Masquerade Read-Along (Week 1)

Today is week one of the Masquerade Read-Along! I almost didn't make it because my wi-fi has been acting up at my house and I couldn't download my copy of the book from Amazon! It said I had purchased the book, but then when I tried to send it to my kindle, it like refused to show up...for days... You should have seen me earlier this week driving to all of the wi-fi hotspots in my town, desperately trying to download the copy...lol I finally managed it in a McDonalds parking lot...much to the confusion of the workers inside...lol So yay! I am happy to say that I will be participating in the read-along every Thursday this April!

Chapters 1-8 Discussion Questions

1. If you were disfigured like Heven (by some sort of accident) do you think you would have reacted the same way as her? (loss of self-confidence, hiding yourself, etc)

Well, I don't think I could really truthfully answer this question unless I actually experienced it. Right now I feel like I would be more confident than Heven. I personally think scars are bad-ass and sweet. I have one that looks like a kind of wonky star on my arm from working at my job and I think it is freaking awesome. Of course, if it was on my face it might be a different story, especially in high school where all you want is to look like everyone else. I say that I would embrace my disfigurement now, but knowing high school me, I probably would have hid it under hoodies much like Heven did.

2. Do you think that Kimber’s plan for revenge against Cole (for kissing another girl) is a good idea?

Definitely not. I had creeping feelings of unease almost as soon as she started talking about it. You just know that something like that is going to backfire...either by leaving Cole unwilling to date Kimber or for Sam to fall for Kimber and then get his feelings hurt when he gets dumped...unfortunately this little ploy of Kimber's made me not like her so much...maybe my opinion will change later on, but right now I feel kind of like she will be an antagonist in the future...maybe...

3. In the beginning chapters, Heven is very drawn to Sam but won’t admit it due to her own insecurities. Kimber begins to “date” Sam… do you think that Heven should have spoken up? Do think Kimber should have seen Heven’s real feelings?

I wouldn't have spoken up if I was Heven...it's kind of like an unspoken law of highschool girl world that the first one to talk about a crush or liking a guy has dibs on him. It's totally stupid, but the same thing happened to me in high school. I was crushing on this guy for like a year but never told anyone, then a friend who had a class with both me and my crush told me that she was going to get him a carnation for Sweetest Day and ask him out...at this point I felt like it was too late to bring up my feelings, so I conceeded to her rights as girl with dibs...lol...As for Kimber, like my friend Trisha, she had no idea that Heven/(or me) had feelings for the guy so you can't blame them for not being mind readers...honesty is just always the best thing all around. :)

4. Masquerade is broken in four separate POV’s: Heven, Sam, The Hate and The Hope. Do you think having multiple POV’s adds depth to the story? Why or why not?

It depends on the strength of the author writing the story honestly. Sometimes having multiple POV is just confusing or jarring and makes it hard to keep going with the book, other times it adds so much more than you would have been able to experience with just one main character. In this case, I really like the multiple POV. The Hate and the Hope are fascinating and I really want to learn more about them...I keep thinking of them as like..shoulder angels...but the Hate is trying to kill Heven instead of lead her down the path of evil...anyways...I feel like the POV adds a lot to this particular story and kind of love the structure.

5. A great source of strength for Heven is her grandmother. Who do you think yours is/would be?

That's kind of tough. I don't really have a lot of people in my family who I go to for strength. I would say parents...especially my dad...he always has answers to questions about finances and like...life-problems in general...but at the same time the thought of having heart-to-hearts about my love live or something makes me feel all squeegie on the inside...lol...I would say my grandparents as well... but both of my sets of grandparents are way oldschool and don't understand a lot of the issues I face in the "modern" world. This sounds weird, but they are SO unbelievably oldschool...like when my cousin moved in with her boyfriend (After dating for 4 years...) one of my grandpas refused to visit her or even to...talk to her for a while because she was "living in sin"...it kind of makes me walk on eggshells around them so I wouldn't really go to them either...I would probably say my best friend Alex. We've been there for each other through a lot. Even though she moved to Montana, she's still the one I call when I have a bad day, bad break-up, get good news, etc...So I would probably call her about the new hot guy in town I guess.

Cool! So that was week 1! Make sure you stop by 5 Alarm Reviews to find the list of other bloggers participating so that you can hop around and see all of our answers! I really love read-alongs because you get to know your fellow bloggers SO much more than even their reviews and memes! You guys should definitly check it out!