Projekt 1065 is a historical fiction novel set during World War II, following thirteen-year-old Michael O'Shaunessey, the son of an Irish ambassador to Germany. Michael joined the Hitler Youth as a spy for the Allies, working secretly with his parents against the Nazis. He meets multiple key characters that are important to his mission and the conclusion of the book, such as Fritz, a boy Michael's age in the Hitler Youth, and Simon, a British pilot.
The story is well-written and very realistic, which is perfect for a historical fiction novel. The plot is a distinct and interesting concept that strongly conveys the messages and themes of war, bravery, and sacrifice. Something I really enjoyed about the book was its complexity. There were multiple major events that all came together around the end, which made it a more layered, deep, and realistic story. The writing of the characters was especially remarkable, as each was unique and fleshed out, contributing to the impact. The mood throughout the book is consistent and action-packed, and the vivid descriptions, along with being written in first-person, really let the reader visualize what's happening and help them connect with the characters. The emotions and character reactions are expressed well and feel believable, which adds to the depth of the story. Overall, the novel was engaging, suspenseful, and deep, highly recommended for fans of historical fiction and action.

Inside Out & Back Again tells the story of a young girl named Kim Ha escaping Saigon during the Vietnam War with her family. Inspired by the author's personal experiences as a refugee, the story is written in a simplistic yet powerful way using free verse poetry.
The book itself has few words that describe so much more, packed with metaphors and deep themes of war, hope, and change. The story is realistic and tells about not just the events on the ship to flee, but also the family's struggles to fit in and adapt to their new environment after finally finding refuge. The story is difficult to put into words, written beautifully and honestly, with so many hidden messages. It shows how much a person's life can change in a single year, and how much it affects them and the people around them. The emotions are masterfully conveyed through descriptions and tone in the writing, along with the underlying innocence of being told from a ten-year-old's perspective. The relationships are clear as well, showing the close bond between Ha and her family, and how much they care about each other, especially in difficult situations. Overall, the story is a great read, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to read something new, emotionally deep, or just because.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld is a dystopian novel set in a future where people are strictly divided by age and appearance. Littlies are young children who live with their parents until they turn twelve, when they are labeled Uglies and move into dormitories in Uglyville. When they turn sixteen, they are pressured into undergoing an operation that changes their appearance to become Pretties, who can move to the paradise of New Pretty Town. The story follows Tally, a fifteen-year-old girl a few months from her sixteenth birthday, who is looking forward to becoming a Pretty and joining her best friend Peris in New Pretty Town. Like most Uglies, Tally sees the operation as a turning point in her life, as Uglies are treated in a way that makes them feel inferior to the Pretties and pushes them to undergo the surgery. One day, Tally befriends another girl her age named Shay, who doesn't want to become a pretty and tries to convince Tally to join her before running away. Things only go down from here, as Tally is offered an impossible decision by the authorities and begins to learn the truth about the operation and the seemingly idyllic nature of the society she grew up in.
This book was a great read, and I really enjoyed the concept. The characters were written well and were realistic in a way that showed off their individual motivations and traits. Shay and Tally's views on society and being pretty are clearly different, and that affects their actions throughout the story. The ending is powerful, written so similarly yet different from the beginning of the story, which helps to emphasize Tally's character development and shows how much the events of the story changed things. Something I especially liked about the story was its unexpected plot twists. Some parts surprised me, proving my predictions wrong and making the story even more engaging. The novel is packed with symbolism and themes of conformity, individuality, and beauty while being easy to read and understand. It does great as the first book for the series, sparking interest in the world and characters and making readers want to know what happens next. I recommend this book for fans of science fiction and dystopian novels with some adventure and good plot twists.

The Hobbit is a well-known book, widely considered a classic by many people. It takes place in J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional world, Middle-earth, and follows the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, who also makes an appearance as a side character in the author's series, The Lord of the Rings. The novel is an adventure in which the wizard Gandalf convinces Bilbo to join him and twelve dwarves in hopes of finally being able to infiltrate their stolen home on Lonely Mountain to reclaim their treasure and take down the dragon Smaug. The group embarks on a journey, traveling to many different places, discovering objects that could help them on their mission, and facing obstacles along the way. It's a complex story with diverse and unique concepts that set it apart from some other novels of a similar genre.
While I enjoyed the story and the world-building, along with its distinctive plot, I wasn't very familiar with the story's writing style, and it was slightly difficult to understand the story at times. Another part that slightly threw me off was the characters' voices and personalities. It was a bit difficult to grasp their individual traits, which is something I tend to look for a lot in stories. Sometimes they seemed to break character or switch between two character tropes, which was a little confusing. However, those points were likely because of my unfamiliarity with the author's writing, as The Hobbit was the first of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books I’ve read. Other than that, the novel was a very good read that I enjoyed, from the world-building to the deeper themes of greed, bravery, and heroism. The contrast between Bilbo around the beginning of the story and around the end shows the character development in Bilbo over the course of the story and contributes to the impact of the story. The events were also written very well, and the adventure was exciting. The mood and tone were also described in a way that strengthened the imagery and made it more vivid. Overall, it was a good read, and I would definitely recommend it for those who enjoy books with a mix of adventure and fantasy with deeper under

This book, "The Thing About Jellyfish" By, Ali Benjamin, is quite honestly one of the best books I have ever read. It is about a young girl, losing her best friend and thinking that maybe if she finds out how she died, which she though the initial way was false, would solve her feelings and take away the grief and sorrow, sadly it did not as you would expect. This book was amazing and it helped me with the grief I soon had to overcome. What I had enjoyed about the book was how it didn't sugarcoat mental health and thoughts of those, because sugarcoating and beating around the bush about serious things about mental health is an impossibly selfish thing to do. I also enjoyed how it was written, the format plus it being in first person really helped. I chose to read this book, because I thought it was about jellyfish and I do love jellyfish, but I also read it because I knew it had death in it and I had to do a book report, I couldn't have picked a better book to do so. I think the only thing I didn't like about the book was probably that it didn't include real problems. There was a part of the story where I thought she would've gotten disciplinary or even just a little bit of consequences, but no, none were involved. One thing the reader must know is that it does include a small part of homosexuality, but that is NOT what the book is about. I think anyone who is going through grief will be able to relate to this book. And I highly recommend to the age of 13+ of any gender.

Avery Grambs is used to barely scraping by: with her mom dead, her dad nowhere to be found, and her half-sister's abusive boyfriend moving into their small apartment, Avery spends her days living inside her car and can only dream of a stable and financially secure future. That is - until she gets summoned to the will-reading of the late businessman Tobias Hawthorne (who also happens to be filthy rich)...and finds out that he left her almost all of his assets under a certain condition: she must live in the enormous Hawthorne estate for at least a year to inherit.

For her, it should be a perfect turn of luck: she'll never have to be worried about money ever again, right? But Avery is just as confused as the family. She's never met Tobias Hawthorne and has no familial connections with him that she knows of. Furthermore, the Hawthorne family are obviously not very pleased with a complete stranger inheriting what should have been rightfully theirs: Tobias' daughters firmly believe Avery is a con woman, and their hypercompetitive sons - Grayson, Jameson, Xander, and Nash - see her as an obstacle, a puzzle to solve. But as cryptic messages behind Tobias' will reveal themselves, Avery finds out that her inheritance is indeed part of a game, engineered by the puzzle-obsessed businessman, and she becomes entangled into the Hawthornes' complex family drama as she discovers secret passageways and compartments, as well as the secrets kept by the Hawthorne boys, unraveling truths of stories better left untold that could destroy the family - and Avery herself.

I will be honest, this novel felt extremely messy, and I had a very hard time describing the plot to other people asking about the book who haven't read it already. However, The Inheritance Games does have its merits. Barnes does a good job at giving her book emotional output: there were moments in the story where I genuinely felt pity for what some of the characters have gone through, and I feel especially sorry for the two prospective love interests, Jameson and Grayson. The intricate family drama was a bit excessive and made the novel feel like an on-paper-rendition of a soap opera, but it was intriguing, and I felt engrossed in it (although I really hope they find a way to resolve it somehow). The storyline itself, although it had its golden moments, moved along way too slowly for me and never seemed to get anywhere: the book spans 91 chapters, and by chapter 60, I was wondering when it would end - or if it would ever end, for that matter. The ending as well was incredibly unsatisfying: most of the questions posed about Avery's inheritance at the beginning of the book were either not answered at all or very vaguely addressed, and the cliffhanger only infuriated me more. I do understand that this book is the first in a series, which would explain the cliffhanger, but I felt so tired out from the plot that I considered not reading the rest of the books. There were also not as many puzzles as the plot promised, which disappointed me, and the story was mainly focused on the family drama as well as Avery's strange relationship with Grayson and Jameson (which isn't a completely bad thing, but I started this book thinking there would be more puzzles, and the few that were in the plot were only okay, not brilliant).

As for the characters, I honestly found Avery to be a slightly dislikeable main character: she was as much of a mess as the Hawthorne brothers were, and at times she was honestly kind of stupid. I did enjoy Xander and Nash. Xander was such a funny, lively character, and his obsession with robots and mechanics made him even more endearing. And Nash, unlike most of his family, was actually level-headed and calm, and I respected him for his demeanor, even though his role was also supposed to be controversial, as well as Xander's. Overall, the book was an entertaining read, and there were parts of it that I did love, but it did feel melodramatic and stretched out. I don't think I'll read the rest of the series, but this book was by no means a completely unpleasant experience.

This book is a good resource historically. Hosseini's writing provides a good perspective of what it's like to have lived in Afghanistan. The story itself is interesting. There is plenty of text to analyze about the struggles of an impending war, which I think is good to gain understanding from other cultures. However, I found that there were some scenes throughout the book that were unnecessary. They were a part of the story but went into extreme detail that made me uncomfortable and covered very mature topics. Overall, I give this a three. It's not bad, just not my cup of tea, so I wouldn't be recommending it to someone myself.

This book was definitely interesting to read. I didn't exactly dislike it but it wasn't my favorite book ever. The book is about a dystopian world with a special act that lets people "unwind" their teenagers. This process involves repurposing their organs and body parts, donating them to people in need and justified this as the life doesn't really end. It's the premise of the book and brings up some heartbreaking scenes to read. In my opinion the plot isn't bad. It's about three teens that come together to try and escape being unwound. What I like about it is that it's a powerful adventure and there's a lot of unique characters. Even though it wasn't my favorite book I've read, I don't think it a waste of time and would recommend it to those who enjoy science fiction and action.

After reading Gary Paulsen’s other Hatchet books, I knew I had to read The River. The story is simple: Brian has been rescued from the horrors of the wilderness, with scars to prove them; but a group of men who want to educate people on nature survival are asking him to travel back to the desolate Canadian Forests! Read as a simple, and seemingly safe, plan falters and leaves Brian back in the wild, alone. His only hope: to raft down a river and hope for somebody to rescue him.
Although this novel gives off a less tense survival vibe, it is certainly still entertaining. I would certainly recommend this entire series to anyone who loves a good nature book with a twist. The River: A Hatchet Adventure, is worthwhile. Read and submerse yourself in a survival book of hardships and adventure!

When I finished reading Gary Paulsen’s initial book to the series, Brian’s Winter was on my list. The novel twists the first book, Hatchet, with an alternate ending! Brian now remains stranded in the Canadian Wilderness, but here’s the catch: in order for Brian to survive, he must endure Canada’s brutal winters. Can Brian get lucky enough to survive yet another season in the wild, or will he succumb to the sheer power of Mother Nature? Find out by reading Gary Paulsen’s Brian’s Winter.