Prodigy

Build of Suspense
Wow!  Plenty of sequels fall short or don't add much, but Prodigy by Marie Lu is not one of them.  It is one of the rare sequels that adds depth and distinction to the original plot, and pulls further into the character's innermost thoughts and gives you the opportunity to see their true character.  Allegiances lie in different places than originally expected and new characters are revealed to be untruthful and power-hungry, giving the original protagonists of June and Day new obstacles to overcome as their power together strengthens.
This strong build of suspense as they uncover the horrid truth behind a plot to kill the new Elector and must run to save his life and rescue the country from the true dictator is heightened as June becomes sick on the journey and must spend time in the hospital.  This chips away at the precious few days they have to rescue the Elector and get the word out before the man who plots to kill him and take over the Republic does so.
The build was very effective throughout because of this and forced me to keep reading the book for hours until I finally read the last word.  Even the ending is a cliff hanger and sets the stage well for the soon-to-come final book in the trilogy, Champion.

1984

 The most interesting thing about the novel 1984 so far is the setting.  The novel was written in the late 1940's.  The author, George Orwell, set the story in what he imagines London to look like in 1984, based on the advances of his own time and what he feels society is coming to.  A line that continually comes up in the story is, "Big Brother is watching you."  Big Brother is the total dictator that rules over England, called Oceania in the book, and it shows George Orwell's view of how the world is rapidly becoming full of Communism.  This fits with the actual time period of the late 1940's, only a few years since the end of WWII and more specifically, Hitler's ruler over Germany as a dictator.  In this setting, a person can be killed for showing any opposition at all to the Big Brother, who watches you at all times, even when you are sleeping or bathing.  Executions are a form of public entertainment, and as soon as a person is executed all records are wiped clean of their existence.  People are not allowed to speak of them again under penalty of death, and the public is forced to believe they never existed.  A quote I thought had good imagery was "The Ministry of Truth... was startlingly different from any other object in sight.  It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace, after terracing, three hundred meters into the air.  From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the party:

War is Peace

Freedom is Slavery

Ignorance is Strength."

 This quote shows the starkness of the building well, and puts a good visual of what it must look like in your head, along with the inference that it must be important, and the slogan demonstrates how oppressive the world is in the story's setting. 

 What if you lived in a world like this one?  What would you do, and how would your life be different?

 



The Hypnotist

<p> The main charcter in the novel The Hypnotist is Jax.  Jax is a boy who has the ability to hynotize people into doing whatever he wishes, and he could either use it for good, like changing the mind of someone about to commit suicide, or for bad, like manipulating important government figures to do what he wants, as Jax's hypnotist mentor is trying to do.  This reflects Jax's worst quality- he is too trusting.  His teacher insists his full belief is to use the power for good and not just use it for selfish reasons, and Jax just believes him, even when evidence against that is presented.  He chooses to wrongly trust his mentor, and almost enables him to get away with manipulating the future U.S. President. This is the opposite of one of my worst qualities- unlike Jax, I'm not trusting enough.  Istead of accepting every new person I meet and believing everything like he does, I tend to stay wary of people for a longer time until I know for sure that they're who they seem to be or say they are.  This also causes me to miss big details, because I can't get close enough to people to see what's really happening if it turns out to be something that could harm people, and if a situation like that ever came up, I most likely wouldn't do very well.</p>
<p> However, Jax has many good qualities as well.  The best one is that Jax is able to resist using hynotism to get what he wants and empower himself in society.  He makes a promise to himself to not use hypnotism for these reasons early on in the book, and sticks with it.  The only time Jax uses his power outside of being trained by his mentor is to stop a man from jumping off a bridge and killing himself, and to stop the next U.S. President from being under control of his mentor once he discovers his mentor's ulterior motives.  His quality of being able to do what is right in the end is also one of my better qualities.  Even if there is a situation I know isn't right and I stay quiet in the beginning, I'm able to think about if I need to do something about it.  If I do, I can make a plan of what I'm going to do and then do it the next time an opportunity comes around.

Doomed

The book I just finished reading is Doomed, by Tracy Deebs.  The main character of the novel is named Pandora.  Her father has been gone for ten years, and her mother consistently warns her to have nothing to do with him- to not open any mail, any message, any gift, or ever talk to or see him.  But on Pandora's 17th birthday, when her mother is out of town and has forgotten about her birthday, Pandora opens an email sent to her by her father, since her nature at the beginning of the novel is very curious and prone to temptation.  Inside the email are links to twelve pictures of the two of them over the years.  Her interest causes her to download and save all of the pictures to her computer.  But unwittingly she unleashes a worm from the pictures that destroys the entire internet, and knocks out the world's power grids and all phone service.  The world becomes an apocalyptic nightmare that only Pandora has the ability to save.  Throughout the course of the story, she is injured several times and sees friends come close to death as she and her friends follow the path of clues her father has left for her to save the world.  She panics at the ever-worsening conditions of life and increasing violence in the streets, and gains a better understanding of how quickly society can break down and how seemingly small choices can lead to such large-scale destruction.  This is shown well by a quote on page 413, which says, "We're too late to do any good, which seems to be the story of our lives lately....  Thy say everything gets easier if you do it enough, but as I stand over this man, I don't think I'll ever get used to dealing with death."  But by the end of the story she is more calm in tragic situations, and learns how to stand up for herself.  She is able to break any loyalty remaining to her father because they are family and he insists on his love for her, and can call the authorities on him and his location without feeling guilty for it.  Her change in character was brought about by realizing that there are better ways to change the world then destroying it as her father had done, shown by the quote on page 466, which says, " 'Pandora, please.  We can change everything,' he pleads.  'You already have.' I bend over, pick up the gun, then turn and walk out the door.  Back toward a world turned upside down and an airplane that is almost out of fuel.  It won't get us far, but it will get me away from him."

My Summer Reading Assignment

<p> This summer, I read the book Waiting For Normal by Leslie Connor.  One main theme I kept noticing throughout the book was hope.  The main character, Addie, just refuses to give up even when things get hard and she has this belief that eventually, it will all get better for her.  All of this is despite her neglecting and bipolar mother who is almost always gone, Addie's dyslexia, and having learned that one of her closest friends has cancer.  In Addie's mind, someday she can live with her step dad and stepsisters instead of her mother.  But one part of the story is nearly devoid of hope.  Addie's step dad, who treats her like a parent should act towards a daughter, has to move himself and Addie's younger sisters far away from Addie for his work, just before Halloween.  Addie has a discussion with her mother, who tells her that she is too old for Halloween.  She can't dress up or have candy, and on Halloween her mother is gone from their home, as usual.  This is the only point in the book where Addie has a low level of hope.  At this part of the novel, Addie realizes just how desperate and hopeless her situation is, and almost gives up.  But she soon is optimistic again, and stays that way for the majority of the rest of the book. </p>
Here is a link to an article about the novel.  It shows many different aspects of the book, such as a summary, quotes, themes, and character information.  This will give you a good insight to what the book is really about and give plenty of information.  You need to have an account on the website to read the whole thing, but you still get a good overview without one and you can't see any spoilers.  Waiting For Normal article

This is a short video to help summarize the novel.
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