Soul Screamers - Exam

The soul. Something cherished by all, and Rachel Vincent was able to capture its importance in her book My Soul to Take, a mystery/romance fiction novel.

Rachel has created a new world that focuses on four main characters, Kaylee Cavanaugh who is portrayed  as the average high school girl who tends to scream when someone dies, the only problem is she screams before the person dies and swears that they are covered in a black shroud. Emma, Kaylee’s best friend has known about the screaming for a while only she thinks it’s just a panic attack. Nash, however, knows better. He knows that Kaylee isn’t human because neither he nor his brother, Todd, is. Nash, Kaylee, and Todd are all Bean Sidhe’s, also known as Banshees’. Only Todd has died and has now become a Reaper. Rachel does a magnificent job of introducing each character separately and slowly giving their back story to help keep the reader intrigued. The book starts with Kaylee and Emma sneaking into a club, where they run into Nash, who has a sudden interest in Kaylee. This is a unique way for the main characters to become acquainted, however, it seems somewhat cliché to have “the hottest guy…”(19) getting a sudden interest in  a girl who thinks she’s invisible.

Rachel effortlessly introduces the reader to this new world that contains creatures of the unknown. She captures the reader’s attention with her detailed description and suspense. She gives very few details to the audience about why young girls are dropping dead like flies, but she shares just enough information to make the story a page turner until the truth is revealed. In the book, Kaylee asks Todd to do the unthinkable and look at his boss’ list, the master list, which determines when people die and how. When Todd tells Kaylee what he has found, the author doesn’t unveil why they weren’t supposed to die or who killed them until later in the book. “‘So what about the list?’ ‘They weren’t there.’ … ‘Not one of those girls was supposed to die.’” (189-90). By keeping secrets about the characters and the plot throughout the book, the author is able to create a steady flow of suspense that holds the reader in place. Even though this technique creates suspense, it can also slow the story down which may tempt the reader to skip ahead to a faster scene.

The author’s purpose is clearly to create a setting where her audience can become a part of a new world. She accomplishes this objective by combining everyday life with this new world she has crafted, the Netherworld. “That fine gray mist settled into place around me, over everything normal, though that was more a feeling than physical fact. The strange, misshapen creatures I couldn’t focus on before were suddenly everywhere, interspersed with and in some cases overlaying the human crowd, ogling me just like the students and parents, but from the far side of the grayness.” (213). In this scene, the author keeps the normal student/teacher crowd at the memorial as she draws in the creatures from the Netherworld while Kaylee is screaming. This scene allows the reader to see the crowd as it fogs and new disturbing creatures appear. The author has only two major weaknesses in her book: she starts with a cliché in the beginning of her story and has scenes that can be too slow.

My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent deserves 4 soul-wrenching screams out of 5. This rating is appropriate because she developed a strong story line with new unsuspecting turns, suspense, and relatable characters that help draw the reader in and hold them there. Don’t miss the next book in Rachel Vincent‘s Soul Screamers Series, My Soul to Save.

Top 5

Blog 7

In my mind, which is very chaotic, as long as 90% of the book is true then its non-fiction because to be honest no one is going to remember every single little detail that has happened in their live. However, they shouldn’t through in some ridiculous scene that wouldn’t fit the rest of the story or purposefully over dramatis something.
I don’t think the little bit that Frey and Mortenson bent their story’s is really anything to fuss over. Frey was adding some action to his story to help keep his readers interested. Mortenson’s book was true but I do agree that he needed to return all the money he stole. Even though the money had nothing really to do with his story, so I don’t think it should have really affected his book very much.

I’m going to be very blunt. David Shields is an IDOIT, period. I understand his ability to create something new out of the old, but the way he did it was just flat out dumb. He is completely plagiarizing. Plus, the fact that he didn’t even want to give credit where its do, make him look very ignorant. To make it even worse even though his publisher made him put credit in the back he still made it so it could be easily taken out.

In the end I think we need to just tell the truth and not lie. 

Keep the Unimaginable, Imaginable

I feel like Literary Fiction is less worthy of our time than Genre Fiction. Literary Fiction has the ability to put over 50% of its readers to sleep (I have fallen asleep reading a Literary Fiction…multiple times). When Genre Fiction has the ability to make the readers attached to the characters themselves, go through the adventure with them, making the book nearly impossible to put down.  To be honest though I would rather keep Literary Fiction in schools because the second we start pulling Genre Fiction into the schools the stories will lose their excitement. If Genre Fiction would to be put into the school curriculum we, as students, would begin to hate those books too. When you start putting questions like “What was the author’s purpose here? What is the tone/mood in this piece? ” to a book, you begin to break down parts of a book that NO ONE (at least no student) really cares about. As readers we want to at least try to enjoy the book, and if we take the books we do enjoy and start ripping them to shreds, just to understand why the author wrote it that way, you lose all enjoyment of that story. If we really wanted to know why a book was written we would look it up ourselves. We, as readers, are just glad we had the chance to experience the story that has come to life, through the authors thoughts. That’s what makes the school books so…annoyingly dull, but I would rather the schools stay the same and throw in an independent read every once in a while, then to pick at the heart of a piece that never need to be pulled apart in the first place. Keeping the unimaginable land and creatures imaginable, keeps the story alive, NOT picking at it like it’s a hunk of meat.  

The Hunger Games

Book 2

“Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor!”– Effie.

            The odds of the hunger games are 1 to 24. This Katniss and the fans of the book know all too well. When the Movie finally came out every Hunger Game fan couldn’t wait to see the story come alive. How do you make it come alive?

First you would have to find a way to make each character real. This means a long search for the right actors and actresses. Then you would have to recreate each district especially the capital. It is the main scene except for the games themselves. Within the capital you would have to show how well they all live; making their wardrobes a big deal. The next task would be making the stage for the Hunger Games.  

The first scene that MUST stay is when Katniss volunteers as tribute in order to save her 12 year old sister. Second would be when Katniss threatens/shows-off to the Gamemakers; getting her a score of 11. Thirdly, when the games really beginning; Standing on the platforms, getting ready to run, and avoiding the blood bath. And lastly I think another needed scene is when Katniss get attacked by the Gamemaker’s flames.

One scene that doesn’t need to be in the movie would be the scene when Katniss and Gale are in the woods. Another would be to cut when Peeta and Katniss are on the train you can show them on it, to show they moved to the capital but what happens on the train isn’t that important. Also Gale doesn’t pop up much in this book so it wouldn’t really be necessary to introduce him yet.

“Happy Hunger Games…”

Book One Project

Shiver  by Maggie Stiefvater

The best way to expand the audience would be bringing a common love story between a human and werewolf to life.  I believe this story is best illustrated by making this book into a movie. Before the movie is made though there will be four contests. Each with an unimaginable reward.

The first contest would be held on Facebook under the Shiver page. The goal will be for a fan to come up with a place that would be the best place to film the movie. They will have to put up a picture of that place on the page. Then they would need to explain how it relates to the book and why the movie should be filmed there. The winner of this contest will get to go on a vacation with their family to the place they choose. The trip would be free to the winner and up to five family members.

The second contest would be to write a scene. The director would choose one scene from the book and start it. He would put out the started scene and let the fans finish it. The scene that the director chooses will be the winner. The winner will get the chance to meet all the actors from the movie and their whole family will receive free admission into the movie with free drinks and popcorn.

The third contest would be for a fan to rewrite the ending of one of the three books. Then the author, Maggie, would choose her favorite ending for each book. The three winners will get to spend the day with her and get writing tips from her.

The fourth contest would be based in high schools across the country. For any student that completes reading the first book, they will get a plastic mug that shows a wolf howling when it’s cold and will show the human character when its warm. Any student that completes the second book will get a t-shirt with their choice of design. When they complete the third book, they will get their book signed by the author and also get a 50% discount on their tickets for each of the three movies.

Now, for the movie here are two major ideas the audience needs to know. One that the werewolves stay human all summer and wolves all winter. It’s also said that sooner or later they will be only wolves, no more and no less. The second idea is that Grace was attacked by wolves but didn’t change into a wolf. Within the movie, there should be these four main scenes.

One – Sam saving Grace.

Is how the book starts out and would be a great way to grab the viewers’ attention. In this scene Grace is a little kid who gets attacked by the wolves, who live in the woods behind her house. Sam, being one of the wolves, he watched them attack her until he couldn’t take it anymore and stopped them. “The pack fell back from me, wary. They growled at me, no longer one of them, and they snarled over their prey. I thought she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen, a tiny, bloody angel in the snow, and they were going to destroy her. I saw it, I saw her, in a way I’d never seen anything before. And I stopped it.” (Sam-5)

Two – Sam getting shot and really meeting Grace.

Sam had been watching Grace ever since he saved her. Years later, the pack did it again to a boy named Jack. This attack triggered fear in the town which caused them to gather a hunting party and go after the wolves. During the hunt, Grace makes up a story about her friend being in the woods hoping to stop them from hitting “her” wolf. This lie, however, didn’t work. She knew the instant he was shot and went looking for him. He was on her back porch as a human lying against the door bleeding from the shoulder. But she knew it was “her” wolf from his eyes. Those yellow eyes. “My breath caught painfully in my throat as I moved still closer, hesitant. His beautiful ruff was gone and he was naked, but I knew it was my wolf even before he opened his eyes. His pale yellow eyes, so familiar, flicked open at the sound of my approach, but he didn’t move. Red was smeared from his ear to his desperately human shoulders – deadly war paint.” (Grace-60)

Three – Sam and Grace going to the candy shop and running into Olivia.

Ever since the second attack, Sam has been human and Jack is a newly born werewolf, who is looking for a cure. As the summer is beginning to end, Sam is running out of time with Grace and wishes to take her out on a real date. So, they leave town on an hour drive to Sam’s favorite candy shop. Here, Sam gets Grace to really open up and use her wolf nose to smell the food. In this scene, it’s an escape from their reality and puts them into their own world together. “Peppermint swirled into my nostrils, sharp as glass, then raspberry, almost too sweet, like too-ripe fruit. Apple, crisp and pure. Nuts, buttery, warm, earthy, like Sam. The subtle, mild scent of white chocolate. Oh, God, some sort of mocha, rich and dark and sinful.” (Grace-280)

Four – Sam coming back in the dead of winter, after the “cure.”

Grace thought a cure would be to overheat the wolf by having an extremely high fever.  For this cure, they decided to try injecting bacterial meningitis, while he was a human, the only problem was he had already shifted. They had to come up with a way to get Sam to shift back even though it was supposed to be his last year as a human. “I settled on the floor and whispered to Sam, ‘I want you to listen to me, if you can.’ I leaned the side of my face against his ruff and remembered the way the yellow leaves, the color of Sam’s eyes, flutter and twisted, crashed butterflies, on their way to the ground…I remembered Sam.” (Grace-369)  When they do get him to shift; they were only able to inject half of the ‘cure’ into blood stream. Once Jack died from the cure, Grace feared the same had happened to Sam, since he was back in the woods with no help.

By making this book into a movie and holding these contests, fans will have an opportunity to interact with the storyline more directly. For the people who didn’t know about the book, they would get wind of the contest and read the books to compete. The movie would help the fans of the book to get to know the characters better and they would get a chance to help affect how the story will play out.

For the movie itself, I think it should be set up in Montana in the mountains, when it snowing.

The actor I would choose for Sam’s character would be Chace Crawford.

For Grace, I would pick Emma Watson.

For Grace’s friends (Olivia and Rachel) I would use…

And for Jack and Isabel I would use…

What are books?

Books are lives. 

Of the lost, the forgotten, the story tellers and of course the bored. With books each new story becomes a part of someone's life. There is always that one book that gets someone addicted to reading. In that one book it could be a story about dragons, elves, wolves, a sage, an old inventor, or even the holocaust. But there is something in that one book that they can relate to, or gets to them. Without them realizing it; that one book, with that event that got to them, could be the very reason they live their life the way they do. Books are the person without a conscience. One of the easiest ways for a reader to help find the book that will help to define them is by the cover. Without the cover clearly visible, calling to them how will they find it? If they were in a room full of books and were looking at book after book it would be easy to find “their” book. But if they were on a kindle with title after title popping out at them, they could pass “their” book without a second glance.

The idea that the books are alive and apart of us is also the idea of Nancy Jo Sales. Nancy says that books are dying just like we are but with never really be gone. I agree with her. The smell, feel, and look of the book grabs the attention of the readers and pulls them in faster than an electronic book can. The electronic books can also be a hazel the way you have to turn the pages and the lettering can be smaller, hurting your eyes. It may be easier to carry around but it’s not as appealing as a real, living, breathing book. It’s also not as easy for someone to see what you’re reading without feeling uncomfortable.

Every book I have ever read has become a part of my life. You may wonder how I know this but if I didn't read all the books I have then I wouldn't love writing so much. Most likely I wouldn’t even be thinking about writing as a career without books.

Why do I read? To be honest I could probably rant on and on about all the basic things like its entertaining, fills time and how it helps when you’re bored. I read not just because I enjoy it but for me it has two main major effects. The first for me is reading is almost a escape to another world. It can calm me when I’m angry, sad or tired of all the drama in the world. When my day goes completely wrong I begin to read and become a part of another world, another life and another problem that is easily fixed. Reading is my second world that is completely perfect even fit he character is in a live and death situation. But, enough about that. The second reason I read is for my writing. I could write all day and night about random crap but if I didn’t read I wouldn’t know how to make the storyline flow and would now how to add suspense. By reading all the time it inspires me to write and give me ideas on how to continue my newest story. That is why I read.