Book Beat Reviews

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by Victoria “V.E.” Schwab

Hi, I am Sarah. I am fourteen years old and an avid reader; it is one of my favorite things to do. Inspired by authors’ creations of magnificent places and surprising havens built by simple letters, I aspire to be an author and, meanwhile, nurture the love to write.

What if you were fated to live an endless life of liberty, as much time as you could desire and the freedom to do what you truly liked with it? If you had the choice, would you take it?

            That’s the story of Adeline LaRue, born in 1691 and destined to the short and depressingly drab life of a woman in a small, Catholic, French town in the seventeenth century. So she prays and prays for freedom, and eventually, someone—an old god, a powerful being of darkness—answers and grants her wish.

But it is not who she asked for, and it is not granted in the way she imagined. 

Fated to live a life as long as she likes but one no one will remember. Unable to say her own name or make any sort of mark upon the world, Addie LaRue begins a long, lonely existence. She takes it day by day, year by year, until it is 2014, in New York City. She happens upon a little bookstore where someone—unthinkably, impossibly, finally—remembers her. 

The premise alone is enough to draw me into this story, but the way it is written is remarkable. The picture painted of the centuries of time and humanity and art that Addie experiences is rich and exquisite. Hers is a life of pain, of desperate loneliness, but it is, in a way, the life she asked for and she is determined not to waste it. Adeline is determined to experience life, even though she cannot influence it. And that is what she does. 

The format, the characters, the plot, and the gorgeous prose are all reasons to pick up this book and devour it. However, it does contain mature content and is shelved in adult fiction. 

Find it in print, ebook, eaudiobook and CD here.

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

Hi, I am Sarah. I am fourteen years old and an avid reader; it is one of my favorite things to do. Inspired by authors’ creations of magnificent places and surprising havens built by simple letters, I aspire to be an author and, meanwhile, nurture the love to write.

Humans are strange and domineering creatures. In some ways, we are far more advanced than any other creature on the planet. In others, we are perhaps far more primitive. However, there is no question about our influence. Whether it be the extensive impact of global warming, our vast and sprawling populous, or simply the fact that there are 18,710 different locations of McDonald’s on every continent except Antarctica, the visibility of our impact cannot be ignored.

In The Anthropocene Reviewed, John Green, a former book reviewer, sets out to review various elements of the anthropocene, or the current geologic age in which humans exist. This collection of essays, rated on a five-star scale, are on topics ranging from plague, to the internet, to monopoly. These essays are funny, insightful, detailed, and intricate. Above all, these writings seek to understand our human-centric earth, explore the paradox of humanity, and find the earnestness within it. As Green put it, “you cannot see the beauty which is enough unless you make yourself vulnerable to it.”

This book is filled with quotes and insights that are original, thoughtful, and collective. But one of my favorites proceeds the knowledge that humans, however much we like to separate ourselves from our planet, are made of the same atoms and the same chemical elements as the Earth. In a sense, we are Earth. And so, simply and beautifully, the author surmises, “What a blessing to be Earth loving Earth.” 

What a blessing, indeed.

Find it in print and eaudiobook here.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Hi, I am Sarah. I am fourteen years old and an avid reader; it is one of my favorite things to do. Inspired by authors’ creations of magnificent places and surprising havens built by simple letters, I aspire to be an author and, meanwhile, nurture the love to write.

Cora is enslaved, like her mother was before her. Generations of her family lived and died in bondage. Cora is enslaved and she doesn’t want to be, because no one wants to live like that: three-fifths human with none of the rights, living under unbound suppression. Cora wants out, but she was born into a white man’s world. Even if she runs, she has nowhere to go. The path to the fabled free North is impassable for someone who looks like her.

            But finally, the shackles of plantation life pull too hard so Cora runs, and she finds the mercy of the Underground Railroad; a system that shuffles enslaved people from the chains of Georgia and climbs through the South. It is not perfect. Fear grips every move. There is no one to trust here. Kin betrays kin in a relentless, sickening war waged against Africans. But Cora will prevail. Cora wants to be free, even if she’s never known what freedom means. And so she runs.

            This book for adults is hard to read, but necessary. This book does not gloss over the hateful and ugly roots of our nation, but it is truthful. This book is the story of Cora, and it is the story of the millions of enslaved people in America: those in bondage, those who died there, and those who searched to be free of a racist world. Because eventually, Cora must stop running. She, like any other human on this planet, was never property. 

Find it in print, ebook, and eaudiobook and CD here.

Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman

Hi, I am Sarah. I am fourteen years old and an avid reader; it is one of my favorite things to do. Inspired by authors’ creations of magnificent places and surprising havens built by simple letters, I aspire to be an author and, meanwhile, nurture the love to write.

Language is a very powerful tool. 

Call Us What We Carry shows that and more: that language is, yes, a powerful tool, but it is so much beyond that. Language is a radiant sun of the smile of a loved one, long missed and newly seen. Language is a shared word, a relationship, a connection. Language is the embrace we’ve dreamt of but lately have never felt. Language is a bridge that spans a vast and turbulent sea. 

Storytelling is comprised of the power of language, but its touch reaches deeper. If language is a bridge, storytelling is the person who crosses it. Storytelling, like language, is human. Storytelling, as Amanda Gorman tells it, “is the way unarticulated memory becomes art, becomes artifact, becomes fact, becomes felt again, becomes free.” 

This book of poems is pure, poignant power. It is cultivated, collective compassion. It hears. It sees. It speaks. It is the unparalleled beauty of language at its peak, at its rise, at its beating heart. It is empathy for the world we have created, the world we experience, and the world we live in. It must be read softly and deeply, and over again. It must be cherished. It must be cared for. It must be heard. In the climate of COVID, things can be scary, but this book tells us that “to care is how we vow/that we are here/that we are./It is how we break/free.” 

Find it in print, ebook, and eaudiobook here.

Night by Elie Wiesel

Review by Ella; dreamer, ski racer, writer, and rock climber. Ella lives in SV, Idaho with her mom, dad, cat, dog, gecko, and fish.

Night by Elie Wiesel is a memoir of Elie’s life between 1944 and 1945. It is about his experience being a Jew during World War II.

At the beginning of the book Elie lives in the town of Sighet, Hungary. When the Nazis occupy Hungary the Jews in Elie’s town are forced into small ghettos. Soon the Jews are herded into cattle cars and their journey is full of horrors. Then they arrive at Birkenau, a sister camp to Auschwitz. When they arrive Elie and his father are separated from the rest of their family and unbeknownst to them, see them for the last time. They pass the evaluation and on their way to the prisoner’s barracks see the furnaces where Nazis are burning babies. Eventually they arrive in Buna and are put to work in an electrical warehouse. During this time they are barely being fed and are on the borderline of starvation. The Russians start to get close and the camp is evacuated. The prisoners are forced to run over 50 miles to a concentration camp called Gleiwitz, and many die from exhaustion and exposure to the cold. After a deadly journey on cattle cars, they arrive in Buchenwald and Elie’s father dies of dysentery. On April 11, 1945 the camp is liberated.

I would definitely recommend this book for those who don’t mind serious subjects. It is heartbreaking and eye opening. Some of the main themes of this book were father-son relationships, loss of faith, and man’s inhumanity to man. I will remember this book for the rest of my life. 

Find it in print and eaudiobook here.

Inkling by Kenneth Oppel

Review by Ella; dreamer, ski racer, writer, and rock climber. Ella lives in SV, Idaho with her mom, dad, cat, dog, gecko, and fish.

Inkling is an amazing story about hope in the time of sadness, and how you can find your way back to joy.

Ethan’s dad is an artist and has produced many world renowned comic books. His sister Sarah is sweet and won’t stop talking in the third person. But Ethan doesn’t know what he is. He is devastated about his mom’s death, and he is worried about his family.  He is mad at his dad for not caring anymore. Ethan has a drawing assignment at school and it is stressing him out! Everyone assumes he can draw, because his dad can, but in reality he can’t. It makes him question his self worth.

But, that night Inkling is born, maybe out of need or just because. Inkling is a blob of ink, born from Ethan’s dad’s sketchbook in the dead of night. Ethan meets Inkling the next day and they are fast friends. Inkling agrees to help Ethan with his school project but is soon found by Ethan’s dad. Ethan’s dad wants to use Inkling to draw for him and keep him locked up. Ethan finally wears him down and makes sure Inkling has the freedom he needs. When Inkling is stolen by a greedy girl in Ethan’s class, his family starts to fall apart and a monster is made. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone. This book was really fun and fast paced and I enjoyed how it touched on more serious topics while still staying lighthearted and funny.

Find it in through Interlibrary loan here.