40 Things I Want To Tell You
In the world of Literature, all novels can be split into two categories; good and bad. This means that after one reads a book, it will be easy to decipher whether or not the story was good, including an interesting story, detail, and unique characteristics, or not so good, including a boring plot, or the average boy-next-door love story. The reader will either want to put a book down due to boredom, or want to keep it in their hands all day due to the fact that the novel is interesting and keeps them on the edge of their seat. In the novel 40 Things I Want To Tell You by Alice Kuipers, the reader will instantly realize that this is not a very good novel for many reasons. Firstly, the novel does not include any …show more content…
A good plot includes characteristics such as creativity, structure and resolution. In 40 Things I Want To Tell You, none of these characteristics are present. For example, the plot is very unrealistic, since the chances of any of the events happening in real life are slim to none. In the novel, the first dialogue between Bird and Pete ends with an intense make-out session. Bird describes this event by saying, “I leaned my face up toward him and pressed my lips lightly to his” (Kuipers, 57). This makes it difficult for the reader to connect with the characters because one would not normally kiss a person that they just met, especially when they are in a long-term relationship. Also, none of the characters resolve any of their conflicts or issues and the reader does not get any information based on these issues. The reader is faced with the conflict between Bird and her best friend, Cleo. One would assume that the characters will eventually forgive each other and remain friends, but when Bird says “Cleo and I don’t get to hang out as much anymore” (Kuipers, 281), it shows that none of the problems got resolved, and the friends are no longer close. Basically, nothing gets settled, and therefore, the reader does not get enough supporting details on what happened to the friendship in the future, resulting in a weak ending. In the end, the lack of realism, detail and creativity makes for a bad
In the world of Literature, all novels can be split into two categories; good and bad. This means that after one reads a book, it will be easy to decipher whether or not the story was good, including an interesting story, detail, and unique characteristics, or not so good, including a boring plot, or the average boy-next-door love story. The reader will either want to put a book down due to boredom, or want to keep it in their hands all day due to the fact that the novel is interesting and keeps them on the edge of their seat. In the novel 40 Things I Want To Tell You by Alice Kuipers, the reader will instantly realize that this is not a very good novel for many reasons. Firstly, the novel does not include any …show more content…
A good plot includes characteristics such as creativity, structure and resolution. In 40 Things I Want To Tell You, none of these characteristics are present. For example, the plot is very unrealistic, since the chances of any of the events happening in real life are slim to none. In the novel, the first dialogue between Bird and Pete ends with an intense make-out session. Bird describes this event by saying, “I leaned my face up toward him and pressed my lips lightly to his” (Kuipers, 57). This makes it difficult for the reader to connect with the characters because one would not normally kiss a person that they just met, especially when they are in a long-term relationship. Also, none of the characters resolve any of their conflicts or issues and the reader does not get any information based on these issues. The reader is faced with the conflict between Bird and her best friend, Cleo. One would assume that the characters will eventually forgive each other and remain friends, but when Bird says “Cleo and I don’t get to hang out as much anymore” (Kuipers, 281), it shows that none of the problems got resolved, and the friends are no longer close. Basically, nothing gets settled, and therefore, the reader does not get enough supporting details on what happened to the friendship in the future, resulting in a weak ending. In the end, the lack of realism, detail and creativity makes for a bad