Florence’s Comments (group member since Sep 07, 2012)

Florence’s comments from the ELEVEN READER'S CLUB group.

Update 1
Strong/poignant “word” image
The blurry, white, wrapped head suspended there. A ghostly visage.

Three new words
Pundits - a learned person, expert, or authority.
Philandering - to make love with a woman one cannot or will not marry; flirt
Fastidiousness - excessively particular, critical, or demanding; thoroughness

Two examples of rhetorical devices
Imagery
The thing was, this white, almost circular object in the window still had the shape of a head. The plastic material strained against a protuberance that could only be a nose. It hugged tight across what appeared to be a brow near the top, a chin at the bottom. There was even a trace of mouth, the lips open as though gasping for air.

Allusion
It was a stately old resort built on the side of a mountain; looking back, the place puts me in mind of the Overlook Hotel from the Stephen King movie The Shining, but there wasn’t blood flowing out of the elevators or a dead woman in a bathtub or some little kid pedaling a Big Wheel flat out down the hallways.

A one sentence statement of your impressions/feelings/reactions toward the section
A beautiful synthesis of dynamic characters; a map-obsessed schizophrenic protagonist, a bisexual wife of the attorney general of New York, and a silver medal-winning Olympic gymnast turned hired assassin.


Update 2
Strong/poignant “word” image
The ice pick, swift and noiseless, feels hot going into his right side, just above his waist. In the second it takes him to register the pain, Nicole has withdrawn it, the pick red and glistening, and thrust it into him once again, this time higher, between his ribs.

Three new words
Sullen - showing irritation or ill humour by a gloomy silence or reserve; upset
Discernible - capable of being discerned; distinguishable
Extortion - the crime of obtaining money or some other thing of value by the abuse of one's office or
authority; blackmail

Two rhetorical devices
Alliteration
I came up around the side of his map-and-computer-cluttered desk and crouched down,

Simile
Yelling at Thomas, pulling the plug on his computer, and, maybe worst of all, treating one of his precious maps like a used paper towel.

A one sentence statement of your impressions/feelings/reactions toward the section
The main protagonist, map-obsessed schizophrenic Thomas continues to develop dynamically, and I feel the more I get to know his character, the more I can relate to him, on the other hand, the advancement of the mystery continues to keep me hooked.

 
Update 3
Strong/poignant “word” image
She had eliminated many problems for him, and now she wanted the freedom to eliminate them for others, as well.

Three new words
Prudent - wise or judicious in practical affairs; sagacious;
Menagerie – a collection of wild or unusual animals
Flaunting - to parade or display oneself conspicuously, defiantly, or boldly; ostentatious

Two rhetorical devices
Simile
He hadn’t slept in days and he felt like his body was shaking all the time, like he was walking around in a world with nonstop low-level earth tremors.

Sarcasm
Did she take a stupid pill in Australia? Was it something in the water?

A one sentence statement of your impressions/feelings/reactions toward the section
Reading about halfway through the entire novel, I am realizing that this is truly unique, from the characters to the nature of the murder to the double-edged mysteries. Surely, I have never read a novel remotely similar to this. 


Update 4
Strong/poignant “word” image
Being nice. That was when she knew he was going to kill her when this was over .

Three new words
Wispy-haired – thin or frail hair
Notions -general understanding; vague or imperfect conception or idea of something
Cardigan - a collarless knitted sweater or jacket that opens down the front.

Two rhetorical devices
Hyperbole
His cell rings and it’s as though a grenade has gone off in his Armani suit jacket.

Metaphor
There wasn’t a bridge she hadn’t burned.

A one sentence statement of your impressions/feelings/reactions toward the section
I feel like my brain is being overloaded with baffling labyrinthine mysteries. I am eager to finish this novel to finally appease my inquiring mind.

 
Update 5
Strong/poignant “word” image
She pulled the trigger and blew a corner of his head off. His body went flat, the floor a mass of blood and skull and brain matter.

Three new words
Brooding - preoccupied with depressing, morbid, or painful memories or thoughts
Grimaced – to make facial expression, often ugly or contorted, that indicates disapproval, pain, etc.
Palpable - readily or plainly seen, heard, perceived; obvious

Two rhetorical devices
Euphemism
Lewis and I talked and we decided we had to deal with the Fitch woman more…permanently.

Simile
The moment I uttered the words, it was like the air had suddenly been sucked out of the room.

A one sentence statement of your impressions/feelings/reactions toward the section
A wonderful ending cluttered with a collection of contorted twists and turns. Perplexing and unpredictable, yet all the loose ends seem to connect in one vanishing point.

I discovered the book Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay on the home page of the Scotiabank Giller Prize website. Desperate to find a book for this project, I started randomly clicking on different books which landed me on a page providing the synopsis this novel. I read the first paragraph describing the synopsis of this novel and I was immediately hooked. Two details caught my attention that eventually became the deciding factor and these were the words murdered (found on the last sentence of the first paragraph) and thriller (written in small font on the cover of the novel). I am very particular about the books that I read. I usually enjoy thriller, suspense, murder genres combined with some science and technology facts written by a male author. When I read the synopsis, I knew this book satisfies the criteria of books that I read, but there is still one last test this novel has to pass and that is whether the actual content can keep me hooked into the book. Hence, I started reading the novel. It was a page-turner. I could not stop reading until I reached 200 pages, when I started to lose interest as the book took too long to build the suspense. However, this book still piqued my interest due to its immense similarity to Dan Brown’s novels such as the delay of the climax. Overall, I think this novel is going to be one of my favourite books and I might continue to read more of Linwood Barclay’s novels.