The Book Of Ivy (The Book of Ivy #1) by Amy Engel

The Book Of Ivy
(The Book of Ivy #1)
Amy Engel
YA Dystopia
Paperback, 282 pages
4th November 2014 by Entangled

Goodreads Rating: 4.20/5
My Rating: 4/5

After a brutal nuclear war, the United States was left decimated. A small group of survivors eventually banded together, but only after more conflict over which family would govern the new nation. The Westfalls lost. Fifty years later, peace and control are maintained by marrying the daughters of the losing side to the sons of the winning group in a yearly ritual. 

This year, it is my turn. 

My name is Ivy Westfall, and my mission is simple: to kill the president’s son—my soon-to-be husband—and restore the Westfall family to power. 

But Bishop Lattimer is either a very skilled actor or he’s not the cruel, heartless boy my family warned me to expect. He might even be the one person in this world who truly understands me. But there is no escape from my fate. I am the only one who can restore the Westfall legacy.

Because Bishop must die. And I must be the one to kill him…

“You’re easy to read, Ivy, but the whole book of you is complicated.” 

I LOVE BISHOP LATTIMER. 

The Book of Ivy is actually a young adult dystopia, but it feels more like reading a romance book to be honest. It's like, the romance is the major plot, while the dystopian world is the minor. But hey, the romantic soul in me is totally not complaining. 

This book is different from any other dystopian books because it uses arranged marriages as its weapon-- the logic is, 2 sides of a town had a war against each other, and when the fight is over and peace is gained, they came up with an idea of having arranged marriages to ensure the peace will still roll out, the children from the losing side will offer their 16yo children to the children from the winning side. There wont be any massacres because seriously, would you kill your own descendants??? Brilliant scheme, isnt it?

“I'm not sure how we got to this place, where a girl's only value is in what kind of marriage she has, how capable she is of keeping a man happy.” 

The romance is great. Bishop is perfect. I have issues with Ivy at the start but as the pages grow, her character improves so now its all good. and its important to mention, I LOVE how Bishop and Ivy's relationship grows. How they build their trust, how they go around each other, just basically everything really.

“He didn’t save me, though. He allowed me the freedom to save myself, which is the very best type of rescue.” 

THERE WAS THIS PART WHERE BISHOP'S MOM CAUGHT HIM AND IVY MAKING OUT BUT BISHOP DIDNT EVEN BOTHER TO HIDE IT. HE KEPT HIS ARMS WRAPPED AROUND IVY AND HIS LIPS WAS AT IVY'S TEMPLE, ALL WHILE HIS MOM TALKED TO HIM IN THE FRONT DOOR IM DYING CAN I HAVE A BISHOP TOO

Like I said, this book focuses more on the romance so if you wish to read this book, don't expect too much on the dystopian side. But I was told the second book will have less romance more dystopian so yeah we'll see. 

p.s. Bishop is such an ugly name tbh I pity him

p.s.s. I will make it my life mission to kill Callie, however fictional she is. 

“My mission is not to make him happy and bear his children and be his wife. My mission is to kill him.” 

Unwind (Unwind Dystology #1) by Neal Shusterman

Unwind
(Unwind Dystology #1)
Neal Shusterman
YA Dystopia
Paperback, 335 pages
27th September 2012 by Simon & Schuster

Goodreads Ratings: 4.19/5
My Rating: 4.5/5

The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state, is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

FORGET DIVERGENT, FORGET THE MAZE RUNNER. those are trash, anyway. UNWIND IS MUCH BETTER THAN THAT. "In a perfect world everything would be either black or white, right or wrong, and everyone would know the difference. But this isn't a perfect world. The problem is people who think it is.” Unwind has a weird concept that the morality bothers me because it's insane. This is a book where unwanted kids below the age 18 are being unwound, hence the term Unwind. Being unwound means that these kids are being eliminated from this world, but having them killed is such a waste on their good and useful body parts. So an idea was formed; why not take these good eyes, ears, arms, kidneys, lungs, teeth-- anything possible, and donate them off to those who need these parts? DOESNT IT SOUND INTERESTING? Let me answer that for you: IT IS INTERESTING!! AND MORE!!! I was terrified, bothered, mad, scared throughout this journey, imagining what if that was my fate? What if all these happened to me? This dystopian world created by Shusterman is so close to the world we live in, where Shusterman brought forth the heavy issues (eg: abortion) in his own way. There's a chapter in which Shusterman brings us through the process of unwinding itself and i swear man, IT WAS HORRIFYING I HAD GOOSEBUMPS I COULDN'T EVEN BREATHE Unwind is the first book of the Unwind series but it can be read as a standalone, as the ending ends perfectly. I wonder how the next books are gonna be plotted because there isnt any cliffhanger. This is different from any other dystopian books out there and you. need. to. read. this.

“I'd rather be partly great than entirely useless.” 

All The Rage by Courtney Summers

All The Rage
Courtney Summers
Standalone
Contemporary Young Adult
Hardback, 321 pages
14th April 2015 by St. Martin's Griffin

Goodreads Ratings: 3.84/5
My Rating: 4/5

The sheriff’s son, Kellan Turner, is not the golden boy everyone thinks he is, and Romy Grey knows that for a fact. Because no one wants to believe a girl from the wrong side of town, the truth about him has cost her everything—friends, family, and her community. Branded a liar and bullied relentlessly by a group of kids she used to hang out with, Romy’s only refuge is the diner where she works outside of town. No one knows her name or her past there; she can finally be anonymous. But when a girl with ties to both Romy and Kellan goes missing after a party, and news of him assaulting another girl in a town close by gets out, Romy must decide whether she wants to fight or carry the burden of knowing more girls could get hurt if she doesn’t speak up. Nobody believed her the first time—and they certainly won’t now — but the cost of her silence might be more than she can bear.　

With a shocking conclusion and writing that will absolutely knock you out, All the Rage examines the shame and silence inflicted upon young women after an act of sexual violence, forcing us to ask ourselves: In a culture that refuses to protect its young girls, how can they survive?

THIS BOOK IS SO IMPORTANT. Trigger warning: RAPE

All The Rage makes me mad and furious. Good lord, it's so raw, honest, painful and all things broken. My heart ached the entire time. How can society be that cruel 

"You know all the ways you can kill a girl? God, there are so many."

This is about a rape victim, who gets the blame for getting raped. Who no one believes her tale, not even her call for help. Who lost all hopes in the world for how fate treats her.

This is different from any other YA books with "teenage issues" as their theme. All The Rage is much more powerful than that.

My only problem of the book is the writing style. Courtney Summers may write beautifully but it doesn't work on me :/

"He covers her mouth. That's how you get a girl to stop crying; you cover her mouth until the sound dies against your palm."