By: Leticia Buggs-Sam

‘Until They Bring the Streetcars Back’ serves up a nostalgic journey through the streets of post war, 1949, Saint Paul, those wistful days of sodas, big band music, and burning leaves.

A harmless prank, a chance conversation, and Cal Gant stumbles onto cruelty, incest, and murder when he attempts to save a girl, named Gretchen, from her abusive home.

‘Until They Bring the Streetcars Back’ is about teenagers and how their lives are in and out of school, and what they go through on a daily basis.

Gretchen is one of the characters where she’s so not social with people at school or anywhere, and where she has a very abusive home and a strict dad. Her dad does not let her talk to boys. And when she met Cal, she was afraid that she would get in trouble from her dad.

Gretchen also had a crush on Cal but Cal had a crush on somebody else at the time. Gretchen and Cal talk to each other everyday. At first it was hard because Cal was popular and Gretchen wasn’t. People started to say that Cal and Gretchen were together and they started to make fun of their relationship/friendship. The people in school are like that because they know that Cal can do better and find a better girl, and they just think that Gretchen is weird.

While I was reading this book, I had the following questions:

I thought she was not allowed to talk to boys?
Yes, she’s not allowed to, that’s what made their friendship/relationship so secret from her dad because she was afraid of what her dad would do to her. So, Gretchen and Cal started to make a plan to meet in secret on when to do it, how, and where. And from there, friendship started.

Who was the girl he liked if not Gretchen?
He liked a girl named Lola. In the book you can see that for homecoming he did not take Gretchen out to homecoming but instead he took someone else. And in the begging of the book he claims that he does not like Gretchen, he likes Lola and that’a what he told his friends.

Cal is another character that struggles with things from home and school, his parents fight but they’re still together. Cal is an athlete that plays football and basketball. He was having some difficult times because he got caught up in Gretchen’s problems at home.

Another difficult time is where he tries to get his dad to come to his games. His dad always says “Yes” or “I don’t know” or “Just no, I’m too busy with work”. He never ends up going, and it shows that how much Cal wants to hang out with his dad more and make memories with his him.

And another difficult time is when his mom said stay out of people’a business it’a not your problem and their’s. Well, he had a difficult time with that when he met Gretchen and got sucked into her problems at home.

In the end, it was a good book and I would give it 4/5.

By: Stephanie Caballero

Warning: Before reading please note that this book involves topics such as sexual assault, pedophelia, eating disorders, and abuse. Only eating disorders and abuse are discussed in this review. 

This review/summary includes spoilers.

‘Living Dead Girl’ by Elizabeth Scott is a young adult novel. We follow the story of Kyla, known as Alice, through the book. Alice is 15 and currently living with her abductor. Alice was taken at the age of 10 by Ray. Ever since that day, she has had to forget her entire life before Ray.

During her time with Ray Alice has to endure many types of abuse. To keep the appearance that Ray likes she has to maintain a frail body and less than 90 pounds.  Alice struggles to keep that weight as she is a growing 15-year-old.  When she is able to go out she sneaks food that ends up being thrown up.

Alice’s appearance matters a lot as it’s what keeps her from being punished or killed by Ray. She is to maintain a child’s body, shave every hair that grows on her body, and stay feminine. The punishments she received for not being to his liking were things such as standing for days or being starved.

Alice (Kyla) is not the first Alice; Ray has abducted many other kids/teens before her who he also named Alice. Most Alice’s end up dead after the age of 15-16 then he gets a new Alice. 

Although Alice is given much freedom and opportunity to escape, one thing keeps her from not doing so, is her family. From the moment when she was kidnapped to now, Ray has always had power over her by telling her that if she escapes he will kill her entire family.

Alice is given false hope by Ray by saying that he has never had a favorite Alice but her. He tells her that soon he will get a new Alice which makes Alice (Kyla) happy even if it means she will die. As the time approaches for a new Alice, Alice begins to grow excited, she is happy that he will capture a new girl and that she won’t have to play into Ray’s fantasy anymore. She says to Ray that she will find him a new Alice and will shape the future Alice to be as perfect as she is. 

Alice finds a little girl who she thinks will be perfect to play into Ray’s fantasy. She begins to hang out with her at the park every day more and more to try to get closer to her. When Kyla and Ray are about to capture her, Kyla begins to remember everything she went through which causes her to not want to give the little girl up.

In the end, Kyla ends up stopping Ray, leading to both his and her death. Kyla is at peace with herself in her final moments, not regretting her decisions and finally going against Ray.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to people who enjoy reading graphic things and about crime. Once again, please note that this book does involve topics such as sexual assault, pedophelia, eating disorders, and abuse. This book is a tough one to read, but definitely worth it.

Overall, I would give it a 8/10 as I liked how at the end Alice accepted that what she went through was difficult and that she didn’t need to put someone else through it. I would have given it a 10/10 if we had gotten more background about Ray and his past victims. 

By: Julia Sikorski Roehsner

*Warning – minor spoilers

Readers of ‘Renegades’ or ‘Heartless’ by Marissa Meyer may be familiar with ‘The Lunar Chronicles,’ written by the same author. ‘The Lunar Chronicles’ is a series of sci-fi fantasy young adult books based on Grimms’ fairy tales.

There are four main books in the series—‘Cinder,’ ‘Scarlet,’ ‘Cress,’ ‘Winter’—along with an accompanying book of short stories (‘Stars Above’), a villain backstory novella (‘Fairest’), and two graphic novels (volumes one and two of ‘Wires and Nerve’).

The first book, ‘Cinder,’ is a loose retelling of the classic story ‘Cinderella’ set in a futuristic version of planet Earth, focusing on New Beijing. Technology has advanced, and hover cars and androids are parts of daily life.

The future is not without its strife. On the faraway moon dwells a more developed race of humans, the Lunars. Earthens live in constant terror of the Lunars, as the Lunars are capable of manipulating human bioelectricity.

As well, in an eerie reflection of today’s COVID-19 virus, a plague known as letumosis has swept across the world, and a cure has not yet been developed.

Within this tangled web is a single girl by the name of Linh Cinder. Cinder knows nothing of her past and is forced to live with her abusive stepmother, who despises the fact that Cinder is cyborg—parts of her body replaced by metal and wires. One of the few bright spots in Cinder’s otherwise dismal life is her talent in mechanics.

Cinder’s world changes when the soon-to-be-emperor of the Commonwealth stops by her repair booth asking for help. Kai doesn’t know that Cinder is a cyborg, and has no reason to believe that she’s any less than a “normal” human. Impossibly, the prince and the outcast begin to fall in love.

Unfortunately, nothing is that simple. After Cinder’s kind and gentle stepsister, Peony, contracts letumosis, her stepmother volunteers Cinder for antidote testing, a certain death sentence for Cinder. Yet Cinder discovers that she is inexplicably immune.

Meanwhile, Prince Kai is struggling to balance his nation’s needs and the demands of the ruthless Lunar queen. The last thing he wants to do is marry the power-hungry Levana, but with her tantalizing offer of a letumosis cure, for the good of the Commonwealth Kai can’t justify saying no. Even if it means risking his life. If only he could find the mysterious Princess Selene, the rightful heir to the Lunar throne who supposedly died years ago, but is thought by some to be alive and in hiding.

I quite enjoyed ‘Cinder.’ I was a little overwhelmed at first by the plunge into Cinder’s world, but as the reader is introduced to characters and their motivations, the story breaks itself into bite-sized, understandable pieces. The protagonists are likable, and it was easy for me to sympathize with them from the beginning.

I also liked Meyer’s writing style. It’s not overly complex, but it also isn’t simplified to the point of being boring. It was interesting to have the story mainly focused on one character, but to hear from multiple points of view. I found the writing to be appropriate for a fantasy novel with a teenage cast and a young adult target audience.

The plot line of ‘Cinder’ definitely drew me in, but as a reader who generally doesn’t see what’s coming next, I found many of the major plot twists far too predictable. Guessing them before they were revealed certainly didn’t ruin the story for me, but the surprise was obviously lacking. I would mainly attribute the predictability of ‘Cinder’ to it being Meyer’s debut novel.

In the first book of ‘The Lunar Chronicles,’ Marissa Meyer weaves a story of love and war, tension and heartbreak, and leaves the reader desperate to find out what happens next. I give it a four out of five star rating.

By: Abisola Dosunmu

In a kingdom named Carthya, war is coming. To bring the divided people together, a nobleman named Conner devises a plan to find an orphan boy who looks enough like the king’s son, (who was thought to be lost at sea) and may be the last link to the royal family, as the entire royal family—king, queen, and heir— all recently died under mysterious circumstances. His plan includes three orphans, one of which is a cunning thief named Sage. Sage knows Conner’s plan is far from honorable—yet he’s forced to play the part of his puppet as his life hangs in the balance. Yet as more lies unfold, and more blood is shed, one lie becomes more important than the rest and all of it comes down to a single question.

Who’s really the puppet?

‘The False Prince’ is the first book in a five book series written by Jennifer A. Nielsen, and the name of the series is called the Ascendance Series. I read the books for the first time in 8th grade, and now they are one of my favorite books to read. From the fleshed out characters, to the humor, to the cliffhangers and the various twists and turns, once you start this book, you can’t put it down.

The book immediately introduces us to Sage, a clever and wily orphan, trying to steal some meat from the market to share with the other boys at the orphanage. He is quickly apprehended by Conner and loaded into Conner’s wagon along with the other orphans he’s found, Roden, the athletic one, Tobias, the smart one, and Latamer, the sick one.

When they finally stop the wagon, Conner reveals his plan to the boys. He’s trying to find the orphan boy who looks and acts enough like King Eckbert’s youngest son, Prince Jaron, who had been missing for the past four years. His plan is that whoever is named to be Prince Jaron can stop the country from going to war. The boys have two weeks to learn everything there is to know about being a prince, and then to be able to fool the king’s court into thinking they’re Jaron.

After that, Conner tells them that any boy who wishes to abstain from his plan can do so, and Latamer, being as sickly as he is, decides that he can’t be the fake prince because of his condition. Conner tells him it’s fine and he can return to the wagon, and Sage immediately senses something is wrong and tries to warn Latamer. Before he can, Cregan swiftly shoots Latamer with an arrow, killing him before he even reaches the wagon. The boys now understand that it’s too late to back out of Conner’s competition.

Sage is soon trapped in Conner’s deadly win or lose all game with the two other boys, just to have a chance to be Prince Jaron. The downside? The price of losing the game may be his life. As Sage moves from being a rundown orphan, to having the chance to be a king, and have everything at his fingertips, he’s racing against enemies, trying to save his life, his past, and most importantly, his country.

I definitely think this series is worth reading if you’re into medieval fantasy. I loved the humor, the fleshed out characters, the plot twists, the main character, and the way the book kinda threw you off and made you work to get to the conclusion.

I would rate the book a 4/5. The only reason I won’t give it a full review is that it’s not really a book that’s short and ties itself up quickly, which I understand kinda turns off some people from certain books (and I definitely had trouble putting all of my attention on the book, but it was worth it).

By: Julia Swee

Warning *Spoilers*

‘Angela’s Ashes’ by Frank McCourt is a historical memoir about a poor and troubled, Irish Catholic family in the middle of the Great Depression. The main character is based on Frank McCourt’s life, as he grew up in multiple different homes and came across many different circumstances along the way. Frank’s family consisted of his mom Angela McCourt, his dad Malachy McCourt, his little brothers, and one sister. The first brother Frank had was Malachy Junior, and then came Michael, Oliver and Eugene, and then Alphie.

As the story begins, Frank is a young child, and does not yet know the horrors of real life until he experiences his little sister Margaret’s death. She dies as just a little baby, and this absolutely crushes his parents. His dad is a raging alcoholic, and is rarely ever there for the family, never providing for them, and leaving them with no money as he spends it all on his drink. 

As Frank recounts his life in Ireland, he mentions different historical events and incorporates traditional Irish folklore into his stories. Frank mentions his favorite childhood story, “Cuchulain”, and develops a deep connection with the folklore character.

As Frank and family grieve over the loss of their sister Margaret, the depression hits them hard, as they struggle to find a steady place to stay. As they settle in the same place that Angela’s mother lives, they are struck with more unlucky circumstances as Frank’s little twin brothers, Oliver and Eugene, pass away from famine. This only sends the family into deeper depression, as they now have three missing children. 

As Frank begins his schooling, he feels the pressure and impact of the strict Irish Catholic culture. Frank is forced to succumb to the ways of the religion and its extreme values. A part of the religion values the act of confession to a priest, which plays a big part in the book as Frank relies on confessions to relieve his guilt for many things.

Although there are good priests who listen to Frank and his issues, throughout the novel Frank comes to notice how uptight and selective the church is of their people. When the church comes to play in Frank’s education, he feels as if he’s being controlled, which leads him to distrust his higher ups in both the church and school. 

As Frank grows with age, he uncovers secrets of his family, the church, and the world around him. He loses his innocence as he tries to figure out the right ways to go about life, leading him to eventually go off on his own.

He pockets money from his job selling magazines to save for a trip to America, where he believes he will find his passion in life. Frank uses many different anecdotes throughout his story to calm the truth of how truly horrific his childhood was.

In the end, Angela’s Ashes gives the reader a detailed and inspirational true story about a young boy navigating the scary world that Limerick, Ireland was at the time of the Great Depression. As the story comes to a close, with Frank finally finding his people in the great country of America, the reader is left with closure for Frank, and hope for a future of success.