Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

This was the first book on my A2 reading list. I remember questioning this as I read the first few pages. It was like a alternate reality book you'd read at middle school (primary school if you go to a normal system). I haven't read any of her other books but I don't think they're anything like this! The book sounds weird. It is weird. I know you're not meant to judge a book by its cover, which is good, because there wasn't much to judge. The front cover was only the title and a pig on the front. Ok...

At the start, it introduces a snowman who lives in a tree. When I first read this, I thought it meant an actual snowman but it's just a guy's name. Weird name. He gets his name from an online game and it's stuck. He lives on a beach with Crakers who bring him fish every week but they want answers from Snowman about his previous life.

The narrative switches between each main character who describes their lives before they get to meet each other.

Snowman, originally named Jimmy, lived near the labs his father worked at. His father creates new species like rakunks (a raccoon and a skunk) and pigoons (a pig and a baboon). They sound amazing! Unnatural combinations but sounds interesting. Once they're said a couple of times, you think of them as real animals. However these experiments split up Jimmy's parents which leads to Jimmy's mother running away.

Oryx is the one who Jimmy loves, after first seeing her in a porn movie (interesting first sight), he never believes they'll physically meet. Oryx was poor and promised a job by a man. She and many other children went but it turned out to be brutal and creating pornography. Oryx soon escapes and tries to teach people about the BlyssPluss pill.

Crake and Jimmy were originally great friends until different educations weakened their friendship. Crake is very clever and goes to the equivalent of science school whereas Jimmy is not clever enough and goes to a humanities faculty (nothing wrong with that).

The book is weird but I love it because nothing is ordinary. Each page you turn, something new happens that you could never have thought up. It's so unique and like nothing else. There's so many new ideas that are unlike anything other books.

Snowman, Jimmy, ends up on his own because Oryx's pill begins to cause disease which wipes out everyone. Will Snowman find anyone? Will he find the others? Will he have enough food to survive?

Hope you enjoyed this and I will get back to you on the next book I'll have read. Bye

The 100 Day 21 by Kass Morgan

The 100 Day 21 by Kass Morgan

If you haven't read the first one, don't have a go at me that I've spoilt the ending. So finally I got the second book out and was able to read it. I began disputing whether it was worthwhile getting the second one because sequels are not always as amazing as you hope they are. I have to admit I was going to stop but I didn't. It got really good.

21 days since they landed (crashed) on earth. 21 is also the number of days when Clarke's parents' experiment subjects started to deteriorate from radiation problems. People on the drop ships still believe earth is radiated with poisonous gases. 

The end of the first book shows that there's others on earth however the hundred still think they are the only ones. However as the book goes on, the characters argue how many groups are out there, who are friendly and who wants to kill them. 

The same characters thread on from the first book. Wells is still finding it hard being a natural leader but not wanting to take after his father which he is finding hard. He seems to scapegoat any of his worries or bad characteristics on his father. However you can't help but sympathise with him. 

Clarke is still as independent as the last book and she spends the book wanting to find other colonists. The love triangle continues between Clarke, Wells and Bellamy. Their awkward relationship just gets even more awkward. Will Bellamy and Wells' friendship arise? 

Bellamy continues hunting for the hundred but he is also focusing on finding Octavia who is still lost. Is it pointless hope? You get angry with all his concentration on finding her when other things seem more necessary. However it shows their indestructible, unusual sibling bond. 

Glass is still on the ship and still in love with Luke. As things get worse, she finds it hard to choose who to save. Glass has to choose between her love life with Luke and whether she wants to spend time with him of life itself. She is trapped but she could save herself and her mother. Who will she choose? 

Thank you for reading and I hope to see you next week. 

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

                                 If I stay by Gayle Forman

"Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you."

What a great book. Don't hate me but I didn't cry... But I did find it sad. I find it sad because it could happen and it could happen to anyone. When the film came out I always wanted to watch but never got the chance and then I found out it was a book which meant I had to read the book first.

When I first picked it up, I thought it was very like Michael Morpurgo's book Cool! which is about a boy's experience of being in a coma. It's quite a hard concept to understand unless you've been in a coma and I haven't but both books gives me an idea about what it could be like.

The idea of what happens after death really scares me but also interests me so although reading around this topic upsets me, it also gives me ideas about what could happen. What does happen after death? In philosophy we're learning about it and I'm still looking for the answer.

A family of four are in a car crash. I couldn't help thinking what if it was my family because it was the same set up. The mum and dad are killed instantly but the book is about Mia, the main character, experiencing a coma but a disembodied existence. We are left asking what decision she'll make as she watches her loved ones come to visit her.

Another main theme in this book is music which I find quite hard to connect with as I've never learnt to play a musical instrument or anything. Mia is a cello player and Adam, her boyfriend, is a guitarist and in a band. Oh well. I understood the majority of it.


However I love the narrative of this book as it's mainly set in the present but to explain her emotions and love life during the present, it refers to the past. Although it is confusing to begin with, I love the idea of a time- travelling narrative if I can call it that.


I hope you've enjoyed this and hopefully it won't be long until I've finished my next book.

The 100 by Kass Morgan

The 100 by Kass Morgan

Happy New Year everyone. Hope you all had a great Christmas? Traditionally eaten too much like me? 

OMG! I need to get the next one out! Such a good book. So when I finished my last book, I wanted to read something a bit more non- educational. I didn't want to read anything to do with school. The 100 has been sitting on the side for ages and finally I got round to picking it up. 

What would you do for love? Normally I hate love stories but if you weave it into a dystopian novel- I might become interested. 

I've been wanting to read this series for ages. You can tell because I've had this book out since September! Well finally I've read it. I was never able to watch the TV series because it was on Sky. It looked right up my street though. 

A colony has spent 300 years living on a ship in space after having evacuated earth after nuclear problems. However, resources are starting to run out on the space ship so they want to return to Earth. However they're not sure whether it's safe or not because it may still be contaminated. 

Recently teenagers have been sent to prison for minor crimes and on their 18th birthday they are usually euthanised. However, things are about to change as they are sent to earth as an experiment. It's a similar idea to the Lord of the Flies I suppose- just without the killing. Apart from that it's such a unique story line. I love it. 

"While he might be cutting the creature's life short... It had lived every moment of that life completely free"

The novel switches between many different narratives of whom you gain a relationship. Bellamy breaks onto the sub ship when it is about to take off to save his little sister and go with her to earth. However, this brother and sister relationship is obscure because on the ship, no one is allowed more than one child. Clarke was in love with Wells on the ship but on earth she is distracted by other things. However you do not find out everything about her until the very end when everything then makes sense. Wells sacrifices his own criminal free record to save Clarke. Glass is the odd one out who is about to be sent to earth when she escapes to be with her true love Luke but is life better aboard the ship or on contaminated earth? 

"He wasn't the brave knight who'd come to rescue the princess. He was the reason she'd been locked away in the dungeon"

Each character has their own personal journey which is really explored in the 100. They all want to save each other. You want them all to succeed in their targets. 

It is such a good but simplistic book and tomorrow seems to far away to wait to get the next one out. Hope you enjoyed this book review. 

I am Legend by Richard Matheson

I am Legend by Richard Matheson

"Normalcy was a majority concept, the standard of many and not the standard of just one man"

If a disease turned the majority of people into vampires- would being a vampire become the normal? If you were the only human being left- would you be abnormal compared to all the vampires?

Normally I'm not into vampire books (too much Twilight when I was younger) but this book is different. It's my favourite genre of book- dystopia so I suppose it's better than a love story. After my philosophy teacher told me to read it during one of his tangents- I couldn't find a reason not to. I'm not sure why he wanted us to read it but I loved the film so there was no real reason why I wouldn't like this. And it's only 160 pages long. However the shortest books always somehow take me longer to read. It took me a while to get into it, whilst also reading it alongside Volpone and King Lear- impossible. Despite this, once I got into it I finished the second half in one evening.

This vampire book is different because it's not cheesy although it does coincide with the main ideas about vampires- developing on from Bram Stoker's Dracula. The stake. The garlic. The crosses. Only coming out at night. They're all in there.

When you read the title you may think of the movie with Will Smith in. Yes it has the same title and they're both about vampires- they are the only two similarities between the two. I hate it when films do that. However it is a great film just in its own right. I knew the book and the film were very different before I started the book so I wasn't wrongly led but I was shocked how different they both are. In the film, Will Smith's dog plays quite a big part in it but in the book there's a dog for about 10 pages. I know that annoyed me too. Sorry I love any animal in a book so this really annoyed me but it did get me hooked into the book. 🐶

The main character Robert Neville thinks he is the last man on earth and lives to survive on his own. During the day, he hunts for food and he hunts the vampires trying to find a cure. Robert Neville is a clever man and has protected his house and himself in any way possible from the vampires. In his house, he lives a usual lifestyle as he tries to carry on as usual but as a reader you wonder what he's waiting for. However at night he is trapped inside his house as they come to hunt him.

Robert Neville lost his wife to the disease that turns people into vampires and since he has not come into contact with anyone. Will he? He has lost all social skills but can he overcome this?


Thank you for reading. I hope it didn't take you as long as it took me to read this book. I hope you enjoyed it.

Volpone by Ben Jonson

Volpone by Ben Jonson

Finally I have finished Volpone by Ben Jonson which means my compulsory reading for the Christmas holidays is done! (Only 4 days in). That definitely feels good. I'm still not completely sure how I finished Volpone and King Lear but I did. I'm having to read Volpone as it is another text I need to learn for my A2 exam. Ahhhhh! - more quotes to learn. The play was easy to understand on its own but I'm not entirely sure how I will link it with the poet, William Blake but we will have to find out.   

 

It has taken me a while to read Volpone which tells you something- I didn't find it that gripping. Sorry. I was really looking forward to it as one of the main threads of this play is animals and how their animalistic characters link to their humanistic manners. I was excited because somehow I am able to get animals in all my essays- mini task myself during A-Levels- as if they're not hard enough already.

 

There doesn't seem to be any hero in this play as all the characters are selfish and self driven but not for the right reasons. Volpone, who has no legitimate heirs, pretends to be ill and dying so people bring him gifts to persuade him that they are the best heir to put in his will. However none of them are suitable heirs because none of them respect Volpone in the right way.

 

Volpone, the main character, is sly and manipulative in how he orders people around. He treats people (including his 3 dancers- Nano (a dwarf), Androgyno (a hermaphrodite) and Castrone (an eunuch) and his servant Mosca like objects and money as the most valuable thing in the world. Volpone comes across as a character who has got his priorities mixed up but this is the reason why Ben Jonson created him as the main character.

 

Corbaccio (a raven), Corvino (a crow) and Voltore (a vulture) believe they are all rightful heirs and continuously bring gifts to flatter Volpone (a fox) who is helped by his servant Mosca to collect jewels and valuable gifts. However (unrealistically) none of them wonder if this is a scam but if any of them are onto something either Mosca or Volpone will make up something to divert their attention.

 

The only rightful characters in the play, Celia (Corvino's wife) and Bonario (Corbaccio's son) are wrongly accused of being adulterers. Although Celia is the one who is nearly raped and Bonario is the one who is disinherited from his family, they still end up worse for the majority of the play and you begin to doubt what is actually right. The point of these characters, shows how those who have status and links are the ones who thrive in society. I know the play is a true reflection of society but I think that's why I don't love it. It's too real.

 

I hope you have enjoyed my latest book review and I hope you all have a nice Christmas. 

King Lear by William Shakespeare

King Lear by William Shakespeare

 

Hey everyone,

Now I've finished my plan for my English Literature coursework, it's on to prepping for the exam. For our exam we are doing King Lear and I have finally finished my first read through of it. Sorry I haven't written a blog for a couple of weeks but I'm having to read Volpone and King Lear at the same time- not easy texts.

One of my mum's favourite playwrights, I knew my knowledge of it would be scrutinised. One of her party tricks is to be able to recognise any line of Shakespeare from any play and tell you which one it comes from. I don't think I'll ever be able to do that but I do need to quote in the exam.

It is a great tragedy by the famous William Shakespeare and it does make you think. My teacher asked whether I'm enjoying it and I'm not entirely sure yet. I love the characters but every single one seems to overreact in this alternate reality. Cordelia seems too love interested to be real compared to her harsh sisters who seem heartless until they find Edmund who they fight over. You feel sorry for Regan and Goneril whilst at the same time grateful that they are getting what they deserve until the final scene.

My favourite character has to be the Fool for no particular reason that I can explain apart from the fact she makes no sense. Possibly, after having read Fight Club, I see the Fool as King Lear's alternate conscience but whatever part she plays I think the Fool is the best.

However I did surprise myself how much I could understand. I haven't read Shakespeare for so long but once you start looking for the one line in each section that has no metaphorical elements, it all starts to make sense. Yes the language was difficult but once you have a dictionary by your side, they are no longer a problem. I did find myself wanting to analyse the language development in King Lear but I knew I needed to concentrate on the plot during my first read through. Although writing down the plot summary did become tedious, it developed my understanding of the text immensely.

I did see the play before I started reading the play which really helped with my understanding of who the characters were and the basic plot but reading the play brought so many new things alive that I'd missed in the live performance. The play I went to see did stay very closely with the actual text which has helped me make greater links.

Thanks,
Hope you enjoyed my latest blog even though I will probably look back and be embarrassed by my initial interpretations. Oh well, it's out there now...