Book: Speak

Author: Laurie Halse Anderson

Rating: 5/5 stars

Pages: 198

Release Date: 1999

Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux

               ~~~~~~~~~Spoilers Warning, Down Below~~~~~~~~~

I love this book. It is one of my favorite books and I love Melinda. I love her humor and I felt really bad for her when I learned of what had happened to her.

I felt bad for her with her neglectful parents. I mean who honestly doesn’t realize their daughter changing becoming more quiet, withdrawn, depressed? Her parents are the one to blame on why Melinda was depressed. If they weren’t neglectful, and payed attention to their daughter instead of them arguing, they could’ve helped her earlier.

In this book it is about a girl who got raped and didn’t tell anyone on what had happened. Melinda was at an end-of-the-year party to celebrate them going to High School to be freshman. Things got out of hand, and Melinda got raped by a high school, soon to be senior. Melinda called the cops, but didn’t mention she got raped because she was confused and scared about what had happened to her. When the cops came, people got arrested which led to everyone, people who didn’t even know her, to hate her, including her best friends.

She eventually made a friend, Heather, but she was rude and wasn’t really a friend to Melinda. She used her to make her self seem better and left Melinda so she could hang out with the “popular and perfect girls.” This led to Melinda being more depressed which led to her trying self-harm. Melinda’s mom noticed and didn’t care which made Melinda start to skip school and simply not care about anything anymore.

Her art class, and her somewhat friend helped her become less depressed. Toward the end of the book, Melinda became more self confident with herself and story she eventually told what happened to her, or we can assume that she does. Andy, the boy who raped Melinda, got caught trying to rape her a second time, but he was stopped by Melinda and some other girls. School eventually ended and that the last we see of Melinda. We can assume, it is left up to our imagination, that Melinda tells everyone what had happened to her, she goes to court and everyone starts to be nice to her again.

There are many themes within this book. But, in my opinion, I think the biggest theme that is in this is to not judge a book by its cover. I say this because everyone in Melinda school hated her, or judged her by the way she acted. They never asked why she called the police at the party, and judged her by calling her goth and emo when she was depressed. No one wanted to go near her, no one really got to know her, or why she did it. But when people did get to know her, Melinda was funny, nice and cared for other people. So that is the theme of the book. That is my book review for Speak.

And just like Melinda, you can be brave too. The National Sexual Assault Hotline is 1-800-656-4673. There are professionals who can help you overcome this.

Book: Caraval

Author: Stephanie Garber

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Pages: 416

Release date: September 29th, 2016

Publisher: Macmillan Publishers

Where do I start with this story? It looked so good with the summary and the beginning was so good as well. But then, the plot and the story wasn’t as good as it should’ve been. The main character, Scarlett, became annoying and predictable by the end of the novel. Not to mention, she began to love a guy, Julian, she just met 5 days ago and apparently loved the dude more than her own sister.

Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval, the far-away, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show, are over. 

But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner. 

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. But she nevertheless becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic with the other players in the game. And whether Caraval is real or not, she must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over, a dangerous domino effect of consequences is set off, and her sister disappears forever.

Sounds good right? Welp, it was. Scarlett for one thing, needs to get her priorities straight. Originally she went there to help find her sister so she can go home for her wedding. It took longer than expected, but Scarlett fell in love with Julian, the sailor, which made the trip take longer and it showed that Scarlett cared more about a man she just met, than her sister she knew her whole life.

Not to mention that Scarlett keeps on talking about her marriage to a dude she never met in like every page of the book. Even after she finds out who her fiance was, she still talked about her marriage to him. Which, eventually gets annoying after awhile.

I rate this book 3.5/5 stars because she beginning of the book was really good and the idea of it was awesome too. But, toward the end, it started to be predictable, and annoying. Plus, she added unnecessary plot twists that didn’t add to the plot at all. Maybe the sequels would be better than this book, but probably not.

That is my review on Caraval by Stephanie Garber!

Book: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Author: Rick Riordan

Rating: 5/5 stars

Pages: 377

Release Date: June 2005

Publisher: Miramax Books, Puffin Books, Disney Publishing Worldwide

What´s up my fellow Demigods? Daughter of Hades here at your service. This is the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. They´re five books in total. The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan´s Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian.

The main characters in these novels are Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Grover Underwood. Grover is a Satyr, who wants to find Pan- the lord of the wild. Annabeth is the daughter of Athena- the goddess of wisdom. Percy is the son of Poseidon- the god of the sea, one of the Big 3. The Big 3 are Zeus, Poseidon and Hades.

When Percy was 12 years old, a Fury attacked Percy, who was Mrs. Dodds in disguise. He started to get freaked out because he thought that would never happened to him and that he was just a regular kid. Well, wrong! Once again he was attacked. On his way to Camp Half-Blood (a place for Demigods to live and be safe), a Minotaur attacked him. His mother vanished and was presumed dead. Percy defeated the Minotaur, which was impressive since he was 12 years old and that was hard to do. He found out that he was a Demigod, a demigod is the son/daughter of a god or goddess, but he didn´t know who his father was. After another attack, again I know, his father Poseidon claimed him, after the water healed him from the Hell hound attack.

Chiron, a Centaur who is in charge of Camp Half-Blood along with Dionysus- the god of wine, gave Percy a quest to find the Zues´s lightning bolt because Percy was charged with stealing it even though he never did. Annabeth and Grover went with him to try and find it.

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover faced many many challenges while trying to find the bolt and to help get Percy´s mom back. Chiron suspected Hades stole the bolt or got someone to steal it for him. The three of them got to the Underworld and realized that Hades never stole the bolt. Someone also stole his helm of darkness, that allows him to turn invisible.

The three escaped and saw Ares- the god of war and realized something that they didn´t expect. #PlotTwist. Percy and Ares ended up having a battle, which is impressive for Percy too, since he is only 12 years old and didn´t die when he fought Ares who is literally a god.

The three got to Olympus, returned the lightning bolt, went back to Camp. Easy peasy lemon squeezey. But, good things always come with a price. Another #PlotTwist happened and long story short, there was a traitor in the camp, Percy got poisoned by a scorpion and the book ended with Annabeth going home for the summer.

I rate this book 5/5 stars because this book series is basically my childhood, and like the first book series I actually read. It is funny, relatable, and you can really feel and understand the characters. Not to mention the feels you get when you see a plot twist that you didn´t expect. Also, Rick Riordan can really take mythology and twist it up to make it fun for kids to read and enjoy the myths and stories that come with.

Book: The Body

Author: Stephen King

Rating: 5/5 stars

Pages: 179

Release date: August 27th,1982

Publisher: Viking Press

This is my favorite Stephen King book (the second favorite is IT). It is a coming-of-age novel between four boys who come from bad homes.

Gordie older brother recently died in a car crash which caused his parents to neglect him. Gordie’s parents favored his older brother, so they became broken over his death. Gordie is very smart and wants to be an author when he grows up. He often thinks he isn’t good enough because his parents never really supported him.

Teddy lives with his mom. His father is staying at a psychiatrist ward for PTSD he developed for “storming beach in Normady.” When Teddy was young, his father held him up to the ear and nearly burned his ear off resulting him into wearing hearing aids.

Chris Chambers is what you call the bad kid that will never have no future. Well that is not what he really is, but what everyone thinks of him. He has two older brothers and a drunk father that often hits him. His oldest brother left at a early age and it said that he raped a girl and left Castle Rock, Maine. His other brother Richard, (who is mostly called “Eyeball”) is in a gang that torments the people that live in Castle Rock. There is also a rumor that Chris’s steals money and will most likely not make it anywhere in life.

Lastly, there is Vern Tessio. He out of the four boys have the most normal life. He is often made fun of by the the other boys for his weight and him not usually having the brightest of ideas. Him too, have a older brother, Billy, who is apart of a gang.

The whole story is about when these four boys go on a railroad track to find a dead body, while it being a coming-of-a novel. I think that the theme could be is that not everyone is strong all of the time. I say this because all these four boys have bad homes and they try not to let it get to them, but it does. It shows that they have true friends because they helped each other and stuck with each other through thick and thin.

This book is a awesome story, which everyone should at least read once in their life. The movie is just as good. Sure it got some facts and events wring, but it still a good movie and it is as good as the book.

Book: Cycle Of The Werewolf

Author: Stephen King

Illustrated: Berni Wrightson

Rating: 5/5 stars

Pages: 127 pages

Release Date: November 1983

Publisher: The Land of Enchantment

Let just start this off with one thing. If I see Stephen King, no matter what I’m doing, or how many books I already started reading, I will always read a Stephen King book. I will always read his book, and if I read the book already, I will most likely read the book again.

This book is a rare book to come by. (I was lucky to get my copy for Christmas this year). The movie Silver Bullet was based off of this book.

This book isn’t as long as Stephen King’s other books, in fact, with all of the Stephen King books I read, this one looks like the shortest. However, with only 127 pages, it tells a good story. It also has some awesome artwork! Instead of chapters, it goes by the months in a year. 1 full moon per month. In the first few months it talks about some of the murders the werewolf did. Then, it goes further into the story by introducing some of the main characters. Marty Coslaw eventually leads into being the main character for this story. Marty is a 10 year old boy who is in a wheelchair.

Each month there was a death that happened in the book. But in July, Marty had hurt the werewolf by shooting a firework in its eye, which made a keen difference in figuring out who the werewolf was. Towards the end of the book, end of the year, Marty had found out who the werewolf was, with the help of his uncle, Marty killed the werewolf and the town grew happy and less afraid.

I rate this book 5/5 because even though it was short, I loved the book. I love how he made a P.O.V. for the werewolf, and how he wrote about how Marty life and how he figured out who the werewolf was. Plus, I like almost all of Stephen King books.

So that’s my review of Cycle Of The Werewolf by Stephen King.

Book: The Maze Runner

Author: James Dashner

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Pages: 375

Release date: October 6th, 2009

Publisher: Dell Publishing

I love this book and this book series. I love the characters that James Dashner made; Newt, Thomas, Minho, Theresa, etc. He made you love characters, cry over them (cough Newt cough), hate them, then love them all over again. Personally, this is one of my top 5 favorite book series, this being number 1.

The book series in order is The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure, The Kill Order, and lastly The Fever Code.

This book is really interesting to read. It is about a boy who name is Thomas wakes up in a place with no memory of who he is, and doesn’t know anything. He soon finds out he is in a place with full of other teenage boys, who call the place “The Glade,” and is surrounded by a maze placed by WICKED, which stands for World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department. He meets new friends, Newt, Minho and Chuck. He eventually becomes a runner, someone who runs in the maze to try and find a way out. He saves Alby life from a Griever (a ugly spider machine thing that will try to kill you) and kills one.

A day after Thomas came, Theresa arrived, the first girl ever to come into the Glade after 3 years. She and Thomas can talk to each other with their minds. They both eventually figured out how to escape the maze with a code, but they many people lost their lives and gave sacrifices to help each other. They escaped into this building where two more deaths were held, some more meaningful than others. They are taken by these group of people who promise them safety, but it turns out bad in the end.

The 3 main character in the book are Thomas, Newt and Minho.

They all helped solve the maze and other problems that happen in the books, which make them important, even though they are mostly mentioned in The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure, and The Fever Code. The Kill Order is a prequel of saying how the flares started. The Fever Code is a prequel of how the maze was built.

I think one of the main themes in this book is Sacrifice. I say this because they’re many examples of the Gladers sacrificing their lives or something else for others. Some examples can be that when Thomas nearly sacrificed his life to save Alby and Minho. Chuck sacrificed his life for Thomas. And Gally sacrificed his life in the first night of the Grievers raid. Another part of the sacrifice theme are the creators. I say this because even though they were little kids when this all started, WICKED was willing to sacrifice teenagers lives so they could save millions of people from the flare and everything else. So sacrifice is one of the main themes in the book, and the whole book series.

Those are some of the reasons why you should read this book and book series. Enjoy!

Book: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Author: J.K. Rowling

Rating: 5/5 stars

My rating of this book is 5 stars. I enjoyed the Harry Potter series a lot. Even though I shipped Harry and Hermione, I still loved the books. In the first book Harry parents were killed by Lord Voldemort when he was 1 years old. He was sent to live with his aunt and uncle who raised him in an abusive environment. He eventually got his Hogwarts letter when he was 11 years old. They’re 4 Hogwarts houses. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw. Harry got sorted and Gryffinor- house for bravery. He met his teachers and one particular one called Severus Snape. Snape disliked Harry because of his father, James Potter who bullied him in the past. Harry than got best friends who are Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. They find a trapdoor underneath a dog named Fluffy. They suspect that Snape is trying to get the Sorcerer’s Stone so they go down under the trapdoor to try to stop him. But it turns out that it wasn’t Snape, it was actually Professor Quirrell. Harry tried to stop him, but Quirrell uncovered his turban and it turns out that Voldemort was on the other side. Harry stopped him and Dumbledore rescued him and put him the medical bed. Gryffindor ended up winning the House Cup. School ended and Harry went back to the Dursley’s house for the summer. I like this book because it is funny, it has wizards and witches, and Hermione represents me on a personal level. It is well written and anybody of all ages can enjoy this book and the series in total.

Have you ever had a problem on whether you wanted to buy a book or read it, but you don’t know whether it is good? Well, I can help you with that with my book reviews that aren’t biased, immature, or just unprofessional in general. My name is Hailey and I will be doing book reviews on books that I love or dislike. I will be giving a summary of the book, my rating, the author, the movie version (if it has one), what makes the book good or not good, etc. I want to do this mostly because it’s a school assignment, but because reviews of books helped me decide whether or not to buy a book, so I want to do the same. Not to mention, it seems like fun. Some of the books I’ll do are Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, Room by Emma Donaghue, etc.