Challenger Deep

Challenger Deep

Zachary Mein

    Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman pages 0-70. This book is a New York Times best seller and has won many awards.The main character of this book is Caden Bosch who is a teeneager trying to discover himself while on a boat that is headed to the Marianas Trench. The main characters in this book are Caden, his family which is his mom, dad, and younger sister, his ships captain, and the ship crew members themselves. This book is basically about Caden’s journey to the Mariana trench to try and figure out who he truly is.

    So far into this book Caden is starting to discover himself. The book constantly switches from his life back home to his life on the ship. When reading about Caden when he is “at home” it describes how he is starting to change and adapt weird behaviors such as his abstract art. He pretends to be involved in school by joining the track team but is torn between his thoughts. Caden is trying to figure out what is wrong. On the ship however Caden is starting fresh, and is struggling to adapt to the ship environment. He is constantly trying to explore while also performing his job and keeping the crew members and the captain happy. However Caden has never formally met the captain he only met the captain's parrot. The parrot is constantly making ironic jokes and gestures, while spreading the captains word. Caden’s main goal is to do his job but overall discover who he is and why he is changing, and that is a main reason for taking this trip.

    Personally the book is very interesting but it is set up very odd. There are two if not more chapters on each page or every few pages, and the constant flipping back and forth from home life to ship life is very confusing. Im having trouble distinguishing the true theme or problem within the book due to this.