The Brown Review

  Author: Krystal Sutherland Rating: 4.1/5 Recommend: An easy to read novel perfect for someone looking for a different, suspenseful take on a classic high-school love story. Our Chemical Hearts is a very strange book. The plot is well thought out and you’ll be hooked to the story till the very end. While reading the initial few chapters of this book, my first thought was this: Grace and Henry strongly remind me of Clay and Hannah in Thirteen Reasons Why. But, how could that be possible? Hannah was dead and Grace is very much alive… unless Henry is somehow talking to a ghost. By the end of the book, believe me I was stunned at how accurate my premonition was. Grace was actually a ghost; one whose heart still beat, but a part of whom had died during the accident. Our Chemical Hearts revolves around the story of Grace and Henry. Unlike other books, Henry did not fall for Grace at first sight. In her man clothes, dirty hair, and sallow skin, she looked more ...

The Hate U Give Author: Angie Thomas Rating: 4/5 Recommend: This is the first book I have read in the black-protest-racism genre. It deserves a place on every teacher’s classroom bookshelf, right beside the John Green’s and Rainbow Rowell’s. The Hate U Give portrays messages which need to be heard by the upcoming generations: I strongly recommend it for youth.   By the age of sixteen Starr Carter had already seen two of her best friends die. She was with them when it happened, held them as they gave out their last breaths. And why did they die you ask? Because, these two defenseless, unarmed, innocent children just happened to be black. And it’s okay to kill people for their color, right? WRONG. The Hate U Give revolves around this very thing – how it is wrong to kill someone just because you assumed things for their skin color, that it doesn’t make it any different or in any way right if the person you hurt has done nothing wrong. Starr Carter was te...

Author : Madeline Miller  Rating: 4.5/5  Recommend : I would recommend all of Madeline Miller’s mesmerizing retelling of heroes and gods, in a heartbeat. Circe is no different – it is a novel which you will read time and time again, will take strength in and seek lessons from, and will remain in your memory for generations more to come.  Circe is the tale of a woman. A woman, who from the minute she was born, was cast aside by both mother and father, deemed unworthy, plain and insignificant. Circe was a goddess, born from the blood of the sun titan himself – but, goddess or no are not all us women like her? Considered by society only for our beauty, little in much else, who men see fit to do as they will, treat as they will, just another object for them to take as they will… Circe is every woman in the world who has had to face the ugliness of men and society and fight them all alone.  Circe, as mortals imagine her As with The Song O...

Book 1 of The Dark Artifices series  Author: Cassandra Clare  Rating: 4/5  Recommend: Shadowhunters both new and old will love this. Among all the different series’ in Cassandra Clare’s fantastic realm, Lady Midnight would come second only to The Infernal Devices novels. It is far better than The Mortal Instruments series.  Imagine flames. Scorching, yellow flames all around you, towering over your height. Imagine the people you have loved all your life staring at you with lifeless eyes as they kill countless innocents around them. Imagine being 12 years old and surrounded in the middle of this chaos, your arms spread wide, protecting your younger siblings, the youngest just 2 years old. This is a memory from the life of Julian Blackthorn: the boy who killed his father to protect his family, a child who then singlehandedly raised four of his younger siblings when he was barely 12 years old himself.  In Lady Midnight, we follow th...

The genius, the author, the hero: Rick Riordan “Someone on Instagram asked what Percy Jackson fans are called. I believe the correct term is ‘long-suffering.’” – Rick Riordan Truer words have never been said. The man who spoke this quote has made us laugh: he made us laugh to the point where we spew the drink from our mouths, till tears of joy stream down our eyes, till we’re so distracted from reality, that the sudden calling of someone asking why we’re laughing seems to break a spell in which we were under. This man also left us gasping in shock, screaming after a huge 360 degree plot twist, crying in grief at the death of yet another beloved character, and so much more just in the span of a few short chapters. Rick Riordan has indeed left us long-suffering. Without further ado, here are the five things we love about the man, so deservingly titled ‘the storyteller of the gods”. 1. He makes the best cliffhangers Now, now, you may be thinking what is there to l...

The Cruel Prince Author: Holly Black  Rating: 3.5/5  Recommend: Fans of authors like Cassandra Clare and Leigh Bardugo are welcome to try this book. The Crown Prince feels like an extension of Cassie’s world, where we see the politics of the fae. There are some truly great parts to it such as the beautiful illustrations in every chapter and the cover, and the well-planned plot line.  I don’t usually give ratings below four to bestselling novels, but there’s just something about The Cruel Prince that didn’t feel quite so compelling to me. Nevertheless, I’ll begin with it as I always do: first with a plot summary, and second with the parts which both appealed and did not appeal to me.  Welcome to Faerieland – a place where both your sunniest dreams and your worst nightmares can come true. This realm and its inhabitants are as beautiful as they are deadly; they make up for their inability to lie with cruelty and madness and hate. This is the...

Author : Madeline Miller  Rating: 5/5  Recommend: Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. This book will sweep you of your feet, rob you of your sleep, make you smile, cry, and hate and will put you under its spell till all you can see when you close your eyes is Achilles.  I shiver as I write this, the piercing, tragic story of innocence, love, heroes and a war still fresh in my mind. Throughout history, there have been men who were handsome, and men who were brave, men who sacrificed themselves, and men who destroyed even kingdoms with their madness. In her debut novel, Madeline Miller has managed to capture the stories of two of the greatest men in history: Achilles and Patroclus, friends, companions and lovers till the end.  Achilles as I imagine him Told in vivid, moving terms this book will transport you into a world unlike anything you have ever experienced before. It tells the story in Patroclus’ point of view, from the mome...

Third book in the Trials of Apollo series. Keep tissues. Author: Rick Riordan Rating: 4.5/5 Recommend: Fans of the Percy Jackson, and the Heroes of Olympus series will love (and curse) this book. It is the best release yet in The Trials of Apollo series and features the return of previous characters like Grover and Piper, and also has in store some major heartache. Keep your Kleenex ready; you’ve been warned. Apollo, the most gorgeous and glorious Greek God (his words, not mine) of music, poetry, archery and a ton of other things has been punished to live on Earth as an awkward, acne-ridden teenager in the name of Lester Papadopoulus (that’s what happens when you anger Zeus). Bound into service by demigod Meg McCaffrey the two of them set out on a quest to free Apollo’s seven oracles that have gone dark. In the third book, Apollo is going through his third trial, to free the Oracle Herophile; Herophile is bound in chains by the evil sorceress Medea in th...

Book 1 of the Infernal Devices Trilogy. Prequel to The Mortal Instruments. Author: Cassandra Clare Rating: 4.5/5 Recommend: Victorian London. Demons. Warlocks. Faeries. Avenging angels. A gorgeous damsel. Poetry. Not one, but TWO extremely good-looking   males with unreal personalities. Oh and an evil madman with a clockwork army trying to kill them all. Sound good? I have a confession to make before I start. After finishing the Infernal Devices trilogy, my heart went through a good long weeping phase, at the unfairness of it all – because the world of the Shadowhunters (and sweeter than life itself, beautiful, violin playing, silver-haired James Carstairs) are both fictional. WHY WORLD, WHY? Sigh. Here goes the review of the first book, Clockwork Angel. Set in the time of Victorian London, when women spoke little and men expected them to, there existed a race of creatures completely (or mostly) unknown to ordinary human kind. Enter the Shadowhunt...