I picked this because the plot seemed very captivating, and it turns out it was! I also picked this because it was a different genre than what I normally read. The book kept me very hooked and contained many plot twists. Divergent has easily become one of my favorite books of all time.
The setting is a dystopian setting, in a post-apocalyptic era in Chicago. Society is divided into factions, which members stay in their whole lives after the Choosing Ceremony. Depending on which faction you are in, you abide by different rules. Tris Prior got an unusual result from her aptitude test, a dangerous result called Divergent. This means that she doesn’t belong to one faction. She transfers factions and does her best to keep her Divergence a secret, all the while making friends, and enemies, in her new faction. And then war breaks out, and suddenly, her Divergence comes in handy.
This book is absolutely amazing and kept me hooked the entire time. I was actually disappointed when I finished it because I wanted to keep reading, but it is one of the best books I have ever read.
Reviewer Grade: 8.

One of the greatest science fiction novels of the past century, Jurassic Park is a genius blend of thrills, likable characters, and philosophy deep enough to interest more mature readers while allowing younger adults and teenagers to be invested as well. The story revolves around a group of temporary advisers to an eccentric millionaire who has created his own dinosaur theme park. The park becomes far more dangerous, however, when a series of events leave the beasts free to roam the island.
The main cast is a group of fully realized characters of a variety of backgrounds, working together from their respective roles of the island to ensure their survival along with the others. Far from being simple Godzilla style creatures of destruction, the dinosaurs feel like characters of their own, with intelligence (especially among the raptors) and capabilities that are both realistic and terrifying. The scenes involving both the human and dinosaur cast are tense but still controlled, and no situation feels contrived or forced.
Jurassic Park is a classic novel for young adults or older people, perfect for anyone interested in a book that will keep them turning the pages until it's over.

Switch is the story of a world where time has stopped. People keep moving, the sun keeps turning, but every single clock in the world is seemingly stuck. Tru Beck lives in this world, and continues going to school on schedule, following N3WCLOCK.com, an artificial clock that keeps humanity on schedule through fake seconds and minutes and hours. Tru lives in a house where there is a switch in the center, that her father continues to build boxes around, boxes that engulf the whole house. Her mother left them. Her sister isn't spoken of. Her brother is hiding. And Tru recently realized that she can throw a javelin further than any human in history.
A. S. King is one of my favorite writers, and her writing doesn't make sense at all. Not as in "I can't follow the story" but as in "I genuinely can't tell what's real and what's not." Every story of hers has a strange fantastical element that is both meant to be an allegory and meant to be taken extremely seriously. Everything is a metaphor. Nothing is a metaphor. It's super confusing, but I adore it. For one, A.S. King's writing style is extremely distinct. While certain stylistic choices fluctuate from book to book, the writing puts you in a headspace of a strange, surreal, light melancholy that is utterly distinct from any emotion ever experienced, yet so strangely familiar. The best way I can describe it is like arriving somewhere after a long drive, and being fully aware of both where you came from and your new, strange reality. It can be confusing at times, and could be said to muddy the story, but the strange tone and feeling of this writing gives every story an entirely new depth and meaning. Also, the characters in this book are very intriguing. The main character contains this apathy that sits within each of us, and which she fully embraces. She knows that the N3WCLOCK is futile, and knows that its important that the boxes come down. She doesn't try to do anything she doesn't want to do, and learns throughout the novel how to harness her energy, and how to move on. Despite being a YA novel, she has an air of tiredness that is very relatable to teenagers. She's also stubborn, caring, and willing to stand up for herself. The audience immediately latches on to her, and wants to learn more about her. She instrumental to the theme of the story, of which there is only one, tightening up the story and making everything focused. All the supporting characters don't get nearly the same development, but all of them are fully fleshed out and given understandable motivations. The premise of the story is also interesting, and creates realistic reactions in the fictional world that force one to look closer at our own world.
All in all, I felt this was a very moving story about family trauma and how to flip a switch and move on. Despite the often confusing writing, this book is a pleasure, and I would recommend it to anyone looking to feel strange and strong emotions, as well as some fun confusion!

I strongly recommend this book. It is very interesting, there are so many topics that can be evaluated regarding the main character Nora Seed and how she appreciated her life, people, friends, lover, opportunities (mainly opportunities) and how the "Boat of Opportunity" can pass again in this in between place called " The Midnight Library". Nora represents in many aspects, when a person reaches the lowest point of her / his life, with lack of hope, depression maybe and when as a person you fell unwanted or unappreciated, however there are always opportunities to correct your path. She had so many versions or opportunities to choose a life that can suit her completely, however those versions did not give her that sense of "ownership" and many were "good " lives, (almost ideal), she felt in that way (i.e. Marriage with Ash and a completely family).

The narrative is very light.- The introduction of topics like Quantum Physics, traveling between this kind of "dimensions" provide certain explanation to the situation that she is experiencing. I think that the main message will be that: We as human beings need to pay attention to the small things that are around us and that forms our lives which are very important. Don`t waste your life, try to life as possible, take opportunities and enjoyed but the only way to enjoy is by living it fully and learning and deciding and making yourself ready to take control of your life and decide to live it as "full" as you can.

Legend by Marie Lu is a dystopian novel with its own flair. Some dystopians can feel the same, but Legend is unlike any other. We follow June and Day who couldn’t be more polar opposites. June will someday become the best general the Republic has seen and Day is the Republics most wanted criminal. Yet, they cross paths and June’s ultimate goal is to take down Day. Like a classic dystopian, this novel will take you through twists and turns and you will never expect how it ends. I loved this book because of the relationship June and Day have. I highly recommend this book to anybody who love dystopian novels.

Aurora Rising is a gripping and exciting action/science-fiction/fantasy novel by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. Starring a misfit group of cadets on a quest to help a stowaway from a different time, Aurora Rising provides action, lovable characters, and an exciting mystery element unraveling throughout.
Being the first book in a trilogy, some elements of the series aren't fleshed out to their fullest, but this is fixed in both of the next entries in the series. Some characters; especially the "Brain" of the crew, Zila; are left without much of a personality beyond one or two basic traits. The use of certain futuristic slang can be a detractor for some readers as well.
These drawbacks are more than made up for the wealth of strong relationships and a driving plot throughout. The main characters all have strong motivations and complement each others strengths and weaknesses. The plot moves forward through setpieces both large and small, providing each new world a chance to shine in its own way.
Overall, Aurora Rising is a must-read for young adult fans of science-fiction and/or fantasy and a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

"Red Queen" is set in a world where people are divided based on their blood color, with "reds" being on the lowest part of the social hierarchy and being kept in line and ruled by the "silvers". The silvers have powers, but the reds are normal and have no powers. The book follows Mare Barrow, a red, who gets a servant job at the summer royal castle. While working it is found out that she has powers. The precautions are taken by silvers to prevent unrest in the community, take Mare on a journey, forcing her to leave her world behind for another.
"Red Queen" is beautifully written, from the world-building, to the characters, you get to see all the parts of the arguments and the world. The renowned twist that brought me to this book was amazingly crafted and so hard to see when you get immersed in the story. When the twist happened it surprised me and made me rethink so much that had happened in the book. This book shows moral problems so well, you understand why the books problem is so hard to solve. There are many action scenes/ intricate fighting scenes that you may tune out but it is still a great read because of the writing style. You learn to care for Mare and all her friends as they try to make changes. Your heart will go out to Mare and her mission, so beware, but it is so worth it. This book is so in-depth and makes you care so much about what happens. It would be an amazing addition to any fantasy lovers library and a great read.

Petra Peña wants to be a cuentista, a storyteller, like her abuelita. But Petra’s world is about to change forever. Earth is gone-destroyed by an asteroid. Petra and several hundred humans are voyaging hundreds of years into the future in the hope of saving humanity on a different planet. Before arriving on the new planet Petra and the others will remain in a sleep stasis, downloading information that will help them start over a new planet.

When Petra wakes up, hundreds of years later, she soon discovers the original plan has drastically changed. There is a new group in charge of their spacecraft with a different agenda for those left on board. What does the future hold for Petra and the others? Will she be reunited with her family, and preserve the art of storytelling for future generations?

This is an enjoyable book for ages 12+ who are interested in sci-fi but who might be intimidated to pick up a traditional title from the genre. It’s layered with a beautiful message of family, perseverance, and the lifesaving power of storytelling.

Something I feel is underappreciated in book series is when authors don't try to cram in as much material and side stories as possible to pad each of the books to be longer than they should be. Keeping the core books of a series concise helps drive the main plot forward without requiring larger and larger volumes to tie up all the loose ends introduced along the way. The Lunar Chronicles excels in this. Look no further than the "prequel," Fairest, and the collection of short stories and epilogue that is Stars Above for proof of this restraint.

I can appreciate that worldbuilding will often create so much content that it doesn't always make sense to include it in the actual storytelling. Still, some origin stories might seem interesting, only to find out that most of these moments of exposition happened along the way as the character's motives are revealed to the reader. Ergo, some stories don't need to be told. Stars Above has some stories like this, but it also contains a few worth reading, the best of which is the pseudo-epilogue to the Lunar Chronicles.

With so many different fairy tales to pull from into the Lunar Chronicles, I'm glad that Marissa Meyer had some restraint in recognizing when some of them wouldn't work with the main narrative of Cinder's rise to claim her rightful throne. The "Little Mermaid" story in this collection works on its own, but I would find myself hard-pressed to see how it would add anything to the overarching plot of the Lunar Chronicles without reworking the whole thing. Even so, it's a good story that any fan of this series will likely enjoy.

Some necessary (and not so necessary) short stories that round out the Lunar Chronicles, I give Stars Above 3.5 stars out of 5.

If there's one thing I appreciate with a series, it's when all the loose ends are tied up by the end. In the fourth and final installment in the Lunar Chronicles series, Marissa Meyer manages to wrap up all the disparate parts of the story that had been running in parallel for three books. Not only does this series have a satisfying ending, but there's even enough time to flesh out the titular character, Winter, so that her presence makes sense in the context of the whole series. Still, even if the backstory for Levanna in Fairest isn't directly needed to understand more of Winter's character in this book, it certainly helped that I had already read it going into this final chapter of the series.

While my standard qualms with the "teenage girl" style of characterizations remain for this book (as it has for the entire series), the dialogue feels very natural (as it has for the entire series). Ultimately, though, it feels like the ending takes forever to arrive, especially since the audience has already known for some time that Cinder is the true heir—a fact that only became apparent to her in the last few books. Plus, there's the almost constant sexual tension that runs through these books as well. I've never wanted to scream at fictional characters, "Kiss already!" so much in my life.

I will say that the sci-fi fairy tale reimagining Meyer does in the Lunar Chronicles is unique in its interpretation while also remaining relatively close to the source material's references. And while there were moments where the characters might have been annoying, all of their motivations were clear and drove them to make decisions that felt logical based on their background. Overall, I think this has become one of my favorite series lately, and I'm now looking forward to reading more of what Marissa Meyer has to offer.

A satisfying ending to the best series of sci-fi fairy tale reimaginings, I give Winter 4.0 stars out of 5.