Nuts Vs. Volts #1 - Champion by: Marie Lu

Nuts:

Was all of the  extra romance necessary? 

FTM - Nuts: In Champion, I felt like there was an excessive amount of romance and problems. For at least half of the book Day and June are only thinking about each other and nothing else. At times I found it very annoying and would be tempted to turn the page. If you read this, you will see that it is slower paced, and I honestly think that Marie Lu used the romance and the cheesy lines as a filler. A filler to keep readers interested until the action came.

RQK - Volts: I feel that Nuts does make a good point, there is a larger amount of romance in this book which does seems to act as a filler. However I think that some romance was necessary as the issue was very political and the only thing keeping them fighting for the Republic was love. Day's love for his brother, their love for their home their love for each other. So in this case she had to emphasize their love to show their desperation for what they are fighting for.

Was day's attitude towards Eden appropriate?

FTM - Nuts: This was also another thing I was annoyed of. I do understand that Eden means a lot to Day but I found his behavior a little bit childish. I felt like Day treated Eden as a favourite toy, or an ice-cream cone that he never wanted to give away. I really wanted Day to know that Eden could make his own decisions, and wasn't completely useless. I found it a little bit selfish, for keeping Eden for himself. Even if it meant that the disease could infect many people without a cure. 

RQK - Volts: I think that Day definitely should have told Eden about the situation and had given him the option of what he wanted to do. I realize that Day see's Eden as his little innocent brother from his past and it is completely reasonable for him to be as protective as he is, however he isn't completely dependent of others anymore. Though it was slightly annoying how childish he treated him, his actions were understandable. It might not be interesting to read, but if anybody actually went through that I doubt that we would do anything differently.

Volts:

What do you think about June's decision to not tell Day who she is when he looses his memory?

RQK - Volts: I thought it was pretty unreasonable I mean they went through a lot together and the real danger to him was gone so there really wasn't any barrier for them to be together. Not only that she had lost everybody she loves it wasn't logical for her to give up the one person who is still left. Also she didn't tell anybody about her decision and I don't see how in ten years that whole life changing event didn't come up or was mentioned even once. I realize their could be many reasons for her not telling him, but the reason they hint at was how she prayed and said she would give anything, and she thought that was what she had to give up. I understand this is just a book, but in this community they don't have any creative freedom therefore there wouldn't be a religion. The act of praying to the sky(god) for things would not have been known to her or any of these people.

FTM - Nuts: I thought that it was reasonable and at the same time, unreasonable. June could have had hundreds of different reasons for not telling Day who she is, because if she went up to him and told him their story, and that they were in love he would probably think she was crazy and she would be rejected but at the same time, she could have at least said that she was an old friend. Also, I believe that even if she did tell Day who she was and he accepted it, things would never be the same, their relationship could be completely different from the relationship they had, the connection would be gone. Their relationship would feel forced for both of them and they would end up losing each other all over again, so maybe June thought it would be best for him to come to her and for it to be real. 

What did you think of the unique ending in which instead of moving on from where they left off they re-started their friendship and their relationship?

RQK - Volts: I personally loved this ending as it had its own uniqueness different from many books like it. I found the metaphor of taking a step forward together as in moving on and starting again was a great choice to use in this book, specifically at this point in the story. This series had much action and a lot happened in only a few months of these characters life and I think considering that starting over versus moving on from that point was a better choice of an ending as I feel their relationship would have much troubles considering their past. Besides the troubles with their relationship that having them just go forward would have had I think it would have just been to similar to many other books such as the Hunger Games which would have made the book seem like a copy and very cliche.

FTM - Nuts: I definitely loved the ending as well, I would have never expected it to end that way. There was happiness and tragedy in the ending. After reading the ending, I believe that they will mainly have a friendship later in their lives, not really a romantic one. I only believe that only because they may never be able to connect the way they did ten years ago. I really liked the fact that they were starting fresh, a clean slate. Most books don't have that anymore, they will lack originality but this book certainly didn't especially with it's ending.