Teen Reviews
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
After finding a letter planted by Cassius making it seem like the people of Rome want Caesar dead, Brutus decides that Caesar is abusing his power. After a lot of deliberation, Brutus decides to join the conspirators on their quest to murder Caesar. Brutus discusses how he hasn’t slept a wink and his crisis of conscious but goes on with the plan anyway. A Soothsayer tries to warn Caesar of “the Ides of March,” but Caesar ignores him and proceeds with his victory celebration. Although he is the main character, Caesar dies pretty early on in the play. After his death Marc Antony and Brutus give speeches to the citizens of Rome.
Cassius, the one who convinces Brutus to kill Caesar, is ruthless and malicious. But he seems to genuinely fear what Caesar will do if he is crowned. Brutus is describes a good, honest, and true to heart. He contemplates joining Cassius to kill Caesar despite the fact that Caesar loves him as a friend. But eventually he starts to fear for the future of Rome, as well.
Mark Antony is, at first, regarded as Caesar’s right hand man and kind of insignificant. In fact when the conspirators were discussing killing him, Brutus said they didn’t need to because he was nothing but a ‘limb’ of Caesar and that once Caesar was dead, he would be harmless. Brutus though he was so such a non-threatening character that he even left the room during Marc Antony’s speech. This is when Marc Antony proves Brutus wrong and completely destroys him in the eyes of the Roman people. Read the rest of this entry »
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Siddhartha is an allegorical novel that follows the spiritual journey of an Indian man called Siddhartha during 6th century B.C., the time of Buddha. It begins with the main character, Siddhartha, leaving his family and Brahmin home to search for enlightenment. The novel takes Siddhartha through a series of changes and realizations.
Siddhartha grows up in a prosperous Brahman family. He’s well-loved, but unhappy despite his popularity. He is spiritually dissatisfied and believes the elders in his community have nothing more to teach him. Siddhartha decides to join the Samanas, who are a group of wandering ascetics. His best friend Govinda accompanies him, and the two men spend three years with the Samanas learning how to withstand pain and hunger in an effort to flee the body’s limitations. Although the two friends learn quite a bit from the Samana way of life, they are still dissatisfied and decide to hear the teachings of Gotama Buddha. Govinda is impressed and chooses to join Gotama’s community of monks. Despite Govinda’s urgings and despite recognizing Gotama as the Holiest Man Ever, Siddhartha opts not to follow Gotama. He decides instead that he’s an independent learner and is done with doctrine. The friends part ways.
Siddhartha travels to a nearby town where he is entranced by the beauty of a well-known courtesan named Kamala. He offers himself to her as a student in the arts of love, but is gently rebuffed. Kamala says he needs money, clothes, and shoes. Siddhartha begins working for a wealthy merchant named Kamaswami and becomes Kamala’s lover. For a time, Siddhartha is content with his life and is able to maintain a Samana-like distance from material concerns. Read the rest of this entry »
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Gene is a prep school student at the Devon School in New Hampshire whose best friend is an outgoing and fast-talking athlete named Phineas. Gene finds himself struggling beside Phineas and comes to the conclusion that Phineas wants to sabotage Gene so that he can be the star of the school. When this assumption proves to be false, Gene becomes confused. Gene causes an accident that ends Phineas’ athletic career and his plans to join World War II. Gene struggles with this throughout most of the novel until Phineas finally learns the truth.
Set at an all-boys boarding in New England during World War II, A Separate Peace is a coming-of-age novel about what happens between two best friends one summer that changes their lives forever. Gene is a lonely, intellectual who is constantly striving to be more like Finny. Finny, on the other hand, is a charismatic self-confident athlete with a tendency to talk his way out of trouble.
Under the erroneous assumption that Finny is trying to sabotage Gene so that he can become top in the school, Gene causes an accident that ends Finny’s athletic career and his plans to be join the war. The novel deals with Gene’s struggles dealing with what he has done and the person he is because of it and his eventual confession to Finny. It all leads up to Finny’s death and the events that change Gene forever.
What I liked best about this book is Read the rest of this entry »
Lost by Jacqueline Davies
Lost is a story that alternates between the past and the present and is narrated by Essie. Essie is a 16 year old girl who works at a sewing factory. One day, a mysterious woman shows up at her workplace. The woman’s name is Harriet and both girls slowly become best friends. They learn each other’s secrets then tragedy strikes. A fire occurs and countless people die, including Harriet. In the midst of all the grief and loss, Essie finds herself and things finally start to look up.
Every part in the book is completely unexpected which is what makes it great and interesting. The book has a great plot as well. I mean, it begins with two strangers who meet at a factory, and the encounter flourishes into a great friendship. I would describe this book as flat out amazing. The story does get a bit confusing, but everything falls into place eventually.
As the story goes back to the past, bits and pieces of Essie’s life are revealed. Essie ends up having a hard life at home with her mom and troublesome brother, Saulie. As one reads on, it is learned or can be inferred that Essie’s younger sister, Zelda, is dead. The narrator, having taken care of Zelda since birth, really takes the death to heart. Throughout the story Essie is in denial and continues to talk about Zelda as if she’s still alive. Harriet then turns out to be the runaway daughter of a very rich family, Dorothy Arnold.
I loved the ending. Essie finally finds her passion, and she opens up her own business. The story had a nice, happy ending.
I didn’t like that Harriet had to die in a horrible way. There were also a lot of deaths in the story.
Rate: I would rate this book a 5
Reality Check by Peter Abrahams
Reality Check starts off with a 16 year old football player, Cody. Everything seems to be perfect then things start to go downhill. His girlfriend, Clea, gets sent to Hong Kong for the summer then to make things worse she has to attend a boarding school in Vermont. Cody then suffers from a football injury and ends up dropping out. As things seem to be at their worst, Clea goes missing and Cody drives off to Vermont in hopes of finding out what happened to Clea.
Reality check is a mystery book mixed with a little bit of romance in it. In the book, Cody’s search for Clea gets really intense. The readers also find themselves really immersed in the mystery. The story itself is really mind boggling. At various points in the story it’s hard to determine which characters to trust. You never know who could be a suspect. It keeps your mind wondering “what’s going to happen next?”
The story evokes mixed emotions from the reader as well. All the love, mystery, and violence throughout the story create a heartwarming feeling in the end. Reading Reality Check is like being on a roller coaster of emotions. With each page that you turn a new clue is revealed. The action in the book also keeps you on edge and wanting to find out more.
The best part about Reality Check, in my opinion, is how the mystery is unraveled piece by piece into something you couldn’t have imagined.
I didn’t like how half of the book focused more on Cody’s life and what was going on before Clea went missing. I kind of wanted it to get straight to the action.
Rate: I would rate this book a 4
Eon : Dragoneye reborn by Alison Goodman
In a typical, male-dominated society, a girl is disguised as a boy in order to secure a powerful political position. The position is that of a Dragoneye Lord; each Dragoneye is chosen by one of the twelve mystical dragons and given great power- and wealth. The girl, Eon, (actually Eona) is trying to become a Dragoneye for the sake of her destitute master, and, naturally, the wealth and luxury the position provides. However, the position she expects is not the one she receives; Eon suddenly needs the magical power of a Dragoneye desperately. And on top of that, she is caught up in political struggles that will decide the very fate of the empire, not to mention her own life.
Eon is narrated by the title character, whose real name is Eona. She’s a very relatable character, with believable faults and misgivings that give her much grief. Outside of that, she’s also very street-smart and pragmatic; recognizing the danger she gets into and worrying a lot about it. Another fault, though not one of her own making, is that Eona is a cripple, due to an injury she received at an early age. There are some benefits to this; mainly the fact that it helps keep her gender a secret. Read the rest of this entry »
Betrayed by P.C. and Kristen Cast
Betrayed is the second book of the House of Night series, continuing the story of Zoey Redbird and her new life at the House of Night. After only a month of being a vampire fledgling, Zoey has been selected to be the new leader of the Dark Daughters and has replaced her human boyfriend and best friends with Erik, her “almost” boyfriend, and her Nerd Herd (Damien, Shaunee, Erin, Stevie Rae, and even the stuck-up and rude Aphrodite). Zoey continues to have trouble completely blending in at her new school, with her strange tattoos and affinities for all the elements. Strange murders start to occur, and the evidence is traced back to the House of Night. Zoey’s association with the victims intrigues a detective, but Zoey suspects that her new High Priestess may have something to do with it. Zoey tries to rally together the Dark Daughters to see what Neferet is up to when suddenly Stevie Rae dies. Zoey spends the majority of the book mourning over the loss of her best friend and roommate until her ex-boyfriend winds up missing. Her Imprint with him helps her find him in a system of underground tunnels under a depot in Tulsa, where she also finds “undead” fledglings (vampires who bear a red crescent moon tattoo, instead of blue one) who Stevie Rae is now the “leader” of. Confused by the hostility of Stevie Rae, Zoey tries to help her best friend overcome the wild behavior she has developed after dying. Read the rest of this entry »
Marked by P.C. and Kristen Cast
Marked tells the story of Zoey Redbird, a high school student from Oklahoma who unexpectedly changes into a vampire when a strange young man follows and “marks” her with the tattoos of a vampire fledgling. Zoey is then forced to leave her normal life (school, best friend, and even her boyfriend) behind and is enrolled in The House of Night, a school for fledglings like Zoey to seek refuge from the human world. When she gets to her new school, a lot of her peers and professors notice that she is no ordinary fledgling because the tattoo on her forehead (a blue crescent moon) is completely filled in, instead of being just an outline, like most new vampires. Zoey discovers that being a vampire is not as bad as she first expected, except for having to deal with new hot guys, making new fang-bearing friends, and adjusting to going to school in an almost college-like environment.
This is one of the few books I’ve read more than once. It’s a quick and easy read, and you don’t have to read about vampires that sparkle and have sappy relationships with weak girls that only have one facial expression throughout the entire series. There’s a bit of cursing and a few sexual situations, but the authors try to keep it PG-13. Other than that, it’s a pretty accurate description of a teenage girl having to switch schools in the middle of her high school career and of how difficult it can be to adjust to the different traditions and lifestyles of the people native to the new area you move to. It also provides a different and unique perspective of the vampire world, instead of the one that almost all teenage girls are familiar with.
I’d give Marked a 3.5 out of 5; it’s an interesting read and it’s really easy to get hooked on this series!
Sticks and Stones by Beth Goobie
The book, Sticks and Stones was published and authored by Beth Goobie. The story talks about a young lady, Jujube, who is bullied and tortured in High School by groups of people who call’s her atrocious names. Rating the book, 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest, I would give it a solid 4. There weren’t as much details to the story; it was in fact a great book to read, the ending went along well with the novel. I would recommend any juvenile reader who enjoys short stories which contains a well put together ending.
First, the book mentions a female teenager, Jujube, who is attending a public school Valentine Dance. She is asked to the dance by a young male, Brent, who is also known as Mr. Warp Speed meaning he’ll sexually approach a lady on the first date. After the Valentine dance people notice Jujube and Brent together in his vehicle doing nothing but communicating. The next day Jujube noticed certain guys who holler out her name and called her horrific names, slut, whore and skank. Towards the ending Jujube didn’t take any of the boy’s attitudes, she did an English project towards the name calling that was written in school bathrooms and lockers. She made a great point on how graffiti is a way of communication. The point of the project was to figure out another way to communicate and she chose graffiti. Jujube made the students realize that words are just words, but using it incorrectly creates a whole different aspect into a single word like slut. The word slut is used as a negative term to describe a female, it may be a word but it carries meaning.
The story of Sticks and Stones, wrapped everything well together. The book itself wasn’t as predictable as I thought it would be. What I really didn’t enjoy about this book was the lack of detail put into the story, in the end it was a great book to read. Jujube actually had a happily ever after, Brent apologized and Carlos, the person who was by her side, got to be her new and improved boyfriend. The book, Sticks and Stones was a fantastic and realistic book to refer to, I enjoyed everything about it and I hope other readers agree.
Starstruck by Lauren Conrad
This book is about a girl that wants publicity. She wants the attention. But Madison Parker discovers that not all publicity is good. She turns herself in for stealing and now reality hit her. She has to pay the time for what she has done. She is stuck doing community service.
This book was very interesting to read. It made me want to keep on reading as every chapter ended. The title of this book caught my attention and made me pick it up. I love what the book is about. It talks about the complicated lives of reality starts that are on television but with humor and heart.
This book was very fun and interesting to read with all the craziness that goes on in here.
I loved everything about this book. There’s nothing bad about it.
Rate: I rate this book a 5
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