Monday, January 21, 2008

Book Review: Monster by Christopher Pike

1. Mary Carlson is one of the main characters in the story. She is a normal teenager of about medium build and strength, although she has the will power of a superhero! Angela Warner is the more important character who is also like Mary. The author doesn't give much information about their physical appearance, but I picture Mary about medium height with soft, brown hair, and Angela with blonde hair, and also not too short or tall.
2. Mary is beautiful and confident; she has a very nice appearance and comes off well to others, except when she goes off on her shooting rampage. She is determined and very smart. Angela is kind of the 'goody two shoes' in a way, and can kind of be described as the peacemaker. She, too, is very smart and has a good heart; she only does what she does for the best of the human race.
3. Mary and Angela both killed people because they wanted to stop the world from being taken over by these creatures. They didn't enjoy what they did, but they knew that it was the right thing, and that in the long run, it would save more lives than those of the ones they murdered.
4. Mary, as a member of society, knew she would be punished for killing, but she worked it out in her mind that going to jail would be an acceptable punishment instead of having the human race destroyed. Mary is determined, and pushes the authorities out of her mind, and ends up going to jail. Angela, on the other hand, didn't really think of her punishment, her determination is to kill the monsters and deal with the consequences later. She ends up disappearing, so she never is sent to the authorities.
5. Throughout the novel, Mary feels sorry for the lives she took, but in the same way, she was glad she destroyed them. At the very end, Angela is changed into some sort of creature that lives by the lake, but the book doesn't describe what really happened to her very well.
6. I don't think that I could kill anyone like Mary or Angela did, but then again, when the weight of the human race is on one's shoulders, people can do some pretty outrageous acts.
7. I think both girls were incredibly courageous and brave for the work they did by themselves. They were successful in destroying all of the monsters, and their lives were forever changed in different ways.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Christmas vaca in the sun!

So I just got home from Florida yesterday, and I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend Christmas! It was great to see my sister and the rest of the family again, I loved spending time with them! For most of the time it was sunny and warm, and it was so weird to go to the beach in December! We left the airport in Sioux Falls bundled up in mittens and winter coats and cold and arrived in Florida where it was hot and muggy! We got to go to Universal Studios in Orlando for a couple days and then we went swimming at Cocoa Beach and then to Disney World on New Years Day--it was all fantastic! It was so hard coming back because the weather was great (although the last day there was cold). I didn't get to see any gators, lol but that was okay! I didn't want to leave everyone...and the sun, but I had a great Christmas vacation, and it does feel good to be home again!