Summer is in full swing here in blazing hot Alabama! I am definitely not reading by the pool (it's so hot that if I'm going to be outside at all, I am going to be IN the pool!). But I'm getting lots of reading done from the comfort of my air conditioned home :).

One of my recent reads was ALIVE by Scott Sigler. What a ride! I received the book for free from NetGalley, and while I wasn't obligated to say a single nice thing about it, I have plenty of nice things to say!

ALIVE was a super fun read. It was intriguing and kept me guessing until the end. "Em" wakes up inside a coffin and fights her way out. She finds herself inside some sort of compound filled with coffins, and lots of the other coffin occupants are waking up as well (but not all of them; some of them are genuinely dead). None of them knows who they are or how they got there, but they know one thing: they want out.

I never saw the ending coming, which was cool. The story was a mash up of The Maze Runner and Across the Universe (and since Across the Universe is one of my most favorite books, this was a good thing!). There were hints at romance, but just enough to keep it interesting. That was refreshing, though I do love romance.

As for the not-so-good points--the story felt a little *too* much like The Maze Runner and Across the Universe. While it had its own unique points, I had a hard time separating the stories. Besides this, because "Em" had no idea of her past, it was hard to connect with her. She didn't exactly have an emotional journey I could root for her to complete.

Still, overall I highly enjoyed ALIVE. I recommend it to anyone who geeks out over YA sci-fi!

ALIVE

Book One in the Generations Trilogy

By Scott Sigler

A Del Rey Hardcover On Sale 7/14/15

“I open my eyes to darkness. Total darkness. I hear my own breathing, but nothing else. I lift my head . . . it thumps against something solid and unmoving. There is a board right in front of my face. No, not a board . . . a lid.”

A teenage girl awakens to find herself trapped in a coffin. She has no idea who she is, where she is, or how she got there. Fighting her way free brings little relief—she discovers only a room lined with caskets and a handful of equally mystified survivors. Beyond their room lies a corridor filled with bones and dust, but no people . . . and no answers.

She knows only one thing about herself—her name, M. Savage, which was engraved on the foot of her coffin—yet she finds herself in charge. She is not the biggest among them, or the boldest, but for some reason the others trust her. Now, if they’re to have any chance, she must get them to trust one another.

Whatever the truth is, she is determined to find it and confront it. If she has to lead, she will make sure they survive. Maybe there’s a way out, a rational explanation, and a fighting chance against the dangers to come. Or maybe a reality they cannot comprehend lies just beyond the next turn.

Advance praise for Alive

“A ripping, claustrophobic thunderbolt of a novel, Scott Sigler’s Alive gives us an unforgettable young hero who must find the inner strength to lead without knowing where she is, who she is, and how bitterly the odds are stacked against her.”—Pierce Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Red Rising

“Sigler has created a wonderful and engrossing character in M. Savage. Strong and smart, but with the naïveté and misgivings of any teenage girl, she’s someone you’ll definitely want on your side when s*** hits the fan, which it most certainly does.”—Veronica Belmont, host of Sword & Laser

“A tense, unsettling page-turner of a story—both deeply strange and wildly compelling.”—Cherie Priest, author of Boneshaker and Maplecroft

“From the first page I was hooked. The puzzle unfolds masterfully, right down to the last page.”—Dr. Phil Plait, author of Bad Astronomy