my short story

The Aqueous Ghost

I was an aqueous ghost.

I dreamt of falling so gently I couldn’t even wake up.

It was as if I’ve been lulled into a sleep that made me feel like I’ve been stuck in a bell-jar. I couldn’t tell how long I’ve been wandering around seeking for the fragmented pieces of myself and piecing them back together. There are 206 bones in my body and I could barely feel them at all, except for the meteorite rushes of nostalgia through my veins and the subtle tingles under the marrow in my spine. Perhaps there was a vague pulsation of my heartbeat, for which I wasn’t sure of, and it grew stronger by the minute, becoming viscous sounding notes and suddenly impalpable bells that sounded in my ears like ocean shells.

Then I heard voices, a young girl spoke, with little mellifluous chimes, from which I noticed from her tone, a slight bit of familiarity. “Mum, is she dead?”

There was a shifting silence that lingered, remaining present in the walls of vacancy, and my mother spoke a minute later.

“I don’t know, sweetie.”

“Where is she?”

“She’s somewhere far away, perhaps on the other side of the universe, perhaps sailing the seven seas, perhaps visiting places we can’t ever go to.”

“Will she come back?”

“Maybe she will, maybe she will never.”

The girl remained quiet after that, and I could hear a quiet ruffling of coats as they left the room, leaving me alone in the clingy atmosphere, the air stale and muggy as I breathed in the sourness of my own air from my dream residue.

Tiny fragments of my memories were slowly coming back into me, like a golden thread tightening the seams between the parts of my brain, and I suddenly remembered the crashing waves that were undulating down, the ocean swallowing me, drenching me with salt water. I remember the way my limbs were tangling together like a mess, the string and threads holding them together were fraying; and I was sinking and drowning, as if I had a million times before. The waves were etching their secrets into my pale skin like choirs, the waters seeping into my bones. The clouds were tearing themselves apart and filling up the lonely banks of the rivers. Then there was the sand, those glittering tiny grains that were holding up the weight of infinite ghostly wails of sunken ships and corpses and my screams that shook the entire ocean. I knew I had become an aqueous ghost, diluted and trembling under the deathly grasp of the ocean floors.

My bones were aching and my skin was pale and fragile and every atom of my body was hurting with great intensity. Oh I could’ve been everywhere if I weren’t lying here, rigid and decaying into the atmosphere if I haven’t entered this dreamy state. I could be reading The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Little Women over and over again and get riveted by the vividness of the story; I could write endless enchanting lullabies and collect old glass jars; I could pretend that there were ghosts lurking beneath my shadows and take pictures of inanimate objects and study the spaces between my fingers.

All of a sudden, there was a dim, a dim glower of light towards the opposite end that appeared before me, a shaded yellow haze that flickered; it grew stronger by the second, becoming a brightening orange glow, a sharp neon yellow that was piercing to the eye. I stood there with fleeting thoughts encircling me like little fireflies, leaving me with an ultimatum of the dark murky waters or the glowing neon light.

I was trembling and shivering so hard that my palms began sweating out lakes. I had to choose. I had to choose. I took one unsteady step towards the glowering yellow light; one step after another.

I put in all efforts to open my eyes, I saw, through my blurred vision was the blank white walls and the blank white skies. I couldn’t move, I felt small and motionless as if the world had stopped spinning.

“I’m incredibly sorry for your loss, Missus. We have tried our very best but I’m afraid her body remains to be unresponsive. We hope you understand.”

A few quiet sniffles were heard, but my mother did not speak.

“You may pull the plug.”

The nurses worked with great efficiency, their hands worked expertly as they covered my body with white sheets and wheeled it to the morgue.

I couldn’t fathom why. I was screaming with all my might. What were they doing? Why are they taking me there? I wasn’t dead yet. I wasn’t dead yet. I wasn’t dead yet. I was breathing. I was alive.

I knew that I wasn’t dreaming, but I could no longer wake up.

I was an aqueous ghost.

Anyways, here's my short story and I am so not cool since I'm the first one posting on the blog. I'm a bit displeased with the title of my story and the ending.

I read 6 books for the reading challenge

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I read 5 books for the reading challenge

This post looks so weird.
It looks like I'm showing off the fact that I read 5 books.

Magic or Madness - Justine Larbalestier

For fifteen years, Reason Cansino has been living with her mother, Safrina. Reason is talented at math, and the only thing she never believes at is magic. Together, Reason and her Mom have never stayed at one place too long in Australian countryside. They keep moving from one place to another, so they can’t be found by her grandmother, Esmeralda. According to Safrina, Esmeralda is a dangerous woman who believes in magic.

Things start to change when Safrina suffers a mental breakdown. She is sent to the hospital, while Reason has to go to the place she fears the most – her grandmother’s house in Sydney. Reason believes this house will be full of creepy stuff belongs to an evil witch, but nothing about the house or even Esmeralda is what she expects. Here, she is forced to confront a shocking truth that magic is real …

I really find this book thrilling. There are twists and surprises, and all new events are not introduced at the beginning of chapter, but there are clues and they will be revealed as we continue reading. My only complain is that all her life, Reason’s been spending with her mother in the woods and countryside, and going to her grandmother’s house is the first time she’s been to such a big city. I thought she would find culture shocks, but she gets on well and quickly to friends who live in big cities since they were kids. But overall, I really enjoy reading this book. Highly recommended :)

Nobody's boy - Hector Malot (559 pages)

Oneday, Jerome Barberin who lives with his wife in a small town in France finds a baby boy on the street who wears fine clothes. Apparently, the kid's parent is rich. Barberin decides to take care of the child and hopes to get a good reward. He gives the boy to his wife and and goes work in Paris.

Years later, Barberin becomes unemployed and goes home with his wife. They need to sell their cow to get more money. Also, the idea to get rid of Remi (the kid) pops up in Barberin's mind. He sold Remi to Vitalis, who travels everywhere with his dogs - Capi, Zerbino and Dolce - and a monkey named Joli-Coeur. Remi never has a chance to say goodbye to Mrs. Barberin who's always loving him.

It turns out that Vitalis is a very kind man. He teaches Remi to play harp and read. The animals seems to like Remi too, especially Capi who becomes Remi's dear friend.

In Toulouse, a sad accident happens which puts Vitalis into jail. Becoming homeless, Remi and the animals keep wandering till they met the 'Swan' - a little river ship owned by Mrs. Milligan and her ill son Arthur. He and the animals lives there with them till the day Vitalis is released.

Mrs. Milligan has asked Remi to stay back with them but Vitalis wants Remi back. He thinks that travelling with him will make Remi become a better boy.

Zerbino and Dolce are eaten by wolves. Joli-Coeur catches pneumonia and died. Vitalis died in front of a gardener's house and leaves Remi to a gardener named Accquin.

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Finally, Remi finds his family. And guess what? His mother is Mrs. Milligan. He was kidnapped by his uncle who desires to have his dad's legacy and believes that Arthur is going to die soon. Remi returns to his family and his best friend - Mattia becomes a great and famous violinist when his sister is sent from Italy to live with him in France. Arthur gets well and becomes an athlete. Remi gets married with Lise - daughter of the gardener who takes care of Remi when Vitalis dies. They have a son and named him Mattia whose babysitter is Mother Barberin.

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Best book ever :)

Lost hearts in Italy - Andrea Lee (243 pages)

I picked this book because of its interesting title. I read it since the beginning of the reading chalenge but I did not remember to blog it. Plus, I don't have a good memory so here is the best I could remember from the book.

Nick and Mira, a young and sweet American couple were having a bright future ahead in Rome after a marriage. The happy couple set off for Rome, Nick was going to work for a bank, Mira to freelance as a journalist. But in the time-honored tradition of these things, when Mira flied off to join her husband in Italy and got bumped to first class, she met a charming, vulpine Italian billionaire named Zenin, who was about to lead her to a new life.

Yes, nick is young, charming and energetic. However, Zenin is a wily peasant. The contrast between the two men became fatal, then an affair that no one ever wanted happened. It broke up the marriage.

After all, Nick and Mira still got back together and lived happily ever after.

It is another book that is about affair after "Death of a salesman". However, it is about the woman who cheated on her husband for some kind of illusive love. I like the ending that some people think it is cliche. But sometimes we do need a second chance :)

Impulse

This book is AWESOME. It was so good I finished it in a day, that's how good it is. This book is kind of inappropriate but not really inappropriate (but then again, English is kinda inappropriate already so I don't think it's a big deal). It's about these kids who have issues in their life and ended up in a place kinda like a lunatic asylum but for kids and they talk to counsellors and try to deal with their problems. There are three main characters and the story is written in the first person and it switches in between the three.

Tony had painful childhood memories. His father left him while he was a kid, his mom works as a prostitute and he suffers from social issues because he's gay. His way out was drugs.

Vanessa suffers from bipolar disorder which is genetic from her mother. Her mother is hospitalised while her father is in Iraq fighting a war. She also suffers from major depression after her boyfriend broke up with her. The only way to forget it, is to cut herself.

Connor has everything he wants. Good grades, athleticism, girls, money. However, he does not have the attention of his parents. He is constantly in an inward battle with his parents, his peers and himself which gives him one last choice -- to shoot himself.

This book is amazing. My dad bought it for me and it is soooooooooooooooooo good. I really really really really recommend everyone to read this book.

Inkdeath

This book is the third book in the series and is the best book out of all of them. Everyone's still stuck in the Inkworld and they need to find a way out but then all these evil people come all at the same time and everyone's all confused and scared. Adderhead (bad guy) is getting sick because of the book that Mo bound for him and then Mo became the Bluejay and he has to save all the people or else all the children will be sent to the mines. And it's a very good book, so read it. One of the best books I have ever read. It's one of those classic books and does not have anything to do with vampires or love stories and this books is completely genius. I recommend this book to everyone.

Inkspell

I read this book like 2 months ago but was too lazy to write bout it so when I summarise it here it might not be accurate. Anyway. This is the second book to the Inkheart series and it is a lot better than the first book. Many of you have probably watched to movie so you might think that reading the book is pointless but you have to read the book. It is so much better than the movie and half the stuff in the movie is not even true. So in this book Meggie and Farid read themselves into the Inkheart book because they wanted to know what it was like there. But while they were gone, bad guys came to their house and ordered Meggie's dad to read them back into the book. After he did that, they shot him (which kinda sucks) and then they left. And you have to read the book to find out what else happened.

This book is amazing. It might be a bit boring in the beginning but it is actually really really really good in the middle and at the end. This is not one of those cliched (is that how you spell it?) stories where the hero always gets what you want. In this book, sometimes you don't even know who is going to die or live. It is extremely unpredictable and everyone should read it.

Tottochan-The little girl at the window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

The book begins with Totto-chan's mother coming to know of her daughter's expulsion from public school. Her mother realizes that what Totto-chan needs is a school where more freedom of expression is permitted. Thus, she takes Totto-chan to meet the headmaster of the new school, Mr. Kobayashi. From that moment a friendship is formed between master and pupil.The book goes on to describe the times that Totto-chan has, the friends she makes, the lessons she learns, and the vibrant atmosphere that she imbibes. All of these are presented to the reader through the eyes of a child. Thus the reader sees how the normal world is transformed into a beautiful, exciting place full of joy and enthusiasm. The reader also sees in their role as adults, how Mr. Kobayashi introduces new activities to interest the pupils. One sees in Mr. Kobayashi a man who understands children and strives to develop their qualities of mind, body and heart. His concern for the physically handicapped and his emphasis on the equality of all children are remarkable. In the school, the children lead happy lives, unaware of the things going on in the world. World War 2 has started, yet in this school, no signs of it are seen. But one day, the school is bombed, and was never rebuilt, even though the headmaster claimed that he looked forward to building an even better school the next time round. It was never done and this ends Totto-chan's years as a pupil at Tomoe Gakuen. At first, I got a little bored reading this because it doesn't seem to be be very interesting. But the more I read on the more I like it, Tomoe was an awesome school. I'd love to go to a school like that where you can just study whatever you want to.

At the sign of the Sugared Plum - Mary Hooper

Hannah is really excited about her trip to London for the first time. She believes that this will be the most wonderful adventure of her life. She’s going to stay there and help her elder sister, Sarah, who runs a sweetmeat shop.

But Hannah doesn’t get the welcome that she expected from her sister. Sarah tells her to come back, because before her arrival, a plague has started to spread out in London. But she doesn’t want that to ruin her adventure. She tries to convince Sarah that there are only few cases far away from their shop and decides to stay with her sister.

Together, the two sisters run the shop. Sarah teaches Hannah how to make good sweetmeats and their business become more and more successful. But the great time doesn’t last long. The plague spreads out faster and kills many people. At that time, Hannah discovers the cruelty and compassion inside her friends and even strangers. Luckily, Hannah and her sister escape. Hannah’s friend dies because of this illness and they have a mission to take her baby to her relatives, which is out of London.

Mary Hooper way of writing is interesting. She shows and transports vividly to us everything in London at 17^th century from the sound, the smell to buildings and events. This book is like a diary, Hannah shows her feelings and I can also see how people at the time suffering and deal with from day to day the terrible plague through her thoughts. I sometimes find this book quite boring because some chapters are only about describing the city without any feelings of the characters. But I really like this book overall.

This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen

Remy is an eighteen year old about to leave for college. Her father, a famous musician, left before she was even born. Her mother is getting married for the fifth time that summer. Consequently, love is something she just doesn't believe in. In the past, she's been in many relationships with people she doesn't really care about, and they never last long. One day, she meets Dexter. He is messy and a musician, two of her least favorite traits. He is always bothering her, but he is persistent. She slowly finds herself falling for him. She doesn't want to care about him, but somehow she just can't bring herself to get rid of him. When he overhears her saying that she only wants him to be a summer fling, they break up. Remy dates the perfect guy, but she finds herself always thinking about Dexter. Her brother is engaged, her mother's new husband is cheating, and her friends are all having problems of their own. Remy realizes that she truly does love Dexter, and they get back together. Dexter changes Remy throughout the course of the whole book, and it's for the better. I absolutely love this book, it's all about faith, believing something that you're too afraid to even think about, but daring to do so anyways. It's definitely a good read, all of Sarah Dessen's books are equally good!

The Stranger (L’étranger) By Albert Camus

The Stranger
Meursault gets a notice that his mother died. So he went to the place where his mother had been living. He stays there for 2 days, and returns to home after finishing the funeral. During these two days, he is seen as a weird, or a stranger to the other people because of his unusual behavior. For example, asking the caretaker "where he came from", not something like "How did my mother died?", and not even showing a tear.After the funeral ends, he returns to home next and swims, and have a nice day with a woman that he meet. It is not quite easy to think normal person can swim and play with a woman a day after his mother's funeral. I think this is because he desires to get the feeling that his mother gave him again from this woman. And he stays in his home, sometimes playing with a neighbor, or dating with his girlfriend. Later, Raymond asks him to go to the beach together with Meursalt's girlfriend. In the beach, he mets some Arab people, and later he kills one. Because of this, he went to the court and to the police, and finally to the jail. ...The plot is too simple.

In the novel, Meursalt is a person that does not care about the world's wrong things, and has apathetic attitude toward them. And he is a person that does this crimes, which was created by the society. And he has lack of emotion. He doesn't know whether he should marry, he should cry when his mother died, or he should commit murder or not. As the title of this book suggests, he is a stranger. But as the process of his execution carries on, he realizes the value as a stranger, I think. And I think Camus is trying to convey that the consciusness of absurdity lies inside people's mind.
I had to read this book several times again and again to get to this point. But I think that is wrong. Jesus I don't understand what this novelist is trying to say!! I know that there's something is trying to say, but What is That!?

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go starts off at Hailsham boarding school - this is obviously not a normal one as the children are not taught life skills, but rather various forms of art and poetry, where the best ones are being picked by Madame. It is not a normal school as the teachers keep on reminding their students to stay healthy, and also the surroundings of the school is somewhat isolated from the rest of the outside world. The three main characters - Tommy, Ruth and Kathy are three close friends; Tommy being an isolated boy, Ruth being and extrovert while Kathy being more of a passive observer. It is shown that both Tommy and Ruth have reciprocate feelings for each other, but they both refuse to pursue each other. Tommy and Ruth then pair off into a relationship during their adolescent years,(despite the bond between Tommy and Kathy) and this relationship continues to blossom through the second part of the novel when they all grow up and enter adulthood, moving into the 'Cottages', allowing them to begin contact with the external world. Tensions start to rise between the three friends as they struggle to accept the reality outside Hailsham and to understand each other.

In the third section on the novel, both Tommy and Ruth become donors while Kathy becomes a carer. After about 10 years apart from each other, Kathy then visits a hospital to discover that it's where Ruth has been staying. She has done her second donation, and her health has deteriorated terribly. She suggests that they go for a trip, and Kathy picks up Tommy who has become extremely fragile. During the trip, Ruth expresses remorse towards Tommy and Kathy for coming in between their relationship, revealing that she was afraid of being alone. She urges them to go into a relationship and hands them Madame's address, telling Tommy to seek for a deferral (?). Ruth gives her last donation and dies.

Kathy takes care of Tommy, and to fulfill Ruth's last wishes, they pay a visit to Madame, showing her Tommy's artwork. They then learnt that the artworks were a failure to prove to society that clones (like them) had souls. They then learnt that the whole point of Hailsham was to make use of their organs by donating them to the needy. Tommy is horrified by his epiphany, whilst Kathy remains humble as if she has accepted her fate. The story ends when Tommy gives his last donor and becomes 'completed', whilst Kathy eventually does so and dies as well.

This book has absolutely been the best one I've ever seen. It's such a tragic novel that I've cried ever so much after finishing it. It's extremely intriguing and enthralling and although at times a bit contrived and too scary, I've really really loved this book so much. There are however some parts that I didn't understand, such as the deferral (and the word by itself) but I've generally been pleased with the novel.

PS: The film's an excellent one too!

The Fall by Robert Muchamore

In this episode James has to use his Russian skills to infiltrate the house of the obidins which bought back the whole city of Aero City which was built during the cold War. The City was here for the Russian army to have brand new fire fighters. The obidin's dream was to use the facility to become CEO of a new aircraft company to compete against Airbus or Boeing. However the Obidin's had got a reputation of corrupting the government and police officers which gave them a bad publicity and nobody bought there aircrafts. So the obidins sent a message to all the terrorist in the world that he was selling the factories that were there to build nuclear missiles and other missiles and also selling the warehouses that still contained the nuclear missiles made during the cold War! So James had to get into there house and plant bugs to find out a way to put him in prsion befire he sells anything. However the two MI5 agents who were with him got killed and James was blamed by teh MI5 for this. James lawyer was called Ewart, he knew Ewart as he was the husband of the chairwoman who was a long time friend. He never really trusted him and manage to stick in his head that Ewart was paid by soemone to make James get the blame and runne his career as CHERUB. As he fell in love with Dana even though he got back with his old girlfriend Kerry he desided to go and see what was happening in Ewarts desk and Dana helped him to do it when Kerry disagreed as she said that it was to dangerous they found out that he was liying and that Ewart had an appointment with two person with special documents. So Dana and James went after him and found out that Ewart was followed and as he was about to get killed by his persuers for the documents he had James went him attacked his oponent and with the help of Dana saved Ewart. As Ewart explained that he couldn't tell sames because he had MI5 on his back who will use the opportunity to blame him and ask James to be quicked out of CHERUB. By doing this James was ckean and earn his balck T-Shirt as a reward for his courge. The next day as he wen tin teh canteen with Dana his old girlfriend Kerry was pissed at Dana and started throwing food at her until a young boy shouted "FOOD FIGHT" and james though "He was living though a moment that people would talk at CHERUB for years to come and it had all happened because of two girls fighting over him. This was going to make him a legend."

Man VS Beast Robert Muchamore

During this episode James has to infiltrate a group that is vegan (never eats or wear anything that comes from animals which are badly treated). The only problem is that James likes to have his nice bloody hamburger which he will have to forget as he will only eat vegetarian for the 3 months of the mission. James aim is to infiltrate the AFM the Animal Freedom Militia which is a group that attacks warehouses and CEOs of Malarek industry which do testing on animals. During this process James has to work along side people that have no fear of killing themselves or other people to make there point go on the news. The terrorist group will kidnappe the cook Nick Coob who is very well known in the UK. Once he is kidnappe they wan't to make him pay for the hundred of bunnies that were sacrify just fro him to keep on selling his products. This happened as his kitchen cleaner was drunk by a little girl that had bottle with a defitiant "non-child" cap. To prove that it wasn't as harmful as the parents said he asked Maralek US to make it drank by 100 bunnies which obviously died. So the terrorist goup wanted to give him the exact same process tehy put him in a cage put a tube down his throat and forced fead him with "Nick Coob's kitchen and oven Cleaner". But teh other agent Kyle quicly called the cops which arrived in time before Nick died and arrested all if the gangsters while James knoked cold the 3 men he had with him in the car.

Divine Madness Robert Muchamore

In this episode which is pretty thick compared to the other ones (about 400 pages compared to 300 in the other ones) James goes straight in the cation in Australia! He has to join a cult which is based on "the great" idea's of the fanatic Joel Regan. His idea was that he was appointed by god and that god told him that one day the human race will collapse so god asked him to build an ark and to put all the people that were "right" to be put in it. So as james infiltrated this cult he discovered the powers of a cult and had to have seperate lessons to prevent himself from falling into the traps of a cult. Joel Regan was old and his wife was a member of the terrorist group of Help Earth which wants to stop all this "non sense" of oil tankers and the dependence of people on oil. Alos to finance the expensive survivors cost are filled by buying stock shares of the competitors of the compiting company of natural gas in Japan before they destroye the 3 super tankers who wear suppose to bring the rare gas to Japan by this way the Survivors made 3 billion dollars of profit. However Joel regan died and his daughter though that this was the sign of god so the perimeter of the erk was closed the guns were armed and at James fright the Survivors had 12 cm double canons on every Five turrets including a rocket launcher on the top of the ark! Also all the survivors were armed with M4A1s and kevlars. This happened just as the SWAP team was suppose to storm the place so the 4 choppers got caught in the cross fire and the assault ended up in a fail. After the assault all the survivors undergrounds first level was seted up with explosive as the survivors went down to the second level down in the bunkers with enough can food and water to last for 4 months and enough guns to "destroy the whole of sidney"! Hopefully James gets out of this by the sewage pipe before the whole ark blows up as a survivor trip over an explosive. James sister earns her Black shirt the highest reward after this mission as she saved 6 babies in the prosses that would have dided in the prosses if they hadn't been saved.

The Killing Robert Muchamore

In this episode of the serie of cherub James are young under cover agent has to under cover a gang who steals expensive cars from rich people before they are cleaned repainted and sold back on the normal market for you to buy. Before he gets send on mission james has to go through, with the rest of the cherub agents, a training course which consisted of your team of 4 people had 24 eggs that were given evenly to all the 4 people. They were givens armors and guns with plastic bullets that hurt "like Hell" as the chief instructor said. The aim of the game was to crush the eggs of your oponents while keeping yours safe! Also there were spare kit spread around the "fake city" built within the campus for training; Unfortunatly James team got taken into crossfire and James has to cover his team mates while under heavy fire for them to escape as he was a senior agent! All of James eggs wear lost in the progress and he was hit by 5 bullets and passed out because of the pain! In the morning he woke up and went to the rendez vous point and found out that his girlfriend's team had one egg less then them, which meant that he won't have to have a 15 Km run around campus! Then as he went back James got back to campus and had a fight with his girlfriend and was dumped. James always had trubble controlling his anger and as he stormed out a youngly recruted agent laughed at him. James went in and broke his arm! for doing that he was banned from any mission fro 3 month and he was on cleaning duty for the same 3 month. After 3 month James had mission which consisted of infiltrating a gang which i have talk about earlier also james falls in love with the young Anna and enjoyed himself as he knew that this was the closest he would ever get to a summer holliday. His job was to make friendship with the child of the "boss" and get information out of him it was pretty easy and James got back with his same navy T-Shirt as he didn't do anything exeptional during this mission.

Brigands M.C.

Dante Scott’s father is a member of the Brigands M.C, which is a biker gang. However, he refuses to the plan to redevelop the Brigands’ clubhouse. As a result, Dante’s family is murdered, with only Dante managing to escape. Dante is questioned to convict the Fuhrer, who murdered the family, but the Fuhrer goes away with it. Dante ends up going to CHERUB.
After four and a half years, James, Dante and Lauren are assigned to a mission that will infiltrate the Brigands M.C. Dante and Lauren manages to befriend the Fuhrer’s son, Joe. Meanwhile, James purchases a bike, and goes to a run with the Brigands. He succeeds to gain trust to a Brigand, and is invited to The Rebel Tea Party. At the Tea Party, a biker war breaks out, but James manages to escape.
On the other hand, Joe has a party, but it becomes a chaos due to the sixth formers, with the police coming, windows getting broken. One of the people in the party later gets scared and confesses to his father, who is a judge. This results to the police arresting some people, which blew up the operation.
It’s been a long time since I last read this, but I never blogged...Anyway, it has a good story, like all the CHERUB books. I recommend this book to everybody. :)

The Declaration by Gemma Malley

In Anna's world, her fate had already been destined the very moment she was born - she is a mere asset and nothing more. She was born to obey the rules of Grange Hall, in hopes of one day making up for breaking the biggest rule of all - being born. Life behind the grey walls of Grange Hall are harsh, but it's the only life Anna's ever known.

So when Peter arrives and unfolds tales of the great Outside, Anna is forced with a life-changing decision: live in a lie or escape the past.

***

This book is by far one of the best books I've read since the start of the school year. It's definitely creative, being set in the year 2140. Anna's world is completely different from ours and the storyline is full of twists. You can never be too sure what's going to happen and the writer keeps you wondering. As the story progresses, the atmosphere becomes more and more tense and it keeps you turning the page.

My only problem is that the book starts to lose its effect towards the end, where everything was perhaps a bit too coincidental. Nevertheless, a must-must-must-read!

Runaway by Alice Munro

A collection of stories about love, escaping and adventure. Runaway reflects both the beauty and betrayals of love in men and women in completely different circumstances. Their lives are vividly described as a collection of tales in which relationships are formed, chances are lost and fate is met.

***

Runaway has got to be one of the most boring books I've ever read. I only found 2 out of 8 of the stories in this book somewhat average, and even they were hard to get into.

The only thing I liked about the book was the book cover. I thought the storyline of each story is also slightly original, at least. Besides that, though, there were far too many unnecessary descriptions with strange dialect in dull context and boring chunks. Some stories were slightly too predictable, as well. The main characters were hardly worth reading about and the author also tends to go on and on about useless information. The stories also frequently jump back and forth in time frames, which is beyond confusing. For some reason, Alice Munro also likes to end each story with a random sentence which isn't relevant in any shape or form to the story itself. It took me a while to finish this book because I couldn't bring myself to read on.

If I could unread this book I would. I recommend reading this book so we can discuss the horror that is Runaway.

The Shell House by Linda Newbery

Upon wandering the ancient ruins of Graveney Hall, Greg meets Faith. Together they both plan to uncover the secrets of the abandoned site, only to discover a diary and letters left by Graveney's last heir, Edmund. When they learn more about the young soldier who supposedly died during the First World War, the pair begin to doubt the many stories of his death. As the two reach closer and closer to the truth, they find themselves wondering how far they would go to uncover the mystery of Graveney Hall.

A story of love and faith.

***

I liked how The Shell House was told in two different perspectives - one in Greg's time and one in Edmund's. It's interesting to compare the two because they're both so different from each other. I also thought the storyline was original because the main character turned out to be gay (which was obvious in the blurb, but still). The only thing I would say is that the author tends to write massive, boring chunks of description. Overall, I thought this book was average, but perhaps not a must-read.

Fire Star by Chris d'Lacey

David Rain, the protagonist in this book is at the moment with his girlfriend Suzanna Martindale in the Arctic doing their research on the ice cap melting. They are pretty much unaware of what has happened back home with Suzanna's new dragon Gretel. Grockle's existence last for a few hours as he was turned into stone, in her utter disappointment Gretel tries to revive him. Liz (Elizabeth Pennykettle) has no choice but to lock her up in a cage inside the Dragon's Den. During their time in the Arctic David has spent time writing a novel about the Arctic itself in which is called 'White Fire'. David thinks that his writing is all fiction but the story is actually happening to the two male bears he named Ingavar and Thoran. Thoran is described as being much more wiser who is following a sign on the sky and Ingavar is described as an impatience,fierce and wounded bear who is following the instruction of a mysterious woman. Tension is rising in the Pennykettle's household as Lucy, Liz's daughter is kidnapped by the 'mysterious woman'. Her intention is to awaken the most ancient dragon Gawain from his tomb.

The incident progresses further until David's girlfriend is being kidnapped by polar bears while he is at home with the Liz to help calm her down after the kidnap of her daughter. Grockle suddenly awakes and as his curiosity rouses he ventures out of the Dragon's Den with the shock, horror and happiness of everyone. Simultaneously, David forces Liz to tell him who 'Arthur' is when his special writing dragon Gadzooks gives him the name out of nowhere. Liz told him everything about Arthur being her husband and how the 'mysterious woman' who is now revealed to be Gwillana did to break them up. David travels to Farlowe island afterwards in search of Arthur where he finds out that Arthur chose to be called 'Brother Vincent' after his decision to go by life with this religious island. He experienced a lot of this island, in fact, he survives the attack from a Fain ( an invisible creature. There are two races the Ix:risor and the regular Fain. The regular Fain accepts dragons whereas the Ixs are the anti-dragons.) Grockle was there also as he was scared but vicious, David manages to calm him down and orders him to fly to the Arctic. A long introduction along with an explanation is made by David when he finally meets Arthur who then teaches him how to use Dr. Bergstrom's peculiar talisman to teleport from place to place. David teleports himself to Arctic where he fights against the very same Ix that attacked Arthur to the death. David is stabbed in the chest by two spears of ice but he is not dead because the ice is Gawain's fire tears. David killed the Ix and Suzanna (is rescued) approaches him, in tears. They have a brief conversation as David promises to meet her again in Valentine day with a gift which will be a new dragon called G'lant. He leaves Suzanna as Ingavar takes his body on a floating pit of ice. Back at the Pennykettle's household Suzanna tells Liz, Arthur and Lucy(Lucy is released by Gwillana at this point) that is pregnant with David's child.

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This novel is from "The Last Dragon Chronicles"series by Chris d'Lacey. I think that the book is pretty much fascinating about its' own story about dragons and their believers. The book is structured in various different locations and times as the story progresses from different point of views of the characters, bears and dragons. The thing which is not stated in the plot is why Gwillana comes back to take revenge on David Rain makes this storyline a little bit confusing. Perhaps I could read the first two novels of the series "The Fire Within" and "Icefire" to understand why. Apart from those reasons I do enjoy reading this book from the start to the end and since the book is quite long it takes me while to finish it.