Category: Book Buzz With Amanda

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. 

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.

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.