We Were Liars

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Fiction

The Sinclairs are perfect. They live on a private island and are rich, beautiful, and skilled at hiding secrets. Cadence has spent nearly every summer of her childhood on her grandparents’ private island and is used to holding herself together in times of stress. She spends the summer with her cousins, Mirren and Johnny, as well as Gat, who is not quite a family friend due to his poor background. After an accident, Cadence develops amnesia and is unable to remember a major event at the end of her last summer. As Cadence tries to piece together what happened, we learn that some secrets are too big to remain hidden.

Lockhart creates a world that is puzzling and confusing, leaving the reader as much in the dark as Cadence is about what happened the previous summer.  This confusion escalates and culminates until the world the reader was made to believe was true comes crashing down, revealing one never expected. Lockhart uses language that is poetic and beautiful, but at the same time creates a division between the reader and the characters. This makes it difficult to understand and relate to the characters, which may be Lockhart’s intent. Everybody lies to keep up appearances.  In the end, Cadence realizes that while lies may seem to make life better, living requires the truth.

Go Set a Watchman

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
Fiction

To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite books, so you can imagine how excited I was for Go Set a Watchman. It was hard to compare the two because the style and substance were so different. I found it easier to view Go Set a Watchman as a separate book and the flashbacks as bonus material for To Kill a Mockingbird. Familiar characters like Jem and Dill make few appearances in these flashbacks and the characters that are still around are hardly recognizable, such as Atticus. Scout even goes by a different name (Jean Louise), but she is still recognizable and the similarities between her younger self are believable.

             The voice in Go Set a Watchman was inconsistent and the story was less of a narrative than To Kill a Mockingbird. The voice in the flashbacks was entertaining, while the other parts of the book were almost boring in tone, similar to a voice-over in a documentary. This inconsistency in the book made it seem more like a first draft than a finished novel, which it likely was. I found Go Set a Watchman to be more autobiographical and less fictional than To Kill a Mockingbird, and probably closer to Lee’s actual experiences during that period. As much as the general public would like to believe, it’s unlikely that there were many people during the 1930s in the South who resembled Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. The Atticus in Go Set a Watchman was probably closer to the personality of a typical lawyer in the South for the time. From these two books, Lee gives us two versions of Atticus, one who is an ideal and a symbol of justice, and the other that is an actual person who holds the beliefs and values of his environment.

What makes To Kill a Mockingbird great literature is that Lee was able to take her observations of the South and transform them into universal themes. Go Set a Watchman is an early step in the evolution of Harper Lee’s writing, and it is best to view it as that.

Code Name Verity

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Fiction

      I highly enjoyed this book because of the characters and most importantly, because of the ending. I feel that there are 5 things that I should cover so as a reader you are mentally prepared to fully embrace the amazingness of this book.

      The first thing is the plot. Code Name Verity takes place in England during World War 2 and is about two friends. One is a spy and the other is a pilot. We quickly learn that Verity, which is her code name, is a spy. While on a mission she is forced to abandon Maddie, the pilot, and is captured by the Gestapo when she looks the wrong way while crossing a street. Which leads to the second thing, the book is split into two parts. The first part is told by Verity and her narration is part of her confession to the Gestapo. Because I was not prepared for the switch between narrators, I was shocked because you become very attached to Verity and I didn’t feel that same attachment to Maddie the pilot, but both characters are very developed and enjoyable, it was just shocking at first. The third thing is almost the worst mistake I have ever made while reading a book. It is almost as bad as reading the last chapter, and that is I read the acknowledgements at the back of the book. It’s not really called the acknowledgements it’s really called the Author’s Debriefing, and in it a small thing is revealed which completely ruins the end of Verity’s narration and I really regret it. I believe that there was a very good chance that I could have cried if I hadn’t read the end. The fourth thing is the ending. At the end of the book either your heart will break and you will cry, or your mind will explode, or you will go into a coma similar to how I did and sit in the corner of your room hyperventilating. The plot is so carefully thought out, you don’t realize what is happening until everything is right in front of you, so it is very much like a puzzle, which is why I highly recommend reading the book several times, which is the fifth and final request. The first read should be solely for enjoyment, the second should be to notice the small details that you didn’t notice the first time. And then if you want, repeat Steps 1 and 2.   

The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

Nonfiction

The Glass Castle is a memoir about the author’s experiences growing up in a poor and peculiar family. They constantly move and uproot their lives. Her dad is an alcoholic but is still faithful to the family, and he wrote a blueprint to a glass castle that he promises to someday build. Her mom is a self-proclaimed artist who is first seen digging through a Dumpster. Because of her parents’ poor choices they live in abject poverty. Her unconventional childhood results in her siblings and Jeannette sticking close together and having to fend for themselves. The book is full of alarming tales of parenting, such as the one where Jeannette is three years old and she learns to boil hot dogs by herself in their trailer. While she is standing on a chair to reach the stove, her skirt catches on fire. She is admitted to the hospital with severe burns. Her dad is disappointed because he insists that she should have seen the local Navajo witch doctor instead. After Jeannette spends six weeks in the hospital recovering, her dad breaks into the hospital, grabs her and bolts for the door, while nurses and doctors yell at him to stop. Some of the events in The Glass Castle are so comical and unbelievable that you feel a great deal of respect for the author for being able to rise above her past.

The Walls family may be unconventional, poor, and slightly eccentric, but it is never boring.

Freaky Green Eyes

Freaky Green Eyes by Joyce Carol Oates

Fiction

This book is about two people. One of them is Franky Pierson who is in denial about the abuse her mom suffers from her dad. The other person is Freaky Green Eyes, a part of Franky who knows the truth and wants to save her mom.

While Franky is at a party over the summer she is almost raped, but Freaky Green Eyes gives her the strength to attack her assailant, a college student named Cameron. As Franky runs away Cameron yells, “You f-freak! You should see your eyes! Freaky green eyes! You’re crazy!” (Oates page 17). Freaky Green Eyes is the part of Franky that she fears and respects the most, and it is also the part that saves her.

Franky lives in Seattle, Washington where it is perpetually cloudy, but the weather isn’t the only thing clouding her vision. Her dad, Reid Pierson, a famous sportscaster, makes a living by using his good appearance and confidence to belie his abusive personality. Franky believes her dad when he says that he loves her, her mom betrayed them, and he doesn’t know anything about her mom’s disappearance. It is much easier for Franky to believe what he tells her than the alternative, but Freaky knows better.

Oates renders a realistic portrayal of an abusive parent which helps the reader better comprehend the internal struggles Franky faces. If she reports her dad’s abuse she would be going against what a part of her wants to believe and in a way does. She is split between her mom and her dad, the truth and her dad’s lies, what she wants to believe and what she knows to be true, between Freaky and Franky. 

Looking for Alaska

Looking for Alaska  By John Green

Fiction

Miles “Pudge” Halter, the main character in John Green’s Looking for Alaska spends most of his time obsessing about Alaska Young. Alaska is a classmate of his who is the gateway from his boring existence in Alabama to an exciting glamourous life at his new school, Culver Creek Boarding School. Pudge and his new group of friends spend the school year pranking and causing mischief, until something happens that changes everything.

In some schools, Looking for Alaska is banned because of a sexual scene, but if anything I think that the book should have been banned for its lack of strong female figures. John Green romanticizes the self-destructive Alaska whose only function is that of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Alaska is such an important part of the story, but her character is incredibly flat and one-dimensional. She doesn’t do anything except run around talking about how she wants to die. If this book is being taught in schools, most girls would want to be like Alaska, based on how Green idealizes her, which is why I suggest you to put this book back on the shelf with Bella from Twilight and where you keep the rest of your anti-Hermiones. 

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Fiction

                You couldn’t imagine a more unlikely pair than George and Lennie.  The book describes George as small, wary, and a thinker.  Lennie is the opposite.  Close to a giant in size, but resembling a child in his manner, Lennie relies heavily on George for help.  As laborers in California in the 1900s, this relationship is very unusual.  They stick together through hard times and together they dream of someday buying their own farm and “livin’ of the fatta the land.”

                Most of the workers are surprised by the bond George and Lennie have.  George risks his job many times to help Lennie and everyone knows that George would be better off without him. But if George were to leave Lennie, Lennie would be without a job and would eventually find his way into trouble. Lennie never means to hurt anyone, but because of his immense strength he can’t help it. It is George’s job to keep him safe, which is an example of the sacrifices families make for each other.