Category Archives: Dystopian

Genre

Jun
03
2014

Legend By Marie Lu

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The main characters in Legend are June Iparis and Daniel Altan Wing (Day). Day is the most wanted criminal in the republic. The republic doesn’t know what he looks like or what his fingerprint is. That’s what makes him the most wanted criminal. He has done a lot of bad things against the colonies. Day is part of a poor family that lives in a slum sector. Day is really protective of his family which includes his Mom, his older brother John, and his younger brother Eden.

As for June. She is the most treasured person (a prodigy) because she got a trial score of 1500. The trial is a test that you must take when you are 10 years old. In the trial you can score a 0-1500. June was the only person to get a 1500. Getting a 1500 is rare. June is trying to hunt Day down because Day killed her brother Metias.

I would recommend this book to people who like to be on their toes because there are a lot of close calls between June and Day. I would rate this book 5 out of 5 stars because what I just said before. Look at Beckett’s review for different information.

Legend_Marie_Lu_Book_cover

 

May
13
2014

The City of Ember, by Jeanne Du Prau

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The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau is an amazing book. The main characters are Lina and Doon, and they’re good friends. Lina is a kind-hearted, curious, nice, surprising, and adventurous, 12 year old girl. Meanwhile, Doon is different in some ways than Lina. Doon is smart, adventurous, and has a temper. He’s good at figuring things out (read the book to see what I’m saying). When Lina and Doon were young, Lina challenged Doon and her friends to climb to the top of the lamp pole.  “Lina could do it all even when the dares got wilder.”   Lina fell and came laughing down to the ground. This shows Lina’s surprising and adventurous nature. In Ember, there was something called Assignment Day where the 12 year old kids of Ember are assigned jobs.  When Doon picked his job, he lost his temper and threw down the paper that told him his job in front of the mayor. This is one example of Doon losing his temper.

 

The book takes place in the underground city of Ember. It’s a dystopian book.  It is different and better than other dystopian books because this one is suspenseful, but in a good way.  Ember is running out of food, supplies, etc., but mostly light bulbs. Everybody’s afraid that the lights are just going to turn out permanently one day, because they flicker a lot.  If the lights go out, the city will be in complete darkness.  Lina and Doon have other problems. Lina was looking for something she thinks might help the city.  She finds something in a mysterious special box.  She thinks it might be what she is looking for, but it is a big mystery that needs to be solved. Lina and Doon work together to solve the mystery and save the city.  Have they figured it out yet?         I really liked this book because it is funny and weird in some moments. The people of Ember didn’t know what some things were, like ‘boats’ and ‘candles’ for example. One part I really liked was when Lina and Doon found a room full of boats, that were labeled “b”ntstill din’t know what r. I ple who are 8+ nger.I oul also recommend this book to peop le who like cliffhangers, because it ens in a cliffhanger, and the second book is the exact same , but the part 2.

May
01
2014

Bartimaeus the Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

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Bartimaeus the Amulet of Samarkand is by Jonathan Stroud. The main characters are Bartimaeus, the big mouthed powerful fourth-level djinni, and Nathaniel, the full-of-potential nobel magician. Nathaniel will always admit something that will get him into some trouble.This amazing book takes place in London in 1985ish.

 

The power crazy Simon Lovelace wants to kill all the magicians of the ministry and start over with “more powerful” magicians; “Will you join us?” Maurice Schyler said “We can start over and form a powerful government.” “You are a Naive fool! I will never join you!” I said with great power. With a scowl Maurice Schyler said, “Very well then, ordinarily I would enjoy killing you slowly, but today I can’t spare the time.”  To do this, Simon Lovelace steals the Amulet of Samarkand to gain power.  Also, there is a shady group tied into it called “The Resistance” who are a group of commoners (non magicians) who don’t think that the magicians should rule, and they cause some trouble also.

 

I loved this book! The writing is really good, for example, “Jabor’s laugh was cut short by the roof caving in below him.” I like that kind of writing because it is a kind of “Show not Tell” that I enjoy reading. I would recommend this book to people who like a lot of Dystopian Fantasy kind of things. I would also recommend it to people who like a lot of violence. So if your parents won’t let you read Divergent, this is a book for you. I would rate this book five out of five stars! It was incredible!  The writer has a really good way of having a lot of loose ends and at the last second, everything comes together and the whole book makes sense!

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Apr
30
2014

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

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This book is called Scorch Trials by James Dashner. The characters are the Thomas and the Gladers. (Well actually Thomas is a glader) The Gladers are the kids that got dumped in the Glade with their no memory. In this book it turns out that the Maze is part one in a series of tests a weird organization called WICKED. The Glade is inside giant maze that opens in the morning and closes at night. Thomas mostly worries about his own problems because after they get these tattoos that tells them their place in the group all Thomas thinks about is how his tattoo says “to be killed by group B.” The setting of this book is in future America where there are sun flares that give people diseases that turn people into cranks and when you’re a full blown crank you go crazy.

Spoiler! Don’t Read The Second Paragraph If You Haven’t Read The Book

Thomas’s main problem is that he has a disease called the flare and needs to go 100 miles north to get to a safe haven where there’s a cure. An important event is when a hurricane strikes and kills lots of gladers. Another big event is when Thomas gets kidnapped by group B and Teresea is in charge of the group. Teresea is the only girl glader who Thomas can talk to in his mind if she also wants to. That is important because that means Teresea betrayed him. Also, a big event is when Thomas sees Teresea and kisses her. I think that Teresea betrayed him because of this quote: “The betrayal meant he couldn’t trust her anymore, and his heart told him he couldn’t forgive her.”

 

I enjoyed this book because most of the time it kept you on your toes and because it had lots of action. I would recommend this book to people who like mystery because this book is pretty mysterious. It is mysterious because the character doesn’t know a lot about the world he’s in. I would also recommend this book to people who like action because it has lots of action. I would rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.

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Apr
13
2014

Legend by Marie Lu

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Legend by Marie Lu

 

The main characters in Legend are June and Day. Day is very loyal to his family members because he risked stealing from a heavily guarded hospital with only two knives to get the medications his brother needs. June is very smart because she got 1500 on her trial. In the Republic Of America you get a trial when you’re ten. You score anywhere from 0-1500 on your trial. Depending on what you get on your trial you either die, get to go to a high school and a college, or go to a high school and get a choice of the top four colleges. The trial determines whether your smart or dumb. June is the only person to get a 1500. June wants to hunt Day down because she thinks he killed her brother, Metias This book is set in the Republic Of America which is at war with the Colonies Of America.

 

Day’s main problem is that he’s a most wanted criminal but he needs to make a ton of money to get his brother the cure to the plague he got. Junes main problem is that her brother just died and she left college to join the military. June is fifteen. An important event is when Day steals from a hospital and people think he killed June’s brother so June hunts him down. Another important event is when June goes on a website that her brother made and the website tells her the truth about the capitol. The website tells her a everything that’s bad about the capitol. Day knew all  of it way before her. Legend is all about rebels because the main characters are rebels against the Capitol.“If you want to rebel, rebel from inside the system. That’s much more powerful than rebelling outside the system.” – Metias before he died. I think this means that if you rebel outside of the government they can just shut you out, but if you rebel from inside it’s harder to shut you out because you might have supporters that are in the military or someone that is powerful.

 

 

I definitely liked Legend. It had a lot of action (which I like) and it really kept me on my toes, like I couldn’t wait for the next part. I also liked it because it is very interesting to see from two totally different points of view. I would recommend this book to people who like dystopias and action because it is a dystopia with lots of action. I would also recommend this to people who like knowing a story from both sides because June doesn’t know about all the bad things and only knows about the military and lives in a rich sector. Day on the other hand knows all about the bad stuff the capitol does and lives in a slum sector.

 

I would give this five stars because it kept me on my toes and had lots of interesting twists in the plot.

 

Legend_Marie_Lu_Book_cover

Apr
04
2014

The Maze Runner By James Dashner

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This book was truly amazing. I completely loved it. I read it over break and I was flabberghasted on its amazingness.

 

The book Maze Runner by James Dashner is about a boy named Thomas. He is in a shaky box and all he remembers is his name. The box opens and he sees himself surrounded by other boys whose memories are also gone. Alby, the leader of the group, says “Welcome, to the Glade, Greenbean.” The Glade is the center of the maze surrounded by walls that open at day and close at night. There are horrible monsters with spikes called Grievers outside the walls. They call the last person who came out of a “Greenbean”. They have jobs like Runner, Slopper, and Med-Jacks. But two days after Thomas arrived. A girl comes out of the box. The first girl ever. And everything after that completely changed.

 

What changed? Who created the maze? Why are they in the maze? What terrible people would put teenage kids in a maze? How will they get out?

 

You will have to read the book to find out. I would rate this book five out of five stars because I think it is amazing how the author created this complex and creative and big scene.

I would recommend this book for people that can take on sudden suspense and action (I would know, I spent a lot of time reading at night  on break, it sucks you in!) I would also like to recommend this book for people who can love a great book!

Jan
06
2014

Suzanne Collins’ MockingJay Book review

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[WARNING:] [DO NOT READ THIS ARTICLE IF YOU HAVE NOT READ CATCHING FIRE:]

MockingJay  is a very interesting book. I say that because last seen in Catching Fire, Katniss Everdeen almost gets herself killed and finds out that all of the people in the latest hunger games sacrificed themselves for Katniss not Peeta Mellark. Katniss made a deal with Haymitch to save Peeta instead of herself. Haymitch is a drunk man who is Katniss’ and Peeta’s tutor for the hunger games. The whole plot of MockingJay is to overthrow the Capitol. Peeta however, gets captured by President Snow, (an evil elderly man who rules the Capitol) at the end of Catching Fire. I felt that out of the three, MockingJay was the best because it throws a whole lot of information in the beginning of the book. A few people in the comments of my Catching Fire review said that I gave away too much, but this will be different because I am trying my hardest to not give “spoilers,” as you folk may say it. Anyway, The true core of the rebellion is District 13. That district is kept secret to all of the other districts because District 13 and the Capitol had a blackmail-like deal which if District 13 is kept secret to the other districts neither of them will attack each other. The Capitol does not attack District 13 because of their nuclear weapons… until now. I would give this book 5 out of 5 stars because as said before, I just simply love how Suzanne writes this novel with the storyline always from Katniss’ perspective. I would recommend this book for people who could handle or think they can handle the other books in the series (The Hunger Games and Catching Fire).