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samanthaardenlockheart's reviews
52 reviews
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Ravenclaw Edition by J.K. Rowling
5.0
A classic book filled with memories, nostalgia, and magic! You can never go wrong with the Harry Potter series. Hopefully, I will read these books again, in the future. ♥️
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
5.0
A classic book filled with memories, nostalgia, and magic! You can never go wrong with the Harry Potter series. Hopefully, I will read these books again, in the future. ♥️
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
5.0
A classic book filled with memories, nostalgia, and magic! You can never go wrong with the Harry Potter series. Hopefully, I will read these books again, in the future. ♥️
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
5.0
Okay… because where do I even start??!! Well, one word: Reylo. And then two more words: Kylo Ren. Based on the things I am interested in reading, the fact that the main male character in this story was inspired by my fictional soulmate, Kylo Ren, makes The Love Hypothesis all the more unique and extraordinarily special to me. I’ve read fanfiction for so long, and it’s such a beautiful thing to know that people in this fandom are getting published!! Wooo!!!
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
4.0
This book tells the very moving, heartbreaking story of a world people live in that contains the technology to inform them of the dates on which they will pass away—known as their End Day. When one is living during their end day, they are referred to as Deckers. A company called Death-Cast. I personally find this concept terrifying: I would be paralyzed with fear day by day instead of actually going out to live. I do not think it would be very much of a pleasant world if this technology did, in fact, exist, but I am getting ahead of myself here.
This entire book follows the story of two main characters named Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio all in the time span of one day: September 5th, 2017. It opens with Mateo getting a call at 12:22 am with an operator on the other side of the phone informing him that today he will be meeting an untimely end. I came to learn about him, his personality, and some of his foundation; life experiences. In the second chapter, Rufus is introduced, and he happens to be called at 1:05 am in the middle of a fight with another character (who is not important for this review). They meet on an app called Last Friend, which is essentially a service that connects people to someone on their End Day, either a fellow human or even Decker. Nevertheless, Rufus and Mateo are both Deckers and after being connected through the app, they make a commitment to make their Last Day as memorable and meaningful as possible.
To my greatest happiness… their short (bittersweetly short) friendship blossoms into a romance, which is great because it adds pain and teen angst to the already tense atmosphere. It makes you feel even more heartbroken as you read the story because it’s so clear how much Mateo and Rufus love one another despite their differences in upbringing and personality; you can not think of one of them without thinking of the other. A scene that will forever stick with me is towards the end, when they are laying together in Mateo’s room together, and Rufus steals his glasses. They then take a picture, just like that, and they are as happy as they can be before they fall asleep in each other’s arms.
While I was reading this book, I found so many good playlists on Spotify, as I do for many other books I read. A good theme song for this is Someone to Stay by Vancouver Sleep Clinic, which greatly enhances the many sad and frustrating emotions Mateo and Rufus experience together as they face their End Day together. Reading their story has been so emotional and I did find myself crying at many different instances. You truly do feel everything that they are feeling, and I think that is what should always be at the heart of good writing.
Ultimately, things take a turn for the worst for poor Mateo and Rufus—but I won’t reveal those details here. This story has reminded me that in life, the most important things are people and the ones we love. You never know when your time on this earth will run out, so living each day without regrets is the best way to go. At least I’ve finished this book with one peaceful thought: Mateo and Rufus lived out their day, and they lived it as best as they could have. They made memories, and they loved each other until the very end. At no point were they ever really alone on their End Day. And in the afterlife, I believe that they will find each other again, because souls are never really gone, are they?
This entire book follows the story of two main characters named Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio all in the time span of one day: September 5th, 2017. It opens with Mateo getting a call at 12:22 am with an operator on the other side of the phone informing him that today he will be meeting an untimely end. I came to learn about him, his personality, and some of his foundation; life experiences. In the second chapter, Rufus is introduced, and he happens to be called at 1:05 am in the middle of a fight with another character (who is not important for this review). They meet on an app called Last Friend, which is essentially a service that connects people to someone on their End Day, either a fellow human or even Decker. Nevertheless, Rufus and Mateo are both Deckers and after being connected through the app, they make a commitment to make their Last Day as memorable and meaningful as possible.
To my greatest happiness… their short (bittersweetly short) friendship blossoms into a romance, which is great because it adds pain and teen angst to the already tense atmosphere. It makes you feel even more heartbroken as you read the story because it’s so clear how much Mateo and Rufus love one another despite their differences in upbringing and personality; you can not think of one of them without thinking of the other. A scene that will forever stick with me is towards the end, when they are laying together in Mateo’s room together, and Rufus steals his glasses. They then take a picture, just like that, and they are as happy as they can be before they fall asleep in each other’s arms.
While I was reading this book, I found so many good playlists on Spotify, as I do for many other books I read. A good theme song for this is Someone to Stay by Vancouver Sleep Clinic, which greatly enhances the many sad and frustrating emotions Mateo and Rufus experience together as they face their End Day together. Reading their story has been so emotional and I did find myself crying at many different instances. You truly do feel everything that they are feeling, and I think that is what should always be at the heart of good writing.
Ultimately, things take a turn for the worst for poor Mateo and Rufus—but I won’t reveal those details here. This story has reminded me that in life, the most important things are people and the ones we love. You never know when your time on this earth will run out, so living each day without regrets is the best way to go. At least I’ve finished this book with one peaceful thought: Mateo and Rufus lived out their day, and they lived it as best as they could have. They made memories, and they loved each other until the very end. At no point were they ever really alone on their End Day. And in the afterlife, I believe that they will find each other again, because souls are never really gone, are they?
If He Had Been with Me by Laura Nowlin
4.0
This book was very emotional, nostalgic, yet completely heartbreaking in every way. Autumn is such a lovable character and I feel so bad for the things she went through, and ultimately what happened at the end. As far as I am concerned, Finny and Autumn are together and they will always be.
The Upside of Falling by Alex Light
4.0
This book was very cute and simple! Becca and Brett are so perfect for one another, but I so deeply loved how intertwined their characters are. Much love!
On Her Knees: Memoir of a Prayerful Jezebel by Brenda Marie Davies
4.0
On Her Knees has blown me away. Brenda has taught me perspectives I’ve not yet considered and showed me things I did not know about, simply because I’m young and this memoir opened my eyes to the world of experience I have yet to encounter in later adulthood. She is helping me understand that Jesus does not cause us to feel shame. Shame is a product of religious fundamentalism implementing damaging standards onto people—whilst those very people cover up their harmful messages with a kind bow and shiny glitter. Navigating life as a young Christian woman will be better because I have read this memoir. I know I've got Jesus and God on my side, and they convict me through the Holy Spirit.♥️
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
5.0
There may be spoilers in this review. Proceed with caution. ♥️
Flowers for Algernon was an exceptional book. It is no secret that Daniel Keyes has mastered the art of storytelling. I loved all of the characters in different ways. However, I loved Charlie Gordon the very most (and of course his lab pal Algernon)—but this should come as no surprise.
He is a unique, innocent, and loving man who lives with an intellectual disability. Because of this, he is given the opportunity of being part of a study at Beekman College supervised by Professor Nemur, with the operation being carried out by Dr. Strauss. They found success in their lab mouse, Algernon, and through Charlie was an excellent candidate. Fortunately, the operation is an enormous success and his intelligence surpasses everyone around him, including those who are the reason for his transformation. Charlie begins to go through life, experiencing everything as he always dreamed.
The story is structured through Progress Reports told through his perspective which helps the story feel very real. As a reader, you feel very connected to Charlie as you see everything through his eyes. There are many funny moments in this book from beginning to end, but there are also heartbreaking moments. Since there was no way for Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss to know this, before the operation, Charlie Gordon ultimately began regressing back towards his original state. Algernon had been declining in the lab, unable to go through the maze nearly as fast as he once could after his operation. Towards the last 10 pages, I felt myself getting extraordinarily emotional because Charlie knew exactly what was happening to him, and that only made it sadder. He ended up experiencing a very beautiful intimate connection with Alice (Miss Kinnian) even in the midst of this regression, and she stayed with him as long as he would have him. For once in his life, he experienced love-making with another woman that went beyond physical dimensions. The last few lines of this book were so profound that it is likely they will be with me forever.
One thing that does comfort me is that in this story, the operation was not for nothing. Charlie contributed himself to science selflessly, all in the hopes that he would be helping someone else just like him. He was a loving person with an I.Q. of 68, he was still loving with an I.Q. of 175, and he was once again a loving person when his I.Q. went back to 68. He loved making people smile through every part of his love, and most assuredly, Charlie Gordon loved Algernon.
As I write this review, I am listening to "Without You Without Me," by Matt and Hansen and it's completely fitting the bittersweetness I am feeling after finishing this story.
Flowers for Algernon was an exceptional book. It is no secret that Daniel Keyes has mastered the art of storytelling. I loved all of the characters in different ways. However, I loved Charlie Gordon the very most (and of course his lab pal Algernon)—but this should come as no surprise.
He is a unique, innocent, and loving man who lives with an intellectual disability. Because of this, he is given the opportunity of being part of a study at Beekman College supervised by Professor Nemur, with the operation being carried out by Dr. Strauss. They found success in their lab mouse, Algernon, and through Charlie was an excellent candidate. Fortunately, the operation is an enormous success and his intelligence surpasses everyone around him, including those who are the reason for his transformation. Charlie begins to go through life, experiencing everything as he always dreamed.
The story is structured through Progress Reports told through his perspective which helps the story feel very real. As a reader, you feel very connected to Charlie as you see everything through his eyes. There are many funny moments in this book from beginning to end, but there are also heartbreaking moments. Since there was no way for Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss to know this, before the operation, Charlie Gordon ultimately began regressing back towards his original state. Algernon had been declining in the lab, unable to go through the maze nearly as fast as he once could after his operation. Towards the last 10 pages, I felt myself getting extraordinarily emotional because Charlie knew exactly what was happening to him, and that only made it sadder. He ended up experiencing a very beautiful intimate connection with Alice (Miss Kinnian) even in the midst of this regression, and she stayed with him as long as he would have him. For once in his life, he experienced love-making with another woman that went beyond physical dimensions. The last few lines of this book were so profound that it is likely they will be with me forever.
One thing that does comfort me is that in this story, the operation was not for nothing. Charlie contributed himself to science selflessly, all in the hopes that he would be helping someone else just like him. He was a loving person with an I.Q. of 68, he was still loving with an I.Q. of 175, and he was once again a loving person when his I.Q. went back to 68. He loved making people smile through every part of his love, and most assuredly, Charlie Gordon loved Algernon.
As I write this review, I am listening to "Without You Without Me," by Matt and Hansen and it's completely fitting the bittersweetness I am feeling after finishing this story.
Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin
3.0
• Written by James Baldwin
• Narrator is worried for Sonny.
• Something troublesome is in the newspaper.
• James Baldwin's Writing is very sensorially descriptive, eloquent, flowing, and beautiful.
• "A great block of ice got settled in my belly and kept melting there slowly all day long, while I taught my classes algebra. It was a special kind of ice. It kept melting, sending trickles of ice water all up and down my veins, but it never got less. Sometimes it hardened and seemed to expand until I felt my guts were going to come spilling out or that I was going to choke or scream. This would always be at a moment when I was remembering some specific thing Sonny had once said or done" (page 17).
○ Similie, personification, metaphor, dominant impression.
• He does not want to face the idea that Sonny had been found out in a raid for peddling and using heroin.
• These words make the reader feel very compassionate for Sonny, but there is also a feeling of disconnect.
• "I was sure that the first time Sonny had ever had horse, he couldn't have been much older than these boys were now. These boys, now, were living as we'd been living then, they were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities. They were filled with rage. All they really knew were two darknesses, the darkness of their lives, which was now closing in on them, and the darkness of the movies, which had blinded them to that other darkness, and in which they now, vindictively, dreamed, at once more together than they were at any other time, and more alone" (page 18).
• This writing engages the senses.
• "He turned toward me again, patient and calm, and yet I somehow felt him shaking, shaking as though he were going to fall apart. I felt that ice in my guts again, the dread I'd felt all afternoon; and again I watched the barmaid, moving about the bar, washing glasses, and singing" (page 21).
• The author reveals that he is seven years older than Sonny; he is very descriptive when describing his little brother (closeness mixed with an underlying sense of distance and melancholy). He goes onto tell stories from his childhood.
• "It's always at the hour of trouble and confrontation that the missing member aches" (page 25).
• "But something deep and watchful in the child knows that this is bound to end, is already ending. In a moment someone will get up and turn on the light. Then the old folks will remember the children and they won't talk anymore that day. And when light fills the room, the child is filled with darkness. He knows that every time this happens he's moved just a little closer to that darkness outside. The darkness outside is what the old folks have been talking about. It's what they've come from. It's what they endure. The child knows that they won't talk anymore because if he knows too much about what's happened to them, he'll know too much too soon, about what's going to happen to him" (page 27).
• His mother reveals that his father's friend was killed a horrifically by white men driving a car, which caused him great trauma. His mother wants to make sure he will be able to look out for Sonny and be there for him, even if he can't stop terrible things from happening.
• Sonny wants to pursue a career in jazz, which is not what James feels is the best thing for him to do. Sonny feels upset when his older brother does not immediately support this career choice as being sustainable.
• "The music seemed to soothe a poison out of them; and time seemed, nearly, to fall away from the sullen, belligerent, battered faces, as though they were fleeing back to their first condition, while dreaming of their last" (page 39).
• Sonny reveals that the feeling of being on heroin is like being in control, but the author is very apprehensive of this.
• The descriptions still are very descriptive. The two brothers talk about suffering in a very deep way. Sometimes people like to give meaning to their suffering so it feels more bearable. The narrator tells Sonny, "I don't want to see you—die trying not to suffer."
• "All I know about music is that not many people ever really hear it. And even then, on the rare occasions when something opens within, and the music enters, what we mainly hear, or hear corroborated, are personal, private, vanishing evocations. But the man who creates the music is hearing something else, is dealing with the roar rising from the void and imposing order on it as it hits the air. What is evoked in him, then, is of another order, more terrible because it has no words, and triumphant, too, for that same reason. And his triumph, when he triumphs, is ours" (page 45).
• Scene where Sonny and Creole are playing the Blues song is a powerful, symbolic metaphor for suffering in this world.
○ "And yet I as aware that this was only a moment, that the world waited outside, as hungry as a tiger, and that trouble stretched above us, longer than the sky" (page 48).
• Narrator is worried for Sonny.
• Something troublesome is in the newspaper.
• James Baldwin's Writing is very sensorially descriptive, eloquent, flowing, and beautiful.
• "A great block of ice got settled in my belly and kept melting there slowly all day long, while I taught my classes algebra. It was a special kind of ice. It kept melting, sending trickles of ice water all up and down my veins, but it never got less. Sometimes it hardened and seemed to expand until I felt my guts were going to come spilling out or that I was going to choke or scream. This would always be at a moment when I was remembering some specific thing Sonny had once said or done" (page 17).
○ Similie, personification, metaphor, dominant impression.
• He does not want to face the idea that Sonny had been found out in a raid for peddling and using heroin.
• These words make the reader feel very compassionate for Sonny, but there is also a feeling of disconnect.
• "I was sure that the first time Sonny had ever had horse, he couldn't have been much older than these boys were now. These boys, now, were living as we'd been living then, they were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities. They were filled with rage. All they really knew were two darknesses, the darkness of their lives, which was now closing in on them, and the darkness of the movies, which had blinded them to that other darkness, and in which they now, vindictively, dreamed, at once more together than they were at any other time, and more alone" (page 18).
• This writing engages the senses.
• "He turned toward me again, patient and calm, and yet I somehow felt him shaking, shaking as though he were going to fall apart. I felt that ice in my guts again, the dread I'd felt all afternoon; and again I watched the barmaid, moving about the bar, washing glasses, and singing" (page 21).
• The author reveals that he is seven years older than Sonny; he is very descriptive when describing his little brother (closeness mixed with an underlying sense of distance and melancholy). He goes onto tell stories from his childhood.
• "It's always at the hour of trouble and confrontation that the missing member aches" (page 25).
• "But something deep and watchful in the child knows that this is bound to end, is already ending. In a moment someone will get up and turn on the light. Then the old folks will remember the children and they won't talk anymore that day. And when light fills the room, the child is filled with darkness. He knows that every time this happens he's moved just a little closer to that darkness outside. The darkness outside is what the old folks have been talking about. It's what they've come from. It's what they endure. The child knows that they won't talk anymore because if he knows too much about what's happened to them, he'll know too much too soon, about what's going to happen to him" (page 27).
• His mother reveals that his father's friend was killed a horrifically by white men driving a car, which caused him great trauma. His mother wants to make sure he will be able to look out for Sonny and be there for him, even if he can't stop terrible things from happening.
• Sonny wants to pursue a career in jazz, which is not what James feels is the best thing for him to do. Sonny feels upset when his older brother does not immediately support this career choice as being sustainable.
• "The music seemed to soothe a poison out of them; and time seemed, nearly, to fall away from the sullen, belligerent, battered faces, as though they were fleeing back to their first condition, while dreaming of their last" (page 39).
• Sonny reveals that the feeling of being on heroin is like being in control, but the author is very apprehensive of this.
• The descriptions still are very descriptive. The two brothers talk about suffering in a very deep way. Sometimes people like to give meaning to their suffering so it feels more bearable. The narrator tells Sonny, "I don't want to see you—die trying not to suffer."
• "All I know about music is that not many people ever really hear it. And even then, on the rare occasions when something opens within, and the music enters, what we mainly hear, or hear corroborated, are personal, private, vanishing evocations. But the man who creates the music is hearing something else, is dealing with the roar rising from the void and imposing order on it as it hits the air. What is evoked in him, then, is of another order, more terrible because it has no words, and triumphant, too, for that same reason. And his triumph, when he triumphs, is ours" (page 45).
• Scene where Sonny and Creole are playing the Blues song is a powerful, symbolic metaphor for suffering in this world.
○ "And yet I as aware that this was only a moment, that the world waited outside, as hungry as a tiger, and that trouble stretched above us, longer than the sky" (page 48).