Phew! After a panic-stricken twenty-four hours of not knowing what had happened the wonderful characters after their untimely plummet off a cliff I can finally confirm that they ARE alive! Obviously if you've already read this then you'll know. But I'm sure some of you haven't and were of course incredibly worried for the well-being of Alex, Sabina and Edward.
Man was this an exciting chapter! Strangely enough most of it took place underwater, and must only have spanned a couple of minutes, but Horowitz really drew out the tension (in a good way) and my eyes were speeding along the lines like a 100 metre sprinter. Now that was an elaborate simile. So we pick up the second where we left off, the car is falling off the edge of a cliff, heading for the icy loch below. It hits the surface and carries on down until it hits the bottom. There were two things that happened which hadn't occurred to me. One was that Horowitz points out that they fall deep down into the bottom of the loch: I'd just assumed that it wouldn't be that deep and that if they could manage to get out of the car it would be easy to get to the surface. I didn't consider that if, by some miracle, they escaped the car, they'd have to keep swimming so far to the surface. I know it's a really small thing, but the idea of being that deep down to me just made it so much worse. Lucky it wasn't Loch Ness or they might have the 'monster' to contend with as well ;)
What also surprised me was that when they were underwater the car stopped a lot of water from coming in. I suppose I'd assumed again that the water would come crashing in instantly, but they had a few minutes to work out a way of escaping, as the water only came through "the vents" (not completely sure which bits these are as I know relatively little about cars). I don't know if this is what would really happen - although I've heard that Horowitz tries to get everything in his novels as close to the truth as possible - but putting this pressure of time on Alex to work out a way to escape really built up tension, and if Ihadn't been sitting on my bed I'd have been sitting on the edgeof my seat!
Something I should mention before I go on is Edward Pleasure being unconscious. That was certainly not good. Given the name of the title, 'Death and Champagne', I was pretty sure someone was going to die. I highly doubted it was Alex - unless the 350 odd pages were just a really long funeral - and so I now thought it would be Edward. Alex (I'd like to say and Sabina, but unfortunately she didn't really do much) was desperately trying to find a way out, and eventually decided to smash the window with Edward's walking stick, as this would let the doors open (not sure how, maybe the water would cut off the electric locking system or something). Anyway he and Sabina both get out, but Alex then has to go round and get Edward out of his seat and swim the twenty/thirty metres up to the top!!
The worst thing was how it was practically pitch black: it was night outside and they were at the bottom of the lake. I thought that was really horrible - saving someone's life must be bad enough, but to do it in the dark? No thank you.
When Alex is struggling to free Edward he has a little voice in the back of his head telling him to leave Edward and save himself. A lot of the time in these books when Alex is saving someone (he, like Harry, has a bit of a "saving-people-thing" (Hermione's words, not mine) he just does it, and I suppose this makes him your traditional 'hero' character. By giving this dimension of self-preservation does, Horowitz manages to do two things. He humanises Alex, as sometimes we could see him as this selfless person who time and again nearly dies for his country, a hero, but one we have no hope of imitating: this thought shows us that he isn't perfect either, he has thoughts he's not proud of and that he's scared too. On the other hand, the fact that he thinks about leaving Edward but still keeps dragging him up to the surface maintains this strong, worthy image we have of him. If Alex had actually left Edward down there, whilst aware that he was still alive, our perception of him would have been altered, we would have been disillusioned. Whilst we need a character we can relate to, we also need one we can believe in: to know that if they can do something we can too.
Alex and Sabina re-surface and drag Edward to the shore. Eventually ressussitating him, they know they have to get out of the cold. By some strange, fortunate coincidence, a man in a van saw them fall and has come down to help them and takes them to hospital wher they're all better. Alex notes how coincidental this was - how almost like magic (don't get me started) this apparition seemed to be. Hmm. Forshadowing I think?
Finally, what seems to be possibly the most important part of the chapter is mnetion at the end. Alex saw something just before the 'accident'. I looked back and there was a hint of this, but I don't remember picking up on it: he'd heard a cracking noise and seen a man standing on the hillside with some sort of gun aiming at them. It seems he'd aimed to puncture a tyre which would be all the car needed to go spinning out of control, making it look like a complete accident. Alex wonders though if he's making it up: after having been shot at so many times, maybe he's etting paranoid, and he decides not to tell the Pleasures. I bet you that's a mistake. Last time he ignored suspicious signs Edward was blown up and nearly died.
Alex also wonders if it was Desmond McCain behind it, but dismisses it quickly, thinking that being beaten at cards is not quite enough of a reason to want someone dead. But having your video game beaten was enough for Cray. I don't know what I think anymore, because I smell something fishy about McCain and he certainly seems the type to be a bad guy; on the other hand he seems too much like Damian Cray, something I know Horowitz wouldn't do by accident, which makes me think he wants us to believe McCain is bad but really he's going to blow our minds at the last minute and say Sabina was behind it the whole time... or something like that anyway.
I can't wait to read the next chapter, but I won't have much time tomorrow as the big Royal Wedding is taking place and it's Street Partys galore, but I'm sure I'll get round to it!
Thursday 28 April 2011
Wednesday 27 April 2011
Crocodile Tears - Chapter 4: Off-road vehicle
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! WHAT THE F...LIP DID I JUST READ??? WHYYY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME ANTHONY HOROWITZ???
Pretty uch the entire of the chapter is eclipsed by the final line here. It was a very short chapter so there's not very much to talk about. Alex leaves the Billiard room feeling pretty guilty about beating McCain of his £25,000, but he soon runs into Edward Pleasure and they wait for Sabina to find them before they leave, as they all feel a bit awkward.
They have a conversation which is very probably foreshadowing for some future event: it's about some homework Alex is doing about GM (genetically modified) crops. They're saying that the companies who control this modification process or whatever it is have the ability to have a huge amount of power and money by forcing farmers to pay them for competitive seeds, and also by modifying them so they don't reproduce and therefore farmers have no option but to buy the seeds from these companies. Edward is a journalist and believes he could write something about this, and just as he says this Alex sees McCain close to them. He must have heard what they were saying and looks very worried. What are the chances he's A) behind one of these companies, B) about to get into one of these companies or C) masterminding an evil plan that could seriously be damaged by Edward writing about them.
McCain is not being set up as a good guy here, especially when the three leave and they all agree that something had given them the creeps about that party and they had left feeling awkward and very uncomfortable.
But then the worst thing of the novel so far happens (also strengthening my belief that McCain is a bad guy):
"The accident was so sudden, so unexpected, that none of them even realised what was happening until it was almost over"
There has been very thick snow, and Kilmore Castle is on a mountain, so they're driving down these tight hairpin bends and somehow something goes wrong and they're skidding on the ice, swinging around on the icy road, until they slide off and hang over the edge, teetering for a second before the inevitable:
"For half a second the car hung there.
Then it pitched forward and plunged down."
HJNRE[BGJRE[IBJWer k/hfsuhwe
NHJE;KWATHJE45HTE5U4JNHF S
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
WHAT?? THIS CANNOT HAPPEN IN CHAPTER FOUR!! IF SABINA OR EDWARD DIE THEN I WILL CRY FOREVER!!!
This has to be Desmond McCain's work.
Pretty uch the entire of the chapter is eclipsed by the final line here. It was a very short chapter so there's not very much to talk about. Alex leaves the Billiard room feeling pretty guilty about beating McCain of his £25,000, but he soon runs into Edward Pleasure and they wait for Sabina to find them before they leave, as they all feel a bit awkward.
They have a conversation which is very probably foreshadowing for some future event: it's about some homework Alex is doing about GM (genetically modified) crops. They're saying that the companies who control this modification process or whatever it is have the ability to have a huge amount of power and money by forcing farmers to pay them for competitive seeds, and also by modifying them so they don't reproduce and therefore farmers have no option but to buy the seeds from these companies. Edward is a journalist and believes he could write something about this, and just as he says this Alex sees McCain close to them. He must have heard what they were saying and looks very worried. What are the chances he's A) behind one of these companies, B) about to get into one of these companies or C) masterminding an evil plan that could seriously be damaged by Edward writing about them.
McCain is not being set up as a good guy here, especially when the three leave and they all agree that something had given them the creeps about that party and they had left feeling awkward and very uncomfortable.
But then the worst thing of the novel so far happens (also strengthening my belief that McCain is a bad guy):
"The accident was so sudden, so unexpected, that none of them even realised what was happening until it was almost over"
There has been very thick snow, and Kilmore Castle is on a mountain, so they're driving down these tight hairpin bends and somehow something goes wrong and they're skidding on the ice, swinging around on the icy road, until they slide off and hang over the edge, teetering for a second before the inevitable:
"For half a second the car hung there.
Then it pitched forward and plunged down."
HJNRE[BGJRE[IBJWer k/hfsuhwe
NHJE;KWATHJE45HTE5U4JNHF S
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
WHAT?? THIS CANNOT HAPPEN IN CHAPTER FOUR!! IF SABINA OR EDWARD DIE THEN I WILL CRY FOREVER!!!
This has to be Desmond McCain's work.
Tuesday 26 April 2011
Crocodile Tears - Chapter 3: Cards Before Midnight
I am already regretting reading this one chapter at a time. This didn't end on a cliff-hanger but seriously I LOVE THESE BOOKS SO MUCH!!! Let's get straight into it shall we?
Alex, Sabina and Edward are still at this party, and it's obvious that Desmond McCain is insanely rich. If there's one thing that Alex comes across frequently, it's rich people. Unfortunately it's usually rich people who are trying to kill him, so this doesn't bode well for Desmond. Especially after what I cunningly deduced in the last chapter ;) Horowitz describes the lavish wealth that McCain evidently has and how he seemed to have drenched this party in money. As raffle prizes you can win a car, a motorbike or a 2 WEEK TRIP TO THE CARIBBEAN. Where is this man, somebody please introduce me! Anyway the point is that all the money is going to charity, and that's another suspicious thing about Desmond McCain. All the people in the Alex Rider books who give money to charity tend to be bad guys. It's just the way it is. So already it seems we've found our one for this adventure.
Anywaaaay, after a possibly scathing remark about ABBA - which is not so great because I was practically brought up with those songs and find them cheesy but awesome - Alex and Sabina head outside to get away for a bit. It's never really been confirmed what their relationship is exactly. They're close friends, but are they too close? There are some hints at various points but Horowitz never addresses it fully. It's certainly not central to the plot, and I suppose what with all that's been going on in Alex's life it's not like he needs the added worry of a girlfriend, but that doesn't mean he can't feel, and they seem good together.
Sabina seems to me like she wants something more: especially when she says that she misses him when she's away (she moved to San Francisco after the events in book 4), but either Alex just doesn't pick up on it or he's honestly not into her in that way, it's not clear.
Anyhoo they go to look for her dad as they're ready to leave, and they go different ways. Alex walks into this huge Casino room, and it's here that he meets Desmond McCain and where I started shouting at him for being FRUSTRATINGLY DETERMINED TO WIN. Basically McCain spots Alex hovering and invites him to join a game of Texas Hold 'em. Naturally Alex knows how to play (I swear this guy knows everything) and sits down with them. Desmond is awfully reminiscent of Damian Cray, and if I didn't think more highly of Horowitz, I'd say he'd run out of villain ideas, but he's better than that. Maybe this man, who has been so clearly set up as a potential 'baddie' is actually the opposite, and Horowitz is preparing to blow our minds with his genius.
I certainly hope this is the case, because what happens next is so comparable to Alex vs Cray that you cannot miss it. They're playing this game and the stakes are high. Alex had no money with him, obv, so McCain lent him some of his own. I don't really understand the rules of the game, but basically, Alex beats McCain (after a lot of tension building, and me screaming at Alex to please stop playing because this can only end badly) in front of a whole audience. One of the themes of these books is how adults react to being beaten/outwitted by children. It's not usually a good one. Here, McCain has been beaten, but also lost thousands and thousands of pounds too. With Damian Cray, the guy was promoting a new video game and Alex nearly beat it in his first go, in front of a huge audience, until Cray sneakily jerked Alex's arm, making his character die. See the similarity?
Alex, as always when he ends up winning lots of money from a rich man he doesn't trust (which seems to happen a lot) asks to just give it to charity, which is even more of a slap in the face to McCain, as it's his money, and the charity in question is his charity, First Aid (who, it's noted, helped the nuclear explosion we read about in Chapter 1). He brushes it off, naturally, as he's hosting this party and must be seen to be gracious, but Alex humiliated him and knows it. Think about the black tulips Alex. Think about the tulips. This cannot end well.
Alex, Sabina and Edward are still at this party, and it's obvious that Desmond McCain is insanely rich. If there's one thing that Alex comes across frequently, it's rich people. Unfortunately it's usually rich people who are trying to kill him, so this doesn't bode well for Desmond. Especially after what I cunningly deduced in the last chapter ;) Horowitz describes the lavish wealth that McCain evidently has and how he seemed to have drenched this party in money. As raffle prizes you can win a car, a motorbike or a 2 WEEK TRIP TO THE CARIBBEAN. Where is this man, somebody please introduce me! Anyway the point is that all the money is going to charity, and that's another suspicious thing about Desmond McCain. All the people in the Alex Rider books who give money to charity tend to be bad guys. It's just the way it is. So already it seems we've found our one for this adventure.
Anywaaaay, after a possibly scathing remark about ABBA - which is not so great because I was practically brought up with those songs and find them cheesy but awesome - Alex and Sabina head outside to get away for a bit. It's never really been confirmed what their relationship is exactly. They're close friends, but are they too close? There are some hints at various points but Horowitz never addresses it fully. It's certainly not central to the plot, and I suppose what with all that's been going on in Alex's life it's not like he needs the added worry of a girlfriend, but that doesn't mean he can't feel, and they seem good together.
Sabina seems to me like she wants something more: especially when she says that she misses him when she's away (she moved to San Francisco after the events in book 4), but either Alex just doesn't pick up on it or he's honestly not into her in that way, it's not clear.
Anyhoo they go to look for her dad as they're ready to leave, and they go different ways. Alex walks into this huge Casino room, and it's here that he meets Desmond McCain and where I started shouting at him for being FRUSTRATINGLY DETERMINED TO WIN. Basically McCain spots Alex hovering and invites him to join a game of Texas Hold 'em. Naturally Alex knows how to play (I swear this guy knows everything) and sits down with them. Desmond is awfully reminiscent of Damian Cray, and if I didn't think more highly of Horowitz, I'd say he'd run out of villain ideas, but he's better than that. Maybe this man, who has been so clearly set up as a potential 'baddie' is actually the opposite, and Horowitz is preparing to blow our minds with his genius.
I certainly hope this is the case, because what happens next is so comparable to Alex vs Cray that you cannot miss it. They're playing this game and the stakes are high. Alex had no money with him, obv, so McCain lent him some of his own. I don't really understand the rules of the game, but basically, Alex beats McCain (after a lot of tension building, and me screaming at Alex to please stop playing because this can only end badly) in front of a whole audience. One of the themes of these books is how adults react to being beaten/outwitted by children. It's not usually a good one. Here, McCain has been beaten, but also lost thousands and thousands of pounds too. With Damian Cray, the guy was promoting a new video game and Alex nearly beat it in his first go, in front of a huge audience, until Cray sneakily jerked Alex's arm, making his character die. See the similarity?
Alex, as always when he ends up winning lots of money from a rich man he doesn't trust (which seems to happen a lot) asks to just give it to charity, which is even more of a slap in the face to McCain, as it's his money, and the charity in question is his charity, First Aid (who, it's noted, helped the nuclear explosion we read about in Chapter 1). He brushes it off, naturally, as he's hosting this party and must be seen to be gracious, but Alex humiliated him and knows it. Think about the black tulips Alex. Think about the tulips. This cannot end well.
Crocodile Tears - Chapter 2: Reflections In a Mirror
Chapter 2 brings Alex Rider back into our thoughts and my heart broke a thousand times. It starts with him looking in his reflection in the mirror, and thinking about his life in the past year. It recapped over everything he's done which was good for me as I hadn't read the books for so long but I guess it was probably unnecessary for some. This bit was so awful because he is so damaged by what's happened to him: not just physically (he still has a scar from a bullet wound left in book 5) but mentally. He has these memories of being knocked out, beaten up, shot at, attacked. And then the memories of those who died: Yassen Gregorovitch, who, like Snape, turned out to be kind of good; Ash, his godfather, who betrayed his parents and blew up their plane, killing him when he was only a baby (recognise Pettigrew/Jame and Lily Potter there?) and then of course his Uncle, Ian Rider whose death started this rollercoaster-ride of a few months with MI6.
It makes you think how much he's been through, and this is why I like the books so much: like Harry Potter, the hero doesn't just pop back up each time he's knocked down (literally and metaphoriaclly), he's a little bit worse off each time, and by the end he's been hardened by these experiences. It's so realistic. I feel like I'm about to cry.
So Alex is getting ready for this big fancy party celebrating the New Year. He's on holiday with his friend (or is it more than that?) Sabina Pleasure and her family in Scotland and this rich man has invited them to his SCOTTISH CASTLE WHICH IS LATER DESCRIBED EXACTLY LIKE HOGWARTS for NYE. Sabina's mum is ill (foreshadowing maybe? Watch this space) and isn't going so it's just Alex, Sabina and her Dad. They all know Alex is a spy because he helped to track down a man who tried to kill Edward Pleasure (Dad) in book 4. This man happened to be the most famous singer on the planet, but Alex defeated him and saved the day.
Edward and Alex discuss this past, and Alex makes it clear that he wants nothing more to do about MI6. Famous Last Words. Edward tells him about the man whose house they're going to, and one thing that BLEW MY MIND AND MADE A MESS ON THE FLOOR was this: the man in question, Desmond McCain, used to be a boxer and was tipped to win some big championship, but lost in the first round to another boxer called Buddy Sangster. A year later Buddy fell under a train in New York and died. This seems like a strange accident, but not a strange when you read that one fan gave him ONE HUNDRED BLACK TULIPS!!! Ok if you haven't read the series before this won't mean anything to you. But in book 2 there was this assassin who whenenver he killed anyone he would send the family BLACK TULIPS. Edward Pleasure doesn't think there's anything wrong with this Desmond guy, but it's obvious to me that there is because he must have ORDERED THE MURDER OF BUDDY SANGSTER. If I'm wron, feel free to laugh at me, but someone as talented and detailed as Horowitz wouldn't put this in by accident. I'm going to have fun with this I can tell.
So anyway, the chapter ends with them going into the castle and Alex reading a motto that says, "You cannot defeat your enemies until you know who they are" which Alex notes seems very fitting for him. I wonder if this will come into play later? Hmmmm.
It makes you think how much he's been through, and this is why I like the books so much: like Harry Potter, the hero doesn't just pop back up each time he's knocked down (literally and metaphoriaclly), he's a little bit worse off each time, and by the end he's been hardened by these experiences. It's so realistic. I feel like I'm about to cry.
So Alex is getting ready for this big fancy party celebrating the New Year. He's on holiday with his friend (or is it more than that?) Sabina Pleasure and her family in Scotland and this rich man has invited them to his SCOTTISH CASTLE WHICH IS LATER DESCRIBED EXACTLY LIKE HOGWARTS for NYE. Sabina's mum is ill (foreshadowing maybe? Watch this space) and isn't going so it's just Alex, Sabina and her Dad. They all know Alex is a spy because he helped to track down a man who tried to kill Edward Pleasure (Dad) in book 4. This man happened to be the most famous singer on the planet, but Alex defeated him and saved the day.
Edward and Alex discuss this past, and Alex makes it clear that he wants nothing more to do about MI6. Famous Last Words. Edward tells him about the man whose house they're going to, and one thing that BLEW MY MIND AND MADE A MESS ON THE FLOOR was this: the man in question, Desmond McCain, used to be a boxer and was tipped to win some big championship, but lost in the first round to another boxer called Buddy Sangster. A year later Buddy fell under a train in New York and died. This seems like a strange accident, but not a strange when you read that one fan gave him ONE HUNDRED BLACK TULIPS!!! Ok if you haven't read the series before this won't mean anything to you. But in book 2 there was this assassin who whenenver he killed anyone he would send the family BLACK TULIPS. Edward Pleasure doesn't think there's anything wrong with this Desmond guy, but it's obvious to me that there is because he must have ORDERED THE MURDER OF BUDDY SANGSTER. If I'm wron, feel free to laugh at me, but someone as talented and detailed as Horowitz wouldn't put this in by accident. I'm going to have fun with this I can tell.
So anyway, the chapter ends with them going into the castle and Alex reading a motto that says, "You cannot defeat your enemies until you know who they are" which Alex notes seems very fitting for him. I wonder if this will come into play later? Hmmmm.
Crocodile Tears - Anthony Horowitz - Chapter 1 Fire Star
Can I just say that I am SO EXCITED for this book! I first read the Alex Rider series when I was about 14, so I was quite late in getting into them but MY GOSH THEY ARE SO GOOD. I read one to six pretty quickly, and I got seven when that came out and this one, number 8, Crocodile Tears, came out a while ago but for some reason I never read it. I know it's a children's book but anyone who's read these books will understand how friggin amazing they are. So I've decided to ration this one out. There is another one after this which I'll read once I've finished, but that's it. I need to savour it because these books, like Harry Potter are suspenseful, exciting and downright wonderful. So I'm going to do this CHAPTER BY CHAPTER: that is I'll read one chapter a day and write one post a day. It will probably kill me, as pretty much every other chapter ends on a cliff hanger, but it's worth it. So here goes!
Chapter 1: Fire Star
This Chapter, like most in the Alex Rider series opens with a stranger. Here we are following Ravi, an Indian man who works in a Nuclear Power Plant, and we know instantly that he is up to something. Alex's life, if you didn't know, has been taken over by MI6 every since he was fourteen and he has so far been sent on six missions by them, the CIA and the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, and one on his own. So we know that any cold open is going to involve some kind of dodginess that will come into play later. Watch this space.
Ravi has been told that he will be payed a lot of money if he will blow up this power station. You might be thinking why would anyone do such a thing, but Horowitz is always able to loacte the humanity of a character, and he uses this to tell us why someone might agree to such an awful task. Ravi's not particularly well off, and he has a family who he loves very much and wants to provide for them. He has been reassured that few, if any, people will be harmed in this task, and the people he is working with he believes have no reason to lie.
We follow him as he goes to work, talking to colleagues and friends about "the game last night" (I have very little knowledge/interest in sport, so I'm guessing this was football/cricket - he mentioned he wanted to go to Lords) and this humanises him, as well as knowing his background. We come to like him, but still worry about what he's doing: has he been told the whole truth or just tricked into doing this?
He goes into the main reactor room (it is described to vividly, along with everything else in these books: it's obvious that Horowitz thoroughly researches everything he writes about) and he opens this emergency door. This makes it clear that what he's doing is defintely going to harm people, as he's opening a way to the outside: allowing for radiation to leak into the open and spread. This shows us that there's something going on that neither he nor we know about. He's also been told that he'll have a 10 second gap between pressing the button and the bomb going off. That's a lie. As soon as flicks the switch the bomb detonates, killing him and all the other people in the plant, and quickly endangering the lives of everyone else in the city.
It ends describing the inevitable help coming from other countries, and we are left to imagine what happens to his family ourselves. The best line though is at the end, when Horowitz writes, "Of course, if the disaster had been greater, they [the people donating money] would have raised much, much more." This shows how we sort of suck up disaster. Think about the news: I read somewhere that last year only 8% of news reported was good news. We relish the thought that people are worse off than ourselves, and have this awful fascination with reading about the terrible things that happen when we're safe at home.
Overall, an excellent start to what looks to be an epic book, and I can't wait to read more!!
Chapter 1: Fire Star
This Chapter, like most in the Alex Rider series opens with a stranger. Here we are following Ravi, an Indian man who works in a Nuclear Power Plant, and we know instantly that he is up to something. Alex's life, if you didn't know, has been taken over by MI6 every since he was fourteen and he has so far been sent on six missions by them, the CIA and the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, and one on his own. So we know that any cold open is going to involve some kind of dodginess that will come into play later. Watch this space.
Ravi has been told that he will be payed a lot of money if he will blow up this power station. You might be thinking why would anyone do such a thing, but Horowitz is always able to loacte the humanity of a character, and he uses this to tell us why someone might agree to such an awful task. Ravi's not particularly well off, and he has a family who he loves very much and wants to provide for them. He has been reassured that few, if any, people will be harmed in this task, and the people he is working with he believes have no reason to lie.
We follow him as he goes to work, talking to colleagues and friends about "the game last night" (I have very little knowledge/interest in sport, so I'm guessing this was football/cricket - he mentioned he wanted to go to Lords) and this humanises him, as well as knowing his background. We come to like him, but still worry about what he's doing: has he been told the whole truth or just tricked into doing this?
He goes into the main reactor room (it is described to vividly, along with everything else in these books: it's obvious that Horowitz thoroughly researches everything he writes about) and he opens this emergency door. This makes it clear that what he's doing is defintely going to harm people, as he's opening a way to the outside: allowing for radiation to leak into the open and spread. This shows us that there's something going on that neither he nor we know about. He's also been told that he'll have a 10 second gap between pressing the button and the bomb going off. That's a lie. As soon as flicks the switch the bomb detonates, killing him and all the other people in the plant, and quickly endangering the lives of everyone else in the city.
It ends describing the inevitable help coming from other countries, and we are left to imagine what happens to his family ourselves. The best line though is at the end, when Horowitz writes, "Of course, if the disaster had been greater, they [the people donating money] would have raised much, much more." This shows how we sort of suck up disaster. Think about the news: I read somewhere that last year only 8% of news reported was good news. We relish the thought that people are worse off than ourselves, and have this awful fascination with reading about the terrible things that happen when we're safe at home.
Overall, an excellent start to what looks to be an epic book, and I can't wait to read more!!
The Woman In Black - Chapters 9-12 TOO MUCH SCARY!!!
DID I SAY IN THE LAST POST THAT THIS WASN'T SCARY ENOUGH??? SUSAN HILL OBVIOUSLY SAVED ALL THAT IS HORRIFIC, TERRIFYING AND DEVASTATING FOR THE FINAL FOUR CHAPTERS BECAUSE I WAS FLIPPING SCARED!!!! I take back my words from yesterday. I could NOT BEGIN TO IMAGINE what lay in store for me!! How do I begin?
Arthur returns to Eel Marsh House the next morning and surprisingly spends a whole day there completely unharmed by any supernatural beings. HOWEVER that night he is woken by Spider the dog growling at the door. He could hear a noise coming from down the hall which he recognised but couldn’t quite identify. I thought this was particularly good in increasing the tension, because not knowing what was down the corridor, relying on Arthur to describe the sound, and not being able to hear it ourselves was very powerful as it forced us to focus on what Arthur was saying, rather than if we were watching the film we’d be trying to work out what the sound was ourselves.
The sound is coming from a room which Arthur passed earlier and which he knows has a locked door. He slowly creeps up to it, building the tension by describing this sound as something from his childhood which he knew should be perfectly innocent but in this case would be perfectly terrifying if he could only work out what it was. This was interesting, as so many horror films use things related to children and make them absolutely terrifying: children's voices singing nursery rhymes, dolls (which actually were written about by Freud, explaining why they can be so scary), clowns etc. He approaches the door and cannot open it, but still hears the sound. He returns to his room and attempts to sleep, knowing again that there is someone or something else in the house with him.
The sound is coming from a room which Arthur passed earlier and which he knows has a locked door. He slowly creeps up to it, building the tension by describing this sound as something from his childhood which he knew should be perfectly innocent but in this case would be perfectly terrifying if he could only work out what it was. This was interesting, as so many horror films use things related to children and make them absolutely terrifying: children's voices singing nursery rhymes, dolls (which actually were written about by Freud, explaining why they can be so scary), clowns etc. He approaches the door and cannot open it, but still hears the sound. He returns to his room and attempts to sleep, knowing again that there is someone or something else in the house with him.
The next thing that's important is that next day he continures sorting through Mrs Drablow's papers (that's what he was supposed to do from the start) and discovers letters sent from someone called J to Alice Drablow, who obviously had a baby out of marriage and whose parents are forcing her to give it away. She doesn't want to but eventually gives it to Alice and there are papers of adoption along with these letters. Previously Arthur had found a grave with a name on it that started with J, so she obviously died here. Also, remember that child in the pony trap? Well Arthur heard that same noise again the night before, so it's obviously not human, and can I just say now that I INSTANTLY thought of a theory: THIS J PERSON IS THE WOMAN IN BLACK, SHE GAVE UP HER CHILD TO ALICE DRABLOW, THE CHILD DROWNED ON THE MARSHES, AND WHEN SHE FOUND OUT SHE DIED TOO. That is what I came up with.
Ok so later he hears this strange sound again, and he thinks he realises what it is. He walks slowly along the corridor and up to the door and - THE DOOR IS FLIPPING OPEN!!! DJFSE;HAEKESH HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?? I AM NOW SCARED FOREVER!!! Inside is A NURSERY, which is scary in every way because it's preserved as though there's a child still living there, even though they died years ago, and THE ROCKING CHAIR IN THE CORNER IS ROCKING!!!! There's no one there, it's described as though someone has just left, but WTF? Man I was scared.
That night there's a storm (wow that's original) and Arthur opens his bedroom door to venture out into the corridor, but he can sort of sense another being just walking past him. Hold me whilst I cry with fear please :[ Then there's a power cut so he's in total darkness - :O - so he can't do anything/go anywhere so he goes back to bed. When he re-awakes at dawn he decides for some reason to go outside for a walk, and Spider runs off across the marshes, no doubt trying to escape that awful place. BUT he gets stuck and starts being PULLED UNDER and Arthur tries to save him and IT'S NEARLY THE MOST HORRIBLE BIT OF THE WHOLE BOOK but then they get free, Arthur faints and then wakes up under the care of Samuel Daily who came to rescue him. PHEW! I can breathe again.
After that there's the whole explanation thing going on, and I was 100% RIGHT ABOUT MY THEORY! Only thing is that Jennet was Mrs Drablow's sister. But then Daily says the worst thing in the entire history of horror books. Every time The Woman is sighted a child dies. It is her revenge for her child dying and no one can escape from it. But this time no child seems to have died. Maybe the 'curse' is broken.
Arthur returns to London and marries Stella, his fiance who we never met previously. He begins to put the pastbehind him and they have a child and everything is happy. Then one day they're all out and the child begs to go on a carriage ride in a park. He and Stella go on board and move off. Arthur sees in the distance The Woman. She walks up to the horse pulling the carriage and scares it. The horse rears and the carriage is upturned. Stella and the boy die.
And I finally understand why Arthur reacted the way he did when asked to tell a ghost story at the beginning of the book, because not only were his experiences terrifying, but his later happiness was completely ruined by this avenging ghost who cannot bear to see anyone with something she lost. I really was not prepared.
The Woman In Black - Chapters 5-8 Not Enough Creepy
Sorry it's been so long - I was away for Easter with no access to the internet, but I have a lot of reviews from all the reading I did and so prepare to be bombarded with posts today!
I will start at the very beginning (Chapter 5 anyway), and I am pleased to say that it was definitely creepy. He goes off to Eel Marsh House after the funeral and (I may have mentioned this last time) is told that he can only access it when the tide's right... convenient. The guy taking him, Keckwick, states that he will return later to pick him up, refusing to leave him there which, you have to agree sounds worrying. So Arthur goes for a walk around the grounds and of course goes over to the graveyard, I mean why wouldn't you? That's not tempting fate at all is it? He sees the Woman again and has this inexplicable feeling of terror, runs away and locks himself inside the house. This book has so many gothic conventions it feels like it should have been written in the Nineteenth Century!
Of course, this is when it gets creepier. As the day wears on a thick, suffocating mist descendson the house and Arthur cannot see anything through the window. This obviously means that there is no way Keckwick can come and pick him up, and he's now trapped in this house with the likelihood of a ghost being nearby =S He goes outside, trying to walk back to the village instead, but nearly falls in the marshes and gets stuck, but THEN he hears this strange sound of a pony and trap and then the cry of a young child and the sound of the carriage falling and being sucked under, the child's and an adult's voices screaming the whole time. Arthur can't see anything at all, and this worked really well, making it feel claustrophobic and blind. He manages to get back to the house, but can't help the people and is left with the knowledge of their death. Keckwick comes later to save him and take him back to the inn.
So the next few chapters didn’t have that much happening. It was mainly him recovering from the terrors of the night before. After arriving in the Inn, he refused to go anywhere near Eel Marsh house ever again. Of course, the next morning he feels differently and, completely ignoring how petrified he had been the night before, he decides that he will go back again. Only this time he’s not so keen to go alone and asks around, but of course no one wants to because they’re sensible and pretty terrified of that place – although we still don’t know why.
Why is it that people like Arthur Kipps refuse to take the hints of people who know what’s going on and instead go gallivanting around trying to look impressive and then epically fail? (Don’t you just love the word gallivanting?) So anyway, after asking around about getting someone to help, he writes to his boss, updating him, and then gets insanely excited about a bike ride. Yes. A bike ride. Maybe it’s just because I used to cycle to school every day for seven years and really hated it, but I really didn’t understand his enthusiasm. I mean seriously, it’s just a bike! Then he stops of and gets excited about having some bread and cheese. This is another thing about people in books who go on journeys: all they ever seem to eat is bread and cheese. Look it up – they never bring anything else, no fruit, no meat, just bread and cheese. It’s in Heidi and Eragon and the Belgariad books. If I was having a bike ride and stopped at a pub, I would make sure to eat more than bread and cheese. Ok rant over!
He comes back, has supper with a man he met on the train, who again warns him against going back, but Arthur, stubborn as he evidently is, insists. The man therefore lends him a dog called Spider to take with him as company/protection.
As you can see I don’t have much to say except summarise what happened. I have to say that nothing important seemed to happen in these chapters, but I might just be missing something. There hasn't really been much creepiness in this book so far - I expected more after everything I'd heard from it, but hopefully it's get better as I go on.
Monday 11 April 2011
Brief sidenote...
An essay I wrote got published on my all-time favourite website, MuggleNet, and I'm putting it here just in case you want to read :]
http://www.mugglenet.com/editorials/epicpotter.shtml
http://www.mugglenet.com/editorials/epicpotter.shtml
The Woman In Black - Susan Hill - Chapters 1-4 Smells Fishy
Woo ok so onward to the next book, now that's exciting! Sort of, anyway yeah so The Woman In Black by Susan Hill. Does anyone know when this is set, because I always thought of it as Victorian, but there was this one line where the narrator referred to the Victorians/19th Century so it must be later than that. I didn't realise it was written in 1983 either - I assumed it was wriiten around the time of The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, but apparently not. Moving swiftly on... I chose this book because I've heard the stage show in London's really good, and also Daniel Radcliffe is going to be in a film of it so I thought it would be good to read it first... see how I relate everything to Harry Potter? Oh good grief I actually am obsessed aren't I?
So we start at the end, when the narrator, a man named Arthur Kipps, is a few years older (not quite sure how old, but I got the sense that he was maybe in his fifties?) and it's obvious that this memory of something awful in his past still plagues him. He's asked to tell a ghost story and practically wets himself, running out of the room and not returning until hours later. Overreaction much? I'll have to wait and see what actually happens, but this did seem a tad melodramatic. He alludes to this awful past and decides to write it down - presumably so he doesn't have to physically talk about it.
So then we go back into his past, delving into his memory (bit like a pensieve? OH MY GOSH STOP MAKING THESE CONNECTIONS!) Anywaaay he's sent to attend the funeral of a Mrs Alice Drablow and he gets on a train and tells us in detail about the train and the journey which I didn't particularly like because, with exception to HP7, I don't really like reading about long journeys. But he does discover something very fishy, and that's people's reaction when he mentions Mrs Drablow's name. She seems to have been some kind of ominous presence because they all look shifty and change the subject/stop talking altogether. Hmm. Something supernatural taking place at her house involving a woman who wears black? We studied the gothic genre of 19th century novels in Year 12, and I found it really interesting, so hopefully there'll be some of that here.
So Mr Kipps arrives in the village and is told that Mrs Drablow's house is on this sort of island thing so he has to wait for the tide to be right in order to get in there. Or out. Convenient. He's staying in an Inn, eats lots of food, talks to some men who get nervous when he mentions Mrs Drablow, and then finally goes to the funeral.
It's not until the funeral in Chapter 4 that we meet who I presume is the mysterious Woman in Black. Mysterious is certainly the word anyway. It seems that he's the only one who sees her - making me think she's supernatural or something. He describes her like this:
"The skin, and, it seemed, only the thinnest layer of flesh, was taughtly stretched and stained across her bones, so that it gleamed with a curious, blue-white sheen, and her eyes seemed sunken back into her head"
He says lots more like this and she does seem quite creepy, but then when he points her out to his colleague, Mr Jerome, he nearly faints right there and is absolutely terrified. Strange...
That's all I've read so far, and I think it was quite a slow start - nothing much happened, but I'm keeping an open mind because I've heard such good stuff about it. Anyhoo I'll keep reading and do another review in a few days!
So we start at the end, when the narrator, a man named Arthur Kipps, is a few years older (not quite sure how old, but I got the sense that he was maybe in his fifties?) and it's obvious that this memory of something awful in his past still plagues him. He's asked to tell a ghost story and practically wets himself, running out of the room and not returning until hours later. Overreaction much? I'll have to wait and see what actually happens, but this did seem a tad melodramatic. He alludes to this awful past and decides to write it down - presumably so he doesn't have to physically talk about it.
So then we go back into his past, delving into his memory (bit like a pensieve? OH MY GOSH STOP MAKING THESE CONNECTIONS!) Anywaaay he's sent to attend the funeral of a Mrs Alice Drablow and he gets on a train and tells us in detail about the train and the journey which I didn't particularly like because, with exception to HP7, I don't really like reading about long journeys. But he does discover something very fishy, and that's people's reaction when he mentions Mrs Drablow's name. She seems to have been some kind of ominous presence because they all look shifty and change the subject/stop talking altogether. Hmm. Something supernatural taking place at her house involving a woman who wears black? We studied the gothic genre of 19th century novels in Year 12, and I found it really interesting, so hopefully there'll be some of that here.
So Mr Kipps arrives in the village and is told that Mrs Drablow's house is on this sort of island thing so he has to wait for the tide to be right in order to get in there. Or out. Convenient. He's staying in an Inn, eats lots of food, talks to some men who get nervous when he mentions Mrs Drablow, and then finally goes to the funeral.
It's not until the funeral in Chapter 4 that we meet who I presume is the mysterious Woman in Black. Mysterious is certainly the word anyway. It seems that he's the only one who sees her - making me think she's supernatural or something. He describes her like this:
"The skin, and, it seemed, only the thinnest layer of flesh, was taughtly stretched and stained across her bones, so that it gleamed with a curious, blue-white sheen, and her eyes seemed sunken back into her head"
He says lots more like this and she does seem quite creepy, but then when he points her out to his colleague, Mr Jerome, he nearly faints right there and is absolutely terrified. Strange...
That's all I've read so far, and I think it was quite a slow start - nothing much happened, but I'm keeping an open mind because I've heard such good stuff about it. Anyhoo I'll keep reading and do another review in a few days!
Friday 8 April 2011
Never Let Me Go - Part 3 - Seriously Deep Stuff
Sorrrry I took longer than I intended in doing the second part of 'Part 3'! Since then I've seen the film as well so I might talk about that a bit too.
Ok so we left it where Ruth had told Kathy and Tommy that they should finally be together. Now it takes Kathy about a year to finally admit that there is any point in being with Tommy after such a long time, and this seemed a bit strange seeing as she knows how much she felt for him, but I think that maybe it's more of the fact that she'd acceoted years before that she would never be with him, and it's hard for her to think that after all this time it's hard to imagine what it would be like to actually be together. I completely understand this: the whole liking someone for ages and not expecting anything to come from it, then when it's a possibility you wonder if you really want it, or if you're happy to just keep it to yourself. It must be a scary thing.
So anyway, Ruth dies (or "completes") and Kathy becomes Tommy's carer. They get on perfectly well, and slowly they become a couple. It was great to read this, to know that they get time together, but it was bittersweet (I think that word is thrown around a lot, but I can't think of a word that describes it better). Tommy is seriously weak, and it's obvious that if he does another donation he will die. It becomes increasingly important to go and visit the mysterious 'Madame', but they certainly take their time in doing so.
They finally go to find her, and whilst I had some hope at the beginning it was completely dashed by the end of the Chapter. Kathy and Tommy went to her house and were invited in - it was mentioned how she tried to walk past them without touching them again - and she is forced to reveal the truth: the rumour was just that: a rumour with no truth to it. There is no way that Kathy and Tommy - or indeed the various other couples who came to her - could buy more time. The fact is that 'normal' people simply don't see them as humans. They are clones, unentitled (is that a word?) to any rights, and made to serve their purpose. This strightforward acknowledgment was pretty harsh. What happens if you're told that the point of your life is to do die (Harry Potter again... ;] )?
But then a person comes out of the shadows and it turns out to be Miss Emily (their headmistress at Hailsham) who goes deeper into it and shows how their world is not dissimilar to ours. Hailsham, which has recently been closed down, was the first humane place to raise these children. Before, and still now, the 'schools' were more like prisons or hospitals - maybe even farms - that were used just to keep the children until they were old enough to donate. The idea of this is just horrific, but you can see how soemthing like that would happen. Obviously I relate to the characters in the book, but how would I feel if we really had clones who healed diseases like cancer? The honest answer is that I don't know. I'd like to think that I wouldn't be repulsed by them, that I would treat them the same, because they are still human... but then if it was me who had cancer would I really refuse life-saving treatment just to help these people?
That leads on to the main question that Miss Emily and Madame have been trying to prove right: do the clones have souls? I have absolutely no idea what I think, because they were technically man-made and I can't see how men and women could make souls... and yet I've read about these characters and they're no different to humans with their thoughts, emotions, feelings etc, which seems to prove that they do. Maybe souls are not 'physical' things but essensces, something within you that nothing and no one can make or change. Wow I'm getting into existentialism here, all very deep stuff!
So anyway remember what Tommy said about the Gallery where all their art went being used to determine if two people were in love? Well he was semi-right. The Gallery is in fact used to attempt to prove the children have souls. Miss Emily argues that they cannot have produced such personal things, such as poetry and meaningful art, if they didn't have souls. However they failed to make people believe, and owing to circumstances I won't get into, people became unwilling to accept the presence of the clones and refused to listen to these arguments. Hailsham was closed down, and Miss Emily and Madame had fallen back to square one. Here I expected there to be some sort of miraculous loophole that would let these two off, but there was nothing. Kathy and Tommy had to leave.
And it was so hard to accept that Tommy was going to die - and that Kathy would too. I suppose I just didn't think it would end that way. The bit that realy got me (and I think it was done really well in the film) was on their drive back to the hospital, and Tommy got out of the car, walked into a field and just shouted. No words, just a piercing shriek of pain and anguish. This was so much more effective than any words, and when Kathy ran to him and they clung on to each other it was so desperately sad. I have to admit I was in floods by this point. So they go back to the hospital with this clock ticking over their heads and Tommy is given notice for his next donation. We know this is it, he's not going to survive another one, and as we prepare for the inevitable he tells Kathy that he doesn't want her to be his carer anymore. It's not because he doesn't love her, but just because he can't bear to put her through the agony of seeing him in so much pain, without being able to help. I suppose this was a good thing to do, but it just brought their separation closer and OH MY GOSH I'M NEARLY CRYING JUST THINKING ABOUT IT.
So Kathy leaves. And we both know it's the last time she'll ever see him. She gets notice a little later that he has died, and then we seem to join the narrator Kathy in her real time, rather than being stuck in her path. I don't think I mentioned that when they were children they had this idea that everything you lost somehow ends up in Norfolk, and we leave Kathy at the side of a road in Norfolk, staring out over a field. She says the most poignant, heartbreaking thing in the entire book. She stands there and imagines that all the things she lost when she was younger are in this field, and then that if she waits long enough, she'll see Tommy walk towards her over the horizon. She doesn't let herself imagine anything else, but feels that if he were ever to come back that's where he'd be.
Kathy tells us that she's recieved her notice for her first donation, and we know that soon she will die too. It's strange, as I couldn't tell if I was glad or not. She's the last of her friends left, and if she dies she can hopefully be reunited with Tommy; but she's such a good person that she doesn't deserve to die.
The book ends in this poignant note, and left me feeling really strange - sad and not sad at the same time. The story really made me think (which I think is important for any story) about humanity, how humans treat each other, but also about relationships between different people and in a way what it is to love.
Ok so the next book I'll be doing is The Woman in Black by Susan Hill and I've just started it, so should do the next post in a few days hopefully :)
Ok so we left it where Ruth had told Kathy and Tommy that they should finally be together. Now it takes Kathy about a year to finally admit that there is any point in being with Tommy after such a long time, and this seemed a bit strange seeing as she knows how much she felt for him, but I think that maybe it's more of the fact that she'd acceoted years before that she would never be with him, and it's hard for her to think that after all this time it's hard to imagine what it would be like to actually be together. I completely understand this: the whole liking someone for ages and not expecting anything to come from it, then when it's a possibility you wonder if you really want it, or if you're happy to just keep it to yourself. It must be a scary thing.
So anyway, Ruth dies (or "completes") and Kathy becomes Tommy's carer. They get on perfectly well, and slowly they become a couple. It was great to read this, to know that they get time together, but it was bittersweet (I think that word is thrown around a lot, but I can't think of a word that describes it better). Tommy is seriously weak, and it's obvious that if he does another donation he will die. It becomes increasingly important to go and visit the mysterious 'Madame', but they certainly take their time in doing so.
They finally go to find her, and whilst I had some hope at the beginning it was completely dashed by the end of the Chapter. Kathy and Tommy went to her house and were invited in - it was mentioned how she tried to walk past them without touching them again - and she is forced to reveal the truth: the rumour was just that: a rumour with no truth to it. There is no way that Kathy and Tommy - or indeed the various other couples who came to her - could buy more time. The fact is that 'normal' people simply don't see them as humans. They are clones, unentitled (is that a word?) to any rights, and made to serve their purpose. This strightforward acknowledgment was pretty harsh. What happens if you're told that the point of your life is to do die (Harry Potter again... ;] )?
But then a person comes out of the shadows and it turns out to be Miss Emily (their headmistress at Hailsham) who goes deeper into it and shows how their world is not dissimilar to ours. Hailsham, which has recently been closed down, was the first humane place to raise these children. Before, and still now, the 'schools' were more like prisons or hospitals - maybe even farms - that were used just to keep the children until they were old enough to donate. The idea of this is just horrific, but you can see how soemthing like that would happen. Obviously I relate to the characters in the book, but how would I feel if we really had clones who healed diseases like cancer? The honest answer is that I don't know. I'd like to think that I wouldn't be repulsed by them, that I would treat them the same, because they are still human... but then if it was me who had cancer would I really refuse life-saving treatment just to help these people?
That leads on to the main question that Miss Emily and Madame have been trying to prove right: do the clones have souls? I have absolutely no idea what I think, because they were technically man-made and I can't see how men and women could make souls... and yet I've read about these characters and they're no different to humans with their thoughts, emotions, feelings etc, which seems to prove that they do. Maybe souls are not 'physical' things but essensces, something within you that nothing and no one can make or change. Wow I'm getting into existentialism here, all very deep stuff!
So anyway remember what Tommy said about the Gallery where all their art went being used to determine if two people were in love? Well he was semi-right. The Gallery is in fact used to attempt to prove the children have souls. Miss Emily argues that they cannot have produced such personal things, such as poetry and meaningful art, if they didn't have souls. However they failed to make people believe, and owing to circumstances I won't get into, people became unwilling to accept the presence of the clones and refused to listen to these arguments. Hailsham was closed down, and Miss Emily and Madame had fallen back to square one. Here I expected there to be some sort of miraculous loophole that would let these two off, but there was nothing. Kathy and Tommy had to leave.
And it was so hard to accept that Tommy was going to die - and that Kathy would too. I suppose I just didn't think it would end that way. The bit that realy got me (and I think it was done really well in the film) was on their drive back to the hospital, and Tommy got out of the car, walked into a field and just shouted. No words, just a piercing shriek of pain and anguish. This was so much more effective than any words, and when Kathy ran to him and they clung on to each other it was so desperately sad. I have to admit I was in floods by this point. So they go back to the hospital with this clock ticking over their heads and Tommy is given notice for his next donation. We know this is it, he's not going to survive another one, and as we prepare for the inevitable he tells Kathy that he doesn't want her to be his carer anymore. It's not because he doesn't love her, but just because he can't bear to put her through the agony of seeing him in so much pain, without being able to help. I suppose this was a good thing to do, but it just brought their separation closer and OH MY GOSH I'M NEARLY CRYING JUST THINKING ABOUT IT.
So Kathy leaves. And we both know it's the last time she'll ever see him. She gets notice a little later that he has died, and then we seem to join the narrator Kathy in her real time, rather than being stuck in her path. I don't think I mentioned that when they were children they had this idea that everything you lost somehow ends up in Norfolk, and we leave Kathy at the side of a road in Norfolk, staring out over a field. She says the most poignant, heartbreaking thing in the entire book. She stands there and imagines that all the things she lost when she was younger are in this field, and then that if she waits long enough, she'll see Tommy walk towards her over the horizon. She doesn't let herself imagine anything else, but feels that if he were ever to come back that's where he'd be.
Kathy tells us that she's recieved her notice for her first donation, and we know that soon she will die too. It's strange, as I couldn't tell if I was glad or not. She's the last of her friends left, and if she dies she can hopefully be reunited with Tommy; but she's such a good person that she doesn't deserve to die.
The book ends in this poignant note, and left me feeling really strange - sad and not sad at the same time. The story really made me think (which I think is important for any story) about humanity, how humans treat each other, but also about relationships between different people and in a way what it is to love.
Ok so the next book I'll be doing is The Woman in Black by Susan Hill and I've just started it, so should do the next post in a few days hopefully :)
Friday 1 April 2011
Never Let Me Go - Part 3 - Ruth Reformed
I'm not really sure what to write for this one. The end of this book was just so sad that I think it stands out, overshadowing the rest of the story. I can hardly remember how Part 3 starts, and nothing seems as significant as the final few chapters.
I suppose I should start by saying what happens to Kathy after she leaves the Cottages. She becomes a carer, and the life seems very solitary, so lonely: she drives around from place to place, sleeping in bedsits and looking after donors. She talks about how it feels when one "completes" (they don't call it dying, which makes them sound subhuman: as though they're merely machines built for a task that they must complete), how you feel guilty and yet relieved that their suffering is over.
Ishiguro lets us aclimatise to this new way of life, and in a way new narrative style, as Kathy doesn't talk directly to us as she did before, and the tone is a lot more subdued and quiet than during Parts 1 and 2. A few years after she left she meets Ruth who has just done her second donation and is not doing so well for it. This is the bit where I started to warm to her. She still had a little of the stubborness that used to annoy me, but she - like the narrative - was very subdued, very meek. The two seem to have got over their differences that distanced them at the Cottages, and they reminisce about their years together. They decide to take a trip to a boat that had appeared in the middle of a field (yeah I found that weird too) and of course, Tommy just happens to be situated near there too.
The trip they take, and their meeting with Tommy really highlights how things have changed - or rather not - between the three of them. Maybe it's because of Ruth's new, quiet, almost submissive manner, but now it seems that she, rather than Tommy and Kathy, is the odd one out. Those two have some kind of easy relationship that instantly brings them together again, whereas she struggles to participate and becomes almost a 'third wheel'. On the way back though, she shows exactly why she has been so quiet. She begs Kathy to forgive her. I initially thought it would just be for her being domineering, but then she reveals that it should have been Kathy and Tommy together from the start (I KNEW IT!!), that those two made more sense than she and Tommy ever did, and that she deliberately tried to keep them apart. Ouch. That was spiteful. Anyway, she begs them to try now, even though she knows it's nearly too late (Tommy's had his third donation, and people don't often last much mre than four), but she believes that if they apply for a deferral, like those rumours said, they will get to stay together for longer.
I was torn between great happiness for Kathy and Tommy, who I've been rooting for since the beginning, and sadness, because Ruth (even though I don't like her) is obviously full of regret and pain at what she did. She's dying slowly and painfully and this is her one last chance of righting the wrongs she did throughout their relationship. I also thought it was interesting reading Kathy's reaction. Before now we are never told by Kathy her feelings towards Tommy: almost as though they're irrelevant. I've said before that in many ways she distances herself from us, and this is evidence. We only know for certain now that she has felt this way for years. Maybe she didn't know herself, maybe she only just understands now, but the point is that although she seems to draw us into her confidence, we don't really know her deepest feelings until near the end.
Ok so there is so much to talk about in the next section that I've decided to do it as a separate post, because otherwise this one will be insanely long, and I've already talked enough today. So I'll probs do it tomorrow, but until then byyyyyyye!
I suppose I should start by saying what happens to Kathy after she leaves the Cottages. She becomes a carer, and the life seems very solitary, so lonely: she drives around from place to place, sleeping in bedsits and looking after donors. She talks about how it feels when one "completes" (they don't call it dying, which makes them sound subhuman: as though they're merely machines built for a task that they must complete), how you feel guilty and yet relieved that their suffering is over.
Ishiguro lets us aclimatise to this new way of life, and in a way new narrative style, as Kathy doesn't talk directly to us as she did before, and the tone is a lot more subdued and quiet than during Parts 1 and 2. A few years after she left she meets Ruth who has just done her second donation and is not doing so well for it. This is the bit where I started to warm to her. She still had a little of the stubborness that used to annoy me, but she - like the narrative - was very subdued, very meek. The two seem to have got over their differences that distanced them at the Cottages, and they reminisce about their years together. They decide to take a trip to a boat that had appeared in the middle of a field (yeah I found that weird too) and of course, Tommy just happens to be situated near there too.
The trip they take, and their meeting with Tommy really highlights how things have changed - or rather not - between the three of them. Maybe it's because of Ruth's new, quiet, almost submissive manner, but now it seems that she, rather than Tommy and Kathy, is the odd one out. Those two have some kind of easy relationship that instantly brings them together again, whereas she struggles to participate and becomes almost a 'third wheel'. On the way back though, she shows exactly why she has been so quiet. She begs Kathy to forgive her. I initially thought it would just be for her being domineering, but then she reveals that it should have been Kathy and Tommy together from the start (I KNEW IT!!), that those two made more sense than she and Tommy ever did, and that she deliberately tried to keep them apart. Ouch. That was spiteful. Anyway, she begs them to try now, even though she knows it's nearly too late (Tommy's had his third donation, and people don't often last much mre than four), but she believes that if they apply for a deferral, like those rumours said, they will get to stay together for longer.
I was torn between great happiness for Kathy and Tommy, who I've been rooting for since the beginning, and sadness, because Ruth (even though I don't like her) is obviously full of regret and pain at what she did. She's dying slowly and painfully and this is her one last chance of righting the wrongs she did throughout their relationship. I also thought it was interesting reading Kathy's reaction. Before now we are never told by Kathy her feelings towards Tommy: almost as though they're irrelevant. I've said before that in many ways she distances herself from us, and this is evidence. We only know for certain now that she has felt this way for years. Maybe she didn't know herself, maybe she only just understands now, but the point is that although she seems to draw us into her confidence, we don't really know her deepest feelings until near the end.
Ok so there is so much to talk about in the next section that I've decided to do it as a separate post, because otherwise this one will be insanely long, and I've already talked enough today. So I'll probs do it tomorrow, but until then byyyyyyye!
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