Patricia's Fanfiction Shelf

Finished the prompt "a trilogy."  Been working on that one for a little bit and it put me more than a little behind.  And, in truth, I'm posting this a little late.  I finished the third book in the trilogy I read back at the very end of June.  But, busy busy.  Anyhow, the trilogy in question?  The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner.  It's been a long time going with these, with a few books in between, so I'm going to do my best to break this down book by book.

So, the first one, titled The Maze Runner, was great.  So much better than the movie (trying not to be cliche, but it's true).  I've had movies scare me, but I've never read a book that truly made me feel fear like a horror movie might.  Maze Runner did that, almost from the very beginning.  The first scene with a griever?  Yeah, I was at work, on lunch, and my heart was still thudding in my chest as I read it.  And the ending?  It only made me want the second book more, as it left you with more questions than answers.  (Being vague so I can be spoiler-free).

Scorch Trials didn't disappoint as a sequel or as a book.  It picks up right where the first one left off, only this time, the characters are given no pretenses (seemingly... but that's for book three).  They're told that they have to make it through the Scorch, a horrible piece of the Earth that was affected by the Solar Flares that struck, in two weeks, otherwise this horrible disease that slowly drives a person crazy--called The Flare--will kill them, because they've all been  infected. Remember what I said about this book not disappointing?  Yeah, they up the ante in this one, with  new deadly challenges, a timeline, and new characters that quite memorable and loveable.  Plus, they even manage to work in a little love triangle, but not in a way that's... well, let me just say it this way.  It makes the world seem more relatable, but Dashner wisely doesn't put too much focus on it.  And the ending?  Yeah, it'll have you screaming at the book and for the last one in the series.

As for that, The Death Cure was amazing.  Thomas has finally had enough as he learns what parts of the Scorch Trials were truth and what parts were lies.  It's a race against time and the government in this one with a shocking reveal in the next to the last freakin' paragraph that will make you hate every politictian ever.

Overall, this book series is great.  Full of action and real character emotion that will make you both love and hate them at times.  It's sad and can make you feel kind of hopeless, but right when you think everyone is done for, they're not.  The wrap up is great, and I'm seriously considering reading the prequel book The Kill Order. (Prequels do not count as part of the original trilogy... they stand alone).

Eight prompts down and 42 to go... I'm working on Book based on or turned into a TV show by reading Game of Thrones... this might take a while.

Multiple update here, as I've been lazy with updating for this challenge.  But, I'm still hard at it.  Let's see, for "book with a number in the title" I read Jeaniene Frost's One Foot in the Grave.  This series bothers the crap out of me, but I've bought, like, every book but one in it, so I'm gonna keep reading them.  I'm sorry, but that story story I read from this series--set later than where I'm at in this currently--had great, well developed characters and everything.  The two books I've read thus far in the series (Halfway to the Grave being the first book in the series) were both such shameless Buffy ripoffs.  I'm still waiting for those characters that hooked me to emerge.

Now for "book with nonhuman characters" I read Kitty Takes a Holiday by Carrie Vaughn.  Talk about a series that gets better the more you read.  The first book in the series (Kitty and the Midnight Hour) was good, but it seemed like nothing terrible important happened in it.  I've already stated in a previous post on this challenge that the second book was better, and the third book was even better than that.  Plus, it introduced a ship that I had no idea I'd been shipping until it happened.  Good on you!

For "graphic novel" I read--don't you dare laugh at me--Darkwing Duck: The Definitively Dangerous Edition.  Basically, an omnibus of the Darkwing Duck comics that were published by Boom!Studios a couple of years back.  It's been majorly edited to feel more like Darkwing Duck, and had a new ending--which leads into new comics, coming sometime this year.  I loved it.  I had previously read the first two arcs in their entirety, but I reread them to see the changes--which I loved--and the third arc with Duckthulu was so much more intriguing that I could ever give it credit for.  Like, for real, I was invested.  If you're a DWD fan, you've got to read this collection!

And finally--for this post anyway--for "book you started but never finished" I read Dean Koontz's What the Night Knows.  I had begun reading this book a year or so ago and dropped off around my birthday last year or so when my husband had bought me a new Vampire Hunter D novel, finding that I desperately wanted to read a new VHD book rather than this Koontz book, at the time.  Koontz, sometimes in my humble opinion, can make his characters seem a bit... rambly?  And it had lost my interest.  But, as soon as I picked this book by up, right where I had left off, I found that I couldn't put it down.  Truly thrilling, depressing for some characters to be honest, but a satisfying ending.  I really enjoyed it, in the end.

One down... Lord, too many to go.  But I can totally do this.  The book that covered my first check mark?  Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Goes to Washington.  It was really good.  I mean, by no means a classic, but it really developed its characters well, and was just plain fun to read.

By the way, I'm open to suggestions on some of these.  I've got my memoir picked out, and I think I've got my graphic novel picked out.  But book by an author with my same initials?  I'm stumped.  (They're PLP, btw).  I also have my mystery picked out.