Reviews
The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Byers
Review by Rhianna
The Inheritance Games, the first book in a three-book series by Jennifer Lynn Byers, begins a classic rags-to-riches story. However, as the novel continues, it twists and turns into something entirely different. The book covers love, death, and other exciting themes. Including solid imagery and metaphors throughout. Byer’s writing style piques the reader’s interest.
The main character, Avery Grambs, lives an everyday life in Connecticut. At the beginning of the novel, she is living with her sister Libby and Libby’s boyfriend Drake. She dreams of going to college to become an actuarial scientist because she does not want to struggle with money the way she has during her childhood. Her entire life becomes chaotic when she finds out that Tobias Hawthorne, a man she has never met, leaves her his entire fortune. She must move to Texas and live with his family. Suddenly, Avery is famous, and everyone around the world knows her name. The novel revolves around her struggle to adapt to her new life and money and explores her relationships with the surviving Hawthorne family.
Written from a first-person perspective, the reader hears Avery’s inner monologue and astounding descriptions of her surroundings. The reader feels Avery’s confusion and excitement and relates to her as a character. This narrative makes the book engaging and pulls the reader to read more. While inheriting a fortune is incredible luck, Avery also presents the struggle that comes with upending her life and maintaining friendships while her circumstances change. She showcases true bravery and takes the reader on a journey with her.
This piece is a five-star book because of the exciting plot and character development. It seems as though the story will go one way, but the book leans into the mystery genre, and the reader does not know what will come next. Avery’s strength in the novel is admirable, and she handles the change in her life quite well. She is an excellent example of accepting change and making the best of her circumstances. The story never slows down and keeps readers engaged throughout. Many people will enjoy this book because it fits into many genres, some being fiction, mystery, and romance. The book brings readers into another world of fabulous riches and chaos, making it an enjoyable read. I would recommend this book to the eighth grade and above because it contains some mature material, and the story sometimes becomes complicated. I am excited to read the following books!
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Review by A.L.
“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is a dystopian novel by Suzanne Collins. Serving as a prequel to the “Hunger Games”, this story follows a young Coriolanus Snow in his last year at the Capitol’s Academy. While Panem’s elite thinks that the Snow family is still one of the wealthiest among their ranks, the reality is that the House of Snow has fallen to the level of Panem’s poorest. Struggling to make ends meet, and with only his name’s reputation to stand on, Coriolanus must figure out how to turn his life around before he is exposed. Chosen as a mentor for the 10th annual Hunger Games, he, along with 23 other classmates, must figure out how to both improve the games and lead his assigned tribute to victory. Coriolanus’s acceptance into university with a full scholarship, and the future that comes with it rides on him succeeding. The only problem is, Lady Luck seems to have turned her back on him. Or has she?
A proud member of the Capitol’s elite and the top of his class, Coriolanus is the envy of all his classmates, even the other elite. He appears to have it all: good looks, wealth, academic prowess, and influence. While he does possess almost all of those things, he lacks the one aspect that is key to maintaining his life and position in the Capitol: wealth. So to hide this truth, he plays up everything else. Coriolanus does everything to manipulate anyone he can in order to remain a part of Panem’s upper crust. While maintaining a friendly, respectable disposition, he kisses up to his teacher more than anyone, he cozies up to the right people, and he pulls strings where he can. But when he accidentally befriends a former District 2 turned Capitol moneymaking powerhouse, Coriolanus becomes unsure of where he stands in the world. He begins to see the Capitol and its actions in an awful new light. And thereafter, he cannot unsee the world for what it really is: a place where the strong viciously prey on the weak.
Much like Coriolanus and his new view on Panem, this book emphasizes looking deeper and not judging a book by its cover. Preconceptions are a natural way for people to organize their experiences and to prepare themselves for the most educated prediction of how an interaction will play out. But Coriolanus has seen his family’s evolution in both directions. He knows that the emperor doesn’t always wear clothes, and that, in turn, makes him wonder how much both he and others are missing. Similar to the way Coriolanus viewed Panem, his peers view him as a perfect young man who has everything and can do no wrong. But once you strip away the exterior, you’ll see that there’s much more than meets the eye.
I would give “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” five out of five stars. When I first picked up the book, I was skeptical. Was it just a money-grabber, or was there an actual story to tell? But once I started reading it, I was sucked into the familiar world of Panem. I became invested in the man I had once only known as a tyrannical president but who was shown in his final moments with Katniss Everdeen to have a much more gradient moral compass than the Hunger Games events suggested.
The Contender by Robert Lipsyte
Review by A.L.
The Contender is a realistic fiction novel by sports journalist Robert Lipsyte. Set in 1965, the story follows Alfred Brooks, a lonely 17-year-old high-school dropout with a job bagging groceries. His only friend, James, has started hanging around the wrong people. One night, Alfred accidentally lets it slip that no one is in the store he works at, and James and his friends try to rob it. However, a recently installed alarm goes off, and the police arrest James while the other punks get away. Thinking that Alfred purposely tried to deceive them, the punks beat up Alfred and promise to return to do it again. With his best friend in jail and people looking to hurt him, Alfred goes to Donatelli’s gym hoping to learn how to protect himself. Through boxing, Alfred grows stronger physically and mentally, improving his life.
One day he sees a drug-addicted James in the street. Unsure what to do, Alfred falls back to his old fears only to realize that he’s not the same scared Alfred he once was. James isn’t his whole world anymore, and now that he’s boxing, Alfred has new friends to talk to and an outlet for his frustration.
Alfred’s troubles were very relatable because like many teenagers, including myself, he didn’t know the direction of his life, or what to do when faced with a challenge. No longer trusted at his job, and with people wanting to hurt him, Alfred tried to take the most immediate fix to physical threat: learning how to protect himself. Instead of stopping and trying to think of a way to resolve the basis of the threat itself, Alfred tried to remove his image as an easy target and as a punching bag solution for the gang’s frustrations. Surprisingly, while boxing changes him physically, it is the mental growth that is life-altering. Boxing helps him learn about perspective and self-worth, opening his eyes to what he needs to prioritize when defining his life as his.
I would give “The Contender” by Robert Lipsyte five out of five stars. When I picked this book from a list of required summer reading, I didn’t have high hopes and I had planned to read it slowly to make it more bearable. But once I started reading it, I got sucked into Alfred’s journey of self-discovery and ended up finishing the book in two days. Due to some violence, alcohol, and drug use, I would recommend this book to those in sixth grade or older.
Additional Reviews
Read more reviews!