Book Review #17 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Reason of choice

Since it is one of the books of the Harry Potter series, I would have to read this book in order to finish it, not to mention that, in my opinion, it has one of the best plots of the entire series if we look at it as a standalone.

Reaction to the first pages

Once again, comparing the book to its movie adaptation, the details and differences that are in the book but that aren’t shown in the movie made me feel even more pleased to read this book again.

Summary

The book starts when Harry is still with the Dursleys and Marge, uncle Vernon's sister, comes to their house to stay a week. Harry had made a deal with his uncle that he would sign a permission form for Harry to go to Hogsmeade, a village near Hogwarts, but only if Harry behaved properly, since the relationship between Harry and aunt Marge was worse than the one between Harry and his uncles. Harry did his best to control himself but he couldn’t stick to the deal because aunt Marge was always taunting him, saying that he was a disgrace and a failure because of his parents.

Losing control, Harry inflated his aunt and left the Dursleys’ house. Thankfully for himself, he was picked up by the Knight Bus, where he knew that Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban, being the first prisoner to be able to do so. The Knight Bus took him to the Leaky Cauldron, where Fudge, the Minister of Magic, told him not to worry about what he had done but that he had to stay in there until the start of the school.

Before going to Hogwarts, Harry eavesdropped Mr. and Mrs. Weasley saying that Sirius Black was after him. Before arriving at the school, the dementors, the guards of Azkaban, inspected the train, making Harry faint, while all the others had just feeling cold and that all the happiness had disappeared.

When the school started, they found out that Hagrid would be the new teacher of Care of Magical Creatures. In his first lesson, Hagrid showed them hippogriffs and Harry rode one. It could’ve been a great success if Malfoy followed Hagrid’s instructions, but he didn’t and he was attacked by Buckbeack, one of the hippogriffs. Moreover, in their first lesson of Divination, their teacher told everyone that Harry would die. Those two subjects were new for them but they had also a new teacher for Defense Against the Dark Arts: professor Lupin, which in his first lesson showed them how to face a boggart, a creature that would shift his form to what they feared the most.

The time went by and, one day, the Fat Lady, the woman in the painting who would ask for the password to enter in the Gryffindor common room, was attacked by Sirius Black. After that, the school was searched but nobody found anything. The Quidditch season was about to start and the Gryffindor team was training very hard for their first match, which they lost because the dementors invaded the field, making Harry fall from his broom, which fell in the Whomping Willow, that ripped it apart.

Harry was very sad, not only about it, but also because he couldn’t go to Hogsmeade. Seeing this, Fred and George Weasley handed the Marauder’s Map to Harry so he could sneak out of Hogwarts through one of the many secret passages to go to Hogsmeade. Some time later, he received the Firebolt, the fastest broom created, but he didn’t know who had sent it, so Hermione, fearing that it had been sent and bewitched by Black, told professor McGonagall, who confiscated it.

Before Christmas, Harry was told by Lupin that he would teach Harry to defend himself against the dementors but only after Christmas. He kept his word and, in the beginning of the second term, he taught Harry the Patronus Charm, which was like a shield made of happy memories so that the dementors would feed themselves with it.

Thankfully for Harry, it was confirmed that the Firebolt wasn’t bewitched, so he could use it in his matches against Ravenclaw and Slytherin, which Gryffindor won both. In the end of the year, they were informed that Buckbeak was sentenced to death. In the day of the beheading, they met Hagrid in his hut, where they also found Scabbers, Ron’s rat, which all of them thought was eaten by Hermione’s cat. They left Hagrid’s hut before the arrival of the men who had to be there to witness the death but they didn’t return to Gryffindor’s common room, because Scabbers ran away from them again. Ron chased it and caught it but the Grim, an enormous black dog, which was Harry’s death sign and which he had seen many times before, bit Ron’s leg and dragged him through the Whomping Willow.

Harry and Hermione had some trouble to get into the passage too but they were able to enter. In the end of the passage, they arrived at the Shrieking Shack, where there were Ron, Scabbers and Sirius Black, which they understood was an animagus because he could transform himself into the Grim whenever he wanted. A while later, Lupin and Snape arrived, respectively. They knocked out Snape and then Black, which was Harry’s godfather, told them that he wasn’t the responsible for the death of Harry’s parents but Peter Pettigrew was, who they thought was dead, but that, in reality, was Scabbers, because he also was an animagus. Before leaving the Shrieking Shack, Lupin transformed into his werewolf form because that night it was full moon night and he lost his control because he didn’t drink his potion.

Black, in his dog form, tried to face Lupin to protect the other from being bitten. He was successful but he was beaten very hard and Harry heard him in pain and he went after him to protect him from the dementors. He wasn’t able to hold much time against them but a wizard, he thought it was his dad, drove all the dementors away.

When they were back to their minds, since they passed out, Dumbledore heard their story and told them that more than one life could be saved if some things were changed. Harry didn’t understand what he said but Hermione did and she used her Time-turner to return to the past. While they were waiting, Hermione told Harry that she was attending all her classes using it and that they couldn’t be seen. They were able to save Buckbeak from death, Harry found out that the wizard that drove all the dementors away was himself and they were also able to save Black from death, being this the end of the book.

Highlights

In my opinion, this is once more pure genius from J. K. Rowling because she keeps telling her story with lots of details which we see merely as it but that are clues for what will happen. The way she does this is so smooth that, in the end, we can only see her as a pure genius. Moreover, we can see it from the very beginning:

- Harry saw the Grim walking with Hermione’s cat and later they found out that the cat was the reason why Sirius entered in the Gryffindor common room, because Neville lost the paper with the password, which was also told before

- The picture of Ron and Scabbers in the newspaper when he was with his family in Egypt was in the beginning of the book and it was the reason why Black managed to run away from Azkaban

- We should also mention that the author tells us in the first book that Scabbers doesn’t have a finger

- Throughout the whole book, Ron questions himself how can Hermione attend so many classes without missing any of them. These are just a few of the many examples we can find.

Book Review #16 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J. K. Rowling

Reason of choice

Since I started to read the Harry Potter series, I would have to read this book. For that reason and for being one of my favorites, due to the many details that the author gives us throughout the book that lead us to understand everything at the end, I chose to read this book.

Reaction to the first pages

Once more, since I knew how the story would go, I wasn’t surprised by anything but, again, remembering some little details that are only present in the books made me want to keep reading the book to look for more of them.

Summary

In the end of the first book of this series, Harry’s friends told him that they would be sending him letters but he didn’t receive any during the whole summer, which made him feel more alone than he had ever felt before. However, in a very important day for Harry’s uncle, he was visited by Dobby, a house-elf who told him not to go to Hogwarts because terrible things would be happening in there. Moreover, Harry found out that he was the responsible for him not getting any letter from his friends.

Harry told Dobby that he had to go back to Hogwarts no matter what, so Dobby ruined the meeting of Harry’s uncle, which made Harry get imprisoned in his room. Fortunately for him, the Weasleys were worried about him, because he hadn’t replied to any letter, so they went to get him in their flying car and took him into their house.

Harry stayed in Weasleys’ house until the start of the school. In the day of going to school, Harry and Ron were the last ones to cross the barrier to catch the train but they weren’t able to do so, which led them to fly to Hogwarts in Mr. Weasley’s car. When they were arriving, they lost the control of the car and they crashed into the Whomping Willow, which attacked them, breaking Ron’s wand. For that reason and for being seen by Muggles flying the car, they almost got expelled.

Harry’s punishment was to help Gilderoy Lockhart, his new Defense Against the Dark Arts’ teacher, to answer his fan mail. While he was in his detention, Harry swore he had heard a voice, while Lockhart hadn’t heard anything. Some days later, Harry heard the same voice again, but this time he was with Ron and Hermione, but they hadn’t also heard anything. In spite of that, Harry followed the voice until they found Mrs. Norris, Mr. Filch’s cat, petrified and a message on a wall.

After the attack, everyone was scared but nothing happened until the day that Harry’s arm was broken by a bludger, that he knew, later, that had been enchanted by Dobby to make him go home. Dobby also confessed that he was the responsible for not letting Harry and Ron get through the barrier to catch the train. In that night, Colin Creevey, a first-year Gryffindor and Muggle-born was attacked.

Due to the attack, Lockhart organized a duel club for the students to defend against the attacker. In there, everyone found out that Harry could talk with snakes, which led everyone to think that he was the attacker, the Heir of Slytherin, and the one who was able to control the monster inside the Chamber of Secrets.

Harry and his friends were convinced that the Heir of Slytherin was Malfoy, so they made a potion that would transform themselves into members of the Slytherin to confirm their suspicions. In the day the potion was finished, they discovered not only that Malfoy wasn’t the Heir of Slytherin but they also found out that the Chamber had been opened before.

After some time, Harry found Tom Riddle’s diary in the bathroom haunted by Moaning Myrtle, which was the place where they prepared the potion. It was completely blank but Harry felt it was hiding something and one day he tried to write something in there and it answered back. After some “talking” with the diary, it showed Harry that Hagrid was expelled because it was believed that he was the responsible for the death of the girl back when the Chamber had been opened.

Harry told this to his friends but they didn’t want to ask Hagrid about it, but Harry and Ron were forced to do it because Hermione was petrified. However, they weren’t able to ask him because he was taken into Azkaban, having only time to tell the boys to follow the spiders. They did it and went to the nest of Aragog, Hagrid’s huge spider that he had raised and that was believed to be the monster of the Chamber, but Aragog told them that he was given to Hagrid by a stranger and that the monster was the thing that the spiders feared the most.

They had troubles to run from Aragog’s nest but they did it. Some days later, they went to visit Hermione and they found in her hand a paper that made it clear that the monster was a basilisk, a giant snake that could live for many years and that was the thing the spiders feared the most. Moreover, Harry understood why Hermione had wrote “Pipes” in that page: that was the way how it moved through the castle without being seen.

In that same day, Ginny, Ron’s sister, was taken into the Chamber and the boys went to get her with Lockhart, who was trying to run away and who lost his memory due to Ron’s defective wand. In the Chamber, Harry killed the basilisk with the help of Fawkes, Dumbledore’s phoenix, and saved Ginny by destroying Tom Riddle’s diary. In the end, Harry found out that Dobby belonged to the Malfoys but he was able to free him from his slavery condition.

Highlights

In my opinion, the main highlight of this book is the ability of the author to create an amazing story around some details given throughout the book and that altogether make sense and explain everything that happened since the very beginning.

Recommendation

The highlight pointed above is the main reason why I think this book should be read. However, being this part of an amazing series, I have to say that the reading of this book is necessary to understand the whole plot of the series. I must also add that this book as a standalone isn’t that great as it is along the other books of the series.

Click here to read the Book Review of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Book Review #15 - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, by J. K. Rowling

Reason of choice

This series is one of my favorites of all time, both the movie adaptations and the books themselves. However, I have only read the Portuguese books back then. Now that I’ve developed my English skills, I wanted to read the original books.

Reaction to the first pages

Since I knew this series almost by heart, I was delighted to remember some details I have forgotten as the time went by and that are only present in the books. For this reason and due to liking so much this series, I have always wanted to keep reading the book.

Summary

The book begins when Harry is delivered to the Dursley’s, which raised him with their son, Dudley, who bullied Harry during all the time they lived together. One day, when Harry was getting the mail, he saw he had a letter for himself but he wasn’t fast enough to read it and their uncle confiscated it from him. More letters exactly alike that one arrived in the following days but he never managed to read one.

Due to this fact, the Dursleys and Harry left their house and went to the middle of nowhere to run away from the letters but Hagrid, the gamekeeper of Hogwarts, the school of witches and wizards, went to meet them and delivered one letter to Harry.

After that, they went to London, to Diagon Alley, where Harry bought everything he needed for his first year at Hogwarts. However, before buying anything, Hagrid and Harry went to Gringotts, the wizard’s bank, where Harry took some of the money their parents had left for him, while Hagrid took something from another vault.

After some time, Harry went to King’s Cross Station, where he met Ron Weasley and his family, who helped him to get aboard the Hogwarts Express, in the Platform 9 and 3/4. When the first-year students arrived at Hogwarts, they were placed in the four different Houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. Harry, Ron and Hermione, who the boys met in the train were all placed in Gryffindor, while Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, some guys they have also met in the train but that they didn’t like, were placed in Slytherin.

Then, we are introduced to the several classes they would be having and to their teachers, being the most relevant ones Potions, taught by Snape, who hated Harry, and Transfiguration, taught by Professor McGonagall. Moreover, Harry showed incredible skills in Quidditch, being recruited as the seeker for Gryffindor, which was against the rules, since the first-year students weren’t allowed to have their own brooms.

One night, Malfoy invited Harry and Ron for a duel, which they accepted, and Hermione tried to stop them but she wasn’t able to do so. Although she didn’t want to go with them, she was forced to go since she couldn’t get back to the Gryffindor common room. However, Malfoy didn’t appear. Therefore, they understood that he tried to frame them. Fortunately for them, they weren’t seen, but, in their way back, they went straight to the 3rd floor, which was forbidden. In there they found a three-headed dog, which was guarding something but they didn’t know what was it.

Then, in Halloween, there was a troll that entered in Hogwarts and that almost killed Hermione, who was saved by Ron and Harry. To free the boys from the trouble they would be getting for running away from the other classmates, Hermione lied for them, being that the beginning of their friendship.

In Christmas, Harry and Ron would be staying at Hogwarts, trying to find who Nicholas Flamel was, since Hagrid told them that only Dumbledore and that man knew what was being guarded by Fluffy, the three-headed dog. Harry received an invisibility cloak as a Christmas gift and he used it to sneak into the restricted section of the library to search for Flamel but he wasn’t successful. In his way back, he found a room with a mirror which showed Harry and his parents. Harry was fascinated by it, which led him to decide to show it to Ron, who wasn’t able to see what Harry said he had seen. After some visits, Dumbledore caught Harry in that room and explained him that the mirror would show one's biggest desire and he also told Harry not to look again for the mirror.

After some time, Harry, Ron and Hermione found out who Flamel was and they also discovered that Fluffy was guarding the Philosopher’s Stone. Besides, Hagrid told them how to pass through Fluffy and that he had a dragon egg about to hatch. Unfortunately, he couldn’t keep it for himself, so Harry and Hermione helped Hagrid to deliver it to one of Ron’s brothers, who were working and studying dragons. However, they were caught by Professor McGonagall because Malfoy warned her that they would do it in that night, but they were caught only after delivering the dragon.

Because of that, they were sent with Hagrid to the Dark Forest, where they chased something that was killing unicorns but they weren’t able to identify it. Then, one day that Dumbledore had went to London, they thought Snape would try to steal the Stone, therefore they tricked Fluffy and they were able to go through all the challenges made by the teachers until they found out that the thief wasn’t Snape, but Professor Quirrel, who was sharing his own body with Voldemort, the man who killed Harry’s parents and that made him his scar. Harry was able to get the Stone for himself and he was able to stop Quirrel and Voldemort, being this the end of the book.

Highlights

It is a little hard to highlight something but I think the author’s ability to make almost every little detail count to the development of the story should be the greatest highlight of the book because, throughout the whole book, we get some clues about what would be happening and they are always pointed out whenever we need to remember them.

Recommendation

Obviously, since this is one of my favorite series, I must recommend it because it’s very nice to remember the Harry Potter story and because we should know how great J. K. Rowling is as a writer.

Book Review #14 - Black List, by Brad Thor

Reason of the choice

The first thing I read by Brad Thor was the Portuguese translation of Foreign Influence and I really liked it because it was full of action, suspense, violence and I liked it so much that I was eager to know how the story would end. Therefore, the author was the main reason why I have picked this book.

Reaction to the first pages

The first pages were very messy and I was confused but, as the book kept going, I started to connect the dots and, from that moment onwards, all I wanted was to read more and more.

Summary

The book started with the suicide of Caroline Romero, which was very odd, followed by an attempt of murder to Scot Harvath, a former SEAL and the main character, and to Reed Carlton, Harvath’s boss, but both men survived.

Harvath killed the men that tried to murder him and ran away from Paris to Spain, where he met a priest, Peio, who was a friend Harvath had met in the past. In the meantime, Carlton was able to run away from his house which was set on fire and he went for his old mentor to ask for help. Moreover, Nicholas, a dwarf, specialist with computers and Harvath’s friend, was asked for help by the sister of Caroline and she gave him a pen, which was sent to her by her sister before she had died.

In Spain, Harvath was attacked again but he managed to kill the new team which was sent after him and, after establishing contact with Nicholas, he went to Texas to meet the dwarf. In Texas, Nicholas told Harvath that the people who tried to kill Caroline and who were trying to kill them all were ATS, an American company specialized in surveillance technologies. They were attacked once more while they were in Texas but, again, Harvath killed them.

After the new attempt of murder, they left the house in which they were and they went after colonel Bremmer, who was signing the killing orders. They were able to get him and they “tortured” him to give them more information about the people who were after them and he did so. While that was happening, Carlton and his mentor ambushed the head of the personal security team of the CEO of ATS and, after torturing him, he told the two men where his boss would be and how his security team would be disposed.

After getting the information they needed, Harvath and the remaining people who were with him went after Schroeder, the man who had investigated all the people who were now dead, and they were able to track him down very easily and to get information from him. He didn’t give much useful information to get his boss but he told them what they were up to and why they have killed so much people.

In the end, Harvath and his boss captured the CEO of ATS and killed the remaining border of directors of ATS.

Highlights

As it happened in Foreign Influence, this book was full of action and suspense since its beginning and it is something that I really like but the thing that I really liked the most was how Brad Thor exposed such an actual delicate theme: he presented a story with the main goal to show us how the Internet and everything else connected to it could be used to surveil us and to kill us if necessary in the name of security.

It’s true that all of us won’t be targets to be killed but we must make sure that the Internet and the people who are able to use it in their favor don’t use it to wash our minds in the name of security. Yes, we must pay attention to all the dangers that are around us but we can’t trade all of our freedom in exchange for security.

Recommendation

This was an amazing thriller and I definitely recommend this book to everyone who doesn’t know Brad Thor, to everyone who like a thriller full of action and suspense and to everyone concerned with the theme of “Security vs Freedom”.

Book Review #13 - The Hunger Games - Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins

Reason of the choice

Since I have read the previous book of this trilogy, which, from the very beginning was very nice, I felt the need to know how Suzanne Collins would finish it and it was the main reason why I have chosen to read the book.

Reaction to the first pages

Although the beginning of the previous books were amazing and super engaging, I haven’t felt that this book also had it, which disappointed me but, after finishing the book and thinking a little more about the trilogy and the way we moved through it with Katniss, I have to admit that it was a very good way to start the last book.

Summary

After being picked by the Rebels, Katniss went to District 13, which wasn’t destroyed as it was believed by the remaining 12 Districts. In there, Katniss was told that District 12 was destroyed and, due to everything she had passed, the doctors from 13 considered she had mental issues but after some time, the doctors told Katniss that she was better and she was assigned, like all the others, a schedule but usually she didn’t care and she just wandered around.

While she was considered “sick”, Katniss was asked by President Coin, the woman who was the leader of 13, to be the Mockingjay, the symbol of the revolution, since she was the one that “defied” the Capitol to win the 74th Hunger Games but she didn’t accept to play that role as she was asked but only after some time after being considered better Moreover, she only accepted it after Coin agreed with some conditions made by Katniss.

After the agreement being settled, she discovered that her preparation team was being punished, which made her feel disgusted with many people from 13 almost as much as she was with the Capitol. Despite it, she carried on and they tried to film something to use to advertise the rebel cause but it didn’t work very well because she was really bad at it. To solve that problem, Haymitch convinced everyone to let her go into the war because she was only able to inspire people if she was being herself, not saying something that was planned before.

They accepted that suggestion and she was sent to District 8, where she showed herself to the wounded in an improvised hospital, which gave them hope because some of them wasn’t sure if she was alive. After the visit, they were supposed to get back to 13 but, before reaching to the point where they had to get, the Capitol bombed the hospital. Even though Katniss was only supposed to show herself to those who were at the hospital, she decided to help the rebels, destroying some hovercrafts.

After the attack, they went back to 13, where they told Katniss that they had some footage that could be used. After making the advertisements, Beetee, a victor from District 3, was able to air them everywhere, except in the Capitol. In response to that, the Capitol aired an interview with Peeta, in which he told what the Capitol wanted him to say about the participation of Katniss in the rebellion but he also warned the people from 13 that the Capitol would attack them.

Due to the warning, all the population from 13 was able to stay alive and only one part of their fortress was destroyed, since most of their activities were done underground. After that, Katniss convinced President Coin to rescue Peeta from the Capitol but she, Katniss, had to stay in 13 or they wouldn't save him. Since she couldn't go with the rescue team, she and Finnick had to tell some stories about the Hunger Games and some other secrets which would be aired and it would even be seen in the Capitol, being this a distraction to help the rescue team.

They were able to get Peeta back but they also rescued the other two victors: Johanna, from 7, and Enobaria, from 2. As soon as Katniss knew that he had arrived, she went to meet him but he wasn't the same boy Katniss left in the arena because he tried to kill her as he saw her. For some time, she wasn't able to face Peeta and she started to behave the way she did when she was taken to 13.

When she was better, she was sent to District 2, which was the only District that hadn't joined the rebel cause. In there, Katniss convinced the rebels to only blow up and destroy every entrance but one controlled by them, so they could surrender or, if they didn't do so, they would kill them more easily. The Capitol forces chose not to surrender but they weren't slaughtered because Katniss was caught by a man who was willing to kill her. While trying to convince that man not to kill her, she spoke loud enough to be heard by everyone, she asked them why were they fighting and who the real enemy was. The man who caught her didn’t shoot her but another man did it.

Thankfully, she survived and, while she was recovering in 13, she discovered that the people from 13 was planning to invade the Capitol. Snce she wanted to kill President Snow, she wanted to join them but President Coin and some other members with high positions in the hierarchy didn't allow her, unless she was really ready to combat, which she wasn't. Luckily for her, the departure would be in a few weeks and she was able to get back in shape, meaning that she was able to go.

Therefore, she joined a group in which was also Gale and Finnick and which was led by a soldier she met when they went to 8. Johanna, who was supposed to go along with them wasn't able to do so and Peeta filled her spot, but, when he arrived, they handcuffed him and they set some turns to guard him at night, so he couldn't kill Katniss. When they were trying to get to President Snow's mansion, since they knew where some of the pods were, they advanced without much trouble, until they activated one they weren't aware of, that killed some members of the team.

After, they saw on the television that the Capitol was going to get their bodies, since they believed that the whole team died, and, to gain time, they decided to let Peeta go alone. While they were advancing, they faced many other dangers and most of the group died, being Katniss and Gale the only ones left, but, when they activated another pod, they were split. When Katniss was almost reaching the mansion, she saw that the only people which were being rescued to stay in there were children and they were bombed by a hovercraft, which only killed some of them but the second wave killed much more, being Primrose, Katniss’ sister, one of the dead people because she was a rebel doctor and went to help the wounded from the first explosion.

When Katniss woke up from the explosion, she was in the mansion and she was told that Snow would be judged soon. Although she wasn't supposed to enter the room where he was, she entered and they talked. He told Katniss that he wasn't the responsible for the death of the children she witnessed. In the beginning, she didn't believe it but, later, she saw that he was telling the truth because she had already seen something like it, in 13, being Beetee and Gale the inventors of such weapon.

In the day of Snow's trial, she was supposed to kill Snow but, instead, she killed President Coin. Despite it, Snow also died because, as Finnick had told before, he was slowly dying because he drank poison he used to kill some of his "friends" and rivals, and the antidote didn’t cure him properly.

In the end, Katniss was absolved in her trial, being stated as a mentally sick person and she was sent back to 12, where, after some months, arrived Peeta, not Gale, who stayed in 2, and the two victors of the 74th Hunger Games lived as happy as possible together.

Highlights

Although not liking this book as much as I liked the previous ones, this was still pretty good and it was definitely a good way to end this trilogy due to the final plot-twist. Despite presenting the love triangle as one way to follow the story, the “hidden” message was really the thing that made me want to read this book until the end.

Moreover, the evolution of the many characters was cleverly made and we can see it clearly: the torture, either directly, either indirectly, applied to the many victors transformed them, being this very notorious in Katniss, Peeta, Haymitch, Johanna, Finnick and many others.

Looking again to the message behind the story, the author, with this book, wanted us to see that fighting for the rebels against the dictatorship doesn’t necessarily make the situation better than it was before. Throughout the book, it can be seen but two of the best examples of that situation is when President Coin sends Peeta to Katniss’s team, because he was “programmed” to kill her and Coin wanted her dead, since she wasn’t really in favor of her; and the other situation is when Coin orders the attack against the children near President Snow’s mansion, with the objective to discredit President Snow so she would be able to get the power he had.

Recommendation

As I said above, this was my least favorite book of the trilogy but it was still very good and a good way to end the series. For those who like a love story or the ones who like a good political metaphor, this is a great book, along with the previous two.

Book Review #11 - The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

Reason of the choice

One friend of mine, a long time ago, presented this book in class and I really liked the story back then. Then, the movie adaptation was made and I loved it so much that all I wanted was to buy the books that inspired such a good movie. These were the two main reasons why I have decided to pick and read this book.

Reaction to the first pages

Since the beginning of the book, it was impossible to keep the movie apart and I was a little surprised by the early characterization that was made by the author in the first pages, which didn’t appear in the movie. Although I knew the story beforehand, these first pages were able to engage me into the following pages and made me read it in a completely different way than the one I was expecting to.

Summary

There is an early characterization of Katniss, the main character of this book, who was living in District 12, a poor State of Panem, who had to guarantee her and her family’s survival after her father’s death, since her mother was completely devastated and depressed.

In the Reaping Day, the day that two young people, aging 12 to 18, from each District of Panem are chosen to fight for his/her life against all the remaining tributes in the Hunger Games, which is the way the Capitol reminds every citizen in the Districts, that once had rebelled, that they are the ones who rule the country, Primrose, the younger sister of Katniss was the chosen female tribute from District 12. However, Katniss volunteered to take her place. The other tribute chosen was Peeta, the baker’s son and the one who once fed Katniss when she was starving, when she was younger.

Then, they went to the Capitol by train, in which they met Haymitch, a previous victor of the Hunger Games, who would be their mentor. When they reached the Capitol, both Katniss and Peeta were stunned by the richness and by the strangeness that characterized all people, including Effie Trinket, the woman who picked their names back in District 12, since they were used to the extreme poverty.

After arriving in the Capitol, they were presented to every citizen of Panem and, due to Cinna, Katniss stylist, she was noticed by everyone. Later, in a private session with the Gamemakers, Katniss was given a punctuation of 11, in a scale of 1 to 12, because she shot an arrow in the direction of the Gamemakers into an apple in the mouth of a pig. Before departing to the arena where the Games were supposed to take place, the tributes were interviewed and Peeta made a huge statement by telling everyone that he was in love with Katniss.

Then, they went to the arena, and the Games started. In the first hours, most of the tributes were dead and Katniss found out that Peeta was allied with the Careers, the tributes from District 1, 2 and 4. After some troubles, Katniss made an alliance with Rue, a little girl from District 11 which reminded Katniss of her sister, and together they destroyed the supplies of the Careers. However, when Katniss went back to meet Rue, she killed the boy from District 1, but only after he had thrown a spear into Rue, killing her.

After Rue’s death, it was announced that two tributes from the same District could be crowned winners and, as soon as Katniss heard it, she went looking for Peeta, who was camouflaged and badly hurt. To help him recover, Katniss had to go to the place where the remaining Careers were to gather a medicine to treat him. However, in there, she was ambushed by the girl from District 2 and Katniss was only able to get out of there alive because Thresh, a boy from District 11, killed the girl and spared the life of Katniss, since he felt all the pain she felt when Rue died.

After a some days, Cato, the boy from District 2, killed Thresh and the other tribute that was still alive was killed by Peeta’s ignorance of what berries to eat. When there were only just the three of them, Katniss and Peeta went after Cato to kill him, being successful in that mission.

In the end, there was only Peeta and Katniss alive but they weren’t declared as the victors and it was announced that, once more, there could only be one victor. However, Katniss decided that they should eat the poisonous berries, leaving the Gamemakers with an option of having two victors or no one at all and they chose to let them live.

Highlights

There were many good points about this book but the main one is surely the criticism that is made to the dictatorship, which was present throughout the book.

It could be seen in the way that only the people from the Districts had to fight between themselves just to entertain the people from the Capitol, and nobody from there had to worry about it. Moreover, the people from most of the Districts had to live in very poor conditions, while, in the Capitol, there was food in abundance. Besides, it could also be seen when the Capitol censored some footage from the Games, where Katniss “defied” the Capitol, both when she covered Rue’s body with flowers and when she and Peeta decided to eat those berries.

Recommendation

In my opinion, this is a very good book. The author’s writing style is very light, which helps to go through all the book, not to mention the amazing plot which gives body to this book.

Moreover, as I already highlighted above, I definitely have to recommend this book due to the message the author wants to share with everyone: a dictatorship is a very serious issue, which must be faced by all of us, being the first step to identify it as soon as it appears to avoid the bad consequences it always carries.

Book Review #10 - The Last Olympian, by Rick Riordan

Reason of the choice

This is the final book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and I was eager to finish this series because the previous four books were amazing and I really wanted to know how it would end.

Reaction to the first pages

The beginning of this book is slightly different from the others but I still liked it because I just wanted to know how the series would end, so I didn’t need to be very impressed with the first pages to decide if I wanted to keep reading it or not, because the previous books had made that decision for me. However, even with a different start, it hasn’t disappointed me because this final book had to be different from the previous ones or it would leave us with the feeling that we would need more books to finish the story properly.

Summary

The book starts when Percy and Rachel were hanging out but Charles Beckendorf, one of Percy’s friends at Camp, appears and tells Percy it was time to destroy a ship were part of Kronos’s army were. However, it didn’t go as they planned: they exploded the ship but Beckendorf died and Percy was able to get away from there with his life because he was son of Poseidon, or he would have died too.

After the explosion, Percy was carried by the waters to Poseidon’s palace which was being attacked but the Sea God said he would be able to hold it without Percy’s help and he also said that Percy should went back to Camp because that was the palace where he was needed the most.

As he arrived at Camp, he told the bad news and asked his teacher, Chiron, to tell him the Big Prophecy related to him. Then, Percy was taken to the attic, where the Oracle lived, and she told him the prophecy. While he was at Camp, he was told that almost all the Gods were fighting Typhon, the “father” of all the other monsters, which Percy had freed from his prison and he was also told that nobody was guarding Olympus, so they decided that they had to guard it themselves.

Before leaving the Camp, Percy found Nico, who taught him how to shadow travel with his pet, a hellhound he had inherited from Daedalus to go to Luke’s mother’s house because they needed to know more about Luke’s past if they wanted to defeat him because he was the one who had given his body to Kronos. When they left Luke’s mother’s house, they haven’t understood much of what she said, so they felt it was a little useless but with the development of the story, it all made sense. After that, they went to the Underworld, the realm of Hades, to keep going with Nico’s plan to defeat Kronos.

As soon as they arrived, Hades imprisoned Percy but Nico freed him and convinced Percy to have a bath on River Styx, to be as strong as Achilles, because Luke had also done that before him and that was the only way that they would stand a chance to defeat Kronos. When Hades noticed Percy had escaped, he led an army to jail him again but Percy annihilated them and he left the Underworld.

As soon as Percy arrived in New York, he made a plan to defend the city with the help of the other Half-Bloods, of the nature spirits gathered by Grover, a satyr and his best friend, and by Artemis’s Hunters. They were able to hold Kronos’s attacks but they suffered many losses. In the following day, Prometheus met Percy, offering them their lives if they gave up, but he refused. He had predicted Percy would say something like that, so he gave Percy Pandora’s box and he said that if he changed his mind to open it, so their lives would be spared.

In the next days, they were able to keep holding Olympus away from the Titan’s army but they were losing ground, despite the help given by the centaurs, led by Chiron, by Hades’s army, which was convinced by Nico to help defend Olympus, and by the Ares’s cabin, led by Clarisse, which wasn’t in the battle since the beginning.

When Typhon was near Olympus, the Gods were able to imprison it again because Poseidon came to help. By that time, Kronos was already in Olympus and Percy fought him until Annabeth understood the prophecy and told Percy to give a blade to Kronos while she was trying to bring back Luke’s consciousness. Their plan went well and they were able to defeat Kronos because Luke’s had stabbed himself in his “Achilles spot”, which killed him and the Titan.

Highlights

Once again, the author was able to adapt the old Greek Mythology into the modern times so successfully that all we want to do is to keep reading.

In my opinion, this was an amazing series finale book but I have to admit that I liked more the previous books because the final battle between Percy and Kronos seemed just so little when we compare it to the other stories which contributed to make this series so great.

Nevertheless, after four amazing books, Rick Riordan was still able to bring back even more creatures from the Greek Mythology but I think this was not the best book of this series because its plot was almost only about Percy’s battle against Kronos’s army, while the remaining books had stories with more action and more creatures, creating a very engaging plot which culminated in this last book.

Book Review #9 - The Battle of the Labyrinth, by Rick Riordan

Reason of the choice

Since its beginning, I always loved the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. This is the fourth book of this series, so, in order to know how this series will end, I had to read this book to fully understand the whole plot.

Reaction to the first pages

As he always does in these books, Rick Riordan starts them when Percy is at his school, in the mortal world, and something bad happens to him. This book is no different from the others and, then, it developed itself naturally, not forgetting anything that had happened before, described in the previous books, that could influence the series.

Summary

As mentioned above, Percy was at his new school when two creatures, which were serving Kronos, attacked him and Rachel, a mortal girl, who could see through the Mist, a magical veil that doesn’t allow the mortals to see the monsters, gods and everything related to their world.

After fleeing from the school, Percy met Annabeth and they went back to the camp. In there, they found a new sword-master, Quintus, who had a hellhound, which is a creature that usually hunts the Half-Bloods, as a pet. Percy also found that the Council of the Satyrs, creatures which were looking for the wild god, Pan, didn’t believe that Grover, also a satyr, heard Pan. Moreover, all the campers knew that Kronos’s army was trying to find a way to use the Labyrinth created by Daedalus to attack and destroy the Camp.

Being in that situation, Chiron, the centaur who had trained many heroes through the times, named Annabeth to lead a quest with the goal to avoid Daedalus from giving Kronos a way to navigate through the maze. Then, she chose Percy, Tyson, a cyclops and Percy’s brother, and Grover to join her to help her complete the quest.

They were challenged many times: they had to face Kampê, an old monster, to free Briares, a creature with one hundred hands; they had to slay Geryon, a monster with three hearts; Percy almost destroyed one forge of Hephaestus to get rid of some creatures that were using it but that Hephaestues didn’t know what were they; and Percy also had to refuse to stay in Calypso’s island.

Only after all these things had happened, they found out they needed a mortal who could see through the Mist to guide them in the maze, so they went back to New York and asked Rachel to help them. She agreed and, with her guiding them through the Labyrinth, they found Daedalus’s workshop but, in that time, it was too late because he had already given Kronos's army Ariadne’s string, another tool to navigate through the maze. In their way back to Camp, they found Grover and Tyson, after splitting because Grover had felt Pan’s presence, and, after being all together, they found Pan, who died in front of them.

After Pan’s death, they went back to Camp and when they arrived, the Camp was being attacked by Kronos’s army but they were able to defend themselves and contain the attack with the help of Briares, who had got back some hope, and Daedalus, who came back to help because he felt sorry for all the bad things he had done in the past but, in the end, he kills himself to destroy the Labyrinth, which was connected to his life, to prevent Kronos’ army to use it. 

Highlights

Once again, Rick Riordan’s writing style kept unchanged and he kept introducing us new creatures and new stories of the ancient Greek mythology. However, these stories are told us as they had happened but the author also tells this main story by adapting the old creatures, gods and titans to our times and it is so interesting because it is not boring to read because we just want to read more and more to know how the story ends.

Book Review #8 - The Titan's Curse, by Rick Riordan

Reason of the choice

As part of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, I had to read it to keep in track of how the story would develop after Percy and his friends were able to retrieve the Golden Fleece from Polyphemus and reviving Thalia.

Reaction to the first pages

Since I read the book some time ago, while I was in college, I don’t remember very well how it was back then but I suppose I was quite anxious to know how the story went. However, I remember I read it quickly, so I enjoyed its beginning.

Summary

In the beginning, Percy, Annabeth and Thalia went to a school to rescue two half-bloods, Nico and Bianca, but they didn’t do it as they have planned because, although they were able to rescue the two kids, a Manticore attacked them, capturing Annabeth. If Artemis didn’t show up to help them, all of them might have been defeated by the creature.

Zoe Nightshade, one of the Hunters, and Percy had dreams that Artemis and Annabeth were in danger but they only went on a quest to save them when the Oracle left the attic, where it lived, to deliver the prophecy to Zoe. Percy wasn’t included in the quest because the Hunters weren’t allowed to travel with boys but he sneaked out of Camp and he went after them.

Bianca, who decided to join the Hunters, was in the quest too despite the short time she was with the other half-bloods. The quest group was attacked along its way by some monsters which were allies of Kronos, Luke, a half-blood who left the Camp to join the Titan and a man Luke called the General. The group was able to get out alive but when they arrived at the “junkyard of the gods”, they had to face a creature created by Hephaestus because Bianca stole a figure of a game to give to his brother, since he loved that game, but, in the end of the fight, she had to sacrifice herself to defeat the creature.

After Bianca’s death, they went to San Francisco, where they found Nereus, who told them that they should seek an Ophiotaurus, which was the creature Artemis was seeking before she got caught, but Percy had already found it before when he was at the Camp.

After knowing they needed the Ophiotaurus, Percy summoned it and Grover went back with it to the Camp and the remaining members of the quest went to Mount Tamalpais, which was the headquarters of Kronos’ army. In there, they found Annabeth chained and Artemis holding the sky, instead of Atlas. Soon after that, Luke and the General, who was Atlas, arrived. Percy offered himself to hold the sky, freeing Artemis. Then, Luke and Atlas battled Thalia, Artemis and Zoe. The quest members and Artemis won the fight and pushed Atlas into the place where Percy was, so Atlas had to hold the sky once again, freeing Percy.

In the end, they returned to Camp but Zoe died in the way back because she was severely wounded by Atlas and Thalia decided to join Artemis. When they arrived at the Camp, Percy had to explain Nico that Bianca had died but he was so upset that he blamed that her death was Percy’s fault and, after the discussion, he ran away from Camp.

Highlights

As always, Rick Riordan had done an amazing job introducing us more stories of the ancient Greek mythology but he adapts them to the modern times and makes it so engaging that we can’t stop reading it, not to mention that his amazing light writing style helps him a lot to get that effect.

Book Review #7 - The Sea of Monsters, by Rick Riordan

Reason of the choice

The last book I read was The Lightning Thief, which is the first book of the “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series and I really liked it. The end of that book was amazing and it left a huge gap for the continuation of the series and I was so curious to know what would happen after that I have decided that I would only start reading another book or series only after finishing this one. So, that’s the reason why I have picked the The Sea of Monsters.

Reaction to the first pages

Since this is the second book of a series that I already know, I was used to the writing style and I remembered the story, so I wasn’t really surprised by nothing that was related with it and it wasn't disappointing at all.

Summary

Since the beginning, Percy was having some dreams with his best friend, Grover, who was a satyr that was looking for Pan, the goddess of nature. However, Percy knew that something was wrong because in those dreams he saw Grover being chased by a Cyclops and Grover was asking for help.

Percy, who had returned to a normal school and had a normal year since he left Camp Half-Blood, had some trouble in the last day of school because a group of giant cannibals, known as Laestrygonians, attacked him but he was saved by Tyson, who Percy had met earlier that year, and by Annabeth.

After that, Annabeth told Percy that Tyson was a Cyclops, which he hasn’t noticed due to the Mist, which was something that would make the humans unable to see the true form of monsters. Then, Percy, Annabeth and Tyson went to Camp Half-Blood in a taxi driven by the Gray Sisters.

When they arrived, the camp was being attacked by some monsters because the magic that was protecting the Camp was very weak because the pine tree, that once was Thalia, daughter of Zeus, was poisoned. After defeating the monsters, they were told Chiron, a centaur and the director of the Camp, was leaving and Tantalus, from Tartarus, would replace him.

When they were in the Camp, Poseidon, Percy’s father, claimed Tyson as his son. Before going in a new quest, Hermes appeared and gave some gifts to Percy. In the very moment before departing, Tyson and Annabeth showed up and went in the quest with Percy. They went aboard the Princess Andromeda boat where Luke, Hermes’ son and the one who poisoned the tree, was. They were able to run away from that boat and Clarisse, daughter of Ares, the god of war caught them.

In Clarisses' boat, they entered the Sea of Monsters but, in the moment that they were entering it, Percy and Annabeth lost Tyson. Then, the two went through many challenges, like Circe’s island and the Sirens, but they were able to go through all of that and they arrived in the island where Grover was trapped: Polyphemus island.

In the island, they were able to trick, once again, Polyphemus but they had help of Tyson, that hadn’t died when Clarisse’s ship sank. So, tricking Polyphemus, Percy, Annabeth and Tyson were able to rescue Grover and they also managed to get the Golden Fleece, an item that would cure the pine tree.

However, when they were going back to Camp Half-Blood, they were caught again by Luke. Percy, while fighting Luke, showed everyone in the Camp, that Luke was the one who poisoned the tree and not Chiron, which meant that he should get back his job. Once more, Percy and his friends were able to run away from Luke but this time they were helped by some friends of Chiron.

After some time in the Camp, they found out a new girl, Thalia, which the Fleece, brought back to life and everyone was concerned because she could also be a girl of a prophecy that might save or destroy the Olympus.

Highlights

Thankfully, Rick Riordan kept writing like he did in the previous book and that is something that must be highlighted because it’s really funny and it helps the way we feel how light reading this book is. Moreover, like I have written in the review of the previous book of this series, this is a great way to learn something more about the Greek mythology in a different but funny way.