Post #11 Book Talk

Post #10 Book Review

“Brittany flashes me a triumphant smile, thinking she’s won this round. Guess again gringa. Game on”. Simone Elkeles knows how to make your blood boil and make you feel like a hopeless romantic in the book Perfect Chemistry, you meet two very different people Alex and Brittany. They both go to Fairfield high school in Illinois a school were two very different towns and groups of people meet, and Alex and Brittany come from different sides. Brittany lives in the “nicer” part of town she leads everyone on to believing she lives a perfect life with a perfect family, but none of that is true she has a judge mental, strict mother who watches her every move and a disabled sister and a father who is consumed by work. Alex on the other had lives in the run down side of things, him his mom and two brothers live in a very small house, though they don’t have much they still love each other and are like a actual family. Alex is in a gang the Latino bloods, after watching his father get killed right in front of him at the age of 6 he has no choice, being in the gang is the only way to protect his family even if he doesn’t want to be in it and he actually wants to make something of himself go to college do something and meeting Brittany could change all of that.

 

Although when people hear the word romance as the genre for the book they turn away that should be the case here. Though the book is mainly romance but it has a little bit of everything, to interest everyone. Unlike most romance books with the slow begging of people meeting then getting to know each other it’s not the case here she adds in little sparks here and there even if it just last for a second it keeps it interesting and intriguing making you want to keep reading and find out what else is going to happen. Even though the story line is a little predictable the good girl wants the bad boy, she makes you hate that you like Alex so much he’s so nice and cares for Brittany that you just can’t help but it the same for Brittany and little does she know that she’s turning him into a better person even if her parents can’t get pass the fact that he’s in a gang, they are good for each other

 

Elkeles takes a twist in her writing that I have never seen before by each chapter changing it from either Brittany’s to Alex’s perspective on things and sometimes over lapping   so you can get each side of the story and how they are feeling about it.  Just like as they go through a break up Alex’s chapter ends with a “That will definitely be my undoing. “Yeah it does” I say with tears forming in my eye’s I drive off.” But, then Brittany’s following chapter starts with “After I used two boxes of tissues, Sierra gave up on trying to cheer me up and let me cry myself to sleep.”  It was a different way to read a book, it wasn’t good or bad just different you really start to like how you can see what feeling then switch and see what the other person is too. You get to almost get inside their heads in a way then    

Post #9

The characters in my book Perfect Chemistry are two polar opposites that end up getting paired together as chemistry partners. Alex is the typical bad boy, has been through a lot in this lifetime like watching his father get killed right in front of him just at the age of 7. He is in a gang and everyone at the school is terrified of hi. Then you have Brittney high school is her kingdom caption of the school pom team and every since person in the school thinks she lives a fulfilling perfect life but she has to work so hard to keep that image because in reality her life is far from perfect. She has a disabled sister and a mother that criticizes her every move.

Every chapter it changes the narrator between Alex and Brittney and for Alex it’s a hate to love thing because though he’s the bad boy he actually starts to care for Brittney even though she just think that’s what he does with every girl he meets. Brittney is someone that you think you would hate because she’s a girl that’s got it all but then you get to know her not just the Brittney that everyone thinks that they know, but you see that she struggles so much and cares for everyone but herself. So in a way you actually feel bad for her, because she and Alex are from what seems to be like two different worlds so they couldn’t be together even though deep down it’s what they both want. So all in all I don’t think the narrators really fit with the romantic genera because they are not at all what you would expect to be in a romance novel because they are just so different.

Post #8 What it take to be Non-Fiction

For a book to be a non-fiction in my mind I have to agree with James Frey  because though its supposed to be completely true even if they extend the truth it shouldn’t completely mean that it has to be a new genre because majority of the book its true but only a small part isn’t completely true it may have happened but it just went down different than the book, and also books in my opinion are suppose to tell you a story that really intrigues you and if that has to happen but adding some lies into the story then I think it is a good thing to add and it shouldn’t have to effect the whole books reputation.

So for people to be angry with Frey I didn’t think was right if they read the book and loved it which everyone seemed to do it shouldn’t matter if he lies a little because it still get his story across in a interesting way.  So I think that David shields according to him I think it should matter that we label the books because there are some genres that people have absolute no interest in so I think they should be so we know what we enjoy and what we don’t really want to read. So I think that extending the truth won’t hurt anyone but labels for genres  is something I think has to be here.