Reading Wishlist

Over the course of the next few months or so, I hope to finish 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs as well as Bossypants by Tina Fey and The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort.  I just recently bought 13 Reasons Why and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children this past weekend, and have already read a few pages of Thirteen Reasons Why.  

13 Reasons Why: 13 Reasons Why is about a girl named Hannah who commits suicide.  She leaves tapes saying why she did it to people she was related to or friends with and that will tell them her 13 reasons why she committed suicide.  I think that I will like this book because it is a bit of a mystery and is also realistic fiction which I enjoy.  Hopefully the reviews I read were correct and the story is quite good and realistic.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is a interesting book about superhuman children who live under the care of Miss Peregrine.  It is essentially an orphanage for children who are extraordinary.  I think I will like this book because it has elements of the supernatural genre and is known for being a strange story, and both things appeal to me.  I think this will be a good read and I will probably end up recommending it to people I know.

Gone Girl: Over the course of this class, I have heard a lot about this book.  I didn't even know it existed before, but now, based off of things I have heard, I think that I will really like the book.  I have heard a series of rumors about what happens to the main character, Amy, and I want to clear up all the conspiracies that I have heard.

Bossypants: I have just recently heard of this book from this class, and I think that I would like it.  I think humor is a good lightening genre, and I think that I would really like the book.  I have hard a lot of positive reviews for it so hopefully it will live up to its expectation.

The Wolf of Wall Street: I have heard quite a lot about this book and I think that I will probably read it sometime in the future.  I have heard that it's a good book, but that it has a lot of vulgar language and inappropriate scenes, which I have heard from juniors and seniors, so maybe I'll wait until college to read this book.  But it is still a book I want to read and I think that I would like it a lot when I get older based off the scene reenactment I saw in class.

Post #7 Book 4 Reflection

In Gayle Forman's If I Stay, the main character, Mia, is a relatively likable character.  Mia is a quiet cellist who strives her hardest to impress her parents.  I think that Mia is likable because she is so relatable.  I think, however, that readers will not like Mia and only because she is so likable and relatable.  An interesting, and maybe confusing thought, but sometimes when someone is very popular or likable, people avoid them just because of what they’re heard. On page 8, Mia’s thought process goes like this: “I hear a crash and a boom coming from upstairs.  Teddy is pounding on his drum kit.”  I think a lot of siblings can relate to this kind of thing, especially people with siblings that are a lot louder than they are.  Since my brother is a drummer, I have experiences like that a lot.  I think that specifically sisters of brothers would be able to relate better because they typically view their brothers as loud or annoying.  I’m not specifically saying that Mia sees Teddy as obnoxious, but I know that a lot of girls would be annoyed if their brother did something like that and so early in the morning.  As I was saying, I think that Mia is a likable character because she is relatable.

I think Mia’s likability was almost completely gone towards the end of the book.  I think that she almost wears out her personality as the book goes on and tries too hard to be shy and kind.  I have absolutely nothing against shy people, but towards the end, I felt that her character was a bit forced.  This could just be me, but it seemed overused.  However, the undertone of depression towards the end of the book did prove to make it more interesting.  The plot wasn’t completely bland the last three fourths of the book because of that, but the general idea did get a bit old.   

Mia’s likability does become irritating as the plot advances, especially when her depression and hopelessness takes over her.  I would even go far enough to say that maybe her likability goes away completely as the depression kicks in.  On page 228, it says “I don’t care anymore.  I’m tired of this all, and it will be over soon.”  This line of despair doesn’t make me pity Mia, it actually causes me to become angry at her.  When someone gives up completely it makes me become angry, and despite how hypocritical it may be, I wish people didn’t even have the ability to think of giving up.  It’s a hopeless thought, but maybe if Mia hadn’t been exposed to her decision in the first place, then maybe her overwhelming depression never would have been a large part of her life. 

Mia’s depression, however, also makes her more likable.  I think that, again, this could be because so many teenagers have depression or similar issues.  Mia’s depression made it easier to identify what she was feeling even at her darkest times and when she was thinking about the worst things.  I think the ending to If I Stay makes Mia’s character more likable because she chooses in a way that I think made people believe that they can also be as strong as Mia.  Because even in her darkest times, Mia always chose what she truly believed in at the end.  That is why I think that Mia from If I Stay is a likable character, and that anyone can relate to her and that this story will have a lasting impact on generations to come.

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