User blog:Danasta/HSS:Review book 1

= HSS Book 1 Review =

INTRO
Hey guys, I am Danasta and this is my book review blog on High School Story. This is my first blog so leave your feedbacks in the comment section. This is one of my favorite book because it was the first book I played and it always has an interesting and sometimes over the top plot .... cough cough book 2!. It also has many memorable characters like Emma, Michael, Caleb, Maria and Luis (who else were you expecting). High School Story has 3 books so this review will cover the first book.

PLOT SUMMARY
HSS involves an MC (boy or girl your choice really), who is new to a Oliver Berry High School. Your character makes new friends, join sporting activities, makes a couple of enemies and gets ready for homecoming with a special someone. Overall just a typical high school story with the Jock (Caleb), Bad boy (Michael), Shy girl(Emma), Girl who seriously needs anger management classes (Maria) and more. The main conflict of the book for the most part wasn't Hearst or any other external force, but rather it's the students of Berry. Think about it, Emma's insecurities and loneliness, Caleb getting over toxic relationships, Michael hiding his inner self, the inner turmoil in the band: Ezra vs Aiden, cheer-squad(Mia's jealousy of Sydney) and the football team (Caleb vs Brian). All these conflict start out as something petty and peaks at the football game against Sutton High. The result a terrible loss for the football team and the lack of a Q.B, a divided band, an injured cheer-squad captain, and worst of all a school with broken morale (Maria would learn that the hard way.). Everything seems hopeless but with the help of the MC things would change. A wild pep rally to cheer everyone up, convincing Michael to play Q.B on the football team, pranking Hearst and the final game against Hearst (Best moment of the book and probably the series as a whole). Then after all the drama you go to homecoming with your LI and prepare for a cold winter quarter. The time frame of the game is probably 2 months (Aug - Oct). These are the arcs in the story.

Party Arc Chapter 1 - 3

New School Activity 4 - 7

School Spirit Arc 8 - 13

Homecoming 14 - 15

I would say this books is diamond dependent because it's critical in relationships with friends, LI, and school spirit. Asides from that I would say diamond dependency is 7/10 to understand LI's more. Now to the characters

CHARACTERS
A book can have a great, bad or Queen B plot, but the characters are the ones that can save or tarnish a book. High School Story book 1 is full of interesting characters that go beyond the typical high school stereotype and give us a proper introduction to them. In this characterization, I will focus on character's role, arc, impact on the story. Ranked from Good, Meh and Lame.

Good: Went beyond their role (7.5 - 10)
Emma (Important Character): Emma's role in the story was the typical shy girl and her arc was overcoming loneliness. Though her shy girl trope is overused as fudge, it makes sense because at this point a lot of people didn't talk to her and people like Brian bullied her and reminded her of her status and her situation at home was complicated. Usually people would become rouge and distant like Michael, but instead Emma bottled it up and accepted her role. Luckily with the help of the MC and a few friends she learn to express herself more and even joins a club activity. Of course she still had some flaws like when she asked out Caleb. I felt she asked out Caleb too soon, because it was a few days after he found out Zoe cheated on him. Then again, it shows how out of touch she was with socializing and does give her arc a few flaws instead being straight up perfect. Throughout the she brought a lot of sweet and comforting moments like her 1 on 1 with the MC when they go stargazing or when you invite her home for a sleepover. Emma overall is not a plain boring character rather she is a girl coming out of her she thus she gets an 8/10

Michael : Michael on the surface plays the typical high school tough guy and a rouge anti-hero. He gives off a cool and don't mess with me vibes, as shown when you try to take his seat, Book 1 Chapter 1. Before his main character arc, I found him the most entertaining out of all the characters because of his attitude of not giving a fudge about school events, great at coming up with pranks, and the kind of guy that works in the shadow.

Michael's arc explains why he was tough. Long story short, he transferred 2 to high schools, before settling at Berry because he was bullied a lot and never had a friend. Even when he had a friend(Brian), he saw how he went from a chill dude to an egomaniac because of his football team status. Michael doesn't hate or not care about Berry, but rather he is scared he will become a bully like Brian. After, the MC's reassurance he decides to be the school's Quarterback. This arc Even after his arc Michael played another prominent role in the story like the Spirit stick arc and even if the arc isn't about him he always seems to make a lot of saractic. Overall, Michael is a bad boy on the surface, but also a good guy. This makes him an anti-hero and he gets a 8.5/10



Caleb: The golden football boy, Mr. popular and the 50% discount Sean Gayle. Ok I'll stop. Caleb is the typical jock and is the popular guy in school, which is something I question at times. He has a very fun and sociable character; asides from being a jock that is how I can describe him a social and fun guy. His arc was really stretched out like Emma's arc of overcoming loneliness.

Caleb arc was overcoming bad friends; he was best friends with Brian the plot amor bully and Zoe his ex-girlfriend, both of them were mean to the people and took advantage of Caleb's kindness. Caleb chose to stay friends with them because of the good moments he had with them and believing they would change for the better, but instead Brian and Zoe became a couple essentially breaking their bond with Caleb. Caleb for most of the story tried to get over them, but there was a tiny problem him and Brian were in the same homeroom and football team. Now the conflict between them was mostly forced by Brian and everyone around would make it seem like Caleb also joined in when in actuality this was a forced and attention-seeking fight with a plot-amor villain. The only good part of this conflict was Caleb turning down and standing up to Zoe once and for all . I gotta say '''Caleb's character arc was the worst out of all of the 5 LI mostly because of Brian and the fact that Caleb only showed a few sad moments and was still acing it at football! This makes people feel almost nothing for him in most of his arc. Whenever Brian or Zoe ain't there he acts as if nothing happened and don't get started with his Randy Orton RKO outta nowhere crush on the MC.'''

Now the only reason why this guy ain't in meh is because like Michael he has a lot of funny line and in normal circumstances. I would give him a 7.5/10 for character but his arc was underwhelming to say the least.

Maria: At the start of the story, I found Maria to be the girl that takes everything serious. Like this girl is out here taking 5 AP classes and is the head of the homecoming committee putting up the likes Wes, Michael, Koh and Blue haired girl. Dang does this girl ever sleep. Her personal arc starts when everyone was depressed after the football game disaster. I mean she did kinda have a lack of understanding of the situation and was too focused on homecoming. Still she didn't deserve the treatment she got when Payton basically called Maria a waste of time. She obviously is sad about this and for the first time in the series I actually felt bad for her. Instead of being seen a a control-freak perfectionist, she is just a person who wants to give it 110% and doesn't tolerate laid back people. After talking to the MC, she becomes more calmer and understanding. She was even impressed by the pep rally, but she still gets angry if you pick the Retro theme for homecoming. Girl come on that is literally the best design choice out of the rest, plus a lot of people liked it you grinch. A point deduction for that and you get 7.5/10



Overall, Maria is the hot tempered girl in this chapter, but it becomes less of an issue in other chapters.

Now I don't wanna drag this on so her are my other good characters

Principal Hughes: A bubbly character and principal overall a great comedy relief and a quirky principal with childish punishments that are actually beneficial 9/10

Wes: Though he had few screen time had some decent lines, he role as the guy that knows everything that is going was cool. His relationship with Autumn was fine Overall a 8.5/10

Sydney: OOOOOH Sydney!!!!! Yeah she gives off an energetic vibe and had a lot of good lines. Her arc with Mia was decent and yeah 8/10

Sakura : If Maria was a gamer 8/10

Myra: I like her charisma and corny puns 8/10

Luis: I don't know what it is, but I enjoy his character 8/10

Julian: The best captain in this book 7.5/10

Mia: Didn't like her at first, but after the game against Hearst she was good 7.5/10

Meh
Aiden: Yes man. Aiden in this book was just meh. He was so bland for a majority of it had a few decent lines and his character arc was more of the whole band rather than himself. Though I have to admit he was the level-headed one of the friend group and it was cool at times 7/10.

Nishan: Honestly not much to say other than grow a freaking backbone. 6.5/10.

Max and Kara: They didn't appear much but each time they did they were actually decent villains 6/10

Blue-haired girl: Yeah she was a good background bad girl character 5.5/10

Erza: Why are you treated Aiden like a lacky. Your lucky you had some decent lines 5/10

Isa: Bad cop and serious principal. 5/10

Other characters I can't remember here you go

Awful
Brian: Ladies, Gentlemen and everyone else I present to you a villain literally forced to be a treat for some reason. No like seriously, this guy is just a douche and that's it. His conflict with Caleb was him just trying to annoy Caleb. He was literally trying to fight Caleb and act like the victim. This is like a dude jumping into a fire pit and getting angry when he get burned, you deserve it. You make out with your best friends girlfriend, cause unnecessary drama on the football team then switch over to the rival school, and constantly taunt your former best friend about kissing his ex-girlfriend and expected no retaliation from anyone. Man this guy from a different galaxy. I understand this guy is the villain but the way the people in the book make him out to be a treat when in actuality spoilt nauseance pisses me off. Overall 4/10. I could go on but I am saving all that for book 3.

Zoe: How dare you treat Caleb like that !! 4/10

MY THOUGHT/RATINGS
This book for me was the best in the whole series; book 3 was a close second, but the amount of plot amour the villains had. I will get to that when the time comes. Still this book was interesting and what cemented it was the big game against Hearst, a lot happened in the game everyone was so supportive and focused on helping the football team win, Caleb finally stands up to Zoe and everything leading to that point really counted in the end. The character were interesting and cool except when they were sucking up to the villains smh, and the villains were actually a legit treat, and even Brian had an decent evil moment, when he stole the coach's tactical book and that was it. Overall I would give this book an 9/10