The Bookshelf

  I honestly do not know what I was expecting from this book and I regret picking it for my final blog post but… oh well. Welcome back to another episode of me discussing popular YA books I did not enjoy. Today up on the chopping block we have Vampire Academy written by Richelle Mead.  Vampire Academy is about Rose Hathaway, a dhampir girl (half human half vampire) who is self absorbed, vain, and a self appointed not-like-the-other-girls. (because when can a female YA protagonist actually be a decent person.)  “I knew perfectly well that there weren’t a lot of girls at this school who looked as good in a bra as I did.”  Rose has a best friend named Lissa Dragomir who is a moroi princess. (Moroi’s are basically good vampires.) Throughout the story Rose trains to be Lissa’s guardian to protect her from evil. Specifically, the Strigoi, also known as evil and immortal vampires. The story starts out with Rose and Lissa on the run from the Academy they went to school at....

Gregor Samsa by Richard Johnson, 2013 SPOILER WARNING Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (die Verwandlung in German) is a one-of-a-kind novel about a man named Gregor Samsa who lives with his family in the German Empire (shortly before WWI). He is the main breadwinner of the family, working as a traveling salesman selling fabrics. Gregor does this to pay off his parents’ debt, and not because he enjoys it. This novel demands much of the reader’s attention, as its sentences are quite long (because it was translated from German). I found it very depressing and grim. You will see why very soon. One morning, Gregor wakes up to find himself in the body of a giant insect. This first scene is rather comedic, as he gradually inches himself out of bed. The story quickly becomes tragicomedy, however, when he can’t show himself, get dressed for work, and communicate with his family. He ends up missing the train twice, while still being stuck in his room. His family members are concerned tha...

  Hi! I finished reading Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardhoust last week, and I really liked it! I will summarize the plot of the book, and then share some things I especially enjoyed about it.  The book takes place in a fantastical place called Golvahar. It follows the life of a princess named Soraya, who is cursed to the touch. If anyone touches her, they will be poisoned and die. In fact, Soraya often describes how her veins turn green with poison every time someone touches her. She got her curse three days after birth, by a parik. This story has humans and magical creatures living side by side. The magical creatures inhabit a mountain in the woods near the city. Her mother ran into a magical creature called a div as a child, who promised to take her daughter as his bride. So, Soraya’s mother, Tahmineh, takes her infant daughter to the pariks to put a protection spell on her. But the ways of the pariks are mysterious, and they end up making Soraya deadly to the touch...