Cover Reveal: Persistence of Vision by Liesel Hill

"In a world where collective hives are enslaving the population and individuals have been hunted to the verge of extinction, Maggie Harper, and independent 21st Century woman, must find the strength to preserve the freedom of the future, but without the aid of her memories.

After experiencing a traumatic time loss, Maggie is plagued by a barrage of images she can't explain. When she's attacked by a creep with a spider's web tattoo, she is saved by Marcus, a man she's never met, but somehow remembers. He tells her that both he and her creepy attacker are from a future in which individuals are being murdered by collectives, and Marcus is part of the rebellion. The collectives have acquired time travel and they plan to enslave the human race throughout all of history. The flashes Maggie has been seeing are echoes of lost memories, and the information buried deep within them is instrumental in defeating the collective hives.

In order to preserve the individuality of mankind, Maggie must try to re-discover stolen memories, re-kindle friendships she has no recollection of, and wade through her feelings for the mysterious Marcus, all while dodging the tattooed assassins the collectives keep sending her way.

If Maggie can't fill the holes in her memory and find the answers to stop the collectives, the world both in her time and in all ages past and future will be doomed to enslavement in the grey, mediocre collectives. As the danger swirls around her and the collectives close in, Maggie realizes she must make a choice: stand out or fade away..."

Futuristic! Dystopia! Time traveling! Gah! Too much awesome stuff! My head's exploding!

Where do I even begin? This book definitely sounds like something I would read; not only does it sound original (Hives? Must find out more!), but I also expect that it'll be full of adventure, which is what I think a lot of fiction is lacking these days. It's categorized as New Adult, meaning it reads like a YA novel but features slightly older characters. 

And yet another gorgeous cover. Very dark, very mysterious, very eye-catching. Especially the spiderweb design on that dude's face. 

I wish I had that on my face. (Haha, just kidding.) 

Persistence of Vision is slated for release before the end of the year, so make sure you keep an eye out for it! 

While you're at it, check out author Liesel K. Hill here:

Blog: Musings on Fantasia : musingsonfantasia.blogspot.com

Goodreads Author page:http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6517902.Liesel_K_Hill

Twitter account: twitter.com/lkhillbooks

Pinterest: pinterest.com/greenajah33

Goodreads Book page:  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15982000-persistence-of-vision 

Happy reading, booknerds! ^.^

Review: Matched by Ally Condie

Title: Matched (Matched Series, #1)
Author: Ally Condie
Released: November 30, 2010
Genre: dystopia, science fiction
Pages: 366 (U.S./Canada paperback)

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile

Rating: 7.3/10 (Good)

"Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow."(less)

The dystopia trend in YA fiction right now is going at full speed, and publishers are churning out dystopian novels like there's no tomorrow. Matched by Ally Condie naturally had a lot of hype surrounding it (Look at that cover! Just look at it!) and was rumoured to be one of the best YA dystopian novels in years.

My expectations for this book weren't high in the first place; I knew better than to believe the hype created by publishing companies (shame on you for getting my hopes up all the time!). But hey, Matched exceeded my expectations! The book had quite a few flaws, but it was enjoyable at the same time.


My favourite thing about the novel was the narrator/female lead, Cassia. She's such a refreshing heroine because she's mentally tough without being hard or closed off to family and friends. In fact, she has a great relationship with family and friends in the novel. She's generally polite, intelligent, and likable (which is less common in YA than you'd think it'd be). Most of the background characters are well developed. I also enjoyed Ally Condie's writing style, which was smooth and enjoyable to read. 

Because this is a dystopian novel, setting is crucial to the success of the story. Unfortunately, Condie's world development of the Society just didn't do it for me. The dystopia just wasn't well developed enough. Some elements of it don't make any sense to me (why are teenagers allowed to have romantic flings outside of their matches in such a restrictive society?). The only reason I'll let this slide is because there is room for more development later in the series. Still, it's not an excuse. 


This novel goes at a snail's pace. For 366 pages, not very much happens. There is no real climax, and there are a lot of times when I feel that the author/narrator asks way too many questions and is just using them as filler. 


Most of all, Matched just didn't have the "disturbing" factor that a dystopian novel needs.


From all the negatives that I listed I'm sure it seems that I hated this book. But I didn't. I don't know. All in all, there's just too much potential in this series to give up hope on it. 


You might like Matched if you:
- don't mind slow books
- like science fiction
- like love triangles