by Lauren Shippen 

5 Stars

The supernatural tale, ‘The Infinite Noise’ follows the story of Caleb Michaels and Adam Hayes. The writing captures the view of neurodivergent, queer teens, describing the struggles of everyday life. 

Caleb appears to be your average ‘nice jock’ stereotype. Before a certain incident, Caleb would label himself as normal, not noticing anything out of the ordinary. But when he gets into a fight and is sent to therapy, Caleb soon discovers he is an empath. All of a sudden, his constant feeling of being overwhelmed was explained. As Caleb grows into this new ‘superpower’, he takes more notice of his classmate Adam. This leads to a complicated understanding of both their feelings. 

 The main plot consists of this constant struggle to understand emotions, the inability to communicate, and the general teen experience. While Caleb continues his therapy sessions, he learns more about being an empath, how to control it, and others like him. Adam has his own struggles, being one of the only gay boys in his area and fighting depression. As the characters learn more and grow closer, they’re forced to see the world in a different light. 

This beautiful book is heartwarming, throwing you up and down on the emotional spectrum. You will find yourself empathizing with the characters, forming an attachment, and genuinely understanding them. It is an engaging read, slow-paced at first but speeds up as you continue. I believe that anyone could thoroughly enjoy this and find it entertaining. 

This charming piece of work is full of vivid imagery, strong feelings, and everything else you could want. 

Sarah B.

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by Angeline Boulley

4 Stars

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley is a story of an eighteen-year-old Ojibwe girl named Daunis Fontaine. Daunis has not had the best year, and tragedy strikes Daunis left and right. She puts her future on hold for her family. The only bright spot she encounters is meeting Jamie, a dashing recruit in her brother’s (Levi) hockey team with a secretive past. Daunis falls for Jamie, but he isn’t who he says he is. 

 Daunis has a special place in her heart for the reservation and her family. She would do anything for it. When Daunis witnesses a shocking murder and sees the rise of a lethal drug, she goes undercover for the FBI. Using her chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine knowledge, she will do anything to save her community. It’s safe to say that what she will find won’t be as pleasant. 

Firekeeper’s Daughter is a YA thriller and mystery. Firekeeper’s Daughter is Angeline Boulley’s first book. For a debut novel, it is surprisingly good. I did not have high expectations when reading this, so it wasn’t anything I expected. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I am not a big fan of thrillers and mystery. I prefer fantasy, but was it impressive. I loved how I gained knowledge about Ojibwe culture, and I love how this book ties into reality. It made it easier to see life in Daunis’ shoes and relate to all the characters present. It was an extraordinary, intriguing, addicting book. I would spend most of the day reading this book, never wanting it to end. I would recommend this book to everyone, even if this isn’t your favourite genre. This book is suitable for ages 12+. 

Jahnvi V.

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by: Alexandra Horowitz

5 Stars

A wonderful book that makes the world come alive, this non-fiction piece by Alexandra Horowitz follows her adventure in learning about the often ignored parts of the city she walks through every day. In each chapter, she enlists a different expert on a subject to walk with her around the city so as to notice much more about the world, the people, and even her own senses. She goes on 11 different walks through the city with people who study geology, animals, the auditory world, and even one walk with her dog, in which she explores how smells may play a big factor in a dog’s life, as just some examples. Each chapter is short enough to give you an overview of the subject being discussed while still keeping you interested. Personally, I loved this book. After reading each chapter, I felt like I had new knowledge that could help me view the world through a new lens each time I went on a walk around my city. It was interesting to hear the perspectives of different experts, especially when you don’t know anything about the subject. Horowitz writes in a very accessible way, which helped me feel involved in every chapter, even with topics I never thought I would be interested in before! For example, after reading a chapter about the geology of the city, I went out and noticed that the walls that make up buildings almost always have signs of past life (like insects) inside of the rocks, which I would never have paid any mind to previously. Overall, I really enjoyed how Horowitz wrote this book with the reader in mind, not adding complicated terms that lose the reader instantly. A once bland city comes alive with new knowledge after reading this book.

Piper I.

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by: Tessa Bailey

5 Stars

Wow. So it was not what I expected from this book. Based on the title, I expected a cute little romance book, but boy, it was so much more!

 This was my first Tessa Bailey book, and now I want to buy them all. I never expected to give this 5 stars either, but this book was just full of surprises!

So to start, Brendan is an absolute catch. He is so super sweet, and I love the grumpy guy act he has going on and how he’s only sweet to his girl kind of vibes. I loved his character. He is amazing and gives these real-world men high standards to live up to.

 As for Piper, she’s super cute and spirited. I loved seeing her journey and reading about her finding her purpose. I love stories that I can relate to. I think everyone can relate to this in a way. Piper finding what feels like home to her and figuring out what makes her happy and satisfied was so touching to read. It makes me think of my life and finding those things as well, finding that purpose in my life. I loved reading about her.

 I found myself smiling so often and laughing when reading. So many moments just caught me off guard. I find it pretty rare that I laugh out loud at books, while this had me laughing and smiling. I was specifically in love with their relationship and how they worked through their problems.

Overall I loved this book. I cannot wait for Hook, Line and Sinker! (Fox and Hannah) I’m ingrained in this book, how their story unfolds. It’s not even out yet!!

 Five Stars.

Kayla

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by Christina Lauren

5 Stars

The Unhoneymooners By Christina Lauren has to be one of my absolute favourite books I’ve read this far. Olive braces herself to get through 24 hours of wedding hell before she can return to her comfortable, unlucky life. But when the entire wedding party gets food poisoning from eating shellfish that has gone bad, the only people who aren’t affected are Olive and Ethan. And it only gets better from there. Luck plays a constant role in this book. Olive truly is convinced that her life has been defined by a series of unfortunate events, all due to her ruthless bad luck. The best thing about this book is that it’s a fun, quick summer read. The not-so-good is the angst. I thought this book made me feel like I was there and made me laugh at times, and I recommend it to anyone who loves rom-com with a passion.

Kayla

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by: Barbara Kingsolver

  In 1959, a family of evangelical Baptists from America relocated to the Belgian Congo on a mission to spread Christianity. Led by Nathan Price, the father of the family, the mother and four children experience the beauty, horror, and undoing of their family, all while the Congo faces its own political turmoil. Nathan Price is a single-minded man, not letting anything get in between him and his dream of setting up a church and baptizing the people of the village where they reside. The people of this village have different views on religion and community than Nathan, yet he is determined to turn them into his way of thinking. He drags the family with him on his mission. This book spans three decades, each with new problems for the family. Told from the perspectives of each of the four children, they give their own insight into the Congo, their father, and their other siblings. Each character has their own voice that you can easily pick up on throughout the writing.

I loved this book because of how Barbara Kingsolver discussed religion, politics, race, and of course, both America and postcolonial Africa through the lens of the Christian Americans. Not only that, but Kingsolver also examined the character’s journeys in understanding more about the people of the Congo. It is a good look into an issue I didn’t know anything about before. We hear from the children as they move away from their preconceived ideas about Christianity and assimilate further into the Congo’s culture. Kingsolver has created a wonderful book full of thought-provoking ideas, characters that you both resent and feel for at the same time, and the misunderstanding from the American standpoint of other cultures, people, and languages that leads to the Poisonwood Bible.

Piper I.

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by: Taylor Jenkins Reid

5 Stars

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was the first book I read last year, and it was a great choice. Ageing and unsociable Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is ready; to tell the truth about her glamourous and notorious life. But when she chooses an unknown magazine reporter named Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astonished than Monique herself. This book goes over the themes of loyalty, betrayal, loss, sacrifice, and tragedy. Despite what the title may imply, it doesn’t focus so much on the husbands; but rather on Evelyn herself, where we learn very quickly that there’s much more than meets the eye. I would have to say that I didn’t just enjoy the book and that I loved it, and I recommend everyone to at least read it once in their life because it was beautiful.

Kayla

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by Nichola Sparks

The romance/domestic, The Rescue, written by Nicholas Sparks, was a very addictive and fascinating novel. It tells the story of a young single mother, Denise Holton, who has a four-year-old son, Kyle. As a young mother, she faces lots of challenges, especially in the town she lives in, she has no family and no close friends nearby. Although having several shifts as a waitress, she gets enough money for the both of them to survive. Having no one nearby, Denise feels very lonely sometimes, although she does have her son, but there’s one problem. Kyle can’t talk, he can, but only a few words. She spends most of her time teaching him how to speak, and sometimes it’s very hard for the both of them. Denise stresses a lot, especially when it comes to Kyle. On a short trip, thunderstorms happen to come, as Denise is driving, which happens to frighten Kyle. But Denise tries her best to get to their destination, but she was a little too late. Their car goes down and Denise loses her consciousness, once she’s awake she’s faced with a volunteered fireman, Taylor McAden. Kyle is missing, he is nowhere to be found, as a mother you would be very stressed, but Taylor tries his best to calm her down and calls 911 to get her to the hospital. Taylor calls the whole team for a rescue to find her son, they try their best, and the whole town even comes down to help find Kyle. Eventually, they find Kyle and slowly but surely throughout the story Taylor and Denise become really good friends and slowly more than friends. But something stops Taylor from their relationship, and Denise is struggling to find out what happened or what she did wrong. A lot happens in this novel, but as I mentioned before, this story is very addicting, and you honestly won’t be able to put it down. Overall, I rate this book a 5/5 stars!  

Hoda D.

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by Becky Chambers

I’m not a fan of science-fiction — I’m not, truly! — but this book… this… it… I have no words.

Do you like to read books with complex word building, amazing writing, adult books, the found family trope, sapphic romance, frickin’ awesome creatures and species, inter-species relationships, that’s a little plot/character driven, and is science fiction and/or space opera?

If yes, to any, read (yes, that’s an order) The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.

One line summary: Rosemary Harper joins the Wayfarer ship crew just in time for them to go on a big mission of creating a pathway to a neighboring planet.

Review: The world building in this book is insane — absolutely OUT OF THIS WORLD (pun intended). I have never — EVER — read a book with such an interesting world. The world may seem complicated at first — trust me, I get it — but once it clicks, it clicks so, so hard. The book was written in third-person (which I love, always) and it followed the majority of the crew members aboard the ship: Rosemary, Sissix, Kizzy, Jenks, Ashby and Corbin. I was thrust into each of their lives and I can’t say I’m upset about it. The plot, again, was limited and relatively simple so if you’re a huge plot person, you may not like this book — but then again, I thought I was a plot person and yet here I am. The chapters were on the longer side, which I tend to dislike but it was still so wonderfully written and evenly paced. I cannot recommend this book enough. READ IT!
 Final rating: 4.5 / 5 stars

Jazleen

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by Genevieve Graham

4 Stars

The historical fiction, The Forgotten Home Child, written by Genevieve Graham, was a shocking but an astonishing novel. This story is based on Canadian history, a history us Canadians shouldn’t be proud of. The main character Winny, also known as Winnifred Ellis, at the age of 15 Winny is absolutely done with her mother and her abusive stepfather. She takes matters into her hands and decides to run away, and she falls in a group with other homeless children. Mary, Jack, Cecil and Edward, all 5 together, find ways to live and at the same time also have fun in Liverpool, England. When the group got caught stealing, the group splits apart, Mary and Winny are sent to Dr. Barnardo’s Barkingside Home for Girls, an orphanage for girls.

The girls soon learn that girls and boys get to go to Canada, where better families are waiting for them. But what they don’t know is that apart of those boys they get to go to, they will see Jack, Cecil and Edward, but unfortunately it’s not a reunion, they eventually all get split apart. Except for the boys, they are accepted to work for a guy. The way Genevieve Graham wrote this novel it’s as if all the emotion that’s happening in the book, you also feel too. Which is absolutely crazy to me how she could make readers feel like that. Either way, what happened to them and other home children are absolutely terrible. Although some home children got to go into better homes that treated them like an actual human being, while others went into homes that got treated absolutely horribly. I would recommend this book to anyone over the age of 12 because of the mature topics that unfold within this novel. Nevertheless, I rate this book a 4/5!  

Hoda D.

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