The beautiful between

The Beautiful Between

This book is realistic, that doesn't make everything seems so happy. Its not a depressing book but it doesn't make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Connelly is the girl that everyone always forgets about. She tries her best to go unnoticed and is very good at it. That is until golden boy Jeremy Cole comes into your life. He is the most popular most loves boy around. Every girl is dying for his attention, that’s why Connelly has no idea why the great Jeremy Cole would ever befriend her. They are from totally different worlds, but Connelly and Jeremy have more in common than anyone would have ever though. Jeremy and Connelly are there for each other in a way that no one else could ever understand. Soon after they become friends, Jeremy and Connelly are inseparable, they are so close they are like family. Like most families they have their problems, but in the end they are always there for each other. They go through happiness and tragedy together and they keep each other strong.

This is a great book about friendship and overcoming problems. This is first teen book I have read in a long time that is not a romance novel. It was so refreshing and awesome. This book totally changed the way I perceive high school. This book showed me that things that happen in high school don’t always revolve around relationships. High school is about friendship, and having new experiences. This book will keep you turning the pages.

Just FYI this book does have some swearing.

~Abandon~ By Meg Cabot

   Abandon is an amazing book by Meg Cabot.  She retells the Persephone myth in a modern teenage version.   This book is a fun mixture of fiction and non-fiction.  Bringing facts from mythology into the book.  This book is young-adult, so there  are a few kisses.

 

   The story of Persephone is a story in Greek mythology.  This book is mainly about love, obsession, death.  Hades fell in love with the Goddess of Springtime's teenage daughter, Persephone.  Hades then kidnapped her and took her to the Underworld.  He thought that if he did this, she would love him forever.  Persephone's mom went and made an offer with Hades to let her go. 

   How would you feel if you died, then came back to life?  In Abandon, Pierce Oliviera knows exactly what it's like.  She dies and finds herself in between heaven and hell. This is the place where her fate will be decided. In this place she meets a handsome god of the Underworld and his name is John. When her body is finally revived, she can only think about him. 

   Pierce moves to a new town and finds herself having problems fitting in. The really weird thing about this new place is that she keep seeing John all over the place. Things are bound to get interesting.  

  

   This book is very interesting.  The in-between world sounds really interesting. This book really gives me a different look at what could happen when you die.  Coming back to life once you are dead might make me a little crazy, just like Pierce. I liked the character. She seemed to keep her feelings to herself, just like me.  

   Even though this book changes the way most people have been taught about death, I couldn't put this book down.  I give this book an A+. I have always been a fan of Meg Cabot and after reading this book, I have to say this was her best!

The Emerald Atlas

       The Emerald Atlas was an okay book. It has a good plot and story, but the writing was kind of crappy. Anyway, this book is about three kids everyone calls orphans, even though they're not orphans. These kids, Kate, Michael and Emma, have been shuffled from orphanage to orphanage for a decade. When they were young, their parents had left them at a mysterious orphanage and vanished without a trace.
       When Kate, Michael and Emma mess up at another orphanage, they are sent to a strange island called Cambridge Falls. The orphanage is a huge mansion and they are the only children at Cambridge Falls. When Kate, Michael, and Emma go exploring in the mansion, they find a hidden room where everything seems to shift around. In this room, they find a largish book that is completely empty and has a green cover, hence the name The Emerald Atlas. This green book is obviously magic. If you put a picture into it, the book will transport you to that specific instant. The children discover this book's power when it transports them to a horrible time that they have to fix.
       The Emerald Atlas is a book about family ties, strong bonds, the importance of a promise, and how powerful family love is. I would recommended The Emerald Atlas to anyone. It's intense and strong. It also has a good message behind it. Grade B+

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, is a fictional novel set in the future of what used to be North America, but is now split up into the 12 districts of Panem. The Capitol of the country thrives off of authority, and after the districts rebelled, wanted to do anything in their power to make them suffer. For example, food shortages and barriers around the districts make it almost impossible to live, and impossible to escape. To prove their power over the districts they create The Hunger Games. In the games, each district is forced to send two tributes, a boy and a girl (between the ages of 12-18) to a Capitol-run arena in which they will participate in a most epic fight to the death. Outside of the arena, people see the Hunger Games not only as a sporting event, but also an opportunity for receiving food should the tribute from their district survive. Every moment of the games is broad casted to all of Panem.

Katniss Everdeen, from district 12, volunteers for battle as a substitute for her younger sister Primrose, after she is chosen to compete in the games. Throughout her experience in the arena, she fights against starvation, dehydration, wildlife, wounds, and most of all, the other tributes. One by one the competitors succumb to death. Last standing is Katniss and her district partner, Peeta Millark. Forced into killing each other, the two decide upon a strategy that forces the producers to make a decision which may change the tradition of the games forever.

It seems ridiculous that people would send their children out to fight to the death merely for entertainment. But Suzanne Collins brings up an interesting point. Could things ever get so bad that making that type of sacrifice would seem worth it? For instance, could hunger and lack of freedom ever sway us into making those types of decisions? The willingness to sacrifice our own family members for the slightest possibility of getting something to eat? It sounds crazy, but it is definitely not impossible.

The Hunger Games was one of the best books I've ever read. Since it is written in present tense, throughout the whole book I was unaware of what would happen, and who would survive. From the title page, to the last words, I was kept in suspense and didn't want to set the book down. I absolutely LOVED the intensity of the games. There are some scenes of the book that are gory, but they are totally worth it. A+

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

I probably need to begin by saying that this book is totally based on Greek and Roman mythology. Also, this is the first book in The Heroes of Olympus series, the next big adventure in the Percy Jackson universe. This book is suspenseful, action-packed and keeps you turning page after page. If you have read the Percy Jackson books, you know that things aren’t always as they seem.

This book begins with Jason, a fifteen year-old boy, waking up on a bus on his way to the Grand Canyon: and he can’t remember a single thing, not even himself. He finds out that his best friends are Leo Valdez, who was orphaned as a child and is good at building things, and Piper Mclean, whose father is a famous actor. He apparently goes to Wilderness School, a school for “bad kids”. Then a freak storm hits them and they get attacked by an evil creature called a venti, a storm monster.

The three are then rescued by an unhappy Annabeth, who is one of the main characters in the Percy Jackson series. When she rescued them, she was actually looking for someone named Percy Jackson, the mighty son of Poseidon. Then she tells them a shocking secret: they are demigods, half human, and half god. She takes them to a strange place called Camp Half-Blood, a safe place for demigods, and so they can be claimed by their godly parents.

The three friends are placed into a world of monsters, legends and gods. A god stole Jason’s memory and his friends discover some of what role they are suppose to play in saving the world. This is a very fast-paced book and is packed full of action. The friends fight monsters, meet legends from Greek mythology, and talk to gods. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone.

This story is very well written and kept me turning page after page every night I would pick up the book. One thing that I thought was interesting in comparison to the Percy Jackson books is this book was written in third person instead of first and focuses on one of the three main characters, each one taking two chapters at a time. Rick Riordan is a fantastic author. He did a great job portraying the characters by making them easily likable. I also really enjoyed how he incorporated some of the characters from the series before (Chiron, Annabeth, the Hunters, etc.).

As I said before, this book is full of action and defiantly worth the read, even though it is 552 pages long. One suggestion I have is if you don’t know much about Greek and Roman mythology, you might want to get some background on that so it will make more sense. Also, you might want to read the Percy Jackson series first so you can pick up on some of the jokes and slang they use. This book is a good one and I give it an A+!