Written By: Delaney Norris, Staff Writer
REVIEW:A discussion about books an unqualified girl has read and is ready to give opinions on. Possible spoiler warnings.
Shadow and Bone Trilogy
While you can discredit this review because this fantasy series was definitely not made for my age group, (definitely tween territory) I still want to talk about it. In efforts to branch out of my comfort zone of pretentious novels written by men who have been dead for at least twenty years, I decided to pick up Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone trilogy, and over the past month or so, I have followed the main characters through the three books-Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, and Ruin and Rising. The book begins by introducing the two main characters, Alina Starkov and Mal Oretsev, best friends who have grown up together as orphans and are now part of their countries Ravkas first army. Mal is a skilled hunter and fighter, while Alina is considered weak and mousy, sticking to cartography instead of being a soldier. To make a long explanation very short, in the world of Ravka, there are a group of people called grisha (basically wizards) who are able to harness different elements such as water, wind and fire to fight. During the course of the first book Alina is discovered to be a sun summoner, a rare summoner that is capable of solving Ravkas problems (trust me-they got issues). Alina is brought back to the castle to harness her powers and meets the Darkling, a powerful grisha. Anyways, Alina finds out Darkling=bad and flees the castle and starts to plan how to stop and overthrow the darkling and fails – meaning Bardugo can write two more books about her precious sun summoner. If you want to know more read the books because it’s time to rant. Considering Alina is a sun summoner, objectively the most powerful grisha of her time besides the darkling, why is her bud Mal having to swoop in at every climactic scene to save her? You have the power to cut a mountain in half (took her like five minutes to figure out how to do it) but when a giant bird swoops down to attack you you can’t defend yourself? I’m not blaming the character herself; I’m just mad the author decided to make an embarrassment out of her main character just so she could have a trauma bond with every male character she comes into contact with. Let her fight her own battles. I cringe every time this girl can’t stand up for herself. Sorry.
Normal People
Normal People. A book that swept booktok off its feet and made countless girls dedicated fans of author Sally Rooney. Consider me easily-influenced because I bought this book after hearing countless awestruck reviews. The story follows Marianne and Connel, two classmates who have grown up together but have little in common. Connel is popular and outgoing at school while Marianne is lacking in the friend department. The two become friends (with benefits) and continue to have a secret “relationship” throughout high school. The two grow apart in college, but slowly find their way back to each other. To make a long story short, the two constantly get together and then ghost each other again and again because they literally can’t communicate with each other to save their lives. The first thing I need to get off my chest-never in my life have I read a book that uses no quotation marks for dialogue!!! Huh?! Sally Rooney is crazy, I truly believe it. Despite this concerning issue I carried on and finished this book. Before I give my opinion that I’m sure you are salivating at the mouth for because what I think is super important, I sold this book as being loved by all in the beginning of my review. What I didn’t mention was that there are also dedicated Normal People haters who are willing to passionately hate on this book at the drop of a hat. Keep this fact in mind as I prepare to give my personal opinion on this book. Drumroll please…I fell in the middle ground on this book. Did I forget to mention that the middle ground is also a popular area for people that read this book? I didn’t think the story was awful by any means, but the miscommunication trope utilized throughout it drove me nuts.