Reviews written by Jason Gallaher

I just finished Rick Riordan’s "The Mark of Athena" and there was one resounding thought I was left with: Poor Reyna! The poor girl just seems to get problem after problem thrown her way, and she’s not even a major character in this book. The main problem...

Do you ever have moments where you think, “What is it that’s really gonna take us humans out?” I sure do, and maybe that makes me a paranoid freak, but so far the list includes: outrageously contagious diseases, meteoroids, asteroids, comets (I realize those are all the same, but you...

Oooooh child! I’m always impressed when an author can take a child’s book and deliver some pretty adult/complicated themes in a way that kids (and most older readers, too, until they stop and take a minute to think about it) don’t even notice it. Philip Pullman’s "I...

Ever since "The Scarlet Letter" we’ve known for a fact that the other woman is just a good for nothing harlot! Well guess again thanks to Lauren Strasnick’s "Nothing Like You." In this book Strasnick gives us Holly, who’s losing her virginity in the opening pages...

Holy Han Solo, I can’t believe I missed Star Wars Reads Day! In belated honor of the day, I checked out Tom Angleberger’s "The Strange Case of Origami Yoda." Now I know "Origami Yoda" isn’t quite Star Wars per se, but it serves as the perfect example...

It’s been reported recently that this year’s graduating high school students had the lowest SAT scores in the history of test taking. Personally, I feel that’s due in large part to the reading deficit we have in this country, particularly with teenage boys. There needs to be a plethora of...

Who needs to rent out your house for a little extra cash when you can rent out your body? Not in that icky “escort” kind of way, but actually rent out your body by letting other people connect to your brain through a surgically implanted chip and paint the town...

I’ve always thought I had a pretty good sense of right and wrong. At least until I read Dia Reeves’s "Slice of Cherry." By the time I was halfway through the book I found myself rooting for coldblooded killers. Sure, they were guised as innocent, Texan, girl next-door types, but...

Who knew The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins could cause so much trouble. According to the ALA, the dystopian trilogy has been labeled by some as anti-ethnic, anti-family, insensitive and satanic all while being peppered with offensive language and the too frequent scene of violence. I don’t see any...

Move over vampires., it's time wolves got the spot light. And not just any wolves; werewolves. Let’s face it, regular wolves are great, but it’s that much better to think said majestic beast can either turn into a toned fella ready to sweep you off your feet or potentially stay...

It’s time to revel in the atrocities of literature as Banned Books Week is upon us (or if you are reading this at some other point in the year, still read the book because it's amazing)! "Perks" has the lucky distinction of being one of the most contested books of...

For those of us who love a good cry, I recently read R.J. Palacio’s "Wonder," which left me being one of the main consumers keeping Kleenex in business. While the book centers on the emotional story of August, a boy with an indescribably severe facial deformity,...

Ever since I sobbed my eyes out in "A Walk to Remember" I vowed never to read or watch anything related to cancer ever again. I’m so glad I broke that rule with John Green’s "The Fault in Our Stars." That’s not to say I didn’t cry like a baby...

...and going, and that’s a good thing! I’ve always shouted it from the rooftops that Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series is infinitely better than Twilight, and everything Stephanie Meyer was hoping to create. However, I’m not the one who has sold millions of copies of my vampire romance novels and...

Somebody recently told me they didn’t like Lois Lowry’s "The Giver" because it was a dystopian novel disguised as a utopian book. I gotta say to that: “Gurl, whachoo smokin’?!” I thought it was obvious that this book is about a totally undesirable dystopian future. Who...