Book Reviews

Moloka’i by Alan Brennert

 in Book Reviews / Books by

Review

This was the most amazing and one of the saddest books which I have ever read. This was probably one of the most powerful too. It is up there with Night by Elie Wiesel.  In the story a 6 year old girl, Rachel, was diagnosed with leprosy. She is immediately quarantined and removed from her family and the general population.  She is then, after about a year or so, removed from Honolulu and sent to the island of Moloka’i. People who go to Moloka’i, never return. Those were the stories which Rachel had heard. She was scared, she was sick, and she wanted her mummy and daddy. She was not allowed to go and see her parents and when she was, while she was on Honolulu and in quarantine, it was with a mesh barrier and they were not allowed to touch. Rachel’s mother and siblings then left their home town because of the disgrace. This left Rachel all alone with no idea where her mother was. Her father stayed in touch and her Uncle Pono was on the island too because he had leprosy. This story followed Rachel’s life and told of what happened and what she experienced. Who she met and who she lost. Who she made friends with and who she got rid of.

This is the only book which I have read which has made me cry within the first 3 chapters. I would recommend this book for readers 14 and up as there is some inappropriate material in it. This is really an adult book, but older teens probably will enjoy it too. This story touches you, and will change the way you view life. It shows you that life can be easily taken away, and it shows you what people did not have and what people went through and missed when they had leprosy.

I give this book 5 stars and it was AMAZING. I have to tell you to read the book and let me know you think.

First Strike by Jack Higgins with Justin Richards

 in Book Reviews / Books by

“[Readers] will be sucked in and taken on a roller-coaster ride…teens who are enjoying Anthony Horowitz’s and Ally Carter’s books will get a kick out of Jade and Rich as well.”

– School Library Journal for Death Run

Summary

In the latest installment of the series involving the British Chance twins and their secret-agent father, the family once again bonds as they duck bullets and fly through the book’s nonstop action. Two sets of villains (Chinese rebels and American right-wing fanatics) infiltrate the White House during a reception in an effort to steal a box containing nuclear launch codes. Fortunately, the Brits are on hand to save the day. Fans of the twins’ exploits will enjoy this thrill ride, which, like the series’ other titles, is an obvious read-alike to the Alex Rider books by Anthony Horowitz. Grades 6-9. –Todd Morning

-Amazon.com

Review

I personally thought that this was a quite good book. Since I am a fan of Alex Rider, I immediately was drawn to the book. I also thought that the cover was kind of cool as well. So, this story was about these two kids who were trapped in the White House while it was under the control of terrorists. One of the kids was helping guard the president and the other one was trying to find a way to stop the people. The two children, Jade and Rich, are similar but different. Jade usually is the bait and gets the persons attention, and she likes to do stuff right. Rich, well Rich is more like Alex Rider. He likes to do stuff in the moment and figure out how to kick-ass.

This story kept you turning pages and wanting to read more. But I have to say this. I don’t know how and why people are comparing it to Alex Rider. Yes it is true, if you finished the Alex Rider series and you are thirsty for more, this is the book, but this is nothing like Alex Rider. First of all Alex Rider is better (in my opinion), second Alex is all alone, while in this book there are two kids. Also in this book the kids have their Dad helping from the outside. In Alex Rider, he really was alone, except in dire situations and usually he could get himself out of it. If this book was Alex Rider, Alex would have saved the day. In this book though kids, their dad, and SAS men, and a whole lot of explosives saved the day. Alex never had a gun. In my opinion, this was not as good as Alex Rider at all, but I still believe that it was a decent spy book. I believe the characters could also have been described a little more. But if you are one of those people who likes explosions, guns, and things like that, this is the book for you.

Also I believe that this is a series. This one is book #4 but I do not believe that it matters the order.

#1 Sure Fire
#2 Death Run
#3 Sharp Shot
#4 First Strike

Enjoy!

 

 

Angel Burn by L.A. Weatherly

 in Adventure / Book Reviews / Books / Young Adult by

Summary

“Willow knows she’s different from other girls, and not just because she loves tinkering with cars. Willow has a gift. She can look into the future and know people’s dreams and hopes, their sorrows and regrets, just by touching them. She has no idea where this power comes from. But the assassin, Alex, does. Gorgeous, mysterious Alex knows more about Willow than Willow herself. He knows that her powers link to dark and dangerous forces, and that he’s one of the few humans left who can fight them. When Alex finds himself falling in love with his sworn enemy, he discovers that nothing is as it seems, least of all good and evil. In the first book in an action-packed, romantic trilogy, L..A. Weatherly sends readers on a thrill-ride of a road trip – and depicts the human race at the brink of a future as catastrophic as it is deceptively beautiful.

They’re out for your soul . . . and they don’t have heaven in mind.”

-Amazon.com

Review

I have to say that I thought that this was a very good book. I think that it is up there with Tigers Curse and Tigers Quest. It was a very good book. A few reasons why I liked this book is because it had some action (which I like in every book), romance, and a very good story line.

The characters in this book were described very well. I could picture the story in my head and not just what was happening but what the characters looked like and everything. Alex was the type of bad boy boyfriend which every girl wants to have. He saved the world and he fought evil. He was muscular, tall, strong, and good-looking. Willow was the type of girl who was an outcast and got the most drop dead gorgeous guy you could want. A guy who should would think would not be attracted to her at all. Willow was a beautiful blond who can look into your mind and predict the future and who can also fix cars.

This story is the first in the trilogy. I am not sure if the other two books are out yet but I am definitely going read them.

I though that this was a wonderful book and would definitely recommend people to read it.  Please go to your local library and check this book out.

Fever by Robin Cook

 in Book Reviews / Books / Older Readers / Young Adult by

This post contains affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure here.

Fever by Robin Cook cover via Amazon

Summary

“Charles Martel is a brilliant cancer researcher who discovers that his own daughter is the victim of leukemia. The cause: a chemical plant conspiracy that not only promises to kill her, but will destroy him as a doctor and a man if he tries to fight it…”

-From Amazon.com

Review

Yes, the summary is short, but that really sums the entire book up. This book was a really good book. I would have to say that its content was for more mature readers. There was nothing inappropriate, but it was long, and there were some things which younger people may not understand or pick up.

I chose this as one of my summer reading books for my school. Some people at the school recommended the book and so I decided to try it out. I loved it. The book did start off a little slow but once you got into it, it was much better.

The story was about this researcher, Charles Martel, who was a cancer researcher. His daughter was diagnosed with leukemia and Charles just kind of lost it. He had lost his wife a few years earlier so he was married to Cathyrn, the stepmother. Cathryn was a very supportive character in the book. She would always back him up and she would always be there for Rachel, Charles’ daughter. There were two other big-ish characters in the story. There was Chuck and Jean Paul. They were Charles’ sons. Chuck was about as annoying as you could get, but Jean Paul was more understanding when it came to things. He stood on the sidelines and watched. Yes, he would annoy his sister from time to time, but otherwise he was a gentle soul.

Towards the end of the book Charles started to lose his mind. His mind itself was perfectly fine, but with all the stress he just started to have some weird thoughts – thoughts that were irrational.

The characters in this book were not extremely well described but they did not have to be. You got all of their personalities. You did not really need to know what they looked like. Also there was so much going on, it would have been a bit too confusing. I liked how the characters were not described, because with all that was going on, I got to use my imagination.

The personalities of each character were…

Michelle – loving, caring, has lots of responsibility as she took over the female role after her mother died, cares about everyone else before herself

Charles – a smart researcher, easily angered, sharp tongue, wily, wants Chuck to follow in his foot steps

Cathryn – arbitrator, loving, caring

Chuck – annoying, easily annoyed, quite strong, doesn’t want to follow his fathers footsteps

Jean Paul – loving, brother-like (has the moments when he picks on his sister, but cares too), quiet

I would recommend for you to go and check this book out of the library. It is for older readers like 15 and up, but otherwise this was a really good book.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

 in Adventure / Book Reviews / Books / Interesting / Young Adult by

I started reading this book a few years back – when it first came out – and I never got past the second chapter. This is because when I read that they were going to kill each other I really did not want to read this book. But a few weeks ago I was at my local library and I remembered my teachers raving about the book and how good it was. I decided to pick it up and try again. I read this book in just over a day. It was amazing. Yes this book was kind of sad but it had a really good story line. My favorite part of the book was the outfits which were worn to the different events. I actually felt like I could see them because they were described so well.

This story was about how the government would put 24 children (2 from each District – a boy and a girl) into this very large arena where the environment is harsh and unpredictable. The temperature and the weather is controlled by the government (as they have the technology) so as the game progresses and the children die off (and are killed off) and the competition gets more fierce. As children die, the government makes the environment more harsh to make the games for enjoyable for all of the Districts (all of the Districts are made to watch the games.)

During the book the children have to fight it out and compete fiercely and kill. Many people go down on the first day but over time the deaths become less frequent and the fittest are surviving. Also as the book progresses how the people die becomes more violent because the survives have to kill the other survivors so it has to be more deadly.

This book was quite violent as it was a competition to survive but otherwise it was really good. I was not going to read the book but once I started, I just could not put it down. I loved how things were described. The author of this book used a few words as possible to describe something and those few words were all that was needed. I loved this book and cannot wait to read the second.

I know that a lot of people have read this book and the other ones in this series. If you have what did you think of this book and the others? What are your opinions?

Let me know but otherwise enjoy this book.