Teen and Staff Reviews

Brave New World, an iconic dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley has been called prophetic

for its striking predictions of the future—a future that our society seems to be approaching. Gone

are the notions of love and connections; humans are bred in labs for specific societal roles,

citizens are told to pursue relationships with multiple people solely for pleasure, and the

totalitarian government controls the populace via soma, a dangerous drug with seemingly no side

This book is so sweet. I love how the main character’s perspective changes

throughout the book, and she’s got an amazing attitude. The characters are

great, the writing is great, everything is great!

This book follows main character Caymen Meyers, who works in her family’s

porcelain doll shop. All her life she’s observed the rich who walk in the

shop’s door, looking for an expensive doll. And if she’s learned anything, it’s

that the rich tend to have a short attention span.

Summary:

Paul Atredies, born into a futuristic dystopian society as royalty, must unpack his true destiny

when he travels to the desert planet of Arrakis, a rugged, worn-torn planet, containing the most

valuable resource in the universe, spice. For nearly 80 years prior, the royal house of Harkoneen

had ruled over Arrakis, harvesting spice at the Emperor's will, the ruler of the Great Houses

including the Atreides and Harkonnen. Suspiciously, the Adredies, by order of the Emperor are

I loved this book so much! Picture Twilight, but replace vampires with

werewolves. And I know that can sound kind of lame, because when you

think of werewolves you think of the general stereotypes, but Shiver really

puts a good twist on it.

In the science fiction novel I, Robot, Issac Asimov explores the ramifications of the

development of robots in a series of nine short stories. The story starts by introducing our

narrator, a journalist, who is interviewing the now retiring robot psychologist Susan Calvin. Ms.

Calvin, a seventy-five-year-old woman with a Ph.D., has worked for U.S. Robot and Mechanical

Men for fifty years; during which, she has watched the slow yet thorough integration of robots

In the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez highlights the

complexities of human relationships, feelings, and fate. This story follows the Buendia family

through the generations covering both the founding and ruin of the town of Macondo,

juxtaposing the growth and decay of the town with the family. Macondo starts isolated from other

forces but slowly grows and becomes synonymous with fortune and power. Similarly, the

In the Historical Fiction novel Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert details the tumultuous

love story between a depressed wife and an unparalleled loving husband to highlight the evil

inherent in the upper classes. The wife, Madame Bovary, is a farm girl who has spent her life

trying to be a maiden like in her childhood fairy tales and marries a country doctor, Mister

Bovary, who will do anything to satisfy her. This includes doing whatever she wants, being

In the historical fiction novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte tells the life story of the

Vengeful Heathcliff as retold by a guest of his estate after being informed by a maid who cared

for Catherine Earnshaw from young till now. A young man of unknown origins, Heathcliff grows

up the apple of his adopted father's eye, leaving the man's actual children belligerent. An

immoral relationship unwittingly forms between Heathcliff and his sister, Catherin Earnshaw, one

In the fictional novel Zombie, Joyce Carol Oates tells the story of a serial killer with a

very twisted obsession. The main character, who calls himself Q_ P_, is a seemingly average

thirty-one-year-old male from a well-to-do family that attends college; however, beneath the

surface, he is a convicted sex offender who dreams of possessing an utterly subservient dark,

strong man. To accomplish this dream, he spends the book experimenting with different

In the play-write A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry describes the resulting conflicts

in a poor African American family, the Youngers, who suddenly acquire a large sum of money:

10,000 dollars in life insurance from their father's death. Within the Younger family household,

we have Lena younger, her two adult children Beneatha and Walter, Walter's wife Ruth, and her

and Walter's child, Travis. Together they are staying in a small two-bedroom apartment that