October '17 Reviews

Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Review by Henrietta

I like all the description, there's a good amount of it, with extra things like philosophy, metaphors and interesting stuff that makes you think a lot. It's about this guy who meets this girl after stealing her father's watch by accident when he goes into this seemingly abandoned house. She takes him to this graveyard one day and there's this mysterious girl and an odd symbol on the gravestone she visits. They decide to follow her and embark on this mystery through old Barcelona.

Rated: 4.2/5 Butterflies. "A book you can appreciate and find meaning in and be in the journey yourself"

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Review by Riya

This book is set after the Hunger Games are over. All the winners from the previous Hunger Games have to compete against each other with only one sole survivor. Also Katniss discovers that mysterious District 13 might not be the deserted city that the Capitol would have the world believe...

Rated: 4.5/5 Quarter Quells. "I like the books better than the movies, because the author describes the scenes in rich detail, not too much so it's boring, the perfect amount!"


Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead, Review by Natasha

This is the second last book in the series. I just finished it, it continues on from the last book, where she gets a letter from Dimitri. She is trying to move on with her life, graduating and all this good stuff is happening, her mum is even visits her. She goes with Lissa to the court to train and then all of this crazy stuff happens when they go to Las Vegas on a secret mission. Then Rose gets implicated in a royal murder...

Rated: 4/5 Dhampirs. "Really good. I love the whole series. This one was slow in the middle but it picks up."

The Lying Game by Sara Shepard, Review by Olivia

It's about these identical twins, Emma and Sutton. Sutton has been adopted by this really nice, rich family and she's really popular at school. Emma gets moved around lots of different foster homes, attends many schools and has a pretty ordinary life. One day  her foster sibling shows her a video of a girl that looks exactly like her. Emma had no idea until this moment that she had an identical twin. When she goes to find her, she is swept up into the life of her twin, who has mysteriously disappeared. Emma must figure out what happened to the twin, all while playing the lying game....

Rated: 4/5 Lying Games. "A really good mystery, I'm going to read the next book"

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead, Review by Nika

This is a spin-off of the Vampire Academy Series. There is this group of people called the Alchemists. They take care of the evil vampires that kill people and eat them. They make sure that the humans don't find out. In this book there is one main alchemist, Sydney Sage. The story is written from her perspective. She has to protect a really important Moroi who is being hunted. She has to go undercover as a high school student. I think the Vampire Academy series is better because there's more action. I expected a few romantic connections between certain characters, but nothing really has happened so far.

Rated: 3/5 Alchemists. "I'm only eight chapters in, so not much has happened yet, but it's good so far." 

Shatter Me: Juliette Chronicles by Tahere Mafi, Review by Marnie

It's about this girl called Juliette who is in a mental asylum. She's in this dystopian fictional world, which is like the real world but all messed up. There's this establishment in charge who are taking apart humanity by destroying all the books and rewriting languages. They think the world is wrong so they want to redirect the course of history. Oh and when Juliette touches people they tend to die....

Rated: 5/5 Deaths. "Really Good"


Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, Review by Izzy and Erin

It's about this pastor boy named Simon and he's gay -that's basically what the whole book is about. He talks to this person online, and he doesn't know who it is, except for the fact that they go to his school and he calls himself 'Blue'. No one else knows he's gay except for this kid, who walks in on him while he's chatting on one of the school computers. He forgets to log out and this kid takes a photo of the screen conversation. Simon is afraid to show himself off to people. I wouldn't say he's shy but he doesn't know how to express himself properly. All the emails he was sending to Blue are true expressions of who he is, so he is really comfortable around him. This is all compromised when the blackmailing begins...

I'd say it's a story of Simon finding himself. It's really cute! Satisfying, not a lot of Simon's social expression is by choice, but the responses he get are overwhelmingly positive and accepting.  Not much actually happens, but that doesn't make it boring, because the book is written so well, that every chapter has got something in it. Even if something doesn't necessarily happen, the way the author writes still makes it relevant and interesting.

Rated: 5/5 Izzy "I didn't want it to finish" 3.8/5 Erin "It need a little bit more substance in the plot"


The Shining by Stephen King, Review by Sam

The Shining is about a wealthy family man who decides to take care of a hotel in Denver during the Winter, because during the Winter it snows so much they have to shut it down for legal reasons, and they don't want all the staff working there. So they get him to take over and he says it will be a great experience for  his book, as he's a writer. Slowly as the book progresses there are signs of him changing psychologically. He stops sleeping and he starts talking to people that aren't there. The child starts seeing things as well. The best part of the book is that you don't know when the shift happens, the point where he becomes insane....

Rated: 4.5/5 Ambiguities "The book is scarier than the movie"

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, Review by Louise

It's this guy Colin who is like a child prodigy. So he's pretty smart, but he has this existential crisis about not being a genius. He's a bit whiny. He will also only date girls called Katherine. He gets dumped by all of them. When he gets dumped by Katherine 19, (yes, he numbers them) he goes on a road trip with his Cranial Kids TV show winnings...

Rated: 4/5 Katherines "Good, but Colin is really annoying"




Hole in the Middle by Kendra Fortmeyer, Review by Isabel

The main character was born with an actual hole in her middle. All her organs are squished awkwardly around the hole. Because of this she has had a lot of problems with her body image. Her mother, who is this fitness freak and a big celebrity health and well-being figure, hides her away from the world, making sure she covers up in order to protect her image. She's about twenty something, studying art when she goes to this dance party place called The Mansion. She starts wearing clothing that reveals the hole and it's a really big moment for her, building confidence with her body. When the paparazzi find out she gets a lot of bad press about her "freakish appearance." Then people come up with solutions to "fix" her, and brand her as metaphor/meme, rather than treating her like an individual.

Rated: 4.5/5 Holes "It's a good book. A very good book. A tiny bit predictable"