By Tang Lanyun (23S05A)

Raffles Reads is a collaboration between Raffles Press and Times Reads which aims to promote a reading culture among Singaporean students.

Rating: 4/5

Rick Riordan’s rip-roaring sci-fi debut pays homage to one of the genre’s founding fathers, Jules Verne. Inspired by “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”, Daughter of the Deep imagines a world in which the fantastical events Verne envisioned in his novel were indeed historical fact. The book itself spins a riveting tale of teenage ingenuity against impossible odds, whose high school characters break the mold of typical middle-grade (and Y/A) protagonists. With a clear love for the source material, Riordan deftly reinvigorates Verne’s classics for a modern audience, while also appreciating the diversity present in our society.

By Claire Jow (23A01B)

Raffles Reads is a collaboration between Raffles Press and Times Reads which aims to promote a reading culture among Singaporean students.

Rating: 3/5

Moving to a new school is always hard, but it seems to be particularly tough on fifteen-year-old Lia Setiawan, who managed to enter the prestigious Draycott Academy based solely on her skill in track and field.

The shiny surface of her new school, however, hides a dark interior. There are drug deals, illegal activities, and ominous messages scrawled on the walls; soon enough, she’s become the next target of the school’s anonymous gossip app, Draycott Dirt. As she struggles to find her footing as a fish out of water in a school full of filthy-rich students, she becomes entangled in a cheating ring that leads to one of the greatest mistakes of her entire life.

By Anamika Ragu (23A01A)

Raffles Reads is a collaboration between Raffles Press and Times Reads which aims to promote a reading culture among Singaporean students.

Rating: 4/5 

One word: contention.

This is what surrounds any kind of history, especially that of global superpowers. So much of our yesteryears, nebulous and unembellished as they are, seem to exist as interpretive iterations by primary and secondary sources alike as time passes. 

Consequently, it is as if the past dares every curious mind that faces it to deconstruct this ruse of objectivity as it is dug up. It is an arduous, meticulous, and incredible process.