Summer Reading book 5

Title: Flowers for Algernon

Author: Daniel Keyes

My Response: I absolutely adore this novel! It is my favorite of the whole summer reading list I composed. It is a heartbreaking and eye opening novel that I could relate to in absolute way. The main character Charles Gordon, also known as Charlie, is a very sad, resolute character that I loved even when everyone around him seemed to hate and fear him. I give the novel 100/100 because I could not find a single element to this story that did not have me hooked from the very beginning.

Plot: Algernon is extra-clever thanks to an experimental brain operation so far tried only on animals. Charlie eagerly volunteers as the first human subject. After frustrating delays and agonies of concentration, the effects begin to show and the reports steadily improve: "Punctuation, is? fun!" But getting smarter brings cruel shocks, as Charlie realizes that his merry "friends" at the bakery where he sweeps the floor have all along been laughing at him, never with him. The IQ rise continues, taking him steadily past the human average to genius level and beyond, until he's as intellectually alone as the old, foolish Charlie ever was--and now painfully aware of it. Then, ominously, the smart mouse Algernon begins to deteriorate.

Grade: 100/100