As of lately, I have been missing realistic fiction books so I read the two written above. Although about different topics, they both follow a standard train if realistic fiction books. Someone has in issue, meets someone, falls in love, has more issues, overcomes them… quite standard. But each book made me think about something deeper.
Reality boy made me think about grudges. The main character finds himself being haunted by the happenings of the past and the fact that no one can see him for anything other than the person they saw on TV. That made me think about when one incident tarnishes a relationship you have with someone or something you hold against them even if things have changed. Personally, I don’t try to hold grudges and although I cannot fight for long, I find myself reverting back to my own thinking on people. I don’t know whether that is because as human beings we tend to hold onto the important memories, even if they are bad or whether it is a part of me that react emotionally when I see them, leading me to think about an incident that stands out to me. Reality boy also features another trying to compensate for the one thing she never had which makes me think about why, for a species that is so progressive, do we hold onto the one thing we can never change.
Starfish on the other hand looked at secrets in relationships. I’ve always been a direct person and I believe that if you are not willing to fight with someone to resolve something then the relationship is not that important. Sometimes holding things in causes them to come back out later, again begging the question as to why we carry our past with us everywhere. Sometimes we let past relationships ruin future ones. When something is buried, like a secret, it comes back later in a way that is unfixable, it makes a lot more sense to deliver the bad news in a situation where you have the control as to how it comes out. Starfish also made me think about the fact that people will always surprise you. Whatever preconceived notion you have is always going to be disproved, it is just unpredictable sometimes. The main character discovers an artist who helped guide her work, to me that artist really symbolised a figure in life that comes out of the blue but for a short period of time really helps to carry your burden, and I believe we find many such figures in our life.
Although being quite cliche realistic fiction books, they helped me draw out bigger themes from within them.