The BOOM!!! Gene

I know. I know. I said I wouldn't post another GoodReads review on here but... I'm feeling lazy so... that's what you're going to get... I'll try not to do it again... but seeing as how I have a lot of studying to do and not enough time to read AND write two different reviews, you might be seeing a few more of them. Anyway, a review is a review, right?

Anyway, remember a while back I posted a link about The Apocalypse Gene by Suki Michelle and Carlyle Clark and telling you all that I think you should read it? Well, the lovely Suki Michelle was kind enough to send me a copy of the book so that I can review it and let you all know what I think. So, without further ado, here's my review of The Apocalypse Gene.

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Oh wow! That ending! Can you believe it!? It was like, "Bam!" Then it was like, "Bang!" And then it was like, "BOOM!" Phew! That was a lot of action! But let me calm down now and actually give you a proper review. This book is an action-packed, edge-of-your-seat kind of read. The story was very unique and invigorating! Most of the characters are very relatable and fun to learn more about. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the lore of this novel. There were things in here that you feel you've learned about but then the authors throw in some twists and turns of their own that leave you speechless! This was indeed a very fun, energetic read! Before I read this book, I was in a reading slump. In fact, I haven't read a book in about two months because I just wasn't in the mood to. Most books that are being written today are just not entertaining to me. It's the same story re-hashed over and over again so I just didn't feel the need to read anything. That was before the brilliant Suki Michelle contacted me and asked me if I was interested in reading her and Carlyle Clark's book, The Apocalypse Gene. When she was so kind to offer, I jumped at the chance to. I was completely sold when she said that Carlyle loves anime (and it shows! Read the book so you can see what I mean!). My goodness. I am truly grateful to them both for helping me get over my reading dilemma and for introducing me to a wonderful book!

Suki Michelle and Carlyle Clark did an amazing job at writing this book. Their writing style is top-notch! I love how they were able to work their styles together and make it balance into a nicely written novel. The style is not overly complex that you feel you need to take a breather after every sentence because it makes absolutely no sense to you... yet it's structured in a way that makes you think about what's going on in the story and what the characters should do in order to resolve the issues. I think what I enjoyed most about this novel is the story itself. It's quite different. It takes place in this sort of post-apocalyptic world where a terrible disease has spread throughout the entire world. But it doesn't end there! There's so much more to it that I can't say anything else otherwise it will spoil the whole book! Seriously, this is one of those books that I have to be very careful not to say too much or... well, you'll know what's going to happen and I don't want to ruin it for you guys~ <3 The world, the lingo, the gadgets, everything! All of it was so fascinating to me! I wish we had the technology of going to V-School and having a Holo-Sim! Those things sound awesome! (Don't know what I'm talking about? Read the book!) This dystopian book was wonderfully planned out and I am so happy I read it since dystopians are one of my favorite genres. ^_^

And now, as with all my other reviews, I shall talk about characters! We shall start with the two main heroes. The first one: Olivya. I have to be completely honest with you guys... I wasn't a fan. I felt that her character was absolutely shallow. Selfish in every way possible. I didn't like how at first, she only liked Mikah, the male protagonist, for his looks. I believe there is so much more to a person than their physical appearances and, throughout most of the book, that's the only thing she cares about. In fact, even by the end of the book, there's still some of that left. I thought that once the story progressed a bit further, she was going to go through so HUGE character development, and in some ways, she did. There was this scene where she watched over her mother and I thought, "Wow... you are actually showing responsibility and not trying to put the blame on everyone else." I felt that she finally matured. Then Mikah came back into the picture... and she commented on his appearance again. Really, Olivya? You're going to backtrack like that? *Sighs* I just was not taken in to her character. By the end of the book, I didn't find her as annoying but I still feel she needs to go through some major development before I am able to say I enjoy her. Still, she was an amazing fighter and there were times that I liked her spunk. She could be a very great character... if only she stopped being shallow. On to Mikah! I. Love. Mikah. I thought he was a great female lead! He showed actual interest in Olivya and not because she was beautiful or anything! No. It was because he liked HER. Her personality. Her fire. Her everything. Now he's someone I can enjoy! Plus, he was very intelligent, honorable, caring, sweet, fun, you name it! I love how he wanted to do whatever he could to save Olivya and the world he lived in. I really enjoyed him as a character. Olivya could learn a thing or two from him.

Side characters! I can't say too much of them because it'll ruin a lot of plot-points from the book so I will briefly touch upon a few of them. There's Mrs. Wright-Ono, Olivya's mother, and she was pretty cool. She's this no-nonsense type of mother but she could also be quite fun. I liked her a lot. Changarai, Mikah's "father" of sorts, is very loving and wise. Without him or Mikah, a lot of things about the book would make no sense to the reader! I'm grateful for them both! The Neo-Twins, Kaiman and Ash, were simply badass. Ash doesn't say much but he can knock your butt into oblivion! Kaiman... I have a crush on him. He has this... flamboyant air about him, which made me smile, but he also has this tough attitude about him. He can be quite sarcastic, too. And devious! God, I love him! XD There's Ayvilo who kinda annoyed me but I can't say why. Once you read the book, I'm sure you'll get it. I did like how she was able to wield her Nagamaki sword! That was epic! (God, I love the Japanese influence this book has!) Hakim is another character I adored! He has this elegance about him. Such a smooth, gentle, wise talker. I love him! There's Prime... and I can't say anything about him. Just know that he's cool. Then there's my favorite character: Lylobriel. Oh God! I cannot tell you how much I love him! His gentleness, his awesomeness, his... everything! I love him so much. Plus, he truly is a beautiful character. Very intelligent and wonderful and... *Swoons* ...I love him. I wish I could say more! But I can't! I will say this: Lylobriel and Morfexio are the perfect example of what friends should be like. Their relationship was the best one out of the entire book, in my opinion. (Plus, I'm a full-time yaoi fangirl so my brain totally ships them. That's right. I said it. AND I'M NOT ASHAMED OF IT!!!)

This book was a trip! The ups and downs, the craziness of what's happening in the world, the technology going out of whack, the characters losing their minds. It's all a bunch of good, entertaining fun waiting to happen. Like I said, this book is amazing. Besides that one drawback I mentioned previously, this book was such an amazing experience. Would I read it again? Of course! It was amazing and I will always want to re-visit this world that Suki Michelle and Carlyle Clark created for us. I am looking forward to the next in the series so much! After that ending and what's coming their way, how could I NOT want to read it!? I will definitely be picking up the next book whenever it is released! I want to thank the authors, once again, for giving me the opportunity to read their book. It was amazing and I truly enjoyed myself. Thank you so very much! As to all who are reading this review right now, GO GET THIS BOOK! I promise you, you will not be disappointed! You will enjoy this book a whole lot! So what are you waiting for!? GET TO READING!

Book Review: The Black Book of Secrets by F.E. Higgins

Second review! Finally! I really need more time to do this. I can't just keep you people waiting and waiting... or maybe I can... who knows? Anyway, enjoy this next review about a pretty cool book!

Front Cover

 Title: The Black Book of Secrets
Author: F.E. Higgins
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Release Date: October 2, 2007
Synopsis: A boy arrives at a remote village in the dead of night. His name is Ludlow Fitch—and he is running from a most terrible past. What he is about to learn is that in this village is the life he has dreamed of—a safe place to live, and a job, as the assistant to the mysterious pawnbroker who trades people's deepest, darkest, secret for cash. Ludlow's job is to neatly transcribe the confessions in an ancient leather-bound tome: The Black Book of Secrets.
               Ludlow yearns to trust his mentor, who refuses to disclose any information on his past experience or future intentions. What the pawnbroker does not know is, in a town brimming with secrets, the most troubling may be held by his new apprentice.


What can one say about this book? Well, let us start from the beginning. F.E. Higgins’ book, The Black Book of Secrets, takes place in two distinct locations—one being a gruesome city literally called the City (I wonder where Higgins found such a creative name for her town) and a smaller, more collective town called Pagus Parvus. The two cities are polar opposites in which one brings forth chaos and destruction, whilst the other takes a more subtle approach… though still evil incarnate.

Enter Ludlow Fitch, a young boy born and raised in the City who is terrorized by his parents every second of the day. Being raised since birth to be a low-class citizen, he takes up the business of thievery for the sole purpose of getting his parents off his back long enough for him to breathe. What else could he have done? If he did otherwise, all that would await him at home was a killer beating from his father, with the cheers of his mother in the background. His only escape was to do what he was told whilst staying away from home as much as possible. You know, like any other teenager! Usually the place he ran to was a pawnbroker’s shop inhabited by Lembart Jellico, who plays a minor yet key role in this horror.

One day Fitch’s parents come up with the brilliant idea to sell their son’s teeth. Why? Because teeth back then were worth lots of money. So, for such petty reasons, they call in Dr. Barton Gumbroot (I'm not too fond of the pun either), a psychotic dentist who deals in shady business, like ripping out the teeth from the poor so they could have a decent buck in their pockets. I swear, I don’t care how poor I am. I will never stoop so low as to sell my own teeth for money. Besides that, since there was no novocaine back then, I would be in extreme pain… and I don’t do well with pain.

Apparently, neither do Fitch’s parents since they tell the dentist to yank his teeth out without giving two chickens about it! Dr. Gumbroot then takes his place over the child, drooling as if he was having some sort of arousal out of this, and the father of the child holding down his kid. What kind of parents does this kid have? Not to mention his parents are laughing at every wince he makes. Sickos… Anyway, the poor boy is then in excruciating pain whilst having metal pliers, that’ve been most likely in a drunkard’s mouth, pull hard on his shiny teeth. With blood pouring down his mouth, he gets a stunning realization: He’s going to die right there and then if he doesn't do something!

To make a long story short, he kicks the father, steals the pliers away from the dentist, hits the dentist with said pliers over the head, ignores his mother cowering like a wimp in the corner, and manages to escape from the City to a much gentler, quieter, though equally as vicious, place called Pagus Parvus. It is at this location where he meets Joe Zabbidou, a man shrouded in mystery who carries immense knowledge about frogs… and other stuff, I’m sure. He, too, is a pawnbroker but not like what you have in mind. Sure he buys worthless items from the villagers looking to find some money. However, he also buys secrets!

Every detail of a person’s past and dirty deed they partook in is then written in the Black Book of Secrets. Zabbidou, being an aging man who can no longer handle the hardship of writing stuff down in the book (I’m guessing) hires Ludlow Fitch to do the new data entering. Naturally, coming from a life of poverty, Fitch accepts his new job since it will keep a roof over his head and his belly full. Anybody with a brain would have done so.

Much of the same thing happens afterwards in the story. Joe Zabbidou goes up to a person claiming he could help them be at peace with themselves, that person goes to see him at the dead of night, they tell their story, Fitch writes it in the book, Zabbidou pays them for their secret, and then they go home happy. Simple enough, no? Wrong! Here comes the story’s antagonist, Jeremiah Ratchet, the man who basically owns everything in Pagus Parvus and rules the place with an iron fist! Got to love dictators!

He can’t take the fact that the townsfolk see hope in the form of Zabbidou. He wants them to quake in their boots and tremble in fear with just the mere mention of the name Ratchet. Nearly everyone was in debt with his outrageous prices on rent. This pile of evil nothing even thought up ways to have everyone doing dirty deeds in order to pay him the rent they owed. So, of course, with the new pawnbroker in town buying up the town’s secrets, everyone was paying off their debts. Naturally, this made Ratchet a very unhappy person. He formulates schemes to get revenge and what not which all seems to end in failure. I’m not going to give away any of it but let me just say that the story does make you want to start yelling at the book just so that pathetic excuse of a business man could get it! He was so deliciously evil… I couldn’t get enough of it!

The story is rather unique and it did make me want to continue reading till the end. The plot was a bit sketchy but it makes up for it with detailed characters that have dark pasts and worries that plague their minds. In fact, because of this, it makes you believe that the characters are that much more alive and not just some fictional people who came out of a person’s head, even though they are.

For this to be Higgins’ first book, I am truly impressed. I love how she described each event in great detail and how well she thought out her characters. Such thinking made it out to be a very entertaining book. I also love how she had the book written in two different perspectives. One was of Ludlow Fitch and it was written in first person. During this time of the story, he was saying the story as if he was writing down his thoughts in a diary. The other was written in third person just like any other novel. I thought that this writing style was very unique and it drew me even closer to the book.

However, there are some areas of the book where I felt it was lacking. For example, the character of Joe Zabbidou. She never went into great detail about him. I mean, where did he come from? Why does he buy secrets? How come no matter what happens, he always seems to know the outcome? What? Is he like some fortune teller that can read minds? Is he a seer that has a dream of helping those with horrible pasts? Did he injure his leg because of his former dancing career? I don’t know. Although I love how throughout the entire book he’s nothing but a mystery, I feel that there should have been a bit more explaining about where he came from. He’s still a loveable character. I just find it a bit difficult to fall completely in love with him since I know nothing about him… but that’s just me.

Another problem I saw with this book was its ending. It was more bitter sweet than anything. I was expecting more of an impact than it left me. It really left a lot of questions out in the air which I never did like in stories such as this. You know, like the ending of “Avatar: the Last Airbender.” It’s good, but because of so many questions left unanswered, it leaves a lot of us disappointed.

With all that, however, it is still a very entertaining book and worth the read. Though not the best book ever made, this book still contains a pretty decent storyline with well-developed characters and lots of twisted evil that drags in any person with a taste for excitement... or mental issues. I forget which. I read it in a single day and I was pretty satisfied with the outcome, despite its minor fallbacks. Hey, at least it didn’t make me want to pull my hair out or jump out of a window (Like some books which shall remain nameless for peace’s sake).

All-in-all, I recommend this book to both children and adults alike! Well, young adults. The older ones might not like it too much. Actually, with its sinister opening, I’m sure there are lots of older adults who would find this book appealing! I give this book a four out of five for keeping me happy all the way up to the bitter end! Good job Higgins!




Just look at the black side!
Don't mind the fading... it's a library book...