[review] I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga (2012)

Tags

blood, book, book review, family, fathers, funny, horror, humor, murdur, mystery, psychological thriller, serial killers, suspense, thriller

I Hunt Killers (2012)
by Barry Lyga
Hardcover Edition
Publication Date: April 3rd, 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
buy a copy via Amazon.
synopsis via Goodreads.

What if the world’s worst serial killer…was your dad?

Jasper (Jazz) Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say.
But he’s also the son of the world’s most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could–from the criminal’s point of view.
And now bodies are piling up in Lobo’s Nod.
In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret–could he be more like his father than anyone knows?

My Thoughts:
Barry Lyga almost had me in an heart attack with I Hunt Killers–and he didn’t even inject me with Drano. The suspense was gripping, and a refreshing (although terrifying) addition to Young Adult horror. Lyga attempts to explore the complexity of serial killers, a teenager trying to find himself, while delivering a thrilling mystery with a huge chunk of suspense thrown in. And also a lot of blood. I’m trembling to read what else Lyga has up his sleeves.

[review] The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa (2012)

Tags

apocalypse, blood, book, book review, books, fantasy, humor, paranormal, post-apocalyptic, vampires, zombies

Being a vampire turns you white…literally. (Because I can’t resist joining in on the why-is-this-white-girl-on-the-cover-when-the-main-character-is-Asian thing)

The Immortal Rules(2012)
by Julie Kagawa (blog.)
Hardcover Edition
Publication Date: Apr 24, 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
purchase a copy via Amazon.
synopsis via Goodreads.

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.
Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die… or become one of the monsters.
Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.
Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.But it isn’t easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.

My Thoughts:
Undeniably one of this years most anticipated YA releases, Julie Kagawa’s The Immortal Rules is a 500-page roller coaster, an heart-pounding thrill ride, that oddly doesn’t feel like 500 pages by the time you’re done. We are brought into a post-apocalyptic world where the undead live among the living and much of the living has been wiped out by a plague. Sword-wielding seventeen year old vampire, Allison Sekemoto, is determined lead a rebellion, to overthrow the vampire monarchy…until she becomes one of them herself. Allison knows how to be bold, but more importantly, how to slash a wild, rabid boar in half.

Throughout the novel, I kept wondering how it would work out: could vampires and humans coexist for vampires were once humans after all. Maybe vampires and humans were not so different after all. Humans (at least according to Allie) would not pause to sell out one of their own for survival anyway, so what’s so bad about a vampire taking a bit of blood for survival? And I don’t see how vampires can rule, when they can be killed so easily in the day; you basically have 12 hours of daylight to cut off their heads, or are vampire cities sealed so tight that UV rays can’t get through?