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The Great Gatsby: Book Review

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Book Review #27: The Great Gatsby

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Genre: Classic, Fiction

Days to Read: 8 days

Synopsis: Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald’s—and his country’s—most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings.  “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…. And one fine morning—”  Gatsby’s rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream.
It’s also a love story, of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby’s quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying, but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. After the war, Gatsby devotes himself blindly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means—and to the pursuit of Daisy, which amounts to the same thing. “Her voice is full of money,” Gatsby says admiringly, in one of the novel’s more famous descriptions. His millions made, Gatsby buys a mansion across Long Island Sound from Daisy’s patrician East Egg address, throws lavish parties, and waits for her to appear. When she does, events unfold with all the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama, with detached, cynical neighbor Nick Carraway acting as chorus throughout. Spare, elegantly plotted, and written in crystalline prose, The Great Gatsby is as perfectly satisfying as the best kind of poem. (Goodreads)

My Thoughts: A couple of years ago, I had picked this book up from an antique store in Nanton, AB and that night I tried settling into it. Tried, being the operative word. Because try as I might, I just could not get past chapter three. But when my book club and I formed last month, we all decided this should be our first book to read so we could go see the movie together. This time I was determined to finish it.

I’m glad we chose this book to read because I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was for me to get into it this time around. I had been expecting another challenge, but the pages just flew by and I became immersed in the Jazz Era.

The plot itself appears to be simple, but with a mature mind and reflection, I realized that this book is so much more. It’s a story about the American Dream—and the realities of such a life. It’s about humanity, money, love and power. Fitzgerald plays with criticism, idolization and irony. He makes his characters hard to love and easy to judge. Because, really, it’s the characters that drive the story, make the story worth reading. Nick, our narrator, is logical but easily persuaded. His first apprehension of Gatsby soon turns adour, despite some of Gatsby’s actions. For a while he didn’t know what to make of his neighbour, switching from apprehension to annoyance to worshipping. This tired me to no end because his friends’ stupidity were staring him straight in the face and he just took it most of the time, turning a blind eye. Also, he had a very creepy way of going about things—even for the most intimate moments, he was there as our guide, telling us what was going on. Um, if you see two people touching each other, searching for something they’ve been missing in each other’s eyes, lost in time, GET OUT. You’re not wanted. I get he was the narrator, but a lot of the times I kept asking him, why? Why put yourself through this awkwardness? He was merely there to provide the reader a look into what we all want: a lavish life filled with parties, “friends”, music, an abundance of items and good times. He went from a poor boy to a boy living the dream.

Gatsby, on the other hand, represented what society holds above all else: success and beauty. He wasn’t complete without beautiful Daisy and her voice that “sounds of money.” His life didn’t follow the path he had wanted it to go, and so he went back a few paces to the time when it all made sense and tried to recreate a new future, without realizing that time changes everything. He was still stuck in the past and couldn’t see the present and future for what it was. Many of us can admit to this. We always think “if we could just go back and re-do (insert life moment), life would be so much better.” But we can’t change the past, anymore than we influence fate. Oh Gatsby, old sport, how dim you were to hold onto a memory, a past that could never be lived again. When Nick first meets Gatsby and learns of his reasons for living across the pond from Daisy and throwing lavish parties, I couldn’t help but become hopeful that this wasn’t going to be unrequited love (the world has enough of that already). But as the days started passing, I started feeling more and more sorry for Gatsby, for clinging onto a ghost. The woman he said he loved was no more than a frivolous, indecisive girl. A girl that you wanted to like from the start, but quickly realized the error in that sentiment.

Daisy was just that—a flower. Pretty to look at but nothing substantial. She flitted about from scene to scene, creating drama and continuously seeking a good time. She spoke without thinking and flew through life causing destruction but not taking the time to clean up her mess. Her indecisive ways hurt more than one person in this book and I was glad to be done the book if only to be rid of her. She was exhausting. I had wanted to like her at the start, but it was soon clear to me that both her and her husband, Tom, would be an eyesore on the great canvas of Gatsby. They cared tuppance for others.

The only character I really cared for was Jordan, Nick’s “girlfriend.” She was stunning. Both as an independent female, who became successful on her own terms, and who didn’t need a man to sustain her—so refreshing. Bravo for Fitzgerald highlighting such a strong woman in a world of men.

On the whole, the characters are shallow, empty shells leaving a lot to be desired. And the story is simple, if not flourished with Fitzgerald’s sweeping language. But the underlying currents hit the reader in such a force that it’s impossible to miss the point—money can’t buy happiness. That seeking a lavish life of riches will only leave you disappointed. That one’s wealth or beauty does not determine their character and morality. In that sense, it was a wonderful read.

My Rating: 9/10

Favourite Quotes:
“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

“It occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well.”

“I love New York on summer afternoons when everyone’s away. There’s something very sensuous about it—overripe, as if all sorts of funny fruits were going to fall into your hands.”

“And I like large parties.  They’re so intimate.  At small parties there isn’t any privacy.”

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”

“Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered “Listen,” a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour.”

“I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him.”

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

Shiver: Book Review

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Book Review #26: Shiver

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Genre: YA Fiction

Days to Read: 6 days, mainly because I was busy in between

Synopsis (as taken from Goodreads): For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can’t seem to live without.
Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human… until the cold makes him shift back again.
Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It’s her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human—or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

My Thoughts: I. Love. This. Book.

I had heard so many positive remarks (and some negative critiques) about Stiefvater’s trilogy that after coming across Shiver and Linger at a book swap I volunteered at last month, I just knew I had to get reading them (who doesn’t love free books?). And boy, am I glad I did. It’s been a while since I’ve read a YA book and I just got sucked into this story. Now a lot of people will read the word “werewolf” and immediately scoff and put it back on the shelf. But I promise you—this is nothing like Twilight. There is no convoluted love triangle side story. No creepy obsessions. No lacking plot or dialogue. Just an all around good, make-you-happy-while-making-you-cry story.

I enjoyed the note of beastiality in the book; it’s just fascinating. Grace was in love with Sam before she even knew Sam as a human—she was in love with Sam, her wolf protector. And this mysterious allure to this wolf soon turns into an obsession. An obsession that you don’t fully understand until you read the end of Linger. Sure that sounds strange. I get that as a teenager, there must have been some human boy that should have tickled Grace’s fancy, instead of her pining over something she doesn’t quite know or understand yet. But I liked that connection between the two of them, because it made their human relationship that much more realistic. It makes sense why they fell in their relationship so fast, because they had loved each other for years prior to meeting in flesh.

The ending upset me though. Not because it was sad, but because it was unrealistic. I know, in a book with werewolves, human-wolf love connections, being unrealistic shouldn’t be a problem, right? But it so was. I won’t spoil it for those who are going to read Shiver, but to those who have read it: You must know what I’m talking about. The actions Sam took at the end were not that of a loving, gotta-be-with-my-girlfriend teenage boy. Stiefvater clearly just wanted to drag the suspense out longer than necessary, which ticked me off. Come on, Maggie.

Another thing that upset me was Grace’s parents. Not because they weren’t realistic (I mean, you hear stories of parents leaving kids in cars and acting more like roomies and children themselves than responsible parents all the time), but because of how Grace was affected by her relationship with them. The mask she wore hid all the pain she felt by her parents’ absence, and that was hard for me to see. I guess I’ve been lucky with two loving parents who are equal parts responsible and fun. But it’s hard to see how some children get the short end of the parent stick.

But there were many, many reasons why this book did it for me. The most important being the words Stiefvater chose to create this world. They were so lyrical, so melt-on-your-mouth worthy, that I wanted to keep reading more so for the words I would read than the story itself (because truth be told, the story is definitely predictable). This story is like a curl-up-on-the-couch, listen-to-moody-instrumental-music, drink-hot-tea-to-ward-off-Stiefvater’s-chilly-environment, immerse-oneself-in-this-haunting-tale kind of book. THE WORDS. Stiefvater’s construction of words. The feelings those words invoked. I can’t say enough.

Now, I want to tackle a topic I saw a lot of on the Goodreads reviews: Sam. Most called him a replica of Edward—whiney, emotional, shy, and sad. I agree to all of them. But if you had spent 10years of your life lost in a wolf’s body for every winter of each year against your will, and had had parents who tried killing you for what you were as a boy, wouldn’t you be too? I love seeing romantic, in-tune-with-their-emotions, sensitive men in books. Mainly because my own man is like that. Plenty of times while reading I stopped and thought, “Hey, this sounds like Fil and I.” Which probably made me like the story more, seeing as how I could relate to it further. I loved the relationship between him and Grace, how effortlessly it flowed, how natural they acted. The dialogue was simple, but it was honest. It didn’t feel made up or forced. Sam and Grace felt like two teenagers who wanted more than was possible, struggling to see a future admist the shadows of mythology, science and elements they can’t control.

Somewhere in the book Grace tells Sam, “You are beautiful and sad.” I don’t think there’s a better way to describe this story. It’s a small, intimate tale that deserves to be read with an open mind.

My Rating: 9/10

Favourite Quotes:
“You’re beautiful and sad,” I said finally, not looking at him when I did. “Just like your eyes. You’re like a song that I heard when I was a little kid but forgot I knew until I heard it again.”

“I’d found heaven and grabbed it as tightly as I could, but it was unraveling, an insubstantial thread sliding between my fingers, too fine to hold.”

“As the hours crept by, the afternoon sunlight bleached all the books on the shelves to pale, gilded versions of themselves and warmed the paper and ink inside the covers so that the smell of unread words hung in the air.”

“I was suddenly struck by how dissimilar we were. It occurred to me that if Grace and I were objects, she would be an elaborate digital clock, synced up with the World Clock in London with technical perfection, and I’d be a snow globe – shaken memories in a glass ball.”

The Jane Austen Book Club: Book Review

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Book Review #25: The Jane Austen Book Club

Author: Karen Joy Fowler

Genre: Fiction

Days to Read: 9 days

Synopsis (as taken from Goodreads): In California’s central valley, five women and one man join to discuss Jane Austen’s novels. Over the six months they get together, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable, and love happens… Dedicated Austenites will delight in unearthing the echoes of Austen that run through the novel, but most readers will simply enjoy the vision and voice that, despite two centuries of separation, unite two great writers of brilliant social comedy.

My Thoughts: I had come across the movie portrayal of this book years ago and sat down to take in its splendour after continuously announcing myself as an “Austenite.” I loved it. So much. So when I saw the book at the Calgary Reads book sale last month, I knew it was fate. I had to get it. I hadn’t looked up reviews on it before hand, so I was merely expecting it to be as engaging as the film. Was it? Well…not entirely. But it wasn’t terrible either.

I had gone into the book expecting Austen. I had thought that the characters would discuss Austen more, and that their lives would reflect Austen’s books more than they did, but I was disappointed. To be fair, I’ve never read any other books of hers than Pride and Prejudice and Emma, but still. It was a bit of a let down. All the parallells and discussions of Austen I already knew and didn’t really add to the story at all. There was nothing that really jumped out at me and excited me. And I mean, this book was about a book club. About Jane Austen’s books. It’s pretty hard to have a book about an Austen book club if the books don’t get lots of time in the spotlight. At the end when they reflect on how However, despite the lack of Austen (which, I can’t help but suspect, she was only thrown into the book to gather her followers), this book wasn’t a total disappointment.

I loved the characters, and their stories outside the book club. I enjoy reading parallel stories within a book, and with this book my favourite chapters were the ones where Grigg was in. I loved his back story and the fact that he was considered the “heroine” in the family and that his sisters were considered the “heroes.” Majority of the plot was spent telling the back stories of each character, leaving little room for present-day interactions. However, I’m a fan of when authors tell histories of those they’re introducing us to, so it didn’t bother me too much. Plus it made the characters more likable, more believable, and more complex. It made me care for them. When a character got hurt, I hurt for them. But I couldn’t help but feel a little dissatisfied by the short snippets of history and present day for each character.

However, despite my love for the characters as a whole, there was one character I just didn’t feel for: Prudie. I had liked her character way more in the movie, and I felt her book character just fell flat. I liked the direction the movie took her in, because it created depth, complexity and—might I say—naughtiness for her. In the book, I just felt like I wanted to skip to the next chapter. Sometimes with authors you can tell which characters are their favourites because they give them more time in the spotlight and give them the better character arches. With Fowler, it was clear to see Jocelyn was her favourite. More chapters were dedicated to her and she grew the most. Which is sort of sad, considering readers lost a lot of great story opportunities with Prudie and Bernadette (one of the most charismatic ladies in the book). That being said, my favourite characters were the side characters, the ones who rarely got any page time—Dean, Grigg’s sisters and Daniel. They were the ones I yearned more to learn about. I could have done less with Sylvia and Allegra, to be honest with you. Allegra particularly. I found her character didn’t really grow or anything by the end. She merely stayed the same, which wasn’t at all how I pictured her to end up.

And speaking of endings. What was that? I mean, I understand that not all books have happy endings and not every loose end is tied up (for better or for worse), but still. This wasn’t even much of an ending. I got to the last page and said, “huh.” Seriously. That’s all I said. I didn’t know what to think because the only ending I was happy with was Jocelyn’s, Grigg’s and Bernadette’s. I was furious with Allegra. Didn’t understand Prudie’s ending at all. And Sylvia’s was predicatable. I understand that these women were very stereotypical, but Fowler could have done more with them.

One thing I think important to draw to your attention is the narrator’s point of view. For each chapter’s insight into the book club meeting and into one character’s life, the narrator is given the role of reverse second person for present day and limited third person narration for the character’s history. Throughout the book, the reader is made to feel like we are joining the characters. Fowler uses the words “we” and “us” regularly. But the identity of the narrator herself is entirely unclear becayse when each chapter reflects on a particular character, the point of view never switches to “I.” It was a bit unnerving at first for me to get used to this type of narration but I found it worked rather well once I had gotten accustomed to it.

While the writing was enchanting, the chapters tied neatly together, and the stories wistful, hopeful and understanding, I couldn’t help but be just a little disappointed by Fowler’s Jane Austen Book Club. Would I recommend it though? Yes. But only if the reader is 100% aware that Jane Austen herself will make very little appearances. So Austenites: you’ve been warned.

My Rating: 7/10

Favourite Quote:
“Arriving late was a way of saying that your own time was more valuable than the time of the person who waited for you.”

Book Review: World War Z

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Book Review #24: World War Z

Author: Max Brooks

Genre: Science fiction

Days to Read: 13 days

Synopsis (as taken from Goodreads): The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.

My Thoughts: I read this book after countless people referred it to me, including my boyfriend who even lent me his copy. I didn’t really know what I had gotten myself into nor what to expect prior to reading it, which was good because then I had no expectations for it. On the whole, though, I was pleasantly surprised.

I’ll be upfront right now and say I’ve never read a single zombie book, and my experience with zombie movies narrows down to Zombieland, I am Legend, 28 Weeks Later and Warm Bodies. I’m kind of a wuss when it comes to scary stuff, which is why I’ve avoided this topic for so long. But after many reassurances that this book isn’t gory or gruesome, I agreed to reading it. And oh boy, am I glad I did.

World War Z isn’t like anything I’ve ever read before. It’s entirely an island unto its own. Although some reviews on Goodreads gave the book one or two stars for its style, I couldn’t agree less. As a journalist myself, I really liked seeing this story unfold through a series of interviews. It was a refreshing take from the age-old story structure you see in most books. The story still had a beginning, middle and end, but it was just written differently. I loved seeing the story of the Zombie War (or World War Z, The Crisis, The Dark Years, The Walking Plague, or Z War One as it’s called around the world) through the eyes of people just like us—mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, elderly, doctors, journalists, politicians, soldiers, students and K-9 retirement home managers… It was chilling the way some people described their experiences. Brooks made me feel like this was actually an historic event, that these people all had experienced something of the utmost horror, that the world was rebuilding itself. Many times I had to stop myself and remind myself that this is just a story.

Of course, like with every book, there are some issues I had. I found many of the interviews shared the same tone and voice. There wasn’t a whole lot characterization throughout the various interviewees, which disappointed me, but didn’t make me dislike this book altogether. I can sort of see past this, though… I mean, if we had actually gone through what these people had gone through, wouldn’t many of us be almost displaced from human emotion and merely feel like outside ourselves…through mechanical responses, disjointed from reality and nightmare, hollowed out? And while many of the interviews were interesting to read, there were some that were just plain boring or didn’t add to the story at all. I understand, of course, that not every person you meet will have a gripping tale to tell—but as it’s their story, it’s important to still include it. Brooks traveled the world gathering eye-witness accounts of the War, and he felt compelled to share every story he heard. I admit to skimming through the boring interviews though. But there are some stories that will stick with me for a good long while (and yes, I know these stories aren’t true).

I’ve heard some critics have complained that this story lacked any real “face” or main character. So what? This is a documentary-styled story. In order to gain an appreciation and understanding of the global experience of this War, you couldn’t really have a main character. Brooks didn’t aim at creating a typical story; instead, he chose to create a history. And by compiling interviews as his content, he made it seem both honest and realistic. Because 10 years after a War like that, no one wants to read a “story” of the war—they’ll want to have unflinching accounts of it for future generations, none of that “fluffy” stuff.

What I particularly liked about World War Z was the fact that it didn’t outwardly explain how or why the disease started or spread. As only natural for people, rumours spread throughout the world, but nothing was ever confirmed. I often find sometimes in movies that when they explain why or how something happened, I always find a hole in the reason and can’t see past that. Because nothing is ever fool-proof, especially in stories of zombies, aliens, vampires, and all those other unworldly stuff. So thank you, Max Brooks, for leaving the hows and whys up to the reader’s interpretation!

In the end, I really did like this pseudo-historical account book. It was more than I expected it to be, and while there were some issues with it, I would definitely recommend World War Z to others! So thanks, friends, for pushing me to read this.

Side note: The movie called World War Z is set to hit theatres in July, but don’t be fooled by the title—Max Brooks has said that the only true similarity between the book and the movie is that they share the same title. I’m quite sad about that, but I guess there’s nothing we can do about it but to just enjoy the movie as a separate entitity and try not to compare the book to the movie as much as we normally would.

My Rating: 9/10

Favourite Quotes:
“I don’t know if great times make great men, but I know they can kill them.”

“I think most people would rather face the light of a real enemy than the darkness of their imagined fears.”

“The monsters that arose from the dead, they are nothing compared to the ones we carry in our hearts.”

“Lies are neither bad nor good. Like a fire they can either keep you warm or burn you to death, depending on how they’re used.”

“Fear sells.”

“But isn’t the human factor what connects us so deeply to our past? Will future generations care as much for chronologies and casualty statistics as they would for personal accounts of individuals not so different from themselves? By excluding the human factor, aren’t we risking the kinds of personal detachment from a history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it?”

“His last words: ‘On ne passé pas!’”

City of Fallen Angels: Book Review

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Book Review #23: City of Fallen Angels, The Moral Instruments Book #4

Author: Cassandra Clare

Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy

Days to Read: 1 week

Synopsis (as taken from Chapters): The Mortal War is over, and sixteen-year-old Clary Fray is back home in New York, excited about all the possibilities before her. She’s training to become a Shadowhunter and to use her unique power. Her mother is getting married to the love of her life. Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace at last. And—most importantly of all—she can finally call Jace her boyfriend. But nothing comes without a price. Someone is murdering Shadowhunters, provoking tensions between Downworlders and Shadowhunters that could lead to a second, bloody war. Clary’s best friend, Simon, can’t help her—his mother just found out that he’s a vampire, and now he’s homeless. When Jace begins to pull away from her without explaining why, Clary is forced to delve into the heart of a mystery whose solution reveals her worst nightmare: she herself has set in motion a terrible chain of events that could lead to her losing everything she loves. Even Jace.

My Thoughts: It’s been a long, long time since I last read a Mortal Instruments book (I read the third book as soon as it came out two years ago). Normally when such a long period of time occurs between reads, I read the entire series before picking the new book up. That wasn’t the case here, however. I remembered every little detail because the series is so good, so I didn’t have to do any re-reading.
As with the other books, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I love stories with various voices and points of views, and Cassandra Clare spins each side with ease. She makes it painless jumping from person to person without losing the story.

However, I must say I was at first a little hesitant when I heard Cassandra Clare was writing a fourth book. The Mortal Instruments was originally intended to be a trilogy, and had ended on such a nice note that I really didn’t want—or expect—anything else from the characters. I knew Clare is a genius storyteller and would find some way to make this story continue, but I just didn’t see the point.

That is, until I read it.

This fourth book just reinstated my love for Simon and my indifference for Jace. Yes, I know Jace is sexy and loves Clary with every fibre of his being. But. There’s something to be said for the friends, the sidekicks, the cute vampires that don’t quite know what to do with themselves. And as a lover of Simon, I was most pleased with all his narrations in this book. He really took centre stage in City of Fallen Angels. Some of the other characters also had the chance to share their side of the story. It was refreshing to hear voices other than just Clary’s (like the first three books). It balanced the book out and made me care for each individual character more.

While some characters shined more than others, all of them still had a lasting affect. New characters were introduced to the reader, too. I particularly liked the fact that Clare touched on a topic that I had become worried about in the other book: Alec and Magnus’ relationship. As an everlasting warlock, I knew Magnus’ time with Alec would be limited, and I was worried about how that knowledge would affect them. So I’m glad to see reality found its way to them in this book, made them see their relationship for what it is, and opened their eyes. I know that part of the series isn’t over, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Alec found a way to live forever by the end of it all. Then again…bittersweet mortality could also be a painful, but perfectly honest way to go with regards to their future.

All in all, I found the plot of this book a little blander than the others, which disappointed me. I still enjoyed reading it and still flew through the pages, but I just couldn’t help but feel something was missing. I won’t go into too much detail about the plot, but to all those who have read the book, do you agree with me?

On the whole, I’m glad Clare wrote another book, and I can’t wait to buy the fifth book in the series. Hopefully that’ll be just a bit better than this one! Keep on writing, Clare, keep on writing.

My Rating: 7.9/10  (Yes, I really can be that precise)

Favourite Quotes:
“But I watch my brothers give their hearts away and I think, Don’t you know better? Hearts are breakable. And I think even when you heal, you’re never what you were before.”

“Or maybe it’s just that beautiful things are so easily broken by the world.”

“No. That’s Clary; she’s my best friend,” Simon pocketed his phone. “And she has a boyfriend. Like, really, really, really has a boyfriend. The nuclear bomb of boyfriends. Trust me on this one.”

“Still I pictured having you for fifty, sixty more years. I thought I might be ready then to let you go. But it’s you, and I realize now that I won’t be anymore ready to lose you then than I am right now. Which is not at all.”

“You’d think the Angel would have been foresighted enough to give us a birth-control rune, but no dice.”

“All that running and getting nowhere, he thought. Story of my life.”

“If we are going to the Silent City, you might want to get dressed. I mean, I appreciate the bra-and-panties look, but I don’t know if the Silent Brothers will. There are only a few of them left, and I don’t want them to die of excitement.”

Me Before You: Book Review

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Book Review #22: Me Before You

Author: Jojo Moyes

Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Romance

Days to Read: 1 week

Companion Tea: Earl grey… It just seemed like the British thing to drink!

Synopsis (as taken from Chapters): Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life-steady boyfriend, close family-who has never been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex-Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life-big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel-and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.
Will is acerbic, moody, bossy-but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.
A Love Story for this generation, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common-a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?

My Thoughts: I’ve been putting off reviewing this book until I was emotionally over it, because I knew that as I got deeper into my review I’d just be bawling. So yes. I apologize. Anyways. I think it’s safe to say that I absolutely adored this book. I had read mixed reviews of it online before receiving this book from the publisher, so I wasn’t sure what to make of it. But as soon as I delved into it, I knew it was going to become an important part of my book collection. Characters are, for me, the biggest part of a book. The plot can be completely stupid, but if you have real, enduring characters, I can see past the plot issues. With Me Before You, I was invested in Louisa and Will—and the smattering of secondary characters, comprising of their families and friends—and needed everything to be alright. The prologue of the book did exactly what a prologue should do: make the reader need to read more. And after the last page of the prologue, I just had to find out what happened next. Cue me reading for hours on end.
Louisa was a wonderful protagonist. Stubborn, lively, shy and content to settle for less than she deserves (which, if we want to be honest with ourselves, we all do). As she entered Will’s life, I just knew that this love story was not going to be that typical boy-meets-girl sort of love story you read about in countless novels. From Will’s attitude towards life and the people around him to Louisa’s never-ending attempts to prove him wrong, Me Before You had me rooting for them from the start—and not for the reasons one would think. Louisa had never truly lived; whereas Will had up until a certain point in his life. Through their friendship, he shows her there is a life outside of their sleepy little town and she shows him there is a life outside of his house.
While I won’t divulge too much of the plot and the climax, I will say that just the premise of this book will make even the most non-emotional person become tearful and it will make you think long after the last page has been read. You’ll go through all the possible scenarios in your head—what would you do in their positions? What would say? Feel? Where does faith lie in all of this?
The fact that I was crying for hours after reading this book is due to Jojo Moyes’ ingenious storytelling. She didn’t tweak plot developments or change the consistency of characters to invoke emotional responses from her readers. She, instead, used simple realism and heart-wrenching choices to inflict pain on us. It didn’t feel like I was reading a fictional story; it felt like a memoir. I both wanted this story to be real—and yet I hoped with all my might that this story couldn’t happen in real life. Moyes’ honesty was too hard to bear. But while this book was a definite “cry-me-a-river” sort of story, I couldn’t help but be uplifted by its message as well.
I cannot recommend Me Before You enough to you all.
Read it.
Read if for the romantic in you.
Read it for the cynic in you.
Read it for a look inside a life that doesn’t seem worth living.
Read it for a look inside a life that believes in always looking at a half-full cup.
Read it to change your life.
Read it for yourself.

My Rating: 9/10 — It lost a point for all my incessant crying, making it hard for me to drive home with tear-filled eyes. Such a driving hazard!

Favourite Quotes:
“You only get one life. It’s actually your duty to live it as fully as possible.”

“‘I just . . . want to be a man who has been to a concert with a girl in a red dress. Just for a few minutes more.’ I released the door handle. ‘Sure.’ I closed my eyes and lay my head against the headrest, and we sat there together for a while longer, two people lost in remembered music, half hidden in the shadow of a castle on a moonlit hill.”

“Push yourself. Don’t Settle. Just live well. Just LIVE.”

“I hadn’t realized that music could unlock things in you, could transport you to somewhere even the composer hadn’t predicted. It left an imprint in the air around you, as if you carried its remnants with you when you went.”

“It’s just that the thing you never understand about being a mother, until you are one, is that it is not the grown man – the galumphing, unshaven, stinking, opinionated off-spring – you see before you, with his parking tickets and unpolished shoes and complicated love life. You see all the people he has ever been all rolled up into one.
I look at him and see the baby I held in my arms, dewing besotted, unable to believe that I’d created another human being. I see the toddler, reaching for my hand, the schoolboy weeping tears of fury after being bullied  by some other child. I saw the vulnerabilities, the love, the history.”

“I realized I was afraid of living without him. How is it you have the right to destroy my life, I wanted to demand of him, but I’m not allowed a say in yours?”

“I let him know a hurt had been mended in a way that he couldn’t have known, and for that alone there would always be a piece of me indebted to him.”

Feast Island: Book Review

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Feast Island Front Cover

Book Review #21: Feast Island

Author: Tamar Hela

Genre: YA Fiction/Fantasy

Days to Read: 1 week

Companion Tea: David’s Tea Coco Chai Rooibos

Synopsis (as taken from Barnes & Noble): Seven teenagers from Northern California are assigned a seemingly innocent group project for their Freshman English class. Little do they know, this project will take them on a journey out of this world—literally. Cantelia appears much like Earth until the kids realize magic is as plentiful as the wildlife surrounding them. What’s at stake is much more than they can fathom, especially since they are part of an ancient prophecy. A dark and evil ruler is enforcing a curse on the tribes people of Sikuku Island—the same place where the kids have been transported. Now, they must help the islanders break the curse if they ever want to see their own planet again. Join Alex and her friends as they learn there is so much more beyond their comfortable lives in Pollock Pines and its legendary lake, Spirit Lake.

My Thoughts: Back in August of last year I was a part of Tamar Hela’s blog tour to publicize her debut young adult novel. As a participant of her tour, she sent me copy of Feast Island to review as well, and sadly it has taken me this long to actually read it.

Let it be known that I still, even at the age of 21, love YA books. And I knew this was a YA book going into it, but from how I interpreted the summary, I expected the protagonist and side characters to be closer to adulthood — like around 16, the typical age of YA book. So you can imagine my surprise when I started getting into the mind of a 14 year old. But I was pleased by the way the main character, Alex, was portrayed throughout the book. The language, tone and word choices Hela used in Feast Island was very accurate for a 14 year old girl. I know this because when I used to write stories at that age, my writing style was very much like Hela’s. Sometimes I find that when authors write YA books, they tend to write maturely for young teenagers. This wasn’t the case for Hela, though, because I believed that Alex was 14. She worried about all the things I used to worry about at that age: my braces, crushes, family, confidence, etc. You could see her grow, even just a tiny bit, over the course of the book, as well as her peers. Sure, each character was stereotypical, but I didn’t really mind because I find that when people are that age, they tend to see people as stereotypes. I have a feeling though that as the books continue, Alex will learn that there is more than meets the eye when it comes to her newfound friends.

Characters and writing style aside, the plot was unique. I enjoyed the pacing of the plot even though I wasn’t altogether surprised by any of the turn of events. I loved the idea of a separate world from our own, with different cultures and languages. I’m a sucker for fantasy novels, and I was hooked to Feast Island from the start. I won’t say what all happens in the book, obviously, but I need to discuss one thing that irked me about the story. Or two things for that matter. One, I wasn’t a fan of the ultimate climax. I found myself just reading that part for the sake of reading it, but I didn’t find it believable. How could three tribes, who have done nothing but hate each other for years, all of a sudden just band together for one battle? It makes no sense that it was the children that influenced this, because they hardly did anything. There should have been more added to this — perhaps a battle that took place on the front of one of the tribes, and that tribe calling the other tribes for help but no one comes through. Then, when that one tribe suffers major losses, and the other tribes realize that they’re tribes are next, they decide to band together to save what’s left of their people. Something like that. Merely coming together to fight with really nothing leading up to it didn’t make sense. The other thing that irked me was that they went home at the end. I really would have preferred them staying in Cantelia until all their tasks are done, instead of them going home to that happy ending and, ultimately, being called back again. I would have liked to see how life would have been like for them post-war.

I do have to say, however, that I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of romance in this book. I automatically assume all YA books will have steamy kissing and love triangles from the get-go, but not this one. Thank you, Hela, for reminding us that not all young teenagers have these dramas (I certainly didn’t!) and that the story is more important than some teenage love. I know it’s coming in the next book or two, which is okay, but I’m glad you didn’t start with it right away!

Oh, and because I’m a Grammar Nazi, I have to point out that this book could have stood for some more editing. There were many misplaced commas and quotations, as well as one or two misspelled words. I cringed a lot when I came across these.

Either way, though, I did enjoy this first book in the Spirit Lake series, and I am looking forward to seeing what adventures, challenges and triumphs Tamar Hela comes up with next.

My Rating: 8/10

Loved: Book Review

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Book Review #20: Loved

Author: Kimberly Novosel

Genre: Fiction

Days to Read: 1 week

Companion Tea: Chamomile

Synopsis (as taken from Barnes & Noble):

Kim Carlson is a quiet, optimistic dreamer when she trades in the golden fields of her youth for the busy big city streets of her future. She leaves behind a life of Sunday mass, good friends and homework for a world where skipping class, drinking, and friends who leave her alone on her birthday are the norm. On the road to building a career in the music industry and searching for true love, she instead finds loneliness, betrayal and heartache.

Just as she falls in love with the kind of man who would never break her heart and things are falling delightfully into place, everything is torn apart “like a shack in a hurricane.” Kim is faced with a choice: quit believing in the possibility of love and happiness, or fight for the woman she wants to be and the love she wants to have. Kim overcomes each setback with increasing grace and wisdom, proving that sometimes the wrong choices can lead us to the right places.

My Thoughts: You may remember back in the summer I interviewed Kimberly as a preview to her debut novel. And I was pleased to see the enchanting lady I spoke with translated onto the pages of her book.

As a backer for her book, I received a copy from her in the mail to read. Finally as exams passed and the busy holidays were winding down, I settled into Loved, anxious to see what it was all about. From the prologue, I was hooked. Having been let down at my most recent birthday party (less than half of the people who promised to come showed up), I could instantly relate to protagonist Kim’s 20th birthday party experience. Having such a low turn out to an event that means a lot to you puts everything into perspective and makes you re-think everything — am I really liked? Have I offended anyone as of late? Why doesn’t anyone care about me like they care about others? All those questions rush through your mind and it’s hard to see yourself for who you really are.

But as the story moved along, I began finding it harder and harder to relate to Kim. As each relationship began with vigour and got lost in the dust, I started feeling sorry for Kim. She put so much of herself into finding her other half, that she lost sight of who she was. I’ve never been in that type of situation before. Sure, I’ve had failed relationships — but none of them lasted longer than three weeks, so I didn’t have as much of an emotional connection to them as Kim did. As she went from guy to guy, I started feeling less and less sorry for her. There is nothing wrong with being single and being yourself, and yet she just couldn’t understand that. It frustrated me and I started dreading what she’d get herself into next. Maybe I’ve just been lucky — I’ve only had one serious boyfriend that I’m currently with — but I ended up not relating to Kim as much as I had wanted to, which saddened me. I had been looking so forward to seeing myself in Kimberly’s book, just as other readers had done, but that just wasn’t happening. I also couldn’t relate to the whole religious side of the book. I am by no means a Catholic like Kim, so when she referred to God or talked about the bible, etc., I couldn’t jump on the boat and pray with her. As much as I wanted to.

Characters and religion aside though, I loved Novosel’s writing style. She has such an easy, fluent and engaging voice, that even though I couldn’t relate to Kim, I still wanted to read. I’m also a big visual person — I often choose books based on their book covers alone, and I would have chosen this book had I come across it at a book store. It’s simple and yet inviting, but doesn’t give away too much. Novosel offers a fresh take on the age-old “love yourself” campaign, and it didn’t feel forced. It felt real. I loved the fact that the story didn’t end happily ever after; instead it had a satisfying, and yet unsatisfying, ending. Much like life. Life isn’t cookie-cutter or perfect or “happily ever after.” It’s always evolving — going from person-to-person, job-to-job, city-to-city — always bringing you one step closer to a finale. And like Novosel explains, sometimes in the end all you really need to do is love yourself.

Favourite Quotes:

“Unfortunately, he still hadn’t asked for my number, or a date, or my hand in marriage, and my drink was getting low.”

“I was girly and friendly and my family life was happy but many days I felt like I was on the inside what Chase was on the outside. I always believed I was a happy person with a sad soul. I felt like I had had tragedy in my life when I hadn’t. Somehow, without having experienced what he had, his scars resonated with me.”

“I thought about how the past can become so small. An entire day, 24 separate, heavy hours, becomes the size of a tiny brown leaf falling from a tree. Before you know it, a whole year is just a pile of dead leaves on the ground. The year or so I’d spent in love with Chad was starting to feel so long ago, swept away by the wind. I knew that this year would soon feel far away too.”

My Rating: 7.5/10

The Last Summer (of You & Me): Book Review

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Book Review #19: The Last Summer (of You & Me)

Author: Ann Brashares

Genre: Fiction

Days to Read: 2 weeks

Synopsis (as taken from Chapter’s): Set on Long Island’s Fire Island, The Last Summer (of You & Me) is an enchanting, heartrending page-turner about sisterhood, friendship, love, loss, and growing up. It is the story of a beach community friendship triangle–Riley and Alice, two sisters in their twenties, and Paul, the young man they’ve grown up with–and what happens one summer when budding love, sexual curiosity, a sudden serious illness, and a deep secret all collide, launching the friends into an adult world from which their summer haven can no longer protect them.

My Thoughts: I haven’t read anything by Ann Brashares since I turned the last page of Forever in Blue. I was obsessed with The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants when I was younger, because Brashares just knew. She knew how to portray a high school girl’s life so inexplicably well, and I felt such a connection to her characters. But as I’ve grown up and have been attending university, I’ve found it tougher for me to connect to characters in books because most authors target either young adults (every girl always has to be 16 it seems) or adults in their late 20s and over. Thankfully, Brashares wrote The Last Summer (of You & Me) to connect with post-secondary people struggling to determine their identity, falling in a more serious love, and losing those that are closest to them as they grow up. As soon as I began reading the first chapter, I was addicted. I went through this novel so fast (well, as fast as I possibly could with full time school, a social life and a relationship). Her writing was engaging as per usual, and portrayed such raw emotions. It’s tough writing about that “middle” age group, but she did such a wonderful job. While I couldn’t personally connect to any of the characters myself because none had traits like mine, I still did feel for each and every character in the novel for various reasons. The characters were stereotypical, however. Alice is the quieter, studious, beautiful one who is secretly in love with her sister’s best friend. Riley is the tomboy, who isn’t known as being beautiful; to make up for this, she has a loud personality and gets along with most people (guys in particular). Paul is the dashingly good-looking boy who is both charming, smart and lucky with a great personality. Of course, because this is Ann Brashares, each character has their hidden motives, secrets, flaws and fears that further the story along. It was a well-developed plot, but predictable. However, at one particular point in the novel, I was overtaken with emotions that I didn’t realize had developed. The climax of the novel came swiftly and suddenly–much like in real life–but I still wish Brashares had written more. The novel didn’t have a happy ending, nor was it sad. It merely wrapped up the remaining ties in a loose bow, never quite ending the story, but leaving no room for continuation either. All in all, I enjoyed it, and would recommend The Last Summer (of You & Me) to anyone looking for a quiet, haunting and realistic tale of three young adults whose lives take a turn–for the better or for the worse, that’s up to you to decide.

Favourite Quotes:
“Healing wasn’t always the best thing. Sometimes a hole was better left open. Sometimes it healed too thick and too well and left separate pieces fused and incompetent. And it was harder to reopen after that.”

“Alice would have liked to do the arriving instead of waiting. She would rather have done the leaving than getting left, but that was never the way it happened. For some reasons it was always Alice who waited and Alice who dove in.”

“You could feel things or you could find a way to shut down. But once you were feeling things, you couldn’t decide exactly what to feel. That was the trouble with letting them in at all. They made such a mess of the place.”

My Rating: 7/10

To check this book out, click here.

The Thirteenth Tale: Book Review

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Book Review #18: The Thirteenth Tale

Author: Diane Setterfield

Genre: Fiction

Days to Read: 3 weeks

Synopsis (as taken from Chapter’s): Biographer Margaret Lea returns one night to her apartment above her father’s antiquarian bookshop. On her steps she finds a letter. It is a hand-written request from one of Britain’s most prolific and well-loved novelists. Vida Winter, gravely ill, wants to recount her life story before it is too late, and she wants Margaret to be the one to capture her history. The request takes Margaret by surprise – she doesn’t know the author, nor has she read any of Miss Winter’s dozens of novels.
Late one night, while pondering whether to accept the task of recording Miss Winter’s personal story, Margaret begins to read her father’s rare copy of Miss Winter’s Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation. She is spellbound by the stories and confused when she realizes the book only contains twelve stories. Where is the thirteenth tale? Intrigued, Margaret agrees to meet Miss Winter and act as her biographer.
As Vida Winter unfolds her story, she shares with Margaret the dark family secrets that she has long kept hidden as she remembers her days at Angelfield, the now burnt-out estate that was her childhood home. Margaret carefully records Miss Winter’s account and finds herself more and more deeply immersed in the strange and troubling story. In the end, both women have to confront their pasts and the weight of family secrets. As well as the ghosts that haunt them still.

My Thoughts: Simply put: I. Loved. This. Book.

Oh my goodness, it was like a dessert for the bookworm. Each word was like a decadent piece of truffle, each sentence expertly woven, every page a must-turn. I don’t think I ever tired of the plot or the characters. I am big fan of cover art, and so many novels I see don’t interest me looks-wise, which means I don’t pick them up. But this one captured me on the first glance. What bookworm doesn’t like seeing old books on a book cover? I initially loved the idea of a ghost story, a mystery and a tale untold — and I wasn’t disappointed. I have never read anything by Diane Setterfield before, but I think I’m definitely going to have to look into her other works.

The characters were incredibly interesting. While I couldn’t really connect to any of them, that wasn’t really the point. The point was that I felt for them. I felt for the household at Angelfield, for Margaret Lea and her family, and for Vida Winter herself. The family secrets in both Vida’s family and Margaret’s are what kept the story moving along and became the ghosts themselves. No family is perfect, and this story exemplifies that fact.

It was a great mystery and had me guessing till the very end. But I do have to admit that I got rather confused near the end. I had to reread an entire chapter just to make sure I fully understood it. By the last page, however, I was wanting more and I had figured it all out. I wanted to know how the characters turned out later on and I wanted to make sure they were all happy.

It’s tough finding a book that engrosses you so completely within the first few pages (lord knows I haven’t had that experience in quite a while), so The Thirteenth Tale was like a breath of fresh air for me. A definite must-read for any person who loves a story within a story within a story.

Favourite Quotes:
“There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Wind themselves around your limbs like spider silk, and when you are so enthralled you cannot move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb your thoughts. Inside you they work their magic.”

“Our lives are so important to us that we tend to think the story of them begins with our birth. First there was nothing, then I was born…Yet that is not so. Human lives are not pieces of string that can be separated out from a knot of others and laid out straight. Families are webs. Impossible to touch one part of it without setting the rest vibrating. Impossible to understand one part without having a sense of the whole.”

“As for you, you are alive. But it’s not the same as living.”

My Rating: 9/10

To check this book out, click here.