Reading Response: Peak

The book Peak is about this 14-year-old, Peak, who illegally scales skyscrapers as a hobby ever since he’s moved away from the suburban area in which his father lives. When he gets caught, his father presents the idea of him moving in with him until the publicity of his stunt buzzes down for a while, which he soon figures is an invitation to climb Everest with him. This book is Peak’s perspective on what happened on that climb. I think this story clearly presents the theme of choosing what’s important in your life and choosing what to invest your time in. And I don’t think Peak is the only one who learns that lesson.

One way this theme is portrayed is through Peak’s mother’s life choices. For example, the whole reason she quit climbing was because she realized she wanted to focus on Peak once he was born. This shows how Peak’s mother analyzed what were the more important things in her life, and if the risks that came with climbing for a living were worth it.

The central way this theme was portrayed was through Peak’s big decision while climbing Everest. When he decides to let Sunjo finish the climb instead of him, he really tests his morals right there and realizes the true purpose in the climb, and what he truly wanted. He realizes that Sunjo needed to be the youngest boy to climb Everest in order to support his family, and Josh’s climbing career, and that he wasn’t really needed there.

All in all, this book is a great example of how someone should choose what’s the best way to live their life, and where they’re really needed. And Peak shows that by choosing to be with his family in the city, where he was truly needed.

Reading Response: Where She Went

The book Where She Went is the sequel to the story of a girl, Mia, who had to chose whether she wanted to join her family and give up, or stay and work with the problems her life has become. The sequel, though, is in the perspective of Mia’s boyfriend and how he deals with the loss of Mia and what his life has become. I think the author, Gayle Forman, does a really great job of portraying how it’s okay for people to be somewhat vulnerable in terms of their lives being an utter mess.

Forman represents disasters through Mia and Adam’s lives throughout the book. Now she does this by having the story evolve around Mia, but has the perspective of the book be with Adam. For example, she shows how Adam’s life was a mess with, “I have the kind of life a lot of people would probably sell a kidney to just experience a bit of [his band went to fame]. But still, I find the need to remind myself the temporariness of every day.” This very clearly represents his place in the book since this was in the very first paragraph of the book. This shows that the condition in which he lives in doesn’t cause this depression of his, but it’s what happened in his past with Mia. Now, obviously Mia had to deal with her family’s death, but the way she described it, like how she momentarily forgot her parents were dead every morning, really showed the depth of the situation. The depth in the pain of the experience in the end.

Now after this part of the book is revealed as they reunite, Forman shows how Mia and Adam give up and start arguing, but the thing is they start spilling all that was bottled up for 3 years, and are actually vulnerable for once. In the process, it’s shown to be for the better. For example, Mia confessed that, “I need to tell you everything. I just think I need some coffee before I can get it together enough to explain.” This shows that even though it was hard for her, she knew that sooner or later she’d have to explain what happened in their past, and that meant being vulnerable to him for the first time after her family died. In return Adam does the same stating, “I don’t remember the last time I’ve cried but… the floodgates open and I’m sobbing now...in front of the whole damn world.” And this goes for the better, as all secrets are out, all the grudges that were held are slowly resolving, and now there’s an actual chance for them to be in each other's lives now that the problem has been confronted.

All in all, Gayle Forman does a skillful job of expressing the step-by-step process of dealing with loss, shutting out the people you love, confronting the problem as a whole, and losing the fear of being vulnerable throughout the context of this story.