Assignment #6 And The Shadows Took Him

First let me start off by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed this piece by Daniel Chacon. It was one of few books that I could not put down whether it was during break at work, at night before bed or even in the morning before work, If I didn’t have something to do, this book was in my hand. I believe that it wasn’t just the exemplary story line of the book that kept me wanting more, but mostly the way the book was wrote was the reason for my addiction. The first thing that I noticed that was helping me focus on the book more was the lack of a dominant character or continual perspective in the beginning of the book. I think it is smart that Chacon did this for it helps you fairly focus on all characters during this introductory stage. Due to the fact that I didn’t know who the main character was, I was able to treat all characters with the same importance, for I do usually focus more on the main character and less on the other characters when it comes to retaining details. Another aspect of Chacon’s writing style that I liked was the way he structured his paragraphs. Most books I am used to reading follow a stricter timeline and somewhat of a boring repetitive continuation of the book. With Chacon’s novel he seemed to always have me constantly thinking of many outcomes of many situations at the same time, desperate to keep reading and find the answers to those questions. He would finish many of his paragraphs or chapters leaving you with questions or without an ending for an incident. Though he would always return to that topic later in the book and tie up the loose knots, it was the wait in-between where I often believed that Chacon had forgot about it, that made for good reading. Chacon has a great ability to force you to use your imagination and think outside of the book, not just at what you are reading, and that is, in my opinion, the reason why this book was so great. For example Chacon often gave premonitions or hints from the future that would force you to think what would happen to cause that outcome given. A good example of these premonitions is at the end of the book when he is walking home, right before he destroys the head. Ronny Morris his neighbor sees Joey waking home and we find out that Ronny Morris will speak of that night in court when Joey’s father is on trial for the rape of Amy and the attempted murder of Joey. This one statement acts as a catalyst for our mind, helping create many different scenarios and predictions as to why Joey’s father tries to murder him. As far as the ending of the story goes, though it would have been nice to know exactly what happened with everything, I believe it is better off untold. The ending plays into the whole, using of the imagination, which Chacon used throughout the whole story. It forces you to think beyond what you read and try to come to your own conclusion with the information that you have gathered.