Tag Archives: survival

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

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12-year-old Julia wakes up one seemingly normal Saturday morning to find that the Earth’s rotation has begun to slow. As the days stretch longer and longer; gravity has been altered, birds’ behavior has oddly changed, and human behavior has shifted. Julia’s world has been shaken up in itself—the gap between her parents has begun to widen, and she has noticed strange behavior in her friends.

As the entire globe experiences an unexpected catastrophe like nothing they’ve ever known, Julia navigates shakily through her conflicted family relationships, weakened friendships, curious first love, and emotional isolation from the world around her. She struggles to understand the changes taking place at a large scale, to the Earth; and at a smaller scale, to her life and the relationships within.

I thought The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker was all in all a beautiful, magical, enchanting story. A majority of this novel’s scenes did capture me in their gorgeously crafted moments. However, the story was mostly anticlimactic, with many obvious foreshadowings that led up to no major event at all. The ending was also extremely disappointing and slightly confusing, and I didn’t enjoy it since there was no satisfaction.

Nonetheless, if you are seeking a thought-provoking read to simply contemplate life and how temporary it is, The Age of Miracles is the book for you.

“It’s never the disasters you see coming that finally come to pass—it’s the ones you don’t expect at all.”

-Karen Thompson Walker, The Age of Miracles

-Lam T.

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free from Libby.

No Safety in Numbers by Dayna Lorentz

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No Safety in Numbers by Dayna Lorentz is a very compelling read. It is filled with action and suspense. It is written from the point of views of Marco, Lexi, Ryan, and Shay. They are all at a mall when Marco finds a box that turns out to be a bomb, filled with a deadly flu. The attempt to remove and deactivate the bomb fails. The deadly virus sweeps through the mall, leaving it on lockdown. 

After the mall goes on lockdown everything spirals out of control. The Senator tries her best to keep everyone calm, but how can you stay calm when you are on a lockdown and you don’t know why?

No Safety in Numbers keeps readers on their toes, ready for what happens next. It captures the problems that teenagers face on a daily basis: Shay who wants to escape daily life but has to deal with her younger sister; Ryan who tries to impress a girl; Marco who feels like an outsider; and Lexi who feels like her mom doesn’t know her.

No Safety in Numbers is very action-packed and you might find yourself yelling at certain characters throughout the book. I highly recommend No Safety in Numbers for anyone who wants a suspenseful, enthralling, and thrilling book.

-Ella Y.

No Safety in Numbers by Dayna Lorentz is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library.

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

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Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer is told in journal entries that sixteen years old Miranda Evans makes. The book is set in a suburban city in Pennsylvania where Miranda and her two brothers and mother live. Her straining friendships, falling grades, and the fact that she is going to be a godmother to Lisa’s, her step-mother, and her father’s child are her major issues. But when the predicted asteroid hits the moon, it causes the moon to move closer to the Earth disturbing the Earth’s gravitational pull. This causes earthquakes, and tsunamis in various parts of the world causing many casualties. Now Miranda and her family have much more to worry about than her school life. The story becomes a survival story and they have to get through these hard times even with volcanoes erupting out of nowhere and very deadly mosquitoes.

Life As We Knew It could be a very relatable story to others in the way Miranda and her family act. It can really make you think of what you would do in their situation and how you would handle it. It makes me think about how grateful I am that I am not going through their situation. The theme of the book is survival. Miranda and her family works hard in the book to stay alive and get through everything together. They stick together through everything and work things out. I really loved their dynamic and how they acted with each other. Their personalities had their own flair that made them stand out from each other. Life as we knew it is an emotional story and it can make you rethink things in life and I really liked that aspect of it.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to anyone, especially if they like dystopian stories. Life As We Knew It is the first book out of the four in the series and I would love to read the next in line: The Dead And The Gone.

-Nicole R.

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free from Overdrive.

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

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The Scorch Trials by James Dashner is the second book in the Maze Runner series. It’s another very good read like the first book in the series. This book starts the second the other book ends in the story so it feels like you are still in the hectic moment that was the end of the first book. In this book, the characters learn more about the world that is outside of the maze and they find out that life outside might be worse than life inside because there is a virus called the flare virus that is taking over the population and turning people insane and zombie-like. In the story, they call people who are infected and zombie-like Cranks.

Overall this book is a great read just like the first book. This book gives us as readers more information on the characters that we have grown to love and also gave us more insight into the even more dangerous situation that the teens have now gotten themselves in. Also, the movie version of this book is good as well but the book is better in my opinion since they change some things in the movie which differentiate it from the book.

-Howard M.

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free from Overdrive.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

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Renowned for its masterful portrayal of a Hobbes-inspired misanthropic view of human nature, William Golding’s Lord of the Flies serves as one of the greatest novels to come out of World War II, despite being published nearly a decade after it. It chronicles the tale of a group of young boys stranded on a remote island, and depicts their struggle to maintain peace and civility without any authority, which eventually culminates in the creation of two radically different tribes – one for violence, one for rationality.

Lord of the Flies opens with the crash of an airplane containing a class full of British schoolboys. Ralph and Piggy, two of these unfortunates, use a conch to summon the rest of the boys who have crashed on the island, who have ranging ages and needs. Initially, Ralph and Jack, the power-hungry leader of the school choir boys, get along with each other in order to be rescued, but as the time drags on with no sign of civilization, the boys begin to crack, and turn to the darkness for salvation.

Over the course of the novel, the bright light of civilization begins to flicker and die in the face of the overwhelming darkness brought about by the boys’ belief that there is a “Beastie” watching over them, waiting to kill them all. Using the fear to his advantage, Jack turns the group against Ralph, Piggy, and those allied with them, and the majority of the boys become savage hunters, and violence becomes their only means of communication.

Overall, Lord of the Flies is a classic read, and definitely raises some interesting points. It reveals that despite humanity appearing to be a civilized group, beneath that mask lies violence and savagery, which is only uncovered when people are distanced from established civilization. In a way, even in a civilized environment, the beast in man continues to rear its ugly head, and unless humans are able to control their violent urges, humanity will end up exactly as Hobbes predicted in Leviathan, living lives that are “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

-Mahak M.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available for download from Overdrive. 

The 100 TV Show Review

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The 100 is a Sci-Fi show consisting of 7 mind-blowing seasons. The show starts off in space when the station’s resources start running low. As a solution, they decide to send 100 juvenile prisoners back to planet Earth to see if it’s survivable. As they get sent to Earth, the 100 battle all sorts of problems. At the start of the show, we get to know the characters well as they arrive on Earth. Throughout the seasons, we get to watch the characters progress and push themselves out of their comfort zone, doing the unthinkable while facing the unpredictable. To truly understand the evolution of the plot, it’s much better to watch the series since I wouldn’t want to spoil it. The battles kick in immediately in the show as it’s a violent series. Despite all the violence, there is an emotional side to the show from all the sacrifices, deaths, stories, etc. It really gets you thinking of what’s out there and shines a light on how people change to survive. I would rate this show a solid 10/10. It’s full of surprises and really got me into the Sci-Fi genre. The details in the show are unexplainable and the plot line is something I’ve never seen before. 

– Kaitlyn Y

Game Review: Among Us

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So as of recently, the newest trending game that everyone seems to know of and play is Among Us. Among Us is a multiplayer game developed by InnerSloth, where players are either a crewmate or an imposter on a spaceship. The crewmates are unaware of who the imposters are, so their job is to figure out who the imposters are while completing tasks assigned by the game. Tasks could include things such as cleaning out air vents, downloading files, and readjusting the navigation course of the spaceship. The imposters’ job is to kill and take out as many crewmates as possible without getting caught or before time runs out. The way crewmates figure out who the imposters are is by keeping a lookout for any suspicious activity. Suspicious activity includes killing a fellow crewmate, hiding in a vent (something only imposters can do), or not completing tasks. There are also ways to figure out who for sure is a crewmate, such as seeing if someone takes out the trash (a feature only crewmates can do). There are other features that add on to this concept, such as security cameras and imposters being able to sabotage or create a hazard that needs quick fixing, the crewmates on the spaceship.

In my opinion, I think that this game is a great game because it is fun and people can enjoy the game together. It is very easy for friends to play together, with the use of a private lobby and a game code. Playing for hours on end is super easy because the game never gets boring. To summarize, Among Us is a great time killer and bonding experience for you and your friends, so if you have a free afternoon on a weekend, get some of your friends together and hop on this great game!

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

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I recently finished the newly-released prequel to the well-known Hunger Games series, written once again by author Suzanne Collins. I loved the original trilogy so much and consider them among my favorite books, so, as you can imagine, the idea of a prequel was very exciting. Originally, the Hunger Games series was set in a post-war, dystopian era in the country of Panem, and the setting in this book is no different, other than the fact that the events within it took place earlier in time. 

Panem is divided into twelve districts of people with the Capitol as the grand center and overarching control over all. The point of the Games is to allow each district to remember their overwhelming powerlessness against the Capitol, as every year two tributes from each district  between the ages of twelve and eighteen are reaped and then forced to fight to the death in a gruesome, twisted show of entertainment, similar to ancient gladiators, while the rest of the country watches them live on television. 

Now, contrary to popular belief, this book is neither about Haymitch or Finnick, who were both characters from the original trilogy who would have indeed had interesting backstories, but rather about another intriguing character: President Coriolanus Snow. Snow was never a central character in the original trilogy, so we know little to nothing of his backstory and character, other than the fact that he is considered the trilogy’s corrupt villain, in the form of the cold, menacing leader of Panem. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes explores Coriolanus as to what he was like as an eighteen year old Capitol boy. From the very beginning, you can easily see how this young man will inevitably rise to power. 

This book, though often going at a slow pace, gives you insight to what life was like before Katniss ever came into the picture, and before the Games were the lively, twisted events that they were, as Coriolanus is a mentor. Funny enough, Coriolanus ended up being the mentor of the girl tribute of District Twelve, Lucy Gray. This was much to Coriolanus’s dismay, as being part of the Snow family entails a sense of superiority and importance, and being given a tribute from poor and lowly associated District Twelve is nothing short of a slap in the face for him. 

The concepts this book presents are interesting, the plot featuring many twists and turns, and there many notable characters throughout the story.  You never quite know what will happen on the other side of the page. The story unfolds slowly, but with very sharp bumps in the road. I highly recommend this book, especially if you enjoyed the other three installments of the series.

-Aisha E.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free from Overdrive.

Love of Life by Jack London

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Love of Life - Jack London for Android - APK Download

A gold prospector in the American West sprained his ankle crossing a small river on his way back. Abandoned by his partner, Bill, he searched the wilderness alone. The foot injury made every step very difficult for him, and what was more terrible was the unbearable hunger. In desperation, he divided his treasure equally into two parts, carefully hid one part of it, and trudged on with the other. To his great joy, he found a wounded grouse on his way. He seemed to see hope, and tried to chase the grouse with great pain in his feet. He got lost. Now he had expended quite a lot of energy, so he chose to divide the rest of the sands into two more portions, but this time he poured one of them down on the ground. Before long, he threw away all the sands. When he was very weak, he met a sick wolf. He found the sick wolf following him, licking his blood. In this way, two dying creatures, dragging their dying bodies, hunt each other across the moor. In order to get back alive, at last the man won battle. He killed the wolf and drank its blood and survived.

In Love of Life, London places the protagonist in the treacherous northern frontier environment, facing the harsh reality: hunger and death, so that he understands the power of nature and his own smallness and vulnerability. London, however, has always been reluctant to conform and confine himself to a strictly defined naturalistic framework. He gave the gold prospectors in Love of Life the courage to face the harsh reality, the will to overcome adversity, and the courage to become superhuman to the strong. Therefore, Love of Life should not be a single pure naturalistic work, but an organic combination of naturalism and romanticism, which is the strength of the novel art and one of the real reasons for its enduring popularity. This plot in the novel also reflects the cancer of the human soul in the modern civilized society. Industrial civilization is advancing by leaps and bounds, science and technology are changing with each passing day, and products and consumer goods are greatly enriched, which arouses the infinite expansion of human desire. All the efforts made by people are ultimately aimed at obtaining material wealth and filling their personal desires. When the worship of money and egoism become the values of the civilized world, the relationship between people is only economic interests in the final analysis. In order to pursue the maximization of economic benefits, mutual use, intrigues, intrigues, extortion are common, spiritual degradation, moral decay is inevitable.

-Coreen C.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

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William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a novel about a group of young boys who have been stranded on an island, without any connection to civilization. They struggle to maintain order and peace on the island, as the group becomes split between two “tribes:” a violent, uncivilized tribe, and a more rational tribe dedicated to becoming rescued.

The novel begins with the boys recovering from an airplane crash. The boys discover that they are stranded on the island alone, without any grownups or methods of communication with the outside world. Ralph, a boy approximately twelve years old, befriends an intelligent, but physically weak boy nicknamed Piggy. Together they find a conch at the beach, which they blow into to rally all the other boys scattered about the island. The boys all decide to vote Ralph as “chief” since he possess the conch, infuriating Jack, who leads a group of choir boys and wants to lead all of the boys on the island.

Despite their struggle for power, Jack and Ralph initially get along, and they focus the group’s efforts on building a signal fire to contact ships for rescue and shelters for survival. However, the two being to drift apart as Jack begins hunting. Hunting causes Jack to reveal his more savage and violent nature, causing him to become less focused on the group’s priorities, which is mainly getting rescued. Furthermore, the group begins to collapse even further as they discover that there is a “Beast” who watches over their signal fire, panicking all the boys.

Ultimately, the Lord of the Flies is a classic novel, and I would highly recommend it. It is relevant today because of its themes on human nature. It reveals that despite what people appear like, beneath that civilized mask is violence and savagery, uncovered when people are forced away from civilization. The novel focuses on the boys struggle to remain order and peace as they drift apart.

-Josh N. 

Lord of the Flies by William Golding is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available for download from Overdrive.