Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Fiction

            As a child, all Kathy H. knows is Hailsham, the boarding school where she grows up with the same people, all of whom are also students or teachers. Hailsham keeps Kathy in a bubble by physically isolating her from the outside world, but Kathy is also kept in an information bubble, oblivious to the role that she and her peers play as donors. Ishiguro paints an alternate universe of England during the 1990s, where children like Kathy and those at Hailsham are created to be a source of organs for others.  As Kathy grows up and begins to explore the outside world, she keeps on revisiting her memories at Hailsham. As Kathy gets older and the prospect of her time as a donor draws near, the more she thinks of Hailsham and the more she wishes that Hailsham will never let her go.

Ishiguro’s writing is evocative and his novel beautifully and brilliantly traverses so many different issues. Never Let Me Go is a coming-of-age novel, a love story, a cautionary tale, and a social critique.  The novel provokes difficult questions -- whether ignorance is bliss, how to create an identity when a life path has been pre-established, and whether there can ever be true autonomy in a world that is eerily similar to ours.  It was one of the best novels I’ve read all year – maybe ever – and I’ll be thinking about it for a long time.

Brave New World

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Fiction

            Huxley’s book Brave New World eerily predicts a future saturated in hedonism and disregard for higher thinking. The main character, Bernard Marx, finds himself at odds with this society and the book follows his conflict in a culture consumed with consumerism and brainwashed into submission. A key component of Huxley’s society is soma, a pill that citizens take when they feel unsettled or stressed. Through this pill, Huxley implicitly says that how we deal with our discomfort sets us apart. Our struggles push us to question and gain knowledge which lets us grow. Engaging with the unknown leads to emotional maturity, which is something that many of the characters in Huxley’s society lacked.

Calling the Gods

Calling the Gods  by Jack Lasenby

Fiction

            The story begins with the main character, Selene’s, banishment, which gives the impression that this book will be similar to other recent novels  set in the dystopian future, but this turns out not to be the case. Lasenby’s style differs from the writing styles of other authors of teen fiction because his sophisticated choice of words gives the impression that he is writing for a more mature audience. Despite the good writing, some parts dragged and felt unnecessary.

               When Selene sneaks back into her village after her banishment, she finds it destroyed, with only a few survivors. From there, she and the lucky survivors travel great lengths to start over. There, they are joined by survivors from different communities. Together, they seek to create a village free of the hardships they previously experienced, until their new community is jeopardized by one of their own residents. The point of view of the story also switches, the beginning is told from Selene’s point of view, but in the middle and the end, it switches from her to the point of view of an old man, who could be from before Selene’s time, or after. The old man hears and sees the villagers, but can’t be heard or seen by them. He watches the village and is able to sense when something bad is going to happen, but is not able to intervene.

The plot alone gives the novel the potential to be intriguing, but parts of the storyline were overemphasized. The events leading to the climax of the novel weren’t as suspenseful or dramatic as they should have been, although they were described well. 

What I thought was the most interesting part of the story was that the old man didn’t dismiss the thought that he could be from a time before Selene’s--and not just the future-- even though he comes from a much more advanced society. Another thing that I thought was interesting was how the destruction in the villages was always the fault of the villagers, not any outside forces. The same mistakes were made over and over by the villagers, resulting in their ruin again and again.  I think that Calling the Gods did an excellent job of illustrating the reason why mistakes need to be learned from, but not as great of a job showing the story of a girl struggling to survive.

Matched

Matched  By Ally Condie

***3/5 stars  Science Fiction

I gave this book three stars because so many books are like this one. There is always the dystopian world and the love story. Is it so hard to be creative? This book was so similar to The Giver by Lois Lowry, and that was much better. Of course everyone likes this type of story, including me, but after you read this type of story over and over again, you get really bored.

            For those who are not bored with this type of story, it is about a girl named Cassia. She lives in the future where the Society dictates everything in the perfect world that they created. The officials--the police in this story--decide who you will marry, what your job is, and when you die. Cassia has just been given her Match, her childhood friend Xander. She is also given a microcard. The card tells her everything that she needs to know about Xander. While Cassia is looking at a picture of Xander on the screen, another face flashes on it. The face is Ky Markham, another boy that Cassia knows. Cassia is faced with the hard decision of choosing to marry Ky and Xander.

Life as We Knew It

Life as We Knew It  By Susan Beth Pfeffer

***** 5/5 stars   Science Fiction

When a meteor hits the moon bringing it closer to Earth, life as Miranda knew it is gone forever. Tsunamis, volcanoes, and floods are unleashed as every day becomes a fight to stay alive.
            The first book in this trilogy was very good, 5/5 stars. The second was okay, 4/5, but by the third I was wondering why I was reading it. You should definitely read the first, but I don't think you should read the second and third. I was reading it just to find out what happened to the characters, but the ending was a disappointment.

Animal Farm

Animal Farm  By George Orwell

**** 4/5 stars  Fantasy
Living on a farm in England,  the animals of Manor Farm have had enough of men. They have worked so hard and they hardly receive enough food. On the path to fairness, the animals overthrow the farmer and work to establish a farm of equality and justice. What made this book interesting was how the farm resembled a communist country. The rulers of the farm, the pigs, clearly state that no animal will sleep in a bed. Later, the pigs end up sleeping in the farmhouse's beds. They also say that no animal should drink alcohol. Eventually, the pigs drink many crates of alcohol. I just wrote a report on North Korea and I thought it was interesting how similar the farm was to North Korea.  North Korea's leader is greatly respected and the government tells the people lies. The pigs,too, had to be treated with utmost respect by the animals and the pigs fed the other animals lies. The only reason I gave this book 4 stars was the fact that its ending was unsatisfactory.

Gathering Blue

Gathering Blue  By Lois Lowry

***** 5/5 stars  Science Fiction

Living in a community where the weak are left to be eaten by the beasts, Kira, a girl with a bad leg, has survived against all odds. Later, after her mother dies, Kira is positive it will be the end, but the answer is no again.  Her weaving skills have saved her. She is given a very important weaving job by the Council of Guardians. Kira is content weaving, but soon she realizes that the Council is holding secrets and not all of the secrets are good. The companion to The Giver  is as wonderful as the book before it.

Summer Reading List

Summer Reading List

·        The Cabinet of Wonders  By Marie Rutkoski

Petra's  dad worked for the prince for a couple of years. When her dad came back, his eyes were gone. They were stolen by the prince. Determined to get her dad's eyes back, Petra embarks on a dangerous journey.

·        Heck, Where the Bad Kids Go  By Dale E. Baye

Heck is about two siblings named Marlo and Milton Fauster. After they were killed in a marshmallow explosion, they are sent to Heck. Heck is an underworld for bad kids. Willing to risk their lives (or spirits), the siblings will stop at nothing to get out.

·        Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer  By John Grisham

Theo Boone dreams of being a lawyer.His dream comes true when someone commits a crime. A perfect crime, leaving no evidence. Theo wants to prove that the accused is guilty, but the only witness is too scared to speak up.

·        Heart of a Samurai  By Margi Preus

This book is about a boy named Manjiro. Manjiro was raised in Japan where he was taught that outside of Japan, there are barbarians and monsters. One day Manjiro is stranded on a desert island with some friends. They are rescued by Americans, "barbarians". The farther Manjiro strays from his home, the more he discovers new places. No matter how fascinating the other places are, Manjiro still wishes to return home but Japan won't let foreigners in. Even if Manjiro makes it back, will he be greeted, or despised for associating with the "barbarians"?

Here are other books I think are good summer reads, but I already have reviewed them.

·        The Hunger Games  By Suzanne Collins (reviewed in February)

·        Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder  By Jo Nesbo (reviewed in January)

·        Gilda Joyce Psychic Investigator  By Jennifer Allison(reviewed in January)

·        School of Fear  By Gitty Daneshvari (reviewed in January)

The Giver

The Giver  By Lois Lowry

**** 4/5 stars   Science Fiction

I rated this book 4 stars because I heard this as an audio book instead of reading it. The story was really good though. Jonas lives in a perfect world. No pain, no hunger, no color, no sadness, nothing that is unique. Everything is the same, perfect, but when Jonas is selected as the receiver of memories he realizes that his world is not perfect -- in fact, it could be dangerous.