A Peculiar New Book

Good Morning Bloggers!

I hope everybody is having a wonderful start to their winter break. Today is my first real day of break, unless you call a 15 hour car ride an activity that you are willing to do on a day off (Not that I hate car rides or anything). But, since I had 15 hours to just sit there, I read quite a bit. Although it didn't go as I planned because my book that I have been trying to find time to finish decided that it wanted to go back to the library. So right when I got to the most exciting part of the ending, my Nook screen lit up and said, "The lending time for this book is over" and there went Incarceron, sent back to the library.

I came prepared though and I started reading this new book called, Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children. It is a very different kind of book, but I figured I needed to broaden my selections of reading. Another thing about this book is that it looks really creepy. I don't tend to like creepy books, but I figured I shouldn't judge it by its cover. That's not saying I was wrong though.

In fact, this book is a mystery, combing old photographs and text to tell a story. It is very creepy, maybe even beyond creepy. To give you a little more information, this book is about Jacob, a 15 year old who loved his grandfather very much. His grandfather would always tell him stories about his childhood and his adventures in his children's home. He told Jacob that the children came to the home because they were escaping these giant creatures that were trying to kill them and that all the children in the home had extraordinary powers. He even had pictures to prove it.

The Levitating Girl

 

The Boy with Superhuman Strength

 

The Invisible Boy

Though Jacob is too old to believe these silly fantasies, a part of him still believes they are real. One day, when Jacob gets a frantic call from his grandfather, he automatically assumes the worst. And finding his grandfather soaked in blood in the woods makes Jacob wonder if the monsters are real. Using his grandfather's last words, he ventures to the children's home searching for answers.

The photography really enhances the tone of the story, because seeing the photos put the reader on the edge of their seats and makes them wonder about these peculiar children. some of the photos really creep me out, but they really help the reader to imagine themselves in Jacob's shoes. I think this is going to be a peculiar book.

A Need For Freedom

Claudia and Finn are the two main characters in my book (Incarceron). Though they are in two completely different places, they are connected. Finn is a prisoner in the vast prison, Incarceron, whom everybody from The Realm believes in a perfect society. But in reality, Finn lives in horrible conditions and is treated not like a human being, but like an animal. Claudia, on the other hand, lives in The Realm and is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron. She is treated like royalty, and though she has been given only the finest things in life, she feels trapped inside her life. She wants nothing more than to be free.

PAUSE: Now that you have some background information, I just want to make it clear- no, not just clear- CRYSTAL clear- that I am completely in love with these two characters!!! They aren't perfect, because let's face it, if they were perfect, imagining ourselves in their shoes and relating to these characters would be nearly impossible. Now that I think about it, it would make ourselves feel really bad about us as individuals. So that is why I love these characters, and I promise I will try not to get mad or argue about it with you whenever possible. Everybody has their own opinions (whether they are right or wrong), they matter. Alright, back to what I was saying:

What makes them similar is not just that Claudia's father is the Warden of the prison that Finn is living inside, but that Finn and Claudia what nothing else more in the world than freedom. They want to be free from everything that has been holding them back. What I like that the author did was that she made these characters have a common goal, which is freedom, but they are both looking for different types of freedom. Claudia is looking for emotional freedom, so that she can live her life without knowing that she has to rule over The Realm and marry some jerk, Caspar, who she absolutely hates and doesn't even know very well.

PAUSE: About Caspar, to be honest...well, um, yeah he's a jerk. He has the nerve to tell Claudia that as soon as they have the thrown, he basically is going to ignore her the rest of his life...which is probably okay considering Claudia just hates Caspar. I'm trying to find something nice to say about Caspar, but it really isn't working. Let's see...Nope. I just sat here for 5 minutes searching my brain and the book for something nice about Caspar. Do you know what I found? Nothing! I guess the only good thing about him is that he provides more reason for Claudia to want freedom. That's all.

Finn, on the other hand is looking for freedom from something tangible, Incarceron. He doesn't know for sure if there is even a way out, but he wants freedom so badly, that he would jump through hoops to get something that may not even be possible. Incorporating this emotion into the character turns his 'want' of freedom in a need for freedom. I really like the way that Catherine Fisher did this because it isn't forced or awkward (like when I try to develop my characters in my own writing), but it is subtle and flowing.

PAUSE: Catherine Fisher. WOW. I applaud you, though it probably means nothing because I am a freshman in high school, and this is a blog for my English class. I can't believe she does this so well. I promise you, this book is written with a style that is so unique, I can't put the book down. I can;t find the right words to describe it. I will edit later and put in words that sound really good.

All in all, Claudia and Finn are really cool characters. Yes, I know, such a lame adjective. I mean, who ever uses the word cool anymore? So, readers of my blog, I pose you one question that you should answer in the comments. Have you ever seen characters in a book that are similar to Claudia and Finn? If so, I need to know that book, because I'm going to need more reading material for winter break.

Thanks for reading!

Author's Voice

Hello everybody!!! I'm really excited because it is a snow day! The first one in forever (or at least that's what it seems like).

Okay, so like I said in my earlier post, I've reading this book called Incarceron, which is about two characters that are on two separate plot lines, but have a connection. This connection involves a prison that is alive. Incarceron. I don't know about you, but just saying the name of this prison just creeps me out. In my earlier post, I talked about how I really enjoyed the vivid descriptions that the author gave of the setting. The settings (especially Incarceron) sent chills down my back. I hope that one day I will be able to give so much detail in a piece of writing that it makes a person feel chills or different emotions.

Sorry, I'm getting way off track. Where was I?? Oh, yeah, now I remember. The vivid descriptions are not the only thing that I love about this book. I also like the author's voice. By definition, authors voice is "the individual writing style of an author, a combination of...usage of syntax, diction, punctuation, character development, dialogue, etc., within a given body of text (or across several works)"(Wikipedia). I also think that author's voice is unique to the individual, and I think that authors should take full advantage of each of these techniques listed to make them stand out from other authors.

I find that I enjoy writing that is unique to the individual more than writing that is formal and structured. Sure, being formal and structured is good for staying focused and professional, but I don't see anything wrong with using blogger to be more casual when writing about books. We write a lot of formal, structured, and organized pieces in school, and I think it is nice to, for once, be casual and informative at the same time. It's like magic.

So, Catherine Fisher, the author if this book, decides to use a variety of structure, syntax, and diction to create an unique style that I absolutely adore. Her style is similar to Ray Bradbury because she uses syntax to convey a feeling (mood, tone). This enhances the text and involves the reader with the story. Here's an example of what I mean by author's voice, "Cautiously, taking infinite pains to keep the rustle of the leaf-litter down, he tugged the Key from his pocket. It was cold, frosted with cold. His fingers left smeared imprints on it...No lights moved in it. He dared not speak louder...The storm raged. It whined in his teeth and nerves. He closed his eyes and felt despair, that he had imagined all of it, that the girl did not exist..." (Fisher, 117). The short sentences create a tense and anxious feeling, but the longer sentences add detail, and keep the reader aware of what is happening. Bradbury, the author of Fahrenheit 451 also uses syntax to influence his readers, "Montag shook his head. He looked at a blank wall. The girl's face was there, really quite beautiful in memory: astonishing, in fact. She had a very thin face like the dial of a small clock seen faintly in a dark room in the middle of a night when you waken to see the time and see the clock telling you the hour and the minute and the second, with a white silence and a glowing, all certainty and knowing  what it has to tell of the night passing swiftly on toward further darknesses, but moving also towards a new sun." (Bradbury, 8). Bradbury uses the long sentence and metaphor to describe and emphasize the girl's face. He also uses one long (really long) sentence to avoid breaking up the metaphor and the visualization of this metaphor.

I have found that the use of author's voice really helps me stay interested in text. That's probably why some authors are better than others. Authors that are really exceptional tend to have an individual style and a true passion for writing. Think about it, if somebody were to argue a point that they didn't believe, nobody would listen because that said person doesn't have a true belief in that side of the argument. In other words, the lack passion and the voice to make people want to listen.

Another long post, and some of you still don't read all of it. That's okay, I was told that I tend to keep talking unless somebody starts talking over me or stops me from saying another word. But, I still have interest in hearing your opinion on author's voice. I know that I have a very strong opinion about the topic, and I want to figure out if anybody else shares the same opinion.

Have an awesome weekend!

A Title for a Post that I'm not sure how to Name

Good morning everybody! I have completely adjusted to the new schedule (FINALLY!!!) and I hope everybody is enjoying this class (I certainly am).

While I was reading this week, I noticed that my book (in case you don't know or forgot, it is called Incarceron) gives me a lot of information that I have to infer off of to understand how society is set up and how the book is structured. It's fairly similar to the way Ray Bradbury presents a lot of information at one time in Fahrenheit 451. I had to keep rereading passages in both books to make sure that I fully understood what was going on in the book, and I had to pay close attention to the set up for the next event in the book.

Not only did the author of Incarceron include a lot of information in the beginning pages of the book, but she also places quotes at the beginning of each new chapter. These quotes are from books within the book, or the books that the characters in the book have read. These book quotes are not from real books, but made up books that give the story more structure and backgroud information. This is a little confusing-but trust me, it makes total sense if you were to see the layout of the book. For example, this quote begins chapter 14, which is when Claudia learns more details about the prison and the way life is in The Realm (where she lives), "We forbid the growth and therefore decay. Ambition, and therefore despair. Because each is only the warped reflection of the other. Above all, Time is forbidden. From now on nothing will change. -King Endor's Decree" (Fisher, 112). What I think is especially interesting is the fact that Time is capitalized, though it is mid sentence. This happens with other words like escape. It's as if, in the prison and society, the words are not concepts but rather things or names.

And another thing that I really like is that from each chapter there is always one quote that sticks out. This isn't the same as the book quote that begins and sets up each chapter, but it is one or two lines found within the text of the story that burn into your memory and continue to stay there until it is brought up again in a different way. One quote that really stuck in my mind was when Claudia is talking to her future husband, who she absolutely hates, " 'Caspar, listen to yourself! Have you ever thought about what sort of life we'll have together, in that marble mausoleum you call a palace? Living a lie, a pretense, keeping false smiles on our faces, wearing clothes from a time that never existed, posing and preening and aping manners that should only be in books? Have you ever thought about that...Have you never wanted to be free, Caspar? To be able to ride out alone one spring morning  and set off to see the world? To find adventure and someone you can love?' " (Fisher, 113).

I'm not sure if the quote stayed in my mind. Was it because of the character, Claudia, who I absolutely adore? Or was it because of the morals of the statement that are so close to my own? Or is it because it's ironic that she lives outside of a prison, yet she feels just as trapped as a prisoner? I really like this quote and I think the author could be foreshadowing to something Claudia may do to escape her own life. It also has an underlying message about freedom that I'm sure will play a large role in the theme of the book.

Okay, so that sums up this week (WOW I wrote A LOT), and I'm pretty sure some of you gave up and just skipped to the part where I ask a question and you respond in the comments. But for everybody who read the whole post, I give you a pat on the back and a high five. Congratulations! So my question for you is why do you think that Fahrenheit 451 and Incarceron are so similar in the way they are structured? And why and how does an author do this effectively? I think I know the answers to these questions, and hopefully I gave some of my ideas (no matter how faint they may seem) above in my post! Thanks for reading and have a good week!