Tandem: Review

Sixteen-year-old Sasha Lawson has only ever known one small, ordinary life. When she was young, she loved her grandfather's stories of parallel worlds inhabited by girls who looked like her but led totally different lives. Sasha never believed such worlds were real--until now, when she finds herself thrust into one against her will.

To prevent imminent war, Sasha must slip into the life of an alternate version of herself, a princess who has vanished on the eve of her arranged marriage. If Sasha succeeds in fooling everyone, she will be returned home; if she fails, she'll be trapped in another girl's life forever. As time runs out, Sasha finds herself torn between two worlds, two lives, and two young men vying for her love--one who knows her secret, and one who thinks she's someone she's not.





I have read multiple alternate universe books this year, since they seem to be getting more and more popular, and I've decided that this one is my second favorite(my first being 3:59). There were many problems with it, but I still, for some reason, really liked reading it.

Sasha is your ordinary 16 year old, besides the point that she doesn't have many friends and lives with her grandfather. I liked Sasha well enough. I struggled slightly with her choices, but she was smart most of the time. I definitely seen her change throughout the novel, which I usually don't notice from characters. Can I say I loved her character by the end of the novel? No. But I still enjoyed her perspective and her character.

Now, this book had three perspectives: the main one is from Sasha, the other one Sasha's alternate, Juliana, and the next from Thomas. By far, I found Sasha's perspective the most intriguing. The other ones...just eh. Nothing amazing, just kind of fell flat for me. This might be because I got to know Sasha's thoughts and feelings alot, alot more than Juliana's and Thomas's, which is why it just bugged me when these other perspectives were just thrown in there.

Secondly, the love interest. Was so. Flat. Because I could see right away who she would love, and they were both not supposed to even get along with each other. It was an unoriginal forbidden love-hate relationship. Everything about it was really plain to see and just...generic. The other thing that slightly annoyed me was that the lovey-dovey ness did not bring out any emotions for me. What's especially weird about this, is that I actually enjoyed reading it, even though I pretty much just gave off all the reasons why I should hate it.

My favorite part of this book is the twists and turns it has. You can tell that the author did a lot of research for this book and put a lot of thought into the plot. There were some slow parts for me, but I wouldn't quite say that it was boring for me. Just...slow. And there are definitely surprising parts in Tandem.
Another contribution to why I really liked this book is that once Sasha went to the alternate universe, it gave off a fairy-tale-esque feeling to it. It might just be me, but I love fairytales.

I honestly didn't try to make this review quite so ranty in parts, because I did enjoy the plot and story of it. And the voice of the book, but it definitely had it's faults. Even so, the faults didn't bug me particularly much, so I didn't have many problems with it. If you enjoy sci-fi, check it out!

Why I Don't Have A Rating With My Reviews

I haven't had a discussion-y post in a longgg time, so I'm finally going to!

Today's choice of topic: Ratings.

Some of you may have noticed when you read one of my reviews, you don't see a rating at the end/beginning of the post(I used to though! But I started getting frustrated with rating). Why is this? The simply answer is because it's really difficult for me to choose between especially 3 and 4 stars. But the long version is...

Ratings are so overdone. There, I said it. And if you think about it, they are even a bit stereotypical.

Definition of Stereotypical:
A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, image.

This is exactly what ratings do, they oversimplify what we think of a book. Sometimes, this can be a good thing. Most people even love simple ratings, but not me. For me, it doesn't tell me anything, though, besides to maybe tell if a person disliked/ loved a book.

I mean, for example, what if I give a book I enjoyed a lot a 3 stars, but didn't connect with the main character and another book I give the same reason, but didn't really like it, but the story was well-written. There are so many factors to giving ratings, it boggles my mind. I usually can get a good idea of what I could give the book, but I almost always want to give or take 4 stars down to, say, 3.67.

Goodreads, as many of you probably know, uses a basic 5 star scale rating. I understand that having decimal places for ratings might get complicated, but I'm just saying it bothers me how ratings basically oversimplifies what we think.

Fire & Flood Excerpt and a Giveaway

As some of you may be aware of, I really enjoyed The Collector, Victoria Scott's debut book. So, naturally I wanted to be in with the V Mafia. Being part of the V Mafia has it's perks, and one of them is just knowing things before others, or giveaways. I was just e-mailed the awesome excerpt for Fire & Flood, her upcoming book, which I even be more excited about that book than The Liberator. Back to the point, I was emailed the excerpt and I just had to show you guys, because Victoria Scott is incredibly awesome and sweet, and she deserves all the attention she can get :) So, I'm posting the excerpt now!

I drove across the US of A, left my family without an explanation, and now I’m either too late or
there was never anything here to begin with. F my life. Rearing back, I kick the door as hard as I
can. Then I wrap both hands around the door handles and release a noise like a wild banshee as
I pull back.
The doors swing open.
I’m not sure whether to celebrate or freak out. I decide to do neither and slip inside. As I walk
around the inside of the museum, listening to the sound of my footsteps echo off the walls, I
imagine I am moments from death. It’s sad, I think, that this is all it takes to break my sanity.
Two curling flights of stairs bow out from the first-floor lobby, and red and white tiles cover
the floors. There are gilded picture frames everywhere. So many that I think the placement of
the frames — and not their contents — is the real art. Everything, absolutely everything, smells
like wax. I mosey up to an abandoned reception desk and leaf through the glossy pamphlets
littering the surface. I hold one of the pamphlets up to my nose. Yep, wax.
I glance around, having no idea what to look for. Will there be a sign like at school registration?
Students with last names A–K this way?
On my left, I notice a long hallway dotted with doors on either side. Nothing looks particularly
unusual. But when I glance to my right, I spot something. There’s a door at the end of the
corridor that has a sliver of light glowing beneath it. I’m sure it’s just an administration office,
one where someone forgot to flip the switch. But I’ve got nothing better to go on, so I head
toward it.
I pause outside the door, wondering if I’m about to get busted for B&E. Then I turn the handle
and find myself at the top of another winding staircase.
You’ve got to be kidding me. What is this, Dracula’s bachelor pad?
I’ve watched a lot of scary movies, and I’ve learned nothing good is ever at the bottom of a
winding staircase. Pulling in a breath and preparing myself to be eaten alive, I head down. My
shoes are loud against the steps. So loud, I imagine they are intentionally trying to get me killed.
When I reach the final few stairs, I ready myself to look around the bend. My heart is racing,
and I secretly pray the worst I encounter is an angry janitor with a wax addiction. I turn the
bend — and my eyes nearly pop from my skull.
The enormous room is perfectly circular, dotted with candles to light the space. Surrounding
the walls are rows and rows of dark, rich mahogany bookshelves. A large round table stands
in the center of the red-and-white-tiled floor. The room is spectacular, but what it holds is so
jarring, my ears ring.
Across every shelf, every spot on the table, every tile on the floor — are small sculptures of
hands. And in a few of those hands — the ones still performing their duty — are eggs. There are
only nine eggs left, it seems. For a moment, I imagine how amazing it would have been to see
each hand holding an egg, but it’s enough just to see these nine.
The eggs seem to dance in the candle flame, and as I move closer, I realize why. The surfaces of
the eggs are almost iridescent, their colors changing depending on how you look at them. They
are different sizes, too; some as big as a basketball, others as small as a peach.
I don’t need the device in my pocket to tell me what my gut already knows.
This is the Pandora Selection Process.

Ok, yeah, full of awesomeness, right? I'm so excited to read  ALL of Fire & Flood!

Also, Scholastic is hosting a giveaway, rafflecopter is below for it!

a Rafflecopter giveaway