Margin Notes

“The women had a story to tell, even if the world wasn’t quite yet ready to hear it, and their story started with three simple words. We were there.” 

The Women tells the forgotten story of the brave nurses in Vietnam during wartimes and the trauma they faced after. When Frankie McGrath joins the Army Nurse Corps, she’s excited to follow her brother to war and serve her country but once she arrives it’s not what she’s been told.  

Throughout the war, Frankie forms new connections and friendships in unlikely places and when she comes home, she’s expecting the pride and admiration she deserves, but instead, is faced with disdain and anger. While struggling with the effects of PTSD, she’s forced to forget her service in the war, but she’s determined to make sure the women in Vietnam won’t be erased. 

Throughout the story, Frankie goes from your stereotypical 60s girl into a strong veteran and an advocate for the women in Vietnam. Her character development is gradual, but monumental at the end when readers see everything she overcame. The representation of PTSD in Frankie, and in the other veterans, shows just how vastly different the war can affect people and how differently people respond to trauma. The Women shows the ups and downs that come with mental illness while also educating on an important subject. This book does a perfect job of portraying the importance of fierce loyalty and support from female friends during tough times, and the connection Frankie forges with her girlfriends during the war is true and genuine. 

If someone is looking to learn more about what really happened in Vietnam, Kristin Hannah’s most recent historical fiction is the perfect place to start. 

 Hi, I’m Alexa Whitlock! I’m a high school student at Leo Hayes in Fredericton, New Brunswick and I’ve been passionate about reading and writing since as long as I can remember. My favorite genres are usually fantasy and historical fiction. When I’m not reading, you can usually find me at a thrift store or trying out a new makeup look.  

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton is a captivating novel with an unforgettable cast of characters and a compelling story. It explores themes like idealism and corruption, while also delving into the topic of the power and influence of the rich. Through flowery language and vivid, elaborate imagery, Catton tells the story of Birnam Wood, an unofficial gardening group that grows crops on vacant or unused properties.  

Readers are introduced to Birnam Wood’s ambitious and headstrong leader, Mira Bunting. Mira is on the lookout for a property that will suit the group’s needs, and she believes she’s found the perfect location. Only, someone else has their eye on the property, someone with a lot more money and power than Mira: charismatic (and eccentric) billionaire Robert Lemoine, who has plans to build his doomsday bunker on the property. After encountering Mira on the site, Lemoine offers to fund Birnam Wood’s endeavors and agrees to let them share the space with him. Mira agrees, and the group sets up camp on the property, eager to begin a new round of gardening. Everything seems to be going smoothly, until Mira begins to doubt whether the billionaire’s intentions with the property – and Birnam Wood – are what he says they are. 

Birnam Wood’s story is told from multiple perspectives, each with their own distinct voice and personality. Through these perspectives readers get to watch everything unfold, from the first day on the new property to the group’s inevitable demise. Birnam Wood keeps readers invested in the story, introducing new twists and turns on every page that leave readers wondering “what’s next?”. Overall, Birnam Wood is a beautiful, thrilling novel, and it would make a fantastic addition to any reader’s bookshelf.  

Braelyn McCullum is a grade eleven student at Leo Hayes High School. When she doesn’t have her nose in a book, Braelyn enjoys riding horses, listening to Taylor Swift, or hanging out with her dog, Louie.  

“And now, as if waking from a nonsensical dream, he surveys in terror the disorder of his life.” 

Sally Rooney’s fourth novel “Intermezzo” is a fever dream of grief, longing, disdain, and depression. Spiraling, raw, tragic – with paragraphs that go on for pages and few breaks for dialogue – Intermezzo is far from an easy read, but a great one nonetheless.  

Ivan and Peter Koubek are brothers. With ten years and a lifetime of mutual resentment in between them, they don’t share much other than their last name. Ivan is 22, a successful chess prodigy and lonely university student in their hometown of Kildare. Peter is ten years older and a seemingly competent lawyer living in Dublin. The pair rarely speak, and when they do it quickly devolves into argument. Throughout the book, readers learn that Peter and Ivan are intertwined, too similarly insecure, refusing to see the good in one another because that would force them to also see the good in themselves. 

Following the death of their father, both brothers find themselves in toxic romantic relationships: Peter juggling between longtime lover and college student Sylvia and Ivan pining after Margaret, a woman ten years his senior. The novel explores the complexities of their relationships and how deeply grief impacts their capacity for love. 

Intermezzo is a unique portrayal of loss, longing, and hope. This is a great read for sad eldest daughters and people who thought too hard about the ending of Aftersun.  

Eleanor Brewer is an eleventh-grade student at Leo Hayes High School. Reading and writing have always been a huge part of her life, and as she approaches her final year of high school, she is incredibly grateful to have opportunities to share her writing online.  

A home filled with joy and laughter, a haven from the prejudices of the outside world while overlooking the crashing waves of a cerulean sea. This is the portrait T.J Klune paints in his wonderfully cozy fantasy novel, “The House in The Cerulean Sea.” It is a novel completely uninterested in treading in the same tropes and conventions that permeate the fantasy genre. Instead, T. J Klune forges his own path, one built on endearing characters and themes of self-acceptance and found family. 

 The novel follows a forty-year-old Linus Baker, who is a caseworker for the department in charge of magical youth (Dicomy) in charge of observing and reviewing orphanages. Linus does his job with the utmost care, he never steps out of line and, most importantly, he never becomes too attached to the children of the homes he visits, all in the name of the children’s wellbeing, of course. The upper management of Dicomy takes notice of this, and send Linus to a small island observing the orphanage of very mysterious Arthur Parnassus. Linus agrees, believing this is an orphanage to be no different than all the others he has visited, but quickly finds that to be untrue. After all it is not every day, he meets the anti-Christ. But as Linus continues to observe Arthur’s orphanage, he begins to view not only the children but Arthur himself as more than what his files label them.  

The House in the Cerulean Sea weaves together themes of self-acceptance, and not letting others define who you are.  With its humorous style of writing and wholesome relationships, it is an incredibly cozy novel that engages the reader. 

The novel does tackle trauma and prejudices with authenticity that will leave readers looking at the systems around them in a completely different way. So, readers searching for a novel that is both deep and impactful while still being comforting, the house in the Cerulean Sea is not the book you want, but instead, the book you need. 

Kaylee Miller is in the 10th grade attending Leo Hayes Highschool. Kaylee enjoys doing anything creative, from baking to cross stitching though she has a clear preference for writing. If she cannot be found doing that, you will most likely find Kaylee curling up with a worn-out fantasy novel and her cat.