Book analysis The Visible Man by chuck Klosterman - Brandon Lee

   

  Hi guys! Sorry for the late post, but I am back with another book review. This is called The Visible Man by Chuck Klosterman. I first saw this book while browsing the Champaign Public Library, and saw the interesting cover and name on display. I looked at the book's small description and was immediately invested in the story. I am yet to finish the book, even though I have been reading it for quite some time now, because I have been quite busy. I took a long break from it, but am exited to continue reading it as the summer season begins.

    This novel takes place from the point of view of a therapist named Victoria Vick. Victoria is an ordinary therapist until she is met with a strange man who has come to share his experiences with a so-called invisible man. He claims that he is a man who has stolen technology from a lab that allows him to become invisible and observe people's everyday lives. At first, Victoria observes that the man is delusional with made-up stories. However, after multiple sessions with the man, his stories are starting to seem a little too real. Questioning the credibility of the man's experiences, she slowly becomes obsessed with the case, so much so that even her own life is affected by it. Her career, marriage life, and even personality slowly shaped around the case, and she slowly falls deeper and deeper into this inescapable rabbit hole.

    I personally am really enjoying this book so far, and dig the captivating yet unsettling plot of the story. This book is also really interesting because of the way it is formatted. The beginning is written almost every time, an email or therapy session notes about her clients, which makes it really interesting to read. As the story goes on, the story slightly shifts with the unexpected turn of events, with the experiences of her main client, Y___ (client name). I really recommend this book to anyone who likes these kinds of stories with an unsettling vibe to them, and cannot wait to see how this ending turns out! I truly thank everyone who has read and commented on my blogs so far, and wish for many more memories!

    

In Your Shoes - Book Review by Naomi

 Hi everyone! It’s Naomi and I’m back with another book review! This time, I’ll be reviewing the book I just finished, In Your Shoes by Donna Gephart.

First, I’ll begin with a summary. SPOILER IN THE LAST SENTENCE. The book starts off by introducing the two main characters: Miles Spagoski and Amy Silverman. It’s important to note the book changes through the characters POV’s between chapters, allowing the reader to know about both their lives fairly equally. Right off the bat it gives you the basic information about them. They’re both middle schoolers and death has greatly impacted their life. Miles has a lot of anxiety regarding death after Bubbie Louise (his grandmother) passed away. Asides from worrying constantly, he enjoys bowling– one of the times he doesn't feel stressed about everything (and he hustles kids so he has enough money for his grandfather's 75th birthday present), talking to his grandfather and family, and reading about strange ways people died. Meanwhile, Amy is still devastated from her mothers passing which had occurred very recently in the novel and is struggling to accept her new home after they moved. Additionally, she’s frustrated by the fact they live in Eternal Peace Home (a funeral home her uncle runs) while her father is away training to help his brother run it. She also spends lots of time writing. Later on in the story, Amy and Miles continue to cross paths and Miles tends to embarrass himself a lot (his “first impression” occurs after his bowling shoe hits her in the head while he’s fighting his friend, later he spills a cup of root beer on her lap… I think I’ve made my point.) Nevertheless, they end up becoming friends that like each other and are able to help each other through the hard things in their life, such as when (the following information is necessary, sorry to spoil) SPOILER Miles’ grandfather dies.

So, I have both critiques for this book and things I enjoyed, I’ll begin with what I didn’t like.

1. This book is definitely intended for middle schoolers. I realized this early into reading, however, decided to continue reading it because I had to write my blog about something (and I’m glad I did, because after getting over the somewhat cringe aspects, I enjoyed it).

2. The author makes commentary throughout the book and I’m not a huge fan of it, I honestly feel like it just adds pages some of the time. However, I suppose it was an interesting supplement to her author's note at the end. 

3. The author includes the story Amy’s writing, which is meant to show how life is impacted by talents and vice versa (there are common themes in her life and writing for example, the character in her stories' mothers deceased as well), however, I feel like the author could have shown this another way, as again, it just adds pages.

Now for what I did like:

1. The overall message of the story. The simple truth is that Amy’s mother is deceased. Miles’ grandparents are deceased. Time won’t fix it. I love how the author never makes it seem as though they are healed through time, because that’s simply not how it works. Rather, through their actions they’re healed (the idea is they’re also healed through each other, which can hold some truth as well in real life.) Overall, the message is that although life isn’t perfect and we will inevitably face hardships, we can heal and seek help from others, if we allow ourselves to. Additionally, we don’t have to be scared for life. SPOILER: After Miles’ grandfather's death, Randall has an asthma attack and stops breathing. Miles freezes in place worrying Randall will die and Randall ends up in the hospital (Randall’s life is saved because Amy and Tate took immediate action). While visiting Randall (who ends up being fine), Miles promises to never freeze up or let his fear impair him from helping anyone else.

2. I really like how anxiety is depicted. Miles often lies in bed awake at night in fear of death, yet he reads about it constantly (which has a lot of different explanations for why psychologically– if you google “why do people seek what they’re afraid of” you can find a lot of explanations). While reading I also saw how he’s constantly afraid and being triggered, yet doesn’t always say things because he’s worried he’ll be a buzzkill, so remains silent and hopes nothing bad will occur. Although this is sad, it’s very accurate as for many, most fears don’t make sense unless they’re your own.

3. The characters are extremely compassionate. Throughout the story, the characters are aware of each other and try to help one another which I thought was sweet and satisfying to read.

4. Everything makes sense once you’ve finished reading. All questions feel answered and it honestly ties together really well.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story. I thought the characters and plot were well developed and I could sense how passionate the author was while writing (and after reading the author's note I understood why). My main regret is that I wish I read this book in middle school as I believe I would’ve appreciated it more and certain aspects wouldn't have bothered me as much. Overall, I’d rate this book an 8/10, if I didn’t spoil too much and you can get over some of the cringy aspects– it’s 100% worth the read. Thank you for reading my final blog!

Mskingbean89 Writes Better than J.K. Rowling

 J.K. Rowling is famously known for writing the Harry Potter book series (which has made over $25,000,000,000 in revenue since being first released). She’s also a terf (transphobic) and, since 2018 (almost two decades after she published her first Harry Potter book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone) has used her large platform to spread hate. While spreading hateful rhetoric does not directly equate to poor writing, this context is crucial for understanding J.K. Rowling’s books, and why fanfiction author Mskingbean89 makes the original Harry Potter series pale in comparison to her Harry Potter fanfiction.

Despite being a well-loved children’s author, J.K. Rowling took to the internet to write wrong and arguably repulsive comments. Following the Paris Olympics, she wrongly gendered a female boxer on Twitter (X). 

The Olympian being addressed is Imane Khelif, a cis-gender professional boxer from Algeria who competed in the 2024 Olympics. In the post, J.K. Rowling assumes, likely based on Imane’s appearance and skill, that she must be a trans woman. She then berates the boxer for shattering her competitor’s “life’s ambition,” despite the competitor herself having acknowledged Imane’s skills in an interview. Through this post, it appears that J.K. Rowling demonstrates far more misogyny for not believing Imane to be a cis woman because of her strength than the supposed “misogynistic sporting establishment.” Likewise, in a post during the pandemic, she ridiculed the term “people who menstruate.” 

Here, she clearly mocks the post for not addressing those who menstruate as women. However, similarly to the post regarding the boxer, her “correction” is incorrect. Even if an individual, for whatever reason, believes that a person’s gender must align with their sex assigned at birth, J.K. Rowling’s opinion would remain wrong, as it is possible for some intersex people to menstruate as well. Overall, her adamant refusal of inclusive language makes little sense. Inclusivity within a society is crucial for maintaining equity (something I’d argue should be upheld…); opposing such efforts only further excludes and stigmatizes different groups of people, leading towards systemic harm (which like, PLEASE–this world has had enough of it). Therefore, when writing children’s books, it’s highly important to integrate accurate/correct representation of different genders, ethnicities, races, etc.. (For anyone confused: I’m not saying children’s books should or must require arguably complex topics for children such as critical race theory, gender studies, etc.. However, diversity and representation should be there, even if not directly impacting a critical plot point, etc.). 

J.K. Rowling is awfully careless about representation in her books. (As a side note, she also wrote multiple books under the pseudonym, Robert Gailbraith, where she paints trans people as villains. So, uh–make of that what you will; it’s a whole other drama that, although relating to some earlier points, doesn’t necessarily progress the current argument. I’d argue that it’s still important to be aware of, though!). For example, in the Harry Potter series, the character Cho Chang is meant to be of Asian heritage. However, many criticize this name; “Cho” is not a real name and is arguably cartoonish. It also plays into racist stereotypes of how languages from Eastern Asia sound. Likewise, there’s also the twins Padma and Parvati Patil, whose names/characters overall face similar critiques. (For a more in-depth explanation about why these three characters are problematic, I found these articles which I believe do a decent job of further explaining the controversy: I Think the Harry Potter Movies Treated 2 Characters Awfully (But They Had a Ton of Potential) and Why Cho Chang Is a Controversial Name in Harry Potter).

Therefore, J.K. Rowling seems to not put much thought into her characters (also, let’s not forget she’s also literally just a shit person!!! (imo…)). However, her writing flaws don’t end there. The Harry Potter series faces numerous plot holes and underdeveloped worldbuilding. Here’s an article that offers forty moments where something in the Harry Potter series made (arguably) no sense: The 40 Biggest Plot Holes In The Harry Potter Franchise. And here is a summary of the examples I found most relevant: 

• Time turners (the magical devices that can turn back time to alter events) are rare and strictly forbidden. Despite this, one is offered to Hermionie to secretly take more classes.

• In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort insists that Harry is the one to take the prophecy off the shelf (it could only be removed by Voldemort or Harry) despite his death eaters having entirely conquered the room where the prophecy was. One might argue that Voldemort wanted to stay safe, but that argument would be rendered void since minutes after Harry grabs the prophecy, Voldy shows up anyway to fight Dumbledore. (Then again, maybe the whole point was to bring Dumbledore to a controlled location, but I doubt JKR thought that far considering that, in an interview, she said that she never saw any parallels between her death eaters and nazis when asked… (again, just imo)).

• The date and day of the week never align with the year. For example, despite September first being a different day of the week each year, Hogwarts students continuously begin school on a Monday (supposedly September 1st). Despite these details being relatively small, they still show the inconsistencies and lack of attention to detail in the books.

ANYHOO. NOW THAT I’VE ESTABLISHED WHY J.K. ROWLING AND HER HARRY POTTER BOOKS LOWKEY SUCK, HERE'S WHY THE FANFICTION VERSION OF HARRY POTTER IS FAR BETTER:

(the following portion of this blog post will remain relatively vague to avoid spoilers) 

“All the Young Dudes,” written by Mskingbean89–(real identity has never been leaked)--(also, the title is a song reference–iykyk-hehe david bowie)--was uploaded onto Archive of Our Own (popular fanfiction (fic) website also known as Ao3) in 2017 and completed in 2018. Since then, this fic has been translated forty-nine times, has been clicked on 17,371,193 times, and received 263,289 kudos (equivalent of likes). It consists of 188 chapters and 526,969 words. The story follows Remus Lupin’s perspective as he maneuvers through his Hogwarts years as a teenager, therefore spanning from 1971-1995. 

Throughout the fic, Mskingbean89 makes clearly well-researched and detailed references to actual slang, terminology, historical moments from the 1970s alongside believable and realistic characters. Although subjective, I find her writing style to be far better than J.K. Rowlings’s–it's somehow both eloquent and easy to read and nicely flows together, reading easily even when depicting the mind of an eleven-year-old boy; it's so effortlessly evident that one is reading a child’s thoughts, but the words still draw you into the story. I cannot recall a singular moment while reading where I found myself pausing because of strange descriptions or similar awkward phrasing. 

Furthermore, Mskingbean89 manages to arguably accurately (yet respectfully) incorporate themes regarding LGBTQ+ experiences (Remus literally dates Sirius, but there's also decent representation and recognition of LGBTQ+ movements during the 1980s and 1990s) and also acknowledges poverty among other real-world stuff, whereas J.K. Rowling can’t even properly write a non-European character, let alone historical realities and economic disparities.

“All the Young Dudes” also shows incredible character development. Each individual character feels real and is clearly affected and changed by other characters, situations, environments, etc.. I don’t think the same can always be said for Harry Potter (lowkey, I would give some examples here, but I think this blog post has gone on long enough.)

BUT ANYWAY. I HOPE THIS POST MADE SENSE. BASICALLY, MORAL OF THE STORY: JKR SUCKS, HER BOOKS SUCK LESS, THE FANFICTION DOESN'T SUCK. 

If you want to check out the fanfiction for yourself here is the link: All the Young Dudes - Chapter 1 - MsKingBean89 - Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling [Archive of Our Own]

WELL- THANKS FOR READING MY LAST BLOG POST! BYE BYE!

-Karina 

Sunshine Book Review

 Hello everyone (yes spoilers),

I recently read a very interesting book about Jarrett J Krosoczka, a popular children’s author (he wrote the Lunch Lady comic series). The sequel to his first autobiography, Sunshine, was a graphic novel about Jarrett’s experience volunteering at a camp for kids with life-threatening diseases, such as cancer. The first book, Hey Kiddo, gave information about his childhood and finding a place in life with never meeting his father and having a heroin addict for a mom. He grew up with his grandparents, and as you can tell, had a pretty rough childhood. Anyways, Camp Sunshine occurs when Jarrett is a senior in High School, and he gets to go despite extreme competitiveness within his school, because everyone wanted to go. When he arrives, he is told he’ll be a counselor for a specific camper, Diego, one who’s in a wheelchair and doesn’t really want to be there. Diego was a young teenager, so Jarrett was grouped with other ill teenagers and their siblings. Despite their disabilities, the entire group was still able to climb a rock wall (Diego was lifted) and do other fun activities. Jarrett learned a lot about what it’s like to have cancer, but these kids weren’t letting that stop them from having a good time.

He also met a family with a young boy who had cancer, and it was improving at the time of the camp, but he ended up dying from it later on. This struck Jarrett quite hard because he really bonded with that family over the course of the camp. He even attended the young boy’s funeral. He got to know his other classmates, who went with him, really well, because of the special moments at camp they experienced together. The group was from all different aspects of school life, such as sports, theater, and academics, but they all shared the memories from Camp Sunshine. I encourage everyone to read this two-part series if you haven’t already. They’re pretty heavy but really eye-opening if you give them a chance. Also, if you have younger siblings, suggest a Lunch Lady comic or a different book by Mr. Krosoczka. 

Thank you for reading.

Luke