Maximum Ride

Recently, I went to several book websites to find a new book to read. Aside from the Twilights there were many books trying to ride the popularity wave of Twilight; books with vampires crawling over every page, and basically screaming "READ ME I AM JUST LIKE TWILIGHT!" on the cover. I looked around for a bit, trying to find something different, when I saw a familiar cover amongst the others. It was the seventh book in the Maximum Ride series, a series of which I have read only one book, and hope to never have to read another.

Let me give you a little synopses of the first book. Maximum Ride is the leader of her “flock”; a group of 6 bird teenagers who have retractable wings. They are Iggy, Nudge, Angel, Gasman, Fang, and Max. Max tells the story of their fight, and flight, for survival as they are constantly pursued by the Erasers, were-wolf people made at the same laboratory as the flock. 

After reading the note on the first page I already had a feeling that this what this book was going to be like. The note said,

"WARNING: If you dare to read this story, you become part of the Experiment. I know that sounds a little mysterious - but it's all i can say right now."

This book has a feeling of constant pursuit and no chance of freedom. Everywhere Max goes, the Erasers are there. They always somehow know where she is and always create a surprise appearance. That bothered me. Every five pages, Max would say the reassuring words of, “there not going to find us here,” or “ we will be safe in this tree.” Then all of the sudden the Erasers appear in the next paragraph. The whole book follows a hopeless path of constant fleeing. And then in the end it gets even more so, as Max starts experiencing serious head pains and this voice appears in her head telling her what to do. This voice is even weirder than the Erasers; it appears on nearby computer screens, and not just in Max’s mind.

I found that there was way too much repetition of practically everything in this book. In particular, restatements of emotionally tense situations. Each chapter has a flow. It starts out with some tense situation and then quickly builds to the climax. The climax is usually the last phrase of the chapter. Practically every chapter has a dramatic emotional ending. Almost every single one. Usually these endings create the feeling of fear and terror or are just plain creepy.

By the end of the book it seemed that many of the chapters would end by something said by the Voice. And whenever it did say something, the Voice would be saying some vague phrase that Max wouldn’t understand, and sometimes neither would I. And instead of explaining those phrases, the Voice would repeat them over and over.     

Overall, I found this book a little pointless. The plot seemed to have no progression, and by the end of the book, I felt like I was back at the begining all over again, except it was worse. I will not continue reading this series, and I would not recommend this book to anyone. 

And so, my attempt of an easy search for a new book to read was unfulfilled, so I will have to go to the library and dig up something that doesn't have vampires and blood all over it. 

O. Henry's Short Stories

    For many, there stands an impression that classical literature is uninteresting, boring, or just simply old. Many of us drop books simply because they seem too hard to read. Even though O. Henry has written several classical books, the Trimmed Lamp and Cabbages for Kings being some examples, I still find them quite interesting even if they are old. Rather than writing big long books, O. Henry has created collections of short stories. There is no one book full of his best stories; they are all spread amongst his work. One book in particular, the Four Million, has been noted as an excellent source for unexpected irony. In the Four Million, O. Henry portrays what could be an ironic miracle life of a civilian in New York during the twentieth century. These stories are short, therefore, making perfect bedtime stories.

    The stories all share the same sense of irony, but they still are written in a wide range of themes. For example, in “The Furnished Room,” a man seeking his love smells her perfume in a hotel room. He searches desperately for her, but after not being able to find her, he commits suicide. The landlady had not yet told him that a week earlier, his love had done the same thing. This story has a little bit of eeriness in it because of the ironic endings.

    Another story in the book is also one of O Henry's most notable stories, the Gift of the Magi. In this story, a couple wishes to buy grand gifts for each other for Christmas, but both do not have enough money to do this, therefore they both give up something dear to them in order to pay. It turns out that as she gives her hair, he buys her the pearl combs of her dreams. And as he sells his watch, she buys him a grand chain for it. Just like "Tobin's Hand", we see the witty play of fortunes and ironic ends. Interestingly enough, even though that o Henry uses this style repeatedly through the book, each ending is quit unique and unpredictable, even if you do know the general turn and expect an unexpected ending. That is the beauty of the book and the valued ability of the author.

    O. Henry’s writing style and his ability to create unpredictable irony is unique and entertaining characteristic. Almost all of the short stories have very ironic endings. For example, in the first story, Tobin’s Palm, a palmist relates Tobin’s future to him. Before seeing the palmist, Tobin tells about his lost love to his companion. After the séance, Tobin goes through a series of unfortunate events, as predicted by the palmist. At the end of the day he meets a man who was supposed to “bring great fortune to him.” The man seemed uninterested in Tobin or his companion until he decides that Tobin would be the perfect character for his story. In the end, Tobin and his companion are invited to dine with the man of fortune, and ironically, we find out that the man’s new maid is Tobin’s lost love.  

    As I was reading the story, I first thought that the great fortune prophesized by the palmist would come in the form of fame or material wealth. Therefore, I found the given end very surprising and ironic. The following stories are presented in a similar manner. In fact, the plots of the stories seem to follow a basic principal of a circle where the beginning flows into the end, which in turn comes back to something in the beginning.