A Scroll column where writers Ella Hayes and Sean Glover post reviews for books, podcasts, and scripts they have recently read and listened to and take suggestions for more books, podcasts, and scripts to review for future columns.
Photo courtesy of Sincerely Media on unsplash.com
Scroll readers. . . We made it! It is finally June of the 2020-2021 school year, and what a year it’s been! From online school, back to hybrid in March, and finally back to full-time learning within the last couple of weeks, we can certainly say that things are getting better. As high school students during this time, all of us have had to adapt and conform to our situations, but we have persisted. As those summer months are quickly approaching, now we’ll all have much more time on our hands to do things we love: hiking, traveling, painting, writing, or whatever you like to do in your free time. As one of my favorite hobbies is--of course--reading, I’m back again this month to recommend several books that I love and think you should check out, too! For this month, I have one podcast and two books, along with some quick recommendations, so you’ll have lots to hold you over for the next couple of months. As always, thank you for reading, and happy Scrolling!
-Ella Hayes; Writer and Reporter
Wrapping up our 2020-2021 school year with a fresh June issue, I’ve got a couple more scripts to review and analyze this month. This has been one crazy year for me, and I know a lot of you can relate. Reading scripts has really been my solace in this stressful time, and I’m glad I’ve got quite the collection of memorable classics and contemporary gold. I hope you enjoy this June’s edition of our book, podcast, and script review column, and make sure to recommend plenty of summer reads for all of the time we’ll have on our hands!
-Sean Glover; Photojournalist and Writer
Other than buying physical copies of books at local stores, I also check lots of books out online through the Josephine Community Library. Additionally, GPHS Library has great ways to get library books, as well. (See the library page on the GPHS website!)
I use the app "Overdrive," and use my local library card to sign in. (If you have a library card with the Josephine Community Library, you can do this, too!) The online library has thousands of books for you to choose from. It’s also easy to find exactly what you are looking for; using the search engine and filters, you can find books easily by their title, genre or format. You can check out books straight from your phone with the app, and read them on your phone, as well. If you prefer audiobooks, you can also check out audiobooks and listen to them with the app. If the book you want is unavailable, you can recommend the book or place a hold.
This is a great way to have access to many books for free (if you have a library card)!
Additionally, I’d like to mention the site Goodreads as a resource that you can use. This isn’t a place to buy books, but a good website to find new books and read reviews of books you are planning to read. Goodreads has thousands of reviews on many books, and it is a great resource to use when finding a book that you might enjoy. Additionally, with a Goodreads account, you can write your own reviews for books, or just keep track of your books read and make reading goals. Altogether, it is a fantastic source to use when searching for new books to read.
As for podcasts, I listen to every podcast on Spotify, though you can find any episode on each podcast’s website (linked down below).
Book Reviews
For this month, I’ve got two great YA novels to review. The first is the beginning to a dystopian series, called An Ember in the Ashes, and the second is a YA sci-fi novel called Obsidian, which is also the beginning to another series, the Lux Series. I hope you enjoy!
An Ember in the Ashes
Title: An Ember in the Ashes
Author: Sabaa Tahir
Rating: ✰✰✰✰ (4 stars)
Genre: YA fantasy, thriller, romance, adventure, dystopia
Review: For reference, here is the partial review of this book I posted last month:
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In the Martial Empire (inspired by Ancient Rome), you either swear allegiance to the Empire, or you get killed. For all of main character Laia’s life, her family has never challenged the Empire, for fear of repercussions. But when Laia’s brother gets taken by Empire soldiers, she feels conflicted. She never stood up to the Empire, but what if her brother’s life is at stake? With the help of underground Empire rebels, she is able to enter into the life of training Martial soldiers as an undercover spy, at the infamous training camp, Blackcliff Academy. By spying on the inner workings of the Academy for the Resistance, she can trade information for the rescue of her brother. Working as a slave, yet spying for the Resistance is a grueling life for Laia, but she is determined to do it for her brother.
Elias is the best soldier at Blackcliff Academy. He has committed himself as loyal to the Empire, though he has always been secretly unwilling to be a pawn of the Empire. He has always dreamed of escaping, though he has never had the nerve, nor the chance. But when an opportunity arises to make him the most powerful soldier in the Empire, he can’t refuse without arousing suspicion. Now, Elias must find a way to get away from the Empire without his fellow soldiers turning on him.
Though Laia and Elias live very different lives, it seems as though their destinies are intertwined. They soon begin to realize that the decisions they make may change the future of the Empire itself.
So far, I am in love with this book. It is usually very difficult for authors to world-build in a way that is actually engaging to readers while being still in-depth, but Tahir does this amazingly. The Empire is based on Ancient Rome, with the soldiers governing all citizens’ ways of life. This brutal society, along with the harsh leadership, makes for an intense and thrilling story, while the main characters attempt to rebel, with their lives on the line.
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As mentioned in my previous review, this story was about two teens (coming from VERY different backgrounds) rebelling against the all-powerful and unforgiving Empire. This premise for the book came with this mentality: it’s us against the world. And that’s exactly how I felt reading this novel. In many parts of the story, I really felt as though I didn’t know who to trust; those who I thought I knew were traitors and those who I thought were evil were soft. So who can I really trust, if nobody ever tells their whole truth? This was--in many ways--a sad, cruel, and heartbreaking story, but it had some incredible messages to accompany it.
Have you ever, when reading a book, pictured every scene like a movie? You can see the characters, the setting, and the tone like it were on the big screen? I do that all the time with novels, though this one was especially movie-like. I could practically feel the hot desert or the cool, quiet air of the village at night. There was a sort of haunting feel this it as well, as readers know the deadly and commanding power of the Empire forces and what they have taken from the people. It is really something that resonates with readers.
If you can’t already tell, this wasn’t a happy story. And perhaps that’s why I am hesitant to rate it higher. . . maybe I need to get over my aversion to reading sad books. Anyhow, this book did not shy away from difficult topics. Illuminating violence, corruption of power, and turning friends against friends can do nothing but pull at the heartstrings of readers. The most tragic moments of this book were the many times where--put simply--the "best" man won. In this world, it did not matter if you left 100 dead people in your wake; once you made it to the top, you were destined to be there. Not to mention the helplessness those people felt in these situations; it was either to kill or be killed-- or, in other cases, kill or have your dearest friends or family killed. This tension and conflict that main characters Laia and Elias felt I thought that I felt, too, and I felt their pain in their indecision between duty and their morals. This theme even carries on to everyday life. Though you may not have to make the decision between your life and your most trusted companion’s life (as what happens countless times in this book), every one of us has had to make tough decisions about our so-called “destiny” or what we actually felt was right, and this correlation is a great recurring theme found in this story. While I wish I could explain the complex nature of these traumatic moments in the book, I feel as though it is best to leave that to read (and interpret) yourself.
Let’s move on to characters. This was another one of the great points in Tahir’s writing: both of these characters had well-defined strengths, flaws, and internal conflicts, which contributed to the story. Additionally, even though this book was told from two POVs (Laia and Elias), the author still did a fantastic job of developing each character completely and equally. The character arcs were simply amazing: both main characters (and even many background characters) showed development over the course of the story. Take Laia: Laia has always felt like the cowardly one. Born to two of the Resistance’s most powerful leaders and courageous rebels known to the Empire, she has always felt like she could never measure up to her parent’s legacy. This wasn’t just in her head, either. Numerous times, Laia has been shown her weaknesses plainly and bluntly, causing people to lose their confidence in her. However, this is where Laia’s determinism is proven. When she can’t get the people she needs for her cause to trust her, she proves herself worthy. She does anything possible to show the people needed that she is worth their trust, no matter the cost.
Similarly, Elias also has the responsibility to live up to his mother, the Commander of Blackcliff Academy. Also known as the most ruthless, vicious, and unforgiving warrior known to the Academy. However, Elias doesn’t want to be like her. He doesn’t want to live a life of cruelty and violence; he wants to be free from it. However, all those around him expect him to be great. He is the Commander’s son, after all. With both Laia and Elias facing similar challenges, it can be understood how these two characters came together eventually, even with their very different stories. Another thing that I loved about the characters in this book was their extensive backgrounds. I felt as though Tahir did not miss a single detail; every single one of the background characters has their own story to tell, and I find that a very significant detail of this story. Not only this, but they even had their own character arcs and developments. Every single character was changed in some form over the course of the book. We even got the story behind some of the evilist and most cruel characters in the books *cough, cough, Commander*, and why they were who they had become. (The Commander’s backstory--given at the end of the novel--though tragic-- did not in any way justify the state of her character and morals. . .) The depth that Tahir gave her characters was part of what made this book great.
Aaaand on that note, on to my critiques! First of all, let’s establish this fact: this book was a romance novel. And yes, while I love a great romance novel, I honestly felt like that aspect took away from the original premise of this book. Let me explain: the romance between Laia and Elias was expected (I mean, they are the two main characters of the book), but I didn’t want it to happen. Simply put, it was unbelievable. They hardly knew each other, they kept endless secrets from one other, and they just didn’t seem to fit in my mind. On top of this was my biggest pet peeve in the history of romance novels: the dreadful love triangle. Oh wait, no, it was a love square. That’s right, Tahir went where no other author has and made TWO love interests for BOTH characters. And here’s the sad part: they both didn’t end up with the one I wanted them to. The two other members of this square were Keenan, a leader in the Resistance, and Helene, Elias’ best friend of around 12 years. Now, you tell me who sounds like the better love interest for Keenan: a fierce warrior girl who has had his back and protected his honor for all of his years at Blackcliff, or a random slavegirl who he just happened to see in passing one day and somehow fell head over heels for? Sorry, Laia, but I think Helene wins in this situation. In my opinion, the relationship between Laia and Elias was great. I think that the bond they shared, despite coming from incredibly different backgrounds, was a great way to illustrate their shared struggles and morals. However, I honestly think there was no reason to add in this romance factor. While their friendship was understandable, this romance never should have happened.
Finally, my last critique about this novel would have to be the false resolutions in this book. By false resolutions, I mean the fact that every big plot twist was never how it seemed. It always seemed like Tahir would make some big statement about a major plot change, such as a character's death, and then come back two chapters later saying PSYCH! It didn’t really happen, and it was all an illusion. It really got to the point where I couldn’t believe anything that was happening anymore. Did this really happen, or is the author trying to fool me again? While this kind of shock factor may actually contribute to the story once or twice, the fact that every point was riddled with loopholes made me reconsider every event that occurred.
All in all, this story really was great. Besides the questionable romances and random plot twists, this story illustrated a savage society and honest world that takes readers back to Ancient Rome. So, with that, I’ll close out with my favorite quote of the book, which I felt really illustrated the brutal nature of the Empire: “All the beauty of the stars means nothing when life here on earth is so ugly.”
Obsidian
Title: Obsidian (Lux #1)
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Rating: ✰✰✰ (2.5 stars)
Genre: YA fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal, romance
Review: DISCLAIMER: Only partially through this book (abt 60%)
As you may have noticed, at 2½ stars, this is my lowest rating of a book so far this year. Why, you may ask? Simply put, Obsidian is a cliche middle-schooler’s novel disguised as a young adult book.
When Katy moves to a new, tiny town West Virginia, she is expecting a boring senior year and is already counting down the days until she can leave. Until she meets her new--very strange--yet impossibly beautiful neighbors, and they go to her school. As she gets to know her new classmates, Dee and Daemon, the more she is struck by how odd they are, and how everyone in town seems to avoid them. She feels like she is missing something that all the locals seem to know, but she just can't seem to quite figure them out. . . until the day that Daemon exposed him and his sister to what they really are: aliens. Yes, you heard me right. Aliens.
Now, does this story sound familiar to you? Because it certainly did to me. Seemingly "average" teenage girl moves to a small town in the middle of nowhere to live with a single parent? Check. Said teenage girl is mystified by the family in the town that everyone seems to avoid? Check. After teenage girl discovers the true identity of the mysterious family in all of their paranormal glory, she decides to stick around despite the fact that they might literally be the end of her? . . .check. Well, there we have it, this book is a knockoff Twilight.
Now, don’t get me wrong; Twilight is a great book. (If you’ll remember from a couple months ago, I actually gave an in-depth review of Twilight that you can check out here.) However, the way that Twilight is written--in my opinion--was significantly better than this YA fantasy trope that’s only been used thousands of times. This book was eye-roll worthy: the ridiculous dialogue between characters sometimes made me just want to slam the book down. Then I remembered that I was reading on my iPad and decided that that would be a poor idea. Not only this, but the main character, Katy, was simply just acting stupid sometimes. While she probably thought she was being brave by sticking to her new alien friends when they had nobody, she just didn’t comprehend that by involving herself into the alien world, she was endangering her own life.
However, there were several redeeming qualities to this book that brought it up to 2½ stars. First, I think we should not overlook that fact that I'm still reading it. Despite the cringy writing and cliche themes, I'm still hooked. Perhaps I'm still a sucker for this classic teen romance trope, even if it's hard to admit sometimes? Additionally, the main character--Katy--can be pretty cool sometimes. She's not afraid to stand up for herself, and is admitted very brave at certain points in this story (despite being dumb enough to continue trusting literal aliens). Nonetheless, I still plan to finish this book, though I might continue reading through the entire series.,
Overall, I think that this YA trope is too overused, especially when the writing is particularly cringy. So, in conclusion, if you want a really quick read and can overlook the poor writing and cliche storyline, this might be the book for you.
Quick Recommendations
Since summer is coming up, and I don’t want to leave you all with only two books, here are some quick recommendations of books I loved!
Title: Everything, Everything
Author: Nicola Yoon, David Yoon
Quick Summary: Madeline has always lived with an ultra-rare disease that prevented her from leaving her house but, when a new neighbor moves in next door, she starts to realize all that she is capable of.
Title: Uglies
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Quick Summary: Tally is excited to turn 16 and get the procedure to turn into a Pretty in this dystopian world, but when her best friend Shay runs away in order to rebel against the Pretty system, Tally begins to rethink her previous thoughts about the world she lived in.
Title: All the Little Lights
Author: Jamie McGuire
Quick Summary: When childhood friends separated for several years before reuniting at the end of high school, they begin to see how, despite their growing differences, they will always have that childhood bond.
Title: The Fault in our Stars
Author: John Green
Quick Summary: When two teens with cancer meet, they change each other’s lives drastically.
Title: A Quiet Kind of Thunder
Author: Sara Barnard
Quick Summary: Two unlikely friends, one deaf and one selectively mute, must overcome the odds and find new and unique ways to communicate
Thank you all for reading, and have a great summer!
Script Reviews
I have quite the personal experience with both of these plays, which is why I’m really glad to be reviewing both of them. One is a well-loved, Neil Simon straight play about a young boy and his familial issues, and another follows the classic Peanuts characters in a full-fledged musical, filled to the brim with themes of happiness, friendship, empathy, love, and baseball, which has plenty of songs that I’ll never get out of my head.
Title: You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Author: John Gordon (Music & Lyrics by Clark Gesner)
Goodreads Rating: ✰✰✰✰✰ (4.3 stars)
Personal Rating: ✰✰✰✰✰ (4.9 stars)
Synopsis: Charlie Brown and the entire Peanuts gang explore life's great questions as they play baseball, struggle with homework, sing songs, swoon over their crushes, and celebrate the joy of friendship.
Review: Growing up on the Peanuts characters like Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, and Lucy, this show has really hit a soft spot for me and opened up a part of my childhood I didn’t remember being such a defining part of my life. The dialogue between all of the characters has been taken right out of the old comic strips and cartoons written by Charles M. Schulz, so hearing quips like “Good Grief!” or “I just can’t stand it!” throws me in a real loop of nostalgia.
This musical was written quite some time ago and even had a Broadway revival in 1999, but I still had no clue it even existed until a few months ago. Despite it not being very well-known, I found this musical to be spectacular to listen to and also watch, for I saw a Randall Theatre production in Medford of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, put on in the Ghostlight Theatre. The high energy of all of the characters was perfectly wrapped up through sporadic monologues, quick-paced dialogue, and fully-fledged musical numbers involving six-part harmonies between the six-person cast. It’s a production that takes a lot of skill, time, and commitment to pull off, and I’m surprised the Broadway run didn’t last long.
Another factor that played into my constant engagement with the musical was the character dynamics and how each character was able to have more than one interaction with everyone else. All of their relationships vary from person to person, and it’s really interesting to read the changes in how they talk and to also see the actors on stage tackle the challenge of altering personality traits in character, depending on how they feel about the person they’re directing their line towards. This consistent theme in behavior really matched the energy the show goes for, which includes a variety of both internal and external thoughts and feelings.
Considering this is also a musical, the music itself plays a huge factor in the quality of the production. Since this is a script review column, I can’t focus too much on the quality of the music itself, including the vocals and instruments involved, but the lyrics of the songs take importance in this circumstance (However, I will say, most of the songs are really jazzy, upbeat, and fun to jam out to). The style in which a lot of the songs are written includes a lot of lyrics packed into one line, with a lot of detail in character and motives. A good example would be the opening number, where the chorus behind Charlie Brown says, “You have nobility, stability, and a sense of honor that is very rare indeed.” It’s not a simple phrase that is clear-cut and easy to comprehend, but rather one that keeps the ears of the audience engaged and drives home the point in which they’re making. This same thing can also be said in Schroder’s phrases in “Beethoven Day,” where he says: “A philharmonic rumble, (Beethoven Day!) a polyphonic jumble, a humble dedication as we stand up and say: Hooray, Beethoven, Hooray!”
Due to my biases over these plotlines and characters practically being my childhood, this musical gets a very high rating in my books. Even so, there is a piece of criticism I have and that may add to the declining popularity of the show. The impression that the musical makes on Broadway is not as big as many Tony-Award-winning musicals like The Book of Mormon, Hamilton, or Dear Evan Hansen, and it has to do with the inconsistency between music styles and the fact that the storyline is very nonlinear. The show is lighthearted and tells the story of six little kids doing everyday things-- in the most exciting way possible. The thing with many successful musicals is that they have a conflict arching throughout the entire story, and they have a plotline that supports the music and character development, essentially better connecting the audience with the situations the production discusses. Unfortunately, there’s no feasible way for a show like You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown to get around this obstacle, for the Peanuts comic strips were designed like that in the first place. The struggle is not the nonlinear plot or absurd, situational changes that happen halfway through a scene, but rather the mid-twentieth-century comic strips were simply not designed to take the stage.
This musical will always hold a special place in my heart, and there are many songs in the soundtrack that’ll never leave my mind, like “The Doctor Is In” or “Suppertime.” For anyone who needs some time to decompress and let stress roll off of your shoulders, this musical provides a lot of lighthearted, upbeat, fun songs that just simply make you smile listening to the nasally voices and the accelerating lyrics. Once again, I recommend this to anyone getting into script reading and, most importantly, to anyone who needs some innocent, childlike joy in their lives.
Title: Brighton Beach Memoirs
Author: Neil Simon
Goodreads Rating: ✰✰✰✰ (3.9 stars)
Personal Rating: ✰✰✰✰✰ (4.2 stars)
Synopsis: Dreaming of baseball and girls, Eugene must cope with the mundane existence of his family life in Brooklyn: formidable mother, overworked father, and his worldly older brother Stanley. Throw into the mix his widowed Aunt Blanche and her two young (but rapidly aging) daughters and you have a recipe for hilarity, served up Simon-style.
Review: As a fan of Neil Simon, I was surprised I hadn’t heard about this play until I took Acting II. I was first introduced to this play when taking the class and choosing a monologue from the first few pages, in which Eugene summarizes the situations going on around him and how difficult it has been living with his intolerable Aunt Blanche and her daughters. Developing this monologue into a performance has really helped me better connect with Eugene and the rest of the characters in the play. They all have their own stories to tell and their own directions they take in order to resolve the conflicts that are thrown at them quite often.
This play is actually the first chapter in an autobiographical trilogy of Neil Simon’s life-- what most people refer to as the “Eugene Trilogy,” for the main character bearing the name is based on Neil Simon himself. After Brighton Beach Memoirs, the other additions to the series are Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound. This trilogy takes the reader through ten years of Eugene’s life and the series of events that unfold, closely mirroring Simon’s life events, as well.
I’d say, out of the batch that Simon wrote, Brighton Beach Memoirs is one of his most witty, light-hearted, and relatable. I found myself smiling each time I read any dialogue between Eugene and Stanley, for the way both of those characters were built makes them polar opposites, and watching them experience the same dilemmas and hardships, as brothers, is hilarious. Moreover, the familial issues Simon discusses throughout the play are very easy to connect to, especially if you have a big, loud family. For example, anyone who has ever had to share a room in any circumstances with their sibling will know exactly what it feels like when Eugene talks about how stressful it already is sharing a room with his brother and then being forced to share a room with his two cousins, as well.
Even though there are plenty of light-hearted dilemmas in the story that make people laugh or smile or nod in agreement, Simon isn’t afraid to touch on the heavier subjects, too. There are a few themes that some characters deal with quite often, like addiction, financial instability, and health issues. Stanley has a really rough time throughout the play, being eighteen and already having to support his entire family with the money he makes at his emotionally exhausting job, and Jack, Eugene and Stanley’s father, who still wants, more than anything, to provide for his family but suffers from heart attacks that make most tasks uneasy for him to carry out. Even though some of us don’t want to face it, these are vastly real situations that we can relate to, despite our circumstances. How we cope with them is quite important, and Simon provides quite a few life lessons embedded within the story that, once people process and understand through a matter of character physicality or dialogue, become very powerful and meaningful.
One major thing I found that probably marked my rating down a few points was the characterization of Eugene as a whole. The situations he was forced into were funny and relatable, but I feel like the way Eugene was written made me feel slightly disconnected from him. He didn’t seem to be very redeemable, except for the fact that he helped out Stanley when Stanley was under fire at his job, but even then, he still wanted to know what Nora looked like naked in return. This may be due to the fact that Simon based the character roughly off of himself-- attempting to slide in traits that he knew would shine through because of him, or simply because Eugene is a fourteen-year-old boy who purposefully seems like a douchebag because of all of the confusing changes his body and mind are going through. Either way, even though Eugene is a hilarious, loveable character, I never felt a strong attachment to him as opposed to someone like Jack or Stanley, who have moments of unfolding that show who they really are and what’s important to them.
Every month, I analyze a play in insane depth, and every month I recommend that play for everyone to read. Luckily, I love reading these, and I’m grateful to have read so many great pieces of literature lately. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to all of our readers for sticking with this column throughout the entire school year. Enjoy the summer as it rolls around, Scroll readers, and see you next time.
Thanks again for joining me this month! See you back in October, 2021!
