Category Archives: Book Reviews

My Brother Sam is Dead by Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier

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About two months ago, I read a novel called My Brother Sam is Dead in my English class. At first, I thought I wouldn’t enjoy this book because I was being forced to read it. Instead, I actually ended up enjoying it a lot. I loved how it showed the side effects that war can have on society. Rather than showing the perspective of a soldier at war, it shows the perspective of a boy named Tim Meeker who has to face many challenges as a result of the war.

My Brother Sam is Dead takes place during the American Revolutionary War. The novel follows the story of a boy, Tim Meeker. While his brother, Sam Meeker, is fighting as a Patriot, Tim is forced to mature and change as he stays home and fights against the problems the war is bringing. As the reader continues throughout the story, they are able to witness the tragedies that Tim has to face causing him to go through very noticeable character development as the story goes on. They are also able to see how war brings other things rather than freedom and glory.

My Brother Sam is Dead is a well-crafted novel that has meaningful themes and topics. My favorite part of the book is its hidden message, which shows how war brings problems to everyone, not just those who are fighting in it. The novel does a great job at this by making the character development of Tim Meeker very apparent. The authors do this by making Tim go through life-altering events as a result of war, Causing him to mature quickly and to go through personal growth. Additionally, My Brother Sam is Dead has an entertaining story that will keep the reader engrossed in it throughout the story. The authors added very detailed scenes and emotions that have the reader feeling like they’re part of the story.

In conclusion, My Brother Sam is Dead is a novel that may seem boring, but is definitely the opposite. I recommend this book to anyone since it is not too long and has a story that is both engaging and thrilling. While this book may sound boring because it does not follow the perspective of a soldier at war, but instead a normal civilian, the authors do a great job at making it a very entertaining piece of literature. Using a civilian as the protagonist, the authors are able to tell the reader the side effects war has on the world. The authors are also able to explore topics such as personal growth with the use of Tim Meeker, a young boy who isn’t participating in the war, as the main character.

-Matthew R.

My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded from Libby.

Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde Book Review

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Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is a haunting and provocative exploration of vanity, morality, and the consequences of indulgence. First published in 1890, the novel follows the life of Dorian Gray, a handsome young man whose portrait, painted by artist Basil Hallward, begins to age and show signs of corruption while he himself remains youthful and unmarked by time. Dorian’s pursuit of hedonistic pleasure, influenced by the decadent philosophy of Lord Henry Wotton, leads him down a dangerous path of moral degradation, as he engages in a life of excess without facing the physical consequences. The painting, however, becomes a mirror to his soul, revealing the true cost of his actions.

Wilde’s writing is sharp, witty, and layered with profound insights into human nature. His exploration of aesthetics and the consequences of living a life dedicated solely to beauty and pleasure is both thought-provoking and chilling. The character of Dorian is a complex one—initially innocent and impressionable, he becomes increasingly corrupted by his own image and the pursuit of personal gratification. Lord Henry serves as a persuasive, almost sinister, mentor, embodying Wilde’s fascination with the idea of “art for art’s sake” and the rejection of conventional morality.

I personally enjoyed the Gothic themes of the novel and how the book evoked a sense of wonder for the world. I became fascinated by the mystical words of Lord Henry and I loved being able to understand why Dorian Gray took the Lord’s words so seriously. I enjoyed how thought-provoking Wilde’s writing was and loved the array of shocking moments within the story. Furthermore, I thought the development of Dorian Gray’s insanity was beautifully written and held strong symbolism for the world’s corrupt obsession with youth, beauty, and immortality.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys classical literature and a short, yet influential read. I think Wilde’s writing would attract readers who enjoy beautiful and mystical writing as well as exciting plot twists! I personally recommend this book for everyone as it is a wonderful novel to discuss peers and leaves you with thoughts about society!

Kaiya T.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is available to checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

White Bird

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White Bird: A Wonder Story (A Graphic Novel): Palacio, R. J.: 9780525645535: Amazon.com: Books

White Bird, is a book by R.J Palacio that I read about three years ago that tells the story of a young Jewish girl called Sara Blum who lives in a small village in France. Soon the Nazi Party, which was a movement under the direction of Adolf Hitler that believed that Jewish people had no right to live in Germany, defeated France and caused France to surrender which split the country in two regions, The Occupied Zone, and the Free Zone, Sara was placed in the Free Zone. However, even living in the Free Zone, the Nazis arrive and rounded-up many Jews to bring them to camp, Sara is brought to the woods for safety and meets a boy who invites her to live with his family and him in the meantime.

This book has really captivated me, and has overall become one of my favorite graphic novel books. The drawings, illustrations, and movements created in this book really add a whole level of contrast and emotions that really capture the reader’s attention. There is one part in this book, that really grabbed my attention due to the combination of the writing and the illustrations. It is when Sara Blum has a dream of herself flying up above the woods with a flock of birds, allowing herself to express and feel the sense of freedom while flying, this parts really brings a sense of emotions to the reader.

I would really recommend reading this book, as it is a great read and is really informative. The live-action movie is currently streaming and is available to watch on Youtube, Apple TV, and Amazon. I have not yet watched it yet, but is definitely on my watch list currently. White Bird is currently available to checkout from the Mission Viejo Library today!

Play Review: All My Sons by Arthur Miller

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My English teacher recently recommended that I listen to or read some modernist plays in preparation for the next unit, and needless to say, I didn’t regret it. I found the play very interesting and moving, and I found the play’s nuance and Miller’s masterful usage of tension especially significant to the play’s powerful nature.

Set during the post-WWII era, All My Sons follows the tale of the Keller family, consisting of Joe Keller, the head of the family, Chris Keller, Joe’s son, Kate Keller, Chris’s mother, as well as Larry Keller, who went missing during the war. While Joe and Chris both think that Larry is dead, and that Kate should move on, she refuses to, deciding instead to turn to superstition to keep her hope alive. Meanwhile, Joe also has a dark secret in his past. During the war, he and his partner were convicted of selling cracked cylinder heads to the air force, causing the deaths of 21 pilots. While Joe was acquitted of any charges, Steve, his partner, was jailed because of this.

After establishing the beginning conflicts in the play, Miller goes on to expand upon the fatal flaws of each individual characters, He establishes Joe’s unwillingness to talk about the crime, implying that he was the one who was actually guilty of it. Kate’s vehement denial of Larry’s death is made more apparent in late act 1 and act 2, as she sees random events, such as finding Larry’s baseball glove, as signs that he would come back. Finally, Chris reveals his idealism to Larry’s old fiance, Ann, whom he is dating.

I won’t spoil the rest of the play, but I think this is a play that is definitely worth listening to, watching, or just reading. Miller does a great job of highlighting the flaws and traits of every character in the book, and making that work with the overall story is no small feat. Miller’s worldbuilding and writing style in this novel characterizes a break from a typical Modernist style of writing; While using very relatable and realistic characters and a realistic premise, Miller ultimately alludes to the theme of pursuing the deeper meaning of life and the world. I would recommend this book for anybody who enjoys modernist works of literature, or just anybody who wants to watch a classic American play in general.

All My Sons by Arthur Miller is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library.

Dear Evan Hansen: Musical vs Book

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Dear Evan Hansen is a story about an anxious high schooler, Evan Hansen, who spins himself a tale and convinces everyone of a fake personality and story he made for himself. Throughout the plot, he gets deeper and deeper into this false role he created, and he can’t find a way out without exposing himself as a fraud. This story had a musical, book, and movie adaptation. I’ll be comparing the musical and book without major spoilers for either.

The story started out as a musical by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. It opened on Broadway in 2016 and was nominated for 9 different awards. The most distinguishable feature of this play is the life-like acting that Ben Platt utilizes in his role as Evan. He brings with him both depth and comedy, as well as a natural sort of awkwardness that comes with every high schooler. One of the key features of the musical is, of course, the music. Dear Evan Hansen shows a grand display of emotions and development through their musical numbers. A great example of this is in the song “Words Fail,” where Ben Platt shows the true devastation that Evan feels through his raw tone and intentional voice cracks. 

The book came a few years after in 2018, written by Val Emmich. The main story is the same, following the descent of Evan’s self-sabotage. But while the musical uses songs to convey emotion, the book uses internal monologue and description. Emmich goes more into depth about Evan’s mental state and personal thoughts. We get a glimpse into Evan’s anxiety disorder and how it affects his desicions and actions. Another major difference is how Connor Murphy– a large character in the musical– is more thoroughly fleshed out in the book. We get flashbacks from his perspective, as well as friends he had, his social life, and the mental struggles he faced. Personally, I liked this element of the book and how it elaborated on Connor, whereas in the musical we don’t get much about him as a person. Another main difference between the book and musical is the resolution. While the fundamental concept of the resolution is the same, the book cleans up a few more loose ends. Without revealing too much, Evan basically takes a bit more time to reconciles with people he affected.

No matter whether you watch the musical or read the book, both tell Evan Hansen’s story beautifully. Especially for teens struggling with anxiety or depression, Dear Evan Hansen is a message of honesty, belonging, and individuality. 

Dear Evan Hansen by Val Emmich is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free from Libby.

Redwall by Brian Jaqués

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Redwall by Brian Jaqués is about a county of animals that live together in harmony. But when Cluny the Scourge, an evil rat only heard of in legends, comes to take over Redwall, the city of the mice, a brave young warrior steps up to save the day.

Ever since the passing of the great mouse warrior Martin, the forest has made a pact for Redwall to be a city of peace and wellbeing. This is so that any injured animal could come for aid, but in return Redwall could never be attacked: it was the unwritten law. However, Cluny the Scourge and his band of rats have tried to seize the opportunity of Redwall’s poor defense, and have made it their objective to break in and steal the valuables; starting with the mice’s precious Martin painting.

This is where Matthias comes in. As a young apprentice of Redwall, his duty is to obey Father Abbot at all times. The way of the mice is peaceful now, but Matthias longs to fight in an honorable war like Martin. When Cluny announces his threat, Matthias and his friend Methuselah try to find Martin’s long lost sword, shield, and belt. Cracking many clues, solving riddles, and an immense amount of courage Matthias is sent on a chase around the forest, hurrying to save his home before it’s too late.

Overall, I really liked the book. It had many unexpected plots, and the characters were well-thought out. It is a pretty thick book, so it took some time to read, but I really liked it. I would definitely recommend it to people who like animals but also adventure. There are 22 books in total in the Redwall series, and I would definitely keep reading them.

Brian Jacques’ Redwall series is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

The Captive Kingdom

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The Captive Kingdom is the fourth book of the Ascendance series. It takes place in lands called Prozaria and Belland. In the start of the book, Jaron, Tobias, Amarinda, and Roden get captured. Roden and Tobias look a lot like Jaron so to protect him from their captors, they all claimed to be Jaron. They were sailing on a ship called the Shadow Tide and Jaron started to think that he was losing his allies because they revealed some of his secrets. As the story progresses, he figures out that Tobias and Roden were helping him all along by trying to figure out the captain’s plans. Jaron, using his lightning-quick wit, finds a way to escape. He, along with some other people from the Shadow Tide meet up with more people that Jaron knows and they sail to Belland. There, Jaron and his allies find the other people on the Shadow Tide. Towards the completion of the book, Jaron finds out something that could possibly threaten his position as king, a position that he does not want to give up. So in the end, who will sit on Carthya’s throne?

One thing that I liked about the book was the fact that it was different from the other ones. It had different characters, yet it was still good. I enjoyed the fact that Jaron and Roden were on better terms because I really like both of them, and I probably would not like it as much if Jaron did not like him. The author elaborated on the relationship between Amarinda and Tobias, which I thought was good because I was interested in it as soon as Jennifer A. Nielsen brought it up. I was pretty disappointed that Roden and Wilta did not work out, because while Wilta was not my favorite character in the world, I think that Roden deserves to be happy. The Captive Kingdom made me like these characters even more because they seemed extremely life-like. I think this because the three people that were training to be the lost prince/king Jaron (real Jaron, Tobias, and Roden) got to have love lives, or things that were close to that. As always, they have real emotions, such as Jaron’s sadness when he thought that Imogen didn’t care about him anymore and Tobias’s anger at the crew of the Shadow Tide when they captured Amarinda.

However, I think that the believable characters and the interesting plot make this a fascinating book. From when I first read The False Prince, my favorite has changed. When I first read it, I liked Jaron, and while I still like him, my favorite is Roden Harlowe; captain of Jaron’s guard. I like him because while he seems so tough and cool on the outside, he has his flaws. Take the scene in The Shadow Throne when he wanted more soldiers and so he sent a letter to Jaron asking for them, his letter had a lot of misspellings and bad grammar. I just thought that that made him seem all the more human.

Captive Kingdom by Jennifer A. Nielsen is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free as an audiobook from Libby.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie Book Review

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Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None is a masterful work of suspense and mystery, often hailed as one of her finest achievements. First published in 1939, the novel introduces readers to a group of ten strangers who are invited to an isolated island under various pretexts. Each guest has a hidden past, with secrets they hope to keep buried, but soon, a series of eerie events unfold. As the guests begin to die one by one, the novel becomes an intense psychological game of survival, with no one knowing who can be trusted.

Christie’s skillful plotting and brilliant misdirection keep the reader guessing until the very end. The novel is a prime example of the “locked-room mystery” genre, as the isolated island setting creates an atmosphere of confinement and paranoia. Each chapter ratchets up the tension as the characters’ anxieties grow, and the clever use of nursery rhymes as a thematic device ties together the chilling sequence of murders.

I personally loved the constant suspense Christie gave us throughout the book. I loved how I could predict what would happen based on the poem “Ten Little Solider Boys” from the 1600’s, but was still left with unknown elements of the story. I also enjoyed reading about each character’s past and true natures. Not only were they all unique, but I loved how Christie highlighted human fear and suspicion and demonstrated the destruction death and fear can bring. Additionally, I loved the unexpected and haunting ending of the novel as it left me completely stunned and unsettled.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good thriller murder mystery. If you like to read about a variety of unique characters and how they all become intertwined, I recommend giving this book a read!

Kaiya T.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie is available to checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

F451 Book Review

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“There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing” (Bradbury 139).

Fahrenheit 451 made me consider what I take for granted. Books have always been part of my world, but this story made me imagine a world where they were banned — where ideas, history — independent thought — were all erased. story—it’s a challenge. 

The book Fahrenheit 451 follows Montag, a fireman, but unlike the ones we have in our modern society, burns books and starts fires instead of putting them out. He is content with this job and claims to be happy. But is he really? He starts to ask himself this question when a new neighbor, known as Clarisse McClellan, moves in next door. Slowly, Montag starts to enjoy being in Clarisse’s presence, as she constantly thinks about life, and how the world is supposed to be. This sparks a change in Montag, but he has never taken action to it until one day, the alarm rang for a woman hoarding books. When they threaten to burn her and her books, she tells them that they will never have her books, and she lights a match, burning her house and committing suicide.

That scene haunted me. What could be so potent, so significant, that a person would rather die than live without it? Montag doesn’t know the answer, and neither did I, and that made his quest so gripping.

Bradbury’s world already sounded disturbingly familiar. The people in it are not imprisoned by ignorance; they embrace it. They immerse themselves in mind-numbing distractions, sidestep challenging conversations and recoil from anything that discomforts them. That one hit hard because it didn’t feel like any distant dystopia — it felt like a warning. His writing is dense and poetic, forcing me to slow down and really take in what he was saying. The conclusion left me conflicted.

There is hope, but at what price? The city’s gone, the world is broken, but there’s still a chance to rebuild.

Ultimately, Fahrenheit 451 is about something beyond censorship; it’s about what happens when we stop questioning, stop thinking, and stop feeling. It challenged me in an exquisitely uncomfortable way, addressing issues about the world around us. It’s not merely a story — it’s a provocation.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

The Sun Also Rises Book Review

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The Sun Also Rises is one of Hemingway’s most important contributions of describing life after World War I of the Lost Generation. This was a required book that is read by Juniors at our high school. It discusses themes revolving around the aimlessness of the lost generation, male insecurity, and the destructiveness of sexual tension.

The story follows a couple of main characters, including Jake Barnes, the novel’s protagonist, and Lady Brett Ashley, the woman he loves but can’t be with. Jake, an American journalist living in Paris (also called an expatriate), is left impotent due to a war injury, which adds a layer of emotional frustration to his relationship with Brett. Brett, on the other hand, is beautiful, charismatic, and desired by nearly every man in their social circle—but she’s also emotionally unavailable and constantly searching for something more. She is seen constantly with different men at every single page turn of the book. It is almost as if she is looking for something that she can’t find herself.

The book captures the essence of the “Lost Generation”— which was a term Hemingway popularized to describe the disillusioned and aimless young people who came of age during and after World War I. Jake and his friends: Robert Cohn, Bill Gorton, and Mike Campbell, wander through Paris and Spain, drinking, fighting, and engaging in meaningless affairs, all in an attempt to fill the void left by the war.

One of the most significant parts of the novel takes place in Pamplona, Spain, where the group travels to watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights. One of the characters that you meet here is Pedro Romero, a young, talented bullfighter, who serves as a really big contrast to the insecure and broken men around him—especially Jake and Cohn. Romero is the best bullfighter and youngest in Spain and he seems to have his life all figured out, which Jake admires very much. At the end of the book, we see that Brett eventually goes on to date Romero, only to get dumped and run back to her “husband.”

One of the main themes of The Sun Also Rises is escapism, but it doesn’t provide any real solutions. The characters drink excessively, engage in toxic relationships, and avoid their problems, but in the end, nothing really changes. The novel leaves us with the famous last line between Jake and Brett: “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” which continues to show the aimlessness and the unhappiness of the Lost Generation.

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is available to checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.