Student and staff book reviews
Fiction:
Wild and Crooked by Leah Thomas
This was a wild ride indeed! Leah Thomas, an award winning author of several young adult novels, has written a roller coaster story in her newest book Wild and Crooked. Two teenagers, Kayln (or is it Rose??) and Gus meet on the first day of high school in the small town of Samsboro, Kentucky. If you know anything about small towns, you will already know that there is going to be drama that will spill out of the school and into the community. It seems there is a connection between Kayln and Gus that no one realizes for much of the story. The characters that Ms. Thomas brings to life as you head toward the climax of the story are as varied as you would see on any high school campus and along with that variety comes conflict, feelings about disabilities (or is it abilities?), love, questions of gender identity, fights, and trips to the mall. The homecoming parade fractures the town even more but may just be the catalyst to bring the town back together.
Although it took me a few chapters to get into the story, I believe Wild and Crooked is a story well worth reading. Check it out from the CHS media center when we get back to school - you will not be sorry!
Ms. O’Brien, Media Coordinator
The Thousandth Floor Trilogy by Katharine McGee
The perfect combination of Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars, The Thousandth Floor series tackles real-life teen problems set in NYC in 2118. You get all the fun of a typical high-school drama, with the added twists of the setting: everyone basically lives in the giant tower that was built over Central Park (which now exists inside the building!). This tower has everything from housing, to malls, to streets, to automatic cars, to spas, which is why most people never leave the tower. But with everyone in one place, there's sure to be some serious problems! In the tower, the people who live at the top are the rich elite, including Avery at the very top, a genetically produce, physically perfect human who has only one flaw: she is secretly in love with her adopted brother. Another elite, Leda, has just returned from vacation and is all smiles to her friends, when in reality she just came home after some intensive care at the rehab center. The people at the bottom struggle to survive the harsh realities of down-tower living, such as Rylin who has to take care of her sister since her mother’s death and take on the glorious occupation of house cleaning for after-parties of the elite. Another bottom-floor liver Watt, a genius with dreams of attending MIT, illegally invents a quantum computer, then has it surgically implanted in his head to keep people from finding it. As characters from different floors intermingle, relationships form and break, and secrets never meant to surface get divulged, it's only a matter of time before someone will topple over.
As a warning, the book does tackle some difficult problems such as substance abuse, mental health problems, class/economic differences, death, relationships, and lying to authority figures. Although these topics are present, along with many affluent characters who whine over the plight of 1st world problems, there are also more realistic characters who comment on the upper class’s frivolity while tackling difficult concepts experienced by many teens. The characters are relatable, and having each chapter flip between each of the many characters makes putting up with some of the whining and ridiculous love-interest/triangles more bearable (if that’s not quite your taste). It can get a little difficult to keep characters straight, but there is a chart in the back of the book that shows the tower, where people live in the tower, and the relationships between the characters. Two of three books in the series start at the "end" of the book, and use the story to tell a flashback of the events leading up to the prologue. This is no way "spoils" the story, but rather creates many opportunities for plot twists, and keeps you on the edge of you seat as you try to figure out how the story will fall into place. If you’re looking for a teen soap-opera full of high-tech luxury with a futuristic flavor, this riveting trilogy for you.
Ms. Bujica, English Teacher
Capturing the Devil by Kerri Maniscalco
This is the fourth and final book of the series Stalking Jack the Ripper, which was an unfortunate place for me to start. My first recommendation is to start with book 1 since this book referenced all three previous stories frequently enough to make it confusing.
This story revolves around 17-year old Audrey Rose, a high-society girl in London, and her partner, Thomas, who are forensics investigators working with her uncle, who is the doctor doing autopsies of murders. In Stalking Jack the Ripper, the murderer was found, but it seems his work is continuing through another serial killer of young women. This hunt takes them from London to Chicago during the World's Fair and ends with her face-to-face battle with H.H. Holmes, the pharmacist/doctor responsible for the disappearance and murder of countless young women.
I read this book hoping for a murder/mystery, but even though it’s evident that the author spent much time researching both Jack the Ripper and H.H. Holmes, two horrific serial killers, what I got was more romance than mystery/suspense. Audrey Rose and Thomas’ relationship, their plan to marry, the wedding thwarted by a devious plan by his father to marry Thomas to a woman of his high status, and their continued love relationship is heavily weighted in this book. If you love romance, this book is for you. If you really want mystery/suspense, then start with Stalking Jack the Ripper!
Mrs. Cobb, Media Assistant
Where the World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean
Geraldine McCaughrean tells a soulful but harrowing tale of survival based on the real lives of early 1700 residents of St. Kilda, Scotland. Click here for information about the real St. Kilda.
What begins as an annual drop off on the closest sea stac (a towering rock formation) off the coast of St. Kilda, turns into a tale of struggle and survival like you and I will never experience. A group of men and boys are ferried to Warrior Stac where they will spend up to three weeks harvesting birds and eggs to help feed the St. Kilda residents for the next year. One big problem….no one returns to pick them up. Their imaginations run wild and Quill, with the well earned title King Gannet, begins to tell tales in hopes of explaining to some of the younger boys why they have not been rescued. As summer turns to fall and then to a very cold winter, survival is on everyone’s mind. Like any harrowing situation, some handle it better than others. When the group is finally rescued and returns to St. Kilda, what awaits them is beyond comprehension.
Although CHS has this book listed as realistic fiction, it is definitely a read for those of you who love historical fiction as I do! Keep in mind that it is set in the 1700s and written by a British author. This is the US version of the book, but some of the language and customs will feel very strange. Stick with it though. This book is well worth the time you will give to reading it!!
Ms. O’Brien, Media Coordinator
The Toll by Neal Shusterman The Toll is the final installment of Neal Shusterman’s Arc of a Scythe series and at 623 pages is quite a commitment of time. The premise of these books is based on a future, dystopian world, where people no longer die of natural deaths due to nanites that repair the body. Society is basically being controlled by a form of artificial intelligence called the Thunderhead. Scythes are people who have been chosen to glean people in order to keep the population under control, and the main characters of this series are Citra and Rowan, who became scythes in the first book. In the climax and ending of the second book, Citra and Rowan have perished in the bottom of the sea, as well as the Scythe city of Endura. Goddard, an evil scythe who is attempting to control the entire world, is winning and is breaking all scythe rules by gleaning people groups he deems unworthy. Since anything else said about the story would give away too much about characters left to fight Goddard, I will focus on my take on this book.
I found this installment to be cumbersome and complicated, with too many characters introduced with little influence on the storyline. Halfway through the book I was ready to just skip to the end and be done with it. I think Mr. Shusterman is a masterful writer, introducing depth to his characters that causes me to really like the protagonists and pull for them, as well as dislike the antagonists equally. However, Goddard was not really believable in the power he amassed and why so many areas of the world united with him, other than to escape pain and gleaning. And a relationship we came to love in the first two books is hardly touched on in The Toll. The series is wrapped up in a way that surprised me, but I believe he should have left off about 100-200 pages and the book wouldn’t have suffered at all. The Toll was my least favorite of the three books but I am still glad to have read it, simply to wrap up the story with a bow on top.
Mrs. Cobb, Media Assistant
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah is a beautifully-written story that mostly takes place in a remote corner of Alaska in 1974. 13-year old Leni is the only daughter of Ernt, a former POW in the Vietnam War, and Cora, the woman who loves him fiercely despite his volatile personality. When he loses yet another job, he impulsively moves them to Alaska to live on a plot of land he inherited from a fellow POW who died. They arrive totally unprepared to a cabin with no running water, no electricity, and no plumbing but find a strong community of people who come alongside them and help prepare them for the winter ahead. Life seems good until winter arrives and the struggle for survival from the unforgiving environment outside, as well as the darkness that descends upon them for 18 hours a day, becomes real. It is no longer just a survival through Alaska’s winter, however; it becomes survival from within, as the father rages and becomes more unstable and his abuse of the mother is no longer something they can hide from Leni. The story illuminates life in Alaska, both of the beauty of the environment and of the strength of the people, and we fall in love with it, while at the same time wonder how anyone would want to live that kind of life. We better understand marital abuse and why Cora won’t leave Ernt; she loves him almost irrationally and fears what he’ll do if she leaves him. We also see the story through the eyes of a 13-year old girl as she grows and matures and sees her father for who he is, eventually hating him. There are deep friendships formed between Leni and the only other 13-year old student in the tiny school, Matthew, and others in the community who see Cora’s abuse but feel helpless to intervene. And the more adversities they face, the stronger Leni and Cora become, doing things they never could have imagined possible. We root for them while not being able to see how this story can end well. But even through the tears, this has been one of my favorite books in a long time. I highly recommend this book!
Mrs. Cobb, Media Assistant
Threads and Flames by Esther Friesner
Threads and Flames is a book easily overlooked as the cover is rather bland and the title not so exciting. However, if you have any interest in the history of the labor movement in the United States or any knowledge of the horrors of the very real Triangle Shirtwaist fire on March 25,1911 or just like spunky characters, you should read this book.
In 1910, travel was time consuming and expensive, and for Raisa (Raisaleh), the desire to get to America (specifically the United States) and be with her sister is almost overshadowed by her love for her Polish shtetl community and the people who cared for her during her bout with typhus. But her desire to be with her sister Henda and move to America finally becomes a reality. Harrowing moments lie ahead, told with brilliant detail by Ms. Friesner. You can feel, smell and taste the agony of the ship voyage, the stress and tension of her experience at Ellis Island, the fear and loneliness once she is officially in the United States, and then, she has to find a place to live and a job. Oh, and look for Henda knowing only that she last lived in New York City. Wow! That is a lot for a girl who turned 14 years old while on that trans-Atlantic voyage.
Much of the book tells the story of Raisa as she begins to adjust to life in America and paints an interesting picture of the 1910’s in New York City. Since it is fairly obvious by just reading the inside front cover, Raisa does get a job at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory and is at work the day of the fire. The terrifying images evoked during this passage will definitely leave an impact on you. Although Threads and Flames would not appeal to everyone and the beginning was a bit dry, overall this is a well written story and a piece of history all Americans should be aware of as we work to improve the lives of factory workers even in the 21st century.
Ms. O’Brien, Media Coordinator
Frankly in Love by David Yoon
Wow! I did not expect to like this book so much and to learn a great deal about Korean culture at the same time. It seems Frank’s parents, having immigrated to the United States as young newlyweds, are stuck, culturally, in the time period they left Korea. For Frank and his friends, this means sticking with Korean traditions even though he speaks little Korean, was born and raised in Southern California, and is bound for an Ivy League college. The biggest hurdle for Frank and his friends is the expectation that they will only date and marry a “nice Korean girl or boy”. Frank’s sister has already blown that with his parents so they are doubly hard on Frank and he knows it!
There is humor, disagreement, happiness, sadness, celebration and violence all wrapped up in this one book. You will laugh, possibly cry, feel compassion and irritation all at the same time. I highly recommend this book for anyone who feels their parents are on their case all the time. Maybe, just maybe, you will get a little insight into another family’s dynamics. If not, you will have spent an enjoyable time living through someone else’s life because this book is ultimately delightful.
Mr. Yoon is the husband of Nicola Yoon, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Everything, Everything and was the illustrator of that book. This is his first novel and I hope he writes more!
Ms. O’Brien, Media Coordinator
Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick
Not being much of a horror reader, I decided to try this book by Marcus Sedgwick as I really like his book White Crow. Genrefying books is a challenge many times and this is one of those times. This book is not scary horror like Stephen King, but intense and mystical and a bit magical both in the future and in the past.
In the year 2073, Eric Seven, a journalist hoping to spend time with some of the residents of Blessed Island, arrives to find things are not exactly as they appear. There’s a neat app based on the six degrees of separation which indicates he is not connected through those six degrees of separation to anyone on the plane. That’s pretty unlikely. And the weirdness continues from there. Eric meets a woman named Merle and their connection weaves through the entire story. There are seven sections based on different moons - The Flower Moon, The Hay Moon, The Grain Moon, etc with the last chapter being The Blood Moon. Another interesting followup to this book is the names of the full moons still used today. I did not fully understand the story until the very end of the book which makes Marcus Sedgwick a brilliant writer! Try it and let me know what you think.
Ms. O’Brien, Media Coordinator
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
Nineteen Minutes is a book I’ve put off reading for years, since working in a high school and school shootings is something a little too close to home. As expected, it was a hard book to read and touched me personally. In nineteen minutes, Peter calmly walked through his high school and shot numerous students and a teacher, even sitting down in the cafeteria to eat a bowl of cereal in the middle of the shooting spree. While this act is reprehensible and immediately leads the reader to want him put away for life, there is more to this story and the author goes back to Peter’s childhood and illuminates the multitude of hurts he suffered, even in his own family as the younger brother to Joey, perfect in every way in the eyes of his parents, yet cruel to his younger brother. From the first day of kindergarten when Peter got on the school bus and was immediately bullied, to his last week in high school, when he was publicly humiliated in the cafeteria, Peter’s life is a painful and isolated one. His only friend was Josie, the judge’s daughter who stuck up for him and helped him survive, until the judge refused to let Josie be friends with Peter after a mishap with a gun in middle school. Although we don’t want Peter to be set free after the trial and we think we know exactly how this story will end, the author manages to surprise us with a twist.
The reason I believe this is an important book to read is because of the issue of bullying. The students who made Peter’s life a living hell were cruel beyond belief. But they exist in every school. My brother was 6 when he had a life-changing brain injury while we were jumping between beds and he lost control and hit his head on the sharp corner of a dresser. He survived, but he became a child who was basically a baby starting over to learn everything. He looked different due to paralysis on the left side of his body, leading to a lazy eye, a limp, and a face that drooped. His IQ went from high to borderline low. We spent a few years in Switzerland and I remember one day as we got off the public transportation bus to walk to our apartment we were followed by some Swiss boys who threw rocks at us, hitting my brother in the head. I was maybe 8 years old, he was 9 ½, and I ran ahead to get my mom, terrified at the blood running down his face. When we moved to the States, I occasionally saw my brother being bullied as I walked to class and although I stepped in and told them to leave him alone on occasion, like Jodie I didn’t always have the courage to stand up to much older boys, knowing it wouldn’t really help but would likely hurt him more. Reading this book brings back a flood of memories, not only of my brother, but of Todd, a boy in our neighborhood who was harassed and bullied on our school bus, sometimes chased home. I was kind to him and stood up for him and he asked me to prom our senior year. I said no - I had no intention of going to prom and was dating my future husband at the time. Later on as a young adult, he committed suicide. In my time at Cary High, I unfortunately may have witnessed a bullying incident and walked right by. It was 7:45 am, dark and cold, and as I passed a student on the bench, I heard another say, “Hey, that’s my bench. Get off!” and the student quietly got off and dejectedly walked away. I was focused on getting in the building and punching the clock and the incident didn’t register until I was in the building and realized what had just happened. It was too late by then. But what, exactly, would I have done? Talking to the student would not have changed his bullying; would I have walked him down to the principal’s office or student services to talk to a counselor? It is not something I’d prepared myself for but I do regret that I was too slow to act. Reading Nineteen Minutes should make us all more vigilant about watching for signs of bullying and act on it with a plan on what we should do. I have stepped into a situation a couple of times, once when I witnessed a group of students who were supposed to be working together on a project leave one student out, a student who I knew to be “different”. By reminding the students that their teacher sent them down to do this as a group and three of them needed to leave the (popular) student who was doing the demonstration of his game and go to this (different) student’s table to listen to his demonstration, three students did do the right thing. However, I will always remember the hurt and dejection on that student’s face; the damage was already done. All of us, whether adults or students, should be aware of situations where someone seems to be bullied and do something to stop that cycle. And that is the most important reminder I got from reading Nineteen Minutes.
Mrs. Cobb, Media Assistant
Scars Like Wings by Erin Stewart
I did a graduate assistantship in Recreation Therapy at the Burn Center at UNC hospitals many years ago and can tell you that Ms. Stewart hit the nail on the head when writing about what goes on during and after burn treatment and it is mostly a painful, disfiguring, agonizing journey. Ava Lee lost everything in the fire. Everything she thought was the most important in the world - her mom, her dad, and her cousin Sara AND her own face, that she feels is the girl she use to be. Pretty, talented, friends to many, all the things that feel so important in high school. After a year has gone by, her aunt and uncle, the parents of Sara and the wonderful people who have cared for her during her recovery, decide it is time for Ava to face the world - the school world! Ava agrees to give it an honest try (even while plotting that at the end of two weeks she would NEVER return to school) and shows up for school the first day. At that point, her life, well...doesn't exactly turn upside down, but in every possible direction.
I was afraid this book would have a fairy tale ending. You know, burned girl gets the guy, the lead role, and becomes "normal" again. But it is a rollercoaster ride to get Ava to the end of this part of her story and if you like a good tale about the underdog, this is one I highly recommend!
Ms. O'Brien, Media Coordinator