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The antagonist in this book is Sasha Stone’s dead twin sister: Shanna. Shanna has been inside on Sasha since birth and only prevailed once Sasha found out about her. Shanna tries to get Sasha to do all of these inappropriate things Sasha would have never thought of. Shanna wanted to Sasha to be rebellious just like her and for the most part, got her way.

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Another book written by Mindy McGinnis in 2017 is "The Female Of The Species". The book is not a part of a series and neither is the current book I'm reading "This Darkness Mine".

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There are multiple climaxes in the novel, but the one that took the biggest turn, was when Sasha jumped out of her window to see Isaac. She later ended up in the hospital, the doctors found out about her heart problems, and everything just went downhill from there. I was in shock when she did that because I didn’t think that needed to happen.

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The setting of the book is in so many different places. One is in the school Sasha attends, usually and mainly at the lunch table where her, all of her friends and her boyfriend sit. Another main setting is Sasha's home. One other important setting in this novel is the hospital where she spent most of her time after jumping out of her window. The setting changed a lot and there was not one singular set place.

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The novel starts out with Sasha (the main character) at school sitting at the lunch table with all of her friends while she is picking out a reed splinter from her gums. In the opening, there are a lot of references to music which allowed me to see that she has some sort of interest in music. The author made it very clear that Sasha was the smartest out of the bunch compared to her other friends. She has had perfect grades ever since she started school, and already had her future planned out.

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Simile: "I wake sore, lips swollen as if I'd play for hours" (McGinnis 95).
Metaphor: "He doesn't leave a voice mail, but seconds later a text comes in, the vibration of the phone matching the one in my chest" (McGinnis 61).
Hyperbole: "Splinters are bones. I will rise er(up)tion. One day you h(ate) me" (McGinnis 144)

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I think the ending was a bit dramatic. Sasha stabbing her chest and shoving Isaac’s hand inside her body was unnecessary. I think it would have been better if she just died, or waited for a heart for her. It would have prevented a lot of problems and she could have kept Isaac in the end, even if Sasha claimed it was Shanna, or she could have died in peace.

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Isaac! Sasha did you dirty. I know you loved her and everything but she was not claiming you at all. She really got you when she shoved your hand in her chest. That itself got you in a lot of trouble, you could have gone to jail for murder if she didn’t live. I don’t even know why she did that honestly. I say stay away from her man. I know girls like her and they are a hot mess. Stay as far away from her,I want the best for you and I genuinely don’t think it is her.

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I know this is horrendous. I tried to recreate the image that was in my mind but it didn't quite go as planned. It is supposed to be a two faced girl, one good, one evil, representing the book.

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“This Darkness Mine" is a novel I would recommend to people because it is not what you expect. Once you start reading it, you most likely won't be able to put the book down, and that is coming from me, a person who despises reading. The plot is very well developed and things you'd never expect to happen, happen. It is extremely interesting and will pull you in, making you want to know what happens next. Books are never a thing I would recommend but this has been one of the few that have made me become more of a book lover.

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“Why did you want Shanna out of you so badly?”

Sasha felt like Shanna was intervening with Sasha’s perfect cookie cutter life. Sasha had everything planned out for her future but she felt like Shanna was slowing her down, making Sasha do things she would never do, say things she would never say, causing Sasha to want to get rid of Shanna for good.

“Did you really love Isaac?”

No, Sasha did not love Isaac. She blamed everything she did with him on Shanna. He went along with is because she was “the smart one”. As he continued putting up with what Sasha said, he slowly began to fall for her even harder, while she was not phased by him at all.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone about your heart problems?”

Sasha didn’t want to think anything of her heart problems because it was not sticking to her life plan. If something turned out to be wrong with her, that would cost Sasha her future. So she stayed silent, hoping it was just something minor, so she could continue living her scripted life.

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"Don't let the inner demons ruin the future."
I think this perfectly describes the lesson in this book. Sasha didn't let Shanna completely ruin her future. It may be different from what she originally planned but different isn't always bad.

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This novel is truly one of a kind, I can’t seem to make any solid connections between the pages and real life. The closest I can get to are character traits and maybe the setting, but the conflict is something I’ve never seen ever. I personally think that I am half like Sasha and half like Shanna. One side of me just wants to focus on school and do really well, have a well thought out and planned future. But there is also the other side of me who wants to go out with friends and have fun, be a little rebellious sometimes but not too much that I could get into trouble.

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This novel is told in the point of view of the main character: Sasha Stone, first person. The novel is all in her perspective and it give the readers some insight on what is going through her mind at all times.

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There are certain parts of this novel that reminds me of many things. Sasha is the perfect student, about to be valedictorian of her class. She is in a relationship with Heath and they've been together since they were little. This to me sounds like a typical love story, nothing special. She then ends up falling for a bad boy named Isaac, and he turns her into a rebellious girl. I also personally find this very basic, it is the typical plot twist that no one is supposed to suspect but everyone does suspect because it's been done so many times before. A thing that makes this novel stand out is the fact that Sasha's twin sister, Shanna, is living inside of her. They were in the womb together but Sasha kicked the cord, killing Shanna, and Sasha ended up retaining all of her sister's leftovers. This really shocked me as I continued to read this novel. I didn't piece it together at first because I thought she just had a dead twin, but when they started to communicate digitally with notes, that was when I realized this book is nothing like I've ever seen or read before.

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The Protagonist in this book is Sasha Stone herself. Like described in many of my other entries, she has had the perfect life up until she discovered her twin. Everything was going smoothly at home, in school, with her applications to colleges, everything! Shanna, the antagonist, really flipped her life upside down. If they were two seperate people, Sasha was the good child while Shanna was the rebellious one going crazy. But they aren’t two seperate people, they are one. One in Sasha’s body, and it has cost her so many things.

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“Like a lot of things, it only hurts if you let it” (McGinnis 3). As I continued to read this novel, this quote kept lingering in the back of my mind. As Sasha kept facing problems either with her heart or her evil twin inside of her, Sasha was a strong girl. This was one of the first quotes that appeared in the book and it stuck with me through every pain experience Sasha had.

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Sasha finally got a new heart and was able to get Shanna out of her. She ended up losing both Heath and Isaac. Heath was now dating one of Sasha’s closest friend Lilly, and Isaac didn’t want anything to do with Sasha because he thinks she is completely crazy. Sasha can now graduate with a new and healthy heart and continue on with her life.

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“My feet dangling over rushing water, I’m sitting next to Isaac Harver above a three-hundred-foot drop and getting lung cancer from secondhand smoke” (McGinnis 67).

She is describing her sense of smell, she is inhaling as Isaac is smoking next to her.

“I make an inarticulate shrieking noise that would get ,e expelled from any and all music programs, and fly about two feet up in the air, banging my knees on my desk” (McGinnis 83).

This is describing her sense of speaking, well, at least noise making from her mouth.

“My laptop  goes to sleep before I do, the dark screen staring vacantly back at me.” (McGinnis 84)

This is her sense of sight, being able to see the darkness of her laptop screen.

“...each thump reminding me of how warm it felt this morning when I picked it up.” (McGinnis 84) This describes her sense of touch, the fact that she felt the warmth of her laptop.

“I run my tongue over it, the tang of copper fading quickly.” (McGinnis 3)

This is her sense of taste as she pulled out a reed splinter from her gums.

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My character I am choosing for this is Isaac. His top three songs would be 1. “My War” by Black Flag https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eMvryXDHWQ , 2. “Disorder” by Joy Division https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrzGpVOPcTI , and 3. “Ace Of Spades” by Motorhead https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSsqavYIgNc . I think these songs represent him very well because I imagine him being a bad punk rock biker guy. These songs came to my mind right away, it just had the same vibes I was getting when I was reading about him.

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1. Mindy is an assistant teen librarian in Ohio.

2. She has a degree in English Literature and Religion.

3. She has 11 pets: 9 being cats, 2 being dogs.

4. She has visited many closed off insane asylums (may be illegal... most likely illegal).

5. She can feel her nails suffocate when she paints them.

6. She grew up on a farm.

7. She has a belly button phobia.

8. She has a blog to help aspiring writers to share their talent.

9. She has an extra valve in her heart and it runs in the family.

10. One of her cats can fetch like a dog.

There was no clear inspiration for her to write this book, I really wish she did an interview where she spoke about it but she hasn't done one. Either way, the book is still very attention grabbing.

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1. “Can you explain to me why you don’t like your sister Shanna?”

At first, I thought Shanna was going to be the fun side of you, but why do you not enjoy the fun side she brings out in you?

1. “Why didn’t you break up with Heath first, then get with Isaac?”

I really want to know because it seemed like you were leading the both of them on.

1. “Why did you not ask your mother about the ultrasound when you first found it?”

You tried to hide it from your parents as if they didn’t know about it. Why didn’t you just ask for clarification?

1. “Why did you stab yourself and shoved Isaac’s hand into your chest?”

I thought it was unnecessary because it seemed like you were trying to frame him.

1. “If you had a chance to die peacefully, would you have taken that chance?”

I just wanted to know because you could have waited it out to get your heart and not stab yourself.

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"Proem" by Martin Carter
Not, in the saying of you, are you
said. Baffled and like a root
stopped by a stone you turn back questioning
the tree you feed. But what the leaves hear
is not what the roots ask. Inexhaustibly,
being at one time what was to be said
and at another time what has been said
the saying of you remains the living of you
never to be said. But, enduring,
you change with the change that changes
and yet are not of the changing of any of you.
Ever yourself, you are always about
to be yourself in something else ever with me.

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Sasha stone herself, has xenophobia. Growing up, she was always the good girl. She always had perfect grades, attendance, behavior, everything! Her life was based on a routine and she did not want anything to possibly change that. Even her relationship with Heath is a monitored routine. They grew up together and he has provided that comfort for her at all times. They never do anything new, it is always a routine because Sasha didn't want anything to change in her life. She believed that if she kept up with the routine, she will end up where she wants in life.

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I want you to know that Sasha thought she was going crazy too. She realized she needed Shanna out of her, that's why her heart was so bad. Which explains why she stabbed her own chest and shoved Isaac’s hand inside of it. He loved Shanna, not Sasha, so Sasha thought that was the way to give him a piece of her dead twin. Sasha ended up getting a new heart and she tried contacting Heath and Isaac afterwards but they both completely disregarded her. She ended up graduating, Isaac dropped out, and Heath has been with one of Sasha’s closest friend: Lilly.

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One zinger to me was what I stated in my "Original" entry. I blew my mind that Sasha's twin sister is living inside of her!!!! That is one of the craziest and most twisted thing I could probably ever think of. I strayed away from reading what the book was about and jumped right into reading the actual novel and needless to say, I was shaking to the core.