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    Sugar Skulls
    Sugar Skulls
    Sugar Skulls
    Audiobook11 hours

    Sugar Skulls

    Written by Lisa Mantchev and Glenn Dallas

    Narrated by Scott Merriman and Kate Rudd

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Welcome to Cyrene, a city where energy is currency and music is the lifeblood of its young citizens. Everyone lives on the grid, and the residents of the world’s largest playground are encouraged to pursue every physical and emotional pleasure imaginable.

    Vee is the lead singer of the Sugar Skulls, an all-girl band that is Corporate’s newest pet project. Micah haunts the city like a ghost after an overdose of a deadly illegal street drug knocks him off the grid. When Micah and Vee forge an immediate, undeniable connection, their troubled worlds collide.

    Trading concert stages for Cyrene’s rooftops and back alleys, they have to evade vicious thugs and Vee’s possessive manager as they unravel the mysteries connected to their dark pasts. And before the curtain falls, Micah and Vee will bring the city to its knees in their desperate bid for love, home, and a future together.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateNov 10, 2015
    ISBN9781511324038
    Sugar Skulls
    Author

    Lisa Mantchev

    Lisa Mantchev is the author of the Theatre Illuminata series, including Perchance to Dream and Eyes Like Stars. She grew up in the small Northern California town of Ukiah. She wrote her first play in the fourth grade, and has been involved in theater ever since. She received two scholarships to study drama at the University of California, Irvine. She won the Chancellor's Award For Undergraduate Research in Drama her senior year while studying in the Campuswide Honors Program. After graduation, she taught English at the Lycée Internationale de Los Angeles and created their Drama After School Program. In between report cards and drafting scripts for Winter and Spring productions, she wrote fiction. Her first professional short fiction sale was in 2002, and her debut trilogy sold in 2007. Mantchev makes her home on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state with her husband Angel, her daughter Amélie and four hairy miscreant dogs. When not scribbling, she can be found on the beach, up a tree, making jam or repairing things with her trusty glue gun.

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    Reviews for Sugar Skulls

    3.5/5

    12 ratings3 reviews

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    • 2/5
      This was a very hard book to assign a star rating too. I think that my review would actually be closer to 1.5/5 but I decided to round up because there were some things about the story that I really did enjoy.I bought this novel on the strength of the blurb (really, who couldn't be attracted to such an original premise?) but I just didn't feel as though it was handled too well. The novel really throws the reader in the deep end, flinging all its unique concepts at them without ever stopping to explain how the mechanics of the world work. While I did slowly begin to piece things together, I was still left with holes in my understanding (such as how Vee's voice can control people) which were never fully explained.The plot was also very fragmented. The shifts between the two narrators were sometimes dizzying, flipping between Vee and Micah every few pages. There was also a lack of focus. Micah is supposed to be hunting for a drug dealer but this is often forgotten for long stretches of the story (I didn't realise that this was the plot until half way through). Vee's story is a little stronger but never really fully feels connected with Micah's. I don't really understand why they were instantly drawn to one another (other than for the sake of insta-love).I also felt that Vee's eventual backstory was unnecessarily gratuitous. Due to her loss of memory, the gang rape doesn't really effect her character growth at all. It's just there for the sake of having a hideous trauma. This could have been anything - drug overdose, car crash. It didn't have to be rape - that atrocity that writers tend to abuse as "something horrible that happens to women".However, the story did have some redeeming features. The second half was stronger than the first, leading to an exciting climax and some sweet moments between Vee and Micah. I also really "liked" Damon. He was a truly frightening villain, starting out as being a little overbearing and growing increasingly sinister as his history with Vee is revealed.All in all, not one for me. I also feel that I should note that this should not be considered a YA novel, despite what Amazon says. It's definitely more New Adult as it features frequent bad language, drug use and sex. Older teens may be okay but please don't buy this for anyone under the age of sixteen.
    • 5/5
      Lisa is one of those writers who I flock to. She is amazing and truly captures her audience. Sugar Skulls is no exception. I like the addition of Glenn Dallas's voice too as it adds a good grit.
    • 5/5
      I got a copy of this book to review from NetGalley. I really enjoyed Mantchev’s Theatre Illuminata series and also read her book Ticker, which was okay but not great. I was very curious to read what sounded like a cyberpunk story by her. The story started out a bit slow but once it got going was very engaging and entertaining. This is more of an adult read than a YA read; there is quite a bit of swearing, drug use, sex, and violence.Cyrene is a city where energy is currency; the more you generate the better off you are. The rest of the world uses Cyrene as a harvest site for energy. This story follows two main characters. The first is Vee, who is the lead singer of a band named Sugar Skulls that is quickly becoming the next big thing in Cyrene. The second character is Micah, who is off-the-grid and on the run. Micah’s nanotech got knocked offline after a nearly fatal drug overdose and he’s been trying to get revenge on the drug dealers that provided the drug ever since his recovery.This is very much a cyberpunk type of story in the same vein as books by William Gibson and Neal Stephenson. The world is a bleak place in the midst of an energy crisis and Cyrene is the Corporation’s answer. Young people are allowed into Cyrene and their one mission is to party and party hard. The energy they make with their partying is siphoned away to provide power. Admittance into Cyrene is highly prized and highly sought after.Vee has a unique voice that generates a lot of emotion from the people she sings to; more emotion equals more energy and so the Corporation really likes having Vee work for them. However, Vee is a girl without a past; she has had her memory wiped and rebuilt numerous times. She doesn’t know why she agreed to this memory wiping; but she did agree to it. I enjoyed Vee’s toughness and her style of fast-living. I also loved her daring and resourcefulness. Despite this toughness, she is still somewhat vulnerable.Micah also has a dark past. He is off-grid and hiding in the shadows after him and his friends nearly died trying a new drug called Applejack. Micah only wants to hunt down those drug dealers who peddle Applejack, but then he hears Vee sing.What follows is a story of somewhat star-crossed love; as Vee and Micah try to connect despite the odds. Their paths end up crossing again and again as Vee tries to figure out her dark past and Micah tries to get revenge against the people who caused his darkness.The story is beautifully written which lots of glitter and beauty throughout the darkness. It’s one of those books where the glittering scenes are all that more bright because of the dank surroundings. Although it’s not completely unique (humans were used as energy source in the Matrix and this story shares themes with a number of other cyberpunk stories); the story is well done and interesting. The pace starts out a bit slow but then the story proceeds at a breakneck pace. It ended up being very engaging and hard to put down. Everything is resolved and wrapped up nicely and I enjoyed it.Overall this was a well done cyberpunk read that was fast-paced and engaging. I would recommend to those who enjoy cyberpunk stories. Just keep in mind this is very different from Mantchev’s previous works and is really more meant for adults.