 |
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Blog Entries
|
 My Opinion on The Terrible Wave The Terrible Wave, by Marden Dahlstedt, is a story about a 15 year old who has to endure the effect of the ghastly Johnstown Flood by working with complete strangers. This is a marvelous book. The author uses her remarkable description to make the reader feel as if he or she is actually at the scene being described in the book. Dahlstedt uses description from all the senses. Here is one example of Marden Dahlstedt’s fabulous description in the category of sight, “At first all she could see was a sinister black mist. It rolled toward the house like billowing smoke.” This is a quote that describes the wave as it rolls toward the Maxwell’s house. Megan Maxwell was one of the first to see the wave coming. I can imagine how horrible it would be to see the sinister wave. I also like this passage, “Now she could see, filtered through the fog, even at that distance, huge tongues of flames eating at the sky.” This describes the fire on the Cambria Bridge after a lot of piled up debris burned. This is a very unique phrasing. Another passage I really enjoyed describes how Megan feels, “ Megan felt herself being pushed as if by a mighty hand, through the jagged crack between darkness and light.” This passage interests me because of the part about the mighty hand. I can imagine how Megan would feel. A hand pushing against anyone would be terribly frightening. Another passage I liked was, “With a sickening thud, she landed, sprawling on something horribly squashy.” This is a description of the mattress on which Megan landed. The mattress was not sturdy. Megan must have been incredibly scared to know that the thing supporting her could sink at any moment. Dahlstedt also mixes some scary noises into The Terrible Wave. Megan hears a din that sounds unhumanly. “ . . . Cracking, grinding, roaring, together with the dreadful sucking, sloshing noise of the dark sea which surrounded her.” That would scare anyone. Another passage that includes extraordinary writing style describes Stefan who can’t or won’t speak, “The child did not speak. Not the slightest flicker of expression crossed his face.” I find this even more frightening than hearing racking and grinding. The boy seems to not notice anything, and that would be scary. The boy, Stefan, seems not to be disturbed by anything. Marden Dahlstedt is a very talented author. Her magnificent description causes the reader to gain more interest in every chapter. She uses all the senses to convey what the main character Megan is actually feeling. The Terrible Wave by Marden Dahlstedt is a phenomenal book. Article posted January 26, 2012 at 12:25 PM • comment (1) • Reads 606 • see all articles |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||