Hey Nostradamus! ; 1988: Cheryl

 In the first part of the novel Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland, we see through the character Cheryl Anway's point of view what occurred the day of the tragedy at her high school cafeteria.Cheryl was an ordinary religious girl living in Vancouver, part of the Youth Alive! group who lived a doubtfully and secretive live who would've never imagined that on a usual routined day, her life was about to come to an end. As she narrates the scenery of that very awful day, Cheryl also discusses what was occurring in her life. Cheryl had recently flown out to Las Vegas to elope with her high school sweetheart Jason and the morning of the incident they discovered that she was pregnant. With all this in mind, while in math class Cheryl scribbled on her binder the words, "God is nowhere/ God is now here" (9) which appeared to be her last will. Suddenly it was lunch time and like every other day she met with her lunch bunch group in the cafeteria in the table causing most attention the centered table. Then it all began; the end to the life's of thousands of students. Three students shot kids for no apparent reason  and just like everybody else Cheryl and her group hid under the table with fear and as quiet as possible. Unfortunately, her friend accidentally moved a can making noise which brought attention to the table and that was it for Cheryl Anway. She was shot and left to die slowly leaving behind her loving husband and an unborn baby joining the other souls in heaven.


Though I have read very few works I must say this novel is one that I definitely enjoy reading. After reading this first part i felt very intrigued by it, it made me want to continue reading and search for more answers. I love the techniques that Coupland uses such as the great amount of analogy's and all the visual work he uses. As i read i was able to paint a clear image of the scenery and everything that was happening in the cafeteria which i really liked. Also, I found some of the points that Cheryl brought up to be fairly interesting because they made me think a lot and made me really think about the world and everything that goes on in my life. For instance, she points out how much religion had to do in my life and how sometimes people only pray when they need from god. Her story itself was interesting, I feel like many can relate to it because it's a young love sort of thing. Hence, it made me sad and angry to think that there are actually heartless people who would have the guts to do such a thing and take away the lives of so many young people who have their whole life ahead of them. Makes me wonder how bad their lives must be to do such a cruel act. Over all I really enjoyed reading this book and look forward to continue reading.