Book Reviews

Book Review by Shegofah Hussaini

‘The Scorch Trials’ by James Hashner

She spoke to him before the world fell apart.

Hey, are you still asleep?

Thomas shifted in his bed, felt a darkness around him like air turned solid, pressing in. At first he panicked: his eyes snapped open as he imagined himself back in the Box – that horrible cube of cold metal that had delivered him to the Glade and the Maze. But there was a faint light, and lumps of dim shadow gradually emerged throughout the huge room. Bunk beds. Dressers. The soft breaths and gurgly snores of boys deep in slumber.

Relief filled him. He was safe now, rescued and delivered to this dormitory. No more worries. No more Grievers. No more death. (p.1)

Having just read ‘The Scorch Trials’, the second book in the Maze Runner series by James Dashner, I feel it didn’t have as much going for it as the first book. It started off well and then there were parts where it’s just Thomas, Teresa, and the other main characters walking through the desert and commenting on the heat and the wind, etc. It could get a bit uninteresting at moments but then there are moments that are so thrilling that they have you on the edge of your seat and your heart beating fast, desperate to know what might happen next.

There are some new characters introduced who I really liked, and I thought it was good to add characters with different backstories and experiences from the Gladers. They remember more about what was going on and it was interesting getting to know them. As there’s a lot of separation from each other in the books, it’s hard for there to be any further development of personalities and relationships, besides getting to know Thomas a bit more which is good. I liked getting to know him more and hearing what his thoughts and views were on things. I feel that some of the other characters like Minho, Newt, and Frypan, who are mentioned quite a lot and who clearly mean a lot to Thomas, don’t get the chance to really develop. It’s hard to know where they stand, where you stand as a reader, and what your feelings are toward those characters.

I really liked the concept of the scorch and how it is just miles and miles of a desert wasteland. Despite there being moments of nothing but walking through the desert, the bits that are good and thrilling are really properly good and thrilling. They’re so clever and at times a bit scary, I think those moments make the book for me. You can get through the less interesting bits and the annoying bits because the moments when something great happens all else is forgotten and those are the moments I remember after I finished reading it. I think it’s quite clever having a book where it’s not action and drama the whole way through because then when it happens, it makes it that much more exciting.

4 out of 5 stars. 

Book Review by Matilda Chant

‘Shift’ by Em Bailey

There were two things everyone knew about Miranda Vaile before she’d even started at our school. The first was that she had no parents – they were dead. And the second? They were dead because Miranda had killed them. 

 When these rumours started spreading, people got all steamed up about it, saying it was disgusting that she was allowed to come here and, you know, mix with us nice, non-murderous types.

Not everyone felt like that, though. Personally, I couldn’t wait to meet her. As I said to Ami, what kind of wonk wouldn’t want to meet someone who sounded halfway interesting? Of course, maybe that just showed I didn’t belong at our school either.

To be honest I chose this book because the cover looked interesting. This book is about a girl named Olive Corbett who used to be friends with a group of toxic girls but now hangs out with her best friend, Ami. At her school, there is a new girl who is mysterious and clingy to Olive’s ex-best friend. Olive can see that there is something parasitic about the friendship. 

“During the day I felt like a zombie, struggling through my classes, constantly fighting fatigue. “This quote shows that Olive sneaked out at night and came back in the morning which is why she was struggling at school because she didn’t get enough sleep. The sentence “During the day I felt like a zombie” implies that Olive was sleepy and couldn’t concentrate.

I think this book is an excellent option for teenagers because I think that teenagers would enjoy it and I think it is suitable. Although it features themes of jealousy and revenge there is also a romance between the narrator, Olive, and a boy named Lachlan. That is a bit of a relief from the other crazy stuff going on, particularly with Miranda, who is kind of creepy.

My favourite quote from the book is “I guess I believe in grey. Not everything is true or false, real or imaginary, black and white. It’s not that simple.” The message is that not everything is as it seems! 

Book Review by Chris Knowles

‘Honeybee’ by Craig Silvey

Honeybee is not the genre of book that I would normally read … but I am so glad that I did.

Recommended by my Mum, the story presents the challenges that life throws up for many people and highlights that friendships can be born in the most unlikely of places, at the most unlikely of times.

Honeybee is a story about how you can find allies when you least expect them and shows both the best and worst of human nature. Honeybee makes you laugh, cry, reflect and feel thankful all at once. 

At its core, Honeybee is a novel about unconventional kinds of love: and how a small act can influence a lifetime. Have I got you hooked yet?

The story begins with a young person struggling with their own identity that feels they have very few choices if they are to become the person they desire to be. Sam, the narrator, has few friends, a terrible home life, and is struggling to fit in, anywhere. At one of Sam’s lowest moments, they meet Vic, a widower, who has recently lost the love of his life (and lacks the desire to fit in anywhere!). Little does Sam know that this accidental meeting is at one of Vic’s lowest points.

The meeting of the two is a “sliding doors” moment where a fateful connection is made, and an unlikely friendship blooms. Slowly, we learn what led to Sam and Vic meeting that night. Bonded by their suffering, each privately commits to the impossible task of saving the other.

Thrown together accidentally, Sam and Vic become friends, and then a kind of family. Sam moves into Vic’s house, living in the bedroom that he used to share with his late wife, and the pair learn to support, accept, and enliven each other. Here, Sam also befriends one of Vic’s neighbours, the courageous and vivacious Aggie, a teenage girl who is so fully herself that Sam can’t help but be drawn in.

Feeling supported, Sam introduces Vic to Honeybee. What Sam finds in Honeybee is a different kind of family, and a different kind of love – one that is based on choice, rather than just on chance – and it is with Vic’s support and encouragement that they can start to find themselves.

This is a book as much about relationships as it is about self-discovery, self-acceptance, and coming-of-age. Honeybee is a heart-breaking, life-affirming novel that throws us headlong into a world of petty thefts, extortion plots, botched bank robberies, daring dog rescues, and one spectacular friendship. Enjoy the read.

Book Review by Amedeo Astorino 

‘Watchmen’ by Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons

Who Watches the Watchmen?

What defines classic literature? 

Ask any English teacher, and they’ll quickly respond: the works of Shakespeare, Dickens, and Austen. And quite rightly so. 

But we also tend to restrict ourselves to a traditional, mainstream view of literature, especially regarding the English Canon and what we deem suitable for the classroom.

Comic books have always been viewed as “low brow” and perhaps even juvenile. However, some of the greatest works of so-called “literature” produced in the 20th century, have been in the comic book medium. Yep. That’s right. Men (and women) running around in capes and spandex tights. Watchmen is the first comic book to break down pop culture boundaries and transcend the limitations of what we define as classic literature.

First published as a limited series in 1986 by DC Comics, it is the only comic book to be included in Time Magazine’s list of the 100 best English-Language novels published since 1923. Written by the now legendary Alan Moore and pencilled by Dave Gibbons, Watchmen is set against the backdrop of a dystopian Cold War America of the 1980s and explores a team of dysfunctional superheroes, who retired years ago but are now forced to reunite after one of their own is brutally murdered. What begins as a Noirish Murder-Mystery, escalates into a conspiracy thriller of epic proportions. However, there’s a twist. Moore and Gibbon’s conceit is revolutionary: what if these superheroes lived in the real world and struggled with real-world problems, such as mental illness, poverty, domestic violence, and drug addiction? The result: a tremendously subversive deconstruction of the superhero mythos.

Moore and Gibbons probe the psychological and political implications of vigilantism. They expose a dark, ugly side to the “super heroics” that we’ve grown familiar with in the pages of comic books and on the big screen, thanks to the huge box office success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Even after all these years, the moral ambiguity inherent in Watchmen is still quite shocking to many readers. Moore is indeed a fierce intellectual, but his writing is tempered with a genuine humanism that generates sympathy for these damaged heroes, who are struggling with their all too human failings. Complimented by Gibbons’ gritty and realistic artwork, Watchmen remains a transgressive tour-de-force of comic book storytelling and a true classic of 20th Century literature.