Heart to Heart #2: Character changes throughout the book

As I continued to read Heart to Heart by Lurlene McDaniel I saw the changes in characters (Kassey, Arabeth, and Wyatt) throughout the book:
Elowyn died a few days after she turned 16 when she got her license she gave Kassey a pair of keys (a symbol of true trust and friendship) and on that day she also checked the box to become an organ donor. It happened when she was driving her new car on a wet and rainy night road (while texting). When she died her heart was given to Arabeth.
Kassey in the beginning she was really close to her best friend Elowyn, but when Elowyn gets into a car crash that took her life. That changed everything for Kassey she lost her best friend and now her best friend’s heart is going to go to a complete stranger. But later on she grew closer to the Arabeth (the girl that got Elowyn’s heart).
Wyatt first showed up in the book as Elowyn’s boyfriend and Kassey never came to like him because she felt Arabeth spent more time with him than her. Until the accident happened and they both found out that they could find comfort in each other over her death.
Arabeth got a new beginning after the transplant she could run and go to a normal school after it, but some things like urges from Elowyn’s heart (so believed in this book) changed Arabeth’s personality like how she had the urge to eat Elowyn’s favorite ice cream (when she never tried it), using Elowyn’s dad nickname when Arabeth never even heard him call her that and the feelings when she first met Elowyn’s loved ones as if she met and knew them so well before.

Heart to Heart: Someone's loss, Is someone's new beginning (Spoiler alert)

This week I started a new book and it’s called Heart to Heart by Lurlene McDaniel, it captured my eye when I looked at its cover/size of the book and when I read the blurb it made me want to read it more. So far in the book I’ve learned that there are 2 main characters and that Lurlene McDaniel wrote this book using 2 different points of views.

One of the character’s name is Kassey and in the beginning of the book she introduces her best friend and her name is Elowyn Eden. She goes on to talk about how they met, how close they were and the key events leading up to a devastating event that killed Elowyn. Kassey was already devastated about her death until she found out that Elowyn had checked a box on her license saying to be an organ donor.

“Elowyn Eden and I became best friends. We met the summer before we were going into seventh grade…” (p.3)

“Her name was Elowyn Eden. She was my best friend. She died when she was 16 years old.” (p.47)

These 2 lines stood out to me as I read the book because the first line started the book and the second ended the first part of the book. It was like (metaphorically) a close and end to a friendship and life. This made me think to myself how to appreciate my friends more because one day they might be there for you all happy and the next day they might be gone.

The other character was introduced in the second part of the book and her name was Arabeth. She was a girl that had lost her father to a war in Afghanistan and has a sick heart and needed a heart transplant. She didn’t have friends because she had to move a lot since her father was a Sargent, but after his death her heart got worst and couldn’t go outside much or to school. There was a false alarm before (when the heart wasn’t a match), but now there was a heart that was a match to her.

“My nail beds were bright pink, not blue as they had been for years. Tears welled up. The new heart was pumping blood to my fingertips, to every cell in my body. I was alive.” (p.55)

This line from the book described how grateful she was after the heart transplant. The part where she said she felt alive was the word that stood out to me because it’s like saying before she felt as if she was dead or had no freedom, now  she can do things like she could do before her heart got sick.

Across the Universe: why all the lies?

            In the book Across the Universe by Beth Revis (that I read over the winter break) I really liked the book because it had lots of compelling moments, but also sweet and funny moments. This book takes placed on earth briefly, then a ship that’s in space traveling to another planet where is supposed to be their new home. Also the original leaders of the ship froze intelligent and well worthy people and their family to go to the new planet and run it when they get there. The book has 2 main characters that switch back and forth telling each chapter from their point of view, Amy(one of the frozen people, but was unfrozen before landing) and Eldest(next leader of the ship). Throughout this book I always thought to myself why all the lies? Throughout the book I found clues to help me answer this lingering question.

“I will never, never be the same. I have seen stars. Real stars.” (pg.140)

This quote from the book was an example of one of the lies told on the ship showed me without actually telling me that the “stars” on the roof of the keeper level is fake because elder when saying this was on the ship’s lowest level. The way he described the stars on the keeper level roof in the beginning of the book verses the way he described it after and how he added the quote showed me that he was at awe and knew that the stars at keeper level wasn’t real stars.

“The plague was not a plague. It was what happened when the leader of the ship told the people the truth how long it would take to land the ship. When they learned that they would never see planet-landing, that their children and their grandchildren would not see it, that there chance of them to see it... the ship itself almost died” (pg.335)

            This quote from the book showed what happened when the truth of the lie that they would land very soon ended up to be we aren’t going to land for a long time (250 behind schedule because of engine is getting slower). Now I kind of understand why the future leaders after this incident happened had to make up these lies it wasn’t for them it was for everyone’s safety and well-being.

            The end of the book I understood why people (the leaders) had to lie and I got to figure out using what I found in the book to help me figure out the answer to my question that I thought about throughout the book. Why all the lies?       Answered.