Opposition by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Fiction

There is a vastly different feel between Opposition and its preceding book Origin, its desperation and urgency unlike before. The first hundred or so pages can have you feeling pretty hopeless and almost as heartbroken as some of the characters. And once the first set of conflicts work themselves out, it’s almost non stop action, lust, or strategizing. At times I felt like things were going a bit too fast, but maybe that is just because I was reading so fast because I was so very into the story. The conclusion is pleasant, perfect for people who love a happy ending, but it does leave you wishing that the author had given you a little bit more. 

So if you do love the Lux series, and you are craving more, there is good news. There is an additional book written from the perspective of Daemon which takes place between Obsidian and Opal and I will definitely be reading this. I really enjoyed the joint perspective of Katy and Daemon in Origin and Opposition, which was both necessary and worked really well, in contrast to the first three books coming from only Katy’s point of view, so I would like to hear the story from the beginning from Daemon’s perspective. In addition to this, there is another novel about the Arum, and another series about the Origins. You can look forward to seeing several posts about these books from me sometime in the future.

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston

Nonfiction

I never thought that the most horrifying book I would ever read would be nonfiction. The first twenty pages alone are just as anxiety-inducing and frightening as the beginning of a scary movie. I felt nearly the same as I would during the first few minutes into watching a new thriller, I was unsure as to what type of horror awaited me and I was anticipating being scared.The narrative, the detail, it’s incredible, the way this man writes is absolutely brilliant. I couldn’t turn my eyes from the page, so much so that I haven’t read a piece of nonfiction this fast in a long time. I can’t even remember where I heard about this book and why I thought it was wish list worthy, but I am so elated that I finally made the decision to buy it. I could read this book over and over again. I feel like this says a lot for a book that is about the Ebola and Marburg viruses. 

However, if you have a hard time reading about blood and gruesome bodily functions, I would suggest staying away. I love the macabre, but there were times when I was like, wow, the author really isn’t holding back here, this couldn’t be any more graphic. There were passages that even I thought were a bit too much. At the same time, this attention to detail will not deter me from purchasing another book written by this man, a book that happens to contain the same subject matter, Crisis in the Red Zone, which I hope to read and review in the near future.

Origin by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Fiction

The fourth book in the Lux series is pretty grim. Katy’s life becomes really miserable, Daemon becomes even more reckless because of what’s going on with Katy, and a lot of people die. One death made me really happy, because in my opinion, it was well deserved. Then there was another death that was unexpected, but the person kind of had it coming, so I didn’t get torn up about it. Finally, there were several deaths that had me saying a sad “aw” out loud. 

Besides all the upcoming misery that I feel I need to warn you about, there is much more going on that is on the enjoyable side to read. It feels like you are learning a fascinating piece of information or getting an answer to one of the many questions you may have had on almost every page. On top of all that, there are also exceptional romance scenes that are well written without being too graphic, perfect for younger readers but at the same time able to satisfy mature bookworms

 At the conclusion of this book in the series I am left with no idea what to expect as a critical event occurs. I still had a lot of questions before this incident occurred, and because of what happened I now have even more. I am really tempted to pick up the next book right now, but I need to supplement my reading material with something educational.

Elementary: The Periodic Table Explained by James M. Russell

Nonfiction

This is another book store browse find. It was in the discount section, and I ultimately decided to buy it because a friend of mine mentioned that she was taking some courses to learn more about her job, which deals with chemicals. Basically, she inspired me to learn more about what everything is made of.

The book is broken into pleasant sections. The first section is elements 1-56, where you get the name of the element, its symbol, atomic weight, atomic number, color, melting and boiling point, and when it was first identified. You are also given a brief history, additional facts, and sometimes an interesting anecdote. The next section is elements 57-71, the lanthanides. They all have the same number of electrons in the outer shell, and they have a lot of similarities so these elements aren’t given as much detail in their individual sections. They appear as the top row of that separate section you see in the periodic table. The third section is elements 73-94. The format of this section is like that of the first section, each element is discussed in greater detail. Lab created elements, those that do not exist in nature and only exist for short periods of time in a lab setting, are explained in section four. Two of these elements were only just added to the periodic table in 2011, and no new elements have been discovered or added to it since. The book concludes with a very brief section mentioning how we would go about finding additional elements. 

I learned a lot from this book. I would recommend it, but if you really need to acquire a great deal of knowledge, I would suggest getting a textbook. This is more for someone who wants to read for fun. Additionally, I am glad that I picked this because it reminded me about a book on my shelf that I haven’t read in a really long time that I now want to go back to. It might be coming soon to this blog.

Opal by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Fiction

Things finally progress to a place where you want the main characters to be in Opal, the third book in the Lux series. The good stuff finally does take place, in case you wanted to know, because it almost seems like it is never going to happen. Three books is a long time to wait for a romantic climax, and at the end you are still left frustrated because a well thought out and well practiced plan goes wrong due to a huge betrayal. If you’ve read the previous two books, you will know exactly who conned everyone. Everyone else knew the whole time that they were likely to be lured into a trap by the sneak, but they went along with the plan anyway because they really had no other choice. One need has been filled, but I am left wanting to know how things are going to go from here. The books really leave you wanting to go back for more. I am going to resist picking up the next book until I read something a little bit better for my brain, but it is going to be extremely difficult.

Unrelated, I haven’t done this in a while, but I did find one tiny error in the book. I got really excited because I feel like it has been a really long time since I found a mistake. It’s just a missing quotation mark on page 231, but I’m pleased that I saw it.