Fourth Wing

Book Review/Rant

This had to be one of my favorite books of 2023-2024! With drama, humor, incredible world-building, and friendships you just can’t stop thinking about, the book snared me from start to finish.

Characters

Violet Sorrengail- Violet was the main protagonist who narrated the book, and was the most savage, fun character! Violet is the youngest daughter of the famed Lilith Sorrengail, but her father was a scribe (not so esteemed). She had two older siblings, but Brennan [Her brother] died. (DRAMATIC GASP) All she has left is Mira, her older sister who is just like her mother. Throughout the book, Violet really grows from a fragile, naive girl to a warrior.

Ridoc-
Ridoc was one of my favorite characters in the whole book, and I cannot tell you how happy I was when he survived the whole book. He was the comedic timing this book sorely needed, and made me laugh, even after scenes that made me ugly cry. He was sweet, funny, cute, funny, handsome, funny, (I think you get the picture.) If it wasn’t for Xaden, Ridoc would be my favorite character! But, Xaden exists, so sorry Ridoc! If it had been any other book, you would have been WAY more appreciated!

Rhiannon Matthias- BESTIE #1!! From offering to kill and bury Xaden if he hurt Violet (‘Cause, you know, he kind of hates Violet’s mom), to standing by her even when she was breaking the rules, Rhiannon never wavered by Violet’s side since the beginning of the book and is now my favorite book bestie.

XADEN RIORSON- I JUST- WORDS- FAIL ME-

Liam Mairi- REBECCA YARROS, HOW DARE YOU?!?!?! WHAT GAVE YOU THE RIGHT???

Fluff
☁☁☁☁☁/5

This book killed me, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a book that will tear their souls from their body (If they still have one… I mean your soul, not a body. If you don’t have a body, you’re not human…AI’s reading this, I swear, I’m not insane)

Have a good weekend everyone!

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Top 5 Go-To Mythological Books

By Sara

#1- City of the Plague God by Sarwat Chadda

Grief is the most powerful motivator. And when a boy is faced with a challenge beyond anything he could imagine, it takes family, hope, and bravery to face not only his worst enemy, but the grief within himself.

Sikander Aziz is a normal teen in New York. He works part time at his parent’s deli, he works hard in school, and has friends. But when his brother dies, everything changes. Suddenly, he has to be someone who people can rely on, someone who his family can lean on as they face the grief together. But when a break in at the deli changes his life yet again, Sikander must once again change, and find a way to save his family, and the only world he has ever known.

A beautiful novel that shows how grief can change people, and how we can change with the grief, it gives a stunning new light to the idea of change, and how grief isn’t the end, but a new beginning.

#2- Pahua and the Soul Stealer by Lori M. Lee

Loss changes people. This is the story of a girl, who has to learn not only to become the person she was always meant to be, but accept the past she hides from.

Pahua was never normal. She can see spirits. Household spirits, harmful spirits, and spirits of the dead. But when she approaches the wrong spirit, her life gets shattered. On a mad race to find a way to recapture her brother’s soul that the spirit stole, she has to learn not only to accept people for how they are, but to accept herself as well.

A novel as clever, and deep as it is funny, it shows that acceptance and love isn’t just something you just show to others, but to yourself as well, and if Pahua wants to get her brother back, she has to accept herself and her past.

#3- The Storm Runner by J.C Cervantes

This is the story of a boy. An outcast, a freak, and a demigod. This is the story of boy who has to learn and accept that his differences are what make him special.

Zane Obispo has always loved just hanging around his volcano and being with his dog Rosie than being with actual people. Because of his deformity, kids call him Sir Limps-a-lot, Uno, McGimpster. All because of his one good leg. But a run-in with a girl named Brooks changes everything. Now, he’s on the run from demons, and this evil god Ah-Puch, just trying to stay alive. A war, hero’s, demons and giants? It takes someone who is flexible in the possible, to believe the impossible.

Beautiful, and in depth, this book shows that the circumstances you were born into don’t define you, but who you grow up to be shows who you really are.

#4- Pegasus by Kate O’Hearn

When you lose someone, you love, how does that change you? And if you find something that heals that hole in your heart, what will you do to help them?

Emily is an ordinary girl who has been through a lot. Her dad is an officer in the NYPD and her mother died a few months ago. Lonely, and quick-witted, Emily never fit in. But when Pegasus crashed down onto her apartment roof, her whole life is suddenly turned around. Caught in a world full of gods, evil creatures, and corruption, she has to delve deep into the world that has turned so murky to uncover corruption and deceit in the midst of the largest operation in the world.

Symbolic and cunning, this book forces you to look at the world around you in hopes of understanding how deep corruption is embedded into our own world and tests your own thoughts in how you see the world, and what you’re going to do about it.

#5-Lords of Night by J.C Cervantes

Have you ever felt like you don’t really belong? Like a stranger in your own skin? Then you understand how Renata Santiago feels.

Rens always been different. She has her own blog about aliens, and she wishes she could get more respect for her blog. She wishes she was ordinary. But even among the special, she is special. She has more power than all of them, and her best friend is the god of death Ah- Puch. But when a new threat rises from the darkness and threatens to consume them all, none of Rens friends can help. So, with the help of teenage demon and a monster hunter, Ren has to face this new threat that lies not only in their present, but murkily in their past.

A book that lies as much in the past as the present, it challenges classic ideas of mystery, and shows how often, we have to understand our past, to ever move into the future.

Honorable Mentions

Conclusion

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4 Must Read Middle-Grade Fiction Novels

By Sara

1# -Keepers of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger

In a book series as complex, as it is funny, Shannon Messenger challenges the very idea of what we consider to be perfection.

Sophie Foster is a 12-year-old genius. Offered a full scholarship at Yale, winning spelling bees at 5, Sophie was never what you would call average. But there was also something…….. different. Special. She could hear thoughts. When she is revealed to a world full of elves, beautiful and perfect, she thinks she finally belongs. But, even among the special, she is different. She has memories of things people want. Memories they would even kill for…….

A stunning novel, it challenges the idea of a perfect society, and how even a near-perfect world can have cracks. And how it takes special people to fix what seems unfixable.

#2- The School Between Winter and Fairyland by Heather Fawcett

What makes someone special? What makes someone lesser? And what makes someone a monster? The School Between Winter and Fairyland challenges these concepts we often don’t even bother to think of.

Autumn is a Speaker. She can speak and control monsters, her best friend is a boggart, and her twin brother is dead. That’s what everyone says anyway. But Autumn refuses to believe it. She’s going to find her brother if it kills her. When Cai Morrigan, the Chosen One, seeks her help, she knows what she’s going to do. She’ll help Cai on one condition……he helps her find her brother, Winter. But when they begin to delve into Winter’s disappearance, everything becomes murky. Who can be trusted? Who is the murderer? And…..what is Cai? Human, or monster?

This book is a beautiful representation of how the circumstances of how you were raised do not always define you. Your choices do. Your actions. Not the family, or status you were born to.

#3- A Tale of Magic by Chris Colfer

We often don’t think about things that seem normal to us but might not be to another. This book challenges you to look around at the world around you and wonder.

Brystal Evergreen is the daughter of a Justice in the Southern Kingdom, one of the most oppressive kingdoms of the Land of Stories. Brystal has always been different. She doesn’t want to wear fancy dresses and go to balls. She wants to read. But in the southern kingdom, if a woman tries to read, it’s considered an act punishable by law. When Brystal is caught reading and performing the worst act a person could do – perform magic- she is arrested and thrown into a compound for magical girls. Rescued by the kind Madame Weatherberry, she is taken, along with 3 others, to learn magic. But when an evil force threatens to tear the world apart, Brystal must learn sacrifice to save the only home she ever had.

#4- Masterminds by Gordon Korman

Who is a monster? What makes someone a monster? In this stunning novel by Gordon Korman, he challenges the concept of monsters, and forces us to question, what makes someone evil?

Five children, trapped. Trapped in a web of deceit and lies. Unknowingly cloned from the worst villains alive, these kids are an experiment. But what happens when your experiments turn against you? On the run from the people who want to trap them back into their “perfect town”, Serenity may seem perfect, but underneath is an ocean of deceit, hate, and illegality. Amber, Malik, Tori, and Eli are just kids. But what will happen when they find the people they are cloned from? And what happens when their perfect town falls apart? How far will these mad scientists go to get back their experiments?

This book shows that evil is not something your born with. It forces you to question what makes a person evil, and what can we do to save people from becoming evil?

Conclusion

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The Hypnotists

By Gordon Korman

What if you could make someone do anything without knowing how you’re doing it? What if, no matter how hard you tried to get rid of your ability, and become an average person, you couldn’t? Jackson Opus has that problem. He’s a Hypnotist.

Jax Opus was always a little different. He has these…. visions. It was as though he could see himself from another person’s eyes. And when these visions happen, Jax can make them do anything. He did not know what was wrong with him. Till a seventh-grade field trip changed everything.

Accepted into a prestigious academy of hypnosis, Jax is armed with the knowledge he is more than different, he’s special. Jax can do incredible things. But when something’s incredible, people want to use that power. Whether the cause is just is the question. Because sometimes, being special is the most dangerous thing of all.

In the thrilling first book of the Hypnotists series, Gordon Korman tries to understand the lengths some people will go to gain power, and the danger they create. A perfect 5/5 stars, I recommend this book to anyone who wants to laugh, cry and feel everything in between.

The Dragonfly Effect

By Gordon Korman

Hey, bookworms! I know it’s been a while! But here’s my latest book review about a hypnotist who is discovering what a dangerous. yet vulnerable place our world can be.

When you can control people’s minds, you can control the world.

What would happen, if you could control someone’s mind? What would happen if you could make someone do anything? If you want that A, just hypnotize your teacher. Don’t want to pay for your newest books? Well, too bad for the bookkeeper, because he just lost some books! But imagine that on a mass scale. Imagine if you could hypnotize a whole town to just stop moving. They wouldn’t be able to eat, sleep, or drink. This story not only explores Jax’s journey to save his world with the one gift he never wanted, but also the lengths some will go to reach something they have wanted their whole life. In this thrilling finale to Gordon Korman’s brilliant book series, Jackson Opus is forced to learn a truth he never wanted to.

You can’t save everyone.

I loved every minute of reading this book, and it made me feel sad, happy, and angry at the same time. And that’s what a good book does. make you feel a variety of emotions while still having a good plot! Another masterpiece by Gordon Korman, all you bookworms out there who have not yet read the Hypnotist series, start reading! Your world’s about to get a little more supernatural.

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Sal and Gabi Break the Universe

By Carlos Hernandez

There are so many people out there who are treated wrong because they look or act differently. But Carlos Hernandez tackles that problem in a humorous way that keeps you laughing the entire book.

Sal is a boy who is not so average. He is a magician. A magician who can rip holes in the multiverse. When Sal moves to Miami, things are off to a bumpy start. Bullied by the school jerk, and called a brujo by almost everyone in the school, Sal’s new life in Miami is not looking so good. But along comes Gabi Re’al, a bossy smart girl with a temper and an uptight personality. The two immediately clash, but as the two fight, they come to realize they might not be so different after all.

I would recommend this book to anyone. This book shows that grief is a part of life and that you can learn to be happy, even if you have lost someone you love. Carlos Hernandez shows that we all aren’t just what we appear. you have to look past the surface to see who you are inside.

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The Smartest Kid in the Universe

by Chris Grabenstein

How many of you bookworms wished you could just always be the smartest person in the room just so people won’t accuse you of only being smart at just one thing? This book is about a boy who accidentally consumed jelly beans which made him the smartest person in the world. Oops!

Jake McQuade is a normal middle school boy. Doesn’t care one bit about school, gets average grades, and all he wants to do is play video games. He goes to the gala that his mom is organizing at the hotel his mom works at and eats these jelly beans he found backstage because he is “hungry”. But weirdly enough, eating random jellybeans from backstage was not a good idea! Who knew? When he wakes up the next morning, he is an ultra genius! With the help of the scientist who created the beans, his sort-of girlfriend Grace, and his best friend Kojo, he is ready to take on the school principal working to shut down the school. But as he tries to help out, he discovers the downsides to being ultra smart and is faced with a question he finally doesn’t know the answer to.

This book is warm and full of laughter, jokes, and bathroom humor as this teen genius figures out that maybe you don’t need to know all the answers to be happy. Maybe it’s good to have a few mysteries. They make life interesting, don’t they?

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Level Thirteen

By Gordon Korman

How many of us bookworms dream of doing reading as a job? Your passion earning you money! This is a story about a boy who realized what he loved to do and made it earn him money! But he also realized there really can be too much of a good thing.

Cameron Boxer is a dedicated slacker who discovered the crown jewel of gaming. Streaming. he is devoted to his new stream and can’t wait for it to lift off, but his annoying club keeps getting in the way with fundraisers for good causes. But when a widespread lie, a beaver, and way too many gummy worms cause Cams stream to take off, he believes it can only get better from here. But a series of unfortunate events proves Cam wrong as he learns that sometimes the real world really is better than a video game.

In this heart-warming novel about a couple of teens’ journeys into the world of profit, lies, and love, Gordon Korman shows that sometimes just being a kid is the best job in the world. So for my viewers out there who are still kids, don’t try to grow up so fast. You’re only a kid once.

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Aru Shah and the End of Time

By Roshani Chokshi

Hey, bookworms! How many of you have read or heard about this iconic book about a sassy Indian girl with a magic lightning bolt? Well, you are about to, so get ready!

Aru Shah is a normal girl. Granted she does not have a lot of money, but she is happy. Mostly. She has never even met her dad and her mom is always gone and has always been pretty distant, so she pretty much spends a lot of time alone. She goes to a fancy school for stuck-up rich kids, and in a school like that, the only way to fit in without a lot of money is to lie. So she did. Until it backfired and she accidentally set free a demon called the sleeper. ACCIDENTLY!

Now she must meet a girl named Mini who is terrified of germs, and a pigeon who can talk and is an ancient king, and basically save the entire world. No pressure! She can do it. Right? Can a rule bender, a severe germophobe, and a nutty pigeon really save the world?

I thought this book was beautifully written and spoke about what a family really is. people who are there for you and will always stand by your back. Family is people who love you no matter what. If you love books about friendships, sisters, mythology, and family this book is for you! And always remember, the pen is by far mightier than the sword.

I Will Always Write Back

By Caitlin Alifirenka

Hey, bookworms! This is my first non-fiction book report, so wish me luck!

Caitlin is a normal 12-year-old girl, nothing truly extraordinary about her. Until one letter changes her life. Her teacher assigns them each penpal and when she chooses a penpal in a country called Zimbabwe, it leads to a friendship that spans over a decade and shows that what seems like one small act of kindness can mean so much more.

Martin Ganda is a poor boy in Chisamba Singles, Zimbabwe. A hard worker and incredibly smart, he is one of the first-and-only- to receive a pen pal! When he meets Caitlin, their friendship helps his family – and him- in so many ways. Their story is one of kindness, family, and most of all, friendship.

I loved this book, and how it was amazingly written. I cried when I reached the end. I was just frankly amazed. This book shows that one act of kindness can change a life. I recommend this book to anyone. Just remember, be kind.