Skip to main content

Teen SRC 2020- Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui

Written by P. Tirlu
2 Comments

Have you ever wondered what a dragon tasted like? Would it taste like chicken, maybe beef? Or maybe you’ve been wondering what a cockatrice would taste like served in a good stew. After all, a snake/chicken hybrid would seem to make an interesting dinner combo. Or maybe, you’ve been wondering about the morality of eating fishmen. Unlike mermen, they have fish heads, and though they seem semi-sentient, it wouldn’t hurt to try one… Would it?

These are the questions Delicious in Dungeon set out to answer, as Ryoko Kui serves up a masterful manga, seemingly to answer the age-old question of “What would happen if Gordon Ramsay got trapped in Middle Earth?”

The story begins, as a cave opening is discovered, leading to an underground kingdom covered in gold. A distraught king emerges from its entrance, promising all of his treasure to whoever defeats the insane magician who sunk his kingdom underground in the first place, before crumbling to dust. Word of the king’s promise spreads like a wildfire, as numerous guilds gather to try to navigate the labyrinth-esque kingdom, now infested with monsters of all shapes and sizes. Laios is the leader of one such guild, before his party is decimated and his sister is eaten by a dragon. Laios and his crew rush back into the kingdom of gold in an attempt to save his sister, but soon run out of supplies. They are saved by a dwarf named Senshii who teaches Laios and crew how to properly cook and eat monsters, as the adventure to save Laios’s sister begins.

Read More
Teen SRC 2020, , , , , ,

TeenTober 2019 – One Piece by Eiichiro Oda

Written by P. Tirlu
Leave a Comment
Image result for one piece volume 1

One Piece by Eiichiro Oda

So according to my sources, One Piece has lost in the first round of the RPL’s Battle of the Books, which comes to a surprise to me as One Piece has sold over 455 Million units worldwide and is the third best-selling comic books series in the world, only being topped by Batman and Superman. But none of this would matter if One Piece wasn’t good. Luckily for Eiichiro Oda, One Piece‘s author, and you the reader, One Piece is fantastic! Let’s talk about the why.

Read More
Teentober 2019

Crossroads: A Meeting of Nations (2nd Edition)

Written by P. Tirlu
Leave a Comment
Image result for crossroads socials 9 textbook

Crossroads: A Meeting of Nations (or more simply, Crossroads) is a non-fiction anthology about historical events. It covers topics like the Fur Trade and American Revolution in an attempt to give snapshots of what was happening at the time.

This book is not fun to read. Sure, it’s well written and sure, it’s probably accurate, but it’s not very interesting. It talks about the life of people like Samuel de Champlain and Jacques Cartier, but gives them no substance. I had no sense of who Champlain or any of the characters were, for the matter. This book tells me what these people did but never who they were as characters with thoughts and feelings. But reading the book, fleshing out any character would most likely be pointless because characters are brought up and forgotten about within literal pages. This happens often, leading to many characters with barely any substance. It would make sense for an anthology series to have many characters, but the amount of characters with no personality to speak of in this book is startling.

I will give the book that the history behind it can be fascinating. Learning about how colonists came to America and other historical events was interesting to an extent. To an extent. There is no flavour to this text. I could never feel emotion in the voice telling me about the Fur Trade or the Boston Tea Party or any part of the book. It was just bland. I wish I could say I even finished this book. But after reading select chapters, I gave up. Nothing drew me back to finish this bland piece of cardboard.

All in all, Crossroads is a book that you probably won’t enjoy. There are no likeable characters because the characters there are barely characters and the writing falls flat on its face, tasting like sandpaper. That’s why I give this book my rating of: A glass of water/10- Very bland and very boring. I mean, we should all probably have it at some point in our lives, but there are so many other more colourful, more interesting things we could be trying instead of this.  

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS!!!

Teen Book Review,

Teen SRC 2018- Spice and Wolf by Isuna Hasekura

Written by P. Tirlu
Leave a Comment

Image result for spice and wolfSpice and Wolf is a novel (yes, novel not manga) about a travelling merchant named Kraft Lawrence who wanders the land, buying and selling goods until a girl with ears and a tail named Holo claiming to be the goddess of harvest appears in his merchant cart. She and Lawrence strike a deal. She helps Lawrence’s business and in return, Lawrence will bring Holo to her homeland.

When you look at this cover, the first thing you might think is “Manga? No thanks. I only read high-end stuff like Twilight and Fifty Shades of Gray.” But don’t you think that’s a bit closed minded? You skip out on hundreds of thousands of books because they’re labelled anime or manga? You might miss your favourite series just because of your pride in your book selection. And this isn’t even a manga. It’s full of words and the occasional pretty illustration. But the book could have all the words in the world and still be a terrible book. So how does this book stack up against the rest?Read More

Teen SRC 2018, ,

Teen SRC 2018 – Weave A Circle Round by Kari Maaren

Written by P. Tirlu
Leave a Comment

Teen SRC 2018 – Weave a Circle Round by Kari Maaren

Image result for weave a circle round

Weave a Circle Round by Kari Maaren

Weave A Circle Round is a book about a 14 year old girl named Freddy. She just wants get through her high school life but when a pair of reality-disobeying weirdos move in next door, life gets complicated.

This book is certainly strange. It starts like your typical high school drama book, slowly starts to add light mystery and supernatural elements, then completely flips everything on its head by adding something from an entirely different genre without warning! Now, you could see this as a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, this book could sound like it has no sense of direction, but on the other, you could see organised chaos(which I think is what the author was going for). But which hand is the right one, and which one’s the left? In my opinion, both kinds of people should read it.Read More

Teen SRC 2018, , , ,

Teen SRC 2018 – Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier

Written by P. Tirlu
1 Comment

Image result for blood sweat and pixelsBlood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier

Do you have dreams about being a video game developer? Have you ever wanted to make your own game? Do you flat-out just like hearing people rant about their day? If you answered yes to any of those questions, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels is the book for you! It tells the stories of how games such as Halo Wars and Destiny were made and how terrible making them was with each chapter being dedicated to one game.

Every story told in this book is nonfiction, but Jason Schreier does a great job at shaping it like a story, and not just an interview. Another great thing about this book is that there’s something here for everyone. Are you a gamer that only likes certain genres? Well no problem! This book includes games that range from shooters, to farming simulators, to massive role playing games. Not a gamer? Also no problem! This book is written well enough to keep the least tech-savvy person engaged.

Honestly, it’s just fun to hear how everything that could go wrong went wrong and I could easily connect to a lot of the stories. From deadlines that were barely met, to fixing something, only to mess something else up, this book was oddly relatable. Despite being a book about video games, I really think non-gamers would like this book just as much as a gamer would. So, whether you like them, hate them, strike them, or berate them, this book about games is exellent and I give it my rating of: a bottle of Mountain Dew Game Fuel/10-targeted at gamers, but can be enjoyed by anyone.

Teen SRC 2018, ,