Friday, April 28, 2017

Dead Connection Review


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Title: Dead Connection
Author: Charlie Price
Pages: 225
Genre: Mystery, Realistic-Fiction
Rating: 4/5 stars


This book is a mystery book with a paranormal spin because high school cheerleader Nikki Parker is kidnapped, and no one knows who did it. Although, Murray Kiefer, who is able to communicate with the deceased, might just figure it out. This story takes place present tense in a small town. Robert Barry Compton does not like living in this town making him depressed and angry. This book tell the story through multiple perspectives by changing to a different character each chapter. We first meet Murray Kiefer he is a high schooler  who is very antisocial and he can speak to the dead. Next, you meet Officer Gates who is in charge of finding out who kidnapped Nikki. Lastly, you get to know Robert Barry Compton., Robert witnessed Nikki’s kidnapping, but he is schizophrenic and has a hard time remembering things. Another important character is Officer Billup who is an alcohol addict and he has a strong hate towards Murray. The book starts off in a small town telling the story of each character and how Nikki Parker went missing.While Murray is in the cemetery, he starts to hear a new voice, one he didn’t recognize he starts searching and while doing so, he meets pearl the daughter of the caretaker.  At first, Murray wants nothing to do with pearl he thinks she’s a cemetery brat, but he gets to know her and they turn out being close friends, he even told her he speaks to the dead. Pearl quickly became interested and the started finding out where the new voice was coming from. Once they found it, the voice turned out to be Nikki Parker the missing cheerleader. Murray and Pearl decided they should tell officer gates that they think Nikki is buried in the same grave as a man named Craddock. Surprisingly, Craddock was buried the same day Nikki went missing. Officer gates then tracks down the Craddock family. They live in a town called Chico. Nikki's kidnapper turned out to be her cousin, Gary Craddock. Gary Craddock was put in jail with a  five hundred thousand dollar bail. The bail was paid and Gary was out of jail. Although Murray and pearl knew the voice was Nikki and that Gary was the one who had kidnapped her, no one ever dug up Craddock's grave to see if Nikki was there. I think that the theme of this book was that you shouldn’t make assumptions. For example, when officer gates first met Billup he thought that Billup kidnapped Nikki because he’s addicted to alcohol and he’s mean, but Billup turned out to be innocent.Also, Murray thought pearl was just a cemetery brat, but she was actually interested in how he could talk to the dead and they became best friends. One thing I really liked about this book was how it told the story from multiple perspectives. While reading you get to put the pieces together on who did it because you get clues from each character.  One thing I didn’t like was how you could’ve never guessed it was her cousin. You really only get introduced to the cousin in the last few chapters. Overall, I really liked this book and anyone who likes mysteries and multiple plot twists will like this book. While reading the book my idea on who kidnapped Nikki kept changing because the narrator would make you think someone did it then prove that person innocent like Billup. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Dead Connection.

Contributed by: Savanna Smith

Friday, April 21, 2017

Tina Fey Bossypants Review

Title: Tina Fey Bossypants
Author: Tina Fey
Genre:Biography, Non-Fiction
Pages: 272
Ratings 4/5 stars

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In this book, Tina Fey talks all about her life from a young girl all the way to when she turns 40. The setting of the story changes all throughout the book as a young girl in Pennsylvania, to a middle aged women in New York City. The book transitions from the 1970’s to the 21st century. It is interesting to see how people's opinions and the way they act throughout the book changes as time goes by. Tina Fey is an independent comedy writer who faces the nasty comments that are said to her by strangers. Jeff Richmond, her husband, continuously encourages and inspires Tina Fey in her daily life. Her trouble with bullying, all started when she was a little girl. She was in kindergarten and was in the alley behind her house, when a strange man approached her and slashed her in the face. But her scar never stopped her from doing anything she wanted. She always knew she wanted to be in the acting business, so as a teenager she started doing improv classes and made some sketches that she acted out in front of people too. As she got older, Tina wasn’t performing anymore, but she still really wanted to be an actor. Somehow she landed an interview with Lorne Michaels, a television producer, and got the job. She started writing scripts for SNL and even acted on the show. Later in her television career, she started a show called 30 Rock and starred in it as the main character, Liz Lemon. At first her TV show wasn’t getting many viewers compared to the other hit TV shows in that time, but later as they got into further seasons of the 30 Rock, it became more and more popular. The book finishes on Tina’s thoughts on a major decision that would change her life. The theme of this book, Bossypants, is to always stay strong. Tina never lets anybody bring her down, or bring down her confidence when smack talking about the huge scar on her face. Also when she gets e-mailed hurtful things multiple times a day, but she handles them like what they said didn’t even affect her at all. If she had let all of these things get to her she wouldn’t be this successful and do what she loves.
The book was very funny and interesting. Even if there was a dry spot in the book there would still be some part of me that wanted to keep on reading it, she would throw in a joke that made me completely forget how boring that part of the book was. Some of the jokes actually made me laugh out loud. It was a very fun and fast read, it kept you guessing what possibly could happen next. The only thing that I didn’t like about this book, was that I couldn’t relate to some of the stuff because I wasn’t alive in that time period that the book was set in at that moment. Like when she was writing about when she was a girl, some of the things she was talking about I had no idea what it was, because it was pertaining to that time period. I think that this book is mainly directed to women that are in their late 30’s and older. There are many feminine things that she talks about in this book that I don’t think that men will appreciate, and the women who are about her age will understand more of what she’s talking about than younger people. I guarantee you that you will love this book, no matter your age or gender.

Contributed by: Jessica Sheldon

Friday, April 14, 2017

Maze Runner Series #3 book...The Death Cure


Image result for The Maze Runner: Death Cure


               


Title:   Maze Runner Series #3 - The Death Cure
Author: James Dashner.
Pages: 286
Genre: Action-Adventure, Science-Fiction, Mysteries
Rating: 4/5
Awards: NYT Best selling series

The Maze Runner: Death Cure is just action packed. For example They use launchers to fight their way out of WICKED or run as fast as they can to run away from Cranks which are basically zombies.The setting takes place in the Scorch. The scorch is a very hot filled with sand place it’s full of cranks and the Flare, which is a deadly virus. It also takes place in USA (Denver) there is a society with people and protection of the Flare virus, and the WICKED complex. The scorch is very very dangerous. It's filled with infected cracks, In Denver there is just too much to heat. What i mean by that is that WICKED could be anywhere and they don't know who to trust there in Denver. Thomas was the protagonist. His main goal is to destroy WICKED. Which is also their main conflict. Another character is Newt; he's another friend of Thomas's who isn't immune to the Flare. Which means he can get the Flare, the deadly virus that attacks your brain and starts to make you go mad like a zombie. Previously in the Maze Runner.Thomas who was a test subject for WICKED. In case you were wondering WICKED is a covert organization, who do evil things to young adults and have evil motivations and will do anything to find a cure. They have done evil trials that caused a lot of Immunes to die.Before he was captured in after the Scorch he was doing a dangerous trial which was in a maze that changes every night with a dangerous creature. Some of them were stuck there for 2 years but Thomas lead the group out in 2 weeks after there little “Prison Break” that got them out of the Maze. They Figured out why there were there it was because they were part of the group that were immune to the flare. The Flare is a dangerous virus that slowly eats your brain. They hated Wicked and then they were captured by an unknown so called ally who hated WICKED, but Thomas knew something was up.He and his friend Minho found out they were WICKED and doing tests on teenagers like Thomas. So, then he escaped into the Scorch where all the infected Cracks were. But when they were safe from WICKED and the infected  Teresa told Wicked where they were and captured Thomas and his friends. After that Rat man who was like a acting manager explained what Thomas was. He was immune to the Flare along with others and that they are very close to a cure. But Thomas couldn't trust them. So he decided to rebel against them with his friends. But he knew going out there would be dangerous because of the infected people who hate people like Thomas and the flare being on the loose and that the fact Newt can get the Flare easily. Thomas’s goal was to destroy and watch WICKED burn to the ground. After their other little “Prison Break” they found out they have mini chips in there heads that could control them, so Thomas and his friends go out to a ex-WICKED employee and ask if they could take the chip out. But he was a little late and WICKED were in control of Thomas. So Minho knocked him out and Hans the Ex-employee took out the chip off Thomas and Minho.

When they got back to the plane they found a note that said:
“They got in somehow. They’re taking me to live with the other Cranks. Its for the best. Thanks for being my friends. Goodbye."


Thomas knew he had to save him. After all the sacrifices he had made for him. He asked everyone if they had any ideas. Jorge knew Newt was at a Crank Place and that all cities have a Crank Place. He goes and finds Newt going mad trying to break him out, but the problem is Thomas found another note saying, “if you see me kill me”. When they were escaping Newt was starting to turn into a crack because he’s not an immune. When he was turning, he told Thomas to shoot him and kill him. Thomas couldn't do it; he was his best friend he didn't want to give up on him. Newt begged him and didn't want to become one of them. So Thomas pulled the trigger and killed him. Thomas was going to do something to avenge. This is book is honestly amazing. You must read it. Its got this special hook to it and you just don’t want to stop reading. Like a T.V show for example something happens and the show ends. You're wondering what will happen next, but sadly you wait a week to see what happens next. The good news is you don't have to wait it's all in there. This book is fantastic astonishing and etc. I suggest you read this series.   

Contributed by: Arsalan Sadat

Friday, April 7, 2017

Pretty Little Liars Review


Image result for Pretty Little Liars book number of pages

Title: Pretty Little Liars
Author: Sara Shepard
Pages: 286
Genre: Mystery, Realistic -Fiction
Rating 5/5 stars


Pretty Little Liars is realistic fiction because these girls are going through a normal high school life except their friend Alison is missing. Mystery because Alison DiLaurentis goes missing and the girls gets messages from this so called “A” who they don’t know who it is.

Pretty Little Liars takes place in Rosewood, Pennsylvania in present day. Rosewood is where Alison went missing and are trying to figure out Ali’s disappearance three years later. The four main characters are Aria Montgomery, Spencer Hastings, Emily Fields, and Hanna Marin. The girls are getting texts/messages about their past and present actions from this so called “A”. Alison DiLaurentis was the four girls best friend until she went missing.

It starts out with Ali going missing. Three years later Ali is still missing. Aria comes back to Rosewood from living in Iceland and finds a love interest at the bar Snookers, which they ended the day making out in the women’s bathroom. The guy’s name was Ezra Fitz which Aria finds out that Ezra is her english teacher. Spencer’s sister, Melissa, brings her new boyfriend, Wren, which later on in the book Spencer kisses him. This makes Melissa and Wren break up, which made the Hastings very upset. Emily mets a the new girl Maya who moved into the DiLaurentis’s old house. Maya and Emily become closer and then they kiss. This is why Emily and her boyfriend Ben break up. Emily also quits swimming which she was amazing at and her parents didn’t want her to. Hanna made a new friend Mona after the girls went their separate ways. Mona and Hanna do a lot of bad things shoplifting from high end stores like Tiffany’s and drinking. Hanna stole her ex-boyfriend Sean’s car and then she crashed, so Hanna was called to the station by the cop Wilden. Mona got in the car with Hanna, but she wasn’t sent to the station. Hanna’s mom took care of it by sleeping with Wilden. They found Alison’s body at the back of the old house. Later that week they went the funeral for Ali and after the funeral Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily all got the same text from A, which said it all, that A is still there and he/she still knows everything.

Alison’s story teaches that there is no happy ending for everything. So when Ali went missing the girls still had hope she was alive, but they found out that she was dead, they knew it was the end of Ali. Also, when Ezra was done with Aria from that text from A, she knew it was over with him by the way he talked to her.

I liked how there was more detail than the show. Like how some chapters didn’t even happen in the show. Also, this book shows what the characters are going through which I liked. Last I liked that each chapter was a different girl’s and what they were going through and doing that day. There was nothing I didn’t like about this book. I recommend this book to anyone who likes mystery and/or realistic fiction. Also, I recommend this book to anyone who who watches or watched the show. It will change how you view the show.  

By: Rebecca Sachs