Acceleration by Graham McNamee

1. Write the summary of the book that you read.

* Duncan, Vinny, and Wayne are all friends working - or wasting time - the summer before senior year in high school. Duncan is the soul, Vinny the brains, and Wayne the muscle. At the end of the previous summer, Duncan tried to save a drowning girl and failed. Not being a hero has really affected his life, particularly his relationship with his girlfriend Kim. Also, he is now terrified of swimming, especially when the nightmares come back. Duncan's summer job is with the public transit lost and found. While trying to make the hours go faster, Duncan looks through the items, especially the books and golf clubs. One day he discovers an unmarked journal with no name, which depicts sadistic animal torture experiments, boasts of arson fires, and the planning for the serial killings of three women. Duncan decides to make amends for his failure last summer by tracking down the owner of the journal by using clues left hidden in the diary. After talking with his friend Vinny, Duncan decides to turn the journal over to the police, but they do not take him seriously, so he decides to get help from Vinny, do some research at the local library, and find out where the killer works and lives so they can prove to the police the diary is for real. But in the process when Duncan finds the house of the serial killer, he decides to take a look in it but unfortunately at that very time the serial killer appears and chases Duncan to the subway station. They get into fight there and they both fell on the subway tracks in the station where they get hit by the train. Duncan luckily survives but the serial killer dies.

2. Explain how a character in the book changed or is starting to change in the part you are reading?

* Last summer, Duncan was caught stealing a toilet with his friend Wayne. So his father told him to work community in the lost and found department of the subway station to teach him a lesson about life. At work he discovered some serial killer's diary who was slowly accelerating from smaller crimes to bigger crimes. He finds out that the serial killer has been stalking three women and is after to kill them. At first he didn't care what the serial killer wanted to do and so he decided to hand in the journal to the police, but seeing the disinterest that the cops showed him, he realized that he is playing with the life of someone and that the life of that victim is in hands, he decides to put a stop on it. He becomes responsible of his actions and understands the realities of the life. Also after working in lost and found department he became more mature and understood that the life is just not about having fun and do whatever you want, to get a good career a person have to work hard and follow the proper disciplines in the life.

3. How did author create suspense?

* The author creates suspense by starting with the slow beginning and then making the story faster and more attention-grabbing. The author cleverly manipulates readers sense of disbelief by eliminating the possibility of police help or parental understanding. The author reveals the serial killer to the reader at the end of the story. By that time Duncan keeps searching him. Author slowly reveals the clues out of the lost journal of serial killer to make readers focus in the story. Also with the slowly revealing clues reader would also envisage about the future of what might happen and how will Duncan ever find the serial killer. Also several times in the story Vinny and Duncan find the possible suspects from the clues that they found from the journal. They follow all the possible suspects to their homes to really find whether they are the serial killer, but every time their suspect was just a normal person living their daily lives. For example one time in the story, Duncan followed a suspect, that suspect was meeting his girlfriend but the author described the setting in such a way that for a second, readers would think that he is the serial killer creating a thrill in reader's mind. But later on he turned out to be an ordinary person. But when all of Duncan's technique to find the serial killer doesn't work, the serial killer comes to Duncan in the lost and found department of the subway to find his diary creating a sudden climax in the story. Also later in the story when Duncan gets caught by the serial