McAuley High School

28,544 pages read and 2,995 team points

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Isaac

12,419 pts

(11,938 pages read)

The Book That Really Did Not Want To Be Read

By David Sundin

4 stars

Fun kids book that I'll give to my baby cousin.
Bad Company

By Peter Milligan

5 stars

Sci-fi about the horrors and insanity of war. Others' mileage will vary hugely based on their patience for 1980's science fiction comics, but I loved this.
The Leaving Room

By Amber McBride

3 stars

Verse novel about a figure who greets departing souls at the start of the afterlife. Quick read, but I didn't love it. I did like the twist at the end, but the 200 pages leading up to it didn't grab me.
The Comet

By Arianna Irwin

2 stars

Not-great attempt to mix horror and super heroes, which fails to pull either off effectively.
The Profound Benefits of a Stint in Prison

By Andrew Hamilton

3 stars

Andrew Hamilton does things on the internet that I find funny. I was disappointed at how... okay this was. Straightforward description of his overall uneventful experience in prison. Fine, but I'd hoped for more.
Every Day I Read

By Hwang Bo-Reum

4 stars

A collection of short essays about the joys of books and reading. Exactly my wheelhouse - but better to dip in and out of, given how thematically similar all of the pieces are.
Space and Beyond

By RA Montgomery

2 stars

When I was 10, I loved Choose Your Own Adventure books, and I still think all young kids should be given them. Checked this one out for the sake of nostalgia. Not terrible, but definitely for 10-year-olds.
Doomsday Clock

By Geoff Johns

4 stars

Watchmen is rightly acclaimed as one of the best comic series ever. This is the sequel no one asked for, involving none of the original creators. Much better than it had any right to be.
Iron Man: The Crossing

By Terry Kavanagh

2 stars

Famously bad storyline from the 90s. Slightly worse than I'd heard it was.
Aurora Burning

By Amie Kaufman + Jay Kristoff

4 stars

Fun second part in the series. It did start to grate slightly that all five narrators had exactly the same voice, but it was a fun voice and the story moved along well.
Harry from the Agency

By Philip Gluckman

4 stars

Obscure NZ sci-fi book published in 1997 to no fanfare that I can recall. It's quite uneven and very derivative, which still puts it as the best sci-fi novel New Zealand has ever produced.
Ro-Busters

By Pat Mills

4 stars

1970's anarchic British sci-fi. Dumb fun.
Wasteworld: Resurrection

By James Barton

3 stars

Same as book 1. The most interesting thing was that the scene on the cover never happens in the book, nor does anything that could be construed as any kind of resurrection. So that's a bit weird.
Predator: the original years

By Various

4 stars

Predator is the best movie ever made and there have been no bad entries in the franchise [citation needed]. This is a collection of stories from the 80s and 90s. It is...a lot of Predator. But that's what I signed up for.
Poison Ivy: The Virtuous Cycle

By G Willow Wilson

5 stars

Heroic eco-terrorism written by the creator of the Kamala Khan Ms Marvel. Huge fun.
Wasteworld: Aftermath

By James Barton

3 stars

A very typical example of the 1980s post-apocalyptic fiction I read too much of as a child: not really a plot, just someone walking around the ruins surviving different hazards that the author thought a post-bomb world world would contain. And some racism.
Ace Trucking Co

By John Wagner & Alan Grant

3 stars

Sci-fi comedy that I read as a kid. Fun enough, but didn't really hold up.
Assassins

By Tim LaHaye & Jerry B Jenkins

1 stars

Reading this series is basically a form of self-harm. But at least I'm halfway through now!
Triangles

By Ellen Hopkins

1 stars

Ellen Hopkins writes verse novels which a lot of my students love, and which I don't mind. This is her 'spicy' adult novel. It didn't work. In fairness, I don't love spicy romance novels. People who do might like this.
Cla$$war

By Rob Williams

3 stars

Super hero finds out the government is corrupt so fights them. A mediocre take on a concept that's been done a bunch of times, usually better. (In his afterword, the author agrees - this was his first published work and he admits it's pretty clunky.)
Aurora Rising

By Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

5 stars

Very fun and readable YA space opera.
Bone

By Jeff Smith

5 stars

Whimsical fun fantasy tale. Delightful!
BRZKR

By Keanu Reeves & Matt Kindt

4 stars

Fun but light action story about an immortal warrior. A good take on an old idea.
Hounded

By Ellie Douglas

1 stars

I noped out of this after 30 pages. I'm claiming the pages I read for the challenge because 1) this is from a New Zealand author, so double points, even if it's only 60. 2) I should get _something_ out of this. This book reads like a piece of Year 11 creative writing - complete with stilted dialogue, awkward exposition, and incorrect punctuation. Bless the author for their enthusiasm, but I wasn't up for 400 pages of it.
Fantastic Four: Solve Everything

By Jonathan Hickman

3 stars

Super hero silliness. Lots of fun, but I prefer this author's other works.
Apollyon

By Jerry B Jenkins

1 stars

Just awful. Onto book 6!
Power Man and Iron Fist: Hardball

By Christopher Priest

4 stars

1980s superhero stuff. Revolutionary and ground-breaking for the time, and slightly racist by today's standards. Huge nostalgia pop for gen-x comic nerds, possibly not much to offer anyone else.
I Hope This Finds You Well

By Natalie Sue

5 stars

A woman working a dead-end office job gains secret access to her workmates' emails and chats and finds out what they're really saying about her. Really fun, and also made me go back to my department group chat and scan the last month of entries to remind myself what I had said about people...
Giving Birth To My Father

By Tusiata Avia

5 stars

Deeply confessional and confronting exploration of the death of the author's father. Incredible.
Moana: Voices of Our Ocean

By Danielle Kionasina Dilys Thomson

4 stars

Short collection of poetry themed around the ocean. Having 25 or so poems in a row on one topic means this is one to dip in and out of rather than read all at once, but it's very accessible and has a good mix of pieces.
Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner Rising

By Ron Marz

4 stars

Superhero stuff from the 1990s. Uneven in a lot of places, but terrific fun if you were reading superhero stuff in the 90s. (If you weren't, this may not be for you...)
Hansel and Gretel

By Stephen King

4 stars

Hansel and Gretel, but written by Stephen King and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, so yay!
Pheasants Nest

By Louise Milligan

4 stars

Fun, quick thriller. The actual plot (woman is kidnapped, some people look for her) is actually thin but the author does a thing where all of the characters are gone into in more depth than usual, explaining their motivations and feelings in a way that still makes the story move along and keep your interest.
20th Century Men

By Deniz Camp

3 stars

Alternate history/science fiction about the Russian war in Afghanistan. Interesting, but a little bit confused. This author has done some really clever narratives - this seemed like sort of a practise run for them.
The Mystery of the Silver Circle

By Mollie Chappell

2 stars

Sub-Enid-Blyton kids-own mystery/adventure from the 1930s. Fine if that's what you're looking for, but there's a reason this isn't as well known as things like The Famous Five.
Jet Ace Logan

By Ron Turner

3 stars

1950s science-fiction. Great if you like that sort of thing, but probably only appeals to a very niche audience.
Soul Harvest

By Tim LaHayne & Jerry B Jenkins

1 stars

Terrible. Offensive and terrible. Just as bad as the first three in the series. I can't wait to read book 5!

11 - 0 - 1

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McAuley High School

28,544 pages read and 2,995 team points

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