Review of An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green (with his writing style clearly shown throughout the novel) is a cute love story that's not quite focused on the romance. The story follows a child prodigy, a senior in high school, as he explores the algorithm of love while also discovering his own love of the small town he landed in.

~ Posted by a Homestead sophomore

Warcross and Wildcard: In which Marie Lu does YA dystopian right

About four years ago, I read Marie Lu’s Legend trilogy and it was utterly unremarkable. I’m sure I thought it was okay at the time, but the fact remains that I don’t remember a single plot point or character from any of the three books. The one thing I can recall is that I couldn’t tell what gender the romantic interest was for the entirety of the first book, and that I was shocked to learn that he was male.

With this in mind, I had no expectations when I picked Warcross up off a desolate, 80’s-sci-fi-populated shelf in a health center lobby. It was simply the only book that appealed to me at face value, and as many people do, I judged it based on the cover.

Warcross centers on Emika Chen, a teenage, rainbow-haired hacker from NYC who can’t pay her rent and instead resorts to work as a bounty hunter, tracking down those who choose to gamble on worldwide sensation and household-name VR video game Warcross. Looking for more cash, Emika accidentally glitches herself into the opening night of the Warcross Championships (think a crossover between competitive gaming and the Olympics, and with more futuristic virtual reality). Fearing punishment, she ends up being sent to the corporation that produces Warcross, where young CEO (and Emika’s childhood celebrity crush) Hideo Tanaka asks her to find a worm in the championships’ security.

I don't have much to say about Hideo. Didn't really care for him. Like, okay, you're hot, rich, and you have a dog. So? reads my Goodreads review for Warcross, and I can’t say that my opinion has changed, two books and way too many chapters later. Though it also deals with the moral crisis of what it means to be truly “good”, Warcross is, at its heart, a love story, which honestly kind of sucks. Warcross and its sequel Wildcard’s fatal flaws rest in the fact that the supporting cast are just so much more interesting than the main characters. While Emika’s internal issues are tiring and even boring to listen to at some times (“I like this guy but I don’t like what he’s doing! Oh no, he has immense political power!”, over and over again), the colourful side characters provide a look into how insanely good this duology could have been. I enjoyed every look into the lives of Emika’s championships team and other members of the secondary cast (special shoutout to her competitive rival Tremaine Blackbourne for being the most complex and interesting character in this world full of utterly uninteresting personalities).

Now that I’ve trashed what I hated for a whole paragraph, let’s get on to what makes this book one of my favourite dystopians - the actual plot presented and the world-building had me excitedly anticipating the release of Wildcard. Too often dystopian plots boil down to “main character works for government, realizes they’re corrupt, rebels against them” (off the top of my head, The Hunger Games, Divergent, and The Maze Runner all fit this description to a T). Though some of these same tropes are present, more importantly, Warcross presents a conflict based in the influence of technology on our lives, and how free will moulds our perspectives and identities. The world-building Lu does is phenomenal as well - throughout the novel, as Emika goes through levels of the game, Lu’s vivid setting descriptions provide wonderful and imaginative imagery.

Wildcard I can’t say much about without spoiling Warcross, as the story relies heavily on the events of the first book, but I will say that it was my favourite of the two. The plot and character developments made in it were everything I wanted Lu to give me (more Tremaine included), and that she did. Many YA dystopians are stretched into trilogies for monetary reasons or movie adaption purposes and end up being weirdly paced, a problem Lu does not have. The Warcross duology combines fast-paced action scenes and internal stream-of-consciousness monologues to paint a compelling narrative of what makes us truly independent and human.

At face value, the Warcross duology presents a dull and uninteresting main romance, but just behind the curtain is a riveting tale of moral complexity with an interesting, captivating set of supporting characters and subplots.

A similar book you might enjoy if you liked Warcross is the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi - another unique take on the YA dystopian trope with complex character motivations and subversions on typical tropes.

- By Ari Vishin, Homestead junior

Review of A Very Large Expanse of Sea, by Tahereh Mafi

A Very Large Expanse of Sea, written by Tahereh Mafi, is a novel that displays the strong effects of racism and stereotyping on one's life. Shirin is a Muslim girl who has moved and switched schools countless times. Every day in high school, she must endure the racist comments and cold glances from other students. Shirin concludes that it is all a result of her clothing, race, and religion. The time period is also the year after 9/11, which makes the people in her life believe that she is extremely dangerous and causes them to judge her even more. The only thing that keeps Shirin going in her life is music, and the new breakdancing club her brother created. However, when Shirin meets a guy named Ocean James at her new school, her whole life turns upside down. Ocean seems to be the only person who wants to understand and is willing to get to know her better. Shirin has been keeping a barrier between her and everyone else for such a long time, so she feels confused on how she will face him and everybody else. This book is one of the best books I've ever read in a long time. I was wandering through the shelves and my eyes flew right onto it. I finished it the day I borrowed it and read it multiple times after that. This book was so intriguing and fascinating, and it opened my eyes to the ongoing problems in the world and around me. I recommend this book to anyone out there that is looking for a page-turner and something that can cause them to reflect on themselves, the world, and life itself. Five out of five stars, no doubt.

~ Posted by Jessica L., Homestead freshman

Review of Modern HerStory

Modern HerStory by Blair Imani, (195 pages) is an anthology of trailblazing women that is worth reading if you are a feminist, an ally, a supporter, a woman, a man, queer, or just a history lover. I read this book cover to cover in three days and it was so worth it. First off if you do not read this then promise me you flip through for the art. (I give anyone permission to stop reading my review and flip though the art or if this is on the library blog look at the amazon page). If the cover does not draw you in then I understand but trust me the art is so amazing! The artist Monique is committed to diverse representation in her art with all colors and is again so amazing! As an artist myself I love the art and appreciate Monique’s dedication to representation and using many colors. The author Blair Imani is so inspiring as a person and just like the amazing women featured in Modern HerStory. The book was so diverse and such a learning experience for me and I found some more role models and fantastic women to look up to and research. Imani’s dedication shines though in telling the stories of all of these women and they were so easy to read and understand. This book includes a table of contents which summarizes all of the chapters and makes the individual pages very easy to find, it also includes a glossary and index in the back of the book. Reading this book was such a blast and I would recommend this book to all my friends. Modern HerStory gets only high reviews from me!

~ Reviewed by Alexi V., Homestead junior