Hannah Starmann > Recent Status Updates

The main character is on his way to the moon and it is difficult to follow what he's talking about because he's basically a narrating every single thought he has.

Roma is traveling to Lord Montagov's underground arena.

"Everywhere they looked: dying Scarlet Gang members, gushing blood from their throats and screeching in agony. There had to be twenty, thirty, forty, either dying or already dead, either motionless or presently still trying to dig their fingers into their own veins" (Gong 94).

"Juliette Cai feared disapproval more than she feared grime on her soul. That killing was one of the few secrets she had kept from Roma"

Roma is reflecting on how Juliette has changed: "Killer. Violent. Ruthless. All those and more--that was who she was now" (Gong 44).

Juliette threatened to kill Tyler.

Juliette is annoyed that Lord Cai won't let her attend any meetings yet. He says politics is "boring."

This book is a recreation of Romeo & Juliet and I just met Romeo who is "Romero Montagov." I also met Juliet who is "Juliette Cai."

"We live in between what we choose and what is chosen for us. Henry was acted upon by historical forces, but he was also a historical force unto himself--as we all are."

Today I read about how "bad news" was deemed unhealthy for TB patients. So much so that a father continually wrote letters to his daughter living in a sanatorium pretending that he was his other daughter (who had previously died of TB).

"What does it mean to be a person whose consciousness, whose love and longing and fear, can be snuffed out by an overgrowth of bacteria that neither love nor long nor fear? How absurd that I can be murdered by that venomous little atom!" (Green 95).

I read the tuberculosis connections between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes.

"We all unjustly stigmatize others. We all engage in the punitive act of giving a disease a meaning."

I read about the start of WWI's connection to tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis inadvertently helped create the cowboy hat!

I'm learning about Green's first experiences with tuberculousis when he visited Sierra Leone.

The section I read today discussed some action steps everyday people can take to spot fake news.

I was reading about how to spot fake images that people post online. In the examples provided in the book, it's fairly obvious that each photo is fake...but it's scary how many people see photos like that online every day and blindly believe what they see.

I was reading different examples of bias in newspaper articles.

I read about a recent study that showed the majority of American adults can not reliably tell the difference between facts and opinions.

I read about the classic example of fake news where the radio program about War of the Worlds created an uproar because too many people thought it was a real story even though some efforts were made to make people understand it was fiction.

I read how the Nazis spread disinformation during WWII.

Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story for a penny press publication that was just meant to be a story, but too many people thought it was "real news," so the paper had to write a retraction.

I read about the penny press and how because it combined information AND entertainment, it was especially easy to spread fake news and make it hard to tell the difference.

Cassie discovered a clue by analyzing the bloody fingerprints in the crime scene photos.

"Maybe the first time I killed someone, it wasn't planned, but now the only time I ever really feel alive is when I'm feeling the life go out of someone else, someone like her" (Barnes 194).

Cassie notices a connection between all of the victims: They are all red heads and psychics.

I noticed there is a character called Agent Starmans. "Starmans" is really close to my own name!

An interesting quote from the narrator that introduces some chapters so far: "Taking her is easy. You're a ghost. A stranger with candy. A sympathetic ear. When Madame Selene wakes up in the warehouse, she won't believe that you're the one who's done this to her. Not at first. But eventually, she'll see (Barnes 131).

Michael, Dean, Sloane, Cassie, and Lia are in the middle of playing "Truth or Dare."