Bonni's Book Reviews

I wish I had better things to say about this book. Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, writes this newest novel And the Mountains Echoed. This is a story of how love and our choices we make can affect people for generations. It starts out with the story of Abdullah and Pari, 2 motherless siblings who are inseparable. Abdullah acts as a a mother and father for Pari more than anyone else and so they create this extremely special and close bond. What happens to them will change their lives and other's for generations to come.

Having read Hosseini's other two books, I had very high expectations for this book. If you haven't read them, I would very highly recommend you to. They are emotional, moving, and phenomenally written books. When I started out reading his newest book it started out okay even pretty good. I could see how this might be another tear jerker. Unfortunately I soon found myself waiting and wondering when this book would start to make more sense. Each chapter follows a different character, but also changes the timeline. At every new chapter I found myself trying to figure out who this new character was in relation to the characters I had already met and also what is going on in this new timeline. I wish it had followed more of a straight forward timeline and had given more of a chance for characters to develop. I never felt like I got into the emotions of the book.

Overall I would not recommend this for the average reader. I would say that if you have read Hosseini's previous books, it might be interesting to give it a chance to compare. Let me know if you have read this new book or his older ones. Tell me if you agree that it was a little bit of a let down. 

Never Let Me Go is a weird, oddly compelling, quick read. Though it was a quick 288 pages, it was not necessarily an easy read. It is the story of a young woman named Kathy and her experiences growing up in a "boarding schoolish" building. This novel is written from the point of view of Kathy in the present looking back at her time and reminiscing with recently reunited friends from her past. She starts to look back and slowly realize that their time at school was maybe not quite normal compared to most people.

This book is written almost like a journal, with an informal sounding voice. While I can understand why Ishiguro wrote it this way, at times it left me wanting more. I got frustrated with being lost and unsure where the story was leading, and which hints of information were important to the big picture. While this book kept me reading and waiting to see when the ball would drop and all would be revealed, I was somewhat unimpressed with the ending. It was rather unsatisfying with nothing really feeling totally resolved. Overall I would say if you are into kind of odd sci-fi reality this would be a great book to give a try.

Let me know in the comments if you have read this book or anything like it! 

So I just want to start out by saying my brother Brian suggested this trilogy to me partly because I think he wanted someone else to be able to help talk about how he felt about the series. Now I know he hasn't finished the series, but I wanted to get some of my thoughts out there to see if anyone else has read it or just to let people know about it.

Let me start out by giving a brief overview and my feelings on each book individually.

Book 1: Mistborn
So the series takes place in an "Earth-like" setting called the Final Empire where the world is full of ash and mist and the sun is red making plant life hard to grow. Everyone is ruled by the oppressive Lord Ruler who thinks of himself as a God and has forbidden any other religions except his own. There is a hierarchy amongst this civilization where obviously the Lord Ruler is at the top and then his minions of Inquisitors and Obligators, next come the Noblemen and finally the Skaa who are treated like slaves. Within these people some contain a power within them called Allomancy. This power is supposed to be contained within the Noble family lines, but sometimes it makes it into the Skaa population. Amongst these Skaa there are rebel forces who have been trying to overthrow this, for lack of a better word, government. This is what this book revolves around.
We meet our main character, Vin, as she is working for a thieving crew made up of Skaa. She is a very meek and quiet girl, but she has some sort of special talent. We find out later that she contains Allomantic powers, and in fact is one of the most powerful kind of Allomancers, a Mistborn. She has grown up on the streets and in the slums where she has learned to never trust anyone. She eventually makes it into another crew where she learns more about her powers and has to learn to trust. This crew has come up with a crazy plan to overthrow the Lord Ruler and SPOILERS!!!! They end up succeeding. Vin has to work with her team and trust that they are there for her.
I loved this first book. The main character is a strong female character who can seriously kick some butt! There is so much fun adventure and action but it is mixed with some cool points of growing up and learning who you are and how to trust including a relationship.

Book 2: The Well of Ascension
So after the downfall of the Lord Ruler the whole of the Final Empire is in total chaos. They are left without structure and now everyone is trying to claim the new found empty throne. The crew has to find a way to keep the throne out of another Lord Ruler situation. They have to work to convince everyone that equality and freedom in the empire is a good thing. All the while Vin is convinced that something even more terrible is threatening their world and she is the one who must face it.
This book was a little bit of a let down after the first one. It focused too much on the political side of things and there was much less excitement, action, and adventure. The characters in this one also were much more annoying. Vin was always whining about silly things like the man she was falling in love with. She also was not the confident young woman from the first book, always second guessing things and who she was supposed to be.

Book 3: The Hero of Ages
This book starts out with even more going wrong than in the previous one. This god-like power has been unleashed on the empire and the world is slowly ending because of it. The ash is even more prominent and now there are mists appearing at all times of day killing people. Vin feels responsible and is trying to find a way to fix everything.
While this book gets back to some action and adventure, it is still lacking for me. There is still a lot of politics and a lot of whining. This time the whining comes from secondary characters. Many of them are losing faith and hope and so it feels depressing most of the time. There are a lot of unfocused side stories and I felt somewhat lost at time while reading this one. My biggest problem with it was the ending however. It felt very forced, like the author was just giving up on trying to make sense and he just said yeah.... the end. It was incredibly frustrating and unsatisfying to read.

Anyway overall the series started out strong and then slowly let me down. I wish the themes from the first had carried through better with more focus on growth and less on faith. I found that this theme was pushed too hard by the end and had lost a lot of meaning for me. I would highly suggest reading at least the first book. I loved the action and strong female lead. The magic of the world was so unique and cool to learn about, I just wish it had held throughout better.

Let me know in the comments what you think about the series if you have read it or if you decide to read it! Also if you have any book suggestions for me let me know!
Thanks