Book Blog #8 - Letting Ana Go, Anonymous

"Don't think about how hungry you are.. thunk about how thin you're getting."


The Premise

Letting Ana Go is the true diary of an unknown 16 year old girl which tells her story of battling anorexia.
It started out as a "food diary", some dumb thing the cross country coach is making the team do to track  their calories. But as time went on and sophomore year ended, the author (we don't know her name so I'll call her Ana) makes some serious changes in her diet.
She was on a boat cruise with her friend Jill, who is a ballerina, so it isn't weird to anyone that she is so thin. While on the boat, Jill reveals to Ana that she is only eating 1,700 calories per day. At first, Ana is in shock, but Jill's mother is very judgemental when it comes to weight, so Ana gives lowering her calories  a try. Jill's mother tells Ana the only way you will get a boyfriend and be pretty is if you are super thin. With this image in her head, Ana joins Jill in the work  of anorexia.



Significant Passage

There were a lot of things that stunned me in this book.. that people actually say about themselves and others. One passage was:

"THE THIN COMMANDMENTS 1. Thin = Attractive. If you are not thin, you are not attractive. 2. Thou shalt do everything within your power to make yourself look thinner. This includes clothing, hairstyle, exercise, and taking laxatives when needed."

I just think that this passage is crazy. This book is about real girls, so the fact that they thought about themselves like this. There were also more "commandments" but this one was the most prominent and tied in the the terrible theme running through thus book.


In conclusion, this book was really really good and I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend this book if you are looking for something different.

Book Blog Post #7- Eleanor and Park

The Premise

Eleanor and Park is the story of forbidden teenage love. Sophomores Eleanor and Park don't know each other. Eleanor is just the poor, nerdy new girl, and Park is the mysterious lost love. They meet on the bus, when Eleanor has no place to sit, so he scoots over in his reserved bus seat. Thus leads to an amazing relationship between the two. This book takes place in Nebraska in 1986. Eleanor isn't very rich; her mother remarried to an abusive man named Richie. She hides herself behind crazy clothes and very bad life. When her and Park start going out, she can't tell her stepdad, fearing he might kick her out...again.



My Reaction


This book was not at all how I thought it would be. I don't really know but I couldn't really wrap my mind around the plot when I read the back of it. This book was ok, I was expecting it to be more action packed, it's kind of like a chick flick almost. I think that it was a really cute and sentimental story to read, just not what I was expecting.

Overall, I give this book an 8/10. If you are into chick flick or romance extreme books, this is a book for you.

Book Blog Post #6 : Allegiant by Veronica Roth

The Premise 

In the poignant, final novel in the Divergent series, Allegiant by Veronica Roth really is an emotional roller coaster. The book takes place after the war that happened inside the city, and Tris, Tobias and other rebels are escaping the city, going to a place called the Bureau. While at the Bureau, which is just on the outskirts of Chicago, the gang finds out some secrets about their home,families, and their lives themselves.
A superior named David, who works at the Bureau, has a plan that will destroy the city, and basically the plot of the book is everyone else trying to stop the Bureau from continuing on with the plan.


My Reaction

This book definitely was very interesting to read. There were so many surprises and emotional moments and it was a lot to handle. I thought the ending was very touching, and you'll have to read it to find out what happens because it is a very big plot twist. I could barely wrap my mind around it. This book was also a lot better than Insurgent, but the first book is still in my opinion the best. I do have to say I missed the plot of Divergent while reading this. I was very surprised with how good, and emotional, this  book was. It was a really nice read.

SPOILER ALERT !! SPOILER ALERT !! SPOILER ALERT !! DO NOT READ ON UNLESS YOU WANT YOUR MIND TO BE BROKEN ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! IF YOU HAVE READ THIS BOOK, READ ON. 

In this book, a very unlikely thing happens; Tris, the main character, dies. She and her brother, Caleb, were going to break into a lab to stop David's evil plan, and Caleb was supposed to go. It was basically a suicide mission. On the way to the lab, Tris risk's her life for her brother. Now, when you are reading up to that part, it doesn't sound like she is going to die for reasons you can really only understand if you read the books. But, she does die when she gets into the lab because David shoots her. And it was really sad. I cried.

I will definitely be re-reading this series in the future. It is such an amazing series, and Allegiant was an amazing story. I highly highly recommend these books. 

 

Blog Post #5 : The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Premise

Markus Zusak mixed danger, love, and friendship together into such a beautiful novel. The Book Thief was a page turning novel about a young girl at the heart of the Holocaust in Germany 1939. Liesel Meminger is nine when she moves in with her foster parents after Hitler took away her mother, and Death her brother. At her brother's grave, she sees a book sticking out of the dirt, and takes it. Being a poor German girl, she did not know how to read. When she moves in with her foster parents, her foster dad, Hans, teaches her, and her thieving career begins. She steals books from book burnings and the private library of the mayor. With the help of her adventurous friend, Rudy, she begins to open up to a new lifestyle of stealing everything from books to apples. One day, Liesel's parents break some news to her: they will be hiding a Jew in their basement. Liesel at first is scared of the dirty, smelly, skinny Jew in her house, but her and Max [the Jew], quickly build a friendship, balancing completely on trust. Liesel's world has been flipped upside down, and she must keep the secret.

My Reaction 

This book was literally perfection made into a stack of paper. The author made it so well written with a new surprise after each chapter. One of my favorite parts is the epilogue. It was just a mixture of so many emotions. I think that is when everything came together and you really understood the relationship between the different characters. The ending (which I will not give away), wasn't like a normal story ending. It really made you think. I was so astonished by how Zusak could possibly right such amazing literature. It was so amazing. 

The Author's Writing Style

At first, this novel was a little hard to grasp on to. The very beginning was hard for me to read because I was confused on who was narrating the story. Turns out, Death is. You go through the motions from Death's point of view which I think is so interesting because it made the story line so much more exciting. Zusak made the writing flow, which made it easy on my part. He also included definitions along the way, because sometimes they said German words, which also made the story better. He included a few choice words to be written in German, which showed that they are actually German not full out American. He also used such detail in his writing which made it a page-turner. As you can see in the line "he tasted dusty and sweet. He tasted like regret in the shadows of the trees and in the glow of the anarchist's suit collection" (Zusak 536), he uses out of the ordinary details to really bring the story to life. 

My Favorite Characters

If you've read this book, you probably know about Rudy Steiner. He is Liesel's age and the very first friend she makes. I love Rudy. He is so outgoing and brave and strong. He isn't afraid to take chances and ask awkward questions. He is very sporty, he loves running, and he too is also a thief. Him and Liesel go on stealing adventures with older kids when the food level is low. He is just so perfect. I also really liked Max, the Jew Liesel is hiding. He was such a good role model and friend to Liesel which is what she needed at the time. He went through tough times with his real family and became part of Liesel's family. Max and Rudy really made the story interesting for me because they were such amazing characters.


To be honest, I don't think I would have read this book if it wasn't for Language Arts, but I am so so glad I did. This book has been a very emotional story but I will read it over and over. I highly recommend this book if the Holocaust is an interesting topic to you.  I give this touching story a 10/10. 

Book Blog Post #4 - The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones is a chilling novel written by Alice Sebold. The plot line is about a 14 year old girl who was murdered, and she is telling what she is seeing while she is in Heaven. When we first meet Suzy Salmon, the protagonist, she is already in Heaven. Then it jumps to the days right before she was murdered, and then she is telling everything she sees watching the world continue on from Heaven. This novel takes place in an unnamed Pennsylvanian suburb, spanning from the 1970s' roughly into the 1980s'. The main characters are Suzy Salmon, her general family (sister Lindsey, brother Buckley, mom, dad, etc.) and a boy named Ray, and a girl named Ruth. Ray was Suzy's boyfriend for the brief days in the beginning of the story. Ruth was just a girl at Suzy's school who said she felt Suzy fly past her when she was traveling into Heaven. Ruth was walking through the school parking lot after school towards the cornfield near their school, which was where Suzy was murdered. She then saw a shadow flying towards her and she said it touched her face. No one believed her except for Ray.  The general conflict of this book is really just her whole family coping with her death and trying to find her murderer. Lindsey, her sister, broke into her murderer's house to try and find clues because she had a suspicion that he murdered Suzy. This book a thrilling page turner with more adventure or sadness around every corner.

Connections 

I could definately connect this book to Go Ask Alice and other books along that series or diaries. I feel that they all had relateable themes to eachother such as grief and a small bit of good versus evil. Although there isn't much grief in the Go Ask Alice books except at the end, I connected the grief to missing your life and what's ahead for your future. Suzy dies and the girl in the other books throws her life away with drugs or alcohol. I also connected good versus evil because in The Lovely Bones, it's Suzy's family fighting against the heartbreak and tearing apart this man has caused their family. In Go Ask Alice, she is fighting against herself with the evil problem of addiction. I think that all throughout the book they can connect themes, there isn't one specific part that connects the two.

All in all, The Lovely Bones was such an amazing read. In some parts, it was really sad for me at least. It can be a challenging read trying to keep up with who is narrating the story because it tends to change throughout the story. But I definatly recommened this book if you are up for a challenge.