Wow wow wow I was enthralled by Ready Player One written by Ernest Cline. I don’t even know where to start with this book, it weaves so many important issues into its page turning text. From world hunger to gay discrimination and everything in between…literally EVERYTHING. The topic of human rights cannot be missed when discussing this book.

Ready Player One, is based around 80s pop culture which means most of the references skyrocketed over my head. But the underlying message was easily picked up. This book relates to so many books I have read for me the best description of it is Fahrenheit 451 meets Divergent meets Hunger Games. I think these books highlight the fear all of us have, the ever impending doom of humanity. Let’s just hope our world isn’t as bleak as Ready Player One’s is.

This book assumes children, nay, everyone is obsessed with technology. I can’t even deny it, i’m glued to my phone every minute of the day. The book is right technology will one day consume us we will no longer be people we will merely be pixelated versions of ourselves. Children are spending less and less time outside and more and more time glued to their iphones.

This book explores explores both reality and fantasy. I really enjoyed the video game aspect because it allowed the book to be as outlandish as possible while still being believable. A lot of kids who feel like they connect more to screens than people will probably connect to this book. Anything can happen in video games but what happens when the game leaks into your reality?

For me Monster was a difficult read, not because it was by any means hard to read just because I felt myself drifting off because the book was so damn boring. Since, it was written as a play I could feel no connection to the character my whole perception was thrown for a loop. I found myself skeptical of the main character. Let’s just say I wouldn’t cry for him if he got sent to jail and that’s saying something because I always cry over books… always. Maybe if I were more interested in legal matters or if the book’s plot grabbed my attention like a really good Law and Order SVU. The structure of the book really fueled my dislike for the book. It was very distracting from the overall content of what was actually going on in the book. The structure made the overall plot of the book very choppy. I did like the journal sections because you could finally understand him as a character a little better. I felt like the book was a little bit over the top with the formatting it jumped from flashbacks, to the courtroom, to his journal so fast it gave me whiplash. Yes, it changed the way I read the text because I kept confusing all of the characters and having to reread everything over and over again. Although, I personally thought the book was a total snooze I could see where some (very few) students might like it. Well if you’re into that kind of thing. I think the book would be easier to understand if different students read for different characters.

A real person
We lie to ourselves
Innocent until proven guilty

Look like a good person
We lie to ourselves
Feel like a good person

Everyone is just messed up
We lie to ourselves
With the pain.