Lessons and Craft of Stay

            I just finished the book Stay by Deb Caletti. It was a pretty interesting book. I think there were two main lessons in the book. Before I talk about the lessons I want to mention how the author wrote this book. It was about Clara’s life only. The first chapter was the past and how she met Christian. The second was the present and how she was getting away from him. Both of these stories continued alternating by each chapter. At the end they merged into one story which was the present. It was cool how the author did this and managed to pull it off. Sometimes it was a bit confusing. At one part I was like wait, what happened before this in the chapter about her past? Overall I thought it was a good book.

                The first lesson I thought that the author wanted to teach was be careful about who you trust. A lot of books are about this and it’s a big thing. Trusting the wrong person can lead to many other problems that you might not even imagine happening to you. It was just like how Clara trusted Christian in the beginning. Towards the end of her relationship, she just wanted to get away from him and couldn’t. It was like she couldn’t be free.

                The second lesson was to improve on your mistakes. Clara went through this in the book. Christian didn’t like her to joke with others and she listened to him but only at the very beginning of their relationship. Later, when Clara went out with Finn, she was careful not to joke around with his friends at first. When she noticed Finn didn’t really care whether she joked around or not she understood that he was the right one. This might be a different kind of example but there are many other situations that you can improve you mistakes in. 

Gossip Girl Format

          In the novel Gossip Girl by Cecily Von Ziegesar was actually a pretty good book. I thought that this book wouldn’t be that good because I’m not that interested in these types of books but I enjoyed it. It was a different type of book in two ways: what it was about and how it was written. The one that puzzled me was the way the book was written. I don’t mean how the text was laid out but how she wrote the stuff she wanted to say. This is probably sort of confusing to say.

          Usually, in most of the books I’ve read, authors say “she thought…” Instead in this book the author didn’t even write she thought or he thought. She just wrote what they thought and left it for you to guess who was thinking it. Sometimes in the book it was easy to figure out because of what they thought. In other places, I had to re-read that line a couple of times to figure out who’s thinking. It’s really awkward the way I have to phrase all of this to describe what I mean.

          I think that the author didn’t really want to get so formal. I think you’ll understand if you read the book. Other than that I thought the book was pretty good. I would recommend to girls not boys. It’s sort of like a girly book if I am thinking right. J

Response on "Burned"

I just finished the really interesting book Burned by Ellen Hopkins. This was a really good book. Some times it did get a little boring but that was in very few parts through out the book. I would recommend this book to anyone. The way the author writes this book is amazing. The main character Pattyn has many problems but you could summarize this into one big problem. I don’t want to give it away to those who want to read this book but there are many stages in this book with different problems.

At first Pattyn trusts the wrong person. She trusts Derek and thinks that he actually loved her but he was just using her. This led to another problem. She started to misbehave with her parents. After Derek left her when her dad found out she started yelling at her parents and behaving very badly in school. Being with Derek affected her a lot. She didn’t care about being good anymore she reacted like she wanted to.

When she moved to her aunt’s house she found Ethan who actually loved her and showed her how the world was like. She discovered the world outside of her father’s harsh rules. She lived the way she wanted and actually controlled herself. In the end her father and community ruined her life but I won’t give that away. It was a really good book and I think girls should read because I think that it teaches a really good lesson. It shows you that you shouldn’t really trust everyone.

Reading Response on "Peeps"

            In the fantastic novel Peeps by Scott Westerfeld Cal is the main character. Cal is a peep or otherwise known as a vampire. He searches for other peeps and tries to cure them. Now he’s trying to find his creator who he knows is named Morgan. While he’s searching for his Morgan he meets this girl named Lace who lives in the same building that Morgan used to live in. Cal starts to have a closer relationship with Lace and gets more information about Morgan. The author writes the book in an unusual way that I haven’t seen before.

            The author writes one chapter continuing on with the story then after that chapter includes a chapter with just facts that sort of relate to the previous chapter. One part is when in one chapter Cal is looking for bodily fluids in the apartment that Morgan used to live in. Then the next chapter is about how we transformed from hair keeping us warm to clothes keeping us warm. I didn’t really get that part because I thought that bodily fluids came from inside you and hair is on the outside. That’s how I mean it’s an unusual way.

            That’s how it’s an unusual way of writing a novel. It sort of makes sense to include facts because this book does have to do a little bit with science but I don’t really think the author had to include facts every other chapter. I felt like it was a bit too much.

I wonder if any other author has used this technique in their writing. If they have what facts did they put in their book? Were the facts even related to the topic?

Reading Response on "The Pact"

          The suspenseful book The Pact by Jodi Picoult the main characters are Emily Gold and Christopher Harte. Both of them grew up together because they were neighbors and both of their parents were really good friends. Christopher was only a few months older that Emily. When Emily was thirteen, Christopher and her relationship evolved into something more that just friends. Right before both of them were going to apply to college Emily got pregnant but she didn't tell Christopher. She thought that this baby would get in the way of her dreams and Emily was the kind of person who wanted to have everything perfect. When she figured out that the baby would not let her be perfect and make her not go to college, she started to have suicidal thoughts. She knew that if she told Christopher he would want to marry her but she still wanted to go to college. Then she told Christopher that she didn’t want to live and he didn’t take it seriously at first but then he kept on trying to convince her to change her mind. At the end he left her to kill herself but he never heard the gunshot and then to keep her happy she told him to help her do it. Christopher gets charged of murdering Emily and most people think that that’s the truth but it’s not. Prior to this blame Emily’s and Christopher’s parents’ friendship breaks.  The author tells this whole story by telling one part from the present and then one part from the past. The way she does this makes the story even more fascinating.

            Jodi Picoult starts from the time that Emily dies than starts from their. After one chapter she includes a chapter from when Emily and Christopher were born. She went on like that throughout the entire book. Some of the chapters from the past were relevant to what was happening in the present. Along with that she kept on changing the perspective. This let you guess what was going to happen at the end and made the story even more suspenseful. All of this suspense was only because of the way Jodi Picoult wrote the book.

            That’s why this book was so interesting. The way the author wrote the book made you not want to stop reading. I wonder what path the author would’ve taken if she made Emily not die? Would she write the book in a whole different way?

            

Response on "House Rules"

         The astonishing novel House Rules by Jodi Picoult is about how one autistic boy, Jacob, goes through his life and how the people around him do too.  At age 18 Jacob gets convicted of murdering his tutor Jess Ogilvy. He doesn’t tell the truth to anyone because he thinks it could lead someone close to him to get into trouble and he probably doesn’t want that. He copes with everything but he doesn’t tell the truth but he avoids the truth. The way the author crafts the novel the story has a greater meaning and plot.

           The author separates the chapters into people with different perspectives of the whole stories. Those characters tell the story from their perspective and their emotions. Some secrets about the case are revealed throughout the story throughout the perspectives of many people. At the end the truth comes out to be nothing to do with murder and Jacob isn’t convicted guilty and neither is anyone close to him.

            The story tells you about the experiences of the people around Jacob throughout the whole novel. The author crafts it in such a way that the truth won’t be revealed through the same person who is trying to hide the false truth. It comes out of the person who is trying to hide evidence of being involved in the case.