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While this was an interesting concept, it just didn't do much for me. Thus, 3/5 stars. Jaxon is a whiny and spoiled-brat protagonist who actually realizes he is by the end of the book (yay). The book begins with Jaxon playing "Arcadia," his favorite video game, and being stopped by his dad who has come to force Jaxon to go clean their car, since his step-mother had just asked him to and he rudely blew her off. Jaxon goes to the car wash and struggles with the dispenser. He meets a girl by accidentally soaking her. Her name is Serena. He makes her laugh. Thus, he thinks he wins her heart immediately. He asks her out, she agrees. They set a time and place and she leaves, saying she does not have a phone or Facebook, so he has no contact information. He returns home to see his computer ruined and his father with two huge men who sweep him into a car and tell him he is going to video game rehab AKA "Video Horizons." He is driven far away across the desert to an

It's been a long time since I've posted on this blog. I was afraid for awhile I was going to let it go completely. But I've had it for so long I wanted to keep it going. My name is Amanda, and I am now a 20 year old college Senior (4th year). I am on summer break, with my Senior year beginning in August. I am engaged to Tyler, my boyfriend who used to write on this blog. We have been engaged since April 9, 2016. We plan on getting married summer 2019. He has graduated college and is working on finding another job, since he quit his last one at Amazon due to terrible hours and health problems. I am back on a reading streak: I have read 30 books this year so far. I plan to keep writing reviews to inspire both my reading and writing loves. I was diagnosed with chronic major depressive disorder and anxiety. It has been especially crippling to me this year, and I have been very close to suicide. I am grateful for Tyler, my beloved band of dorks, and my family for supportin

Okay, so this book has pretty glowing reviews. I mean, it has a 4.12 on Goodreads with 20,577 ratings currently. However...I am so conflicted about this book. My favorite author on Goodreads, who reviews books pretty harshly and blatantly and rarely gives high scores, gave this book 5 stars. That only made me want to read it MORE. And so I did: all in the span of yesterday. I'm still mulling this story over, but I have my thoughts gathered. I want to give this book 4 stars. I'm leaning more toward 3.5. A recap (in my own words and from my own memory): The book is narrated in first person by Ava herself (which proves to be confusing frequently throughout). She is recounting her family history to the present events. She starts with her great-grandparents: Beauregard Roux and Maman, who marry and move from France to American in Manhattan. They have 4 children: Rene, Margaux, Pierette, and Emilienne. Beauregard dies due to murder, as someone mistook him for someone else. H

Upon finishing Shūsaku Endō’s novel Silence, my World Literature class and professor went to see the movie, just released near the end of 2016. This harrowing tale of two Portuguese priests traveling to Japan to spread Christianity and find out what happened to their teacher played out beautifully on the big screen, and I surprisingly did not find myself bored, especially as the movie was two hours and forty-two minutes. The movie itself was good: I liked how the book played out. The script, casting, drama, and depictions of the events in the novel (particularly the torture scenes) were well-done. I found myself captured and brought into Japan myself, angry for Christians being so unfairly persecuted because the officials saw Christianity as “dangerous.” And why? Why was Buddhism any better? My main takeaway from this movie and book falls under Jesus’ last words before His ascension: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the S