What If It’s Us is a book by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera, two authors that I have reviewed here in the past, their works blended perfectly to become this book. This book is a pretty lighthearted book to read, it’s funny at times, but it’s also an Adam Silvera book so it has to be sad at some points. I’d rate it 4 out of 5 post offices.

This book takes place from the point of view of two characters, Ben and Arthur. Arthur is only visiting New York for the summer, and is working as an intern in his mother’s law firm. He loves musicals such as Hamilton and Dear Evan Hanson. Ben is from New York, and is dealing with the breakup between him and his boyfriend Hudson and has to be in summer school. When they meet at the post office, neither gets the other’s number. One of them doesn’t get so much as a name. But they’re determined to find each other, by whatever means possible.

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli focuses on Simon, a 16 year old junior who has one huge secret: he’s gay. Through his school’s Tumblr, he discovers that there is another gay student at his school in Georgia, and they start emailing each other under code names. The other student’s is is Blue, and he is Jacques, after “Jacques a dit,” the French name for Simon Says. When their classmate Martin discovers these emails, he blackmails Simon into getting him a date with Abby, one of Simon’s friends. But will his secrets be spread, or will Simon come out by his own free will? I’d rate this book 5 out of 5 ferris wheels.

Shane is 20, but hasn’t done college correctly at all. She has no friends, and is in a premed program she doesn’t even enjoy. So when the option to travel to London on a study abroad program arises, she has to take it, to get a new start and make friends. Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done. She much enjoys the writing courses she’s taking, but has to lie to her parents. She has a crush on this boy in her dorm, but he has a girlfriend. She soon learns that courage and determination fixes anything, and with the right amount of magic, anything is possible.

Again, But Better is Christine Riccio’s debut novel and I very much enjoyed it, and would rate 4.5 out of 5 books.

In 2045, video games have taken over the world. Well, really just one game: the OASIS, a virtual reality world that everyone logs into daily. It can do anything from playing Pac Man to ordering pizza to leading exercise classes. The real world is terrible, it’s overpopulated and full of unemployment, energy shortages and poverty. The world is destroyed, but that’s not a problem to them because they don’t have to see it.

When the creator of the OASIS, James Halliday, dies, it is revealed that he left a series of easter eggs within the game, and at the end of them is left the ability to control the game. The people who hunt for this egg are called gunters (short for egg hunters), and many of them have dedicated their lives to this contest. One of these such gunters is Wade Watts, our eighteen year old protagonist who lives with his aunt near Columbus, Ohio, and spends much of his time in an abandoned van logged into the OASIS as his character Parzival.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is an incredible book, one of my favorites of all time. It has so many different references that every time you read it you understand another one that you didn’t before. Even if you understood very few of the references, it’s a really great read anyway. All of the characters are really interesting and every plot point is something new to experience. Last year, they made a really awful movie adaptation of it, but you can’t let the awful movie spoil the enjoyment of the book. I definitely rate this book 5 out of 5 easter eggs and really encourage you to read it.

Umbrella Academy is a comic series that has been adapted into a popular Netflix show. The comics were written by Gerard Way and illustrated by Gabriel Bá. The series features six sibling superhero-type people, with another sister who is without powers, and one brother who passed away before the series takes place. Each sibling has a number, as their adopted father didn’t care enough to give them each a name. The characters’ powers are as follows:

• Number One/Space Boy (Real Name: Luther Hargreeves): Super strength.
• Number Two/The Kraken (Real Name: Diego Hargreeves): holds his breath as long as he wants.
• Number Three/The Rumor (Real Name: Allison Hargreeves): can manipulate reality through lying.
• Number Four/The Séance (Real Name: Klaus Hargreeves): Telekinesis, communicating with the dead.
• Number Five/The Boy: Time travel.
• Number Six/The Horror (Real Name: Ben Hargreeves): Can become monsters from other dimensions. (deceased)
• Number Seven/The White Violin (Real Name: Vanya Hargreeves): No known powers, but has an affinity for music (especially the violin).

When their father dies, all of the (living) members of the Umbrella Academy family meet up and start in trying to save the world.

This series is really amazing. Though I don’t tend to read comics at all, I really really enjoyed reading it. It’s also an impeccable Netflix show (I’d recommend that too), but that’s not what this review is focused on. I’d rate this series five violins out of five and strongly recommend that you read it.

In this world, everyone is required to have surgery when they are sixteen to become “pretty.” Tally is excited for this operation, because her best friend Peris has already moved to New Pretty Town. In that town, their only job is to have fun. In trying to see Peris once again before she becomes pretty, she meets Shay, who soon reveals her plan to go to “The Smoke,” a place where teens run away from the city to live their life without having this operation. When Shay disappears on their shared birthday, Tally is told she can’t become pretty until Shay is found, and Tally sets off for The Smoke, following the vague instructions Shay had left for her, willing to do anything to become pretty. But when she reaches The Smoke, she gains friends that make her question everything. Now she has a choice: will she sell out her friend to become pretty, or will she give up everything she’s ever known?

This series was the first dystopia series I ever read, so I may be a bit nostalgic of it, but I really enjoyed it, and would rate Uglies by Scott Westerfeld 3 out of 5 roller coasters.

Ghost by Jason Reynolds is the first book in the 4-book-long Track series. Ghost (real name: Castle Crenshaw) is a seventh grader with a dark past. When he was in fourth grade, his alcoholic dad tried to shoot him and his mom before being sentenced to ten years in prison. He first learned running then, but was never part of a team. When he challenges a member of an elite track team to race and wins, he gets to join. But will Ghost’s past catch up to him?

This book is best fit for 6th and 7th graders. I rate this book 5 out of 5 sneakers.

Check out more at jasonwritesbooks.com!

Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas is an amazing fantasy tale. In this story, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothian is dragged out of her imprisonment in the salt mines of Endovier to see the Crown Prince. He offers her her freedom, but there’s a catch: she must compete for him in a competition to find the King’s new Champion. In the competition, she and other assassins, thieves and warriors compete in skill-based challenges with a series of eliminations. That is, until some of her competitors start dying and she is warned of the evil that dwells in the castle. In order to survive, she must decipher the meaning of symbols through the castle and get rid of the evil before it destroys the world.

I rate this book 5 wyrdmarks out of 5.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a dystopia series that many people have read. It centers around Katniss, a girl from District 12. When her sister is chosen to be the female competitor from District 12 for this year’s games, Katniss volunteers to compete instead, even though that likely means her death. In the Hunger Games, 24 teens between 12 and 18 (one girl and one boy from each district) compete to survive in an arena with weapons and no easily accessible supplies for survival. To live, she has to have incredible survival skills and the ability to fight for her life and be the last person remaining.

I’d rate this book 4.5 out of 5 mockingjay pins and would recommend this series to anyone who enjoys dystopia or to anyone as a first dystopian read.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness is a dystopian book in which everyone can read each other’s thoughts thanks to a germ released in a war that also killed all of the women in Prentisstown. When Todd finds a hole in the Noise, he is forced to leave Prentisstown to look for a new world in which he’ll be safe.

Personally, I didn’t enjoy this book very much. Because of the world in which Todd grew up in, he doesn’t have the best grammar and this is reflected within the book itself. You can clearly understand the character’s dialect, which would usually be great, but in this case it means that most words are misspelled and there are a lot of run-on sentences. This really doesn’t make for a good reading experience. Though the plot of the book was actually really interesting, but my experience was ruined by all of the mistakes that I know were intentionally there, but were really terrible nonetheless. Unfortunately, I’m forced to give this book 2 out of 5 stars thanks to the unpleasant reading experience.

By Elise Zolnoski

Harry Potter. It’s a series everyone has heard of, and many people have read it or seen the movies. But for those who somehow don’t know: Harry Potter is an epic fantasy series in which Harry Potter, a wizard whose parents died and left him to live with his aunt and uncle, goes on many adventures in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry while fighting against Voldemort.

I rate this book 9 horcruxes out of 9 ¾. It’s an incredible series in my opinion that anyone who enjoys fantasy should read.

They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera is an amazing book. It falls into the genre of realistic fiction, but it has some elements of things that don’t currently exist in our world. It also includes characters on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, which for some readers is good, but for others is a reason not to read the book.

This book features the characters Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio. Mateo is very much an introvert. He spends all of his time inside his room reading Count Downers, a site where you can see what others choose to do on their last day. Rufus is a boy who ended up in the foster care system soon before the book began because of his parents passing away. He’s more tough than Mateo; he got his alert while he was punching someone in the face, not that that’s normal for him to do, but it’s still a measure of how tough he is.

Around midnight on September 5, Mateo and Rufus receive their call from Death Cast informing them that they are going to die in the next twenty four hours. This is a shock to both of them, seeing as though at this time they are perfectly healthy eighteen year olds who have no reason they should be dying. They decide to use the Last Friend app to find the person they’ll spend their final day with. This is how Mateo and Rufus meet. With the rest of their day they do everything they’ve ever wanted to do, and go on a grand adventure together before they both die.

I recommend this book to people who enjoy realistic fiction. It’s also quite a sad book because the characters are always facing death, but not in the way that most characters do. These characters know for a fact that they are dying soon, while others only have a chance of death. If you read and enjoyed “The Fault In Our Stars” by John Green or books similar to it, there is a high likelihood that you will also enjoy “They Both Die At The End” by Adam Silvera.

I rate this book 5 phone calls out of 5. It was a very interesting book to me, and I finished it rather quickly.