My rating for this book is a 4 because the books plotline was great but this book didn't stand out that much and the plotline was confusing at some points throughout the book.
Summary:
This book is based around the character Nora. Her birthday is the day that her mom died in a public shooting. Exactly a year after her mom dying she and her dad head into a canyon in the Arizona desert. A flood happens which takes away her father. Nora then has to survive all by herself in the hot desert and has to find a way to save herself and her dad.
This was a realistic fiction story based on a real event that really made you see what hardships people go through when they are left marooned with less than 10 other people. You meet a boy named Quill who, along with other boys and a few adults, gets on a boat to a remote stac (an island made of rocks and boulders) where they hunt birds to bring back home to the people back at their island home. He had already made this journey and was seen as a leader throughout the book. Sadly, the boys on the boat didn’t know that mysteriously nobody would come to take them home.
Lord of the Flies is a psychological novel by William Golding and stars a group of British boys who crash-landed on an uninhabited island. These boys, ranging from ages 7 to 12, are just normal children who start to panic when they realize that they are the only survivors, and no adults are there to protect them. However, everyone soon realizes their newfound independence and are excited to use it.
The book begins with the finding of Chris McCandless’ body by Alaskan hunters. Chris McCandless changed his name after college and traveled to Alaska to start his journey. In Alaska he gets rid of all materialistic things such as money. He goes to Alaska to explore and be present with nature. The book gets accounts from the people he met while in Alaska and his family back home. The book poses a debate about if he was suicidal going on his journey to Alaska or not.
The book opens up with a boy in a school uniform on a desert, named Ralph. We soon realize that he is not the only boy stranded in this desert. Their plane crashed and they are the survivors. Ralph and another boy that goes by the name Piggy, fight over leadership. Piggy believes that the group will be stranded for a while so they need to get supplies but Ralph believes that the group needs to find all survivors that are in the desert. The group votes for Ralph and he establishes a form of government that lets the boys do what they want and to enjoy the time without adults.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding is about of a group of young boys who end up on a deserted island due to a plane crash, and the book explains how they all act after leaving the structure and normalcy of society back home. Golding critiques human psychology and the ideas of how humans operate when survival is on the line. Although the novel can be a drag at some points, the actions of the boys and the thought processes that occur allow for great discussion and thoughts about human behavior.
Khaled Hosseini's historical fiction novel A Thousand Splendid Suns tells the story of two Afghan women, belonging to different generations, from the early 1960s through the early 2000s. Both women are born in different circumstances as Mariam is the illegitimate daughter of a rich man and Laila is the daughter of a teacher. Mariam is forced to marry a shoemaker from Kabul when she is fifteen and Laila's life is turned upside down when her parents are killed.
The Canyon’s Edge is a kind of boring and an emotional realistic fiction novel by Dusti Bowling. This book is about a girl named Elenor. Ever since the shooting that killed her mom, she and her dad have isolated themselves from the world. After a year Elenor and her dad go to a canyon where no one goes. Elenor’s dad feels a canyon flood and pushes Elenor to safety, but he gets carried away by it, now Elenor has to find and rescue her dad.
Be Not Far from Me is an adventurous and kind of boring thriller novel by Mindy McGinnis. This book is about a girl named Ashely, she and her friends go hiking in the Smokies. Her boyfriend Duke cheats on her with his ex-girlfriend. When Ashley sees this, she is shocked and runs in the opposite direction of the camp. She gets lost and eventually finds her way back. When she’s found, there are tons of reporters that want to interview her.
Matt Damon plays Mark Watney in Ridley Scott’s science fiction film, The Martian, made in 2015. Mark is abandoned on Mars after a big storm comes through the crew’s camp. His fellow astronauts including Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain) and Chris Beck (Sebastian Stan), escape Mars safely, but leave him behind after coming to the conclusion that he had died due to debris. Mark makes contact with the crew and with NASA back on Earth and communicates with them to try and get him off the barren planet.
