Blonde Roots 2

So, I eventually did continue reading "Blonde Roots" by Bernardine Evaristo. My big issue with the book was that I lost my favored narrator and I didn't want to keep reading. It's really hard to read something that you feel repelled from, but I had enjoyed the first half of the book and I thought that reading the second half of it was definitely worth it. As it turns out, Doris comes back as a narrator and you see a lot of the remaining story through her eyes. In books like this it's interesting how some characters grow on you more than others. In this book the main character is a woman named Doris. She is a slave and when she tries to escape, and is caught, her owner punishes her by having her work in a cane field. She was used to working as a maid in the house and was not prepared at all for the harsh and dangerous work of the cane field. She stays with another cane field worker named Ye Meme. I really like the perspective of Doris because she manages to include a lot of her opinion but also a lot of what is really going on. Until I met Ye Meme, Doris was my favorite character. But then I began to like her less and less and began to like Ye Meme more and more.

Ye Meme is a strong, brave, "Big-boned, sloe-eyed Viking beauty". She is a very motherly character and always protects Doris when they get into trouble. Ye Meme has her own children which, I think, really shows off how caring and nurturing she is. Ye Meme was not afraid of the men who everyone else feared. She states how little boys like them can't tell a big woman like her what to do. She is "taller and broader" than most of the men there. She is kind and generous, no one forces her to take Doris on as a house guest but she does anyway, along with being a single, hardworking, mother of five. Ye Meme had lived at the cane fields for most of her life and had accepted it as life. She was strong and could handle the hard work, and she had to much to lose if she tried to escape. Ye Meme is altogether a person that you would wanton your side. She is a character that the more you hear about her, the more you like and respect her.

Doris, on the other hand, has gone down in my opinion. I understand that she suffered a lot after being caught, but now the only thing she ever talks about is escaping and other people that have escaped and how to escape and so on. It's hard to like a character who cares about no body but herself. I think Doris doesn't completely realize that she's putting people in danger, but she is and she really has to stop to consider that. She is now being completely driven by the idea that she can go home and be reunited with her family. The truth is that her family was captured shortly after her, but she doesn't know that. While Bwana is narrating you find out that her sister- Sharon- was captured by Bwana as well and he kept her as a personal slave on the island that Doris is now staying on. It's funny to hear Doris talk about Iffianchukwana (Sharon's slave name) with such hatred, not knowing that its her own sister, having never met her in person. I think this teaches a little lesson about Judging people when you don't really know them or what they've been through. Getting back on topic, It can be really hard to like someone who seems to be completely oblivious to those around them and not notice or even care about the pain they're causing.

To sum up, sometimes characters change, for better or worse and you might find yourself thinking differently about them. And sometimes new characters are introduced and you have a different view of them than you might have if they were introduced at the beginning of a book. When reading a book, you're opinion can change a lot since you began. My opinion of Doris has changed a lot since I started this book. Sometimes you find yourself really liking a certain character. Other times you may find yourself really disliking a certain character. But the truth is that you don't know whats going to change from the beginning to the end. So really all you can do is keep reading.

Blonde Roots

I just hit the halfway mark in this really interesting book called "Blonde Roots" by Bernardine Evaristo. It's a really thoughtful book and I really enjoyed reading it up to this point, the problem is that I don't want to keep reading now. The book is a reverse reality, historical fiction book where instead of having black people be enslaved by white people the "Whyte people were enslaved by Blak people" those are not typos, some of the language in the book is different and I believe that is supposed to represent the different language that the Ambossans used. Ambossans are the group that kept the white people as slaves. The book is really interesting to read because it poses a lot of what ifs that you usually wouldn't even consider. The first half of the book is in the perspective of a young, "whyte", slave, woman who is finally getting her chance to escape and be free. Doris is a character who you pity and feel bad for and overall get attached to. So when in the middle of the book the perspective switches to her evil slave owner Bwana, I didn't want to read on. I really did like this book so I'm going to try to figure out why I push away from this book so much.

First of all, I definitely got attached to Doris and I didn't want a new narrator. The thing about Doris was that even though she lived in a world very different from ours now she still was easy to relate to. Her real name is Doris but her slave name is Omorenomwara, she was captured as a child and taken to be a slave for one family until tragedy moved her to another one. For part of the book she talks about her childhood before slavery. She talks about what her family was like and about the sibling rivalry that she had with her three sisters. I have a little sibling so it was easy for me to listen to her stories of childhood competition. It also broke my heart when she talked about wondering where they were and being worried that they might have a life as bad as hers or that they might even be dead. As you learn more about Doris you like her more and pity her more and just want to hear more. So I reacted badly when her narration ends even though there was so much more that I wanted to hear about.

Then on top of losing the narrator that I loved, The replacement was one that I hated. Bwana is Doris's owner, he has a lot of slaves and this book favors the slaves. Slave owners are portrayed as almost monsters, not all Ambossans are bad - some help the slaves escape by means of the underground railroad. But Bwana is not good, he's not even a normal slave owner he publishes things that are pro-slavery and Doris refers to him as a "retired decent human being". So I started off the book already not liking him because of who he is and what he does. So introducing him into the book as narrator right after he recaptures Doris and forces her away from her freedom is not a great way to start off in my opinion.

So all in all, the reason I really don't want to keep reading is because its hard to hear things from people you hate. I don't want to hear his side of the story, I want him to fall off the edge of a cliff! But I have decided to try and keep reading to see if Bwana has anything to redeem himself with. I have liked the book so far and it is the same author writing it so it should have the same talent of writing. This is a really interesting book and I did really like the first half of it so I would definitely recommend it to others. In the meantime I will keep reading and hope something really terrible befalls my new narrator.

Handle With Care

The book "Handle with Care" by Jodi Picoult is about the family of a girl with OI. OI is a medical condition called Osteogenesis Imperfecta; it is when someone has really weak brittle bones that break extremely easily. The girl in the book who has OI is named Willow; she lives with her mother, father, and older sister. In the book Willow's parents are planning to sue the hospital for wrongful birth- this is a lawsuit that states if the parents had known about their child's condition in advance they would have terminated the pregnancy, gotten an abortion. The parents are saying that there were signs of Willow's OI long before they were actually warned and the doctors should have noticed it. The obvious issues in the book are Willow's medical condition and having incorrect malpractice lawsuits. But there's also slightly less prominent issues like five year old Willow's fear that her mother doesn't want her anymore and her almost constant worrying that she had done something wrong. There's also the older sister who is ignored because of all the attention Willow gets, her parents pay so little attention to her that she is able to become bulimic and begins cutting herself without them even noticing. There is the issue of divorce splitting up a family when Willow's parents can't agree on the lawsuit. There are a bunch of little issues that really stand out in this book and big ones that sometimes you barely notice.

Willow is five years old and has broken bones 52 times by the time the book starts, she has broken even more by the end. One thing that often goes along with OI is the child being abnormally smart. So Willow is a three foot tall little genius who is just an absolutely lovable character from the start. The only thing wrong with her is this condition which she will never be able to get rid of. When her mother files for wrongful birth Willow is obviously upset, her mother is only doing this because she could get a lot of desperately needed money from the lawsuit that would help pay for all of Willow's medical issues and hospital bills and so on. Her mother is only saying she never would have wanted her because she loves her. But something like that is hard for a five year old to understand, even a super smart five year old. So Willow becomes convinced that she has done something wrong to make her mother not want her anymore. Willow becomes desperate to not be "gotten rid of" which is what she believes her parents want to do. Can you imagine a five year old thinking that their own mother doesn't want them? It's just too sad.

Willow's older sister is a teenager who doesn't view herself in such a high manner to start with. Then on top of that everybody has always loved her little sister more than her, even her parents it seems. When her mother starts a lawsuit suing her best friend’s mother you can imagine that things did not go so well between them. She lost her best friend who was the only person she really had at the time. She saw herself as fat and was guilty about it she didn't feel like she deserved to "be full" when she felt so empty inside. And so she began throwing up, it started as a habit and then became a consistent thing that she did a lot. But she didn't stop eating all together- so she didn't lose a lot of weight and no one really noticed. Her parents didn't even put together what was going on when they had to hire a plumber because some unknown acid (her vomit) was damaging the pipes. Then on top of this she began cutting herself- in her mind it was the one thing that she could control. Her life was so messed up what with parents getting divorced a crippled sister and a mother who was suing a hospital because she apparently didn't want the baby that she had five years ago. And so she began a descent into depression, hatred of herself, and wanting to hurt herself simply to feel power. That’s a pretty serious issue that sadly happens all the time.

Willow's parents weren't on the same side when it came to the lawsuit. The mother saw the opportunity that the reward gave them whereas the father saw how much it would hurt Willow. The truth is that they were both doing what they thought would be best for Willow. When he realized the mother was not going to step down on this, Willow's father decided to be a witness for the opposing side. He stated how much he loved Willow and how he would never have wanted to get rid of her no matter what. Willow's mother wanted this lawsuit simply because the money would make her life so much easier. With this extra money they could get her high quality wheelchairs that actually fit her every time she grew out of one, they could get her the special foam memory mattresses that would help her sleep at night, they could pay for all of her medical bills without having to live in poverty. To do this she was willing to lie in court and say that she never would have had Willow- had she known what her problem would be. She was willing to hurt her daughter because she believed it would help her in the long run. When the father and mother realized that they couldn't live together anymore the father asked for a divorce. What he didn't realize was that this would simply tear the family apart even more.

All in all there are a lot of complex issues in this book some more obvious than others. There's the terrified five year old afraid that her family doesn't want her anymore, afraid that the one thing she can't help is actually something she is to blame for. There is a teenager who is emotionally neglected and is so lost in the world that the only way she thinks she can get by is by hurting herself to gain control and because she believes that she deserves it. There are parents who unintentionally tear an already fragile family to pieces and everything they do is out of good intentions. In books that are this complicated there are a lot of little, each in their own way serious, issues throughout the book. This is a great book I'm sure a lot of you would really love it.

Change of Heart

I am now halfway through the novel "Change of Heart" by Jodi Picoult. The book is about a murderer named Shay Bourne, Shay was given a death sentence by court and he has been awaiting his sentence for eleven years. He was moved to a new part of the jail at the beginning of the story, this part is 1-tier (a place for the worst of the worst criminals) Shay is coming off as an almost Jesus like figure because miracles occur while he's there. It's really hard for me as the reader to accept this character because I can't bring myself to forgive him for murdering a seven year old girl and her father. This is the first book I've read where a guilty murderer has been portrayed as a "good guy" in a story.I think this a really hard topic to write on for three reasons: you have to get the reader to forgive the main character for the story to continue; the main character has never actually narrated in this story so far; the reader has so far heard nothing that would make them want to forgive the main character.

If you are someone like me- who can get so caught up in books that I'll cry if a character I'd grown attached to dies, flinch if something surprising happens, or laugh out loud if something really funny happens. Then you'll know that forgiveness is hard in real life and books. It's hard to forgive a character that murders a seven year old girl for apparently no reason and then her father. It's hard to forgive a crime that severe that seemed to be done for no purpose, especially when that family, the one he destroyed, had only been kind to him. There were pictures described at the beginning of the book that were of the girl and her father after they had been shot, there was evidence all around that Shay Bourne was guilty of killing these two innocent people. Hearing all of this at the beginning makes you develop an opinion for the character, and considering what you hear about its not a very good one. It can be hard to forgive one who is so obviously guilty.

Shay Bourne has never narrated. There has been lawyers, attorneys, the mother/wife of the victims, another imprisoned murderer, a nurse, but never not even once has Shay Bourne spoken for himself. The story is centered around a mystery man, the man behind the curtain, the one you hear about but never know exactly what is going on in his head. Most great stories include being able to connect with the main character, this is a great story but it doesn't really offer that. Shay is such a drastic character- he murders a little girl and then refuses to kill a fly and somehow brings a dead bird back to life. He murders two innocent people and then decides to donate his heart to the little sister of the girl he killed. After a while you just have to admit that you truly have no idea who Shay is and what he might do next.

The only reason Shay offers as to why he killed them was "She's better off dead". This was in reference to the little girl he killed, the seven year old, smart, beautiful, healthy, little girl who's life he ended. It is so difficult to understand this guys reasoning- he offers barely any explanation as to why he decided to kill but he never says anything about not being guilty. It's so confusing! you start to finally like the character and assume that there was a mistake and he's not so bad after all, and the he says something like "she's better off dead". It throws you off you're just left there hanging with you're hopes crushed and you realize that you have absolutely no idea who this guy is and why he did such a terrible thing.

A book where you have to work hard to imagine the main character not being guilty is a hard book to read. Jodi Picoult in general is great at writing books with a suspense like storyline. I'm still holding on to the idea that the crime was not entirely his fault. I'm still hoping that he'll say something unsuspected that reveals the true murderer. I'm still thinking that they're all wrong and there was a mistake. I'm still wishing that this guy wont die. Because, yeah he did something terrible, but he eventually begins to grow on you, you finally begin hoping that he'll be okay. Because I finally realized that a good book is not only those that make connect, but those that, in the end, can give you hope

Lone Wolf

"Lone Wolf" by Jodi Picoult is by far one of the best books I have ever read. I love Jodi Picoult's writing in general because she gets this aspect of suspense in every book. I usually tend to go for the complicated plot, multiple perspective/ narrator kind of book and this has it all. The book is from the perspective of Edward (the son), Cara (the daughter), Georgie (the ex-wife/mother), Joe (husband of Georgie), and Luke (the father/ex-husband). The story is about Luke, he is in the hospital after having been in a car accident with his daughter, Cara. Luke has serious brain damage and the family is trying to decide whether to let him go or keep him on life support. Edward thinks that they should let him go and Cara doesn't. It ends up as an entire court case over who can be Luke's legal guardian. I really just love this multiple narration and I really want to try it sometime, I'm going to try to explain how Jodi Picoult made it work. I'm really sorry if this blog post gets a little complicated, but I'll do my best.

First on Luke's parts of the story. The parts of the story that Luke tells are usually flashbacks- moments from his childhood or from when he was a young adult. there are a couple more recent ones but they are never about the complete present. Luke is currently brain dead so he can't talk about whats going on right "now". Luke is the "Wolf Man" he spent two years living in the wild with a pack of wolves that he got to accept him. I love the parts of the stories when he's talking about being with the wolves because it's such an amazing thing to think about. It just really gets your imagination going. It was really smart of the author to use this character for flashbacks because it's convenient and it makes sense. When things are going on in the present that requires too much background information then the author just puts in a chapter about what they were discussing.

For the chapters where either Georgie or Joe are narrating its great to get an extra perspective. Georgie is the mother figure so you can really get into the characters head and understand the instincts that make her support one of her children in court instead of the other. I'm pretty sure there's a lot of people out there that would love to know whats going on in their parents head and these parts of the story gives you a good idea. I haven't read many books that include a desperate mother having to choose between her children. So its really interesting to hear about it. I think one of the really great things about Georgie is that she's really unlike anyone else in the book.

For Joe's chapters the authors vast knowledge of law finally makes its appearance. One of the great things about Jodi Picoult is that she can incorporate this really interesting perspective about  court. Joe is a lawyer and he is defending Edward in court. Here the author is able to explain terms and how requirements work and certain sentences and trials and all of that criminal justice info. You might think that it would be super confusing to read but it really isn't. The court scenes add a specific urgency to the story. There are parts where its so realistic that you feel you're actually in the court room and you can hear the constant "Objection!"

I'm going to put the purposes of Edward and Cara's sections together. In any good multiple narration story you have to have the two people that are on different sides. I think that's what makes it the most interesting, getting to hear both people's side to a story. I think a great example of this is a scene where Cara see's Edward's action as cruel and evil and Edward views them as merciful and right. The best part is that you can agree on both sides - yeah it did seem heartless but it was really done out of love.

In conclusion, multiple narration is part of what made this a great book. I've learned how Jodi Picoult succeeded at multiple narration. For one, use the character to its full extent. If it's a person who's a genius than have them explain some amazing stuff. If its a person with a very strong belief then explain that belief and why they have it. Also, try to get some of the narrators on opposite sides of something because it can make it really interesting. Lastly, make sure that the characters are all very different and unique so that their perspective on something can be special and not already stated. Loved this book, love this author, if you like complicated plots then definitely try this book.

13 Reasons Why

I just finished reading "13 Reasons Why" by Jay Asher.  The main character of this book was Clay. Clay is this really sweet guy who liked a girl named Hannah Baker. In the beginning of the story you find out that Hannah has killed herself, but no one knows why. Then a couple weeks after her suicide Clay receives a box of 7 cassette tapes and on these Hannah explains why she killed herself and lists every person who had something to do with it. Clay doesn’t know what he did to hurt her so he’s really worried about listening to the tapes. I think the resolution of this story would be Clay finding his closure about Hannah’s death.

When Clay finds out that you only get the tapes if you had something to do with her death he gets really upset. I think that it would be terrible to get an audio suicide note from someone who you were close to. I felt so bad for Clay because he has to get through all of this pain of listening to how people hurt Hannah.  The tapes really traumatize him because he was so close to Hannah. Can you imagine listening to how people hurt someone you cared about? I think I would go crazy. Especially that you’re hearing about it after you can’t do anything to help the person.

Clay originally couldn’t get any closure because he never had a chance to say goodbye to her. He had kissed her at a party and then she got really upset and wouldn’t explain to him why. He had wanted to stay and help her but she told him to leave and he did. He felt guilty for leaving because he thought he should’ve stayed and helped her. I think that if he had stayed maybe she would’ve been able to calm down and not go to such extreme measures as killing herself, but really it wasn’t his fault.  She had told him to leave and if he didn’t listen to her, even if he was trying to help, it might have pushed her over the edge even sooner.  That’s why Clay needed the original closure.

When Clay first began listening to the tapes he was trying to figure out if it was a joke or some kind of mistake.  He doesn’t know why he’s on the tapes.  The stress of listening to the tapes and waiting for his part to come up is really stressing him out. Hannah says in the beginning of the tapes “And you lucky number 13, you can take the tapes straight to hell.” Clay gets more and more stressed as the tapes go on because he’s hearing about these terrible things and he’s worried that he might be number 13. Between these two things he’s getting more and more confused and scared.

Throughout the story Clay is getting more and more upset as he hears what Hannah has been through. By the end he is a nervous wreck. Clay originally needed help to let go of Hannah and stop thinking about her suicide. Even though the tapes hurt him they overall help him understand why she did it and it helped him realize that he wasn’t to blame. I think that in the story the tapes are what help him find closure but throughout the story it seems as if they are what’s bothering him in the first place. I can’t even imagine how a person like Clay would feel if they had to hear something like this. But it’s nice to know that its helps them in the end.

Am I Blue?

I think that the conflict in "Am I Blue?" by Bruce Coville is mainly person vs society issue.The main character/narrator, Vincent(or Vince), is trying to figure out whether he is gay or not. He is constantly bullied and tormented for being a homosexual. The story goes into the issues of gaybashing and how people don't realize how many gay people there are in the world. One small theme in the story is revealing how full of gay people the world really is. Its a fictitious story and so they accomplish this feat by turning every gay person "coast to coast" blue.

I think that Bruce Coville has a great imagination and really uses it throughout the piece- everyone who is gay is blue and there are different shades of blue. Some people (like Vince) are only slightly blue while others are "as blue as a summer sky". I think that using this imaginative idea really helps the reader grasp the concept of the story without feeling that the moral is forced on to them. I think the story helps people realize that the society hating gays is wrong because its just who they are.

In the story Vince meets his fairy godfather, Melvin for the first time. Melvin is a man who was killed by gaybashers and when in heaven decided to become a fairy godfather. Vince is skeptical when he first meets Melvin but when he realizes that he really is magic he starts to listen to what he has to say.With Melvin's help he ends up wishing for the third of "The Great Gay Fantasies". The third fantasy is that every gay person in the country would turn blue for a day. The point of this would be so that all of the gay people who were "In hiding" could finally come out. and it would also force "all the straights in the world stop imagining that they didn't know any gay people." in other words everyone would realize that normal people could be gay. I think its great that people are writing about this because it is a real world issue even though some people do not want to acknowledge it. I don't personally know any homophobes but I know that they're out there.

On that subject a detail in the story was that a "Hypocritical" congressman who "Happened to be a notorious republican homophobe" was gay. As was Vince's main bully- Butch Carrigan- who repeatedly beat up Vince for being gay. I think its sad that people would do that but its probably out of fear- that its wrong and that they don't understand why they feel that way. But maybe if the people who didn't like gays realized that they can be normal people too than maybe they wouldn't hate them as much. I think if a person who hated gays because they thought that being gay was wrong or too different realized that their best friend of ten years has been secretly gay the whole time maybe he or she would realize that normal people can be gay, and also people that you could be friends with for ten years.

Vince doesn't completely know whether or not he himself is gay but he is beat up and called "Faggot, Fruit, and Fairy" anyway. This gives him a personal knowledge of  how terrible gaybashing is. I think that gaybashing is just terrible and serious and that people have no reason to do it. I think that if you have a problem with someone it has to be a real issue that you have with them not just that they're gay or lesbian or not. I know lots of gay and lesbian couples and I think that they are all amazing, interesting people who have just as much personality as everyone else. They're normal respectable people and i just wish that everyone would understand that.

I really liked this story, it was full of creativity, imagination, and truth. The world is full of amazing, normal, great, gay people and if it takes turning everyone who is gay blue for people to accept it than I hope someday something like that will happen. Bring on "Blueday".

Drummer Boy of Shiloh

“The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” by Ray Bradbury is focused mainly on Joby, the drummer boy, and how he is feeling. In the story he is encouraged by the General who gives him confidence and the will to try. In the beginning of the story Joby is scared and worried; I think that these feelings are strongly represented by the ongoing theme of darkness.

The setting of the story is midnight and there are constant references to "Night, at midnight, the solemn night". In most stories midnight is usually thought of as the dark spooky time when bad things happen. In most fairy tales and similar children's stories the problems start when the clock strikes midnight. I think that using midnight is a simple and efficient way of representing fear.

One of the most commonly known fears, especially for children is the fear of the dark. Most of the fears that little kids have -something in the closet, monster under the bed, dark thunder clouds- consist of a dark thing or place. Storm clouds scare some little kids because they're big and dark. The closet is dark and you cant see whats inside, same with the underneath of the bed. there are too many shadows to see clearly. If you stop and think about it most of the things you would have been afraid of as a little kid connect to the fear of the dark.

One line in the story is "The boy felt his family move yet farther off into the dark". I think this shows Joby's fear of never being able to see his family again. I think in this case the dark represents a place you are unable to reach. It's really sad if you think about this poor boy, who's only fourteen, never being able to see his family again. I think this would connect with the idea that dark represents death because he would be moving closer and closer towards dying and that would prevent him from ever seeing his family again.

"Shadows, blind, unable to see" were some other terms that Ray Bradbury used. Joby is obviously nervous and scared in the beginning of the story. I think the author really draws out the dark as being something that Joby can't see through or get through. I think this is also shown with other characters. For example- at one point the general seems as though he wants "to strike fire to them (a pile of twigs and leaves) to see his way through the coming days." In this the darkness represents how lost they are and how even their leader might need help to see his way.

In contrast to the dark I think light would represent good things and happiness. "The sun might not show because of whats happening here and just beyond." When thinking of light representing the good, the sun not shining would mean no good and no happiness until the battle ends. In this part of the story the general is describing how wrong the war is. This would have the darkness represent the wrongness of the war. The idea of the sun not coming up just gives you the most horrific image of the coming battle.

Throughout the story the dark is used to represent fear, death, blindness, an unreachable place, and overall terrible things. I think Ray Bradbury really took all he could from that one little midnight.

The Lightning Thief

       This summer I reread Rick Riordan's "The Lightning Thief". I had read it previously and I didn't remember it that well. Rereading it was a little odd because I would sometimes recognize a detail like the name of a hotel and know what was going to happen. Then at other times I would be completely caught off guard by something else. When rereading it I noticed some details about the character that I hadn't noticed before. For example- the way he thought of characters like Clarisse, Mrs.Dodds, Gabe, and Ares- all characters who try to hinder him in some way. He seemed to blame his father for many of his problems, something I didn't pay much attention to before. The more I read the book the less I liked Percy, the main character. On my second time around I noticed how cruel he sometimes was and how selfish and ignorant the character could be. Overall I still enjoyed reading "The Lightning Thief" for a second time.