Author: lanina

Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman is a commentary on mental illness and generally explores the magnificent ways in which our minds work. It tells the story of a boy in highschool, named Caden, it explores his battles with mental illness and turns into a metaphor about his fascination about the ocean. It was very beautifully written and captures you easily. I would recommend this to anyone that wants to read a book that is written and has a less traditional format.

Looking for Alaska by John Green is a novel a coming of age book about a boy named Miles and a girl Alaska. I really liked this book the character’s are all well developed, Alaska specifically feels relatable to me as the reader. She is struggling through her young years in a very relatable way. The format of the book is also really interesting to me, it is broken into two parts; before and after. It is tragic, compelling while remaining pretty easy to read and follow. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading a coming of age story.

Stoner and Spaz is a novel about an unlikely friendship; Ben and Colleen. Ben has a disability called Cerebral Palsy meaning some of his body parts are heavy and numb which limits his life. he has always been quiet and reserved spending most of his time at school, the movie theatre and with his grandma. He loves the movies because he feels like it is the closest he will get too experiencing life, living vicariously through them. Colleen is a punk outlandish stoner and drug addict, she is challenging and a rebel. Ben and Colleen strike up their unlikely friendship when she goes to the same movie as Ben one night, she sits next to him and initially Ben is totally freaked that she is sitting with him. She ends up getting a ride home from the movie with ben and his grandma and throws up in the backseat of his grandmas car. She grows to really hate Colleen. From then on their relationship progresses, becoming friends and lovers. It is a touching story relating how two people who are so different are still capable of finding common ground and how they can have such a good influence on each other. Colleen breaks Ben out of his shelter and teaches him how to take risks and live despite his disability. Ben shows Colleen that she is capable of so much more than being a highschool drop out, drug addict for the rest of her life, he shows her what stability can look like and helped her make meaning of her life. I really loved this book it was easy to read and quick to get through. It was a beautiful example of the ideal exchange that happens between two people in a friendship or relationship. Ben and Colleen helped each other confront their problems and helped each other grow.

Creature by Amina Cain is a book of short stories, exploring at times the quiet lostness we feel in our identity and others a sort of uncomfortable horror. How those two things are actually relatable. The relation between finding yourself and turning that into the fictionalized yet realistic representation of how scary and dark that can be. What does it entail to become who you want to be? All the writing in this book is inspiringly poetic but not in a way that is confusing, for that reason I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates beautiful language but has a hard time understanding poetry.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is a story of the stereo typical “wallflower” and his name is Charlie. He narrates the story through a series of letters addressing his fundamental high school years, the letters are all written to “dear friend” which I found complimentary to the whole premise. It is like reading a journal, he isn’t telling us the story because he wouldn’t have the courage too; it’s as if you simply snuck into his room and read his journal. I think in many ways this book is an exploration of what it means to be a teenager and what it means to be in high school, the often daunting and discouraging experience of it; this book is about sexuality and mental health. Exploring this spectrum of real and perfect, and where we all exist on that spectrum and what the balance is. One of the most beautiful parts of reading to me is the experience of living through people and understanding their stories, Chbosky did that very well. Though this is fiction it is very much real. It is an experience that is not rare or revolutionary, it is simple and relatable but the care that was taken when writing this is beautiful. I would not recommend this book to someone who loves high school or someone who exists peacefully at the top of the social hierarchy. This books also covers some instances of sexual abuse and suicide so brief trigger warning. But overall I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone who wants to read it!