Alex Rider: Stormbreaker

     Alex Rider is just your average 14 year old boy. That is, until the death of his uncle, Ian Rider. He was told he died in a car crash, and that he wasn't wearing his seatbelt. But, Ian Rider always wore his seatbelt. Becoming suspicious, Alex goes to the junkyard to search for his uncle's car. When he finds it, the car was riddled with holes. After becoming trapped in the car while it was being crushed, Alex quickly uses his years of karate training to get away.
    Soon after, Alex goes to visit the bank his uncle worked at. After jumping off of a ledge on the fifteenth floor, Alex searches his uncle's office and finds a file named 'Stormbreaker'. Soon after, he is knocked out. When he awakes, he meets with the head of the MI6, Alan Blunt. Blunt tells him that his uncle wasn't a banker, but a spy, and that everyone else in the bank is as well. The bank is just a cover to hide their operations. Threatening to send Alex to an orphanage, and to send Jack Starbright, his housekeeper, back to America, Blunt gives Alex a choice of becoming an agent, which Alex reluctantly accepts.
     Alex is sent to Harod Sayle's house, to discover the reason he is giving free Stormbreaker computers to every school in Britain. While spying on them, he sees Yassen Gregorovich, who is a contract assassin, and also Ian Rider's killer. After following a trail left by his uncle, Alex discovers the base of their operations in an underground cavern. Soon, Alex is captured and Sayle tells him that the Stormbreakers all contain an upgraded version of Smallpox, and that one drop of the stuff can kill an entire school. Using this as a means of revenge, he goes to the opening ceremony, leaving Mr. Grin to deal with Alex.
     Alex is stuck in the tank with Sayle's Portuguese Man of War, and is left there to either die of lack of air or to be stung by the jellyfish. While the assistant is watching him, he breaks the tank and finds the assistant being slowly and painfully killed by the Man of War. He quickly harpoons onto Mr. Grin's plane and at gunpoint forces him to take him to the Science Museum. Alex parachutes out of the plane and into the Museum. He quickly fires six shots, and destroys the main Stormbreaker.
     As Alex is riding home, Sayle kidnaps him and brings him to a launching pad. Sayle says that he will win and is planning to leave Britain. His plans are cut short when Yassen shoots him. When Alex questions why he shot him, he responds by saying his bosses wanted him dead. Alex tells Yassen that he will eventually kill him. The story ends with Yassen telling Alex that killing is for grown-ups.

Five Flavors of Dumb

by Anthony John

     When I saw this book in the store, I was surprised by it's title. Not only that but the summary of the story sounded rather interesting, so I picked it up and bought it. After I finished reading it, I was glad I picked it up. The story revolves around 18 year old Piper Vaughn, who is a deaf senior who is a 'perfect student'. When Josh Cooke, the lead singer of the band 'Dumb' invites Piper to be the manager, and she has one month to get them a paying gig. But she doesn't know the first thing about managing a band.
     Piper doesn't know what to do for the band, but starts with having them practice. As the winners of the Battle of the Bands, they get three practice sessions with Baz Firkin. Soon, her 'geek' friend, Edward, joins as the drummer. With an arrogant singer, angry guitarist, zombie bass player, and an easily scared drummer, Piper believes she has her hands full. Then, she ends up with another guitarist, but this one can't play and is just a piece of eye candy.
     Soon, Piper manages to get them a gig on a radio station, but they have to play soft music. After making their first profit of $5 dollars per person, she attempts to get them better gigs. She succeeds in getting them an interview on Seattle Today. However, because Kallie gets most of the attention, Josh begins to curse her out on live television. He then gets into a fight with his brother Will, and Piper, Kallie, and Tash leave. After visiting Tash's mother's salon, Piper gets her hair cut short and dyed cosmic pink.
     Piper now has to reunite the group to play as the opening act for Grievous Bodily Harm. When she was offered $1800, which meant $300 for each member. Now trying to get the others to stay in the same room, Piper forces them to agree to play together.
     Out of all the characters, my favorite is Piper, who had to deal with the five flavors of Dumb, along with her communication problems with her parents. The story revolves around the band, but mostly around Piper and her experiences with them.

Num8ers

-Th3 Chaos-

     In the exciting sequel to Num8ers,the story continues with Jem's son, fifteen year old Adam. He, like his mother, has the ability to see the numbers. He keeps a small notebook filled with the person's name, date of death, and a description of how they will die. Unlike in the first book, the story introduces two point of views, Adam and a fifteen year old girl named Sarah. The story focuses on a set of numbers that constantly reappear: 01012027.

     Years after Jem died, Adam is in the care of his nan, Valerie. The apartment they are living in is flooding, so Valerie brings Adam with her to her old home in London. On his first day of school, Adam gets in a fight with a kid named Junior, who was destined to die soon. He sees Sarah for the first time. Sarah, on the other hand, has seen him in her nightmares, taking her baby away from her, and is scared of him. Sarah is a young girl who faces problems at home, one of which is revealed that her father sexually abuses her. For the safety of her unborn baby, she steals her father's money and heads out to the street. There she meets Meg, who invites her to stay with her, the other girls, and their boss. Sarah later finds out that Meg and the other girls are prostitutes. After explaining that she's pregnant, Meg gives her her money and sends her to live with her friend Vinny.

     Meanwhile, Adam is worried about Sarah, so he goes to her home. While he is there, her father accuses him of doing something to Sarah that made her leave, and tries to kill him by strangling Adam. Adam quickly leaves. Adam is present when Junior dies and has half of his face burned. Sarah learns that Vinny is a kind young man who is addicted to different kinds of drugs. After a few months, Sarah gives birth to a baby girl she names Mia in the bathroom. When Vinny sees the pictures she drew, he tells her that she drew Judgement Day and should spread the message. Adam is still searching for Sarah and finds her by the mural she painted. She quickly runs away, but eventually hears him out. When she falls asleep, Adam hears crying, so he goes upstairs to investigate. He sees Mia, and Sarah wakes up and accuses him of trying to take Mia away from her. 

     Later, while on the run from child protection services, Adam takes Sarah and Mia to his home. When Sarah leaves, Mia is taken by protective services and given to her parents. When it hits the first of January, an earthquake hits and kills many people, while causing mass fires everywhere. Adam had been arrested for causing a riot, and soon tries to find Sarah by going to her parents house. Sarah, with Valerie, goes to her old home to get Mia, and finds both of her parents dead. Adam tries to get Sarah to run through the flames, and takes Mia so he can protect her from the flames. When they escape the fire, Adam is in critical condition, and is almost fully burned. When Adam looks in Mia's eyes, instead of seeing her original date 01012027, he sees his Nan's date.

      The story ends with the world reverting to small villages of people with no technology whatsoever. Adam and Sarah discover that Mia also has a special ability: she can swap her date of death with another. Adam and Sarah both fear that people will target Mia for this reason. As the story ends, it leaves the first chapter for the next book. All in all, this was an amazing sequel to the first book.

     

Num8ers

by Rachel Ward

     Num8ers was a rather interesting book. It takes place in London in the beginning of the book. The story revolves around Jem, who is considered a "problem child" by the adults around. She has the ability to see numbers, but she didn't know what they stood for. That is, until her mother died of an overdose. She learned that by looking into another person's eyes, she can see their death date.

    

     After Jem's mother died, she refused to get close to anyone since she knew when they would die. She was moved around to different foster homes, until the family couldn't handle her anymore. Haunted by the numbers, she usually avoided eye contact, and just walked through life. She didn't see much good in life. Until she met Spider, a young man who also lost his parents.

     Spider is a friendly young man, who lives with his nan, Valerie, who can see a person's aura. Jem and Spider slowly grow closer. He sticks up for Jem, going as far to punch another student for laughing at Jem's paper. After he is suspended, Jem is constantly teased about being Spider's girlfriend. One day, she pulls out a knife and threatens another student, which leads to an expulsion. To cheer her up, Spider takes her out to the town. They have fun, until Jem sees people with matching death dates, and drags Spider out of the way, only to see the London Eye blow up.

     Due to cameras catching them running away before the explosion, Jem and Spider are forced to go on the run for fear that they will be arrested and blamed for the bombing. They set their destination to Weston. Later, they are separated, as Spider is arrested. Jem attempts to make it to Weston, but is soon found by the police. She takes refuge in a church, and refuses to talk to the police until they bring Spider to her. Her ability to see death dates is revealed, and she is constantly bothered by people wishing to learn their dates. She makes a statement saying that she made it up, and is soon greeted by Spider. Hoping that if she dies Spider will live, she gets ready to jump off the church roof. Spider stops her, before falling off the roof himself.

     Soon after, Spider has a funeral and is cremated. Valerie lets his ashes out over the water, before they are blown back to her and Jem. The story ends after skipping 5 years. Jem had her and Spider's child, named Adam. He, like his mother, can see the numbers. It ends when he is at school. He draws a picture with his mother holding hands with him. Under her is her special number.

The Hunger Games Trilogy

     The series started off rather well and was well received by critics. The Hunger Games started off with a sixteen Katniss Everdeen, who served as our heroine, in a dystopia. Living in the destroyed remains of North America, she struggles to survive in District Twelve, also known as the Seam. The story starts off on Reaping Day, which is the day that two tributes from each district, one boy and one girl, were chosen to compete in the Hunger Games. The Games consisted of 24 tributes who were forced to fight for survival in the arena, with only one tribute coming out alive.

    

     The first book, The Hunger Games, began with Reaping Day, where Katniss' twelve year old sister, Prim, was picked out of the sea of names to be the female tribute. In order for her sister to survive, she volunteered as tribute. Our next main character shows up shortly after, Peeta Mellark, who was chosen to be the male tribute. As the story continues, Katniss fights to survive and later fights to keep Peeta alive. As the story ends, Katniss is forced to continue to be madly in love with Peeta in order to survive.

     The second book, Catching Fire, starts off where The Hunger Games ended. Katniss and Peeta return as victors and they and their families are transfered to Victor's Village. Katniss is visited by President Snow telling her that she is sparked a rebellion in the districts and must prove that attempting suicide through the berries was not an act of defiance. Forced to re-enter the Hunger Games with other tributes, Katniss gets new teammates such as Johanna Maso, Finnick Odair, and Beetee. At the end, she is rescued from the arena by the rebels and Peeta is taken by the Capitol.

    The final book, Mockingjay, begins with Katniss in District Thirteen, where the rebels hope she will become the Mockingjay, a symbol for the rebellion. In order to find Peeta, she agrees. Soon Peeta is brought to District Thirteen, where his memories of Katniss are altered, and tries to kill her. As they progress to the final battle, many soliders are killed, but the battle ends when District Thirteen blows up their own medics, including Prim. Katniss is given permission to kill President Snow, but insteads kills President Coin. After being sent back to District Twelve, the story ends with Katniss and Peeta married with two children.

 

     I really enjoyed this series. After i finished the final book, I suggested the series to many of my friends. As it is, the series was exetemely enjoyable. I suggest that anyone reading this stupid blog should read the series for themselves.