Young Adult Reading Starter Kit

So, you want to start reading books but don't know what to read or get into? Well, today I felt that I owed my dear readers a post after not posting here for like more than a week, so today I'm going to be going over my picks for what you should be reading as a teenager/young adult (because that's what I am)

So let's get started.

The Hunger Games trilogy

The first book(s) that I'm going to suggest is the Hunger Games trilogy. These are some really good pieces of apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic fiction that I highly recommend. Seeing as most people have probably seen the movies since the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes prequel came out, (both the book and the more recent movie) I'm not going to bother explaining a synopsis. Just read the back cover of the first book, and you'll understand why I like it.

Now I will say that the weakest book in the trilogy is the finale, Mockingjay. I say this for multiple reasons. One is because of its length. It is about double the size of the other two books. Another is because it feels like a terrible ending to an otherwise-great trilogy. I didn't understand what was going on in the last few chapters, and by the epilogue nothing made any sense. But other than those last few chapters, the trilogy is very good.

Ashfall

I read this book when I was in eighth grade. Keep in mind, my reading level has always been higher than my peers. I very much enjoyed it. It wasn't for an English class unit or anything, it was for independent reading. When I read the inside cover, I knew that I wanted to read it. Ashfall deals with the aftermath of the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. So obviously, apocalypse again. This is kind of a theme in what I recommend to people, because this is what interests me.

Ready Player One

This is the last book I will recommend. Ready Player One is also my favorite book of all time. I recently re-read it, and I enjoyed it very much. It takes place in a world that is neglected due to the usage of the OASIS, a virtual reality world in which most people spend their time. The book takes place five years after the OASIS's creator, James Halliday, dies and leaves the fate of his company (and control of the OASIS) to a contest. Five years pass and nobody finds anything, until Wade Watts cracks the first clue. The story follows Wade as he continues through the contest and conflicts with the opposing Innovative Online Industries (IOI), who want to control the OASIS for monetary purposes.

Conclusion

These are just a few recommendations. I might revisit this list eventually after I've read more books, but for now, I'm gonna sign off.

Little Shop of Horrors (musical) Review

Last night, as of writing this, I watched the musical Little Shop of Horrors at a high school in a nearby town. I am a huge fan of Little Shop, but had only seen the 1986 film, and even then, only the theatrical cut. So obviously, it was a little different from the source material. But, I enjoyed the play all the same.

Spoilers ahead, this is a review post.

So if you don't know what Little Shop is about, I'll go over a brief plot synopsis. The play follows Seymour Krelborn, a young florist who works for Mr. Mushnik in Skid Row. He discovers a new type of plant, the Audrey II (named after his coworker and love interest Audrey), which depends on human blood and flesh to survive. The plant eventually begins to speak, and it convinces Seymour in a really awesome song to kill people to feed it. So he goes after Audrey's abusive boyfriend, the sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello. After Orin suffocates from taking in too much nitrous oxide, Seymour feeds him to Audrey II. After Orin "mysteriously disappears", Mushnik wants Seymour to make a statement to the police. So Seymour feeds Mushnik to the plant, blaming his disappearance on him visiting his "sick sister in Czechoslovakia" for "a very long time". By the way, Seymour has been getting famous locally off Audrey II. Audrey (Seymour's now-girlfriend, not the plant) begins getting worried for Seymour, who looks stressed out and worried from what's going on (because he killed two people). Seymour leaves to get the plant some real food, and Audrey goes back to the shop, where the plant tricks her into getting close and attacks her. Seymour comes back just in time, but she is mortally wounded, and he fulfills her dying wish to be fed to the plant. Soon after, Seymour learns that a corporate executive wants to sell Audrey II's all over the country, making them "bigger than hula hoops". Seymour realizes that Audrey II wants to conquer the world, and attempts to hack it up from the inside, but gets eaten. The greek chorus of street urchins who have been telling the story from the background reveal that Audrey II's did, in fact, become bigger than hula hoops and did, in fact, take over the world, and it is implied through vines being dropped onto the audience that everyone in the theater was eaten, as well.

So as you can see, it can go from being really weird to really good to it only makes sense if you watch it. Now, the ending of Audrey II winning wasn't the one I was used to. In fact, the ending as a whole wasn't what I was used to, because in the film, there was a final solo from the Audrey II before Seymour kills it, and goes back out to an alive Audrey, marrying her, and moving to the suburbs with a small Audrey II bud in their front yard, smiling. But in the play, this ending is non-existent. Frank Oz, who directed the film, once said the reason for this: you can kill of characters in a play and they come out for a final bow. In a film, that doesn't happen. So when it was shown to test audiences, who hated the ending but otherwise loved the film, they made a large (and expensive) change to the ending, tricking people like me into thinking that this was always the plan. They eventually released the film with the original ending as a directors cut years later, but still.

While the original ending was good, I don't know if the changed ending was better or not. I genuinely can't decide. The darkness of the play's ending makes it live up to its name, but the film's ending is way more satisfying. I genuinely can't make up my mind. But whatever.

Another thing that was different was the fact that the characters actually did interact with the chorus girls Crystal, Ronette, and Chiffon, who provide back-up to some songs in both versions. The characters in the play talk to these girls and refer to them by name, but in the film only Mushnik interacts with them, and even then, only once. I like the interacting with them more, as it makes them feel like actual characters and not just a Greek chorus.

Overall, this play is one of my favorites. I love the story, I love the characters, I love the songs. I recommend it to anyone who wants to get into musical theater.