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By Alex Ringgold

People have flaws. That’s a fact, and now that we both agree let’s talk about two books from author Sara Zarr, Story of a Girl and Once Was Lost. These are both fairly short young adult books I’ve happen to read recently, both about 16-year-old ladies trying to figure themselves out.

 

Story of a Girl focuses its attention on Deanna Lambert, who at the age of 13, was caught almost having sex with 17-year-old Tommy Webber by her dad. Since adolescences are quick to judge, she has a hard time fitting in school without being labeled as the school slut for most of her high school life.

 

In the universe of Once Was Lost, a girl, named Samara Taylor, is losing faith in her belief of God, because recently her mother was admitted to rehab due to alcoholism. Her lack of faith is only made that much awkward (and ironic) since her father is the priest of the local church. Then, to top things off, a young girl from the church’s choir gets kidnapped.

 

Both these stories seem innocent and sweet for young females to relate to, but then—BAM! There’s that thing in there that at first you don’t agree with, due to the age and gender of the characters, but these stories are written similarly to point out the flaws in people.

 

That’s what made me read these books. Though I am a guy, I could pull some relatable qualities from both these characters. Deanna, from Story of a Girl, was down-to-Earth, knowing she could never win over those who thought of her negatively, she just went about life minding her own. Her flaws consisted of liking her best friend Jason, even though he was with her other best friend Lee. That’s what made Deanna, to me, real, because she knew it was bad to have those feelings, yet she didn’t pretend like they didn’t exist; she was real with herself.

 

Story of a Girl made me think about myself as a person and I saw maybe I’m not so different in the way Deanna thought. She just wanted to be accepted and have things she couldn’t.

 

It is just too bad the ending was so abrupt. I feel like everyone who read this book turned the last page and flipped the book over because the book felt like it was missing some pages, if not an entire chapter. The only drawback to Story of a Girl is the sudden ending.

 

So, when I went from Story of a Girl to Once Was Lost I was expecting a relatable character, a likable character. Sadly, Samara made me want to close the book and walk away on many occasions. Samara, in my opinion, was too indecisive with what she wanted; she was too weak to handle many situations where Deanna would’ve conquered. Not trying to compare the two, it’s just Samara always needed to find blame for something happening and was too dependent on an answer being there. It drove me up a skyscraper (no trees here) every time she complained that her dad couldn’t understand her.

 

Deanna was more mature and aware. While Samara dependent and confused.

 

However, I think that’s what the author was going for. For me to like Deanna and dislike Samara. They are two different characters with two different stories. I’m not obligated to like them both, but the only way Once Was Lost worked as a story is because Samara was intolerable at times. Which was a clever trick on Ms. Zarr’s part because I’ve only read book with intolerable characters that change morally at the end.

 

I think these are both good reads, nice and short and don’t try to be something they’re not. I recommend both of them, but don’t kick yourself in the butt if you miss them.

By Alex Ringgold

Staff Writer

So apparently, the biggest question on people’s minds right now is this: who is the better mythological creature; the zombie or the unicorn?

Thus we have Zombies Vs Unicorns, a book composed of short stories by Holly Black and Justine Larbalastier with six stories for the zombies and six stories for the unicorns. The two banter about which is best, since both are involved in modern pop culture, and provide the stories to prove it. In the end, it’s up to you to choose which side is better. The book isn’t biased, but personally, I’m with the zombies.

Jumping into the book with Team Zombie, I knew I would stay that way because, well, unicorns are not my thing. However, after reading this book, I saw unicorns in a new light. There are a few unicorn stories this book has that are dark, darker than most zombie stories, and some unicorn stories even include zombies in it.

These stories revealed to me that the authors of Zombies Vs Unicorns wanted to show readers that unicorns are not afraid to trample in other’s genres and make them their own. Like one story where a unicorn roams the Earth murdering people.

Which brings me to point out people who like unicorns may be turned off by the macabre imagery the book describes. I’ve never met a fan of unicorns. I’ve only had them described to me. And since television never lies to me, fans of unicorns are about as fluffy and soft as the unicorns. Then again, if you pick up a book with zombies in the title, and you do not expect blood and gore, you are just asking to be made uncomfortable.

The collection of stories are like any other book of short stories you may pick up: there are some stories that you don’t agree with, some stories are better than others, some stories are too long and you’d rather read the much shorter one behind it, and some of them are just confusing first read through; which doesn’t make the book bad, just fitting for a book of short stories.

There are a couple of stories with confusing transitions and perspective changes that may throw you off. The murdering unicorn I mentioned earlier, the way he kills people, may go over your head if you don’t pay close attention. As a guy who reads on the way home from school, this bothered me, if only slightly. For someone who may be overwhelmed by the length of each story, they may find themselves eating pages due to untimely skimming.

Another thing I found a little off were the zombies’ stories. I’ve read a lot of undead work, so I’ve seen zombies from many angles: from Lazarus to straight up cannibals. So, I was a little disappointed at some of the zombie stories. I know the authors were trying to broaden our perspective of both creatures for the sake of the modern era, but I felt cheated. At some point, even if you are trying to show us something new, you have to at least try to appeal us to something relatable. In modern times, a zombie apocalypse is the ideal zombie story. Overdone, yes, but it’s what we modern kids really think about. I was a tad upset to not see one gun fight with the walking dead. There was one story that was slightly relatable to the modern day, but it had a cliffhanger ending that could have possibly led to some undead action.

The unicorns got their modern day unicorn, why not zombies?

Cover to cover, the book as a whole was pretty good. It’s dark, yet humorous. Some stories take a serious tone while others go for the lighter side, and it is all brought together by the understanding that we will never truly understand zombies nor unicorns. They are both mysterious in there own way. Like, in one story it was speculated zombies only gather in huge groups because they’re bored. Or that unicorns may or may not fart musical notes. So much speculation.

I would recommend the book to young adults. It really does enlighten you if you’re pro- zombie or pro-unicorn or even pro-apathy, it’s just a good read.