Close Your Eyes

Close Your Eyes by Nicci Cloke

Close Your Eyes is about a school shooting which we discover through a series of different formats, all leading us to the discovery of who was the behind it.

So, let's start with what genre it was. I would say a YA mystery, but that is debatable as the whole point of a mystery is that everyone finds out who done it at the end of the book. In Close Your Eyes, you were the only person that had no idea what was going on. I'd never encountered a book like it, all the other mystery books i have read, NO ONE knows who did it until the end. It was also a thriller, I mean it was about a school shooting! Onto the format. As previously hinted at, it was told in many different ways, the two most common of which were sections of interviews, as well as more traditional storytelling. Other formats included facebook and whatsapp messaging and excerpts from a private blog. It was a super interesting writing style, as you got to see inside the main characters' minds. In the interviews, you could really feel the different personalities of the characters, things like Gemma, one of the main characters, calling the interviewer babe. Still on the interviews, you never actually read what the interviewer had asked, yet from the way that Nicci Cloke wrote it, you still knew what it was, even if the question wasn't that obvious. Sometimes, the interviewee's would say something that had already been mentioned by someone else, or in the story part of it. This gave you a sense that they were backing up what had already been said, making it more realistic! To be honest, I couldn't think of anything that bad to say about it, except that it was quite sad and gruesome, as if the writing had a grey cloud hung over it. However, this might have been on purpose!

I am going to give it a 9/10
and an age rating of 14+

I Dare You Book Tag

So, to start with I would like to say thank you to Megan at Probability Reading for nominating me for my FIRST EVER TAG (I am insanely proud!)

The rules are that:

• You must be honest
• You can't not answer a question
• You have to tag at least four people

Here we go...

Which book has been on your shelves the longest?

The oldest book is one of my Grandpa's Asimov's, although that it a fairly new addition to my own collection. I would say that the one thats been their the longest is a copy of James and the Giant peach by Roald Dahl.

What is your current read, your last read and the book you'll read next?

My last read was Close Your Eyes by Nicci Cloke, my current read is the Cardturner by Louis Sachar, and who knows what my next read will be. Probably something that I pick up in the school library.



What book(s) did everyone like that you hated?

I actually wrote a post about this one. The book in question was The Catcher in the Rye by J.D.Salinger.




Which book do you keep telling yourself you'll read, but probably won't?

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. I just can't bring myself to do it.




Which books are you saving for "retirement"?

I have absolutely no idea, and I generally don't know what I am going to read next, unless I have been given a recommendation.

Last Page: Read it first or wait till the end?

No, just no. It spoils the entire thing!

Acknowledgments: waste of ink and paper or interesting side?

I don't think that it is a waste of ink and paper, those people deserve to be thanked, yet I don't always read it as it generally isn't the most interesting part of the book.

Which book character would you switch places with?

Probably Charlie Bucket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He has a grim beginning but life is pretty good by the end. Or maybe Alton from The Cardturner. I don't think that life was too hard for him.



Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in life?

Not that I can remember I don't. Any book where the main character has a love of reading and/or coding.

Name a book that you acquired in some interesting way.

 Probably the most interesting are all the books that I won with Book Bingo in my primary school. I can't remember any specifically, but I think that it is a cool way to get books.

Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?

I can't say that I've really given books away, but I do sometimes lend them to relatives.

Which book has been with you the most places?

I think that it is probably Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. That was the first book I got on my kindle, and I bring that with me on most holidays.



Any "Required reading" you hated in high school that wasn't too bad two years later?

When I first read Shakespeare with school, I didn't really like it, and was annoyed that we had to do a Shakespeare play as our school play, after spending a term studying him and his plays. But now I don't think that it is too bad!



What's the strangest item you've ever found in a book?

Nothing really springs to mind...

Have you ever read a Dan Brown?

Nope!

Have you ever seen a movie that you liked better than the book?

The harry potter series was alright... But then so were the books, so I'm not really sure if that's a proper answer!




A book that NEVER should have been published?

I have a tendency of liking most of the books I read. And even if I don't like them, I don't passionately hate them. All books have a right to be published.

Have you ever read a book that makes you hungry, cookbooks bing included from this question?

Going back to Harry Potter, any of the feasts in the great hall make me feel really hungry!



Who is the person whose book advice you'll always take?

The librarians at my school. (More than one person but WHATEVER!)

I nominate:

Jess at Jess Hearts Books
Nina at Death, Books and Tea
Zoe at Zoe's Book Blog
Cait at Paper Fury

If anyone else wants to do it, feel free, and leave me a link to the post in the comments!

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

Cassie is a black girl growing up in the early twentieth century in America. She is young, and doesn't understand why the White Children's school bus always splashes her on the way to school. Why they even have a school bus. And she doesn't understand the 'night men' and what they have been doing. Why are they all so mean to her, when God created them all equal? Cassie begins to find out, and as she does, so do we...

The first thing I liked about Roll of Thunder was that it is a non-fiction book hidden in a fiction book. Whilst the actual story is made up, you get to learn a bit about American history. This was interesting for me as I live in Britain, go to a British school, and so therefore I mostly learn about British history. Learning about something else was a change, especially in the form of an excellent fiction book. When i first saw Roll of Thunder, I thought it was going to be a bit boring. The cover didn't really fit in with what you would expect a book to have as its cover nowadays (Although this is just the cover of the version I read. A quick search on the internet proves that there are quite a few different versions). I am sad to admit that I do sometimes judge a book by its cover, and so therefore probably wouldn't have picked up Roll of Thunder if I hadn't heard it was such a good book. Now, onto the actual plot. It was a good story as a whole, with what felt like quite a few side stories (Like Forrest Gump, which I recently watched). Like so many of the books I seem to be reading recently, it was very hard hitting, with many sad and shocking parts. There was also a lot of bad language, mostly against black people. This only added to how realistic the book was in describing what life was like for black people in North America in the early 20th century. I thought it was good that it was told from Cassie's perspective, and not any of her siblings. If it had been told from anyone else's perspective, then there would be no story, as either the narrator would either know not enough, or too much, about the world around them.

I am going to give it an 8/10
And an age rating of 13+

Hi people,

This is just a very quick post to let you know that I probably won't be posting this week as I am on holiday. If any one knows how to schedule posts they would be helping to stop this from happening again by putting it in the comments.

See you in a week!