Invisible Man Book Review
Essay by 14changk • March 12, 2012 • Book/Movie Report • 720 Words (3 Pages) • 2,375 Views
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For this independent reading project I decided to read a science fiction book called The Invisible Man. The author, H. G. Wells did an outstanding job entertaining the reader.
The main character of this book is the invisible man, a scientist named Griffin. He found a new technology that could make every part of the human body invisible, and tried the formula on himself. However, invisibility was not all about advantages. To look invisible, he could not wear any clothes at all, which made him vulnerable to diseases from the cold weather--the beginning of this story is set during winter at London. In an effort to undo his invisibility, Griffin covers his whole body with clothes, glasses, bandages and a hat and decides to spend a few nights in the inn at Iping. There, he tries many scientific experiments but fails to turn visible. At the same time, his temper has risen to the maximum and Griffin starts abusing his invisibility to cause violence.
The opening of this book is very detailed, as the author uses imagery to clearly describe the arrival of the invisible man. This imagery helped build a clear image of the scene in my head. However, one suggestion I would make to the author is to include some action in the opening chapters. As much as I believe this book was engaging, this book took some time to reach the action scenes. For these reasons, I rate the opening of The Invisible Man 8 out of 10.
The rising action of this book is the best feature of The Invisible Man. Wells describes the change of the invisible man's emotions overtime very vividly. He does not literally write about the change in the man's emotion but implies it from change in actions of the invisible man. For example, the invisible man at the opening of this book was a very polite man, but as time passes and the man seems to be failing in turning himself visible again, his attitude completely changes. He starts taking advantage of his invisibility and starts stealing and hurting others. The rising action was also packed with action, making this book entertaining all the way to the climax. I rate the rising action of The Invisible Man 10 out of 10.
Despite the entertaining action and good build up, the climax was very confusing. I had to reread a few pages in the climax to fully picture what happened during all of the action in the climax. Also, the title of one of the chapters was "The Hunter Hunted" and this spoiled the ending of the book. I strongly suggest the author to add more detail and imagery so the scene is more vivid, and also to change the title of the chapter so it does not spoil the rest of the book. I rate the climax of The Invisible Man 5 out of 10.
The ending/resolution of the book was also not very good. Although the idea of the invisible man getting caught was interesting, I felt that the book ended too quickly. The resolution was just that they caught the invisible
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