The Short Drop Review

 The Short Drop by Matthew Fitzsimmons is about the story of Gibson Vaughn, an infamous computer hacker who helps investigate the disappearance of his childhood friend Suzanne Lombard. While this thriller may have taken a little while to get started, when it did start, it didn't stop until the last few pages. The plot gets more and more twisted as you go along, and trust me, it's worth it.


 When the book first started, I was skeptical that it was actually a thriller; the first few chapters were nothing but long descriptions of the characters and their backstories and the occasional dialogue. But once all of the pieces cam together and the actual investigation aspect started, it really was a thriller. It followed many of the main "ingredients" that thrillers follow. The nail-biting moments and the constant suspense of wondering who would catch who first kept me hooked. Although the actual "big twist" itself was very similar to another thriller I read, it still caught me off guard. The gradual build-up of the story and the truth that slowly unraveled in front of the characters added to the rollercoaster of emotions. Even though the story got convoluted at times, you didn't really have to think that much about it to understand what was going on, unlike mystery novels.


 The several different perspectives setup the cat and mouse game nicely with sinister characters and unknown intentions. While some characters seemed to serve no purpose, in the end they helped build up to a larger plot. One of my only problems with this book was that one of the main characters, Benjamin Lombard, wasn't really mentioned that much. He is very essential to the plot, and yet we only really get to "see" what he's doing sometimes; he serves more of a purpose in the shadows than when it was told from his perspective. But given the intense nature of the book and the web of lies, I guess it's fitting.


 Overall, I really enjoyed this book, even though the beginning was slow. There were some loose ends at the conclusion, but since there's going to be a second book, it's to be expected. Once the ball gets rolling, it's hard to put it down. I highly recommend this book to people who love thrillers or are trying to get into the genre.  

Top 5 Book List









I've had a lot of different favorite books depending on my age. For this list, 1 will be my earlier years when I seriously started reading (so you won't find things like Junie B. Jones in here).


1. The Legend of Thunderfoot

In a desert, Thunder the roadrunner gets bitten by a rattlesnake, causing his feet to grow five times bigger. In order to survive, he has to learn to deal with this problem and overcome his mistakes. In fifth grade, I absolutely adored this book. I read it over and over again, and it's one of the few book that I've kept over the years. I like it because it's an encouraging story about how you can overcome your mistakes and learn to turn what other may see as a disadvantage into an advantage. I loved the voices of all of the characters and the plot that may be simple, but heartwarming at the same time. I would recommend it to people who enjoy a light read and love hopeful/ overcoming stories.

2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

In the third book of the Harry Potter series, Sirius Black escapes from Azkaban, and word is he's after Harry. With dementors lurking around Hogwarts and the constant threat of danger, Harry starts to discover the truth behind the prisoner and how it all ties into his parents' deaths. I used to get up early in the morning and stay up late at night reading all of the Harry Potter books, but this one caught my attention more than the others. I really like it because it's kind of a turning point in the series where we really start to see what happened to Harry's parents and the kind of legacy that they left behind. It also sets up the rest of the series by getting event rolling. I would recommend it to people who enjoy fantasy and enjoy the other Harry Potter books.

3. Inkheart

Meggie and his father Mo have always had the ability to bring characters out of books just by reading aloud out of them. One day, they accidentally bring the evil villain Capricorn out of the book Inkheart, and they have to find a way to send him back, but it won't be as easy as they thought. I picked this book up immediately when I saw it in middle school because I thought it was so cool how people could bring characters to life just by reading the book out loud. I love the plot of having the powers backfire and having to journey to find a way to reverse them. I would recommend this book to people who like fantasy that's a little bit uncommon and has an interesting journey.

4. Traveller

Told from the perspective of Robert E. Lee's horse, Traveller, this book is about his journey through his own life, as well as life in the Civil War. I enjoyed this book because it's from a completely different perspective than what you would expect. I like how Traveller's perception of the war is so different from what everyone else's perception is. I would recommend to people who like historical fiction, but also like seeing things from a different point of view.

5. The Thief Lord

Prosper and Bo are brothers that run away to Venice, Italy. Once there, they're taken in by orphans who steal things for a shopkeeper named Barbarossa. Victor, a detective, is hired by Prosper and Bo's parents to find their sons. In a cat-and-mouse type book, Scipio, The Thief Lord, and his band of thieves must stay hidden from Victor and stay out of trouble in order to live freely. I like this book because it's almost like a calmer version of a thriller, with many twists and turns. There are characters that you could never forget. I would recommend this book to people who want a less complex thriller and love the cat-and-mouse set-up of books. 

YA Article Response

Before I really dive into this response, I just want to make something clear; I think that people should be able to read whatever they want to read, regardless of age, gender, race, etc. People have different genre preferences, and that's okay. However, I do believe to a certain extent that genres are meant to (and should be) steered towards a specific audience.


YA novels exemplify this better than any other genre. Since they are targeted for a teenage audience, it's a bit strange to see adults reading them. Sure, they're not ALWAYS centered around romance, but we have to admit that 9 times out of 10 they are. I'm sure that adults feel some sort of sentiment towards the teenage romance and emotions, but to a certain degree it almost takes them out of reality entirely.


The relationships are almost too perfect, and that sets people up for disappointment in real life; they expect for boys and girls to be shaped exactly to their liking, but that's not how life works. Relationships don't start wrapped up with a cute bow and continue to go along without any problems (although I guess you could count love triangles as "problems", even though it's usually two hot guys fighting with tooth and nail over the girl). It's become a common theme in social media and people in my generation to assume that guys will always know the right thing to say and have a spectacular date planned out; the reality is that boys don't have the money or telepathy to know what a girl wants from him. This leads to bad dates and girls who can never really fall in love because the guy they're looking for doesn't exist.


To me, it doesn't matter who is writing a YA or who reads it; the fact of the matter is that the obsession with the genre come from a fascination with a dream date that doesn't exist and a relationship that won't come out exactly the way they want it to. It's fine to dream, but at some point you have to get your head out of the clouds and realize that things aren't always exactly the way you planned.

The Thriller Genre

Thriller is a genre that relies heavily on emotion and keeping the reader on the edge of their seats. While thriller and mystery novels share some characteristics, thriller relies more on the actual takedown of a villain rather than the process of identifying them. What makes thrillers unique is the multiple viewpoints that they take in order to get a clearer picture of what's going on and to build the suspense of the protagonist taking down the villain. Thrillers live to put the main character through the wringer until the very end when they finally win (or, in some cases, reach a somewhat satisfactory conclusion). But the main focus of thrillers is never really on characterization; it's on the plot and how it drives the characters, as well as the readers, to bite, scratch, and crawl their way to the bitter end through the rollercoaster of events and emotions.


The reader always feels the build up of suspense and can't put a book down when it's a thriller; they're designed to keep making the reader turn the pages to drive off the constant, gnawing question of "what happens next?". Authors build the protagonist and antagonist so that one is thwarted (not always completely, but at least somewhat) and the other is stronger in the end. This consistent build up gives the reader satisfaction at the end when they know that things have been resolved and the anxiety is over.


One of the most classic thrillers of all time, The Silence of the Lambs, has all of the basic components of a thriller. Many people refer to this as the thriller to read because of its psychological elements and the suspense.

Another thriller (that is actually based on a true story) also follows the basic guidelines. Truman Capote's In Cold Blood focuses on the viewpoint of the murderers, but also the victims and the people trying to hunt them down. It focuses on the chase of the killers and the overall emotions that all of the characters feel at every point.

Articles:

Ten Basic Ingredients of a Successful Thriller: http://www.writersdigest.com/qp7-migration-conferencesevents/qp7-migration-maui/10-basic-ingredients-of-a-successful-thriller

A Thrilling Genre; Thriller Novels and Subgenres: http://writersrelief.com/blog/2008/12/a-thrilling-genre-thriller-novels-and-subgenres/


Brief Definition of the Thriller Fiction Genre: http://www.findmeanauthor.com/thriller_fiction_genre.htm