Category: Book Reviews

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Book Buzz With Amanda Book Reviews Opinion

The Girl From Mars by Tamara Bach Review

This week I gave myself ‘The Girl From Mars.’ Written by Tamara Bach. I didn’t enjoy this book due to its lack of writing, describing a constant derogatory way of looking at the way things are. 

This story circles the life of 15-year-old Miriam. She has no intellect of what the outside of her little town is like. She is a very negative character, but then again so are all 15-year-olds. She acts very grown up to her friends and to her mother (she seems to hate all of them). She experiences the ultimate lows of what it means to act grown. 

She eventually finds a circle of friends she associates with, they convince her to take a rebellious road trip only to eventually take a turn for the worse. 

Though this book didn’t stand out to me, it had a great representation of what being a confused teenager can look like. As Gen-Z, we grew up with teenage shows that show almost everything but the realistic struggles of being a 15-year-old kid. 15 is the teenage dark period. I think that’s why I didn’t enjoy this book as much because it reminded me of all the weird stuff that happened as a 15-year-old. 

This book is also a bit stereotypical, Miriam has grown up in a small town, where nothing ever happened, everyone already knew her, and nothing ever seemed to change pace. Her character is a constant daydreamer that night and day, dreaming of something bigger. 

I guess dislike is too strong a word for my feelings toward this story, but it had its relatable parts. It represents a lot of LGBTQ struggles and dicey feelings masking friendships and relationships and such.

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Book Buzz With Amanda Book Reviews Entertainment Opinion

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs Review

With a story far away from reality, I chose the first book of the thrilling Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, written by Ransom Riggs, for this week’s Book Buzz. 

Most of you have either seen or heard of the movie based on this book, which got incredible reviews back in 2016, starring Asa Butterfield, Samuel Jackson, and Eva Greene. 

This story is a fantasy filled with deranged twists and turns cover to cover. To keep the imagery alive, Ransom Riggs included pictures and descriptions to help the reader see exactly what the character sees. 

This fantasy follows a bland teenager named Jacob (Jake) Portman who lives in Florida. He views the world from a glass half-empty angle. He holds no value to anything or anyone other than his “deluded” grandfather Abe. Jacob’s grandfather came from Poland in the darkest depths of World War II, he took refuge in Wales along the coast. He was welcomed into a home made for children with added quirks to them. 

The beginning starts with Jacob talking about his grandfather’s stories about the unique home he lived in, saying how unrealistic they were now that he was older. He brought up the pain he felt for being so foolish for believing such impractical fictions. Though Abe had photo evidence to back up his claims, Jacob always found a hidden truth to debunk it. The older Jacob got, the more he wanted to label his grandfather as sick and mental. Nonetheless, they had an unbreakable bond. 

Working his retail job that he was hopelessly trying to get fired from, Jacob received a stomach-churning call from Abe asking if he knew where the key to his gun box was. Filled with certainty that he was just going through a peculiar episode, Jacob rubbed it off and lied saying he had no idea. Abe started to get restless saying something was after him, and that it was coming for Jacob next, making it easy for Jacob to believe that his grandfather was going insane. He still went to check on him anyway, only to find a costly riddle and years of therapy. 

I always enjoy books that are followed by a movie, so I can point out what was left out and what was left in. This book is the start of a six-book saga. This story is deeply descriptive and makes it easy to paint a picture in your head. It has humor, style, horror, but most importantly, peculiarity. 

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Book Buzz With Amanda Book Reviews Entertainment Opinion

I’m With Stupid by Geoff Herbach Review

Over the past few days, I went to the CKM library to pick out a book to review for this week’s book buzz review. I came across a book called I’m With Stupid written by Geoff Herbach. This novel creates a safe space for struggle, angst, and self-doubt. 

Since we are starting the second semester out with a bang, seniors are grinding their teeth to leave high school. So I thought it would be fitting to find a book based on college fits and not-so-good fits. 

This book is about a high school football phenomenon named Fletcher Reinstein. He is a national treasure and is the top pick for every college in America. His life is very public at such a young age in the world of sports. He went to school in a small town in Wisconsin, where everyone had certain expectations of him and where he should go to college. 

The book does in fact start as a story about football and what it takes to be a jock going into college until about halfway through. He talks a lot about how he isolates himself thinking he doesn’t deserve someone to lean on and help him. A shoulder to cry on in other words. He constantly thinks of himself as a burden to others causing him to spiral very publicly causing the whole state to hate him eventually. 

This character has a lot of baggage for someone who is described constantly as someone who ‘has it all.’ Gifted with all the righteousness a young man could have. He turns to substances to ease his worries. The whole book he’s in desperate need of someone else to worry for him, instead of talking he holds it all in at the risk of being that hellish burden he thinks he is. 

This story brings an excellent reason for why there is no point in suffering alone at the cost of feeling like a burden. Everyone deserves to be heard, and everyone deserves to be seen without feeling judged or misunderstood. Isolating yourself at the cost of someone else’s feelings and expectations only brings hell down onto yourself. 

This book can offer you guidance on how to surround yourself with good people who will listen because they want to. This book will also help you reflect on yourself on how to still be there for other people you care about, but it’ll also help you understand yourself.

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Normal People by Sally Rooney Review

This book revolves around the emotion and dialogue of two Irish characters, Marianne and Connell. Starting their story in January of 2011, they start with the typical stereotypes. Connell is popular, well-liked, shy, and easily embarrassed. Marianne is a loner, she has no friends and has no interest in creating any relationships with people her age. 

In their final year of finishing school before university, there’s a relationship that forms between Connell and Marianne. Connell is a prevalent figure at their school and is terrified of anyone finding out about his relationship with Marianne. He goes into a frenzy of what his crappy friends would think and say about him. His past relationships were very public and out of line through gossip. Since Marianne was the ‘freak’ of the school he was even more paranoid that anyone would find out about them. Marianne on the other hand really couldn’t care less about anyone’s feelings besides Connell’s. She didn’t want to lose or upset him so she kept everything a secret. She was very aware that it was foolish and stupid. But she went along with it anyway. 

Keeping their relationship a secret and under wraps, Connell and Marianne pretend to be strangers in their school. Passing by each other in the halls without making eye contact at the risk of Connell’s reputation. 

Fast forwarding to university, everything seemed to switch. Marianne finally grew up and became more of the popular girl of the college. Connell slowly became more insecure and distant. They were still friends in a complicated way but valued each other nonetheless. Long story short, this book has insane emotional ups and downs, especially with the art of conversation. There’s a lot of power in what people say, especially when it comes down to how people feel. 

This book was overall an emotional rollercoaster with many counts of miscommunication and held emotions. I feel as if this whole storyline tries to tell you that saying what you feel when you feel it is more valued than most actions. Not taking people for granted obviously and don’t be afraid to be unreasonable. In my opinion, I think this book should be called ‘The Delicacy of Conversation.’ regarding how private the words spoken between Marianne and Conell were.

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Book Reviews Features Opinion

Review of Divergent *SPOILER FREE*

Divergent is a fantastic novel that takes place in a dystopian society where people are placed in different factions based on their personalities. 

I rate this book a 10 out of 10 because I personally like dystopian novels such as The Hunger Games. And I for one think that movies and books are incredible, but I highly recommend reading the book before watching the movie. Divergent is based on science fiction, young adult fiction, and dystopian fiction. So if you read The Hunger Games and like it then you will love Divergent. 

I will be reviewing the characters and how and why the book is incredible. I will also try my best to give you the information that is necessary to convince you to read the book and find out for yourself how interesting Divergent is.

Veronica Roth is the author of the Divergent series, she is 35 years old and was born on August 19, 1988. Veronica Roth wrote the book over winter break during her senior year at Northwestern. Divergent was released on March 21, 2014. 

As I said the book Divergent takes place in a dystopian society in Chicago, the last known location on Earth with a population. Beatrice Prior (our main character) lives in a version of Chicago that is split into 5 different factions, all of which are based on the personality of the person. Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the kind), Erudite (the intelligent), Abnegation (the selfless), and Candor (the honest). 

Newborns are raised in the faction that their parents are in and as they get older they will develop the personality of their faction. But when they turn teenagers they must take a test to reveal their actual personality. The test is facing a few obstacles and the way they face these challenges will reveal what their personality is. Beatrice takes the test only to find out she has more than one personality, making her “Divergent”. 

A day later they must go to a ceremony in which they choose the faction in which they truly belong in front of their families and friends, as well as the 5 faction leaders. Beatrice must choose a faction that feels closest to her personality. After she does she is sent to the faction in which she will learn the ways and make a few friends and enemies along the way. But she begins to realize that the society she lives in is wrong. 

What I liked about this book is that it has romance and it really shows that the world that Beatrice lives in can be a reality. I like the characters of the book and the development that they have later on in the book. There wasn’t much I disliked about Divergent.

Divergent could be interesting for readers who don’t like reading all that much. I rate Divergent 10 out of 10 because it really is just an interesting book with lots of plot twists and romance. I recommend this book to all who love The Hunger Games and want to read more about dystopian novels. 

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Book Reviews Entertainment Opinion

Review of Tender is the Flesh by Augustine Bazterrica

*Proceed with caution: this article contains spoilers and disturbing imagery*

I am an avid reader, so in the average year I read between 15-20 books. One book that has stuck with me recently is Tender is the Flesh. I think there is a lot to love about this book.

Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica takes place in a dystopian society where all animal life has contracted a virus that is deadly to humans. Now that humans can no longer eat animals, the government permits the breeding and slaughtering of humans for consumption.

The differences between the “special meat”, as they call them, and other humans are vast. The special meat is genetically engineered so that they age faster. They have their vocal cords removed after birth. They are raised in small cages, much like our real-life cattle. And they generally don’t have the same amount of consciousness as other humans, mentally they are about as intelligent as infants.

The story follows Marcos, a manager at a meat processing plant who experiences firsthand the barbaric reality of what slaughtering humans like cattle entails.

Marcos lives alone as he and his wife haven’t been on speaking terms since their infant son passed. So when a breeder for his plant sends him a human girl to raise and eventually kill, the same idea as raising chickens to eat. Rather than seeing the girl as food he sees her as company. He names her Jasmine.

There are multiple points in the story where we are exposed to just how gruesome this process is. When showing some new applicants around the processing plant, Marcos explains in great detail how the meat is killed and dissected. Later on, we see him observing a breeding farm where he sees just how the meat is bred and separated by quality.

Eventually, Marcos loses all grip and starts treating Jasmine like his wife, a difficult task when this very thing is known to be illegal.

I appreciate the realistic aspects of the story. It takes the slaughterhouse and the meat industry to an appalling level of gore, but this is important because in reality. It illustrates the same fate that billions of real-life animals face every year. This is comparable  to the way George Orwell’s Animal Farm depicts communism. 

The book puts these inhumane practices into a new light that makes us want to look away, causing us to feel sick to our stomachs. This is an incredibly important topic to make commentary on as the meat industry has used horrible practices and conditions for raising animals for decades.

Tender is the Flesh also touches on how capitalism will always favor profit over welfare. Where there is money to be made, they will make it, regardless of the trade off. Which in this book gets as absurd as eating another human being.

What I don’t exactly appreciate about this book is that toward the end, the relationship between Marcos and Jasmine becomes so inappropriate that I have a hard time rationalizing it.

The story skews away from a horrific commentary on capitalism to an upsetting “love” story between the two. While the point of the book is to say that we wouldn’t treat other humans the way we do to animals in the industry, Marcos begins to treat Jasmine in an inhumane way. In a gross sexual manner that doesn’t feel right for his character.

The ending of this story for Jasmine feels like all the progress Marcos makes in understanding the absurdity of this lifestyle has been thrown out the window.

My favorite part of Tender is the Flesh is the visceral detail that Bazterrica goes into. This book invokes incredible feelings for the reader, ranging from sympathy to utter disgust.

Some of the details the author included made me feel genuinely revolted, but for this story, I think it’s important that they do so. Bazterrica is not painting an abstract picture of the horror that is a slaughterhouse, leaving it up to you to decide how that makes you feel. She wants to make you feel a very specific way, because it isn’t abstract; that’s simply what it’s like in that environment.

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Book Reviews Entertainment Opinion

Spoiler Free Review of Holly Black’s The Stolen Heir

Holly Black’s new spinoff duology, The Stolen Heir, is set eight years after the Battle of the Serpent and tells the story of Wren and Oak. 

At the start, we see Wren as a child in the mortal realm living with her adoptive family. She has always felt very out of place among humans due to her bluish skin and bony frame. Wren is visited one night by Lord Jarel and Lady Nore, haunting creatures, who claim she is their daughter and the future queen of The Court of Teeth. 

She is taken to The Court of Teeth, where she is abused and treated horribly, but manages to run away and lives out the next few years collecting scraps from the streets and longing for her adoptive family to take her back.

The book flashes forward to Wren being chased by the Storm Hag Bogdana. She is suddenly saved by Prince Oak, the heir of Elfhame, but also the prince to whom she had previously been arranged to be married to. 

In the series The Folk of the Air, Oak is still just a boy, but in spinoff The Stolen Heir, he is now a knight. He needs Wren’s guidance to reach the Citadel and to gain control over her mother. Wren’s heart is hesitant to open back up to the boy she once knew. And she fears the consequences of returning to the place she fled as a child. As the story continues, we find out more about the twisted and horror-filled world of Elfhame.

As a fan of everything Holly Black does, I easily became very obsessed with The Stolen Heir. I fell in love with Oak, who gave off a perfect mix of Cardan and Madoc. He was super fun to figure out and see how he’s changed as an overall character.  

I really liked being in Wren’s POV. It felt refreshing to be learning things in present tense. Compared to Jude who analyzes everything in her mind before it even happens. Wren felt more realistic to me because I am also not very comprehensive when it comes to big plot twists. 

In summary, he whole book is about going on a journey, which sounds really boring, but it is actually what had my attention the most. There were so many things that could have been done with this world and Holly Black exceeded all my expectations. The writing was beautiful and made you want to fall in love with all folk things. Holly Black could write how much she disliked me and I would love it. 

What I would’ve really liked was to see more background of Wren’s family, but I think Holly Black did tease continuing that plot in the second book. Also would’ve loved for Jude to make an appearance. But I understand that it is not her book and it’s confirmed she will definitely be in the second. 

My favorite part of the whole book was the ending. I was on the edge of my bed screaming when everything finally came to an end. The fact I have to wait a whole year to get book two is insane . Overall I give it 4 stars because Jude wasn’t in it. I also think it’s necessary to read The Folk of Air before starting this duology. Without it, I would have been so confused by the side characters. 

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My Top 5 Contemporary Romance Books

“Wild Child” Poppy and introverted Alex met in a car share home from college years ago, and they’ve become best friends ever since. Now, they live in separate cities. Poppy in New York, and Alex in their hometown. But they have a deal. For the past decade, each summer, they’ve taken one week off together to go on a vacation. That was until one big mess ruined their tradition two years ago and they haven’t talked since.

Since their fallout, Poppy’s been unhappy and wants to convince Alex to take another vacation to try to repair what went wrong in their relationship. 

Alex surprisingly agrees to go, and Poppy has a week to fix it all.

With the move to a new high school in Alabama, Chloe Green finally got out of a school full of gossiping classmates and unfriendly administrators. Now her only focus is beating Shara Wheeler, the principal’s pet and her biggest rival, for prom queen and winning her spot as valedictorian. 

But one month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe and then Shara disappears.

It’s only natural for Chloe to look for answers. Her search leads her to discover she’s not the only one who kissed Shara Wheeler. Two others also kissed Shara and received cryptic notes before her sudden vanishing. They all work together to find Shara before graduation and figure out what happened to her leading up to her disappearance.

Anastasia “Stassie” Allen has been figure skating for as long as she can remember. On a full-time skating scholarship at Maple Hill, she dreams of making Team USA one day. Though nothing is going to stop her from getting what she wants. Not even Nathan Hawkins, the captain of the Maple Hill Titans hockey team.

When a rink accident brings the two teams together, the two end up in a sticky situation.

Nathan the all-time problem solver steps in to help Anastasia when her skating partner gets hurt. They ended up getting closer than they thought. But that won’t distract her, right?

Florence Day ghostwrites for one of the best romance writers in the industry. There’s just one problem, Florence no longer believes in love after a recent breakup.

Plus, her brand new editor, a pretty handsome one, won’t extend her deadline. Adding to the stress of her soon-to-be-ending career, her father just passed away and she has to return home after almost a decade away.

The welcome home to a town that calls her a freak isn’t the best. Telling them you see dead people kind of makes them think that. So when Florence spots a ghost in the doorway of her family’s funeral home who looks eerily like her new editor, she’s a little confused. 

There’s a ghostly constant in her life and it’s not her dad. Florence has to revert back to her old habits and figure out how to help him finish off his unfinished business so he can leave. It looks like romance truly is dead.  

Romance author, January, and thriller author, Augustus find themselves neighboring each other in a beach house for the summer with a big case of writer’s block. 

Augustus Everett and January Andrews are polar opposites who are both renowned in their fields. The two make a deal for the summer: Augustus’s summer will be spent writing about happiness, and January’s will be spent writing the next greatest fiction of all time.

For inspiration, they head out on fun excursions that challenge their different perspectives of each other’s genres. It’s just about finishing their books and keeping their relationship strictly platonic. That simple, right? 

Hopefully, some of these will become favorites of yours too. Happy reading!