Tone

While reading this novel I noticed the authors tone being very regretful. Each character has some sort of guilt or regret about something they have done. It's strong throughout the entire book because you get inside each characters head and understand the depth of their feelings on their own actions and everyone else's around them. The whole book is based around mistakes that were made by each character so it makes sense for the tone to be regretful. The setting also affects the tone of the characters in the book. The small island is portrayed as a kind of weary place and it gives me the sense that its a dark gloomy place. It's easy to have a negative tone when you're living in a negative environment.

Theme

The theme of this book to me is do not try and change things; everything happens for a reason. "the cost of all things" is a chain reaction of events caused by one little thing someone wanted to change. When you try and change things that aren't meant to be changed it affects things in a negative way. A major downfall in your life or somebody else's could all be because of one little thing you changed. For example, in the book one of the characters put a spell on her friends so that they would never going more than a few days without talking to her or be more than a state away from her. By doing so it resulted in things happening that wouldn't have happened had she not put the spell on them like how one of the characters were not able to move away like they had plan to or to when another character got into a car accident and died. With all that being said though, everything happens for a reason. Do not try and change things that should be out of our control because that is how things are suppose to be.

Voice

In the novel "the cost of all things" by Maggie Lehrman, it is told in first person. Through out the entire book it switches between 4 different peoples perspectives. The book is told by the four main characters. Ari, Win, Markos and Kay but, is mostly revolved around Ari. The story jumps around in time so, to help you understand what is going on and why certain things are happening, they switch who is telling the story. Every character addresses the reader as they talk. By switching from each persons perspective you get to see what they're actually thinking and their actions when no one else is around which is a big part in understanding the story. The story is based around each character doing things that no one else knows about but ironically impacts everyone else. The story takes place on a small island where everyone knows everyone. This setting affects the voice of the story because it shows that even though you can live in a small town and know everyone, you don't actually know everyone.

Foreshadowing

In my first post I quickly talked about them finding a letter from a famous actor addressed to who was his daughter. After finding out she was dead they tracked down her daughter who would have been the famous actors’ granddaughter. Eventually after finding her they sat down with her for a little bit to tell her things about her mom that she had not known, like that she was into acting, and they got to know a lot about the granddaughter, her name is Ava. They found out she had a passion for acting as well but never tried to pursue it because her adopted mother was not supportive of it. After that one day they spent with her they had not heard from her again. With all of this being an important part of the first part of the book I couldn’t imagine that would be the last we would see of Ava, so while Emi was talking to Rebecca and Theo about the castings for their movie, it hit me when they were talking about the main character. “So who is playing Juniper?” asked Emi. Rebecca responded “Don’t worry; we’re going to find someone” (Lacour 109). They’ve been auditioning people but couldn’t seem to find the right person. Theo discusses with Emi how the role is important because it’s based of his sister so he needs to find the right person for the part. My guess is that Ava will be at the next set of auditions for the role and Theo will think she is perfect for the part.

Something Epic

If you remember me mentioning before, Emi's brother Toby was leaving her his apartment for a few months with one condition, she does something epic with it. From the second he pulled away in the taxi, Emi and Charlotte were begging to think of things they could do.  Although they were giving little thought into ideas because of everything that was going on at the moment, when they did sit down to think about things, nothing epic enough could pop into their head. After getting past so much of the book, I was beginning to think they were not going to find anything epic to do and let Toby down. What I did not realize was she had a perfect opportunity for something epic right in front of her. She knew as well but, her thoughts on the subject were never brought up until she met with Rebecca and Theo. While meeting with them she tells them how much she loved the script and would be more than happy to take the job they offered her. For a little while she goes over ideas with them about what she has for the script, they love it and her and couldn’t be happier about the way the situation was turning out. After the discussion of ideas was over they started to talk about their budget for the movie. It’s almost nonexistent. They would have enough money for a small location but barely anything left over for anything else. “We can save money for décor if we can use locations for free” says Emi “I have somewhere in mind for Juniper’s apartment. My brother’s place” (Lacour 108). They think it’s an excellent idea! It works out perfectly for everybody, Rebecca and Theo save money on their movie and what is more epic then getting a movie filmed in your apartment!? 

New Opportunities For Emi

As I have talked about before, Emi has a job in the movie industry as a set designer. Although she loves the job it gets difficult at times when she and her boss do not see eye to eye on a project. She was given the job of decorating a room for a character in the movie in the best way she saw fit. For weeks Emi was searching high and low for the perfect things to go into the room, she knew exactly how she wanted it and when she finally completed it she could not have been more proud of herself. She could not wait to show everyone and for them to begin filming scenes in the room she worked so hard on. That is, until she discovered her boss changed some things around in the room without telling her, things that Emi was beyond proud of. “Emi, first, it isn’t your music room. You’ve done a really lovely job, but you are an intern and I am the production designer” (Lacour 63). After hearing this Emi was devastated, she felt like it was not worth it anymore to continue on another project with her if the same thing was going to happen again. After discussing it with her brother and taking the night to think about it, she apologizes to her boss and in her own mind decides to stick with the next project they will be working on. Not long after talking with a boss, she gets a phone call that little does she know will give her an opportunity she has always dreamed of.

Recently, Emi was introduced to someone named Rebecca, she did not get to talk to her long but shortly after meeting with her she got a phone call from her. “I’m calling to offer you a job. I’d love to tell you about it if you have time” (Lacour 90). As soon as she can, Emi meets Rebecca and her boyfriend at a café to discuss the job offering. At first, they simply talk about her job now and ask her questions regarding situations that have or can occur while doing what she does. After their discussions and mentions of how much they like her, Rebecca and her boyfriend Theo offer Emi a job as a set designer for a movie they are directing. They would give her full creative freedom to design the sets in any way she feels fit best and our allowing her to hire one person to help her along the way. This really is the opportunity she has always dreamed of, it is something that would have taken her years to get in the studio. They allow her to take the script to read over and then make a final decision. At that point I thought to my-self, there is no way she would let this opportunity go. Sure enough, a few nights later after reading over the script, she was so excited about it she could not help but to wake Charlotte up at two a.m. to tell her about the amazing news and how she not only wants to take the job but wants to hire her to help her along the way. I can see great things coming out of this for Emi but nothing this good ever comes easy. Do you think Emi will run into problems?

Living in L.A as a teenage set designer

Emi, a senior in high school, is not your average teen. Instead of having what I guess you could call a normal teenage life, with school, sports, friends, possibly a part time job, and anything else you would consider normal, she works as a set designer for movies while balancing school. She goes above and beyond for her job and works extremely hard. It is something she is very passionate about and would love to see herself doing the rest of her life. It does not come right out and say she got the job through her brother Toby but, you can infer that considering he also has a job in the movie industry and is slightly older than her. Toby does not live with Emi and their parents, instead he lives by himself in a classic L.A courtyard apartment. Although he lives by himself he’s still extremely close with Emi. They know a lot about each other, spend a lot of their time together and would do anything for each other.

Emi's best friend Charlotte is also a senior in high school. They’ve been friends for a while and would do anything for each other. She works in the movie industry as well as Emi. Part of their job is running all over the busy city of L.A to estate sales looking for items in the houses they could use for their sets. It basically comes with the job description. They both share a passion for what they do and work so hard to be where they are which is most likely why they are as close as they are. So close that even Charlotte and Toby are close. Toby decided to leave his apartment to the girls as a graduation present while he is away in Europe to shoot a film for two months. Instead of renting it out to people and making a lot of money off of it he wants Emi and Charlotte to do something “epic” with the place. He never specified exactly what because he wanted that to be up to them. Just one more thing that is most likely not happening in a normal teenager’s life.

Not long after Toby leaves for Europe, the girls find a letter from the most recent estate sale they went to that just so happened to be a recently deceased famous actor that they both admired. After trying to track down who the letter was addressed to they discovered that person was deceased as well and took it upon themselves to open the letter up to find out more about it. From reading the letter they found out it was addressed to a long lost daughter of the former actor. While trying to find the original person it was addressed to they found out she had a daughter, so naturally they want to find and track down that person to give the letter to incase it could have any meaning to her and since it was never able to reach her mother before she passed.

How would you feel living in Emi’s shoes? Would it be exciting or too much to handle at such a young age?