ashleymartaza's reviews
14 reviews

Night by Elie Wiesel

5.0

A powerful display of the horrors people went through during the Holocaust.

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

5.0

A very funny and interesting book that was easy for me to connect to considering I'm also of mixed heritage. If you are like me or Noah, I highly recommend trying this book out!

Marked by P.C. Cast, Kristin Cast

4.0

I read up to about six of the books in this series throughout middle school, so I enjoyed it enough. The first book is definitely the best, the rest get a bit basic at times, but not horrible. It has gay side characters (and maybe POC? might have imagined it) from the beginning, but later in the series, a gay man gets murdered and there's a sexual/romantic relationship between a student and professor, so be warned now because I wasn't.

Matched by Ally Condie

4.0

I remember reading the entire trilogy in middle school, so I must have liked it enough to finish it. It was a decent YA book for me, though I've heard other, more prolific YA readers, say it's basic or bad. It does have your love triangle and intrusive dystopia government tropes, but I don't see the comparisons people make of it to Hunger Games because it has very little action plot and a lot of emotional plot. It does have a virus arc later on in the series though, so if COVID has you squicked then you might not want to pick up the sequels.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

4.0

I remember enjoying this book when I read it several years back. I watched it after seeing the movie because I liked how different it was from what I've seen in fiction before. I believe it treats the audience as much more mature than most YA books tend to go for, both the film and novel. Not a bad read if you're looking for something new to get into.

Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements

4.0

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

4.0

Can be a hard read for you if you're sensitive to the way neurodivergent characters are portrayed in media. Obviously not as Politically Correct as we try to be today.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

3.0

A perfectly fine book, though I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to because my teacher wouldn't stop forcing us to analyze every little detail we came across. I could have read it all in about three hours and loved it, but that's life I suppose.

Anthem by Ayn Rand

4.0

Short and eye-opening to what living in an extremist communest-esque dictatorship can be like. This short novel can be hard to read on the first go because the society the main character lives in requires everyone to never use single pronouns (only we and us), but a second read will be muuuch easier and worth it. However, I have heard a lot of people have a problem with Ayn Rand as a person, mostly because of her pro-capitalism (understandable since she came from communist Russia) and the reactions to her other book Atlas Shrugged (never read it), but I think this book is a good place to start for opening your mind to the conversation of all political systems.

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

4.0

Hooboy, was not expecting that twist. Will be buying the sequel when it comes out!