The Body of Christopher Creed
Carol Plum-Ucci
The Body of Christopher Creed tells the story of a teenage boy named Christopher Creed whom is seen as an odd personal in general among the student body. One day Creed goes missing leaving nothing but a letter he wrote to the school principle. Torey Adams, the narrator of the story is one of the primary characters that reflects back on how strange his Junior year of high school was. He now is going into his Senior year of high school at a boarding school that goes by the name Rothborne. When Torey thinks back on how strange his Senior year really was, he remembers one of his classmates; Christopher Creed. The whole reason why Torey became involved in the whole disappearance of Creed was due to Torey's name being mentioned in the letter Creed wrote and left for the principle to see.
Throughout this book it's very interesting to find that many of the characters that get involved have either had a history with Creed and or knew him when they all grew up together. I would say that this book would fall under the category of being a mystery novel because there are key details that the reader must pay attention to in order to put all the pieces together at the end of the book.
When reading this book I was able to see that the author's sense of tone fluctuated many times throughout each chapter however ultimately the author wrote in a style that kept the reader on the edge of their seat dying to know what happens next in this exciting novel. Besides mystery, the tone also had many elements of surprise along with a serious side to it as well.
Some literary elements that were able to be spotted was the sense of imagery, personification, foreshadowing and of course primary sources that led the reader to see through each characters eyes as to what they were truly seeing,feeling and hearing at the time. 2 examples of direct characterization that were demonstrated in this book were when the author is describing Torey's physical traits to the reader through the visual sense of language. The next example of direct characterization came along later in the book when the author was describing Creed's family dynamics and how controlling his mother was of him; almost babying him in a way.
Indirect characterization came through when a new character named Ali was introduced by the way she thought, looked and acted. Ali was almost seen as a "promiscuous" kind of girl because of her background and what not. The way the author described this was through the way she talked about how some of the clothes Ali wore were revealing and what not. Another example would be when the author is describing Ali's boyfriend named Bo. Bo was a character that was almost seen as a "bad boy" in the sense that he wore cut off shirts, army looking boots and he would always carry a knife with him no matter where he went.
The lasting impression that gets left on the reader within the dynamics of these characters is that each character is unique and able to be seen through different perceptions that come up while reading this book. Some characters you want to cite more with than others because the drive behind each characters actions differ thus influencing how they are seen and what not.
The protagonist in this story would be Torey and I would say that overall he would fall under the category of being a dynamic character because at first he didn't care to much about the disappearance of Creed however as time goes by, he felt that it was his duty to try and put the missing pieces together as to why Creed wanted to disappear off the face of the earth. Because Torey's name was mentioned in the letter, he felt that if he had not gone through with the action of investigating then he would be held responsible for the disappearance of Creed not by law but emotionally wise.
After reading this book, I would say that instead of meeting a person I felt that I more so read someone's imagination of a character they created which that's exactly what this story was. The character elements were traits that I have seen in real people however none that I have ever hung around before thus making my final decision fall under that these vast amount of characters were all different in their own ways.
If I had to recommend a book to someone it definitely would be The Body of Christopher Creed because everything within and about this plot seems very interesting and had me on the edge of my seat numerous times per chapter. This author has a style that connects the reader with the story in a very strong way, I really couldn't put this book down once I started reading it in all honesty!
