Book Review and Writing Lessons: Scythe by Neal Shusterman

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery: humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now Scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

Series: Arc of a Scythe (Book 1)
Genre: YA Science-Fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; Reprint edition (November 28, 2017)
Page Count: 464 pages

This book is definitely the most challenging book I’ve read this year. It’s not really a book for pleasure but a book to make you think, so for a while, I had trouble liking it but by the end, I learned to appreciate it for its themes. 

Monthly Wanderings: July 2020

July was a pretty good month! I feel like the months are steadily getting more normal as we get through this dumb pandemic. Maybe by Thanksgiving or Christmas, we can function like regular human beans.

(I apologize for the insane formatting. Something happened to blogger and my whole post screwed up)

Why I'm a Christian but Not a Christian Author

I’m a Christian but I want to break into the mainstream publishing industry. As of right now, that hasn’t happened but I want to shoot for the stars and see how close I get. Honestly, I feel like I’m in this awkward middle in my publishing views like I don’t quite fit into either but ultimately ABA (American Book Association) publishing won out.

Book Review and Writing Lessons: The Door Within by Wayne Thomas Batson

Aidan Thomas is miserable. And it's much more than the strange nightmares he's been having. Just when life seemed to be coming together for Aidan, his parents suddenly move the family across the country to take care of his wheelchair-bound grandfather. When strange events begin to occur, Aidan is drawn into his grandfather's basement where he discovers three ancient scrolls and an invitation to another world. 

No longer confined to the realm of his own imagination, Aidan embarks on an adventure where he joins them in the struggle between good and evil. With the fate of two worlds hanging in the balance, Aidan faces Paragory, the eternal enemy. Will Aidan be willing to risk everything and trust the unseen hand of the one true king? 

The answer comes from The Door Within.

Series: The Door Within (Book 1)
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Publisher: Thomas Nelson Inc; First Edition Third Printing edition (August 9, 2005)
Page Count: 316 pages

I’ve heard of this book for years but never got to it until recently. One of my good friends prompted me to get it while at Realm Makers and I even got the book signed by the author, but as much as I wanted to like it the story just didn’t do it for me. 

Writing Lessons from Movies: The Matrix Trilogy

Since I’m at home a lot more than normal I’ve had time to watch movies I’ve been wanting to watch for a long time and the Matrix trilogy was a franchise I’ve wanted to see for I don’t know how long. I watched the first one as a teen but that was like ten years ago and Netflix had all three so I binged them all. Normally I make these posts about movies, shows, and video games I absolutely adore, but this time I’m going to be more critical because this series had such potential then dropped the ball on the second and third movie. Besides the unsatisfying ending that I won’t go into cause spoilers, I’m going to go into some other nitpicks that would have went a long way. 

The Matrix is about a man named Neo who discovers that the world he knew was only a computer simulation created by machines to keep the human race pacified as they’re used for batteries for a nightmarish dystopian reality. He journeys with allies Morpheus and Trinity to save humanity for distinction and liberate those trapped in the Matrix.

Warning: Spoilers in point two.

Book Review and Writing Lessons: Hunger by Michael Grant

It's been three months since all the adults disappeared. Gone. Food ran out weeks ago and starvation is imminent. Meanwhile, the normal teens have grown resentful of the kids with powers. And when an unthinkable tragedy occurs, chaos descends upon the town. There is no longer right and wrong. Each kid is out for himself and even the good ones turn murderous. But a larger problem looms. The Darkness, a sinister creature that has lived buried deep in the hills, begins calling to some of the teens in the FAYZ. Calling to them, guiding them, manipulating them.

The Darkness has awakened. And it is hungry.

Series: Gone (Book 2)
Genre: YA Science-Fiction
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books; 1 edition (April 8, 2014)
Page Count: 608 pages

I've made it through book two of the Gone series and man, was it crazy! Things just get worse and worse for the poor kids of the FAYZ but thankfully, there was lots of hope along the way.