Book 3 Project

Specials by Scott Westerfed
Final Rating: 7 out of 10

This is a deleted scene right after Shay and Tally have been turned into Specials. They are flying on their hover boards and experimenting with their new abilities. Tally’s point of view--

“Shay-la, wait for me!” Tally yelled, her voice ringing out among the trees.

Tally giggled at the sound of her voice. It was clear with perfect pronunciation. The sharp but beautiful notes echoed around the forest. Tally could just barely see Shay’s outline ahead of her, gliding gracefully on her hover board, darting in and out of site behind the trees. But, what Tally could see was perfect. Everything was vibrant and sharp. No detail escaped her gaze. Tally felt everything with an icy clarity: the brittle, freezing wind across her bare hands, the shifting gravities that pressed her feet against the hoverboard. (Pg. 3)

“Geez Tally-wa get your board moving already,” replied Shay as she dashed past Tally in a whirlwind of long dark hair. “Enjoy our new life!”

Tally grinned and nimbly hopped on her hover board in response. The propelling fans on the bottom began to whirl quicker and quietly to lift her in the air but Tally could still hear it. Just like she could hear a distant trickle of water off to her side or the faint rustle of leaves in the cool evening breeze. Although she noticed the lack of brash noises made by animals. When she used to come out in the forest when she was an Ugly she could always spot animals and hear the birds chipping, but that was the difference. The animals knew when fierce predators were around and had intelligently hidden or run away from Tally’s presence. After all, Specials were the ultimate predators.

Delighted yells sounded throughout the air as Shay dove and dipped on her board. Icicles whipped past in glittering streaks, and moonlight silvered the world, like an old, colorless moview come flickering to life (Pg 4). Tally tried to follow her example but her heart wasn’t in it anymore. She ran her tongue over her teeth, feeling the sharp canine edges cut at her soft skin. They were unnatural. Meant to inspire fear into those she hunted. Tally remembered when she was a Pretty. One step better than being an Ugly, a Pretty’s whole life was centered on having fun and being, well, pretty. Was it worth it to become such a fearsome creature?

Shaking her head, Tally cleared her mind of those bubble-headed thoughts. Of course being a Special was worth it. She had highly enhanced senses and abilities. She got to keep Shay as her friend. For if Shay was made special and Tally wasn’t, they would never see each other again. Tally tried to keep her mind off of all the people she left behind. But she couldn’t help but wallow in sorrow.

Tally’s hands began to tremble and her board stopped moving. “Shay? Do you wish we weren’t turned into Specials?” she whispered. Shay would hear.

“Why would you say that? Keep your head filled with icy thoughts Tally. Being Special is special. I never want to change back to being a soft, weak, bubble-headed Pretty,” Shay replied harshly as she zoomed to a stop in front of Tally.

The moon light draped over Shay’s face and Tally could see the harsh beautiful features. They were those of a hunter, a deadly ruthless hunter. They were those of Tally’s face as well.

Shay’s pointed look settled on Tally and she realized she needed to reply. “Oh Shay you’re right. I hated being a bubble-head,” she added fiercely. Pretties went about their life unaware of what happened around them. That was the problem. The lessons that were injected in their brains kept their thoughts harmless and fun loving. It was much better to be Special where everything was in icy clarity. She liked being special, being outside and and icy and better (Pg 6).

“Let’s go Tally,” Shay said gently. “I saw a waterfall a few miles away. Race you there!”

“Ha I’m coming Shay-la! No way I will let you win!” She called as she moved her board into motion.

Tally whipped past the trees and felt the surge of adrenalin knowing that she was in no danger because her body was perfect and she was flawless. She was Special.

 

 

Villains (Reflection 10)

Villians are interesting because they can be so almost otherworldly. True villians do horrible things that are worthy of taking notice of. It's not like you casully encounter a villian walking down the street everyday. Usually their backstories are interesting and compelling. At least in my case, I always want to know what it was that pushed them over the edge. I feel that in stories they usually reflect the culture of the current time. Or in the reader's case, their worst nightmare. If I'm going to read and believe a story, I have to be scared of the villian. Or at least a little concerned about them.

I can think of many villians like Voldemort and Sauron but the most memorable villian to me is the Joker. Now, I'm not a huge superhero junkie (although I do enjoy a good superhero movie every now and then) but The Joker has left the most lasting impression. He does absolutely the most horrible things, constantly killing and wreaking havok for seemingly no reason. He is probably certafiably insane. But this is so compelling. I want to know why he is that why, why he goes to such extreme measures. But he kind of has this outlook on life that rings true. I am always startled at his quote about human nature:

 "To them, you’re just a freak, like me! They need you right now, but when they don’t, they’ll cast you out, like a leper! You see, their morals, their code, it’s a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They’re only as good as the world allows them to be. I’ll show you. When the chips are down, these… these civilized people, they’ll eat each other. See, I’m not a monster. I’m just ahead of the curve."

- The Joker (http://www.buzzpirates.com/2009/06/the-13-best-quotes-by-the-joker-in-the-dark-night-heath-ledger-lives-on/)

He has a poor outlook about the selfish nature of people that sometimes is very true. Plus, through his almost goofy childlike ways, he's just a villian I love to hate.

Great Moments (Reflection 9)

Tally and her friends have just recently been turned into Specials, the things they used to loath when they were Uglies then Pretties. They go to an Uglies party where they plan on crashing it to find people who are wanted for rebelling against the government. Throughout this scene, Tally is thinking about how great it is now that she has been turned into a special when the music from the party interrupts her thoughts. She says, "Uglies were always noisy," (6). This is a big idea even though it is an understated quote. Tally now completely distances herself from when she used to be an Ugly. This is important because the whole first book of the series is about her fighting to stay and Ugly and not be turned into a Pretty. Her entire point of view has been altered.

Shay and Tally sneak into an old armory to steal weapons. Someone spots them there and Shay picks up a bottle amoung the racks of deadly weapons and throws it to the ground were it shatters. A silvery liquid seeps and and beins to spread and eat everything it touches. Shay says it is "hunger, in nano form. It eats pretty much everything, and makes more of itself." (111). This is a great moment because of the tension. Our protagonists are in major peril with no way out so readers worry about what will happen.

Before Shay releases the liquid, Tally finds a biowarfar filter mask. It is revealed that "the whole Rusty culture had been undone by one artificial oil-eating bacterium" (102). This is very important because the Rusty culture is supposed to represent our time now, since this book is in the future. The author alludes to what he predicts our downfall will be: something of our own makeing, for our own greed.

Top 5 (Reflection 8)

My Top 5 Favorite Series'

The Moral Instruments

This trilogy is about a young girl named Clary who's life is compeltely normal until she starts seeing strange creatures. He life is then thrown into chaos when her mother disappears and she is taken in by a race of peopel called "Shadow Hunters" who live to protect humanity from demons. Clary delves into her past to find out where her mother is, what role Clary has to play, and what she is, because she definately isn't human.

 

These books were fast paced and suprising which kept me interested. I love the twists and turns.

 

RIYL: Twilight, Beautiful Creatures, or Divergent.

Movie Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc4CiTvQ-YE
 

 

 

The Hunger Games

In this distopian society, the Capital rules over all. This a place, where in order to prevent rebellion, 24 kids are randomly choosen to compete in a competition: A fight to the death. Katniss Everdeen is thrown into the mix when she volunteers in place of her little sister. She must fight to stay alive as well as fall in love along the way.

 

I love this series. The characters just seem so interesting and dynamic that I can't help but love them. The storyline is completely different from anything I have ever heard of before and is truely captivating.

 

RIYL: The Mortal Instruments, Harry Potter, or any distopia

Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plts4kivGzE

 

 

 

The Mistborn Trilogy

Born into poorness and poverty, Vin must fight to stay alive, but that seems to be difficult when people like her are hunted. In this distopian world where a mysterious dictator rules over all, there are such people as Mistborn: those who are born with the ability to Alomance or control metals. Vin finds herself taken in by one of the strongest Mistborn there ever was. He agrees to teach her with one contition. She must aid his attempt at overthrowing the government.

 

I loved this series. I was very suprised with myself though because this is very fantasy and I don't always like that. The characters are so endearing that I just couldn't help cheering them on and the plot was full of some of the most game-changing twists that I have ever experienced.

 

 

RIYL: High fantasy, Eragon, Pendragon

Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0TOVHEnfe0

 



The Chemical Garden

In a world where men die at the age of 25 and women at 20, everyone must fight to stay alive. Due to an outbreak everyone dies very young. Rhine, a girl just 16 years old, is kidnapped to be married to a rich man who wishes to be happy after the death of his first wife by filling the void with multiple wives. Soon, a plot is discovered as Rhine realizes that his father intends to experiement on her and her sisterwives to find a cure. Time is running out and she intends to leave before he is able.

 

Having only read the first book in the series, Wither, I found that I enjoyed it imensly. I can tell that this series will be very riviting and keep me on my toes.

 

RIYL: Hunger Games, mysteries, as well as distopias

Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJD_C0eh_K8

 







The Gallagher Girls

This series is all about spies. Cammie Morgan is a young teenage girl who is like anyone else except for one thing, she goes to Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, a school for spies. A mysterious company is after Cammie and no one is sure why. Cammie must look into her past, investigate her father's disapperance, and evade capture, as well as solve her boy drama along the way.

 

This series was such a fun read. It is comically written but also has an in depth plot that keeps readers wanting to hear more.

 

RIYL: The Heist Society, espionage books

 

Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTokHWds6rc

 

Maximum Ride

 

This series is about a young group of kids constantly on the run from an evil organization known as "The School". The kicker? These kids are part bird, part human. They have wings. Max, the female protagonist must keep her family together while attempting to stay alive.

 

I love this series. I read it in middle school because the books are directed towards a younger audience but I will always remember how much I liked it. The plot is just so interesting and James Patterson, the author, just gives Max such a funny internal voice that it is so entertaining.

 

RIYL: Sci-fi books, Artimis Fowl, or Witch and Wizard

 

Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwW3GRvhSfY

Book 2 Project

I chose to do a self-generated art project for my second book, Wither, by Laurn DeStefano. I hadn't originally planned to draw something, but I was messing around and happened to like what I ended up producing. The theme of the two pictures is a guilded bird cage. This is a symbol that is common throughout the entire book. The idea is that Rhine (the female protagonist) is trapped in a bird cage. No, not literally. She is trapped in a beautiful mansion though. It has everything she could possibly want. Others envy her for it, and envy her for her seemingly wonderful life. Although this is not the case. She remains trapped in a place that she doesn't want to be. Much like the bird in the guilded cage, it looks beautiful from the outside, but nevertheless the bird is trapped. Rhine is just like the bird and longs for her own freedom and happiness of her own making.

Non-fiction (Reflection 7)

I think that book does not have to be completely true to be considered non-fiction. But, it should be mostly true. Of course, some small details will not be remembered so the author may have to budge them. I hardly remember what I had for breakfast yesterday so I don’t think I would remember the exact dialog I had with someone or sensory details like how the warm air caressed my face or something like that. In regard to being labeled as a memoir, as long as it isn’t a major flat-out lie that was totally made up and holds some element of truth, then I think half-truths are ok. I don’t mind that Frey bent the truth in his story because it was still a good and uplifting story. What I do mind, is when the completely white, private school attending, never been in a gang girl writes about how hard her life was as a half Native American who was involved in gangs and drugs.  It could be labeled as non-fiction and in first person, but ifs he budges the truth too much then it is a flat out lie. For example, Mortenson said something about 60 schools being built when in reality I guess it was only about 20. That is a huge difference and I am annoyed that he felt it necessary to triple the amount.

Wither Genre (Book 2 Review 3)

My second book, Wither, is a dystopia novel. It’s set in some sort of alternate future where all girls die at the age of 20 and boys die at the age of 25 because of some unknown disease. Then it goes through how the population would have dealt with it. It could also be dabbling a bit in science fiction. Although they are unsure what is happening to the young adults, they do know why. Apparently, there was an attempt to make a generally healthier and longer-living population which succeeded . . . at first. After the first generation of “advanced humans” their children were only living to their twenties. The same with their children, then the children after them and so on. This is an element of sci-fi having to do with superhumans. Of course, since it is set in the future there are also many futuristic innovations. We have our classic holograms and moving pictures as well as alternate reality devices. There is a funky piano that projects lights and designs in the air according to the mood of the piece that is being played.

Of course, in the main story the young female protagonist falls in love which adds a romance quality to the book, although I wouldn’t categorize it as a romance (much like Nicholas Sparks does with his books) because it is not solely focused on the relationship. Instead, it is of how society has evolved to deal with the dwindling maximum age.

Although Wither dips into a few subgenres, overall it is speculative fiction. What if people only lived to be in their twenties? What if there was no known cure? There are quite a few “what if” questions that spurred the thought process for this story.

Genre Lables (Reflection 6)

My favorite genres to read are speculative fiction. I like imagining something that cannot happen in real life. I already experience one life, so why not experience another that is completely unobtainable in mine? I sometimes think that when books are non-fiction that the plots are too predictable. There are limitations to our own world but in a made up one there are none so an unpredictable twist is possible. Although, I will say that when books (usually fantasy) get too out there, I lose interest. It has something to do with the idea that the world is so complex and so completely different from our own that I have difficulty imagining it.

I have usually stayed towards this genre my whole like. I grew up reading the Magic Tree House series and Harry Potter which both have elements of speculative fiction. Occasionally I will attempt other genres (usually if gets stellar reviews from my friends/family) once I deem it a worthy read.

I personally like the genre labels. If I like one book from a certain genre, then it is a good possibility that I will like another. But, it works the other way too, unfortunately. If I don’t like a book from a certain genre, then I tend to label the whole genre as something I should stay away from. I know that this bad and I shouldn’t judge whole categories of books based off of one, but I can’t help it. This narrows my search down significantly but I could be missing books that are very enjoyable.

The Cover of "Wither" (Book 2 Review2)

I am currently reading the book Wither by Lauren Destefano. The book is about a girl named Rhine who is taken and forced to be a bride to a wealthy young man along with 2 other girls. The reason is that all women are dying at the age of 20 and men at the age of 25 because of some biological defect. It’s a stretch right? I thought so too. The supposed reason is that this man wants to live out the rest of his life in happiness and ignorance (When in reality, his father wants the girls because he wants to test on them and their children for a cure). This is bleak. And for that reason, the cover is bleak as well.

It’s sort of a dark cover, showing a young teenage girl (Rhine) in a stunning dress but she is solemnly looking away. There is also a bird in a beautiful gilded cage, probably relating to how Rhine is trapped in a beautiful place but is trapped nonetheless-- just like the bird. It is mainly dark colors with some rich undertones of scarlet, plum, and copper that almost implore the audience to see that the book is dark (Everyone dies under the age of 25 for reasons unknown and scary father-in-laws want to experiment on kidnapped brides. That seems pretty dark to me.) But, the rich colors have a redeeming tone to them which, in turn, redeems the book so that it doesn’t seem all that bad.

I personally love the existing cover. It provides just enough insight that you can kind of tell the main gist of the book but it also has an air of mystery around it that entices readers to pick it up. If there were to be another cover, perhaps it could just be the picture of the bird cage. This would allude to the book’s premise.

If you are not careful, covers can break the book but in this case, it makes it.

Movie Adaptation (Book 2 Review 1)

Adapting the book "Wither" into a movie could either be very good or very bad. There are no major special effects that would need to be made but the sets would have to be very eleborate to get the right feel for the scene. I would also say that finding the right actors/actresses would be difficult as well. All of the characters have very distinguishable traits that would need to be met so that they seem true to the character. I think the best thing to do would be to use not well known actors that way the audience can visualize the character instead of visualizing the celebrity as the character. It is always distracting when a big name celebrity is put in a movie because then you only think of them as theirselves instead of the person they are trying to portray.

There are some scenes that must be kept in the movie. One scene is when Rhine (the female protagonist) is walking down the isle with her sister wives to be married to their husband who they have never even seen before. During this scene, one of the sister wives, Cecily, is very excited and bouncy while the other, Jenna, is morose and solumn. It would be important to show these personalities so the audience can understand the different viewpoints of Rhine's situation instead of just her own thoughts. Another scene that must be kept is when Rhine tells Cecily the story of her and her twin brother before she was forcibly taken to be a bride. This would establish the reasoning for why Rhine is trying so hard to escape. The audience needs to understand why she is giving up her new cushy life to go back to harsh conditions with her much loved brother. One final scene that would need to be kept is when Gabriel goes missing but leaves a June Bean. This is subtle but an important part in the story as it is one of the only scenes where Gabriel really shows his affection for Rhine.

Book Covers (Reflection 5)

 

I usually have no opinion on book covers, unless the cover is really strange and I would be embarassed showing my friends the book. In some cases I like it one way and in others I like it the opposite way. When you take the idea of showing people in the cover, I actually don't mind the "severed" body part concept. If there is a book that shows someone with out their head or not all of their face, I like to use my imagination to picture what they look like. But on the other hand I like seeing the face that comes with the character. One thing I absolutelycannot stand is the overly girly cover. If it shows shoes and bags and clothes I will absolutely not buy it. That cover leads me to believe that the book is about trivial matters like shoes and bags and clothes. No. Just no.

                                     I can now imagine what I think the character should look like.

                                    Now I can picture the character while I am reading about her.

    I would probably never buy this. Ever.

 

I am unsure as to why, but I find that I like covers without real pictures better. I think it may be because if there isn't a real picture, then the covers are a bit more mysterious. Decoding the cover while reading the story is something I look forward to because it is just another part of the story. Although that is not the case for all books (I love the cover for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close as well as Water for Elephants and a few Nicholas Sparks novels) I find that I just like it better.

Book to Movie Adaptation Awards (Reflection 4)

Many books have been turned into movies that end up with many differing audience opinions. Here are my book to film awards.

Best movie that turned out better than the book:

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

 

I believe that The Lord of the Rings movies turned out way better than the books. I know that a lot of the content was changed so that they could fit the stories into 2-3 hour movies but I find that I like it better. The books were difficult to read but the movie sums up all of the important parts. I also just think it was an awesome series of movies.

 

Best Movie Adaptation:

Water for Elephants

 

This movie turned out to be very satisfactory because of how it was just like the book. They covered the most appropriate details in a way that made the movie flow with out getting hung up on insignificant specifics. Book readers would have been very happy with the outcome.

 

Worst Movie Adaptation:

My Sister's Keeper

 

The girl with cancer dies. Period. But apparently the producers decided to change the ending of the much loved to be something completely opposite of what was intended causing many to be upset at the drastic changes.

 

Adequate Movie Adaptation:

The Hunger Games

 

I love the Hunger Games. The book that is. I just sorta like the movie. It followed the book alright but there were some details that I felt were important that they left out or changed. I know that they may not have been detriment to the plot and therefore could be changed to save time, money, ect. but it was just bothersome. Yes, I was one of the fans in the theater yelling "That didn't happen in the book!" when Katniss bought her mockingjay pin instead of being gifted it.

 

Best Dramatic Change from Book to Movie:

Twilight: Breaking Dawn part II

 

I was always so-so on the Twilight books. They were interesting and different but the final one killed me. There was a huge build up to a battle scene that ended up hanging me out to dry from the lack of action. Where was the mauling and killing? The movie turn around completely with a fun twist that incorporated my much wanted fight scene (complete with character death) without changing the plot. Kudos to the director who's decision that was.