Empty-- Reviewed by Alexandra Lopez

Empty

By Suzanne Weyn

Reviewed by Alexandra Lopez

In the distant furture the fossil fuels are running out. No gas. No oil. Which means no driving. No heat. Supermarkets are empty. Malls have shut down. Life has just become more local than we ever knew it could be.

Nobody expected the end to come this fast. And in the small town of Spring Valley, decisions that once seemed easy are quickly becoming matters of life and death. Three young teens Tom, Nicki, and Leila are three young teens whose lives are very different from each others and their view points different. Will the they survive this madness? Will the world survive? Or will we resort to war, to take what little oil is left?

Empty is basically the world running out of oil. And it shows exactly how we are depend at of oil. For electricity, generators that require oil to run, which effect a lot house hold appliances. Then because oil is limited, the government raised the prices. In the story just the description of other teens, kids and even adults, t has taken a toll on them. They seem dirtier, angrier, and even more worried. Things I also enjoyed is that the world around them affected them. The country was on the verge with Venezuela, new treaty's with country that had valuable resources, oil being cut off from us and many other things that took a toll on everybody.

However even if oil was gone, life didn't end, yes it would be difficult, most of them had luxuries that would be missed, but the world wasn't dead. There is hope, life will go on. Overall this was a really good book and a big reminder that the oil will not be there forever, and we should look for alternatives before things get any worse.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth reviewed by Molly Varney

By: Carrie Ryan *****

Mary's world is simple; she follows the Sisterhood's rules and knows that if she stays away from the fences the Guardians would protect her from the Unconsecrated. When Mary's mother is bitten she is forced to join the Sisterhood after being thrown out by her brother, Jed. While she's learning under one of the Sisters, she finds out that Travis, who she secretly loved, was in the Chapel. Soon she starts going into his room to pray for him and they fall in love, even though Travis was betrothed to Cass, Mary's best friend. As she learns more about the Sisterhood, Mary finds out all of the secrets they are hiding from the village. She finds herself wanting to leave and search the world for the ocean her mother always told her about. Soon enough, the fences were breached and Mary had to choose between her love or her life.

I gave this five stars because the book was a great read. It was full of action and excitement throughout the whole book. I'm really starting to like books about zombies and the end of the world and this one was probably my favorite. At first it was hard to know what time it was in because they sometimes talked different and they didn't have things like electricity and their clothes seemed old fashioned. I really liked the ending even though it was kind of sad.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Grim and haunting, January 10, 2010

I rate books on how much of an impact they have on me and whether or not I will think about or want to discuss the contents after I've read the last page and closed the cover. The Road is a post apocalyptic novel that will stay with me a very long time. The bleakness of the journey that this unnamed father and son embark on is quickly evident -- they are going south but have no real plan and no endpoint or destination in mind. They traverse an unrelenting and very bleak landscape of ash and burnt out flora, fauna and civilization -- devoid of any life except for the occasional creature that bears little resemblance to what was once humankind. The man and the boy stick to the endless blacktop, the road -- the only somewhat permanent residual marker in a very changed world. They walk by day, pushing a metal grocery cart full of their meager possessions, avoiding the marauding bands of cannibals and even the lone survivors as trust is not a trait they can afford to have when it is survival of the fittest at stake.

Though the story is very grim, the love and protectiveness that the father has for his son is the only light in this otherwise very depressing narrative. They are all unto each other -- there is no one else and nothing else. Memories that the man has are soon discarded as his reality is faced with plugged determination -- a search for food, water, warmth -- merely to survive another day.

I'm eager to see the movie based on this book and hope it's a faithful adaptation. This is definitely a novel that I will think about time and again as it haunts me with its stark portrayal of whatever comes after "the end of the world as we knew it."
I gave this 5 stars, not because it was a pleasant story, but because of the impact it had on my psyche and my senses as I read it.
I can't really say I LOVED this book, but I did live it.
Recommend.