Reading can play a significant role in your life. It offers stability, imagination, and an outlet. For these reasons, I want to share a list of a few books that I have read in the past year for which I am thankful.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson- Four strangers meet at a haunted house under the guidance of Dr. Montague who is there to inspect whether the rumors of the house being haunted are true or not. Though, the ending has a twist. This book is a classic. Reading this book puts you inside the character, Eleanor’s mind. When the story finished, I got chills. I could appreciate the unpredictable plot of this book.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson- Merricat, Constance, and their Uncle Julian are isolated from society due to a family tragedy that happened six years prior. Their cousin Charles comes to their house, bent on stealing the family fortune. Because The Haunting of Hill House was a great read, I decided to pick up another book by Shearly Jackson- so I settled on this one. This book is clever in the way that it chooses its language. I found this book had language that graced upon the prospect of fantasy- cleverly portraying the out-of-touch psychological status of the protagonist, Marricat. Overall, I liked this book for its imagination, however, The Haunting of Hill House takes the cake in terms of terror.
Scythe (Trilogy) by Neal Shusterman- TheScythe books are of a utopian future, where the population has conquered death. Though, the earth cannot sustain such a large population, therefore, scythes, as the book called them, would go around and glean people. With great power comes great responsibility, and some scythes abuse that responsibility… I enjoyed the Scythe trilogy- especially the first book. I would say, if you wanted to stop reading at the end of book 1, you could do so as the plot wraps up quite well. I did not enjoy the 2nd and 3rd books as much as the first. These books were deep as they brought to mind philosophical questions. Great reads!
You can find these books and many others at the WBPL, so come on down!
-Eric Ames, Reporter
