Happy Thursday and start of semester 2 RCL blogging!! This time around i’ve decided to do something a bit different than my fall book blog/rating/summaries. While i’m still going to incorporate a bit of my own opinion into each piece and will be summarizing their character as a whole and the way that their deaths affected other characters and the show overall. I’ll go into slight detail on the way they died as well but it won’t be the main focus. With that being said, I feel that a good starting point is the woman that raised main character Meredith Grey, and the reason for much of her trauma, Ellis Grey.

In terms of emotional impacts for viewers, this death wasn’t one that hit very hard, at least not for me. In the seasons leading up to her death, we watched as the emotional trauma from growing up with a mother so ruthlessly focused on careers over personal happiness like Ellis Grey affected Meredith in all aspects of her life. Though she did have Alzheimers, and her appearances on the show emphasized the deterioration she experience at the hands of her disease, all as her daughter watched helplessly, Ellis’ treatment of Meredith during both lucid and non-lucid states was far from motherly, and left viewers including myself with a bit of a bad taste in our mouths as far as opinions on her go. With that being said, I shouldn’t be too harsh, as any death is tragic, and this one can be seen as ever more-so than most from Meredith’s standpoint, who was not only losing her mother for years before her actual passing, but wasn’t even able to have a meaningful conversation with Ellis in her final days, much less hear how proud of her daughter she likely would have been for the more than successful surgeon she had become.

Ellis’ death itself was very sudden, just as most deaths on this show go, and came at an already very dramatic time. Meredith was fighting for her life in the hospital after falling into the water at the scene of a ferry boat crash. She didn’t attempt to save herself and was giving up when she was rescued from the water and rushed to the ER. At the same time, Ellis was also in the hospital and being treated for a recently discovered heart condition. As Meredith coded and hallucinated a conversation in the afterlife with Ellis during which she told Meredith that she is “anything but ordinary” and she needs to run back, Ellis was also fighting for her life. Meredith was able to be brought back and made a full recovery, however Ellis did not win her fight, and died of a heart attack.

As far as lasting impacts on the other characters of Grey’s Anatomy, Ellis is a unique one. Although she died of a heart attack during season 3, which was very early on in what has now become a 19 season series, there is no lapse in mention of her, flashback appearances, and even new children of hers as the show develops. In season 10 it’s revealed that she had an affair, and the lovechild of her and co-worker Richard Webber showed up as a new employee at the hospital, turning Merediths life upside down once again. She may have technically been “gone” as of season 3 episode 17, but Ellis Grey was most certainly not forgotten.

*Images from https://screenrant.com/greys-anatomy-every-harper-award-winner/ & https://www.insider.com/saddest-greys-anatomy-character-deaths-2019-5

Another week another classic! On this weeks installment of Daniella’s Book Blogs, i’m bringing ya’ll a synopsis and review of a book i hope you’ve at least seen the movie of, if not read as well. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone will forever take the cake as the first “big girl” book I got to read, so it’s only fair that it makes it onto the blog.

Synopsis- Living in a closet under the stairs at the house of his aunt and uncle, orphan Harry Potter’s life was at a seemingly all time low. However, on the night of his eleventh birthday, Harry learns that he is a wizard. A giant man named Hagrid crashes through the door and delivers Harry’s acceptance letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Despite his aunt and uncles best attempts to stamp the magic out of Harry and keep him in the dark, James and Lily Potter were two of the brightest wizards of their age. When Harry was a baby, an evil wizard named Voldemort murdered his parents and tried tokill him as well. No one quite knows how, but baby Harry survives, left with a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt on his forehead, he becomes known as the Boy-Who-Lived throughout the wizarding world.

After boarding the Hogwarts Express with the help of a wizarding family, the Weasleys, he becomes fast friends with classmate Ron Weasley. When they finally arrive at Hogwarts, a singing Sorting Hat places all the first years one of four different houses—Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. The houses are respectively known for their bravery, cunning, loyalty, and intelligence, and Harry is placed in Gryffindor.

Through his time at Hogwarts, Harry not only learns things about himself he never knew, like his family legacy on the quidditch team, but also the impact he has held on the wizarding world without even knowing it, and the way that there ar

e some very powerful wizards still out to get him. Harry, Ron, and their friend Hermione all discover a three headed dog in one of the forbidden rooms one day, and make it their mission to figure out what exactly it’s protecting. The discovery of the guard dog in addition to some other strange occurrences, like a troll being let loose in the castle, leaves the trio wond

ering just what’s going on, and if a certain professor has anything to do with it.

They eventually decide to attempt getting past the dog, as they realize that it protects something very valuable, something that if put in the wrong hands could be detrimental to the wizarding world.  On their journey through the bewitched, the trio finds themselves met with countless obstacles, every one more dangerous than the prior. Eventually, Harry gets through to the final room, where he finds himself faced with the man who left him scared to begin with.

 

First Line- Mr.and Mrs.Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”

Last Line-  “I’m going to have a lot of fun with Dudley this summer . . .”

My Favorite Quote- “You’re a wizard, Harry.”

Rating- 10/10 a classic. That’s all I have to say about this book. It was the first long chapter book I ever read in elementary school, and I honestly only read it because of how many reading points it would give me on the quiz, but i’m so glad I did! It’s one of those books that no matter what genre you tend to sway towards, will get you hooked anyway. It’s pretty clear how it ends, evident by the 6 other books in the series that follow it, but nonetheless it’s a book I think everyone should read at least once, just so you can say you have.

Happy Thursday! Taking a small break from our ole faithful Colleen Hoover books (don’t worry they’ll be back shortly!), this weeks blog is gonna be on a book with a bit more seriousness to it. A staple on most aplit high school reading lists, “The Handmaids Tale” is a book that everyone should read, and hopefully this weeks book blog convinces you of it.

Synopsis- Based in The Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian society occupying what was formerly America, this novel follows Offred (Of-Fred), a handmaid who’s single responsibility in life in reproduction for the wealthy family she is assigned to due to declining birth rates of the new age. Offred describes her life during her third assignment as a Handmaid, in this case to Commander Fred who is formally referred to as The Commander. Throughout her first person narration of life as a handmaid, Offred has flashbacks, portions of her life from before and during the beginning of the revolution, from her failed attempt of an escape with her husband and daughter to Canada, to her indoctrination into life as a handmaid. Offred describes the structure of Gilead’s society, including the several different classes of women and the roles they play.

Although he is supposed to have contact with Offred only during “the Ceremony”, a ritual of conception, the commander begins an illegal relationship with her behind closed doors. He gives her “contraband” products, such as old fashion magazines, cosmetics and clothes, meeting with her in his study, where he allows her to read, an act otherwise prohibited for women. The Commander’s wife, Serena Joy, also has secret interactions with Offred, arranging for her to have a secret relationship with the commanders driver in an attempt to get her pregnant, as she believes the commander can no longer have children and wants one. In exchange for Offred’s cooperation, Serena Joy gives her news of her daughter, whom Offred has not seen since she and her family were captured trying to escape Gilead.

After Offred’s initial meeting with Nick, they begin to seeing eachother more frequently, behind the back of Serena Joy. Offred opens up, sharing information about her past with him that could potentially put them both in danger. Through another handmaid, Offred learns of the Mayday resistance, an underground network working to overthrow Gilead. Shortly after Offred’s learning of the Mayday resistance, the Commander’s wife finds evidence of the relationship between Offred and the Commander. Offred contemplates suicide to avoid the public shame that she’ll experience if exposed. As the novel concludes, Offred is being taken away by the secret police under orders from Nick. Before she is put in the large black van, Nick tells her that the men taking her are actually part of the Mayday resistance and that Offred must trust him. At this point Offred does not know if Nick is a member of the Mayday resistance or a government agent posing as one, and she does not know if going with the men will result in her escape or her capture. She enters the van with her future uncertain.

First Line- “We slept in what had once been the gymnasium.”

Last Line- “Are there any questions?”

My Favorite Quote- “Better never means better for everyone… It always means worse, for some.”

Rating- 8/10 This novel is one that has a lot of underlying meaning and messages. While my blog itself is only a very very brief rundown of the overall plot, this is one of those books that I could analyze for hours, with so many different interpretations and ways of comparing this seemingly unrealistic society to the direction ours seems to be turning in some ways. While i’ll admit that it was a bit slow for me to get into at the start, and took me a couple tries to fully commit to the read, this novel is one that I can’t recommend enough. While it leaves off with one of the biggest cliff-hangers i’ve ever experienced, and will certainly leave you incredibly upset with how it ends and searching for extra chapters to answer all your questions, it will also leave you moved in a way that i’ve never been by another book.