Emotional Reflector- Holly Fischer

The emotions at the end of the book are directed towards the future and how Ellen and Anna will cope with the accident. Ellen seems over it, however, Anna isn't, although it probably has something to do with her brother. On page 229, "You're just scared of everything." This quote is what Ellen says to Anna when Anna confronts her about her drinking problem. The girls are the best of friends, however, they handle their feelings very differently. On page 231, Anna and Jack attend a New Years Party. "His arms are crossed over his gut, and his head is slumped over his arms, and he's bawling." Anna says this about her older brother because he gets really drunk at the party. This shows just how much Jack has been hiding his emotions because they all come rushing out when he gets drunk. In therapy the next day, Anna is upset with the fact that she can be happy with Seth and Jack can never be happy with Cameron again. I can somehow understand what Anna is feeling, it must be hard to go through something like that, but I'm sure that Jack would want her to be happy. In the end, Anna explains how the ending isn't exactly a happy one, but she's coping with the loss as best as she can, and hopefully one day she'll be able to confidently say that Cameron's death wasn't her fault. All in all, Jack is the one I feel for the most. Anna explains how she hears him crying at night sometimes, and that honestly breaks my heart to think about. It's sad how Anna took Cameron away from him, but hopefull that won't effect their relationship in the future.

Quote Illuminator - Devon Blog #6

1. "No boys in your room. Period." "You let Cameron in Jack's room," Pg. 210


This quote is important because it shows how differently Anna's dad treats Anna compared to Jack. It shows how Jack is allowed to do things Anna can't just because Jack is a boy.  


2. "I'm getting a dozen roses on the first of each month for the next year," Pg. 226


This quote is important because it shows how the relationship between Seth and Anna is progressing. Seth is a very important part in Anna's life because he helps her focus on something else other than the accident. Also, he is there to support Anna when she needs it the most.


3. "At first when she got the short cast off, she walked sort of funny. Tippy-toed. She couldn't get her heel flat on the ground. But now she's moving pretty smoothly." Pg. 241


This quote is important to the book because it shows the healing of Ellen's leg, as a metaphor to the healing of the accident. This quote shows how healing takes a lot of time, but in the end it will get better.


4. "But you do handle it. Because the thing you learn is that you can." Pg. 247


This quote is important because it shows Anna's overall growth after the accident. It shows how she learned that she must handle the situation to be able to recover from it. This shows how she is now accepting the accident in a positive way.  

Characterization reflector- Rebecca

As we already know a few main characters in the novel are Anna, Jack and Ellen. To start with Anna is the main character because she had gotten into an accident and killed her brother's girlfriend Cameron. After the accident she was extremely sad, who wouldn't be though after an accident? She is always blaming herself for the horrific events that night. Anna knows and feels the negative engery between her and her brother although he's told her not to blame herself for the accident, she can't help but do just that. Jack is another main character because he recently lost his girlfriend in a car accident, which happened to be drove by his sister Anna. Knowing that Anna is constantly blaming everything on herself he trys to comfort her and tell her on page 139, "You didn't kill Cameron." In hopes to possibly relieve Annas worries about the sitution. Although not succeeding in having her stop blaming herself. The next character that is important to the book, Ellen. Shes Anna's best friend who was there the night of the accident as well. Ellen is a person that will tell you how it is, she is very honest and will come to you when something is wrong. She was the one who told Anna that something is actually wrong with her when the rest of her family said she was completely fine.

Emotional Reflector - Devon Blog #5

The emotions present in last nights reading were love, strength, and fear. Strength is shown when Anna is at her therapist's house. Anna is no longer feeling as stressed out about the accident. On page 207, she tells her therapist "But it's not as bad as when we started.". This shows how much she is moving on from the accident because she's able to understand whats going on now. You also see fear on page 223 when Anna says "She's drunk a lot when we talk." This shows how Anna is fearing for Ellen because she's drinking a lot since she's been upset. She's afraid something might happen to her friend. You also see love through out the reading between Anna and Seth, and how she's actually falling for him but she's scared of him dying. Anna doesn't believe she should be happy when Jack can't be happy.

Quote Illuminator- Holly Fischer

1. "The driving was fine. I can't wait to tell Frances." p. 196

This quote shows that Anna is slowly recovering from the accident, and she's finally started driving again. I feel that a lot of her strength has come from going to therapy, and it's great that she's accepting that fact that she didn't kill Cameron, and that it wasn't her fault. The more I read this book, the more confidence I have that Anna will recover fully from the accident over time.

2. "And I'm thinking about how it's over, only it's not over. The screaming is over, and Cameron's life is over, and the beginning of my life is over, along with Jack's and Ellen's and Cameron's little brother's.." p. 206

This quote is during one of the Anna's flashbacks she has from the accident. I feel that this is important beacuse even though Anna is recovering from the accident and getting better everyday, she's still guilty about what happened and the accident will forever effect her life. This quote is also important beacuse I wonder how Jack and Cameron's little brother ar dealing with the death of someone very important to them.

3. "If I'd done what my dad told me to do, we'd have gotten to the party later and probably left later or earlier, and we wouldn't have been passing by Cameron on the road right at that second, and she could have swerved and been fine." p. 203

This is a piece of dialog from the book that Anna said and I think it holds great importance because he therapist didn't have an answer for her. By this quote, I can some what understand how this whole is probably eating Anna up inside. I also think this is a good quote because it represents the theme of the book because this is how Anna is dealing with this tragedy.

4. "We've ended like this before. I like it. The smell of coconut. The warmth of dazzling blue." p. 207

This quote was said by Anna at the end of a session with her therapist, and it's important beacuse it shows how peaceful she has become. Before she saw a therapist, she was a wreck and always having panic attacks and getting detailed flashbacks from the accident that weren't very pleasent. This quote shows Anna's recovering and it shows that maybe she'll be able to put this all behind her one day.

Characterization Reflector - Holly Fischer

Anna- Anna is the main character of the book, who recently got into a car accident that killed her brothers girlfriend and injured her best friend Ellen. Anna feels very guilty for her brothers girlfriend's death, however, the accident was not her fault at all. Anna feels a tension between her brother and her and she doesn't know exactly how to talk to him or how to handle the situation at all. For example, on page 139, Jack says to Anna: "You didn't kill Cameron." This shows that Anna shouldn't beat herself up about her death because there was nothing she could do about it. Overall, Anna is doing the best she can to cope with the hardships that have come her way, but it's a long road of recovery for her.

Jack- Jack is Anna's brother and he is a very important part of this book. He just recently lost his girlfriend in a car accident, and it just so happens that his sister was in the other car, and survived. Jack is doing the best he can to be calm about this situation for his sister because he knows how hard it must be for her to handle all this. For example, on page 162, Cameron is brought up in a conversation between Anna and Jack. The conversation consists of what Cameron planned to do with her future. Anna doesn't like talking about Cameron to Jack but she tries her best to be strong for her brother. Jack ends up getting choked up and telling Anna to leave the room, so she can't see him cry for the girlfriend that she took away from him. Overall, the accident has effected Jack the most and I think it will take him the longest to fully recover from it.

Theme Reflector - Devon Blog #4

The theme of the novel is reflected in a negative and a positive way throughout chapters 19-23. On page 162, Jack and Anna are talking about Cameron, and Jack says "She thought it would be cool to just... you know...live for a year." After Jack notices what he says, his mood completely changes and he doesn't want to be around Anna anymore. This showed how even though it's been a while, when he tries to talk about Cameron with Anna he can't help getting mad at her and blame her for the accident. Jack knows it wasn't Anna's fault, but Cameron was his first girlfriend, and her death messes with his emotions so much he can't help but blame Anna because she's alive, but Cameron isn't. The theme however, is shown positively on page 183, when Anna says "Maybe it's more like 'I can be okay driving.'". This shows how Anna is slowly moving on from the accident. At first, Anna wasn't able to drive because she felt guilty and out of control, but ever since talking with her therapist, she has been gradually getting better. Anna finally being able to drive again shows great improvement with her understanding that the accident wasn't her fault, because she wasn't able to control the fact that there was a tree branch in the road. The theme is also being expressed through Ellen on page 185, when Anna describes "She's holding a plastic razor in one hand and shaving cream in the other, and the tub is running, and she's crying." This quote shows the theme because it shows how the accident effected Ellen, even though she seemed okay at first. It shows how she's been holding her feelings inside, but once one little thing upsets her, she lets it all out. She's upset because of how her leg looks out of the cast, because she sees the real damage that happened to her after the accident. However, the theme is shown negatively on page 199 when Anna says "If you haven't killed anybody, you might think there's nothing worse than shaking and vomiting uncontrollably on the floor of the hall of the SAT building..." Anna had a panic attack, because some girl kept screaming, and then finally stops. This shows how, although Anna got over not being able to drive, the screaming then stop reminds her of the accident again, and makes her upset all over again.