Delirium

Author: Lauren Oliver
Genre: YA Fiction/ Dystopian

Imagine living a world where any sort of emotion is illegal.  That's how Magdalena "Lena" Haloway lives in a dystopian Portland, Maine, surrounded by an electrified fence.  Everyone fears contracting amor deliria nervosa, fears being forced to feel pain, jealousy, and confusion.  It's been sixty-four years since love was officially declared a disease, and forty-three since scientists perfected the cure.  Now everyone is cured on their eighteenth birthday- like it, or not.  Seventeen year old Lena can't wait to be cured, to be to be assigned a husband and a college, to be safe and happy forever.  That is until a couple months before her eighteenth birthday when she falls in love...


I really liked this book!  The story kept moving pretty well.  I was afraid it was gonna be another teenie-bopper romance novel ("I love you" "I love you more" "No I love you more" etc..),  but this one didn't do that the whole book.  It focuses more on government conspiracy than only on love.  However, it doesn't completely take out romantic moments, it just doesn't make them the sole purpose of the book. 


Most guys probably would not like this book, but I may be wrong.


Recommended for fans of Uglies (Scott Westerfeld), and 1984 (George Orwell).


Rating: 5/5


WARNING: Some brief strong language, so if that offends anyone, you have been warned.  This book's target audience is the older teen group.

The Bell Jar

Author: Sylvia Plath
Genre: Fiction/ Classic

Summer 1953.  Esther Greenwood is living the dream.  She has just won an essay contest and is living in a lavish New York hotel while interning for a month with an upscale fashion magazine.  But something is wrong.  Esther knows she should be having the time of her life, after all she is young, beautiful, talented and successful.  However, in the midst of the big city, she feels "very still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo" (Plath).  She stresses about her future after collage, and questions her skills and self worth.
   After returning home to the suburbs, Esther's mental state further deteriorates.  She finds herself unable to sleep, or read, only seeing a mess of letters.  She only goes downhill from there.
   There are more factors that lead to the young woman's downward spiral, butI don't want to give away too much, so I'll stop here.

Incredible book!!  Esther is a very relatable person, based on Sylvia Plath's own experience with depression.  There is no specific point where Esther's sanity begins to unravel; it is a slow process caused the buildup of stressors in her life, something that could happen to anybody.  Her problems are so trivial and everyday, school, work, sex, relationships, parents, friends.  This book can be simply a story about a girl who goes insane, or it can be a deep look into the fragility of the human psyche.  It stays with you.  There's not exactly action, or suspense, but it is still a very real and haunting book.  This is not a particularly "easy" read.  I'm not saying its an incredible difficult level.  But if you make little or no effort to follow her life story, it might be easy to get lost.  There are several flashbacks, especially at the beginning of the book.  These flashbacks are essential, as they set up why her mind comes to break.  If you have an interest in psychology or human behavior, I would highly recommend The Bell Jar to you!

Rating 5/5

WARNING: Potentially disturbing, sometimes the mind can be examined too closely.  Her suicide attempts may also be troubling to some readers.  A lot of reviews talk about how it is "disturbing" but I didn't think there was anything exceptionally traumatic.  As formerly mentioned, this is a rather challenging novel, but it is fulfilling, not simply fluff.  Quite a bit of sexual content, nothing described in too much detail except when Esther loses her virginity and there are a few pages about her hemorrhaging.

The Hunger Games

Author: Suzanne Collins
Genre: YA Fiction/ Dystopian

 In a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world, there lies the country of Panem.  Thirteen districts once surrounded the shining Capital.  Then District 13 tried to rebel.  The Capital put put down the rebellion, and as a demonstration of their power, they force the twelve remaining districts to send one boy and one girl to the Capital to fight to the death in The Hunger Games.
   Katniss Everdeen has always had to struggle to provide her young sister, Prim, and her mother with enough food to live.  After her father's death, her mother shut down with grief, leaving Katniss to take care of her sister.  When twelve year old, Prim, is chosen to compete in the Hunger Games Katniss volunteers to take her place, knowing it will be her own death.
   I can't say much more without giving away too much, and that's only the first two chapters!

Oh my gosh!!  This book was amazing!  Its been a long time since I've read a book that makes me stay up an hour longer than I mean to, and read during class.  I was hooked by the end of chapter one and the book just picked up speed from there.

Rating: 5/5

WARNING: Quite a bit of violence (the object is to fight to the death) but its not described too graphically.

The Pearl

Author: John Steinbeck
Genre: Fiction

I finished this for AR over the weekend.  It only took me a week to read, which made me happy because I have other books I want to read, that are not school related.  If you're in the same spot, this one's  a pretty easy read- only a little over 100 pages.

Kino is a fisherman in a poor village in the 19th century.  When his baby boy is stung by a scorpion, he and his wife, Juana seek medical help, but cannot afford it.  While pearling, however, Kino finds "the Pearl of The World."  It is huge and very valuable.  Soon everyone in town wants there hands on it.  Greed quickly takes over everyones' thoughts, and violence begins to break out.

They make the theme of good vs. evil very apparent.  Kino hears in his mind the "song of the family" while his wife cooks breakfast, and the "song of evil" when the scorpion appears.  Both of these are repeated many times throughout the book.

The story line in itself was decent.  Being so short, there was not a particularly complex plot developed.  But, the story kept moving pretty well.  It was not boring at any parts, and there were some action moments.  The characters are not incredibly relatable to this day and age.  There are some kinda depressing moments, especially near the end.  Not really sad, but a sort of feeling of despair.

Rating: 3/5

Go Ask Alice

Author: Anonymous
Genre: YA Nonfiction

This book is the diary of a teenage girl who becomes addicted to drugs.  It starts when she unwittingly has LSD slipped into her soda in a dangerous game of "button, button, who's got the button?"  She loves her first trip so much it soon leads her to marijuana, speed, heroin, Dexies, DMT, meth, sleeping pills, tranquilizers, and other pills only described by shape and color.  Within months she is hooked.  She begins lying, prostitution, and selling drugs, even to elementary schoolers to supply herself.  She runs away from home, is raped, and struggles to survive on the street.  Many times she tries to quit but, she is always tempted and cannot resist.  I won't ruin the details of the ending, but it is not a happy one.

I absolutely loved this book!!  It's intensely real.  I highly recommend this to any teenager, especially anyone once tempted to try drugs.  It highlights the harsh reality of substance abuse, but does not lie and try to convince the reader that drugs are not fun.  Instead, it shows how to cost far outweighs the benefits.  You get the facts about drugs from someone who has actually used them, not your health teacher, or "Above The Influence".  At one point, the diarist writes that "Anyone who says pot and acid are not addicting in a damn, stupid, raving idiot, unenlightened fool!"  You really sympathize with the diarist, and even though you know from the back of the book, she's going to die, you still hope she'll overcome it.  I can't even tell you how much I love this book!  If you haven't read it, I hope you will!

Rating: 5/5

WARNING: Some language, sexual content, and (need I even say it?) drug references.

The Catcher In The Rye

Author: J.D. Salinger
Genre: YA Fiction/ Classic


We just got finished with this one for Adv LAII.  


Holden Caulfield, has a lot of issues.  He is being kicked out of his prep school for failing every class but english.  However, Holden runs away from school after his roommate goes out with Jane Gallagher, a girl he's had a crush on for years.  He doesn't want to tell his parents about flunking out, so he just stays in New York City for a few days until his school vacation starts.  The entire book only courses a few days, but a lot happens.


I liked it, but there wasn't any major conflicts.  There are some fights, and some girls problems, but nothing major that spanned the entire book.  I'm not saying that it was boring, I was interested through out the whole story.  But, it may not be a favorite if adventure is your thing.  The main conflict is Holden's desire for the world to maintain its innocence.  However, i think most teenagers would be able to sympathize with what he goes through; Holden worries about his grades, his parents, his social life, his sex life, and his dead brother.


Rating: 4/5


WARNING: There is a lot of language and some sexual content (nothing graphic), in this book, so if that is offensive to you I would not recommend it.

Let's begin at the beignning...

Hi everyone.  I didn't want to jump straight into posting, so I thought I'd tell you a little about my blog.  I made this blog to discuss books. I'll post a brief summary of the book, and my opinion of it.  I read a pretty wide variety of books, so any fan of literature should check it out.  I just made this blog, and I've read a lot of great books, so I might backtrack a little. :-)