Rachel Baack
Summary: In this series (of which Uglies is the first book, Pretties is the second, and Specials is the third), Tally lives in a society where physical beauty is everything. In this society, everyone gets a surgery at age sixteen to make them beautiful, and then they are allowed to cross the river and live in a city full of “pretties.” Tally is excited for her sixteenth birthday and her surgery, but then she meets Shay, who shows her that the world of the pretties may not be such a great place after all.
Summary: Told as a frame story by a narrator listening to the tales of a man claiming to have travelled through time, this novella by H. G. Wells explores the devolution of humanity in ways that will shock the reader and awaken his or her inner philosopher.
Summary: This story is a novella rather than a novel. When Mr. Utterson first learns of the existence of a horrifying man named Mr. Hyde, he cannot imagine how much significance this man will hold in the life of Mr. Utterson’s friend, Dr. Jekyll. However, when Dr. Jekyll orders Mr. Utterson to transfer his entire fortune to Hyde in the event of his own death or disappearance, and Dr. Jekyll subsequently starts behaving strangely, Mr. Utterson begins to suspect that some kind of evil, secret connection must exist between the two men.
Summary: C.S. Lewis’s space trilogy is a set of science fiction works unlike any other that I’ve ever read. It follows the journey of Elwin Ransom across several worlds. In the first two books, Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, he encounters new terrain and new species, all the while pitted against people who wish to do the beings around him harm. These works overtly deal with some major philosophical and theological questions but do so in a compelling way. The final book of the trilogy, That Hideous Strength, is set on Earth, but is no less an exciting work of science fiction than its counterparts, although it is a little gorier and has, in my opinion, a somewhat darker tone.
Summary: Miles Morales is a sixteen-year-old student at a prestigious high school who is trying his best to overcome a family history that is far from spotless. Not to mention, he happens to be a super hero. Miles decides that he wants to keep his head down and focus on his school work, but something is not quite right at his school, and he realizes that he’s going to have to figure out what’s going on.
Summary: This story is the tale of a mysterious man who, after arriving in the town of Iping covered head to toe in clothing, is revealed to be invisible and whose isolation and fanatic pursuits have led to some unexpected and dark consequences.
Summary: This work of science fiction takes place in a world where the wealthy are able to have clones of themselves made so that their organs can be harvested. Normally, these clones are made so that they cannot think or act, but the book’s central character, Matt, is a clone who has been allowed to live with his mental abilities intact. The story traces Matt’s gradual realization that something about his society is not quite right and his journey to free himself from the bondage into which he was born.
Summary: This gothic novel by Mary Shelley is a classic work of science fiction. In the book, Victor Frankenstein sets out to create life, but, once he does, he creates troubles for himself and others that he never could have imagined. Be ready, though, to have the way that you have seen Frankenstein’s monster portrayed in popular media challenged; the book will leave you questioning who the true villain of the story is.
Summary: Guy Montag is a fireman in a 24th century world where people don’t think for themselves or have meaningful conversations but are only concerned with being entertained. Guy’s job as a fireman is to burn any books that are found, as substantive literature has been made illegal.
Summary: Young Alex, along with his small group of friends, leads a shockingly violent criminal life until the state decides to take drastic measures to change that. This novel explores the ideas of selfishness and the depth of human depravity, as well as those of youth and the natural course of life.
Summary: In this explicitly anti-war novel, Vonnegut tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, who, at a young age, becomes a soldier in WWII. After the war, Billy becomes an optometrist, and he claims to have experienced an alien encounter that enlightens him as to the nonlinear nature of time. For that reason, the book is told in a nonlinear fashion. Billy is portrayed as both a relatively innocent and absurd kind of person, and the telling of the events that surrounded his and his comrades’ time in combat make the senselessness and evil of war abundantly clear.
Summary: This novel features two main characters, Shorty and Toussaint l’Ouverture. Shorty is a teenage boy who discusses his growth and the ways in which his perceptions have been shaped since he was a toddler, and Toussaint is the famous leader of the Haitian slave rebellion who wrestles with the moral choices he is required to make in connection with leading the revolt. The two characters are separated in time by over three hundred years, but they share a mysterious connection.
Summary: Set during World War II, this story centers on a bombardier named Yossarian and his companions. It portrays the lunacy of war, sometimes by using humor and sometimes by exposing just how atrocious it can be. The novel can be confusing at times because it does not proceed in regular chronological order.
Summary: Dorian Gray, a very handsome young man of good social standing, befriends Basil Hallward, a painter, and Lord Henry, a charming society man with a corrupting influence. When Basil gives Dorian a portrait of himself, Dorian cannot imagine the secrets this portrait holds or the drastic turn it will cause his life to take.
Summary: The three children of the Darling family—Wendy, John, and Michael—find themselves going on a series of impossible adventures in the magical world of Neverland after meeting Peter Pan, the boy who never grows old. Peter is the leader of a band of “lost boys” who are constantly at war with Captain Hook and his pirate crew.
The book is, in many ways captivating and wonderfully weird, but it has a much darker side to it than the Disney movie would suggest, part of which comes from the racial and gender-based prejudices that are present in the writing. I found the book simultaneously repulsive and entrancing.
Summary: This eerie story centers on a seemingly-ordinary boy named Jake who discovers that he and a handful of other children who live in a secret house have some unique abilities and characteristics. As he gets to know these children and the story of how they are involved in his grandfather’s past, he uncovers a terrifying reality.
Summary: In 1860s England, Faith Sunderly’s family makes the sudden move to the island of Vane, where her scientist father has been invited to participate in an archaeological dig, and Faith quickly learns that her father is hiding something and that their move to the island may be connected to some disgraceful dealings. When her father turns up dead, Faith is sure that a murder has occurred, and her certainty is fed by her discovery of a mysterious tree that her father had been hiding, a tree that is fed by lies and produces fruit that reveals secrets to the one who eats it. The bigger and more widely believed the lie, the more monumental the truth revealed. Faith’s discoveries leave her suspicious of everyone on the island and determined to find out the truth.
Summary: Dannie has always been someone who has had it all together, and everything in her life seems to be going just according to plan after she aces an interview for her dream job and accepts a proposal from her boyfriend on the same day. That night, however, when she awakes from a short nap, she finds herself five years in the future in a different apartment, apparently in a relationship with a man she doesn’t know. She only spends about an hour in this vision of the future, and she tries to forget about the experience, but that becomes impossible when, much to Dannie’s shock, she actually meets the man from her flash-forward. The book is definitely a page-turner.
Summary: In this satirical work, Gulliver travels to several fantasy lands, each with its own set of issues.
Summary: The Protectorate is run by some powerful, manipulative people who have convinced the citizens of the town that, every year, they must give one of the town’s babies to a witch in order to keep her from harming them all. Little do they know that the witch really exists, but, contrary to what the elders say, she is a kind old woman who, one year, feeds the sacrificed baby moonlight, causing her to gain magical powers. As the witch raises the child herself, evil forces stir in the Protectorate, and one special citizen decides that he doesn’t like the way things are in the city. This novel is a fantastic story of familial love, enchanting magic, and good rising up against evil.
Summary: When Earwig is adopted by a witch and an angry, hunkering creature called the Mandrake, she has to be creative to figure out—with the help of Thomas the cat—how to stay safe from the witch and somehow get her to teach her to do magic.
Summary: This novel was the first book published in the Chronicles of Narnia series. It recounts the adventures of four siblings into the magical land of Narnia. When the children arrive in Narnia, it has been taken over by the evil White Witch. The children eventually find themselves caught up in the struggle between good and evil in this strange land.
Summary: The fifth Chronicles of Narnia book to be published, this book tells the story of Shasta and Avaris’s travels on their talking horses and role they find themselves playing in a conflict between Archenland and Narnia and the opposing Calormenes.
Summary: In the small town of Bone Gap, a beautiful, kind stranger named Roza goes missing, and Finn is the only one who saw who took her. The problem, though, is that no one believes his story. This book is a surprising tale of magic, brokenness, love, and what it means to be seen
Summary: In this allegory for the Russian Revolution, the animals of Manor Farm stage a revolution and take control of the farm from Mr. Jones, believing that by so doing, they will be able to be their own masters and live in prosperity. It slowly becomes apparent, however, that the new leaders of the renamed Animal Farm are just as prone to corruption as the former farm owner.