Book 4: Post 3

Hello again! In my past entry, I commented on some of the main character development with the main character in my book happening only halfway through the book. I originally thought that the book might dull down later because there might not be enough development in the character later on. Well guess what? That did not happen. Instead, I found a second layer of character development in Aidy, the main character, in the rest of the story. Basically, at the end, he finds that the suspect driver is not actually the murderer. In fact, the actual murderer turns out to be the father of the killed driver’s girlfriend (yeah, I know, it was a complex storyline), who sabotaged the driver’s car before the race. Aidy goes on to find out more about his family history and his physical capabilities. Although this was interesting, I found something else that caught my eye: the author’s style. Wood sometimes wrote specific sections where he introduced a scene without giving us, the audience, much background on what was going to happen. For example, when Aidy gets into a fight with the suspect driver Derek, he states, “I shoved past him for the doors. Derek dropped the mallet and raced after me… The full shotgun crew was here” (Wood 156). Wood builds suspense by only stating the shotgun accomplices were with the suspect driver during the fight after he describes the scene. I think that this style of writing is what made the story so enjoyable. Overall, it was a great book and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an entertaining easy read. Although I would like to continue this project, this is my last post of the workshop. I hope you all have found my writing interesting and enjoyable, and I hope I have given some good synopses on the books I have read. Thank you very much, and remember: if health is wealth, then reading a healthy amount of books is also wealth!

Book 4: Post 2

Hey all, as you may know, I have been reading Did Not Finish by Simon Wood. This books is a mystery novel based around a murder case. Basically, a racecar driver is killed during a race by an adversary who had threatened to kill him the night before. One of the other drivers feels an emotional connection to the murdered driver and sets out to find and punish the killer. So far, the main character, Aidy, has gathered a lot of evidence against the suspected driver. He brought in the crashed racecar and also took pictures of the crash scene at the track. During this time, he finds out more about his personality and his emotions than ever before. For example, when someone questions him about his endeavor, stating, “What are you hoping to get out of all this, Aidy? Your fifteen minutes? You name in lights? A leg up in you racing career?” (Wood 70) Eventually, these hurtful comments showed Aidy something about himself. He realized that he only cared about the accident because he had lost his parents in almost the exact same way. He learned more about himself through the questioning others gave him about his involvement in the murder case. However, this makes me worried, since he realized this halfway through the book, which probably means that there is not much more character development through the rest of the novel. I will soon find out if that is true. The first part of this book was pretty cool and interesting, so hopefully it continues throughout the rest of the book. I’m looking forward to it!

Book 4: Post 1

I’d like to now introduce my final book that I will read in this workshop. It is called Did Not Finish and it is written by a British author named Simon Wood. I don’t know much about this author right now, but based on some preliminary reviews, I think this is going to be an interesting book. I could also tell from the cover of the book that it focused on motorsport, another reason I decided to pick up this book. Although some of my previous reads have been science fiction or non-fiction, this is a mystery novel. I have always liked mysteries, ever since I read The Boxcar Children series as an elementary school boy. Hopefully, this book will wow me just as all the other books I’ve read during this workshop have. I can’t wait to start reading, so I’ll end here. Stay tuned for updates as always!