July '17 Reviews

Soulprint by Megan Miranda, Review by Henrietta

In this world souls are sort of cataloged. You can soul print which is basically that when a person dies, their soul goes to another body, to a completely different person. So there's this girl.... who has inherited the soul of a really big criminal. You don't actually get any of the traits of the last person with your soul, but that is what people commonly believe, so she has been locked up and under suspicion for her entire life. They worry she will try to kill someone and commit horrible crimes. People make failed attempts to break her out and take her blood so they can access the bank accounts her predecessor left behind. Then a few years later on her birthday while everyone wonders whether this will be the year she turns bad, she breaks out.

Rated: 5/5 souls. "Really psychological, it's really good, her character development is amazing."



The Messenger by Markus Zusak, Review by Sam

It's about this guy who is in the middle of a bank robbery, and stops it, by a mere fluke. When you think about it, he didn't do much, but everyone accounts him with stopping it. SO he starts getting cryptic codes in his mailbox written on the back of playing cards. They have addresses on them, he has to go and stop things from happening there. So he's been chosen as this sort of messenger, just because of this accidental event. He is faced with a lot of moral dilemmas with what he has to do. He knows that it's morally wrong, but he has to think about the greater good.This whole thing puts him into a really big depression because he's looking far beyond his simple life at all this corruption. His new role paints a picture of how vast the world is and it makes him feel like his own life is sort of pointless and small town. It gets a bit crazy.

Rated: 4.5/5 Playing Cards. "Really depressing, really good though. It made me realize how a lot of stories about saving stuff don't show the realistic, much, much darker undertones that come with them." 

A Sight For a Sore Eye by Ruth Rendell, Review by Riya 

I chose to read this book because it is written from two people's perspectives and we have an essay coming up about this style. It's about this girl called Francine and a boy called Teddy. Teddy's parent's don't really care about him and Francine's mother dies. It's really sad because when her mother died she was in the house. It's about how they get together but not really. They have their own individual problems and the story is about solving them. It starts with Teddy's perspective, talking about how his parents got together and then flashes to Francine's memory of her mother's murder. It shows her relationship with her father as well. Their perspectives and experiences alternate throughout the book.

Rated: 4/5 Perspectives. "It's hard to explain but it's a really good book, and it's really well written. It doesn't get repetitive at all."

The Ruining by Anna Collomore, Review by Louise

It's about this girl Annie who is eighteen. She moves to this fancy little island in California to be a nanny and go to college. She's got a bit of psychological trauma, because her younger sister drowned and died when she was fourteen. She thinks it was her fault, but it wasn't really, but it kind of was. At the start her employers Libby and Walker, a married couple have kids Jackson and Zoe. Things are going great they're just chilling and everyone is really nice. But then Libby starts to get more demanding. She starts calling her "Nanny" instead of Annie, but says she's not. Looking after Zoe is bring back her memories of having a sister. She reads this disturbing book, The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories. Then Annie come back from a party and finds that Libby has painted her room yellow... Things start to spiral out of control.

Rated: 4.5/5 Psychologically Damaging Events. "Really good, I liked it."

City of Bones: The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, Review by Natasha

There is a movie and TV show based on this book, but in my opinion the book is better than either of them. So it's about this girl called Clary who is leading a normal life, then one day she gets a call from her mom to not come home. Really worried, she goes back and she finds her mum missing and a demon in her house. Before that, she had met this guy named Jace, at a club where she went with her best friend Simon for her 18th birthday. He kills a demon right in front of everyone, but it seems like only she can see him. He is a shadowhunter, a race of people who spend their lives hunting demons...

Rated: 4/5 Demons. "This is a series. It's really good."

Unthinkable by Nancy Werlin, Review by Olivia

It's about this girl called Fenella. It's set a long time ago. Her family wasn't very rich and they lived on a farm. She was due to marry this guy, but then one day when she was walking her donkeys a prince from a fairy realm heard her laughing. He takes her to a ball in the fairy kingdom and put a curse on her family. She has to stay there forever. Four hundred years later she is still there, unchanged. She wants to die so she can leave the realm but any attempt she makes on her life immediately heals. She begs the queen to let her leave and she agrees, but only if she commits three acts upon her family...

Rated: 4/5 Pathways. "I really liked it, it sounds confusing but it's good."