Metro 2033

Metro 2033 is an international best seller by Dmitry Glukhovky and has inspired both the video games of Metro 2033 and Metro Last Light.

After an apocalyptic event the citizens of Moscow, Russia had to flee from the radioactive surface down into the maze of the metro system.  Down in the metro system the people have built cities that they call stations all around the metro.  There have been wars that have broken out between the communist reds and the freedom fighters, but there is still another enemy that is not of this earth.  The stations fall one by one to the mutated monsters, rats, and the most dangerous of them all the dark ones.  The only way to save the metro and destroy the dark ones is in the hands of Artyom.  It is his mission to help the people or destroy them it’s his choice.  Has this mission been fate or does he have some kind of connection to the dark ones.

This incredible action packed adventure novel really has you thinking what will happen next.  Artyom has many different experiences and meets very different people throughout his mission around the metro.  He will have to make decisions that would be best for his mission but will risk the lives of friends, family or even an entire station.  He meets new friends and new enemies.  With all these decisions you could insert your own ideas and see what would happen if you made these decisions, if you would die or find something useful or save your friends or family.  This novel easily grabs your attention no matter what kind of genre you like because this novel has everything. 

This novel has everything a reader could want and makes you ask question and keeps you guessing.  It is impossible to put this book down.  You can order it on Amazon.  Hardcover is $82.70 and paperback for $17.58.  Be warned that you will have to find the English version since it was originally published in Russian.

Book Review by Parker M.

Seekers: The Quest Begins

After her mother died a white bear named Kallik set out to find her brother. A black bear called Lusa lives in a zoo and dreams of going to the wild. A brown bear named Toklo wants to have his own territory one day. These characters are related because eventually they all meet each other and go on a quest together. The book I finished reading is Seekers: The Quest Begins by Erin Hunter. The theme of this book is you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. Kallik loses her mother and she can’t find her brother, Lusa leaves her family so she can go out in to the wild, and Toklo loses his family. Erin Hunter has written many, many books called Warriors. There are 3 complete series and then there are “extra” books about some of the characters.

Kallik had to get off the ice because summer was coming so she started heading towards where she thought land was. As she went on she meet other white bears. Most of whom probably have similar stories. Lusa’s father King used to live in the forest but then he got caught by people and they took him to the zoo. Lusa does everything she can to find out about the wild without upsetting her father. Toklo, his mother Oka, and his brother Tobi are traveling around looking for a river so they can eat salmon. Then all their lives take a turn for the worse when Tobi dies because he was sick and never got better. Then after Tobi dies Oka drives Toklo away because she can’t take care of him. 

I loved this book because it is filled with suspense and you find out what happens until two chapters later because it flip flops between Kallik, Lusa, and Toklo. There are some boring parts but every book has boring parts. And the boring parts of the book makes it better. It makes it better because then you know when the exciting parts happening. If you like action and adventure books then go to the library or bookstore and get a seekers or warriors book. Even if you don’t like action and adventure books a whole lot these books are still fun to read. When  I first started reading these books I didn’t really like action and adventure books but now I love them because of the  seeker and warrior books that Erin Hunter wrote.

Book Review by Taylor R.

Game

The book "Game" written by Walter Dean Myers is a very good book. If you love the game of basketball, then I guarantee you'll love this book. The main character is a senior in high school by the name of Andrew Lawson but everyone calls him Drew. Drew knows basketball is going to take him places. Drew knows the game of basketball, he actually knows it quite well. He is a young African American boy from Harlem trying to achieve his goals and get many scholarships to different colleges so he can be successful.

Drew has many trials to face throughout this book to reach his goal. Drew also has many goals and ambition. He is very confident playing basketball, but does he have too much confidence in himself? Drew and his team try to make it as far as they can in basketball tournaments against other high school teams. The only way Drew can get into college is with basketball because his grades aren't getting him anywhere.

I recommend this book to everyone because, it teaches you how to have confidence in yourself. This book shows you how to encourage yourself when nobody else will. I also recommend this book to anyone who loves the game of basketball! Walter Dean Myers is an outstanding author! 

Book Review by Cassandra B.

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games is the first book to a series written by Suzanne Collins that created history.

She stood there expecting to hear her name to be called, but what she heard, wasn’t what she expected at all. As Katniss Everdeen stood within the massive crowd of people gathered in the city square, she couldn’t focus on one thing at a time. Her mind was racing as the names were randomly being picked. One boy and one girl from district 12, whose lives would never be the same, if they survived.

Katniss and her sister prim stood in their lines at the annual hunger games reaping. The day when one girl and one boy from each district of panem would be picked to set off on a journey that could end their lives in seconds. As Katniss searched the crowd of strange faces around her she spotted one very familiar one. It was the face of her best friend Gale. She knew that he was in favor of being picked but she tried not to focus on this. She knew it could be anyone but she never expected to hear the name she heard be called. That name was Prim Rose Everdeen. And when she did she had no other instinct but to save her little sister and volunteer in place of her as a tribute. As she made her way to the podium she couldn’t think of anything. She was blank with emotion because she did not think this could happen, not to her family. But as the name of a boy was called, memories began to fill her blank mind. That boy was peeta mellark, the boy who had taken a beating to feed Katniss.

This truly amazing story unravels as Katniss and peeta set out on a fight to the death. As they face the obstacles that could either bring them together or apart, forever. As peeta and Katniss figure out a way to the play the game that could either save them or kill them while tributes around, slowly, one by one, fall to their death. The next death could be theirs, if they don’t play the game right.

This #1 New York bestseller is one of my all time favorite reads. It has the reader in suspense the whole time to the point when you just can’t put the book down. I would rate it a 5 out of 5 for suspense and drama. It gives the reader a good visualization without revealing the events making the whole book a surprise waiting to be discovered. I do recommend reading the book before watching the movie because it is far more detailed and makes the movie easier to understand. I am sure after reading The Hunger Games you will not be able to stop reading Suzanne Collins books and the rest of this amazing series.

The Hunger Games is available in hardcover on Amazon for $17.99

The Hunger Games trilogy boxed set is available on Amazon for $53.97

Book review by Adnana B.

And the Mountains Echoed

Like with The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini again proves himself a master storyteller in his newest novel, And the Mountains Echoed.  By interweaving the narratives of a number of characters over the course of 50 years, Hosseini crafts a heart-wrenching, multi-generational tale of family ties, the consequences of breaking such strong bonds, and the implications of the past haunting the present.

The novel starts with Saboor narrating an allegory to his two young children, Abdullah and Pari, trying to help them understand why he had to give up one of his children to save the family.  Readers empathize when Abdullah and Pari are separated, and continue to mourn as the family's other relationships -- and the dynamics between characters -- are revealed.

Readers are introduced to a host of other characters, including Nabi, Parwana, and Masooma, another set of siblings that is separated by a number of factors; Suleiman and Nila Wahdati, a husband and wife divided by more than distance; Timur and Idris, expat brothers whose values disconnect them; Iqbal and Gholam, a tightly-bonded father and son who were severed from their home by a warlord and his son; Markos and Thalia, a pair who were strongly connected despite no blood relation; and then Abdullah, Pari, and their families much later in life.

While each set of characters has an interesting, powerful story that draws at readers' heartstrings, Hosseini incorporates too many plot lines that are seemingly cut short by the start of a new chapter, stories that are too confusingly woven together.  From the beginning, readers simply crave the narrative of Abdullah and Pari, not the stories of their distant relatives.

And the Mountains Echoed truly shows Hosseini's remarkable storytelling ability, but perhaps the book would have been more interesting had it been a series of vignettes telling each character-set's story rather than a full-length novel that ineffectively interweaves them together.

The hardcover edition of the novel is available on Amazon.com for $13.00.

Book review by Ms. B.

Reconstructing Amelia

It's hard to believe that Reconstructing Amelia is Kimberly McCreight's debut novel.

After receiving a phone call that her daughter was suspended for plagiarizing an essay, workaholic single mom, Kate, leaves her law office to head to Grace Hall, her daughter's exclusive prep school in Brooklyn.  When she arrives, she sees a bevy of emergency vehicles, all with their lights off.  She discovers that her daughter, Amelia, had jumped from the roof of the school and is sent into deep disbelief and mourning.  Soon after, Kate receives a text message: "Amelia didn't jump."

The elaborately-crafted, multi-layered novel that unfolds is a gripping crime story that centers on family relationships, friends, secret societies, social media, bullying, and a number of other issues that plague teenagers today.  Told in chapters alternating between Kate's and Amelia's points of view and interspersed with blog posts, Facebook statuses, and text messages, the plot develops, advances, and thickens with each of Kate's discoveries and Amelia's confessions.  Readers quickly become enveloped in the mother's and daughter's stories, caring deeply about each woman, hoping that Kate can eventually discover what happened in the weeks leading up to that fateful day -- and can subsequently achieve peace regarding her daughter's death.

Despite a few characters being left underdeveloped (and thus readers still asking questions), Reconstructing Amelia is a page-turner, sure to hook readers from the first page and likely to be heralded as one of this year's bests novels.

Reconstructing Amelia is available in hardcover on Amazon for $18.

Book review by Ms. B.