Book Project choice board

Persuasion: I as a person have always struggled with reading. Some books feel like they take forever to get interesting, while others feel like the story moves too quickly. I know many people who are like this too. It also feels like people judge us for our tastes, you know? We always get the usual comments like "you're too picky about what you read" or "you're just too lazy to read a book." It's pretty annoying, but the truth is we just want a book that is entertaining and moves at a good pace. Well luckily for us, I found a book that satisfies our needs as readers. The book is called "The Diviners." It is the first book in a tetralogy and it has 578 pages. The book is about a girl named Evie who moves in with her uncle as a punishment for slandering a man at a party. The story takes place in the roaring 20's in New York and it is regarded as Historical fiction, but don't let that fool you. The book is also an example of Paranormal fiction as the main themes of the book have to do with paranormal activity and cults. The setting of the book gives it further depth by providing an element of learning to the story, which means that you're able to learn about 1920's and read a fun book at the same time! Not only that but it is also a book that revolves around solving a murder case. The book feels like a roller coster as it gradually builds up all of the details of the murders to create a well thought out story with twists and turns. I would recommend these books to a person who loves the paranormal and enjoys young adult novels. Grab yourself a copy this book today to figure out how they solve these strange murders!

Change of Setting. The current setting of book is New York City during the Prohibition Period of the United States. If I could change the setting I would change it to Massachusetts in the 1700's. I would like to see this change because the impact it would have on the story would be rather interesting. The reason for this is because mainly due to the conflicting time periods. The time period the story takes place in was a time in history where people felt free to express themselves in a way they hadn't before. Black and White people began to mingle with each other during this time and fashion became more contemporary. This all lead to an environment that centered less around religious modesty, or at least less than the 1700's. The 1700's was a time period were women were persecuted as witches for simply existing or even breathing the wrong way. People back then seemed to be really centered around staying away from witchcraft or anything relating to the occult, while in the 1920's people began to be more intrigued by ghosts and witchcraft. This adds a new challenge to the conflict because due to the new time period, the case would likely have to remain classified for the safety of those working on the case. Not only that, but in that time period the museum of the occult owned by Evie's uncle would also likely not exist due to the religious nature of the people from the time period mentioned. The Place where the story takes place would also change the story quite a lot. This is due to the nature of Massachusetts in the 1700's, because the most strict religious group in the colonial periods of America resided in Massachusetts. They were called the Puritans and they followed strict religious practices and beliefs. These beliefs included intense negative feelings against the supernatural and most importantly, they would shun anyone who would not keep up with their practices. This also included people that were deemed insane for many reasons, one of the most common being certain individuals reporting seeing anything out of the ordinary such as ghosts or witches. This possible declaration of insanity would likely pose a potential barrier to the conflict. This leads to the story having two possible changes, either catching John Hobbes becomes easier due to the superstitious nature of the puritans, or it could become more difficult due to the persecution of those believed to be "insane". Not too mention punishments for murder and witchcraft were also more intense during this time frame. This setting could add a new element to the story which could enhance it due to these factors, and I believe that the story could take some really interesting turns and twists if written from this angle.

How I would write a sequel to The Diviners. If I could write a sequel for this book, there are a lot of events that I would incorporate. The first of these would be an event where Evie genuinely grows as a character. While it was subtle that Evie grew through the book, it wasn't something that was kept for long. She as a character had many opportunities to change and grow as a person, but all of them were just forgotten about. In one of these moments, She snuck out to go to a speakeasy and was later on arrested after it was raided by police. She was going to get sent back to Ohio as punishment by her uncle, however this never did happen, which means that she got out of the situation with pretty much no punishment. Not only that, but she also made her friend Mabel uncomfortable by ignoring her when she said she wanted to leave the party. Instead of taking her home or letting her go home she just snuck off mid conversation because she didn't want her to leave. Mabel was mad at her for this, and she got into a fight with Evie. The problem with this is that they made up after 50 pages or so of fighting, and in this period of time Evie did little to reflect on her friends words. I believe that a way to conclude this would be to add an event in the sequel that would cause genuine growth in her character. For example, someone who she cares about could get mad at her and tell her that she wouldn't get wrapped up in bad things if she didn't do what people tell her not to do for her own good, or even better make her realize how selfish she really is. I believe that this character development is necessary because it can ground a proper theme for the book. I also believe that merging Memphis' and Evie's stories would be the best decision in a sequel. It would solve one of the main criticism that I and others have of this book, which is the fact that the book switches between perspectives that barely even connect to each other. Memphis' story barely has anything to do with Evie's story and as a book in a series that's an easily fixable problem, as their perspectives can basically merge together when their journeys collide. That is why I believe a moment like this would be necessary for the development of the story. Lastly, I would like for the author to explain why the dreams mentioned by Theta and Memphis happen. They are mentioned briefly, but if there were to be a sequel I believe that it would be important to address the meaning of the dreams and the symbols that appear in the dreams. I would also like to see Evie's dreams about James come to a meaningful conclusion somehow. She often has dreams about James' death, so I would like to know if there is any true meaning to these dreams, or if it's just symbolism for her guilt. This book uses dreams as a form of expressing it's story, so I would like for the author to expand more on their symbolism in the story and why they are essential.