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Teen SRC 2021 – Click’d by Tamara Ireland Stone

Written by Jenna B
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Click’d, a book by Tamara Ireland Stone, is about a game that Allie Navarro made at her CodeGirls camp that helps you make friends. She is really excited to share it with everyone at her school. As Allie works on her game harder than ever, it suddenly makes a huge mistake. Click’d sends out a really embarrassing photo that was never meant to be sent. Allie tries desperately to fix her game, and as she does, there is triumph and sadness, victory and failure. Then more and more embarrassing pictures are sent out, and Allie might have to drop out of Games for Good, a really big competition for coders. Click’d is a book about drama, friendship, accepting failure, and learning from it.

I liked this book because it had some very real-life moments in it, that have even happened to me and my friends. I feel like this book is really good for people who love the drama genre, or who are just looking for an interesting book. Click’d was very well-written, and fun to read.

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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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Teen Book Review – Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Written by Rosie
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Image result for scythe the bookScythe by Neal Shusterman is actually the book prize I won from the 2018 Summer Reading Club so naturally I was pretty hyped. I really like the dystopian genre, hence half of my other reviews and I mean, just LOOK at the cover 🙂 !!!! However, I had recently read The Hate You Give (which was another one of the Richmond teen picks) and sadly, I was pretty disappointed by it. Happily though, Scythe turned out even better than I expected. For those of you who don’t know already, Scythe takes place in a world where everything is perfect, nothing poses a threat to you, as you CANNOT die. However, since population growth still needs to be controlled, there are highly trained individuals around the world whose jobs are to “glean” (basically controlling the population by killing). They are scythes. Their job is to select victims randomly and glean a certain number per duration of time. They are held to the highest moral fibre of their being, meaning they need to rise above the seven deadly sins of humanity and glean with honour, justice and equality. Because after all, the first requirement to becoming a scythe is to not wish it. However, not everyone is as honorable as they claim, you might even find that a few, quite enjoy what they do. (round of applause for that rhyme there, thank you) I’m not gonna say anything else because if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it is spoilers…But I leave you with this last comment: This book is amazing, it is very well written and it’ll do you good to give it a try. 5/5 stars for the win! Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go read the sequel, and remember, “thou shalt kill”.

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Teen Book Review – Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Written by Rosie
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Ready Player OneThe book review this month is: (drumroll pleaseee) Ready Player One by Ernest Cline! It’s been a while since the movie came out so hopefully I won’t be revealing too much in this review. Anyways, a super quick summary: Ready Player One is set in the future, and is narrated by a guy named Wade. In this future, the world is dying, global warming and the fossil fuel crisis is at it’s worse and the world isn’t expected to last much longer. However, why live in this world when you could live in a much better one? Introducing… The OASIS, a virtual reality everyone basically lives in. A place where you could easily go to mars, defeat monsters and live out your dream life. A place where you aren’t about to die. And guess what, the founder/creator (James Halliday) of this computer program has just passed away, and his fortune is up for grabs… we’re talking multibillions right now… but, to make sure someone worthy inherits his mountains of cash, Halliday set up a scavenger hunt inside the game in which only the most able and talented gamers would be able to find and solve all the scattered clues. Okay, that was pretty much all I can reveal without spoiling more than the first few pages of the book. My opinion of this book is super high! I find it a great read that doesn’t take too much time for those of us who are busier. I can also tell that Mr. Cline researched quite a lot before writing said novel because everything in here, all the allusions (did your english teacher drill this term into your head yet?) are very intricate and well thought-out. Just WOW that’s a lot of effort put into creating this book. I can’t really explain it without you reading the book yourself so go do it right now. I’ll wait. Need more motivation? I rate it a 5/5 :)) completely. Now GO!!!

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Teen SRC 2018 – Warcross by Marie Lu

Written by Rosie
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Warcross

Warcross by Marie Lu 

Marie Lu has always been a favourite author of mine, as she had me hooked on her previous series, Young Elites and Legend. So when Warcross came out and I had the chance to give it a read, I was not at all surprised by how much I enjoyed the book :). I am a very huge fan of reading and I have a list of 30 books/series that have left me astonished, and needless to say, Warcross is on that list. I’m going to be reviewing and summarizing the books on my list over this summer so do look out for them as they are truly amazing. Back to Warcross, I give this book a full 5/5 stars and I cannot wait for the second book, which sadly, has not come out yet.

Summary Below:

This story is kind of an extension on what was briefly mentioned in the last book of the Legend series: A place where everything is linked to a digital world that is an integral part of daily life. Don’t worry, I will explain. In Legend, the main characters ventured briefly into a country where doing everyday things could earn you points in the virtual world of a video game that has basically taken over every single citizen’s lives. So, for example, watering a plant might earn you 1 point and drinking a cup of water, another point. “Players” with the most points would then become famous and known by anyone who plays the game as well. In Warcross, this idea is evolved on. Warcross is the digital game that has taken over, and it was invented by a young genius, Hideo Tanaka, barely in his twenties. Emika Chen, the main character, has a way with technology and she is an extremely talented hacker. She is hired by Hideo to find out who has been messing with his game’s programming. As they work together, Emika earns points from meeting the creator of the game, entering the company headquarters etc, and these points cumulate to the point where she becomes a VERY well-known Warcross celebrity. But as the story continues, we learn about Hideo’s past and his reasons for creating this game, this just creates more mystery and the entire plotline just completely baffles me. It is honestly so amazing that Marie Lu could create such a complicated storyline with so many components but that’s what I love about her writing, just when you thought it couldn’t get more mysterious, it does. So again, full 5/5 stars, AMAZING read, definitely recommend.

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