Teen Book Review: The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan & Maureen Johnson

 

Amazon Summary:

     Fans of The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices can get to know warlock Magnus Bane like never before in this collection of New York Times bestselling tales, in print for the first time with an exclusive new story and illustrated material.

     This collection of eleven short stories illuminates the life of the enigmatic Magnus Bane, whose alluring personality, flamboyant style, and sharp wit populate the pages of the #1 New York Times bestselling series, The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices.

     Originally released one-by-one as e-only short stories by Cassandra Clare, Maureen Johnson, and Sarah Rees Brennan, this compilation presents all ten together in print for the first time and includes a never-before-seen eleventh tale, as well as new illustrated material.

Book Review:

     The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Maureen Johnson is an extra to both The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices series. It’s about important life events of one of the most interesting and mysterious characters in the books; a powerful warlock named Magnus Bane. There’s 11 stories to explain how he came to be who he is, how he formed relationships with certain people, where he’s stood in positions of power and important events, just many different components to his character. It answers a lot of what hadn’t been said about him.

     I found this book read like a movie more than anything. I didn’t particularly relate with any characters, but it was entertaining and made me want to keep reading more. I liked how there was a lot of humour to it but kept it serious enough to have a story to it. In the previous mentioned series, there were many instances where an event would be mentioned but not fully explained. Many of those events were explained in The Bane Chronicles. I would recommend this book if you have read the other series. It was a fun and entertaining read and I enjoyed it.

Ian (Teen Reviewer)

Teen Book Review: All Fall Down by Ally Carter

 

Amazon Summary:

Grace Blakely is absolutely certain of three things:

1. She is not crazy.
2. Her mother was murdered.
3. Someday she is going to find the killer and make him pay.

      As certain as Grace is about these facts, nobody else believes her -- so there's no one she can completely trust. Not her grandfather, a powerful ambassador. Not her new friends, who all live on Embassy Row. Not Alexei, the Russian boy next door, who is keeping his eye on Grace for reasons she neither likes nor understands.

      Everybody wants Grace to put on a pretty dress and a pretty smile, blocking out all her unpretty thoughts. But they can't control Grace -- no more than Grace can control what she knows or what she needs to do. Her past has come back to hunt her . . . and if she doesn't stop it, Grace isn't the only one who will get hurt. Because on Embassy Row, the countries of the world stand like dominoes, and one wrong move can make them all fall down.

Book Review:

     All Fall Down is about Grace Blakely a 16-year-old teenager struggling for answers. It's been three years since she watched her mother die. Her mother's death was ruled an accident but Grace knows her mother was murdered by a man with a scar. Three years and nothing has changed; until Grace's grandfather decided that she should live in the US Embassy with him. All is well, until Grace finds the murderer of her mother, the man with the scar. Also, Grace is reunited with some old friends and makes some new ones from the Embassy Row. Even with some help from her friends nobody believes Grace and they all think she's going crazy… again.

     Ally Carter is the New York best-selling author of her two series, Gallagher girls and Heist society. I personally thought the beginning of the book was slow but the more you read the book, the better it got. It was pretty fast-paced and I couldn't put the book down until I was finished. I would recommend this novel for mystery lovers. Overall, I gave this book a 4/5 rating.

~Cassidy (Teen Reviewer)

Teen Book Review: Galgorithm by Aaron Karo

 

Amazon Summary:

A romantic comedy that’s “a good choice for fans of John Green” (Booklist) about high school, heartbreak, and having all the answers.

What if the secrets of dating and love were revealed in one simple formula? That’s the tantalizing proposition high school senior Shane Chambliss offers the hopeless and hapless guys who come to him for relationship advice.

After the girl of his dreams breaks his heart, Shane devises a mysterious formula called the Galgorithm and establishes himself as the resident dating guru at Kingsview High School. But his attempts to master the art of romance go outrageously awry.

As Shane tries to navigate the ensuing drama, he must follow his heart, abandon all the rules, and ignore his own advice in a quest for true love. What he discovers, no formula could ever predict...

 

Book Review:

     Galgorithm is a book about a boy named Shaun who has had a terrible break-up, and has tried to make an algorithm to help fellow guys on how to get the girl of their dreams.  But... He seems to be having trouble with his own love life.  Though he has calculated everything to the last smile and batting eyelash, he soon discovers that no one can figure out the inner workings of the female mind.

 

     I would rate this book a nine out of ten, because of the originality and how the author describes the characters.  I also like how the chapters weren't extremely long and every time you started a new chapter it was like the author introduced a new problem that needed fixing.  I would most definitely recommend this book to people who love a good comedy and romance because every time I opened the book and started reading I was laughing to myself, and the occasional scandal occurred.  Overall, this book is one of my new favourites.  It is a must read and I hope you read it this summer.

Margaret (Teen Reviewer)