Many students in Henley need a book, whether it’s for silent reading, Language Arts, or just for fun, I’m here to help! I’ll be writing several book reviews, all under the headline ‘Looking for a Book?’. These reviews will all be in the same format but with different books every time.

Each review or recommendation will come with a quick description, identifying the type of book (sci-fi, fantasy, non-fiction, etc.), the title and author, and the difficulty of the book (what types of readers it’d be suited to; advanced 8th graders, casual readers, etc. ). A warning before we begin though, not all of these books are in the library. I’ll make a note if I know they are, but you may have to check the public library to find a few on this list. So, without further ado, let’s begin!

Soraya doesn’t exist. At least, it doesn’t feel like she does. Even though her brother, Sorush, is the shah, she barely knows anyone. Instead of being outside with her mother and brother, Soraya is stuck within the palace walls. Whether that’s literally (using the secret passages in the walls to move about) or simply because she’s not allowed to leave, it doesn’t matter. She doesn’t want to leave anyway. It’s far too dangerous. See, Soraya is poisonous. Literally. Anything that touches her bare skin dies. Beetles, butterflies, even people, they all meet their end with just a brush of her finger. The only exceptions to this rule are plants. Soraya would do anything to break the curse, but she has no idea where to begin. The curse was placed on her mother by one of the demonic div, a curse that made her firstborn daughter poisonous to the touch. Soraya is losing hope that she’ll ever find a way to be free of this curse when one day, a div is captured by her brother. Could this div possibly have the answer to her problem and finally set her free?

In the city of Ketterdam, oftentimes the only thing one can hope to do is survive. Goodwill and strong morals have no place in the crime-filled streets of the city. And survive is what And survive is just what several citizens of Ketterdam have achieved. Kaz; a ruthless and cunning thief keeps his reputation as the most dangerous man in the worst part of Ketterdam; the barrel. Jesper; a sharpshooter with a seeming inability to sit still. Inej; an assassin with a good heart and even better balance. Nina; a Grisha Heartrender (people with a magical skill to control others’ literal hearts, able to soothe people, knock them out, or even stop their hearts entirely) who has a very complicated relationship with Matthais, who was previously a Grisha hunter. And lastly, Wylan; a runaway merchant’s son with a gift for demolition and chemicals. This group of not-quite-friends must pull off a heist together in the most well-guarded place in the world, or everyone’s lives could be in danger.

Eli Monpress isn’t just a thief. He’s the best thief. Or, at least, that’s what everyone is about to find out. Eli’s been making a name for himself, raising his bounty slowly but surely, his aim being 1,000,000 council standards. But now, he’s had a grand idea. He’s going to kidnap a king. With some help, of course. A swordsman named Josef and a Demonseed named Nico are his chosen companions, and so far, everything seems to be going according to plan. Except for one slight problem: Miranda Lyonette. Miranda is a Spiritualist, someone who can talk to spirits (anything from pebbles to mountains have spirits in this world) and has joined the Spirit Court and aids spirits, even housing some in rings or other jewelry. Miranda’s goal is to catch Eli. Easier said than done, however, as not only is Eli a famous thief, but he’s got an ace up his sleeve; He can talk to spirits too. And he’s really good at it.

Christopher Nolan is one of the most influential directors of our time. He has created amazing movies such as The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, Dunkirk, and The Prestige. Now going into 2020, Nolan hadn’t released a movie in quite a while. His last major release was Dunkirk, which was a box office success. Tenet was released to audiences in September of 2020, one of the first movies during the COVID-19 pandemic that was only shown in theatres and it was, for lack of a better word, interesting.

John David Washington is a CIA agent known only as The Protagonist. In the entire film, he is trying to recover this mysterious weapon created by the Soviet Union called the “McGuffin.” To do this, he has to learn to manipulate time and travel backward through time, and use objects that are “inverted.” He is brought into this government project called “Tenet” in which he has to work with a fellow agent, Robert Pattinson, to stop a man, Kenneth Branaugh, who is working with evildoers in the future. Washington has to work with the man’s wife, Elizabeth Debeki, to try and infiltrate the establishment he is working on, and stop the “McGuffin” from getting in the wrong hands. Throughout the film, there are inverted people who have gone back in time and are trying to mess up Washington’s plans. Anyway, that is the basic plot of the movie. I am not going to go into any more detail than that because it will get extremely confusing.

It seems like Nolan wasn’t even trying when he wrote the script. He must’ve been sitting down in a writer’s room thinking “hmm, what should I name my protagonist? Oh, I know! I am just going to name him The Protagonist!” I swear watching this movie makes me feel less intelligent. For example, Nolan named the object that is the trigger for the plot a “McGuffin” which is literally what McGuffin means. Plus Nolan’s target audience isn’t a bunch of kids who don’t know the meaning of plot device words. It’s like Nolan is trying to pitch part of this movie to a classroom full of fourth-graders while trying to explain the meaning of protagonist and McGuffin. Maybe Nolan was thinking whether he should make an educational program that you watch specifically in schools like The Magic School Bus or if he should make another movie like Inception. I am pretty sure he just made “The Insulting to my Intelligence School Bus.”

The movie has large set pieces and action sequences that look amazing, and are probably the best part of the entire film. There are extended periods of exposition that don't really pertain to the main plot and are kind of just there. For example, there is an extended scene of dialogue with Michael Caine and John David Washington that seems to be put in the movie just to showcase that Caine is in the film. He doesn’t show up again either. This section of dialogue doesn’t seem to accomplish anything story-wise either. The characters talk about something that could be summarized in a few sentences. It is just about how Elizabeth Debeki has stolen a painting from Kenneth Branaugh. Nolan must’ve been thinking back to the good movies that he made, and thought that Tenet needed Michael Caine just because all of his other movies have Caine in them.

Now the plot is confusing as all-get-out. There are so many “how did that happen'' or “what??” moments. Nothing is explained thoroughly. For example, there is a scene in which Washington and Pattinson find a dead body that has the same dog tag that Pattinson is wearing and then Pattinson reveals that he has known Washington for a while and that he recruited him plus the entire “Tenet” operation in either the past or the future, it isn’t specified. Nolan was probably sitting down and thinking that he needed an actual reason to watch this terrible movie so he put in this unnecessary twist that just came out of nowhere. I just respect that Nolan had the guts to make a movie that made no sense to anyone except for him and his crazy brain.

Tenet gave me a migraine after I watched it. I wanted to rewind to see what in the heck I had just watched, but I felt so insulted by how dumb Nolan would think of me just to name his protagonist, “The Protagonist”, and to name his McGuffin, “The McGuffin”. Nolan tried to make his masterpiece and instead made a flaming pile of garbage. All I can say is, I will never devote my time to this cinematic dumpster fire ever again.

My Sources:

Keller, R. (2021). Things Reid Has Said.

For the line “cinematic dumpster fire.”