Publishers, authors, and readers: if you would like an interview or review, please feel free to contact us!:
Okapi: xicecreamsjx@aol.com
Rica Eat World: xoxo4rica@gmail.com
Rica Eat World is currently hypnotized by the intensity of Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott. This haunting novel stars a young, abducted girl and her disturbing captor." I can see myself in the plastic and it waves me into a strange, distorted creature, the shadow of something or someone.
I look wrong.I look dead.I'm not, though. I'm only partway there, a living dead girl.I have been for five years. "- Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott, page 7.
" I practically shouted the words. 'A husband who breeds new kids to feed to his old ones."Lexie's mouth dropped open.I didn't even need to pause for effect. "There's a type of dinosaur that did the same thing.' "- The Compound by S.A. Bodeen, page 95
Title: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
"Alby's arms stiffened, fist clenched. 'For all we know you were sent here to get us killed. Why should we trust you?' " - The Maze Runner by James Dashner, page 310
"I read once that you get déjà vu when the two halves of your brain process things at different speeds: the right half a few seconds before the left, or vice versa. Science is probably my worst subject, so I didn't understand the whole article, but that would explain the weird double feeling that it leaves you with, like the world is splitting in half - or you are." - Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, page 92
Title: Fire
Though this book is often called the prequel of Graceling, it's more of a companion novel, taking place in the same world though in a different land. Save for one important villain, Fire has an entirely different ensemble of characters than Graceling. When I picked it up at the library, I expected to read some half-thought out prequel that would feed off the success and popularity of Graceling. However, instead of being a weak and watery novel, Fire is something else entirely; it would be extraordinary even if Graceling never existed. After a slow beginning, the pace speeds up as Cashore hurls readers into a fantastical world, where she spins an intricate story riddled with side plots. This book is marinated with medieval politics, and Cashore manages to portray the darker side of the court in an engaging manner. It seems as though Cashore’s writing has improved since Graceling, though she still successfully manages to add tasteful details to the plot without tripping the fast-paced momentum. 
A vast array of characters, Cashore forgets about no one, giving personalities to a variety of people including the guards, maids, princes, soldiers, and even the horses. Fire, the protagonist with crimson hair, is extremely likeable; she is gentle, tough, independent, has good morals, and would never to flaunt her unwanted beauty. However, she seems ruled by her situations and her reactions rather than by her true personality; Cashore could have elaborated on her character a lot further. One of the most intriguing parts of this book was the relationship between Fire and her monster father Cansrel, who was once the most heartless person in the Dells before his death. Though Cansrel was a cruel, rabid murderer and rapist who basked in destruction, he truly loved his daughter. Fire loved and hated him at the same time, and her conflicting emotions fuel part of the story. Cashore exquisitely executes Fire’s haunting memories, using them to tell the tale of Cansrel, and though he is dead before the book begins, he is an artfully developed character. Later in the novel, a shocking secret about their relationship is revealed, thrusting Fire’s character and the reason for her motives into an entirely different light.
I was not partial to the romance between Fire and prince Brigan, since their relationship unfurled too quickly; they abruptly go from mortal enemies, to awkward, tentative friends, to lovers, without time to develop in between the stages. Prince Brigan was absent from the palace and the plot for the majority of the time, and I wish he could extended his stay in the pages.
Overall, Fire is an astoundingly brilliant novel that is a seven course meal, since it consists of everything a book lover’s heart could desire: vexing mystery, romance, action, violence, intriguing characters, mythical places, and a layered plot that meanders into unexpected places. I would reccomend reading Graceling first, since that is the order it was published.
Title: Graceling“She knew her nature. She would recognize it if she came face-to-face with it. It would be a blue-eyed, green-eyed monster, wolflike and snarling. A vicious beast that struck out at friends in uncontrollable anger, a killer that offered itself as a vessel of the king’s fury.” – page 137
“She couldn’t believe the coldness of this passageway over the mountains. She couldn’t believe wind couldblow so hard and so insistently, without ever easing. Every breath of this air was a blade gouging into her lungs. Her arms, her legs, her torso, especially her hands – every part of her that was not covered with fur burned with cold, as if she had thrown herself into a fire.” – page 352
Title: The Book Thief
Next, a team of hairdressers yanked and braided Fire's hair to distraction, exclaiming at the range of reds, oranges, and golds in her hair, its occasional astonishing strand of pink, its impossibly soft texture, its luminosity. It was Fire's first experience actually trying to improve her appearance. - Fire by Kristin Cashore, page 314
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels. A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. - A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, page 26
