Book Reviews

A Scroll column where writer Ella Hayes posts reviews for books she recently read, and takes suggestions for books to read and review.

Young Adult Book Ratings and Reviews

Coordinated by Ella Hayes

Dear scroll readers,

Hello! Here at The Scroll, we have decided to re-introduce a column that started last June, called "Book Reviews." I am Ella Hayes, and I will be updating this column with my latest and favorite reads. This month, I have three books and one author to share with you-- all over a variety of genres, including fantasy, dystopian, historical fiction, sci-fi, thriller, paranormal, contemporary, and many more. I am always happy to get suggestions for review topics; feel free to write to me with titles of books to read in the suggestion box below.

Thank you, and enjoy reading!

- Ella Hayes; Writer and Reporter

Where I get my books

Other than buying physical copies of books at local stores, I also check lots of books out online through the Josephine Community Library.

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, too. 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)!

Book Reviews

Oasis: A Novel by Katya de Becerra

Title: Oasis: A Novel

Author: Katya de Becarra

Rating: ✰✰✰ (3 Stars)

Genre: young adult, fantasy, survival, adventure, horror??

Quote: "Will stick to readers' skin long after the final page is turned." -Booklist

Review: As promised, this was the book that I was reading when our last article came out, and now I will write my review on it!

Starting off being totally honest... this book did not exactly live up to my expectations that I thought it would, based off of de Becarra's other novel that I read beforehand, What the Woods Keep. What I was expecting was a mystery and survival thriller; what I got was an archeological horror story. This book is about a group of friends at a supposedly cursed archaeological site that get lost in the desert before becoming trapped in an alluring and possibly dangerous oasis. First issue I had with this novel: I did not find the main characters very likable. This book was centered around a group of friends that did not have good connections or "chemistry" as a friend group. Secondly, while I did think the book had the action/adventure aspects that I was looking for, it did come with a lot of other horror and, frankly, quite confusing aspects. This leads me to my third point: the ending was not only unsatisfactory, but it was completely open-ended. One thing about this book that I thought was done well by de Bacarra was the creepiness or "spook" factor of the book. The mental toll that the oasis had on all the the characters was very odd and unpredictable. Overall, this book was a haunting and complicated story, but had well-executed horror and survival story aspects, that also come with a dramatic cliffhanger.

*This book came out at the beginning of this year and is the first in an upcoming series.*

The Final Six (Series) by Alexandra Monir

Title: The Final Six

Author: Alexandra Monir

Rating: ✰✰✰✰ (4.5 Stars)

Genre: young adult, dystopian, sci-fi, romance

Quote: "A breathtakingly real look at love, loss, and the dangers of space, THE FINAL SIX skyrockets into twists and turns I never saw coming!"

-Beth Revis

Review: Let me just start off by saying: I do not typically read science fiction or dystopian novels. However, this sci-fi novel (plus its sequel The Life Below) were both fantastic to read and I just couldn't put them down. The first novel is about a dystopian Earth where everything is flooding and humankind needs to find a new home planet. The International Space Training Camp (ISTC) recruits 24 teenagers from across the globe to complete a series of tasks, before they eliminate 18 teens and send the remaining six to one of Jupiter's moons, Europa, in order to start a new civilization there. These 24 teenagers must compete in highly dangerous and competitive tasks in order to prove themselves the ISTC that they are the right fit to be one of the six to travel to Europa. However, one of our main characters, Naomi, is highly skeptical of the ISTC's motives, and launches into a top secret investigation about what the ISTC could be hiding. (The first book in the series is concerned about the training camp on Earth; the second book talks about the travel to space.)

I felt that that was a fantastic story, and it was written very well. The first book was pleasantly unpredictable, and I had a difficult time putting it down. I took a liking to the main characters, Naomi and Leo, and they were written in alternating POV's throughout the books. I found it very easy to use imagery and picture the story, and the author was able to create a fantastic plot line that was skillfully executed in her writing. I would say that the beginning to the first novel was fairly slow; it took a while to build up to the more exciting parts of the story, but once the novel really got started it was fast-paced. Altogether, I found this series is be a thrilling and atmospheric read that captivated me from page one.

*These two books are part of the Final Six series; this is only a duology, so both books are the entire completed series.*

Boston Jane (Series) by Jennifer L. Holm

Title: Boston Jane

Author: Jennfier L. Holm

Rating: ✰✰✰✰ (4 Stars)

Genre: middle grade, historical fiction, adventure

Review: The Adventures of Boston Jane, a trilogy, tells the story of a young girl from Boston who travels to the unexplored West Coast in order to wed her childhood friend and start a new life there. Though this story is mainly directed at middle-grade readers, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this series. Our protagonist, Jane, is a young lady from Philadelphia who is determined to be a proper young lady of the time in order to impress her childhood crush, William. When William moves away to the West Coast in order to start a new life, Jane pines for him, and longs to be with him again. After years of exchanging letters, William proposes marriage to Jane, which she graciously accepts, and Jane packs her bags to leave her life in Philadelphia for good. However, when Jane is unprepared for the brutal sea and unforgiving wilderness of the unexplored West Coast, she must find a way to adapt and survive without her luxuries from home. Thrown into the unpredictable lifestyle with the native Americans and settlers on the coast, Jane must learn to forget her practical mannerism she lived by in her old life, and forge her own path for herself.

I feel that Holm created such deep and relatable characters in her series, with a stubborn yet relatable heroine for a protagonist, to complex and varying antagonists. Her story was not only historically accurate for that timeline, but had an engaging and exciting plot line (especially for younger readers). If you read this series and want to learn more, here are some of the nonfiction books this novel is based upon: The Northwest Coast by James G. Swan, and Skulduggery on Shoalwater Bay by Willard R Espy.

*This series is a trilogy; I am only reviewing for the first two of the series because I haven't gotten to read the third yet.*

Quick Ratings

Be Not far from me by mindy mcginnis

Title: Be Not For From Me

Author: Mindy McGinnis

Rating: ✰✰✰✰(3.5 Stars)

Genre: young adult, realistic fiction, survival, adventure, thriller, suspense

optimists die first by susin nielsen

Title: Optimists Die First

Author: Susin Nielsen

Rating: ✰✰✰✰(4 stars)

Genre: young adult, contemporary, romance

Quote: "[An] empathetic and deeply moving story, balanced by sharply funny narration and dialogue." -Publishers Weekly

Stephanie Meyer and Midnight Sun

As most of you Twilight fans may know, S. Meyer's new addition to the Twilight series came out this August, and of course, I had to read it. If you don't already know, along with the original four books in the Twilight series, S. Meyer has also published some companion novels that relate back to the same plot in different ways. Here are three examples for companion novels that go along with the plot of the Twilight series:

For example, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is another book written by S. Meyer about a background character of the original series that she goes in depth with. I have not gotten the chance to read this yet, however I hope to someday. However, I have read the other two companion novels she has published. First is Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined. This is a book that is almost exactly the same as Twilight, with the exception of one thing: all characters' genders are reversed. Our main character, Bella, becomes Beau, and the love interest, Edward, becomes Edythe. These characters and every single other character that was in the original novel are gender swapped. S. Meyer explained in the introduction that she published this in an attempt to disprove the common conception that the Twilight series is only successful because of its classic (and gender specific) "damsel in distress" type of situation between the main character and the love interest. However, I feel this book only further disproved the entire point she was trying to make. I did not enjoy the retelling, and I thought it was quite poorly done, which was, in fact, quite disappointing because I had high hopes for S. Meyer's writing. This retelling simply seemed corny, and even just exemplified the worst parts of the story. (Not to mention, these books were selling at an extremely high price, especially considering that most of it was just a copy-paste from the original Twilight novel itself.)

Moving on from that companion novel, her most recent release was just last month and it was the long awaited... Midnight Sun. Midnight Sun is Twilight retold ONCE AGAIN, but this time it is different than Life and Death, which was mostly just a word for word copy of Twilight. Midnight Sun is the first book plot of Twilight, but told from the point of view of Edward, the original love interest. When I first bought this book (for a shocking fifteen dollars for an ebook...), I can honestly say that I did not have high hopes. I believed this was going to be another "Life and Death" situation where S. Meyer was just attempting to get even more money out of her famous series without seriously considering her writing. However, once now that I have finished this 672-page novel after hours and hours of reading, I honestly say that I might even like this version better than the original Twilight.

Now I know that is quite a dramatic statement (I loved Twilight, from when I read it first in sixth grade to every time I've reread it since), but let me justify. Midnight Sun goes into many details that we completely miss in the original book; we learn background information, character history, and we learn exactly what Edward has been doing any time he doesn't appear in Twilight with Bella. Edward's emotion and feelings that he faces are, of course, paranormal, and we get to experience the entirety of its complexity with this inner monologue of Edward. Personally, it even helped me to better understand and picture things that didn't entirely make sense to me in the original Twilight. I think that, with this novel, S. Meyer's true writing expertise was evident, and like every time I've read her writing, it has been beautiful and deep and it is clear that she put a lot of effort and thought into this new addition to her series.

In conclusion, if you are a Twilight fan like me and are considering buying this book, GO FOR IT! I think it will be well worth your time.

Official Final Six Book Trailer

Here is the official Final Six book trailer, released by author Alexandra Monir.

Current Read

Currently, I am reading All That Glitters by Gita Trelease. To be completely honest, I haven't got much time to read recently, so this has been mostly sitting waiting for me to pick it up again. However, so far this has been a great book. It is both "historical fiction" (in a way, I suppose), but mostly fantasy. It is a great book for imagery, and the author has a beautiful writing style. A great read for lovers of fantasy and books set in the past.

Page updated

Report abuse