Being By Kevin Brooks Published by Scholastic Pages 286
I located this book in my house. T
his story is about an orphan named Robert from England, who went around orphanages as a young child. This was very hard on Robert because he never felt any love for him. Eventually, he finds a nice family when he is sixteen who he seems to get along with well. One day he has to go to the hospital to check on an ulcer. When being examined the doctors find that his insides are extremely different than a normal person; he has wires, metallic tubes, dark colored liquids, plastic, and all these unusual things inside him. Robert manages to escape from the secret organization that somehow was able to look inside of him. He flees to London where he meets an old friend named Eddi. From there this secret organization keeps trying to track Robert and nearly succeed numerous times if it wasn’t for the sly, quick thinking of Eddi. Finally, they decide to go to Spain where Eddi has a flat. There they live happily for a few years, until the secret organization finds them and manages to kill Eddi; fortunately Robert survives the gun fight and flees to exile.
The audience for this book is from teenager to young adults.
The Authors Writing style is persuasive; the reader seems to always keeps Robert on the good side even though he is the cyborg criminal running from the law. Brooks also uses foreshadowing, when Eddi and Robert walk into their flat after the fireworks Robert says, “When he took a step in the flat, something felt different, the shades were closed, everything seemed so dark.”(268)
“I don’t know. I just didn’t know how it happened. One moment they were struggling, both of them grunting and gasping, and then-BANG! - the gun went off, loud as hell, and a shower of wet stuff sprayed into my face.” (166) this passage stuck to me because it is when Robert and Eddi are wrestling an agent that was looking for him, and all of a sudden Eddi shot him in the head. After imagining this, I imagined the fear of killing someone and how nerve-racking it must have been for her.
“The photograph on the ID card showed a blank face of Ryan staring at the camera. His eyes were cold and intelligent. He was wearing a white shirt, black tie and jacket. His hair was slicked back slicked back over his high crowned skull, and the harsh photograph light made his skin look deadly.” (47) Robert showed such fear for his enemy, the man trying to find him with such effort. He was so scared of this man that his judgment and common sense were dulled to complete basics. This one passage stuck because this was when Robert knew that he needed to do whatever he could in his power to stop Ryan from finding him.
“Her eyes were open, staring blindly, and a thin trickle of blood was seeping from the bullet hole in her head. “(315-316) this passage is when Ryan finds Eddi and Robert in Nerja, Spain and shoots Eddi in the head. This was easily the saddest and most tragic part of the story and the reader must feel some sadness while reading. This passage stuck the most out of any because a character that has been well known dies suddenly is tragic and it stays with the reader.
After reading the book, I can relate to Robert as just a sixteen year old kid just trying to fit in and be normal. Fortunately, I have not had the struggle Robert had being an orphan or having to flee his home and being followed by a secret organization. There were some parts that spoke to me like when he wanted to speak to his current guardians because he was worried about them and wanted to make sure they were okay. Also when he was in Spain he just wanted to relax and be himself again without the worries of coming home to door kicked in and a gun to his head. These events in the story related to me because I can somewhat relate myself to Roberts struggles that makes what he goes through more personal than you would expect.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
A very good review and ive never read this book and I now I have an intrest too. The book seems very graphic and personal and the imagery is great as explained in the review. Sounds like a good book maybe ill have to read it for next quarter.
ReplyDeleteThis seems like an interesting book. The review was very well put together and I would love to read it. I don't know what I would do if I was running from secret agents. It seems like Robert goes through an incredible journey in this novel.
ReplyDeleteI belive this would be a great book to read because in a way, it resembles teenagers and their differences and how the outside world sometimes sees these things as a threat to society. It seems like a book that has many twists and turns and I think I would enjoy reading it.
ReplyDeleteChris Miele
I feel like this would be a good book to read and it'd keep me on the edge of my seat, I don't know how i'd feel anout Eddi dying though. I think talking about orphans in such an in depth matter is good. Pointing out the things that you don't awlays see and then the twist it has, interesting. I think i'm going to find this book and start the reading.
ReplyDeleteThe review was probably the most detailed I have seen so far because i have a really good idea about what the book is just from that information. According to these passages and the description of the writing stlye i think i would enjoy this book. I will definitly consider this book in the future. I would want to learn more about Robert and how it talked about his life growing up as an orphan.
ReplyDeleteThis book seems very interesting. I like how it's about orphans because no one really thinks about them. Then the robotic twist is really cool. I would never expect that in a book about an orphan. You did a great job with the summary. It really got you into the book.
ReplyDelete