Slave Day

Rating:
Summary: Don't Bother
Review: I Have read two books by Rob Thomas, "Rats Saw God" and "Slave Day". Because I Read the former of the two books, "Rats Saw God" first, I assumed that Thomas was a fairly good novelist. NOT SO!! Slave Day follows the lives of several different high school students and one high school teacher over the course of one day. The book piles too many subplots into too little a writting space. In one plot, a supposed "rebel" deals with an evil teacher. In another, a nerd does all he can to impress the "hottie" of the school. The book's content was very depressing, and the ending was FAR TO ABRUPT. When rating this item, I seriously considered giving it a "3" because it does have its good points. Unfortunatley, the good points do not outshine its bad points.

Rating:
Summary: A real look into the dynamics of high school life
Review: I highly reccommend this book, it's a true to life, in depth look at what high school life is like in Generictown, USA. It allows you to take a step back and look at what is happening around us everyday.

Rating:
Summary: I love the way he writes as if he was a teen.
Review: I like the way he used time. Time is very important to a person in high school. ( He was a teacher so he should know.) You always have to have something done by a particular time and so forth. All of our classes are the same way. Thomas also , in my opinion, does a terrific job portraying different students. He doesn't make them sound or act alike. To me, that is real life. No two people do the same thing all of the time. I also thought that this book was very easy to read.

Rating:
Summary: Definitley read it!
Review: I picked this book up at the school library because I hadnothing else to read. I ended up loving the book and I highlyreccomend it. It had the main plot but then it also had several twits and turns of sub-plots. By the end you really feel like you know every single character.

Rating:
Summary: Slave Day
Review: I really connected with this book. Each character is completely different, yet strangely similar. Each person has a goal for Slave Day, and in a way, all of the goals are fulfilled. Rob Thomas was extremely effective in intertwining the stories of the characters. All in all, this was one of the best books I have ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Slave Day --- READ IT
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed Slave Day. This fast-paced novel held my interest from beginning to end. I especially liked the Rob Thomas' unique style of writing in which each chapter was told in first person, but alternating between eight characters from chapter to chapter. It seemed as if characters took turns writing about their experiences during Slave Day. Although I thought this approach to writing took away from the suspense building around one character at times, all characters were equally interesting, and the author was easily able to hold my interest between chapters.
The book contains many contrasting characters yet the author is able to make them all very down-to-earth and "real" in the reader's mind. They all attend high School, except for Mr. Twilley, the strict and seemingly heartless teacher, and most appear to be stereotyped characters from different groups found in all high schools: the geek, the football player, the cheerleader, the rich girl, the freak. Yet Rob Thomas is able to give each character a distinct personality and motivation.
The plot, which takes place entirely in one day, centers around a school holiday called Slave Day. The student council members and those teachers who are willing are auctioned off as slaves to the highest bidders from the student body. Those auctioned must then be the bidders' slaves for the duration of the day, doing just about anything their masters tell them to do.
The central theme of the novel is one of standing up for one's personal rights as a human being. An obvious example of standing up for one's rights lies in the actions of Keene Davenport, a black junior who speaks out for equality of blacks and whites, primarily by opposing the idea of Slave Day. Another character who displays the author's message is Brendan Young, the computer nerd who is almost invisible to the popular people at school. After the Tiffany, the rich girl is forced to bid on him, she treats him like dust, only being courteous to him at times when it is for her own personal gain. Toward the end of the novel, he finally stands up for himself by treating her as she has treated him.

Rating:
Summary: Slave Day --- READ IT
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed Slave Day. This fast-paced novel held my interest from beginning to end. I especially liked the Rob Thomas' unique style of writing in which each chapter was told in first person, but alternating between eight characters from chapter to chapter. It seemed as if characters took turns writing about their experiences during Slave Day. Although I thought this approach to writing took away from the suspense building around one character at times, all characters were equally interesting, and the author was easily able to hold my interest between chapters.
The book contains many contrasting characters yet the author is able to make them all very down-to-earth and "real" in the reader's mind. They all attend high School, except for Mr. Twilley, the strict and seemingly heartless teacher, and most appear to be stereotyped characters from different groups found in all high schools: the geek, the football player, the cheerleader, the rich girl, the freak. Yet Rob Thomas is able to give each character a distinct personality and motivation.
The plot, which takes place entirely in one day, centers around a school holiday called Slave Day. The student council members and those teachers who are willing are auctioned off as slaves to the highest bidders from the student body. Those auctioned must then be the bidders' slaves for the duration of the day, doing just about anything their masters tell them to do.
The central theme of the novel is one of standing up for one's personal rights as a human being. An obvious example of standing up for one's rights lies in the actions of Keene Davenport, a black junior who speaks out for equality of blacks and whites, primarily by opposing the idea of Slave Day. Another character who displays the author's message is Brendan Young, the computer nerd who is almost invisible to the popular people at school. After the Tiffany, the rich girl is forced to bid on him, she treats him like dust, only being courteous to him at times when it is for her own personal gain. Toward the end of the novel, he finally stands up for himself by treating her as she has treated him.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but he's done better
Review: Rob Thomas is like the Midas of teen lit. Every book Rob Thomas touches turns to gold. This is no exception. The plot and idea for the book is very diffrent and interesting, and the book keeps you guessing and interested. It's fast-paced, with many plot twists and great dialog, as usual for him.
But, it isn't as good as his books like "Rats Saw God". It tries to be funny, but doesn't always succead, and some of the characters can be aggrivating. Those are the only draw backs, though. Still an awsome read.

Rating:
Summary: A crooked look into high school...
Review: Rob Thomas thrilled me with "Rats Saw God". I was astonished with the creativity of the book, how everything fit together so well, and how the plot of the story jumped around, never focusing, just on its' own meandering path. "Slave Day" was about everything, nothing, and anything. There were so many sub-plots, so that if you looked beneath the words on the page, there were many hidden meanings. I love Rob Thomas's style of writing, and the quickness of it all. I love being able to finish a book in one night. This book, might I add, was good enough to keep me up reading it.

Rating:
Summary: Slave Day, what I day it was!
Review: Slave Day by Rob Thomas, an excellent novel with quality points of view from eight different students and teachers at Lee High School. This story is ideal for mature, young adults, as it does contain some sexual situations. Structurally, as I mentioned before, the book is divided into eight separate and unique points of view, including seven students and one teacher. Each of the characters represents a typical high school student, such as the computer geek, the sexy brunette, and the self-absorbed jock. One literary device used was repetition, for example, if an action of one of the characters caused a disturbance, and then the point of view switched to another one of the characters, the new character would notice the actions of the previous. One of the most prevalent emotions stirred is humor, which is used to keep the reader's attention. Tommy, the trailer trash high school student bought Mr. Twilley, one of the teachers as his slave for the day. He made Mr. Twilley perform acrobatic stunts in front of the student body, causing mass hilarity. For my overall impression, I found this novel to be enthralling and absorbing, an excellent read for a young high school student. In the end, all parties are satisfied, although I will not tell you in which ways. One thing I did find problematic about the story is the happy-go-lucky conclusion. It seems that the ending of every novel should leave room for wonder and guess, but perhaps a good ending is a prerequisite for young adult literature.