Wither

Wither by Lauren DeStefano, is a post-apocalyptical book where everyone is genetically mutated so that men die at 25 and women die at 20.

Rhine is a 16 year old girl who lives in a world totally different from ours. She lives in a world where girls as young as 12 to 13 get married and have children just so the human race won't die out.

Rhine is kidnapped while going to a job interview in NYC. She is taken to Florida sold to and is forced to marry Linden.

She has to live with Linden's father Housemaster Vaughn, her sister wives Jenna and Cecily and multitude of staff including Gabriel who she quickly befriends.

Although Linden is a very sweet man and really does love Rhine all Rhine wants to do is find her twin brother and go home.

Wither is an interesting book because I have never read anything like is before. I think it is unique, different, and is a real page turner.

I believe the author did a great job of giving sensory details so you can really feel everything she is feeling, smell everything she is smelling, and see everything she is seeing. This book shows me that I should live my life and enjoy it. The characters in the book have such a short life that they never have the joy of growing old with someone they love or seeing their child grow up. If the world was like this book I would be a totally different person I would have no parents to help me and nurture me I would probably already have a child of my own. Which is just gross to think about!

I would recommend this book; it is creative, new and I can’t wait for the sequel. The only thing advice I would give to future readers is that some parts of the book are kind of awkward and a little creepy.

A-

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

Percy is tired and confused. He doesn't know where he is. He has no recollection of his past. All he knows is that he needs to get back to where he's from. However, he has no idea how. He's been chased the last few days by monsters, claiming that he smelled bad. The stench of a half- blood (half human and half god) must be pretty hard to get rid of. Yes, that's right, Percy is a half-blood. His father is Poseidon the sea god, or as he is known as in this book, Neptune.
The doors of Death are open. All the most terrible monsters and souls are able to come back. The reason behind this is that Death has been captured by Gaea, the goddess of the earth. She is extremely dangerous, even when she is not fully conscious. The most terrible part, she's almost awake. If she awoke, then the world would be in serious trouble, everyone would die, not excluding the Olympians to this terrible fate. Juno (or Hera) is trying to stop this from happening. Little does Percy know, he and his friends are all part of this plan.
Percy is fighting for his life, but for some reason the Gorgons can't kill him, and he can't kill them. After a daring escape, Percy runs into an old lady, who he doesn't know at first, that directs him to a camp. A camp so different from the one he is from. The problem is, Percy doesn't know where he is from. Percy arrives at the camp, almost dying in the process. Once he reaches the camp, he starts to remember his past. The camp he arrives at is called Camp Jupiter, named after the king of the gods.
While at the camp, Percy acquires two friends, Hazel and Frank. Together, the three half- bloods go on a quest. They nearly die quite a few times as they fight monsters. Hazel and Frank revisit their past, which include a lot of painful memories. Percy, however, is just getting more and more confused as bits and pieces of his life comes together.
Frank finds out he has a gift. He discovers that even though he is the son of Mars and is distantly related to Percy. Frank's gift saves the day more that once, as the half-bloods battle it out with monsters.
While on their adventure, they meet some interesting people. Some are good, and some are bad. Not everyone they meet is human, however. They meet a few gods, as well as giants. They collect some creatures on the way. Not to mention meeting the Amazons, and of course, nearly dying.
The Son of Neptune, sequel to The Lost Hero, is a great and humorous book. Before you read it, I would recommend reading the series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which the series The Heroes of Olympus happens to be built off of. This book is full of action, adventure, and near death experiences. Not only that, but it is educational too, considering that it contains a lot of Greek and Roman mythology. This book would defiantly go into the genres of action, adventure, and historical fiction. I loved learning about mythology in a fiction setting and love the work of Rick Riordan.
I loved this book, and am glad I read it. The book was funny, and had more than enough adventure to keep me happy. I would recommend The Son of Neptune to anybody. For me this book receives an A on the rating chart.

Breathless by Lurlene McDaniel

Travis Morrison is a champion diver and swimmer, as well as one of the most popular kids in his school. His future is bright with a college scholarship from diving. Darla, his girlfriend, is one of the hottest girls in school and his best friend Cooper is always there for him, but no one could do much when cancer hits you. In this Fiction book, we follow Travis as he deals with this.

When fooling around in the summer at a lake, Travis decides to dive from a tall cliff that is at least 100 feet tall. As he hobbles up the cliff, he feels a deep pain in his right thigh. At the time he doesn't know that he has a tumor there. When Travis jumps, he breaks the bone in his leg which later has to be amputated. No one is sure how to react, in particular Travis, who seems to withdraw,especially from his parents who seem to
truly not understand what has happened.

At first, there are just minor difficulties and his recovery is bright. As the cancer
spreads though, Travis sees how bad the cancer life is, where you have to stay
hooked to a machine, and doesn't want it for himself. Travis decides that he does
not want to be hooked up to life support, and would much rather die than be
"hooked with false hope." Travis tells Cooper this, and that if it did happen, he
would want Cooper himself to kill him if no one else does.

This book was the most depressing book I have ever read, and I cried for 6 hours
straight after reading this. For at least two weeks I was talking about it with all my
friends. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes drama; this book, I
promise you, will make you cry. It makes me so grateful for the health I have. In
the media today, it has been stressed about so much that people hate it; suicide.
You might just think it's another one of those books that is adding to it. Honestly, it
has a lot about suicide, sure, but I have to say, would you want to be hooked to a
machine, with no hope? Feeling pain, and agony everyday just because you didn't
have the choice? Well, I don't think it's fair.

The only criticism I have for this book is probably the alternating person

views. See, they don't exactly introduce you, so the first few

"chapters"/ names (there are no chapters, just the alternating names of

who you are following at the moment) are very confusing. This book's

lexile is also probably low because of the book size. Honestly though, this

is a tough book for only 165 pages.

Over all though, this was one of my favorite books, because it teaches you a ton of
life lessons about living life while you can.

Grade: A-

Rating: PG-13 (because of real life experiences,

and a scene with Darla and Travis which isn't too bad.)

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Just a heads up...mostly girls will find interest in this book, but it can be read by anyone!

O.K., picture yourself as an odd "something" coming out of a weird spacecraft no one has ever seen before, except you. All the people of earth stare at you with confused, scared, and questioning eyes. You wonder why everyone looks at you only because you have a different complexion. It's normal to you. You have feelings. Why are people treating you so different? What's wrong with all these crazy people?!

Now Aibileen is a black maid living in Jackson, Mississippi, who works for a white family and is raising her seventeenth white child. She finds herself in a situation as if she is a different species to all white people. Aibileen has her own bathroom in the Leefolt's home. She must shop at a black market and live in an all black neighborhood. This is the same for almost all African Americans who live in America before Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. Although she deals with this everyday, she has never been disrespectful to her white families as they are to her. Aibileen keeps quiet unlike her best friend Minny Jackson. Minny always says what's on her mind whether it should be shared or not. She can never hold on to a thought before it blurts out of her. But when Aibileen asks her to write about their lives as maids with Miss Skeeter, opinionated Minny finds herself saying yes. Miss Skeeter wants to write; become a journalist. When she gets the idea of writing about the help she can't seem to get rid of the thought; even if it means prison or the loss of a life.

These three women take the risk of writing about a black person's life and the people and families in it. Because of the racial problems at this point in time, no one has ever shown good feelings about their help, let alone write a book about them. In this well written novel, you find yourself pulled in to what it is like living in a divided world. Miss Skeeter and the help take a huge step in trying something new that could change their lives.

Even though this book has a sad reality, it is very humorous. Kathryn Stockett writes about the help from experience, she too had a black family maid. I thought about how these people keep their hopes up even when they have so little and are treated so differently, just because they are African American. Everyone goes through a challenge at some point in their life and in this story they are solving theirs. I really thought this book had a great plot and showed that everyone can look different on the outside, but have their own feelings inside. Although I really liked this book it does have a bit of swearing, however no f bombs are dropped. I don't have a big problem with swearing as long as it's meaningful, and in this book it mostly is. But if you are in any way, appalled by any swearing...still read this book! This book is entertaining and well written. I was drawn in right from the start; even though I was very tired from a long day, I stayed awake to read the beginning of this story. I'm glad I did because I so much enjoyed The Help.

This book relates to a lot of things the world is still struggling with. For example religion, gays, and other forms of diversity. When I read this book I felt like it was telling about all of our different personalities. I didn't find myself disagreeing with really anything the author wrote about. As I thought about this book not all of us have the same opinions, but we do all matter. The Help is one of the best books I've ever read.

Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen was an amazing book about a remarkable teenage girl named Auden. Her parents divorced when she was young, forcing her to grow up faster than any normal child. She always tried to please her mom in all she did. That includes her schoolwork, which she was always working on.

When Auden decides to go visit her father, her new step mom, and her new baby step sister, it could not have been more hectic. Auden's dad was working on writing a book, leaving her step mom doing everything with the baby. It doesn't help that the kid would not stop crying. Auden's dad would not have anything to do with the baby or herself. While Auden was walking about one day, she met a boy named Eli.

Eli was a quiet boy who liked to keep to himself. As it turns out, Eli's best friend had died in a car accident. Since that had happened, he had backed off from society. Until Auden showed up. When the two got to talking, Eli realized that Auden had missed being a child and had not done what normal children do. For example, she had never ridden a bike.

Eli took Auden around town and did things with her that most of us enjoy during childhood. He showed her what she had been missing. Night after night they went on adventures. They were soon inseparable. Eventually, Eli came out of his shell and Auden got to relive childhood.

Sarah Dessen is a brilliant writer. I agree with her on many outlooks. In Along for the Ride Auden's parents are divorced. A lot of parents do divorce, forcing their children to grow up a lot faster. Millions of kids have to live without one parent or the other.

I enjoyed reading this book very much. Although I'm not usually a romantic novel reader, this one was exceptionally good. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a good book to read. I enjoyed reading this and there was nothing in it that disappointed me.
Grade: A

Num8ers by Rachel Ward

First things first, this book is British. No biggie, right? Harry Potter is British. HUGE biggie. The characters in this book are abandoned, lower-class and uneducated. Because of all these things, they speak with a lot of slang (that you may not understand because its different from American slang) and A LOT of cussing. I tried to rationalize that they dropped "F" so often because it isn't as bad of a cuss word there, but even so...its pretty intense cussing. I don't really mind language as long as there is a reason for it. And, I guess the author was trying to show how uneducated and angry these characters were, but I still thought much of it was unnecessary. Similarly, there is a sex scene that is necessary for the story, but the characters are 15 and 17 years old. Sorry, but I am not ok with that, even if it is important for the story. So, saying all that, PROCEED WITH CAUTION if you read this book.

The story follows Jem, a 15 year old orphan whose mother died of a drug overdose when she was little. Since then, Jem has floated from foster home to foster home with everyone trying to "fix" her. However, she is not interested in being fixed because she refuses to get close to anyone. Considering her past it's completely understandable that she would be guarded, but there is much more to her story than that. When Jem looks into a person's eyes, she sees 8 numbers. These numbers are the day the person dies. Jem hates looking at children the most and seeing when they die.

So Jem lives her life in a very guarded way, until Spider, a boy she goes to school with, can't get the hint to leave her alone like everyone else does. Plus, she feels really bad for the guy, because he only has a few months left. Spider doesn't give up and eventually he and Jem form a strange sort of friendship. They end up both suspended from school and decide to go into London for the day. While they are in a very public place, Jem starts noticing that everyone around them has the same numbers in their eyes...today. She freaks out and tells Spider they have to leave right now! They take off running and when they are less than a mile away, a bomb goes off in the public area they just left.

Police begin to investigate and witnesses, as well as cameras, show Jem and Spider fleeing the scene of the crime. Jem and Spider are now wanted for "questioning".

I liked the book but, as mentioned earlier, I felt parts of it were unnecessary. Furthermore, the story wasn't really about the numbers but more about Jem and her complete inability to love. But, I don't feel like her inability to love was developed well enough. I don't know, if you're interested, you might like it. It was just really "Meh" for me. There is a sequel out, but I probably won't read it.
Grade: C
Rating: R

Before I Fall Book Review

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver is a truly fantastic book. The genre is iffy- it can fit anywhere from humor, inspirational, romance, to young adult. It offers insight on some of life's most unnoticed aspects, shows how modern teenagers can become so shallow, and offers a variety of things to think about.
In this book, the character that we follow is Samantha Kingston, one of the most popular girls in her school of Thomas Jefferson High. She has the "best" boyfriend anyone could ask for, the best parking spot in the school, she's rich, and has the most amazing of friends. But why is it that the night of one of the biggest parties, a person from the very school that Sam is Queen at gives her own life because of this Royal Pain.
Juliet Skyes is a soft- spoken girl that has a very hard family life and is tormented by Sam and her friends day by day. She's the "freak" of the school, the one that everyone avoids in the hallways. And this is all because Sam and her crew make her out to be this way. So Juliet thinks that the only way to get out of this is to kill herself.
Kent McFuller was Sam's best friend when they were young kids, when Sam was the biggest loser in school. Kent saved her, was her friend, helped her regain her life. And even though he was a loser, too, she didn't care. And because they got so close, he fell in love with her.
Kent throws a party at his house on Valentines Day and invites Sam and all her friends- pretty much everyone at the entire school, too. They make it to the party and start going their own ways. But to their surprise, Juliet Skyes shows up and confronts Sam. Everyone is astonished. But when Sam and her friends make fun of Juliet to show that they're still the top dogs, she runs out. But the girls shake it off. Except for Sam. She can't help but feel off.
Then the fateful night. Sam is in the car with the girls driving home (with a not-so-sober friend driving) and you guessed it: they get in an accident. But in this accident, Sam dies.
She wakes up the next morning, though. And not only does she wake up, she wakes up on Valentines Day. Again. She soon figures out that she keeps reliving the same day of her death until she can make it right. She has to sacrifice her own life to save another's to make up for her days of being so mean to all the wrong people.
She relives her last day seven times, and throughout it, she gains insight and a new perspective for the world. She sees people like she's never seen them before. Some of them, she realizes, are not all that they were made out to be while some were never given the credit they deserved. This book is the process of her changing from this stuck-up, shallow high school girl into a young woman who finds out more about true life in one day (replayed 7 times) than most people do in their entire life. And it's one of the best journeys I've been on in a book. The way she starts to think about life made me think, and it was really interesting, especially when I realized how much of the world I was missing out on, too. This book really helps you get back to true, pure life.
Overall, this was a truly fantastic book. I saw very, very few flaws, if any. This book was well written with clear themes, and themes that were hidden just enough to make you think and keep you interested. This book was a brilliant mixture of life lessons, humor, and even romance. It was a perfectly balanced book with a delicious after taste. This is one of those books that makes me remember the beauty of writing truly fantastic stories compared to a lot of the crap floating around now.
I would recommend this book to anyone in a heartbeat. I know that everyone will enjoy it! It was a brilliant read. A++