The book The Nine Lives of Chloe King, by Liz Braswell, is about a 16 year-old girl named Chloe King. In the beginning, she seems to be your average teen. However, as you get deeper and deeper into the book, you pick up more and more clues to her true identity. The story starts off with Chloe deciding to skip school with her two best friends, Paul and Amy. She falls off the Coit Tower on her head, and to everyone's surprise, she survives. That was the first hint. Then, she finds out that she's a cat, and that a group, or cult if you will, called The Order of the Tenth Blade, is trying to kill her. She becomes the leader of her Pride (remember, she's a cat), and she escapes death a bunch of times. That really means that she dies, but she comes back to life. The story is about her adventures with her friends, her trying to find out who her mom is, and her struggling with three different relationships. Braswell uses her eyes (which are featured on the cover of the book), among other objects, to symbolize who Chloe really is.
In the book, there are many symbols. Chloe's eyes, when she is in cat form, is the first symbol you encounter, because it is on the cover of the book. Her eyes are a very important symbol of Chloe. There is a saying that says, "eyes are the window to the soul". I think that this applies to Chloe, because her eyes reveal who she truly is inside. Her eyes are different from most people's, and she is different from most people.
In conclusion, Liz Braswell uses Chloe's eyes to symbolize "her inner self" or who she really is. There were some other symbols in the story, but they were minor compared to her eyes. Symbolism plays a very important role in any story, because it gives readers more insight into the characters. It helps shape the story is a "show not tell" way, and it keeps the reader thinking deeply about the story.
