Creating Suspense!

Within the book Trash by Andy Mulligan, a lot of suspense is added to keep the reader wondering and reading. It is very effective because readers will just be curious throughout the whole book and keep reading to know what happens in the story.

He places a trail of clues for readers to follow along adding on one after another elements of mystery. For example he always adds on a mysterious item that usually reveals a piece of information that they would know nothing about. An example of these items is the first thing they found, the bag full of things. They gave us a name of a person that we didn’t know about yet; Jose Angelico.

Another method of suspense he used was conflict. He created conflict between characters to make readers question who would win or what would result out of their rivalry. Some rivalries found throughout Trash are Raphael with the police racing against to see who would solve the mystery or hide and bury the whole mystery and all evidence related to it.

In addition he also makes the characters work against a deadline to increase suspense and make readers wonder if they’re gonna do what they need to do in time. They put in quite a lot of scenarios or problems that characters have to complete in time or before someone else in order to be ‘safe’ or to survive. For example, the dumpsite boys are in one whole huge race against the police to see who could bury or solve the mystery first. If the dumpsite boys were to solve the mystery first the police knew they would be ruined and exposed. But if the police were to bury the mystery before the boys could solve it the boys would never be able to solve the mystery and bring justice to the crime.

Andy Mulligan also switches between characters, this method helps to create suspense because it makes us wonder what is happening to the others. This technique is also used for the purpose that different characters know different things and if they start talking about something that hasn’t been told before, the reader would be completely confused about what they are talking about. This creates suspense, compelling you to read on. Some characters that recount the story are, Rat, Grace, Father Juilliard, Sister Olivia, Gardo and Raphael.

He also makes the reader wonder about the nature and purpose of some characters, whether they are good, or evil. An example of this is Jose Angelico, when the police come by searching for the thrown away belongings of Jose Angelico, it makes you wonder what the police want with him, if he’s a bad man. But then it is also revealed that the police are bad, corrupt people and makes you lean over to the opinion that he is a good guy. In addition, we also feel this way about Gabriel Olondriz, the first impression we get of him is that he is a bad and dangerous man that went to prison for a murder of some sort. But when he tells his story it makes you wonder if he’s a good guy and he’s telling the truth or he is COMPLETELY devious and made up a big lie to sound innocent.