In my book My Heartbeat by Garrett Freymann-weyr, we have met the 3 main characters. First we have Ellen, sister of Link and a Freshman in high school. She doesn't have much interest in school, you could call her the slacker of her and Link. However she's very clever and always knows what to say and what not to say. She's always hanging out with Link and James. She's had a major crush on James since middle school. James is a senior in high school, the type of senior who has a fake ID (but he never gets carded cause he looks old enough) and drinks and smokes. The kid whose parents are almost always somewhere other then home, he's typicaly home alone and has a weird love for foreign movies with english subtitles. As I have mentioned before, James is Links best friend, but it's only recently that Ellen has thought maybe they're more then friends. Link is the guy who has his parents up his in school. He's a straight A student and a wizz in math (he skipped 3rd grade because he knew how to simplify fractions and do long division in his head). He's also not the guy who talks too much, especially when it comes to his relationship with James. I feel there could be many themes to this book, but I feel like one of the more powerful ones are that one shouldn't be afraid to express who they really are. James isn't afraid, however Link on the other hand is, he's scared of what people will say and what his father with say but he doesn't want to admit that. This book is structured in a very clever way where the reader never wants to stop reading. It seems like something always happens in each chapter so there's never a dull moment. There have also been many good points made in this book about being homosexual that make you think about what kind of world we live in. I'm excited to read on and see what ends up happening with this love triangle.
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Summer Reading Entry 1
For my summer reading, I have chosen to read the book My Heartbeat by Garrett Freymann-weyr. The book revolves around brother and sister Ellen (freshman in high school) and Link (Senior in high school), along with Links' best friend James. However it seems that James and Link may be more then friends. To Ellen this may be a tragedy considering she's been madly in love with James since middle school, but she'd never thought about them being a couple despite all the time they spend together. She only got the idea when a friend of hers comes up to her at school and asks her if her brother and James were a couple, and she quite frankly didn't know how to answer. Instead of directly asking them, Ellen decides to ask her mother first and if she had anything against it. Her mom had nothing to say other then as long as Link was happy, her father on the other hand is a different story. Ellen later asks both Link and James if they were a couple (attempting to stay away from the word "gay" around Link) Link being a man of few words has nothing much to say on the subject and refuses to talk about it with Ellen. I see where Link is coming from about not wanting to come out of the closet with a world with people who can be very judgmental and hateful (which is something that is seen too often in today) however I predict that Link will later learn to express his true feelings.