LustingforNightmares

tumbleweed
2015-11-25 03:24:12 (UTC)

Nathaniel Ray's Book


2:24 AM

I FORGOT TO MENTION.

DO YOU ALL REMEMBER MY SEMI-FAMOUS ENGLISH TEACHER? (Reference: Entry of September 17, 2015)

What did I call him... Oh! I called him Nathaniel Ray.

So, Mr. Rays is writing a new book. I'm reading it.

I FEEL SO SPECIAL.

I mean, he didn't give me it. I got the first 100 pages of the manuscript from Alexis (not that he would mind. He offered it to anyone who asked him).

STILL. I FEEL SPECIAL! I'M READING A BOOK, A BOOK THAT IS NOT EVEN COMPLETELY EDITED (I found a few mistakes as I was reading and it just made me happy), AND IT'S JUST AWESOME.

I CAN HEAR MR. RAY'S VOICE IN SOME OF THE SENTENCES UGH HE'S SO COOL.

Mr. Sandwich was the first to read the book, since they're like best friends.

I don't want to give away any details at all since it's not published yet, but I will tell you that I like it so far.

I finished the portion of manuscript Alexis gave me in one day. I was reading it all through school and after school.

I like the characters, but the two main ones seem to be polar opposites which to me, seems kind of weird since usually people aren't absolute foils. Weirder still since...

Well, let's say person A likes fruits and person B likes vegetables.

Usually, it works like this:

Sure, Person A prefers fruits, but he/she likes some veggies and Person B prefers vegetables but he/she is alright with some fruits.

In this book, it seems more like

PERSON A IS ALL ABOUT FRUITS, WHY WOULD ANYONE PREFER VEGETABLES, HOW HAVE THEY EVER DONE ANYTHING TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE, VEGGIES SUUUUUCCCCKKKKKK

while

PERSON B IS ALL ABOUT VEGGIES HOW DO YOU EVEN LIKE FRUITS PLEASE EXPLAIN THEY'RE DANGEROUS

and then Person A is like "dude. bro. fruits are righteous. because see here, the world teaches a kid to like vegetables... but really, there is no reason to like vegetables. I just think to myself, fruit. Fruit is good. Fruit is stylin'. You think too much about veggies."

And then Person B, the narrator (it's a first person story), thinks to himself, "Hmmm, Person A is right. Fruits are better than veggies. But how can I STOP liking veggies? i just can't. If I could stop liking veggies by now, I would."

I think the book is hilarious and honestly, it really pulled me in. Like I said, I read the all of what Alexis gave me in a few chopped up hours. My only 2 complaints are

1) Ray's uses the word "bro" too often. He's pretty accurate with most speech, but then there's a couple outdated phrases here and there (who says righteous or stylin'? Dude is appropriate, though) and Person A, the one who says bro way too often, sounds weird. Due to all the bros, dude.

Is it bad that I kind of ship Person A and B? I hope they're gay. Please let them be gay, Mr. Rays. *pokemon trainer voice* OPPOSITES... ATTRACT!!!!!

2) Like I said above, the characters are a bit too black and white. I mean, there's this one girl who is "popular" and she goes to my high school in the book, which is kind of amazing because it's like heY OH MY GOD MY LIL OLD HIGH SCHOOL IS IN A BOOK WOW. But I digress.

In my high school, there isn't really a popular crowd??... There kind of is, but it's inaccurate to say that. They're rich kids with nice clothes who all hang out together and share a sense of humor that I wouldn't be able to emulate if my life depended on it. They're not mean people. They're pretty nice, but you have to be a certain way to be their friends. Part of it is attitude and part of it is background.

The actual 'popular' crowd in school, in my opinion, is those groups of kids who can easily slide into each social circle. Take Alexis, for example. She gets along with everyone. She's likeable, easy to talk to, she fits anywhere. I dunno if she sees herself that way, but it's true. She's someone I would consider pretty popular.

My point is, to call his character "the most popular girl in school" is misunderstanding the high school she attends. There is no 'most popular girl in school.' I know what crowd he is thinking of and I can probably name a girl in that group who could be given that title, but she's not that popular. She's just kind of known. She has lots of friends and she's very nice, friendly, but mostly hangs with the rich-kid lot. "Popular kids" is just not something I can really say exists at my high school.

Continuing with the black and white characters thing.

Person A and B. As I said before, Person A is totally one way while B is totally another. And it's weird!

The characters are fleshed out a bit and that's good. I can see them as real people, as long as I mentally edit some of the weird terminology used in the dialogue (Rays actually has a very good understanding of teenagers and he's relatively good with the way we speak, but sometimes, it's just weird. Referring to Bro-dude-righteous).

But then, it's like Person B is TOO much about veggies and Person A is TOO much about fruits. It's just like, neither likes a bit of fruit or vegetable. Nope, they just stick in their categories. People aren't like that.

I mean... I'm a shy person. That's true. Also, very cautious and paranoid and I have trouble breathing when I have to speak in public. But I also take very stupid risks sometimes, just because I feel reckless that day.

So while most of the time I fear everything, sometimes I don't fear what I should. I haven't seen that in Ray's character yet.

Meanwhile, I know a very confident, bubbly person who is not very reserved. And yet, I've seen her get shy and quiet. That's the way people are.

Okay, rant over.

I can't wait til Rays finishes editing and I can't wait to read the rest. I'M SO EXCITED THAT I'M READING THIS BEFORE IT'S ACTUALLY OUT, HAAAAA.

I want to read A Trouble With Lemons now.

Um, yeah. Ray's book is good, though; I recommend it. Not now, of course, because it's not out (HAH) but y'know. Wait for it. I'll let you know the name.

Goodnight!




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