secret world never existed, he and Liv would have been soul mates. Lena also realises this and this hurt sends her further away from Ethan. We discover that Ethan is a Wayward in this world, a mortal who can find a way to things in the castor one. A human SatNav. Handy when no one knows where Lena is going. We end up at the edge of the magical world, once again fighting for Lena’s moral compass, Dark or light?

Beautiful Chaos again carries on where the last one left. Lena has chosen to be both Dark and Light, Link is now part Incubus, Ridley is mortal, Liv is no longer a Keeper in training and Macon is living his second life, this time as Castor. The world is now in Chaos and mortals even recognise this to be so. Link’s mum believes it to be the final reckoning from God. Ethan keeps having dreams about himself. However, he and Lena are now back together though still unable to touch for longer than a few seconds without Ethan’s heart stopping (a problem when a Castor and Mortal try to be together romantically). This problem seems to be getting worse. Ethan’s mother is once again sending him messages through songs and this time it seems to be telling him that the one who is two is the only one to save earth by killing themselves. Ethan also learns that he left half of himself in the underworld when he died and Lena brought him back. John Breed thinks that he is the saviour so he throws himself off the water tower. However, fate does not agree and Ethan discovers that it is him.

In Beautiful Redemption we find Ethan in the afterlife. We also meet his mother. Aunt Pru, who passed away in the previous book, tells Ethan of way to return to the living by taking his page out of the Caster Chronicles and destroying it. However, he needs a few things from the world of the living so he sends messages to Lena via the crossword in the local paper. Ethan continues on his journey through the underworld.

Opinion

Like I said, these books are a mixture of Twilight, The Hunger Games and The Inheritance Cycle. Star crossed lovers from different backgrounds trying to be together under impossible circumstances. An epic battle against the laws of the Castor world. A unique connection between two people. All of these throw hints at the previously said books. However, these are unique in their own right. The duo of Garcia and Stohl have a good partnership and their writing as a team is almost flawless. Lena and Ethan’s connection is excellent and does remind me of Eragon and Saphira’s from The Inheritance Cycle. Each character brings something unique to the story. Liv and Link are some of the best supporting characters I have ever seen in a book. I found book 1 to have confusing elements and certain aspects to not be explained well. Maybe because of the duel authors but something wasn’t quite right. The editing team should also have picked up on this so perhaps they were changed for the remaining three as there was nothing similar in them. Seeing as how that is my main gripe with these books, it’s doing something right.

My verdict; 8/10 if not for the first books inconsistencies it could have been higher. Great books overall and well worth a read!