We All Looked Up ~ Reviewed by Elizabeth Barnes

           

"Those who have much to hope and nothing to lose will always be dangerous."

         Before the asteroid we let ourselves be defined by labels: The athlete, the outcast, the slacker, the overachiever. But then we all looked up and everything changed. They said it would be here in two months. That gave us two months to leave our labels behind. Two months to become something bigger than what we'd been, something that would last even after the end. Two months to really live.

                       We All Looked Up is a book about the world coming to terms with the world. 

I went into this book with high expectations. I've seen a lot of great reviews about how this book and how it breaks down barriers in high school. But, really I just thought it put some barriers up.

The book was pretty good I must say, with varied characters, well-fleshed-out issues, and an interesting setup. The ending didn't set properly with me I must say, but maybe it is just me. It definitely seems like a personal preference. Please don't take my rating to heart. 

The book introduces us to four high school students: Peter; the most popular guy in school who is an athlete and dating the most popular girl. Anita; the perfect A - grade student with strict parents who are forcing her into an Ivy League education. Eliza; the girl with a bad reputation. Andy; the slacker. Wallach does a great job of hopping from one POV to the next. It never feels stilted. It's also interesting how intertwined yet different all their lives are.

 As the book progresses we begin to see other sides of these characters and learn that their lives aren't so simple after all. They aren't high school cliches and actually have a lot more depth to them. Eliza is a talented photographer and has a bad reputation as a coping mechanism thanks to her mother abandoning her and her father on the brink of death. Anita is a talented singer who has been forbidden to sing by her parents and she is desperate to escape from their controlling clutches. Peter is bored with life and wants something more; something different. He is a Christian and loves to help out with charity. Andy is dealing with parents who aren't around much and a crappy best friend and is also a really talented musician/songwriter.

The best part of this book, by far, is the layers to these characters. I really connected with each and everyone of them. They aren't perfect, they all have flaws, but that only makes them more real and more relate able. 

The ending was too open for me, I did not like how it left the door open for you to continue thinking about what you would do in a similar situation. I wanted to experience a more of a closure feeling for the characters.

We All Looked Up, is extremely thought provoking that makes you really consider what is important and what matters. 

I give this book a rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars.  

  

The Way I Used To Be -- Reviewed by Sarah Roberts

 

" I don't know that these images flashing through my mind-a movie of someone else, somewhere else-will never really go away, will never ever stop playing, will never stop haunting me."

 

 

 

Sexual assaults happen all over the world. The perpetrator could be your father, uncle, mother, or even your older brother's best friend. Many victims don't speak out, or only gain the courage to speak out when another victim has. That is the case of Eden McCrorey.

 

Eden was always okay with being good. She was in band and loved reading books. Nothing could change that, not even high school. Or so she thought...

 

One night changes everything. One night makes Eden's whole world turn upside-down. What is this fateful night? It's the night that her brother's best friend rapes her. What was once so clear is now complex. What Eden once loved-the person she loved- she now hates with everything in her. Everything she believed to be true, turns out to be nothing but lies.

 

Eden has never felt so alone in her entire life. She knows that she has to tell someone, but she can't seem to bring herself to do that.

 

So she locks it all inside. And she buries the girl she used to be.

 

I thought this book was amazing! I loved how the author chose to tell Eden's story in four parts. We get to go through Eden's freshman year, sophomore year, junior year, and senior year with her -- which is a really brilliant idea. This book will definitely make your emotions run high. You will go from loving Eden, to hating her occasionally, to hating her best friend, and then to understanding her best friend in a sense. I also like how Amber Smith made this book seem realistic. I think that probably some people who have experienced what Eden did, probably have handled it the way she did at first. The only thing that left me on a little cliffhanger was that I wanted to see how Eden's parents handled the whole situation. This is because Kevin ,brother's best friend, was seen as part of the family. He basically became the second son. So I would like to know how the parents handled that betrayal of trust and loyalty. I also would have enjoyed a longer confession to Caelin, Eden's brother. Yes, we see him get pretty emotional, but we don't see that huge talk. So I would've appreciated a little more interaction between the two. All in all, this book was amazing and I would definitely recommend it to all my friends and family.

 

Glass Sword-- Reviewed by Sarah Roberts

“If I am a sword, I am a sword made of glass, and I feel myself beginning to shatter.”  

Being different is always difficult for people. It brings new exciting people and worlds into our lives, but it also brings betrayal and danger. Mare Barrow knows this better than anyone.

Mare Barrows blood red-which stands as a symbol for commoners- but her Silver ability, the ability to control lightening, has turned Mare into a weapon that the royal court wants to control.

The crown declares Mare an impossibility, or a fake, but as Mare tries to escape the evil clutches of Maven, the prince-friend- who betrayed her, she discovers some concerning news. Mare isn't the only one of her kind.

Mare is pursued by Maven, now a twisted king, she sets out to find and recruit the other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the fight against Maven.

Mare soon finds herself on a deadly path, she's at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat.

Will Mare break under the weight of the many lives that are at cost of the rebellion? Or have betrayal and darkness harden her heart forever?

I thought this book was electrifying! (haha pun). Mare was still the strong independent woman she was in the beginning of the series. Though this is the second book, I especially loved that the way the author carried over the qualities of each character that made the first book so enjoyable. Maven was still the vindictive king that he became toward the end of the first book. All in all I loved the story line and thought that tis story was almost as good as the second.

First Book in series

Red Queen by: Victoria Aveyard

Review of this book is on this blog

Date it was reviewed: December 3, 2015

Red Queen--reviewed by: Sarah Roberts

"In school, we learned about the world before us, about the angels and gods that lived in the sky, ruling the earth with kind and loving hands. Some say those are just stories, but I don't believe that. The gods rule us still. They have come down from the stars. And they are no longer kind."

Picture high school. It's ruled by two kinds of groups. There's the popular, almighty people, and then you have the unpopular, lowly people. Well that is the type of society that Mare Barrow lives in.

There are two kinds of people in Mare Barrow's society, except the thing that defines your place is the color of your blood. First you have the Silvers,which are the elite people "whose supernatural abilities make them gods". Then you have the Reds, which are the lowly servants of the Silvers.

Mare Barrow is a Red, who just so happens to be the best pit-pocketer in all the village. Mare lives with her mother, her war-disabled father, and her sister Gisa. Mare also has brothers but they are in the military, which Mare will soon join them...or so she thought. One encounter with a stranger leads Mare landing a job in the royal palace, filled with people she loathes the most. Mare works through rooms filled with Silvers, just simply serving and refilling drinks. Girls appear trying to win the affection of the two young princes, but only one of them is familiar. It's the stranger who got Mare the job.

As the night goes on Mare does her serving duties, and can't wait for the night to end. Suddenly, she is attacked by a girl in the pageant and thrown of the balcony landing on this lightening force field. The only problem is, Mare does burn but controls the lightening. This sets off a chain of events that will change everything.

I loved this book! It really made my imagination come to life. I would definitely recommend this book to my friends and family. Not only does this book have suspense, it also has betrayal and a hint of love. I love Mare's independent spirit, but also how loyal she is to her friends and loved ones. The storyline is absolutely spectacular! It will give you goose bumps. You feel everything the characters feel, and even feel afraid for some of them at one point. Join Mare in this fantastic tale, and "rise red as the dawn."

Cracked up to be review by Kaitlin Kimbrell

cracked up to be

by Courtney Summers

When you're perfect with everything you do people tend to want to be like you. Everybody body has a desire to be perfect, but what is the breaking point?

For Parker Fadley being perfect was all she knew. She was the perfect cheerleader, had the perfect popular boyfriend, the perfect best friend, and the perfect grades. Parker was the most popular girl at St. Peter's High, until that one night. That is when perfect Parker became the perfect mess. Nobody really knew why Parker started to come to school drunk, quit as captain of the cheerleading team, broke up with her boyfriend, and started to hate everyone. What happen to perfect Parker? Did she find her breaking point? Can you just not ever stay perfect like you think?

This book is not in my usual choices, but I really liked it. The struggles that Parker goes through actually shows what many people my age might be going through too. This put me in Parker shoes and made me think 'what would I have done if I would have been her?' I don't know what I would have done and I don't know who I would have wanted on my side, if anyone at all. This book did make me realize though that nobody is as perfect as we think.



Legend reviewed by Molly Varney

By Marie Lu *****




In the Republic, June is a prodigy. Born into a good family and the only person to ever get a perfect score on her Trial, June was destined to be a great military leader. She lived with her brother, Metias, after their parents died in an accident. Day, on the other hand, was the Republic's most wanted criminal. He was born into a poor family from the Lake sector and was one of few others who failed their Trial. The two couldn't have been more different and had no reason to ever meet each other. But after June's brother is killed and Day is blamed, she must hunt him down. However, as they start to talk more they both start to figure out all of the secrets of the Republic that are kept from everyone, about the plague and the horrible things the Republic do to win the war. They find out how far the Republic will go to keep their name clean. Now June had to choose between what she was raised to believe or what she is slowly uncovering about her life.


I gave this five stars because I've never really read a book like this one. It was very action packed and had a lot of twists that I liked. It wasn't ever boring and I really enjoyed reading it. Throughout the book, you get to read from both June and Day's perspective which gave you a good understanding of what was going on in more than one place and let you see how different the characters were. I liked the entire storyline because it had a few surprises that kept you reading until the last page. It was also a smaller book so it was easy to read and didn't disappoint at all.

Water for Elephants- Review by Aspen Gates

Water for Elephants

Sara Gruen

***** stars

All Jacob Jankowski wanted was to graduate from Cornell and become a veternarian like his father. However, all that changes when he loses both of his parents to a car accident, and he is left with no money. It is 1931 in America and it's also the time of the depression which means that there are no jobs available especially for Jacob's line of profession. Now Jacob is broke and homeless and wandering around when he stumbles onto a train track in the middle night and he sees a train coming and hops on to it not knowing that this would change his life forever. By morning Jacob realizes he has hopped not only on a circus train, but the Benzini Brother's circus owned by a disturbed man name August and winds up becoming their personal vet. And just by working with the animals, Jacob meets Marlena who is the star of the show and who's unfortunately August's wife. When Jacob starts settling down with his new life the circus gets a surprise from August which he says will really help the show out. He buys them a fifty year old elephant named Rosie, and to top it all off he wants Marlena to ride her. But there is just one problem, Rosie does not understand English so everybody immediately assumes that she is dumb, but Jacob being Polish realizes that she can only understand Polish, and from there it brings him closer to Marlena causing him to fall in love with her. Now Jacob, Marlena, and Rosie the elephant start a relationship between them that will cause love and betrayal among and they will just have to ride it out and see what happens at the end of the track.

I thought Water for Elephants was a great story and I loved the relationship that grew between Jacob, Marlena, and Rosie. You could see that they all loved each other in there own ways and it made them stronger. It also Jacob and Marlena realize what they want out of life. I gave this book five stars because it was so original yet it touched my heart and kept me mesmerized throughout the whole novel. Plus I cannot wait to see the movie that came out Friday, April 22, but I would suggest you read the book first because lets face it, the books are always better.

Nightshade- Review by Aspen Gates

Nightshade

By Andrea Cremer

***stars

Seventeen year old Calla Tor is not only a werewolf, or according to her a guardian, but she is an alpha female of the Nighshade pack that is promised to be married to Ren Laroche, alpha male of the Bane's pack. Together they will be the new pack leaders and protectors of the Keepers who they serve, and in return the guardians are provide with homes, food, education, and safety. Calla and Ren are pretty much set on there future until Calla breaks the rules of the Keeper's and saves a human named Shay from being mauled by a bear. Calla believes everything will go back to normal after she knocks him out, but things seem to get worse when Shay is now the new student at her school. She tries to ignore him, but can't help to be curious about him at the same time since most humans fear the guardians, but Shay doesn't and it starts to cause a problem with Ren who is wanting to teach Shay a lesson about messing with his territory. Yet, things keep getting more and more uncomfortable between the three when Calla is asked to protect Shay from their enemies the Searcher's who want Shay badly. At first Calla is very outraged at this idea including Ren, but quickly turns to liking Shay when he convinces her to start reading forbidden books about her people's history. It's these books that will change Calla's life forever and now she must decide on whether or not she should follow her heart and runaway with the love her life Shay, or stay and be married to Ren who also loves her and to serve the guardians.

Nightshade was a very different different kind of werewolf story and thats what made me really connect and like this book. I gave this book four stars because the ending could have had a better cliff hanger but all in all it was a wonderful book and I can't wait to read Wolfsbane which is the second of this series. I would definitely recommend this book to all who are tired of the traditional werewolves, vampire stories because this is something completely different than any I have ever read. So check Nightshade out in the O'Hara Library because if you like supernatural creature stories like me, you will love this series.