The Wesnaclama Blog

Hello all! I hope that you are all doing well and making it through this quarantine I'm Wes and today I'll be reviewing The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde  by Robert Louis Stevenson. As opposed to simply giving a summary and my opinion, I want to dive into the moral debate that is brought up in his novella, so I'll spare the plot so you guys can read the book yourself. Unfortunately in order to discuss the moral question posed the big plot twist will be spoiled, so I guess I lied to you. Huh. Anyways, onto the "review"! --- Some background: Throughout the story, we see two characters, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. We find out that Dr. Jekyll is an upstanding member of society and Mr. Hyde is the type of person to literally run over a child and not look back (it happened). In the end, we find out that Jekyll and Hyde were the same person all along. Jekyll, who was a scientist, had created a formula that could transform him into a different person. While...

Sup! It's Nate here, and in this post I'll be talking about why I like the fantasy genre so much. Fantasy books make up a large portion of my reading, and from classics like The Hobbit  to newer books such as Akata Witch , I have thoroughly enjoyed most of them. Before I get into why they are good, I should probably define what fantasy books are. Fantasy is a type of fiction that includes magic or other supernatural phenomena--essentially a plot that can't take place in the real world. This is a pretty big appeal for me of fantasy--their plots are different from daily life, which makes them unique and interesting. It's always exciting when reading a new fantasy book to see what direction the writer chose to take their story. The many, many possibilities for a plot, much more than there would be with a more realistic setting, makes fantasy unpredictable and engaging. Another reason I like fantasy is the chance to read about a well-designed world and characters. The s...

Hello all! I'm Wes and today we are going to talk about the Hunger Games, both the movie and the book. Nate, without any sort of inter-group coordination, posted a blog earlier about the Hunger Games which ended up being quite serendipitous. Because of that, I won't be diving into the background and general information about The Hunger Games and its movie counterpart .  In this review, I won't be talking about every single that is different between the two. The movie is long, so I will just be highlighting a few differences that I noticed. Throughout the process of making the film, some things are almost impossible to keep true to, so I will be giving some leeway when it comes to that. I also might completely forget what I just said and go on a tangent about how the grass was colored differently (you get the point). *spoilers, duh* --- The movie starts off with text and an interview with the then Gamemaker. This works as a quick way to introduce the context of ...

The Call of the Wild, written by Jack London, is a novel that truly astounded me. Published in the year 1903, this classic tale of companionship and love (in a sense) has made such an impact on literature. It has also managed to get itself banned in 1929 in Yugoslavia and Italy for Jack London openly having socialist views. The book was also burned in 1933 by Nazi’s for a “similar reason”. However, The Call of the Wild is the epitome of the classic saying “a dog is man’s best friend”. The Call of The Wild is about a man named John Thornton and his dog Buck. The story mainly focuses on Buck as the main character, and the narrator walks us through what is going on in his life. The story is set during the Gold Rush when many of dogs were needed to help carry supplies and mush. Buck happens to fall into the hands of Thornton after being abused and neglected in the past. Thornton comes across him when Buck and his old owners are trying to travel across a river, but he refuses. Due to...

Hey guys, this is Clara and for this months’ blog post I will review the book Dear John by Nicholas Sparks, a book in the romance genre. I’ve never read a romance novel before, and after a friend recommended this book, I decided to give romance novels a try and read Dear John.               Dear John follows the story of John Tyree, a lonely young man who enlists in the U.S Army so he can have a purpose in life. While he is on leave from duty, he meets Savannah Lynn Curtis, and immediately is attracted to her. They begin dating, and eventually fall in love. However, while everything is going well in their relationship, the tragedy of 911 occurs. Because of this event, John has to decide between his loyalty to his country or his love for Savannah, and either go back into active duty or stay with Savannah. He decides to go back into active duty, and the rest of the book focuses on how their long-distance rela...

Sup! Nate here and today I will be reviewing the Hunger Games series. Yeah, I never read this series until a couple months ago. But I finally got around to it, so let's jump right into the review! Summary (spoilers afoot!) The Hunger Games series is a trilogy by Suzanne Collins that is set in a dystopian future. America has been destroyed by war, and Panem is its successor as a nation. The Capitol of Panem rigidly controls its 12 districts ever since they tried to rebel, and as payment, two children are chosen from each district to participate in the annual Hunger Games--a fight to the death that is turned into entertainment. Katniss Everdeen from District 12 volunteers as tribute to protect her sister from having to participate, and a boy named Peeta who she only met once before is chosen with her. The two go to the Capitol and manage to both win the Games with some quick thinking to outwit the Capitol (that's a vast oversimplification, read the book if you want to kno...

This past month, I’ve read a few books, all of them being disappointing, unfortunately. I wasn’t exactly sure why I disliked them, I just knew that there was something about each of them that left me unmoved and bored. However, after some retrospection, I found the sources of my dissatisfaction with one of the books, which was called Shouting at the Rain.              Shouting at the Rain follows a girl named Delsie, and her life on Cape Cod. She lives with her grandmother, and has no recollection of either of her parents, as they left her when she was young. Delsie not knowing who her parents are becomes a main theme in the story and remains as one of Delsie’s biggest focuses in her life. What seems to be the main conflict of the book besides Delsie’s parentage is her summer best friend dumping her for a new friend named Tressa. For the majority of the book, Delsie tries to deal with one of her only friend...