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This movie takes place in 2027 in an alternate reality where mankind has been plagued with infertility. No child has been born for over 18 years and the world has turned to chaos. Britain formed a militaristic government and became (apparently) the only country that has kept order.

The story follows a disillusioned government agent called Theo Faron, who is given a task by his former lover. He is to escort a woman – who has somehow become pregnant – out of Britain. Theo soon discovers a conspiracy, and his mission becomes more urgent than ever.

The style of this movie reminded me of “District 9” and “The Road,” but I think “Children of Men” feels more raw and realistic than either of those. The film uses great cinematography, great acting and long scenes without any cuts to pull viewers into a world that has fallen apart.

Bottom Line – there is nothing bad that I can say about this movie, it is probably the best dystopia film I have ever seen. I would recommend it to anyone 15 and above, I give it a 10/10.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the world is a movie based on a comic book series and inspired by classic video games. So you can imagine that this movie will be quite unique.

The movie takes place in Toronto Canada, and it follows a 23-year-old base player in a small-time band. Scott is pathetic in every way imaginable, but one day, he meets Ramona Flowers, a girl who is awesome in every way imaginable. But there is a catch: if he wants to be her boyfriend, he has to defeat her seven evil exes.

The movie follows a video game format where Scott has to constantly battle more powerful opponents in surprisingly well-choreographed  action sequences. There are fantastic visual effects and the fight scenes are superior to ones in most action or kung-fu movies.  On top of having to take on Ramona’s evil exes, Scott also has to constantly participate in band battles and deal with his own ex-girlfriends.  So the movie never gets boring.

Bottom Line – Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a hilarious, action-packed movie about self-discovery.  I enjoyed it from start to end. I would recommend this movie to anyone 14 and above. I give it a 9/10.

I didn’t realize books like these were necessary until recently. But then one day in biology class, while learning about natural selection, one of my classmates told me that he doesn’t believe in evolution because it is impossible for a single cell to randomly turn into a human being. He went on to talk about “intelligent design.” I had no idea what he was talking about nor have I heard of the intelligent design vs. evolution debate prior to that conversation. But after doing some research I became fascinated with the evolution debate and later the atheism vs. religion debate. But enough about me.

Unlike “The God Delusion” by the same author, Richard does not attack religion directly. In this book he shows the reader exactly why he is an world-renowned biologist by introducing the reader to all the evidence supporting evolution while disproving the opposing views (since there’s no recognized theory which opposes Darwinian evolution).

In this book, Richard explores the fields of palaeontology, anatomy, embryology, geology, genetics and artificial breeding to present the vast amount of evidence supporting evolution. As always, he provides interesting stories and examples to strengthen and elaborate on his claims.

Bottom line – just like “The God Delusion,” this is another well-written and interesting book, but also like “The God Delusion,” this book is still just a position paper. Therefore, if you don’t care about the evolution debate, this book will seem extremely boring. But I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the debate. I give it a 4/5.

A while back, I reviewed the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, part one of a five part trilogy. This week I am reviewing part two of the trilogy.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is similar to its predecessor in its satirical style and its bizarre sense of humour. As usual, it uses extraordinary events, aliens and a sci-fi world to make fun of human nature. The difference is that the plot of the second book is much more complicated.

So basically, our protagonists are attacked, tossed into an alternate universe, a messiah returns, the universe ends, the main characters fly into a sun and meet the man who rules the universe. These events somehow results in Arthur and Ford living with the Neanderthals and finding the ultimate question regarding life, the universe and everything.  Trust me, those weren’t spoilers.

Bottom Line – this book was highly enjoyable and just as good as the first one. There isn’t really anything bad I could say about it. I highly recommend it to everyone who enjoys science fiction or satires. I give it a 5/5.

Due to the controversial nature of this book, I intend to stay neutral and unbiased. I will review this just like all the other books I’ve reviewed.

Religion vs. Atheism is one of the largest arguments today. Richard Dawkins, world renowned biologist and one of the most famous atheists in the world sets out to disprove God (in general), prove that religion hinders society, and to disprove arguments made by the other side.

When I first started reading this book, I was stunned. I have never seen, heard or read anything where religion was attacked so relentlessly and disrespectfully. Richard constantly insults and speaks down to religion. He also goes around debunking religious beliefs in a very harsh manner.

Each chapter Richard would discuss an aspect of the Religion vs. Atheism argument.  Richard would take a religious claim; explain why it’s illogical using examples, wit, irony and his own logic. He would then disprove the claim with scientific evidence. He would also give real life examples to strengthen his claims.

To my surprise, this book was actually quite interesting. I thought I would have to force myself to finish this book. I mean non-fiction? Yuck! But after Chapter 1, I became fascinated; every few pages I would find myself thinking, “Wow, I’ve never thought of things this way.”

Bottom Line – the way I see it, this book is still just a position paper, a very long, very well written, intelligent, funny and interesting position paper, but still just a position paper. Therefore, this book will only be interesting to those who are already interested in this topic. I would recommend this book to theists and atheists who are interested in this argument, and I give it a 4/5.

I previously reviewed the novel “The Golem’s Eye,” part two of a series known as the Bartimaeus trilogy. This week I am reviewing Book 3 of the trilogy.

Ptolemy’s Gate takes place three years after the end of Book 2, and well… things aren’t looking good. Bartimaeus is weak and dying from being stranded in the physical world for two years, the war in America is going terribly, the commoners are rebelling against the magicians, and some powerful demons are planning a rebellion too. And there is still a conspiracy in London for Nathaniel to figure out.

In this novel, all three protagonists (Kitty, Nathaniel, and Bartimaeus) must work together if the want to keep London from burning to the ground. But is it possible for such bitter enemies to set aside their differences?

An action packed conclusion to a fantastic series. But I must say, this is definitely the darkest of the 3 books a lot of sinister things, and a lot of death (when compared to the previous novels of this trilogy).

Some people complain about the ending, but I don’t think a book needs to end with “happily ever after” in order to be good, I thought the ending was great. I would recommend this book to readers 13 and above, I give it a 5/5.

Last week I reviewed the novel “the amulet of Samarkand” part one of a series known as the Bartimaeus trilogy. This week I am reviewing book 2 of the trilogy.

“The golem’s eye” takes place 2 years after the end of book one, and a lot has changed. Due to the events that occurred in book one, our protagonist Nathaniel has gone from an unnoticed apprentice to a respected employee of the government. He is given the role to hunt down the resistance. This has led to a new found arrogance in this character, but in my opinion, he does not seem as useless anymore. The second protagonist, the powerful demon Bartimaeus is as sarcastic and cynical as ever.

The first novel was written in alternating perspectives of Nathaniel and Bartimaeus. But a new perspective is added into this novel, that of the girl Kitty, a young member of the resistance.

In this story Nathaniel re-summons Bartimaeus to help him track down a mysterious monster, while kitty along with other members of the resistance wreak havoc.

Book two is just as good as book one, I would recommend it to readers 13 and above, I give it a 4.5/5

After the success of the “Harry Potter” novels, book shelves have been filled with novels about whites and wizards, unfortunately more of them aren’t worth reading. But there are a few that are better than worth reading, some of them are worth reviewing.

The first thing I noticed about this book was its original take on the “wizard genre”. In this alternate reality, witches and wizards are not powerful themselves, there power lies in there ability to summon and command demons of different levels. But there is a catch, if the summoning is done incorrectly or the demon is too powerful for the “summoner” to control, the demon may end up killing the “summoner”.

The second piece of originality I detected was that in this alternate world, society is ran by wizards and witches – they are the upper class. Where as in “Harry Potter” the beings of magic are hidden from the general population.

There are 5 main levels for demons, in order of increasing strength are: imps, foliots, djinni, afrits and marids.

This story follows a 12 year old apprentice named Nathaniel, who secretly summons the notorious djinni Bartimaeus, before he should even be able to summon even an imp. Bartimaeus is sent to steal a mysterious amulet, that’s when the problem starts.

The story switches perspectives between the often immature Nathaniel, and the wisecracking Bartimaeus.

Bartimaeus truly stands out, being powerful, funny, cynical, intelligent and wise. Where as I found Nathaniel to be quite boring, and annoying at times.

Over all, this book is a great page turner. To be honest, I enjoyed this more than the philosopher’s stone, probably because this story is darker and more mature, but maybe, just maybe, it’s because this book is actually better. I recommend this novel to readers 13 and above. I give it a 4.5/5

I have read many books that involve friendship. But I don’t recall reading a book with friendship as its central theme, until this week. I would have preferred the book to be more modern but that would be an absurd demand.

So this book takes place in the 30s and follows two traveling workers (George and Lenny) trying to make enough money to fulfill their dream – to have their own farm. Lenny is mentally handicapped, he seems to have the strength and size of a bear, but the logic of a child. And so, we have George looking after Lenny from the beginning of the story. When they did find a job at a farm, the reader is introduced to a bunch of interesting characters. But soon our protagonists realize that things will be more complicated than simply making some money and buying a farm.

This novel – though short – is the ultimate story of friendship. Masterfully written to symbolize and foreshadow events in genius ways. I’ve stated that this was a story of friendship, but more broadly, this is a story of relationships (or lack of it) with people and that is represented fairly and intelligently.

The story started of strong but the ending was amazing. I would recommend this novel to all readers 14 and above. I give it a 5/5.

“The answer is 42” that is perhaps my favorite quote from all the books I’ve read.  I was looking for a book that’s funny and enjoyable for a youth audience. That’s when I came across this book. This book is the first installment of “a trilogy in five parts” it is a science fiction book that is very funny but quite unique in style.

The humor of this novel is not that of the outrageous, laugh out loud type. It uses satire and irony at a galactic scale to poke fun at pretty much everything in life. An example of this humor can be found in just about every page. The humor is very intelligent and is often backed up by science.

So basically one day, during lunch, an alien fleet arrives demolished our planet to make room for a hyperspace bypass (this event is foreshadowed in a very funny way). It is quite lucky for our protagonist that his friend –an unemployed actor- is actually a galactical Hitchhiker who has been stranded on earth. At the last possible moment they hitch a ride on one of the alien spaceships and flew away leaving the rest of earth and its population to be vaporized. Now they are ready to face the real problems.

Despite the humor and the amazing situations, the reader can still take this novel seriously because of its genius plot and it suspense. I see the humor as an extra topping on the cake.

This is a great book and I would recommend it to anyone 13 and above.  I give it a 5/5.

So, a while back I read a book called GONE, which is part one of a trilogy that I quite enjoy. Recently, I found out that the trilogy was based on a book called Lord of the Flies by William Golding, so I decided to find that book and read it.

Lord of the Flies explores what would happen if everything was run by kids, and the consequences of an adultless world…kind of like a realistic version of the Peter Pan story.

Basically, a group of kids are stranded on an island, they form a community and vote Ralph (the average boy) as chief with Jack (alpha male) as second in command. It soon becomes a battle between instinct and logic when Jack wants everyone to hunt and Ralph tries to get everyone to build and maintain a fire as a distress signal. On top of that, there is also a monster of some sort causing issues on the island.

This book starts off with a bunch of seemingly innocent kids, and I thought the worst problem they could encounter would be someone losing their teddy bear. But then, all of a sudden the story takes a dark turn that would catch a lot of people by surprise (they start hunting animals, then each other).

This is a short read, but it is still a classic. I fairly enjoyed reading this book. I would recommend this to readers 13 and above; I give it a 4/5.

It has become extremely difficult for me to find youth novels for guys. I was asked “why don’t you just read girl books”. Well the answer is… I don’t think girl books are very good. But when I think about it, are girl books really inferior or are they just of a different style, and why does it seem like I can’t find any guy books?

Guy books tend to focus on action. Emotion is discussed, but to a minimum, no more than what’s needed to move the plot forward. Guy books also tend to deal with guy issues and interests. Guy books are, in general, more violent and faster paced. Guy books are to the point and even when it comes to “girly subjects” like love, guy books tend to make it masculine. Guy books also seem edgier.

Girl books obviously focus on emotion. Love and relationships tend to be a central theme. Girl books may include violence, but they focus on the emotional effects the violence cause. Girl books are generally subtle and are a lot deeper when it comes to emotions. Girl books often reach levels that guy books never touch on.

So really, it is opinion, not anything that can be judged, but that doesn’t answer the other question: why is there such a relatively small amount of guy books?

I believe that the reason there aren’t as many guy books as girl books is because guys don’t read as much, because we have short attention spans and want fast paced action books.  We don’t find fast paced action books because all the books we come across are girl books, and there are much more girl books because girls read more… and the cycle continues.

So, I believe that one of my goals on this website is to find the good guy books out there and review them so that guys have a reason to read.

What do you think is better: guy books or girl books (please comment below)?  And if you have read a guy book that you think is pretty good, feel free to comment.

Tune in next week for my review on Lord of the Flies.

This book is very interesting in the sense that though it is quite violent, it doesn’t seem violent at all. That is due to it’s deep, emotional aspect. It is rare for me to read a book like this because it leans more on the “girlie” side of novels, but then again, I’ve been reading a lot of books that I normally wouldn’t and this book can be enjoyable for guys too.

Basically, this novel takes place in an alternate world where some people have extraordinary abilities know as “graces.” Graces can range anywhere from the ability to hold your breath for a long time, to being able to control peoples minds. People are naturally scared of the “gracelings” and of the 7 kingdoms in this story, only one of them treats gracelings fairly.

Unfortunately our protagonist was not born into that kingdom; her kingdom was part of the majority that fears gracelings. Luckily for her, she was born into nobility so people had to accept her. However, that changed when her grace settled.  It turns out she was the first to acquire the grace of killing. She becomes so amazingly good at hand to hand and weapons combat that even dozens of soldiers would have no chance against her. Along with her amazing speed, she became a prized weapon of her king, to be used to intimidate his opponents. But she is obviously not okay with that.

I like the deepness this novel brings to the violence, and I also believe that it is very well written. The strong female character is also greatly appreciated. My only complaint about this novel is that it doesn’t feel too original considering how the plot turns did not surprise me. I recommend this novel to girls (and guys) 14 and above. I give this novel a 4/5.

Often, the authors of youth novels write stories that are relatively depressing and lacking in any conclusion. This is done to add a realistic edge to their story. They often do this by exploring the ugly side of people and society; this results in a de-motivational but realistic story. It is rare to find a non-depressing yet realistic youth novel. That is why I am in luck.

In “I am the Messenger” the author explores the beauty of humanity and society. This is a story about the difference that one person can make and multiple lives just by caring.

The story follow the protagonist Ed Kennedy a 19 year old cab driver whose life is changed after a bank robbery. Soon, he begins to receive tasks to deliver no physical messages. Right away he beings to question who is sending him these tasks, but it did not take long for him to realize that refusing to deliver a message is not an option. For Ed, figuring out what the message he must deliver is, may be a more difficult task than delivering the actual message.

Markus Zusak is a phenomenal author and I am the messenger may become one of my favorite novels of all time. This is a highly motivational novel that remains realistic, though it does have very suspenseful parts. This is one of those stories that just makes you feel good afterwards. I recommend this novel to anyone 14 and over.

It’s been a relatively long time since I’ve read a funny novel, so reading this was quite refreshing. The story is told in a unique way, it manages to be funny and still present a realistic interpretation of high school.

The story is told though the journal entries of a social outcast named Mike “Storky” Pomerantz’s. Mike is our insecure protagonist; he is going through a lot of problems and just wants to get through high school without being completely humiliated, is that too much to ask for? The answer is usually yes, it seems like he keeps finding ways to embarrass himself, and it can often be quite funny.

It turns out that despite being highly intelligent “storky” has a lot to learn if he wants to fit-in in high school, and also a lot to learn about people and life in general.

One thing I like about this book was that since it was written in journal entries, the reader can clearly see the character changing. This is an interesting book that’s quite hilarious and great for anyone entering high school (though it might make more sense for the guys). I would recommend this to anyone 13 and above, and I give this book a 4/5.