Divergent Movie Review, by Kavya

 Movie  review 

by Kavya Chunduru

The movie, “Divergent” is about a girl, Tris in the faction Abnegation who doesn’t think she fits into her faction. On choosing day, she chose to transfer into another faction, Dauntless, which are the soldiers of the society. The story is about how Tris overcomes her hurdles in her new faction, and rises to become better. 

I think this movie was a good movie. I think that because the characters chosen to play each book character was well thought out. I also read the book before, so I could say that most of the scenes line up with the book and are accurate. My favorite scene from the movie was when the higher ranking officers put a serum into each of the soldiers to weed out who was divergent and destroy Abnegation in the process. Since Tris was a Divergent, she wasn’t affected. She realized that they were trying to destroy Abnegation and took down the operation along with Tobais, another Dauntless. This scene was my favorite scene because it showed the resilience that Tris had to take down the people behind the plan. It showed that Tris still cared for her old faction even though she left it for a new one.My favorite character from the movie would be Tobias because he was a Divergent like Tris and came from Abnegation. He left Abnegation to leave his abusive father and he came to Dauntless and became the top of his class. I think Tobias’ character was strong and showed that you should pick yourself up after something happens. I would rate this movie 5/5 stars because I thought that it included all the elements that made a good movie and it wasn’t boring to watch.

To Kill a Mockingbird book review by Kavya

 Book review 

by Kavya Chunduru

The book, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is about two siblings, Scout and Jem Finch and their childhood. At this point in time racism was at one of its all time highs in America. Scout and Jem’s father, Atticus, was a lawyer. There was a black man in town that was accused of rape from a white woman even though he didn’t rape her. Atticus agreed to defend the man accused even though he knew that there was no chance of the man winning because of the racism in the town. The trial ends with the man being found guilty, but Atticus points out to his children that he made a difference because the jury spent hours in the room debating over the case instead of throwing the case out and saying that he was guilty immediately. 

I think this book was a good book. The author showed the injustices that people of color had to face before the Civil Right which I think that not many books show. My favorite scene in this book would be a scene when there was a rabid dog on the streets. Atticus rushes home from the hospital with the town sheriff and tells the sheriff to shoot the dog. The sheriff tells Atticus that he’s a better shooter than himself. Atticus shoots the dog perfectly in between the eyes. This is my favorite scene because it shows a little bit of what Atticus was in the past and how he didn’t want his children to know about his hunting career. My favorite character in the book was Atticus because I thought that he was a person who knew what he was doing and he wasn’t afraid to stand up for the weak. Overall, I would rate this book a ⅘ stars because I liked the overall book but it was really boring up to the courtroom scene.

The Outsiders book review by Kavya

 Outsiders Book review

by Kavya Chunduru

The book, “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hilton is about a boy, Ponyboy, and his 6 other friends. In their town, there are two gangs: the Greasers and the Socs. The Greasers are the ones who live on the poor side of town. They get in trouble a lot because of the conditions that they grew up in. The Socs are the rich kids from town. One day they decided to settle their differences in a fight that ended with Jonny, the Greaser killing the Soc, Bob to protect his friend, Ponyboy. The cops start coming after them so they run away from their town to an old abandoned church far away. The only suspects are Johnny and Ponyboy because they were the ones involved in the crime. One day, an old building catches fire with children inside of it. The boys realize that they have to save the kids. Johnny dies in the process of getting the kids out, but all the charges were dropped due to their bravery.

I think this book was a good book. I think this because the author made sure that a lot of the book was filled with suspense, which is a very important thing in making sure the readers stayed interested in the book. I also really liked the character growth in this book. In the beginning of the book, the boys wouldn’t ever think about helping people for free and doing favors for other people and by the end of the book, they were saving little kids’ lives. I think Ponyboy had the most character development because I think Johnny was always willing to do good but in the beginning, Ponyboy wouldn’t have saved the kids if he was in that position. My favorite scene in this book is when Sodapop found out that his girlfriend cheated on him and made him feel like it was his fault. I think this scene showed the pain that he went through. He found out that Sandy was pregnant with a baby that wasn’t his and he still offered to take care of both of them which shows how much he loved Sandy. I would rate this book a 5/5 stars because I wasn’t ever bored of the book while reading it.

Fault in our Stars, book review by Kavya

 Book Review, by Kavya Chunduru

Fault in our Stars 

The book, “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green is about a girl, Hazel who was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and uses a cannula to breathe. She meets Gus, at a Cancer group, a guy with bone cancer and they instantly hit it off. The story follows them getting to know each other and their struggles with the cancer in their bodies.

I think this book was a good book. It shows the hardships that people with cancer have and how they cope with it. I liked how the author showed the 2 characters accepting their fate to die and facing their illness. Some scenes I loved from the book were when Hazel and Gus travel to Amsterdam to meet her favorite author but realized that they guy was a terrible person. Hazel talks about never meeting your heroes after the incident. The character development in this story is really good. By the end of the book, Hazel comes to terms with death. The book ended with Gus passing away after finding out that his cancer was terminal. The author spends the last chapters talking about Hazel’s life after the incident and how she healed from losing someone she loved. I think that the ending to this book was good. From the beginning of the book, you know that one of the characters is terminal and you find out that the other one is terminal too. Keeping Gus alive would be unrealistic to the story because the author was trying to bring the hardships that different Cancer patients to life. I would rate this book a 5/5 stars because it was a great book.

Sister of the Bollywood Bride by Nandini Bajpai; review by Hashini Thirukonda

 

Five Feet Apart” book review by Kavya Chunduru

Five Feet Apart” book review by Kavya Chunduru

 The book, “Five Feet Apart” follows Stella, a girl with Cystic Fibrosis, a condition when your lungs are extremely weak and your body can’t handle bacteria. 2 people with CF are extremely dangerous to one another because their bodies might spread bacteria to each other and worsen the situation. Stella meets Will in the hospital and they both instantly become close. The only problem is that both of them have CF. Stella is due to a lung transplant in a couple months and her being near Will would make her lungs deteriorate. The story is about how the two work around their conditions and start to fall in love. I think that this book was a really good book. The author knew how to add anguish into the story by not letting the main characters be able to be around each other like normal people. Stella is extremely dedicated to making her life better. She takes all her treatments like planned and makes sure to wear masks everywhere she goes. Will doesn’t care about his CF and lives his life like he doesn;t have a disease. Because of this, he is a huge risk to Stella. In the end, Stella falls into a lake and Will has to perform CPR on her. To do this, he had to be near her and breach the 5 feet apart rule. They call an ambulance and he realizes that he’s going to be the reason Stella dies if he stays with her. They find out that Stella was fine from Will being near her but he can’t do it again. Will realizes that he doesn’t want to put Stella’s life in danger and leaves the hospital to travel the world. The ending of this story is really tragic because it's not a happy ending. The author ends the book with Will telling Stella that he has to leave but the readers understand that this would be the last time she’s seeing him because he was going to die within a couple months. I would rate this book 4.5/5 stars because it was a really good book, but some of the details the author wrote about CF aren’t factual.

Heartbreaker book review, by Kavya Chunduru

 Heartbreaker book review, 

by Kavya Chunduru

The book, “Heartbreaker” by Alice Oseman is about a highschooler, Charlie, and his best friend, Nick. Charlie is openly gay and Nick is not. Charlie has a crush on Nick, but he doesn’t think that Nick would return the feeling. One day, Charlie tells Nick about his feelings and Nick says that he likes him back. The main conflict in this book is Nick’s struggle with accepting himself as gay and trying to tell his friends.

I think that this book was a pretty good book. I think it's good because it brings the deep struggles that people in the LGBTQ community face. Nick talks about his homophobic friends and his struggle to tell them that he’s gay too. This book also talks about social pressure and how Nick’s friends think Charlie is weird. I think that these issues aren’t talked about enough and they deserve to be noticed. When reading this book, I had a lot of mixed feelings. I think that the author was trying to get the struggles of the LGBTQ community across but she skimmed over the topic. A more in depth reference of what Nick was feeling would have been good. She also could have included how Charlie was already bullied because he was gay. Other than that, she did a great job of showing Nick’s internal struggles when dating Charlie because he refused to tell the school that they were dating because he was embarrassed to be gay. I think that Charlie was a supportive boyfriend by giving Nick time to tell the school that they were together. At the end of the book, Nick comes out and tells the school. Overall, I would rate this book a ⅘  stars.