Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is a gothic novel set in northern England. The novel illustrates the complex relationship between Heathcliff—an orphan taken in by the Earnshaw family—and Catherine Earnshaw. Heathcliff’s desire to be with Catherine is made more complicated due their differing desires—Heathcliff’s desire for revenge, and Catherine’s desire to uphold her social status. Their differing desires, individual flaws, and family difficulties additionally stand in the way of their relationship.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas is a powerful novel following a black teenage girl named Starr Carter who is forced to see two of her childhood best friends brutally murdered at a young age. Starr struggles to fight against the discrimination and police brutality her entire community has faced--she is put in a situation where she must stand up for what is right. She has the choice to either stay quiet to protect herself, or speak up for those she has lost.
Summary: Want by Cindy Pon is a gripping cyberpunk thriller set in a future Taipei, where pollution and class disparity dominate society. The story follows Jason Zhou and his group of friends as they plot to take down Jin Corp, the company responsible for the environmental destruction and health disparities plaguing the city. To infiltrate the elite circles of Jin Corp, Zhou, and his friends undergo dangerous transformations and navigate a world of high-tech espionage and moral ambiguity.
The Dragonslayer is a graphic novel, the fourth book of a 7-book series called Bone. At the end of the third book, Thorn finds out that she is the technical princess of the Atheia, and that a war might start with the rat creatures again. They decide to leave the barn in case the rat creatures try to track them. Now, in this book, as they journey through the forest, they get attacked by the rat creatures and Kingdok, who they fight back against.
“It seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart.”
The Salt Grows Heavy follows a silent mermaid, abused and tired of captivity, who leaves her castle to wander the dying the world. Her daughters, thousands of horrible teeth-filled creatures roam what’s left of the world. The mermaid finds companionship in an androgenous plague doctor, who’s spend their life being pulled apart and pieced back together. What kind of chaos will the two get into together?
“Female psychopaths, researchers eventually realized, don't present like the males. To which I respond: No shit. We women have an emotional wiliness that shellacs us in glossy patina of caring. We have been raised to take interest in promoting healthy interior lives of other humans; preparation, I suppose, for taking on the emotional labor of motherhood - or marriage; either way, really. Few women come into maturity unscathed by the suffocating pink press of girlhood, and even psychopaths are touched by the long, frilly arm of feminine expectations.
Throne of Glass is a novel written by Sarah J. Maas. The main character, Assassin Celaena Sardothien, is given a chance to earn her freedom from grueling labor in the Endovier mines. Her one shot at freedom depends on her winning a competition that will make her the kingdom of Adarlan’s Royal Assassin. After a year in the mines, she is already weak and malnourished putting her far behind the rest of the competition.
One of Us Is Back by Karen M. McManus is the third and final installment in the Bayview High YA mystery/thriller trilogy. Following the resolution of the previous book, One of Us Is Back opens with a reunion of all of our favorite characters.
Mad Honey is a fiction novel by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan. Olivia McAfee is a beekeeper in a small New Hampshire town, living with her son, Asher. The new girl, Lily Campanello was found dead and her boyfriend, Asher is put on trial. Throughout the book, the perspective switches between Lily and Olivia. Many things are questioned in the book and trust is on the line.
