Yet ANOTHER update on Before I Fall...

Before you say “wow, she must never read...” well, that is partially true, but only because I am a busy person, with softball, football practices (not mine, my little brother) and homework, I never really get time to pleasure read. And on top of all of the practices and extracurricular, I have to be social. Ya know?    Anyway, there are a lot of surprises in this one.

Sam is starting to get the point of re-living this day over and over again: to fix what she did wrong, to fix all of the things she ever screwed up. Each chapter starts out the same: the alarm. Then it goes on to the rest of Sam’s day, leading up to her death.

  Do you remember me talking about Juliet Skyes? No? Oh, yeah, that’s because I NEVER thought she would be this important of a character.  Juliet is a girl in Sam's grade that in my last post, the quote I had, it was describing her, her pale skin, and white hair, reminds you maybe of a snowflake. Ring a bell?  Juliet is Sam's number one key to helping her survive. If you read this book, you need to pay more attention to her at the beginning; also, you have to pay more attention to Kent.

Kent is also a big help in the story, but he wouldn’t need to be there if it wasn’t for Juliet.  He hosts the party at his house, and I don’t think many people take mind to him when they start reading. They think of him as a by-stander maybe. But he is definitely a dynamic character. He and Sam might even share a kiss... ooooh.  

“’Kent? I said okay. I mean, I’d like to stay. If you don’t mind.’… ‘You’re tired,’ he says, and his voice is soft again. ’it’s been a long day,’ I say. ‘come on.’ He reaches out his hand and without thinking I take it. Its warm and dry, and as he leads me deeper into the house, away from the music, I close my eyes and remember how he used to slip his hand into mine and whisper, Don’t listen to them. Just keep walking. Keep your head up. It almost feels like no time has passed. It doesn’t feel crazy that im holding hands with Kent McFuller and I’m letting him lead me somewhere- it feels normal’”

I want to tell you guys so much, but at the same time I really can’t give anything away, that’s part of the reason I share so little textual evidence. I’m afraid it might give things away.

Still loving this book, and still loving reading; nothing new really. The point of this post is to never brush off the small seemingly unimportant characters, because you never know who will show up later on in the story. I think I actually learned a lesson this time! 

Thanks for checking out my blog, Happy Reading!!!!

Willow (do not read if you are a judgemental person)

Willow. Willow. Sounds beautiful, doesn’t it? What do you think of when you hear the word Willow? Do you think of a tree? Do you think of a girl? Do you think of a dog? I'll bet the last thing you think of is a girl who self-harms. I bet when I say she killed her parents, you won’t think awe, it must have been an accident. You probably think whoa, isn’t that illegal?, or she is a horrible person!. No. just no, guys.

Willow is a young girl I would guess around the age of 16 or 17. she ACCIDENTLY killed her parents in a car crash after her parents had a little too much to drink and asked her to drive them home. It was raining and she only had her temps. She swerved off of the road and crashed the car, her father’s blood soaking her own hair. Now, she prefers her own blood, covering her body. Desperately trying to ridden the memory of that night. Covering up the scars is just one complication. Keeping this secret from her brother, David, his wife, and their young daughter? That’s a whole different story.

Willow has a part time job at the university her brother works act’s library. Here, she spends her time dealing with tough customers and college kids looking for a good read. One day a boy named Guy comes and needs a copy of one of her father’s favorite books. This book is kept upstairs in the part of the library no one visits. Here, Guy and Willow start talking and become acquaintances.

Eventually, Guy finds out about her self-harm issue, and he doesn’t seem to get it.

"Willow lunges for her stash, but it’s too late. Guy is there first. His hand closes around her supplies. He stands up and starts to give them to her, along with a couple of pens, some gum, and the rest of her belongings." 

This is the page where Guy finds out; he finds her razor and says 'hey, I use this brand.'  However, he didn’t mean to cut, he meant to shave. He uses that brand of razor to shave, then he realizes, and he doesn’t really understand.

Crazy thing is, all of this action happened in the first 50 pages. i got all of this detail in the first 50 pages! that is how much detail is included in this text.

I haven’t read much, only about 60 pages, so I will definitely keep you posted,

Before I Fall

The predictions I made about this book in my last post were almost spot on. Remember how I thought she died in a car crash on her way home from school? I was really close, she actually died on the way home from a party that a boy in her school, Kent, invited her to. The car crash happened when Sam's friend Lindsay dropped her cigarette on her seat of her car. Also, Lindsay should not have been driving, she was high and drunk. I am now on page 94, and I love this book. So far, Sam has started to take a good shape in my mind. She seems like she would be a great friend if she were real. In the beginning, her qualities were Care-free, kind of trampy, rebellious, flirty, and maybe even kind of smart. Now, however, a third of the way in, she is kind of now more worried about how to fix what happened. She is becoming more known to what is going on around her. She is beginning to get smarter, and she is rebelling a lot less. 

The author, Lauren Oliver, is really impressing me with the architecture of this character. Even her amount of detail astounds me:

"I watch her drifting through the cafeteria. Her hair is down and concealing her face: fuzzy, soft hair, so white it reminds me of snow. That's what she looks like, actually-like a snowflake being buffeted around in the wind, twisting and turning on currents of air. She doesn't even glance in our direction, and I wonder if even now she's planning it, planning to follow us tonight and embarrass us in front of everybody. It doesn’t seem like she would have it in her." (Oliver, 93)

I really like this book, and it is kind of hard to get me to like a book, especially after reading Breathe by Elena Dillon (which is a 600 page book I read 3 times in a week). But this book is different, it is the kind of genre like (realistic-Fiction), and it has the kind of plot that I like. I like repetition; it always seems to catch my attention. This is one of the reasons I love this book. It has loads of repetition. And it is longer, so I don’t find myself finishing it and missing having that same text to read.  

I will be sure to keep you updated on Sam’s adventures and miss-haps, Happy reading!

13 Reasons Why

Wow. I do did not predict anything right for this book... whoops. It still really was good though. I made predictions that were incorrect, but so does everyone right?

 

 

 

i liked the ending of this book, but it was different than I expected SPOILER ALERT: I did not expect Clay to not be the 13 tape. I believe he was the 7th.

 

 

 

I cried so much while reading this book, because I feel like it is relatable to a lot of people. If you have ever lost anybody... a friend, a family member, a loved one... you should definitely read this book, because it voices your feelings and helps you to put it in to words. Although this book is fiction, I feel like it is real. Like it actually happened because it is so realistic.

Sky on Fire

I read the 2nd Monument 14 book! It was really good, but i wish it would have ended differently. :(

In this book, there are 2 points of view, Alex, and Dean. Alex is out with Niko and the others, and Dean is with Chloe, Henry and Caroline, and Astrid in the Greenway. It was a really good book, and I would definitely recommend it.

Happy Reading!

Reading Skills

A book that I recently started is called Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. I am only about 20 pages into the book and I already love it.  Some questions I have had are ' how does she die?'  In the book it mentions something about a crash, so I am predicting that she dies in a car crash on her way home from school. According to Goodreads.com, this is what the book is about:

 "What if you only had one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

 Samantha Kingston has it all: looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it turns out to be her last.

 The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. Living the last day of her life seven times during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death—and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.".

 I would tell you my own summary, but I am not far enough to know much about the book yet.

A prediction I made is that she will die a virgin because in the book it has some foreshadowing.  One of Samantha’s best friends says ' I don’t want you to die a virgin!’ This is definitely foreshadowing in my opinion.

 I will make sure to keep you updated! Happy reading!