The Blade of Shattered Hope, by James Dashner

I was really excited to pick up the Blade of Shattered Hope from the bookstore about a week ago. This is the 3rd book in Dashner's 5-part series, The 13th Reality. Here are my reviews for Books 1 and 2 of this series. They are awesome. Having said that, I believe that I liked the first and second books much better than the third. Without giving away too many spoilers (I hope), here are a few reasons why I had a less than stellar reading experience:

• It was pretty dark compared to the others.

Granted, I understand why it's a lot darker: Mistress Jane is upping her game, Tick's trying to control his newfound power, and in the meantime, his own family is being attacked and mixed up in this whole Reality mess. But James, if I were humbly able to suggest anything to you, since it's the 3rd in a 5 part series, maybe you could have saved the darkness for the last 2 books? Then again, from the ending, I have no idea where you plan to go with this series, so I'll just leave the writing to you.

• Very few entertaining riddles for Tick to solve, which I really loved in Book 1, the Journal of Curious Letters.

In fact, there was only one riddle, near the end, which wasn't that hard. Maybe that was because I decided to flip through the book to see the pictures ahead (correct me if I'm wrong, but there seem to be fewer illustrations in this volume than the others), and I accidentally saw the solution before I got to that part. So I ruined that for myself. ~,~

• Tick has so much mood switches about his feelings about Mistress Jane, which had me utterly confused.

Jane is evil and twisted, yes, everyone knows that. But first he feels pity for her and what he's accidentally done to her (See The Hunt for Dark Infinity), then he hates her guts for doing stuff to his family and friends. Then he feels there might be a glimmer of hope for her yet, and then he goes insane and tries to kill her with his wild Chi-karda powers, without thinking about any consequences. Yeah. For some reason, I don't feel like I recognize Tick anymore. He used to use his head, but now he just goes with his gut.

Besides pointing these things out, I do have some good things to say about Shattered Hope. I learned more stuff about the supporting characters, like Tick's mom and his sister Lisa, both of whom haven't gotten a lot of coverage until now (Dad and Kayla had great roles in Book 1, I thought. I wish there was more of them here, though). Also Sofia gets more backstory, and Sato becomes a very key player in this adventure. I think I'm warming up to Sato now. He was a real jerk in Curious Letters, but now I see that he's quite loyal and brave and has lots of other good qualities. He makes a great leader, I'll tell you that.

This book isn't my favorite in the series thus far, but the ending will really surprise you. Trust me. I'm not that sure exactly how it happened, even though I read it, but it's still a great cliff-hanger and makes me curious about what happens next.

As a side note, and another suggestion to James Dashner, I read the index of important people and terms at the end of the book. My suggestion is that maybe you should have all the terms we've just learned from this book separate, from all the other terms that we learned in past books, because it makes it confusing when they're all bunched up together. I was reminded of Billy "the Goat" Cooper and the Barf Scarf and the Tingle Wraith and all these things that weren't important to Shattered Hope. To tell the truth, looking back on those story elements made me wonder... why are those things so important to the story? Why should they all be in an index? And I still don't know what the ugly birthmark on Tick's neck looks like! ~,~

Here's a link to my friend Graham's opinions of this same book. I think he shares my sentiments almost exactly.

The Hunt for Dark Infinity, by James Dashner

At last, today I am done with this awesome sequel to Dashner's 13th Reality series! It's taken me a long time to read it (in fact, I believe I started it back when Annette and I were still in Boston), but I'm finally finished with the thing. Boy oh boy, I'd say that James outdid himself with this one! I mean, yeah, it's darker and scarier and the stakes are higher than in Curious Letters, but that just makes reading it even better!!!

I don't want to reveal too much, in case there are still people who haven't read it yet (it's only been out for a few months, after all), but this was really, really an incredible book. Tick and his friends, Paul and Sofia, go off on more riddle-solving adventures and visit different realities, Master George still tries to figure out what it is about Tick that makes him so special, and you even get to see a strange side of Mistress Jane. And I do mean strange. As in Proffesor Snape strange. I have no idea what to think about her anymore...

From beginning to end, this book was a page-turner. Especially the last 12 chapters that I read in my final sitting. The climax is just amazing. James was totally right about Tick needing a lot of therapy at the end of this adventure, though. ^_~ Also, the ending leaves tons of screaming questions in your head, even when you're finished, but I think it was worth it. I will look forward very much to Book 3, which is rumored to come out next April. A long time to wait, but that doesn't matter much to me. Not to a true Dashner fan, like myself.

Speaking of James Dashner, I am still waiting patiently for my ARC of Maze Runner to come in the mail. Don't worry, it should come in any day now. Well, that's what I keep telling myself, anyway. I hope nothing happened to it. It's been more than a week since I won that contest. Still, you can bet that as soon as I get that book in my hands, I'll be jumping up and down like an excited cartoon character, like the Animaniacs or something. Maybe I won't be able to bounce off walls or anything like that, but I'll probably be that happy! ^_^

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Also I thought I might as well mention that recently I've been reading something really cool online. It's especially cool for those who loved Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga, like I did. See, Stephenie Meyer started writing a book that was from Edward's point of view, when he first meets Bella, and Meyer called it Midnight Sun. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), the first 12 chapters somehow got leaked out to the public online, so Stephenie decided to postpone the project indefinitely and allow her fans to enjoy what little there was of Midnight Sun.

How did I get wind of this awesome thing, you ask? Well, I give full credit to Lauryn, of The Lateiner Gang Book Review Spot, who wrote her review of Twilight and left the link of Midnight Sun for me to follow. So far I've read almost 2 of the 12 chapters, and it's goooood. Trust me. ^,~ It puts a whole new spin on things from Edward's point of view.

Speaking of the L.G.B.R.S. (sorry, but you guys ought to get a much shorter name :P), they're setting up a couple giveaway contests, kind of like what James Dashner did for Maze Runner. One of the prizes offered is a signed copy of Alvor, a book written by my recent friend, Laura Bingham. (Do you remember her? Maybe not, I mentioned her in my regular blog.) Anyway, I know I ought to be content with winning Maze Runner, but how can I possibly pass up the chance to win another free new book? Especially if it has Laura's autograph?! So here, visit these guys' blog for your chance to enter, and be sure to comment that I sent you there. Follow them too if you feel like it. They've written pretty good reviews so far. Granted, they're for books I've already read (or am about to read), but still.

So you guys will probably be pleased to know that my next post (where I'll surely announce my possession of Maze Runner. ^,^ Eeeeee, so excited!) will mark my 60th post on this blog. I think that's pretty darn cool. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that I've reviewed exactly 60 books here. In fact, I think 10 of my posts aren't even reviews at all, just month tally-ups and book-related news and such. But still, at least I think it's an impressive thing.

I appreciate any and all supportful comments. After all, this is a book club, isn't it?

The Journal of Curious Letters, by James Dashner ^,~

This was my second time reading James Dashner's bestselling book. I read it while reading it to my brother of 11 years, Adam, for the first time. His verdict? He loves it and is probably going to pay more attention to this series. It was a great experienced, reading out loud to my brother. He doesn't like reading as much as me and my sister does, but he enjoyed listening to Dashner's words. I also think he liked me doing an impression of Mothball, who reminds me personally of a Russian person.

Rereading the book reminded me how much I liked James's writing style. It felt like reading his blog. He also uses funny metaphors and his sense of humor plainly leaks onto the pages. However, I didn't really like the fangen fighting scene that much. It was slightly confusing, and I can't really picture what one looks like in my mind. But ignoring that, I still say that I liked reading it and it is proof that James Dashner's book can stand the test of time. I can hardly wait until I'm able to read the sequel, Dark Infinity, or his other raved about book, The Maze Runner, which still has yet to arrive.

Even if I hated his books though, I love James Dashner's blog. For those who haven't read it before, please check out this link and be amazed. The life and times of this published author is fascinating to follow.