All tagged Private School

Five Thoughts on Maggie Stiefvater's The Dream Thieves

Five Thoughts on Maggie Stiefvater's The Dream Thieves

Sarah Moon
Listorama, Books

The second installment in Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle series, The Dream Thieves, is out today and I've been pondering just how to write about it. I've come to the conclusion that this series is so very complex, while also being subtle, that it's nearly impossible for me to "review" the books in this series in a traditional sense. 

In lieu of an actual exhaustive review of The Dream Thieves (you can read our not-review of The Raven Boys here, by the way), I thought I'd completely cop-out and provide you with a list of five things I'm still pondering after reading The Dream Thieves.

 

#1 The Dream Thieves is even more dreamy and atmospheric that The Raven Boys.  

It was mint and memories and the past and the future and she felt as if she’d done this before and already she longed to do it again.

These novels are rooted in their atmosphere, intricate mythology and tangled relationships that they're going to either work for readers or leave them wondering what the hell they just read. And I mean that in a good way--I adore this series and believe it's different from anything else on the shelves at the moment. Reading this series feels more like I'm experiencing the story, rather than reading a book--it's just that immersive. 

{Review} The Fine Art of Truth or Dare by Melissa Jensen

Sarah Moon
Books

You know that love-hate thing that everyone has with Julie Taylor on Friday Night Lights?

I had that same relationship with this book and with Ella, the narrator of Melissa Jensen’s The Fine Art of Truth or Dare. On one hand, she really is smart, and she matures throughout the story, on the other hand, like Julie, I didn’t find myself rooting for Ella to get the nice guy love interest, Alex, until the very end (kind of like Julie). 

Ella is a working with a  somewhat visible scar, on a scholarship at The Willing School, a wealthy private school in Philadelphia. Unlike her classmates, she lives in the neighborhood in which the school is located, where her family also runs a restaurant. In TFAoToD, we follow her as she navigates class differences, changing relationships with friends, mean girls, a research project about a dead artist and a budding relationship with her lacrosse star French tutor. 

Sounds like a lot? It is, even though the book is relatively lengthy for a contemporary YA at 380 pages.

There is, however, a lot to like in this novel.