The Fault in Our Stars

I have two words to say about John Green's The Fault in Our Stars: Holy crap. What a celestial body of a book. It shines. It sparkles. It's intelligent and hilarious and absolutely stellar and it makes you believe in love and in other worlds and I will never forget it.

If you haven't heard about it or seen the movie trailer, The Fault in Our Stars is the story of Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters. They meet at a cancer support group. They fall in love. They experience life together. Maybe you can guess how it ends.

There's no "best thing" about this novel, but one of the great things was how fantastic the characters are. They're the kind of characters you wish desperately were real because they're so much more interesting to talk to than most of the people you actually go to school with. And they're more than their cancer; they don't let their sickness define them and they don't just go around feeling sorry for themselves. I was worried when I started to read this book that the whole thing was just going to be a cancer sob story, but the characters made it far less about the disease than it was about the human experience, which I appreciated.

Another thing I thought really added to the book was the great dialogue. It's very realistic; Green's word choice makes it sound like stuff real people would actually say, which can be difficult to find in a book. It also has a tendency to be quite profound, especially coming from Augustus. Since you can't see the characters' eyes, their dialogue provides a little window into their souls.

Please don't write this book off just because you hate crying; I was actually too sad to cry for most of the book. However, if you hate being sad, are offended by occasional foul language and semi-sacreligious remarks or are intimidated by brilliant and charismatic boys, this book is probably not for you. Also, full disclosure, there's a mild sex scene.

Despite it's few flaws, I loved The Fault in Our Stars and frankly think everyone should make time for the experience of getting to know Hazel Grace and her marvelous cast of supporting characters. A+.

The Beginning of Everything

Sarah Mlynowski definitely knew what she was talking about when she called Robyn Schneider's The Beginning of Everything "heartbreaking and hilarious," and said that "girls everywhere are going to fall madly, deeply, hopelessly in love with Ezra Faulkner." As a teenage girl, I can tell you first hand that that is absolutely true.

 

The novel, which in the UK is known by the title Severed Heads, Broken Hearts, follows Ezra through the aftermath of his tragedy- a car accident that smashed not only his knee, but his social life and the future he had planned. A car accident that threw his life upside down and right into the middle of Cassidy Thorpe's. Of course, they fall in love. She, in all her mysterious bohemian glory, shows him the world as he hadn't considered it before, teaches him not to care what people think, how to let himself be different. Of course, something goes terribly wrong.

 

The ending was so unexpected and unbelievable (yet totally convincing) that it's taking all of me not to spoil the entire book, but I won't. The great thing about The Beginning was that it was unpredictable, contrary to the norm as far as teen novels go, and I'd hate to ruin that. But this book was different in other ways, too. It alluded to classic novels, quoted poetry and actually meant something- it said something. Maybe I'm a little unconventional myself, but a call to action is so important to me in a good book. One hundred points to Schneider.

 

Another thing I really appreciated as I read this novel was that Schneider gives you a reason to give a crap. About the characters, that is, about what happens to them. I read a book recently where a girl gets kidnapped, but she was so annoying and bland that I just thought, "Kill her already! Hold her for ransom! She's not good for much else." Reading The Beginning of Everything, though, I did fall in love with Ezra Faulkner. I fell in love with Toby, and Phoebe, and Cooper. I hated Charlotte and Evan and Jimmy and Luke and sometimes Cassidy, but at the same time understood her and half-wanted to be her. I felt personally invested in Ezra's destiny. I cared. I had a reason to keep reading.

 

I could go on and on, but instead I'd better acknowledge, albeit reluctantly, the book's flaws. The thing that bothered me the most was Schneider's use of ridiculous replacements for the word "said" and, when she did use it, long adverbs after it. "Enthused," "deadpanned," "said sheepishly..." I found that sort of annoying. Also, she used a lot of phrases a bit too frequently throughout the book. Maybe those things don't irritate anyone else, but there they are, acknowledged, just in case.

 

Also, please take note of the fact that this book is full of passionate kissing, curse words, explicit references and other scenes and dialogues of that kind. Of course, that's exactly what high school is full of, so that makes the novel realistic, but if those things bother you, avoid this book.

 

Ultimately, I loved The Beginning of Everything. I encourage anyone mildly interested to indulge themselves in the fantastic reading experience it provides. A

Matched By:Allie Condie

I really loved this book. If you enjoyed the hunger games I would really recommended reading this. It’s a dystopian romance book and it is very entertaining!!

The book is about a dystopian community. A community where the government decides who people love, where they work and when they die. The system is perfect it makes everything fair for everybody and keeps everyone in optimal health. 

When a boy or girl turns 17 they go to a match banquet were they are then put with their perfect match, the person they will spend the rest of their lives with. The story starts on the way to the match banquet for a 17 year old girl named Cassia. She is nervous knowing that the boy she could end up being matched with could be living in a whole other providence. Despite her nerves her banquet is perfect everything has fallen into perfect place. Until after the banquet when Cassia goes home and later watches the card they gave her about her match and comes to find that things aren't as perfect as they had come to seem. 

Read this book and go along with Cassia as she watches her "perfect world" gets turned upside down. And that her decisions that will not only change her life but the life of everybody living. A+

 

Cindy Ella by Robin Palmer

  SPOILERS!

Okay, so before I started reading this book (which by the way, was this afternoon) I was determined to give it a bad review, mainly because judging by the title and cover picture, it looked like another twist on a fairy tale that I seriously HATE. But since I wanted to write at least one bad review, I decided to try.
  This book is centered around Cindy Ella Gold, a girl who's a tomboy, a feminist, and totally against prom. Of course, her stepmom, Clarissa (who's addicted to botox and is overly obsessed Cindy will fall into depression and begin cutting herself, which Cindy finds ridiculous) and her two annoying stepsisters Britney and Ashley (See, even their names scream "I'm a brat and an idiot."!) are obsessed with it. Since Cindy really doesn't care about Prom, she decides to write a letter to her school newspaper about how degrading she thinks prom is. She thinks she'll be the hero for unpopular kids everywhere, but it turns out, everyone hates her for it. I mean, let's face it, everyone in high school is brainwashed into prom as being their Cinderella night.
  So, as Cindy complains about Prom to her best friends India (a hippy), Malcolm (gay), and BrklynBoy (Internet buddy), she soon finds herself head over heels for her twenty three year old tutor, Noah, which isn't a very good thing because she has a little crush on BrklynBoy and the most popular guy in school, Adam Silver. Weirdest thing is, Adam is talking to Cindy more. Could he actually like her?! But then there's still Noah. So, she, India, and Malcolm all decide to makeover Cindy so that Noah will ask her out, even though she's only a sophomore. Unfortunately, she finds out that Noah is gay and Adam Silver actually has a date to prom! At least BrklynBoy asked her to his Anti-Prom, but he lives all the way across the country! You'll have to read the story to see how it all works out, because it's actually really, really surprising.
  I LOVED this book. If you're a guy, you definitely won't feel that way. But it was so true to life, because I've felt all her emotions. The only part I disliked is that Cindy wasn't unique. She was SO stereotypical. But here's the thing. It actually makes the book better too, because you can relate to Cindy for being so... teen girl. Warning though, if you're sensitive to political views and any homosexuality, STAY AWAY! This book talks about that stuff a lot.  I can easily give this book an A, considering I just loved it. Read it, it's seriously amazing.