Dystopian

Book Review: Firefight

Author
Sanderson, Brandon
Rating
4 stars = Really Good
Review

This book is the second in the Steelheart series, and it is a great story. It has fantastic characters, great descriptions of locations, and a bunch of plot twists that keep you on your feet. The plot may be confusing at times, but it all makes sense in the end. There are plenty of details that make an appearance in the next book too! Overall, I think this is a very good book.

Reviewer's Name
Riley D.

Book Review: Uglies

Author
Westerfeld, Scott
Rating
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review

All Tally Youngblood ever wanted was to be a pretty. Now Tally is almost sixteen years old, and in just a few weeks, she will get the surgery that will make her beautiful. When she meets Shay, a girl with many new ideas, Tally is told about a reclusive group called the Smokies that keep their own faces. Shay, a few days before their birthday, runs away and joins them, leaving Tally to explain to everyone where her friend is. Because of Shay, Tally is forced into a world that she wanted no part of. To become pretty, Tally must betray Shay and all of her new friends. As she realizes the truth behind the operation, Tally starts to enjoy her new life. Uglies, the first book in the series, is a great dystopian book. With an amazing plot, and complex characters, I highly recommend it to anyone that enjoyed Divergent or any of Scott Westerfeld's other books.
Reviewer Grade: 9

Reviewer's Name
Hailey K.

Book Review: What's Left of Me

Author
Zhang, Kat
Rating
4 stars = Really Good
Review

What’s Left of Me, a dystopian novel by Kat Zhang, follows the life of Addie and Eva, two souls living in one body while trying to hide their secret from the totalitarian government. In their society, everyone is born with two souls. Eventually, they are supposed to settle by a young age, meaning that the weaker soul would fade away and die. In their world, every hybrid was arrested, never seen again. They (Addie and Eva) never settled, but the government didn’t know. Everyone thought that they had settled at the age of twelve, even their own parents. Eva just lost control of their body. She was still able to communicate with Addie through thoughts. Then, a girl from school told her that she knew their secret and offered to bring Eva back.
Riskily, they agreed. Will they succeed or get caught in the act?
This is a very interesting book. I think I enjoyed the beginning of the novel most, where it talks about what it means to be a hybrid in their society. It really made me think about what it would be like to have another soul in my body, to share everything with her. It made me so curious, I googled if everyone is born with two souls. However, I would not be compelled to pick up the sequel for the book. I did not enjoy it as much as I have other dystopian novels. While amazing and thought provoking at the beginning, it just had a downfall at the end, becoming more confusing and dull as the book went on. The romantic subplot didn’t make very much sense, because that would be very awkward for the other twos would who would have to be dragged into it. Also, it needs to be more descriptive. The setting and protagonist were barely described, leaving the reader with a fuzzy image. The negatives aside, this was a wonderful book. What’s Left of Me is a great book for teenagers, even though it is officially labeled as a young adult novel.
Review Grade: 8

Reviewer's Name
Nicole B.

Book Review: High-Rise

Author
Ballard, J. G.
Rating
4 stars = Really Good
Review

High-Rise (1975) begins with one of the most memorable first lines I’ve ever read, "Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr. Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months". Laing is a new tenant in a futuristic high rise apartment building on the outskirts of London. The high rise is a microcosm containing restaurants, playgrounds, a swimming pool, and even its own supermarket. There is social order: the wealthiest tenants occupy the building's upper floors with the best views, while the middle-class tenants reside in the lower half of the building, constantly at the mercy of falling champagne bottles from the upper floors. Before long, tensions arise between the tenants of the upper and lower floors. Alternating between Laing and another tenant, Richard Wilder, we witness first-hand the deterioration of ethics and social order within the high rise. Elevators are commandeered, rooms are barricaded, alliances are formed, and blood is shed. Little by little, the layers of human behavior are peeled back, exposing a terrifyingly animalistic core at the heart of the high rise tenants.

Reviewer's Name
Brian M.

Book Review: The Bees

Author
Paull, Laline
Rating
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review

My first thought when this book was recommended to me was, “Bees? Is that metaphor? What do the bees stand for?” NOPE. This book is literally about bees. But not in a nonfiction, documentary kind of way. Here we have a novel in which we discover the world of bees personified.

Enter our main character, Flora 717. She was born the lowest of the low: the sanitation worker bee. Ugly, underappreciated, but unlike her fellow floras, she can speak. One of the higher levels of bees, a priestess to the queen, immediately takes notice of her oddities and experiments with her in roles not typical to a flora.

Flora 717 finds herself in almost every aspect of bee life at some point of her journey through the hive, uncovering secrets as she learns, grows, experiences the most profound loss, and transcends to the highest joys. The ordinary life of these black and yellow creatures we see and often fear is re-imagined into a relatable tale that pierces the veil between bees and humans. Though humans play very little role in the book, the bees exhibit many characteristics of humanity.

The tone of this book can be a bit dark at times with graphic imagery, but I highly recommend it.

Reviewer's Name
Nicole

Book Review: The Selection

Author
Cass, Kiera
Rating
4 stars = Really Good
Review

America Singer has been forced to enter in a competition to win Prince Maxon's heart. There's only one problem: she's in love with someone else. Marked by a brutal social class system, America either has the option to marry within her class or above it. She cannot marry her boyfriend Aspen Ledger, who is a class below her. So, she must enter "The Selection" to compete with a number of other girls for Prince Maxon's hand. Although the characters and plot were complex, I felt this book was lacking something - perhaps the conflict wasn't quite strong enough? I still recommend it for its excellent world-building and characters. (I'd rate this PG-13 for minor language and some romance)
Reviewer Grade: 9

Reviewer's Name
Gillian P.

Book Review: Allegiant

Author
Roth, Veronica
Rating
2 stars = Meh
Review

Allegiant by Veronica Roth was a disappointment to me. Honestly it was very poorly written. The book is in both Tris' and Four’s perspective, which I usually like, but it was very difficult to distinguish the two. Most books I read, when in different perspectives they think differently and have a different structure of thinking, but Four and Tris have the exact same thoughts all the time. The only difference is that Four tells Tris no, when she wants to do something. This was the worst book in the series, and was extremely slow.
Reviewers Grade: 7

Reviewer's Name
Emily T.

Book Review: Insurgent

Author
Roth, Veronica
Rating
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review

Insurgent by Veronica Roth, the second in the Divergent series, was very well written. I feel the relationship between Beatrice (better known as Tris) and her instructor/boyfriend Four was very well thought out. This book made me yearn to read the last one quickly. The book’s main plot was amazing, and Insurgent was absolutely amazing when it came to the developments of its characters.
Reviewer Grade: 7

Reviewer's Name
Emily T.

Book Review: Divergent

Author
Roth, Veronica
Rating
4 stars = Really Good
Review

Divergent by Veronica Roth was a very interesting story. In her utopian society Beatrice Prior must make a decision that impacts her whole life. When sixteen everyone must choose a faction where they believe they belong, each with their own perspective of why the human race fell. This book is full of suspense and will leave you on the edge of your seat. It, in my opinion, is somewhat a copy of the Hunger Games and The Fault in Our Stars. Reviewer Grade: 7

Reviewer's Name
Emily T.