Reviews
I’ve written several of these as adjunct projects, using them as an outlet to express my opinions on various books and other types of media. During my sophomore year especially, they became a way for me to experiment with my writing style and find new ways to engage readers.
"Games Untold" by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
This review was kind of hard to write since it was on a book that combined multiple storylines and novellas in one, so I struggled a bit to come up with how to include all of the necessary information while maintaining engagement. In the end, though, I feel like I did a good job of giving a brief explanation of the more crucial novellas and my opinions on them as well as the collection as a whole. This was also a good opportunity for me to experiment with my voice as a writer as I tried to balance information with opinion.
Reacting to "Adolescence"
Writing the review for this compilation was very spur of the moment. Another editor had written the social commentary around the same time I had finished watching the show and I’d had a lot of thoughts about it so I decided to write a review to complement. I had only ever written book reviews before this so it was fun to adapt that style to a new format, especially since the filming of the show was very nontraditional (a one-shot format). While writing, I tried to be mindful of what I was saying and the information I was including compared to the commentary since I knew I would be packaging them together.
"Teller of Small Fortunes" by Julie Leong
I had a lot of fun with this review and felt like it gave me a chance to explore my writing style. “The Teller of Small Fortunes” hadn’t been the most enthralling read and I tried to exemplify that with references to the book in a way that was engaging to the publication’s readers. I spent a lot of time playing with the wording and making sure everything made sense and had the necessary context while still having fun with it and letting my voice shine through.
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Hispanic Heritage Month Recommendations
As a part of my program’s Hispanic Heritage Month package, I decided to write recommendations of five books by Latinx authors telling stories of the culture. Part of the challenge was reading all five books, but also trying to write five stories that weren’t repetitive of one another. While these were all books I was recommending, I also wanted to make sure I was being balanced in my opinion, which also allowed me to differentiate a bit.