The Belles: The Sickeningly Beautiful Dystopia You’ve Never Heard Of

I was introduced to the novel The Belles by Dhionelle Clayton through my Dystopian and Utopian Writing class in high school. Right away, I was enamored with the world Clayton built.

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A Worthwhile Read- Bloodleaf

Crystal Smith’s 2019 release Bloodleaf caught my attention as soon as I spotted it on the shelf and kept it until the moment I closed it with a satisfied sigh. The blurb on the back promised me a princess willing to risk everything to save her kingdom, a bloodthirsty and witch-hunting enemy, and love in the midst of chaos, and it definitely delivered. It didn’t take me long to fall in love with the characters and become invested in their good intentions and fast team work..

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Going Home to Hogwarts…

In these trying times, I have found myself yearning for the books and movies I used to watch and read when I was younger. I pulled my battered copy of “The Chamber of Secrets” from my bookshelf and was slapped with a wave of nostalgia. I remember the taste of butterbeer, the sound of the films’ soundtrack, the excitement I felt walking through Hogsmeade and exploring Diagon Alley, the feeling of a warm January day in Florida. I had forgotten how much of my childhood was built around Harry Potter…

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Book Review: Slaughterhouse-Five

Kurt Vonnegut’s 1969 novel “Slaughterhouse-Five” is a spectacular mix of the science fiction and antiwar genres that comes as a response to Vonnegut’s own experience having been one of the few to survive the Dresden firebombing of World War II. It’s fairly often that the reader finds themself stuck trying to distinguish between the two genres as the book’s main character, Billy Pilgrim, repeatedly becomes “unstuck in time” or, in simple terms, time travels between events in his life…

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