My Review of: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis: The terrifyingly prophetic novel of a post-literate future.

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.

The classic dystopian novel of a post-literate future, Fahrenheit 451 stands alongside Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World as a prophetic account of Western civilization’s enslavement by the media, drugs and conformity.

Bradbury’s powerful and poetic prose combines with uncanny insight into the potential of technology to create a novel which, decades on from first publication, still has the power to dazzle and shock.

My Review: I read this book for my English class, I’d heard good things, but I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with it like I did. I read this book in almost one sitting. I didn’t realize how much I really loved Ray Bradbury’s work until I started reading it for school, and I’m definitely going to have to read more. I definitely recommend reading it for anyone who hasn’t yet, and that’s surprising if you haven’t, it’s over 60 years old! Which is crazy! His work in this book predicted the future, quite literally, even if he didn’t mean to do that. TV’s that take up whole walls? Bluetooth’s? Everyone’s addicted to Prozac? It’s like he knew what was going to happen. The characters in this book are amazing, definitely seem like real people, and they’re not forced to act, it’s like they told him the story and he wrote it down. It flows together amazingly. I could totally imagine this book being real, only black and white and with people from the fifties, or at least that’s how I imagine it to be. It seems amazingly futuristic, but not so much, if that makes sense. There’s no flying cars, there’s no robots taking over, there’s no alien invasions. The world is the same world as it is now, only technology has advanced. I don’t know what else to say. This book is amazing and I couldn’t put it down for a second while I was reading it. I loved it. It’s actually one of the few books that I would read again and again, which doesn’t happen very often. Thanks for reading.

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My Review of: Amy the Astronaut and the Flight for Freedom by Steven Donahue

Amy the Astronaut and the Flight for Freedom by Steven Donahue
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis: Twelve-year-old Amy Sutter steals the experimental spacecraft Liberty Bell to rescue her father and his colleagues from alien captors called the Crownaxians. She is pursued by Lt. Yale Brown, the officer in charge of the ship’s security, who has orders to bring back the Liberty Bell at any cost.

My Review: I received this book from the author, in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for giving me the chance to read it! I know two stars seems a little low, but two stars means that it was okay, (or so goodreads says,) and that’s my honest opinion. It was okay. I didn’t love it, but I liked reading it. The cover is alright, it looks interesting. I would probably pick it up and read the back of the book if I saw it in a book store. There were a couple parts of the book I liked, like how she’s twelve and going into space, I mean how cool would that be? And how she went to another planet and met aliens, but that’s kind of all I liked. It’s a good read, however, there were some problems I had with it. For instance, I didn’t really get to know any of the characters, I can’t tell you what they look like, and that’s a problem, especially when there’s aliens involved. I couldn’t tell you a thing about them, except that they’re Crownaxians, and that they’re from a different planet. I didn’t get to know what the planet was like, but it must have been something close to earth, because they didn’t need breathing apparatuses or anything like that. There’s a part in the book when Amy, falls and hits her head, and she’s unconscious for six minutes, and without oxygen to her brain. She wasn’t breathing for those whole six minutes, and then she just wakes up like nothing happened, and there’s no brain damage or anything. Lucky girl. That’s it, though. The story was interesting, but I didn’t fall in love with it or anything like that. Definitely check it out and see how you like it yourself! Thanks for reading.

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My Review of: Cipher (Cipher #1) by Cindi Madsen

Cipher by Cindi Madsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis: Summer Davis sees deaths before they happen. She attempts to live a normal life by focusing on the dance team and her quarterback boyfriend. But then the way-too-cheery Angel of Death shows up and tells her she’s a Cipher—a person chosen to help people who are going to die resolve problems with their loved ones. Ashlyn Moore, one of Summer’s classmates, is going to die, and she needs Summer’s help before that happens.

It’s nearly impossible to get through to Ashlyn, who surrounds herself with chess nerds and geeks and makes it clear she doesn’t want to be friends. Desperate to complete her Cipher task before it’s too late, Summer turns to Troy, the guy who’s always been there for her and one of the few people she can trust. With his help, she makes progress. In fact, the closer she gets to Ashlyn and her friends, the more she feels like she’s finally found where she belongs.

As the clock starts running down on Ashlyn’s life, Summer decides to change her objective. She’s going to save her new friend before it’s too late—even if it means messing with fate.

My Review: A cute book. I liked it. It’s not my favourite, but I definitely didn’t hate it. The characters were interesting and not really flat at all, they were like people I could know in real life. Outside of bookland, if you will. Anyways. The story was alright. I feel bad for Summer. She tries so hard, just to fail again and again. I don’t know how she keeps at it, all those people dying even with her trying so hard. Sure, she wasn’t really a nice person at the beginning of the book, I mean she is a nice person, but she tried not to be to fit in. I know what that’s like, everyone goes through that at some point in their lives, I’m sure. Ashlyn was probably my favourite character. She’s sweet, and she sticks up for what she believes in. She didn’t want to let Summer into ‘The Misfits’, their group in school, but once she realized that Summer wasn’t what she appeared to be, she calmed down and they became friends. This book is a typical high school story for most of the book, and there are parts where that small Cipher twist is embedded. It’s a good read. Definitely check it out if you get the chance. I like the cover, too. Thanks for reading!

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My Review of: Vivian Apple at the End of the World (Vivian Apple #1) by Katie Coyle

Vivian Apple at the End of the World by Katie Coyle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Vivian Apple never believed in the evangelical Church of America, unlike her recently devout parents. But when Vivian returns home the night after the supposed “Rapture,” all that’s left of her parents are two holes in the roof. Suddenly, she doesn’t know who or what to believe. With her best friend Harp and a mysterious ally, Peter, Vivian embarks on a desperate cross-country roadtrip through a paranoid and panic-stricken America to find answers. Because at the end of the world, Vivan Apple isn’t looking for a savior. She’s looking for the truth.

My Review: I received this book from netgalley, after requesting it. I read a sample of it in Buzz Books 2014, and decided I’d give it a chance. It seemed good, after all. A little churchy, but that’s what this book is about. Vivan Apple is just a teenager. She never expected the rapture to be real, and was surprised to find out that her parents had vanished, supposedly through two holes in the ceiling. It happens. She’s confused, scared, alone, and broke. She doesn’t know what to do. Instead of wallowing in her sorrow like she wants to, she gets up, leaves her empty house, and goes on an adventure with her best friend Harp, and their new mysterious friend that they met at a party, Peter. Everyone’s in a panic. What really happened? Why did it happen? What to believe in? Where did everyone go? And through their frantic road trip, they eventually uncover the truth. And it’s nothing like they thought it would be. This book is an awesome story. I know it took me a while to get through it, but honestly, I really liked it. It was fun. The characters were a little flat at times, but as I got to know them better I liked them more and more. I think Harp was my favourite. Definitely check it out if you get the chance, the apocalypse is waiting! Thanks for reading. (‘:

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