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Teen SRC 2021 – The Toll by Neal Shusterman

Written by Rosie
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“We are imperfect beings… how could we ever fit into a perfect world?”

The Toll by Neal Shusterman is the third and final book of the Arc of a Scythe Trilogy, a Dystopian series set in a world where humanity has conquered death. Those who die are simply deadish, able to be revived within a day, and old age is no longer a concern either; anyone and everyone is welcome to ‘turn a corner’ and go back to a certain age at any time. Scythes manage population control, gleaning people to make sure the Earth does not exceed its population capacity. But of course, with great power comes great responsibility, and some just do not possess that needed quality.

As this review is for The Toll, and not the first two books of the series, there will be spoilers for Scythe and Thunderhead. If you haven’t read those yet, I recommend that you do that first!

Regardless, onto the review.

Going into this, I had high expectations. Scythe and Thunderhead were both incredible reads, and I was hoping that The Toll would wrap the series up well. I was not disappointed; this book left me reeling with a variety of emotions, and even now, I’m still processing the ending. It’s been such a journey seeing the characters develop throughout the years, and in contrast to what I critiqued in my review of Scythe, I have come to relate to the many protagonists in this world, and it brings me so much joy to follow them on their many adventures.

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Teen Book Review – Warcross by Marie Lu

Written by Rosie
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Warcross

Hey all, long time no see! I hope everyone is safe and healthy 🙂

Recently, I re-read Warcross, the first book of a duology by one of my favourite authors, Marie Lu.

The story takes place in a futuristic world, when real life is drab and grey and run-down, so people all over the world put on a pair of high-tech glasses daily to enter the colourful and vivid virtual reality of Warcross. 18-year-old Emika Chen, our protagonist, is a bounty hunter, and tech genius. She catches criminals the police don’t have time for by hacking through the dark web, and it’s her only source of income. However, when a hack goes wrong, and she accidentally reveals herself to the creator of Warcross, her life takes a DRASTIC turn.

I honestly really liked this book! It was jam-packed with action, which is one of my favourite things about Marie Lu books, so I was super glad this was no exception! As well, the world is very realistic, because it’s not hard to believe that in the future, we could have something similar to Warcross. That made the reading experience a lot more immersive, as what Emika was going through seemed super probable, it wasn’t hard to connect to the story and its characters. I also very much enjoyed the plot twists although I was able to guess a few of them. They made sense, and weren’t a complete shock, which can actually detract from the actual writing. All in all, I give this book an 8.5/10. It was a great read!

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Teen SRC 2020- The Chrysalids by John Wyndham

Written by Angela Y
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The Chrysalids by John Wyndham has the author focusing on a variety of issues that individuals are constantly challenged with in life. The people of the fictional village of Waknuk have to struggle against constant prejudice, intolerance, and ignorance within their community. There is a constant theme of using faith as a source of control over the population, as the novel beckons its readers to understand how fear has the ability to shape and manipulate society.

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Teen SRC 2020 – Matched by Ally Condie

Written by Rosie
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Matched

Hey guys! I’m back again, and I managed to publish a whole lot of your reviews so go check those out! I think Angela’s taking up editing now so phew 🙂

This week, I read Matched by Ally Condie and… I have very mixed feelings about the book.

Matched takes place in a dystopian world where everything is carefully controlled by officials, and all things are empirical, or calculated, from the food portions you can eat to the person you marry (with whom you are Matched with at 17 based on compatibility). Cassia, our main character, has been Matched with Xander Carrow, her lifelong best friend, and she is ecstatic about this… until the glitch on her Match card one night. The flash of a different boy’s face appears only for a single second, but it is enough to both terrify and intrigue Cassia. In interacting with the second boy, Ky, Cassia learns more and more about the dark sides of her seemingly utopian world.

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Teen SRC 2019 – Noggin by John Corey Whaley

Written by Inshal
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Noggin

Hilarious, real, compelling. Noggin by John Corey Whaley is a fresh new take on the cliché woke-up-in-the-hospital-with-amnesia trope spun into a breathtaking new tale.  

Travis Coates was dying at sixteen when he decided to cyrogenically freeze his head in the hope that some time in the future, doctors and scientists could bring him back to life. Five years later, Travis wakes up in the hospital with his head attached to someone else’s body. And having some athletic guy’s biceps is the least of his problems; the best friend that came out as gay to him before he died now has a girlfriend, Travis’s own girlfriend is engaged and Travis is almost certain his dad is cheating on his mom.

As I’ve mentioned before, this plot line closely resembles the common amnesia plot line with a whole new side to it as Travis had to get used to having an entire body that didn’t belong to him. There were many parts of this book that I loved: Travis’s relationship with his mom is the sweetest parent-child relationship I’ve read in a YA novel, Travis and Kyle’s friendship, (small spoiler here) Travis finally meeting the family of his body’s donor (spoiler over). There was one major aspect of the story, though, that got on my nerves. Travis’s girlfriend is engaged, and many, many times Travis makes advances on her despite her having clearly said she doesn’t want him.

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Teen SRC 2019 – Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Written by Rosie
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This weekend I managed to finish Uglies by Scott Westerfeld and begin a little of the sequel, are you proud?

Summary (no spoilers, I’m not EVIL): This story takes place in a dystopian world where at age 16, everyone is given a surgery to make them incredibly pretty. After the surgery, they are taken away from “Uglyville” and into “New Pretty Town” to live. The story focuses around a girl named Tally who is just weeks away from her operation. Her best friend, Peris, has already moved to “New Pretty Town” and she’s left alone and ugly. One day when she’s sneaking into “New Pretty Town” to visit Peris, she meets another ugly trying to do the same thing: Shay. They become fast friends and soon, their operation day is coming up. Tally is super excited to finally become gorgeous but Shay is skeptical. She confesses that she doesn’t wanna turn pretty and is going to escape the city to a place where she won’t have to get the surgery. Tally grudgingly promises not to tell and bids goodbye, but the day Tally is scheduled to receive her surgery, she gets an unwelcomed surprise…

Thoughts: I’ve been meaning to read this book for SO long and I’m glad I finally got around to it because it’s honestly pretty good. There are many plot twists and a lot of mystery so you’re not reading through too much filler. The world-building is also better than I expected and I believe this could honestly be a possible future of our world. I wouldn’t say it’s AMAZING but I’d say it was a good read. Final rating: 3.5/5 (I feel like that’s a bit harsh but it just didn’t leave a lasting impression on me). I’d recommend this to fans of dystopia, technology, science fiction and a little bit of mystery.

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