2018-2019 Senior Honors Book Reviews

Sara Vargas  The Handmaid's Tale  by Margaret Atwood Imagine a world where your only purpose was to become pregnant and then die. The Handmaid’s Tale  is the very sobering life that the Handmaids must face in the Republic of Gilead. In the book, it is in the future where pollution has killed many people and caused mass infertility. So men completely take over, and in order to make sure the population doesn't completely die out, they section off women; one of the sections was women who were fertile, women that could have children, who are called "Handmaids." "Marthas" are the women who did the chores in the house like servants; "Wives" were the main face of the women in the house. The main character who’s referred to as Offred is a Handmaid in the Commander’s house. Once a month she must have sex--which is nonconsensual by the way--with the Commander and hope that she becomes pregnant because if she doesn't, she will be killed. This st...

McCoy Vandermolen Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card In an imagination of the far, far future, Earth is in a destructive war with aliens known as the “Buggers”. After an initial invasion in which humanity barely managed to fend off the insect-cognate species, the people of Earth must now prepare for a second invasion-- or face complete extinction. One key part of this preparation is finding new generals and military masterminds to lead Earth’s fleet. The time elapsed between invasions has rendered the commanders of the past unusable, so humanity must train and raise their only hope: the children. At Battle School, located somewhere in the vastness of space, the brightest and boldest kids are taught skills and strategies in the hopes of eliminating the approaching alien menace. Readers are introduced to Bean, a young orphan from the streets of Rotterdam with an intellect far bigger than his height. Growing up in a street gang, Bean endured experiences most ...

Grant Robinson Titanicus by Dan Abnett Do you like reading multiple paragraphs describing a single scene? Dizzyingly hopping between a laundry list of characters and perspectives that you have to keep track of? Then Titanicus is the book for you! To briefly summarize up to the page I have read to, page 197 out of 602, the story takes place on the forge world Orestes. A forge world is essentially a planet whose sole purpose is to produce weapons, ships, commodities, Titans, and anything else a factory can produce. Orestes is home to two factions, the God Empire of Man, also known as humans, and the Mechanicus, cyborgs that most of whom have been cybernetically modified so far from the original human form that they can speak in binary code out loud amongst each other almost as a whole other language via augmentations to their voicebox and fail to pick up on common human social cues. Although the two are allied together, there is tension between them; the humans are distrustf...

Jamie Mills The Notebook By Nicholas Sparks This adventure starts with a poor mill boy, Noah, who falls in love with a rich girl, Allie. However, Allie’s parents do not approve of their relationship. When Noah gets the news that he will soon need to leave for the war at the end of the summer, he realizes that he must make the most out of every moment with Allie. As time passes by, Allie feels that life must go on; she gets involved with another man named James who later proposes to her. Noah’s time in the service ends soon but before he gets back Lon and Allie are arranged to get married. Later, Allie sees a newspaper and notices that Noah bought and restored a house. Allie now knows where to find Noah, and she begins to feel confused about her emotions towards him. She wonders, is she in love with the man who first captured her heart or with her fiance? Who will she end up with? Allie's answer will come to her when she “follows her heart”(139). This is a story full of ...

Mikey Burke Black Mass By Dick Lehr How much power can a singular man possess? Lifelong South Boston resident James “Whitey” Bulger showed that the only limits to his authority were where he chose them to be. Whitey was no Senator (though his brother was the president of the Massachusetts Senate and University of Massachusetts), he was no athlete, he didn’t own much, and wasn’t too rich. Bulger is none but the most notorious mobster in the prided history of the city of Boston. His gang, the Winter Hill Gang, ran rampant through the streets of New England, committing murder, armed robbery, and drug distribution everywhere from their home streets of Southie all the way out to places like Miami and the shores of their ancestors in Ireland.   While it is the tale of the adventures of notorious mobster Whitey Bulger, it is just as much about FBI agent John Connolly. Connolly, also a native of South Boston, is trying to climb his way up the authoritative ladder of the FBI, so he ...

Matthew Scheufele W.A.R.P. The Reluctant Assassin Eoin Colfer Time travel, murder, action, and crappy writing, W.A.R.P. :The Reluctant Assassin has it all. This book begins with us meeting one of the main characters, Riley, a young and reluctant apprentice to a magician turned assassin, Albert Garrick. They approach a target, and Garrick tells Riley that the kill would go to him. Riley approaches the man, knife in hand, when the target, an old man, wakes up, and a field of green light appears around the man. Riley is unable to perform the kill, so Garrick forces his hand, killing the man. This causes a portal through time, to the year 2013, which Riley makes it through, but not Garrick. Then, the readers meet Agent Chevron Savano, a part of a failed F.B.I. Project to “combat the increasing problem of terrorist infiltration in high schools.” Chevron, or Chevie, was moved to London for P.R. reasons after publicly taking down a threat, causing the project to be exposed due to so...

Madison Wan Complications: A Surgeon's Notes On An Imperfect Science By Atul Gawande Imagine being an intern for your local hospital. You're in the ER and your senior chooses YOU to perform the blood work. You're scared out of your wits and a number of things are running through your mind. What do you do and what should you consider? This is how Atul Gawande made his readers feel. If you haven't read his book Complications: A Surgeon's Notes On An Imperfect Science , sprint to the nearest Barnes & Nobles and read the book because he exemplifies the importance of being a physician and highlights the struggle of underrated doctors that have to face the angry people of today and the politics of their experiences in the medical field. Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, is a general and endocrine surgeon, a writer, and a public health leader who practices at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Having already done his time as an intern, resident, and attending,...

Abby Doherty All the Bright Places Jennifer Niven They say that opposites attract, so what happens when social outcast Finch and popular girl Violet meet on the top of the bell tower at school? Will they help each other grow from their traumas or will they only make things harder for each other?  All the Bright Places , by Jennifer Niven, is about two high school students trying to navigate their lives and is told through the perspective of two different people, Violet Markey and Theodore Finch. Violet is seen as a normal girl with a normal life. But, at the beginning of the book, Violet is struggling to cope with the death of her sister, who died in a car crash - a tragic accident that Violet blames herself for. She wears her sister’s old glasses to feel close to her and thinks to herself, “But maybe, if I wear the glasses long enough, I can be like her. I can see what she saw. I can be both of us at once so no one will have to miss her, most of all me” (23-24). Violet stru...

Stevenson Youyoute Thunderhead Neal Shusterman *Disclaimer I have not fully finished the book, but I have read the book to page 250.*  In a world where disease, famine, and poverty is no longer an issue, thinking for yourself is entirely optional, and everything you do is being watched by an Authority Interference system called The Thunderhead; the only way to live in this society is to expect death at every corner.  Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman, is a sci-fiction that is a sequel to Scythe . A year has passed. Citra and Rowan are now on opposite sides of the Scythdom; Citra’s approach towards gleaning is different from the sides of the new order who kill because they find pleasure in it. She uses the compassion taught to her by Curie and the strategic choice of gleaning victims based on countless hours of research from Faraday. On the opposite side of the Scythedom, Rowan is taking matters into his own hands using the people who, like Scythe Goddard, abused their...

Kayla Clements IT by Stephen King “Mesmerizing”, “terrifying”, and “sinister” are just some of the words used to describe Stephen King’s IT . Stephen King, author of over 80 books, is best known for his chilling horror stories and intriguing writing style. Starting off in Derry, Maine in 1957, William Denbrough is making a paper boat for his little brother Georgie to play with out in the rain. The events that followed changed the town of Derry--and the children in it--forever: “the terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years--if it ever did end--began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain” (3). While I have only made a small dent in this 1,100+ page book, I am already hooked on the story and different lives of the characters. I have heard nothing but good things from people who have read this book and I can say the same, I would say this book is a must-have for horror fans out t...

Nicholas Chantre The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind Joseph Murphy Every kid at some point dreams of being a superhero with powers that defy the laws of science. Parents and adults alike feed these ambitions but hold them to a limit. Despite the apparent age difference between kids and adults, they differ in perception; this is reality. How they see the world as either an optimist or a realist ultimately dictates their experience. “The eyes can only see what the mind has come to understand.” The knowledge, which is not stored in our mind, can never be found in our reality because we don't know of it. Your eyes have nothing to look for. Similarly, these dreamers can't find or see the limitations that the majority of society is suffocated by because in their world -- they don't exist: “every thought is a cause, and every condition is an effect” (6). The Power of Your Subconscious Mind was made with the intent to reconnect the imprisoned realists with the thought of “ W...

Joshua Solares Imagine waking up in a bright, white room that you don't know, with nobody at all, not knowing how you got there. Your body quivering, feeling nauseous to the point where you want to die. Deadly , by Sarah N. Harvey, kicks off with Amy, the main character, waking up to that exact position, not knowing how she got there; she wakes up weak, trembling to her knees, investigating the room she is stuck in. She finds barely any food in the little kitchen with a small basket of clothes, that is all. Later she finds a letter, explaining that if she wants to be let out in a week, she must write a letter every day explaining how one of the 7 deadly sins comply with her life. While this is happening, every other chapter switches off to Amy’s boyfriend's view, Eric. Eric explains that he was with her the night before, but he left the party they were at a little early and left her there. The rest of the book is Amy trying to escape and Eric trying to decode what happened...

Daphne Choche Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen What would you get for saving people? Is a question you would ask yourself when reading this book. So to start off this book review let me give you a little summary about Scarlet by A. C. Gaughen. Will Scarlet is good at two things: stealing from the rich and keeping secrets. She is part of Robin Hood’s band of thieves, they are a group who protect the people of Nottingham from the evil sheriff. To the people of Nottingham Will Scarlet is a boy and that secret is being threatened to be exposed. Will and Robin Hood’s band are in danger when a thief taker that goes by the name of Lord Gisbourne arrived in town to get rid of them. As Gisbourne closes in Scar must make a decision if the people of Nottingham really mean that much to her. If you couldn’t tell this book is fictional,you know with the mention of Robin Hood and his band of thieves. I’ll give you my honest opinion this book isn’t all that bad really. The reason I say this is because one ...

Connor Cameron So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed By Jon Ronson The internet has had plenty of different complex uses for decades. But has it also evolved the act of nationwide shunning. The risks of social media are first shown through Ronson’s own personal struggles with the internet. A couple young students started a fake Twitter account in the name of Jon Ronson, and when he asks them to take the account down, they say he is acting erratic. When he posts a video of the interview with the so-called “trolls” on YouTube, the vast majority of viewers came to the support of Ronson, coming together to shame the trolls into extinguishing the fake tweeters. Then as the novel progresses, the author mentions several other real-world examples that are affected by the nature of the internet, such as false supporting details in literature nowadays. The novel so far has been an informational piece of work. It is very slow-paced, so for anyone who needs excitement and suspense in their rea...

The Perks of Being a Wallflower Stephen Chbosky Emily Plummer Everyone goes through a difficult time in their life. New experiences can freak many people out especially if they went through a traumatic experience. In The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, we are introduced to the main character Charlie who is telling the story by writing letters of what’s happening around him to his unnamed friend by starting off the letter as “Dear Friend.” Due to him writing letters to his “friend” you can instantly tell that he is going through something based on the fact that he’s writing letters to his friend. From the beginning it’s explained how Charlie is a loner and doesn’t have many friends. Throughout the story you go through the journey of Charlie trying to make new friends and trying to fit in, but also discuss his mental health issues. When Charlie entered high school, he was going in alone, and throughout the first couple days of school, he really struggled t...

Noah Richardson Ronald Reagan: The Actor When Character was King Peggy Noonan To be young is to be in need of guidance. As we come of age, teenagers have an urgent need, positive role models to learn from. These lessons vary from doing laundry to finding what in life we truly want. A truth that I have discovered is that whenever you believe you have got things figured out, life will fling a wrench into your “perfect universe”. Due to the aforementioned statement, certainly most, but especially young people would benefit from reading Peggy Noonan’s biography When Character Was King , a biography of President Ronald Reagan. Reagan’s troubles mostly came from his father, an excessive alcoholic. Incredibly, rather than being spiteful toward his father, showed grace referring to his father's alcoholism as an uncontrollable disease. Instead, he became a mature, hardened but optimistic individual at a young age. Noonan shows that people that rise in society are those w...