{"id":102,"date":"2017-09-09T00:03:36","date_gmt":"2017-09-09T07:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/?p=102"},"modified":"2017-09-09T00:08:48","modified_gmt":"2017-09-09T07:08:48","slug":"high-school-book-ranking-and-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/2017\/09\/09\/high-school-book-ranking-and-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"High School Book Ranking and Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout my four years of high school, I\u2019ve read thirty-six academic books for English class, so I ranked them from favorite to least favorite and reviewed them all. (This isn\u2019t necessarily reflective of their objective literary merits, by the way. It\u2019s just how much I enjoyed them.)<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Hamlet \u2013 <\/span>Hamlet<\/span><\/i> is my favorite literary work. The protagonist is a hilarious melodramatic college student who enjoys messing with people, and the entire thing is really fun to read, including most of the deaths. At the same time, the story\u2019s calamities actually bring me sadness for the characters. When\u2019s the last time a Shakespeare tragedy actually made you feel tragic? (Yes, tragedy takes on a different meaning in theatre, but the question still stands.) Before reading <\/span>Hamlet<\/span><\/i>, I\u2019d expected a glorified <\/span>Macbeth<\/span><\/i>. Actually, <\/span>Hamlet<\/span><\/i> is much more humorous, interesting, memorable, quotable, and relatable. Shakespeare is a god.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court \u2013 If you liked <\/span>King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table<\/span><\/i>, you\u2019ll love this. If you hated <\/span>King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table<\/span><\/i>, you\u2019ll really love this. I fall into the latter group. The book is basically a parody of <\/span>King Arthur<\/span><\/i> starring a 17th-century engineer who discovers that Camelot sucks. Unlike its source material, it\u2019s actually interesting, and maybe makes reading <\/span>King Arthur<\/span><\/i> worth it for the sake of better understanding <\/span>Connecticut Yankee<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. The Book Thief \u2013 Markus Zusak is a master of establishing mood. <\/span>The Book Thief<\/span><\/i> is art more so than any other book on this list.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead \u2013 What Hamlet fan wouldn\u2019t love a work titled <\/span>Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead<\/span><\/i>? I loved this play before I even read it, and it still exceeded my expectations with its clever and eccentric humor.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Arcadia \u2013 This play is smarter than I am. Who would think to combine literature with advanced physics and mathematics? Tom Stoppard is a genius. <\/span>Arcadia<\/span><\/i>\u2019s switches between past and present are impressively interesting and well-executed, and the characters of both periods are relatable and cleverly written.<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. The Last Unicorn \u2013 With a unique take on fairy tales, this is a pleasant book. Its subversions of traditional tropes are subtly innovative and entertaining. <\/span>The Last Unicorn<\/span><\/i>\u2019s mood is best described as nostalgia, yet this story was unfortunately not part of my childhood.<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Never Let Me Go \u2013 This book is a strange experience. Ishiguro builds a certain mood that I\u2019m not sure exists in real life, but the strangeness is subtly interwoven with reality. The narrative voice is like that of no other book. I have a hard time deciphering what this book is about, but really, it\u2019s about many different things without a cohesive central idea. It\u2019s definitely interesting, and the characters are pretty great.<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. The Woman Warrior \u2013 Kingston combines early Chinese American history with fantastical elements in a story about stories. As someone who likes all of those things, this novel suits my interests perfectly and earns a place among my favorite literary books. However, I\u2019m ambivalent about the overall mood, which I think stems from the somewhat somber narrative voice.<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. The Shadow of the Wind \u2013 This book easily surpasses the others in excellent prose. The premise\u2014the protagonist finding a rare book that a dangerous man wants to burn\u2014is definitely one of the more interesting concepts on this list. Unfortunately, this book ends up being accidentally misogynistic while trying to pass itself off as feminist-friendly. The protagonist\u2019s girlfriend is the epitome of a \u201cstrong female character\u201d only in name (read: plot device to be saved because she can\u2019t take action for herself), and the other (three) female characters get unhappy endings, one of them apparently as justice for not being interested in the protagonist. Feminist failings aside, this book just has bad vibes. Zaf\u00f3n is great at establishing mood, but it\u2019s not a mood that I want.<\/span><\/li>\n
  10. The Glass Castle \u2013 Since <\/span>The Glass Castle<\/span><\/i> is a memoir that describes various events in the author\u2019s life, there\u2019s always something interesting happening. Unlike <\/span>Kitchen God\u2019s Wife<\/span><\/i>, this book has a balance of positive and negative moments (even though her childhood sucks) that get the reader emotionally invested.<\/span><\/li>\n
  11. The Importance of Being Earnest \u2013 Alongside Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde is the god of nineteenth-century satire. Is this entire play based on a pun? Considering <\/span>Gnomeo and Juliet<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Ratatouille<\/span><\/i>, perhaps.<\/span><\/li>\n
  12. The Kitchen God’s Wife \u2013 Emotionally, this book is a roller coaster that only goes down. A varied balance of ups and downs throughout the storyline would have made <\/span>Kitchen God\u2019s Wife<\/span><\/i> much more interesting, but it was still pretty interesting anyway.<\/span><\/li>\n
  13. Catcher in the Rye \u2013 Whether you like Holden or hate him (and whether Salinger wants you to like him or hate him), the strong narrative voice sets this book apart from other works, and the eccentric protagonist really makes things interesting.<\/span><\/li>\n
  14. Romeo and Juliet \u2013 This play is iconic with humorous dialogue and great characters, but there\u2019s room for improvement. Although commonly overlooked, the side characters (Mercutio in particular) are really the ones who make the story. Taking the minor events into consideration and not just the main arc, the plot is pretty awesome.<\/span><\/li>\n
  15. Lord of the Flies \u2013 This was a good book with memorable characters, an interesting action-packed storyline, and accurate themes criticizing misconceptions that white guys are more civilized than those from other cultures. The details and nature imagery are nice when you really stop to absorb them, but this was made difficult by the fact that the writing style was pretty hard to follow.<\/span><\/li>\n
  16. Antigone \u2013 <\/span>Antigone<\/span><\/i> sets itself apart from other old-timey plays with a cool female protagonist and interesting feminist commentary.<\/span><\/li>\n
  17. Mythology \u2013 It\u2019s difficult to compare literary novels to a book with no coherent narrative (then again, I didn\u2019t have much trouble ranking <\/span>The Road<\/span><\/i>\u2026), but I\u2019d say that <\/span>Mythology<\/span><\/i> was overall effective in its purpose. I also have to credit Edith Eaton for sparking my continuing interest in Greek mythology, even though that interest stemmed from the fact that I had to take creative liberties with the Greek gods to avoid getting bored with her book.<\/span><\/li>\n
  18. Unbroken \u2013 With plane wrecks at sea and POW camps, Louie\u2019s story is dramatic and action-packed. Hillenbrand keeps things interesting with a good amount of emotional investment.<\/span><\/li>\n
  19. Chew on This \u2013 I learned more than I ever wanted to know about the fast food industry, and things never got boring. But I actually don\u2019t remember anything from this book. Sorry.<\/span><\/li>\n
  20. Macbeth \u2013 This story gave us many good things, including C-section baby Macduff, \u201cWhat, you egg?\u201d [He stabs him.], three pretty cool witches, and various ambiguously supernatural hallucinations.<\/span><\/li>\n
  21. The Great Gatsby \u2013 The plot is ridiculous in a good way, and the characters are pretty funny. Thanks to the images of Leonardo DiCaprio in my mind, I\u2019d never expected Jay Gatsby to be such a loser. With a better understanding, I might\u2019ve ranked this book higher, but I didn\u2019t study it very intensely.<\/span><\/li>\n
  22. East of Eden \u2013 This book did not need to be that long. The emotional investment that Steinbeck expertly builds is offset by the fact that <\/span>East of Eden<\/span><\/i> is tedious to get through, namely because the author goes excruciatingly in-depth into every detail. I would have loved this book if Steinbeck had been more concise and focused on the main cast instead of trying to completely flesh out and get readers invested in every single background character. If you like detailed, slow-paced books, you will enjoy this; if you have to fill every single page with annotations, you will not enjoy this. The pain of reading and annotating six hundred pages aside, I still have to give Steinbeck credit for his unmatched character development. And it\u2019s worth noting that he understands the importance of positive Asian American representation better than most modern writers (seriously, if a 1950s white man gets it, none of you have any excuse).<\/span><\/li>\n
  23. Ender\u2019s Game \u00a0\u2013 Nothing in this book made sense to my freshman brain (I blame the hardcore sci-fi), but props for a pretty interesting concept. The story definitely didn\u2019t get boring.<\/span><\/li>\n
  24. Night \u2013 Reading this book is an eye-opening experience. Wiesel\u2019s story is one of the most staggering books on this list for obvious reasons, and it provides valuable insight regarding the tragedy of the Holocaust.<\/span><\/li>\n
  25. Of Mice and Men \u2013 By the end of this book, I could see why it was considered a powerful work. While the rising action was successful build-up for the climax, and the story is meant to be character-driven, it was difficult to get fully absorbed when nothing was really happening. The emotional ending couldn\u2019t fully make up for that.<\/span><\/li>\n
  26. Beloved \u2013 This book is characterized by unanswered questions. Its frequent changes in perspective and time make <\/span>Beloved<\/span><\/i> difficult to understand, and the unexplainable phenomena are still beyond my comprehension. However, this was what made it interesting. Thematically, the book is well-developed and offers insightful commentary on the lasting impacts of slavery and racism.<\/span><\/li>\n
  27. To Kill a Mockingbird \u2013 This is a pretty solid book, but some of the parts about Scout\u2019s daily life seemed unnecessary and tangential, probably because I\u2019d expected the story to focus more on serious issues. Most of the book wasn\u2019t super interesting, and the actual plot started relatively late in the book. I\u2019ll give this book another try in the future.<\/span><\/li>\n
  28. Othello \u2013 Compared to Shakespeare\u2019s other works, <\/span>Othello<\/span><\/i> is pretty bland. The storyline is only moderately interesting, and most of the characters and dialogue aren\u2019t very memorable. I couldn\u2019t really get invested in the main ideas of jealousy and trust. However, Iago is an awesome character, and his brilliant manipulation of Othello is one of the few gems in this play.<\/span><\/li>\n
  29. The Odyssey \u2013 If we were ranking books based solely on story, <\/span>The Odyssey<\/span><\/i> would be pretty high. Unfortunately, the text is indecipherable, and reading it is a uniquely terrible experience.<\/span><\/li>\n
  30. The Canterbury Tales \u2013 Chaucer has a classic charm and interesting humor, but I couldn\u2019t bring myself to fully enjoy the process of reading his work. While its challenging text and unfamiliar historical context made for a few exciting moments of insight, I was very uninvested in the story and characters.<\/span><\/li>\n
  31. Wuthering Heights \u2013 This book was not enjoyable. Aside from its convoluted Gothic-Romantic prose, the story had the same problem that <\/span>Kitchen God\u2019s Wife<\/span><\/i> had: an emotional downhill spiral, but even darker. I believe there were some lighthearted scenes and even a few humorous moments to balance out the dismal mood, but the book was still too gloomy to be interesting.<\/span><\/li>\n
  32. The Road \u2013 This book\u2019s sole redeeming quality was that it was relatively short. The plot is like Candy Land, but the Candy Castle is the West Coast and the candy people are literally slaughtered and eaten. The number of roasted infants in this book is higher than the number of people that I know who enjoyed it. I also would like to put it out there that McCarthy does not use quotation marks for dialogue or commas where there should be commas, make of that what you will. I suspect that McCarthy is actively trying to make his book unenjoyable (it\u2019s an apocalypse book). He succeeded.<\/span><\/li>\n
  33. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table \u2013 I can handle reading about an Arthurian knight randomly encountering, fighting, and killing another knight in the woods for no reason maybe, like, once. Almost every single knight in this book undergoes this exact same experience. Can\u2019t relate.<\/span><\/li>\n
  34. Bless Me, Ultima \u2013 Alongside <\/span>The Road<\/span><\/i>, this is one of the most universally-hated books among my peers. A story full of exorcisms, magical owls, and death is great in theory, but something went wrong and it ended up boring. It doesn\u2019t help that <\/span>Bless Me, Ultima<\/span><\/i> has a dark presence, which is probably inevitable when you juxtapose a six-year-old protagonist with an incredibly grim storyline and atmosphere. Why does this first grader have a coming-of-age story?<\/span><\/li>\n
  35. The Crucible \u2013 The Salem Witch Trials provide a moderately interesting premise, but this play was too difficult to follow. I remember exactly two characters. Admittedly, I was reading it quickly.<\/span><\/li>\n
  36. The Scarlet Letter \u2013 This book probably could have been under half its current length without losing anything valuable. At one point, I believe Hawthorne stopped to describe a trashcan, and I realized at that moment that he was purposely adding fluff to increase his word count. How did I know this? He wrote exactly how my twelve-year-old self did when word count was my sole objective (it was Nanowrimo, and my goal was to write a 50,000 word book, not a good book). A Google search confirmed my suspicion that he was being paid by the word. To be fair, I\u2019d do the same if I were him.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Throughout my four years of high school, I\u2019ve read thirty-six academic books for English class, so I ranked them from favorite to least favorite and reviewed them all. (This isn\u2019t necessarily reflective of their objective literary merits, by the way. It\u2019s just how much I enjoyed them.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104,"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions\/104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceruleanchameleon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}