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Teen SRC 2022 – A Winter’s Promise (The Mirror Visitor #1) by Christelle Dabos

Written by Noor
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A Winter’s Promise by Christelle Dabos is a dystopian fiction novel that was translated from French by Hildegarde Serle. This book is from the point of view of Ophelia, the main character. She lives on an ark called Anima, and these arks were created after the Earth had exploded and broken into these floating islands called arks. Ophelia has special powers, which are travelling through mirrors and reading objects. Due to political reasons, Ophelia got declared to marry Thorn, who is from an ark called The Pole. Ophelia and Thorn are opposites as Ophelia is tiny and shy, and Thorn is rude and keeps to himself. Ophelia has been accompanied by her aunt, Rosaline and lives at The Pole with Thorn’s grandmother and aunt, Berenilde. At The Pole, no one should find out that Ophelia is Thorn’s fiancé, and a lot of planning had been done to keep her identity hidden even when the ladies move into their enemy’s house to live. This book revolves greatly around a fantasy world and how Ophelia is surviving in it.

Until now, this summer, A Winter’s Promise was probably the book I had the most time finishing, and as I progressed, my interest in it slightly started to become less and less. This book disappointed me greatly as BookTok hyped it up so much for me. I pushed myself so much to read this book, which sucked because this was one of the few fantasy books I had read, and it has pretty much scared me away from fantasy and dystopian fiction. I expected a bit more romance in it and just hoped the plot to flow more smoothly than it was. I couldn’t connect to any of the characters except for Ophelia. I feel like too many things were happening at once, and not explained adequately, or it took a long time to figure out what was happening. The plot, in general, was plodding, and a few things were pretty annoying and repetitive. As much as I wanted to love this book, I had to force myself to finish it and had a hard time even looking at the second book I still haven’t started. On a more positive note, many readers did not like the first book but liked the series because things started progressing after the first book. Hopefully reading the second book might make me change my mind but for now I’m not too impressed.

One thing that did satisfy me about this book was the writing style was really unique which is one thing that really kept me on track to finish it. I also think towards the ending of the book it made a bit more sense and in a way started to tie things up. Hopefully in the second book there’s a bit more romance and affection shown between Ophelia and Thorn and maybe that is why readers enjoyed the second book more and really got hooked. Oh also the covers of this book is so pretty and even the rest of the book covers in the series look so gorgeous.

Rating: 5/10 (Ophelia’s scarf and Ophelia herself really deserve at least five stars).

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Teen SRC 2021- The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Written by Lucian C.
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The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking Book 1) eBook : Ness, Patrick: Amazon.ca: Kindle Store

The Knife of Never letting Go by Patrick Ness is about a world where most of the women are gone because of a “disease” which also causes all male creatures to have their thought come out into verbal format for everyone to hear called the “Noise”. The story follows Todd, the only boy left in the town where everyone else was already a man. This “disease” was said to be from an alien species called the Spackle that had used biological weapons against humans during their war, wiping out all the females.

This book was among one of my favorite books with the many plot twists and properties of “Noise” that I had never thought of before. It also showed how many figures would often make up stories in order to cover up a dark history or to turn a group’s hostility to another group. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read dystopian fiction and is okay with grammar errors.

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Teen SRC 2021 – Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman

Written by Lucian C.
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Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1) by Amie Kaufman

Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff follows a group of cadets from Aurora Academy who were sent on a simple supply sending mission. However, they weren’t told that this would determine the outcome of a very long war. The crew consists of Auri, a girl with supernatural powers, Tyler Jones, a star pupil of the Academy, and many other people who are considered as misfits.

This book consisted of many plot twists and was very confusing overall. I didn’t like it a lot, but I’d recommend it to anyone who is a fan of interstellar romance or someone who likes reading about aliens.

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TAMBA Author Interview – B. R. Myers

Written by Rosie
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Rogue Princess

Recently, my friend, Isabella, and I were given the opportunity to interview B. R. Myers, author of Runaway Princess! It’s a beautiful sci-fi novel: a gender-swapped retelling of Cinderella! We loved the story, and it was so awesome to have the chance to speak with Ms. Myers and learn a bit about the behind-the-scenes of her book! 

Without further ado, here are some highlights from the interview:

Rosie: So how did you come up with the idea for Rogue Princess? I know it builds on that classic fairytale of Cinderella — but how did you initially think of doing a spin-off story?

B. R. Myers: In the beginning, I think I just wanted to do something different from the few contemporary novels I had already worked on. And coincidentally on Twitter, Pitmad was going on, which is when authors get to pitch their ideas for novels in a very limited number of characters. I noticed that there were a lot of retellings amongst the pitches, and I found that really cool! Cinderella is also my favourite fairytale, so that was the first thing that popped into my head when I first thought about possibly doing a twisted fairytale. So I started to think about how I could make it more unique, and gender swap came to mind. Then I joked about “oh, how about I set it in space!” and what do you know? 

Isabella: That’s so funny that it started as a joke! Yes, I’ve read many Cinderella retellings, but I’ve never encountered a gender-swap version, so I thought that was awesome! My next question is: what do you like best about being an author? What don’t you like?

B. R. Myers: What I love the most about being an author is meeting my readers, like you two! Connecting with other authors, other readers, is definitely my favourite part. As for what I don’t enjoy as much, I would have to say the “waiting” portion. When you’re trying to get published, there are so many external factors that take a long, long time to work out! For example, after I wrote Rogue Princess, I was super excited and I wanted to share it with the world, right away! But I had to wait for almost a year before the actual publishing because so much work goes into it, so that was definitely a test for my patience.

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Teen Book Review – Warcross by Marie Lu

Written by Rosie
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Warcross

Hey all, long time no see! I hope everyone is safe and healthy 🙂

Recently, I re-read Warcross, the first book of a duology by one of my favourite authors, Marie Lu.

The story takes place in a futuristic world, when real life is drab and grey and run-down, so people all over the world put on a pair of high-tech glasses daily to enter the colourful and vivid virtual reality of Warcross. 18-year-old Emika Chen, our protagonist, is a bounty hunter, and tech genius. She catches criminals the police don’t have time for by hacking through the dark web, and it’s her only source of income. However, when a hack goes wrong, and she accidentally reveals herself to the creator of Warcross, her life takes a DRASTIC turn.

I honestly really liked this book! It was jam-packed with action, which is one of my favourite things about Marie Lu books, so I was super glad this was no exception! As well, the world is very realistic, because it’s not hard to believe that in the future, we could have something similar to Warcross. That made the reading experience a lot more immersive, as what Emika was going through seemed super probable, it wasn’t hard to connect to the story and its characters. I also very much enjoyed the plot twists although I was able to guess a few of them. They made sense, and weren’t a complete shock, which can actually detract from the actual writing. All in all, I give this book an 8.5/10. It was a great read!

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Teen SRC 2020 – The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Written by Max
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The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

A science fiction novel with a hint of romance? Sign me up! Throughout this novel, you will be lead through a roller coaster of wild emotions; it can range from excitement to absolute terror. There won’t be a single feeling of disappointment with this book, because every page will have you reeling on the edge of your seat.

On the day of Ruby’s tenth birthday, she sent to a rehabilitation camp called Thurmond. Why? She had obtained a peculiar disease that killed the majority of the children in America. Locking children up in a camp because of a “disease”?! That sounds crazy, doesn’t it? It almost seems as if the government is… scared of them. Now at the age of sixteen, the truth about Ruby’s abilities are revealed… and she barely makes it out alive. On the run, she meets three other kids who also escaped. They then start their journey to a safe haven called the East River- where supposedly, there are kids just like them. But as they continue their journey, Ruby will be faced with a decision that will determine her future.

“Just one more page!!” I cannot stress this enough, but that sentence is almost never true (unless you somehow have amazing control over yourself.) I thought that this book was absolutely phenomenal. I’ve read many sci-fi novels, but this one was so unprecedented that I ended up reading until the sun came up. The relationships built between the characters were so wholesome and there were times where I needed a moment to collect myself before I could continue reading. This book has single-handedly made me cry and laugh so much- sometimes, even at the same time. Ruby is such a sweet girl and reading from her POV was astounding because it showed how selfless she was. I would, without hesitation, give this book a 10/10. 

Thanks for taking time to read my review!:)

Till next time,

Max

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Teen SRC 2019 – Exo by Fonda Lee

Written by Inshal
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Front Cover

In the book Exo, written by Fonda Lee, aliens have ruled Earth for almost a century and there’s been peace for almost as much time. Some people still believe humans should fight for their freedom, but Donovan Reyes doesn’t agree. His dad is the prestigious Prime Liaison of the Earth colony and Donovan’s exo, an alien technology attached to his body (exoskeleton, you could say) will guarantee him a high-ranking army position in the future, for sure.

Everything goes wrong, though, when he’s kidnapped in one of his missions by a human revolutionary group bent on killing him. When they learn of his connection to the Prime Liaison only do they let him live, as a bargaining chip. But Donovan knows his dad, and he knows that the Prime Liaison won’t sacrifice anything for the planet’s safety, not even his own son. Donovan doesn’t have much time, and he has to escape before the Sapience leave him for dead, killing the future of a peaceful Earth along with him.

Exo gets a 8.5/10. It’s a surprising interesting take on the usual dystopian story, and I loved each of the characters. The plot kept me at the edge of my seat, and I enjoyed the ending. I would recommend it to all dystopian fans.

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Teen SRC 2019 – Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful by Arwen Dayton

Written by Inshal
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Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful

Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful by Arwen Dayton are a collection of six stories, each set further in the future than the last. Each of them tells the story of a teenager whose life are affected, in either a positive or negative way by gene-editing technology.

Each of the stories are unique and interesting, but I only enjoyed about half of them. It’s scary to imagine what life will be like in the future, and while the author has portrayed it beautifully, reading about a gentically modified boy-dolphin gave me the creeps. Also, the stories were short and abruptly having to switch between each of them interrupted the flow of the story. Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful gets a 6.5/10. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t recommend it to others.

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Teen SRC 2019 – Extras by Scott Westerfeld

Written by Rosie
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Although I didn’t like the book all that much, props to the cover!!

Lol, I’m back!! With the last book of the series I’ve been reviewing for the past month 🙂 I understand if you guys hate me by now but what kind of evil creature can just stop reading mid-series? Not me, that’s for sure. Also, honestly Inshal, just win the grand prize already and spare my pain of trying to match you. With finals approaching I’m literally surrounded with books I would LOVE to read but just CAN’T and it’s killing me.

Extras by Scott Westerfeld is the technically the last book in the Uglies series but it’s a little detached from the original storyline. The plot was completely new but the characters we have grown to love are still there, don’t worry, they’re just joined by a few new ones. It starts off a bit slow but once we got over the one boring part, things moved along pretty fast once more. I didn’t like this book as much as the others because it’s really hard to adjust to a whole new story when you’re still so hung up on what happened in the previous books. I also thought the plot was WAY too rushed despite being slow in the beginning and also very…odd. It didn’t really make sense to me because it had nothing to do with the previous books and had taken on almost a whole different genre which made it super unrealistic for me. Another thing is, the romance was honestly so bad it might as well have been non-existent. It was wayyy to hurried and not well-developed at all, not very satisfying… However, the worldbuilding is of course, still fantastic and the ways of their world were very interesting to me. Moreover, since it is the last book of the series, it made me feel a sense of completion despite it not being really connected to the other books, which gives it bonus points in my rating.

Overall, I’d rate this book a 7/10 because I really loved the world and I feel like so much could’ve come out of it but the plot was not good enough to match the setting. You wouldn’t really be missing anything if you just skipped this book so… I would still say it’s an ok read, not great though.

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Teen SRC 2019 – Warcross by Marie Lu

Written by Aiden
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Warcross by Marie Lu

   WarCross is a futuristic book about a teenage girl name Emika, who finds her way into a VR tournament and must investigate on what’s wrong around her environment in a virual reality world and find crimminals. I enjoyed this book because I liked how the author was able to recreate how there are little holes everywhere in our lives and like in the book, the are various holes in the technological services. And being able to use knowledge and initiative to work together to fix both our personal and social problems. iwould recommend this book to teens who enjoy a good story with a techy side and readers who loved Ready Player One but want less of a post-apocalyptic world and more of a urban society.    

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