Nine Noteworthy Novels
Winter
by Marissa Meyer: Winter was my favorite book I’ve read this year. It had
action, romance, great characters, and a great plot that loosely followed that
of Snow White. Winter is the fourth and last book in The Lunar Chronicles, one
of my all-time favorite book series that is like a sci-fi fairytale. I
absolutely loved it. 10/10
Six
of Crows by Leigh Bardugo: I read Six of Crows in my library’s book club over
the summer. It was one of the few I liked this summer because of its dynamic characters,
interesting premise, and storyworld. I also liked how Bardugo intertwined her
characters’ backstories within the story. 8.5/10
Eragon
by Christopher Paolini: I just finished Eragon yesterday. While it wasn’t the
best book I’ve ever read, it wasn’t as terrible as people make it out to be
either. I liked most of the characters, but I felt like the plot could have
been more original. I also think I would’ve liked it better if I read it before
other fantasies like Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. 6.5/10
The
Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength)
by CS Lewis: As a big fan of Narnia, I was eager and curious to read The Space
Trilogy for my literature class in school. I honestly thought The Space Trilogy
was a little weird. It was geared toward the philosophical aspects of things
and while I have read Lewis’ other non-Narnia books like The Great Divorce and
Till We Have Faces, I found The Space Trilogy a little slow in places and
sometimes hard to follow. 6/10
Looking
for Alaska by John Green: Looking for Alaska was another book club book over
the summer. I liked Paper Towns, but LFA just felt like a rough draft with all
characters stripped of their likability. The plots were similar: dorky boy
falls in love with mysterious girl, but I didn’t care about the characters in
LFA and I’m not a huge fan of Green’s portrayal of teenagers as being obsessed
with drinking, smoking, and having sex. Yes, some teens are like that, but not
all of them. I also find it highly unlikely that everyone would have alcohol at
a no-alcohol boarding school. 2/10
S
by JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst: Someone described this book as “Every episode of
Lost dumped on your head at once.” While Lost is one of my favorite shows, I
couldn’t get in to S. It was basically telling two stories at once, one in the narrative
and one in the margins. I cared about the story in the margins, but not the
narrative. But I had to read the narrative to understand the margins. I didn’t
finish the book because it was long and I felt like I had to re-read it three
times to fully understand it. 4/10 (what I did read)
Harry
Potter and The Cursed Child by JK Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne: Oh
where do we begin? I was disappointed with TCC. The characters I loved were
still in it, but it centered on Harry and Ginny’s son Albus Severus Potter. Albus
struck me as a whinier and not as likable version of Harry. While it was a page
tuner, I thought some of the plot twists were far-fetched and a very certain
plot twist seemed to come straight out of a bad fan-fiction. It was obvious by
the way some of the characters acted that Rowling wasn’t the main writer. She
did make up for TCC with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a great movie
that managed to capture the magic of Harry Potter that TCC couldn’t. Overall, I
would give TCC 5/10
If you want to check out any of these books, they are all available on Amazon. Some of them are definitely worth the read.
Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
Final Fantasfiction
