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Novel Review: A Door In The Dark

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Among the many novels that I have read, A Door in the Dark had me at the edge of my seat with my eyes wide open, longing to flip to the next page. I was at the bookstore one day when this novel caught my eye. I read the description on the back and assumed that it would be a decent read, but as soon as I began reading, a million different emotions hit me at once. I read of friendship, hatred, love, and every one of these things felt so real and relatable. If you enjoy adventure and excitement, then you have found the perfect novel, but keep in mind, this novel is not for the faint of heart.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

A Door in the Dark takes place in a magical and highly elitist city known as Kathor. Unlike all the magical worlds that you know of, the magic in Kathor is distributed by the wealthy families and is limited amongst the citizens. The magic is known as Ockleys and they can be bought by coins and are stored in objects known as vessels. Amongst Kathor’s residents, Ren is an intelligent and hardworking girl born into the Lower Quarter (the poorer area of Kathor). Nobody seems to take her seriously because of this, despite her high intelligence, but with her father dead, she must find a way to support her mom and herself. Due to her high performance in school, she is invited to attend Balmerick, a prestigious school. In her free time, she enjoys creating new spells and hopes to earn a position in the Shiverian House, but her hope is crushed when her interviewer for House Shiverian does not show up.

One day, Ren Monroe, her best friend, Timmons, and four other students break out in a fight in a waxway room on campus and are accidentally transported to the wilderness. In their new location, the students discover that one of them is dead. Everyone is shocked by this and has trouble processing it, but to get back home, the party must push on through rough terrain, frigid weather, and many other things getting in the way of their return home. Over their journey back home, the students grow closer and get to know each other, but just as soon, the students are killed one by one by a monster chasing them that will only stop when all of them our dead. Ren is forced to make important choices, even of saving one person from death or the other. How many of the students will make it back to Kathor alive? Will anybody?

Intensity Rating 5/5

For this specific novel, there are many parts that have you holding your breath and clinging to the side of your chair. There are many chasing sequences that are not scary, but definitely make you brace yourself!

Profanity/Drug Usage 3/5

This novel contains some mild language, so make sure that you are aware of this before reading this book. Also, there is a made up drug called “Dragon’s Breath” used by most of the main characters throughout the novel

Overall Book Rating 5/5

Of the many books that I have read, this has been one of my favorites! The novel describes the emotion and setting so well that I almost feel like I been inserted right into the story line. I highly recommend this book if you like magic and adventure!

(I chose to use monster to describe what was chasing the students, but as you progress in the book, you will understand that the monster in not necessarily in the form of a monster, I only used that term to identify what was chasing them in a way that will not spoil the plot in case you would like to read this novel.)

A Door in the Dark by Scott Reintgen is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. 

Night by Elie Wiesel

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I must confess that when I first learned that we would be reading Elie Wiesel’s Night for my English class, I felt a mixture of anticipation and trepidation. But what can I say? It’s a requirement, so I read it with little to expect. I was wrong in many ways. Just a warning: this review contains spoilers.

It is a memoir that speaks about Wiesel’s experiences as a young Jewish boy during the Holocaust. Wiesel doesn’t just recount events; he invites us to walk beside him through the labyrinth of his memories, where each step is heavy with the burden of the past as he recounts his life in the small Transylvanian town of Sighet.

In the tranquil streets of Sighet, we glimpse the idyllic innocence of Eliezer’s childhood; young Eliezer’s world is filled with the simple joys of family, friendship, and the pursuit of knowledge.

He studies the Torah and the Kabbalah, taught by Moishe the Beadle. His studies are cut short when his teacher is deported. Months later, Moishe comes back, saying that the Gestapo took charge of his train, led everyone into the woods, and butchered them. Nobody believed him and called him insane. Then in the spring of 1944, the Nazis take over Hungary. The Jews of Eliezer’s town are forced into small ghettos within Sighet. They are herded onto cattle cars and forced to spend days and nights crammed into the car, exhausted and near starvation, until they arrive at Birkenau.

Wiesel recounts his journey through the terror of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, where he experiences the brutality of the concentration camps firsthand. Wiesel sees many horrible things that scar him for life, recounting his and the experiences of many who had tried to hide whatever happened. Wiesel doesn’t hold back and tells everything, all the terrible things he went through during the Holocaust. He doesn’t sugarcoat it or leave anything out. This honest account of his experiences helps us understand how awful it was and how much it hurt him and everyone else who went through this dark time in history. I found myself transported there with him as he struggled to survive.

In the end, Night is more than just a memoir; it is an essential memory of one of the darkest chapters in human history, the Holocaust, and what many had to go through during that tragic time. It’s also a reminder that even in our darkest moments, there’s hope to be found. The memoir is exceptionally well-written and retells an authentic and meaningful story. Through his assertive storytelling and unflinching honesty, Elie Wiesel ensures that Holocaust victims will never be silenced. If you want to experience this memoir, it is available at Mission Viejo Library.

Here’s to a new reading experience!
Bella H

Night by Elie Wiesel is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

Five Feet Apart Book Review (SPOILER ALERT!!!)

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Five Feet Apart is a great book written by Mikki Daughtry, Rachael Lippincott, and Tobias Iaconis. It is a coming of age romance story similar to The Fault in Our Stars. It was a pretty good book. I had already seen the movie before reading it, but, like always, the book was much better.

Five Feet Apart centers around a girl named Stella who has cystic fibrosis, which is a disease that affects your lungs. While at the hospital for monitoring, she meets Will. He is the classic bad boy, the “you only live once” type. You can’t blame him though, he not only has cystic fibrosis, he also has Burkholderia cepacia, which is basically a death sentence.

The two of them meet at the hospital when Stella, our hyper-organized-wants-to keep-living protagonist, sees Will skip his vital treatments. Not only is he basically trying to die, he is one of the few patients on a special new experimental drug. Therefore, he is eliminating someone else’s chance for living too. Naturally, Stella is pissed about that so she doesn’t like him. Will, however, think she’s hot and interesting. The two of them officially meet and it’s a disaster. It’s so bad in fact that she gets him in trouble. 

Given the fact that Stella has been going to the same hospital for all of her life, she’s made a few friends there. In fact, her best friend, Poe, is a permanent resident at the hospital. Poe is a Colombian soccer-loving aspiring chef. In my opinion, he’s by far the best character in the book. Anyways, Stella complains about Will to Poe (which let’s all be real, sometimes we complain about people to our best friends). The two of them talk it out, and Stella gives Will a chance.

Eventually, Stella and Will make a deal. She will talk to him if he does his medication every day. Over time, they start to fall for each other. Cystic fibrosis is a serious illness that leads to the death of most patients, unless they get new lungs. To prevent infections and an even higher chance of death, patients with CF have to stay at least 6 feet from each other at all times. The two lovebirds hate that rule because they can never get physically close to each other. So, they modify the rule. They steal back a foot, making them FIVE feet apart. Get the title now?

As the book moves along, Stella and Will get caught together and their nurse, Nurse Barb, is NOT happy about that. She had seen couples like them before and they always ended in death. In her attempts to keep the two of them apart, they only grow closer. 

Then, it’s Will’s birthday! Yay! Stella sets up a scavenger hunt for him around the hospital, ending in a big dinner with her, Poe and two of his friends. Poe makes an amazing dinner and an astounding cake that everyone loves. And it’s all going great, right? How could this perfect moment possibly be ruined? Oh wait, we forgot about Nurse Barb. She crashes their party and everyone is sent back to their respective rooms for the night.

Suddenly, Stella hears the blaring emergency alarm. As she swarms around in panic, she learns that it was Poe’s room setting off the alarm. His heart had stopped. Much to my dismay and my tears, Poe died that night. It was awful. The worst part was that Stella, in all her sadness and fury, threw the glass jar of black truffles that Poe had given her into the wall, smashing it into pieces. Personally, I hate this part of the book because I loved Poe. 

After that, Stella goes kinda crazy. She becomes reckless and runs outside, taking Will with her. She wanted to go look at the holiday lights with the guy she liked. Stella broke tons of rules and was buried deep in her sorrow, when she got the text. New lungs had arrived for her. New lungs meant a new life, meant she could live a little before she died. But it also meant that she was living when Poe was not. Stella ignored the texts and calls. She then had the bright idea to go on the iced over lake. On the lake, Will learns about the lungs and wants to get her to the hospital immediately. She did not want to go though and whilst they were talking, the ice under Stella broke and she went plunging into the freezing water. Will jumps in to save her, and once he pulls her out of the water, he noticed that she wasn’t breathing. Willm performs CPR on her, knowing that he would probably give her b. cepacia and ruin her chances at the new lungs. After that, he calls Nurse Barb and they get back to the hospital. 

Stella gets her new lungs, and as she was looking for Will in her room, she realized that he wasn’t there. She gets a call on her phone from him to look out the window. There he was, standing in front of holiday lights just like she wanted. He told her that he had to leave for her, to protect her. The two of them share a heartfelt goodbye and Will disappears.

Fast forward to the epilogue, we see Stella traveling the world and who’s that in the airport. Oh my, it’s Will!!

This book almost made me cry, mainly the part about Poe to be honest. It’s a pretty cheesy book, but overall it’s very good. I recommend this book if you like the book The Fault in Our Stars or just any young romance novel.

Five Feet Apart by Mikki Daughtry, Rachael Lippincott, and Tobias Iaconis is available to checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

Book Review: The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson)

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Two weeks ago, I started reading the series Percy Jackson. This series starts with the book The Lightning Thief. The book begins with an introduction to the main character Percy Jackson. He goes on a field trip with his classmates when a series of mysterious events occur (a monster attempts to kill him). Percy gets expelled from his school and learns that he is a half-blood, or demigod. This means that he is a child of a god and a mortal.

Later, Percy is sent to a camp for half-bloods and is sent on a quest with his friends Annabeth and Grover to retrieve Zeus’ lightning bolt; in the hopes of preventing a war. In this process, Percy discovers he is the child of Poseidon. As the chapters precede, Percy ends up returning the lightning bolt to the gods, and learns that his friend betrayed him by stealing the bolt himself.

Though this was the first Rick Riordan book I have ever read, I can confidently say that Riordan is an excellent writer. If you are looking for a series that is exciting, mysterious, and suspenseful, Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a great contestant. I enjoyed this book because it was entertaining to read—there was never a dull moment. This book started out strong and ended strong as well. Despite the fact that The Lightning Thief is the first book in the series, Percy has much character development. I feel that he gains much wisdom after completing his first quest.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan is available to checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

A Book Review For Five Survive by Holly Jackson

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Six people crammed into a tiny RV. Five come back alive. This is what drew me to the book, Five Survive by the amazing author Holly Jackson, the author of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. Red, the main character is a young girl going through the trauma of losing her mom. Although it may sound cliche at first, Jackson uses this short detail to move the story along and adds the biggest plot twist at the end.

Red, her best friend Maddy, Maddy’s older brother Oliver his girlfriend Reyna, and two friends Arthur and Simon on journeying on a long trip at the start spring break. They’re all looking forward to warm sandy beaches and wild parties. But that fun would never come. They wouldn’t make it to the beach. They wouldn’t even be close. One wrong turn leads them down a rabbit hole of secrets and someone won’t be getting out alive.

Red: She doesn’t have the best childhood. Her mom, one of her best friends and someone she looks up to died a few years before this trip. It has really taken a lot out of her self esteem and her family fell apart at the seams. Her dad turned into an alcoholic and spent all their money on drinks. Red had to be the parent and take care of her dad even with such a heavy emotional baggage. She carries around the thought that she was the one who had killed her mother. This leads her down a path of depression and obsessiveness over the reason her mother died which still remains a mystery to this day.

Maddy: This is Red’s best friend since childhood. Their moms were the best of best friends and Maddy’s mom cared for Red like a second mother. Sleepovers and hangouts were constant, there was no reason to suspect anything bad. Until this roadtrip exposed some dark secrets that led Maddy to discover family secrets that have never been spoken aloud.

Oliver: He is your typical arrogant smart guy who thinks that he knows it all. His snotty and blaming attitude immediately gets him off to a bad start. Siimon is also Maddy’s older brother which is surprising due to their conflicting personalities that clash. Some wrong turns were taken and soon enough wrong doings are made.

Reyna: Reyna is smart and shy but she doesn’t lay down in a fight. She is the girlfriend of Oliver’s and her dark past will be revealed in a startling game of sharing secrets. She is an aspiring nurse in a prestigious program, ready to start her life. Will this trip end it?

Simon: He is your typical happy and very drunk guy. He always lifts up the mood especially when he gets his hands on a bit of alcohol. When the signal goes out and the darkness sets in, even Simon won’t be able to lift the depressing mood.

Arthur: Arthur. There’s not much known about him or his past. He just appeared in their lives and joined the group.

Read Five Survive to find out what will happen to the seemly unbreakable bond between 6 friends looking forward to a relaxing vacation on the beach that will never come.

Five Survive by Holly Jackson is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Review

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In my 10th grade ELA class, we read the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. This story includes the themes of love and identity. The main character, Janie Crawford, reflects on her entire life throughout the story. She explains the restrictions of her childhood to the constant desire for love in her adulthood. As an African American, Janie has to frequently deal with discrimination and racism, but she continues to persevere.

Janie’s friend Pheoby Watson sits on Janie’s porch and listens to her story. She describes her grandma (Nanny) and the limits she placed on Janie. Nanny lived through slavery and emphasized security and protection. She valued safety over following dreams, contradicting Janie’s beliefs. Nanny forced Janie to marry an unappealing man named Logan Killicks since he can offer stability. Killicks does not provide the sense of love that Janie desires, and the relationship shortly ends. Janie’s next man, Joe (Jody) Starks, takes her away from Logan Killicks and charms her. They stay together for almost 20 years, and Jody promises a life of prosperity. However, he attempts to remove her identity, and Janie learns that she also wants freedom. Finally, Janie meets Tea Cake, who seems to be the love of her life. Tea Cake offers more than just wealth and status: a sense of kindness that Janie had never experienced. As Janie matures, she accepts his flaws and continues to love him. However, when he gets rabies, she is forced to shoot him as he attacks her.

Janie shows levels of growth throughout the novel. She begins to value herself and her identity much more. The story represents the African American community and brings attention to the issues they face. Hurston uses countless examples of figurative language to further illustrate Janie’s struggles to readers. She wants to prove the importance of following your dreams and maximizing your happiness. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a great example of the power of love and identity. It is a great piece of literature that has many twists and turns throughout Janie’s life.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger

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John Lennon, a hit member from the group “The Beatles” was pronounced dead due to Mark Chapman’s assassination. Mark Chapman, a deranged fan of The Catcher in the Rye felt as if he was identical to the main character, Holden Caulfield. Mark Chapman had killed John Lennon because he believed that he was a phony, a huge theme in the book.

The Catcher in the Rye is a book showcasing the main character, Holden Caulfield, wandering around the streets of New York and trying to understand what he wants to do in life. The book is still extremely relevant to people today as it demonstrates teenage emotions in the real world and an extremely realistic picture of someone who has lost something important. Holden Caulfield’s thoughts are all over the place in the book and to some it may feel like a bunch of words on a paper. Though to others, it’s realistic, it’s all of his thoughts as a teenager and it really represents the struggles of just being a teenager in between childhood and adulthood. Holden represents our uneasy feeling of walking off a cliff into becoming an adult and having to leave our childhood behind. Holden represents how us as teens would deal with grief and hardships without any guidance. Holden is a cry for help and he teaches us the truth about how much a guardian really means to someone so young.

Why aren’t we doing anything to stop growing up? Why has everyone turned so fake recently? What are we really meant to do? Many questions similar to these are brought up in the novel and it’s very intriguing and beautiful to watch someone we can all relate to try to figure out the answers. The book is relatable to all people. For those who are teens, it really clicks with you and gives you a sense of connectedness, like you aren’t alone. For those who are older, it brings back those teenage years and will definitely bring back the teenage self that still lives inside of you.

The Catcher in the Rye stands out to me because of all the emotions I went through while reading it and the feeling of realization when I found out that all of his thoughts really meant something and all of the subliminal messages inside of the novel. While re-reading the book you can really see all of his cries for help that you may not have picked up before and all the symbolism you may have brushed off. The Catcher in the Rye gave me a whole new understanding of books and a new perspective on the meanings of books.

So why was John Lennon really assassinated? Was it really because of The Catcher in the Rye? In all honestly, I don’t know. What I do know, however, Mark Chapman feared Lennon’s fame and really believed he was just a huge phony.

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free from Libby.

Animal Farm Book Review

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Imagine fighting to overthrow a corrupt leader, just to end up with someone even worse. Last year in Sophomore English class I was required to read Animal Farm by George Orwell. This book is an allegorical novella reflecting the events of Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution. At the time, I was taking an AP European History class, so this book really impressed me as a history lover.

Animal Farm depicts the story of a farm where the animals overthrow the farmer in hopes of a more egalitarian animal-run society. However, when they are able to overthrow their masters, their utopian vision does not seem to be their new reality.

The main theme throughout Animal Farm is power and the desire to obtain this power. The novel depicts how a revolution for better living can quickly turn into a state where citizens have less power than they started with. The allegorical style can be viewed as a simple breakdown of the events of the Russian Revolution and the novel almost acts like a history lesson. It’s important to note the controversy Animal Farm has sparked. Many institutions banned the novel as it was considered “communist propaganda,” while some simply disliked the novel as they believed it provided a negative view on socialism.

Regardless of public opinion, I thought Animal Farm was a very interesting novel and I was captivated throughout my whole reading experience. I would recommend this novel in particular to anyone who knows or has learned about the Bolshevik Revolution as it makes the book 100 more times enjoyable to analyze and identify the parallels. Watching the tone of the animal leadership shift was absolutely page-turning, and I think any fan of history would truly enjoy this novel!

Animal Farm by George Orwell is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

Book Review: Life Of Pi By Yann Martel

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I read this book about half a year ago, towards the beginning of the school year. It was summer homework for my school, and I thought it would be very boring and a hassle. This proved not to be true as I kept reading.

This book is about a young boy, Pi Patel, who is stranded out in the middle of the ocean on a lifeboat. He is stuck with a giant tiger and some other animals. The book shows the thought process of a shocked boy who just lost his family and needs to do everything in his power to survive.

Initially, everything was well for the Patel family. They owned the Pondicherry Zoo and lived a happy life. When they decided to move to Canada, Pi’s dad decided to move all of the zoo animals to Canada and then sell them for money. This proved difficult since the ship sank, leading to Pi being stranded on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean. I don’t want to spoil too much of what happens, but I personally thought the ending was fulfilling and that the book was very interesting.

One part I found particularly interesting was the fact that Pi was named after a swimming pool in Paris. Both of Pi’s parents were never too fond of swimming, but it was their family friend, whose favorite pool was the Piscine Molitor, who inspired them to name him that. I found it sad that the people at Pi’s school teased him by calling him “Pissing” instead of “Piscine,” but he dealt with the teasing really well and I loved how he responded to everyone, even the teacher.

Overall, I feel like this book is a great option for anyone who is looking for some good survival books. It was a lot of fun to read and there is a lot of action in the book. You will never get bored by this book!

– Albert X., 10th grade

Life of Pi by Yann Martel is available to checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei

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In my English class, we read the graphic novel They Called Us Enemy by George Takei. George Takei is an actor, known for his role as Hikaru Sulu in the Star Trek franchise, author, and activist. They Called Us Enemy is a powerful graphic memoir of Takei’s life in the Japanese-American concentration camps during World War II.  

For context, during World War II there were two alliances. They were the Allies (including France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and China) and the Axis powers (including Germany, Italy, and Japan). On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Two months later, Executive Order 9066 was passed by President Roosevelt, forcing those with Japanese Ancestry to leave their homes for internment camps because they were not considered citizens, but aliens, or foreign citizens, to the US.

George Takei was around 4 when his family had to leave for the camps. He went to two camps, Rohwer and Tule Lake, surrounded by metal fences that would influence his sense of self-belonging for the rest of his life. The book explores the aspects of dehumanization and injustice committed by the US government through his family’s imprisonment in the camps. 

In AP World History, we learned about World War II and all its outcomes. Through my class, I discovered that concentration camps for Japanese-Americans were extremely detrimental. Once I read the book, I realized that the Japanese Americans were living, breathing human beings and they weren’t just a number. They were somebody’s mother, father, uncle, aunt, brother, and/or sister, and not just some identification code. They Called Us Enemy made me realize that what happened to hundreds of thousands of people was as real as ever and detrimental to all.

They Called Us Enemy is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.