![]() 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
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![]() Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collin, is the third book of the Hunger Games trilogy. The book continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, who agrees to unify the districts of Panem in a rebellion against the Capitol, no matter the cost. Her home has been demolished, Gale has escaped, and importantly Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. We find out that the District 13 actually does exist. There are rebels, there are new leaders, a revolution is happening. The book is filled with emotion and action. I chose this book because I really liked the previous two books of the trilogy. I would give the book a 3.2/5. A lot of people who have read this book were extremely disappointed by it, but I thought it was an okay end to the trilogy. Overall, I thought it was pretty decent even though I felt it could’ve had a lot more. It was a bit fast paced and some things seemed to happen so fast and unclear, but besides that it was ok. -AH, grade 12 ![]() A Clockwork Orange is a book that takes place in futuristic Great Britain. Citizens in Great Britain are used to a passive life but are oblivious to the fact that the youth are growing extremely violent. The main character Alex, leads a gang that roam the streets committing many crimes and robbing and beating men. Alex is caught and arrested after a failed robbery and is sentenced to fourteen years in jail. Alex has to struggle with his life in jail until one day he kills a cell mate and is chosen to be the guinea pig of an experiment that erases his memory and hopefully changes his lifestyle for the better. I originally heard of this book simply because it’s a movie too. I would recommend this book but it’s got some pretty graphic stuff in it so some might not enjoy it. It does have some comedic relief in it so some parts can be very random. All in all this is a good book that I would recommend. -AM, grade 10 ![]() The Giver by Lois Lowry is about this utopian society where they are exposed to certain events in life. There’s only one person, called the Giver, in the society where he knows everything. For example, he would know the worse event that happened in life to the best thing that could happen to you. The society has limited things they can see, hear, and touch. If they are exposed to anything that was not supposed to be obtained, they were to be punished in different ways. The Giver is the only one that knows about everything, affection, wars, color, and many other things that the community doesn’t know. Jonas, the main character, was chosen to be the next Giver, but no one is allowed to know that he has all these memories being transferred to him through the original Giver. Jonas would ask why the community doesn’t know any of these memories he is obtaining, and they should know. Later in the story, no one is allowed to leave the community, but Jonas wanted to. If he leaves the community, his memories will be released to the society and they would learn about the events that Jonas did. I chose this book because I wasn’t into the first book I was reading in class. This book was on my parent’s bookshelf. Overall, I thought it was a good book even though I felt like there should have been more. I would give it a 4.5/5 stars. Five stars being the best book. I gave it a 4.5 because I didn’t like the ending of the book and I thought that there should’ve been more to the ending. There’s also a movie to this book and it showed a different ending. All in all, I think this book was a great book. -RV, grade 12 ![]() The Hunger Games is about a 16 year old girl Katniss. She lives in district 12 and every year they have something called the Hunger Games. Based off a lottery system, two kids from each district will be selected and will fight against 22 other kids. The age you enter the lottery begins at 12 and ends at 18. Katniss ends up getting picked to be in the games along with a boy Peeta. Their romance will be exploited during the games. I thought that the book is a lot of adventure, thriller, also the setting is dystopian. I really enjoyed this book, it was very exciting to end on a cliffhanger or in the middle of an action scene. It also did let me to be able to imagine what life could be possibly like if America was overpopulated or if we just had finished a war. -PK, grade 10 ![]() Never Fade is the second book in the Darkest Minds series, which is a dystopian series that focuses on a protagonist named Ruby. In the first book the reader is introduced to IAAN, a disease which wiped out most American children, and left those unaffected which unexplainable powers. This book focuses on Ruby’s mission to free the super teens from the concentration camps which the government has placed them in, and to find the love of her life. I bought the first book in the series on a whim when I was in Barnes & Noble last year. I started reading it over the summer, and from the first time I picked it up I was hooked. I could hardly set the book down long enough to eat. When I got close to finishing it, I went and bought the next two books in the series. Bracken’s writing style is engaging, and the plot is very interesting. The book is an easy read, and I promise time will slip from under you when reading it. I strongly recommend (but read the Darkest Minds first). -LWH, grade 10 ![]() The Eye of Minds is a novel set in the future where a life-like virtual reality called the VirtNet is used widely by anyone who can afford it. Michael and his friends Bryson and Sarah are hackers who like to spend time using it, but it isn’t long before a cyber-terrorist named Kaine threatens the safety of the users. This tangent, or artificial intelligence, is conducting experiments in order to trap people in the simulation through his KillSims leaving people brain-dead in real life. Michael and his friends join the VirtNet Security in order to stop whatever Kaine is planning to do with the victims of his experiments. I found this book after reading James Dashner’s Maze Runner trilogy. Although I expected less from this not well known book, I have enjoyed it more than the Maze Runner trilogy. I find these types of books interesting as they caution about plausible futures that come with technology, but not going far out as aliens terrorizing the human race. The author captures the reader right from the start with a person about to commit suicide and it builds the interest of the reader after each chapter of the book with the mysteries that lie in this convoluted program almost like Easter Eggs. The end of the book has some perspective changing implications about what the future could be like. -MG, grade 10 ![]() This book is part of a three part series beginning with Little Brother, and finishing with Walkaway. The first two novels star Marcus Yallow, a young hacker with a large online following, fighting against the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies for public rights. This novel begins approximately two years after the first novel ends, Marcus being a college dropout with his family and life in ruins. His goal is to fight against Zyz, a private military contracting business that is run by Carrie Johnstone, who tortured him when she was a previous DHS agent. After reading the first book in the series, Little Brother, after seeing it in a library showcase, I searched for other novels by Cory Doctorow, as I loved his writing style and book topics. I then stumbled upon the sequel Homeland. I immediately checked it out and began reading it. I would recommend this book to any dystopia/science fiction fans, as it portrays the near future as a world where nobody is safe. -MD, grade 10 ![]() Set in a dystopian future, teenage Wade Watts finds himself ahead in a contest to find a hidden Easter egg in the world's biggest video game. I bought this book for my classroom because several of my students raved about it, and because the movie came out this year. Although the novel is lengthy, the plot and narration move quickly and I read it in a week or so. The story gives me some Wall-E/Harry Potter/Eleanor & Park vibes, in a good way. Cline weaves in a profusion of 1980's pop culture, and tech and gaming history that I still do not have a good grasp on, but that I found enjoyable nonetheless. |
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