Blog Post #15: The Slayer Chronicles First Kill by Heather Brewer- Archetypes

***SPOILER ALERT*** 
In the book, The Slayer Chronicles First Kill, the main character, Joss, is a vampire slayer in training. Joss witnesses his sister Cecile being murdered when he was just 10 years old. Joss know cannot stand the fact that she died because he thinks it is all his fault. Now his uncle Abraham, who is kind of one of the "leaders" of the slayer society, is training Joss who is now 13, to be a slayer. Joss had to go through his purifacation which is when he can't eat or sleep for 3 full days, he can only have water. During his purification, Joss fell asleep and the slayer watching over him, Malek, was murdered by a vampire while Joss was asleep. So then, Joss got purified the old fashion way, being whipped. Another character, Sirus, defends Joss after being whipped, Abraham wanted him to train immidately but Sirus stood up for him and did not let him train until he was fully healed. Sirus also has a daugther named Kat who is developing some kind of relationship with Joss.

I think in this book, Joss is definetely the hero. Joss displays courage. He will stop at nothing to hunt down that vampire that killed Cecile. Joss is brave, and fearless, everytime something tries to stop him, he thinks about Cecile, and that makes him man up immidately. Cecile is like Joss's medicine. He loved her so much, when she died, everyone mostly him, was devistated. Joss sacrificed many things. For one thing, he went through pain to become a slayer. Instead of walking away from his training, he sacrificed his life possibly, (since he is only 13 Sirus said he was lucky to be alive) instead of walking away and forgetting about Cecile, he held his head high and stepped forward. He was whipped 10 times but then, he still wanted to train after he went through all that pain.

I think in this book, Sirus is kind of the mentor. I say kind of because in the beginning, Joss looked up to Sirus, but when Joss got to the mountain to train, he looked up to Malek more. But now since Malek died, Joss looks up to Sirus. Joss respects Sirus and his choices. During the book, Sirus is kind to Joss, he stands up for what he believes him, and Sirus shows courage and bravery. I think Joss and Sirus are alike in many ways. One example of when Sirus shows bravery is when he practically yells at Abraham to not let Joss train because he is hurt. And for Joss, he was brave when he got whipped 10 times!!! Joss really appreciates what Sirus does for him as well, he doesn't say it, but by the way the author describes the looks Joss gives Sirus, you can tell Joss looks at Sirus as a good influence, a mentor. Sirus had lots of experience, the book never says exactly how long, but by the way Sirus knows how to handle Abraham, you tell infer he as been in the society for a long time.

The shadow in this story is just vampires in general. The vampires are the whole reason why this slayer society was created, why Malek died, and why Joss is going through all this pain and sorrow in the first place. Vampires are cruel things that feed on living beings, and it is down right wrong. I get how in stories some vampires don't want to be a vampire and feed on animals, or from Heather Brewer's series before this series, feed on blood bags from a hospital like Vlad in the Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, it may still hurt people in some ways, but its better than just straight up killing them. It represents the darker side of human nature because they rely on others to survive, literally. They hunt down human beings and act like it's something natural, I get that some know it's wrong and don't want to, but some vampires don't care about others and just do it sometimes and feed on people whenever they feel like it. Vampires are the reason why Cecile is dead and why Joss is practically haunted every night.

I think the shapeshifter in this story is definetely Abraham. Abraham seems like the evil person most of the time, but so far in the story he doesn't seem completely evil. Abraham might have whipped Joss until he was unconcious, but he is helping him get revenge for Cecile's death. The reason why Abraham is the shapeshifter is because one minute he seems like he might actually care deeply for Joss, but than he goes back to only care about slaying vampires and not about his own nephew.

Blog Post #14: Glass by Ellen Hopkins- Book Review

***SPOILER ALERT***

I have recently finished the book Glass by Ellen Hopkins. I'm kinda doing an appreciation but just in my own way. In this book, Kristina/Bree gets herself wrapped up in a world of trouble. She gets kicked out of her house, her mom takes away her own baby, the cops catch her and her boyfriend with drugs, and at the end of the book... she gets arrested!!!

This book left you with a cliff hanger. It left you with Kristina getting ready for trial, and she's thinking about the future, what's going to happen in the trial, and what's going to happen if she really does get throw in jail. I apprciated that the book left you thinking about what is going to happen to her, it sort of leaves you to draw your own ending, but there is a third book in this series! I was thinking that in the next book Kristina gets thrown into jail because of all the evidence and witnesses. For one thing, the crystal meth the cops found in her car, and if the cops do blood tests on her and her boyfriend, they are obviously going to find drugs in their bodies. Another thing that will present evidence to the judge is her own mom. Her mom felt as if she was an unfit mother and pressed charges on her as well, so I'm pretty sure her mom isn't going to help Kristina this time.

What I didn't like about the ending of this book is the cliff hanger as well. It can be a good thing, you can draw your own ending, but for me, knowing there is another book in the series keeps me wondering, if what I am predicting is correct. It also makes me wonder what else is going to happen in the next book? Will life for Kristina get EVEN WORSE than it already is?!?!? The pressure makes me think about all the things that can happen in the next book. I had a lot of predictions. One was that her boyfriend Trey, is going to dump her because her relationships never last because she gets involved with the wrong people, another was that she is definetely going to jail and her mom is going to continue taking care of her son, Hunter. I think there might be another boy she likes in the next book because once Bree takes over again, there is always a boy she like worships.

Overall, I think there are many pros and cons to this ending of the book. I really can't wait to start reading the next book and see if what I thought was right!

Blog Post #13: Theme about the book GLASS by Ellen Hopkins

In the book Glass, by Ellen Hopkins, the main character Kristina or otherwise known as her alter ego, Bree, is a girl in high school that is just learning how to be sober...at least in the beginning. Throughout the book the monster grabs hold of her once again and she starts going down the wrong path...once again. She starts to visit her old friend Robyn, who is the sister of Kristina's once best friend, Trent. She then meets Trey, the guy who is giving Robyn all the meth, crystal, and glass. Bree takes over and she then starts dating Trey, who she puts all her trust in. I don't want to give to much away but she soon ends up in a really bad situation and she transforms into a totally new person, the opposite from Kristina.

In this book, Kristina gets easily influenced and takes the wrong turn and heads down a bad path. I think the message Ellen Hopkins wants to send out from this book is that you only have one life and you shouldn't waste it. I beileve she wants us to understand how hard life gets when you don't do the right thing, not saying you shouldn't just let loose and have fun sometimes, but you should know how far you can go til' you reach the edge. In the book Bree takes over Kristina and in this book she has to learn how to take care of her baby, but because she is always high and on drugs or smoking, she is a very unfit mother and she soon ends up in some trouble that you can hardly ever fix.

One thing I think Ellen Hopkins really stresses in this book is that when you make the wrong choices, there will be consequences. Which is exactly what happens in this book. Kristina loses her own self and she soon gets kicked out of her house, and much worse. I think one way Hopkins really shows how bad choices has consequences is how she lets the main character sort of...get away with whatever they did for a few times until they caught, so you don't really see it coming, so it makes it a good read.

In a way I also think Hopkins is spreading a message to teens telling them, this is what happens when you use drugs, or this is what happens when you are careless about things like sex. And in a way, I think she is trying to kinda scare the readers just to teach them a lesson. When I read the book I definetely learned the lesson, I really understood things like that drugs isn't a joke. I learned that doing things that you know is wrong will eventually come back to get you. I also learned from this book, that living life to the fullest, isn't what it really means. When you think of that phrase, you sort of think about trying out everything just for the sake of doing it, but after reading this book I learned it actually meant that you only have one life, so don't mess it up, live your life, enjoy everything that comes along, but don't ruin it.