One Dark Window, by Rachel Gillig, is a young adult gothic fantasy set in Blunder, an ancient world cursed by magic. Elspeth Spindle has her own magic, in the form of a spirit trapped in her head whom she calls the Nightmare. However, all magic comes with a cost, and Elsepth must find the twelve Providence Cards to cure Blunder and banish the Nightmare from her mind before it is too late. Luckily, she stumbles upon the Captain of the King’s guard, who just might be able to offer her the help she needs.
Grendel, by John Gardner, is a mythological retelling of the classic epic Beowulf through the perspective of Beowulf’s antagonist, Grendel. As the novel progresses, the reader, for the most part, follows the chronological events of Grendel’s life, and how he came to be the unforgivable and widely feared monster in Beowulf’s tale.
Animal Farm by George Orwell is a classic literature short story, or fairy story, about totalitarianism. The story takes place on Manor Farm, where various farm animals initially live with the owner named Farmer Jones. However, the animals’ rebel and drive Farmer Jones out of the farm after a speech from one of the wise pigs. The animals are left to run the farm themselves, and two pigs named Napoleon and Snowball are assigned as leaders. The events that follow demonstrate the impact of a totalitarian government.
The fourth book in Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, The Battle of the Labyrinth, is in my opinion the worst of the series. Despite being the worst, it is still a solid book. The Battle of the Labyrinth begins after Percy and friends return to camp where they find an entrance to the labyrinth. They are given the information that Luke is planning to lead an army of monsters through the Labyrinth in order to attack Camp Half-blood.
The Titan’s Curse, Rick Riordan’s third book in the Percy Jackson series, is another great book in the series. In my opinion it is the most underrated of the series. The story starts with Percy and his friends heading back to Camp Half-blood with two new recruits. Artemis, a goddess, decides to go on a quest and sends her hunters back to Camp Half-blood in the meantime. While there, the oracle gives a quest stating five should go, and two will die.
Rick Riordan’s second book in the Percy Jackson series, The Sea of Monsters, continues the story with Percy and his friends finding trouble with the tree protecting Camp Half Blood when they try to return. Realizing this, they try to get a quest, however Percy’s nemesis Clarisse gets the quest instead. Percy decides to sneak away from Camp Half Blood anyways with Annabeth and his half-brother Tyson.
Jonah and Dylan hate each other. No, really, they do. Dylan hates that Jonah can’t stand not being the center of attention for even five seconds and Jonah hates that Dylan is a perfect rich boy who sucks the fun out of everything. Their hatred for each other is not lessened by the fact that everyone thinks they’d be perfect for each other. When a circumstance presents itself, Dylan proposes a plan- if they fake date, they can stage a fake breakup, and everyone will stop expecting them to go out for real.
Gilly is a thief, and she doesn’t really see a problem with it. Her family needs to eat and isn’t everyone just using their skills to get by? She does however have a problem when her talent gets her sent to fairy tale reform school, a school taught by the villains in the stories of the princesses, not that she likes them much either but still, who all claim they changed their ways and are teaching others as well. Gilly has to play nice for the next three months to get back to her family to help them again but what will happen to her in that time?
Sophie Evans doesn’t need her life to be more difficult. She is already having a hard enough time, she can't figure out what's missing when it comes to her design portfolio and without that she can't get into her dream school, but a certain boy didn’t get the message. After the annoying first encounter, their relationship is much more sour than sweet, but it looks like she’ll be stuck seeing Andrew because his dad, a formerly famous chef, is running a mentoring program and her best friend’s dad, who runs a catering company, is part of the program.
Ella was just a normal girl before she was swept away to a castle with her prince but is her life really as picture-perfect as she expected it to be? Ella Brown isn’t as happy in the palace as she expected. She’s uncomfortable about the new rules that surround her. She has spent so long doing everything herself she has no idea what to do when she is now expected to have everything done for her. Ella got to where she is now all by herself and now, she has to wonder, is here really where she wants to be?
