For some reason, this book did not exactly appeal to me, despite it being an "ideal" book in a style I thoroughly enjoy to read. In fact, it took me four months to read this book, and it isn't like it's a long book or anything; it's only 199 pages long. To top it all off, whenever I did remember to read it (that's right, I had to remind myself to read, something I never do) I really liked it. The story was original, the characters realistic, the location interesting, the style enjoyable. But I just wouldn't read it. Not voluntarily, you see- as I said above, I actually enjoyed it- but my subconscious apparently just did not feel like it. Which was honestly so weird. And shameful.
I'm not sure my review makes a lot of sense up to this point, and I'm really unsure as to how to write this, because I'm not quite certain if it was the book that put me off or it was just some crazy thing my mind did, but as always I'll try my hardest to be fair and also honest at the same time. The blurb for this book is quite short, so I don't really want to give away any spoilers, but the long and short of it is that this is the story of a young English professor working in a boy's seminary in Brussels who falls in love with a young teacher in the neighboring ladies' pensionnat. However, the pensionnat's headmistress, Mlle Zoraïde Reuter, is quite intent on breaking their relationship, just because, you know, some people delight in ruining other people's lives. It was an enjoyable read, whenever I got around to reading it, so I am inclined to say it was probably my fault and not the book's, because, funnily enough, its similar to my favourite book (Pride and Prejudice: click here to read my review on it). If you enjoy classics, try giving it a go! It was actually a good book, even if for some reason I struggled to find the willpower to read it.
0 Comments
So. The Legacy. It was a good read, overall, a bit sad but not enough to cry about really (at least for me, that is), although the ending was a bit disappointing, because... well, I'm not exactly able to pinpoint precisely what didn't work for me, but something didn't. The strands were tied, true, and the mystery was solved, but it was not as satisfying as I thought it would be. Unlike Kate Morton's "The House At Riverton" (I was going to post about that AGES ago, but it kind of slipped my mind... oops), the ending didn't appease my hunger to know more, but rather increased it... or maybe I just didn't really like the ending because of the story. It happens sometimes. Well, whatever the reason, this book was not for me. It was entertaining up to the very last chapter, where I just felt like throwing the book on the floor and huffing, in an oh-come-on-are-you-serious-this-can't-be-happening way.
Also, to be honest, I cheated. There aren't many ways one can cheat whilst reading a book, but what I did was I read one half of it first and then the other half. But not like, first pages, I don't know, 120-300, and then pages 0-120, or something of the sort, which is what my friend sometimes does, but more like half way through I was too engrossed in one of the stories being told and couldn't care less about the other and so I just kind of read the first one, which was like the memories, and then the other, "real" story, where they were trying to discover something to do with the memories (I'm not going to spoil anything this time. Promise). I just found myself too engrossed in the memories that when it came to the end of the chapter, I just skipped over to the next bit of the memories. Which probably wasn't a very good idea, because whatever effect the writer wanted the order of the stories to give I didn't find out. That being said, the overall plot was good, but the ending... Ughh. It was too open, and yet it wasn't. Whatever it was about the ending, it didn't work. It just didn't. I can't seem to explain it properly, but... I don't know. Read it if you want; it's not like it was bad or anything, it was actually pretty decent up until the last chapter or so, so don't be too put off by my opinion, because it's just that- an opinion. I hope that, if you read it, you enjoy it. Have a nice weekend! This was one of the most beautiful books I have EVER read. It was also one of the saddest I've ever read.
Last year, someone recommended this book to me, but I remember I just didn't feel like reading it at that time, so I just left it there, unopened. Almost a year later, I heard the movie soundtrack on the radio and realized I still hadn't read the book, which I admit is unusual for me. So I went, looked for it, found it, and started reading. And it just made me sob my head off. Literally. I honestly cried so much I was sure I would run out of tears to cry. I would probably rank it just underneath "A Monster Calls" (click here to read my review if you're interested: https://bookblog205.weebly.com/book-blog/a-monster-calls) in terms of sadness, but also in terms of beauty, for this book was beautiful. Simply beautiful. There's just no other word I can use that will convey exactly what I feel about it. It's basically about a girl who has thyroid cancer and meets a boy who had osteosarcoma at a help group for kids with cancer. Yeah, well, you can guess the story: they get to know each other and fall in love. But it's just so much more that that, except I can't actually tell you because that would be a spoiler. And as much as I like spoilers, I know a lot of people don't, and I guess it's always nice to be surprised by what you're reading. So, for once, I'll stay quiet and keep my mouth shut. Although it's really beautiful, I personally feel that it's better suited for teenagers than for adults. It just feels a bit awkward to be when I imagine adults reading it, although I'm not exactly sure why, and I'm sure many adults have read it already and will disagree, but maybe some teens out there will be able to relate with me and make me feel less guilty about feeling so. I'm going to leave it here, because I am finding myself unable to finish this review unless I tell you the ending, which I definitely don't want to do. I hope, if you do read this -or have already read it- that you liked it, because I definitely did. I´m not exactly sure how to start this review, but I do know I want to say this: I was quite disappointed with it. To be fair (I don't know if you've noticed but I always say this in negative reviews for some reason), the actual style of writing was okay. The language was a bit strong, but then again I couldn't be too shocked, for it is a book aimed at teens, and half the teen books in the world contain some form of swearing or references to... well, grown up stuff. Or at least in my experience they do. What I would probably say was my main issue with it was the storyline. It's well thought out, but it's just so depressing. And I mean so depressing. As I read this, I could feel my happiness sliding away from me down... and down... and down... into a void of nothingness. Literally. I was all pumped when I started this book, because a friend had recommended it to me and she had been like "Oh it's just so great and you should definitely read this and I really loved it", but then I read it and was all "Hey, WHAT? This is your opinion of good?" I get that she liked it because it kind of is her style, but seriously, no. Not for me. Oh no.
To me, the simple idea of destiny being written already is just horrible. Just thinking that everything is planned would prevent humans from reacting to events in our life, and we would become the laziest species to ever set foot on Earth, because the mentality of "Well, whatever I do this is going to happen, I cannot change it so I'll just not bother trying" is quite unmotivational, and around 80% of humans would do nothing during the course of their lives. Nothing. True, to have that feeling that you're in charge of your life, and that what you do will affect others, can be scary, but in my opinion it's a necessary thing in life. It can also be empowering, and hopeful, and makes humans better people. So a book about unchangeable fate is just unacceptable to me. That is my personal opinion, and I'm not asking you to agree with it, but I felt that it was necessary so that you could understand how that has affected my opinion of this book. The book's story is that of a girl who can see death dates when she looks into other people's eyes. Or, more specifically, that person's death date. Which is creepy, and weird, and depressing. Consequently, she withdraws into herself, becoming in the eyes of the people surrounding her an asocial orphan who just doesn't bother to try to socialize. But we, the readers, know better. It's true she doesn't make an effort, but we know why. So when she makes a new friend, alarm bells ring in our head. because we know how it's going to end. Because this is a book about fate, and this story's end has already been decided. And however much we start to believe that everything will work out, and however many times the author brings our hopes up and then throws them back down again, the ending doesn't change. Which is actually really depressing as well, if you think about it like that. I've pretty much told you the ending even though I promised myself I wouldn't, so I'm honestly sorry about that, but what's done is done, and it won't change. However, it's ambiguous enough so as to not give too much away, so I hope you'll forgive me. As always, if you've read it and have a totally different opinion, that's great, and I'd really appreciate it if you could put it in the comments for others to see, because my reviews are really biased and influenced by tastes, opinions and beliefs, so it's always nice to have a range of opinions. Hope you all found this review helpful! So, new post! I've been putting it off for a long time, but now I've finally gotten round to posting, I´ve written one that will hopefully make up for these pasts weeks when I haven't been active.
On a quick note before we start, I´d just like to say that the main reason I didn't feel like posting was that I knew I had to review this book, but I actually found it so hard to explain I kind of just left it on my To Do list and tried to ignore it. So I apologize if my feelings aren't exactly completely clear, but the books I like best are usually the hardest to review... Pride and Prejudice. Ironically, that title kept on putting me off, it sounded so grown up, but once I read it it immediately became my favourite book. It matches the plot so perfectly too, that one would think the plot was actually derived from the title, instead of it being the other way around. I loved the way this book is written; the manner in which Jane Austen presents the story to her audience, as well as her style of writing, is absolutely wonderful and a pleasure to read. At first, the formality of it can be a bit daunting, and I can relate to that, but once you get used to it, it doesn't bother you as much as you'd think. Also, the plot in itself is fantastic. Obviously, the plot is one of the main elements of a story, so if the plot is rubbish, then however well the author has written the story will not affect the fact that its a boring read. But I honestly have no complaints about this story, as it was nice and calm but still interesting and empathetic, which to me is a key point for success. Its neither fast-paced or slow and dragging, but a nice, in between point. I am currently studying Shakespeare in English class, and my teacher said something last lesson about his work which I thought I would incorporate into the review, because it can be applied to Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" too. She mentioned that the reason people still read Shakespeare was because his work was relatable, and the situations he presented in his plays were "universal truths", by which she meant that, whatever time in the history of human beings, these situations are still happening and can be applied to our current day life. Yes, the setting and manner changes slightly, but the principle is still the same as back in the 16th century, or the 18th, or even two thousand years ago. Thinking about it, that's probably the reason classics become classics, because if the story is completely irrelevant then it would almost surely not be passed on from generation to generation. Similarly to Shakespeare's plays, the situation in this story is quite relatable, or at least for me. I don't want to spoil it, but the situation where you refuse an offer and then you wish you hadn't is, I'm sure, quite common, even amongst us younger folks. The ending is nice and happy, and both unexpected and expected, a feeling I found was totally hilarious when I realized the fact I was experiencing two opposite feelings simultaneously. In a sense you expect it, but the situation in the book leads you to believe that it just can't be. This may sound a bit stuffy to teenagers inclined to read modern stuff and usually avoid classics, and I do understand that if classics aren't your style, then they're just not your style, but I find that those books are usually the ones who teach us valuable lessons in life- though I'm not saying modern books don't teach us things- but a lot of people tend to ignore them, and I think they're usually mistaken, because if a book is still famous many decades and even centuries ( in some cases ) after it was originally written then it must be either very important or very educational or very enjoyable. That doesn't not necessarily mean everyone will find them useful and interesting, but it does rather make them must-reads, whether they sound exciting or not. And really, this book is actually one of the best ones, because even though it may be quite formal at points the story is interesting and actually very funny in its own way. So, I was just trying to say here that, seriously, its a classic, but it's not that bad at all, so dint get too put off by that. Because it's REALLY REALLY good, and is currently my favourite book EVER, which, considering I read a lot of books (even more than are posted on this blog, so go figure) is incredibly high praise for a book to be given. So be brave, and just give it a go. If you like it? Well, that's brilliant. If you don't? Better luck next time, then. You have nothing to lose, so go ahead. Open the book. You might be surprised by what you find. The five Bennet sisters' placid and tranquil life is suddenly interrupted by the arrival in town of a rich young man, Mr Bingley, who has recently purchased an estate not far from their home. When the ladies learn he is single, they all begin vying for his attention, but his interest is soon caught up with the eldest Bennet sister, Jane. Meanwhile, his friend, the proud, arrogant and haughty Mr Darcy, who on his first day shunned everyone in town, starts to fall for the second of the sisters, Elizabeth. However, a young officer named Wickham appears at Meryton and confides to Elizabeth that Mr Darcy has always hated him and shares with her some tales of the injustice her has suffered because of him. Angered on his behalf, Elizabeth's contempt for Mr Darcy increases as she attempts to uncover the truth about him. But then she receives a startling proposal from none other than Darcy himself... This is a book that left me really surprised once I'd read it, for I got bored reading this. I got bored: BORED I almost can´t believe it myself. I never feel bored when I read books: depressed, angry, ashamed, guilty, excited, relieved, intrigued and just plain old happy are common feelings, but never bored. So this really was quite a new experience. I mean, I do occasionally skip a few pages if it starts to get a bit monotonous, but not often, and I soon get hooked back into the story. But not this time; from start to finish my boredom had increased tenfold. It was just so surprising, I really am a bit speechless.
But why was I bored? I pondered that question for sometime, but I didn't actually get it until I had a talk with my mum when she finished it a few days after I did. I'd told her that I hadn't liked it at all, and she just confirmed my fears: for the first time in my life, I heard her say that the movie was better than the book. I was astounded, but after watching the trailer and comparing it to the book, the book lacked some sentiment and interest that the movie (or at least the trailer) had in abundance. The way the book was presented was similar to a script but completely different, if that makes sense. I know it probably doesn't´t, but it does to me, so her with me whilst I try and explain: The book lacked description. Though there was some every time a new character or setting was introduced, there was not much else during the course of the book. I felt like the book raised a little protective wall around itself which prevented us from connecting with the characters' feelings throughout the book. There was this one point, at the end of the book, where the level of empathy went from like a low mid-point to a big fat zero. It was one of the most important parts in the plot, and yet it was told too simply. I know short sentences can be very effective at times, but I just felt this one did not have the impact it intended to have. It went a bit like this: And then _______________________ fell over and died. And it sounds like a powerful sentence here, but put into context it really doesn't. If you haven't gotten to know each of the characters properly during the story you can't be expected to feel their death keenly - or at least in my opinion. It really was a horrible sentence. And then the end was so depressing. That was the only other thing I felt as I read on. Depression. It´s just got such a negative ending, with everyone deserting the main character (Florence) and leaving her to feel guilty and ashamed of her failure. A very nice and cheerful ending to the book, don't you think? Overall, this book is a big NO NO NO! in my opinion. If you can't meet the characters properly and are then expected to feel bad for them then I'm sorry but in my opinion what you have in your hands is a waste of paper, time and money. I'm being rather harsh and brutal but it's the truth: if you haven't met them properly, then you won't possibly learn or enjoy yourself much as you read through the next 123 pages that make up the story. Okay, so I have to admit this book left me confused. I mean, I understood it, but I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I guess I liked reading it, and it was interesting and had a lot of plot twists and had me hooked until the end, but like... It was just so sad, and pretty much had almost every single issue a teenager can face mixed up into it. When I finished, I was kind of like "Gee, thanks, I'm really looking forward to growing up now." I mean, listen: your mum dies from Huntington's, which is an incurable genetical disease that you have a fifty percent chance of inheriting, except then you find out that, actually, she isn't your mum at all, but you were actually swapped at birth with someone else's baby, so you have no chance of inheriting the disease. All that in the first, what, 30 pages maybe? Go figure. And then, on the opposite side of the globe, hey, guess what? This other eighteen-year-old girl finds out she's pregnant when barely out of childhood herself. WHAAAAT??? Don't you have enough with the first girl? Nope, apparently not, because even though she's alone in the world with already too many problems to handle, we're just going to add some more worries to her plate, for then the first girl gets drunk and gets back with her boyfriend and goes traveling, but she breaks up again cause she just "happened" to find her real family and ruin their lives. Intense.
I know I sound totally against this book, and I'm not, not really; it was interesting and I like the way the conflict was resolved, but then again there's not really much point in doing this if I'm not going to be honest, so I always make sure to write down stuff that I didn't like about it and focus on that. All I try to do is point out my personal opinion, and sometimes I will write too much about the bad parts and forget about the good bits, but if there is ever a book I absolutely detest, you will know right away, for the first words in my review will be "I DID NOT LIKE THIS BOOK AT ALL." And as you can see, this review has not started like that, so you've sort of got to imagine that it is not as negative as it sounds. The book is intense, and all the constant issue can get sort of tedious, but I did like it and it could be considered a good book by some. Just kind of not my style. My favourite character was, weirdly enough, little Ben (the second girl's little brother), because the simplicity of his character stood out so much against all the complicated problems in the story and all the life changing decisions some of the other characters took. Plus he was very cute ;). So, I hope you liked my review, and, more importantly, if you read this, I hope you like the book. Note that I ADORE receiving comments (emphasis on adore), especially if your opinion differs from mine, so just to let you know... comments are always welcome here! I know comments have to be approved before they're published, and that's only because I don't want to allow people to openly insult me or this site (positive feedback is always welcome though), although I have approved every single comment I have received since I started this blog two years ago, so thank you to all of you for being so nice :). Anyways, bye! So, I know I haven't posted in a while, but it was Halloween and we had a small break so I met up with friends and wasn't home much, so there really wasn't much time to post anything. But anyway, today's review is about the Gemma Doyle trilogy and I'd honestly like to say that this trilogy kept me enthralled from beginning to end, although I must admit that one of my favourite things about it was the Q&A with the author, it was so funny it had me stuffing my pillow in my mouth to stifle the irrepressible giggles coming out at midnight when I was supposed to be sleeping... I personally think this book was really amusing and witty, and there was such a stark contrast when compared to the typical teenager books for girls where they all talk about boyfriends and makeup and all that... I'll admit that this book does talk about love, but its very differently written to the usual "OMG I have a crush on ____________ and he's so good-looking and hot, right?!" It's not like that at all. It could be considered desire more than love, really, but it's definitely not the shallow kind of love I demonstrated in the example, it's quite different... I'm pretty sure if you've read up to here you are not a boy, because this is quite a girlish trilogy and I'm quite sure not many boys would be interested in this. Really, you can probably tell I like this kind of book, because apart from the romance and all that there is also magic, and social division between the classes, and it is written in the perspective of a young 16 year old living in England during the Victorian period. Yes, that's right, the Victorian period. It really is quite interesting to read what modern day people presume Victorian girls thought like (because this is quite a recent trilogy; I think the first book was published in the early 2000's? Okay, I checked, it's 2003, so I was round about right...) and really, they were only girls, same as I am now, but their lives were quite different to ours. What if they were different too? What if the mind of a human teenager has changed and evolved over the centuries? What if the mentality of girls in the, say, 1600's, were completely the opposite to the way the average teen girl thinks and feels? Right, I'm getting a bit off topic now, so back to the book we go. As I was saying, it's interesting to read books set in different time periods because we get to experience the world differently, and we might even start seeing some thing in a totally different light. Like school, for example. I know most children don´t like school and say it's boring, and some might even say that girls in the olden days were lucky not to go to school, that it's not fair and they would have preferred life like that, but then when they grew up they would have liked having their independence and own jobs and not have to rely too much on anyone else. Well, it's just like that famous Spiderman quote: If you want to have rights and rewards and freedom and independence and power, you need to work for it. and start earning those luxuries. That's partly what school is for: to help you accept responsibility. So really, school could be looked upon as a good thing, for if we didn't go to school and had all the privileges, then that would make the world a horrible place to live in, so I'm just saying, thank the goods you have school :). Where did that come from? No idea. Well, one of the points I wanted to focus on (SPOILER ALERT: skip to the bold red words and continue reading from there if you really don't want a spoiler, but this is a very light introduction of some characters and really shouldn't spoil anything in the book, but if you really want to skip it...) was the friendship between four of the main characters: Gemma, Pippa, Ann and Felicity. These four girls have very different lives, and this is where the social divide comes in. Ann, you see, is a scholarship student that spends her life wishing to be rescued from her future as a nurse to her rich cousin's young children, as she is in their debt for paying the expenses of her boarding school so she would be trained to be an adequate companion for their children. Gemma's family, on the contrary, belong to the high-ish society of London, and so her station in life is to be, no doubt, a pleasant one. Pippa, although belonging to a family of merchants, is very rich, and Felicity's father is a famous naval hero at the time. These girls lives have been very different, and so it is surprising that they become friends, for they all are as different as chalk and cheese, and share neither hopes, nor dreams, nor sorrows. Each girl's past is unique and different, and all they share in common is the wish to be free. This makes their friendship interesting and unique, even though sometimes a chasm opens up and isolates one of them because of an experience the others cannot relate to, and it can seem like a rather shallow friendship at times. END OF SPOILER: continue reading from here One last thing before I finish. The ending. Endings always fascinate me, for sometimes the story gets so complicated that I wonder how the author will pull the end off. Will they give it the ending it deserves, or a simple one, or a much more complicated one that was necessary, or a very vague and shallow one, or what? Those are questions to ponder when you think the book is an intricate story that will need a lot of knot-tying to finish it off properly- unless it's a cliffhanger, but I generally find those when the author intends to write a sequel, and though it can give a nice effect if used correctly, sometimes they might do that because it's easier to leave the reader in suspense rather than go back and tie all the loose threads together so that the reader can fully comprehend the story. Not that I'm implying Libba Bray did that. Certainly not. Although there was still a sense of mystery surrounding the end of the trilogy, I think it was the perfect combination of suspense and compiling everything together. Really, if a little sad, it was fantastic, with just the right amount of vagueness so as to allow the reader the chance of fantasizing about what happens next, but also enough information to leave your mind at rest and to make the book feel finished, and I just really enjoyed reading this trilogy so much, so I hope you do too. Okay, so most of you probably know I am a very naughty girl sometimes and I read on my kindle late at night ;). So I haven't read a new book in AAGEES because I didn't know what to read -but I got a few recommendations today from some friends so I'm going to start reading like crazy guys- so at night, I reread most of the 100 and something (or maybe even 200- I can't remember anymore and I honestly am not going to count them; it would take forever!), and one of the series I read was this one. I remember I used to be obsessed with this series about a year ago, and I read almost every book in it I could find- I never finished it, it's quite old so I couldn't find the last books in it- and I loved it, especially because it was old fashioned and I LOVE old fashioned stories where girls wear pinafores and travel on old-fashioned trains and carry their belongings in trunks and... well, I just love those things so much. Thinking back, I think that was one of my favourite things about this series of books.
Whilst I was rereading this, I realised that the main character is a VERY goody-goody kind of girl. She's not unlikable, but I don't usually like reading stories where good and bad is very clearly accentuated and you can either be a saint or the devil's child in human form. Thank goodness for Uncle Jabez, her grumpy old uncle with not as hard a heart as it seems, and her sweet and rather comical Aunt Alvirah, who is just such a funny old character with a big and generous heart. Really, it surprised me that I stuck with it for so long, because it's not my kind of book at all and at the same time, it's exactly the kind of book I would have read a year ago. When her parents die, Ruth is sent to live with her miserly great-uncle Jabez Potter in the Red Mill. From then on, she softens up her uncle's hard heart, befriends the Cameron twins, helps the lame girl in town, Mercy Curtis, and altogether makes a new, happy life at her new home. Okay, so this is more of a children's book than what I would usually review, but I read it a t my cousin's house and was like, "Well, why not?" So here it is. It's a simple, beautifully illustrated story, with large clear writing and quite simple sentences. However, my aunt and I have agreed that this book is better suited for mums rather than children. It's not that it's not suitable for them to read, but the story in itself is a prefect reflection of a mum's wish for just five minutes' peace. And I'm not a parent, but even I feel like having five minutes peace from my little cousin sometimes, so I'm guessing mums probably do too. Anyway, this sweet story is about a mum's attempt to rest and relax for a few minutes, and I find it funny and relatable and just a well-written children's book in general. I know this has been a short review, but I think this is a really cute book and I just wanted to put it up here on my blog, because it really is lovely, even if it's meant for younger readers..
|
AuthorCarolina (or Carol for short), a girl who adores to read. A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The person who never reads lives only one. Categories
All
Archives
April 2018
Feel free to comment your opinions about the books when you read them or any suggestions to read!!
For security reasons, please write only your first name when you post a comment and/or if you submit the questionnaire.
|