The Red Pyramid
While reading today, I was able to visualize Carter’s and Saddie’s surprise as they were left alone in their uncle’s mansion while he went to another dimension searching for their enemy and give them proper training. As they were searching in the library for something that would provide them with more information about their past and their newly acquired powers, they heard their uncle’s crocodile “Philip of Macedonia” fighting against someone. They rushed downstairs and found out that what their uncle’s crocodile was fighting were not people but instead serpopards . After sending the crocodile flying in the air, the serpopards attacked the shield that protected their house. Using spells, they broke the protective shield and entered the house. Saddie ordered her cat to protect them. Since the cat was under a spell (in which it’s main task was to protect Saddie) she immediately changed into human form and attacked the serpopards destroying them. Since they were afraid that other creatures would invade the house both of them ran out of the door together with Bast , directely into central park. There they met a cat that was missing an ear and had many scratches. They asked the goddess why didn’t she cure him and she responded that she couldn’t take away the cat’s battle marks because cats were very proud of them. This was the part I visualized best because the choice of words the author used were very descriptive and made the reader want to know more about what would happen to the main characters. While reading this today I was reminded of the book “Prey” given that Jack the protagonist had to run away from the killer swarm.
Therefore, I can connect most with Carter since he is shy and always does what is required of him. But, his uncle, strictly forbid him and his sister (Saddie) from going to the library. But instead of obeying the rules like Carter wanted, his sister influenced him into going there. In this case I would not be able to connect with Carter since I am not easily influenced by others. But independent of that I would love to have Carter as a friend. We share the same beliefs; therefore it would be easy for us to understand each other and to connect with each other’s life.
If I could jump in the book right now I would help Carter, Saddie and Bast escape Sequet . I would tell them that they should not quit on finding their father. Since I cannot go into the book and change anything, I have to be happy with predicting what will happen. I think that Bast will die protecting Saddie and Carter but that they will be caught before they can escape the vengeance of Sequet.
I cannot connect my life experience with anything that the characters have done. Since I have not experienced the death of either of my parents, I have not been kept away from my brother my whole life, I do not own a cat and do not intend to own one anytime soon and I have never gone from country to country travelling because of my father’s work. Also, being Portuguese and from the 21st century is hard to make connections with ancient beliefs of ancient Egypt. There are certain names of gods that are really important for us to understand some of the background information and if not researched those names can be very confusing.
To make the story more interesting, the author has used some of the literary features:
• Imagery
• Similes
• Metaphor
• Colloquial Language
• Motif
This makes the story credible but not entirely realistic. After scientific study proving that magic and multiple dimensions do not exist it is hard to trust the information in the book as truth even though the overall concept is very attention-grabbing.
If I had to analyze this book I would say that it is very appealing and that everyone who likes fiction books should read it. But I would also say that there is some information that the reader will find hard to connect with. But overall it is an excellent book!
