It's January second and I am sorry to tell everyone that I did not reach my goal of reading the 13 books on my list. No awesome day for me. -Sigh- I am patting myself on the back for not trying to self-decept myself into thinking my complete failure was not completely my fault. I read eight out of the thirteen I planned to read. However, I did not stick to the list, I changed some of the books. The books I read are listed right here: Night by Elie Wiesel, Dawn by Elie Wiesel, Significantly Other by R.C. Lewis,Full Tilt by Neal Shusterman, Unwind by Neal Shusterman, Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake, Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach, and Want to Go Private? by Sarah Darer Littman.
I will commence with the book reviews.
Night:
Night by Elie Wiesel was a very succinct, but very vivid and powerful memoir of his time in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust. At the beginning of the book, Elie was a deeply observant and still very innocent Jew. However, as the book progressed you could see how his soul transformed into the darkness of night. I applaud him for somehow retaining his humanity through that despicable era in human history. As I reached the end though, I knew that Elie would never have that childhood innocence back.
Dawn:
The story is about a yound holocaust survivor named Elisha, who is a terrorist in Palestine and has been ordered to kill a man at dawn. This book tells the story of the hours before and slightly after his act of assassination. Elisha struggles with ghosts from his past, guilt, and God before the assassination. The writing in this book is, I think, superior to Night and it is well worth reading. Like Night though, the character also transformed into a darker version of himself. My favorite line is the last few sentences, "The night lifted, leaving behind it a grayish light the color of stagnant water. Soon there was only a tattered fragment of darkness, hanging in midair, the other side of the window. Fear caught my throat. The tattered fragment of darkness had a face. Looking at it, I understood the reason for my fear. The face was my own."
Significantly Other:
This book is by far one of the most orgiginal books in YA science fiction I've read for quite some time. Ziv is living in the not so distant future and is part alien so she has the mind-reading abilities and superior intelligence of the Grexul, the aliens. However, Ziv was a subject of a cruel experiement at the hands of Dr. Epstein so she has a slight case of PTSD. The story follows Ziv as she prepares for battle with aliens and tackles school (and boys) at the same time. Author R.C. Lewis makes Ziv a very believable, likeable, and relatable character. Simply put, she's a master in this genre and deserves to be published.
Full Tilt:
Neal Shusterman weaves a tale about a phantom carnival and the only boy who can defeat it--a boy who has been scarred by a traumatic event in his past and is chasing his little brother into the carnival. The boy has to finish seven rides before dawn--piece of cake, right? We'll just see how easy it'll be. Neal is easily one of my favorite authors with a wonderful writing style, original stories, and complex characters.
Unwind:
Unwind is one of my favorite books of all time. It's about how in the future, parents may choose to have their kids between 12 and 18 Unwound, where their organs and body parts are harvested for donor banks so technically, they never die. The story follows three Unwinds on the run, Connor, Resa, and Lev. This is a slightly disturbing, but facinating book that I would reccommend to anyone. I even wrote a fanfiction of it.
Anna Dressed in Blood:
I adore ghosts so I knew I was going to love this book. The story follows Cas, a ghost hunter and his kitchen witch mother as they try to take down an especially violent ghost, Anna Dressed in Blood. Anna has taken the lives of everyone who has stepped into her house and she mmight have killed Cas as well, but for some reason, she spares his life. This was a breath of fresh air in the YA genre with it's awesome sense of humor and facinating storyline. Read it in two days!
Jonathan Livingston Seagull:
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach is about a seagull who pursued perfection in flight and being limitless. Jonathan loved to learn and the Flock told him wings were just to help them get food so they exiled him. That is not where his story ends though, he goes on to become a limitless bird in a later life and eventually comes back to teach the Flock who once exiled him to fly. A very deep book with some complex thought that teaches just what life is for. I had a strong bond with Jonathan Seagull in this book and I think anyone who feels the same way would.
Want to Go Private?:
This was a very disturbing book that I would not recommend to anyone below seventeen. Abby is a very insecure, but likeable girl who is just starting high school. She meets someone in a chat room named Blueskyboi and forms a relationship with him. However, things start to get a little odd and then the day comes when she's just gone and her family is left behind, wanting to get her back. Yes, we've been preached at about creepy men that stalk young girls on the internet in school, but this really opened my eyes. This is VERY realistic guys and the author does such a good job that you might just stay away fom your Facebook account for a few days...
Those are the books I read, and I'll post something about my novel in the writing tab. Right now, I'm reading Pride and Predjudice and Zombies so I'm actually liking this classic...
Goodbye!
