Today our group did a review on a story, "Under The Ice" by John Gordon. It starts off when the friend of the main character called him to come over to his house, and when he did, they went skating together by the lake nearby. It was already pretty dark, and the moon was shining above them. Just then, the main character saw a corpse under the ice that he was skating on. To add on to his shock, his friend suddenly started talking to him about how the corpse was his uncle and that him and his father are the ones who drowned him there. He was filled with fear as he watched his friend rant on and on about the history between him and his uncle. After letting out everything inside him, he finally realised what he was doing and shouted at the main character to go home. He did as he was told.
In school the next day, there was nothing wrong or awkward between the both of them and there were no more problems for a while. One day, however, the friend asked the main character to go over to his house again with a guilty expression on his face. Seeing his pal like that, he just couldn't say no. They decided to go skating again but in the afternoon this time. They had a lot of fun together and before they knew it, evening approached. They sat down together and apologized to each other about the various things that happened the previous time. Just when they were being happy about the make up, the friend's father suddenly showed up at the riverbank, warning them to go home quickly. The two boys started skating back to the bank obediently and it was then that the first hint of moonlight showed. The ice beneath the friend cracked open suddenly and up popped out his uncle's corpse! He was paralyzed with fear. The main character managed to skate his way to the bank and turned around to see a horrifying view. The friend's father skated as quickly as he can to save him, but he was too late. When he finally reached his son's side, the corpse grabbed both of them tight and started submerging back into the water. The main character stood there stupefied, as he saw them drowning slowly and in agony as they have done to the corpse before......
This was another strange and scary story to me, and sent shivers down my spine. The plot is very well thought out, and makes the readers feel lots of thrill and suspense. The different scenes in the story are all well described and creates vivid images in our minds, adding on to the feeling of horror when reading.
The characters in the story are well portrayed too. For example, the friend of the main character seems kind and sincere, but is actually the criminal act; all the different complexes of him are described in detail and we can imagine how he looks like.
There was also an intriguing element in the story and that was whether the corpse was real or not. This was what generated the most discussion in today's Literature Circle. It may have been an accident where both the friend and his father drop into a hole which opened up beneath them due to the weight applied on it, and what the main character saw was all just an imagination. But, everybody has different opinions about it so it will be up to you to decide in the end.
This genre of this story is thrill/suspense and I would recommend this book to older people due to the complicated and strong language used in it. Young readers might not be able to understand the plot and it will be a bad influence to them when they see the various swearing. Nonetheless, I am sure older readers/thriller fans would love this book because of the interesting content and scary, vivid descriptions in it. So what are you waiting for? Grab a copy now!
No comments:
Post a Comment