Shards and Ashes.

Shards and Ashes

By: Melissa Marr, Kelley Armstrong, Veronica Roth, Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl, Rachel Caine, Nancy Holder, Beth Revis, Carrie Ryan

This review is going to be different because this is a dystopian anthology containing nine different stories in nine different future worlds. As I go through this, I am going to add a short paragraph review of each story with my thoughts on it.

Hearken
by: Veronica Roth

This was a great way to start off this book. In this story Veronica Roth created a hauntingly beautiful world. This story was just under forty pages long, yet it had characters I became invested with and a plot that kept me interested. I don't know much about String Theory, but to my ignorant brain the science-y part seemed to make at least a bit of sense. The premise was so interesting that I truly would love a full book dedicated to this world. And the way she described the songs made me want to hear them desperately. It also brings up an interesting question: would I choose life songs or death songs? I really don't know which I would choose, both seem beautiful and appealing. I just really appreciated this story and am once again awed by Veronica Roth's talent for writing.

rating: 5 stars

Quotes:

"Obligation was dangerous because it muddled the mind."

"...because the song required her to play, to find its strongest moments and bring them to the surface so that someone else could hear them."

"Everyone was both dying and living at the same time..."

 Branded
by: Kelley Armstrong

I wasn't sure how I would feel about this one considering I'm not a big fan of paranormal-ish things and because I have never read a werewolf book that was actually good. But, Branded was kind of AWESOME. I loved that it didn't play around with characters being too compassionate (by that I mean that the people, even and especially the main characters, were harsh and had every reason to be). Rayne knew that some things, while unpleasant and not ideal, had to be done to keep her and Braeden alive. I also really appreciated the air of mystery that this story had. You never really saw the full motives of Rayne until the last page. Now I want to know more about their life with the branded and I'm sad that it ended where it did (despite it being super epic).

rating: 5 stars

Quotes:

"There were other ways to survive, if you were willing to take chances, including the chance that you wouldn't survive."

"...but to pour my heart out in such melodrama felt like a mockery of the truth."

"But, to me, love isn't mooning and moaning--it's taking action to protect the one you love. Deed, not word."

"No life is easy," I said. "It's just a different kind of hard."