Red Rising by Pierce Brown, Review by Wei LiIt's about war and corruption and it's quite incredible the way it is written. It's not written like your normal dystopian teen fic or anything, it's sort of got a mature writing style. It's set on Mars in the distant future and the technology has vastly advanced. Now there's a hierarchy of colours. Golds are at the top and Reds, which is what the main character is, are at the bottom. Reds in this world are told that they are living and mining beneath the surface of Mars in order to get the precious materials that will allow them to terraform the surface so that one day, they and other people, living on other planets can come and live there. When Darrow dies (but not really) he finds out that there's actually millions of people already living on the surface, and his whole life he and his family and his people have been lied to. The book is about him being surgically "enhanced" to a Gold and infiltrating their ranks, rising to the top and trying to turn over the government and free the people.
Rated: 5/5 Flowers "It's really good, it's in a series. There are no other books like this, it's fantastic!"
It's about a girl called Esther. She's poor. She comes from nothing and she's moved to New York to pursue a career as a writer. All in all the book isn't entirely eventful, but it's her internal monologue throughout about a year or two. I can't really explain it without giving it away, but she has a bit of a drastic change in her life and she comes out at the end of the book as a totally different person. So rather than it being a series of events it's a series of mindsets which is amazing.
Rated: 3.5/5 Bells "It's really interesting and it's a good read, but because there isn't a lot of physical action going on it's hard to keep up with the book. If you like this book you would probably enjoy We Are Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler"
The story goes as follows: There's a lawyer called Mr. Utterson, who is told a story by one of his colleagues, of him going into the city of London and seeing this really short dude who had this face which was disfigured in a way that he couldn't describe with words, he just seemed off. Pretty much Mr Utterson was really close friends with someone he went to university with, A doctor, called Dr. Jekyll. He springs a question, do you know this guy with the name Hyde? And he says, yeah that's my apprentice, he's cool. He's like: yeah well, apparently he's not so cool. He says something like: trust me, there are some things about him that you don't know, but if you do see him in the street, treat him well. He's a good boy but he has a temper. Mr. Utterson gets weirded out because he's never seen someone he's known for decades act in this sort of way, because he seemed afraid, like he was being controlled by him...
Rated: 4/5 Trampled Corpses "It's a good book but it loses a mark, because it's classified as a horror book but it's not scary"
This is the fourth book in the series and it's a lot different from the previous books. A lot of it doesn't take place in space or anything. After the third book, a bunch of stuff happens and Arthur is on Earth again but it's about five years from when he left. It's kind of hazy at the beginning but he's driving this car and there's a guy and a girl in the back and the girl is his sister. Something is wrong with her, her speech is slurred. Anyway, Arthur forms a massive crush on her just by looking in the rear view mirror. He gets to the hospital and then leaves and some other stuff happens and then he bumps into her on the street.
A lot of weird lovey stuff happens.
Rated: 3/5 Flying Couples "Not really much plot per se, it mainly focuses on the relationship. I think this may have been the point where Douglas Adam was burning out a little bit. He wrote another book after this but it wasn't as good."
Pennies for Hitler by Jackie French, Review by Caitlyn
The book follows George, a twelve year-old boy who lives in Germany with his German mother and English father. It starts off with him talking about how his father is a teacher of language and poetry at a university. The first real thing that happens is a graduation ceremony at the university. George is in the audience, and his dad is up on stage. It is set around the time of WWII. Because he's from Germany, he's been brought up with some views, more from the culture than his parents specifically, to view Jewish people as bad and everyone who doesn't follow Hitler's standard. At this ceremony, it all starts off normal and fine, sort of boring because he's a twelve year-old boy. But then these people start chanting in German, telling the Jews to get out. George is confused, he doesn't think anyone there could be Jewish. Then people start being thrown off the platform, he's a bit confused, but slowly starts to realize these people are Jewish. It turns into a riot- people are shouting and getting hurt, and his father is in among it all. He thinks he sees him get hurt. It follows his journey through the war, where he is transported to England in a suitcase and then to Australia on a boat. He finds it difficult to feel welcome anywhere, being either too German or too Jewish. George's world view has to shift as he learns more about his country, his family and himself.
Rated: 4/5 Hitlers "Really well written historical fiction"
It Gets Worse by Shane Dawson, Review by SashaIt's a book of a bunch of different stories from Shane's life. They are actually really interesting and also on every page of every chapter is some fan art, which is really good. I can't review every story because I'd be here forever, but my favourite one is the one where Shane and his friend are driving home from somewhere, from one place to another and they accidentally drove into Mexico, without their passports or anything. They where trapped and had to try and get out. They only had an hour of petrol left. They saw a husband and wife get tasered by the police at the border because they had drugs in their car. Shane realizes someone had smoked in his car another day and is worried what they could find. Shane nearly gets arrested for trying to be funny. They did eventually get let out.
Rated: 5/5 Unos "I recommend this for really mature kids or teenagers"
The Gentleman's guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee, Review by CienaThere's this boy Monty, his sister Felicity and his best friend Percy, they do something called a tour, where they travel around to all these places in Europe. So the original plan was to do this for a year and half way through drop Felicity off at her new school. But then something bad happens and they're turned off-track. They have to return this box to it's owner...
Rated: 5/5 Fiddles "I recommend this to anyone who is into adventure and a bit of romance, anyone who likes an interesting story that keeps on changing. I'm reading the second book now"
Since we Fell by Dennis Lehane, Review by EvaIt's about a girl called Rachael who had a really bad childhood because her thought to be dad ran out on her and her mum. As she gets older she tries to figure out who her dad was. Then she keeps getting these messages from this boy Brian. She was on the news reporting this big tsunami and earthquake in Haiti, when she started having a panic attack live. She gets fired for making everything too serious and too real, which I think everyone should know. She ends up meeting Brian at a bar and they start dating. After two or three months they get married, but then there's a giant plot twist, with guns.
Rated: 5/5 Bullet holes "I recommend it to anyone who likes thrillers and plot twists"
13 Gifts by Wendy Mass, Review by MariaThe story is about a girl who steals a goat from her school. She gets expelled. Before that, her parents had planned a trip to South Africa, but after her expulsion they said she had to stay with her auntie instead. So she goes to the country to stay with her and meets a bunch of people like a guy and some friends. She meets this middle aged woman, who sets her this task to collect 13 gifts...
Rated: 5/5 Gifts "I liked this book, people who enjoy a bit of drama will like it too"
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