Review: Earth Girl by Janet Edwards

Title: Earth Girl
Author: Janet Edwards
Source/Format: Purchased, UK Paperback
More Details:  Science Fiction, Young Adult
Publisher/Publication Date: Harper Voyager, August 16, 2012

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Synopsis from Goodreads...

2788. Only the handicapped live on Earth... 

Eighteen-year-old Jarra is among the one in a thousand people born with an immune system that cannot survive on other planets. Sent to Earth at birth to save her life, she has been abandoned by her parents. She can’t travel to other worlds, but she can watch their vids, and she knows all the jokes they make. She’s an “ape,” a “throwback,” but this is one ape girl who won’t give in. Jarra makes up a fake military background for herself and joins a class of norms who are on Earth for a year of practical history studies excavating the dangerous ruins of the old cities. She wants to see their faces when they find out they’ve been fooled into thinking an ape girl was a norm. She isn’t expecting to make friends with the enemy, to risk her life to save norms, or to fall in love...

I first heard about Earth Girl a couple of years ago, when it was still a new release and not out in the US yet. I did mark it as one I wanted to read just based off the synopsis alone. Honestly, I sort of forgot about it. However, recently I purchased the entire trilogy. And even more recently, I finally read Earth Girl. I’m glad I did, because Earth Girl turned out to be a really good book.

The story follows Jarra after she signs up for a class that's not based on Earth. She was considered “Handicapped” because she had a disability that limited her to Earth. She couldn’t travel to other worlds, and thus, she and other characters with similar disabilities experienced prejudice just based off things they couldn’t control. So, when Jarra came up with a plan to fool the "Norms", I was sold on the story. I was also really curious to see how Jarra’s scheme turned out.

I absolutely loved Jarra as a character, and I could understand why she would do what she did. Jarra’s disability was one of the main focuses of the book, and I think Edwards did a good job at depicting the prejudice that some “Norms” had towards the majority of the residents on Earth. Jarra was out to prove a point, and I did enjoy seeing her evolve and grow as a character. She showed a wide range of emotion—joy, anger, and even bitterness—while also maintaining her passion for history and her enthusiasm to study it.

The setting was really cool. I liked getting to see common places in a new way. Edwards did an excellent job reimagining such locations as excavation sites, rather than as they are today. I enjoyed the vivid details, and it made it easier to picture the sites. Another aspect I liked happened to be the world itself. There were a lot of cool ideas, and for me it just worked.

In the end, I ended up enjoying Earth Girl, and I’m glad that I finally got around to reading it. I'm looked forward to reading the rest of the trilogy soon.

Our Thoughts Precisely Is Officially 3 Years Old!

Today is March 15th, and three years ago today, Our Thoughts Precisely was started. Hooray! I don’t really have anything planned for today since I’m busy with other things and reading. But, I just wanted to drop this post here to acknowledge the day. I also want to say thank you to the readers, who've taken the time to stop by the blog.

So, yeah, Our Thoughts Precisely is officially 3 years old. Now, back to reading.

Musing Mondays (48) 6 Books, Series, or Trilogies With Settings I Would Never Visit

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn at Books and a Beat, that asks you to muse about something book related each week.

My Musings for the Week...

Random Weekly Question from March 7th: Which characters (from which book) do you think deserve their own spin-off story? Why?

Oh gosh, this question is kind of hard. I have a multitude of favorite side characters, many who could have their own stories. But, for today, if I had to choose one character who I would like to see get their own story, it would most likely be Blake from Finding Serendipity & A Week Without Tuesday. He is a prominent character in the books. I would still like to read a book entirely from his point of view, just to learn more about him and his writing process. I think it could be cool.

Other Musings...

So, this post is kind of inspired by a Musing Monday post I did a couple of weeks ago. I listed some of my favorite book settings, just a few of them. It got me thinking about all the wonderfully complex settings, in many different books, I wouldn’t visit them even if someone tried to pay me to do it. These are the worlds that I’m really glad don’t actually exist, mostly because they’re dangerous—primary villains, natural disaster type perils, and so on. They make for a good story, I just wouldn’t visit them.

6 books, series, or trilogies with settings I would not visit even if someone paid me to do it...

• Coraline by Neil Gaiman: this book is definitely one of my favorites. However, because of the Other Mother, I would steer clear of this setting.
• The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd: back in the nice little post about favorite settings, this one ended up being on the list. It fit so well with the story, but this is another one I would avoid altogether. There are many reasons for this, but I won’t say—too many spoilers.
• The Elemental Trilogy by Sherry Thomas: The world in these books was pretty cool, but the villain turned what would have been a nice place into an absolute nightmare for the main character.
• Mythos Academy Series by Jennifer Estep: The mythology was used in a pretty cool way, but Mythos Academy is a place I would avoid.   
• The Darkest Minds Trilogy by Alexandra Bracken: This is another favorite trilogy. The characters, world building, and plot were all fantastic. Still, I wouldn’t want to visit Bracken’s version of the US. The environment was constantly dangerous, but it made for a really good trilogy. 
• The Watchers series by Veronica Wolff: I might not have enjoyed The Keep as much as I did the previous three books. However, this series, undoubtedly, belongs on this list. The Isle of Night was six different kinds of terrible. I wouldn’t go there. Period. End of Discussion. The vampires are my main reason for this—they ruled the Isle, and their rules were unnecessarily strict and completely absolute.

So, those are six books, series, or trilogies that are some of my favorite books, but they just have settings I wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole.

What are you reading this week?

The Friday 56 (54) Earth Girl by Janet Edwards

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

Synopsis from Goodreads...

2788. Only the handicapped live on Earth... 

Eighteen-year-old Jarra is among the one in a thousand people born with an immune system that cannot survive on other planets. Sent to Earth at birth to save her life, she has been abandoned by her parents. She can’t travel to other worlds, but she can watch their vids, and she knows all the jokes they make. She’s an “ape,” a “throwback,” but this is one ape girl who won’t give in. Jarra makes up a fake military background for herself and joins a class of norms who are on Earth for a year of practical history studies excavating the dangerous ruins of the old cities. She wants to see their faces when they find out they’ve been fooled into thinking an ape girl was a norm. She isn’t expecting to make friends with the enemy, to risk her life to save norms, or to fall in love...

"'In an impact suit, I doubt they could do you a lot of harm, but your probably wouldn't enjoy them trying.'"--Earth Girl by Janet Edwards



Does Earth Girl sound like a book you would want to read? Or, what are you reading this week?

Review: The Night Has Teeth by Kat Kruger

Title: The Night Has Teeth
Author: Kat Kruger
Source/Format: Purchased, ebook
More Details: Young Adult, Paranormal
Publisher/Publication Date: Fierce Ink Press Co-Op Ltd., September 23, 2012
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Synopsis from Goodreads...

There’s a darkness that lurks in the City of Light...

Seventeen-year-old Connor Lewis is chased by a memory. On his first day of kindergarten he bit a boy hard enough to scar the kid for life. Since then he’s been a social outcast at a New York private school. Through an unexpected turn of good fortune, he lands a scholarship to study in Paris, where everything starts to look up. On the first day he befriends two military brats, and he may finally get a taste of what it’s like to be a normal teenager.

It doesn’t last.

His host family — an alluring young tattoo artist and her moody, handsome boyfriend — inadvertently introduce him to the underworld of werewolves where there are two types: the born and the bitten. Those born to it take the form of elegant wolves, while the latter are cursed to transform into the half-man, half-beast creatures of horror movies. The bitten rarely survive. Unfortunately, Connor is on the wanted list of a four hundred-year-old bitten human who’s searching for both a cure and a means of wiping out werewolves for good. Connor’s loyalties are tested as he becomes embroiled in a conflict where werewolves, mad science and teen angst collide...

I didn’t know what to expect when I picked up The Night Has Teeth by Kat Kruger. I’ve had it on my ereader for a long time, and I finally decided to give it a read. I’m happy to say that this book didn’t disappoint me, and by far, it exceeded my expectations. I was impressed by Kruger’s ability to create an engrossing story.

The book is told from Connor Lewis’ point of view, and follows his life after he leaves New York to study in Paris on a scholarship. He ends up right in the middle of some trouble, only, it’s the supernatural kind. At the core of The Night Has Teeth are werewolves. The concept, to me, was handled really well. The supernatural aspects were introduced gradually, and it was easy to get into the story.

Connor was a good narrator. I enjoyed reading from his perspective as the story unfolded. His inner dialogue was really entertaining and I was able to get a clear picture on who he was as a character. The supporting cast of characters were also interesting, but I won’t say much about them. They were complex, with their own stories and secrets. Their personalities were vastly different, which was great.

The Night Has Teeth was just an excellent book. The story, plot, and characters worked really well together. And that ending, oh man, that caught me by surprise—and now, I really want to know how this trilogy ends.