Author Archives: Meagan R.

Book Review: Nightshade, by Andrea Cremer

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nightshade_coverThis book is actually has a prequel series and the first book’s title is Rift. After I read Rift, I fell in love with this world. Rift took place in 1401 so there are castles and knights. Within the kingdom there are special types of knights that protect from outside invaders, such as monsters from a different dimension. Later, after the war that happened in the prequel series, the actual book starts.

A girl named Calla isn’t a ordinary human, she’s a Guardian. Guardians are like werewolves that protect the kingdom from seekers. Calla has had her whole life planned out for her because she’s the alpha of her pack; she would marry the other alpha from the pack Bane, named Renier, also known as Ren– and then their packs would merge together after the Union. The Union was the day Calla and Ren would become married. Calla goes to a school called the Mountain School, which is ordinary.

One day she and her packmate and best friend, Bryn, go out to watch the grounds, like a normal Sunday, but she and her friend see a boy being attacked by a bear, so she saves him, which is against the Guardian law. After that scene she thinks that it’s the last time she’ll ever see him, but when she goes to school she finds out that the boy, Shay, starts to go to her school too.

Day after day she starts straying from her destiny, and she doesn’t know who to trust. Does she trust Shay enough to figure out the truth within the lies she’s been fed all her life, or does she go with Ren and continues to be part of the world she grew up in?

-Meagan R., 8th grade

Book Review: Willow, by Julia Hoban

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willow_coverThe book Willow by Julia Hoban is a very touching story. Personally I think you would have to be mature enough to read this book– it’s definitely not for all ages. The background of the story is that this girl Willow was out with her parents and her parents had a drink or two and they couldn’t drive, so they have Willow drive. Willow drives down this road in the rain and spins off the road and crashes into a tree, which kills both of her parents but she is still alive and has to live with her older brother and his wife or girlfriend and their daughter.

This girl Willow has to go to a new school and she cuts herself to release her pain. Her brother doesn’t know that, but she does because she can’t stand her stress and pain, so she cuts herself with a blade or anything she can find. One day she bumps into this guy and she tries to get away from him, but he finds her stash of blades in her backpack and she tries to stop him from telling her brother, but he has this sense where he needs to help her stop and can she trust him and let go of her blades? Or does she ignore his help and continue?

Personally I love this book; it gave me a new view of life and the pain people put themselves through to feel better, and it was really sad but a real eye-opener. I found out about this book because I was at the bookstore and I saw it on the shelf and I thought, “this seems interesting,” so I went to my public library and got it. I think it’s an amazing book, but I think 13-year-olds or older can read this, because you have to be really mature.

-Meagan R., 8th grade

Book Review: City of Bones, by Cassandra Clare

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city_of_bonesHave you seen “The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones?” Well, the movie is based on a saga of six books. These books and soon-to-be movies, are written by a famous author named Cassandra Clare. She has also another series called The Infernal Devices. They both are based in a world within our own. There are half human, half angel people named Shadow hunters, there are also Warlocks which are magical beings like wizards. They also have demons, vampires, werewolves, and a whole bunch of other creatures.

City Of Bones is about a young girl, Clarissa Fray, who collides into this other world. Clarissa, otherwise known as Clary, meets up with her friend Simon to go to a club named The Pandemonium Club, in New York, and she witnesses something no ordinary human would see. She saw three people- or she thinks are people- kill a boy or rather, a demon with strange weapons. She thought she was having a mental breakdown, because nobody else can see them. When she sees one of the three people, she questions why she can see him and nobody else can. He tells her that he is a shadow hunter: half human, half angel. He was made to get rid of the demons that are coming into  Earth. Clary goes home and her mother has disappeared and the house is destroyed. Clary has to team up with a group of shadow hunters to find and get her mother back at all costs.

This series is my personal favorite series. The characters are perfectly thought out, the scenes are amazing. This book is also great for guys, because it has a lot of action and it’s not about the love. My mother told me to read the books because she said I would like them. So I read them and I totally loved it! I told my friends about the books and they love it. My friend said that “The one thing I loved about the books is that you never really know what going to happen next, so you get pulled into the book and you feel what the characters feel during the time. I loved it and I couldn’t put the book down.”

The books are truly amazing and well thought out. I highly recommend this series!

-Meagan R., 8th grade