Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

“Life, unfortunately, doesn't seem to care what we want.” 

-        - Richelle Mead, Last Sacrifice

Vampire academy follows the story of Rosemarie Hathway. Rose is a ‘dhampir’ – dhampir’s genetics are half human and half vampire. Her job is to protect the Moroi, a form of vampires. The story begins when Rose is taken back to St. Vladimir's Academy, after having fled in order to protect her best friend and Moroi, Vasilisa Dragomir. Vasilisa is the last of the Dragomir line, and is in line for the throne. As they return to the academy, there are still many mysteries and dangers that hunt Vasilisa.

There is not much I want to write, except recommend anyone who likes fantasy and young adult novels. I think that this is one of the better young-adult paranormal novels. I literally spent a whole day reading series, only stopping to eat. This is how entranced by the story I was. This is mainly because of the protagonist. Rosemarie is strong and loyal. She is unlikely many female characters in novels of the same genre.

Richelle Mead is really able to transport the reader onto a journey. The story starts slow, and with every book in the series the story becomes darker, with more action, adventure and more complex story lines. The series is a whirlwind of emotions.

Again, this is really short… Especially because I read this so fast, that it's just a blur. I can't really examine it book by book. What I can say is that the overall series is light, entertaining and very enjoyable.  Kind of sad that they're not making any film sequels...

READ IT! :) Every book gets better

The Gathering by Anne Enright

'People do not change, they are merely revealed.' 





The Gathering is written in the perspective of Veronica, and she explains her family's stories and secrets. Her brother, Liam, died, and his funeral brings her large family together (Veronica is one of nine living children! I'm not sure how many there were originally). She talks about three different generations, starting with her grandma. 

It was written in an interesting way and I enjoyed reading it. It has a pessimistic tone, which left me feeling downhearted as I was reading it. To be frank, I was disappointed in the story. Since there were a few deaths, I was expecting a murder/detective novel. But alas, I was completely wrong. After finishing the book, I thought 'oh, is that all?'. It left me feeling that something was missing from the story. The idea of the story was interesting, but there could be more twists and surprises. It won the Man Booker Prize in 2007, so I might be the only one feeling this way. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad book. But I think it wasn't my style. It was wonderfully written, but I was looking for a bit more action. 

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

'The more I found, the less I understood'. 


This is our first book review of 2016 yippee!!! Happy New Year! I'm glad this is the first review because I really liked the book. I feel as though this book has made an impact on me- most of the time after I finish reading, I write a review, forget about the story soon after and move on to the next book. I actually finished reading Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close a couple of weeks ago, but decided to watch the movie before writing the review (and also because I lacked the motivation to write it as soon as I finished reading it). A picture of the book's cover is on the left, and the movie's cover is below.I hope you all have a good day and have very light boots :) 


Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is about a young boy, called Oskar, who lost his dad in the 9/11 attack. The story takes place about a year after his father's death, when Oskar finds a key in a vase in his dad's closet. They used to do scavenger hunts, and Oskar thinks the key is part of a scavenger hunt. So he goes looking for the lock that it opens, thinking that it will open something important and meaningful. He meets many people along the way and hears their stories.... until he finds the lock (or does he?).

Miss Charity par Marie-Aude Murail

« Je suis dans ma vingt-troisième année. Mais je me sens plus âgée. Et pourtant, je n’ai presque rien vécu. Les années immobiles comptent peut-être doubles. » (p. 425)

Miss Charity par Marie-Aude Murail. L’histoire se déroule dans la fin du 19ème siècle. Miss Charity Tiddler est une petite fille solitaire. Depuis l'enfance, elle s'intéressé par la nature, spécialement les animaux. Elle passe son temps dans le troisième étage de sa maison en compagnie de Tabitha, sa bonne, et ses animaux de compagnie. Charity est très intelligente et apprend par cœur les pièces de Shakespeare. Sa plus grande passion c'est le dessin. De chapitre en chapitre, Charity grandit. Elle est perdue dans les rigueur de la bonne société anglaise. Au 25, la société pense qu’elle est trop vieille pour trouver un mari.  Mais Tiddler n'est pas trop inquiet parce qu'elle veut être indépendante, et écrire de livre jeunesse.

J’ai compris peut-être 50 pour cent de ce livre. Je pense que c’est bon parce que c’est un livre très long (563 pages !). Mais, donc, je ne suis pas la meilleure personne pour écrire une critique sur le livre. Je vais écrire basé sur que j’ai compris. Parce que c’est un bon exercice pour mon français. Je m’excuse pour les erreurs.

The Absolutist by John Boyne

“In that direction only pain lies.” 

I think this quote pretty much sums up the book. I can't actually remember in which part of the book this quote is from, but it can be interpreted as the physical pain that war brings, the emotional pain because of the many losses it causes, or pain because of a heartbreak.

Just in case you are unaware, an absolutist is someone that completely opposes the war- they refuse to fight in it, or help out in any other way. Nowadays, I think the majority of people are against war, but during WWI, they were considered cowards or 'feather men'. There were also conscientious objectors, who were those who refused to fight in the War, but helped out in other ways, e.g. by being a stretcher bearer. I actually learnt many things by reading this book. It's not very educational, but I was just ignorant about WWI before.

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

“To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world. That's what everybody does every hour of his life. If I asked you to keep your soul - would you understand why that's much harder?” 

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand is about architect, Howard Roark, working against the tides of society. He knows what he wants, and has a need to design. However, his designs are his own and are not accepted by a society of ‘second-handers’. His genius and independence are threats to the way society is functioning. His rivals, those who seek power, control and self-sacrifice from the common people, will stop at nothing to bring him down. There are only a few people who are Roark’s equal. But even Dominique Francon has much to learn about Roark’s philosophy.

It is strange that Rand’s novels have a way of making me like them at the end, no matter how much I hated it in the middle. I found The Fountainhead, much easier to read than Atlas Shrugged. But despite this, there were moments that I thought the story was heading down hill. I struggled to understand some of her ideas, especially that of love. I thought that the scene were Roark goes into Dominique’s bedroom and ‘claims’ her, was completely unnecessary (well, actually, maybe not unnecessary but in my point of view it went a bit too far.) The reason I liked this book was combination of factors – I liked it because of a sense of accomplishment when I got to the end of such a heavy and long book, because I agreed with the ideals she presented (even if some of them appeared as caricatures) and most of all, I like Rand’s books because she somehow manages to leave a sense of hope and resolution even though there is never exactly a ‘happy ending’.

I know that many people regard Rand’s writing as a ‘cult’. I don’t. I like reading her novels, and I don’t every think I have to hide them. I like her ideas; I like the idea of independent thinking. The problem is that I know that no matter how much I try, whatever I think will just be a copy of what someone else had thought before, and I can assume that much. What I do try to achieve, is to read, watch and listen to as many opinions and thoughts as possible, I can then try to decide which mix of ideas makes the most sense to me. By then saying ‘yes’ to these ideas, they can become ‘mine’, independent of who created the thoughts/values.

Portraits of Celina by Sue Whiting

“… but it seemed that the troubles of the past had strangely brought us a little closer together…”

Portraits of Celina by Sue Whiting tells the story of a broken family who move into an abandoned haunted house. The house had belonged to past members of their family, and had been the site where Celina, Bayley’s second cousin, had died. Bayley shares a striking resemblance to Celina. When Bayley starts to have visions of Celina’s old life, she thinks she is going crazy. Celina seeks revenge and Bayley must be the one to avenge her.

I am absolutely mesmerized by this book. It was so interesting and it had both cute teen romance and brooding mysteries. Full of plot twists, I could not put the book down. The result? Two hours later, and a finished book to write about. It is listed as part of the Premier’s Reading Challenge for years 7-9. But I think it may be interesting to even older grades.