Monday Sunshine: Beth Revis Edition

Remember all those ambitious goals I had for my week off?

Yeah, when I fail, I like to fail big :)

I did have a good vacation, and I did get some writing done...but rather than blazing ahead with this new, exciting version of my story, I got about 6K words in and sputtered out.  I might need to do some scene-level planning and see if that helps--and if not, it may be time to trunk this WiP and move on.  I have the beginning of something else that has voice but only a basic plot, so I'm not totally throwing in the towel yet.

Oh, and I baked a cake!  And followed the people whose cards I got at SCBWI.  So it wasn't a total wash.

Also as promised--this morning I finished Shades of Earth, the final book in Beth Revis's awesome sci-fi trilogy.  I read the first two last year, so I'll re-share my brief thoughts on those here in addition to what I jotted down today after finishing the final volume.

And finally--if you're like me and have the February Blurghs, head over to Sara Biren's blog for her awesome Winter Writing Retreat!

What I Read This Week: 



Across the Universe by Beth Revis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After I got past the TERRIFYING beginning (seriously, I had to walk away for a day or two)I got really swept up in this story. Amy's voice, in particular, feels very true--and in a book with a plot this wild and twisty-turny, having a protagonist who can anchor it with some reality is important. That's not to say that the plot doesn't work--in fact, it's very well constructed--but I don't read a ton of science fiction, so it's nice to have a bit of a lifeline. I can't help but compare the plot, in some ways, to The Giver, but it never feels copied or unoriginal. It's like it takes some of the concepts and situations that were most interesting from that book and gives them a whole new context. (And really, so much in The Giver is just waiting to be revisited!) Revis has created a really fascinating world in Across the Universe, and by the end of this book you're left with the feeling that she's just scratched the surface (so isn't it awesome that Book 2 is out? Yes, yes it is.)


A Million Suns by Beth Revis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ah, the rare (these days) second book I read immediately after the first book! And it did not disappoint. The big reveals are just as satisfying and tightly paced as those in the first book, and the stakes just keep getting higher! I loved the "scavenger hunt" setup--and completely did not anticipate any of the big twists. My only complaint: having to wait for book three!


Shades of Earth by Beth Revis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Once again, Beth Revis shows off her impressive ability to make a book impossible to put down. Especially in the last third of this book, if I knew I was going to have to stop reading, I would stop mid-chapter. Once you get to the end of a chapter, you have to keep going--and because there are two POV characetrs, you have to read two more chapters...and then you have to read another chapter because now you want to find out what happened to the other narrator!

I don't think it's spoiling anything, given the cover and title of this book, to say that I totally loved the new setting. I would have read a trilogy just of this book, I think, if it could have been expanded. (I do think the ending leaves an opening for another book, say about ten years in the future? Or maybe like fifteen years, to give the new generation a chance to become protagonist-ages?)

While this book feels very different from the first two in the series, I found it an exciting and satisfying end to the trilogy.

View all my reviews