The Looking Glass Wars

Nearly everyone knows the story of Alice and her trip to Wonderland...right? In The Looking Glass Wars, written by Frank Beddor, a different story is portrayed. Wonderland does exist, but it has a much darker story. Alyss Heart, heir to the Wonderland throne, is forced to flee from it when her Aunt Redd makes a bid for the throne. After falling through the mysterious Pool of Tears, Alyss finds herself in London, where she is soon taken in by another family. She manages to tell her story to an aspiring author by the name of Lewis Caroll, but he bungles the story and Alyss despairs in ever returning to Wonderland; but fortunately there is still someone searching for her. This is a great story, and with action, adventure, and mystery around every turn it's hard to put the book down. The added thrill when you recognize the characters from Caroll's book make it a fun read, and I highly recomend it for anyone who loves a good adventure. However, it has a moderate style of writing, which gives the story a little less depth, but nonetheless I, reading nearly advanced books, found it a great tale. I give it a 8.5/10. It's the 1st in a trilogy so look for more reviews.

Twilight

In the book Twilight a teenage girl named Bella moves to the dull town of Forks, where the sun never shines. There she meets a vampire named Edward, and, despite the fact that a small part of Edward wants to suck her blood, Bella falls in love with him. I personally didn’t know if I should read it because it seemed to be aimed at teen girls, but with the release of the film and pressure from friends I tried it out. I was right: it was aimed at teenage girls. Most vampire stories have a lot of action, but this book focused on the emotions of the characters which, as the story progressed, grew very tiring. Constantly the beautiful features and actions of Edward were pointed out, and, being a guy, hearing about the beauty of other guys isn’t my idea of fun. However, the story and characters are all perfect, and the details make it a wonderful book. My overall rating would probably be 7.5/10 because although it was a good book it is not a good one for me.

The Inheritance Cycle

From the moment I began reading the Inheritance Cycle I loved it. The Inheritance Cycle includes the books Eragon, Eldest and Brisingr so far. When a young man named Eragon discovers a blue stone he brings it home only to learn that it is in fact a dragon egg. He develops a close bond with it, but if anyone learned that he had a dragon his peaceful life would come to an end. And that is exactly what happens. This book had dragons, magic, wonderful characters, secrets, fighting… it in general contained everything I love in a book. I have heard from many people that it is more for younger kids, but, in my opinion, it gets pretty serious and younger kids might not be able to handle it. The only negative thing I noticed was that it was heavily influenced by the Star Wars original trilogy, but then again the author, a man named Christopher Paolini (who I might add was a homeschooler like me), has a much different story. I give this book a 9.5/10 because it borrowed a lot of old plot idea’s, but it is such a wonderfully written and thought out book it will always be one of my favorites. We have the books on CD and most of our family (our dad doesn't like books on tape) likes listening to them.

To Kill a Mockingbird

The book To Kill a Mockingbird is a very inspiring story. When a white lawyer tries to defend a black man in court his whole town starts treating his family badly. His son and daughter go through some hard times because of it, but in the end they both learn a lot about life. I thought that this book was wonderful, but it took some time to get into it. The story is told from the lawyer’s daughter’s point of view, which meant that most of the book seemed to involve some rather unneeded stories. Sometimes the book grew pretty boring, but by the end everything is understood and it is quite inspiring. I think that it deserves an 8/10 because although it was very informative, inspiring, and all in all a good book, it took a while to get into.

The Lost Years of Merlin Series

Magic has always been a big factor in my reading choices, and when I saw The Lost Years of Merlin series I couldn’t help but at least try it. A young boy washes ashore one stormy night without a single memory of his past life, and a woman who claims to be his mother cares for him for 5 years. In all that time she says nothing of his past, but after a terrible accident he sets out on his own to learn his true name, find his real home, and discover his actual parents. This is Merlin’s beginning, and the story is excellent. The characterization is superb, and throughout the books each character grows in some way or another. The plots are good, with plot twists, red herons, foreshadowing, etc. but despite that the books seem to lack the small spark which would rank it a bestseller. However, the series is a very good one and I have decided to rate it at 8/10 because it has such a wonderful story but does not draw me in like other series do.

Inkheart

I love books. They take me to other worlds, tell me thrilling tales, and show me events that will never occur in real life. Why am I talking about books? This book is about books… and what can come out of them. When a man named Mo reads aloud one night people come out of the book, and he discovers that he can read people and things right off the printed page. Every chapter of this book is brilliantly written, the characterization is spot on, and the story, story within the story, and character stories are all wonderful. The author, Cornelia Funke, did a fantastic Job with this book, and there was only one thing about it that I found annoying. The perspective of the story changes way too much! At one moment there’s the young girls perspective, then her fathers perspective, etc. and because the perspectives kept being changed the magic of the story was a little dulled. I’m going to give this a 8.5/10, because of that, but I must say that it was one of the few books that took a while to finish, so if you want a long fantasy book with magic and reality just read Inkheart.

The Supernaturalist

Eion Colfer, the author of The Supernatualist, is a great writer, but somehow his writing talent slipped here. The story is filled with character development, plot lines, plot twists, and the overall story is a good one, but the writing I found dull. When I started the book I found the sentences short and choppy; quite good for new readers but not too fascinating to bookworms like myself. And there are few descriptive words. One example is a kissing scene (kissing scenes are normally full of adjectives about how the person is feeling) where all that was said was that the characters kissed one another. Another thing I found annoying was that although this is set in the future, where there are many new technologies, few devices get described and a couple times I had no idea about what the author was describing. I’m giving this a 7/10 for good story line, which makes up for the writing, but this book, which I expected to be for teens, should probably be set at a 10+ level, though if you’re tired one day and are not reading into the details, a young adult would probably like it just as much.

Pendragon Book one: The Merchant of Death

I have to say that the first book in the Pendragon Series, The Merchant of Death, is one of the best books I have ever read, and I have read a great many books. When I first picked it up I discovered that I just couldn’t put it down because the author, a brilliant writer named D. J. MacHale, has somehow managed to fit in plot twists, cliff hangers, and mysteries at the end of almost every single chapter! The main character, Bobby Pendragon, tells most of the story from his perspective, with occasional glimpses into the lives of his friends who read of his great adventures, which I found interesting. After a couple of years doing writing assignments I have found, much to my dismay, that writing in first person is rarely allowed, but MacHale wonderfully managed to skirt this rule in his writing, and write in third person when Bobby’s friends took center stage, creating a wonderful balance. I’m going to have to give this a 9/10 not because of bad writing, a poor story, or anything like that, but because you can never put the book down, which may be good thing or a bad thing depending on whether you have hours to spend, or have a small fifteen minute period until test time. And by the way, there are at least 9 books out already, with a 10th on the way!