Solitary: Escape from Furnace 8/23/15 (Summer Reading Blog #4)

Solitary: Escape from Furnace
Author: Alexander Gordon Smith
Pages: 112 - 225 (End)
Prompt: What do you like about what you are reading?

Very minor spoiler! (3rd paragraph)

        There are two big things that I love about this book that make it better. One of those is the authors descriptiveness and his way of describing things. The second is Alex's mindset in Furnace. There are other things that I like about the book like the plot line, character development, and setting, but I'm only going to focus on the first two.

        Something that I love about the author's descriptiveness is how he describes colors. He said the prison had crimson red lights and he also said that the "rats" had charcoal-gray veins. He could have said the red light and gray veins, but he went for a more specific shade, which I love. I love it because it helps me visualize the setting and characters better. I also love that the author uses similes to describe the characters and setting. For instance, he described a rat saying, "His torso looked like a rag doll that had been overstuffed..." which gave me a disturbing visualization, but I believe that was his intention and it worked. He would also describe Alex's pain while running by saying, "...it felt like my lungs were on fire."

        I find Alex's mindset very impressive and interesting. Ever since Alex entered Furnace he has only thought about escape. In the first book if he wasn't thinking about surviving, then he was thinking about escaping. When he was thrown into solitary the first thing he looked for was a way to escape. For instance, he ripped a vent in the corner of the cell out of the ground to see if he can escape through there. It took him hours to take it off, but he still tried, which I find very impressive that he wants to escape that bad.