Monday, May 23, 2011

Beverly Gray Sophomore book 2 review

The start to book 2 was a lot different from book 1. There was an assumption that you knew the characters from book 1 and if not the main characters were quickly introduced in a chapter and the book continued straight into the start of a mystery for Beverly to solve. The mystery itself however unravels slowly as it is broken up by college events such as a dance.

The Holidays in this book were well handled as the Alfa Deltas got to spend their holidays together in New York and Beverly got to solve a quick mini mystery. This was a great way to keep us engaged with the main characters rather than separate them for the break. It's interesting that author Clair Blank didn't attempt to skip over the holiday breaks at school but instead incorporated them into the story.

I'm realizing that even though Rosalie is one of the main friends in those book I don't know anything about her, Lois was the same until the last few chapters of this book.
.Lenora they also haven't spent a lot of time with her details either but she does have a distinct personality that shines through. She says things directly, acts fearlessly, quick witted, loves food, loves sodas, including choc sodas. Weller's the local soda store is mentioned a bit as the girls hang out there. Lois also before the last few chapters of this book seemed to lack a distinct personality but it seemed to develop rapidly once she engaged in a friendly war of words with Lenora.

The part whet Beverly is trapped and decides to play solitaire instead of looking for the escape latch seemed so wrong, especially since someone there was a murderer and she had been threatened that day my a man with a knife, and I wouldn't of thought Beverly would give up looking so easily.
For the nostalgic Disney fans when the girls decide to go to a matinee movie to cheer Shirley up Lenora states: " you must come, I shan't
enjoy Mickey Mouse if you don't"
There are three mysteries in this book, the first of the haunted house, complete with dancing skeletons and the second the stolen diamond and third The stolen exam papers.

Although Shirley gave up a possible career as an actress to continue studying at Vernon she didn't get to hone her craft at all this term ( where was Hamlet that Lenora promised to put on with Shirley playing Hamlet? ) It seemed to take Shirley even most of the year to realize that she hadn't worked further on her acting.
Overall more of a mystery book than the first even if it was a very classic theme of the haunted house mystery. More character devopment and more importantly more development in how the characters intact with each other which is probably what makes Beverly Gray books so great.

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