The importance of the History

My book has a to of history about the house in the first 50 pages. It went back to all of the owners of the house and explains why the house is the way it is and it really helps you visualize. It talks about how two of the owners were brothers and split the house down the middle with a thick line to stay divided. I now know that the mansion has a thick line down the middle. It also talks about a rather odd owner who liked building bombs and committing arson. This explains why there is a good sized chemistry lab for Flavia to work in. There are many more of these short descriptions and when they all come together you can really visualize Flavia's house, Buckshaw.

If I was Flavia...

If I was Flavia I wouldn't take all of the mean stuff that Ophelia told me. I would fight back and no take it. I'm not sure how Flavia copes because I couldn't. I also wouldn't trust either of my sisters. They are liars. They lied about there mom and they lied about Flavia's. They told her that her mom didn't like her, that her dad didn't care about her, and that she was adopted and she just took it. I would have lashed out and gotten angry . Flavia has tremendous self control and is super tough.

Sweetness-ophelia

I don't like Ophelia. She is a witch. She thinks she is so much better than Flavia and is just plain mean to her because of it. She told Flavia that she was adopted and that the only reason that she looks like their mom is because her mom wanted a kid that looked like her. That is so evil and vile. Every time Flavia is in her chemistry lab Ophelia doesn't just leave her alone to work. She goes up there and heckles her. She goes out of her way to torture her! My opinions will probably change since I'm still early in the book and I don't fully understand her background but for now I don't like her.

Sweetness- character Flavia

 Flavia is a pair of really weird looking glasses. She is always observing and watching but she is definatly query as well. If someone where's weird glasses they will probably be picked on or looked down appon and that's how flavia is in her family. She is looked down apom and picked on by her older sisters. They even told her that she was adopted. Though she takes all of this she is much smarter and more observant then her sisters.

The Sweetness at he Bottom of the Pie- Beginning Analysis

The first thing that I want to say is that the book is great so far. I am about 20 pages in and I really like the writing style. It had an interesting beginning that really drew me in. It started with the words all in capital letters, "IT WAS AS BLACK IN THE CLOSET AS OLD BLOOD" (Bradley1). This I thought opened up question's like why is she in a closet? Overall it drew me in. I really noticed the use of elevated diction. Bradley uses words like "dirigible" and "righteous indignation". It very effectively conveys the way the character, Flavia, is extremely intelligent for an eleven year old girl. The technique he uses to draw the reader in is foreshadowing. He starts with Flavia escaping captivity in her attic to Flavia walking down to an ordinary dinner at her house.

At this point Bradley begins to introduce backstory and characters. He introduces Flavia's father, her sister Ophelia, her sister Daphne, and her deceased mother Harriet. At this time Ophelia and Daphne reveal to Flavia that she had been adoped and that is why she is so different from Daphne and Ophelia. Flavia doesn't have a good relationship with her sisters can you tell? Then he introduces the backstory of Flavia's family, the de Luce's, and the story of her mansion, Bucksaw. This is where I left off.

New Book... Finnaly

So in my earlier posts I kept saying I was going to start a comedy book and I am proud to say I didn't go through with it. I decided to take baby steps instead. My new book is called The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. This is still historical fiction but it is a mystery. So ha! I am branching out a little. Really the only reason I chose this book was because my mom said I would like it. The only reason ?I listened is because she has steered me in the right direction for books before so I'll give it a try.

From what I can tell by reading the synopsis is it is about some genius 11-year-old girl named Flavia de Luce. Now that's a name! Anyway she is an aspiring chemist who likes poisoning things. A tween who can poison things can probably be pretty destructive. It is set in the British countryside in the 1950's and the story is sparked when her mansion called Buckshaw. Its not the prettiest mansion and is decaying. So there mansion is sent a dead bird with a postage stamp on the beak through the mail. I don't know about you but that would be creepy. Then Flavia finds a dying man in the yard telling her to save her father from jail. It sounds pretty good. I'll do an updated post when I am like 30 pages in or so.

I Am Done With a Bad Book

I am finally done with my book that I have blogged about for like 5 months (it's pretty pathetic). For one of my last post of the book I want to do a review. I picked up the book originally because I read another book by the same author that was fantastic. It is call Between Shades of Grey and it is awesome. Read it. Anyway that is why I started it and I have been let down a bit. It wasn't as good as Between Shades of Grey. I don't think it was depressing enough. I don't know why but I really like depressing books which is a problem because I am going to try to read a funny one next to broaden my genre's. Okay, back to my current book.

It is about a girl named Jo Moraine and her not normal teenage life in a 1950's New Orleans. Most 19 year olds are off to college and planning her life but Jo was working at a bookstore and cleaning a cathouse where her prostitute mother resided. Her life was then changed when a visitor from Tennessee came to the book shop. He wasn't even that special. He came in, talked for like a minute, bought a boring book, and then left. Then he died. Sorry, spoiler alert. Its not that important anyway. Jo was sad when she found out he died. She had really deep thoughts. So that was the end of that for a while.

For the next 20 or so pages she really didn't do anything. She fought with her mom about some guy named Cincinnati that her mom wanted to run away with who was supposedly awful. Though you can't make you own decision on Cincinnati because he is in the book for probably 5 pages. You here hype about him like, "It had been two years since the incident. He hadn't been back to the quarter since and no one missed him" (Sepetys11). You here all this hype and he is in the book for probably 3 whole sentences. I have probably said more about him then the book has in this one post. So she did that and cleaned a brothel. It was a pretty boring start.

Then another girl came to the bookstore and they became instant "besties" as they would say and her new friend invited her to a party. She, unlike Jo went to a good college in the North East. Jo met her friend’s uncle there who was a typical snob. Take note of that, it is important later. So now Jo wanted to go to college now. She is so needy. So now she had that dream and she had the grades but no one important enough to write a recommendation letter. Oh yeah, she also found that dead guy's watch (who came in the book shop, yeah that guy) under her mom's bed and her mom ran off with a junk guy because she has such a good profession. So the Jo caught her new besties uncle at the brothel and then decided to blackmail him for a recommendation letter. She isn't the nicest of girls.

Long story short she wrote the recommendation letter on his stationary, the guy who owned the book store she worked at went crazy, the uncle of her bestie hit on her, and that’s about it. It was a pretty boring book with not very many, no let me rephrase, no plot twists, and not many surprises. I sort of enjoyed when I read it but it got boring by the end. My recommendation is skip it and that's about it. I give it 2.5 out of 5 stars.