The Staircase By Ann Rinaldi: Climax

The climax, or the most exciting  part, is throughout the whole book. I starts at the end of the beginning. I know that sounds weird, so let me explain. After the very beginning, when the families had finally arrived at Santa Fe, Lizzy was left in Santa Fe with no warning. That is the very beginning of the climax. Now the end of the climax is right before Lizzy moves in with her father (that kind of spoils it). Everything in her life is upside down, everything that she expected to go one way, went the other. Now, that's exactly what happened in the end with the reader. I thought that Lizzy would never forgive her father, move in with her uncle after she finished school. That's where I got hit. The exact opposite happened. Lizzy went to move in with her father, she forgave him, she didn't finish school at Our Lady of Light (the girls catholic school), ad she only sent letters to her uncle. So it starts and finishes the same way, everything is resolved, everyone is at peace.  Now I have to tell you about the middle. The long tangled up middle. I told you the beginning, the one part that I thought was the most exciting, but horrible part was when Elinora (A.K.A. the evil one) poked Lizzy's kitten, Cleo, in the eyes... with a needle! I felt like crying! Can you imagine a cute, poor, defenseless, little kitten taken form her owner and stabbed in the eyes with a needle?! It's okay if you wanna cry. Then the kitten was thrown out the window! I felt so bad, and I'm sure you do too. But, the weird thing is, the kitten was blind for a little while, then some old carpenter, allegedly St. Joseph, held Cleo in his hands and "cured" her form her blindness. I believe it was St. Joseph, but it's up to you to find out! READ THE BOOK! (EVEN THOUGH I JUST SPOILED A LOT OF IT!) FYI, I finished the book.

KF