After losing her mother, Cecelia moves in with her famous grandmother, who writes psychological thriller books for a living and has an almost cultish fan base in the town she lives in. Cecelia quickly becomes caught up in the town’s drama and mystery, as well as a possible murder that greatly reminds her of one of her grandmother’s books. Upon doing her own research, she soon finds that her mother based the book off of a true story that the town never solved. However, it is unclear whether the current murder that brings the town into a web of corruption and mystery is based off of the original murder or Cecelia’s grandmother’s book. She teams up with new friends in order to find the truth about both murders and bring justice to a longtime cold case.
I really enjoyed this book. I found the pacing to be quick and engaging. Additionally, the narration was very relatable and felt extremely real to the reader. The plot kept the reader guessing and the resolution to the murder was not overly obvious or completely obscure, so the mystery was tied up very well and it did not feel like there were many loose ends. I also liked how the book explored many different themes like political corruption, grief, and social class, instead of focusing solely on the murders.
The way that the book presented a very different kind of murder mystery than I’ve ever read before was very interesting and memorable. I liked how different it was that the characters were trying to solve two murders at once and observing the similarities between the two deaths. I also liked how the plot shined light on the history of the town and how it tied in to the murders. I found this memorable because other mysteries tend to focus solely on the murder at hand and nothing else.
In a very intense private school for boys who would otherwise not have an opportunity for education and success, the strict and often irrationally cruel Principal Moore made a lot of enemies during his career. One seemingly ordinary day, a gunshot goes off while three boys are in detention and Principal Moore is found dead. The three boys, JB, Ramon, and Trey, are immediately accused of committing the murder. They all have motives that seem to fall into place, but these boys believe that they are each innocent. While enduring questioning and scrutiny, they discover the flaws and corruption of the criminal justice system. Due to this, they decide to launch their own investigation and hopefully clear their names.
I really enjoyed this book. I found it to be extremely well-written and engaging. Not only did the characters and their individual struggles seem so real, but the mystery kept me guessing the whole time. I especially enjoyed how the author explored topics like corruption, race, and class while weaving it flawlessly into the murder-centered plot without anything feeling out of place. I also enjoyed how the book drew attention to how the media only shows the side of the story that they present to the audience. I thought that all of these highlights of society were done very well and flowed nicely with the plot of the story. However, I did feel like there were minor subplots mentioned throughout the story but were never resolved. For example, the students continuously run into a teacher outside of school and speculate about the different aspects of the teacher’s life, such as when she was seen with a police officer or went on maternity leave without being pregnant, but despite the amount of time that the author spent on this subplot, I felt like no conclusion was drawn and these seemingly important questions were left unanswered when the book ended.
One memorable thing about the book is the flawless blend of the exploration of difficult topics, like the parallels between race and class and the handling of the criminal justice system of these parallels, and the fast-paced and engaging murder mystery. I thought the author did a great job with this story and drawing attention to these issues while keeping the primary focus on the murder. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys murder mysteries or anyone who likes a diverse cast of characters who stand up against social issues and fight for themselves.
“What The Fact” is a book that discusses the good and bad places of information and how to avoid fake news. The book is divided into five sections. The first section talks about false information on the internet and how to recognize it. The second section discusses bias and how beliefs do not necessarily mean something is right. The third section talks about the press and news, although it may be perplexing for some readers. The fourth section talks about the effects of social media on the brain. Finally, the fifth section talks about different methods of convincing someone to do what you want them to do.
“What The Fact” is an important book that helps readers identify and avoid false information. The book covers topics such as biases, the influence of social media, and the importance of critical thinking. The examples in the book were helpful for understanding the concepts discussed. However, I found the political content to be boring and believes that the book could have been more effective with additional examples. The more supporting details, the better.
One of the parts of the book that stood out was the example of a person who decided to eat only bananas as a way to diet. This story was used to illustrate the power of social media, as the person’s extreme diet choice became popular and others began to adopt it as well. This trend took on a life of its own, and people became overly influenced by what they read online.
Emilie Hornby’s Valentine’s Day could not have gone worse. She gets late to school after hitting a classmate’s car, spills coffee over her outfit, and she sees her boyfriend kissing another girl. To top it all off, her father bears unwelcome news, making it all too much. Overwhelmed, Emilie goes to bed, ready for the day to be over… only to wake up and find that it’s February 14th all over again. She relives the agonizing events day after day, and at first, no matter how much she tries, nothing changes. Her car still gets damaged, and her plans with her boyfriend don’t work out. But as she starts to embrace the resetting Valentine’s Days, Emilie finds herself making use of the opportunity and unexpectedly getting closer to Nick. Breaking free of everyone’s expectations, Emilie wonders if she even wants everything to return to normal when the loop is over.
Although stories about a repeating day are nothing new, I’ve had good experiences in the past with this cliché and was intrigued by the summary. I’m happy to say that the book didn’t disappoint. Something that I really enjoyed is how once Emilie finds herself relatively free of consequences, she gets into a lot of fun shenanigans, and I found myself having fun with her. It speaks to how well the author developed Emilie’s growth from quiet and obedient to something more. It was exhilarating in a way watching her push past what was expected of her and letting loose, especially since I can relate, being a relatively quiet and obedient person myself. Emilie’s love interest was also fun, and they had good chemistry together. However, since it was mostly Emilie’s story, we don’t really know a whole lot about the love interest for a majority of the book. Additionally, the romance did move a little too fast considering only Emilie remembers anything from the previous Valentine’s Days, but it was cute enough to make up for that. One thing I didn’t like is the presence of miscommunication to create drama. Miscommunication is a trope that has been overdone in stories, especially in romance, as a way to create conflict. Although I do understand that miscommunication is a common trope in romance, I wish the story didn’t resort to it but gave us something more nuanced, especially since it felt a little abrupt and unfair for the characters. I do appreciate that it made sense within later context, but it felt like a copout from developing a better conflict to have. This story also ended up giving a hint as to why the never-ending loop happens in the first place; I personally wasn’t a fan of it, but it was touching. Although a few things slightly annoyed me, this book was overall very fun and cute, with lots of heartwarming fluff that I appreciated. It’s between 4 and 5 stars, but I’ve rounded down to 4 stars.
What was memorable about this book is the genuine fun that I felt while reading it. I think one of my favorite moments in this book is that at one point, Emilie receives a promposal (albeit pretend) that’s Cupid Shuffle themed, and it’s in public. In the context of that moment, the contrast of what the crowd thinks versus what’s actually happening is hilarious, both for the characters and for me. It’s one of those moments that amazed me with how fun it was.
Reviewed by Christine J., Twin Hickory Area Library
The Door of No Return is a short story-like novel following Kofi Offin. He grew up in a kingdom called Asante, modern day Ghana. Kofi has a brother called Kwasi who thinks he is better at everything compared to Kofi. Eventually, Kofi gets the idea to challenge Kwasi to a swimming race as he is much better underwater. This is around the time that a wrestling competition between Upper and Lower Kwanta happens. The Kwantas are the two parts of Asante. During the match, Kwasi faces off against the heir of the Lower’s throne, Yaw. Unfortunately for Yaw, he is killed after Kwasi accidentally knocks him out cold. Lower Kwanta wants revenge. They capture both Kofi and Kwasi. Kwasi is killed by Lower while Kofi stays in prison until a group tries to free them. They are captured by Lower’s military and are taken prisoner again. Eventually, Wonderfuls, foreigners who arrived in Asante, take them on a boat. Now, it is life or death for Kofi. Will he survive or will he drown with not even his swimming skills to save him?
This book resembles real life 1850s in many ways. I can see so many similarities to African culture. Wonderfuls are foreigners and how they put Kofi and other people on the board seems to be like the Atlantic slave trade. The time period backs that up as this is the 1850s and 60s. That would mean that this is happening during European colonization of Africa. Kofi describes the flag on the boat as having 7 red stripes and 33 stars, the exact flag of the US during 1860, so this would say that Americans came to Asante to take slaves. Asante is also known to have lots of gold. Real life Ghana is Africa’s lead gold producer. During the Atlantic slave trade, Ghana was ravaged for its gold. During the Atlantic slave trade, Ghana had two sides, one that embraced the colonizers, and one that didn’t allow these people in at all, perfectly matching the book. The location of Cape Coast Castle in the book is a real life location in Ghana. Even the location of Asante matches that of modern day Ghana. So, the book was based off of modern day Ghana is 1860 when the Atlantic slave trade was happening. Kofi was kidnapped and shipped off to slavery by Americans. Seeing all these connections really shocked me. It told me that Kwame Alexander put time into this book. He did his research on Ghana and put these clues in the book, or, I guess, just tells us that it is Ghana in the author’s note, but it was fun putting all these pieces to conclude what was the story of Asante, what happened to Kofi, and a lot of other mysteries surrounding this strange, African kingdom.
My favorite part of the book was when the wrestling competition was happening and how the author described the yam festival made by the real-life Asante empire. The wrestling competition was described beautifully. The plot twist that Yaw would die was a shocker as I didn’t expect him to die, just lose. That plot twist drove the story onward and explained how Kwasi got killed. Without that, the story would lose meaning. The main tie for the story was so good and frankly the climax of the story. Ties for the story in many other books are lost and the only purpose is to hold the story together. The tie in The Door of No Return is the polar opposite of that and I love it.
Overall, I give The Door of No Return a perfect 5 out of 5. All the pages are in short bursts, around the size of the average poem, just without the rhyming. Yet, the book is 398 pages of perfection. It makes up for the lack of words on the pages with a lot of pages. That makes the book long and neat. I recommend it to anyone with a taste for historical fiction or frankly the need for a good story to read.
HCPL TeenScene's Read + Review 