Showing posts with label Book Reviews. Show all posts

Graffiti Moon Restored My Faith In Contemporary


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     This book came so close to being an all time favourite, which is weird because a) I hate contemporaries with a passion and b) only  a handful of books sit on my ATF shelf (actually, they're two). But I would have gladly handed a five star, gushing review, had it not been for the ending. 

You see, this books is me. It has me written all over it, and it's the kind of book that a certain type of people will obsessivly relate to. Even though Lucy, the MC and I are so different, I could see part of myself in her that rarely any book can portray well. 

Lucy is a dreamer. She falls in love with ideas, not people, and she'd escape any touch of reality in a heart beat. Only difference is that this book shows you that both dreams and reality can be sort of mixed together. The book starts out with Lucy looking after the artist by the name of Shadow, one who paints creative graffiti on walls. As any person with a mind like that of Lucy's, she made up an entire character and personality to go with this artist she'd never met. And just like in real life, that idea she has couldn't be more wrong. 

Except this time, the author does it beautifully. 

Enter: Edd. Gosh, I don't want to fangirl. I really won't, but let me just quote Lucy here (this is NOT a spoiler by the way. It's revealed in the second chapter): 

An artist who paints things like that is someone I could fall. Really fall for

Back to the I-Hate-Contemporaries shenanigin. Let's see.. we've already established that I hate them. Then why did I pick up this book? Basically, I wanted to read this book as a sort of art practice. I'd promised myself I'd draw every graffiti piece mentioned, and naturally.. I ended up doing only one.. 

There's one of  Shadow's pieces, a painting on a crumbling wall of a heart cracked by an earthquake with the words: Beyond The Richter Scale written underneath. It's not a heart like you see on a Valentine's Day card. It's the heart how it really is: fine veins and atriums and arteries. A fist-size forest in our chest. 



With all it's beauty and fun and humor (emphasis on humor), I deducted a star because of the ending. It fell flat and anti climactic for me. In my opinion, it could have been done better. Still though, if you are a non-believer in contemporaries like myself, read this book. Worse case scenario: you'll find it a fun, joyous ride. Best case scenario: You'll fall in love with the words and the descriptions of art. 


Final Words: Aussie authors are wizards in disguise. They're too good to be true. 

Review: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak


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  Death scares me.

Not in the occasional fleeting kind of way, but the sleep loss, anxiety attacks skind. Most people get over that fear, or stop thinking about it somewhere in their preteen years. You just make peace with the fact that one day, you're going to die.

I don't.

It wouldn't be exaggerating if I told you that at all times, the thought of death is lingering somewhere in the back of my mind. So I do what I find is comforting the most:  I read or write about what irks me. And I read this book, one that is narrated by death itself. I didn't do it to punish myself, I did it because reading heals. You read about something for so long, and it becomes a norm, and I'll be damned if this book wasn't healing. Not only is it bizarre to read a book from Death's point of few, but it was entertaining. Death had that dark sense of humor to him. You'll laugh and cry at the same time because of it.

I don't want to talk about the actual book. If you haven't read it, I want you to go in blind, just like I did. On the first few pages, you'll know this book is different. By the first few chapters, you'll become immersed in the novel, and as you read the last chapter (tissues will be involved, take my word on that), you'll know this is a book that will stay with you for a long time.

Final Words: If you can read this sentence, read that book. Right now, it sits among my All time Favourite shelf, with only ONE other book to keep it company. That's how much I loved it.





 Have you read the book? Then let's discuss the hell out of it.

P.S: DO NOT click the button below if you haven't read the book. It might get spoilery. Also, be sure to mention it if there's a spoiler in your comment. 

Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth


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Have I ever introduced you guys to my meh-o-meter before? No, I promise, this isn't an innuendo.

If you've been reading my blog long enough, you know my brain is messed up. Big time. The meh-o-meter is just one way the mess manifests itself. The meh-o-meter doesn't help at all with the overall rating of the book, but it does help shape my review. Basically, it's the number of times my inner voice goes..meh whilst reading a book.

This meh can be an indication of a cliche character, a badly written scene, a plot hole, annoying dialogue/characters. 

To put it into perspective, while reading Finnikin of The Rock, one of my all time favorites, my meh-o-meter was no where in sight. While reading The 5th Wave, a highly aggravating book for me, my meh-o-meter was sky rocketing.

And then there is Divergent.

Insecure MC? Meh.

Awkward dialogue between Tris and Four? Meh.

Characters over analyzing each other out loud to build characterization even though those could be delivered in a much subtler way? Meh.

World building? Meh. 

Writing? Huge meh. 

Ending? Yup, you guessed it.. Meh.


Now to be fair, some of these need to be further addressed  Like the writing for example. It isn't at all terrible, it gets straight to the point. But you know whose writing does that too in a much more layered way? Suzanne Collins. Now, I promise this will be the first and last comparison I ever make between the two books because, other than Tris and Katniss rhyming together, both of them have nothing in common. But if I read an excerpt from any of Roth's other books, I wouldn't be able to tell it's her, and for a book that was as hyped as Divergent was, I was expecting more. The action delivered, though. There was more than enough to go around, and if anything, this was a highly entertaining read. There was always something happening.

And the MC, Tris Prior? I didn't hate her, but some of the things she did truly annoyed me. Most of all was how she felt insecure about her looks. Now, I can't stress this enough, but I DON'T like reading about female characters insecure about their body. Not because it's unrealistic, or wrong. Absolutely not. Whatever you think of your body is up to you, but I would love to read about a girl who feels confident in her skin for a change. Having Tris complain about her bony body made me uneasy. I have this theory, which may or may not be true, that having more female characters that are confident in their bodies will in return encourage girls to feel like it's OKAY to be secure. That it's okay to like what you see in the mirror.

But I'm not limiting Tris to what she thought of her looks. She was a very brave character, and I loved that about her. Jumping off a seven story building? That's some badassery right there. I couldn't imagine doing the same.

The idea of factions was hard to get my head around. Plus, too many aspects of the world building was left unclear. Was this faction thing nation wide? Was this only in Chicago? How did it happen? Maybe it was explained, and I just didn't notice. I tend to do that.

Aaand the romance. For a book so high on my meh-o-meter, the romance was surprisingly done well. There has to be sufficient reasons as to why two characters might like each other. I understood why Tris did.  Four was someone I'd like to date. He balances attractiveness with likability. He was mature, and charming, and very smart. But often, with first-person books, I keep wondering why the other person is attracted to our narrator. Here, it wasn't the case. I could see why a guy like Four would be interested in Tris. Roth put in enough scenes to explain that, and so the romance developed nicely, without the insta-love that is a trademark of so many books.

The ending was one of my least favorite parts. I can't pin point what it is that I didn't like. I guess that throughout the novel, I kept expecting the ending to pick things up, and make me understand just why this book is so hyped. That wasn't the case. It was at parts rushed, somewhat predictable and too simple for my liking.

Final words: Liked it, but it didn't live up to the hype.


Did you read the book? Then let's discuss the hell out of it!
P.S: Do NOT click the button bellow unless you've read the book. It might get spoilery.