Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (review by Fiona W. '21)

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Richard Mayhew is an average young man who lives in modern-day London with an average life and and average job. One day, he finds a ragged and bloodied girl dying on the side of the road that nobody seems to notice but him. He takes it upon himself to help her and learns that two assassins are chasing her, and a whole city resides underneath London that he never even knew about.

As I have been a fan of many of Neil Gaiman's books, I hoped this book would not disappoint. And it didn't. The character development of all the main characters was unique and fulfilling. The imagery of each scene made me feel like I was right alongside Richard. And the ending still had me in tears.

Gaiman mentions in the introduction that while he is not one to write a sequel, he would love to revisit the world of this book again one day. (And I hope he does, too). As someone who dislikes fantasy novels, this book changed my mind about the genre and I hope it may impact you, dear reader, as well. – Fiona W. ‘21


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Oh the Moon: Stories from the Tortured Mind by Charlyne Yi (review by Shannon H. '16)

Oh the Moon by Charlyne Yi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh the moon made me laugh and made me cry with hundreds of pages that flew by (literally, some pages didn't have words on them). The book is relatable, fun, and of course, mindblowing. The frankness of the stories gave me pause, waking me up from the banality of college applications. In one story, a woman who is ALL LEGS (literally) takes control of her destiny and runs away from her repetitive life. In another, two people who are in love are stuck in separate snowglobes -- whatever shall they do? I appreciated Charlyne Yi's randomness (like when an old lady gives birth to a giant on the second page), and her writing made me feel like she actually understood me and my optimistic cynicism (people say teenagers are the cross section of idealistic and intelligent/aware). Reading these short stories was an adventure in grasping odd metaphors, suspending disbelief, and finding the beauty of life.

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Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich (review by Andrew R. '17)

Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine, a sort of novel-in-stories that unflinchingly paints a portrait of Native American life in the modern world, opens with a beautifully elaborate family tree: the names get progressively more Catholic, the adoptions and marriages and remarriages more convoluted, as the generations pass. It’s a fitting way to begin this collection. Almost every person on the tree is featured either as a narrator or as a protagonist of one of the stories, but in my mind the three members of the oldest generation mentioned are the real heroes of Love Medicine. The lives of Nector Kashpaw (introduced in “Wild Geese” as a brash young tribesman), his future wife Marie Lazarre (still a teenager in “Saint Marie”), and their sometime ally Lulu Lamartine (who comes of age in “The Island”) are chronicled in full, from adolescence to old age, and it’s their obsessions and fatal flaws that ultimately give the book wings. Love Medicine has a rocky start: its younger characters, not nearly as complex or engaging as their grandparents, open the collection in a less-than-impressive introductory sequence. But the later stories are beautifully enough rendered to do their subject, the Ojibwe nation, proud.

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Bone Gap by Laura Ruby (review by Andrew R. '17)

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Laura Ruby’s Bone Gap, while almost effortlessly unique in its setting and characters, too often gets bogged down in the tropes of other genres—especially star-crossed romance and magical realism—to feel entirely convincing or satisfying by the last page. The rural Illinois town that protagonists Finn and Roza inhabit is summed up in consistent, symbolic motifs, which Ruby invokes whenever possible: bees, cornfields, gossip, and (most effectively) the “gaps” of the title. As successful as these images are, other aspects of the novel fall flat, ultimately distracting readers from the complexity of the setting. Classic scenes of teenage social cruelty, for instance, feel painfully out-of-sync with a rural setting that is otherwise frozen in the past, and incessant references to Craig Thompson’s graphic novel Blankets quickly grow stale—especially since Ruby seems oddly reluctant to refer to that novel by name. Perhaps most disappointing are the author’s halfhearted attempts at magical realism in certain scenes, which more frequently reek of coincidence than true enchantment. Roza and Finn’s shared story has plenty to commend it, especially to fans of less traditional YA fiction, but its restless shifting between disjunct genres rendered it difficult both to follow and to enjoy. - Andrew R. '17

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On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers (review by Elisabeth S. '16)

On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

On Stranger Tides details the adventures of former puppeteer John Chandagnac, whose ship is captured by pirates and who is forced to change sides and become a pirate at gunpoint. He becomes "Jack Shandy," to the pirates, and he inadvertently saves the pirate captain's life, thus becoming a full-fledged pirate. The book was neither overwhelming nor underwhelming, neither incredibly avant-garde nor too comfortably formulaic. Jack Shandy made for an enjoyable protagonist, though the novel gets kind of muddled two-thirds of the way through. The pacing felt too slow for the kind of blow-by-blow action-adventure book it's trying to be. It was also unfortunate that the female character was useless--too much of a damsel in distress. The romantic subplot felt too one-sided and like too much of an afterthought to engage the reader. However, the novel does improve with a highly intriguing magic system and strong characters like Davies, Blackbeard, and even Hurwood. Overall, On Stranger Tides was an entertaining read but not much more than that. – Elisabeth S. ‘16

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Beloved by Toni Morrison (review by Elisabeth S. '16)

Beloved by Toni Morrison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A warning: Beloved is not for the light of heart. Sethe is an escaped slave and mother of three that heads for Ohio with her broken family, having lost her husband in flight. The trauma that she has endured as a slave and during her escape haunts her, so she does her best to repress those troubling memories. With the appearance of a figure from her past, however, she slowly begins to question the choices she once made with the interests of her children in mind. This novel is based off of real events and will sicken, disgust, and cause you great despair and shame for the United States and slavery. However, this novel also involves supernatural elements, with the presence of a main supporting character who is a manifest form of Sethe's dead daughter. Overall, Beloved is recommended to anyone even a little bit interested in slavery for a new perspective, sorely needed as the years progress and the Civil War era seeps into the past. – Elisabeth S. ‘16

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Jinx by Meg Cabot (review by Anahita F. '17)

Jinx by Meg Cabot
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

To escape recent troubles in Iowa Jean Honeychurch, nicknamed Jinx, flies to Manhattan to stay with her Uncle Ted and Aunt Evelyn. She believes the change will be a fresh start and will make life easier for her, right? Wrong. Jean does not fit in with her upscale, posh cousin Tory and her friends who pass time doing drugs and practicing witchcraft. Jean refuses to join in either pursuit, knowing the dangers of witchcraft from experience. This outrages Tory, and she decides to plot against Jean. To make things worse, Tory and Jean start falling for the next door neighbor, Zack. The difference in culture between Jean’s hometown and Manhattan was well portrayed and I deeply sympathized with Jean as she adjusted to her new environment. In my opinion, the rivalry between the cousins was taken too far. Jinx is a bit cliché. Two girls are in love with the same boy and become enemies. Sound familiar? Nevertheless, Cabot plausibly captures the conflict between Jean and her cousin Tory without making the novel too fantastic and keeping the reader interested. - Anahita F. ‘17

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The Magicians by Lev Grossman (review by Monica K. '14)

The Magicians by Lev Grossman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Lev Grossman's The Magicians is almost impossible to enjoy. The darker, more mature cross between The Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter, The Magicians follows the school years of Quentin Coldwater, a miserable, isolated genius who is admitted into a secret university of magic. It unflinchingly (and increasingly depressingly) depicts his constant quest for happiness as he navigates his way through classic adult rites of passage. Despite its admirably ambitious thematic goals, the book fails to maintain a strong, engaging plot and ultimately loses the reader. – Monica K. ‘14

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When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (review by Mrs. Vaughan, Harker librarian)

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Stead's book accomplishes what I like best in a novel. The story of twelve-year-old Miranda is beautifully simple, yet littered with moments of wonderful insight.
Miranda is not especially anything -- not suffering some great injustice nor blessed with exceptional intelligence or beauty. Maybe it is her ordinariness that makes her and her story so hypnotic. When the story opens she's inexplicably estranged from a life-long friend and neighbor Sal. In the void, she ends up making some surprising -- and yes, even magical -- discoveries elsewhere. L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, a favorite of both the author and Miranda, provides a subtle time travel motif.
While When You Reach Me is at home in the genre of young adult literature, somehow it doesn't read like Stead was writing it just for teens. Adults should read it, too. This book is a lovely and perfect small miracle. - Mrs. Vaughan, Harker librarian


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