Reader Response
By: Itrat Rabbani
This month I am doing my reader response on Havoc by Chris Wooding. It is the sequel of Malice, also by Chris Wooding. I have read all 336 pages of the book. It is a Sci - Fi novel because it uses unrealistic elements such as a world created by a man drawing it. The setting is England and the comic book world of Malice. The protagonists are Seth, Kady, Justin, and Alicia. The antagonists are Icarus Scratch, Miss Benjamin and Tall Jake. The conflict is that Tall Jake is a cruel and unjust ruler and they all want him gone. The climax is when Tall Jake retreats to the human and gets erased by Grendel, the creator of Malice and everything in it. Kady decides to stay with her parents, but Seth and Justin return to a more peaceful Malice.
Retell: The basic idea of the story is that there was a world that existed inside a comic book. The characters tried to overthrow the tyrant of this world. My favorite part of the book was when Seth, Kady and Justin went through the cursed land looking for the the Queen of Cats (one of the former six rulers before Tall Jake attacked them all). What happened was the curse that put on the land made a mosaic come to life. The mosaic attacked Justin, petrifying him(turning to stone). Justin said to leave him there, knowing that he wouldn’t be much help after being turned to stone, but they kept going with. They showed perseverance, which I really enjoy. I think that what the story was trying to tell us is that if you want to do something, then do it. Don’t let anything hold you back. At the end of the story, Seth wanted to return to Malice because he had a feeling of adventure while in Malice. The entire world was out there for him to discover. He wanted to go back and he didn’t let his parents feelings stop him.
Relate:The book really got me thinking about kids that go missing. All the kids who were taken away by tall Jake were counted as lost kids. I’m always worried that these kids could end up in life or death situations just like the main characters did inside Malice. I am a lot like Justin becacuse when Kady would worry if Seth forgot about all of them, he would tell her to shut up and that he could never forget about them. If someone was worried about something like that, I would pretty much say the exact same thing. Also, if he would get into an argument with someone, he would give up on it until he was proved right. I can sometimes never let things go. I will stay on one point until someone proves what that what the other person says is wrong. If I’m proven wrong, the just like Justin would, I would stop talking for a while. This book really reminds me of war and how it makes everyone wish they were back home and wished that they decided not to help. One of the characters, Alicia, was trapped in a cage for 2 weeks before Kady, Seth and Justin came to help her. Kady was always saying how she wanted to go home and live the life a normal teenager should live. “Havoc” is a lot like the book “From the Other Side”. It is a story that my uncle heard from his friend at work. It’s about a painting of a crazy man who believed that the painting was actually a portal that leads to an alternate dimension. When he died, his spirit went around and took anyone who entered his home to the alternate dimension that was hidden behind the painting.
Reflect: After I read the first paragraph of this book, I knew that it would pick up exactly where the book before it, Malice, left off. It starts with Seth (who remembers nothing to do with his first adventures in Malice) has to leave his home because he feels that those who chased him into Malice the first time, are coming back to prevent Tall Jake’s weakness from entering Malice. At the end of the back, Seth and Justin head back to Malice and it stops right there. I think something that tells how Malice was without Tall Jake would be a more effective ending. The author may have put this as the ending because he might have want the readers to think of the ending for themselves. I think the author putting comic like pictures in the book really helped me understand what was going on in those high tense action parts. If I wrote the book, I would have changed the way Tall Jake was defeated. What happens is Grendel erases Tall Jake’s eyes and then Seth stabs him with a ball-point pen. I would have made Seth receive the Lack’s bow (what he used to defeat the Mort-beast inside the temple of the Lack in the first book) and with the one arrow he would destroy Tall Jake. I’d really like to read another book in the Malice series written by the same author because he has a very good at writing about these magical worlds. I disagreed with the author when at the end of the book, Seth didn’t even say goodbye to his parents before he left again. I think he should have at least told them where he was going and why he was going back.
By: Itrat Rabbani
This month I am doing my reader response on Havoc by Chris Wooding. It is the sequel of Malice, also by Chris Wooding. I have read all 336 pages of the book. It is a Sci - Fi novel because it uses unrealistic elements such as a world created by a man drawing it. The setting is England and the comic book world of Malice. The protagonists are Seth, Kady, Justin, and Alicia. The antagonists are Icarus Scratch, Miss Benjamin and Tall Jake. The conflict is that Tall Jake is a cruel and unjust ruler and they all want him gone. The climax is when Tall Jake retreats to the human and gets erased by Grendel, the creator of Malice and everything in it. Kady decides to stay with her parents, but Seth and Justin return to a more peaceful Malice.
Retell: The basic idea of the story is that there was a world that existed inside a comic book. The characters tried to overthrow the tyrant of this world. My favorite part of the book was when Seth, Kady and Justin went through the cursed land looking for the the Queen of Cats (one of the former six rulers before Tall Jake attacked them all). What happened was the curse that put on the land made a mosaic come to life. The mosaic attacked Justin, petrifying him(turning to stone). Justin said to leave him there, knowing that he wouldn’t be much help after being turned to stone, but they kept going with. They showed perseverance, which I really enjoy. I think that what the story was trying to tell us is that if you want to do something, then do it. Don’t let anything hold you back. At the end of the story, Seth wanted to return to Malice because he had a feeling of adventure while in Malice. The entire world was out there for him to discover. He wanted to go back and he didn’t let his parents feelings stop him.
Relate:The book really got me thinking about kids that go missing. All the kids who were taken away by tall Jake were counted as lost kids. I’m always worried that these kids could end up in life or death situations just like the main characters did inside Malice. I am a lot like Justin becacuse when Kady would worry if Seth forgot about all of them, he would tell her to shut up and that he could never forget about them. If someone was worried about something like that, I would pretty much say the exact same thing. Also, if he would get into an argument with someone, he would give up on it until he was proved right. I can sometimes never let things go. I will stay on one point until someone proves what that what the other person says is wrong. If I’m proven wrong, the just like Justin would, I would stop talking for a while. This book really reminds me of war and how it makes everyone wish they were back home and wished that they decided not to help. One of the characters, Alicia, was trapped in a cage for 2 weeks before Kady, Seth and Justin came to help her. Kady was always saying how she wanted to go home and live the life a normal teenager should live. “Havoc” is a lot like the book “From the Other Side”. It is a story that my uncle heard from his friend at work. It’s about a painting of a crazy man who believed that the painting was actually a portal that leads to an alternate dimension. When he died, his spirit went around and took anyone who entered his home to the alternate dimension that was hidden behind the painting.
Reflect: After I read the first paragraph of this book, I knew that it would pick up exactly where the book before it, Malice, left off. It starts with Seth (who remembers nothing to do with his first adventures in Malice) has to leave his home because he feels that those who chased him into Malice the first time, are coming back to prevent Tall Jake’s weakness from entering Malice. At the end of the back, Seth and Justin head back to Malice and it stops right there. I think something that tells how Malice was without Tall Jake would be a more effective ending. The author may have put this as the ending because he might have want the readers to think of the ending for themselves. I think the author putting comic like pictures in the book really helped me understand what was going on in those high tense action parts. If I wrote the book, I would have changed the way Tall Jake was defeated. What happens is Grendel erases Tall Jake’s eyes and then Seth stabs him with a ball-point pen. I would have made Seth receive the Lack’s bow (what he used to defeat the Mort-beast inside the temple of the Lack in the first book) and with the one arrow he would destroy Tall Jake. I’d really like to read another book in the Malice series written by the same author because he has a very good at writing about these magical worlds. I disagreed with the author when at the end of the book, Seth didn’t even say goodbye to his parents before he left again. I think he should have at least told them where he was going and why he was going back.
