A new student review of Seasons of Raina by Milissa Nelson

underwood_bcl posted a new student review of Seasons of Raina by Milissa Nelson. See the full review.

If there were a book that never ended this would be the book  I would choose.  I really liked Raina and her relationship to her cousins.  Some of them were younger and some of the cousins were older. Since I am the oldest of six children, I liked that Raina was in the middle and could relate to the older and younger cousins.  When Raina discovers she is good at track I was very excited for her and I was eager to see if she would win each of her races. The author did a great job of making me want to see what happened with Raina.  

A new student review of Fat Angie

hg2008 posted a new student review of Fat Angie . See the full review.

When I read the back of this book I was so excited; this book sounded so different and so fresh, and I thought it would be a book I loved. However, I was extremely dissapointed. My frist disappointment was the character of Angie. She even called herself Fat Angie and was so sad throughout the whole book that I got tired of her self-pity.

One thing that made her sad was that she was bullied by the kids at school. Yes, I know bullying happens and people can be very mean to others, but the things that they did to her I kind of didn't buy. The things they did to her reminded me of the bullying seen in the book, Carrie and that made this book seem not so fresh or creative anymore. At the end of the book, we find out why the head mean girl bullies Angie, and the reason just doesn't make sense, and there could have been a much better ending with that story.

I also really didn't like the other characters. They all got annoying as the book progressed. I was so disappointed with K.C.. I thought I would love her as her character. She has many of the same interest as me, but the author takes this fun creative character and makes her depressing and sad.

Another thing that disappointed me about this boook was that it was supposed to be an Anti Romance, but it turned into a romance.

Also the ending was kind of just left open. There really was no ending, and I think several of the situations could of been resolved in better ways.

Overall, I sadly cannot reccomend this book. It's very depressing and disappointing.

A new student review of The Summer of Shambles (Ondine Book #1) by Ebony McKenna

MIZZIQ posted a new student review of The Summer of Shambles (Ondine Book #1) by Ebony McKenna. See the full review.

The main reasons I didn’t choose to finish the book was how the author chose to draw me into the story, and the tone of the part of the book I read. To me personally, the plot itself was not enough to push the story forward. I didn’t feel connected to the characters or what they were doing. A book can have a fine plot, and be executed poorly, and that’s what I believe happened here. It was a mix of humor with serious characters that didn’t make me laugh. The real cool thing that I was intrigued by was the commentary-type format that the book was in; numbers by certain comments to describe the country, a magical background, etc. This was a very neat aspect, especially in the introduction. However, as much I liked it though, I believe this also lent itself to the strange humor of the book. It wasn’t so much as the story involving funny characters (which I probably would have enjoyed more) , but the author seemed to be making light of the story itself, which in turn made me consider the characters as boring or flat. So the overall tone of the book may very well be perfectly suited to someone else’s humor, which I definitely can appreciate. If you’ve read books like this before then you will most likely enjoy the adorable characters (especially the ferret) and magical world. I, however, could not enjoy the book as much because the tone wasn’t suited for me. The introduction was something that I needed to draw me in as well, which did not happen. I didn’t feel as though the characters were either introduced properly, or were possibly just not interesting enough, for me to care very much about them. Most of these things though, I realize, are very subjective, and I really appreciated the creativity that went into this book, the commentary, and the fun world that was drawn up. I wish I could have enjoyed it more.

A new student review of The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa

verybookly posted a new student review of The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa. See the full review.

The third and final installment to the Blood of Edem trilogy certainly didn't disappoint. The story starts with Allie Sekemoto bent on revenge for the murder of her love and that was that aspect I loved to see play out the most. A number of characters avoid revenge and take the higher ground but Allie wouldn't. She wanted to avenge which I think a number of any people would do in her shoes.

Although the story begins with revenge, it's about more than that. Sarren, the vampire who murdered who Allie's love, is determined to release a virus that will destroy all living things. While that lends itself to be a line of tension in the novel, I feel that The Forever Song certainly went beyond expectations with conflict. For me, the first two books felt more action-packed and while the third book contained great action scenes, it felt like the conflicts in this story stemmed more from emotional turmoil and emotional manipulation. 

The Forever Song maintained its dark mood that has been evident from the first novel. Allie Sekemoto's voice is clear and strong, as it has been from the beginning, and immediately pulled me back into the story after having been away from the second book for awhile. It was also great to see the development of Allie and Jackal's relationship; a relationship I think the story couldn't function without.

The Forever Song was a great ending to an already wonderful trilogy.

A new student review of Close by Erika Raskin

zkraus posted a new student review of Close by Erika Raskin. See the full review.

Close by Erika Raskin was a very well written book. I really enjoyed it. I breezed through it! The characters were so complex, and the way they were written made what was going through their head so easy to understand. The humor intertwined throughout this book was beautifully executed, and realistic. It was kind of a tear-jerker! This book isn't just for adolescents, adults would enjoy it just as much. It gives you an insightful look on the inside of a divorced family- and shows you the similarities between every family that you may think no one may ever understand. I can't wait to read more by this author!

 

A new student review of Mirror of Stone by Corie Weaver

mrthebeast posted a new student review of Mirror of Stone by Corie Weaver. See the full review.

Starting with what I like in the book, the most apparent thing that you could see from page one was the description, even from the beginning I was able to completely visualize the setting of the book. The characters were also very realistic, they had their flaws, and the line between good and bad, like in real life, was not perfectly clear (which is definitely a good thing). One last thing that I found amazing was the suspense at the end of every chapter or before the setting changed.

On the flip side I did feel the author’s descriptive language started to die out as the story progressed, which did detract a little from the quality of the book at the end.  I also did not like how easily some of the characters were willing to change their views throughout the book.

In the end, this was a great story and the flaws that I pointed out did not take away that much from the book as a whole. I would easily give this book 5/5 stars, and would recommend this book to kids ages 13 and up, of both genders. While there was not much bad language used throughout the book, the plot was intricate and I do feel that some younger readers would not comprehend and enjoy the book fully.

A new student review of Grace and Dignity by Laura Grody

sisto8 posted a new student review of Grace and Dignity by Laura Grody. See the full review.

I love this book! The characters were interesting; Princess Grace is my favorite. The characters were humorous, but they stayed in the character block of what characters are supposed to be. They were sad and gloomy when they needed to be, but they cheered up about everything that was good…except Prince Denial. The adventure was so perfectly amazing to read. I read the whole book like ten times. I really enjoyed the ending. When I finished the book, the ending made the entire book worth reading again. I think every story should have a strong ending for the reader to look forward to like this one. I recommend this book for everyone 12+. 

A new student review of The Templeton Twins Have An Idea by Ellis Weiner

admin posted a new student review of The Templeton Twins Have An Idea by Ellis Weiner. See the full review.

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A new student review of Noggin

chinchilla97 posted a new student review of Noggin . See the full review.

Noggin by John Corey Whaley is the most bizzare book I have ever read, and I loved it. I had never heard of a kid getting his cut off and reattached to another body, and honestly, Whaley did an amazing job of making that crazy idea into a realistic story. The characters are lovable, maybe a bit strange in the best way, and very relatable; they know what true friendship means. Written in the first person, you really live the whole experience with Travis. For example, when Travis would do something stupid and embarrassing, I would have to close the book and breathe for a second because I could feel his embarrassment. It made me laugh and cry in a good way, and left me wanting more. The writing style was hilarious and thought-provoking at the same time, though the amount of swearing was distracting and unnecessary to the story. Overall, I thought it a very unique and fun book, and would recommend it to others.

A new student review of Tour of the Merrimack

farmerboy posted a new student review of Tour of the Merrimack . See the full review.

 

After reading the description on the back, I was certain that I would like this book.  As I began to read, I wanted to like this book.  As I continued reading, I worked at liking this book.  But in the end, I didn’t like this book.  What kept me from liking it?  

 

  Writing-style

 

It definitely wasn’t the unusual writing-style.  Though I thought it needed to be refined a bit, I could appreciate its uniqueness, and could easily see others enjoying it as is.  The heavy use of implied subjects constituted an interesting and engaging technique.  Although short sentences were necessary for this, they were overused elsewhere, which made for an undue choppiness that detracted from the skillful use of implied subjects.

 

Plot-line

 

It wasn’t even the plot-line.  That was okay, except that it was like a bulldozer, stuck in quicksand, moving in first gear.  It was dramatic, potentially gripping and exciting, but so painfully, agonizingly S L O W . . .  and D R A W N    O U T . . .

 

Character Development

 

Some of it was the character development, or the lack thereof.  To that end there were descriptive paragraphs when each character was introduced, along with occasional factual passages sprinkled throughout the book to fill in the blanks.  Without these I would have been completely lost.  

 

Dialogue

 

Some of it was the dialogue.  That was almost funny when the author had the otherwise two-dimensional characters crack some “witty” yet cliché-ish and unreasonably terse banter.  Unfortunately, banter seemed to be the only purpose of dialogue in this book, since it contributed nothing towards developing the characters.  In addition, the lines struck me as being of the one-size-fits-all variety; it seemed as though they were factory-made and applied to each character at random.  Instead of using dialogue to help move the plot along, the author employed...

 

DRAMATIC ACTION SCENES!!!!!!!!!!

 

These appeared ad nauseum, and were the only reason the story went anywhere.  They kept my attention for about the first chapter, after which they became a melodramatic distraction from an otherwise tedious plot.  I would have been able to enjoy them if they had been used a little more sparingly and less like duct tape.  As it was, it seemed as though any time the author hit a snag in the plot, out would pop a “DRAMATIC ACTION SCENE!!!!!” to distract you from it.

 

Conclusion

 

In conclusion, I found the book to be choppy and draggy overall with certain points over-sensationalized.  The characters were flat and undeveloped to the point of being almost indistinguishable from one another.  Dialogue was poorly used.  I did, however, find the writing-style interesting.