THE PLEDGE by Kimberly Derting

The Pledge was phenomenal. 

No seriously, I LOVED it!!  Thank you Kimberly Derting for a great dystopian novel with twists and turns that made sense and a main character I'd definitely want to know and be friends with.

If you think dystopian has been done to death/is all the same, this book proves there's still room to explore.  The concept of a caste system based on language simply blew my mind. It was so smart: How do people fight oppression if they can't even speak to each other?  How do they communicate when, by law, you have to look away whenever a person belonging to a higher class starts talking in their language?  The evil Queen Sabara counted on this fact to keep the naysayers apart, and it does.

But then there's Charlie.

As a member of the working class, the seventeen-year-old should only be able to understand Parshon--but she has a secret.  Charlie can interpret every word she hears regardless of what language it's spoken in.  In her world, the ability to interpret is a crime punishable by death, so she plays dumb.  Even when girls from the higher class berate her to her face, she looks away.  Even when a boy she barely knows speaks to her in a language she's never heard before, Charlie pretends not to understand.  One slip could be fatal.  But when her best friend, Brook, is in danger, Charlie does slip--and the mysterious boy, Max, notices.

Will Max expose her secret?  Who is he really?  These questions and more are all answered in the book.  The storytelling here was amazing.  To me, it sort of read like a dark fairytale (i.e. evil queen, lower glass girl with power).  But the realistic contemporary voice, the attention to detail, the relatable characters, these were the elements that made it a great read.

Derting did so much right, but I have to say my favorite parts (and her greatest successes imo) were the sections written from Charlie's POV.  Now, that is most of the book, so I'll narrow it down.  What really made me love Charlie was her unfailing loyalty.  To her friends, her family, her little sister.  The girl was one tough cookie.  Angelina, Charlie's younger sister, was also a favorite.  In a country defined by language, the girl has no voice.  She literally can't speak, but Charlie understands her/communicates with her in a way that really makes you see their bond.  Charlie always put Angelina's safety first; she never once became that sullen teenager who behaves like a jerk simply b/c she's an adolescent.  Charlie was better than that.  She had a real love for her sister, and I liked how that was so clear/believable/wonderful.

The pacing was great, the characters were stellar, and it has a beautiful cover J  What more can you ask for?  I'd recommend this book.  I was completely surprised by how much I enjoyed it (and how quickly I read through it). 

Hope everyone's having a great week,

Ninja Girl

P.S. I saw some other reviews (bad ones) on goodreads, and I can't believe how different my feelings are.  Charlie was so strong, for herself and others.  Sometimes I have to talk around the parts that didn't work for me in a book, but that was not the case here.  I just really loved it :D

TEASER TUESDAY: THE PLEDGE by Kimberly Derting

Teaser Tuesday's is a weekly meme hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading (click the image above to be directed to her page). Anyone can participate! Here are the rules:

• Grab your current read
• Open it to a random page
• Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO REVEAL SPOILERS! (Be sure not to spoil the book for others!
• Make sure your sentences don't reveal something important!)
• Include the title and author to, so that other participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

Hey everyone! Just thought I'd do a teaser to go with my review of The Pledge by Kimberly Derting.

Teaser:

"In all my life, I'd never heard anything like it.

The world shivered around me in protest.

His language was strange, and the inflection of his voice was heavy and rough-edged, but the meaning of his words was crystal clear.

I heard what Brooklyn never would:

"This childish beauty smells delicious.""

Pretty great, right??  Now off to check all the other teasers :D

Ninja Girl

THE BODY FINDER by Kimberly Derting

The Body Finder tells the story of Violet Ambrose, a sixteen-year-old girl with the power to sense murder victims--and more importantly the taint left behind on both the bodies and the murderers.

Violet unearthed her first body buried in the woods when she was eight.  She can't stand the stench her cat carries around, the "echoes" of countless unfortunate creatures caught and killed by the feline clinging to his coat.  Her best friend, Jay Heaton, is one of the few people who knows about and accepts her secret, but all the girl's around town are starting to notice Jay now--and Violet is no exception.  When a serial killer starts picking off girls left and right, Violet sets out to find the murderer using her unique skill.  But even with Jay guarding her back, there's danger around every corner, and the killer has set his sights on the one girl who could end all the fun--or become his latest victim.

Honestly, it took me a while to pick this one up.  Don't know why; it was just one of those things. *shrugs* I've had a few people tell me this happens to them as well.  You go into the bookstore, keep picking up the book, putting it back, picking it up etc.  The title is so good I couldn't not pick up the book (and yes, that's a double negative J But it's the truth).  The cover is gorgeous and steps away from that whole beautiful-cover-model-staring-out-with-mysterious-eyes motif.  Not that I don't like those covers, but this book had more substance than two really hot characters making moon eyes at each other.

I loved getting to see how the friendship between Violet and Jay evolved into something more.  Those new feelings that threatened to change their relationship forever coupled with the new threat to the town's safety really played well off each other.  Talk about internal and external conflict, it was all there.  Kimberly Derting did a spectacular job of making the relationship between her two leads just as compelling as the serial killer plot.

I will say I have a real love of stories where "best friends become more."  Although that type of romance may seem overdone, I think it's more common nowadays to see the "mysterious stranger who wants to kill you, but in the end they profess undying love, and you forget they initially treated you like crap."  Maybe it's just me, but pretty much everything I real follows that formula, so it was nice to see a different romantic dynamic here.  Especially because it was done so well J  I believed that Violet was just now starting to recognize her feelings for Jay and that he had known his all along.  *Sigh* How can you not love that?

Apart from Violet making some pretty stupid impulsive decisions that had me pulling my hair out questioning her judgment--such as slipping out of the house at the height of the investigation for a light jog in the woods, ALONE--I really enjoyed the book.  The prose was a little thick, too descriptive for my tastes, the story a bit long b/c of that.  But overall, it was a good read, and I'm happy I picked it up.  It was another one of those MCs with a power that has "series potential" written all over it--and there are at least two other books after this one J

Happy reading all,

Ninja Girl