Book 3: Book Review

Stephen King is a horror novelist. One of his novels, The Shining, is based upon the Torrance family and a haunted hotel called the Outlook. This means that readers who are interested in that sort of idea in a book will most likely find this book ve

ry good and entertaining. The reviews that have been posted for this book have made adults relive the fears of their childhood just like the five year old Danny Torrance in this novel. One of the reviews from a reader is, “Stephen King returned me to my kid fears. Like Danny Torrance, I was a frightened and sensitive child during the early nineteen-seventies. Some of my kid fears came true, as Danny’s did for him,” posted by Steve Sckenda. This novel is mainly taken place in the Outlook hotel after Jack Torrance lost his teaching job and gets the job in the boiler room at this hotel. The five year old son of Wendy and Jack is Danny. Danny has the ability to read minds or as referred to in the book shining. His imaginary friend, Tony, is able to communicate with Danny and show him what events will take place throughout the book. A word that Danny comes across throughout the entire book is the word REDRUM. He later finds out that this word spelled backwards says MURDER. When they first arrive at the hotel, Danny knows that the Outlook hotel was the place Tony told him never to go into. Since the Outlook had been built, there have been quite a few murders. Danny doesn’t want to go into this hotel but he knows he has to in order for his dad to keep his job, “The place Tony had warned him against. It was here. It was here. Whatever Redrum was, it was here.” This book consists of many fears that the characters have to face Jack and his drinking problem, Wendy looking out for Danny and fearing her husband might start to drink again, and Danny with being able to read minds and see things that others do not have the ability to see. The plot is hard to understand. It refers back to the past of characters problems that the entire plot becomes confusing. The fact that this book describes animal hedges moving, the short circuit on the elevator, and even the dead women in room 217, adds a twist and a more complex view to the story. Sometimes the movement of the hedges or the noise coming from the elevator seemed unreal and other times it seemed as if those mo vements and noises were actually occurring in the story. The part in the story where the dead women walked out of the bathtub seemed unreal yet it was actually happening, “…fish-smelling hands closed softly around his throat and he was turned implacably around to stare unto that dead and purple face.” The characters in this book were hard to understand. The hardest character to understand was Jack, one minute he was adoring hid wife and his child then the next minute, he wanted to strangle them both because the power of the hotel was taking over him. As for a theme: there really wasn’t one. It is hard to come up with and idea of something learned in the book when the entire book was about someone wanting to murder their family. The strengths of this book would include all the detail and the plot. If I were the author, I would think that writing a horror story would be scary and gruesome to write, but not for Stephen King. He did a very good job of having that story follow a well thought out storyline and he described everything in such detail that there were parts that I as a reader did not even want to read. As for weaknesses: there 

Stephen King

 were not very many. As a reader, I would consider this book to be a five star out of five stars. This is because the plot was very good even though in some areas of the book it was quite hard to comprehend. The characters were very entertaining to read about even though some of them like Jack for example had mental issues. Another reason, this book deserves a five out of five is because when the author was describing the parties, the short circuit on the elevator, the dead women in room 217, and the animal hedges moving outside, the author did a very good job describing these scenes.





Horror Genre History

The “horror” genre was first introduced when the author, Horace Walpole, first wrote the book, The Castle of Otranto, in 1764. His book was full of shocks and mysterious melodrama. Imitators began to view this as the gothic mode for writing. Many writers later began to write better books than Horace Walpole and they included more mystery and suspense. The first and greatest horror classic to be written was, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. Edgar Allen Poe is also a famous writer that created short horror stories. Later on, came the Great War, and I quote, “And then came the Great War, and with it horrors that not one of these literary minds could have conceived.”

The horror genre is the most interesting when it comes to the relationship of literature. Horror holds the most dispersion upon it out of all the other genres. Some people find it hard to take the horror genre seriously. America and England take over control when it comes to buying horror books. However, horror has been proven to be a very poplar genre specifically in the US and England. Stephen King has an eye for dialogue, the plot of the story, and the personality of his characters when writing a book. Due to this, horror has become a legitimate literary field for the people who have been generous enough to read Stephen King’s books. From increasingly popularity in the horror genre, horror has moved towards literary respectability.

The horror genre has the capability to frighten and scare its readers. Horror can be classified as either supernatural or non-supernatural. The beginnings of the horror genre began with folklore, religious traditions, the afterlife, evil, death, and the demonic creatures that have been created throughout the years since this genre has been created. These ideas came from stories that were based off of witches, vampires, werewolves, and even ghosts. The author, Edgar Allen Poe, was able to create short stories that made the horror genre become far more than just entertainment for the reader due to this genres eerie atmosphere and everyday reality. In some books from this genre, haunted houses are used as psychological symbolism to give the books their haunting credibility.

The Shining

I chose to read the book, The Shining, by Stephen King. So far, my book is about a man named, Jack Torrance. He has a wife named Wendy and a son named Danny. They have just moved, and Danny does not have any friends. Before they moved, Jack got fired from his job because he hit somebody that thought that they were better than he was. As a result, they had to move in order for Jack to find another suitable job for himself. In the first chapter of this book, it starts out with Jack interviewing for his new job. He is going to work in the boiler room of a fancy hotel. The person interviewing Jack does not want to hire him because of his past experiences but his boss thinks that hiring Jack will be good for business at the hotel. In one of the chapters in this book, it refers back to the past. Jack used to be an alcoholic. One day, his son was in his office and had spilled beer all over his paperwork and Jack got ticked. He broke his three-year-old sons arm. Earlier on in the book, Danny had asked why his dad had gotten fired and his mom told him the truth. She also told Danny that his father did things that he later regretted. Breaking his sons arm is one of the things he regretted most in life even though his son still adored him. I chose to read this book because most of the cover pages on Stephen King’s books look scary and the cover on this book wasn’t very creepy. Another reason that I chose to read this book was because the summary of the book sounded very interesting. So far, this book is pretty good. It is not very scary so far but I am looking forward and not looking forward to reading on in the book.

What I Have Learned About Myself as a Reader

As a reader, I have learned that I enjoy reading science fiction books. I have also learned that I enjoy reading action books as well. When I was younger, I never really enjoyed reading. I thought it was very boring because I never found a book that actually made me want to continue reading. As I got older, I started finding more books that interested me and so now, I enjoy reading a lot. The kinds of reading that I enjoy and am drawn to the most is probably science fiction. I enjoy reading science fiction the most because in some books, the setting that is created is sometimes interesting to me as a reader. I think it is cool how the author uses so much time and effort to come up with a world that does not even exist, yet they still do good job writing the story. Another reason as to why I like science fiction is because the author makes up characters that you would never expect to see in a story. The genre that I think is the most popular now a days would probably be realistic fiction and science fiction. I think that these are the two most popular genres because they make the reader want to read more into the book and the conflicts presented in the books, makes the reader more intrigued. Throught the trimester, I believe that I have changed as a reader because I can describe what the characters in the story look like more throughly and the plot of the story has gotten easier to figure out as I have been reading. Another reason as to why I have changed as a reader throughout the trimester is that in a lot of the books I have read I can relate to the book through expeiences in my life and before it was more difficult.

Where the Wild Things Are: Blog Post

I think this film was successful because it followed the storyline. Another reason as to why this film was successful was because the characters look the same as they do in the book and they also had the same characters present as in the book as well. I thought that the monsters shown in the book and the movie were kind of creepy. I also thought it was weird how they had the capability of jumping so high up in the sky. I thought that the setting in the movie would be different than just a bunch of trees. The shelters that the wild things lived in were very interesting. The director of Where the Wild Things Are did a pretty good job of interpreting what the wild things looked like even though they looked kind of fake. In the beginning of the movie, I don't recall the part of the snowball fight and the tunnel accident with Max and his sister's guy friends ever happening in the book. I just remember the book starting out with Max and his mother fighting and his mother telling him to go to his room without any dinner. A second thing that did not happen in the movie but happened in the book was the part where Max starts to imagine trees growing in his room and eventually becoming an actual forest or woodland area. I also do not remember the part where Max uses the boat in the story to travel to the island that the wild things are located at. I think that the author, Spike Jonze, did a pretty good job transferring the book Where the Wild Things Are into a movie. I believe that there were parts in the book that were missing untrue movie amdand I also thought the movie was kind of creepy. I thoughtthat the movie was creepy because the wildwild things were bigger than I expected and I thought t was kind of word how they could jump so high in the air. The very beginning of the story was very interesting because Max was chasing and tackling the dog and I felt bad for the dog.Another reasor as to why the video was scary was because of the wild things. When they got out of control they made a weird noise that was kind of scary to me. Evangelize of this, I still thought that the author, Spike Jonze, did a good job of turning the book into a movie even though there were parts missing in the movie. The one thing that I believe would not make movie good for children is the fact that when the wild things got out of control, it was too dramatic and for certain children the drama might scare some of those kids. Another thing that might scare younger people when Carol, rips of the birds arm. I did not really understand that part but I guess it was because he was mad at the bird for a specific reason. These are the reasons that I thought this movie had a good adaptation and the few reasons that did not appeal to me as the viewer.

Blog Post #5

If I could choose any book to become a movie, I would choose the book, Divergent, by, Veronica Roth. I think this book would be a good movie because this book has a lot of action. Books with a lot of action make me want to read the book more because the end of the chapters leaves you on edge, which makes you want to dive deeper into the book. Another reason as to why I believe, Divergent, should become a movie is because it shows that certain choices have to be made in life. Just like the main character, Tris, has to decide what faction she wants to become a part of. This is a hard decision because she has to decide whether or not she wants to leave her family. She doesn’t want to be a traitor like her brother but, she also wants something new for a change.  She doesn’t want to be selfless anymore as she was taught ever since she was born. And during her test results, she was told to become a part of a faction that no one would ever expect because she is divergent which means that she has to hide from the Erudite because they want to get rid of the divergent.  If you are divergent you are able to overcome the power of the truth serum so you are able to tell lies if you are trying to protect someone or something. You are also able to overcome any other type of thing invented for the people in the factions. The only thing you can’t beat is the serum made especially for the Divergent people. Just as Tris finds out when Tobias (Four) is taken away from her and given the serum. Tris on the other hand is condemned to her death. When it is finally time for her to choose where she believes she belongs, she chooses to become Dauntless. She wants to take part in protecting her home, she wants to be brave whilst jumping out of a moving train, and she is just very curious as to what lies behind the city walls. Tris later learns that her mother used to be a part of the Dauntless faction because on visiting day, her mother seems to know the hallways better than her.  If I was the director of this movie, I would decide to focus more on the reIf I could choose movie, I would choose the book, Divergent, by, Veronica Roth. I think this book would be a good movie because this book has a lot of action. Books with a lot of action make me want to read the book more because the end of the chapters leaves you on edge, which makes you want to dive deeper into ason has to why the Erudite faction does not get along very well with the Dauntless and the Abnegation. This is because the whole book is based upon that reason and it will help readers to better understand the concept of this book/ book series/movie. I probably would not leave out anything from the book because without all the detail from the book, the movie might be a bit confusing to some and I also know that people don’tlike it when the director of a movie leaves out the most important part in the movie. Also, I would not change anything because when I read a book and I watch the movie based upon that book, I don’t like how they change the look of the character or of where the movie takes place. I know that a lot of people do not like that so, as I said before, I would not change anything based on the book into the movie.

Book 1: Final Project

We are offering a one in a life time chance for your kid to see what an angel's life could be like. Here are a few items that you could receive if you come to visit: a set of angel wings (ages 4+), a poster of your favorite character (ages 12+), a colorful mug with your favorite character on it, and an iPhone case printed with your favorite character and their signature. 
 In, Fallen, a girl named Luce is shipped off to a school for insane children (she is not really insane and neither is anyone else in this book). She meets a guy and falls for that guy, but this guy continues to ignore her. She really wants to figure out why the guy acts so strange around her. So, she asks her friend Penn to go to the library with her so that she can find a book that a family member in the guy’s family wrote. “She took comfort in the soft occasional sound of turning pages.” They have no success because it seems as if someone else is interested in his history as well, so she walks back to her room disappointed. One day Luce and Daniel (the guy she likes) are swimming and when he comes out of the water, Luce sees something on his back and the sun makes whatever is on his back look like angel wings. She begins to dream about Daniel, “And while Luce dreamed below of the most glorious wings unfurling-the likes of which she'd never seen before-two angels in the rafters shook hands.” This is true because Luce finds out the truth of Daniel. As said later on in the book by Luce, "I'm in love with an angel.” Towards the end of the book, Daniel has to save Luce from the insane teacher. He has to save her because their teacher is about to ill her and Luce knows this because she has already killed one of Luce’s best friends, Penn. 
 This book allows your child to relive this book and connect with all the different characters. The angel wings in this book are essential because it leads to Luce figuring out what Daniel really is and as to why he tries to ignore her all the time. Despite, the fantasy genre, this book can help the reader to connect with the characters feelings within the book. This book offers a chance for the reader to understand the meaning of friendship because Luce and Penn are always there for each other when needed. The book would be sold in stores along with the book about Daniel’s background history. This will give the reader the chance to understand why Daniel is important to the story and how he ties in the plot. Stores that this book would mainly be sold at would be your local bookstores or any grocery shopping place that happens to sell books. Although there are many types of different books and genres out there, this book would be the main attraction because it offers exclusive items that one can buy for any child of any age.
Fallen

, is a great book despite some foul language but, is highly recommended for those who like fantasy and romance novels combined. Due to the fact that this book is recommended for people who are thirteen (or older) years of age, the foul language in can be reduced. The angel wings that are being offered will be custom fit for your child so that the wings are not too tight or too loose.