Paper Towns

I have just finished a book called Paper Towns.  Paper Towns takes place in Orlando.  The book's main protagonist is Quentin Jacobson who is in love with his childhood friend, and neighbor Margo Roth Spiegeleman.  After they found a dead body in a park they went separate ways.  A few weeks before their graduation, Margo climbs through her window into Quentin's room and they spend the night driving around Orlando and pranking several of their classmates.  The next day Margo disappears.  After this, Quentin and a few of his friends attempt to find Margo using various clues she left behind.  Overall, Paper Towns is a great book.  Both Quentin and Margo are very developed and have great back stories.  Quentin is very relatable and his voice seems very genuine and real.  Despite a great main character, the whole set of supporting character are under developed and are not very relatable.  The plot is very suspenseful and fast but it is a little too fast and certain senses and events could of had more detail.  Quentin is a good narrator, but I think the book would have benefited from multiple narrators.  The book has a great setting  that is great for the book's interesting plot.  The book is very humorous and there are several great and very vivid scenes in the book.  The book has both a great introduction that will pull you in and has a great  and satisfying ending that wraps up the core ideas in the book.  The book is not one of John Green's best works, but still is a great read.

Looking for Alaska

Recently, I have just finished a great book called Looking for Alaska.  The book's main protagonist is Miles  Halter.  Miles lives in Florida and is about to start his junior year of high school at a boarding school, Culver Creek Preparatory School, in Alabama. Miles goes to Culver Creek because he wants to get away from his boring life and have an adventurous one.  At Culver Creek, Miles meets his roommate Chip "The Colonel" Martin.  The Colonel gives Miles a nickname, Pudge, which is ironic because Miles is very skinny. Later he meets Alaska Young, who is the Colonel's friend and located down the hall from their room.  Pudge develops a crush on Alaska.  The story is told through Pudge's perspective.  The book's plot is generally suspenseful, though parts can be a little slow.  Even though, the book is suspenseful it is not rushed and the book has time to develop characters and their back story.  Throughout the plot of the book the book's author, John Green, creates very relatable characters who are very developed.  The book has a few scenes that are explicit.  The books characters' voices seem very genuine and real.  The book is a good length, though I wish it was longer.  Also, I wish the book had multiple narrators; it is in first person.  Despite the book's few flaws is a great read that will make you laugh and cry.  I highly recommend it to anyone seeking a great book.

The Son of Neptune

  In this blog entry, I am going to write about a book I read earlier this school year,  The Son of Neptune.  The Son of Neptune is the second book in the Lost Heroes series.  The book's main protagonist is Percy Jackson who was the main protaganist of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians.  In the beginning of the book, Percy goes to Camp Jupiter, a roman equivalent of Camp Halfblood in the previous books, after fighting the Gorgan sisters and having amnesia.  At Camp Jupiter, Percy meets Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque.  Frank is a son of Mars, and Hazel is the daughter of Pluto.  After joining the camp, Percy joins the Fifth cohort which is unlucky due to the loss of a golden eagle statue.  At Camp Jupiter, they are then given a quest to free Thantos, the guardian of the doors of death.  Through out the book,  Rick Riordan, the book's author, does a great job at developing his characters and making them very connectable.  The new world that is introduced ties in well with his previous books and develops the protagonist in The Lost Hero even more.  The book's first person narration with multiple narrators makes the book very suspenseful and a great page turner.  I do wish the book used more advanced vocabulary.  Overall,  I loved this book and can not wait for the next book in the Lost Hero series, The Mark of Athena.

Gone

This week I am going to write about a book I read earlier but did not get a chance to write about called Gone.  In Gone the book follows Sam Template, the protagonist of the series, when every single person over 15 disappears from Pedro Beach.  Around a 25 mile radius of the town's nuclear power plant there is a wall, that appears to be made out of energy, that kids call the F.A.Y. Z., fallout alley youth zone.  Within the F.A.Y.Z. some children begin to develop odd powers and animals appear to mutate.  Also, when ever a child turns 15, he disappears.  At the start of the book, Sam and his friends, Astrid and Quinn, look for a way out of the F.A.Y.Z.  At the same time Cain, the main antagonist and a stutent at the nearby boarding school, Coates Academy, atempts to control Pedro Beach.  Gone has a very suspensful plot.  Throughout the book the author creates great charecters that develop throughout the other three books in the series.  One of the issues I have with this series is that throughout the rest of the series the author introduces new characters who he doesn't develop a back story for.  Another issue I have with this  book is that the writing is not very descriptive and parts of the book seem rushed.  Despite its flaws, Gone and its sequals  have a great and suspenseful plot and a  few great characters, which help it make a great read.

Wonderstruck

I recently read Wonderstruck and it was a great read.  It is written and illustrated by the author of The Invention of Hugo Cabaret.  Wonderstruck is written in a similar format part picture part words but in Wonderstruck there are two different narratives; one told in words, one told in images.  In the narative told in words the protagonist is Ben.  He lives in Gunflint Lake, Minnesota with his mother until she dies.  After going through his mother's items he discovers clues to the whereabouts of his father which lead him to running away and going to New York city in search of his father.  Ben is nearly deaf after being struck by lightning.  In the other narrative the protagonist is a deaf girl living in Hoboken fifty years before the other narrative takes place.  The deaf girl runs away from her home to New York city.  The format in Wonderstruck was good but the pictures could't show many details and I preferred the text much more.  The writing is very descriptive; the characters weren't developed enough and many secondary characters have no background information.  I wish the book was longer and I wished a larger percent of it was written instead of pictures however the desecrate style of writing and images are suspenseful.  Overall, despite its flaws, Wonderstruck was a great book.

Inheritance

I recently read Inheritance the final book in The Inheritance Cycle.  The series revolves around Eragon and his dragon, Saphira.  The books take place in a fictional world called Alagaësia.  In Alagaësia there are five main races: Urgals, Humans, Elves, Dwarfs, and Dragons.  The elves and the dragons had a long bloody war and in order to make peace they created the dragon riders; many of the dragons' eggs would only hatch when exposed to their rider and once they hatched the dragon and its rider would be able to telepathically communicate.  The humans joined the treaty between the elves and dragons and for hundreds of years, the riders governed over the dragon riders.  Then a corrupt human dragon rider named Galbatorix and several other rebel dragon riders slew every other dragon rider and destroyed every dragon egg except for three eggs.  A hundred years later a human, Eragon, discovers a dragon egg in the woods and it hatched for him.  Eragon and Saphira, his dragon, help a rebellion fight Galbatorix and the empire he had created over the last century.  The series is very well written and very descriptive and the author does a great job at creating Alagaësia.  Parts of the series are very fast paced while others are very slow and unnecessary.  Over the series, the author develops great characters and in Inheritance the author does a great job at finishing the series.  Overall, The Inheritance Cycle was a great read and I wish there were more books in it.

The Outcasts

Recently, I read a book called The Outcasts. I discovered this book because it is by the same author of one of my favorite series Ranger's Apprentice. The Outcasts takes place in the same universe as Ranger's Aprentice and revolves around a 16 year old kid named Hal. Hal lives in a nation called Skandia, which resemble medieval Scandinavia. One of the Skandian traditions is when a boy turns 16 he competes in the Brotherbands to prepare him for military service. Boys are tested in fighting, races, and sailing. Hal is not the most athletic kid but is a great inventor. Hal is put into a brotherband team with other outcasts like him and together they compete in the Brotherbands. I loved the writing in this book; it was very descriptive and developed great charecters. I also like how it took place in a farmiliar setting. The book has a great plot and is very suspenseful however, parts of it are slow. In the ending, the author did not resolve all the issues in the book and it is very open ended. This is fine as long as the author writes a sequel; I hope he does. The plot of the book is very similar to Ranger's Apprentice books and is predictable. I love how this book has a large collection of supporting characters who are also developed throughout the book.  Overall, I thought The Outcasts was a great book and I'm excited for a sequel.