Post #7: Book 4 Reflection

          In Lucy Christopher's Stolen, kidnapper Ty at first appears to be your typical, real life villain, however, you soon find that there's not much of anything that's typical about him.

         

          Stage 1: Injustice 

          Ty has a background story similar to many other villains. His mom left once he was born and his dad disappeared when he was still a young boy. He was raised on a ranch somewhere in Australia where he fell in love with the land. He tried living on his own and was content living like that until he was taken away to live in an orphanage. He received a letter he believed to be from his mom asking him to come to Britain and find her. After arriving in Britain and searching for him mom, he found Gemma instead. 

         

          Stage 2: Obsession

          Gemma was a young girl when Ty first saw her. He was instantly intrigued by her and followed her around. He followed her when she was with her friends, the whole time never being seen. He became obsessed with her and began watching her family and friends too. He thought it was his job to protect her, even though Gemma had no idea he was even there. As they both got older, Gemma now around seventeen years old, Ty found himself falling in love with her.

          Stage 3: Pride

          Ty develops a plan to kidnap Gemma. He builds them a place to live in the outbacks of Australia and collects supplies that can sustain them for years. Up to this point, it seems that Ty is the perfect villain, until you learn his motive. Ty never plans to hurt Gemma and he never does. After kidnapping her, he works hard to make her comfortable and happy. He tries to explain to her that he did this to help her. Although it's obvious his thinking is slightly insane, Ty really believes he saved Gemma and that he is providing her with a much better life.

          Stage 4: Isolation 

          After kidnapping Gemma, Ty takes her to a secluded Australian desert with no other people in any direction for miles. Ty is obsessed with the idea of being isolated from all other civilization, other than of course Gemma. He spent many years in foster care and being passed from family to family. Being away from other people means he has his freedom and doesn't have to live according to anyone else's rules. 

          Stage 5: Detachment

          Although Ty loves and cares for Gemma, he is blind to what he has done to her. The whole time, Ty feels like the hero, the guy that saved the girl from a life of loneliness and despair. By kidnapping her, he has possibly done the opposite. She no longer has any freedom and has been ripped away from everyone she loves. By kidnapping Gemma and taking away her freedom, he has treated her like she has no worth and turned her into a possession. However, Ty is not like other villains because it's obvious he has no idea that is what he has done. And because he never hurts her or treats her badly, you cannot say that he doesn't value her as a person.

          Stage 6: Wickedness
          In this last stage, typically the villain becomes devil-like and sometimes shows outward physical signs of his or her cruelty. Ty never reaches this stage and actually becomes a sort of hero at the end of the book. When Gemma gets bitten by a snake, Ty knows he has to bring her to a hospital to save her, completely aware of what this means for him. He turns himself in after keeping her alive until they get to the hospital. Gemma sees him as a hero for this, but with time she realizes none of it would have happened if it weren't for him and he is ultimately the villain in her story.

          

Post #10: Reading Wishlist

Nicole's bookshelf: to-read

To All the Boys I've Loved Before

by Jenny Han

tagged: to-read

How It Ends

by Laura Wiess

tagged: to-read

Saving June

by Hannah Harrington

tagged: to-read

My Sister's Keeper

by Jodi Picoult

tagged: to-read

The Lovely Bones

by Alice Sebold

tagged: to-read

The Last Song

by Nicholas Sparks

tagged: to-read

The Giver

by Lois Lowry

tagged: to-read

The Maze Runner

by James Dashner

tagged: to-read

Uglies

by Scott Westerfeld

tagged: to-read

The Host

by Stephenie Meyer

tagged: to-read

Post #9: Book 2 Trailer

Post #8: Book Talk

Post #6: Book 3 Listicle

 

Five reasons why 13 Reasons Why was Cliché and Unrealistic

 

          Jay Asher's 13 Reasons Why is a book about a high school girl who leaves behind a set of tapes after committing suicide. The tapes contain stories she tells about the experiences that led to her decision to end her life. She gives instructions to pass on the tapes to each person she mentions, each person she blames for killing herself. I think the author wanted the reader to see Hannah, the suicidal teenager, as a relatable hero of sorts. A girl who's life was so bad she had no choice but to kill herself and make sure everyone responsible knew why. The book for me was a huge disappointment and I felt the plot was cliché and unrealistic. I was expecting a book about suicide to be a little more insightful and contain more depth, but I found the book to be somewhat immature and dramatic.

         

          Reason 1- The first unrealistic thing about the book is the idea behind the tapes. "Rule number one: You listen. Number two: You pass it on. Hopefully, neither one is easy for you." Hannah states these rules at the beginning of her tapes and goes on to explain how they will be released to everyone if they fail to pass them on. I find it unbelievable that someone would actually leak the tapes of a girl who could do nothing about it. The tapes contain secrets that could really get kids in trouble and maybe that's what they deserve. But most of the people mentioned on the tapes had no idea what they were doing and do not deserve what Hannah is threatening. I know if someone left me the copy of the tapes to release, there's no way I'd be able or willing to do it.

          Reason 2- The source of many of Hannah Baker's troubles came from not one but four different high school parties she chose to attend; chose being the key word. Nothing about theses parties was different from anything you would see on TV or in a movie. "Did I mention we were two and a half blocks away? That's how loud it was. That party was absolutely begging for a police visit." Drinking, loud music, property destruction- textbook high school party. If you've seen one show or movie with this kind of party, well, you've seen them all. And that's exactly how I felt while reading this book. The worst part is, Hannah could have at any time chosen not to attend any of these parties and avoided all the problems that resulted. To me it seemed she was seeking drama and attention.

          Reason 3- The boys. Many of the people mentioned on the tapes are boys who are disrespectful and treat Hannah badly. The boys often tried to do inappropriate things to Hannah, which made her very upset. "For everyone listening,  let me be clear. I did not say no or push his hand away. All I did was turn my head, clench my teeth, and fight back tears. And he saw that. He even told me to relax." Of course this situation would be disturbing to any girl in high school, but Hannah even says she didn't try to stop it. She explained how she went to the party knowing this would happen. I find this so unrealistic. I can't believe that any girl would put themselves in this situation when they didn't want anything to happen. Hannah literally seeks trouble so she can feel bad for herself when bad things happen.

          Reason 4- Along with the tapes, the book is told from the perspective of Clay, a classmate and somewhat of a secret admirer of Hannah's. In my opinion, Clay is a very stereotypical male teenage character. He's the shy boy who has a crush on a pretty, popular girl that never got his chance with her. "Just hearing my name, the pain in my head doubles. I feel an agonizing twist in my heart." Throughout the book he makes comments and expresses his thoughts about what Hannah says on the tapes. The things he says are so cliché and overdramatic, it was hard for me to read without it sounding sarcastic. And of course the only reason he's on the tapes is so she can apologize to him as if there's no one else who ever did anything right in her life. The real people she should be apologizing to are the other people on the tapes who's lives she's ruining.

          Reason 5- A very cliché ending to a very cliché book. After listening to the tapes, Clay returns to school and recognizes that a girl he once knew may be feeling the same way Hannah felt, and by reaching out to her the book hints that he may have saved her life. "A flood of emotion rushes into me. Pain and anger. Sadness and pity. But most surprising of all, hope. . . Two steps behind her; I say her name. 'Skye.'" When I read the last line of the book, the first thing that popped into my head was who the heck is Skye? The book maybe mentions her once in the beginning, but doesn't say much about her. The author couldn't have chosen a more insignificant character to end the story. Of course Clay becomes the hero at the end of the book who saves another girl when he couldn't have saved Hannah. I see what the author was trying to do, but the cliché ending left me disappointed and feeling like I had wasted my time.

          As much as I talked about the negatives of the book, it wasn't completely terrible. I think part of the problem was that I read this book as a 17 year old. I probably would've enjoyed it a lot more if I had read it in middle school. The book just seemed immature and I felt like the author way oversimplified suicide. The idea behind the book, although something that would never happen, was interesting and was the reason I decided to read it. I think it could've been a really good book, but unfortunately it fell short. The characters seemed like they were taken straight from High School Musical and maybe that's why I found the book to be completely unrelatable on every level.

 



Post#5: Non-Fiction

          For a book to be considered non-fiction, I think at least 95% of the book needs to be true. It's okay to change very small details, as long as they don't affect the integrity of the story. When you are classifying a book as non-fiction, you are making the claim that what is written is fact and truth. If the story is over embellished or has too many made-up parts, the line between what is truth and what is not is so blurred that the credibility of the story, in my opinion, is gone. Readers might see that one part is made-up and then may doubt the rest of the book that might actually be truth. I agree with what Seth Greenland said in one of the videos that we need to allow room for forgetfulness and not being able to remember small details that may need to be made-up. In this case you aren't exactly lying, but just filling in the gaps. Making up dialogue is also acceptable because most people aren't going to remember conversations word for word. As long as it is realistic dialogue and a conversation that could actually have happened, then I think it is fine.
          If you're going to write a memoir that is half made-up, then it's no longer a memoir, but rather a work of mostly fiction that is based on events of that person's life. If it is necessary to make-up most of the story in order to write a better book, I think that's fine as long as you are not claiming that it is the truth. Authors who try to pass off a work of fiction as a memoir are very likely to get caught. They are risking their credibility as an author when the story they wrote was probably still very good and could have still been successful had they not lied. When people go to the movies, they expect that what they are seeing is very inaccurate and expect things are changed in order to make a good movie. When people pick up a book labeled as a memoir, they are expecting the truth. When readers find out that the stories they thought were true are actually lies, they may have trouble trusting the authenticity of future books they read. The authors who lie not only affect the readers, but also other authors and their own reputation.
          I think how we label books is very important. Distinguishing between fiction and non-fiction is a big deal to me. I personally want to know if what I'm reading is made-up or not. Whether it is fiction or non-fiction may not change my opinion of the story, but I think it is still important to distinguish fact from fiction. If we did not classify books, it would make it so much easier for authors to lie and not be held responsible. It would make it incredibly hard for anyone to believe a book is actually factual. I think it's fine to have a book that is both fiction and non-fiction, as long as it is stated that some parts are fact and some is fiction.

post #4: Book Adaptation

         In order to create a film adaptation to the book It's Kind of a Funny Story, certain aspects of the book would need to be changed while still staying true to the story. There are some scenes from the book that would have to be kept in the movie because of their importance to the story. The movie would need to include at least an overall summary of everything that happens before he goes to the hospital. Although the main plot of the story comes from Craig being in the hospital, it is important to know the back story and how he ended up there. This would include his acceptance into Executive Pre-Professional High School, where his problems began. The stress of the school plays a major part in his depression. Before entering the hospital, they should also show at least a little of the partying he did with Aaron as well as make known his feelings towards Aaron's girlfriend, Nia. Craig's phone call with Nia and the suicide hotline should be included because they lead to him going to the hospital. Another scene that should be included in the movie is the part in the book where Craig rekindles his love of map drawing. It is a huge part of his recovery and is what really turns him around. At the end of the book, it leads to him making the decision to switch high schools and pursue art. I feel like the maps are kind of the center of the book, and leaving them out would completely redirect the focus of the story. A third scene that I believe the movie must include is when Muqtada thanks Craig for helping him get better. It seems like an insignificant part of the book, but it shows the impact that Craig had on other people in the hospital and shows how Craig is not the only character to make any progress. Throughout the book, Craig lures his roommate, Muqtada, out of his bed that he never leaves because he is so depressed. Muqtada expresses his gratitude towards Craig and I think it's just a touching moment.
          There are parts of the book that aren't imperative in telling the story. Ronny is a minor character who I feel would be better left out of the movie. He is one of Aaron's friends that parties with them and is only interested in getting high or drunk. He doesn't contribute much to the story except for being a bad influence on Craig. There are already enough characters to keep track of in the story. Taking Ronny out would just help to keep the focus of the movie clear and easy to follow. Another scene from the book that I think could be left out or shortened would be Craig's arriving to the hospital. This part of the book seemed to drag on for me. Craig arrives at the hospital and has to wait to see someone and then waits around more while random doctors come in and check on him. I think shortening this and maybe just including the part where he is told he will have to stay in the adult psychiatric facility will allow for more important scenes to be shown while still providing the important information from this part of the book.