Post #8: Book 4 Independent Reading Project

@sidney_crecelius rated Cryer's Cross:  ★★★★☆  

 

I have recently read James Patterson's book Beach Road and I enjoyed the mystery novel but I was more interested in the romance aspect that was described in the synopsis of the book and I never really got much out of it. But when I read Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann.. WOW! This was a book that always kept my attention. McMann made me care about her characters. I felt like I knew Kendall and Jacian. I could feel the tension between them when they were in the car together or when they were playing soccer. McMann made the characters relatable so we as readers could put ourselves in our shoes. Things that they went through and felt are normal human everyday life things. It wasn't some out of the ordinary story, some sort of fantasy that could never happen. I think that is something I also enjoyed about Beach Road; both of the stories were realistic.

A woman named Emily with her own book review site wrote: 'I'm not really into horror. It tends to give me nightmares. Yes, actual nightmares complete with monsters. I guess my psyche never got the memo that those were supposed to go away after like the age of 8. But, the creepiness factor was just enough that it kept me turning pages to see what happened, but not quite enough that I had to sleep with the light on.' I would have to agree with her review as well. It is quite a thriller that will have you curled up in your bed or chair wanting to hide your eyes with a pillow so you don't see what going to happen next. You feel like you are right there with Kendal!

One negative side of the character development that Emily did touch on was: '[T]he OCD component of Kendall's character was underdeveloped. I don't have OCD, and frankly, I don't know anyone that has OCD, but it seemed that the only thing that Kendall was obsessed about was the pattern of the desks in the room. And, other than her need to get to school early to fix the desks every morning, it really didn't impact her life all that much.' I think the OCD side of Kendal was really just there to help with the flow of the book and help with some of the plot so it did at sometimes seem forced. But I thought it was cute how Jacian picked up on it and Kendal's OCD was one of the things that brought her and Jacian closer.

As a book as whole I thought it was a good story and well developed characters but it was a bit of a let complicated read. You can tell it was a young adult award winning novel and not a Paperback Fiction award winning novel. I appreciated the romance and the thriller aspects of the book and really enjoyed this book as my final book for the semester. This class has really helped my interest in reading grow and I can't wait to continue reading :)



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Post #7: Patterson vs. McMann

When I picked out my book three I was looking for a mystery novel with a romance aspect in it. Unfortunately, the synopsis of the book misleads me into thinking that’s what I was getting myself in to. James Patterson’s novel, Beach Road, was mostly just a crime solving. A man was charged with cold blood murder and the two lawyers who were supposedly ex-lovers helped show he was innocent. I was disappointed because I wanted to romance drama in the book. Besides that fact I thought Beach Road was a well written book….very easy to follow. In my fourth book that I am reading right now, Cryer’s Cross, I am very satisfied so far. The teenage girl, Kendall’s classmate has been missing for the past year and the people of this small are still healing because this isn’t normal in Cryer’s Cross, when suddenly Kendall’s boyfriends (but she doesn’t like to call it that) goes missing too! What the! I am enjoying this book a lot better because I like to hear the romance part of the story and Kendall constantly talks about how much she misses Nico, her “boyfriend”. But then there is this other boy in the story named Jacian. I think Kendall and Jacian are going to end up liking each other. Right now they act like they hate each other but I think they will end up having feelings for each other. I have enjoyed McMann’s mystery-love story more than Patterson’s attempt into adding romance in to his crime novel. Round of applause to Lisa McMann!

Post #6: Book 3 Listicle

5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Live in the Hamptons 

1.       People don’t wear hats.

Interestingly enough, in the Hamptons instead of wear a hat on your head people instead just buy them to keep them on a shelf. “It’s unlucky to wear a hat for the first time,” says professional athlete Dante Halleyville. So instead of wearing them he keeps them locked up in a cabinet in his room to never be worn. Why waste the money on a hat if you aren’t even going to wear it? That is like going to Jeff Ruby’s Steak House, ordering a 60 dollar steak, and then not eating it! A hat is meant to be worn to keep the sun out of your face. Dante’s grandmother even backs him up on it, when Kate, Dante’s attorney, asks Marie Scott is Dante ever wore the hats…MULTIPLE…outside, “’Never!’ says Scott so loudly that the whole courtroom feels the fury in it,” (Patterson 252). Pshh, sounds ridiculous.

2.       There is no such thing as backyard basketball.

Growing up in a suburban area there is usually a group of kids that hangout, play some hopscotch, ride bikes, do lemonade stands, and maybe play a little pickup basketball. But no, not in the Hamptons. If you try to have a little competition you will end up being held at gun point. No smack talk is allowed, no rough housing, because you might be seen as a threat. Might as well not go to get coffee in the morning because of you order the same thing as the person in front of you, uh oh, you better watch out that might whip out a PNG and accuse you of copying them. The Hamptons is just not a family friendly environment.

3.       Citizens of the Hamptons are more likely to become a drug addict. 

Anywhere you go you are going to find a group of people that are invested in to the drug world. It’s inevitable. But it seems as if in The Hampton everywhere you sure there is a drug dealer, or someone that knows a drug dealer, or someone that buys drug from a drug dealer. Multiple people are murdered in this novel because of drugs. Those that live in the Hamptons typically have a lot of money. Usually too much money that they don’t know what to do with it so they begin to experiment with drugs. The police, especially Officer Hugo Lindgren, will let you get away with just about everything if you give them what they want.

4.       The jobs of those in the Hamptons are not valued.

Of course with the economy these days, jobs are tight. You have to perform at your best in order to maintain or obtain a job. It can get pretty competitive. But in the Hamptons, they will toss you overboard as soon as you don’t do one thing the way they want you to do it. For instance: Kate Costello an attorney at Walmark, Reid, and Blundell, one of New York’s most honored white-shoe law firms was asked to represent a man named Randall Kane. Now, Randall Kane was a very rich man that gave this law firm a lot of money. When Kate refuses to represent him because of the horrible rape crimes he committed her boss, Mr. Reid fired her right on the spot. Who would blame Kate for not wanting to represent a ruthless sexual predator? Those that live in the Hamptons are obsessed with money and will once again do anything to get it.

5.       You will die.

There were 4 murders, 3 gun fights, and 2 bar crawls all in a matter of 2 weeks at the Hamptons. The amount of risk in the Hamptons is equivalent to downtown Detroit at 2 a.m. on a Friday night. Who would think that the Hamptons (picture on the right) would have anything to do with murder? Truth is, a man who was guilty almost go put away for life for committing the murders because a police officer in the Hamptons was paid off by a main drug dealer to set Dante Haleyville. Bottom line is, just because the Hamptons is a rich, beautiful part of the country, the Hamptons really isn’t the safest place to live.