The Body
Stephen King
Imagine running 30 miles away from home on foot with
your three best friends to find the dead body of a missing young
boy. Sounds like a quite dangerous adventure, doesn’t it? Is that
something that you would do? Whether the answer is yes or no,
the amazing adventure depicted in Stephen King’s The Body is
both unforgettable and extremely gripping.
The book begins when 12 year old Gordie Lachance, a
hobbyist writer, and his friends discover the location of a missing
boy, Ray Brower. Jumping on the opportunity, Gordie and his
three best friends slip away from home to find the body and see
it for themselves before anyone else can find out. What follows is
a very fun, high-energy and light-hearted adventure as the boys head out across 30 miles of train tracks.
But the innocence of the story is intertwined with just as much emotion as the reader gets to
know the characters better. They are what make this book really shine. Stephen King creates extremely
believable and relatable characters, so great that you will miss them, their stories, and their laughs by
the end of the book. The sense of camaraderie created between them just adds to the experience.
Each character, while being an average young boy (just longing for adventure) has a deep and
emotional side to them that we get to see as they develop, resulting in some of the most intense
moments of the book.
Stephen King does a fantastic job with this book. The descriptions are detailed but not boring.
The imagery is vivid but not overwhelming. He weaves the book together with a great sense of humor,
and at the same time, a great deal of emotion. The intense parts will have you on the edge of your seat
in suspense, and the lighter hearted ones will have you in tears laughing. Do yourself a favor and pick
up The Body as soon as you can. You certainly won’t regret it!
Shattering Glass
Gail Giles
Shattering Glass is an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride. A
cheery tale of high-school happenings with a suspenseful and
dark undertone. Could you imagine rising from a total zero,
hated by everyone, to a prom-king and charismatic charmer?
Well neither could Simon Glass, the school nerd, when the
most popular kid in school told him of his plans.
Rob Haynes is the undisputed leader of the senior class
and, for that matter, the entire school. With charisma exploding
from his every move, why would he want to have anything to
do with the school nerd? The answer is that Rob wanted that
school nerd to become more. He wanted to transform him into a
popular kid just like himself. When he enlists his friends help, they are skeptical of his motives, but
decide to go along with it anyway. Wealthy ladies’ man Bob, potential big-league athlete Coop, and the
‘one-and-only’ Rob Haynes start to replace Simon’s current social habits with new, more charismatic
ones, as well as replacing some of that fat with muscle. Simon learns fast and well, quickly becoming a
more prominent social presence both inside and outside the school.
As the nerdy and sniveling Simon Glass starts to climb the social ladder, a new side of him starts
to show. As things progress, the book’s gritty undertone starts to rise to the foreground as a frenzy of
events happen.
Gail Giles does a wonderful job intertwining the light-hearted ‘high-school senior buddies’
mood with a dark and gritty undertone. He develops the characters in ways you wouldn’t expect. He
creates a suspenseful mood where everything is seemingly fine. The result is an edge-of-your-seat,
riveting page turner. You won’t want to put this book down, and weeks after finishing it, the events
and impact of the book will still be fresh in your mind.