Wamb-Blog

Don’t Turn Around By Michelle Gagnon is a suspenseful action-packed story centered around Noa, a sixteen-year-old whose parents tragically died and who is now part of the foster system. She lives off the grid and uses her hacking abilities to stay to herself, that is until she wakes up in a mysterious warehouse attached to an IV. She hitches a ride with the fire bridge after starting a small fire and escaping the men in the warehouse. She soon will meet with Peter the lead hacker running a forum called /ALLIANCE/. Peters attempts to use his hacking abilities to learn more about “Project Persephone” when he has a dangerous encounter with Mr.Mason, and his men confiscate Peter’s computer. This pushes him to dig deeper into his research while Noa, now investigating the same project, discovers that the project involved fostering kids from her past. This reveals that this company has been experimenting with foster children including her. Peter and Noa decide to work together to tear down Mason’s website. While they take this website down Noa learns more about the disturbing things they did to her in the warehouse.  She soon discovers that a thymus has been implanted into her body which is the potential cure for the disease PEMA. This same disease is what killed Peter’s brother years ago. On their journey, they meet Zeke, who is an ally that has also been experimented on in his past. Zeke was in the system with Noa and remembers her from their past. Zeke informs the two that Mr. Mason has used an entire network of foster children to find the cure for the chronic disease PEMA and that Noa may be the key to that cure. In their final attempts to learn more about the experiments, they attempt to sneak into the warehouse, but it catches fire. Suddenly Peter wakes up in a hospital, with his mother by his side, learning that he was the only survivor from that night. Days later, Peter receives a new computer from Noa. He is to use this to get /ALLIANCE/ up and running again. Noa uses this forum to expose Mr.Mason and his experiment and asks others to join them in the fight against Mr.Mason and his operation. 

“Pride and Prejudice” is about the Bennet family: Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Katherine (Kitty), and Lydia. When Mrs. Bennet hears that Mr. Bingley and a few of his friends and family are moving into the area she thinks that Mr. Bingley will end up with one of her daughters. They all get invited to a few balls where Mr. Bingley, Mr. Darcy, Miss Bingley, Mrs. Hurst, and Mr. Hurst are. Mr. Bingley takes a quick interest in Jane. Mr. Darcy starts to fall for Elizabeth, though he won’t let anyone know. Jane ends up sick at Mr. Bingley’s home and Elizabeth stays with her until she gets better. Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst find Elizabeth annoying and they make fun of her. Then, Mr. Bennet’s cousin, Mr. Collins, comes into town with the intention of marrying one of the Miss Bennets. He ends up deciding on asking Elizabeth, but one day, after she walks into town, she meets Mr. Wickham and has a little crush on him. Elizabeth turns down Mr. Collins’ marriage request and he ends up with Elizabeth’s friend, Charlotte Lucas. Elizabeth learns from Mr. Wickham that he knows Mr. Darcy and that Mr. Darcy was a terrible person. Elizabeth is invited to hang out with Charlotte and Mr. Collins and it turns out that Mr. Darcy is the nephew of Mr. Collins’ neighbor and Mr. Darcy is there. Mr. Darcy tells Elizabeth that he’s in love with her and neither of them know what to do. He gives her a letter that tells her that, actually Mr. Wickham is the terrible person. Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle get invited to stay at the childhood home of Mr. Darcy. He turns up there again and they start to actually talk and hang out more. Elizabeth gets a letter from home saying that Lydia has run off with Mr. Wickham and gotten married to him, but no one can find him. She runs home immediately and things between her and Mr. Wickham are awkward after she knows about how he really is. Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy starts showing up at the Bennet’s house to spend time with Jane and Elizabeth, respectively. Jane ends up with Mr. Bingley and Elizabeth decides she is actually in love with Mr. Darcy, too.

This was a really good book, honestly. It is a little hard to get into the language because it’s a little flowery and 1800s UK English, but after a while you really start to get into it. It’s really cute as an enemies to lovers trope. I would recommend it to anyone who would want to get into the classics because it’s a fun read.

“The Miseducation of Cameron Post” is a coming of age story set in the 1980’s about a young girl named Cameron. Early on in the book, her parents die in an accident when she is in middle school. Not only does she have to deal with the sudden loss of her parents, but she is now being raised by her very religious Aunt Ruth as well as her grandmother. It becomes clear to her very early on that they won’t get along as much as her aunt tries. The book follows Cameron’s teenage years as she navigates having to live as a queer teenager in rural Montana while still attempting to keep up appearances around her aunt. She runs around a lot with her friends and random girls, and is able to keep these secrets from her Aunt until she gets caught with her best (girl?)friend, Coley. Nothing came of it at first until Coley eventually confessed to everything, which ended with Cameron being sent to a conversion therapy camp. This section of the book is where Cameron experiences the most growth. She finds a small community within the other members of the camp which helps her get through and eventually escape with them. 

     This book isn’t really what I expected. Although I didn’t even like Cameron, I could still sympathize with her and can understand her  recklessness. That’s how I feel about most of these characters. If they were people I actually knew I probably wouldn’t be able to stand most of them, but now I can understand why they react and feel they way they do. It’s terrible that Cameron was shipped off to that camp in the first place but I can half-understand that her Aunt just did what she thought was best for her. It’s just sad that she couldn’t even begin to understand or accept Cameron before rushing to “fix” her. This book really shows how someone’s fear can have such an impact on themselves and those they project that fear onto, which I still find to be relevant today. 

A Court of Mist and Fury By: Sarah J. Maas is a fantasy book taking place is Pythrian. This is the second book in the serious. A Court of Mist and Fury picks right up from the end of the first book, A Court of Thorns and Roses. The book is written and based on a girl names Feyre. Feyre was a mortal human, who then broke the curse on  pythrain. After breaking the curse she has now became immortal and has to learn how to navigate being immortal. She soon finds out that she is no longer in love with the man she thought she was, she is bonded with the High lord of the Night Court, while being trapped in the Spring Court one day Ryhsand, the High Lord of the Night Court comes and saves her. Throughout the book Feyre is learning how to navigate her new found powers and trying to find herself again. She has to learn how to deal with heartbreak and finding her new love, her mate, the person she is bound to forever. But nothing is ever easy, she is in the middle of a war and she is taken back by the High Lord of the Spring Court who thinks she was brain washed into wanting to stay in the Night Court. What will Feyre do to get back to her lover, her mate?

I personally loved this book, it had romance, and thrill in it. It kept you on your toes. As soon as you thought one thing was ending somthing else exciting happend. The books ends and the next one takes off. Sarah J. Maas does and excelent job keeping readers engaged in her books. I am totally going to keep reading the rest of the series.

“Room” by Emma Donoghue is an amazing book, it is a psychological trip, but it is an amazing read. It is narrated by an uneducated 5 year old boy who has lived his whole life in this room. His mother was kidnapped when she was 19 and was constantly raped eventually becoming pregnant and giving birth to the main character Jack. We are introduced to their life in this room, living day to day, finding ways to distract themselves from boredom but not to rot their brains. Eventually they escape by pretending Jack died and having the kidnapper Old Nick take him out in a rug to bury him somewhere, but he gets out of the rug and escapes Old Nick and gets help for his mother. After the police rescue his mother, Jack and her are admitted to a hospital where they are checked in and eventually move to a mental institution. Jack is not used to the world at all and needs a lot of time to adjust, while his mother is finally able to process what exactly she has gone through. Jack gets the hang of life outside of the room a lot quicker than his mom, and has to go live with his grandmother for a while. He explores the outside world, but his mother is still having trouble and eventually tries to kill herself. Jack continues to explore the world while his mother gets better, and she eventually does. After she gets better they both go and see the room they were trapped in for so long, for one final time. They say goodbye and are finally able to move on. “Room” is an amazing story, it has so many plot points I was not expecting going into it. I would recommend it to anyone who likes psychological thrillers, but you should stay away from it if you have problems with rape or suicide. “Room” is a great piece of literature and if it sounds interesting to you, you should check it out.

“Animal Farm” By George Orwell is a very crazy yet real story. It tells a story about farm animals being tired of how they are being treated so once they get the chance they decide to rebel against the humans. They kick the humans off the farm, and eventually make their own rules that basically state they are not going to be humans. It gets really crazy as the story goes on because the pigs eventually rule the farm. The farmer comes back with a group to take back the farm, and they lose. The story just gets better as it goes on, or worse if you decide to read it.

When I first read this book I wasn’t expecting much, but when I got to the end it really made me think about a lot of things. Especially all the references in the book about the Russian Revolution. The book was a very fast read, and it seems boring at first but it picks up real fast. I really do recommend this book to anyone who just wants to think, and wants to see how animals do ruling a farm. All of the plot twists really do get you thinking.

Also not really a trigger warning, but if you think the government is watching you DO NOT READ THIS!

“The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak is a deeper content type of book in my own opinion. This is because the book is narrated by death, yes, death. Death is the perspective we read this book from which can be a little confusing in the beginning part of the book. However, some of the main characters included a girl name Liesel, who is a little girl getting taken to a new home along with her brother — Werner. It starts off with them being on a train along with their mother. However, everyone is coughing on that train and so is her brother while he is on his mothers’ lap. At some point he stops coughing, Liesel realizes and comes to see that her brother is now dead. They have to stop the train and bury him, where as he gets buried the guard drops his handbook. This is where Liesel steals the handbook and gets her nickname from death — the book thief. Although she stole the book and others later on in the story, we come to find out that she is not able to read or write. Long story short, she gets taken to her new foster parents, where they come to find out that the boy had perished on their way to them. Her new mother– Rosa is very hard and aggressive with her, however we come to find out that she actually loves Liesel. Hans is her new father and he is very caring and gentle towards her. While living there she meets other children while in school and becomes best friends with Rudy who is obsessed with the famous racer Jesse Owens. All this is being taken place during World War II and the event of the Holocaust. These characters are all German but actually have some history with a Jew family. Later on in the story, a Jewish man comes for help to them because he is part of the family they have a connection with. Rosa, Hans, and Liesel try to hide him while trying not to draw to much attention towards the family.

I personally liked the book although it was very hard for me to understand in the beginning. It was very interesting and really good to me because of the historical events that were in the book (the Holocaust is something I was interested in learning about). While reading the book, it was hard to put down because of how interesting the book was. I heard that there was also a movie so that will be something I watch in the future while comparing it to the book. I heard that many people thought this book was life changing although I personally did not believe it was. Like stated before I did think it was good but I do not believe it was to the hype it was receiving. I personally would give this book a 4/5 and recommend it.

This book is the story of Ove, the typical old grumpy man, yet who is still somewhat friendly, who through trials and tribulations finds his peace with the world after a life of ups and downs. Backman uses flashbacks to tell this story, as the reader keeps reading about Ove’s childhood which is the past, and Ove in his present situation as a 59 year old man living in Sweeden. Ove’s first trial is his mother’s death which happened when he was 8. Next Ove has to deal with the death of his father when he was just 16. This left him the house to deal with all by himself. To make this summary briefer, Ove had to drop out of school in order to look out for his house and his own well-being so he could make money. These events were really the start of a spiral for Ove. He had to deal with things like job loss, suicidal thoughts, legal battles, neighbor issues, etc. Meanwhile, Backman doesn’t make this whole story negative. Ove also finds love throughout the story. The story truly is a full circle because it concludes with Ove finding true happiness in the world around him with the help of his newfound friends and neighbors. This book truly is a heartfelt piece and I feel like even though we as readers might not have been through as much as Ove, we can relate to the struggles and difficulties that life throws at us. Even though this story is fiction and made up, it is a realistic piece of literature which is typically not what I read. I would recommend this book to anybody who likes a bumpy ride of up and down emotions and also likes to relate to the book that they read.

“The Girl on the Train” by Paula Hawkins is about a girl who rides on the train every day and watches out on the people on the road next to her as she rides. She watches her ex-husbands road very closely. One night when she was drunk she went to her ex husbands house and believes she witnessed a murder. She sobers up to remember it as it went on and eventually solve the murder. I love this story and how it brings up alcohol and sobriety in the author’s life. I was able to predict one of the twists and not the other one. I really liked it and it was a good story that I would highly recommend.

The book “The Kite runner” explores the life of a wealthy Afghan boy and his servant that can basically  be considered his best friend. The wealthy boy and his servant were very social to each other but an event caused them to grow apart. The book follows the struggles of the rich boy who has betrayed his servant friend for his own good. The betrayal was stuck into his mind even after moving to a different country

I would personally recommend this book for those who want to learn about a different country. There is a lot to learn about the country and their culture. The book was not my usual genre and I only wanted to be able to explore more about different genres. It is not a normal book where the story is predictable and readers would have to fully understand. This book is fictional but his stories can also be relatable to students.

Trigger warning: This story has violence and has a mind-boggling plot twist.