Tuesday 24 January 2012

Reading Log for January

                                                                                                     January 30, 2012

Entangled
by
Cat Clarke

Part 1:                                                                                                                  

Reflect: What caught my attention was the very interesting plot line, and I was so excited when I started reading it. The book left me in streams of tears; it really caught my heart and ripped it into pieces. It talks the truth, it shows that the life of a teenager isn't just fine and dandy like many adults seem to believe, but instead we are forced to put up with a lot of drama. The character of Grace was told perfectly. You could really bond with her and understand her pain completely. Normally for me a book where the heroine is self harming will normally just make me want to drop the book, because normally the characters end up coming across so over dramatic and pathetic, but I never felt that whilst I read Entangled. It sort of fit into the book, which I think is quite a hard thing to achieve, and you still could bond with the character.

Connect: As a teenager, I totally relate myself to Grace. Like Grace, there are times that I feel so lonely and alone, like there’s nothing to talk to and nobody cares.  But, unlike her I do not let loneliness overcome me. I understood her struggles and fears.  Also, I had a friend in high school that was in the exact same position as Grace (self-destructive spiral for the same reasons) and nothing could stop her from dealing with the pain this way. Like Grace, she didn't really know why but it wasn't hurting so much when she was cutting, and she always said she was in control. I found it uncomfortable and upsetting to read. Equally, as with my friend, I found it utterly infuriating. It is not an issue easy to raise or to try to fix. But it is worth trying.

Question: Why did Sal do that to Grace? She just came across too needy and self orientated, and what she did was inexcusable. It just proves that she had this layer of bitterness below her nice girl mask. She was probably the worst.  Just thinking about what had happened between them made me want to punch Sal in the face. I am so glad I don't have a friend like her. If Nat really love Grace, why did he betray her? He even acted like a perfect boyfriend and make Grace fall for him too hard. Even though he knows that Grace loves him so much, he did that to her. If he was just going to betray her, he should not have proposed to her in the first place.

Predict: I think Grace will survive. Well, she can hear voices. She can hear and recognize whose voices are those, her Mother, Sal and Nat. And she can also comprehend what they're saying. I just hope that once she wakes up from coma, she will change her way of life. I hope she can move on and see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Part 2:                                                                                                                  


#9. Describe your feelings about characters. Copy down a quote from a character and tell why you think it’s meaningful.

"It’s not that I mind being alone, not really. I can distract myself with silly fantasies and daydreams for hours, but in the end it always comes back to me. That’s what I’m left with: just me. And that’s what scares me more than anything. Me."

The characters are very realistic in their personalities and actions. It made me want to scream at certain characters and to punch others in the face. These characters will have you hyperventilating with rage. I could picture them talking in my mind the whole time.

As the story progresses, I started to see Grace as the tragic figure she was. She’s the type of person who decides to be alone and face her problems alone and thinks that nobody understands her. I think that she’s just scared of herself, like some other people, because she doesn’t know what she can do once all of her fantasies and daydreams are gone and she’s back to reality; the reality where all problems gather that makes one suffer. Grace is scared because she assumes that no one cares about her but in fact, she has Sal, her best friend and her mother. But even if someone is there, no one can really help her but only her, herself. It is about seeing yourself clearly as others see you and seeing them as they see themselves for often the most important truths are the ones we intentionally blind ourselves to.






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