Boy, you're an alien, your touch so foreign.

...I always thought that it was the perfect theme for I AM NUMBER FOUR.

This is what I'm talking about, guys.



E.T by Katy Perry


This, too.





I love how different people interpret and experience absolutely different things from the exact same object.





Adding their own touch and making absolute magic.




It's fantabulous how much I shamelessly enjoy each version with their different remixes, because of the common factor they all have, which here is the underlying story in the lyrics, tune.




I could have turned it into a book analogy BUT I DIDN'T. I thought the heavy hints I sprinkled would be quite enough. :D

The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell

Title: The Vespertine	Loved it	Graded
Author: Saundra Mitchell
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Elements: Visions
Series: Has a sequel

It’s the summer of 1889, and Amelia van den Broek is new to Baltimore and eager to take in all the pleasures the city has to offer.

But her gaiety is interrupted by disturbing, dreamlike visions she has only at sunset—visions that offer glimpses of the future. Soon, friends and strangers alike call on Amelia to hear her prophecies.

However, a forbidden romance with Nathaniel, an artist, threatens the new life Amelia is building in Baltimore. This enigmatic young man is keeping secrets of his own—still, Amelia finds herself irrepressibly drawn to him.

When one of her darkest visions comes to pass, Amelia’s world is thrown into chaos. And those around her begin to wonder if she’s not the seer of dark portents, but the cause.

Set in the late 1800s, the story follows Amelia van den Broek as she moves to Baltimore to live with her cousin Zora and her family. There, she is sent to school to learn more about being a lady, and meets the mysterious, appearing-out-of-nowhere Nathaniel, who has secrets of his own. (Of course he does. "Mysterious" seems synonymous with "haz secrets".)

Most of THE VESPERTINE focuses on Amelia adapting to her new life and the people around her. Zora is set as Amelia’s other half, coming off as a vibrant daredevil compared to Amelia’s much more demure self, still hiding inside her shell. It's a feat, considering Zora is the one who is born into the life of genteelness. (Is there such a word?) At times, this contrast works splendidly, especially in the latter fourth of the book, as we see a reasonable and scaled down Zora, but other times it irks the heck out of me, simply because her incessant hyperactivity and happiness exhausted me.

One of the reasons why this is so is due to the pacing of the book, which languishes and takes its time in telling the story. It was slow moving, which is how life seems to be compared to the hectic life I live now. While the tone was light, it grew steadily darker, but in small shades. In the face of the exceedingly dark prologue, I was left to wonder when the climax would happen, and I found myself trying to read faster just to find out when it was.

When the payoff came, I wondered if the build up was a bit too long for my tastes, and if it would have the right amount of darkness and enough of a shock factor to propel the story. It wowed me and left me speechless, and only then did I understand the book; that it was meant to be the story of how Amelia came into her powers and the events that will lead her to what happens in the sequel, which I imagine will be much faster paced and darker than this.

The relationship between Amelia and Nathaniel is exciting, when you compare it to Zora and her love interest's relationship. Both were well developed, and while I loved Nathaniel's power and his demonstrations of it, I love the relationship between Zora and her beau. Who would have guessed that Zora would have gone for someone so proper until he is deemed "prissy" by the usually kind Amelia? Nonetheless, they complemented each other well. As for Amelia and Zora, both of them bring out the best in each other, playing off one another's strengths and adapting situations to their favour. One of my favourite scenes is where they are paid in cakes and tea for premonition requests. I could sense a happy montage, with a lilting, gentle melody playing in the background as the girls giggle and run off into the park. #dreamer

The setting of Amelia's premonitions were beautiful, I thought, with golden glows that came only in the sunset. It played off well, that Amelia's powers, while being vast, still had limitations: that it could happen only upon sunlight, and not before or after.

I would have loved to to have read more of Amelia and her brother's relationship, and the events that happened after as that was what drew me to reading this book in the first placed. The short excerpts that we were shown felt a bit lacking, but served its purpose in underlining the dark and somber elements.

I think THE VESPERTINE is a great addition to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's collection, if there are more books to come that will highlight more on the development of Amelia's powers, especially now that we've got the introduction. While the basic hook is one that we've seen before--about a girl who can see the future--the presentation and setting are one that I would love to revisit.

The Goddess Test by Aimée Carter

Title: The Goddess Test	Loved it	Graded
Author: Aimée Carter
Genre: Modern retelling
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Elements: Greek mythology
Series: Book 1 of the Goddess series

Every girl who has taken the test has died.

Now it's Kate's turn.

It's always been just Kate and her mom--and now her mother is dying. Her last wish? To move back to her childhood home. So Kate's going to start at a new school with no friends, no other family and the fear her mother won't live past the fall.

Then she meets Henry. Dark. Tortured. And mesmerizing. He claims to be Hades, god of the Underworld--and if she accepts his bargain, he'll keep her mother alive while Kate tries to pass seven tests.

Kate is sure he's crazy--until she sees him bring a girl back from the dead. Now saving her mother seems crazily possible. If she succeeds, she'll become Henry's future bride, and a goddess.

If she fails..

Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

It's been such a long time since I've read a book and went "Yes. Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about!" Lesser still to feel that I've found a book that manages to hit everything on my 'want in book' list. THE GODDESS TEST has done exactly that.

Now this is an unassuming book. I picked it up based on the title, summary and excerpt. This book has had little to no promotion as far as I'm aware; it makes it feel like I've found a hidden gem. From what I've read on Twitter and reviews, I'm not the only one. This book needs more promotion stat.

I knew that this was going to be a book that I would like from the moment I read the first chapter. We're introduced to Kate as she brings her dying mother back to her hometown, so that she could die where she grew up. Kate was a good daughter. Her love and concern for her mother came through the pages strong and clear. The past few years have Kate sacrificing her time, her life to take care of her mother as her condition got worse and she does this willingly. She doesn't bemoan the fact that her social life is nonexistent, because she is grateful for every minute spent with her mother. And the part that earned my respect for Kate was that she respects her mother.

This was such a departure from those sassy, eye-rolling heroines who treat parents as an unnecessary burden/ authority figure with lame quips. While I liked—or to be more precise, had gotten used to— those characters, it is rare to see a teenager who respects her parents both inside and out. Which in this case means that there's no 'oh, I'm so going to defy you anyway, but I'll just nod to placate you' attitude.

Here's an excerpt:

“The prize is immortality,” Henry said. “It’s not something we give out lightly, and we need to make sure it is something you can handle.”

I felt a cold block of ice form in the pit of my stomach. So my choices now were to live forever or die trying. Somehow it didn’t seem fair.

“You will do well,” Henry said. “I can feel it. And afterward, you will help me do something that no one else is capable of doing. You will have power beyond imagining, and you will never fear death again. You will never grow old and you will always be beautiful. You will have eternal life to spend as you wish.” But would I have my mother?

I can tell you for sure that you should not judge THE GODDESS TEST by that excerpt alone, because if you do, it just sounds like any YA novel with a great hook and not so much plot. Carter drives the plot forward; in fact she drives the point to me as a reader that the stakes are extremely high and personal. It gets to me, how she must feel and I had to question myself if I'll ever be as good a daughter as Kate was in this story.

The other characters were wonderful too. One of my pet peeves is the insertion of one-time-use-only characters that are merely plot devices and disappear immediately after their purpose is complete. There's no such thing here. Every character plays an important part, and I didn't realise the parts they played until it was over. Some I had guessed at, and gotten right, but nothing makes this smart-aleck happier than to know she's been proven wrong while at the same time being right.

The relationships between them, feelings shown and not said and the motivations that Kate had for doing and not doing things were portrayed brilliantly. I found myself understanding why Kate did things, and none of her actions were out of character. Same thing for the other characters. While it's not pertinent to the plot that we understand the justifications of the side characters' actions, the fact that we are shown and made to understand was helpful, and it made the story much more believable, and thus made me more invested in the story and the characters.

Let's take Henry for example. He's a major part of the story, and he's the reason why Kate is there in the first place. While we're shown a lot of Henry, he doesn't show much of himself to us, if it makes sense. Even that was understandable, given his history and character. He wasn't just a mysterious love interest for the sake of being mysterious. He wasn't even mysterious. He just kept to himself, and slowly revealed himself as the story progressed, as was right for his character.

Now let's talk about the storyline. It's been a long time since I've swooned and sighed my way through a book. THE GODDESS TEST is reminiscent of old timey Harlequin romances (how apt) that were my staple book-food way back when I was younger. I used to devour those books, and it's made me so sad to realise that YA books don't really have the type of grand, epic romance I'm looking for.

Until now!

Even the clichés were clichés with a reason. I laughed and cried at the same time, and alternately while reading, especially during the last few paragraphs and the secret at the end, which I urge you not to flip to. Take it from a serial flips-to-the-ending reader. You'll enjoy the ride much more without knowing where the highs and lows are, and without knowing the surprise at the end of the ride. The ending was apt, as this is the story of how Kate and Henry fell in love.

I'm glad that I got a chance to read and review THE GODDESS TEST, and it is my hope that you will go out and read it. I'm definitely looking forward to reading the sequel, but you know what, I'm not even anxious for it. This is one book I think I'll be re-reading over and over again, even if it's a standalone.

Read Brodie's much more eloquent and detailed review.