Review of "Decoded" by Jay-Z

When I read Decoded, I was amazed at the pain and struggle that Jay-Z went through in his road to success. Jay-Z lived a poor life, he sold drugs for money just to get by, he was in constant danger of violence for as much as being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Jay-Z is really inspiring, because he started in what seemed like a hopeless life, and found a talent that he could use to become successful without hurting anyone or doing something against the law. He also had to refine this talent, write down some songs, make some calls to recording companies, before he was successful, and had to keep up with his life during all this time.

I think it's a big self realization for Jay-Z to write about hist time selling drugs because it's something that he knows was illegal. He admits to the world that he was doing something wrong, because he felt it was the best way for him to earn money just to eat dinner everyday. He's sending a message to the world that there are people who have to do things they aren't proud of, even in wealthy countries like America. I think Jay-Z is trying to tell the world that something needs to be done about this because it's not going to stop without lots of enforcement and new opportunities to make money.

The other message that Jay-Z is sending is that even when it seems like there's no hope, you can search yourself and find something worth living for. Jay-Z had no hope in life but when he realized that he could rhyme, and that he had a voice, he became so self aware and determined that he was able to rise to become a legend.

Jay-Z's story is an inspiring journey from hopelessness to fame and confidence, and a message that sometimes doing the wrong thing is the only answer, which shouldn't be the case. People who have to go through tough times like Jay-Z did should know that there is a hope, that you have to search yourself for why you are great, because there is talent in everyone.

Character Developments in The Knife of Never Letting Go.

In the book, The Knife if Never Letting Go, the characters Todd and Viola are devoloping as they are faced with an unexpected adventure. When Todd first found Viola, she was scared and depressed because of her crash in this unexpected land and her parents' death. Now that shto knows that she can trust Todd, she is speaking to him and has expressed that even though she
doesn't have noise, she can still hear Todd's noise. 

Viola told Todd that she could hear all the mean and ungrateful things he thought about her. She had gone through losing her parents and they had saved each other's lives. This would seem like something that would bond them, but since Todd is being so antisocial (which I think is because he is scared and taking it out on her) and he was scared that he might give her "The germ". 


I really like this book and I'm sure the characters will continue to develop. They've already shown a lot of change and I'm interested in what will change and when.

More about The House of the Scorpion

In my last post about this book I wrote that the original Matteo Alacran was just making a clone of himself out of spite, but recently in the book I read that he just made the clone so that he could take it's organs for transplants when he was close to dying. When I read this and that he had done this before to other clones, given them the impression that they were actually loved, I was really appalled. It is sad that someone would make a clone of them self just to harvest its body and live longer. He says the reason for doing this was because all his seven siblings died when he was young and el patron thinks he deserves to live their lives by doing this.

I think that a reason he's doing this that he couldn't say was that he was scared of dying, because he had so much in his life that would fall to ruins without him. His family would let the farm fall to ruins because they would be clueless as to how to run it. El patron knew that his last days would be the last days of the empire he spent his life building. I think that he wanted to extend his life because he wanted to spend every last second that he could creating a perfect world, even if that meant cheating death and harvesting a person who's only purpose was to die for him.

The house of the Scorpion

This book has some really strong plot action going on, but in this blog post I'm writing about the inner feelings of the main character, Matt. Matt is a clone of the lord of an opium farm. The farm usually makes clones with no brain for field work, but Matteo Alacran, the original Matt, wanted to make a copy of himself in his old years. Matt is just starting to learn what he is and dealing with the fact that he's different from people. And he's going through this at about 9 years old.

Matt is going through a lot of emotions. He's sad that he's not normal, mad that people hate him for being a fake human, and scared of what's going to happen to him as he gets older. Even though it's very in the moment and  about what Matt is figuring out about the world while he's young, I think it's sort of a coming of age story. He's being exposed to a world he never knew all at once, a world full cruelty and love, and he is maturing in a way. This is a strong story and I like it a lot so far, even though I've just started reading it.