Full Tilt: Blog #2: Ride #1: The Carousel

Now that the intro section of this book is out of the way, I can move on to what I've been planning to do with these blogs. As I mentioned in the outside reading reflection, this book contains 7 rides, all of which have a deep meaning with the main character, Blake. These rides are very deep and I will analyze these rides in each bog, one at a time. Maybe provide a little back story between rides, if it's necessary, although (typically, one HUGE exception) not much happens between rides. The first ride that the Blake goes on is The Carousel. The Carousel is very important because it is the first real ride that Blake goes on in the park. Looking at it, it looks like a normal carousel, nothing special. Blake notices one thing about it though, and that is that all of the animals are mascots for the colleges he's considering going to, since he's leaving in a month or so. As soon as the ride starts though, it is very apparent it isn't normal. The ground beneath Blake, Russ, and Maggie (his friends) disappear, and rocks and a grassy plain appear. Soon, everyone on the ride was riding an actual animal, and those who flew off or were knocked off...to put it simply, or as simply as possible: die or "become a part of the park" (ex: they become the rocks in the ride, forever). Also, the being of Cassandra will basically attack Blake on every ride, and she tries in this one. I'll get more into that later. I guess in addition to talking about the rides I can talk about Cassandra. Anyways, now time to analyze. Think of the thoughts going through their heads as the ride transformed: it's amazing that they didn't freak out and die. Also, in terms of Blake noticing the mascots were all from colleges how knows, do his friends notice? What could they do even if they did? Why/Why would/wouldn't he tell them? These are all good questions and I'll simplify the answers cause I'm probably already done. No, not much, because he wants to, because he's afraid they'll react badly. Done.

A Sad and Tearful Goodbye To Chosen Articles About Videogames....and Blog #1: The Kamikaze

*cry, cry, cry, whimper, whimper, whimper* No more chosen posts...no more video game topics...no more...uh...PS3 related-stuff. It's sad really. At least the book to read can be chosen, unlike past years. I don't want to read The Complete Works of Shakspere: Volume XXXXXXXXXXVVVVVVI. The book I'm reading is Full Tilt, by Neal Shusterman. Some other famous books by him include Downsiders and Speeding Bullet. Anyways, this is Blog #1 and the topic in this book I'll be discussing for this is the ride that Blake, Quinn, Maggie, and Russ (the main characters) go on: The Kamikaze. To be honest, I still don't know what I'll be talking about at this point, but whatever, I'll wing it (that expression makes no sense). Okay, so The Kamikaze is a rollercoaster that the main characters go on very close to the beginning of the book. It is a rollercoaster with a thematic show: the track appears to dissapear as though you will...well...DIE, but it's not real. Of course, the main character Blake knew nothing about this shows, and was terrified when he saw the track fall. He actually thought he was going to die. This raises the question: What if he responded differently? Differently than just basically praying to god that is. What if he actually tried to jump off the rollercoaster during the ride, or somehow messed up something by trying to get out, and created some deadly chain reaction? By deadly chain reaction, I mean think like Final Destination 3...then again, I really doubt you've seen that Ms. Jarrett. Anyways, if he had responded differently, and somehow was injured or died, what would then happen? Could he sue them for not knowing what would happen, or is it all his own ignorance and fear? We will probably never know...oh look I'm at 301 words. Well, I'm done.

Outside Reading Reflection

The book I chose for outside reading is Full Tilt, by Neal Shusterman. I picked this book to read for many reasons. First of all, I really like the cover...wow that sounds dumb. But it’s true. The cover looks cool. Also, this book overall sounds really good. Going by the description on the back: “In order to escape, Blake must survive seven deadly rides by dawn, each of which represents a deep personal fear…” That overall sounds really awesome. To me, and I don’t know why, I like the sound of the structure of this book. I like things where there is like a structure, a list of levels (kind of like a video game). One final reason that this book interests me is that it sounds like a thrilling book. Not scary, but thrilling. For some reason, no books or movies seem to scare me. Anyways, due to these reasons, I chose the book Full Tilt, by Neal Shusterman to read for outside reading this quarter.