Book Blog #3: Choke by Diana Lopez

The Premise
Choke is a realistic fiction novel by Diana Lopez. Windy is an eight grader and is the main character in the book. Her best friend's name is Elena. But at times, Windy didn't like her because she was a nerd and brought a lot of stuff with her to wherever they went. After spring break, a new girl named Nina came to their school. Nina was a kind, pretty girl that every girl wanted to be like. Eventually, Nina became friends with Windy and Elena who  aren't at all popular. They didn't really expect that because they were in the "general public" group and Nina automatically got into the "in-crowd" group (which is really hard to get into). Since Windy didn't like Elena as much, she started to hang out with Nina more often and made more friends. Nina didn't like Elena at all, but she just acted like she did, so that she would be able to become friends with Windy. Later on, the two girls get so close to each other. Nina begins saying that she bets the popular girls don't know what a breath sister is, but Windy doesn't know what it is either. She then finds out that Nina has been playing a game called the "choking" game. It also involves being a breath sister. And then Nina wants Windy to play the game too. But once Windy starts playing the game, she notices that it was a bad game to play, since Nina has gotten into  trouble at her other schools. She also notices other weird things, that shouldn't happen.

What I Just Read
In chapter 8, I read that Nina and Windy were at the shopping mall, and putting on make-up in  the restroom. That's when Windy finally asked Nina what the choking game was. There were a lot of names for the game such as the knockout game and the flatliner. Since Windy wanted to be Nina's breath sister for life, she decided to play the game. Before she got to play, she had to swear to Nina that she wouldn't tell anyone about the game (since Nina's gotten in trouble for playing it). Windy told Nina to stop so quickly because she couldn't breathe. So then Nina said that she did a great job, but will eventually make it all the way through. Windy was confused on what she meant by "all the way." Nina explains that the whole point of the game is to pass out, and get a high, floaty feeling. After they left the restroom, Windy felt that she had changed and left her old self behind. Once they went outside, Windy's and Nina's parents were supposed to meet each other. But then Nina reminded Windy that she had told her that she was grounded and made an excuse to go help the elders. It surprised me at first because I thought that Nina was just telling lies so that she would end up killing Windy, but she didn't. Then I found out that she has been playing the game with herself, which means she chokes herself when nobody is around.

Book Blog #2: Girl, Stolen by April Henry

The Premise 
The book Girl, Stolen is a realistic fiction novel. Sixteen year old Cheyenne Wilder, was asleep in the backseat of the car, while her stepmom, Danielle was going to get her antibiotics from the pharmacy. Someone jumps into the front seat and start driving away. Cheyenne realizes  that it was not her stepmom. She was being kidnapped! The person who had kidnaped her, was a boy around her age. He only meant to take the car, but accidentally took her with him. When he saw her in the backseat, he didn't know what to do. If he let her out, she would get help from someone, and he would soon be arrested. Cheyenne is bought to the boy's house which is in the middle of nowhere. She finds out that the name of the kidnapper, had been Griffin. His father, Roy was about to let her go, but he sees the details of Cheyenne. He finds out that Cheyenne's father is the president of Nike,  so he decides to keep her for ransom. Cheyenne tries to escape, but she can't because she is blind.

My Favorite Character
Griffin is my favorite character in the book. He is a teenager that is about the same age of Cheyenne. He dropped out of high school and began to work with his dad on stealing cars. I would describe Griffin as being caring and kind. When Cheyenne was really sick, he gave her some medicine that would help her fever temperature drop down. He also gave her glasses  of water, and food. His dad, Roy had two other employees that worked for him. They tried to hurt her, but Griffin would make sure she was safe and protected. When he tried to help Cheyenne escape, he knew he could get caught from his dad. But he was risking himself, so that she could escape and be safe.

SPOILER ALERT!
In the end, Cheyenne starts to think about escaping. When she found a wrench, she hit him twice on the forehead, so that he would loss his conscious. Then she gets out of the house and takes Duke (Griffin's dog) with her. Griffin had once told her about a road where there were people, and she hoped to find someone. As she was walking, Cheyenne heard someone following her. It turns out to be Griffin. He had wanted to help her escape. While Griffin was guiding her, his foot got stuck in a hole and he twisted his leg. Cheyenne was then on her own to escape. When she gets near the road, she meets up with a police. He tells her to go inside a car, but as soon as she got inside , she felt that something was wrong. Roy had been acting as a police and changed his tone into a deeper voice, which had tricked Cheyenne. Later, she locks herself in the car and dials 9-1-1 on Roy's cellphone. Soon she is safe, and Roy ends up going to jail. At the very end of the book, Griffin calls Cheyenne to wish her a happy new year. I think that the ending of the book was really good because I always wanted to find out what was going to happen. Also, the ending was very detailed.

Book Blog #1: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

The Premise

What would you do if you found a package of random tapes sitting on your porch, right after you came back from school? Would you have listened to them or not? In this realistic fiction novel, Clay, the main character received cassette tapes and wondered who would have sent the tapes to him. On the package there was no return address except the package said it was for him. He had an old stereo and that was the only way he could listen to the tapes. Soon, he found out the tapes came from Hannah Baker. Hannah, is a person who has committed suicide. She was a classmate of Clay and was his crush. There are seven tapes, and on each side is labeled A and B, except for the seventh tape. Which means there are thirteen stories in total. Hannah's voice tells Jay the thirteen reasons why she ended her life. Clay and twelve other people were the ones that were responsible for her death. Once he begins listening to the tapes he'll find out why he was responsible for her death and about the other people.

Favorite Character

My favorite character in the book was Hannah. She loved writing poetry, reading and filling out surveys. People say she was very smart, pretty and friendly. She was a person that tried to be strong no matter what. But soon she said that people were taking everything she had had. For example, Tyler was a person that took pictures of people when they didn't notice. He started stalking Hannah so much that she decided he had taken away the safeness she had at home. She ended up recording her tapes right before the night she committed suicide. So she gave up on her life and couldn't stay strong.

SPOILER ALERT!!

Skye, is the last word written in the book. Skye was a girl that Clay used to have a crush on in middle school. Once Clay had finished listening to Hannah's tapes, he realizes that Skye is showing some signs of committing suicide. He chases after her so he can stop her from the thoughts of ending her life. He only has this chance of stopping her, because he knew he couldn't have helped Hannah since it was too late. I thought the ending of the book was surprising. I didn't think the book would end up making another person want to commute suicide.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and hope you will read it someday!