Review: " Fuse"

I am finally finished with this monster book.


     I actually think this is one of the best books I've ever read. The way it ended was magnificent, but I won't spoil it for you. I cannot wait for the sequel, "Burn." The best part for me was when El Capitan, Helmund and Pressia found Wilda in the woods. She was such a big help to them and without her, the plot would not have progressed and then she got the rapid cell degeneration from the enhancements and then Pressia had to leave her behind to heal with the nurses. In the third book, I really hope that Julianna Baggott elaborates on her story more. Even as the story moved forward, more and more children were returning from the Dome and coming back with the RCD (rapid cell degeneration) so that would be awesome if she took the children and made them heel then go help the mothers and Lyda fight the Dome and kill Willux.


      I would only read this book if you like apocotlyptic-dystopia-uprising-type novels. It would also be helpful if instead of buying the book right away and not looking into it. I would sit and read a couple chapters in store and then buy it if you like it. I say this because the story changes very rapidly in the beginning and I know a couple people who wouldn't like that. However, if you are into these topics then this book is just right for you. Even if you have never read a book in this genre then still try it because usually I am a Sarah Dessen type of person and I loved this novel. Definitely pick up a copy for yourself and try it out.

Still reading this giant book: Update

Either I'm too busy these days, or this book is ginormous


     I am back with an update of my book, "Fused." I'm sorry I haven't been on to do an update I have been too busy trying to do life and trying finish this thing! I have progressed a lot since we've last talked and I will quickly summarizer where I left off.


     So, once Partridge and Lyda are delivered to the basement, special forces come back to take Partridge to the Dome. Lyda quickly makes a diversion and they get away with the maps and serum. Each group is split up and they are running fast. El Capan and Pressia with Bradwell and Fignan (the talking black box) and Lyda with Partridge. There is a long journey and Lyda ends up getting pregnant and Partridge goes back to the Dome to save all of the people in the ruined city because the Dome promised that they would kill them if he did not return peacefully. The Dome sent out a hundred black mechanical spiders that lock on and blow up on people, to help convince Partridge. Lyda goes back with the mothers and rests and stays healthy ready for the new baby. While the mother's prepare for a full-out war on the Dome in which the leader (our good mother) plans to kill Partridge for making Lyda pregnant.
    On the other hand, Wilda (the little girl who was taken by the dome and made pure again) has began to get the negative side effects of the enhancements a.k.a rapid cell degeneration. The serum they are all protecting is the medicine that will fix the RCD and make Willux well again. Bradwell and Pressia have fallen in love while on the trek to get to the OSR outpost to save El Capitan who has one of the spiders stuck in his calf. When they make it there, the doctors pull out the spider and Wilda stays at the orphanage they have while Bradwell, Pressia and El Capitan find the formula to use the serum in and help save all of the people with defects.
    Partridge's old roommate from the academy in the Dome, Hastings has been forced into the Special Forces by the Dome. On their long journey they meet and he helps them. He gives them directions to an airship that will lead them to New Grange. (where the formula is) He is wounded in battle and left with some close friends while Bradwell, Pressia and El Capitan find the formula. They have also tried to decode Willuxs' mind to try and understand his actions. They find the airship and start the journey to New Grange where they THINK the formula is.
    Back in the Dome, Willux is dying and he chooses Partridge to be the next leader. But, in order to have this happen, he has to wipe all of Partridge's memories which includes ever meeting Lyda and leaving the dome. Willux has also remarried and the daughter is engaged to Partridge. Her name is Iralene and her mother, Mimi are kept in capsules to keep them looking young. Willux keeps people in these capsules who he doesn't want alive or dead.

Keeping up? Stay tuned in for more updates and very soon a review!

Blog Reflection

 

Monday, August 26, 20 3

Summer Reading 2013  (old post)

"Pure" by Julianna Baggott is an action-packed nonfiction with great settg s and a twisting plot. "Pure" is about how one man selfishlessy blew up planet Earth. The book is told by multiply views, Partridge lives in the Dome which was untouched when the detonations occured. He is not deformered or hurt at all. Partridge is also the son of Ellery Willux, the most powerful man in the dome and the one who had the idea to deonate the planet. Lyda also lives in the dome and is Partridge's sweeatheart. you might ven say that they briefly dates before he escaped the Dome. Lyda and Partridge went to a school dance that can be related to homecoming. It is here that Partridge steals the key to the Domestoicity display. ( which Lyda is in charge and in posession of) Partridge left Lyda and went to the display where he stole a knif efrom on of the sculptures. Lyda liked Prtridge so she let him steal the knife not kowing what he was going to use it for.
The book is also told in Pressia's point of view who lives with her gradfather and survived the detonations. Her fist was fused with a doll head and she now cannot use her left hand. She is courageous and one tough cookie! Pressia helps a total stranger and contributes to the uncovering the Dome and their wrong actions. El Capitan is the last point of view the book includes. His brother is fused to his back and hey have survived the detonations. They work for the O.S.R and are of a high rank. Each point of view is unique and offers a different perspective. I thouht it was creative of the author to include the thoughts and personal actions of the main characters.

 

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

 

Lets talk apples  (new post)

Apple IPhone 5S....
I decided that this week I would review what topic interests us the most. Social Media, Smart phones they have not only turned into the next revolution but also status. Apple has recently come out with it's latest model of the genius tool IPhone.
The features 3 new color and the new smart-touch finger scan home button. basically, Apple takes your fingerprint and uses it for the password into your phone. I think that this is a smart idea with some bad qualities. It's nice because nobody could break into your phone and take selfies and/or post to your Instagram account. But, on a more mature scale, now nobody could possibly break into your phone to access all sorts of information. I think in some cases it may be bad. Let's say you are at home with your 2 children. Your husband is out of town on business and it is night. You fall down on the flight of stairs bringing up some laundry to fold. Hearing the crash, your 8 year old walks downstairs to find you passed out. He knows you have to call 911 for help so he runs back upstairs. He finds your IPhone sitting in it's charging dock... How will he unlock it so you can receive help? I know that maybe this scenario is a little far-fetched but anything could happen

 

Status Change.

Now when you walk into the average high school you see white iPhones and a lot of Starbucks. These days it doesn't matter what qualities you posse rather than the items you possess. I don't mean to bash the way it was when our parents where in school because believe me, it would be so much better this way. Not only do we judge each other for what we have, but our generation also uses this tool to judge one another online. Cyber-bullying is a rising epidemic that has affected the lot of us.

This article talks about how school plays a large role in the actions we take online against others. I believe that this article is correct and that the events that are fought about online are usually rooted in school. That's where we are most of the time and that's where all of our friends and peers are. Check out this article for interesting facts and opinions.

 

Blog Reflection:

                My blog has developed tremendously from the start of the trimester to now. I have discovered the “spell- check” button and have gotten more comfortable with the way I talk and how I communicate my ideas with the people who read my blog. I have learned how to play around with my blog and how to update Good Reads and my widgets.  In my older blog post titled, “Summer Reading 2013,” I had an abundance of mechanical errors. I have highlighted them all in yellow.  It was also extremely formal. I think that in order to be a good blogger you should be able to be comfortable and use the language that your use every day when writing. This way, it makes the audience feel like they can are talking to me in person. I struggled with this before I read some of my peers’ blog posts. This skill will definitely help me in the long run. I also had been really confused with how Good Reads worked and how to update my widgets properly.  Now, my blog is running and all of my widgets are current.

               

 

 

This assignment wasn’t necessarily hard but was really tricky to figure out how to get my blog up and how to get my widgets working well. I had to ask a lot of questions in class and jot down the answers. I also reverted back to the enormous packet multiple times if I had to fix something and didn’t know how to. The biggest strength that I had was after I had looked at other’s blog posts and saw how theirs were formulated and read some of their posts. This helped my language and the way I talk sound more comfortable.  My teacher noticed this change and awarded me with being the first “blogger of the week.” It was really cool to know that people had seen the change and liked it. I am sad to say, I didn’t accomplish my reading goal. In the beginning of the Tri, I set my goal to be ten. But after life hit me in the face, I quickly realized that my goal was VERY unrealistic. With marching band and soccer and  school , my time to read dwindled fast.  I went to Good Reads and adjusted my goal to five books for the end of the first Tri. I am on my third book and hopefully I can read at least two more before we are too far into the second Tri. I really, really love Good Reads. I check almost every day and use it to get book recommendations. I love it so much that I told my sister who is in college in California about it and she got one! We sometimes use the “book chat” feature to talk. It’s nice because I have a hard time finding books that I like and it gives me perfect books.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Lets talk apples

  Apple IPhone 5S....
      I decided that this week I would review what topic interests us the most. Social Media, Smart phones they have not only turned into the next revolution but also status. Apple has recently come out with it's latest model of the genius tool IPhone.
     The features 3 new color and the new smart-touch finger scan home button. basically, Apple takes your fingerprint and uses it for the password into your phone. I think that this is a smart idea with some bad qualities. It's nice because nobody could break into your phone and take selfies and/or post to your Instagram account. But, on a more mature scale, now nobody could possibly break into your phone to access all sorts of information. I think in some cases it may be bad. Let's say you are at home with your 2 children. Your husband is out of town on buisness and it is night. You fall down on the flight of stairs bringing up some laundry to fold. Hearing the crash, your 8 year old walks downstairs to find you passed out. He knows you have to call 911 for help so he runs back upstairs. He finds your IPhone sitting in it's charging dock... How will he unlock it so you can receive help? I know that maybe this scenario is a little far-fetched but anything could happen

Status Change.
     
       Now when you walk into the average high school you see white iPhones and a lot of Starbucks. These days it doesn't matter what qualities you posse rather than the items you posses. I don't mean to bash the way it was when our parents where in school because believe me, it would be so much better this way. Not only do we judge each other for what we have, but our generation also uses this tool to judge one another online. Cyber-bullying is a rising epidemic that has affected the lot of us.

     This article talks about how school plays a large role in the actions we take online against others. I believe that this article is correct and that the events that are fought about online are usually rooted in school. That's where we are most of the time and that's where all of our friends and peers are. Check out this article for interesting facts and opinions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/23/opinion/teenage-cyberbullying.html?ref=cyberbullying&_r=0

What's new?

     We quickly learn that being courageous is the best virtue in the setting of my book, "Fused." Illia tells us how Ingership (her abusive husband who gave her scars) trusted her with a secret. She married him and he said that she had to be the one that lived and kept the secret. We don't know what the secret is yet, but I'm assuming it's something big. Lyda and Partridge met after three months and even shared a kiss! Quite the scandal! Illia stayed behind while the mothers delivered Partridge and Lyda to the basement of the OSR where the others are waiting. They were attacked by Dusts while they made the pilgrimage and nearly died. The mothers have not delivered them fully to the basement yet but I will read on and continue with an update later this week. 

     While Partridge was still at the camp with the mothers he took out the serum that he took from his mothers shelter and tested it on a small bug. He had to break the bugs leg in order for the serum  to work because it was full of  cell enhancement materials that would bring back the dead cells and enhancement them even more. It worked, and the bug's leg had grown twice its size in a short amount of time. This is why the special forces went to their mothers shelter trying to find the serum because Partridge's dad has a disease and it's deteriorating his cells and he needs in order to live. Partridge keeps the serum tightly wrapped around his stomach so nobody would ever be able to snatch them on this long journey to the basement. Once the serum is delivered to the OSR, the four people, Pressia, Partridge, Lyda and Bradwell will test the serum and maybe use it to lure in the Dome so they can attack it.

     I predict that in the next few chapters, the serum will be stolen by the Dome and  a fight will break out between the two sides. Illia may be also apart of the plot somehow. She may tell the secret even.

http://readingfictional.blogspot.com/2013/02/fuse-by-julianna-baggot.html?m=1 

 Check out this blog for a summary of the book so far!

"Fused" more like fantastic

     So far we have gathered more information with this novel. Pressia and El Capitan down in the OSR headquarters' basement and Partridge, Illia and Lyda with the army mothers. The mothers have kept Partridge as a guest/prisoner while he makes maps if the Dome. They have told Partridge that he will be moving to the basement with the rest of the gang with Lyda. The mothers like Illia so they want her to stay back with them and she does. 

     Illia realizes that she doesn't have to look a certain way or feel uncomfortable about her scars. She realizes that they make her unique and are a symbol of who she is. In the beginning of the first book when she was introduced as "a frail housewife with questionable morals" it made me think of a weak person not knowing how to help themself. The author really made a point across trying to show the audience that she can fight when she wants to. 

     El Capitan and Helmund have had a tough time raising an army from practically dirt. This one scene in particular showed how Pressia fuels El Capitan. He and Helmund were out in the woods trying to patrol the grounds for Special Forces sent from the Dome and El Capitan took out a sandwich, at first half of it fell on the ground so he couldn't eat it. Right as I thought that El Capitan was about to eat the whole thing, he halved it with Helmund. The author later went on to say how Pressia showed El Capitan that instead of trying to always put Helmund down and make him feel low instead, El Capitan should build Helmund up and see what they can achieve together.

New with "Fuse"

     We have walked further down the block with this book, It is getting better and better and is in close comparison to it's prequel. I haven't had much time to read this week. With homecoming preparations and marching band practices 3-6 everyday after school. But, I have managed to do so enough that I am back with an update.
     Let's get into the novel. Can I just say that if they make a movies out of these books I will be there camping outside waiting to buy tickets. I am now currently on page 23 with this new book. It has progressed with velocity. Since my last post, we had not known where Partridge ( Pressia's half-brother) was and if he had survived. He has been with the army mothers. 

     These mothers are usually fused with their children or a group of kids because during the Detonations, they grabbed as many children as possible to shield them from the bright lights. They have been guarding Patridge while he draws maps of the Dome from his memory. He isn't exactly a guest, since the person who caused the Detonations was a man . They reafer to men as "deaths" and because Paretridge is a boy, he isn't treated nicely. He, Lyda and Illia all escaped from ther special forces that threaten to kill them. Lyda and Partridge escaped from the Dome and Illia was taken from the leader of the OSR who abused her enough to the point where she sewed a thin nude-colored stocking to act as a second skin to cover her scars. 

     They are all with the mothers while Pressia and El Capitan are raising an army in the OSR headquarters. Let me clarify something that had been confusing me before. In the first book, the OSR was the enemy because they took people and trained them for bad things. But, now in this book, the Dome is what they are trying to take down. I am predicting that as we get further into the book, the Dome will send troops out to try and defeat the enemy while the Dome people will not know. 

 

   

New Book!

     I know I have disappointed some with my recent actions. However, I am now back to enjoying my reading time. I just started "Fuse" by Julianna Baggot. She is a talented writer, this past summer I read the prequel to the series. "Pure" is a wonderful book that I couldn't stop

reading. Refer back to my first blog post for a quick review of that book.

     I am on page 15 of my new book. So far, we have learned that Pressia and Bradwell are in the basement of the OSR headquarters. El Capitan is trying to start a new army full of trained wretched to (I assume) fight the dome. 

     Pressia has taken the job of "mom" to the smaller children without families. She made a prosthetic arm for a little boy, Perlo. In the detonations Perlo's finger on is left hand were fused together. He is unable to use this hand and has a hard time completing everyday chores. El Capitan had snuck Pressia piles of scrap metal he was able to find for her to make the arm for Perlo's.

      As far as we know, Pressia and Bradwell have not gotten into an intiment relationship. In the last book, Pressia and Bradwell were beginning to get close and even shared a kiss. But nothing more, it seems tense between the two of them. Bradwell has tried to learn more about the past. He has found these black boxes that seem to be like little dogs, one even bit him! When Bradwell opened one of the boxes he found there were papers containing information about the past. He wants to find more so he can confirm his parents' theory about the Dome being evil. 

      For now, Bradwell and Pressia are living with many other wretches. Perhaps the families of the men that have come to El Capitan to be apart of the army. There are random children, but for the most part the camp has families of women and children. I am curious to see how Pressia and Bradwell recover more information about the past and how El Capitan plans on raising a powerful army. 

      

I had to bail...

     I apologize in advance... i broke one of most basic law of literature. I quit reading "Matched." by Allie Condrie. The book was not going anywhere, it seemed that the author was just writing fluff and unable to formulate what she wanted to say. I'm actually sort of depressed because I was so excited in the beginning of the book because I find that it is hard for me to find good books and now that I had found a (what I though was) good book. And it had two sequels! I wonder how she wrote two more books when the author had no plot-line. I may have given into temptation as well...
     Over the summer, I had to do Summer Reading which most people hate but I actually quite like it. I read, "Pure" by Julianna Baggot. I liked the book so much that I finshed reading it in two weeks! In the middle of summer I had gone to barnes and noble to find the sequel but had to order it because the book just came out last month. I had forgotten about it until three days ago when it arrived at my doorstep. I wasn't liking the book ever since I wrote about the plot-line plataeuing. It whisphered to me every time I passed it's resting place on my desk in my bedroom. it would say, " you know you want to read me, I am the sequel to one of your favorite books." I finally gave in.
    
Check out an awesome site called Good Reads to get book recomendations and chat with other book-lovers:
http://www.goodreads.com/

Have we Plateaued?

     The book has not progressed any further since the last time that we have talked. I read 20 more pages and the plot does not develop any further. It seems that cassia is waiting for something. Perhaps to tell her family about the poem that she found in the face compact her grandfather gave her. Xander is oblivious, cassia and him barely talk which is unusual for a match. Ever since their matching banquet, it has been extremely awkward between the two. I understand, imagine having to marry your best guy- friend. It might be a bit uncomfortable!
     When people die in the society (at age 80) they are required to swab their cheeks for DNA and give the sample to  family member to give to the society after their death. They do this because every person believes that one day the scientists will be able to bring back these people using their DNA. Cassia's father has lost the sample and when Cassia returns from her free rec-time there are official and people in whit lab coats in her house. They are trying to recover the sample that may be in the house. cassia is worried that they might find her poem that she had in the compact on her bookshelf. The officials leave and find nothing. Cassia is relieved but ashamed that her father could have been so careless. In the society, people don't make mistakes and every once in a while when they do, the others almost "shun" the wrong-doers. If you ask me, it's a pretty judgmental place to grow up in! 


Check out the author's fan page:
http://allycondie.com/

Update: Matched :)

     Remember how I told you I'd be back with an update? Well I've gotten further down the road with this book. I am not as enthusiastic but I admit it is an addicting read. As soon as I finished my last post I went up to my room and crawled into my bed with the windows open letting in a cool breeze. But, of course "nothing stays golden forever" and I had soccer in twenty minutes.
     The book has really progressed, Cassia has looked at the compact her grandfather gave her and the corner of a paper  was sticking out was a note! The author shows the audience Cassia's adventurous side when she decides to break the rules of the society and read the poem. The society has set rules about your own writing and ever since the council picked the 100 poems, the rules have gotten stricter. Cassia had chosen a hiking option for her recreation hours. The tour guide was not very helping and he exclaimed how he was an ex military personnel. Cassia had felt that the compact weighed her down as she sprinted up the mountain face. She found it in her pocket and sat down beneath the brush alone to read it, peacefully. The poem read:

" Do not gentle into that good night,
  Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
  Rage, rage against the dying of light.
  Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
  Because their words had forked no lightning they
  do not gentle into that good night. "     (Condie, Page 96)

    I first read this in the book, and was confused bout its meaning. But, now that I re-read it and now I  realize that it is about rebelling against the Society. Look! even the sequence of covers give the plot line away. It was bold for the author to do this but now I know that Cassia must be the leader of an uprising. I predict that the book will end with her having thoughts about a new society and maybe even telling Xander or her family.