Val Muller

As a freedom lover myself, I absolutely adored this book! Yes, I know I just ended that sentence with an exclamation mark, but this book deserves it. This is a futuristic/dystopian novel set in a future civilization that loosely follows the traditions of the earth we know. The book follows Matty, a seventeen-year-old living in this futuristic society, as he is tested by the king to solve the mystery of “What was January Black?”

It’s going to be hard to provide much summary of this book. Since the whole thing is a mystery, anything I include is likely to spoil the fun of solving the mystery yourself. But I’ll give you a few important points: Matty is somewhat rebellious and is ashamed to have his father hold the rank of commandant. He prefers living freely, not under the watchful eye of the government, which his father only helps condone and enforce. Matty finds himself becoming friends with the king (and from the start, you will wonder about this. The king seems overly nice to Matty. Is there something up with that? Is Matty being set up? What are the king’s motives? You will wonder this, but you won’t find it out completely until the end).

Throughout the novel, there are references to artifacts and snippets of items from the Old World that have been all but lost: a snippet of Patrick Henry’s famous speech. A “Don’t Tread on Me” flag. Aging books in a world of e-readers. Matty seems naturally drawn to these artifacts of the Old World, and the king’s challenge only pushes him further into his obsession with books and research.

As far as everyone in the society knows, January Black is the name of the ship that was used to bring people to Columbia, the land where everyone now resides. But when Matty turns in his report explaining so, the king tells him he is wrong, and Matty spends the rest of the book trying to uncover the hidden truth. There’s an element of romance in the novel as well: Matty falls in love with Iris, a gardener (gardening is not approved for someone of Matty’s high social class, but he defies society and dates her anyway).

Without spoiling any more, I will say that we slowly learn that Matty’s society is a controlling one. Everyone is being tracked by the government, and it’s implied that this first started with “good intentions” such as the government being able to more effectively track citizens for medical reasons benefiting said citizens. But it seems things have swung too far toward a “Big Brother” government. I enjoyed watching Matty discover the hidden truths about his own government (which controls the country’s media content) and about the history of the country and why it is hidden. This is a great read for lovers of freedom and fans of American history. It’s fun but frightening to imagine how easily our world might turn in to Matty’s one day.

Yes, another classic. I’m teaching it again this year, so I thought I’d post a review while I’m thinking about it. This book is among my favorites. Mark Twain’s sense of humor permeates the story, yet there’s a serious underlying issues that he treats with intelligence and grace.

The story follows Huck Finn, a thirteen-year old boy living in Missouri just prior to the Civil War. Tired of being “sivilized” by the widow who has adopted him, yet terrified of his abusive, alcoholic father, Huck fakes his own death and runs away. On his way, he meets Jim, a runaway slave (and friend from Huck’s town) who recently learned he’s going to be sold to a plantation further south—far away from his family. Torn by society’s standards (it’s wrong to help a runaway slave, and the widow already told Huck he might be headed toward “the bad place” when he dies) and his own moral compass (Jim is his friend, and even though he is a slave, he seems strangely like a human being!), Huck decides to help Jim escape.

Using the lens of a thirteen-year old boy, Twain criticizes society of the time, making the statement that people are ignorant and cruel, and morals should be individually-calibrated, not dictated by others.

First, the ugly. This book has a history of being banned, but mostly because people have no common sense. Twain uses the n-word in this book more than two hundred times. As a result, some school districts have banned the teaching of the book. Some have even called the book “racist.” But the most important thing to understand is: this book is an anti-slavery, anti-racist work. Twain was trying to show, through ignorant (though comical) characters, how closed-minded humans can be and how it’s sometimes impossible when living by society’s accepted standards to do the right thing. Kind of ironic to have people boycotting the book and proving Twain’s sad truth about humans right, even over a hundred years later.

But the entire work is praising the anti-slavery movement (in fact, the book was written after the Civil War, but Twain still wanted to show his thoughts about the south, and racism, in general). The n-word in the book is used in a descriptive way, not a derogatory one (though, granted, the word itself has come to have a very derogatory connotation) the same way I might say, “there’s a hairless rat.” A slave is a terrible thing to be (and thus, to be called), but the term in the book is only meant to refer to a slave, not to insult it. On the surface level, the book is an adventure and coming-of-age tale. Huck encounters numerous friends and foes and goes on lots of adventures before everything works out (mostly) well in the end.

On a deeper level, the novel is a satiric look at society. Some key elements: at once point, Huck becomes involved with a family that has been feuding with another for generations. The go so far as to bring guns to church and scold each other for being too slow to arrive with a gun when the threat of their enemies is nigh. In another section of the novel, Huck meets two tricksters who call themselves the Duke and the King. They are despicable, but Twain uses them to illustrate the worst in humanity. At one point, they put on a “fake” Shakespearean play, raking in lots of money for tickets. When half the town is fooled and angered about losing their money, Huck thinks it’s time for the King and Duke to run away before they’re caught. But the King and the Duke know people too well: those who were tricked do not reveal the tricksters; rather, they allow the other half of the town to waste their money on the fake Shakespearean play.

I won’t go into more detail about plot summery—there’s always Sparknotes, as my students like to remind me—but I will say that this novel is humorous and touching, a satirical work with just the right amount of optimism. My favorite part of the book, though, is the ending. Huck returns to society and realizes that he doesn’t want to deal with people after all (a boy after my own heart!), and so he hightails it out West. It’s something I think we’d all like to do at times–even if just metaphorically.

As you probably know, this now-famous book is about an Indian-Canadian boy’s experience surviving at sea after a terrible shipwreck. But it’s about a lot more. It’s divided into three sections: the zoo in India, his time at sea, and his time in the infirmary in Mexico. It’s no surprise from the beginning of the book that he survives the shipwreck and lives to tell about it. The point of this book is not about the suspense of knowing whether he’ll survive.

While reading this book, I was slightly annoyed (but curious, too) about why the first 93 pages are mostly about Pi’s experience with religion and zoos (he, a practicing Hindu, becomes Muslim and Christian–all three simultaneously–to the confoundment of his parents). But Pi stresses the fact that there is one God/Truth/Reality, and all the different religions are just different ways of getting there. It’s an interesting read, and it definitely challenges that traditional way most people think about religion and—secondarily—zoos. This first section builds a necessary foundation, though, upon which the shipwreck narrative is stacked. It’s through understanding Pi’s beliefs that we better comprehend his reaction to his shipwreck and his actions to survive.

The next—and longest—section of the book details Pi’s experience surviving on a life boat for the greater part of a year—with a 450-pound tiger (named Richard Parker) on board. When he’s first on the ship, there is also a hyena, a orangutan, and a wounded zebra, but they quickly succumb. Then there’s just Pi and the tiger. Much of this section details the gritty aspects of survival. Pi has been a vegetarian all his life, and when the sea-biscuits run out, he has to rely on eating fish, turtles, and whatever else he can catch from the boat, to survive—as much as it pains him. There are some grisly details, but nothing worse than any other survival story. Though well written, this section was not stellar, and at this point I was wondering why this book became so famous. But wait for it.

Here’s where the spoilers begin. If you don’t mind the plot being spoiled, scroll down. But this last part made the book worthwhile for me, and the process of discovering it unexpectedly augmented my experience.

You sure you want to ruin the ending?

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The weirdness begins when Pi, on the verge of death, comes upon a floating island (this is after he had a “conversation” with Richard Parker, went blind, and killed another blind man who invaded his boat). The island is composed of algae that has somehow sprouted trees. To this point, the book has been filled with subtle allusions to religions, but at this point it becomes a bit more obvious. At this point, Pi has trained the tiger to respect him as the alpha male. Both Pi and the tiger leave the lifeboat to explore the island. Pi discovers that the plantlife on the island is edible, and the ecosystem is such that it filters out the salt from the ocean water, leaving pure, freshwater pools immersed within the island. The plantlife is sweet and a welcome change from Pi’s now carnivorous lifestyle. Richard Parker (the tiger) returns to the lifeboat every night, and Pi follows suit, worried that he will lose his position as alpha if he abandons the ship for too long.

The island is populated by countless meerkats. They are so inexperienced and sheltered on the little island that Pi can literally just pick them up, and Richard Parker can kill as many as he wants—they come to him willingly, like lemmings jumping off a cliff. It becomes tempting for Pi to stay on the island forever. There’s a clear connection here to the Garden of Eden. If you like analyzing things, you could have a field day here!

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Pi continues exploring the island, and Eden begins to fall. He sleeps in a tree one night (rather than on the ship) and notices that all the meerkats join him in the trees. Not a single one sleeps below. He awakens to see countless fish dying in the freshwater pools, yet the meerkats do not go down to eat them until morning. Pi further explores, finding a tree with strange fruit growing on it. A vegetarian, he is curious about the fruit, which he picks, only to discover it’s not actually fruit. It’s teeth, each one wrapped in leaf after leaf. Pi concludes that the island turns acidic when the sun is not out. The plants actually consume flesh (the “fruit” is the remains of a former, unlucky, inhabitant). Pi is disgusted and decides to leave. The Eden metaphor is less clean here, but one could analyze the nature of temptation and complacency. Would you stay on a near-perfect island, knowing that at night it became dangerous? Or would you return to the difficult and risky life on a tiny boat with a tiger?

Pi leaves.

He soon washes up on the shore of Mexico. There, he is taken to a hospital and interviewed by two Japanese officials who are trying to find out about the cause of the original shipwreck (which happened months earlier). There is some humor interwoven in this part of the book based on the fact that the “author” (the person who is writing down the story of Pi) got hold of a tape of the interview and translated the Japanese the interviewers used to communicate with each other while in the presence of Pi, who does not speak Japanese. Using this technique, the author shows the reader just what the Japanese interviewers really think about Pi’s wild story.

After some humor involving Pi’s squirreling away food, we learn that the interviewers do not believe Pi’s story. Pi tells them an alternate version of the story—this one much shorter than the original—in which the original animals on the ship were actually people (one of them his mother), and in which he was actually Richard Parker. It’s a disturbing story. One is left wondering whether it’s what really happened. Did Pi survive after witnessing the deaths of (and killing, in some cases) the other three people on the boat, and killing the blind intruder (something the tiger did in the original story)? Pi (and the author) withhold the absolute truth from the reader. It’s up to us to decide which story we believe.

With a narrator left to himself the entire time, and delusional on the sea from lack of regular food and water—and a habit of asphyxiating himself to enter a trance-like dreamworld—how can we trust him?

But in the end, it doesn’t matter. Pi has reminded us the whole time that there is one truth in the world. Each religion has its own path to arrive at that truth, but the religion doesn’t change the nature of the truth itself. Similarly, Pi has arrived safely in Mexico after the better part of a year at sea. Whether he survived with a boatload of animals or a boatload of people, the result is still the same. He reminds us that people, and religions (and he even considers science a sort of religion), love stories. They help us understand the world.

I recommend reading this book twice. Read it the first time with an open mind, and read it the second time with a questioning one.

This is the first book in the Fire Mage Trilogy. It takes place in a far future (our own time is referred to as “pre-apocalypse”) in which some have discovered their talents as Mages, finding the ability to do things like start fires with their palms or heal the wounded. Those without powers, lowly humans, are treated like slaves. The main character, Avalon, has run away from home, where she was a danger to her family because (as a fire mage) she had the potential to set things on fire accidentally. She also left home because her sister, a lowly human without any magical abilities, was at risk of becoming a slave.

Avalon escapes with a friend who was delivering a strange fox to Frost Arch. Feeling sorry for the fox, Avalon helps him escape and seeks employment at a wealthy estate in the area, where she is responsible for lighting fires and heating baths. At first, the tiny fox takes refuge in her room, but he soon grows too large and must stay in a nearby barn. The fox is definitely magical, though, sprouting wings and changing colors depending on its temperament.

While working at the estate, Avalon befriends Jack, who obviously has a crush on her (but Avalon is too oblivious and lacking in self confidence to see that). She also falls for one of the noblemen at the estate even though Jack and others have warned her against him. At the end of the novel, Avalon’s fox, which has become the size of a horse and can fly, is taken. At the same time, Avalon finds that she has lost her fire-making ability. Still, she is determined to save him.

Once I was thirty percent into the book, I flew through it, finishing it in less than a day. The plot will keep you turning pages despite a few grammatical errors (your vs. you’re and its vs. it’s, for instance). I felt that I wanted Avalon to succeed despite her denseness at times (Jack loves you!) and her lack of self confidence. I don’t want to spoil too much of the book–there are clues dropped throughout that will help you figure things out on your own, and that was part of the fun for me. I will note that I’m not a huge fan of fantasy books because of the excessive description, but this book kept my interest. The description was just enough to help me paint a picture, but it never over-burdened the story. It’s an intriguing premise, and I look forward to reading the next book in the series. It would be a fun read for a high-school student (or even an advanced middle-school reader) or an adult.

For a sci-fi, alien-loving dork like me, this book was right up my alley. I couldn’t wait to read it, and it didn’t disappoint. The book follows high schooler Kaila. For most of her life, Kaila was sheltered—home schooled and protected, even forced to wear a special hat or a black plastic head wrap under a wig so that “they” wouldn’t bother her. She’s always known something was strange about her. For instance, she can communicate with her pets using nonverbal communication like eye contact—almost as if she can tell what they are thinking. But despite her questions, her mother has never told her the truth—like why her eyes are so large, why she has only four fingers, why she is so sheltered, or who her real father is.

As the story begins, she insists on going to high school, where she learns just how cruel humans can be. But she also meets a group of students who, according to the principal, were part of a nearby cult and were recently rescued and being integrated into society. These kids are aptly nicknamed “aliens” and wear silver suits and have large eyes and other weird features—like four fingers.

Kaila knows something is wrong almost immediately, and her two new friends start to catch on, too. It becomes apparent that the “aliens” are—well, aliens! Like Kaila, they are half-alien/half-human, but they seem to have an “us versus them” mentality, and they want to know where Kaila’s loyalties lie. They accept Kaila to varying degrees, but Jordyn takes a special liking to her, and they soon become romantically involved. Kaila discovers that the plastic head wrap her mother forced her to wear actually blocks her psychic powers. The aliens at school, with the help of a teacher, teach Kaila about her abilities. She learns to bend time and space and change the memories and experiences of full-blooded humans. She feels especially torn about this ability, and the waters are muddied. Here is where I will stop giving things away.

I will say, however, that I enjoyed the combination of a fun plot, interesting characters and abilities, and philosophical musing. For instance, the aliens remind Kaila to still her mind and live in the present, rather than being distracted and hurt by thoughts of the past or the future. But at the same time, they encourage her to remain distanced from her emotions. There’s also an examination of faith versus science. Which one will lead Kaila to understand the truth? This book was well-written and compelled me to turn the pages from the very beginning. It’s a great read for a high-school student, but adults like me will enjoy it, too. I’ll definitely be following this author!

The book follows the lives of Donnie and Abbie, two teenagers who undergo more than their share of trouble. As the book opens, Donnie has just experienced the worst tragedy a teenager can face—the loss of both parents. After near despair, Donnie finds love with Abbie, a girl who (coincidentally, as he finds out later on) is the daughter of the woman his father died saving. While there are conflicts going on with Donnie and Abbie’s relationship, the important part is this: later in the book, they both become vampires. That’s right—the last 70 percent of the book follows what the first chapter discusses—vampires.

The strength of this book is its plot. It’s an intricate storyline involving a tribe of Nazi vampires bent on—well, being Nazis. Need I say more? Through the book, the reader learns that there is a sub-culture of vampires that the general public doesn’t know about. For instance, on their way to Canada, Donnie and Abbie realize that there are subtle signs out there leading vampires to “vampire-friendly” establishments where they can easily acquire willing sources of blood. My favorite scene, I think, is one in which the two protagonists meet a five-year-old vampire—that is, a vampire stuck in a five-year-old body. In actuality, the vampire is nearly 100 years old. The image created here—that of a wise five-year-old—is hilarious and clever. I also enjoyed the Native American culture interwoven through the book. Donnie’s mother was Native American and taught him some of her spiritual beliefs, which he uses to cope with the various terrors his life throws at him.

My complaint about the book is the pace. As I read it on Kindle, I was able to track the percentage completed as I read. While the first chapter goes into a bit too much depth about vampire culture (without much of a narrative hook), the next chapters—the first 30 percent of the book—detail the lives of Donnie and his friends before they become vampires. The first 30 percent of the book was almost enough to be a stand-alone novel. I kept waiting for the vampires to show up, and while there were a few subtle scenes hinting at vampires, there wasn’t much, and I felt like I was reading a teenage romance book. Once 30 percent hit, the vampire action started, and I was more drawn into the story. It’s a fairly long book, and I thought the exposition could have been strongly condensed, making a more concise and effective story.

It’s a good book for anyone interested in vampire culture. Once the vampire section starts, there’s a balance of romance, mystery, and action. For example, Donnie finds that he isn’t like most newly-made vampires, who become ravenous when they don’t drink enough human blood. Rather, human blood makes him sick, and he finds himself able to drink vampire blood, something he shouldn’t be able to do. While he and Abbie are training to avoid the handful of vampires who (for various reasons) want them dead, he’s also trying to figure out exactly what he is and how he became a vampire.

I read this book as part of a book tour with Juniper Grove. The above review represents my honest opinion.