Rating:
5 out of 5
Warning:
The following review has some spoilers.
Synopsis:
The story is about a seventeen-year-old
girl named Emma who has epilepsy. In the beginning of the book, Emma wants to
be like a normal girl. She wants to be able to have a boyfriend, play soccer,
get her license, and be like everyone else, but her epilepsy condition hinders
her in gaining these things that she wants. Even with her family’s support: her
mother, younger sister, and grandpa (Papi), she finds her condition hard to
deal with. In the beginning of the book, Emma tells her audience that she had
not had an epileptic seizure for the longest time and was excited about getting
her license, but all that changes when one of teammates causes her to go
through epileptic shock. Emma gets mad at her teammate because that teammate
would be the reason why Emma would have to wait a longer time limit to get her
license. With her anger, she punches her teammate in the nose, causing it to
break. After she does this, Emma takes her mother’s car and runs away. While
driving, Emma eventually ends up in a ditch. With it being night and not being
able to drive the car, Emma begins to look around the area. She ends up at a
house and hears someone talking. The man eventually attacks her but she fights
back. The man then starts to bite at her leg and she goes into an epileptic
seizure.
The next
portion of the monograph is about finding out who or what Emma is after she was
bitten. Some of things she tries to discover are her new talents and what makes
her different than ordinary vampires. She also finds out that there are several
vampires out in the world: both evil and some who are just trying to get by.
Emma discovers that she is not like other vampires because she able to walk
into sunlight and not have to worry about drinking blood. She finds a couple of
friends, human and vampire, who help her discover who she really is and how to
fight the monster that is looking for her. That monster is Wirtz, the vampire
who bit her and who is looking for her since she is not answering his “call” to
go to him. He is very envious of her because she can walk in the sunlight.
By the
end of the book, which I do not want to give away, Emma has to discover what
she needs to do to fight Wirtz and save not only herself but her friends and
family. Also, in the end, there are some pretty great fight scenes and a lot of
drama that will make you want to read more.
Review: First
of all, I just want to say that Throat probably
has to be one of my favorite books that I have ever read. It has a great story line and was pretty hard
to put down. Nelson is able to bring in some typical vampire lore (like staying
out of daylight – no sparkly vampires), but he is also able to bring in his own
lore which makes the book fantastic. He does this by providing his reader with
new ideas like how vampires are connected with one another.
Secondly,
Nelson was able to portray Emma as an individual! She is her own person and did
not fall into the hands of a man. He made Emma very independent and strong but
also caring. Emma knew what she needed to do and stuck with it even if it hurt
someone’s feelings. She did this to protect the people she loved and to make
them safe. Also, even though Emma finds
a love interest with Sagan, Nelson doesn’t make the book all about that
relationship. Yeah there are some “I love you” scenes but its no Twilight, which makes the book different
and one of a kind. Emma may love Sagan, but she is a fighter. She was willing
to do whatever to survive and did not just let love get in the way. Again, this
is not a typical vampire “love story,” and for that reason I would consider
this book different.
Moreover,
the author is able to provide his readers with a very interesting story. Emma
is half-vampire and half-human. I have never read a story like this one and
that is what made it unique. She has the power of a vampire but can live life
like any other human. What I think is neat is that the condition of her
epilepsy, which was a hindrance to her in the beginning, turned out to be what
saved her from becoming a true vampire. I enjoyed this approach and it made me
want to continue reading.
Furthermore,
I loved how Nelson used intellectual knowledge throughout his text. He used
philosophy, foreign languages, history, psychology, astronomy, biology, and
etc. to bring his text together.
Throughout the monograph, I was just not reading a “typical” book. I was
learning from the text. I was able to improve my German, learned a lot about
the sun that I did not already know, learned some technical terms about epilepsy,
and Nelson provided many historical events in history that I have never heard
of that have actually taken place. For example, before I read this book I never
heard about the Carrington Event, a solar storm that took place in 1859. I was intrigued
about the event when reading about it in the book, so I decided to look it up
and see what happened. Usually fiction novels are all about making history up but
Nelson used actual history in his storyline (WELL DONE!).
In the
end, I enjoyed reading this book. It was hard to put down and a great read. I
am hoping that there will be a sequel to Throat
because I feel like there is so much to learn, it would make a great story, and
I sense as if there is already a potential bad guy. So everyone get out there and read this book,
you will not be disappointed.
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