Yay

The Pact ENDING *random cheers from the audience*

I don't know why people are so against Jodi Picoult. I've heard from someone that she shows no characterization. But, really? There's such an incredible amount of depth, I nearly cried at different points in the book, especially near the end. I'm so glad I read this book. I should read more of her books, but I guess I should do it outside of independent reading since I need to read a variety. Anyway, the last few sections of the book were so powerful. I really want to blurt out the ending, but I think it's better to pretend to be unaware of pretty much everyone already having read the book, and say that I don't want to give away the ending.
I love what Chris does though. He stands in front of the state, doing what no lawyer would ever have their clients do, and spoke the truth. I was totally rooting for him during that, because I really imagined how I would feel if I was him. I would hate to see all these people acting like they know more than me about a traumatic event when I was actually there and they weren't...at all.
I just can't help but love it. Chris risks the entire case because he doesn't want to win on lies, but rather on truth.
I love Jodi Picoult because of this book, regardless of shallow people that don't think she can't write for her life.

More Pact-ness

In all my slow reading, I'm finally starting to get to the end of this book. Everything is getting to the center of the story. In part, Michael and Gus are started to get a relationship, which is bound to ruin the two families. I also am starting to figure out what actually happened before Emily's death. It's intriguing, though, to listen to the two lawyers at the trial for Chris, and hear how Picoult has effectively set out the dialogue in such an intense manner. It's gotten me quite hooked into finishing this book, and it's caused me to really connect more with Chris. Reading about his past and how he hears Emily speak about suicide. The tension that builds up in Chris, the thought that someone so close to him is about to commit suicide, and he can't do anything to stop it. I really understand that helpless feeling, and it really, in a way, makes me feel like Chris in those sections. I don't know how it actually turns out, but I still am excited to find out the truth of this tragedy.

The Pact--Again

The book becomes increasingly interesting as I get deeper into the story of Emily and Chris. From a love that was pretty much started at birth, things have gradually changed. Emily locks herself up in her own emotion. She's afraid to talk to her parents, or even her "true love," Chris. Knowing Chris since childhood, she sees him as more of a brother, and doesn't want a sexual relationship with him. Conversely, Chris frequently tries to act sexual with her. Emily just wants to cuddle with him, like when they were kids, but that always leads to Chris' way. Emily only suffers through these actions because she knows when it's all over they can lie together, like when they were kids. It's a twisted relationship, but she can't bring herself to tell anyone. She's pressured by expectations of her parents and Chris' parents to be together.
Chris is blind to Emily's sadness, to be blunt.
Emily tries to ease into conversation with Chris at one point, about how he would deal with his future not going as planned, actually managing to hint that something wasn't right as she asks, "What if I didn't want to be...to be with you anymore?" Chris lightly responds with the claim that he would commit suicide, and kissed her, stupidly asking why they were talking about it with no real feelings of worry.
It's not much of a surprise why Emily can't talk about this with Chris. He shows very little understanding of who Emily really is, as she never truly showed her real self while under the pressure of her parents, and, even of Chris.

Back to where the base of the story takes place, Melanie goes into Emily's room, and takes down all things connected to Chris, along with Emily's diary, and burns them with her bitter feelings of vengeance.
The parents of Emily and Chris both wanted Emily and Chris to be together, so those two pretty much tied the family together. Now, with Emily gone, the link is severed, and Melanie's feelings of Chris, the boy she'd known since his birth, have gone in the complete opposite direction, as if it was as simple as everything he ever did in the past had just been lies.

The Pact--I'm such a slow reader >.>

Chris is all different now. And I don't really like it. In jail, his parents have been visiting him occasionally, though it seems like Chris isn't too big on the idea of talking to his dad anymore. At the same time, his relationship with his mom has been different. He became more independent, in a way, and doesn't want his parents help anymore. It's weird, but the way Chris went from being a frightened little boy to this kind of reminds me of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. When Ender's sister visits him after he's been in battle school for so long, he doesn't act like the same innocent boy as he used to, and it gives off a cold feeling to his sister. This book is showing the same feeling. I don't particularly enjoy it, though, because I don't like reading about relationships basically falling apart. I don't like reading about how everything was all in the past, and time can't be rewound.

The Pact--Another section ._.

So, I really tried to relax while reading this time, something I haven't done in quite a while. I guess I should do it more often, since I really get pulled into the story.
Admittedly, I've been reading at a slow pace, so this entry is starting from part 2 of the book, when I should have read a lot more. Oh well, it was still amazing to read. Chris was celebrating his 18th birthday, which created a powerful wave of emotion when the cops came to the house and arrested him.
I felt nearly at the brink of tears as I sat in the police car, completely terrified of what would happen to me next.
It really does make me imagine, though, what it would be like to be arrested, to spend a night in jail for the first time in my life, and then to know I'd be there for a long time. I imagine myself with an overwhelming homesickness, along with the intense feeling that I have to be in a nightmare. A lot of things give me that surreal-vibe though, so I could be off, though it sounds like what Chris feels when he suddenly is charged of murder and thrown in a place like a jail cell.
What I find to be somewhat twisted, is how Melanie makes breakfast cheerfully and surprises James with a nice trip...to Chris's trial.
I've seen, from a 1st to 3rd person perspective, how fast closest friends can completely despise each other. Reading these scenes connects me to those moments, for it shows what a thick wall is formed between people that were once so close. It's saddening, and makes me think, if I was one of Chris's parents, how nostalgic I'd feel about before this whole incident with Emily happened, when Emily's parents were my best friends.

I keep taking on biased views on whether or not Chris is guilty. I feel bad for him when reading about the cops arresting him, but then I become suspicious when reading about the past and how he would get annoyed at how Emily wouldn't be as sexual with him as he wanted. I'm quite curious as to whether or not he's truly guilty, for the text has me guessing in circles.

The Pact--Section

It's pretty interesting reading about how the parents handle the incident. The mother of Emily saddens me. One event that keeps happening being the phone calls from Emily's friends. When one first calls for Emily, the mother, Melanie, simply hangs up. She shows her denial of the situation, especially with the next call for Emily, to which she whispers, "Stop" and hangs up. It really is sad to read though, I can sort of relate to how she feels, not so much the denial part though. I sort of know the feeling of losing someone, since I've dealt with coming dangerously close to losing a sibling, and even that makes me imagine truly losing her.
Besides Melanie, James, the father of Emily's boyfriend, has been acting interesting too. It sort of reminds me of a relative of mine. He grew up around that same anti-emotions time, and also had that depression-is-easy to-overcome mindset. I guess I can sort of feel a connection to Emily and her boyfriend, Chris' families.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

I don't care how old this book is, it shouldn't be a suprise to anyone that knows me that I don't keep up with book series. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling, which I'm sure everyone knows. I did start to read this years ago, and then I completely stopped. Oh well, as old as this book is, it's still a compelling read. I'm a huge fantasy fanatic, so I already loved Harry Potter when the series began. I think this book was great, but I can't really relate to Harry. No, I don't mean I can't relate to living in a world of wizards, but rather to his personality. Thinking about this chamber, the basilisk, pretty much every scary thing in Harry Potter, I can't imagine myself facing it. So, naturally, it feels a bit strange to read about how he actually bear all this. Honestly, being in those hallways at the school is enough to scare me out of my mind. I know, the hallways aren't really an issue for the book, so I'll get back on topic.
As I was typing, Harry's valiant behavior is intriguing to read. To picture myself as a person that brave is already quite an adventure, but then to picture myself staring down mutant spiders is just incredible. I think I agree more with Ron's personality. If I saw a sign, like a trail of spiders, I think I'd be already too creeped out to follow it, especially when it's a dark forest.
Aside from the spiders and giant basilisk, the book had that necessary step towards mystery and humour.
This book is great for fantasy lovers, and anyone who likes mysteriously creepy storylines that are far from ordinary.

I don't really have much to say about this book, seeing as how Harry's actions all involve being brave in some way, and how I can't help but think about how I would chicken out at every point Harry would take a chance.

I think J.K. Rowling did a good job setting up these interesting storylines, making it scary (for me) and still adding a bit of humour with the house elf, Dobby, and that "famous" coward Lockhart.

Well, thinking a bit more about it, I guess I can add in my thoughts about the chamber itself. It sort of feels like a strange nightmare. It's pretty fine when he first gets to Ginny, and talks to Riddle, but once he runs off into the tunnels of the chambers, things naturally get scarier. I feel like, if I had enough courage to even be in that chamber, I'd wanna somehow escape the basilisk without going into the tunnels. It feels strangely safer where Ginny is lying, I guess because, for one thing, it doesn't give off such a lonely feeling, and also because I wouldn't wanna be trapped in tunnels with a giant snake tailing me, but rather out in the open where I can run around like a maniac and scream for help.

Ender's Game

The book Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card was a very intriguing book. I'm really not a fan of science fiction, but I managed to get myself to read this book. It turned out to be more fantasy tied than I expected. The book started off slow, but I really became hooked as I continued reading. The Mind Game that Ender plays kept me thinking, as I kept trying to visualize the interesting dream-like events. Not to say that the rest of the book wasn't interesting, I was simply more interested in the more fantastic and mysterious portions. But, to move on away from that, the actual science fiction was great. The author put in a lot of visualization on the feelings and actions of the characters, providing a nice idea for what life was like in this time period. I have never read any of the sequels to this book, so I remain curious as to where the book leads to.
I felt a very empathetic connection to the characters. It was touching to read about Valentine's relationship with Ender, but I almost felt like Valentine when she realized how she no longer knew her brother. As for the Mind Game, I sort of felt drawn to the world Ender was in, the strange obstacles and the mysterious findings. Ender's returning to the game frequently made it feel like having a dream over and over, but every action performed is imprinted into the dream and remains there the next time around. It actually felt sort of depressing, but that's just because I drifted too much from what was actually happening to the idea of not being able to go back. Ender kills that giant, and it's still dead when he returns. It almost gives off a lonely feeling, to know that once you conquer everything, there is nothing left to return to.
Strangely enough, it keeps me thinking about a game I play, when you play outside of the story, you can destroy all the obstacles in the area, some providing more life into the game with movements, and once everything is destroyed, the area is still, and you just feel a sort of emptiness, it feels fake, and the joy is sucked out by the idea that you are alone.
The same feeling was created with everyone on earth going to live on another planet. I've had a dream where the apocalypse came and we had to go live in outer space. Despite being with so many people, it felt extremely depressing to be living a completely new life, devoid of all ties to my old life, not to mention how depressing space is on its own.
I'm going off topic here, so, to finish this off, I felt there was a lot of depth to each event, each relationship, and I think anyone with a love for science fiction, and even fantasy and some mystery, would thoroughly enjoy this book.

~~~~Just a side note~~~~
After immersing myself in this book, I tried reading Ender's Shadow to get some background on the other little genius, but, not being an actual sequel, but rather a compliment to the book, I felt rather uninterested. I don't know how it works for other readers, but once I become emotionally bound to a book, reading the ending pretty much severs the ties along with my interest, and as much as I think about how great the book was the first time around, I feel totally uninterested in reading it a second time.

The Pact—Beginning

I read some of my classmates' reviews on this book, or maybe just one review, anyway, it seemed interesting, so I bought it. Even the first few pages gave me a good feeling. After reading up to the part in the hospital, I decided to stop and read the blurb on the back. A "suicidal pact" sounded quite intriguing.
Anyway, I found the language in this book to be quite realistic. It would describe all the masks the characters wear, and then give a mini exposé on how they really feel. Picoult didn't hold back on the characters' feelings when writing this, which seemed quite refreshing compared to other books that weren't so focused on emotions. I have to say, I was caught off guard with how realistic it was, particularly the language used by and to describe the characters' feelings.
So, I haven't gotten very far in this book, but it certainly has an attractive quality about it, and I'm looking forward to finding out how this writing style guides the story.