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TeenTober 2019 – Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton

Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton

I stumbled across this book when browsing the shelves for beautiful covers and you gotta admit, this cover’s pretty stunning.

Although yes, I only picked this book up for the cover, once I read the back I knew this was a read I would enjoy. Behold, the story of three aspiring prima ballerinas navigating expectations, jealousy and modern-world problems.

Being a dancer myself, this book was a lot more relatable to me than it probably would have been for someone else. I could understand the terms and language used in it and their struggles were my struggles. For that reason, my rating will probably be slightly higher than yours so keep that in mind.

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TeenTober 2019 – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I’ve been trying to read some classics lately but to be honest, I find them quite drab. The style of writing is very different than what I’m used to reading in the YA genre. However, they’re classics for a reason so I have made it my personal goal to finish these famous stories by Grade 12.

The Great Gatsby isn’t actually narrated by Gatsby himself which struck me as very peculiar when I first started reading it. It’s narrated by Gatsby’s neighbour, Nick, who has just moved to the fictional island of West Egg, next to Gatsby’s enormous mansion.

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TeenTober 2019 – The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The first time I tried reading this book, I got to about page 7 before I gave up and returned it. My 12-year-old self just did not like the perspective the story was written from, she found it too boring and not action-filled enough. In Grade 9, I tried it again and now it’s one of my favourite books, ever.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak takes place during the Holocaust, centred around a girl named Liesel, who has just lost her brother and is now living with foster parents. What sets the story apart immediately is that it’s told from Death’s perspective, who meets Liesel just 3 times in her life but finds her incredibly intriguing. Liesel’s story is one of laughter and one of tears but it’s also one that everyone should read.

I would recommend The Book Thief to absolutely everyone and anyone. Although it’s definitely not a light read, you won’t regret taking some time to fully process it. This is one of those rare books that made me truly cry. Cry with tears streaming down. Death really does have a way with words… The plot, the world, the characters, everything is so well written that you just can’t help but fall in love with it all. The final rating is a 100000000000/10, read it and then comment on this post, we’ll cry together :’)

TeenTober 2019 – Renegades by Marissa Meyer

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

After reading both the Cinder series as well as Heartless, Marissa Meyer has become one of my favourite authors, so I was beyond pumped to hear that she had released a new series. Now, Renegades isn’t very new anymore but it’s my first time reading it so we’re just going to pretend that none of you guys have ever read this book and that this is the first time you’re hearing about it 🙂

Summary (no spoilers, don’t worry): Renegades takes place in a world newly born from the carnage Ace Anarchy created during his reign. It’s a world full of prodigies, who possess superhuman powers, and a large group of them has deemed fighting crime and rebuilding the world their ultimate goal. These, are the Renegades.

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TeenTober 2019 – Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult

Perfect Match

Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult

In the course of her everyday work, career-driven assistant district attorney Nina Frost prosecutes child molesters and works determinedly to ensure that a legal system with too many loopholes keeps these criminals behind bars. But when her own five-year-old son, Nathaniel, is traumatized by a sexual assault, Nina and her husband, Caleb, a quiet and methodical stone mason, are shattered, ripped apart by an enraging sense of helplessness in the face of a futile justice system that Nina knows all too well. In a heartbeat, Nina’s absolute truths and convictions are turned upside down, and she hurtles toward a plan to exact her own justice for her son — no matter the consequence, whatever the sacrifice.

The paragraph above was the summary at the back of the book. Jodi Picoult, in my opinion, is a fantastic author. She has written so many books, and I have read only a small portion of them (I would suggest My Sister’s Keeper, Leaving Time, Keeping Faith, and I’m now reading the Tenth Circle). Each of her books deal with a different moral issue that is so moving in so many ways, and in this case, it is sexual abuse toward young children. While this may be a heavy topic for many of us (definitely for me), she crafts the story so well, with so many twists and turns, it is impossible to stop reading. Nina and her family, the main characters of the story, goes through hardships and challenges no family should go through… Do they make it? Or does their family break apart? Read on!

TeenTober 2019 – With the Fire On High by Elizabeth Acevedo

With the Fire on High

With the Fire On High by Elizabeth Acevedo is a heartfelt book about Emoni, a girl who’s gone through a lot and still holds her head held up high.

Emoni Santiago is that girl everyone warns you about not becoming; the girl that become pregnant when she was a freshman and now has a daughter. But, like her best friend and Abuela (grandmother) know, if you get to know her past her rough exterior, you will get to know a loving girl passionate about cooking the most delicious dishes she can.

When Emoni, who’s struggling through her last year of high school sees culinary classes being offered as an elective, she knows that it’s where she belongs. But from the trip to Spain she can’t afford, the strict teacher that makes her want to drop her only passion, and her very own Babygirl, Emoni doesn’t know how she’ll be able to face the challenges.

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TeenTober 2019- Overturned by L.R. Giles

Overturned

Riveting, suspenseful, brilliant. From the moment I opened Overturned by L.R. Giles, I could tell this story wasn’t one I would be forgetting soon. Strong, beautiful writing combined with a captivating plot makes Overturned the gem that it is.

It isn’t easy being the daughter of a convicted killer, but Nikki Tate’s poker face never cracks. By operating illegal poker games in the basement of her family’s casino, Nikki knows she’ll be able to save enough money to get herself out of Vegas and into a good college with her friends. After all, what more could life possibly throw at her?

But then her father (who’s always claimed to be innocent) gets released from jail just before his death sentence. He comes back into the family and Nikki’s world flips upside down once again. With her father’s sudden overturned conviction and the cute new boy at school, is Nikki’s life on the turn for the better? Or will the secrets that almost cost her father his life end up taking hers instead?

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TeenTober 2019 – Legendary by Stephanie Garber

Legendary by Stephanie Garber is the second book in the Caraval trilogy. There will be Caraval spoilers in here so beware but none for Legendary.

While Caraval was written in Scarlett’s perspective and didn’t give us much insight into Tella’s personality, Legendary is entirely narrated by Donatella. For this reason, it took me a while to warm up to the book because obviously, I’d developed a connection to Scarlett in the last one and switching it up so drastically did not endear to me. I came around eventually though I still wasn’t as taken with it as I was Caraval.

In Legendary, Caraval is to perform at Empress Elantine’s 75th birthday and Tella plans to use this chance to find out Legend’s true name and fulfill her part of the promise she made with a “friend”. When Caraval starts though, Tella realizes that this performance is quite a bit different than the previous and that the dangers may no longer be a part of the game but as real as you and me.

I would give Legendary an 8.5/10 because I wasn’t very impressed with the ending… I was expecting a few mindblowing plot twists like Stephanie delivered in Caraval but I was VERY disappointed with the actual results. That said, I did enjoy the story and plotline overall and I’m definitely going to give the final book a read!

Teen Book Review – Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Hey all! How is school life? Hope you’re not being overload

Anyways, I’ve been reading up a storm lately and one of my favourites so far is Caraval by Stephanie Garber.

Caraval is the story of two sisters, Scarlett and Donatella, who have been trapped on their island with their abusive father for their whole lives. Growing up, Scarlett had always dreamt of attending Caraval, an incredible performance given once a year in which the audience participates in the games; however, given that their last attempt at escape had resulted in their father murdering the nice boy who’d been stupid enough to help them, Scarlett had long since dismissed that dream as an impossible wish. Yet, dreams have a knack for coming true, especially if you wish for them enough.

Thoughts: Caraval has been on my To-Be-Read List for so long that it was a such a relief to finally get around to it! It was the perfect blend of mystery and magic, romance and danger. I was hooked through and through. The plot twists were very, very good and the story was told in a way that made me just as confused as the characters (this may sound like a bad thing but it’s actually very good in this case, just let me explain). The audience members that participate in Caraval are thrust into a mystery they need to solve, with performers and a set that makes everything seem super realistic. Therefore, saying I was as confused as the characters means the story was so well written it was hard for me to differentiate between acting and reality. To describe Caraval in one word: Spellbinding; which is which my rating is a 9/10.