Gone - Chapter Ten

274 Hours, 27 Minutes

Nothing terribly exciting happened in this chapter, so my review won't be too long.

Basically, Astrid uses her womanly powers to get all the boys to stop fighting, and Sam realises that Orc has assumed control because Sam didn't want to. Oooh heroes with flaws.

In Lana news, Lana has healing powers. This seems like a bit of a deus ex machina to me, tbh. There was no way she was going to get out of the situation otherwise, and her powers don't even sound that good? She has too sit there for like a hour before her leg heals. Although it is quite exciting to see these powers develop. I can only assume that Albert will have a power too. And Orc MUST have one. It's gonna get interesting.

Gone - Chapter Nine

277 Hours, 06 Minutes

I have just realised that I won't be able to finish Gone before I have to return it to the library if I'm only allowed to read one chapter a day. So i'm going to prioritise reviews of Gone, mostly to the detriment of Oliver Twist and Anne Of Green Gables (as I own those).

We're back with Sam and co., and Astrid has (yet another) brilliant theory: the wall may in fact be a dome, and they can see the sky because of the angle of the light.

Pretty much exactly like this.

And now Edilio (!) has arrived on a digger (!!) but :( because the barrier also goes underground. OH GOD WHAT IS IT

Quinn is all like being a bit of a dick to Edilio (who sounds like the man, btw) and pretty much causally racists at him by insinuating he's an illegal immigrant. Not cool, Quinn. The only reason I still like you right now is that you say 'brah'.

And now the kids are starting to get on each other's nerves. I predict the group will break up about halfway through the book. Although Sam describes Astrid's laugh as

"possibly the sweetest sound he had ever heard."

naaww he still likes her!

Astrid then finds a mutated seagull (I'm guessing this whole people having powers thing ties into that) and Quinn fully shuts down her train of thought >:-(

They drive off on a golf cart (Sam realises that there's only one road out of town lol) but then the bullies decide to chase them in a Hummer.

WHYYYYYYYYYYY PLZ WHY

Gone - Chapter Eight

287 Hours, 27 Minutes

So, now Mary (who I briefly thought was like Hermione lol) is changing a baby's diaper. Although I do appreciate the fact that the book's focus isn't wholly on Sam, maybs Michael Grant could stop switching viewpoints just when things are getting interesting? Also I have a theory that Mary has a power/is possibly evil.

Lol, it's not even a baby and not even a diaper. Although more seriously this highlights the problems that would crop up in a society where all the adults disappeared. A very large percentage of the skill base would also disappear; how would the children learn stuff?? Hopefully though only their town has been affected and the rest of the world is fine. Although the tagline of the book is 'This is how the World Ends'...

Wow, Mary has assumed control of the daycare, and her, her brother John, and some random Eloise are looking after 28 kids. Mad respect. Mary just got a ton of character development from this single paragraph and I think I like her more than Lana. And possibly Albert. Maybe even Quinn?

Anyway Mary has her moment of bad-ass when she gets in an argument with Howard (is he one of the bullies? I can't actually remember but I assume so :s).

Selective extracts:

"'Listen, you little worm. If I don't take care of those kids, they'll die. Do you understand that?...' 'You think that just because Sam likes to play the big hero every couple years that makes him the guy in charge?'"

See, I said that AGEEEES ago! Sam is just a kid, guys. He's not the boss. Also I think Mary must be a bit of a nerd as she was reading on the bus.

O
M
G

He just called Mary a bitch!!!!!!

Well actually apart from that the chapter was quite short and unexciting.

Oliver Twist - Book the First, Chapter the Twelfth

In which Oliver is taken better Care of than he ever was before. With some particulars concerning a certain picture

Oliver goes off with the Mr Brownlow and tucked into bed, he is

"tended with a kindness and solicitude which knows no bounds."

:-)
I don't suppose it was likely that nice old men just picked orphans off the streets of Victorian London to take care of them, so I suspect Mr Brownlow does somehow have some possible connection to Oliver's past.

Oliver is really sick (I know he doesn't die yet because there's 400ish pages left) but he wakes up (yay) and has a casual conversation about how he dreams of his dead mother (Oliver and Anne should meet up. I bet there's some fanfic somewhere). A random old lady (Mr Brownlow's servant/wife?) wipes her eyes/spectacles in sadness.

Oliver falls asleep and is called 'my dear' again upon waking! I suppose this was a perfectly normal form of address for a strange boy you've only just met in Victorian England.

Oliver recovers more and more and then gets some exciting food!

"...a basin full of broth strong enough to furnish an ample dinner, when reduced to the regulation strength, for three hundred and fifty paupers, at the very lowest computation."

Wow.

Oliver spots a painting on the wall and the old lady explains that they're much better than photos (which have just been invented) as photos are too honest. Well, she was obviously wrong lol. Facebook has billions of photos.

So I'm guessing this painting might provide the link between Oliver and Mr Brownlow? Maybs it's of his mum or something.

Well look at that, Brownlow is startled that Oliver and the painting look exactly alike. Oliver faints in shock.

And next chapter is the longest titled in the book! Exciting times, guys.

Anne of Green Gables - Chapter Ten

Anne's Apology

So I'm guessing Anne is going to apologise to Rachel and come out of her room? Tbh I read chapter nine a week and a half ago and I'm not going to re-read it so I've probably forgotten something vital. This chapter is 9 pages long which is quite depressing as I have absolutely no motivation to read it. But I started this project and I'll stick with it.

Well, look at that, Anne was 'refractory' the next morning. Let's check here:

"PS Since Refractory is 'the quality of a material to retain its strength at high temperatures' I'm guessing Dickens is talking about Oliver's steadfastness even while being abused?"

Vocab crossover! How exciting, and I can infer from the context that in this case it means stubbornness.

Matthew also agrees with Anne and calls Rachel a 'meddlesome old gossip'! How did I not realise how wonderful the Cuthberts are before this moment. Except for the part where Marilla keeps Anne in her room, obvs. Anne doesn't eat the dinners Marilla brings her and Matthew goes upstairs to see how she is.

Now, we've established that Matthew is painfully shy, especially around women. But he has seriously not been upstairs in his own house for FOUR YEARS. Seriously. What happened to being the 'man of the house'? It seems likely that Anne's vivacity will encourage Matthew to come out of his shell a bit. This will be a good thing.

Matthew convinces Anne to apologise to Rachel (ignoring her illuminating query about idiomatic origins) and then flees to the 'remotest corner of the horse pasture'. Anne and Marilla head off to Rachel's, where Anne does an Oscar-worthy apology. Rachel is mollified.

This is Rachel's happy face.

Rachel confesses that she quite likes Anne as Anne is obviously honest. Marilla is conflicted (again!) between amusement and anger. Although she's really quite insulting herself:

"'I'm afraid you are a very vain little girl.' 'How can I be vain when I know I'm homely?' protested Anne."

Oh ANNE.

And next time we're off to Sunday School. Oh Jesus.

Gone - Chapter Seven

289 Hours, 45 Minutes

Okay, I (finally!) got Gone from the library (previously I'd been reading it as an e-book which sucked) and it's so nice to feel it in my hands! The cover is really exciting as well:

This book is good and exciting

So, Lana's still chillin' with the vultures except now it's dark so she can't see them. Lucky she's got her dog Patrick around! She's also real mad with her parents because they punished her for being a 14 year old drunkard. It's funny because she doesn't know that they're gone yet. She thinks it's just her Grandpa.

Um, OMG. She is now chillin' with A MOUNTAIN LION. Man America has some crazy wild animals. Oh, it's ok, her dog just defeated a lion?? Is that something that happens? I thought lions were killing machines. Oh wait, her dog is dying. Lol now the lion can just wait and then have two dinners!

Seriously though this is horrible and I see no conceivable way Lana will get out of this situation. And now we're switching back to Sam and co. Grrr the suspense

They haven't found Pete, but they hope that he's safe on the other side of the barrier, which stretches far out to sea. Maybe that IS where all the adults have gone? The kids decide to go to bed but Sam and Astrid have a little convo beforehand. Astrid reckons the wall might be a circle sealing in the town (I never thought of that, she IS smart) and it is revealed that Sam's birthday is in 11 days! And checking my post here:

"Now the next chapter seems to be counting down the numbers in its title? 300 hours is 12.5 days, so I'm guessing that's the timespan of the book. Maybe it's counting down to someone's birthday? As long as it's not Quinn or Astrid because they're my FAVES"

In which case it's rather obvious that the chapters are counting down to Sam's fifteenth birthday. And even though I don't particularly like his character, I'm scared about what might happen to him. Although I still have over 400 pages to go so it'll be a while before I get there luckily.

Astrid also does a little 'you're so brave and heroic and you don't get a choice about being a leader' speech which is ugh.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DID SAM BURN OFF HIS STEPFATHER'S HAND?!?!?!?!?!

Also is the next chapter about Mary DO NOT WANT