Tag Archives: book review

Sadie by Courtney Summers

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This book is not for the faint of heart. It contains very graphic and mature scenes and themes, but nonetheless, it’s a beautiful book. 

Sadie tells the heart-wrenching story of a girl trying to get revenge for her sister’s death. It’s told through her own narration, and through a podcast following her trace. 

As a non-avid reader of mysteries/thrillers, this book was nothing like what I had expected. Although it could be a bit slow at times, what is lacked is made up of impact. This book hits so hard, and it’s important to recognize these types of actions as something that sadly is a part of society today. 

As you learn more about Sadie and what she’s been through, and the stories of the people she meets, you find everything that happens is the absolute worst things imaginable. Society is a gruesome and horrible place, and reading this book gave me biggest reality check I ever could’ve gotten.

The most horrible thing is, that these predicaments are what some people live in, it’s all they know, and that thought repulses me. The idea that people can relate to this piece of work is truly a reflection of the worst parts of society today. 

But all that aside, I highly recommend reading this book. Again, it gave me every sort of feeling imaginable and left me wondering about each and every one of the characters we had the honor of meeting. The podcast format for some chapters is such an ingenious idea and executed so well, I regret that I read the physical copy and not the audiobook. 

Our main character is the strongest and most resilient person I’ve ever read about. She has been through so much in her life, and as the book goes on and on, the situation gets worse and worse. Sadie is such a broken and mistreated character that everything she does, and everything she goes through is remarkable to me.

In short, if you want an impactful read, this is it.

If you’re struggling with anything that Sadie encounters or is going through in this book please reach out for help. You are not alone. 

    National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-4673 

    National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233

    National Helpline: 1-800-662-4357

-Asli B. 

Sadie by Courtney Summers is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free from Overdrive. 

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

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Seventeen-year-old Mia Hall has everything other teenagers her age would want; a loving and relaxed family life, great grades, a charming boyfriend, and a supportive best friend. As a cello-prodigy, Mia awaits her soon-to-be acceptance letter to her dream university.

One snowy day, Mia and her family jam to their favorite songs in the car on the road. They had planned the perfect day-off. However, all goes wrong when an incoming car skids and crashes straight towards them. The moment stops and the reader waits eagerly, with palms sweating, to know what happens next through all of the author’s heart-wrenching details.

The novel follows Mia, in an out-of-body experience, as she has flashbacks on her life and loses the ones she loves. Her flashbacks are followed by heart-breaking scenes of her family and friends visiting her in a hospital while she is in a coma. The unspoken love between the Mia and her close ones makes the novel much more emotional.

The author’s style of switching between the past and present unfolds the significant purpose of a human life. The importance of sacrifice, family, love, death, and life all wrap up to tell Mia’s story. The conflict between choosing to fight endlessly to stay alive or fading away to the afterlife remains a mystery until the end.

Overall, this novel really opened my eyes and made me realize that life can change in an instant. No matter who we are, what we are going through in life, or where we are, death can take its toll. The author truly makes an important point about how fast life moves for the youth and the old. We should never take life for granted because this is all we have and there is only one shot at it.

Mia’s story emphasizes the importance of living in the moment. Our problem are just as big as we make them. However, just like Mia, our worldly problems are nothing in the face of death. Not all the readers of this book can realize that, but anyone who can relate will find its meaning. The novel, as well as the movie of If I Stay, moved me to tears and is one that sticks with you forever.

-Zohal N. 

If I Stay by Gayle Forman is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free from Overdrive. 

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

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As one of Hemingway’s many classics, The Old Man and the Sea retells the story of man versus nature. Hemingway writes the novel in such a way that makes the reader urge for more.

The story begins with Santiago, an aged and experienced fisherman who has been out on the sea for 84 days with no luck of finding fish to catch. He is viewed as a lonely outcast to the rest of society, and his own apprentice is told to stay away from him. Santiago is even labeled as a word that means unluckiness in his native language.

Santiago’s character can be seen in today’s world in people who are still waiting for a win or change in their lives. Many individuals are still on their journey to reach their goals in life just like Santiago. Suddenly, on the 85th day, a large marlin takes the bait on Santiago’s hook that is 200 yards deep in the water. The marlin is massive and unlike anything, Santiago has ever seen in his years of fishing. Through the next days and nights, the marlin holds onto the line, but it is too heavy for Santiago to lift.

From breaking his wrist to cramping his whole body and not being able to sleep properly, Santiago risks everything he has to catch the great marlin and lift his pride. Finally, the marlin is caught, but Santiago admires and feels like he built a brotherly relationship with the animal.

Santiago’s story reflects the human relationship with nature that is filled with admiration and struggles. His character is not defined by his defeat or “unluckiness”, but rather his determination. It takes courage to endure pain and hardships.

Hemingway uses such symbolism and words that the novel requires an analytical mind to read. Every small detail is impressively used to build the theme of the novel in the end. This book can be read by anyone as young or as old because everyone is eventually lead to the same motif about life.

-Zohal N. 

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

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This novel was one I was required to read for school, but despite my apprehension when I saw how big it was, it actually turned out to be a great story that was captivating and an incredibly interesting read. The novel follows two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, specifically Adam Trask throughout his life. It is set mostly in Salinas Valley, California, where the Hamiltons live.

Adam’s early life is told through a series of flashbacks, where we see the impact of his father’s military career and his half-brother Charles’ jealousy. Adam was always his father’s favorite, and Charles, wanting nothing more than their father’s love, abuses Adam. Adam spends his young adult years wandering after a short time in the military before coming home, and when he does come home, he finds that his father has died and left him and Charles a significant sum of money.

At the same time, a girl named Cathy Ames is introduced, and from the beginning, she seems morally corrupted at her core. She is able to manipulate her parents into what she wants, she manipulates her teachers, her peers, and somehow is able to heap blame for evil actions onto everyone but herself. As she ages, she only becomes more vicious, killing her parents in a fire and using people as stepping stones to get where she wants. This inevitably goes wrong; a man beats her almost to death when he realizes she’s using him, and she is left on Adam and Charles’ doorstep. Adam falls in love with her, blind to her faults, and they move to Salinas Valley, where they meet Samuel Hamilton, intertwining the two families. They have two children, and the rest of the novel follows the children’s lives. 

East of Eden is one of those novels that doesn’t really have a climactic point; it’s more of a biographical story, following the complex lives of a few select people. One thing that I learned when analyzing this book in school was that Steinbeck intended this to be his own version of the story of Cain and Abel, and each pair in the novel reflects this: Charles and Adam, Cathy and Adam, Adam’s children Cal and Aron. However, the age-old story evolves into something greater here. While Charles and Adam were an accurate reflection of the original story, Cal and Aron are able to change it; Cal is supposedly “destined” to be the evil brother, but he realizes his wrongdoings and fights hard to correct them and correct himself.

The novel is a story of self-improvement and the way that the characters evolved really struck me as I read. East of Eden isn’t just a story highlighting a snapshot of someone’s life; I was in awe of what a masterpiece it is, portraying the best and worst of human life, teaching valuable lessons while keeping the story engaging.

-Adelle W.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free from Overdrive. 

Anne Of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

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Anne of Green Gables: Montgomery, L. M.: 9780553213133: Amazon.com: Books

Anne of Green Gables is a coming-of-age novel. From the growth experience of the protagonist Anne, we can know the author’s consciousness of eco-feminism beyond the times. The world is a pluralistic community. Man is a part of nature and forms an inseparable web of life with all things. He should treat other creatures equally. People should love and help each other. Only in this way can human beings get rid of all kinds of crises, obtain a happy life, and build an ideal society of harmonious coexistence between human and nature, a free society that can regulate the relationship between human and nature.

Annie’s experience is a life process that everyone has to go through – growing up, studying, falling in love, getting married, having children, working. In this sense, Anne of Green Gables is a growth novel for young boys and girls to read. It instructs them to go to the hardships and tribulations in life with enthusiasm, innocence, tenacity and honesty like Anne, and to pursue more precious things in the world than money, wealth, fame and status with an optimistic outlook on life.

The novel teaches them to love man and nature, to seek happiness and satisfaction from nature and imagination, to open their hearts to the joys of the world and life, and to illuminate themselves and the people around them with a lively and natural heart. For adult readers, through experiencing Anne’s growth process and mind course, they can understand Anne’s personality charm, gain some lessons from it and then reflect on their own life. In today’s worship of material wealth, man is increasingly alienated from nature.

It is an age where a person increasingly complains about the stress of life and calls for humanity and conscience. People should think about how not to be assimilated by the turbid world around them, not to give up their dreams and hopes under any circumstances, to be philosophically and kind-hearted to save themselves, with the magnanimous heart of Anne, optimistic and persistent struggle for progress, and the pursuit of ideals. Like Anne, they should keep a heart full of passion for the world, find the ability to feel the happiness of family affection, friendship and love, and become closer to nature, closer to oneself, and truly happy.

When Montgomery wrote Anne of Green Gables, she did not use any particular technique. She only selects comedy events that are close to life and in line with children’s age and psychological characteristics, and employs the most common vivid description of children’s language and actions in traditional children’s literature, while setting off the typical environment. However, it is the successful combination of these traditional writing techniques that makes this work become a world-famous classic of children’s literature.

In this novel, Montgomery resorts to concise and fresh language to vividly depict landscapes, flowers and plants, which can not only cultivate children’s temperament, but also meet children’s various aesthetic needs. With the help of Anne’s eyes, the novel presents the beautiful and unusual natural environment in front of readers. Sweet apple blossoms, white as snow, on the white road of joy. Under the branches, the purple dusk came unawares.

A morning like an oil painting with thousands of purple flowers blooming in a deep purple pond, full of the charm of nature, flowing with the beautiful melody of the birds. The author lavished pen and ink on a fairyland like this. Living in such a wonderful environment, it was no wonder that Anne was often as happy as a fairy. When readers read these, they will be unconsciously intoxicated with them. And so it is in real life. Every year, thousands of tourists from all over the world come to Prince Edward Island to follow in Anne’s footsteps.

11/22/63 by Stephen King

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This novel tells of Jake Epping, a recently divorced teacher at his local high school, teaching some GED classes for extra money. One of his GED students, the high school’s janitor, Harry Dunning, writes a tear-jerking essay for his final, about how his family was killed by his alcoholic father and how he was crippled for life. 

A few years later, when Jake visits his friend, Al, at Al’s Diner, Al shows Jake a time portal in the pantry of his diner; Al, seems to have aged years within a day, explains that he had used the portal to travel back in time, and had lived years in the past before he developed cancer and had to return. 

The few rules to the portal are as follows:

  • Each trip to the past is a complete reset to September 9, 1958. Whenever you enter the portal, you’re undoing whatever you did the last trip.
  • Each time coming back from the past through the portal, no matter how long you stay, you come back two minutes after you left.
  • The past can be changed, impacting the future, but the past is also obdurate; it tries it’s very hardest to stop from being changed.

After Al shows Jake the ropes, he sends Jake on the mission that he had been unable to complete last time. From what Al has observed, everything bad in the world can be traced back to John F. Kennedy’s assassination; if Jake could stop the assassination, the world would likely be a better place. And if it wasn’t, he could always go back and reset it. 

Jake agrees to the plan, but adds a few elements of his own; he would drop by the Dunning household, and stop Frank Dunning from murdering Harry’s family. Then, he would wait until 1963, watching and monitoring the world around him, and stop Kennedy’s assassination.

The title of this novel definitely was the eye-catcher on the library bookshelf for me, in addition to its impressive size. The reality of life that’s starkly shown in this novel, contrasting the preposterous situation Jake enters into, is why I enjoyed it so much. He constantly feels the danger of discovery, injecting an underlying urgency into the story, but I also felt a wrenching desire for him to settle down when he finds a wonderful woman in a content little town where he could live a happy life in the past. 

There’s a sense of heroism to the story as well; armed with the knowledge of the future, Jake strives to do his best for the greater good of the world. However, the past is “obdurate;” he runs into so many obstacles when he tries to change things, ultimately causing more harm than good. It’s an excellent example of how good intentions do not necessarily bring good results.

-Adelle W.

11/22/63 by Stephen King is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free from Overdrive. 

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

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The sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep tells the story of adult Danny Torrance. Traumatized by the horrific events at the Overlook Hotel, he’s developed alcoholic tendencies like his father; however, when he settles in the town of Frazier, New Hampshire, Dan stops drinking and begins working at a hospice, helping dying patients pass on peacefully with his strong psychic abilities, or “shine,” earning the nickname “Doctor Sleep.”

While he settles down, a girl named Abra Stone is born, and her shine is even more powerful than Dan’s. They sense and understand each other from when she is very young, all the way through most of her adolescence. 

They don’t see a need to actually meet until The True Knot, a group of people who feed off of shine, usually children’s, to keep themselves immortal, becomes aware of Abra’s immense power and comes for her. Dan and Abra together, along with a few friends in on the secret of the shine, work together to end The True Knot forever.

Dan’s character development was one of the first things that struck me deeply. No matter how much he swore to himself that he would never become like his father, he drinks and drinks, traumatized by the Overlook Hotel and afraid of his abilities. However, unlike his father, he realizes what he’s doing, and mends himself, using his abilities for good. 

Dan’s relationship with Abra was also an incredibly interesting element of this story. Despite never meeting before, the two psychics speak to each other like old friends when they actually meet, and Dan quickly takes on a fatherly role, helping Abra control her abilities. From the beginning, Abra is fundamentally good; though she makes mistakes and badly estimates some decisions, her actions are always for the betterment of others’ lives. 

After reading both this novel and The Shining, I would say that the sequel is more advanced and interesting than the original, although The Shining was crucial to setting the stage for Dan’s development and life. Doctor Sleep tells of the impact of psychological trauma, recovery from that, the use of power for good, and the development of family independent of blood relation. Some elements of the story are still chilling to the bone, as is Stephen King’s norm, but the novel overall develops the experience of life in addition to just the horror.

-Adelle W. 

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free from Overdrive. 

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

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Far from the Madding Crowd eBook by Thomas Hardy - 9780553905557 | Rakuten Kobo United States

The tone of this novel is light-hearted, humorous, lively and full of love for ordinary farmers, which is different from the heavy tragic color in Hardy’s later works. Although the reunion finale also contains themes familiar to readers in later works, such as pain and betrayal, the novel still shows a clear romantic color. In the novel, Hardy rendered the primitiveness and roughness of the natural scenery in Wessex with heavy color and ink, suggesting the potential deterrent force of such natural environment. However, man is extremely small and weak in front of the vast nature. A rainstorm or fire can destroy all the fruits of people’s hard work. An uncertain fate pervades “Far from the Madding Crowd”.

Poor Boldwood was tormented by fate. He poured all his feelings, thoughts, energy, and possessions into Bathsheba. Troy’s presence twice shattered his hopes just as he was within reach, so it was futile to demand what was fated to be unattainable. The beginning of the novel sets the tone that Bathsheba cannot live without Oak. In spite of Oak’s mediocre talent and appearance, in spite of the fact that his sheep had gone bankrupt and he had been reduced from a rich farmer to a wandering hand, Bathsheba had become the mistress of the farm because she had inherited her uncle’s fortune.

The conflicts between human beings and society in Hardy’s later novels reveal more about the social root of the characters’ tragedies, weaken the concept of fate, and replace the contingency with the inevitability of tragedy, which is the mature deepening of the author’s tragedy consciousness. However, such maturity and deepening are based on the conflicts originally embodied in “Far from the Madding Crowd”. In the plot structure, Hardy often sets up two parallel love clues and uses a lot of means such as chance, coincidence and mutation, making the love triangle between two women and a man or two men and a woman closely linked and fascinating. Techniques such as creating a heavy, tragic atmosphere through bleak depictions of the environment were pioneered in “Far from the Madding Crowd”.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

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Dracula (Bram Stoker) eBook by Bram Stoker | Rakuten Kobo

The creation of the horror image and the gloomy atmosphere in the novel is realized by spreading the devil world centered on Dracula, making the readers like a horror drama staged in the dark and dirty old castle. At the beginning, the novel presents a series of mysterious and dramatic images, such as a remote old castle, a desolate night, a sudden werewolf, and a strange bat.

The unknown smoke and other images serve as background factors to arouse readers’ memories and impressions of the grim and horrible scenes, so as to present a terrifying world to readers. This technique was also widely used in 19th century Gothic novels. On the one hand, it introduces the characteristics and identity of Dracula, on the other hand, it also employs these images to expand readers’ imagination and enhance their understanding, which sets a tone of terror and panic for the whole novel.

The existence of Dracula and the perception of his image are the self-perception of human eyes or psychology and the vivid description and presentation of the current social mentality. Jonathan’s visit and familiarity with the castle actually started the contest and struggle between good and evil, and at the same time hinted at the subtle relationship of conquest and resistance between the British Empire and the colonized countries at the end of the 19th century. The novel presents the reader with a strange and deviant world. In such a world, the reader is as anxious as the monster is terrifying. Dracula represents a strong possessiveness and a desire for racial invasion. He tried to invade London from far away eastern Europe, and while women were sleeping, he controlled their consciousness and drank their blood to reproduce his own race, expand his territory, and dominate the British Empire.

At the same time, the women who had been sucked into the blood were transformed into social outliers. They broke away from the male authority and were no longer bound by traditional concepts and customs, and freely expressed their likes, dislikes and desires. They possessed the characteristics of the new females emerging in the British society at the end of the 19th century, which was not recognized by the mainstream population at that time. The image of Dracula’s attempt to overturn the harmonious and orthodox order of British society was the accumulation of capital in the British Empire. The shadow of colonial expansion and self-portrait are the reverse of imperial colonial rule. At the same time, Dracula’s whole scheme is a symptom of the waning British empire’s fear of its own political future, a looming fear of the vassal states that are rebelling against colonialism and the rising powers that are gaining momentum.

Ranger’s Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan

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The Ranger’s Apprentice series revolves around a boy named Will, an orphan taken in as a castle ward at Redmont fief, one of the fifty fiefs in Araluen. This first book follows his acceptance into the respected (and feared) Ranger Corps, the highly capable unseen protectors of the kingdom. As an orphan with no last name or memory of who his parents were, Will is set, along with his fellow wards, to be chosen by one of the Craftmasters and trained in service of the kingdom. 

However, Will’s skill set doesn’t fit any of the apprenticeships that his peers are chosen for. After Will climbs the tower up to the Baron’s office to try and find out his fate and the mysterious Ranger Halt catches him, he’s told that he would be most suitable for Ranger training. He learns to use the Ranger’s choice weapons, the bow, a throwing knife, and the specially made saxe knife, and learns the art of unseen movement, the key to a Ranger’s job in protecting his assigned fief. 

Meanwhile, Morgarath, the lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night, exiled from Araluen, plots his revenge against the kingdom. Having been planning for 15 years, he begins to mobilize his army of monstrous Wargals and unleashes the terrifying Kalkara, huge beasts of war that can freeze a man with their eyes. When word of this gets to Araluen, the Ranger Corps are put on high alert. Will, Halt, and another Ranger, Gilan, set off to track and kill the Kalkara. The book ends with Araluen mobilizing for war with Morgarath.

In addition to Will’s journey towards becoming a Ranger, I was particularly taken with his interaction with Horace, one of the castle wards and one of Will’s long-time bullies. Horace is accepted to Battleschool, training to be a knight; however, since he was alienated as an orphan, many of the other knight apprentices begin to bully him, causing Horace, in turn, to lash out at Will. After Halt gets rid of the Battleschool bullies, the two boys reconcile their differences and become fast friends; they see past their conflict and find a true friend in each other. I learned something crucial from this: that hostility is often rooted in something that can be solved with listening and understanding.

I love this series because it can be enjoyed immensely by anyone of any age; Flanagan transformed stories composed for his son into 12 artfully written novels of heroism, humor, and friendship. I highly recommend this book and this series to anyone in need of a fun and satisfying read.

-Adelle W.

The Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library.