After the pretty positive response I received last month , I decided to make mini-reviews a monthly thing! Also, because I am weird and en...

Interdimensional Travels: Log One

Alexa Mintah

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After the pretty positive response I received last month, I decided to make mini-reviews a monthly thing! Also, because I am weird and enjoy attempting originality, I decided to title these posts “Interdimensional Travels.” For me, reading a story isn’t just reading. I mean, it is, but when they’re written well, I’m transferred to another reality, another dimension if you will, where I get to meet all kinds of cool people and do all kinds of cool things and follow those cool people on all kinds of cool journeys.

And so, once a month, I will share a mission log on some of my recent travels and armchair adventures.

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An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

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Rating: 2 1/2 stars out of 5.

Review: I wanted to like this book. Honest, I did, and while it definitely had an intriguing beginning, everything that happened after that just drove me away. The main characters had all the makings of people I could love: a formerly cowardly girl going to the ends of the earth to save her brother, and a super soldier who’s sick of being forced to kill. But then... things happened and they just started to annoy me: both mains made several poor decisions and they were often led by their love (or more accurately, lust) rather than logic and common sense.

Which makes me sound like Spock, but that’s just the way I think.

Besides that, there was a lot more emphasis on sex and violence than I’d prefer to spend my time reading. Truthfully, I don't like much sexy stuff in a book at all, however, I can be okay with violence (I do adore HG, you know). But this world felt extraordinarily brutal, and I just got so annoyed with everything that, by the end, I wasn’t even really angry, just filled with a strong sense of irritated disgust with their whole world and everyone in it.

Which sounds so mean, so of course I’ve gotta end with something nice: the writing in this book was really good. Quite vivid, actually. So maybe that’s part of why it bothered me so much, the vivid descriptions of brutal violence.

Freedom’s wings by Sharon Dennis Wyeth

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Rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Review: I don’t have much to say about this one, lol, but it’s not because it was bad. Quite the reverse actually, it was a nice little story with pretty good everything: plot, characters, writing, voice. I finished it in one sitting and I enjoyed it overall, but it’s not one of those really strong, unique stories that I think will really stick in my brain. Still, it is for younger audiences, so if you or a younger siblings are looking for a nice, quick historical, this is a great choice.

Sneak by Evan Angler

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Rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Review: I reviewed the first one in this series last time, and I think I might’ve liked that one better. The plot was still interesting and the writing still great, but I didn’t like many of the characters this time around. Erin still annoyed me (though she kinda redeemed herself at the end), and Logan didn’t exactly fall out of favor with me--kid was still super sweet--but he was a lot braver which made him a little... well, dumber.

As I mentioned above, I really value logic and common sense in characters, but these kids kept going against their government with half-baked plans and almost no idea what they were doing. It’s kind of a miracle they didn’t all die.

Also, the intrigue and the take-down-the-government bit felt a little forced to me. Peck, the leader of the resistance, still didn’t seem like a savior, and this whole Dome being the bad guy thing... I just didn’t see it. Sure, Dome wasn’t the best government ever and there were some definite problems, but I didn’t feel like I’d been shown anything super horrible yet. For most of the book, Logan and the resistance had almost no proof; they basically just ran off of conspiracy theories. So even though it’s a dystopian and obviously the government is terrible, based on what they actually knew, I felt like they were kind of blowing things out of proportion. It just... Dome wasn’t like HG-level bad; it was more like, we’re-having-some-misunderstandings-so-let’s-have-a-chat-with-our-leaders-and-see-if-we-can’t-work-something-out bad.

Then again, the resistance was mostly kids, so maybe taking down the government seemed more achievable than actually getting to talk with the leaders.

Overall, though, I did enjoy it. It's just... I feel like there're some pieces missing in the logic of it all.

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And that’s the post! Tell me, have you been to any of these dimensions before? What’d you think of them? And where have your armchair adventures taken you recently? Comment me!

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