by Gabby Uy, Year 10

As any bookworm knows, finding your newest escape from reality isn't always easy; you’ve read John Green more times than you can count and your copy of The Hunger Games has more dog ear than cover. Come on, put Harry Potter down already - here are five more under-the-radar books you absolutely have to read.

1. More Than This by Patrick Ness

Patrick Ness may have won his Carnegie Medal for A Monster Calls but this book is arguably just as deserving of an award. It begins with the “death” of the protagonist, who later wakes up perfectly healthy in a post-apocalyptic world with no memory of his past. If you like existential crises, science fiction and having your brains twisted into pretzels, then this is definitely the book for you. Seriously. My copy has dents from being dropped out of shock multiple times. 

2. Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs

By now, you’ve probably seen or read Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, but even some of the most ardent fans of the series I know haven’t heard of the more elusive companion book released just this September. Tales of the Peculiar is a compilation of (usually gruesome) folktales about peculiars, who are sort of like the mutants in X-Men for those of you who haven’t read the series yet (shame on you). None of the stories are based off of any existing fairytales, which is what makes them so refreshing. This book is a perfect way to join the ever-growing fandom (and trust me, you want to). 

3. It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini 

Centred around the life of stressed overachiever Craig Gilner, It’s Kind of A Funny Story perfectly encapsulates the pressure to “succeed": to get ‘The Right Grades,’ to get into ‘The Right College,’ to get ‘The Right Job.’ While it does have some heavier topics, it balances these out with a hilariously self-deprecating tones - to quote Teen Vogue, this is “A book about depression that’s not the least bit depressing.”

4. Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

Horrorstör - a traditional haunted house story set in not a creaky old mansion but a furniture superstore - may be the lightest read on this list but it’s also one of the most original. Three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour night shift at the local Orsk branch, which presents the staff with broken bookshelves and smashed wardrobes every morning even though security cameras reveal nothing. As the name suggests, the novel is terrifying, despite the fact that it’s disguised as an innocent furniture catalog. Let’s just say that after reading this, you'll never want to step into Ikea at night again. It's a must-read if you like gore, dry humour, mystery and gore. Did I mention gore? 

5. Asylum by Madeleine Roux

Sleep will be lost - enter at your own risk! The Asylum series follows the story of Daniel Crawford who joins a summer programme at a college which was once known as Brookline Sanatorium, an asylum for the criminally insane. Brookline is strangely reminiscent of a more macabre Hogwarts: both have colourful histories, hidden secrets and of course, the occasional serial killer. The dialogue is amazingly witty and to top it all off, the novel is full of haunting (sorry not sorry) vintage photos. This is my personal favourite on this list and I would certainly recommend it for any of you horror movie junkies out there. 

Hopefully your shelves won’t seem so basic now. Happy reading! 

By: Sarah Miller, Year 7

10. McGonagall vs Snape
In this scene, rather than Harry dueling Snape, McGonagall duels Snape in his behalf and eventually leaves Snape to run away with McGonagall, calling him a “coward.”

9. “COWARD!”
In this scene, Harry becomes furious at Snape for killing Dumbledore and running away from the Death Eaters. This is when Snape reveals to Harry that he, himself, is the Half-Blood Prince and runs away with the rest of the death eaters and Malfoy. Along the way, Death eaters play around, break glass and set things on fire.

8. Snape kills Dumbledore
In this scene, Death Eaters were smuggled into Hogwarts by Malfoy, who must kill Dumbledore. However, Dumbledore orders Snape to kill him, resulting in one of the saddest scenes in Harry Potter history.

7. Snape persuades Dumbledore
Snape implores Dumbledore to save Lilly, after finding out that they were on Voldemort’s death list.

6. Snape Gets Bullied
When Snape is teaching Harry occlumency, Harry accidentally goes into Snape’s mind and sees snape being bullied by his dad, James Potter.

5. Turn To Page 394
This scene is truly memorable because so many people have been captured by Alan Rickman, who says this line so well! When Snape acts as a substitute for  the Defence of the Dark Arts class, he asks the class to “turn to page 394” in his famous deep, monotonous tone.

4. Snape cries over Lilly
In this scene, Harry is in the Pensieve, looking at Snape’s memories. Snape collapses when he sees Lilly dead, crying as he holds her body - a truly emotional memory.

3. Snape shows Harry the Sword of Gryffindor
Snape uses his patronus to lead Harry to the sword of Gryffindor, which the latter can then use to defeat the Dark Lord.

2. “After all this time?” “Always.”
In this scene, Snape talks to Dumbledore about how Harry must die. To prove to Dumbledore that he really loves Lilly, he conjures a patronus charm which takes form of a doe (which is also Lily’s patronus), truly portraying his deep and unending love for Lilly.

1. “You Have Your Mother’s Eyes.” 

This scene is in Deathly Hallows (Part 2), just before Snape’s death. During this scene, Snape is bleeding profusely, while Harry is trying to stop the blood from flowing by covering up his wounds. Right before he dies, he asks Harry to look him in the eyes so that he can see Lilly’s eyes one last time.

Written by:

Tanay Singhvi, Year 12

Fantasy. The very word sends shivers down our backs. The very word inspires visions of battlefields and wars. The very word brings to mind the heroes of heroes, champions of the light and defeaters of the dark. Fiction is a genre where new lands are borne out of an author's imagination, containing fantastical beasts and powers beyond any true comprehension. There has been no genre as deep, as capturing, and as expressive as fantasy, whether it be classic Tolkein's Lord of the Rings or Modern Martin's Song of Ice and Fire. In this review, I’ll be looking at the tale of a poor farm boy, who by chance, finds something of his torn nation's heritage – a dragon egg - that thrusts him into a world of battle, magic, and political intrigue. Of course, I'm talking about Eragon.

Spanning four books and fourteen years, this epic saga was the masterpiece of its young author, Christopher Paolini. Or at least, it was meant to be. Each book hovered near the one thousand page mark with lengthy back-stories and multiple character viewpoints. We'll only be looking at the first book.

The tale revolves around a poor young teenager called Eragon. Something that should be pointed out is that this series is based around dragons and, strangely enough, if you replace the ’d’ of dragons with an 'e' you get the name of the main character. Continuing on with what I hope wasn't a typo, the story begins with a ‘warrior elf maiden princess ambassador lady person’ who attempts to send the dragon egg off to safety, while being chased by the evil king's soldiers. It isn't too bad of a start, not much different from some of the regular fictional stories you get, so it stays on familiar ground. But, it’s by no means original. In fact, the book's first line is “Wind howled through the night, carrying a scent that would change the world”, foreshadowing that change is soon to come.  

As the story progresses - with Eragon’s Uncle murdered, the villains having fled, and the dragon hatched from its egg - Eragon decides to chase after the killers with his dragon's help. The village storyteller, a knowledgeable old man named Brom, also joins Eragon. As they travel, Eragon turns away from the empire after his uncle's murder and becomes stronger with the help of the wise old Brom. Eragon then learns that one day, he must fight and kill Galbatorix, the evil emperor. If star wars’ creator, George Lucas, were to read this, he might just be a little suspicious. 

Magic is usually at the centre of fantasy. With powers and abilities that help place warfare on a whole new stage, the best tales always have something different, something never-before-seen. In Eragon’s case, it demonstrates a mixture of old plot lines with new twists. Magic in the series comes from an old power that was bound to a language, the “Ancient Language”. The control over this language is what gives magicians their powers. The more words you know, potentially the more powerful you are, repeating the old 'power from words' that is evident in stories such as Discworld and Harry Potter. However, the twist comes from the history of magic described in the series as the idea that magic originally came from thoughts until it was bound for the safety of the world. This entire back story makes this special ability much more interesting and lends Eragon an authentic feel.

We've mentioned many clichés before this, and now it’s time to really air them out.

Zar'roc, the Rider blade, was given to Eragon by Brom and was meant to be a testament to the former’s heritage as a dragon Rider. What was supposed to be a moving and touching seen was impinged upon by visions of Bilbo Baggins handing Sting to Frodo or Obi Wan giving Luke his first lightsabre.

Eragon's  skill set seems more than a little impressive, seeing as he's a farmer. After only a few months of learning, he has mastered the sword. With this, Paolini stretches the plausibility of his story a lot in this,  but he goes even farther in giving Eragon the ability to master most things without fail, in a short amount of time. Eragon somehow gains the aptitude to stand against the Varden’s Master Magicians, despite the short duration of his training. 

Eragon doesn’t know his father lived with his uncle, a man who refused to talk about his mother. We have seen this heritage crisis constantly in everything around us, both in the realm of fantasy, and without. This crisis is apparent in the stories of fantasy greats such as Luke Skywalker and Superman. Tales centre around the hero with his mysterious parents, of whom he knows nothing, and wants to know about.

This is where I feel that Paolini got it right. The wealth of the writing is immense in the details of the lands of Alagaesia. Paolini's descriptions of the mountains and deserts that Eragon crosses are painted in your mind as you read the words, especially in his depiction of Ellesméra and Tronjheim. The only flaw is that some details of the most trivial subjects are taken in account like house utensils or unimportant buildings such as Eragon’s attic. The description of Eragon’s attic consists of nearly an entire paragraph and it isn’t essential to the progression of the plot. This is not really what you want to read about.

Eragon is the first in a four book series and despite its clichés and plot holes, it happens to be the best one simply because of the amount of action in the story. The main problem with the other books is that they don’t reach their conclusions fast enough and bore the readers to tears half-way through. Eragon takes a lot of elements from other great fantasy novels, making it unoriginal and rather irritating to a seasoned fantasy reader. However, the book's writing is top notch, detailed and expressive, making the book very interesting. Eragon might be most enjoyable for someone new to the fantasy genre.

Written by:

Tanay Singhvi, Year 12