Best Book Reviews!

All students did an excellent job on their book reviews of their recent independent novel studies. In the same style as a New York Times Book Review, they challenged themselves to write a review that would hook the reader, defend a strong opinion about the book, and give a specific recommendation for readers who should (should not!) read this. Here are the winners of our best book reviews!

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Shadow and Bone                                              
 Leigh Bardugo                                                                   Square Fish, 353 pp., $12.99

 ISBN 978-1-250-02743-6

What would you do if you just discovered that you had a secret power all your life without knowing it? That is what happened to Alina Starkov in the novel Shadow and Bone. Alina Starkov is an ordinary girl, (at least she thinks so). She is put to the ultimate test to see if she can survive a deadly boat ride. On that boat ride her powers as a sun summoner are discovered by herself and thousands of people. After that event, she is taken to the kingdom where she will learn to use her powers as a defense against the Shadow Fold. The undefined land known as the Shadow Fold is a frightening place where there is constant negative energy. The Shadow Fold consists of only evil spirits and monsters.

     I am obsessed with this novel. As soon as you start the book, you will immediately be pulled in. Shadow and Bone is the first of three books in a series called The Grisha Trilogy. Leigh Bardugo does a fabulous job describing the characters emotions. She puts great detail and excitement into the book.

     I strongly recommend this book to whoever loves a good mix of

drama, fantasy and adventure. By the time the reader finishes, they will be left wanting to read more. (But don't worry, there are two more books in the series). This book is mesmerizing and impossible to forget.

- Candace 

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Holes                                                                                                     Random House Kids, 1998, pp.233, $8.99

Louis Sachar                                                                                          ISBN 0-590-4-3591-1

Reading Holes, by Louis Sachar, made me question how it could ever have been worthy of twelve literary awards. This book made a kindergartener’s drawing look like the Mona Lisa. The plot is awful, the characters were not well developed, and the story is messy and all over the place. Reading this book was one of my worst reading experiences.

I have read many books, with plots both good and bad, but this was the worst of all. The large number of flashbacks and memories just made the book more scattered and disorganized than it already was. Some of the memories and flashbacks were not even indicated to be in the past. This whole concept can just confuse the reader, especially since this book is written for children. The plot drags out for a very long time while the reader waits patiently for a climax. Surprisingly, this long anticipated climax doesn’t come until the last chapter! It takes so long for the climax to happen that the reader will most likely end up starting a different book. I do not feel that someone should waste their time and money to get this book. It is absolutely not worth it.

The characters in this book were hard to relate to since they were underdeveloped. It is almost as though Sachar got a cloning machine and put all the characters at Camp Green Lake into it. The author didn’t understand that humans actually have different personalities and emotions/feelings.  For example, all of the boys changed their feelings about Stanley simultaneously, with no warning and without reason. They basically had Stanley fall asleep and suddenly, while he was unconscious, each and every one of them liked him for no reason.  

On a scale of 1-10 I would give this book a 3 due to its awful plot, lack of development and variety of the characters, and overall disorganization. This was a terrible reading experience and I would not recommend this to my worst enemy. It was overall unenjoyable. Interestingly, most of Louis Sachar’s books have this in common. His other well-known book The Card Turner, which I read last year, also took an extremely long time to get interesting. Unless you like books that take forever capture your attention, then do not read Holes. I can guarantee it will not be a satisfying experience.
- Jessica

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The Fault In Our Stars                                                                                                           

John Green

Penguin Group 2012 $14.99

ISBN 978-0-14-242417-9

        

         “I'm a grenade and at some point I'm going to blow up and I would like to minimize the casualties, okay?”With it’s emotionally driven characters, The Fault In Our Stars by John Green captivates readers. Its characters are down to earth and I completely fell in love them.

Hazel’s life has never been very special. Her caner ridden body has kept her accepting and awaiting death. She has very few friends, and doesn’t have much going on in her life. But during a cancer support group she gets the life she never thought she could have when she meets, Augustus Waters. When the charming, adventurous Augustus enters Hazel’s life she gains a confidence she never thought she’d have. Together they embark on the romantic journey of a lifetime. Filled to brim with twists and turns. She is no longer fighting this battle alone. Its the classic boy meets girl story but with a twist in the form of a terminal disease that provides a plentiful mass of emotional character growth and strengthening.

John Green has received heaps of praise due to his phenomenal writing. In The Fault In Our Stars as well as in his other works such as the enigmatic story of Paper Towns and the alluring tale of Looking For Alaska. His descriptive, adult, and poetic style was executed with swift precision in passages such as a letter written by Hazel’s favourite author, Peter Van Houten. “The dead are visible only in the terrible lidless eye of memory. The living, thank heaven, retain the ability to surprise and to disappoint…. but I have trod through this vale of tears longer than you, and from where I’m sitting she’s not the lunatic” (passage from page 113). John does an exceptional job of creating in-depth characters with real personalities. He puts emotion into the characters, their dialogue, and their actions. And then the characters put the emotion onto you. The reader feels the emotions that the characters feel. The relatable story allows for a one to one connection. When a character was sad I felt that sadness and truly cared for the their well being.

Do not be turned off by its sappy appearance. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green is so much more. Its numerous layers reveal a story of passionate love as well as the struggles and heartaches cancer survivors have to endure. If you want a relatable story entailing the realities of cancer and the battle a teen must face to overcome it. Or a love story that will inspire and delight you, then this book is a must. It leaves readers with a new perspective on things. It leaves you with characters to adore and a timeless journey that is both awe-inspiring and haunting.

-Aaron 

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Cinder                                                                       YRCA Nominee, 2012, 387 pp.,$9.89

Marissa Meyer                                                                            ISBN 978-1-250-00720-9

         Cinder makes it clear that whether human, cyborg or android, it’s your actions that make a difference.  Marissa Meyer expertly weaves a world full of joy, and suffering, it sometimes seems like you’ve been there before. It is the ultimate mix of action, science-fiction and fairy tale, and the characters reflect the theme of Cinder perfectly. Cinders determined attitude, and the unfolding plot drew me in further at every page.

        

Cinder lives in a world built from the ashes of war.  Society in New Beijing, 126 years after WWIV looks down upon cyborgs like Cinder, mothers drag their children away from her.  All cyborgs are drafted as test subjects for the plague that’s wiping out chunks of the population.  After Cinder’s 14 year old sister, and only human friend, contracts the plague, Cinder is volunteered as a test subject and her life is changed forever.  With the annual ball looming closer, and the deceptively beautiful lunar queen’s war threats becoming very real, will Cinder be the girl that saves them all?

         Cinder is a spellbinding first novel of the Lunar Chronicles.  It has the suspense of the Hunger Games, mixed with a mutated fairy-tale theme.  I was told to read Cinder because it was excellent, and after spending hours sucked into the story, I completely agree.  I would recommend Cinder to anyone aged 12-16, whether you enjoy action, science-fiction, or are just in need of an amazing book to settle down with.  I don’t know about you, but I will be looking for the rest of the Lunar Chronicles.

 - Emily 

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ALAS, BABYLON      

Pat Frank                                 

Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 1959, 368 pp., $11.99

ISBN – 10: 0062421034

Have you ever wondered what would happen to you and your family in a nuclear holocaust? This is exactly what Pat Frank does with Alas, Babylon. In this classic Post-Apocalyptic fiction, Frank presents you with pressing problems at, unfortunately, a not so stunning pace. The writing is great enough to make me feel like I have these problems, yet it takes it slow, boring you at times, making me not really care about most of the characters Frank brought to the main plot line. 

Russia drops a nuclear bomb on the USA and annihilates the whole country, except miraculously the small town in Florida where our main protagonist, bachelor and ex-marine Randy Bragg lives. After the apocalypse he later emerges as the towns leader. The bombs fall and Randy and others struggle to survive in a scarred world. A world filled with different problems they’ve never faced before. They see what kind of problems people had to face before they had things like electricity and other such luxuries. There were moments as I read that I felt on the edge of my seat as atomic bombs fall around the characters, and I could really feel the loss and the struggle for survival straining against these people. This book also made me realize, like every very great survival book, that we are lucky to have the luxuries that we have, like electricity and picking up food at the grocery store. It’s just so easy. 

If you’re a fan of the post-apocalyptic survival genre and enjoy The Walking Dead, or the video game Fallout, and if you don’t mind underlining tones of 1950’s sexism and racism, Alas, Babylon is the right book for you.     

- Fraser 

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The Fifth Wave                                                                      pp. 457,$9.89

Rick Yancey  
                                                                         ISBN: 13: 978-0142425831

The Fifth Wave, written by Rick Yancey, is the first book in a trilogy about teenagers living in a post-apocalyptic USA. It starts with a bang! Note the first lines: INTRUSION: 1995 – THERE WILL BE NO AWAKENING. This grabbed my attention and I had a hard time putting it down. I’ve read other series in this genre, and in my opinion I feel Rick Yancey did a great job with the Fifth Wave, living up to the expectations that I now have for this style of book.

The Fifth Wave is about how aliens attack the earth and wipe out almost all of the human race in waves. The 1st Wave shuts off all power, the 2nd Wave is a super tsunami, the 3rd Wave is a massive plague, the 4th Wave are ‘Silencers’ which are basically hit-men and the 5th Wave is revealed in this book. By doing all these Waves the ‘others’ (the aliens) set back Mankind to the Stone Age.

The main characters are Cassie Sullivan, she is 16; Sammy Sullivan (nicknamed Nugget), he is Cassie’s little brother; Ben Parish (nicknamed Zombie). After the 3rd Wave, Ben contracts the plague and gets sick but he survives because of military soldiers taking him to Camp Haven. He gets the nickname Zombie because of how he looks like a zombie after the plague is gone. Again, The Fifth Wave, like many other recent books of this genre, is set in a Post-Apocalyptic USA – The Maze Runner series, The Divergent series etc.

I think that this book is a great read for anybody who is 12 and up and who likes alien/action/sci-fi books. Although it’s 457 pages long, I could have read it in three days. It’s just that good.  Trust me you will not be disappointed!

- Darian