Chain Letter- Why I chose this book.

      Surprise! Another book by the AMAZING Christopher Pike.

      I'm on page 89, and I got this book yesterday. When most people read this, they will be thinking- well it's Ashton, she reads a lot. It's not the books that gets you to love reading, it's the authors. You could very well so take out the author's style and craft in Thirst. The question is: what is left? Words? Yes. Sentences? Yes. A great story? No. You could twist and turn every little aspect of the story, but we all know it would never come close to something Christopher Pike could write.

    After I read the entire Thirst series, I wanted to read other things he's written (http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Christopher-Pike/1080960 for a list of books). Remember Me, which is about a girl wanting revenge that came back from the dead, was not really up my alley after reading a vampire novel. So, I took a break. This was about a year ago.

    Last week, I was standing at Meijer, making my bimonthly decision on which books I want to stock up on. I looked through the YA section about 10 times then I saw it- Chain Letter. I immediately grabbed it and flipped it over, ready for another adventure in the world of Christopher Pike that I have been long over due for. True, some of his books can get kind of graphic, but if you get past that minor flaw to the weak stomached, his books take you far and wide across the world. I'll admit this right now, everything Christopher Pike writes should have a warning label: CAUTION: THIS BOOK WILL DRAG ITSELF TO YOU, AND BE GLUED TO YOU UNTIL IT IS SATISFIED YOU HAVE READ IT FROM COVER TO COVER. GOOD LUCK. 

 

The Darkest Minds- The best (and worst) thing about my book

     Let me be straight forward.

     This book is good. Five stars good. Better than pizza.  I know I say this about every book, because I can't ever say anything mean about a book (Except Beautiful Creatures, don't get me started on that horrendous book). Basically, my job here is to tell you everything that is amazing about a novel, and why. This has been pretty easy because I love to read, and 99.95% of the book I read are AMAZING.

     This infamous book? The Darkest Minds, by Alexandra Braken.  Spoiler: It's not actually dark.

     This book is about four kids who have powers- some can conduct electricity, some are freakishly smart, some play with fire. Then there's Ruby. She's the main character, and she can control minds. All four kids- Liam, Su, Chubs and Ruby- are running from the government (I feel like in every book nowadays the kids are running from the government) and have nowhere to hide but a camp called East River. The only problem is that they actually need to find the camp, and make it there alive.

     Now that I've done my summary, I can get to the fun part. Why do I love this book?
1. It's fast paced. There's always something happening.

2. There's a love triangle! 

3. Dystopian society- I love to read these kind of books because it makes me appreciate the world we have today. But I do with I had superpowers sometimes. 

4. First person POV: it might just be me, but I love a first person point of view because I feel more like I'm with the character than watching them. 

5. Makes you think. After you finish the book, on page 500 something, you're still thinking about it. It's that good.
6. The main character, Ruby, is hilarious. She adds a great twist to the plot. 

7. You can't leave out the great Classic Rock allusions that somehow make their way into the novel.
8. Alexandra Bracken says it herself, "Black is the absence of all colors (whereas white is the presence of all colors), so it’s a largely symbolic gesture. They’re basically saying, there are no colors here except for the one we give ourselves—they’re trying to assert some independence from the system while acknowledging that they’re all equal regardless of what abilities they may have." 

    (SPOILER COMING!) After I've named all of the great things, there's nothing bad about it, right? Here's what I hate. MY FAVORITE CHARACTER DIED.
     Honestly, I'm still not over it. Sometimes I'll just stop what I'm doing, and silently mourn for that character. Yeah, I get attached to characters. Long live character-who-can't-be-named-because-I-can't-say-spoilers. They were a favorite of mine, right up there next to Jace Wayland from The Mortal Instruments, which happens to release the very last book in the series on May 27th!

Here's a link for you lazy people who decided to skip down to the bottom, hoping for me to summarize what I just wrote about. If you actually read all of this, I applaud you. Sorry making it so long.

     Alexandra Braken's The Darkest Minds Book Trailer:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3kRUt92i2PQ

Chain Letter- Most Important Line

      Page 154. Chapter 12. Paragraph Three. First Sentence. 19 words. Right here, in this moment, is the most important line, "If you are not certain they are dead, do what you know you shouldn't, and be certain. Your Caretaker."

     Believe me or not, we know what is true. Fran and Kipp have just gone missing. Everyone believes they are dead, but are they?

     This line is by far the most important line in possibly the entire book. But why? It was a spark. A tiny, minuscle spark that fuels the anger of the five remaining teenagers. From this spark, the teenagers are now divded and either:

                                                 A: Hunt down the Caretaker.
                                                 B: Keep following the orders and hoping if being good will give them their friends back.

      I personally liked the first one better, but that just may be me.

    As I discussed the division that occurs in my last blog, it is only growing more. Everyone is on this massive hunt to find Fran and Kipp, but at the same time are wondering if they are actually dead. However, Joan is not fueled, but rather bored. Could this be because she is the Caretaker? I don't think that Christopher Pike would make it this easy to figure out who it is because he is notorious for surprise endings, but more that he would use her as a Red Herring. Part of me thinks that it is Alison, because she was the character first introduced into the book, and it would be a good surprise to throw at us readers. Well done, Pike, well done.

Chain Letter- What Does The Work Tell Us How People Behave?

     Okay, let's face it. I've been reading Chain Letter for about three weeks, and I am still in the first couple hundred pages. Why? I can promise you it is not because Ive lost interest. I've been enjoying this book. A really good book only comes around once in a while, so while you have them, you must enjoy.  However, since this book is about teenagers being put in a hard situation, I want to explain how it shows people behave.

     There are the main characters:
         Alison: An actress who is pretty much just along for the ride.
         Brenda: Also an actress, but is shyer and wants to go to the police.
         Fran: A girl who does everything behind the scenes.
         Joan: A sassy, punk girl who doesn't even understand why she was with this group on that night.
        Tony: The average football player.
        Kipp: The smartest of the group, going to MIT with a full ride in the fall.
         Neil: Shy, and agrees with Brenda on going to the police.
   
     We have all heard of the basic flight or fight move when a person is put into a situation. The flyers flee, and well, the fighters fight. This happens quickly throughout out the book Once the letter start coming, Brenda and Neil want to go the police. In a sense, they are the flighters. Kipp and Fran are the fighters. They refuse to do their "duty" and (Spoiler alert!) end up getting kidnapped for fighting back. This really shows their personalities of how they behave in a difficult situation.

     Alison, Joan, and Tony, however, are a special case. They do everything they are told, nothing more, nothing less, or find a loophole in their duty. Being neutral in this flight or fight scenario, is it possible that one of them is the Caretaker?

     FYI- City of Heavenly Fire comes out on March 27th. Will I see you at Meijer at 5:30 in the morning?