【Book Review】A Monster Calls

A Monster Calls

Overall Rating: ★★★★.5

Characters: ★★★★★

Plot: ★★★★★

Writing：★★★★★

 Before reading this book, I have heard so many great things from many people who I trust when it comes to the taste in books. I picked this book up with high expectation, and fortunately, it doesn’t let me down. You may feel very strange with the fact that even though I gave each sub-category five stars, I still gave the overall rating 4.5 stars. I will explain that in the following passage.

    Conor O'Malley always have this nightmare in which a monster comes visit him almost every night at 12:07. Initially, Conor believes his encounter with the yew-tree monster is merely a dream; however, he later finds out that this is not actually the case. The dream is so vivid and real that it starts to influence Conor’s life. Meanwhile, the illness of Conor’s mother is something else that he struggles to deal with….

    A monster calls is a very short book with only 215 pages. I can fly through this in about half a day. Since I am extremely busy with school work recently, I didn’t make that happen. Labeled as middle-grade books, A monster calls is very different from the ordinary children’s books. It possesses this mysterious and even a little horror atmosphere throughout the plot. I was so amazed by some of the illustrations. I know Jim Kay, who is the illustrator of this book; he also does the artwork for the Harry Potter-a recently released edition with breathtaking illustrations. His illustrations are so gorgeous that they just improve my entire reading experience of this book to another level.

Now I want to explain why I didn’t give this book a five out of five stars rating. I don’t know why, but this book somehow lacks something which prevents me from giving it five solid stars instead of 4.5 stars. I like the characters. Conor, as a protagonist, has his own flaws in terms of his way of dealing with his troubles. Sometimes, he reveals his immature side and does something that he instantly regret after doing it. Actually, my favorite character of this book is the yew tree monster. I love all of his tales though I find myself having difficulties in relating the tale to the plot. Apparently, the author doesn’t write these three tales for nothing. Maybe they are some kind of metaphors which I really feel stupid for not being able to understand their implied meanings. However, I still enjoy all of these tales, especially the first two. They are so different from the stereotypical tales in the ways that they reach a deeper topic and have such an interesting little plot twist. As for the writing of Patrick Ness, I think it is beautiful and accessible for young readers.

    Generally, I really recommend this book to not only its original target audiences who are teenagers and children, but also to adults who seek for a heart-wrenching tale with beautiful writings.

      

【Book Review】The Fountain

The Fountain

Overall Rating: ★★★★

Characters: ★★★★

Plot: ★★★★

Writing：★★★★

I received a free electronic copy to make an honest review.

      Ava is a transfer student to a school called St. Augustus where her parents are alumni of. She joins the swimming team and meets this typical mean girl Courtney, who makes Ava’s life in the new school not so wonderful. After suffering a depressing day, Ava stumbles across a mysterious fountain in the forest in her school, so she decides to make a wish that says Courtney has never existed. Then in the next day, she discovers that Courtney actually disappears, and nobody has ever heard of or remembered her. Regretting with her behavior, Ava wants to undo her wish, only to find out that she cannot find the fountain anymore. Through her research, she faces the dilemma between her boyfriend Lucas, and the charming boy in her new school called Ethan.

Interesting PLOT TWIST, though I kind of guess something may happen, thus I wasn’t extremely surprised to see that happen. As for the characters, I don’t find them to be extremely relatable, but I definitely like reading about them. To be honest, I like Ethan way more than Lucas. I like the characters, but I don’t love them to death, so that is why I give the characters a four-star rating.

Then it comes to the plot of this book. I think the overall idea of this book is quite brilliant. However, I am a little over with the whole “mean girl” thing, because I have read so many books that have these mean-girls-bully-others elements. When I read about the appearance of Courtney, I just hope that she is not going to be that kind of girl, and she actually is what I think she will be. With that being said, it is just my PERSONAL opinions. The plot is definitely interesting to read about. Also, my other opinion is that the book is a little too short. Therefore, it ends a little abruptly. I was hoping to have more, and I was shocked to discover that the book actually ends. Now, I am just wondering whether the author wants to write a sequel or not. If she will write one, I will definitely be reading that as well.

Overall, I really like this book. It is an easy read. Since the writing style is very accessible, and it is not a lengthy book, I finished this in one and a half day. I highly recommend this book to people who enjoy young adult books with little mystery elements. There is definitely potential within this book!  

【Book Review】Raining Down Rules

Raining Down Rules

       Overall Rating: ★★★★

Characters: ★★★★

Plot: ★★★.5

Writing：★★★

       I received a free electronic copy to make an honest review.

Jemma lives a life that is bounded by a set of rules. When she comes back to her childhood hometown, she is torn between Jordan, a dangerous rock star, and Vic, a charming and attractive firefighter. She is forced to make a decision that will hopefully lead her to the true love.

    As for the overall rating, I gave this book four stars. From my perspective, I highly enjoy reading this book, and I think it is a fast and interesting read. However, I still have some problems with this book which I will be discussing in the following passage.

    Normally in books that have a love triangle, I prone to choose a side among the two rivals. In this book, I choose to be in the team Vic. I understand that Jordan, a dangerous, famous, and sexy rock star, can be the crush of many young girls. However, I didn’t have a strong connection with him ever since the beginning. Maybe my opinions are a little personal, but I don’t think that I am going to fall in love with someone who is addicted, bad tempered, and inclined to impose physical violence on others. However, I admit that he is a character with depth. He definitely goes through myriad struggles and transformations in the book, which is great. When it comes to Vic, he is hands down my absolutely FAVORITE character in this book. I find him to be very likeable and attractive. He is that kind of guy who I can feel comfortable being together because of his dependability and care. In general, I find all the characters to be interesting. I don’t dislike anyone of them including Jordan. Therefore, I give the characters part four stars. I love Vic so FREAKING much!

The writing part is the one that I have the most trouble with. It doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy reading it or even dislike it. It is just that sometimes I figure the writing is somewhat a little confusing. There are several short sections that are a little repetitive. Some of the sentences are not well written in the fact that the commas are not utilized well, and I got a little confusing while reading those sentences. Besides those minute writing problems, I really enjoy the other parts such as the intense tension between characters and the portrait of the characters’ emotions. But I still firmly believe that if there had been fewer mistakes, I would have enjoyed this book much more.

    Finally, I want to briefly talk about my thoughts on the plot. This is a typical love triangle story that is filled with struggles and torments. I don’t find the plot to be able to blow me away. Also, I am not satisfied with some parts of the ending. I am not going to explain explicitly which part I dislike, but I am not happy with the thing that happens at the end. That’s probably why I give the plot 3.5 stars.

    Overall, I still have great fun reading this book. Finding some flaws in terms of writings and characters, I still highly recommend this book to people who just want to read a fun and easy-to-read romance with a love triangle. By the way, I have to admit that the cover, to be honest, is quite cheesy. However, I am looking forward to seeing other books by B.K. Rivers, who I think definitely has the potential to write more intriguing books.

【Book Review】The Outsiders

The Outsiders

Overall Rating: ★★★★★

Characters: ★★★★★

Plot: ★★★★★

Writing：★★★★

        To be honest, this is more like a 4.5 stars rating. However, I thoroughly enjoy this book, and I just cannot believe the fact that I actually love it! The Outsiders tells a story about Ponyboy Curtis, who is part of the lower-class called Greasers in their region. The Greasers usually get into fights with another group of teenagers who are called Socs and they are people who come from the higher-class in the region. Their conflictions come to a breaking point when Ponyboy’s friend does something horrible, and their lives are turned upside down forever.

To be one hundred percent honest, I don’t expect myself liking this book. I picked it up on Amazon just for the purpose of completing my bargain price. When I was wondering which book to read, I decided to pick this book up, and it totally blew me away. The best part of this book is its plot and its characters. Though I still have some issues about the writing style, I think that is probably my problem since I generally don’t appreciate the way these characters speak just like those of the book Of Mice and Men.

-Spoiler Alert!-

    My favorite part of this book is its characters. I cannot express how deeply I love Ponyboy and Johnny, and how depressing I was when I read the death of Johnny. Ponyboy, being only fourteen years old, is the youngest of the greasers. While Ponyboy is mature and well-aware of the confliction between greasers and Socs, he sometimes still possesses the typical teenage features which can cause him great trouble in the book. To be fair, it is his behavior to run away from his house at night that somewhat leads to his encounters with other Socs, which causes Johnny to kill one of them. By the way, I seriously think that the introduction of this book on Goodreads and other websites shouldn’t include the fact that Johnny kills someone. That is supposed to be a spoiler. If previously the readers have no idea of this incident, they will definitely be in deep shock when they read this part. Giving the readers this piece of information is just like taking away or weakening the excitement of reading this book. Also, I really admire Johnny as a character. He is willing to sacrifice himself for the purpose of saving other kids in the fire, and he is willing to kill a person in order to save his friend Ponyboy. He is such a great character, and I am so sad that he is dead at the end.

    I think there are maybe other symbols or general ideas within this book, but the most apparent one is definitely the social conflict between the Greasers and the Socs. This rivalry relationship more or less reflects the distant gap between the rich and the poor or the gap between the high classes and low classes. Even the author portrays their relationship with such dreadfulness, it is very likely that she actually points out the fact that these two classes are not opposite completely. This opinion is shown in the part where Ponyboy, a greaser, discusses literature works and watches movies with Cherry, a member of the Socs. Their harmonious relationship is an evident indication that the relationships between people from different social status are not at all hateful, instead, there are still some bright spots that can be discovered.

    Overall, I really like this book, and I definitely recommend this book to everyone who is interested in books that deal with teenage problems and social conflicts. I have had a great experience reading this book. I should have read it earlier!

【Book Review】Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

Overall Rating: ★★★★

Characters: ★★★★★

Plot: ★★★★★

Writing：★★★★

       This is a well-known modern classic book that I read recently. My overall rating of this book is four stars. Generally, I really appreciate this book, but I don’t absolutely love it. Of Mice and Man basically tells a story about two outsiders: George and Lennie who dream about their bright future. However, their expectation is ruined when Lennie, George’s single-minded and naïve friend, accidentally commits a dreadful crime, which leads to a despairing end.

    The only thing that I dislike about this book is its writing style. I completely understand the fact that people at that social ranking during that time period were supposed to speak that way. I know the author uses this writing style to illustrate the characteristics of these characters, but I just cannot appreciate this type of writing even I know that it is actually the best thing to do. The author always uses sentences like “I don’t mean no harm”, which, of course, I know their correct meanings, but sometimes I am just so confused. Therefore, I gave the writing style a four-star rating.

-Spoiler Discussion!-

    Here is the thing. As soon as I read the general plot line at the back of the book, I instantly knew that Lennie, as a childlike character with uncontrollable strength, is highly possible to get involved in some kind of troubles. And when I read the part where he accidentally breaks the neck of Curley’s wife, I wasn’t really surprised since I had anticipated this happenstance. However, what shocks me the most is the part where George resolves to shot Lennie from the back, and this plot twist is the reason why I finally decide to give the plot five stars. Seriously, I didn’t see that coming, and that is quite amazing.

    As for the characters, I really like how John portrays Lennie’s characters as well as the development of George’s emotions. Lennie is a character who doesn’t change much through the story, which makes perfect sense due to his natural childlike personality. The transformation of George is what fascinates me. He appears at the beginning of the book as sort of a protector of Lennie, who always gets into trouble. But as the story progresses, George starts this transformation that ultimately leads to the shot.

    This book has a very tragic ending. Both of the protagonists dream of earning their social status by working hard and can therefore gradually own their own farm. Their dreams are ruined for multiple reasons, which I am not sure which reasons is the dominant cause. Lennie is such a tragic figure. He never means to harm anyone. His tragic death derives mainly from his own intrinsic childish mind and his uncontrollable great physical body power. I am sad and pity for him.

    Apparently, this book criticizes the brutality of human nature, as well as the fragile American dreams. In my opinion, this book deserves all of its attention and popularity in the United States. I think this is a powerful book, and I do recommend this book to anyone who is intended to learn more about American historical literature and the farmers’ life in the 20th century. Still, I enjoy it, but I don’t thoroughly love it. However, I agree with the idea that this modern classic should be passed on to generations of readers for the purpose of contemplating its profound meanings.

【Book Review】We Were Liars

We Were Liars

    Now I decide to start a new type of rating system. In the past, I always only gave a general rating of a book, but now I will start to split the ratings into different categories such as character and plot, and I will give each of them a rating, and, of course, there is still going to be an overall rating. So here is the first book that I start to use this new rating system.

Overall Rating: ★★

Characters: ★

Plot: ★★★

Writing：★★

    To be honest, We Were Liars is probably one of the worst books I have ever read in the year of 2016. The plot of the book is quite difficult to summarize without a spoiler. Basically, the story happens around a beautiful and superior family that actually has some dark secrets. The protagonist Cadence is going to unfold these dark secrets and find out the dreadful event that takes place two years ago. OK, now I have to dive into the spoiler section, or I will have nothing much to say.

-Spoiler Alert!!!!-

    Now, I have three very huge problems about this book.

The first one is its writing style.

E. Lockhart tends

to separate sentences

into short lines

which I am not

very comfortable with

period

I definitely understand the fact that some people may like this type of writing style dearly. However, I am not a huge fan of these short weirdly separated sentences. And that is my first and the smallest problems of this book.

The second problem I have is the plot. Seriously, the plot is so cliché that I don’t even want to summarize it. A group of teenagers are having coming-of-age problems and why-we-are-so-rich-and-superior-than-others problems. Then, more importantly, I was extremely confused by the plot. Initially, I thought I was reading some teenage romance story, then I realized that it should be a coming-of-age story just like The Catcher in the Rye. However, through my progression of the book, I thought it is supposed to be a family drama type of book, and then I thought it should be some kind of crime or mystery novels. And FINALLY, I figured out that this is actually a SUPERNATURAL story, with GHOSTS in it! I do accept some people’s arguments that Cadence is just going through a mental illness, the three figures of the liars are probably virtual and have never actually existed. I am OK with this explanation, but I am still really confused with the book. Also, if they are only just the manipulation of Cadence’s mind, how can everyone else never cares about Cadence strange behavior when she just talks to nobody through thin air? It doesn’t MAKE sense!

And now, here is the biggest problem that I have toward this book. I HATE everyone in this book, I cannot feel related to anybody. I would like to say that if you don’t like any of the characters, why do you keep reading the book? The only thing that I am relieved about is that this book is actually quite short, or it will just be an endless torture. Now, I want to talk about the protagonist of this book. I cannot express how I hate her, but she is definitely one of the worst female characters I have ever encountered. There are several reasons for that.

I have millions of complaints about her. She is overdramatic and holds these bizarre thoughts that I can never understand in the course of my entire life. She is such a huge hypocrite that I will automatically recall her name whenever I see the word hypocrite. She hates her grandeur family, and she wants to escape the island. She gives away her stuff, and she tries to do charities and criticize her mother’s relentless to be kind to others. At the same time, she also never pays any attention to the people who work on their island. She doesn’t even know their names! She depends on her family’s wealth, but hates it at the same time and pretends to be some kind of saint who is too divine to pay attention to economic affairs. HYPOCRITE.

She also confuses me so much. At the beginning, she describes how she is shot by her father, which literally makes me feel that she is actually wounded. But then I realized that all her descriptions are somewhat unreliable when I read the part where the blood starts to spray from her mouth or something. I have no clue she is hurt or not throughout the entire book. Why can she not act like Holden Caulfield since they are all unreliable narrators? I have to say that Holden is one thousand times better than Cadence. At least, he doesn’t accidentally burnt his close friends to death. Here is another part that is beyond my comprehension. How can Cadence just wants to do some kind of fire burning experiment and accidentally burn her friends ALIVE!?? I don’t understand it! I really don`t. She is either so stupid and possess great egotism or her mental illness already takes place before the accident (My other guess is that she is drunk. Duh). That is the only explanation I can come up with concerning her stupid behavior. Now I am more convinced by the manipulation theory, because if I am one of the dead liars, I will probably so angry that I want to kill Cadence as soon as I see her instead of being a nice and gentle ghost friend.

Overall, I am so disappointed by this book. Maybe I just have too much expectation toward it. Personally, I will not recommend this book to others since I had a hard time reading it. But if you are a fun of E. Lockhart or a fun of mystery and protagonist-has-mental-illness-problem type of book, then you will probably enjoy this book more than I do.

Now after reviewing this book, I can try to get rid of it:)