I also was very emotionally affected by Alaska's death; I just wasn't particularly enamored with the "search for the truth" of her death. Viewing her as a real person, of course you'd want to know why she died. Viewing her as a character, and especially as a character type (the Manic Pixie Dream Girl I spoke about in the previous comment), it was hard for me not to see her death coming, and just accept it when it did. She's just the sort of brilliant, tragic figure who is destined to burn out in a blaze of fire.
I would have been much happier if the second part emphasized more the friendship between the survivors, and how they had to rebuild their lives and re-form their connections to each other. We get that, but it's not the main focus.
I was so tired last night when I typed this entry, I didn't get all my thoughts out! My first point was that the Weekday Warriors weren't quite evil enough to root against, but my main point was that the whole "prank war" was a bluntly wielded plot device the author trotted out whenever he needed to move the story along.
At the beginning, they tape up Pudge and throw him in the lake. The Colonel is all: They have to pay! We have to get them back! So in outrage of their horrible actions, the gang promptly...forgets all about it and does nothing for months.
The prank is mentioned every now and again to remind us that it hasn't been forgotten, but it's only brought out when the author needs something to happen and to provide a loose structure for the first half of the book.
Really, the first half of the book is just there to give us time to fall in love with Alaska so we can miss her when she's gone. In that way, the author was quite successful! Like I said, I loved the book and the characters. The plot structure just left a lot to be desired.
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Date: 2010-09-16 01:19 am (UTC)I would have been much happier if the second part emphasized more the friendship between the survivors, and how they had to rebuild their lives and re-form their connections to each other. We get that, but it's not the main focus.
I was so tired last night when I typed this entry, I didn't get all my thoughts out! My first point was that the Weekday Warriors weren't quite evil enough to root against, but my main point was that the whole "prank war" was a bluntly wielded plot device the author trotted out whenever he needed to move the story along.
At the beginning, they tape up Pudge and throw him in the lake. The Colonel is all: They have to pay! We have to get them back! So in outrage of their horrible actions, the gang promptly...forgets all about it and does nothing for months.
The prank is mentioned every now and again to remind us that it hasn't been forgotten, but it's only brought out when the author needs something to happen and to provide a loose structure for the first half of the book.
Really, the first half of the book is just there to give us time to fall in love with Alaska so we can miss her when she's gone. In that way, the author was quite successful! Like I said, I loved the book and the characters. The plot structure just left a lot to be desired.