Lord of the Flies

This book is about a group of boys stranded on an island after a plane crash. The book starts without telling you what happened beforehand and ends without giving you any clue about what happens next. The author starts out by vaguely describing the main character instead of saying his name. You never really find out what happened for a group of boys (all boys- no girls, no adults) to be on a plane at the same time without knowing each other and having it crash in the middle of an ocean. All they tell you is little bits like the plane was being shot down, there was a bomb, the pilot was on the other half, and so on. They then quickly change the subject. Therefore, the information is all around the book.

When you do find out the main character's name a few pages into the book, you find that his name is Ralph. He becomes the leader of the group. For him, the main need is survival. He has the group keep a fire going at the top of the mountain so that any ship passing by will see the smoke. Food isn't hard to get because there are plenty of fruit trees on the island. They collect the fresh water in coconuts for future use. Ralph does not seem to need the other needs as much as survival.

On the other hand, there is Jack. He was the head boy of the choir group. Jack needs a lot of power and fun. He meets the need for fun by taking the choir boys with him to hunt the pigs on the island. He meets his need for power at first just by staying the leader of the choir. He doesn't find that to be enough, though. Jack leaves and starts his own "tribe" on the other side of the island which ends up to include everyone but Ralph and one other kid. There, Jack is the ruler. He really had a large need for power over.

I didn't really like this book. The boys became very crazy quite early in the book, and they got crazier throughout. Also, there are more questions about what happened than answers by the end of the book. Another thing is that there really isn't any plot at all in the book. I do not recommend this book.

Things You Either Hate or Love

This book is about Georgia, fifteen, who is trying to make money to go to a concert. She applies for different jobs where she is eventually fired from. During the book, she watches the others go around in circles of who loves who. She finds and stays with just one person. She has no father and no siblings. Her aunt and uncle divorce. She finds out that her father, when alive, had large gambling problems. She goes through all this and stays sane.

Another thing she does is write lists in a little journal she gets for a present. Many times they have absolutely nothing to do with what is going on in her life. She probably is doing this so she can think of other things.

I think that Georgia needs a lot of love and belonging. She gets a lot of freedom and fun, but her mom is still getting over her husband dying. She does get some love and belonging from her friends and her boyfriend, but I am not sure it is exacly enough. She feels very jealous when her friend is hanging out with her own boyfriend and not spending time with her.

I didn't really like this book. I prefer fantasy and science fiction books. This was way too boring. I would recommend this book to people who like teen fiction.