Peeled by Joan Bauer

Peeled was your basic teen mystery novel. Your small town girl, with big city dreams. And a strange main character name. Hildy Biddle is a small town girl who dreams of being a journalist, and wants to prove herself, but the opportunity never shows because she's stuck writing boring stories about things that don't even matter.

But when strange things start happening, she develops an interest in the Ludlow "haunted house", that has a history of mysterious events happening nearby, including people talking about seeing ghosts there. She works for The Core, the local school newspaper, but there is a competing tabloid that is spreading untrue rumors everywhere. And all the editor of The Core wants to do is sell papers, rather than tell the truth to the public.

That's when Hildy and her friends decide to start their own secret and anonymous paper that not even their parents know about, Peeled, after they get their school paper shut down. They decided to start printing the actual truth, and in the process, save the town.

There were some lovely messages in this book, such as don't give up on what you believe in, which is something Hildy and her friends went by when they decided to start their own paper rather than give up on journalism. These kids were so dedicated to what they did, and I think that's awesome.

I also really liked the mystery of the novel, it kept me guessing, and I really loved the suspense. It was nicely written, easy to understand. However, the way the highschoolers were written was a bit childish, so that could have been fixed, considering they're all much older than 12 years old.

The beginning also dragged a bit, but once you got to the end, you wouldn't be able to put the book down. Overall, great read, especially if you're looking for a nice short mystery novel. 

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

In my review of The Way of Kings, I compared that novel to the Hobbit. Saying how they’re both dragged out fantasy novels that I don’t tend to like. That is completely true. However, the one thing that is better about the Hobbit is that we only follow one character, Bilbo Baggins. That makes it a lot easier to understand and follow, despite all the boring character development, metaphors, setting description, and just overall dragged out everything. 

I almost feel bad saying I don’t like this book because I know a lot of people love Tolkien’s work and think he is a fabulous storyteller, which I do agree with. It is so cool that he comes up with all these new languages and names and he has so much creativity that I feel bad criticizing his work. But I don’t like when things are dragged out like that and there isn’t much happening the majority of the time. 

I’m not even sure where to start with summarizing this story, but basically he “goes on an adventure” to find the long forgotten gold, which is told by the song Misty Mountains, which I do actually happen to like as a song. 

Reading this book, I had to drag myself through it, and I honestly didn’t enjoy it. Tolkien spends two pages describing appearances of leaves, and goes way too into depth on things not necessary to move the story along. While impressive, I just don’t really care that much, and would rather get down into the action. The movies, while also dragged out, I think are a better alternative to the book, if you want to know the general idea of the story without dragging yourself through a book. Although I couldn’t really stand the movies that much either.

I tried to like the franchise, but at this point in time it just isn’t for me, and maybe I’ll go back to it in a few years and have more appreciation for it. But as of now, I don’t like the novel and probably won’t read it again for a long time.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is a creepy and scary book that keeps me on my toes the whole time. It starts out with a murder, like many stories like this, and a daughter and a mother and a father are murdered by a man named Jack. However, the youngest family member, our main character known as “Bod”, escaped by crawling out of the house and somehow makes it to the graveyard, to which Jack follows.

There is a man, named Silas who is not quite dead or alive, who finds Bod, wipes Jack’s memory so he won’t bother Bod, and claims guardianship over him since he is the only one who can get Bod food. Everyone else in the Graveyard is a ghost. The story is told over Bod’s life, and he gets older by two years every chapter. We follow his adventures throughout the graveyard, since he is never allowed to leave for his safety. 

While most of his friends are ghosts, he does become friends with another human, Scarlett, who believes him to be imaginary. He is very sad when she has to move away, however she shows up again when he is finally able to convince Silas to allow him to go to human school. He causes trouble by using the ghostly powers he’s been given to fight bullies, and there is definitely some suspicion over the man who is now with Scarlett’s father. Could it be Jack reentering Bod’s life? Has he found his memory?

I loved this book. It was very different from many other things I’ve read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, and can definitely see myself reading it again and again. I do tend to enjoy Gaiman’s works, I think he has a very creative imagination, and I always enjoy his writing. It’s not super complex, it’s very straightforward which is something I very much appreciate in a book. 

All in all, I recommend this book. If you’re not into super creepy stories, however, I would read it. But if you want a novel full of scary stories and laughs, then this book is for sure the one for you.

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

The Devil Wears Prada is one of those realistic fiction type novels, which I really enjoy. This is a book I have read over and over again, and enjoy every single time. Some may find it boring, considering it’s sort of a story of how much our main character, Andy Sach’s, life kind of sucks. She works for a terrible boss, gets terrible pay, has a best friend with a drinking problem who ends up getting into a car accident, and a jerk boyfriend who doesn’t seem to understand how this job could end up helping her in the long run. 

I think one thing I really like about this book, is like with many books, it’s not super serious or formal, and the narrator keeps a nice sense of humor throughout, which makes it easier to read.

Although according to some of my research, it may just be a retelling of Lauren Weisberger’s experience working at a fashion magazine to an editor not much different than the novel’s own Miranda Priestly. So then this novel makes me start to think if this whole book is just Weisberger complaining about her own terrible experiences through a different name. 

That changes things a little bit, but I think it’s actually interesting to get sort of a peek into how the fashion industry works, and how unfair it is. Obviously, Miranda Priestly is kind of an awful boss. She doesn’t really care much about the well-being of others, considering she has everything exactly the way she wants it, whether it’s getting her coffee at just the right temperature at the right time, getting her daughters the newest Harry Potter book before it’s even released, and getting reservations at the right restaurant without ever telling her assistant anything about what restaurant it could be. 

But all in all, if you just read it as a story, it’s an enjoyable story to read, and to see the crazy things Andy has to deal with working for a crazy boss for a fashion magazine. I find myself laughing at how absolutely ridiculous some of things that Andy is forced to do are.