Evaluation of the Novel

Eval...
I thought the book was ok. It wasn’t that interesting, but I had to read it. If I didn’t have to read it probably wouldn’t have even picked it up from the shelf because the cover is really boring, the title is boring, and the summary on the back of the book doesn’t make the book sound that interesting. Now that I’ve read it I wish I could have told myself to just finish the book as fast as possible because then it would have been over.
I still can’t get over the fact that Crutcher talks about himself in the book and that he advertises for another one of his books in The Sledding Hill. He has a chapter called, “Something About The Author.” He does talk about himself not that flattering, but still it’s annoying to read about an author who inserts himself into his book. Seriously, what kind of an author does that? When you read about stuff like that what does that make you think of the author? To me it makes me think that he’s really self-centered and then why would I want to read any of his other books because they’ll probably be the same. Also, he keeps talking about his other book, Warren Peece. At first it was ok to hear about the book, but after hearing about for the millionth time that the main character is gay, a minor character gets an abortion, and that there’s a large number of swearing in book it got irritating. Now that I basically know everything about that book it makes me want to read less than if I had just randomly picked it up from the shelf.
The book had me interested in the first chapter when Billy was talking about him and Eddie. I liked reading about that and I liked the suspension when the sheetrock fell on Billy. After I read that I thought that Billy was going to be in the hospital and be fighting for his life. I thought that Eddie was going to be trying to get on without Billy while he was in a coma or something like that and in the end I thought that Billy was going to get better. Instead though, Billy dies right after the first chapter and after that I really didn’t want to read what was going to happen. I didn’t like how Billy talked to Eddie in his dreams at a sledding hill. I wish that Billy could have just shown himself to Eddie when he wanted to. In the end too I didn’t like how Montana just goes ahead and tells her whole community that she cuts herself and is also bulimic. I don’t think that any kid, to matter how outcast they are, would tell their whole community. It just bothered me how that probably wouldn’t have happened. I don’t know that for sure, but from my experience it just wasn’t that believable.
Ok, this wasn’t the worst book I’ve read, but I wouldn’t say it’s anywhere near the top of my favorites list. I would just like to say that you shouldn’t waste your time reading this unless you have to for school.

Six+1 Traits of Writing:
Best Trait=Individual Voice: "'What's he [Crutcher] like? I mean what would he think about all this?'
'He'd love it. It happens a lot, and even though he's an old guy, he's kind of arrested in his tennage years. Likes a good fight. He was a lot like you in school; had a hard time paying attention and was in trouble a lot for opening his mouth without raising his hand or thinking. He isn't as smart as you are, and not as spiritual. He could never connect to me like this, but he could connect to you. Takes him forever to write a book because every thought leads to a whole bunch of other thoughts that have nothing to do with the story he's telling. But he finally gets them out there,'" (Crutcher, 157-158).
As you can see Crutcher is talking about himself so you can see the personal voice. In this book you can read about his views about many topics and you can tell that he writes what he feels and what his opinions are.

Worst Trait=Presentation: I don't think Crutcher did a great job with his presentation. I didn't really like the cover of the book. What's the point of the sledding hill? They only meet on the sledding hill once. I don't think the picture is very interesting, it's really boring. The title at least goes with the picture, but still they both don't really make sense.