Well, that was fucking depressing. Writing was decent and it makes some excellent points about war and terrorism, but my god was it depressing. Why would you even market this to teens? Afraid they aren't depressed enough just trying to get throufh life? ( )

DRAGONS ARE SO COOL.

I love Baby! I also knew she wasn't going to die

I do feel that the entire character of James was annoying and unnecessary. I think we could just remove him entirely and the plot would be unchanged. The book might even be improved. If we still really need a antagonist that's one of the Talkers, Evelyn could fill in. And I honestly felt no chemistry between him and Mel, so he fails as a love interest.

Also, I'm confused. Was he actually reconditioned or was he still really James or was Mel's brain playing tricks on her in that last scene?

But, the point is, DRAGONS. You can't get no cooler than DRAGONS. ( )

I won a copy of the sequel to this book from Epic Reads and figured I should read this one first; however, having gotten through it, I am second guessing whether I want to continue the series.

I was really excited about this series because I thought, "hey...dragons", and also, "female lead with mystical abilities". Sounds like a recipe for a good time. The first chunk started off well enough. I liked the premise of the story and the main character, Melissa, was tolerable.

But as I continued through this beast of a book, the narration dragged on and on and Melissa got more annoying by the page. She was hard to relate to and her lack of horror and empathy for the violence she witnessed was intolerable.

Also, at some points the book just felt like page after page of descriptions of dragon torture or violent massacres. The amount of violence was not balanced out by Melissa's actions and I spent the second half of the book completely hopeless that anything was going to end up decently.

I really did not want to finish this book. The descriptions of dying dragons made me sick and what was worse was Melissa's reaction, or lack of reaction, to the majority of the torture. I am glad I stuck around despite the cliff hanger ending, but I'm still not sure if I care enough to read the sequel.

Also, growing up as an American female, I don't think I ever used the word "whore" as casually as Melissa and the other characters do. The amount of slut-shaming in this book is ridiculous. Doing absolutely anything as a female in the book earns you the title "whore". When I read a book with a female lead, I want one who's active and actually uses her brain, not someone who just bops around insulting other women and making assumptions about their sexuality, while countless acts of violence are being committed around her to which she responds with mild anger.

The writing was descent and I stand by that the premise of the book was good. I would have liked more backstory, but there was enough of a starting point to launch from. I have seen a few reviews compare this book to The Hunger Games. There are similar elements from The Hunger Games (government conspiracy, female pawn, media lenses, forced love/relationships), but the violence in this book came off as more random and unnecessary instead of important aspects of the plot. ( )

Thanks to Edelweiss and Greenwillow Books for allowing me access to this.

I felt this book came in two different parts. I was really liking it at first. I loved the set up and the idea of dragons just appearing and how we may deal with them. And then it took a different turn. I didn't like the second half as well. The government conspiracy and the brainwashing stuff had a completely different feel to it than the first section, and while it was still good, I didn't like it as well. I also didn't feel the profanity fit in most cases. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Overall, I know there are many who will like this, but I will have to be more careful about who I can give it to than I was originally thinking. ( )

(Actual rating closer to 1.5)

I have a mighty strong feeling that I’m going to be a black sheep when it comes to this book. In fact, I’m almost certain that most in my circle will ADORE Talker 25. Heck, I adored Talker 25, at least for a while. Let me talk about what went right so then I can explain what went very, very wrong.

READ THE FULL REVIEW AT: http://www.shaelit.com/2014/05/review-talker-25-by-joshua-mccune/ ( )