• A Must Read for All Teens

The Perks Of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Perks Of Being a Wallflower is a young adult novel written by Stephen Chbosky. This book introduces the main character as “Charlie,” a freshman in Pittsburgh. Charlie writes letters about his experience with girls, parties, family dramas, and his new upperclassmen friends. The reader walks through his letters learning about “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the drive that makes him feel infinite, and that perfect song. All making each letter personal and in an unique way which keeps the reader hooked.

To begin, Charlie starts off his year grappling onto two major past deaths of loved ones. Entering his freshman year, Charlie is able to find two immediate sources of comfort. One being his English teacher, and the other being books. Said English teacher highly encourages Charlie to participate more in his own life. Through this participation, he is able to meet two upperclassmen; Patrick and his sister Sam, who then accept him into their friend group. As the year progresses, Charlie is able to open up and we learn more about his current relationship dramas, struggles, and bonds. Charlie struggles with his family life often, and as the holidays roll around, things tend to get more complicated. Charlie is then distanced from not only his family, but his friends. Eventually, he, his friends, and his family do come back to good terms. And though Charlie is still battling with his emotions, he is able to find some inner peace. However, this is all shattered when Charlie remembers a repressed memory, leaving him in distraught. After seeking help and recovering from this tragedy, the novel ends with Charlie planning to stop writing letters, and to start fully participating in his life.

I, as a reader, thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and would recommend it to almost anyone. The writing throughout the novel is personal, and easy to follow. When reading the letters, I found myself feeling as if they were actually written to me. This really drew me to the character Charlie. Charlie even inspired me to participate more in my own life. Not only this, but, the way real life aspects (that aren’t talked about enough) came to life through this book really moved me as a person. The Perks Of Being a Wallflower tells the reader how they are not alone, and anything can be overcome. And for that, I believe other students, as well as anyone, should also read this book. The Perks Of Being a Wallflower is by far my favorite book. If I were to rate this book on a scale of 1-10, it would for sure be a 10/10.

-Makenzie Rusnak

A Must Read for All Teens!

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Overall, I give this book a five out of five rating. I would recommend it to anyone wanting a good and quick book to read. “Speak” is the type of book that once you get three chapters in, you can’t stop reading. Once I got into the story, I finished the book in a total of three days because I just couldn’t put it down. I also think people should read this book because it really shows how much someone could be struggling, but doesn’t show it. Melinda struggles mentally while trying to recover from her sexual assault while everyone is just oblivious to the fact that she is in pain. I would recommend this story to people because I feel that it could really open people’s eyes to the fact that anyone can be going through stuff behind the scenes. No one knows what someone is going through, so we shouldn’t try to make their lives even more difficult.

The book “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a freshman in highschool, named Melinda Sordino. The story shows Melinda’s day to day school life following an incident that happened in the summer. On the first day of school, everyone is mad at Melinda for an unknown reason. All her friends from the year before won’t talk to her and people are treating her differently. “Speak” follows Melinda as she tries to get her old friends back, deals with traumatic experiences from her past, and learns how to speak up for herself dealing with her sexual assault that happened during summer.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book. I like how the story is shining light on a realistic topic that people in the real world unfortunately go through. In my opinion, people reading this story might be able to relate to Melinda and her struggles. Relating with a character in a story can really help someone out with their own problems in their life. I also enjoyed how well the author wrote her characters. She does a great job at writing likeable and unlikeable characters. I despised some of the characters so much that my hatred felt completely real while I was reading.

I read this book for my English class because we were discussing books that have been banned or censored. Speak is a book that is constantly being banned because of it’s realistic themes. I don’t agree that this book should be banned. This book discusses realistic topics that should not be censored. Censorship of books and content in general is preventing people from receiving the information they want. Censorship should be up to the person. If a person wants to consume certain information, they should be allowed to without anyone stopping them or having an opinion. Students that read this book could relate their lives to the content and this book could actually help students deal with difficult situations.

-Kirsten Morealli

Review of One of Us is Lying (tv show)

Streaming now on Peacock

By: Jocelyn Penrod

Review-

Based on the book “One of Us is Lying” by Karen McManus, this drama/mystery series is, what I believe to be, a must watch for all teens. The show just released the finale episode of the first season on Peacock. I really enjoyed this series and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys watching the classic WhoDunit TV shows. The show is full of dynamic characters and unexpected twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat episode after episode . Once you get to know all of the characters you will instantly love them and will be rooting for them.

Synopsis -

On their first day back at Bayview High after summer break, Simon, Nate, Addy, Cooper, and Bronwyn end up in detention , but Simon doesn’t get the chance to leave detention alive and the rest leave with their lives permanently altered. Simon was notorious for owning a website where he revealed other student’s personal secrets. Nate is someone that you would expect to see in detention. He is known for having issues with following the law and dealing drugs. Addy is a basic, popular cheerleader with a sporty boyfriend that you’d expect to be getting into and causing drama. Addy is good friends with another popular baseball player at school, Cooper, who has secrets of his own. Bronwyn is at the top of her class (alongside Simon) and is focused on doing all that she can for her future. Nate, Addy, Bronwyn, and Cooper are all suspected of somehow being involved in Simon’s death by the police. Even after his death, secrets are still being posted onto Simon’s website. After the group realizes that they all ended up in detention by weird circumstances, they start to believe that they have been framed by the real killer and they do everything they can to clear their names. Even though they aren’t the typical friend group you’d expect to see, they all have each other’s backs.

Review of Squid Games

Streaming now on Netflix

By Stella Illig

Squid game is a disturbing 9 episode Korean Netflix original series focused on people who are struggling financially. They have people play children’s games in order to win large sums of money, however the innocent games turn deadly. The show started streaming on Netflix on September 21, 2021 and very quickly was the number 1 trending show in 94 countries, making it Netflix’s most watched series ever.

The first episode of the show was the classic children’s game, “Red light, Green light'' and all the players thought it was just an innocent game and all of them were very confident they would win. They soon found out that it is most definitely NOT an innocent game.

I watched this show because I kept seeing people talking about it on social media and my friends watched it too. I binge watched it in about 2 days, that's how much I liked it. This show is definitely not for everyone, because it may be too dark. After every episode I just had to keep watching and watching because it was so intriguing to see what would happen next. It was very interesting to see who would survive and what game they would play next.