Morals

This is simply a post about morals. Nothing exciting or earthshattering, but I wanted to make my blog a little more diverse than just books. Maybe I’ll do a couple more posts like this, maybe I won’t. Let’s wait and see. (Inspiration of this book came from a response about Dear Killer by Katherine Ewell)

Morals are tricky… they aren’t universally agreed upon. We can see that from the many different people, religions, countries, and institutions who all don’t agree. It seems that we live in a world where you are expected to know right from wrong without a universally agreed upon right or wrong.

Sure, there are the standard laws that must people agree on— don’t kill, don’t steal, be nice, don’t physically hurt someone… but what about those tricky/controversial issues? The separation of church/religion and state, gay marriage, abortion, immigration, these all seem so inherent that we can’t talk about it.

The world seems divided now, there are political parties that refute everything, there are religious organizations that refute two or three but somewhere along the line contradict themselves. It seems to me that everyone is trying to put everything into a white or black box of right or wrong. Recently in class our teacher asked us if we thought there was a gray area. I immediately think “Well, of course there is.” Our teacher goes on to say that rather than there being a gray area most of the time it us deceiving ourselves with thinking we are doing something gray rather than doing something wrong.

But I think otherwise. Picking up your own trash rather than picking up both yours and your friends isn’t wrong because you are pulling your own weight. My teacher comes back with the point that don’t we all live in the same world. You have to come to the conclusion then that you have a different sense of right and wrong. The gooey, icky stuff is morality— a long debated tradition of war and head turning.

Morals are defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “A person’s standards of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable for them to do.” Notes how it says “a person’s” not teacher, religion, nation, or school— morals are self-determined yet we are always so scared to say otherwise, something against our environmentally imposed morals.

So in the end, this was just an editorial about morals. A little exploration into my brain about how I think right and wrong is often characterized by the world around us, at least me anyways. I know my “morals” are somewhat different than my parents’, teachers’, and school’s. I know some of my friends would question me if I expressed my morals. I know I have morals for how I think other people’s morals should be structured, but what in the end does any of this mean? Morals, are simply there, not to be regarded for public critique, but rather a private issue, one shunned in polite conversation. 

Room By Book Dear Killer

Room by Book is a feature done by yours truly where I put together collages of rooms/furniture that fit the book. All pictures' credits are below the picture.

Dear Killer by Katherine Ewell
Card Catalog Notes from Papyrus
Ashby Sleigh Bed- Rustic Pine Finish from Pottery Barn
Mercury Glass Bottle Vases from West Elm
J. Queen New York™ Chantilly Comforter Set from Bed Bath & Beyond

I wanted to show Kit's room and how it was described in the book. Most of the furniture is pretty plain has you can see in the bed and in its comforter, though the comforter has a slight frills that a mother would insist on. The vase reflects on how Kit remarks about how her mother has many collections to try and calm her impulsive behavior. One of her mother's collections was a collection of vases. The one extremely creative piece is the Card Catalog Notes from Papyrus. This is the box that Kit would keep her letters in. This was one of the more challenging Room By Books to do as it was balancing creativity and plainness so not to look fishy, but still look teenage.

Review Dear Killer

Dear Killer by Katherine Ewell Goodreads |Amazon

Published by Katherine Tegen Book April 1, 2014

368 Pages

Stand Alone

Source: New Teen Shelf Library- serendipity

Bookologists Analysis: This book is debatable to the point of extreme. Is it okay to read a book that questions the very idea of morals, the foundation of right and wrong in society? (www.yourmorals.org has great surveys/studies about morals and how you compare to liberals/conservatives and male/female) The idea of killing people as not a necessity or enjoyment, but as a habit and way of life is something to think about and ponder.

Full of "can't look away" moments, Dear Killer is a psychological thriller perfect for fans of gritty realistic fiction such as Dan Wells's I Am Not a Serial Killer and Jay Asher's 13 Reasons Why, as well as television's Dexter.

Rule One: Nothing is right, nothing is wrong. Kit looks like your average seventeen-year-old high school student, but she has a secret: she's London's notorious "Perfect Killer." She chooses who to murder based on letters left in a secret mailbox, and she's good—no, perfect—at what she does.

Her moral nihilism—the fact that she doesn't believe in right and wrong—makes being a serial killer a whole lot easier . . . until she breaks her own rules by befriending someone she's supposed to murder as well as the detective in charge of the Perfect Killer case.

As New York Times bestselling author of the Gone series Michael Grant says, Dear Killer is "shocking, mesmerizing, and very smart."

This book takes an awfully long time to digest as a novel. The line it blurs really digs into your soul. The way you think is perplexed like  trying to understand a spider web. Moral defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary is “of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior: ETHICAL; expressing or teaching a conception of right behavior; conforming to a standard of right behavior”. I do believe that the idea that morals change from culture to culture. In Muslim cultures women are supposed to clothe themselves fully yet in the Western culture skinny dipping is almost perfectly accepted (I’ve personally never done it). The way we know right and wrong is opinioned, and Kit tries to understand the difference between opinion and right.

This is not an action thriller. The books itself is passive aggressive going in between the killing and the emotional ups and downs. You don’t know what Kit is going to do with her life. She goes back and forth between cold hearted serial killer and wavering teenage girl who is trying to find her way through the world. Kit finds murder an almost holy calling so that people don’t become too comfortable in their little worlds. This way people are always on their toes and band together to become closer and value their loved ones. It is true sometimes that we need a reminder to think about people we take for granted and assume are always going to be there. This book as it plays with your emotions finds a way to unravel your thinking process to put it back together. It leaves you wondering whether or whether you yourself actually believe the right thing. The ending is quiet, but not unexpected as you do know that books are about change not just chronicling boring predictable events.

The surroundings that Kit finds her are much too plain for such an extraordinary girl. London was most definitely the best place to set the book. It’s a large enough city that murders aren’t to suspicious, but are still investigated. The dreariness of London with the overcast sky (oh boy outside my bedroom it looks overcast too) and history add an air of finesse that can’t be accomplished anywhere else.

This book was a quiet stalker. It’s going to haunt me for a while; I’m going to have to build my world up from the ground up trying to comprehend what just happened. You don’t read this book for the sake of finding of a good entertaining story, but for the reason of finding a book that makes you question certain things. Thinking beyond the book, but also how it applies to your own life.  Rating: «««««