"Waiting on" Wednesday #1

Welcome to my first ever "Waiting on" Wednesday! This week's pre-publication that I absolutely can't wait for is:

The Fever

by Megan Abbott
Publication Date: June 17, 2014

Blurb: 

The panic unleashed by a mysterious contagion threatens the bonds of family and community in a seemingly idyllic suburban community. 

The Nash family is close-knit. Tom is a popular teacher, father of two teens: Eli, a hockey star and girl magnet, and his sister Deenie, a diligent student. Their seeming stability, however, is thrown into chaos when Deenie's best friend is struck by a terrifying, unexplained seizure in class. Rumors of a hazardous outbreak spread through the family, school and community. 

As hysteria and contagion swell, a series of tightly held secrets emerges, threatening to unravel friendships, families and the town's fragile idea of security. 

A chilling story about guilt, family secrets and the lethal power of desire, The Fever affirms Megan Abbot's reputation as "one of the most exciting and original voices of her generation." 

This book looks amazing! And lucky for me, I have less than a week to wait before I can read it!

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Teaser Tuesday #1

Baby Talk: Book 2

Mike Wells

Blurb: 

In this creepy horror novel, Neal Becker is convinced that his 5 month old baby daughter can talk. But that's impossible...isn't it? Except that Neal didn't really want to get married in the first place - the pregnancy was the result of a one-night stand, and he preferred an abortion. Now, Baby Natasha knows it, and she's out to get him! Or so Neal believes...join the two in a terrifying battle for survival that will make your blood run cold.

My teaser: 

"Neal felt a little more relaxed - at least she seemed happy about being fed. But with the hawk-like way she was watching him, he would have to be damn careful about what he planned to do next."
- Kindle Loc 522

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Book Review: A.I. Apocalypse by William Hertling

Title: A.I. Apocalypse (Singularity #2)
Author: William Hertling
Publication Date: May 24, 2012
Publisher: Liquididea Press
Pages: 262
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Leon Tsarev is a high school student set on getting into a great college program, until his uncle, a member of the Russian mob, coerces him into developing a new computer virus for the mob’s botnet - the slave army of computers they used to commit digital crimes.

The evolutionary virus Leon creates, based on biological principles, is successful -- too successful. All the world’s computers are infected. Everything from cars to payment systems and, of course, computers and smart phones stop functioning, and with them go essential functions including emergency services, transportation, and the food supply. Billions may die.

But evolution never stops. The virus continues to evolve, developing intelligence, communication, and finally an entire civilization. Some may be friendly to humans, but others are not.

Leon and his companions must race against time and the military to find a way to either befriend or eliminate the virus race and restore the world’s computer infrastructure.

I bought A.I. Apocalypse on Amazon when it was either free or $0.99. The premise sounded interesting and, while Sci-Fi is not at the top of my reading list, I've found the possibility of an Artificial Intelligence takeover interesting since Philosophy 101. Unfortunately, this book missed the mark for me.

The first couple of chapters really had me hooked. Leon seemed to be a legitimately interesting character and his run-in with the Russian mob had me on the edge of my seat! His friends were equally interesting and even Mike and ELOPe drew me in briefly. Once the virus was actually released, however, the story quickly went downhill.

There are several issues with A.I. Apocalypse. The first and most blatant is the gross overuse of technical jargon. Sure, it's a book about a computer virus, but surely there is a way to write for the average reader. I know a little about computers and I was able to follow the geek speak for the most part, but it was so dry that it was completely lost on me. I found myself skipping paragraphs first and by the end I was skipping full pages. Not only was there a lot of technical language, but it was extremely repetitive. There was more than once instance of a situation being explained multiple times to different people. If a situation is so complicated that it needs to be explained twice for the reader to understand, perhaps it should be simplified. Had the technical jargon been simplified and condensed this book could have been better.

Not only was this book far too technical for the average reader (in my opinion), but the author doesn't seem to have thought the tech of the future through completely. For example, the setting is decades into the future where simple robots and drones carry out mundane tasks and buildings are on lockdown with super fancy security systems. Meanwhile, people still communicate via email on their phones, video games are played on phones (isn't virtual reality already a thing?), and the backdoor of a fancy museum is susceptible to the breaking and entering efforts of 17 year old kid. There are also several references to current pop-culture that just don't seem to fit - WALL-E, for example.

Finally, the ending of A.I. Apocalypse was far too tidy and, frankly, completely unbelievable. As a prior military member, I cannot believe that the federal government would handle Leon in the way this book suggests. I believe anyone reading just the summary could guess at a more believable outcome. I was teetering between one and two stars before I read the last chapter, but I just can't with that ending. I hate giving negative reviews and I'm almost embarrassed to post two in two weeks, but this book just did not do it for me. I was in no way invested in the characters and finishing was a struggle.

I, Robot did it better.

Feature & Follow #1

Happy Friday and welcome to the first ever Feature & Follow Friday at Cornerfolds! Feature & Follow is a blog hop hosted by Parajunkee of Parajunkee’s View and Alison of Alison Can Read. The goal of Feature & Follow is to meet new bloggers, make friends, and gain readers. Sounds like a lot of fun!

This Week's Question: 

What are your non-book guilty pleasures? 

Like TV shows, food, websites, hobbies, etc.

My non-book guilty pleasure is gaming. Okay, so semi-gaming. I say semi because, well, I suck at it. I'm terrible at games, to be honest. I tend to only choose games that have an "easy" mode and sometimes get frustrated even then. The only games I've ever beaten are The Fellowship of the Ring for PS2 (based on the book, not the movie) and Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure. I bought guides for both. My current favorite games are Diablo 3, Disney Infinity, and Lego Harry Potter for PS3. 

Reading Challenges 2014

Reading challenges - not just for elementary school! Who knew? I'm new to the world of book blogging and I'm learning more every day. Today I learned that there are challenges across the blogging community! Unfortunately, I'm six months late to the party, so I'll only be choosing a couple to participate in.

The Witches and Witchcraft Reading Challenge just sounds like a lot of fun! Since there are actually a few books sitting on my "to read" shelf that would qualify, I figured, what the heck!

Here are a couple I plan to read for this challenge:

A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness
Witchful Thinking, by H.P. Mallory
The James Potter series, by G. Norman Lippert

To start, I'll commit to the Initiate level (1-5 books), but I may go over.

If you'd like to sign up, visit Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf and add yourself to the list!

The second challenge I'm signing up for this summer is the 2014 Horror Reading Challenge. This challenge appeals to me for the same reasons as the above - I kind of enjoy scary and/or paranormal literature (a lot). I've already gotten a bit of a head start on this challenge. Here are a couple reviews from this year:

The story of her holding an orange, by Milos Bogetic
The Shuddering, by Ania Ahlborn

I'm committing to the Running Scared level (1-5 books) for this challenge. Again, it's possible I'll go over. It's also possible that this challenge could coincide with the first!

To sign up for this challenge, visit Midnyte Reader.

Book Review: The story of her holding an orange by Milos Bogetic

Title: The story of her holding an orange
Author: Milos Bogetic

Publication Date: March 13, 2013
Publisher: Inaaace Press
Pages: 73
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"When I was 17 and living in Europe, strange woman started following me. She would find me everywhere. And every time she'd find me, she'd only want one thing: for me to take the orange. After a year of being constantly stalked, I moved to America. 10 years later, she found me again. This is the true story of her, the woman holding an orange." 

I first read The story of her holding an orange by Milos Bogetic (better known as Inaaace) on Reddit’s r/nosleep over a year ago. It pulled me in and I spent days checking and rechecking to see if he’d posted an update. It ended abruptly, leaving me (and everyone else) to scour the comment section for answers. When I heard Inaaace was releasing a book with more details and an expanded ending, I could not wait to read it! It took me a little while to get around to actually opening the book on my Kindle, but I finally did it.

The story of her holding an orange should never have been released as a book. There, I said it. And I know I’m not the only person who feels this way. As a story on Reddit (or Creepypasta or wherever else it was posted), this was an amazing read. It had the “creep factor” and held on until the last, heart stopping line, which left an entire subreddit in panic mode. Unfortunately, it just didn’t translate very well.

Milos says from the very beginning, “I probably break every rule of proper writing…I write the way I speak.” I would most definitely agree with Milos. From page one there are grammatical errors and curse words for no good reason. Granted, this was originally written for Reddit and this kind of language is expected there. There does not seem to have been much editing between the original posts and the book form. Milos is repetitive, gives unnecessary details, and takes the “conversational style” to the extreme. As I was preparing to review this book, I had to keep reminding myself that it is a book, not a post online, and that I needed to review it as such. I say again, it should not have been released as a book.

The actual story, however, is a different matter. Milos manages to make an orange creepy in a story that is entirely original. The main antagonist, Rose, is mysterious and, quite frankly, terrifying, for 90% of the book. There’s no explanation for her bizarre behavior, which amps up the disturbing nature of the character. In a nutshell: this story is weird, creepy, and unique. Unfortunately, the last 10% of the book essentially ruins it.

The original story ended in such a way that readers were left thinking about it for weeks and still reference it often. The ending written for the book feels like it was an afterthought (because it was) and completely removes all of the mystery and discomfort surrounding Rose’s character. It makes her almost sympathetic, something she was never meant to be.

Overall, The story of her holding an orange is excellent – on Reddit. I would absolutely not recommend buying the book or even reading a free copy. If you want to read this story as it was meant to be read, I highly suggest going reading the original posts by Innace on Reddit. The original story was brilliant but please, please don’t read this book.