I wish I could be in class but I have WGI finals for the university in Dayton tomorrow so I won't get to hear the discussion on one of the most interesting stories we've read thus far: The Heart-Shaped Box. I was expecting this to be a novel overflowing with every cliche horror detail because I was expecting Steven King's son to be trying to prove he was just as good as his daddy. I assumed Joe Hill would try far too hard and the story would fall flat. What they say of those who make assumptions rings true in my case because this story was beyond incredible. I was completely hooked. I thought the plot was original and the execution was impeccable. I can't even really explain why I loved this story so much because there's just too much! i love that the main characters are rough around the edges. I love that I couldn't see what was coming in most cases. I love the new interpretations on ghosts (or new to me at least) with the black scribbles over the dead's eyes. I love the pace of this story. I love it all. He is an author I will definitely read again.
I'm happy, however, to miss the discussion on The Shadow Year. This was SO HARD for me to read. I had to offer myself rewards to finish it. Just get to page 50 and you can go eat some chocolate. Just get to page 60 and you can take a nap. Just get to page 61 and you can go see a movie. The one thing this book did wonderfully was scaring the crap out of me. It wasn't the supernatural elements that got me (in fact I might not even classify this story as supernatural because the ghost was so... not unimportant to the plot but rather secondary to the main action?). What had me scared to go to sleep at night was how REAL this story could have been. Serial killers are real. Someone who kills people is real. I can't talk my way around it like I could a ghost. Man, that creepy killer could have been outside my window watching me sleep!! Planning how he was gonna slowly kill me! No thank you! I wanna see them take away Cam's Heisman and Auburn's fake national championship before I die! ....Anyhow.... This novel scared me more than anything else we have read because I can see it happening anywhere. We've talked before about people being the monsters. The Shadow Year is exhibit A.
Oh! And what kind of ending was that in The Shadow Year?! At least Mary had a good life...
6 comments:
They have Harry Potter in Latin and a bunch of children's books. I personally have Green Eggs and Ham, Walter the Farting Dog and Winnie the Pooh in Latin. From all the sites I've ever seen with Latin books, I've never seen any Austen. Maybe she'd like HP or a children's book? Hope this helps!
That's a pretty niche market... I asked my friend who does the whole Latin thing if he had ever heard of anything like that, and he said no, and that even if it did exist it would probably be very expensive. I have seen things like Dr. Seuss books in Latin, and other things, like the Harry Potter mentioned above. Good luck, and I'll let you know if I can find anything.
I second what they said--books in Latin ARE very expensive, and I have yet to see Austen. I got my brother Winnie the Pooh in Latin for Christmas--"Winnie Ille Pu"--and he's very pleased with it. You can find books in Latin by doing a search on amazon.
Moving on, I just have to say, WHOA, I'm dumb--and I missed class last week--so I hadn't heard that this is Stephen King's son. o.0 And I have to say I'm not too much of a fan of his father's writing style (very much but not all of the time), and I did like this book, so way to go I-guess-his-name-isn't-realy-Joe-Hill.
As for Shadow Year, I didn't think it was hard to read AT ALL. I think it was kind of... weird, but not hard to read. *shrug* I can't say why.
I would ask Allen Jones, of the Honors College faculty, about the Latin Austen. She's my go-to person for all things Latin.
Yeah who saw that? Mary was the creepy little autistic kid and she is the only one that ends up with a sturdy, normal life. I never saw it coming! I was thinking the whole time that she would be the sole "supernatural" presence in the book, and then he tacked on the Ray thing randomly.
I like your incentive structure for finishing Shadow Year. I could have used something like that, might have made the book bearable. In regards to Latin books, my training in latin only extended to sophomore year in high school, but I cannot imagine the level of difficulty in that task.
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