Weekly Reading Response

NAME: Jonathan B DATE: 2/11/10
BOOK: Echo Park
AUTHOR: Michel Connely PAGES: 104-229
TOTAL PAGES THIS WEEK: 125

QUESTION 1: 18. What has surprised you in the book? Why?

RESPONSE 1:
One major thing that surprised me while reading this week was the escape of the Serial killer Raynard Waits, if that's even his real name. While in the woods where Waits said he buried Marie Gesto, he managed to escape the police officers, detectives, and forensics team, getting away. It all happened so suddenly. There are only a few sentences that tell you what's about to happen, then Waits grabbed a gun and shot three officers. Two were dead, one was severely injured. This all surprised me because Waits seemed to cooperate fully until that last moment where he grabs the gun, shoots, and runs away.


QUESTION 2: 6. Explain how the author creates suspense in this book.

RESPONSE 2:
The topic of suspense in a realistic fiction book is difficult. You can't just have a Dragon fly out and capture the person you're going after. You need to have a plot line that goes with the facts of real life, especially in murder mystery novels. So the way that Michel Connely creates suspense is he takes the facts and the pieces of the story to give you an understanding of the main idea of what might happen. This allows you to think of many different up coming plots and solutions for the issues you're currently reading about. In the end you may have a basic idea of what's going to happen by the subtle hints the author gives you in the book. The element of suspense comes in when you're waiting to find out if you're right or not.