Book Review by Addie Martin

Renegades by Marissa Meyer  

Short Summary: Exploring secret identities and underground conspiracies, Renegades follows Nova through her experiences with these superhero prodigies that all take on surviving the trials of the villainous society, while surfing through her own struggles to go through with her mission of vendetta and vengeance. All with unique abilities, Nova and her group all go through with saving their society, figuring out how to deal with the new symbol that their group has become to their world. 

My Review: I would give this book a four and a half out of five stars. From the very first page of this book, it captured my heart and soul. Nova’s character is so well developed, but also just so versatile and relatable. Her struggles with the group as well as the other side of her make the character feel like a sister or a best friend, as she takes you through her story. Adrian is another character that just traps you in with his golden-retriever like personality, but revealed as just a kid with some internal parental issues. Too, he’s incredibly relatable coming from a teenager. There is such beauty when looking at the plot of this story too. Marissa Meyer just completes every element of a YA modern novel, and if there was a checklist for the perfect ‘YA book’, I feel as if she might check nearly 95% of them. The only thing I have to note about this book is that her writing style can be seen as slow, so if the reader or individual does not like reading the ‘slow burn’ style of commentary and writing, then this story may start out as a little slow in the beginning. Although, once you get a few chapters in, it’s so easy to get entranced by the world and the gorgeous characters that Marissa Meyer has created. This book is a trilogy of two equally as stunning reads!

Book Review by Addie Martin

Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas 

Short Summary: Throne of Glass is a beautifully written novel that explores the Kingdom of Adarlan, as well as the other monarchies such as Terrasen and Eyllwe that are shown in all their glory by magnificent stories and characters. Celaena Sardothien, a teenage assassin, battles through the conflicts of world power, political intrigue, and finding love in those around her, all the while fighting against a tyrannical leader that threatens everything she’s stood for. 

My Review: I would give this book a five out of five stars. I enjoyed almost every part about this book. Even the parts that were hard and emotionally tearing, I found it to be a story that just locks you into its words, in a way that it feels as if the world is real. Readers that enjoy fantasy coupled with a little bit of romance will really enjoy this book. Audiences that like Shatter Me and Divergent would find this book intriguing because it mimics the story heroine, coupled with the idea that the characters are just so easy to find comfort in. One of my favorite quotes from this book would have to be, “You could rattle the stars. You could do anything if only you dared.” I think that not only does this demonstrate its theme of strong heroines and overcoming the world around you, but it also shows how stunningly written this story truly is. The author did such a great job writing this book, and there is no way that a teen reader could put this book down. Throne of Glass is the first book in a eight book series that will almost immediately trap you in, and take you away into the Kingdom of Adarlan itself.

Book Review by Ruby Puck

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger 

J. D. Salinger’s 1951 classic, The Catcher in the Rye, stars 16 year-old Holden Caulfield during a weekend around New York City. After being expelled from his fourth prep school, Holden embarks on a journey throughout the city, meeting a diverse amount of people, from nuns to gangsters. During the course of the book, Holden shares his own experiences with grief, friends, school, girls, his parents, and his beloved sister, Phoebe. In the time of these interactions and events, Holden calls out every character for their phoniness and plunges himself into the blown out angsty mind of a young man. 

My favorite part of J. D. Salinger’s novel is about Holden’s character himself. As the narrator of the story, Holden gives his own jocular and clever opinions of every event that takes place and every person that he meets. This quality of how Holden shares his portrayal of the story allows for the reader to connect with Holden, especially as a teen trying to navigate in school, socially, and in life all around. This causes the book to have more complex themes and truly reach out to the average teenage mind. The style of the book is also written in a way that is very easy to read, allowing many readers of all levels to be able to enjoy it.

My favorite quote from the book is from a scene between Phoebe, Holden’s kid sister, and Holden when he sneaks into Phoebe’s room because he misses her. When Phoebe asks Holden what he would like to be, Holden begins to explain his dream job. He says that he pictures himself at the edge of a cliff, in a field of rye, where children all around him are running around and Holden must save them from falling off of the edge of the cliff if they run too close. He ends his explanation saying, “That’s all I do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be”. I find this quote very special because I feel that it encapsulates how it feels to be a teenager, truly between innocent childhood and busy adulthood.