The main character in this story is Holly a teenage girl who is dying of cancer. She seems to want to simply not be beaten by her cancer and to continue living as long as possible. This is shown when she continues to ride horses and dance for as long as she can and then eventually her resolve to read as many books as possible and finally to be loved. Holly goes through a few stages: at first she remains upbeat and wants to accomplish as much as she can before she dies, then she is angry at her situation, and finally she accepts it. There are multiple conflicts in the story the primary one is that a young girl is dying. She also meets a young man named Nick who falls in love with her and wants to get as much time with her as possible. The character of Death also seems to feel some level of pity or respect for Holly and for Nick as well based on their situation.
I liked the perspective that Death offered when he was in the story especially where he allowed us to get more information about Nick. It made me feel worse for him learning that he had lost his family and was a medical student. The descriptions of people's eyes were also intriguing and a good theme throughout. I also thought Holly was characterized beautifully as a strong young girl with a real love for life.
I did feel like the story might be a little stronger if Death were to narrate it entirely or at least appear more and the switches from the Death to the narrator felt a little sudden and jarring to me. I also felt like the story was very straightforward and that made it seem sort of predictable but I think if you include Death more and make him seem more pitied towards Holly and Nick it would add more tension because it might make it seem like Death could do something to help her.
No comments:
Post a Comment