Book Review: Witch Crag by Kate Cann

Tree Rat or Mad One do not seem like great nicknames to have.

Kita must make a choice: 

survive in a life she will hate

forever, or run away and almost

certainly die.

Death is a risk is willing to take.

But there's more to it than that...

Soon, Kita will find herself fighting

for the very enemy she was trying

to escape. 

This summary leaves out the important tidbit that this is a dystopia with a Society that has degenerated into sexist, joyless losers. It does have very slight fantasy element.  It also a standalone which is a nice to find in YA Dystopia especially as this book could have been dragged out into two, or a horrifying trilogy as they almost feels like two parts of this book.The length of this story was perfect.

Kita is a our protagonist who decides to escape with her friends from their home to the mysterious, possible deadly Witch Crag, through the forest and the waste lands of what use to be. It's intense adventure with Kita wondering where she belongs.

The characters were good. Kita is likable and her friendships were nice. The romances were good and realistic in their nature.

The plot and the characters worked well together. The world building was great and we were exposed to each part at good rate. It seemed like a real society.

Overall, I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars for Forbidden Herbs. I really enjoyed this novel, it was reading a saga without the time committed and would definitely recommend to other dystopia Lovers. 

Book Review: Acid by Emma Pass

The tagline for this book totally should have been "Acid, it'll make you trip".

2113. In Jenna Strong's world, ACID - the most brutal, controlling police force in history - rule supreme. No throwaway comment or muttered dissent goes unnoticed - or unpunished. And it was ACID agents who locked Jenna away for life, for a bloody crime she struggles to remember.
The only female inmate in a violent high-security prison, Jenna has learned to survive by any means necessary. And when a mysterious rebel group breaks her out, she must use her strength, speed and skill to stay one step ahead of ACID - and to uncover the truth about what really happened on that dark night two years ago.

I really liked this books but there is a few problems with it. Mainly that I never brought the premise. I just found the set up too unrealistic. It has Britain basically becoming police state in fifty years time due to the country going bankrupt and Europe kicking us out. That part that really undid the world for me. Britain would have to really piss off Europe (I'm presuming the whole of Europe have joined together at this point and not just the few in the EU) to get kicked out. I mean several country have went bankrupt (or close to it) and the EU help them (though that probably mainly to save the Euro).

I never brought people just being so very happy to let ACID take over in the first place. I know we only ever given the distorted view of this history but there would have been many a riot (even with the anti-ACID groups I just don't this is covered enough). Britain isn't bunch of push overs and we're very ford of alcohol (which banned in the world of ACID). I just don't believe it and unbelievable set up ruins the rest of the book for me in general which sort of did in ACID. I don't maybe if the book was set two hundred years in the future instead of one but with that said this book reminds me a lot of 'Slated' by Terri Terry (which I did a review on), they're not the same but have a few similarities with being British, new police stricture and altering of brains. 'Slated' only set forty years in the future but I bought it more. Pass just could have done a better job with making a more realistic world.

Another thing bug me is that its never explain why the books starts with Jenna being in a fully male prison. Surely there would be high Security prison for females as woman do commit violet crimes. I don't know its meant to be something they did to mess with her. We're just left to ponder where all the female murderers are.

Besides the bad world building, ACID is actually quite good. Jenna is really interesting character and kick arse character (though her actions in the last part of the book do annoy me somewhat, like what hell are you're doing. I suppose it would have been a boring end if she had just left to the others to finish). Also prepare to be confused as Jenna ends up using several different names during the book due to the whole hiding from ACID thing.

Another nice thing about this book is that its stand alone which is so rare in YA and Dystopia. Its all wrapped up nicely at the end of the book.

There is a bit of romance, which is cause the bit that annoyed me at Jenna, but other that I think it was buyable and nice. Yeah, I don't really care about romance parts in books.

Overall, I gave this book 4/5 stars, a few things could have been improved but it was still good book and nice addition to the Dystopia genre.