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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
Book Name: Não Há Bela Sem Senão
Author/s:Rebecca James
Language Portuguese
Original Title: Beautiful Malice
Publisher, year:Suma de Letras , 2010
Page total: 312
Date Read: July 14 2010
Genre/s: YA, fiction, thriller
First line of Book:"I didn't go to Alice's funeral."
Review:
"So. Were you glad, deep down? Were you glad to be rid of her? Your perfect sister? Were you secretly glad when she was killed?"
After her sister's murder, Katherine moves to another city and changes schools. After Rachel's death, she got lots of attention from the media but now all she wants is not to be noticed. But then, she meets Alice. Alice is funny, joyous, nice, seductive and popular. And she can spread happiness wherever she goes. She and Katherine become best friends, but then Katherine notices Alice's erratic behavior: she's either a complete and utterbitch meanie or the nicest person you've ever met. She can be uber sweet and a great friend or she can be narcissistic and cruel. It all depends.
The thing is, Alice has a secret. A huge secret.
I loved this book. I've been reading a lot of unexpectedly good literary stuff lately, but this...whoa. I swear, I could feel exactly what Katherine was feeling, and I didn't want to keep reading, because I felt very frustrated but I couldn't! Don't you just hate when that happens? I don't.
I really liked that the narrative changed from present to past to longer past. It really gave me a complete view of the story, but without giving everything over at once - that's one of the causes of my frustration, by the way.
it was very well written, I really liked Robbie and Mick and Philippa and Katherine's parents and I really hated Alice. With all my guts. Isn't that a magnificent show of characterization?
Rating:5/5
Author/s:Rebecca James
Language Portuguese
Original Title: Beautiful Malice
Publisher, year:Suma de Letras , 2010
Page total: 312
Date Read: July 14 2010
Genre/s: YA, fiction, thriller
First line of Book:"I didn't go to Alice's funeral."
Review:
"So. Were you glad, deep down? Were you glad to be rid of her? Your perfect sister? Were you secretly glad when she was killed?"
After her sister's murder, Katherine moves to another city and changes schools. After Rachel's death, she got lots of attention from the media but now all she wants is not to be noticed. But then, she meets Alice. Alice is funny, joyous, nice, seductive and popular. And she can spread happiness wherever she goes. She and Katherine become best friends, but then Katherine notices Alice's erratic behavior: she's either a complete and utter
The thing is, Alice has a secret. A huge secret.
I loved this book. I've been reading a lot of unexpectedly good literary stuff lately, but this...whoa. I swear, I could feel exactly what Katherine was feeling, and I didn't want to keep reading, because I felt very frustrated but I couldn't! Don't you just hate when that happens? I don't.
I really liked that the narrative changed from present to past to longer past. It really gave me a complete view of the story, but without giving everything over at once - that's one of the causes of my frustration, by the way.
it was very well written, I really liked Robbie and Mick and Philippa and Katherine's parents and I really hated Alice. With all my guts. Isn't that a magnificent show of characterization?
Rating:5/5
After reading so much about this book, I expected a lot of it. Maybe a little to much. Although I liked the book, I also was a little disappointed. I expected more action, but the story and characters weren't so exciting as I hoped it would be. The reason of Alice's behavior and Katherine's secret made me finish the book, which had a surprising end.
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A story about an Australian high schooler's transition into young adulthood. The plot involves a friendship with someone who is not the person she appears to be, and the tragic back story of the protagonist.
I believe the book may be best suited for readers around the same age as the main character. I never felt fully invested in the emotional and psychological drama Katherine experiences but may have enjoyed it had I found the book when I was younger. Rather than building to one pivotal moment, the book presents a series of character interactions to drive the story along at a steady pace from beginning to end.
I believe the book may be best suited for readers around the same age as the main character. I never felt fully invested in the emotional and psychological drama Katherine experiences but may have enjoyed it had I found the book when I was younger. Rather than building to one pivotal moment, the book presents a series of character interactions to drive the story along at a steady pace from beginning to end.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Rape
I had seen Beautiful Malice around but had never paid attention to it. Then someone pointed it out and said it was amazing, so I looked into it, and saw that it was classed as a psychological thriller. I absolutely love psychological thrillers so I just had to get my hands on it.
If I don’t like a book, there is usually at least one thing that I find enjoyable about a book. With Beautiful Malice, I found nothing to like. I don’t know what happened, but Beautiful Malice just did absolutely nothing for me, I did not like it one iota.
The narrative is hard to follow, it’s quite choppy and just when I thought I knew what was happening there is a time shift in the next paragraph and it feels so empty, as though something is missing. It was so weird.
Nothing happens for a really long time in the book and you already know what is going to happen in the end. About 70 pages into Beautiful Malice I was considering calling it a day, but I thought, it had to get better, so I persevered all the way to the end.
I’m not going to lie; the ending was just as awful as the rest of the book. It seemed like the whole book was set up for this ending, but then when you actually reach the ending it was so anti-climactic and it tried to be mysterious and suspenseful but ended up being choppy, and inconsistent. I found it hard to understand what was going on to be honest.
The book is classed as a young adult book but I think it is for the older YA audience as it features older people and mature themes.
My biggest problem with Beautiful Malice is that it seemed so unrealistic and unbelievable. I could not, for one second, suspend my disbelief, as everything just seemed so unbelievable. I couldn’t understand how the events could happen and I couldn’t understand the characters interactions.
There are so many people that absolutely love Beautiful Malice, it just didn’t appeal to me at all. I’m not sure what I had expected from Beautiful Malice, but whatever it was, I just didn’t get it.
If I don’t like a book, there is usually at least one thing that I find enjoyable about a book. With Beautiful Malice, I found nothing to like. I don’t know what happened, but Beautiful Malice just did absolutely nothing for me, I did not like it one iota.
The narrative is hard to follow, it’s quite choppy and just when I thought I knew what was happening there is a time shift in the next paragraph and it feels so empty, as though something is missing. It was so weird.
Nothing happens for a really long time in the book and you already know what is going to happen in the end. About 70 pages into Beautiful Malice I was considering calling it a day, but I thought, it had to get better, so I persevered all the way to the end.
I’m not going to lie; the ending was just as awful as the rest of the book. It seemed like the whole book was set up for this ending, but then when you actually reach the ending it was so anti-climactic and it tried to be mysterious and suspenseful but ended up being choppy, and inconsistent. I found it hard to understand what was going on to be honest.
The book is classed as a young adult book but I think it is for the older YA audience as it features older people and mature themes.
My biggest problem with Beautiful Malice is that it seemed so unrealistic and unbelievable. I could not, for one second, suspend my disbelief, as everything just seemed so unbelievable. I couldn’t understand how the events could happen and I couldn’t understand the characters interactions.
There are so many people that absolutely love Beautiful Malice, it just didn’t appeal to me at all. I’m not sure what I had expected from Beautiful Malice, but whatever it was, I just didn’t get it.
In "Die Wahrheit über Alice" beschreibt Rebecca James eine schockierende Geschichte, über die ich allerdings nichts verraten möchte. Langsam baut sie die Spannung auf und verbindet die eigentliche Geschichte mit Abschnitten, die sich in der Vergangenheit abgespielt haben, aber wichtig für das Verständnis sind, oder solchen, die sich später erst abspielen werden. Dieser Aufbau hat mir sehr gut gefallen, denn die Spannung flaut dadurch nie ab, sondern wird gehalten oder vergrößert. Immer mehr Fragen werden durch bestimmte Andeutungen aufgeworfen. Und sobald eine dieser Fragen endlich beantwortet ist, muss man sich die nächste stellen. Die ganze Zeit bleibt dabei eine unterschwellige Ahnung erhalten, dessen Auflösung man erst am Ende erfährt.
Neben der Geschichte jedoch, die mir an und für sich sehr gut gefallen hat, verblassen Dinge wie Charaktere und der Stil etwas. Bis auf einige wenige Charaktere (vor allem Alice) waren die anderen eher schwach und erschienen mir nicht wie wirkliche Personen. Katherine beispielsweise fühlte ich mich auch nicht ganz nah, obwohl sie der Hauptcharakter war und die Geschichte aus ihrer Sicht erzählt wurde.
Stellenweise fand ich das Handeln auch eher unlogisch.
Vor allem als Katherines Eltern denken, sie würde Drogen nehmen. Als dann klar wird, dass Alice Lügen erzählt hat, sind sie sofort überzeugt und gegen Alice - seltsam, wo die Mutter doch vorher so von ihr geschwärmt hat...
Stilistisch war die Geschichte eben leider auch nichts Besonderes. Es war nicht unangenehm simpel, aber eben auch nicht heraussagend. Dafür fand ich stellenweise den Wechsel in die Du-Perspektive (wenn etwas Besonderes passierte) sehr passend, denn an der Stelle nahm man das Geschchen gleichzeitig distanziert und doch aus nächster Nähe wahr.
Ein weiter Kritikpunkt waren für mich die Dialoge. Es gab einige Stellen, an denen sie amüsant und glaubwürdig waren, andere aber widerum beinhalteten komische Formulierungen und ausschweifende Reden, die man beim Reden eigentlich nicht verwendet. Das war also nicht sehr glaubhaft, was ich doch sehr schade fand.
Eine gute Geschichte mit leider nicht so guter Umsetzung. Empfehlen würde ich das Buch nur denjenigen, die ein wirklich spannendes Buch lesen möchten und denen es dabei nicht so sehr um den Stil oder die Charaktere geht.
Neben der Geschichte jedoch, die mir an und für sich sehr gut gefallen hat, verblassen Dinge wie Charaktere und der Stil etwas. Bis auf einige wenige Charaktere (vor allem Alice) waren die anderen eher schwach und erschienen mir nicht wie wirkliche Personen. Katherine beispielsweise fühlte ich mich auch nicht ganz nah, obwohl sie der Hauptcharakter war und die Geschichte aus ihrer Sicht erzählt wurde.
Stellenweise fand ich das Handeln auch eher unlogisch.
Stilistisch war die Geschichte eben leider auch nichts Besonderes. Es war nicht unangenehm simpel, aber eben auch nicht heraussagend. Dafür fand ich stellenweise den Wechsel in die Du-Perspektive (wenn etwas Besonderes passierte) sehr passend, denn an der Stelle nahm man das Geschchen gleichzeitig distanziert und doch aus nächster Nähe wahr.
Ein weiter Kritikpunkt waren für mich die Dialoge. Es gab einige Stellen, an denen sie amüsant und glaubwürdig waren, andere aber widerum beinhalteten komische Formulierungen und ausschweifende Reden, die man beim Reden eigentlich nicht verwendet. Das war also nicht sehr glaubhaft, was ich doch sehr schade fand.
Eine gute Geschichte mit leider nicht so guter Umsetzung. Empfehlen würde ich das Buch nur denjenigen, die ein wirklich spannendes Buch lesen möchten und denen es dabei nicht so sehr um den Stil oder die Charaktere geht.
It was a okay read. Solid. Translated into german very well. Halfway through the book I kinda knew what and why everything happened. But after all it was good.
I must have enjoyed this because I finished it (in two days, at that). But I remember nothing about it, so I must not have found it particularly memorable.
A fun and readable YA suspense/thriller. Katherine Patterson has tried to start a new life after the death of her sister. She avoids people, worried they will ask about her sister, until popular Alice decides to befriend her. But something is a little off about Alice.
The book is nothing deep, and the characters not particularly different from the characters in any YA novel, but the story -- despite having few surprises -- pulls you along and keeps you engaged until the end.
The book is nothing deep, and the characters not particularly different from the characters in any YA novel, but the story -- despite having few surprises -- pulls you along and keeps you engaged until the end.
Set in Australia which was a first for me. I was pleasantly surprised and impressed with the depth and detail of this story. The parts dealing with grief were really done - and actually the conclusion was rather satisfying in that it wasn't a happy ending but more realistically people dealing with and trying to get on with their lives. Definitely a better standard of YA lit - i.e. crediting its audience with a fair level of understanding. Definitely glad I saved this from the 'go-to-charity' in my lil library!
Review von 2011:
Sehr gut, direkt als ich es durch hatte, habe ich neu angefangen, weil man eine komplett neue Sichtweise hat, wenn man weiß, was passiert ist.
Sehr gut, direkt als ich es durch hatte, habe ich neu angefangen, weil man eine komplett neue Sichtweise hat, wenn man weiß, was passiert ist.