The Hunger Games

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Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic Press
ISB N: 0439023483 / 978-0439023481
Price: 17.99 $
Source: borrowed from a friend
Pages: 384
Previous Book: /
Following Books: 2. Catching Fire / 3. Mockingjay


Katniss lives in District 12, the poorest District in the country Panem and she has to go hunting illegally to support her mother and her sister Prim. Every year, the so called Hunger Games are organized where 24 tributes - a boy and a girl from each district - have to fight to death, until one of them survives. The tributes are aged 12 to 18 years old and are chosen by random. This year, Prim's name is in the lottery wheel for the first time, but is picked. This means the certain death for her because she is badly nurtured and can do only few things. To safe her sister, Katniss volunteers to fight instead of her sister and therefore she and Peeta go into the fight for District 12. During the preparation phase, Peeta suggests to pretend to be in love with each other to get many sponsors (they could raise their survival chances). But when they get into the arena, everyone is for themselves. But it seems, as if Peeta didn't only pretend his love to Katniss... or did he? Will Katniss survive?


Own Opinion
I really liked the book and it was easy to read. The Hunger Games is the first book since a long time where the protagonist always did exactly what I wanted her to do in every situation. Also, the introduction to the story was very well-done; the surrondings of the new country Panem was described without sounding boring. But there are obviously many people dying in this story which is why the series is not to recommend to sensitive people. A few friends have read the books before I started and said that the violence in this trilogy is pretty extreme, but I actually didn't think of it that way; maybe it's just because I was already prepared for it and already know violence from many books and movies. To put it in a nutshell, I wanna give a huge thumbs up to Suzanne Collins. I already have the second book borrowed from my friend and am gonna read it during Christmas break; be sure to look forward to a review on this blog!


by Cécile

House of Night Series

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Series: The House of Night
Author: P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
Publisher: Atom (GB)
Price: 6.99 £ (9.30 € in Germany)
Source: bought (in English)/Library
Pages: 348
Books: 1.) Marked, 2.) Betrayed, 3.) Chosen, 4.) Untamed, 5.) Hunted, 6.) Tempted, 7.) Burned, 8.) Awakened

"Marked" is the first book of the House of Night-series which is basically about Zoey Redbird, a teenanger who has been 'marked' and is now turning into a vampyre fledglings. They go into a special school, the House of Night, that teaches them the basics about their new lives as vampyres. After about 4 years (if you don't die beforehand) you grow out of being a fledgling and become a full vampyre. The priestesses that serve the goddess Nyx have tattoos appearing of their skin but only after they "graduated" to a full vampyre, so it is very weird that Zoey has them appearing already now where she's still a fledgling - she later finds out that she has an affinity for all 5 elements: spirit, water, fire, earth and air which makes her to a "priestess in training".
In the first book, it's all about finding friends: Stevie Rae, Erin, Shaunee and Damien. There is also another "priestess in training" at the House of Night, Aphrodite, who can be called a selfish bully and she is the leader of the Dark Daughters, a traditional school group that makes its own rituals for the goddess Nyx. With Zoey having an affinity for all five elements, Aphrodite is forced to invite her to the Dark Daughters and accidently summons evil spirits during a ceremony at Samhain (=Halloween), and Zoey has to fight them to save her human ex boyfriend. Wether she'll be able to make it and if she can bring Aphrodite down from her high horse, you will have to read for yourself.

Own Opinion
The first thing I'm gonna say is that my opinion on this series is quite negative. If you liked it then don't read on, because I didn't. I have to admit that the plot is pretty good and I also enjoyed the fact that it's none of those "oh my gosh we're all so innocent, we never made a move and never mention the word sex! Oh my god now I said it myself!"-books.
But theres guys. I know I didn't mention any guys above (except for Damien, but Damien doesn't count because he's gay), but theres guys. Lots of guys. And I don't like the way Zoey goes around town with guys. I'm on book five right now (I've only read this far because I bought the first 5 books at once and if I bought them I'm gonna read them) and I think she's on guy number 4 right now or something, always coming back to the first one, than saying "But I love the second one I want to get back together with him!" And I think it's pathetic and - don't read the next few words if you're younger than 13 - a slut.
I know it's harsh for me to give a series a negative review because of the romance part, but I had those thoughts going on since book two or three and I thought "Oh it can't be that bad, I'll give it another shot" and it actually IS that bad - a friend of mine has read the first two books independently from me and she gave up in the middle of the second book with the same reasons that I have.
To be quite honest, now I'm going to finish the series - it's only three more books -, but I'm not gonna buy the other ones (it's not worth the money any more to me) but instead borrow them from the library. Maybe I'll end up liking the series so much to be able to look over the boys-part of the series. If that is the case, I will write another blog post reviewing it positively.

The Reformed Vampire Support Group

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Title: The Reformed Vampire Support Group
Author: Catherine Jinks
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
ISB N: 0152066098 / 978-0152066093
Price: 17.00 $
Source: Library
Pages: 368

Everybody has his own fantasies about vampires, but all of them have one thing in common: vampires ar strong and dangerous. But that's wrong. They are poor fragile creatures that are either spending their nights in front of the TV or with their heads over the toilet because the vampires in Sydney, Australia, are abstinent: they feed on guinea pigs, not human blood.  They even formed a support group that meets every Tuesday night, but one night Casimir (the vampire that directly or indirectly infected the rest of Australia's vampires) is found as a pile of ashes in his appartment. This means danger for everybody because the vampirehunter has Casimir's adress book, so he could stake every member of the support group during the day (that's when they're clinically dead and just lay around in the dark).
Because of the fact that the killer did not only use the stake, but also a silver bullet on its victim, the support group does some research and Father Ramón, the priest that supervises the vampire group, Dave and Nina drive to Walgeroo corner because that's where the most silver bullits of this kind have been orderd in whole Australia.They find out that they are dealing with illegal werewolf fights that are being organized by the McKinnons. The priest tries to talk to father and son about the mysterious bullets, but then they are all put in underground cells (that were once used as water tanks).
Will Nina, Dave and Father Ramón be able to free themselves? Will they be able to stop the werewolf fights? Will the support group be able to find the vampire hunter? Read yourself to find out ;D.



Own Opinion
Obviosly I liked the book! it was written in a great style (even though I don't really like first person-narrators), the storyline and the realization were fantastic. But actually something new and unexpected happened again and again: the book isn't constructed like a narration rat but more like a narration camel - with lots and lots and LOTS of  bumps! They actually said on the book that there were sudden plot changes to the last page but I didn't expect it to be this extreme. I actually got bored at the and because there was always something sudden  and you cold barely chill out from the last one.
But I think it's remarkable that the author Catherine Jinks can describe action scenes with so much power which is actually very hard to do in books, I could also relate very well to the main character Nina.
Put into a nutshell, I really liked the book which is kind of surprising because I only took the book at the library becaus I liked the cover :) Everyone who likes action should take a good look at this book but if you're on the look for a good vampire romance you're on the wrong page.

by Cecile