Leviathan - Scott Westerfield

There is nothing better than reading a good book and then realizing that both sequels have already been released so you won't have to wait at all before reading the next two books. This is exactly what happened to me with Leviathan. Leviathan is the story of Deryn Sharpe a young girl posing as a boy in order to serve in the British Air Force at the beginning of WWI and Prince Aleksander son of the murdered Arch Duke and Duchess of Austria- Hungary. Alek is on the run from German forces who he has discovered have murdered his parents, and Deryn is hiding her sex, pretending to be a boy, on board the airship Leviathan. They meet after an air battle between German forces and the Leviathan in the mountains of Switzerland.

Leviathan is not just a run of the mill historical fiction story. Westerfield has created a whole new conflict for his readers. In this war the British are using DNA technology in order to fabricate animals and weapons for military purposes. In fact the Leviathan is a hydrogen filled whale that contains entire ecosystems of other animals or 'beasties' as Deryn calls them. The Germans and their allies on the other hand use incredible machines and technology to fight their wars. His descriptions of these fantastical animals and machines are wonderful and the illustrations certainly added to my enjoyment of the book.

If you like historical fiction or alternate history this is the book for you!

Enjoy!

The Diviners -- Libba Bray

Set in 1920's New York city The Diviners by Libba Bray walks a delightfully fine line between an action packed adventure and a creepy horror story. Much to her delight our protagonist Evie O' Neill has been banished from her small town home and sent to live with her uncle in New York. At home Evie was always one step across the line pushing the limits of acceptable behaviour, but in New York she's right at home frequenting speakeasies with her friends and living the high life of the young and wealthy in the 1920's. But Evie has a secret. She can read people's pasts from objects they have carried with them, and when her uncle is called upon to help investigators solve a string of occult related murders Evie begins to realize that her talent may have more importance and farther reaching consequences than she ever imagined.

I quite enjoyed this book! It was fast paced and in spite of its large size (over 500 pages) it never felt like I had to push through the "boring parts" to get to the end. Evie was a fun and lovely yet flawed main character and I enjoyed how seemingly disconnected story lines came together throughout the book. The ending especially left me wanting more, and I was surprised to find that characters that at first seemed harmless and secondary become such dastardly villains. Bray really knows how to create fantasy fiction that blends seamlessly into the real world, with myth and magic becoming an underground culture that we all secretly hope exists somewhere.

I'm not normally someone who can read an even slightly scary book and recover quickly so I have to say that they gruesome murders and evil spirits made me stay up late finishing chapters so I knew our heroine and her friends were safe and I dashing up stair cases at night time with shivers going down my spine.

Well worth a read!
Enjoy!

Looking for Alaska - John Green

Another hit by John Green. The first book I read by him was The Fault in Our Stars which was recommended to me by a friend and was so heart breakingly lovely that I couldn't help but try and find every other book he's written and read them all. Looking for Alaska was just as well written, and the twist at the end had me sobbing.

Looking for Alaska is written from the perspective of Miles Halter, or "Pudge" a teenager looking for "the great perhaps". Pudge convinces his parents to send him to Culver Creek boarding school in Alabama where he meets the two people who will be the most important additions to his new life. There's his roommate Chip or "the Colonel" and the beautiful, outgoing Alaska Young. At Culver Creek pranks are the life blood of the student body. They play them regularly and on an escalating scale. Pudge's introduction to this particular aspect of life at Culver is to be wrapped in tape and thrown into the lake on campus.

The book is filled with typical teenage angst and tension, but it is really beautifully written and John Green has quickly become one of my favorite Young Adult authors.

Enjoy!