THE GAZE Fan Club/Discussion discussion
This topic is about
The Gaze
Writing Style
Hi, Vicki! I've recently read The Gaze and I agree with you that it is an exceptional book. What I liked the most, although as you said it's hard to pinpoint one single aspect, it's the journey you travel while reading it. I liked that not everything was explained right away. I liked that Samantha is a flawed characters. I can't wait for The Next Chapter to come out!
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And what about Lewis? Who on earth wouldn't want a Lewis in their life? He's funny as heck, completely committed to his friendship with Sam, and he is loyal to a fault. (Give that boy my number!)
Glad you jumped on board. I think we'll get some really good discussions going, once it gets going.
Sorry for intruding, but I couldn't resist. I thought I was Gaze's biggest fan, but I had no doubt there would be more! This story had it all and then some, and then some more. I still marvel at the fact that Samantha is the creation of a male mind, it defies logic.
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True, Javier is amazing! I'm sure he has numerous #1 fans! But I'm the TRUE #1 FAN! LOL
Are you planning to read The Next Chapter?
Absolutely, considering my sworn everlasing love for Lewis, I can't wait to see more of him
I couldn't pick a favorite character however. It's a tie between Gwen and Lewis, or a tie between Tony and Samantha... Oh I don't know!
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At one point I even thought that maybe Gwen, Tony, and Sam might have a threesome...or perhaps that Tony was bi and they would all four hook up. LOL But when I'd consider what was going to happen, I'd realize that those options didn't fit. BUT I never saw the ending coming. Did you?
I did think about the possibility of a threesome at some point, because of the nature of the conversations they were having. But, it would've been cliche' and The Gaze is never that. Reason why I loved the story so much. Lewis's fan as well. By the way, if I remember correctly, Javier's fantasy cast has Jude Law as Lewis :)
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SPOILER: I loved how Lewis "forced" Sam to do things she theoretically didn't want to do because he KNEW her so well that he knew she'd need to follow through with many things he insisted on her doing. He loved her enough to protect her against herself as much as one can do that.
How about Brooks? I HATED him so much that I loved him. Javier wrote his parts in such a way that you couldn't help to love him for how evil he is...does that make sense? Meaning he "played his part" so well. Maybe it's not Brooks that I love as much as the way Javier developed Brooks' wickedness.
Do you think Brooks will come back in The Next Chapter? Do you think Sam will stay on the straight and narrow? Will she and Jason have children? I've never been into a book like this one before!
For the last four years I have taught multicultural literature to seniors (high school), but this next year I'll only have freshmen and yearbook...darn! I'd LOVE to teach them about Javier as he is from Ecuador. The nature of the book is exactly the type of novel we'd discuss. It's a class about literature, yes, but about tolerance, accepting others (you don't have to agree with philosophy, religion, or lifestyle). His book would be perfect! If I ever get to teach the class again, I'm going to see about that.
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SPOILER!!!: Also, even though he and Sam hooked up, he DID love his wife so very much! I was a bit disappointed that he cheated on her, BUT his heart never wavered. He had a weak moment. I was rather upset with Sam at that point because she didn't care if she wrecked a family or not. Gwen didn't deserve that kind of pain. What friend could have handled that the way she did and invited Sam back into their life?
Part of Sam was a bit pathetic because she not only "couldn't" let go, but she wouldn't. Personally, I can't stand it when a woman is so weak that she'll stoop to anything to get a man who doesn't really want her, or if she doesn't care about consequences (potentially breaking up an entire family). I think that's rather sad. So there was a part of me that thought Sam was pathetic and weak; other parts of her were just so lovable and strong. It took me a while to completely fall in love with her.
I loved Tony, I wish I'd gotten more of him. To me he brought this quiet strength into the room, and some of his lines when he talks to Sam... oh! clutch my heart! And yes, the centerpiece of it all, the placemat made me stop breathing until I finished it. I agree with you, Samantha is a lovable mess. I really liked her deconstruction as a character from selfish, broken, and obsessed, to just wanting to be better. I would've liked to have seen how she fared after the attack, but that could have been a book onto itself and I cried rivers at the last notes between her and Gwen.
What made you cry the most? If you cry over books like I do, anyway, and this one had me teared up throughout much of it.
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What made me cry the most is when she cleaned up her act at the very end of the story. And funny thing is I was literally sitting in my bathroom (on the toilet, seat closed) to get quiet and good lighting. The reading was too intense to sit in the living room and read while my hubby watched NASCAR. I wanted to FEEL what was happening! LOL
Do you think Brooks will be back?
I think there are more than a few things left out as seeds for future sequels. I'm only guessing. I liked that whatever happened to The Evil One is open to interpretation and therefore left up to the imagination of the reader. It did chill my blood to know that he disappeared.
Monica wrote: "I did think about the possibility of a threesome at some point, because of the nature of the conversations they were having. But, it would've been cliche' and The Gaze is never that. Reason why I l..."Monica, Jude Law as Lewis? Win Win! I can't think of a better fit
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Do you think Jason will be more fully developed in the sequel? I don't know him as well, so I'm excited to see if he is as good a guy as Tony.
What about Terence? Looks like he will also be more developed because I think he drops a bomb on Lewis.
Hi Vicki, this is a great group discussion. :) I recently finished reading The Gaze. I absolutely loved this book. Many that I've read have touched all my senses but never in the magnitud that The Gaze did. I love Javier's writing style and the metaphores he uses to describe exactly what the characters are feeling and how they perceive things. I loved all the characters in this book and yes, I would kill to have a Lewis in my life. LOL! I think the best thing about this story was how unpredictable it was and how well it unfolds. None of the events that happened throughout the story dissapointed my expectations and it had such an inmense impact. Never has a book's ending made me sob the way I did. I mean, I'm a pretty good cryer with the ending of a story but this one made me sob, I cried so hard that I couldn't see what I was reading as the tears blurred my vision. I can not wait to read The Next Chapter. I look forward to getting to know Lewis more and see how this story unfolds. Kudos to Mr. Javier Robayo for such a well done job on his first piece! I am most certainly one of his number 1 fans! ;)
Hi Suzanne! Yes, I totally agree with you on "The Evil One". I wanted him tortured bit by bit but the way Javier ended him was just as satisfying. It sent chills down my spine too, especially when Lewis said to Sam, "Brooks Waldenberg shall never torment you again, Samantha. It'll be like he disappeared." :)
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I still wonder if Evil One will creep back into their lives. He's just creepy enough, and Javier always has those twists...guess we'll see.
"None of the events that happened throughout the story dissapointed my expectations and it had such an inmense impact" was a perfect way to put it! I felt this way too.
I started this group because as I was reading it I wanted SOMEONE I could call and say, "What the heck? What do you think is going to happen now?!" Or talk about who you thought attacked Sam, etc.
Javier has a TRUE gift! I like many, many books, like numerous books a LOT, but LOVE, absolutely in love with FEW...know what I mean. That's GAZE! IN LOVE WITH IT!
I also notice the similes and metaphors. As an English teacher it's hard not to notice and wonder how the world he came up with that one! LOL
The first simile that I marked and just LOVED is, "The sense of loss and heartache that crushed over me, like an angry sea over an unsuspecting beach, nearly killed me." How beautiful is that!!
This is the type of book that I wish I was teaching! It would interest the students, there is SO much to learn from it: voice, writing style, use of literary devices, dialogue, "show, don't tell," pacing, vocabulary, and so much more!
I do have ONE complaint: small print! LOL I guess that's a VERY small one, huh?
I'm currently reading a book that also has small print and it's really hard on my eyes. I need a magnifying glass. LOL But I'm getting on up there in age. I need to read EVERYTHING I can, while I can. LOL
Lorena wrote: "Hi Suzanne! Yes, I totally agree with you on "The Evil One". I wanted him tortured bit by bit but the way Javier ended him was just as satisfying. It sent chills down my spine too, especially when ..."That's exactly it! Not only did I get major chills at Lewis's line, but suddenly he got super HOT!
Vicki, one of my favorite lines out of all of the 500 I must have highlit, is "No more than a barely familiar set of notes to a song seldom remembered…" I still cry at that one phrase!
Vicki, I think that's a wonderful idea to add this kind of book to a classroom curricula. I have a feeling this will help many teens perceive life in a more positive way. I don't know if I'm making any sense. There is definitely a moral to this story, actually, many morals to this story about true friendship, love, and finding the strength to always reach the light at the end of a tunnel. I would've loved to read a story like this in high school. You're right about the small print but another one of my favorite reasons to love this book so much is that Javier didn't use "big" vocabulary words. I'm sure it's not because he doesn't know any, but because it made the story that much more real. Other books that I've read, I usually have a dictionary with me to find the words that I don't understand what they mean even in the context of the sentence or paragraph. This story is such an easy read which is why it's so easy to live it yourself through every single page. His use of metaphore is almost poetic!
LOL!! Suzanne, you're right about Lewis. He is quite a dish! ;)His aggresiveness when he sets Samantha straight is definitely HOT and SEXY!
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How about the line where Sam writes Gwen and says, "I told him he makes Michelangelo's David look puny...his muscles rumbling like an erupting volcano! (298).
Lorena, I am STILL going to tell students about this book even though I won't be teaching it in the classroom. Word of mouth is HUGE! Students who love to read are going to love this book.
Vocabulary: You'd be astonished if you saw words that students don't know. We have a huge Hispanic population where I live (more than half our high school is Hispanic). Words such as crimson, unwittingly, compelled, and others that are simple for you and me aren't for MANY students. So even vocabulary would come to play.
The Next Chapter is out for kindle. Let me know if any of you is going to start reading it now, so we can talk about it :)http://www.amazon.com/The-Next-Chapte...
and yes, the Evil One is evil! I have a thing for well structured villains. They give the story a different dimension. Love stories where the characters must struggle to reach their goals.
Monica wrote: "The Next Chapter is out for kindle. Let me know if any of you is going to start reading it now, so we can talk about it :)http://www.amazon.com/The-Next-Chapte......"I have it in my reader! The Prologue alone nearly did me in. I didn't read the excerpt on Gaze, and I'm glad now. Chapter feels very fresh!
Suzanne, I'll start reading it right away then! Please, be patient with me, I'm temporarily on the other side of the ocean and 9 hours ahead :) But, I'll try my best to keep up.
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Monica, I just saw that you are an author...so cool!
I have my copy and will start reading it as well! Can't wait to get into it. Be patient with me though, I am a slow reader because there are other things happening in my life that barely give me a half hour to my self. :) Can't wait to discuss it!
Can we stay on Gaze, please, pretty please? How about this, what was the most SHOCKING moment to you?
Vicky, thank you :)Lorena, I'll be slow too, don't worry :)
Suzanne, for me the most shoking moment was when Sam and Tony end up in bed the second time around. I kept reading thinking, they are going to stop, they are going to stop. But that's one of the reason I love this novel, because it pushes boundaries.
The most shocking moment for me was when Lewis and Sam are in the "toy" shop and Lewis tells Sam that he's going to take her to a show and in the car as he drives nowhere he confronts her about her drinking every day. I honestly wasn't expecting that at all and it was such a tense moment but it ended so sweetly at the same time that I didn't realize I was actually holding my breath. When he held her and asked her to promise that he loves her and that he'll be there every step of the way, that's when I lost it. I cried along with them! :)
I have two, and they won't be what you'd expect. The first was the entire September 11 account. It was absolutely chilling and it was the first time Samantha showed she wasn't always selfish. I could envision her taking part in the rubble brigades and the scene around the people adding their loved ones' pictures on the posterboards... The other was Tony's book. I don't know how to describe it, but that book within the book made me eager to actually read it, The Composition by Tony Amaya, is it listed anywhere? sigh...
Monica wrote: "Vicky, thank you :)Lorena, I'll be slow too, don't worry :)
Suzanne, for me the most shoking moment was when Sam and Tony end up in bed the second time around. I kept reading thinking, they are go..."
Monica, as let down as I felt that Tony showed weakness, (well, Sam's hot, right?) it broke my heart when they wanted to hug or something the next morning and didn't. I almost wanted them to at least kiss, but Tony grew strong again, to me. But wrong or right, my heart broke for Samantha.
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Suzanne, you confuse me because you said you have Chapter and are pretty much excited to read it. Then you ask us to stick with GAZE and not talk about Chapter. Then you bring up Chapter again. LOL What's up with that? My book is due to arrive Friday!! I can't even try to read with you. :o(
I loaned GAZE to my daughter Heather so she can read it. She's in this group but she is trying not to look because she read one thing and it happened to be that Tony and Sam slept together twice.
I think I was shocked every time I turned around. LOL I really was shocked that Gwen forgave Gwen and Tony so easily. Forgiving for the past was understandable, but how many women would really be that quick to say, "Come back into our lives? I miss you!"
I wouldn't forgive that level of betrayal, but, I must say that Gwen played with fire the whole time. At the end she says she knew about the mutual attraction between Tony and Sam. It doesn't excuse what happened that snowy night, but it partially explains how things reached the boiling point.
Sorry, Vicki, I confuse myself more often than not. I'm going to go out on a limb, but please don't think I'm excusing the infedelity. I've been on the receiving end of that and I discovered I have a murderous side within me, as all betrayed women have, lol. But I've tried to mentally put myself in that situation, the snow, the drinks, the conversation, the history! I won't say it's impossible, but it would take some real strength not to give in the way they did. I think Tony tried to fight it, but Samantha seems to always get what she wants, lol.I can't comment on Gwen's forgiveness for now. That will have to wait until much later in the discussion.
Monica wrote: "I wouldn't forgive that level of betrayal, but, I must say that Gwen played with fire the whole time. At the end she says she knew about the mutual attraction between Tony and Sam. It doesn't excus..."I think I would've gone after Samantha big time if she got her grubby little hands on my guy. I thought at some point that Gwen must have been falling for Samantha, to let her into their lives the way she did. In a way, she did, if I think about it. Their letters brought them together, they generated such intimacy.
Am I the only one tha caught the book within the book? ;)
I think that Gwen did fall for Samantha. The way she shares details of her intimate life with Sam, gives it away, in my opinion. I thought while reading the emails that Gwen wanted Sam to be part of her conjugal life, way more than she realized.
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Yesterday I was gone all day. I woke around 6:00 and went to my daughter's (took her GAZE) and she and her daughter along with another daughter of mine and 2 of her kids went to see Katy Perry. Afterwards we went to the mall and shopped a little...long story short I MISSED coming to group. What is this, our therapy session? LOL
(Suzanne, no need to apologize!)
Ah, the betrayal. Yes, having lived a similar case myself, it's not easy to forgive a betrayal of that magnitud. Well, in my case, I wasn't friends with the hussy that was with my guy, at all. But like Tony, my guy realized that what he did was probably the biggest mistake of his life and till this day, he's still mending the damage. It's been about 10 years since it happened and it was a very well lesson learned for both of us I'd say. It was definitely not easy to forgive for a very long time. But as I've always heard people say, time is the only thing that heals. But anyway, getting back to Tony and Sam. I too was very dissapointed that Tony went weak, but like Suzanne says, all the elements were there for it to happen. It was a strange mix of emotions all in one shot. I was angry at Tony for cheating on Gwen and outraged with Sam for seducing him the wsay she did, but at the same time I was happy that Sam got a second chance with him, then I was sad that she was heart broken over the fact that nothing changed in terms of Tony's feelings for Gwen and his feelings for Sam. Then I was glad that Tony realized what he did and didn't continue on with Sam. I was also releived to know that Lewis was there to prevent for anything to go beyond what happened. Javier begins his prologue by talking about life being like a rollercoaster. Well, reading this book was exactly that, a rollercoaster of emotions! LOL!
Lorena wrote: "Ah, the betrayal. Yes, having lived a similar case myself, it's not easy to forgive a betrayal of that magnitud. Well, in my case, I wasn't friends with the hussy that was with my guy, at all. But ..."I give you lots of credit. I see how you related to the story. I've a friend who won't forgive Tony, while another understands how we are only human and you just never know. I think there was quite a bit of remorse in Tony.
SPOILER: (sorry I haven't been doing this warning big)
I gave Tony a bit of a reprieve when he told Sam: "You play, you pay, right?" He was so determined to face the music, not just for Samantha, but also for himsef. It said to me much about him. Had it not been for their exchanges, their established friendship, Gwen may have never forgiven her. Wonder how that will play out later...
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Vicki wrote: "Suzanne, I don't want you to tell me how, but didn't you find out how it plays out in Chapter? Is there a another sequel, or does Chapter end our GAZE?"I'm not divulging any observations of The Next Chapter, just yet, Vicki =)
Of course, J.R. gives us something. That's all I'll say. I hope you get your book soon.
I finished Chapter. I want more! * sob * It'll take me sometime to do a review worth reading until I can come up with a little more than "what a beautiful story..."
That is how I feel, I can't review it just yet....
I'm feeling left out :( I can't start reading The Next Chapter yet...
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First, what do you like the most about the author's writing style? I know it's hard to pinpoint only one technique, but we need to start somewhere. If we start with something like this, hopefully it won't spoil it for readers who are not finished.
Most definitely it is absolutely nearly impossible to say there is ONE reason I fell in love with this author (his writing, of course, lms). However, I think that aside from his ability to manipulate the English language with such fresh, novel literary devices such as similes, metaphors, and personification, etc. Javier (if we may call him that) just has an absolute GIFT for building suspense, like a (here's where HE'd come up with a perfect simile)...like a musician adding notes that creates a crescendo...then it explodes at the finale, and finally ends with that one last beautiful note that brings you such tranquility. I did NOT see the end coming!
I LOVE JAVIER's writing...his voice (loud and clear), his pacing (perfect), and his impeccable timing to "drop another bomb" that I never suspected was planted!
I pre-ordered The Next Chapter and I am READY to delve into it, too.
Jen, have you ordered it? It would be so cool to be able to read it and discuss it as we go.
Javier is a member of this group, so if we have any questions regarding this book, I am sure he'd love to answer them. (I don't mean to speak for him!) I just don't want to become a nuisance by messaging him all the time.
Perhaps we can start another group for The Next Chapter as soon as we get our copies. What do you think (anyone)?