Death Spiral by Janie Chodosh

Death Spiral

By- Janie Chodosh

Stars- ☆☆☆½

Rating- T-MT

Death Spiral is an intense novel about how 16 year old Faith Flores finds her mother dead from an apparent overdose of heroin. Unfortunately the police are all too eager to close the case, and when Faith begins to have doubts about the circumstances of her mothers death, she begins to investigate alone, a choice which will change her life forever. This book was intense and interesting, but I found it lacking in vocabulary. The secondary characters could have been more developed, but that said, Chodosh's use of simile and metaphor proved outstanding. It was an interesting, though not memorable, read. I rated this Teen to Mature Teen for mentions of illicit substances such as heroin, marijuana, and opium.

Jesus Jackson by James Ryan Daley

Jesus Jackson

By- James Ryan Daley

Stars-☆☆☆☆ ½
Rating- T-MT

Jesus Jackson is a dramatic story about a young 14 year old Jonathan Stiles starting his freshman year of high school when suddenly his idolized elder brother is found dead in a ravine just outside the school. As his entire world falls apart he meets and eccentric stranger who happens to look extremely like Jesus Christ. Jesus Jackson, as he calls himself, offers to give Jonathan a faith he will believe in and also begins Jonathan on a quest to find out how his brother actually died. In this spectacular book Jonathan battles psychologists, quips on religion, and eventually, falls in love. This book is at first tragic, then hilarious, and then spectacular. It was all together a knockout read. I highly recommend it when it comes out in September. I rated this book Teen to Mature Teen for mentions of illicit substances and sexual actions.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

War and Peace

By- Leo Tolstoy

Stars-☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Rating- M

War and Peace is a very long and complicated book. With over 500 characters, I was not surprised when I discovered that it had taken me over a month to read. Despite it's reputation for being dull, I found it quite enjoyable. Despite the fact that I was not reading the original Russian, the language was still incredibly hard to decipher. I can't imagine what it must be like in Russian! Of course it was a difficult read, and of course there were incredibly drawn out, boring scenes, but in the end, War and Peace turned out to be an incredible and engaging book about love, politics, morals, and the concept of history. In this book there are many different families that interact to play out a passionate, romantic plot. Some of the men of these families leave for the war, where they explore more of Russian society and the ethics and morals of war. And finally Tolstoy speaks to us with his brief but eloquent passages about history, and cause and effect. He uses the book much like evidence for an essay, and his passages scattered across the book are quite interesting, and give the novel a new flavor. But, though most of the book is amazing, certain parts of it can get rather monotonous. War and Peace is comprised of several smaller "books," each about a hundred pages long. While most of these books are very interesting, there are always some that can seem more like a trudge through the mud than a pleasant read. Nonetheless reading this parts are worth it, because they always lead to a better chapter. I rated this Mature not because of the content but because this book is very difficult to read, and not for the young or faint of heart.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451

By- Ray Bradbury

Stars-☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½
Rating- MT-M

Fahrenheit 451 is a classic novel written by Ray Bradbury in the 1950s. In it he imagines a future where almost everything is controlled by the government, their society is in a constant atomic war, and the "fireman" set fires instead of stopping them. This book is a classic and was dramatic, suspenseful, and kept me on the edge of my seat. The characters were all very unique and developed, and the language he uses sets scenes (and destroys them) perfectly. All in all, it was a stunning and breathtaking read that will cause you to question society, politics, and life itself. I rated this Mature Teen to Mature not because of the content, but because of the language and difficult concepts explored in this work.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Allegiant

by- Veronica Roth

Stars- ☆☆☆☆☆
Rating- T-MT

Allegiant is the third book in the trilogy called the "Divergent Series" by most who wish to refer to it. I have already reviewed the first two books which both received four stars because they deserved it. With this book however, I cannot say the same. It starts off well enough and seems well thought out but the farther you get into the book the more vague and random it seems. The plot line is basically the main character Tris just stopped a small dystopian civilization from turning into a chaotic war zone. At the end of the second book she had just revealed a tape that showed that their society was nothing but an experiment from some higher power, and that outside the bounds of the city another civilization exists. So with that major plot twist in mind, Tris sets off to try to find the people who set up the experiment in the first place. Some secondary characters were killed, which brought tears to my eyes but that was nothing compared to the ending. At this point I should warn you I am going to spoil the entire ending of the book, so if you do not wish to know how it ends or simply find out for yourself please stop reading after the asterisks (***). This book is rated Teen to Mature Teen because of a sex scene with the main character and her boyfriend. That is the only sexual content in the book. I gave it three stars because of the way it ended, which I will spoil below.

***SPOILERS***

The ending quite frankly made me want to scream and beat up the author. Basicall,y the main character, after surviving the Death Serum, a poison no human is supposed to be able to resist, and saving her home city from mass memory washing, gets shot and dies. This was the most unexpected thing I have ever read in a book. How could Tris, the main character, gone through all of that suffering and then resisted the Death Serum, and impossibility in all contexts, and then get shot, and die. I kept expecting her to come back and not be dead but she didn't. She was just gone. It is probably the worst ending in history, and the best. First off it basically made me want to hit things and then curl up in a corner and sob and then it made me want to explode. Finally I had to come to terms with my feelings, and I eventually realized I had a great amount of respect for the author. I mean to kill off your main character, and in that way, that takes guts. Logically it is a five star book, but it will make you feel as if it is a negative eight star book. I was almost tempted to give it five, but I just couldn't bring myself to. In essence this book is like a rose bush. It looks beautiful and wonderful but will leave you with so many scars. But in the end, I believe it was absolutely worth it.

House of Hades By- Rick Riordan

House of Hades

By Rick Riordan

Stars-☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Rating- G-PT

This was an absolutely thrilling sequel to a completely wonderful series. Now before even thinking about this book please be advised to read the Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief series as well as the Heroes of Olympus Series also by Rick Riordan. This is the third book in the Heroes of Olympus series and Mr. Riordan does not disappoint. Despite the fact that the entire series has been going for over eight years now the characters voices and personalities remain consistent with their character which is a very difficult thing to do. This book will want you to keep reading for hours which is exactly what I did. I read the first half of the book in three hours of strait non stop reading. It was that intense. There were parts that made me want to cry of joy and parts where I wanted to scream and yell but it was completely worth it. There was one plot twist near the end that I did not see coming at all and I find that it was quite a pleasant surprise. All in all this book is wonderful, appropriate for everyone, and probably one of the best books I've ever read.

Ship Breaker By Paolo Bacigalupi

Ship Breaker

By- Paolo Bacigalupi

Stars-☆☆☆½
Rating- PT-T

Ship Breaker is an intense thrilling novel and is the sequel to The Drowned Cities. In this quick-paced book the main character, Nailer, lives on the coast of what we think could be the gulf of Mexico, and breaks into old steamer ships hunting for scavenge parts. Hence the title he is given, "ship breaker." He lives in a community that is susceptible to awful hurricanes called "city killers" that attack the shore and almost decimate the area. But when a city killer washes up a clipper ship he thinks his luck has changed. Perhaps the scavenge and items on the ship will wave him from the awful life he had been living. Nut what is on that ship changes his life much more than he expected. But of course I can't spoil the plot. Now this book was amazing and great but at the same time it made me really uncomfortable. A lot of the gruesome details quite simply completely grossed me out and the details about this brave new world Nailer lives in shocked and depressed me. In this time the world as we know it has been eradicated. The United States is gone and what replaces it is the dystopian community made up of small tribes living off of and selling what was left behind. It made me really upset and sad that that was what the U.S. came to, just a bloody, violent society. It is definitely a wonderful book but the reaction it inspires may not be too pleasant.

Rated PT-T for violence and gore.