Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand - Brandon Lee

 Spoilers Ahead!!! 

 Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is a non-fiction story about a true story from World War II and an amazing survival

story of the main character Louis Zamperini (aka Louie). Louie was a famous Olympic star runner for team

USA, and was depicted as a hero before he got drafted into the air force for WWII. While on a bomber

mission to destroy a Japanese military base, Louie encounters a problem with the left engine. As the

plane begins to descend downwards, Louie braces for impact and the plane ends up crashing  into the

middle of the pacific ocean. Louis along with two other people stay on a raft for almost two months

until only Louis and his best friend manage to stay alive. On the brink of death, a shadow towers over them.

Louie’s celebration however, is short lived as both of the soldiers realize that a Japanese ship has found

them. 

The next chapter cuts to a scene of Louie and his companion along with hundreds of other

American soldiers that were captured by the Japanese in war. They are forced to stand in the hot

weather until the warden suddenly emerges from a building in the distance. He introduces himself as

Colonel Watanabe. Louie gets a rude welcome as he is continued to be punished and beaten for

standing up to the warden. Louie stays in this camp for about a year and faces multiple harsh

punishments. However, hope is found when the American military slowly captures military bases near

the camp and slowly reaches the camp until one day, the whole base is attacked and the prisoners are

forced to move to another camp. All of the prisoners are transferred to another Labor camp coal mine

where the conditions would be way worse. The temperature was significantly colder, and the living

conditions were also terrible. However, one last surprise awaits Louie and the rest of the prisoners

that might take away all the hope that they have. 

This book about the journey of Louis Zamperini was truly an inspiring and amazing story for

people who are new to this genre. I myself was not a big fan of non-fictional and war related books

or movies. However, after reading this book, I gradually started getting used to these types of plots.

The amazing plot of sharing real life experiences really allows the reader to take a deep dive on what

it was like to be a main character in a world full of obstacles blocking your way to success.

The resilience Louis and all the other soldiers have shows how much people will do and love their

own countries and origins. I highly recommend this book even for people who have not explored

these types of genres and to explore the deeper meanings hidden between the pages of the books.

The Silence Between Us - Book Review - By Naomi

What’s harder than being the new kid? Being the deaf new kid. 17 year old Maya is starting her senior year across the country and is convinced she’s going to hate it. Maya hasn’t been at a hearing school since she could hear and she’s gotten so accustomed to communicating with deaf or hard of hearing people. Using sign language to communicate was awesome and she could understand everything, however, now she’s going to have to rely on her interpreter and lip reading, which is not going to be easy…

Not to mention how Maya’s schedule is going to get busy. Between completing loads of homework to achieve her goal of working in the medical field and helping her single mother out with her brother who has cystic fibrosis, Maya is in for a really late night. But, she loves her mom and brother, so it should be worth it.

So, maybe Maya will be fine, I mean, aside from making friends, but she doesn’t need any new friends. That is until Maya learns her younger brother is trying to make friends, so perhaps she should as well in order to be a good example for her younger brother. If he can do it with cystic fibrosis, she can do it deaf. And hey, there’s Nina- a nice girl in her grade, one friend should do the trick. Except there’s also Beau… the student body president. To Maya’s surprise, he starts learning sign language and attempting to communicate with her, but Maya isn’t entirely sure what to think. Is it a prank, or is he being serious? Whether it’s his green eyes and dimples or the fact he’s trying, something makes it so Maya can’t help but be somewhat drawn to him… Would a hearing and deaf relationship ever work, though?

This heartwarming and thought provoking story is a 10/10 in my opinion and I highly recommend it.

How Shelby Romanticizes Toxic Romance by Disguising it Between Humor and Pathetic Worldbuilding (by Karina)

*All opinions regarding the book are purely my own. *

 

While women today face less sexism than those in prior years, the misogyny and blatant disrespect many women still face has yet to wholly disappear from everyday life, whether it's the pay gap, the pink tax, or even subtle dismissive comments left by those still thinking women inferior or refusing to acknowledge the strict social standards. Therefore, one might think a book in which the love interest is highly sexist, even going as far as forcing the main character into a marriage, would bring to light how problematic such behavior can be. However, I am sad to say this book not only romanticizes forced proximity with murderous strangers, but the plot is also so incoherent, not even that can be its ‘saving grace.’ 

The romantic, dual-perspective novel, “Serpent & Dove,” written by Shelby Mahurin and published in late 2019, takes place in the fictional country Belterra, a poorly constructed continent with real-world French influences where witches are outlawed, while religious, seemingly Christian, police (Chasseurs) are revered. The story opens with the main character Lou, a witch, and her friend Coco waiting inside a brothel, tracking down a man who supposedly has a magical ring the two girls must obtain. After receiving the ring’s location, they plan to steal the jewelry. But before going to retrieve said ring, a few scenes occur, allowing the reader to gain more information on the setting and time. These scenes mainly consist of the main character foolishly almost being discovered as a witch when running into what will be later introduced as the love interest, and second main character, Reid, an orphan raised by the church and heavily indoctrinated to believe all women weak, and all witches evil. The book continues as Lou finally commits to her heist, but is soon interrupted by the Chasseurs, but not before catching Reid’s eye when he regards her as a ‘dangerous and violent woman.’ Lou luckily manages to escape, and here is when the book begins its downfall to ‘rock bottom.’ 

After Lou’s grand escape, the reader is met only with filler scenes as Lou colorfully explains her opinions of the previous ‘attack’ for a few chapters until she is once more found by the Chasseurs. However, Lou’s quick thinking has her pretending that Reid is an ungentlemanly pig who’s getting too handsy when he jumps to make an arrest and plays off the passersby reactions. This scene leads to the Chasseurs reluctantly making Lou seem like Reid's wife, so his attack seems more ‘just,’ as it then appears like a man simply ‘punishing’ his disobedient wife. Lou then somehow agrees (which is something arguably unlike her character,) because she thinks she’ll somehow gain protection from the men who would wish her dead if they knew her origins. I believe this scene marks where problems truly begin in this novel. Not only does this scene feel rushed, as if it was only written to force Lou and Reid together, but it also could’ve been entirely avoided had the author incorporated a similar scene when the heist took place. Personally, I find the scene only helped further solidify pre-existing ideas, such as Lou being smart and quick-witted and Reid having no free will and agreeing to whatever the Church says, meaning this substandard outdrawn scene had no place in the book.

Furthermore, everything from that scene onward is simply childish. Lou begins her protesting once Reid locks her in a room by herself all day by loudly singing explicit bar songs, despite agreeing to the arrangement. The following scenes include crude jokes, ridiculous behavior from Lou, such as sneaking out of the room by half-flirting with a 16-year-old, (Lou is 18), and a painfully slow ‘romance’ that closer resembles two puzzle pieces from different sets having been glued together. 

What frustrates me most is that every detail mentioned would have actually done well, had the author not transformed the book into an arguably bad comedy. Had Shelby (the author) taken the time to realistically configure the setting instead of littering French words in the middle of sentences, and continued portraying Lou as a strong individual like she did nearer the book’s beginning, Mahurin could have genuinely written the story as it was advertised: a romantic fantasy where two polar opposites find themselves in close proximity as they have to navigate the troubles of their different pasts, and learn to accept each other’s differences as they learn their opinions are not fact. While this idea may sound more cliche than what the author wrote, I believe it is better than pumping out another toxic YA (Young Adult) romance targeted towards those aged twelve and older.  

My last critique is on poor worldbuilding and wrong culture. Shelby wanted to create a fictional continent with real world French influences and traditions, something which, if done right, could have provided a fresh world in the Fantasy genre, since not many other books include such ties into real life. However, the book displays a clear lack of research. Nearly everything including French culture is surface level, and includes only the barest of further details, such as pastry shops and occasional French names and words. One of the lakes belonging to the fictional country is quite literally named, “L’Eau Mélancolie,” translating to “The Melancholy Water,’ a basic name lacking thought. For a book dealing with religious indoctrination and forced marriage, one might expect names with more complex nature, perhaps one relating to a real body of water in France. When writing with a specific country in mind, research is vital, as otherwise, you risk insulting that country's citizens by portraying their culture only as something fun to add into your story. 

Overall, this novel had arguably many faults, whether it be romanticizing forced marriage, dismissing sexism, or just having been sloppily created. Anyone looking for a story with serious plot and character development should likely find another read, as my only positive comments for “Serpent and Dove” are the following:

• Simple and easy read

• Some humorous moments

• Fairly decent writing that flows together

If you took the time to read all of this, congrats! If you didn’t and just skimmed… that's understandable, but you’re a meanie. 

The Blog in the Boat by Luke Stevens

Warning! The whole blog post is spoilers!

Hello readers, I hope everyone is having a swell day. Today I am writing to you all about the nonfiction story, The Boys in the Boat. The Boys in the Boat is a book following Joe Rantz, a member of the University of Washington’s rowing team, and their run to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Joe had a very rough life as a child, due to the fact that his mother died when he was a toddler, a fire burned his new house to the ground, and his parents ditched him when he was a young teenager. He struggled to make it through college without dropping out due to a lack of money, and often his favorite part of the day was his extracurricular: Crew, also known as rowing.

Joe was a part of an amazing freshman crew team. At this time the national championship of rowing was held in Poughkeepsie, New York. His Washington team, led by coach Tom Bolles, won by a fair share against the best schools in the country, such as California, their rival, and Harvard. 

Joe kept rowing for two more years and his junior year was the year the 1936 Berlin Olympic time trials were held. Before that, Joe and his team, now on varsity, won their rival match against California (the 1932 Olympic gold medalists) and again at Poughkeepsie, then took the time trial victory in the name of Washington. After last-minute fundraisers to get the boys to Berlin, they were off to Europe.

All of you should know at this time, Germans were preparing to invade their neighboring countries. This didn’t stop them from spending luxurious amounts of money on the Olympic stadiums and showing great spirit for their athletes. After winning the first-round race, the Washington team assumed they would get the best lane as the typical ruling was. But after some last-minute regulation changes, the American crew was put in the worst lane with the most wind; Great Britain was right next to them. Hmmm, suspicious, wouldn’t you think? Two of Germany’s greatest enemies at the time set up to fail. But that didn’t stop the amazing Washington crew from barely edging out a victory against the toughest competition in the world and winning the gold medal!

This book is a great read for a fan of any team sport, as one of the main themes is teamwork in the story The Boys in the Boat. I greatly enjoyed this book through all the competitions and importance not just for the boys in the physical boat, but for America. 

Thanks, everyone for reading, I will see you all in four weeks!

10/10

A Guy Guy's Search

I recently read a classic book called Fahrenheit 451 written by Ray Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian science fiction novel taking place in a future America where books are outlawed. Anyone found in possession of books is hunted down and arrested. Their house and all books inside of it, are burned to the ground by “firemen” who have nothing better to do since houses can’t catch on fire by accident due to new technology. 

Bradbury’s does a great job at comparing conformity and individuality of the characters. Most of the population blindly conforms to the government's ban on literature but there are a few who start to ask questions. Guy Montag, our main character, is a fireman who loves his job and conforms to the government blindly until he is confronted by a young girl who asks him many questions as young kids do. One question stuck with Guy and wouldn’t leave his mind. The girl asked, “Have you ever stolen a book instead of burning it?” This one question begins a revolution in Guy’s mind and sends him on a journey to search for himself and who he truly wants to be. 

I loved reading this book because I have never felt so invested or able to relate to a character as much as I was able to with Guy and Fahrenheit 451. I would strongly recommend this book to everyone in their teen years and older (which should be most people reading this so go read it!) since it will allow you to join Guy on his journey of self reflection and maybe you will find out something new about yourself. Oh, and also it's a great story.

Fun Fact: Ray Bradbury came up with the title of this book by calling his local fire station and asking the person on the phone what temperature paper burns. He didn’t even check if the information was correct (Although it is). 

Have a great day!

-Jameson