Book Four Reflection- Beastly by Alex Flinn

Dear Aiden,
The change I have seen in you is amazing. When I first heard that I was going to be tutoring a boy-beast I wasn’t sure what to expect. Although they said your appearance would be horrific what truly scared me was your attitude; you viewed life as something to throw away, something that was given not earned, and you were lost in your own selfishness. But as I continued to tutor you I saw you evolve. When you began to plant roses and construct your green-house you found life by caring for those of others, when in a conversation you said to me, “I help them, you know. When I see one that’s turning brown but it doesn’t fall off, I help it. The thorns don’t bother me too much. I heal up.”(p.124) I saw a turning point in your life, you stopped caring so much about your well-being and started to consider those of not only other humans, but also living things. I have to say when I first started tutoring you, no matter how much I got paid, I was unsure whether I would continue. You were lazy and just sat around sulking all day, no interest to absorb the knowledge I had to offer you. I remember I told you that, “I was hired as a tutor, and lately all that means is that I receive an enormous amount of money to stay here and catch up on my reading.”(p.124) Yet I’m glad I decided to stay. I know that looks were always a big deal to you in your past, you told me that you always had it easy because everyone thought you were beautiful and you took advantage of those people, yet when your looks were taken away I believe they made you a better person. The most dramatic change in you, I have to say, is when you invited Lindy to stay with us. At first you tried to force her into spending time with you, and that obviously didn’t work because it made you look more like a monster, but then as you got to know the young lady you became the perfect gentleman. I remember while I was tutoring both you and Lindy you let her answer the questions because you stopped making things all about you and you thought to yourself, “Having read the poem twenty times, I thought I knew what it meant. But now I held back. I realized I wanted to let her be smart.”(p.191) That was only the beginning, as Lindy continued her stay with us I realized that you would never be the same stuck up boy that you once were, you were transitioning into an intelligent young man. It was hard to see you falling in love with Lindy (figuratively not literally because I was blind) because you were holding back because of the way you thought she felt about you. When we went to stay in your fathers cabin out in the middle of no-where surrounded by snow you let your guard down. You stopped locking the door like you used to before because you were scared of Lindy leaving and you began understanding that there must be trust in order for someone to love you back. I think that the point at which you truly transitioned from the young sinister boy Kyle to the caring young man Adrian was when you asked the witch who cast your spell to allow me to see and Magda your maid to go home to her family. Through all of your selflessness you were able to give Lindy the love that you deserved and have it returned to you. Now that you broke the curse although you may be attractive once again you have become so much more, you even gave me my sight back. Thank you, Aiden, for becoming who you are today.
Kind Regards,
Will.

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Reasons why Jace is the most endearing yet annoying character

In the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare she follows the story of Clary Fray who is a young girl who discovers the magic world her mother has been hiding her from. As the readers follow Clary they get to meet a character that they won’t forget; Jace Wayland. Jace is a character that readers want to forget but don’t have the ability to, here are five reasons why Jace is unforgettable.

1. He is uber annoying.

Throughout the whole book he spends his time hiding his emotions and pretending he doesn’t care about anyone. When he comes to Clary’s room and Simon is already in there he pretends as though he doesn’t care about Cary at all. Throughout the book he also makes vain comments about his appearance to hide how he really feels.

2. He’s extremely heroic.

When Clary finds Jace she learns about shadowhunters and their fight against demons, throughout the book Jace saves Clary endlessly. Not only does Jace save Clary but also the people Clary cares the most about including her best friend Simon and her almost-father Luke. Doing all of this while remaining humble.

3. His language.

Because in the book the shadow hunters are isolated from humans, or mundanes as they would call them, they speak in a more formal dialect. One which Jace pulls off very well. When Jace speaks to Clary it’s almost as if he is speaking down to a child trying to dumb down his elevated vocabulary, “I use tools that are magical. And just to be able to do that, I have to undergo rigorous training. The rune tattoos on my skin protect me too. If you tried to use one of the seraph blades, for instance, it’d probably burn your skin, maybe kill you.”(p.101)

4-  His brokenness.

Throughout the book Jace slowly revealed parts of his past that have scarred him. In the book the readers learn that his father snapped his bird’s neck in front of him and was also murdered in front of him. All of this is seen through Clary’s perspective which makes it much more heartbreaking. On page 463 it described how Jace’s father looked at him through Clary’s eyes, “A spasm of fury twisting his features, Valentine looked at his son. She would never forget that look-it made her feel a sudden wild longing for her mother. Because no matter how angry her mother had been with her, Jocelyn had never looked at her like that.”

5- You can never figure him out.

Jace is known to be temperamental. When things don’t go his way he just ignores everything and acts as if he doesn’t care, while really later in the story you learn that he cares a lot. He is broken yet he is the strongest person in the story, he is hard to talk to yet he always listens. He’s very truthful yet he ignores his feelings, he is just a whirlwind of contradictions.

Blog #5

•         How true does a book have to be in your mind to be considered non-fiction?   Why?

 

I think that for a book to be considered non-fiction 99% of the facts have to be true. As Seth Greenland said if the things within a memoir aren't true then the book is not really a memoir. I think that it's important for non-fiction books to follow this guidelines because people may relate to the stories and see the struggles that people in memoirs have overcome, but if these things were made up it makes that relationship with the reader fake and may disappoint the reader into not being able to relate.

•         Are half-truths okay if it’s still a good story? Does it matter if Frey or other memoirists bent the truth to tell their stories?

I don't think that half truths are ok, if you're going to write a memoir stick to the guidelines. If not then write a fiction books. Authors like Frey that make up facts within their books and call them a memoir really take away from other memoirs credibility and may damage the genre for the rest of the authors who wrote authentic, factual memoirs. Of course I think that writers should have a little flexibility with conversations they can't remember word for word, but if they're big events that they make up that's when I don't think it's ok.

•         Is David Shields right?  Do we need lines between genres—do we need to label something fiction or non-fiction?  Why does it matter?

 

I think we do need to label things fiction and non-fiction, I agree with Aimee Bender when she said that it's exciting what people are able to do with the mixing of genres but if the authors do this I think they need to let their readers know. My main problem with blurring the lines of genres is that the readers lose a sense of trust with their authors, because they don't know whether to think that the events are true events or if they are just figments of imagination. I think it is very important for the author to be faithful to his readers and say, 'hey guys in this piece I wrote it is a story of fiction and non-fiction' instead of lying to them saying it is all non-fiction like Frey did. I know I would have a lot more respect for an author and would want to support them more if they were honest to me instead of lying, this should allow authors to play with the genre lines while still remaining faithful to their readers.

Book post #4

1. For the perks of being a wallflower I would cast actors that aren't famous yet because I think that this is a story that needs to be told with fresh faces. When people already know the actors they have an already constructed idea of what they think the actors are going to be like, meanwhile they don't get the true sense of the characters in the story.
2. I believe that the best adaptation for the book would be a movie, the book is short enough that it would be perfect for a movie yet it is not long enough to be able to work for a t.v series.
3. For the soundtrack I think it would be important to include songs that are alternative and not extremely well known, because throughout the book the main character Charlie was always appreciating under-rated artists and movies.
4. I think a unique thing that would be vital to capture is the point of view, it is told from Charlie's perspective therefore if it is made into a movie it would be wrong to tell it from the third person instead of first person.
5. I think an important thing to consider would be to make sure that the story is not overdone, in the sense of the tough events that Charlie goes through, it is important to display the events but in such a way that is sensitive to the viewers and demonstrates the plot effectively.