Summer Reading Vent

Grendel

For starters I couldn’t help but sympathize with Grendel. To put it best, he was really just misunderstood, which was made evident when he first encountered the warriors. In the beginning, his kills weren’t just for mere sport. They either came as a whim or to satiate his hunger. Even after his meeting with the dragon and he embraced his monstrous nature, he still showed a gentler side by sparring the queen. It was incredibly frustrating to read about a monster, who truly didn’t seek out to harm, give up simply because his words could not be understood by the warriors. Context wise, I didn’t quite understand what Grendel’s mother’s point was to being in the story. She was mute, and didn’t do much but lie around in their lair. Was the author only trying to prove how years of monstrous living could depreciate a soul in its entirety? And if so would that have been Grendel’s ultimate fate? It was a good read. It may have been a little slow in parts, but not so slow that I lost interest.

Mocking Jay

            Mocking Jay was definitely my least favorite of the series. In the first and second book the author builds you up to expect this grand finale. It comes, but it’s the majority of the book. Not to say that it wasn’t exciting, because it absolutely was. However it wasn’t the climax I would have expected from a teen, romance, drama. It all became incredibly depressing. Everyone you’d grown to love in the first two installments died, or worse, lived in misery. So I suppose in some ways it is what you would expect, rather it is what would rationally come from the siege of a corrupt society: death and despair. Unfortunately it’s not what I wanted. Peeta and Katniss did end up together, which is exactly what I was rooting for, however, Katniss could never fully heal from the Hunger Games and everything that resulted from it. All in all it was a lovely read. It just left me wanting a happier ending.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

            This book had me all over the place. In comes Dorian Gray, a charming, wealthy, beautiful young man that was utterly stripped of his purity. Lord Henry is the venomous bad guy that you just want to scream, “Shut up!” at, and naturally the author sets it up perfectly. You know something terrible is going to happen when Basil warns Dorian of Lord Henry. You know it’s going to be even worse when Dorian completely ignores the warning. Compare it to any bad scary movie that’s ever been made. There’s a suspicious noise in the background, and the helpless damsel goes to investigate. She slowly creeps open the closet, back tracks for the slightest of seconds, and out pops the stalker, waiting with a knife. All the audience, or in this case, reader can do is just sit helpless and watch as this idiot girl walks into her death. Well, that’s exactly what happened. Dorian walked straight in to Lord Henry’s trap, without even thinking twice about Basil’s warnings and all other obvious red flags. You think things might turn around when he gets engaged, but no. He emerges from it more terrible and self-serving than one could have ever expected. I think that the worst part was that he realized his mistake too late. Once he had truly wished to take it all back his death had already been laid out before him.

The Screwtape Letters          

                The patient goes to heaven! After all of that conversion that went on in the book I was so happy to find out that when the patient died, Wormwood hadn’t been successful in making him a meal. I learned a lot from this book, although it wasn’t my favorite I appreciated the interpretation had on religion. I noticed that by writing as the devil’s servant it made the message of God that much easier to understand. For example, Screwtape mentioned regularly how little thoughts and opinions mattered unless put into action. The action was key to sin. Say I don’t like someone at school. That does neither God nor the devil any good. If I were to vocalize those opinions, In C.S. Lewis’s eyes that rewards the devil and disappoints God. The action, if you will, is the defining factor that brings you either closer or farther away from God. It really frustrated me that the letters took so long. I felt like Lewis either dragged his point on, or took to long to get to it. But of course, that extra detail is what makes a story. You’d think though that being a “Senior Tempter” would require a certain amount of efficiency in relaying a message, but Screwtape delivered none whatsoever. I also found myself annoyed with Wormwood. I know he was learning, but he seemed to be truly incompetent. No matter what the cause laziness and negligence, as seen when the patient had his second conversion, just shouldn’t be excused! If your going to do something, I think you should be darn good at it!