Book Review

What would you do if you were told that you only had twenty-four hours to live? Will you spend the rest of your time with your family and loved ones, or will you enjoy all the food and good things in life while you still can? In his novel “They Both Die at the End,” Adam Silvera takes the reader on a journey of two strangers, Mateo and Rufus, through the last twenty-four hours of their lives.

The main plot revolves around two characters, Mateo and Rufus, who receive a phone call from “Death Cast” informing them that today is their last day on Earth. They are matched by the “Last Friend” app, and they spend the day together navigating the challenges and joys of their last twenty-four hours. Mateo and Rufus are both looking for meaning in their final hours, trying to overcome their flaws and find purpose.

Reading about their journey inspires us to be courageous rather than allowing our regrets and guilt to keep us from taking risks and making the most of every moment. Their experience in the last hours of their lives also teaches us to never take anything for granted, and to find joy in the most insignificant details.

Silvera’s writing is beautifully evocative, painting vivid pictures of a world that is both familiar and unique. The alternating perspectives of Mateo and Rufus adds depth to the story and allows the reader to fully understand each character’s motivations and emotions. Their perspectives differ from each other due to their backgrounds, personalities, and life experiences. Mateo is a reserved, introverted young man who has always lived a sheltered life, while Rufus is more outgoing and has a troubled past. The themes of life, love, friendship, and mortality are explored in a way that is both thought-provoking and relatable.

Adam Silvera invites the reader on a powerful journey of self-discovery and introspection. This novel is not just a story about death, but a celebration of life, love, and the human spirit, leaving the reader with a lasting impression and the urge to live each day to the fullest.

William Wijaya is an undergraduate student from Indonesia pursuing a bachelor’s degree in psychology, English Literature, and Journalism. He’s taken advantage of the opportunity to study in India, immersing himself in a new culture and academic environment. His varied fields of study demonstrate his intellectual curiosity and desire to understand the human experience through various lenses.

Robert Beatty fans will not be disappointed in his new novel Willa of the Wood. He sticks to his themes about the importance of having family and friends as he writes about Willa, who has neither.

Willa finds herself alone with a clan that doesn’t care about her and humans who try to kill her, but just when she feels the most alone, the forest helps Willa, and she ponders one kindness that contradicts everything she’s learned. All the events steadily build to the climax where choices are harder than ever, and Willa has to decide if she should do what’s right even if it will hurt her in the process.

Beatty’s writing is rich with sensory details about the Great Smoky Mountains, Willa’s home, with its gigantic mountains, flowing rivers, still lakes, and lush forests. Beatty also compares nature to people and man-made tools, like when he writes that people are alike to wolves because they both hunt and kill what they need to survive. Willa also idolized the wolves because of the way they work together. She longs to be part of their pack and hunt alongside the wolves.

There are many secondary characters who shape Willa’s life. Willa learned the most from her grandmother who taught her the old ways of their people and how to use her powers in good ways. The leader of Willa’s clan, the padaran, taught Willa a lot, too. Most of his teachings were wrong, but they influenced Willa’s decisions since she trusts him.

The plausible dialogue between Willa and those characters shows Willa’s age and curiosity as she asks many questions and wonders about her place in the world around her.

Beatty writes about so many themes as Willa wanders the woods, but the most important one is about having a family and friends to guide you and support your decisions. Each time reading Willa of the Wood reveals more of Beatty’s themes.

Beatty’s usual magic is included which means Willa of the Wood is a fantasy book. Much like the Serafina series Beatty wrote, myths become reality, and Willa has some magic of her own.

The beautiful scenery mixed with brilliant themes make this novel one of the best. Lovers of the Serafina series will appreciate and enjoy Willa of the Wood because of the main characters’ many similarities, like their love of nature and forests and their longing for adventure. Serafina even makes an appearance in the novel, so if you like Serafina or if you want to disappear into a twelve-year-old girl’s mind with the beautiful scenery of the Great Smoky Mountains, then read Willa of the Wood.

Imagine this, crime is not punished by prison, but by changing the color of the prisoner’s skin, and public shame. This is what Hannah faces in When She Woke by Hillary Jordan. Hannah had been changed to the worst color imaginable. A color representing murder. She is red.

Hannah finds herself in a difficult situation in When She Woke. Love has driven her to change the course of her life. Maybe forever. Worst of all, she is caught. Now she has to live her life as a red.

Hillary Jordan tackles themes of love, loss, and the weight of your choices in When She Woke by using colors to represent crime and discrimination. Some of the best things about this novel are its sensory details, such as describing what skin changing feels like. It is paced very fast, and the characters all go through changes in the book as they face different problems.

The genre of this book is science fiction and is set in a futuristic United States. Hannah is from a small town in Texas, a very Christian community.

Readers will be taken on a journey of self discovery with Hannah as she grows and matures. This is a story that any teen will enjoy, If you wants a story that creeps you out, and makes you think, pick up When She Woke at the nearest library.

Maria Polizzi is a high school student, and this is her third publication. She found she enjoyed writing two years ago, and it is something she plans to continue doing as she moves forward in her education.

You all have read some amazing books but, I bet you haven’t read the book Rash by Pete Hautman. It’s an outstanding book. This book has a New York Times Notable Book of the Year Award. It has some great details and that is why I love this book. It’s  also quite fast paced, and it’s a great book for kids older than nine years old.

This book starts off with the main character, Bo Marsten talking to his grandfather about track and field, and how the USSA (United Safer States of America), is because students have to wear padding and helmets for track, as the USSA is making everything safe.

Hautman’s, Rash is about how to control your anger. It’s about self identity— finding how you really are.

Bo Marstens’ family is really crazy because in this year, 2074 almost everything is illegal and the Marsten family has some serious anger issues. Bo’s dad and brother are both in jail for ten years and are picking shrimp shells as their punishment.

There were many major characters in Rash, including Bo, like Rhino, Bork, and Hammer. The antagonist, the character that provides a contrast to the major character, is Karlohs. Anything he did annoyed Bo a lot.

Bo’s character  developed as time passed, and I liked the message and that we shouldn’t have to get angry all the time. So the next time you’re in your local library or the one closest one to you check out Rash by Pete Hautman. You’ll be glad you did.

Michael McLaughlin is fourteen years old and going into eighth grade at St. Patrick’s School in Rolla Missouri. His favorite genre of food is seafood.  He loves to watch or play baseball,  and since he’s from Missouri his favorite team is the STL Cardinals.  In Michael’s words; “A cool thing about me is that I’m actually adopted, and I’ve been adopted for about eight years now, and it gave me the chance to be writing this auto-biography and I’m so grateful for what this family has done for me.”

Imagine your sister is chosen for a death match. You save her by making yourself a volunteer for her. This is Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. The story is about a sixteen-year-old girl named Katniss Everdeen who saves her sister. She steps up for her as a tribute and will fight for her, even though she knows it’s tough.

The themes of this story are friendship, family, freedom versus enslavement, and materialism. Friendship and familial bonds are figured as a form of resistance, and Katniss’ friendships with Gale, Peeta, Cinna, Haymitch, and Rue help her survive the Hunger Games, even though she is going to miss every single one of them when she’s fighting and starving to death.

Although Collins has a lot of characters in the book, the changes throughout the book are different between characters. Katniss is a lot tougher and is a lot more brave, Peeta is also stronger and braver but he also gains trust in people, and Gale is scared and he just wants Katniss to live,— but he’s brave trusting she won’t die.

Some themes in the book are never giving up on family and friends— even if you just want to die because you’re in so much pain. Keep on living and try as hard as you can to succeed and see them after all is done, and hug every single one of them, and when you do you’re so happy

Hunger Games does have a sequel as well; the other books are Catching Fire which is the second book, and Mocking Jay is the third. The fourth that’s an add-on and is a prequel to the others is The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

I loved this book and the idea that we should never give up on family and our friends. So the next time you’re in your local library or the one closest one to you, pick up Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Michael McLaughlin is fourteen years old and going into eighth grade at St. Patrick’s School in Rolla Missouri. His favorite genre of food is seafood.  He loves to watch or play baseball,  and since he’s from Missouri his favorite team is the STL Cardinals.  In Michael’s words; “A cool thing about me is that I’m actually adopted, and I’ve been adopted for about eight years now and it gave me the chance to be writing this auto-biography and I’m so grateful for what this family has done for me.”

Pride and Prejudice is the epitome of the enemies-to-lovers trope wrapped in a slow-burn romance, beloved by readers for centuries. In fact, even Jane Austen herself described the novel as “my own darling child.” It’s easy to swoon over the fierce chemistry between the two main leads, but Austen’s novel is chock-full of other protagonist-worthy characters who barely make a dent in the original story.

Take Mary Bennet, for instance. Plain, awkward, and decidedly not rich, with four stunning beauties as sisters and a nagging marriage-obsessed mother, poor Mary seemed to always conveniently blend into the background of any conversation, with that being her sole object in any social outing. In fact, in the original novel she’s only given seven spoken lines in total!

But the self-professed “dull and unremarkable” Mary is to be struck by Cupid’s arrow in Nancy Lawrence’s Mary and the Captain, a feel-good satisfactory novel brimming with unlikely romance, unexpected redemption, and, of course, unfavorable first impressions.

It’s two weeks until Christmas and Mary Bennet is desperate for some peace and quiet–far away from her contriving, gossipy mother who, regrettably, had not been relieved of her fixation to see all her daughters wedded. A nice family reunion at Netherfield with Jane and Bingley seems just the ticket, but Bingley’s cunning sister Caroline throws a wrench into Mary’s plans. Caroline’s brother Robert is smitten with her dear friend Helena Paget (a beauty and lady and heiress, oh my!), and what better way to bring the two together than have them settled in Netherfield for Christmas under her watchful eye?

Captain Robert Bingley comes to Netherfield intent on courting and wooing the lovely Helena, but nothing is to go as planned. There’s an old adage among the enlightened that warns against rooming with one’s best friend for fear of revealing a whole new and potentially unfavorable side of them, and that applies too to staying with the subject of one’s infatuation in close quarters, as Robert finds out soon enough.

As Miss Paget’s true and decidedly less attractive personality masks her outward beauty, Robert becomes more intrigued by shy, awkward Mary Bennet. His evolving perception of Mary mirrors that of the reader, as Lawrence’s firm steering of events and the plot allows the reader to gradually gain a much more favorable impression of Mary than Austen’s meager rendering in the original. Though romance is indeed a significant and appealing motif of Lawrence’s composition, Mary’s personal character development is the true melody that sings out, as always intended.

Mary Bennet had always been more of a self-effacing introvert: “She had never mastered the art of carrying off such social niceties. She would stutter and stumble, or–even worse–sit in strangled silence, unable to conjure up a viable thought to add to a conversation.” And when presented beside her sisters– elegant Jane, witty Elizabeth, enthusiastic Kitty, and lively Lydia–compounded by “being the only plain one in the family,” it’s easy to see why Mary doesn’t offer many agreeable first impressions.

In the original novel, Mary unknowingly embarrasses her family with a poor pianoforte performance at a ball, and demonstrates an inability to read-the-room with her solemn words of “comfort” for Elizabeth regarding her sister Lydia’s elopement: “Unhappy as the event must be for Lydia, we may draw from it this useful lesson…”

Interestingly, Austen attributes these moments of social slip-ups to Mary’s “pedantic air and conceited manner,” strikingly similar to Elizabeth originally chalking Darcy’s actions to his pride. But while Darcy’s pride and other failings were eventually forgiven,

with Austen awarding him a happy ending, Mary seemed to be condemned to a loveless life for posterity as “the only daughter who remained at home.”

In today’s literary world, however, the very components of Mary’s situation that undermined her in Austen’s novel–minor character, misunderstood, hazy resolution–gives her the greatest potential to be her own heroine. Nowadays, introverts like Mary are met with more compassion and curiosity than scorn and rebuffs, elevating them from mere character foils to proper protagonists.

Her awkwardness, which, in Pride and Prejudice, had been a subject of subtle mockery, becomes a means of relatability with the reader. Sure, she does bust out a pedantic line or two from the admittedly mundane Sermons for Young Ladies, Volume One when feeling particularly desperate, but her efforts and attempts to be more socially aware gives her an unwaveringly sincere voice that is not at all conceited and instead endears her shy, bookish nature to the reader.

Mary may be a clumsy conversationalist perturbed by strangers and prone to stowing away in the library to avoid them, but she proves she’s more than willing to leap out of her comfort zone when help is needed. And all the reading she’s done has made her an intelligent young woman, whose wits and excellent memory quickly become of great value further into the story. As for Mary’s connection to her piano, Lawrence provides the instrument with stronger symbolic value, turning it into a cathartic outlet for when things go wrong.

As much as Mary’s journey to find her own voice was engrossing, Lawrence may have bitten off more than she could chew by wedging in a secondary redemption arc for Caroline Bingley, the master manipulator herself. Though Caroline certainly had the potential to become an absorbing heroine, Lawrence resorts to the now popular “Disney villain” treatment of a tragic backstory that attempts to make up for all the character’s past offenses. Caroline’s blossoming romance with a kind vicar is also peppered sporadically throughout the story and is admittingly sweet, but its overall ambiguity and vague resolution makes it fall flat satisfaction-wise.

Nonetheless, fans of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice will no doubt find Lawrence’s infatuated lovers just as compelling as Elizabeth and Darcy, who unfortunately don’t make a direct appearance in the novel but play an important role nevertheless. However, while Elizabeth and Darcy’s clear chemistry despite, or rather, because of, their contrasting personalities designated them as one of literature’s most popular “ships,” Mary and Robert’s romance is absorbing not because they seemed destined to be together, but because they appeared not.

Their love flickers with the raw, tender passion of patience and trust, burning slowly and steadily to a satisfying ending where our “Mary, Mary, quite contrary” will finally, finally, get the man she deserves.

Hetian (Carol) Xu is a rising senior at Amador Valley High School in California. She serves as the editor-in-chief of the award winning school newspaper, Amador Valley Today, and has been recognized by the Scholastic Writing Competition and Goi Peace Foundation for her writing. In her spare time, she enjoys snacking on brownies, watching Korean dramas, and lounging around with a splendid book.