Welcome to the first book review of the 2016 Reading Challenge!
Throughout the year I will be posting book reviews over the books in my 2016 Reading Challenge. It sounds simple because it is simple. I will try to update as often as possible because I want the content of the book(s) to be fresh on my mind so I can give my most accurate opinion.
Three weeks into the new year and I have finished two of my books! The first one I read was The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien. This was for my A Book & its Prequel category. The second book was Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman. This was for my National Book Award Winner category. So let's just jump right into the reviews!
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Category: A Book & its Prequel
Rating: 9/10
Summary: Detailed, long read, imaginative, vast
This is one of my favorite trilogies and favorite worlds in Book Land. I absolutely love the idea of Middle Earth and its history and stories. I have read the trilogy before, along with The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and a few other books from that land.
The Fellowship of the Ring is the beginning of Frodo Baggins' adventure, but it also ties in deeply with the history and conclusion of Middle Earth. There are many things in this book that, when reading it the first time around, felt lost on me, like I was missing pages with valuable information. However, after reading The Hobbit and The Silmarillion, this story line is a lot more clear to me.
There are a few things I like about Tolkien's writing. First, he is detailed. I love detail because it allows me to imagine the character more accurately while I'm reading the story. I'm very visual and very right-brained, which means that as I'm reading I have to create the images I'm reading. If I don't get enough detail, I feel like I can't connect to the storyline. Second, his book has more story than meets the eye. Much of a character's history can be found in other books, which means that I can go find said books and learn more about the inhabitants of Middle Earth. Third, he is just a great writer. I learned long ago that some books have what I call "the hook." The hook is what gets me going. If the author writes something good enough or intriguing enough, I have to keep reading to find out what happens next. That is how Tolkien writes, in my opinion. He has the hook and reels me in every time!
One thing I like about this book in particular is that he gives each character the opportunity to have a personality. We all know it's about The Ring and how it needs to be destroyed, so the focus is mostly on Frodo. However, throughout the book, each of the characters of the fellowship are focused on which allows you to learn more about their character and get more insight on how they will help or hinder the company.
One thing that might confuse some and even confused me the first time reading this book is the plethora of "extra" characters that come up once and are never seen again. I have mixed feelings about this for which I will discuss my positive view and my negative view. My positive view is that, yes, there are all of these extra characters that pop up and disappear, but that is how life works. We have these random roles filled about us with people we never see again. I feel like Tolkien did a great job making this very realistic. However, as a book from a trilogy with a huge amount of characters, it is overwhelming... along with the 3-5 names each person is given (Elfish, Dwarf Tongue, Common Tongue, Old Tongue, etc) that you feel like you need to remember. It can just become overwhelming!
So to wrap this review up: I would recommend this, highly, to anyone who is willing to hyper-focus on the trilogy, and even perhaps delve into the Silmarillion and side-stories. However, if you're looking for a quick read, I would pass it up.
Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
Category: A National Book Award Winner
Rating: 10/10
Summary: Creative, eye-opening, overwhelming, stigma-breaking
The original book I was supposed to read for National Book Award Winner was Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson. Apparently my Higher Power had better things in mind.
When I went to the bookstore this weekend, I was looking for Fortune Smiles and couldn't seem to find it. It looked like my bookstore had a huge sale and a lot of shelves were wiped clean. I didn't find too many of the books I was looking for and was wandering towards the front when I saw another book I needed for my list. Then, I glanced down and saw Challenger Deep. I remembered it being on the National Book Award list and thought, "I'd rather buy this book now than order the one I'm supposed to read online." What a lazy thought, but it proved to be exactly what I was supposed to do.
Without spoiling the book, the basis of the story is about a 15 year old boy named Caden Bosch who is struggling with a mental illness. You don't quite get it at first, pages 1-30 are a little random, but I think that's the point. It goes on to narrate the story inside of Caden's head, his thoughts on everything surrounding him.
I will admit, I did not quite understand what was going on. Then, there was this point about 50 pages or maybe 100 pages in where it clicked.
You see, I know several people who struggle with mental illness. I know someone who is bipolar and manic depressive. I never quite understood them, and still don't quite understand them, but this book helped show me what is going on inside their head. Sometimes they leave reality and become manic and paranoid over things we don't see or understand. My friend would tell me they think someone is following them home from work, or that someone was watching their house, that they couldn't leave their child with someone else because something could happen to the child. Most of the time I would ignore it, or think they were being weird, and I occasionally would get irritated if it happened more than once a week. Now I know it's not weird, but it's a mental illness. They can't help it. Even if they KNOW they are being irrational, they can't control the thinking in their head.
I don't know... this book struck a cord with me. It was very eye-opening. It's helped me to understand that mental illness can't be willed away. Some days the illness is bad, really bad, and some days it's just there waiting to take over.
If you have ever read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon, I would like to think that Challenger Deep is a similar style, both stigma-breaking and eye-opening books. If you haven't read The Curious Incident, you should, it's a great book, another one I highly recommend.
I just have to finish with this: the stigma of mental illness is not good. I think many people don't understand what mental illnesses are and it makes them cast out those who have it. I don't quite understand bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, manic depression, and those other scary diagnoses. I don't think I'll ever be able to fully understand them, but this book gave me the inside scoop on how people with a mental illness deal with life. It's scary, terrifying even. I can't imagine going through that kind of ordeal. What I can do, however, is have compassion, and try my best to just accept them for who they are, even when I can't help.
So to wrap this review up: I would HIGHLY recommend this book. I don't care who you are, what genre you read, how much time you have, just read it. It took me one day to read, and I would stop to do laundry, make meals, play with the dog, etc. Just read it!
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