Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

“The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.” 

Fahrenheit 451 is a science fiction dystopian story about a world that has banned books. The world has become increasingly superficial. People are discouraged to think and ask questions. Television shows stimulate the senses and body rather than the brain. The protagonist is a firefighter, someone who burns books for a living. In the beginning, he is content in his life. But as he meets a very curious and unique seventeen-year-old girl, he begins to critically analyse. Through the course of the story, he starts to understand the importance of books in passing knowledge, philosophy and presenting to us both the good and bad in life, society and us.

Bradbury’s work for me was more of a poetic essay. A very short read, a very linear and simple plot but one that is heavily based on philosophy. A complete contrast to the world it presents in the book.  It shows that content ignorance, a world with no controversies, doesn’t lead to a happy life. As we see through the suicidal tendencies of Guy’s wife. Human relationships are also much more superficial, as people became shallower. So, while I agree with a more egalitarian society we cannot let political correctness and fear of offending, stop us from being critical or placing self/society imposed censoring on controversial pieces of work.  

I am personally a part of this problem...

iBoy by Kevin Brooks

“we’re all … animals - none of us know any better”

iBoy by Kevin Brooks is the story of a teenage boy who acquires ‘superpowers’. When someone throws an iPhone from the top of a 30 story building, Harvey’s head is cracked and the iPhone pieces get stuck inside his brain. Harvey is able to everything that a phone can do and much more. He seeks revenge on the gang members who hurt his childhood friend, Lucy. He becomes known as iBoy, a superhero protecting the violent local area. But in all of that, Harvey loses himself to iBoy as the line between good and bad starts to blur.

After reading How to be Invisible, I simply assumed that this would be another book for pre-teens. However, this book contains some heavy themes and should be read by younger adolescents. (Maybe 15 and up? It really just depends on maturity…)

How to be Invisible by Tim Lott

“Trust is invisible too, but it turns out that that it’s the invisible things that matter most of all”

How to be Invisible by Tim Lott is the story of a 13 year old science genius who, as per the title, learns how to turn invisible. Strato Nyman, just moved schools and was having a hard time fitting in. When he discovers how to be invisible, he finds out that no one is ever really ‘visible’. He learns a lot about his family, his friends, his bullies and even his teacher.  

I think I may be too old for this book. I kind of worked that out from the age of the protagonist. However, the title seemed so interesting, I decided to read it anyway. So, of course since I’m not the target audience, this review might be a bit harsh.

Almost Dead by Kaz Delaney

“…Well, you can’t have it both ways. You wanted a father, so you’ve got one.”

Almost Dead by Kaz Delaney follows the story of a Gold Coast elite high school girl, Macey Pentecost.  She is being visited by ghosts who need help to ‘move on’.  Although she doesn’t understand anything of the supernatural, she thinks she has it under control. That is, until she is visited by the ghost of ‘Nick’, who stubbornly refuses to admit he is dead.  He tries to warn Macey of danger, but even he doesn’t know what the danger is.  It all becomes more complicated as her father comes home with a surprise, Macey gets threats messages from a stalker and she starts developing feelings for Nick’s cousin.

Yesterday, my laptop stopped working and I took it as a ‘sign’ that I shouldn’t be doing homework :P I must say I am happy that my computer is crazy because I then found Almost Dead. The same day I finished it. It’s light, it’s cute and it’s romantic. Definitely different to the recent books I had been reading, and I was very glad to just relax for a bit. While it is very easy to read, it still has a very interesting plot. I was just a bit disappointed when I found out who the stalker was. Maybe it was just me, but I didn’t think we had enough mentions of the stalker. I had to quickly read back to remind myself who this person was. At least it was a surprise.

Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens

“You will profit by failure, and will avoid it another time. I have done a similar thing myself, in construction, often. Every failure teaches a man something, if he will learn.”

Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens is the tale of the intertwining lives of 19^th Century British families, from different social and economic statuses. Little Dorrit was born and raised in the Marshalsea debtors’ prison. She meets Mr. Clennam, who had just returned from his travels abroad, after his father died and left a mysterious watch for Mrs. Clennam. After seeing his mother being unusually nice to Little Dorrit he begins to suspect that his mother, the watch and Little Dorrit are all connected. He also suspects that his mother had taken some part in the financial state of the Dorrits. Mr. Clennam, with the help of friends and high powered connections investigate this case. What we find out in the end is a bigger twist to the story than Mr. Clennam ever suspected when he began to investigate.

Like many 19^th Century, English classics, Little Dorrit is a humongous text that explores the unfair working of society, the gap in the upper and lower classes and especially, the obsession people have with money. I found this book was sometimes very confusing and at other times very intriguing. The start was very long and it only became to be interesting only a third of the way in, mostly because it was when I started to understand the story – others more proficient in classic literature may completely disagree with me. What I found the hardest to follow were all the jumps from each family every few chapters. However, I didn’t worry about this too much because I had already learnt from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, which followed the same style. And as expected, the confusion all pays off when all the characters come together to form part of just one story.

Warning: This is a somewhat lengthy review  of the ideas on the book and it contains  some spoilers.

Zoé et la sorcière du quatrième

« Vous aimez votre fille. Seulement, ça ne suffit pas. Il faut prendre le temps de le lui dire, à cette petite biquette. Aujourd’hui, et puis demain, et puis toujours… »

Zoé et la sorcière du 4^e par Thierry Lenain et Colonel Moutarde est une livre sur une petite fille, qui s’appelle Zoé. Elle est toujours seule parce que ses parents travaillent beaucoup. Zoé a pleine d’imagination et  elle croit que sa voisine du dessus, Mme Mizu, est une sorcière.

Finale by Becca Fitzpatrick (#4 Hush Hush Series)

“Arrogance can be deadly.”  - Finale

Finale is the fourth and last book of the Hush Hush series by Becca Fitzpatrick. In this book the leader of the leader of the Nephilim revolution has died and now Nora must lead them. Nora wants to end this upheaval and bring things back to peace. However, other don't agree and there is a lot at stake. Nora must find her inner leader all at the same time maintaining her relationship with Patch. The people she thinks she can trust are the people that will surprise her.

As I mentioned, this is the last book of a series. I do not usually write a review on the sequels so I will keep this short and sweet. (If you would like to read the longer review on her it all began here is the link, Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick )

Persuasion by Jane Austen

“How quick come the reasons for approving what we like.”  - Jane Austen,

Persuasion by Jane Austen is the story of Anne Elliot; a witty, independent and intelligent woman of the upper class in the 19^th Century. Eight years before the start of the novel, Anne was still a young woman when she fell in love with Officer Frederick Wentworth. However, she was persuaded against this love. Now, in the present she is already 27 and much wiser. She meets again with now, Captain Frederick. This is not only their love story but also the satire of society’s vanity and social class.

At the start I found the book quite hard, I thought that I would actually be writing this review differently and saying that I didn't think this was a book for my level and age, mid-teens. The words were quite hard, like any other classic and the names sometimes got me confused, especially the two Charles and it didn't help they were cousins. However, once the story started taking shape the whole thing became easier to read and follow. 

I quite enjoyed this book, but I do have one comment that to me seems to correlate with Jane Austen’s literary work; I find that Austen writes books that if they were written nowadays they would have been considered ‘teen fiction’ with a bit of romance. It may be because I am used to the thrill of fantasy novels but I found that Persuasion didn’t have a very strong plot. As I said, I enjoyed reading the novel however, as I go over the story I don’t know how the story took over so many pages. It was basically the day to day life of Anne Elliot and her seeing Captain Wentworth again. There were little complications, like there would be in real life but nothing major. I read in the trusty J sparknotes that the climax was when Wentworth gave Anne the letter announcing that he still loved her.  However, this scene was one of the last in the books, were all the other 150 or 200 pages just the introduction and a very small build-up?

Diving for Pearls by Katherine Thomson

Diving for Pearls by Katherine Thomson is the story of working class Australians in the changing world of the 1980s to 90s. It is set in an industrial (most probably Wollongong) town, where the industries are now being sold to create a resort. The main characters are Barbara, her lover Den, Barbara's daughter Verge and Barbara's brother in law Ron. 

I am not sure if Diving for Pearls fits into the book review categories but I read the play as if it was a book so I am writing about it. Actually, this is more me complaining and whining about the play. I had to read it for school and I didn't even understand hot it can pass as an actual play. 

The play is supposedly trying to show what it was like for Australians in the late 80s and early 90s, especially for those in the steel industries. If the book was successful in doing so, then Australians were really rude, pessimistic and unmotivated or just plain unskilled. It was ridiculous how many swear words were in the play, while I understand that Thomson was trying to show the real day to day life (very generalised) of the working class Australia of that time period, it didn't make the play any less inappropriate for a class reading as well as making Australians seem really bad. 

The worst part of the play was that I couldn't empathise with the characters. I couldn't understand their personalities and motives and so the story was never real to me. A good book or play is supposed to make you feel for the characters and understand them so that their story becomes real. This play was the complete opposite

The Giver by Lois Lowry

" The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.” – The Giver

Jonas was born into a perfect society. Every little detail was organised and planned, everything was methodical and conventional. No one ever experienced thirst, hunger or pain – no one even knew these things could exist. By the time children reach 12 they are told what they will work as; even though they didn’t have the freedom to choose what area they would work, their job was a perfect reflection of their personalities. Jonas was given the most honourable job as the “Receiver”. He will be in charge of all the memories, therefore no one else has to experience pain but there is one person to remember and not repeat mistakes in history. However, when Jonas starts receiving memories he opens his eyes to a whole other world. No one feels pain but nor do they feel love, everything is the same for everyone but there is no colour – the world is grey - there is no sunshine or soft snow. Jonas realises holding memories may be painful but they hold so much warmth and happiness that everyone should have the opportunity to experience them and most importantly have a choice in life.

The Giver by Lois Lowry is a science fiction book reflecting on the perfect world and the importance of memories, experiences and free choice. Lowry wrote the book after her father lost most of his long term memory. Memories can traumatise someone but they are so important to learn from and to grow from. Memories also contain just as much, if not even more, goodness in them.

Lois Lowry tries to create the perfect world, but the whole concept of perfectness can never be truly established within the limitations of human’s imaginations. It is only subjective to one’s perceptions. Therefore when the characters in the book went through their lives they didn’t question it.

Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

" Voices and faces aren't manifestations of good or bad. " - Fairest

Fairest by Gail Carson Levine is set in the fictional Kingdom of Ayortha. In Ayortha a person is judged on their appearance and their voice, it is considered normal for one to just break into a song in the middle of conversations. The main girl, Ava, has a beautiful voice however she is not so lucky with her looks. Ava always feels embarrassed and is very harsh on herself, all she longs for is to be beautiful. When she gets the opportunity to travel to the castle the Queen grows fond of her however but for the wrong reasons. The Queen quickly learns of Ava's secret ability and uses it for her own benefit. Ava also finds out the Queen's secrets and she too uses it for her own good. Both will learn that with any action, potion and spells comes great consequences. 

I read this book in under 3 hours. The plot was simple and the language was very easy and simple. By this description I do not mean to say the book was bad or even boring but I am stating these facts so that you can decide if you would like to read the book. I personally like reading these books when I don't want to spend too much of my time reading or when I want a cheesy, cute book just to pass my time.

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

“Sometimes, Edie, a person's feelings aren't rational. At least, they don't seem that way on the surface. You have to dig a little deeper to understand what lies at the base” 

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton is a Gothic novel. Edie Burchill is curious about the reaction from her mother when she received a long lost letter. It was set between 1939 and 1992. Edie knows nearly nothing from her mother's mysterious past. It all leads to the Milderhurst Castle, Edie feels a strange pull towards this place. When she takes a tour around the house she realises that there are many more secrets hidden by the stone walls of the castle. Secrets that fascinate her about the sister that live there and their family!

The novel by Kate Morton made me realise how much I adore the Gothic genre!

Eve (the Eve Trilogy) by Anna Carey

“A relationship between two people can be judged by the list of things unspoken between them.”  - Eve

Eve by Anna Carey is the first in the Eve Trilogy. The story is set in 2032, in the New America after a plague (and its vaccine that was meant to help) killed most of the world's population. The U.S.A is now ruled by a King. Girls and boys are completely separated into schools. Eve, the protagonist, is graduating from school and hopes to become a great painter. One day before graduation one of her colleagues shares her plans and knowledge with Eve. It seems that the King nor the teachers are telling the truth. Everything she believed in is a lie. Eve escapes all of this and meets Caleb. They fall in love but with them being fugitives she must choose between safety and love. 

This book is AMAZING!! I don't really know exactly where this books achieves this success or how Anna Carey did it but I just found I was completely absorbed by the book and the characters. I read non stop and finished it in less than a day. I would burst out at random moments screaming for Eve or Caleb, I was nearly crying at the end when Caleb was leaving. This is seriously such a cute, sweet book for all the dreamers and thinkers out there.

Mac Slater, Cool Hunter by Tristan Bancks

" Sometimes you've got to do the wrong thing to do the right thing, and I'd convinced Paul that this was the right thing. I just wasn't so sure I'd convinced myself." - Mac Slater, Cool Hunter

Mac Slater, Cool Hunter (I Heart NY) by Tristan Bancks. It is the story of Mac and Paul. Previously they had won a competition to become a cool hunter, someone who finds cool stuff and vlogs on the Coolhunters website. In winning the competition he gets to fly to New York for a week, all expenses paid; as long as they find cool stuff to upload. The first day everything goes wrong, the next day their luck seems to be changing. Mac finds a whole group of people inventing the coolest things ever but this time he must keep it a secret. 

I actually only read the second book in the series. I didn't even think it was a series; the title on the cover basically says mac slater, cool hunter there is a tiny writing saying "2 I <3 NY", i just thought this was part of the graphics. Other than that there was no mention of it being a series. 

I found this book really, really weak. I kept on reading and waiting for it to reach a climax but I didn't really think it go to it.

Cross My Heart by Sasha Gould

"In Venice, a secret is indeed more powerful than a sword. " - Cross My Heart

Cross my Heart by Sasha Gould is set during the Italian Renaissance. Laura della Scala, the protagonist, is sent to the convent at the age of 10. When her sister dies her father calls her back home to marry her sister's fiancée. Laura despises whom she is to marry, he is completely disgusting. However, all her father cares about is wealth and power. Laura finds out about someone who can help her; they call themselves the Segreta, a secret society of women all they ask is a secret. At the start they seem to help but soon she realises that it may not have been all good. She thinks they link up to the murder of her sister. 

This book will have a similar review to a recent book review I wrote about Ever . It is a very quick read with a short plot. There was quite a lot of mystery but I wouldn't say it was a complex novel. At the end things got quite gruesome but overall I found the story very cute and romantic. 

Ever by Gail Carson Levine

"Fate...may...be...thwarted. [...] I long...for..a happy outcome" - Ever.

Ever by Gail Carson Levine is the intertwining story of Olus, God of the wind, and Kezi, a normal village girl. Olus is much younger than the rest of the gods and longs to live with the mortal humans. One day, when living in Hyte he falls in love with Kezi. Kezi's love for him is reciprocal. Her days, however, are numbered because of an unbreakable oath. This is the story of their love and race to change fate. 

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

"A birth is not really a beginning. Our lives at the start are not really our own but only the continuation of someone else's story.” - The Thirteenth Tale.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. This is quite a suspenseful plot where I cannot dwell much into the plot without giving away the experience. Basically it is the story of Vida Winter, a storyteller with a mysterious past. She finally decides that it is time to come clean. Her story might be even bigger and better then all the fictional stories she has told. 

I was told to read this for school. My teacher told me that this was a really good book and a very quick read I had my doubts since I don't really share the same taste in books with my teacher. However, this book I found really interesting. The part about the quick read didn't really apply for me though. The words itself were pretty easy but the way they were arranged made it a bit hard for me, I had to re-read some paragraphs quite a bit of times. I do have a friend who read it in one day and I was really surprised about that and mind you, I'm quite a quick reader. 

The plot was amazingly good!

Battle of Britain - Harry Woods, England 1939-1941 by Chris Priestley

Battle of Britain by Chris Priestley is part of the My Story series. This book is set in England during mid 20th Century. It is the life of a young man during World War II whose love for flying gets him to enlist for the RAF. 

This book really let me down. This review had a very short plot summary and will probably be a short review because really the plot felt short. The books in the My Story series are usually a short read, however this time the plot was so short that it just skipped on the details.

Bloody Tower - The Diary of Tilly Middleton, London 1553-1559 by Valerie Wilding

Bloody Tower; The Diary of Tilly Middleton by Valerie Winding is about the short lived reigns of Lady Jane Grey and Queen Mary as well as how Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne. The story is told through the eyes of the young Tilly Middleton who lives in the castle as her father is the physician.

This novel is part of the My Story series and like I said in my last blog, I really like that series. There are many things that are found in all of the books in the series that I really like and find useful, such as the timeline and historical background notes at the end. (More on that can be found on my last blog on the ' Anne Boleyn and Me.') I was lucky that by chance I read this one straight after the story of Anne Boleyn and Me, because it gave the story more flow and I had a bit of background reading going into this book. 

Now, about this specific book; I found that it was good but it wasn't the best of the series. The book's plot left a bit to wish

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

“Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.” 

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie is a well known classical book. All children grow up but one, Peter Pan. Peter lives in the Neverland. One day, in one of his trips to hear stories told in the Darling's house he gets caught and loses his shadow. When he returns to get back his shadow, Wendy is awoken by the sounds of Peter crying. Wendy helped Peter sow on his shadow and Peter realising the importance of a mother figure asks her to go with him and be his mother and mother to the lost boys. Wendy and her two brothers were very excited and with a bit of fairy dust they fly their way to the Neverland. 

In the version of the book I read there were two stories; Peter in Kensington Gardens and Peter and Wendy. This book was one of the most confusing books. I had watched the movie and cartoon versions of Peter Pan and so I was expecting something similar. However, when I first start reading the narrators are the Davies brothers and they talk about things like baby castle where the most sought up baby lives by herself and all these baby attractions in the kensington gardens, it felt like I was reading the wrong book. Finally when I read the name Peter Pan I was relieved, but not for long. Peter Pan was completely different to what I was expecting. Firstly he was only a week old, he wore no clothes, he rode a goat, he lived with the birds because everyone was a bird who flew to their parents' home and there turned into humans.