M.E.A.T. Blog

The Selection  by Kiera Cass is set a dystopic society organized in caste systems, and revolves around a love story of two teens, America Singer and Prince Maxon.  The novel is about a process called the Selection, a lottery for thirty-five girls to travel to the palace and try to win the prince’s heart. This Bachelor-esque setup amid a royal backdrop, full of glittering jewels and fantastic gowns creates a fairy tale setting for a classic love story. Our brave protagonist America Singer comes from a family of artists, and has an independent and creative mind to show for it. She is rebellious and stubborn, and stands strongly by her own values instilled by a hard life growing up poor, and her struggles especially highlighted by the sordid and excessive lives of the arrogant upper castes. Upon entering the Selection, she already had a lover – her childhood friend, Aspen. She also had a plan, and it didn’t involve Prince Maxon or marrying into the upper castes. However,...

Reviewer: Miriam Arend Warning: Spoilers  Last summer I read The Hate U Give (also by Angie Thomas) and really enjoyed it. I recently read Thomas’s second novel, On The Come Up, and thought it was just as interesting. While On the Come Up is not a sequel to The Hate U Give, the book is set in the same fictional neighborhood, Garden Heights. None of the characters are the same, and the plot is extremely different, but Thomas does reference Khalil (a central character from The Hate U Give) a few times throughout the novel. Thomas’s experience as a former rapper strengthens her portrayal of the protagonist in her second novel. Overall, I would give On The Come Up a 4.8 out of 5. I enjoyed reading it, although there were some aspects I didn’t like. The book shares a similar theme with The Hate U Give, and both raise awareness about the challenges faced by young African Americans, especially in inner-city areas. The book flows well and the plot isn’t co...

( warning: spoilers) I recently finished reading the book The Pearl by John Steinbeck, and I enjoyed reading it very much. The story takes place in a poor, small fishing town along the coast of an ocean, presumably in the early to mid 1900s. The reader follows the story of one small family, Kino, the husband/father, Juana, the wife/mother, and Coyoto, the child. The book opens on a calm and quiet morning in the family's small hut, but quickly, Kino spots a problem; A venomous scorpion is crawling into Coyoto's cradle. Coyoto sees the scorpion and tries to play with it. As Kino reaches for the scorpion, Coyoto shakes his cradle, and it falls onto him and bites him. Kino quickly retracts the scorpion, obviously to no avail, and Juana tries to suck the venom out. The family realizes the best course of action is to find the nearest doctor, in a nearby, more affluent part of town. To no surprise, when they arrive and question the doctor, he demands a high price for tre...

Prodigy by Marie Lu (SPOILERS) Prodigy picks up right were Legend left off, barely a week since June and Day escaped LA and the Republic soldiers still on their tail. To the Republic, Day has already been executed (thanks to the sacrifice made by his look-alike brother) and June is the new public enemy number one, the dangerous genius-turned-traitor. Desperate, Day and June flee to Las Vegas in an attempt to reach out to the Patriots, an elusive rebel group that has offered Day their help in the past in return for his famous name and unique skills. These vigilantes don’t offer Day and June sanctuary for free, however. Reluctantly they are participate the Patriot’s plans and sworn destruction of the Republic, and before they know it, they’ve been sucked into the most deadly of political schemes. There’s much at stake for both characters, from Day’s beloved little brother to the future of the entire Republic. The young protagonists face impossible choices framed in a world that Lu uses...

It’s 1956 in Budapest, Hungary. In the public square, young Hungarian soldiers dangle by their necks from cruel nooses, cold and empty eyes staring blankly into the faces of onlookers. Soviet soldiers stand at the side, the orchestrators of the chaos. 9 year old Robert Beck watches the scene at his grandmother’s side, silently watching the scene. She rushes him along, and they head home to the rest of the family, unaware of the turn their lives will take in the coming days. The Afterlife Of Stars, by Joseph Kertes, is a historical novel following the experiences of brothers Robert and Attila Beck in the midst of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, when the Hungarian government sought to free themselves from the shackles of the Soviet Union, resulting in a devastating outcome for the Hungarians. Focusing on the protagonists’ close relationship as siblings, Kertes tells a story of how war can turn lives upside down. The story of The Afterlife of Stars is heavily character-driven, sho...

Reviewer: Miriam A  Soman Chainani’s second book in the School For Good and Evil series, A World Without Princes, revolves around Sophie and Agatha, two girls who thought their fairy tale was over. In the first book, Sophie and Agatha are taken to the School For Good and Evil. Blonde-haired Sophie, who has wanted for her whole life to become a princess, is taken to the school with Agatha, her homely friend, but Sophie is unexpectedly placed in the Evil half of the school to learn witchcraft while Agatha must learn how to become the heroine of a fairy tale. Sophie wants desperately to transfer schools in the beginning, but she is later convinced by Agatha that returning home is where they can have a truly “Happily Ever After.” At the end of this book, Agatha chooses to leave with Sophie instead of staying with her prince, which allows the reader to infer this is the end of their story. This bliss ends a few months later at the opening of Book 2, when Agatha secretly wish...

It is the year 1940 in the Algerian city of Oran, in the midst of a horrible outbreak of the plague. This is the setting for Albert Camus’s 1947 novel The Plague . (Before I get into what I have to say, it should be mentioned that this is not a true story, and the “plague” this story is referencing is likely based off of a previous cholera epidemic in the same city.) At the beginning of the novel, Camus tells a story of thousands of rats suddenly appearing dead in the streets of the town. At first, this is dismissed and nothing is seen of it. However, at the same time of the “random” deaths of rats, doctors around the town begin to notice a small surge of patients very quickly dying of an unknown disease. Obviously, the doctors notice that there is something very strange about these occurrences, and one makes the claim that the unknown disease must be the plague. This is confirmed by other doctors, and the public is informed that there is an imminent plague outbreak. Soon...