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A collection of book reviews.
By Hedvig Lagercrantz
ISLK Personal Project
2
The Perks Of Being A
Wallflower
By Stephen Chbosky
Published in 1999
Realistic Fiction
Language: English
Charlie is a freshman in the early 90’s. He
has been socially awkward for a long time
but has finally found some friends in a
couple of grades above him. As he gets
introduced to a teenage world filled with
parties and deep talks he finds himself
enjoying life for the first time.
Charlie was the narrator throughout the book. Each chapter was
written as a letter to an unknown friend. The letters are as honest as a
diary. There are many lovely characters in the novel, such as Charlie
and his friends Sam and Patrick. The one I fell for the most must
have been Charlie. I loved reading about how he overthought
everything coming across his mind, how careful he was, how
innocent and everything coming out of his mouth was either clever
or kind. I certainly enjoyed the parts where Charlie wrote about his
sister. She was having a hard time and would create an unpleasant
atmosphere around her. Charlie would never say or do anything to
hurt her back even though she could be pretty nasty towards him.
The mood was of the novel went up and down, it was not depressing
but as a reader I came to feel sympathy for Charlie. Considering The
perks of being a wallflower being Mr. Chbosky’s first novel I give
him extra credit.
7
One Day
By David Nicholls
Published in 2009
Romance
Language: English
Dexter and Emma met during the latter
days
of their collage lives. Considering the
miles
and differ of personalities they
maintained their contact from the
graduation and so forth. Emma struggles while Dexter appears on the
front page and spends the nights partying with celebrities.
The book is set in 1988-2007. Each chapter is one day of each year;
therefore there are 22 chapters in total. The book got me hooked
from the start and I enjoyed reading it throughout the book. The
character to be my favorite is Emma Morley. To se how she develops
as a person and gains self-consciousness is a marvelous sight.
The book was always a pleasurable read. Turning the page and
constantly see the characters grow and develop was astonishing.
There was not a general mood of the book. The mood differed
depending on what phase in life they went through. The book has
become an extremely famous love story and only three years after it
was published (2011) they made it into a movie.
I give this book a 4/5. I enjoyed reading this book. The story
was played as a movie in my mind and the reading went
smoothly from the beginning. I got hooked and could relate
I give this book a 5/5. This book was fantastic. I found the
reading of this book extremely powerful. I got hooked from
the beginning and did not want to stop turning the page. I
felt that this book gave me something more than just a
2
6
3
Thursday’s Child
Ingen Du Känner
By Sonya Hartnett
Published in 2002
Historical Fiction
Language: English
By Christina Wahldén
Published in 2012
Realistic Fiction
Language: Swedish
Harper Flute and her family live on the
countryside and have to learn to live in
poverty during the Great Depression. As
they try to make the best out of their
impoverished situation and stay alive her
brother Tin discovers his passion for
digging.
Fatma just finished her last year in
middle school and is looking forward to
start
high school after the summer. Before the new exciting year can start
she has to spend her summer break with her relatives in Turkey. Her
best friend Aida has seen many girls visiting their home country and
then never come back. Aida can’t help but worry that the same thing
will happen to Fatma and that her parents have arranged a marriage
for her. Sadly Aida’s worries were not a waste. Fatma secretly keeps
in touch with Aida for a while through her cell phone, eventually the
battery dies and Fatma is stuck in Turkey with people she doesn’t
know and no way of contacting anyone.
The novel is set in the 1930’s during the Great Depression in
Australia. Getting through the first 30 pages was a bit difficult. The
story didn’t get me hooked straight away, but after those 30 pages
the reading started to go more smoothly and I kept turning the pages
like a maniac. The situations and events in the novel always
contained tense and I always found myself wanting to know what
was going to happen next. The fact that Harper’s brother Tin lived
under their house digging tunnels made the whole novel a bit more
hectic. I had a constant feeling that Tin would find a new world
under the house. Tin became my favorite character. Since he lives
under the house he’s not around much. He takes more and more
distance from the family as the time passes. At the same time he is
always in their minds and he they have some sort of connection. It is
like he is always around even though he could be kilometers away
digging.
The novel was intriguing at most times. I felt like since the theme is
not a theme I usually read it was interesting with a change even
though I got let off the hook at times. The tone was quite depressing
and the novel was not an uplifting read.
I give the book a 3/5. The reading of this book was fine. I
did not get attached to it but did find pleasure reading
it. The book did contain suspense and cliffhangers but they
The novel is set in modern times in the suburbs of Stockholm and in
Turkey. The novel has a political thought behind it which makes is
more interesting but the story line was a bit poor. Adding some tense
and making the story more complex would not be bad. My favorite
character in the novel is Aida. She truly cares for Fatma and tries her
absolute best to get her home. She contacts the police but ends up
doing more than the police. The author sends a message to the reader
through her novel. She wants us to consider that all of us do not get
to decide whom we are to spend the rest of our lives together with or
who we want to be. She also shows some criticism towards the
Swedish police.
The language was not too complex but suitable for teenagers. The
story line was fine in a way that it was an interesting and realistic
topic but not too complex.
I give the book a 3/5. The reading of this book was fine. I
did not get attached to it but did find pleasure reading
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it. The book did contain suspense and cliffhangers but they
4
5
No And Me
China Girl
By Delphine De Vigan
Published in 2010
Realistic Fiction
Language: English
By David Belbin
Published in 2009
Realistic Fiction
Language: English for reluctant,
struggling and dyslexic readers
Lou Bertignac has an IQ of 160. She doesn’t
have any friends and spends her days in
school getting straight A’s and looking at
people’s emotions at the train station. Her
mother doesn’t speak and hasn’t left the apartment for years while
her father tries to make the atmosphere more joyful in the house.
One day at the train station Lou meets No, a homeless girl. Lou
starts a new mission, to get No a safe place to live.
The novel is a marvelous piece of literature. It is set in France in
modern time. The story never left my mind after the first chapter. I
was hooked. Lou’s thoughts made so much sense and were on a
totally different level than usual daily thoughts. Not only Lou’s
characteristics got me hooked. A boy in her class, Lucas was one of
the most known students in the school. Lucas was handsome,
fearless and interesting. Somehow Lucas’ horrible grades, no desire
to succeed in school and popularity clicked with Lou. Eventually
they became friends and the other classmates really saw her for the
first time. He became my favorite character because he was always
in the best parts of the novel and the because of the fact that he
actually never cared about popularity or what people thought of him.
No and Me has become one of my favorite books. The story was
beautifully written and I believe it will go down in history.
One day when Ryan comes home from
school he finds a new cleaner in their
house, Ling. She is Chinese and Ryan
gets feelings for her immediately. The
only problem is that she is not allowed to speak to him or anyone;
Ling is an illegal immigrant. Even though Ryan knows he should
leave her alone to not cause anyone trouble he follows her home
after work.
The book is set in modern time in the U.K. The book is quite short
and with illustrations but gives a clear message and meaning
anyway. David Belbin brings up the issue about illegal immigrants
and how badly the bosses treat the immigrants. The plot of the book
is interesting and after reading the book I wanted to look more into
it. The ongoing discrimination of immigrants in our society is a
problem many of us overlook.
The book is a great alternative for those who struggle with reading
books with a great deal of text on each page or with a difficult
vocabulary.
I give the book a 3/5. The reading of this book was fine. I
did not get attached to it but did find pleasure reading
I give this book a 5/5. This book was fantastic. I found the
reading of this book extremely powerful. I got hooked from
it. The book did contain suspense and cliffhangers but they
the beginning and did not want to stop turning the page. I
felt that this book gave me something more than just a
4