Posts by: Paul Beimers
Review: Plague by Michael Grant
To be honest, I feel that this series may have peaked with “Lies.” While “Plague” is an excellent follow-up, it feels more like a maintainer than an innovator, keeping the quality of the story steady instead of enhancing it. Rather than significantly improving upon the aspects of its predecessors, as the last two books have done, this installment keeps the status quo.
Review: Lies by Michael Grant
A much thinner read than its predecessors, Grant’s third offering packs so much excellence into every page that any possibility of the shorter length being a hindrance to the storytelling is crushed within the first few chapters. It may not be long, but it’s a damn good story.
Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
So, yeah: I liked “Shatter Me.” It has plenty of teeth-grinding stupidity, but I certainly don’t dislike it as much as many others seem to. I think that Ms. Mafi shows a great deal of promise, and I’ll be reading the rest of the trilogy to see if she can overcome her issues and smooth out those rough edges.
Review: Gone by Michael Grant
Thankfully, however, “Gone” manages to be just about as good as I remember. Sure, there are some things that irk me, and they had enough of a presence in my reading experience that I was forced to give this one a relatively mediocre score, rather than the perfect five stars that I had hoped to bestow. But what Grant does right far outshines the little issues, and that makes this book worthwhile, despite its flaws.
Review: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
This is the story of a quirky girl and her eccentric family, of wealth and obsession, of magic and the need to belong to something bigger. It’s a very eclectic novel, filled with a number of elements that manage to mesh together in a way that feels comfortable and natural.
Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Green is a fantastic writer and storyteller, and I see his work as a wonderful example of YA literature done right. While I can certainly understand why some would find issues with the subject matter, I firmly believe that every reader who enjoys YA needs to give this one, at the very least, a try. It’s not perfect, but it certainly comes close, and its emotional power cannot be denied.
Review: A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Somehow, Martin manages to take all of these pieces and make a cohesive whole. It all ties together wonderfully, and I’m at a loss as to how he manages to do it so well. Naturally, there are a lot of loose ends left after things draw to a close, yet it stands as a compliment to Martin’s storytelling ability that I wanted to pick up the sequel the moment that I finished the first installment.
