Book Review: Fattypuffs and Thinifers by André Maurois

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book, book review, France, political satire, politics, review, satire, YA, young adult

Fattypuffs And Thinifers

by André Maurois

genre: young adult, political satire

Summary from Goodreads

‘If you go on eating like that you’ll turn into a real Fattypuff,’ thin Mr Double said to his plump son Edmund. He was right, for when Edmund and Terry found the secret staircase in the wood which led to the underground countries, Edmund had to go with the Fattypuffs to their city, where people were huge and happy and ate all day long, while Terry went off with the Thinifers, who were as spiky and prickly as their city. And it took a war as well as a lot of argument before the boys could teach them to agree about anything.

Book Review: Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

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book, book review, books, dragons, fantasy, fiction, Guards! Guards! Discworld, Pitch Perfect, review, reviews, Terry Pratchett, YA, young adult

Guards! Guards!
Discworld #8

by Terry Pratchett

genre: fantasy, young adult

Summary from Goodreads

Here there be dragons . . . and the denizens of Ankh-Morpork wish one huge firebreather would return from whence it came. Long believed extinct, a superb specimen of draco nobilis (“noble dragon” for those who don’t understand italics) has appeared in Discworld’s greatest city. Not only does this unwelcome visitor have a nasty habit of charbroiling everything in its path, in rather short order it is crowned King (it is a noble dragon, after all . . .).

Meanwhile, back at Unseen University, an ancient and long-forgotten volume–The Summoning of Dragons–is missing from the Library’s shelves. To the rescue come Captain Vimes, Constable Carrot, and the rest of the Night Watch who, along with other brave citizens, risk everything, including a good roasting, to dethrone the flying monarch and restore order to Ankh-Morpork (before it’s burned to a crisp). A rare tale, well done as only Terry Pratchett can.

Book Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

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book, book review, books, fiction, review, reviews, Stephen Chbosky, Ther Perks of Being a Wallflower, YA, young adult

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

by Stephen Chbosky

genre: young adult

Summary

Charlie is a freshman.
And while he’s not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his year yet socially awkward,he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it.

Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mix tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But he can’t stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.

Book Review: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

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book, book review, books, dystopian, fiction, Lauren DeStefano, pregnancy, review, reviews, Wither, YA, young adult

Wither
(The Chemical Garden #1)

by Lauren DeStefano

genre: dystopian, YA

Synopsis from Goodreads

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.

When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape–before her time runs out?

Together with one of Linden’s servants-Gabriel-Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

Movie Review: The Maze Runner

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movie, review, reviews, science fiction, The Maze Runner, YA, young adult

The Maze Runner
Movie 1

genre: science fiction, dystopian, young adult

Usually, I tell people to read the book before the movie. Don’t read the book. Wait for the movie to hit NetFlix. If you’ve read the book, wait a week or two from when you finished reading until you go see the movie. The movie changed 70-80% of the book. I finished the book the same day I went to see the movie, so I sat there the entire time shaking my head with my brows creased thinking, “That’s not how that happened. That didn’t happen. That’s out of order. That didn’t happen. You skipped that. What the…? Why did you change that detail? What did that accomplish? What??? How? That didn’t… How are you going to finish the movie if you changed… you changed the ending…”

Book Review: The Maze Runner by James Dashner

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book, book review, book reviews, books, dystopian, James Dashner, review, reviews, science fiction, The Maze Runner, YA, young adult

The Maze Runner
Book 1

by James Dashner

genre: science fiction, dystopian, young adult

Completely by coincidence, Ermisenda and I have both been reading The Maze Runner. We didn’t realize it until she beat me to posting her review by three days. Though I could wait to post mine, she and I came away with very different opinions, so I hope you enjoy reading my take on the book as well. I’m going to see the movie this evening, so I will be posting that review on Friday.

Ermi, don’t you dare post yours on Wednesday. 😉

Synopsis from Goodreads

If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human.

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone.

Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade.

Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive.

Everything is going to change.

Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.

Remember. Survive. Run.

Book Review: Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

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Becca Fitzpatrick, dystopian, fallen angels, Hush Hush, paranormal, romance, trilogy, YA, young adult

Hush, Hush
Hush, Hush #1

by Becca Fitzpatrick

genre: YA, romance, dystopian, paranormal

Synopsis from Goodreads

Romance was not part of Nora Grey’s plan. She’s never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how hard her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch comes along. With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Patch draws Nora to him against her better judgment.

But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora’s not sure whom to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is and seems to know more about her than her closest friends. She can’t decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.

For she is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen – and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost Nora her life.

Book Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

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book, book review, books, Delirium, dystopian, Lauren Oliver, review, reviews, YA, young adult

Delirium
(Delirium #1)

by Lauren Oliver

genre: dystopian, YA

Delirium had everything that should have made it a five star book: amazing writing style, interesting plot. So why did I give it 2 stars? I finished 4 or 5 books since starting Delirium and at the romantic high point, I didn’t cry (the end of the world is near).

Synopsis from Goodreads

Ninety-five days, and then I’ll be safe.
I wonder whether the procedure will hurt.
I want to get it over with.
It’s hard to be patient.
It’s hard not to be afraid while I’m still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn’t touched me yet.
Still, I worry.
They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness.
The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don’t.

 

Book Review: I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

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book, book review, books, education, girls, girls' education, I am Malala, Malala Yousafzai, memoir, non-fiction, review, reviews, Taliban, terrorism, YA, young adult

I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

by Malala Yousafzai

genre: memoir, YA

Synopsis from Goodreads

I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday.

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.

On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive.

Instead, Malala’s miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize.

I Am Malala is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls’ education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.

I Am Malala will make you believe in the power of one person’s voice to inspire change in the world.

Book Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

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book, book review, books, bravery, divergent, dystopian, review, reviews, veronica roth, YA, young adult

Divergent

by Veronica Roth

genre: dystopian, YA

Synopsis from Goodreads

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue–Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is–she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are–and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, Tris also learns that her secret might help her save the ones she loves . . . or it might destroy her.