If I Stay – Book Review

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If I Stay has it all. A flourishing friendship, bittersweet romance and enduring family. While this story was set in an insanely short space of time, Gayle Forman still manages to create a beautiful novel so effortlessly that I grew to love.

Gayle Forman puts readers in a position that other authors never have before. And I see why many authors may not have tried. Because it’s hard. It’s difficult endeavour, and Forman did a darn good job at making this story, a moving and powerful story. Life was good for Mia before the car accident. She had both parents, a little brother, boyfriend and best-friend. But after the accident, she’s only got a boyfriend and a best-friend.  When Mia finds herself looking down at her butchered body, she needs to decide, if she goes, so she can be with her family or if she stays. A short novel expanded my momentous flashbacks, we watch Mia’s past seventeen years like a film, and us readers, get torn between the decision as well. Stay or leave?

I found it hard to engage with Mia – but considering she was disconnected from the word I’m not surprised that I was disconnected from her.  However it wasn’t hard to not like Mia. Given her tragic conditions – on the death bed, her passion for music was rather a huge bonus. Music has always been part of my life, and I am a fan of classical music and playing it – it soothes me when I go crazy. Her relationship with music and love was beautifully written and I thought it was very interesting way to look at the world. Mia’s best friend, Kim also happened to be one of my favourite characters. She was so fiery and full of love for Mia, I honestly wish I could have Kim as my bestie.

But no one beats Adam. Yes, he got irritated easily but being flawless is rather unattractive, right? There are so many quotable sentences by him I simply must share a one of my favourites:

“If you stay, I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll quit the band, go with you to New York. But if you need me to go away, I’ll do that, too. I was talking to Liz and she said maybe coming back to your old life would be too painful, that maybe it’d be easier for you to erase us. And that would suck, but I’d do it. I can lose you like that if I don’t lose you today. I’ll let you go. If you stay.”

This is a beautifully written novel about love and life. It Kind of snuck up on me. I didn’t think I was into this story but I started to tear up during one of the scenes (it was the one when Gramps came in to talk to Mia) and I had to reach for tissues. I’ve heard such great things about Gayle Forman’s books and I’m so glad that I decided to read one. I will definitely be n the look out to read more from this fantastic YA author.

 

Ana

Top Ten Tuesday – Top Ten Favorite Authors

There are so many authors that I truly adore, which makes it really difficult for me to choose just ten.

So I decided to go with the authors that I loved so much that made me read all of their books. So, without further ado, here is my Top Ten Favorite Authors (In no particular order)!

1. J.R.R Tokien – I feel as if there is not author that compares to him. The depth and detail he adds into his writing is amazing. Adding languages, poetry, stories within stories, and just this great depth of history makes you feel like you are in a real world.
2. J.K. Rowling – Her books were my childhood, I grew up with them and would’t change that even if I could. I could read the Harry Potter series for the rest of my life, that just how much I love it. Joanna tough me so many things through her books and I’m really thankful.
3.  Charles Dickens – There are no words to describe my love and respect for Mr.Dickens books. I just feel that he is such an incredible story teller. Great Expectations and David Copperfield are my favorites among his novels.
4. Fyodor Dostoevsky – I feel that Dostoevsky is in completely different level from all the other authors. He’s a genius, anyone who read Crime and Punishment can bow to that.
5. Leo Tolstoy – The thing that I loved most about his work is the way in which his imagination was never daunted. His world is large, and his characters have their own life, and are not his puppets.
6. Jane Austen – You haven’t read a great love story until you read one of Jane Austen novels.
7. Stephen King – A master of Horror and understanding of how the human psyche works when he is trying to create a work of pure terror. His Ideas are somewhat too terrifying in some of his works, but he makes up for that in the Dark Tower series which are just riveting and a masterpiece among the fantasy writers.
8. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – Have you read The Adventures of  Sherlock Holmes? It’s the work of pure genius.
9. John Green (A new favorite) –  My most recent obsession. I just can’t get over how much I adore all of his books.
10. Oscar Wilde – Just pure satirical genius and very enthralling.

Eleanor and Park – Book Review

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I will star by being completely honest by admitting that  I had this book sitting on my desk for a few months and I don’t know why exactly, mostly because I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy it. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s such a wonderful book.

If I could use one word to describe this story, it would be “adorable”. Eleanor and Park fell in love on the bus listening to ’80’s music and reading comic books. Can it get any cuter than that? I submit that it cannot! Told in alternating points-of-view, this story will grab onto you and not let you go until the ending.

This book gave me that melty, clenchy feeling in my chest, the warm fuzzies in my stomach. I was basically a mess throughout the entire thing. These two characters had my emotions going up and down like someone was beating on them with one of those sledgehammers at a carnival, trying to get them to climb to the top of that lit up pole again and again. And every time I thought they couldn’t go any higher, Park would do or say something else that sent me flying up, up, up…

Eleanor is the new girl in school. She describes herself as chubby and plain. After her mother’s abusive husband kicked Eleanor, she moved in with some family friends. Now, a year later, she’s back living with her mother, step-father, and siblings in a new town and a rather cramped house. The first day of school she gets on the bus and every kid pulls a “you-can’t-sit-here” (think Forrest Gump). The only seat available is the one next Park, and he is less than welcoming.

Eleanor refers to Park as “the stupid Asian kid,” which totally made me giggle. Unlike Eleanor, Park has a relatively normal family. The son of a Vietnam war veteran and Korean native, Park is a music junkie and a boss in taekwondo. Most of the time, he keeps to himself. He doesn’t want to like Eleanor, but it doesn’t take him long to realize that fighting his feelings is a losing battle.

Their love story was slow-building, which is probably my favorite kind of love story (Just like The Fault in Our Stars and Anna and the French Kiss). Park lends Eleanor his headphones and Sony Walkman, and she is immediately drowning in the emotions the music evokes. The adorableness continues when he makes her mix tapes and brings comic books especially for her. It doesn’t take long for their seat buddy status to change from acquaintances to friends to something more. Leading up to the “shouting-from-the-rooftops I love you” moment, Eleanor and Park share secret looks and stolen glances.

Let me tell you, Eleanor & Park contains the hottest hand-holding scene of ALL TIME, hands down (pun intended).

Park always tugged on Eleanor’s scarf or nudged her with his shoulder, but he never actually touched her skin. The build-up to this was almost unbearable.

“As soon as he touched her, he wondered how he’d gone so long without doing it. He rubbed his thumb through her palm and up her fingers, and was aware of her every breath.”

“When he touched, Eleanor’s hand, he recognized her. He knew.”

GAH. I cannot with him. Can. Not. He’s definitely top-five-book-boy material. I don’t think I’ve ever flailed so hard over a simple hand holding scene.

Eleanor tries hard to hide her family life from Park, but he eventually finds out the horrible truth and is willing to do anything to help her get out. His protectiveness and caring nature is what I love most about him. He no longer cared what anyone at school said about her or what his family thought of her. He only wanted her. Just her. No matter what.

Sadly, as Park and Eleanor learn the hard way, sometimes not all first loves are meant to be forever…or are they?

The end of this book left me in tears. Like, legit streaming down my face, stuttering, had to get up and leave the room so that my cat wouldn’t think I was crazy. Any book that as that effect on me usually goes straight to my favorites pile, but I’ll admit, I knocked this one down a star because this ending – though it made sense -was…kind of unfulfilling. I wanted more! I wanted her to CALL HIM. I wanted her to write him back! I just wanted more. Just a teensy, tiny, little bit.
Open ended endings aren’t my favorite, and though what I’m left with tells me I can picture a happy ending for these two young lovers…I still question whether or not it actually happened if the author doesn’t tell me herself. I admit that it keeps me awake at night, not knowing. Basically, it was a bit of a disappointment after all my happy-swoony-puddly feelings from the beginning.

But don’t worry you may not even cry, most people that I know that read the book didn’t cry. You may, however, be sighing throughout the whole freaking book.

 

Ana

The Fault in Our Stars – Book Review

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This book as become one of my top favorites.
I just can’t get over how amazing it was.

John Green has been critically acclaimed for some time within the writing community, but only lately some of his novels like ‘Looking For Alaska’ and ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ have managed to achieve mainstream success.
Green typically writes books for young adults, and more often than not, they end in tragedy. But not the kind of tragedy that leads you into a depression, instead it’s one that makes you analyse life in a way that makes you appreciate what you have.  See, it’s Green’s subtle talent to translate his thoughts into relatable words and make you believe that what happens in his books could have happened to you. He writes for you rather than to you, and he presents the events in such a way that you don’t feel like you’re reading someone else’s story.
When I first jumped into The Fault In Our Stars I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting myself into, considering that so many people were recommending it to others and that it had such an unbelievable rating. I’ve fallen into the trap of people recommending popular books that left me wondering why they were so successful in the first place many times before.

The Fault in Our Stars is about a young cancer-ridden girl, Hazel Grace Lancaster. Surviving on borrowed time, Hazel’s story takes an unexpected turn when she meets Augustus Waters, a handsome young man who fought cancer himself. While cancer is a touchy topic from any angle, Green masterfully uses that to his advantage as he explores the love story of people who literally have to appreciate every moment and the end result is beautiful.

The Fault in Our Stars is an exceptionally powerful story. It is told completely from Hazel’s point of view, and her unconventional thoughts on her disease and experiences are surprising and refreshing.

Augustus is also a fascinating character, perhaps partially because the readers aren’t in his head, and he’s therefore more of a mystery than Hazel. He’s definitely eccentric, and he proves this early in the book when he puts a cigarette in his mouth. He explains he never smokes, but says it’s a metaphor: “You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don’t give it the power to do its killing.”

I just have such strong feelings about this book, that I can’t seem to find the right words to write.

I totally recommend this book, is such an amazing read, full of love, laughter and the inevitable tears.

This was my first John Green novel.  I Loved it with a capital “L”.  The exquisite and emotional story tugged at me in ways very few novels have.  I can probably tick them off on one hand, honestly.  Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters are like two star-crossed lovers in my mind.  Fated, but their infinity together is unfairly small.  Bound together by cancer, they bond, not just with each other, but with the idea that they will not live forever, so they must live now.  And live they do.

John Green doesn’t keep The Fault In Our Stars all sobs and heartbreak.  He somehow knows what it’s like, that to have cancer, you must have a sense of humor about life and all the things in it.  So many scenes, or small quotes from the characters themselves had me laughing out loud.  I quickly fell in love with all of them.

One of the things that I most loved about this book  is the realistic concept, rather than a, “Surprise!  You’re cured!” approach I think some authors would take. There is no happily-ever-after in this story.  There is only before and after.   Green is not afraid to make his readers feel, or think.  And that’s what The Fault In Our Stars does:  it makes you think, about life, death, mortality, the Before and the After, and what you are making of your life now.

Basically what I’m saying is, this book deserves the highest praise and I bow down its greatness and John Green.
I just have such strong feelings about this book ❤ ❤

 

Ana

Divergent Trilogy Review

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I have to admit that I wasn’t that keen on reading this books, I don’t really know why, but they were on my reading list for months.
So last month I decided since the movie is coming out soon, I might as well give it a go before watching the movie.
To anyone out there that is having second thoughts on reading this books, please don’t! It was quite a good reading, with quite a few disappointments, but still, worth the time.

The series is set in a dystopian version of Chicago, where the population is divided into factions, kind of like in The Hunger Games where the world is divided into 13 districts (or 12 if you don’t count District 13) or even in Harry Potter where they are divided into different houses.  Divergent is set after a terrible war, everyone lives by one of five principles: the selfless Abnegation, the brave Dauntless, the intelligent Erudite, the peaceful Amity, the honest Candor. At sixteen a person takes a test to see which principle they best emulate, and then they must choose to either stay in the faction they were born, or choose to leave their family to emulate a different principle and live with a different faction.

The young adult series has firmly landed Veronica Roth on the top of the best-seller list, but I have to say I wasn’t terribly impressed with the trilogy as whole. Maybe because I don’t really agree with finale and the third book seemed I little rushed to me. The first book – Divergent – was probably my favorite. It tells us all about this new fascinating world, and the main character, Tris, was compelling and engaging in a not obnoxious and whiny way like some of the YA protagonists out there. All three books are narrated from Tris perspective (except the last book of the series, which is alternated from Tris to Four). Tris is a Divergent – someone who doesn’t categorize in just one faction – and the series revolve mostly around that fact.

I’m a big fan of the romance in this books.  Tris becomes romantically involve with Four – also called Tobias – who she first meets because he is her tutor/teacher. I know that some people didn’t quite agree with the idea of the heroine being involve with a Teacher, but I just don’t see what’s the problem. It’s a completely different world, he is only two years older than her and there is no rule against it. So I say why not? I would love to be romantically involve with Four. 😛

Unfortunately, the things I liked about Divergent didn’t get carried through the series very well and Insurgent and Allegiant developed far more problems as the series went on.

I could argue that Insurgent is the worst of all three books simply because it features far too much of Tris and Four bickering and arguing, with a lot of sexual tension in between. Now, I get that Veronica is apparently deeply uncomfortable in writing love scenes, but that doesn’t mean that you can make the rest of us feel frustrated about it. I think that with so much bigger problems to be discussed, Veronica, decided to focused on the problems of their relationship and to not resolve them until the end of the book.

The plot of Allegiant revolves around human nature and requires an explanation of genetics. Most portions of this explanation are straight up wrong, and genetics isn’t exactly complicated science either. So yeah, a “science fiction” series which is anti-science is probably not the best thing for me to be reading, and may have biased my opinion. Still I more than happy to discover that Tris and Four overcome their relationship issues to establish a bond of mutual trust and respect.

That said, I think there are several fundamental problems with the series on the writing front. Veronica seemed to eager to finish the series and didn’t really took time to think the second and the third book through. The majority of the characters are not very well-developed. The protagonist, Tris, and several of the major villains have their motives extensively detailed, and Tris in particular fights an interesting psychological battle with herself over the course of the series. But most of the minor characters are woefully underdeveloped, and large portions of the population tend to act as the plot tells them too, and not in a natural or convincing manner. The author seems to have particular issues with portraying male characters realistically, and I felt the most prominent male characters, Tobias, Marcus, Perter and David were all forced to act against the characters established for them in order to provide resolution for the series.

With this in mind,  I liked the first book, and thought it showed promise, but the second two books really fell flat for me. Still I recommend this series, at least the first book.

One last note,  and this may be a little spoilery so if you haven’t read the series and plan to you may want to skip this last paragraph. Love also becomes a central theme, true selfless, sacrificial love. While many readers were angry with the conclusion to the final book (I have to say that, I was one of those angry people in the beginning, because I couldn’t understand why would the author, after making the characters go through so much pain, would not give them a happy ending), keeping these themes in mind, the book concludes exactly as it should, and is ultimately beautiful, true and poetic.

Ana