Lindsey Ziegler
An excellent sequel. In each book, the characters are real and very complete, even the supporting cast.
A great mix of science fiction and historical fiction. I couldn't wait for the next chapter and just kept reading.
Difficult to read. There was no organization to the book(at least that I could tell) and his stories always seemed to end before the true end of them.
An interesting look at “liberal” family who find out about their own prejudices.
However, only two of the characters are really likeable.
A fairly depressing read that illustrates some of the gaps that society has for foster kids.
A solid thriller. Michael Bennett is one of Patterson's most interesting and fully-developed.
Couldn't finish this one. The style was very modern and thus, rather hard to follow and the prose wasn't strong enough for me to struggle through.
A lot of the maturity that Miranda had by the end of the first book seemed to disappear. And the family dynamic took major steps backward.
Interesting enough.
The mystery was very strange and I felt like we didn't have enough clues to solve it ourselves
Excellent story and strong narrator. Piper was so much more likable than in the TV series. It's interesting, there is so much less drama in the book than the TV series. no one really fights and the creepy guards are much more subtle.
Cute and a fast read, but definitely too much telling and not enough showing to really feel like a strong book.
A little hard to follow, as the plot jumped around a lot. Also, the characters were not as fully developed as I have come to expect from Konigsburg.
It's like Lord of the Flies plus The Hunger Games, with a little bit of Ender's Game and The Running Man thrown in. Okay, but not really that compelling. I haven't yet decided if I want to read the next one.
DNF'ed at about 50%
I might have been able to push through if I was reading the physical text, but the narrator for Stella spoke with the standard AI accent.
There was just nothing going on in the plot. I was only interested in two characters and one was the first to leave the tent.
Furthermore, the similarities to GBBO were everywhere, but almost like they were written based upon a person who had seen only one episode of the show and described it to someone else who played a game of telephone with a bunch of kids and finally the author was at the end of the group. 6 contestants who cook for one week (with one bake per elimination), with two judges (who are also the hosts?), instead of around 14 bakers who cook 3 times per elimination, with two judges and two hosts. And there was little description of the foods that they made. The contestants also had no idea what they were baking until they got in the tent that day, which in real life would lead to the most simple of bakes, because they just don't have the time to test out new things.
And here's the really bad things. First, the lecherous older man judge who gets the youngest contestant drunk and takes her back to his room (and the contestant seems to be on board, but she was blotto... so, ick). Second, that the judges interact with the contestants outside of the competition, which would lead any normal person to question their judging. Third, Melody, who seemed to think that sabotage was the only way to create drama (including switching salt for sugar, orange essence for gasoline!?!, and turning burners up to high), which having watched most of the seasons of GBBO, there's no need for sabotage, the contestants are plenty capable of drama.
And fourth, and most egregious, all of the telling. We don't see any judging, we only hear about it after the fact. We don't see any of the eliminations, we hear about it. Even the most dramatic moments are recounted by a single person, rather than in the moment.
Did not finish this one. Nothing changed for the characters. They started immature and stilted and never did anything to change that.
And the main point was supposed to be the family, but really it was the main character's romantic feelings.
But the most infuriating part is that Natalie's family cut her off after she called 911 when first her sister fell down the stairs and had a head injury and second, a boy in their house overdosed on drugs. This results in the Sister and Brother going to jail and everyone, including Natalie, always say that it was all Natalie's fault that her family went to jail. That was the repeating message of the whole story.
He kept saying, in the book, that it was the people that made the trip wonderful, yet he never wrote about them, except when they took him to more food.
Okay, 2.5 stars.
Each chapter was written like a scientific paper, which led to little connection between each chapter. Additionally, I don't need to the chapter to tell me what it is going to be about in the first paragraph. I'll figure it out soon enough.
Hard to get into, but then hard to put down. I just wanted to know how it would all end.
