Category: Columns

Holes is a classic novel revolving around a teenage kid named Stanley Yelnats and his family’s curse. This novel openly talks about finding acceptance in difficult areas. 

I overly enjoyed this read, it was fast and easy to follow. First I watched the movie starring Shia LaBouf (2003), then I found out it was an adaptation of the novel. Like most book adaptations, they leave a lot of things out. Stanley’s character is an overweight kid who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, causing him to go to a correctional facility deemed as a “camp”. Casting Shia LaBeouf, he was nothing like the character described in the book. 

That was my only complaint about the movie and the book, I think Stanley being fat was kind of a crucial part of his character, he was treated differently than in the book because of his physical appearance, and it didn’t have the same treatment. Other than that, it was both fun to watch the movie and read the book. 

This book also has a lot of hidden meanings. This “camp” for teenage boys was deemed to be a correctional facility for troubled boys to learn their lesson. Sound familiar? This camp has a lot of similarities to modern-day prisons. Inmates are forced to work without pay in prison. In the book, they are reportedly supposed to dig one hole each day, 5 feet wide, five feet deep in the blazing heat. If they find something interesting (valuable), they are to report back to their “counselors immediately”. 

Within modern-day prisons/ correctional facilities, inmates ‘Today, more than 76 percent of incarcerated workers surveyed by the Bureau of Justice Statistics say that they are required to work or face additional punishment such as solitary confinement, denial of opportunities to reduce their sentence, and loss of family visitation. They have no right to choose what type of work they do and are subject to arbitrary, discriminatory, and punitive decisions by the prison administrators who select their work assignments.” Stated by ACLU in their piece “CAptive Labor: Exploitation of Incarcerated Workers”.

The Fear Street Saga is a 16-book rundown of twists and turns cover to cover. The one I chose to read was the start of it all, The Betrayal. 

This book starts in one of the most disturbing parts of history, the Salem witch trials. Where women were often accused of being witches and were either hanged or burned alive at the stake. Located in Wickham Village, Massachusetts, 1692. 

Taking interest in a 16-year-old girl named Susanna Goode, she was by far the prettiest girl in her village and often was scorned for her looks by her mother and other female figures in the village. Susanna was constantly in fear due to the accusations of witchcraft that went around her village. She was brought up to be very modest for the sake of staying innocent in front of the witch killer of their region Benjamin Fier. 

This book had nothing but downs, it just got worse and worse. The reader instantly understands that Susanna is marked for death someway somehow. She is put in situations beyond her understanding or her control, which was very common back in the day. I had characters to fear and look for. 

I grew up with R.L. Stine’s books and have read through his pages throughout childhood, his unpredictability was nothing new, his writing was sharp, clean, and easy to imagine in your mind. Each character had a unique quirk to them and most had a well-deserved ending. 

This book was a very short read and was hard to put down. There was no real message beneath the words, it was just a story that was easy to read and was written for 10-year-olds. So nothing stood out to me.

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli is an indy, teen drama that revolves around social norms and what it means to be “normal” or a “freak”. 

One thing that never changes about generations is that to be normal is everything to a teenager. Staying in style and a comfort zone through the awkward stages of changing. Surrounding yourself with people who make you comfortable, and feeling well-liked. 

This novel follows a 16-year-old boy named Leo Borlock. Like most teenagers, he avoids change at all costs. In his world bound by nothing but his conscience, comes along a ‘freak’. A girl who dresses in nothing but colors that stand out, who acts out in every way that one would describe as embarrassing, mental, or weird. And yes, I personally experienced a lot of moments of cringe during this read, but it only proves the author’s point. Humans are doomed to labels and assumptions. 

Stargirl is an unpredictable offset, creating a problem only designed as a social construct for the people at her high school. They give her all sorts of stories and labels to figure her out and make out what and who she is. Instead of finding out themselves and asking her to her face, they were far more comfortable talking about her to create rumors and stories for their entertainment. 

This book exists to call out how teenagers are and how they’ve always been. Too in their heads to do anything different. Keep to themselves, think to themselves, and try to be themselves in the midst of it all. This book just had an influential character with an obvious heavy impact. It felt a bit unrealistic to me, but as it was published in 2002, that’s to be expected.

How It Feels To Float, by Helena Fox, is a novel wrapped around the obsession of death. How we as people view death, the one inevitable thing we won’t be able to escape.

This novel revolves around a 16-year-old girl from Australia named Biz. She struggles with every emotion that comes her way, not knowing how to feel in the moment, only to feel it later. She talks a lot about her father’s death that happened when she was very young, around 7 years old. 

She talks very openly about her mother and little siblings, and the adaptations they had to make through it all, focusing on her mother. Something I found interesting was how she mentioned her mother’s first date after he died. Biz comments how the sacred last kiss of her dad would be forever gone if her mother kissed someone else. Gnawing at the tragic fact that everything can erode, even if you can’t see it. 

To cope with her father’s passing in her way, she imagines him in the present. She can imagine him in any situation she’s in, knowing what he would say in the moment, and seeing when he would leave. She talks to him through memory, trying to understand everything around her.

This novel includes identity crises, teenage torment, and seeing how a death through a young person’s eyes can shape someone for the rest of their life and how they view themselves and everyone else. Death is something so certain and sacred, yet it’s the one thing humans won’t ever fully understand.