![]() In a society where your time of death is predetermined, Adam Silvera follows the tragic, yet exhilarating story of two boys who know they’re about to die. The timorous Mateo receives a call from The Death Cast, immediately feeling overwhelmed by how little he has accomplished in his life. While Rufus, a troubled foster child, finds himself tangled with the police just moments after his call. Through the Last Friend app, the pair form a fated bond as “Last Friends.” Their differences, rather than forming a wall between them, instead allow them to encourage each other in an adventure they are determined will come to close with no regrets. Though the overarching topic of this book is rather devastating, Adam Silvera does a great job at bringing light into the situation. Almost all the characters in the book have dynamic stories and personalities that you wish the author would go more in depth about. This book is unique in that the title quite literally gives you a spoiler of how the book is going to end. Knowing that they were both going to die at the end, almost made me feel more immersed into the adventure Rufus and Mateo were on. The characters know they’re going to die by the end of the day, and so do you. This book taught me a lot about the worth of life and how important it is to understand that life is short. -JJ, grade 10
0 Comments
![]() Disgraced by Gwen Florio follows journalist Lola Wicks on her vacation to Yellowstone in Wyoming where she quickly discovers the story of a lifetime. When she hears about multiple soldiers from the same area going to fight in Afghanistan and meeting similar mysterious fates, it hits close to home and she becomes determined to get to the bottom of this. But as Lola gets closer to the truth, the story must come second to protecting herself and her daughter. I found this book at a random book store in North Carolina with the intention of reading it on the plane. Although that didn’t happen, I am happy I ended up reading it eventually. It is a little slow at first if I’m being honest, but once things start to happen it is very interesting and a pretty good book. I would recommend it to any mystery book lovers out there. -MC, grade 10 ![]() Warning: Spoilers ahead for Scythe, book one of the Arc of a Scythe trilogy by Neal Shusterman In Thunderhead, the sequel to Scythe, Rowan is on the run. He is attacking and killing corrupt scythes under the moniker of “Scythe Lucifer.” Meanwhile, Citra has become Scythe Anastasia, living as a junior Scythe with Scythe Curie. There is an attempt on Curie’s and Anastacia’s lives, but they survive and investigate the attempt. The reader also follows Greyson Tolliver, a Nimbus agent who is given a special task by the Thunderhead itself. The characters all meet in a dramatic finale that ends with a massive cliffhanger. I read this book because I read Scythe, the first book of the series, as a book group book. I was completely hooked on the story and the characters, but the best part was and is the masterfully constructed world of the future. This seemingly ridiculous premise of immortal humans and legally ordained killers is made believable through Shusterman’s masterful writings. I highly recommend this book, this series, and anything written by Neal Shusterman. -RB, grade 10 ![]() Four sisters (Meg, Joe, Beth, and Amy) and their Mother, Marmee, live in a small neighbourhood Massachusetts in poverty. With their father away fightin in the civil war they must each learn to be responsible. They each have to grow as a person and learn from mistakes they make. One of their first issues is having to spend their first Christmas without their father. They also face other obstacles in life they must get through. I’m not usually interested in reading novels, but I heard alot about this book so I wanted to read it to see what it was about. I usually go for sci-fi or fantasy books, but this is one of the few novels that I actually enjoyed reading. Every chapter had a lesson in the end and every single chapter and event that occured was interesting. You can really see how each of the four girls grow towards the end of the book and how their characters develop -ZA, grade 10 ![]() Voices from Chernobyl is about the Chernobyl disaster. This all happened because a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, Russia at the powerplant caught on fire. This caused places in Russia to be unsafe because of the radiation. It is very depressing but you will learn about people's experiences and their stories with it. Very interesting but very depressing, I do recommend it. I saw this book at a bookstore while my family was visiting my uncle and we stopped at a bookstore. I picked it to learn more about it since I didn’t know anything about it. I did learn about it. However, it was so depressing that I had to put it down multiple times. It made me think about the world right now and the state it is in and the government as well. I feel like morals also play a role in this. -EEL, grade 10 ![]() A year after 9/11 in 2002 and Shirin just moved starting at a new school was nothing new to Shirin. She doesn't have any friends because they all fear her. Shirin parents have told her that she did not have to wear her hijab but she wanted to because she doesn't care what anybody had to say. They call her names and they hurt but she didn’t let it affect her. She met this boy named Ocean James but she didn’t want to get attached to him and mess up his life. She never let anyone in because she knew there were gonna bring hurt to her. This book showed me how races people can really be towards a certain way a person looks. To be honest I didn’t really Know what the book was about but I picked it up and read the blurb and thought it would be good I’m glad I read it because it was like a romance I never expected .Also how one person does something and how people judge off of one decision that person made on the whole race.l really enjoyed this book and it’s really a lovely read the author wrote it very well and it was a really good romance and self to world type book. -ACO, grade 10 ![]() The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz is about two girls: Beth and Tess. Beth, a high schooler, struggles with her father who has a mental illness and is strict with her. Beth’s friend, Lizzy, kills a man who raped her friend. Beth’s friends continue on a path of murdering rapists. Beth is tied between being their friend and separating herself from them. Tess is a time traveler who is trying to fix the laws that restrict women by making small edits in the timeline. She has a time war with a group of men who are trying to change laws that restrict women’s rights. Tess tries to help Beth to separate herself from her malicious friends. In a previous timeline Beth commits suicide to get away from Lizzy. In a future timeline Tess stops Beth from killing herself. I heard this book being mentioned on NPR. This book was interesting to me. The chapters switch from Beth’s perspective to Tess’ perspective. I enjoyed reading Beth’s chapters more than Tess’ chapters, because it was easier to follow her timeline. I thought the jumping back and forth in the timeline was confusing and did not understand how their small edits could change the future, but as I kept reading I grasped the concept of how their edits fixed the timeline -AN, grade 10 ![]() In Turtles All the Way Down by John Green, after a billionaire goes missing, The main character, Aza, and her friend Daisy attempt to locate the billionaire in order to solve the mystery and earn the reward money. As Aza attempts to solve the mystery, her path crosses with her old childhood friend who is the son of the billionaire. Throughout the book, Aza fights against a mental illness which she is desperately trying to control. The book follows Aza’s journey of balancing her education, friendships, and mental health along with attempting to solve an important mystery at the same time.. This book was recommended to me by my sister. The mystery aspect of the book was able to keep me engaged in the story and made me want to continue reading the book to see how the mystery would be solved. I also enjoyed how the author chose to follow the main character's journey through her mental health struggles by going into her mind to show the reader what she was thinking. -MR, grade 10 ![]() From award-winning author Margaret Atwood comes the thrilling modern classic, “The Handmaid’s Tale”. Set in a dystopian future in which the president was shot, Congress was massacred, and the Constitution suspended, the human population has drastically fallen below replacement level due to pollution and nuclear accidents. To repopulate, the republic of Gilead has designated certain fertile women as “handmaids”, young women who are society’s last chance. Dressed in blood-red, they each undergo training to forget their past lives as regular women, wives, and mothers. They serve only one purpose now - bear children or die. Offred, a handmaid, tells a first-hand recount of her harrowing experiences as she tries to comprehend the now commanding patriarchy. Simultaneously, she reminisces about her old life with her daughter and husband. Filled with captivating language and sinister plot twists, “The Handmaid’s Tale”, like George Orwell’s “1984”, is a haunting warning to humanity and its future. I had heard about this book from numerous sources, most often by reference to the TV show available on Hulu. However, I never had the opportunity to read it until the Pioneer Reads book club chose it as the Science Fiction/Fantasy book of the year. There were several raving reviews that went along with the descriptive words “dark” and“graphic”. I dove into its pages and was surprisingly quite disappointed. I found it to be a jumble of narratives, most of which were monotonous and seemingly irrelevant to the plot. I felt that there was hardly any character development generated by Offred herself and that the ending was inadequate. The sequel, “The Testaments”, was recently released, but I do not plan on reading it in the near future as I predict it will be very similar in structure and writing style, which was definitely not my favorite. It is possible that after reading “1984” in 7th grade, I now find it harder to be shocked by dystopias. Honestly, I think I was simply expecting more from the story. -KT, grade 10 ![]() My book is about three kids Jack, Ralph, and Peterkin get into a shipwreck and have to survive on an polynesian island and they have to survive on the island until found and saved. The boys go through many complications like hunger, other human interactions, and pirates. The book is set in the year 1857. Some of the most interesting parts are the fights with pirates and when the boys discover surfing. When I was reading this book it took forever to get to the good part of action but when it does get there it can interesting. I came across this book when I was reading lord of the flies because a lot of the aspects in lord of the flies can be related to this book. This book made me feel bored at most points. -GO, grade 10 |
J. HiEBERBibliophile Archives
June 2020
Categories
All
|