Archives for January 2014

This Can’t be Happening at MacDonald Hall by Gordon Korman Review

January 30, 2014 by Daniel Johnston 5 Comments

When twelve year-old Gordon Korman didn’t have an English teacher to teach his seventh grade English class, the school had no choice but to have a gym teacher put the reading and writing hat on. As Korman said, “When it came to writing he just sort of blanked, so he said, ‘Just work on whatever you want for the rest of the year.’ And I wrote my first book.”

It is such a crazy and inspiring. Twelve year-old Korman going crazy on a homework assignment and writing his first book, This Can’t be Happening at MacDonald Hall. Now remember, this wasn’t modern day where children authors are fairly common and most of them are self-published. The G-Man sent in his manuscript to the address on the Scholastic book order form, and the day after his thirteenth birthday he signed a contract for his first book.

But here, I’ll let Korman tell you himself (the first part of the movie is about his journey as a kids author. The second part is about his recent book Swindle):

Isn’t that so amazing? The thing is that it’s not like this book is a slacker, either. It’s actually quite good, already showing the humorous style of Korman that everyone loves.

Summary

At the beginning of the story we are introduced to the main characters, Bruno and Boots, two roommates at the boarding school MacDonald Hall who are “partners in crime,” playing all kinds of funny pranks. We see some of their hilarious escapades, including going over to the girls school and hanging out with Diane and Cathy.

Unfortunately, however, the headmaster of their school, Mr. Sturgeon (also known as “The Fish“) decides that their trouble making has come to point of being detrimental to both them and the rest of the school. He switches their rooms, making Bruno the roommate of Elmer Drysdale, the eccentric school genius, and Boots the roommate of George Wexford-Smyth III, a weird guy who is obsessed with money and the stock market.

Bruno and Boots attempt to get themselves back together into the same room, but all of their plans backfire. In the end, a series of improbable events take place that make Bruno and Boots heroes. They are congratulated by an important government official, but will their headmaster congratulate them by giving them what they really want; having each other as roommates again?

Review

It’s hard to believe that Korman really wrote this book at twelve. Many of the jokes in this book are quite funny, hilarious even. It’s written in a very different style than his current books, which are mainly based on action. Korman’s earlier books (and all the MacDonald Hall) books are based on humor.

The characters in this book are very familiar and it’s easy to connect with them. I still remember and feel for all the lovable characters in this series. It’s like a happy world that is no less real than this one.

The only way that you can tell Korman was twelve when he wrote this book is the fact that it’s only 144 pages. In those 144 pages, however, is a story of very great depth and enjoyment.

This book also opens the way for a great series. The books only get better and better and climax with The Zucchini Warriors and Beware the Fish, the latter of which is the funniest book I have ever read.

These books are super easy to read. The great thing about Korman’s writing is that he doesn’t write his books to prove a point, not for book committees or reviewers. He writes books to be enjoyed, period. Reading MacDonald Hall you feel a great happiness and joy for life.

As much as Korman’s current books are great, I know old fans of Korman’s classic stories who think that his new books pale in comparison. While they are both good in different ways, I have to agree that there is no better way to guarantee yourself you’ll be laughing up a storm than reading MacDonald Hall.

Thank you for reading this review and if you’d like to purchase the book you can do so through this link. You can also like my Facebook page or subscribe through email below to hear about more awesome books.

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham Review

January 29, 2014 by Daniel Johnston 9 Comments

Everyone’s heard of John Grisham, haven’t they? After all, Grisham has written dozens of great legal thrillers that are interesting and will keep you on your toes the entire time. So when Grisham decided to foray into the kids book world, a lot of people were super excited. Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer is the first in a series of books Grisham is writing for kids.

Theodore Boone was the first book I read by Grisham a few years ago. My mom was a big Grisham fan and thought I’d enjoy him on a little less intense scale. Now I’ve also read many many of Grisham’s adult books. Are they comparable? No, Grisham’s adult books are far better than his kids books so far. That doesn’t mean, however, that Theodore Boone is a slacker.

Summary

At the beginning of Theodore Boone we meet the main character, unsurprisingly named Theodore (or Theo) Boone. Both of his parents are lawyers, and at 12 he is also interested in becoming one. Or maybe a judge. He’s not quite sure yet.

A lot of the book is telling us about the legal system and how it works. It’s kind of dry, and also not that interesting. Most kids reading the book will probably already know it. It is interesting, however, to see Theo going to different court cases and even defending a hot girl in Animal Court.

It’s interspersed, however, with an exciting trial: Did Pete Duffy murder his wife? Boone’s small town doesn’t have exciting trials like that very often, and Theo is of course absolutely stoked.

Although the plaintiffs are mounting what looks to be a good case against Duffy, they don’t have any real evidence, and everyone knows that Duffy is going to walk. At least that’s what Theo’s Uncle Ike tells him, a former lawyer who was kicked out of the profession.

Theo loves watching the trial, but he never thought he would have any actual involvement. Until he meets Bobby, a young immigrant who witnessed Duffy on the day of the murder. With Bobby’s testimony, Duffy may be locked up behind bars.

The problem is that Bobby isn’t just an immigrant; he’s an illegal immigrant. Bobby is afraid to step forward because the authorities will catch him if he does. Theo tries to convince him that they will grant him citizenship in return for his information, but Bobby just doesn’t know.

Grisham, being smart, doesn’t let us know what happens to Duffy yet. Instead, he makes us read the next book. He leaves us wondering what other adventures will Theo have? And, more importantly, will a murderer be let free?

Review

I mainly enjoyed Theodore Boone while I was reading it for the parts about Theo going to different trials and seeing the outcome. I used to watch judge shows for hours, so that kind of thing is interesting to me.

Really, though, I don’t think this is a particularly good book. Although Grisham presents his characters clearly, we get very little identification with them or learn to care for them. That would be fine if this book was as much a thriller as his others. But it isn’t.

Very little action actually takes place in this book. Sure, the murder trial is entertaining, but Grisham gives us very little reason to care about it and also mostly ignores it in the next books. I would be fine with the way it developed in this book if it was solved in the next, but instead book 4 is already out and we are no closer to Duffy either walking free or being put behind bars.

Some intellectual kids like me might enjoy the book, but the fact is that there are far better kids books than this. For a twelve year-old, this book may alienate Grisham. Better to wait a couple of years and have them read the thrillers. That’s where Grisham got his name, not from twelve year-old Theodore Boone.

Thank you for reading this review and if you’d like to purchase the book you can do so through this link. You can also get this feed or subscribe through email below.

The 39 Clues Book 4: Beyond the Grave by Jude Watson Review

January 28, 2014 by Daniel Johnston Leave a Comment

When Beyond the Grave by Jude Watson came out, I was super excited. It was the fourth book in The 39 Clues, an exciting multi-author series in which two orphans, Dan and Amy Cahill, learn that they are members of the most powerful family in the world. The source of their families power is hidden throughout the world in the form of 39 clues (or chemicals). Whoever finds all the clues will become the most powerful person in human history.

Amy and Dan, of course, are not the only ones going after the clues. They have tons of competition in the form of their venomous relatives, who will stop at nothing to win the clue hunt. Literally. In the last book, The Sword Thief by Peter Lerangis, Amy, Dan, and their Uncle Alastair were nearly killed by their rich cousins, Ian and Natalie Kabra.

Up until this book, I had been reading this series together with my friends. None of my friends ended up actually reading the fourth book, however. A couple of them started, but then gave up. The reason for that I attribute to the poor writing in the previous book, which you can read about in my review here. It’s a shame, because Beyond the Grave is a rather good addition to the series.

Summary

At the end of The Sword Thief, Amy and Dan learned that the next clue was hidden in Egypt, so they fly out to Cairo. Unfortunately, Irina Spasky is already there, an ex-KGB agent who means business. She disguises herself as a vendor and tries to trap Amy and Dan, but they manage to outsmart her and get away.

Along the way they find a Sakhet that they think they might be looking for, but a tour guide named Theo convinces them that it’s merely a fake.

They find themselves at a fancy hotel. They originally don’t want to go there because of how expensive they know it’s going to be, and there is a sense someone is directing them to be there. When Dan accidentally says his last name is Oh, however, they get a huge discount and a suite that takes up an entire floor.

Things seem too good to be true, but Amy and Dan manage to sneak their way into a secret Ekaterina stronghold hidden inside the hotel. Dan is fascinated by all the inventions, but Amy is scared. To her the inventions of things like the nuclear bomb represent death and destruction.

Soon, however, there is a far worse threat to Amy and Dan than destructive inventions; Bae Oh is in the stronghold with them, and he traps them. Bae Oh is the uncle of their Uncle Alastair and is the ruthless leader of the Ekaterina branch. In The Sword Thief, we also learned that Bae Oh murdered Alastair’s father.

Although Bae Oh does a good job of trapping them, Amy and Dan are able to escape with the help of their Au Pair, Nellie. They book it out of the hotel and travel with a person named Hilary Vale, who apparently used to be good friends with Amy and Dan’s beloved grandmother, Grace Cahill. Grace was the one who started the whole clue hunt in motion, and Amy and Dan are still shocked at her death. The thought that Grace may still be helping them “beyond the grave” comforts both of them.

Hilary, acting according to Grace’s instructions, give Amy and Dan a letter and one of the Sakhet statues. A map is hidden inside the Sakhet statue, leading them to the tomb of Queen Nefertari. Theo, who ends up being Hilary’s grandson, is able to help them sneak in.

In the tomb, they are attacked by Irina and then trapped on a crocodile-filled island by their famous rap star cousin, Jonah Wizard. Dan and Amy have faced tough things before, but how they can defend themselves against a pack of hungry crocodiles? And are Hilary and Theo really acting on Grace’s behalf, or do they have a secret agenda? Worst of all, what if the mysterious Madrigals don’t want Amy and Dan to find the clue?

Review

Beyond the Grave was a fairly good addition to the series. I was glad while reading because it was, for me at least, a big improvement on The Sword Thief.

Beyond the Grave, however, is not written quite as skillfully as books one and two, or as the rest of the books of the series, for that matter. Book six, In Too Deep, by the same author was one of the best books of the series, with great character development. Parts of this book were hard to understand, however, especially towards the end.

As for the historical value, I remember some historical information in this book, but I don’t really think a lot was included. Besides some basic info about Egypt that everyone already knows, you’re not likely to learn much historically.

Besides that, though, this book is good. I view the main value of the book as being in ethical questions. Were the Ekats inventions good or bad? All the emotions that come with being betrayed by people claiming to act on behalf of a dead person who you trusted the most. A fake romance that ends up knocking Amy off guard. There is certainly a lot to think about after reading this book.

For dedicated readers of The 39 Clues, this is a must read. I’d recommend starting with the most current books and then, if the reader is really interested, starting with The Maze of Bones and then going through the series. Unless you or your kids are really prolific readers, you’re unlikely to read all the books, but they’ll definitely be an exciting series as you read them. I now consider them a major part of my childhood.

Thank you for reading this review and if you’d like to purchase the book you can do so through this link. You can also like my Facebook page or subscribe through email below for more book reviews.

Jackpot (Swindle Series) by Gordon Korman Review

January 24, 2014 by Daniel Johnston 5 Comments

Jackpot by Gordon Korman is the sixth and latest installment in the exciting Swindle Series. This series has sold millions of copies and has been adored by kids all over the world. They are standalone books, so you can read one of them and not miss anything. They have the same characters, however, and so I’d recommend starting at the beginning to learn some of the background.

I honestly wasn’t super excited to read Jackpot. After all, it’s the sixth book about the same kids doing basically the same thing. Korman, however, was already a step ahead of me, and wrote this book in a completely different way from the rest of the series. While the other books were primarily based on action, this book was driven by characters.

Summary

The book starts off with Griffin Bing and his friends learning about a lottery ticket worth $30 million. The catch: It’s lost, and is about to expire. Griffin is The Man with the Plan of the group, and everyone else has their own special talents that make them great friends and an effective team.

Griffin decides to use the lottery ticket to get back at Darren Vader, a school bully who is always trying to get in on their plans, and the rest of the team agrees. They make up a fake newspaper article about the ticket being somewhere in Cedarville, and, as expected, the money-grubbing Vader goes after the money and starts searching for it all around town, diving through dumpsters to get to it.

Unfortunately, a lot of other people take Vader’s idea and before long there a dozen people digging through the city in hopes of becoming a millionaire. The police put a stop to it, and also figure out that it was Griffin and his friends who played the trick. They get community service hours for playing the trick on Vader, and everyone starts to look at Griffin Bing as though he is a bully. After the event, the principle calls a school conference on bullying and Vader stands up and accuses Griffin of bullying him.

Anyone who knows the situation will be aware that Darren is the real bully. For people unfamiliar with the situation, however, it’s easy to take Griffin for a bully. That’s what happens to Victor Phoenix, a new kid. He breaks into Griffin’s group, but treats Griffin terribly. In fact, he’s starting to take Griffin’s place!

Griffin can’t figure out why, The Man with the Plan skips school and goes to Victor’s old school to do research. At the school, he learns that Victor was bullied terribly. He also learns that Victor changed his last name. Griffin realizes that Victor believed Darren when he called Griffin a bully and that’s why he’s treating him poorly. Griffin can see that Victor is deceiving all of his friends to try and join the group, but when Griffin tells them, they have nothing but nice things to say about Victor. Griffin stops hanging out with his friends, and instead starts sitting alone at lunch.

Vader is still after the money, however, and he recruits Griffin to try and help him find it. Griffin never thought he’d team up with the likes of Darren Vader, but without his friends he doesn’t have much else to do. They go to the lottery store where the ticket was sold and check the surveillance camera. They start trying to track down the people who may have the ticket, but the owner doesn’t know any of their names or addressees, so they don’t have much to go on.

By this time Griffin has also taken in Savannah’s dog Luthor. Savannah has taken in Victor’s cat Penelope, and they do not get along. Savannah blames Luthor and is happy to give him away for a little while. Griffin feels a companionship with Luthor; both of them have been driven away from their friends by Victor.

Vader also recruits Victor and “his” team to try and find the lottery ticket. With Melissa’s computer skills, they are able to figure out where the prospects live, and find them. In the end, Griffin, Darren, and Victor and the team all end up at the last possible person who could have the ticket at the same time, right before the deadline of the ticket. Will they find the ticket? Will they cash it in on time? Will Griffin ever get his friends back?

What I Thought

The beginning of Jackpot is written a little weirdly, in that it does a lot of telling and relies on some pretty unlikely things to happen. After a while, though, the story settles down and becomes very good.

This seems to be Korman’s first foray into a character-based story. Instead of humor or action to keep us turning the pages, it’s our identification with Griffin that does it. Griffin feels misunderstood and mistreated by his friends, and Korman does a good job of making you genuinely feel for him. The reader wants to see Griffin feeling better and united with his friends again.

Of course, there is action too with everyone trying to find and cash in the lottery ticket before it’s too late. After all, it’s a Gordon Korman book! The action is almost secondary, however, but is also well done and a big part of the story.

It’s good for Korman to add the character development at this point of the story, because up to this point it was just the plot that was driving it and it was getting a little boring because I didn’t care about the characters very much. I still am not super attached with them after six books, but it’s more than before. This book will keep the series alive.

This is a new type of writing for Korman, and he definitely makes some mistakes. Parts of the book are all over the place. Is it still a book kids will love? Yes, it is. I’ve never heard of a kid not liking a book by Gordon Korman, and this book is going to be no exception.

5 Ways I went from a 75 to a 95 on my Creative Writing Story

January 23, 2014 by Daniel Johnston 3 Comments

Ok guys, so the background for this is that I’ve been taking a creative writing class online through BYU Independent Study. I decided to take the class because I need more English credits and my school only certifies online classes through BYU. Of all the options, creative writing seemed the most interesting to me (of course I love writing!), so I went for it.

Along with the tests necessary to get a high grade in the course, you also need to submit something called portfolios. Portfolios are when you submit specific writing assignments. For the big assignment in the portfolio, I had to write a short story. I remember being pretty cocky and sure that my story was going to get high marks. After all, I’m a great writer. Imagine my surprise when I get the email that it’s been graded; and I got a 75 percent.

My first instinct was to blame the teacher, and indeed that’s what I did. The teacher was too strict, I convinced myself, and that’s why I didn’t get a higher grade. If the teacher had simply been better, he would’ve given me an A for sure. Still, I couldn’t help but look at his comments and acknowledge that they had some truth.

When I resubmitted my portfolio, I took his advice into account. I worked hard to develop an engaging story. And guess what? I got a 95, an A. How did I do that? And how can you write better stories and get higher grades on your own assignments? That’s what I want to tell you.

1. Write a Lot

I know we all hear this a lot; the more we write, the better we’re going to get. Cliche, right?

The truth is, though, that the reason why everyone says to do it is because it’s true. I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and wrote 37000 words in three weeks (I didn’t do the fourth week so I could spend time with my family over Thanksgiving). I had to write a lot, and I didn’t have a lot of time. I had to write over 1700 words a day, and I also wanted it to be halfway decent. My story’s still not done, but I learned a lot about writing. Now when I sit down to write, it’s much easier. For the first story it took me a while just to write 1500 words, but in the second story I easily wrote 3000 in probably half of the time. Plus, it was much higher quality.

You don’t have to do NaNoWriMo to get better at writing. Most of you don’t have the time for that. But you get better every story you write. That’s really the best way. Even if you just write for ten or fifteen minutes a day, before long you’ll find that it’s a lot easier.

If you’re not someone who has the time or interest to do that, however, the next four steps can still help you.

2. Show, not Tell

We’ve all been told this by our elementary school English teacher. Show; don’t tell. Let the story show your reader what’s going on, instead of telling them. Also cliche, and also very true.

In the first story I wrote I had the main character reflect over past events in his head. He was thinking them, so I thought he was “showing.” However, I was merely hashing over the events, telling them in sentences like, “Jordan had applied to both Brown and Columbia’s Medical Schools, two Ivy League colleges and the most prestigious in the country.” That’s telling. The story may have been powerful if I had been able to show it, but I didn’t. To do that would’ve probably taken a novel. If you find yourself in a similar situation, choose a different storyline.

In my next story I had the main character going around and doing all of the activities while we watched him. That story had sentences like, ‘I messed up, James thought. “You know, dad,” he said in a choked voice, “those guys used to be my friends.”’

Instead of being told what the character did like the first scenario, we watch it happen. Much better.

3. Don’t Force It

As I said, I tried to force way too much into the first story. My plot idea was to have a guy on the sidewalk realizing what had made him fail and then changing things around. In actuality, however, to go over all of that is ridiculous and must lead to telling. I also tried to force the character to realize the error of his ways, when in actuality there was no catalyst for him to do that. It would’ve been much more effective to go through his thoughts enough to make clear to the reader what happened, and then leave him there as a failure.

In the second story, on the other hand, the main character is too forceful about what game he wants to play and tries to force his friends to play it by throwing a fit. His friends don’t take to that very kindly, and leave him out. Later he sees his friends playing the game he had wanted without him, and he realizes the errors of his ways. I didn’t try to put too much into this story. I didn’t give a big history or anything. All I put was a couple of scenes, but it was enough for the reader to get the feeling. For there to be a believable catalyst for change, we also have to know the characters. Which leads into…

4. Create Meaningful Characters

This is probably the biggest thing I didn’t get when I wrote the first story. At that time I thought that the best way to write a story was plot-driven and have the actions of the plot show the reader what I intended. Without characters, however, the plot is basically worthless.

For example, in the first story the plot was good enough; have a guy realize not to sell himself short. In reality, though, we started the story with him in disarray and never actually got to meet him. His frantic thoughts were merely him going over the past, or me showing the reader the plot. As a character, the reader never got to know him. Honestly, I didn’t either. As my instructor said: “The main character is a guy lying on the ground hitting himself.” When I read that, it started to dawn on me why I had only been given a 75.

The other characters in the story were also not good. A little girl came over and started saying mean things to this guy laying on the ground. That, as my instructor also pointed out, wouldn’t happen. What six year old girl would see a man lying on the ground and yell at him for being a disgrace? None that I know. If I wanted a character fulfill that role, I should’ve either created a character to fit it so that it would make sense, or not do it at all.

In my second story, on the other hand, the main character is a normal teenager who wants to play sports. We follow him along through his boredom with school, the way he gets along or doesn’t along with his friends, and his excitement at playing football. And then we see how he attempts to push that desire on the rest of his friends to the point that they kick him out of the group. When he sees his former friends playing football later, he realizes what he did wrong and regrets it. That’s a real character people can identify with and believe in.

Most important, though, is that you need to know the character. If you don’t, how is your reader going to? Then figure out how to express it.

5. Don’t Preach

Preaching is the way stories were written back in the 1800’s. At that time it was the writing style and generally accepted.

Not any more.

Nowadays preachiness is not tolerated by readers. How many times have you seen John Grisham or J.K Rowling preaching in their books? Not many. How many preachy books have you seen on the bestseller list? Also not many. There’s a reason for that.

Writing good stories now has more to do with showing the reader a theme, and letting them make of it what they want. That’s not to say you can’t teach people through your stories; I certainly try to do that. But you can’t come in and say, “He had sadly sold himself short the whole time. And it led to hell. Just ask Jordan.” That’s literally a quote from my first story. That was the narrator talking. Not good.

In my second story, I also set out for a theme, but I had the actions and the characters express it. This time it went like:

“What happened?” his dad asked.

James thought for a moment and brought himself to say what he had been repeating over and over in his mind, “I put my own desires over all of theirs,” he said, “and that is the worst poison there is.”

Here the character James went through a variety of experiences and came to that conclusion on his own. I didn’t say it was right or wrong; that was just what his experiences showed him. Readers will accept that. But they won’t accept you telling them how to think.

There it is. Those five things are, in my mind, what made the biggest difference between a story that doesn’t make sense (the first story I wrote), and the second, engaging and successful story that got me an A. Of course, there’s no way to shortcut the practice that it takes to become a good writer. But you can speed up the process.

Thanks for reading this article and let me know what you thought (and what the results you got are!). If you’d like to read the story that got me an A, click here. As for the other one…well, let’s leave that for the annals of history 🙂 If you’d like, though, you can check out other stories I’ve written that I’m not ashamed to show you. Plus, you can like my Facebook page or subscribe through email below.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Review

January 22, 2014 by Daniel Johnston 4 Comments

I’m so glad to be doing this review today. Whenever I used to think of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, I would always somewhat balk. After all, it was a “classic,” and sure to be a million pages. Thus, it was much to my amazement that it’s actually only 193 pages. Now I’ve read this great piece of American literature, and I’m ready to tell you all about.

I decided to review The Great Gatsby as part of Check Off Your Reading List Challenge 2014, where I made a commitment to read more of the classics. On all the “classics,” lists I saw on the internet, The Great Gatsby was the top book I hadn’t read. So I decided to read it first.

It’s kind of weird because most people read this book as part of a high school English class or something and hear a lot about different interpretations of the book. Besides chatting about it with a few of my friends, I haven’t heard of any special interpretations, so this is purely what I think of the book. Well, what’s better than a first impression?

Summary

The Great Gatsby is told in the first person from the point of view of a man named Nick Carraway, a nonjudgmental man who went to Yale and then decided to move out to the east (specifically Long Island) to work as a bond dealer. He lives across the street from a fabulously wealthy man named Jay Gatsby, but knows nothing about him.

We first start becoming acquainted with the story when Nick goes over to his cousin Daisy’s house. She is married to a rich man named Tom, and is an incredibly beautiful woman. We also meet their friend, Miss Jordan Baker. Although Daisy and Tom pretend to be happy together, Nick learns that Tom has been having an affair.

Over time, Nick starts trying to learn more about Gatsby. Gatsby always has big, fancy parties on Saturday nights that hundreds of people go to. Before too long, Nick gets an invitation and gets to talk with Gatsby, who invites him to hang out the next day. Nick assents, but also hears a lot of rumors about Gatsby.

Nick is also getting closer to Tom and meets his mistress, Myrtle. They want to have a life together, but are both already presently married.

Before long, Gatsby confides in Nick how he and Daisy used to be sweethearts and she made a mistake in marrying Tom while he was away at war. Gatsby arranges a meeting between him and Daisy in Nick’s house, and the same love is still present between them.

Eventually, everything comes to a head as Gatsby, Tom, and Jordan go over to Tom and Daisy’s house. We meet Daisy’s daughter, a girl mainly taken care of by a nurse and is not a big part of the story at all. It is an extremely hot day, and Daisy confides in Gatsby that she loves him.

All of them decide to go to a hotel. Tom eventually challenges Gatsby, who says that Daisy loves himself and not Tom. Tom says he discovered that Gatsby has been making his money by doing illegal bootlegging business, and Daisy says that although she loves Gatsby, she also loves Tom, or at least did once. Gatsby’s confrontation attempt failed. All the years of starting over at Daisy’s house and wishing for her to be his. All of it has failed.

After that, things go downhill quickly for everyone, including a couple of deaths. It is a very powerful story.

Review

The Great Gatsby is an emotion-based book, and is solely driven not on plot, not even on the characters, but on the emotions that the characters represent. For most of the book I didn’t really know what was going on or how it would connect, but it all did in the end. You have to patient to read the book, but you will be rewarded for doing so.

Parts of the book could definitely have been written more clearly, but that’s true with every book. Parts of the book stirred deep emotion inside of me, and I wished I could just sit by myself for hours and think about the book and the emotions they were bringing up. Maybe I’ll do that someday.

The most striking part of the book for me is the lesson on how powerful man’s imagination is. The statement, “No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart,” is very profound. At the end of the book it emphasizes how man in his mind makes great fantasies and how nothing will ever end a man’s faith that one day it will be realized. To think about all of the times I have done that, have almost worshipped ideas in my mind, well it shows me a lot about myself.

This very thing is what I love about writing. I feel that it allows me to express feelings that I can’t any other way. Every story has its own emotions in it, powerful emotions that have really been felt. And you can go into that world by reading them.

I also find it rather harrowing how no one ends up caring about Gatsby in the end. He helped out so many people and hundreds used to come to parties, but where were they all at the end? I don’t know how to feel about that, but I know I feel something. Fitzgerald does a good job of not telling us what to think or how to feel about the story, but instead just presents it to us. It’s probably good for most people around fifteen/sixteen and above. While the writing isn’t complex, the concepts are.

Would I recommend reading it? Definitely. It’s a great American classic for a reason. Because it deals with some deeper stuff in a rather undramatic way, I’m kind of surprised it’s as popular as it is. But I guess readers have felt the same way as I have after reading, their emotions expressed in this wondrous story. I hope you can feel the same.