The Giver: A critical essay

By Sage S.

The Giver is an excellent story that paints a pristine picture of a young boy and his role in a utopian society. This is a tale of a boy and the experiences brought on him as he is expected to be given a lifelong job assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve. Jonas goes through the motions of his daily life with apprehension towards what will happen, for he cannot think of any job assignments that would fit him quite yet. His good friends, Asher and Fiona seem to adjust easily on their pursuits of certain roles. Upon being selected as the Receiver of Memory at the ceremony, Jonas must attempt the grueling, yet remarkably rewarding assignment learning, remembering, reflecting, and relaying emotions and memories of experiences; those of which the people in his community chose to give up in order to attain Sameness and social order.

We Were Liars: A narrative modes book review

By Sage S.

We Were Liars, written by E. Lockhart, uses various forms of interesting forms of narrative mode that definitely succeed in engaging the reader in the events, thoughts, and emotions experienced by the main character, Cadence Sinclair. Her story is told through first person, and her character voice is one that was fairly different than one's I have read before. Cady is a depressed, confused, and often disoriented young adult. Very early on, it is expressed pretty clearly that she has been forced into her mature state; and not in a good way. Often, the chapters end suddenly due to her passing out or lulling into a state of agony and despair, as her migraines seize her for hours at a time. Overall, it was pretty obvious that the main character had a lot of personal issues with the people in her life, and mostly, her personal conception of herself and her situation, which was often negative. The only thing that ever seemed to cheer her up was the memories and moments she shared with a few of her cousins and friend, Gat, every summer.

This book review lacks a clever title

By Sage S

Paper Towns is an eventful and motivating young adult book, which may augment the reader's drive to take chances on the things most important to them and to trust their instincts. This John Green novel is narrated in first person by a young teenage boy named Quentin Jacobson, who is a senior in high school, going through the motions of his own social needs and dilemmas. When his lifelong, beautiful and rebellious neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman, runs away, Quentin and his friends embark on several investigations, using vague clues that are thought to lead to Margo's whereabouts. With barely any leads other than the two teenagers history as neighbors and a few highlighted texts from a book, Quentin analyzes and explores every possible truth about her disappearance in hopes that his persistence and leadership might show her that he is qualified enough to be with her. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone over the age of twenty-five, for the literary devices used in this novel might seem rather unimportant to a person who has already experienced and come to terms with the purpose of their high school life.

The Girl Who Forgot Her Book Review Was Due

By Dominique L.

                     In "The Girl in the Spider's Web" David Lagercrantz picks up the story-lines of characters Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist from where the original author, journalist Stieg Larsson, left off over a decade ago. In this newest addition to the Millennium series, Lisbeth points her carefully honed hacking abilities at the NSA while Mikael wrestles with the declining health of his magazine and journalistic life. In classic Larsson style, Lagercrantz springs a conspiracy on the characters and they set off to untangle the web of secrets. It's a formula that is so beautiful and intricate that its nature is hardly noticeable. If done properly, Lagercrantz has successfully mastered Stieg Larsson's technique and matched his creativity, if not, then he'll probably never live it down.

            The result was a mixed bag. After the book was released in September of 2015, the fans were either A: delighted or B: wanted to pretend it didn't happen; few fell in between. Here's "the good, the bad, and the just plain shit" (Jack Howard, Dean Dobbs) for David Lagercrantz's "The Girl in the Spider's Web".

My Sisters Keep Interrupting My Writing Process

by Rebecca L,

My Sister's Keeper is a novel written in 2003 by Jodi Picoult. Her book follows the story of Anna Fitzgerald as she deals with her parents and helps her sister through her struggle with cancer.

It's kind of a funny point of view

By I. Forgot D. Byline

First person narration is  most commonly used in young adult fiction novels. There are many advantages to writing in first person. First, the reader is able to get a better idea of the main character's personality. They are not only exposed to the narrator's thoughts and actions, but also to how they feel and how they speak.

Know It All Narration

An analysis of the third person omniscient narrative in Holly Goldberg Sloan's I'll Be There

By Shannon J.

The omniscient narration involves writing from the perspective of a godlike entity. The narrator essentially knows and perceives everything, and is able to see into everyone's mind. The omniscient narrator tells the story objectively and can change his point of view or focus from place to place, from character to character. In the novel I'll Be There, Sloan attempts to use a third person omniscient narration, but I would not say she succeeded. Especially in the beginning of the novel, switching from each character's point of view became very confusing. It took many chapters for me to finally understand which character was which. The characters were all introduced too quickly. The author describes their feelings, but does not delve into their physical characteristics, which is surprising for a third person narrative.