Uni High Book Bloggers

 Flowers for Algernon: A review by Linden Peters                       I was warned by my parents that  Flowers for Algernon  was an insanely depressing story, but as a person who greatly enjoys reading heart-crushing stories, I could not resist picking this book up.                  Flowers for Algernon  starts a 32-year-old man named Charlie Gordon who was born with an unusually low IQ. Because of this, he is exploited and treated vilely by everyone around him. One day, he is offered to be part of an experiment that aims to raise people's IQ. It has already worked for a mouse named Algernon, and Charlie really wants to be smart, so he eagerly accepts.                      The experiment succeeds and Charlie's IQ raises to 190 in a matter of months. While being as smart as everyo...

  The Demon in the Wood Sneak Peek and Review by Krishna Jaswal  “There is no safe place. There is no heaven. Not for us.” The Demon in the Wood is a graphic novel prequel to the novel Shadow and Bone (which is what I wrote about in my first blog that you should go check out!). In Shadow and Bone , one of the main villains, the Darkling, is a rare and powerful Grisha. Grisha are people who can manipulate energy and elements to use as powers. He has the power to use shadows and is an amplifier of others’ powers when they touch him while using their powers. The Demon in the Wood takes a blast to the Darkling’s past to see what he was like before he was the Darkling. The graphic novel also takes us back into the past of Ravka (where Shadow and Bone takes place) and the first steps of the Darkling’s power.  The story starts with 13-year-old Darkling, who is using the fake name Eryk, and his mom Baghra, who is using the fake name Lena. During this time period, Grisha w...

If someone were to ask me about the best dystopian novel I have ever read, Scythe would immediately come to mind, by a long shot. Scythe by Neal Shusterman is the first book of a trilogy. It takes place far into the future, where death by injury and all diseases have been conquered, technological advancements reach their absolute peak, and all ethnicities have been mostly blended. Because humans are practically immortal, some outside greater factor must regulate the population for the greater good. Legalized killing (referred to as “gleaning” in the novel in respect) is the job of Scythes. The system of the Scythedom is extremely strict, with ten commandments that must be followed, quotas for the number of people gleaned in a certain amount of time must be met, and thrice a year conclaves take place to check and balance other scythes in the area. Scythe apprentices are selected by current Scythes themselves, and these apprentices train alongside their patron Scythes until one final can...

My Top 3 Favorite Books of All Time -Linden           I've read a lot of books in my life, and I mean A LOT of books. Of course there are plenty of books that I have absolutely loved, but these 3 are my all-time favorites. 3 Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary            Now, since I've already written a review on this book as my first review of the year (Go check it out on The G's blog if you're interested) I will try to keep my yapping on this novel to a minimum. That being said, Project Hail Mary has to be the best Sci-Fi story I have read. What I love about it is the futuristic yet plausible setting (and let's be real, there's not much plausibility in most Sci-Fi stories). This story has lots of characters that you grow to love, and although this book has almost 500 pages, you still feel sad for their story to be finished. This book also tends to digress into science at some parts, so warning if you're not a science fan...

  Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief  By Krishna Jaswal I’m sure many of you have heard about the book Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. Many kids read it in elementary or middle school. For me personally, Percy Jackson was my childhood. I remember being introduced to the book right before COVID hit and I read all the books throughout the pandemic. I’m sure some of you have also heard about the new Percy Jackson series on Disney+. In this blog, I will dive a little deeper into both the book and the show as well as the differences between them! Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series . The book is set in the United States (they go on an adventure so the city or state does change often) and involves lots of Greek mythology. The book starts with Percy, a 12-year-old boy who starts to learn more about himself. Percy finds out that his father is Poseidon, one of the big gods of Greek mythology. To make things e...

Now I’m not usually one for realistic-fiction crime, but my brother has been persistently nagging me to read The Missing American for several years now, so here we are. The Missing American by Kwei Quartey takes place in Ghana in 2016 and mainly follows 26-year-old Emma Djan’s aspirations of becoming a homicide detective in the Ghana Police Service (GPS), like her deceased father, Superintendent Emmanuel Djan. The novel shows the points of view of other characters throughout the book as well. Unfortunately, Emma Djan is contained in the mundane Commercial Crimes Unit (CCU) dealing with bland cases of trespass, document forgery, theft, etc. Emma takes her shot at asking her direct boss to be moved to the Homicide Division and train to be a detective. Her boss, Inspector Kuma, takes great offense to her audacious request but Emma is later called up to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Layrea’s office to discuss Constable Djan’s career. A sympathetic DCOP Laryea tells her that the ...

                After reading Mateo's blog, "Books I Haven't Finished...yet," I found myself pondering about the countless number of books that I haven't finished. For me, I usually find myself not finishing books because I lose interest, or I can't get engaged in a book. So, for my blog, I'm going to write about some tips that I've personally used to keep myself consistently engaged in the books I read. Hopefully these tips may be able help out others in the future.   1. Make reading a routine in your daily life               This may seem incredibly obvious to many, but for many readers who are starting to build a habit in reading, this may sound daunting. It was for me at least. Making reading a routine sounded unnecessary to me because I always looked at reading as a thing I had to do when my dad made me. But when I started to read every day, I found...