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3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
This was such a weird book.
I still don't really know what to make of it. I'm sitting here, and I don't know how I feel about this book. I don't know how I feel about the characters, or all that happened... or... anything. I think I'm a little dumbfounded, actually. Or maybe just in some kind of lingering, soft shock of a sort I've never had before.
I guess it's because I'm confused, because there's so much to this story, these characters, and this entire book that isn't tangible. When you first pick it up it strikes you almost within the first few pages. You think it's a normal teenage story, and the weird thing is that it is for all intents and purposes. But then there's this oddness to it that you can't quite put your finger on. The longer you read, the more it creeps up inside of you and wraps around you, like a fog, until you can't see anything beyond the space that you're in right now. Like there's no world that exists outside of that spot right there that you're in. And all that exists in the entire world is you and what comes into that fog. Only you have no control over what comes in there with you, into that space where you can see something--a bench or chair--or someone, someone who doesn't talk about anything outside of the fog, because nothing else exists outside of the fog, where you can't see. Outside in the fog, there is nothing else.
That's what reading this book is like. And it creeps up on you and steals over your heart and mind until you start to forget that anything else exists outside of this town in the book, outside of what happens there, outside of Ruby. Nothing else matters. Nothing else does matter. Ruby is all.
Ruby is.
Nothing else in all the world matters. She is everything.
And the scariest and best part about this book is that the author has the power to make you believe this. Not believe in it. You don't question it. It is. As sure as you live, breathe, hear, smell, feel, see, and exist, you believe.
My younger sister read this book and didn't like it. And I can't say I'm in love with it either. But holy cow is this a book that will take you on a trip. It's almost like you were on a trip. And I mean--take whatever hallucinatory drug and Insert Here--this was a trip. The amazing part is that Nova Ren Suma, the author, made it real while you read it. Her voice in his book is astounding, unlike almost any other author I've ever read. It's one thing to have a concept for a book and tell a story to someone. It's another thing entirely to pull a reader right into your story and make them feel what's going on. And Nova Ren Suma makes you feel it like no one else could. I guarantee you: No one else could ever have written this book better. No one.
This is a book that doesn't deserve to be written off as another teen story. There is sufficient material here that it borders on even a thriller or suspense title, and I'm tempted to make a new shelf just for it to place it under "Eerie" or "Creepy" because that's literally how it makes you feel. There's a sensation that is sometimes overpowering when you read this book, and it pulled me in so many directions.
I both admired and disliked certain things about the characters, but I could never peg a single one as a character I fully liked or disliked. It's almost impossible for me to make up my mind on this one, which is weird. I think I have some definite end choices tending towards the dislike of characters after a certain point, but the word "Hatred" never comes outright for me. And I can't say I downright "Loved" anyone as well.
I think the most fascinating character in this entire book was Ruby herself. This enigmatic, immensely powerful being that I actually find myself questioning the existence of at all sometimes. And other times, I wonder, much like some people ask in the book, just "What the hell is she?" Because for the life of me I can't figure it out still, and the book politely ends on a note where you half wonder if you've been mad the entire time and are mad if you believe anything that just happened.
Contrary to what I set out to expect, I think this book is stunningly stupendous and should be a book you check out and read at some point. It's creepy, and mysterious, and borders on some real psychological weight at the end that's going to make you talk about this one for a whiiiile after you've put it down and stepped away from it. For anyone that loves mild-fright, psychological books, supernatural stories and more along those lines, you should definitely check this book out. It's well worth your time. And read it all the way to the end, especially if you're a psychological lover or someone looking for a creepy new story to tell. The ending makes it especially worth it for you guys.
Happy reading!
I didn't finish it. That should tell you everything.
This book was just awful. It's marketed as a contemporary novel about sisterhood and it starts out fine but then it just takes a turn for the weird. Without giving to much away the writing is poor and the cover and title are somewhat misleading. Unless you like crazy all over the place stories I'd recommend you skip this one.
Beautiful, haunting writing. Very evocative. I spent the whole time trying to puzzle it out, but it felt like a puzzle without a solution.
This haunting story had me hooked from the first chapter. Ruby and Chloe are both such incredible characters who jump of the page all the way through the book. Such beautiful, lyrical writing throughout. I'm also a huge fan of magical realism, and it's great to see it so well done in a YA novel. I'm not a fan of horror or very scary stories, but this had just the right amount of creepiness to make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. The story twisted and turned in marvelously unexpected ways, and ended exactly how it had to. Absolutely loved it.
This is probably the most creative book I've ever read. The author succeeded in creating an authentic new world, one I could never have imagined once I started reading the first page. That's the main element I want to point out, because reading should always feel this mesmerizing, like slowly being sucked into another reality altogether without knowing it, which sometimes I tend to forget because unfortunately not every reading experience is this gripping. The second element I truly admired was the love depicted between Chloe and Ruby. I wish romantic love could equate to the infinite trust of these two sisters. I've never experienced such an overwhelming emotion. They were simply so beautiful together, I'd forgotten such a bond could exist, (which is also why the last page had me in tears.)
This novel will never get enough praise. Being with Ruby and Chloe was a journey I will always treasure, until the next time I'll plunge into their wondrous lives with another read.
This novel will never get enough praise. Being with Ruby and Chloe was a journey I will always treasure, until the next time I'll plunge into their wondrous lives with another read.
Beautiful, lush writing that never, ever felt overdone or forced. Ruby and Chloe held a bond that I didn't always understand, but that felt right too, and the entire book was a delicious mix of eerie and heartbreaking and moving.
(Kinda spoiler)
I enjoyed reading this book, because I thought it would answer the questions, explain all the fague things. But it did not. Kinda disappointed :(
I enjoyed reading this book, because I thought it would answer the questions, explain all the fague things. But it did not. Kinda disappointed :(
A story about two sisters who think they know each other but one night during a drunken party changes everything between them. Ruby is the 19 year old teenage girl who has everyone in their small town wrapped around her finger. Everyone seems to do anything she asks and she always gets her way. Chloe is her 14 year old sister who adores her and wants to be just like her.
One night at a reservoir in town Ruby brags that Chloe can swim across the two mile reservoir. Chloe willingly obliges Ruby and starts to swim. When Chloe gets tired she stops and discovers a dead girl in a row boat. The girl is Chloe’s classmate London Hayes and has overdosed.
Afterwards, Chloe is forced to leave town and live with her father for two years. Then randomly, Ruby shows up and tells Chloe to come back home. When Ruby does come she comes face to face with London Hayes who has been dead for two years. How is she alive? Why doesn’t anyone remember her death? Why did Ruby come back after two years to get Chloe?
I found the premise of this book engaging and intriguing. I wanted to read more about these mysterious circumstances. But other than the premise there was not much else to like about this book. All characters were unlikeable in this book and that never changes. Even worse, none of the characters change or grow throughout the book they are pretty much the same selfish cold people they were in the beginning. I had trouble with the writing style as well it seemed as though scenes were not transitioning and all of a sudden the characters were doing something completely different from the previous paragraph. In the end, I finished the book because I was interested enough to keep reading but it really wasn’t for me.
One night at a reservoir in town Ruby brags that Chloe can swim across the two mile reservoir. Chloe willingly obliges Ruby and starts to swim. When Chloe gets tired she stops and discovers a dead girl in a row boat. The girl is Chloe’s classmate London Hayes and has overdosed.
Afterwards, Chloe is forced to leave town and live with her father for two years. Then randomly, Ruby shows up and tells Chloe to come back home. When Ruby does come she comes face to face with London Hayes who has been dead for two years. How is she alive? Why doesn’t anyone remember her death? Why did Ruby come back after two years to get Chloe?
I found the premise of this book engaging and intriguing. I wanted to read more about these mysterious circumstances. But other than the premise there was not much else to like about this book. All characters were unlikeable in this book and that never changes. Even worse, none of the characters change or grow throughout the book they are pretty much the same selfish cold people they were in the beginning. I had trouble with the writing style as well it seemed as though scenes were not transitioning and all of a sudden the characters were doing something completely different from the previous paragraph. In the end, I finished the book because I was interested enough to keep reading but it really wasn’t for me.
[spoilers!!]
An eerie blend of reality and the fantastic. The suspense and secrets pulled me through the plot, but the blend of realistic fiction with haunting fantastic power didn't seem quite balanced to me. The writing seemed too realistic-fiction-genre for me to wholly believe the eventual magic of the mystery. I'm left wanting a different sort of dissatisfying ending: was it or was it not? Did she or didn't she? The depths (ha, no pun intended) of an unreliable, biased narrator could have been plumbed further.
Also, I was discomfited by the excess of description of Ruby's "stunning" beauty and "gleaming bare legs". Perhaps these visions/interpretations of her are meant to be traced back to her power over the town, but this perpetuation -- with no release -- from the beauty myth doesn't sit well with me.
An eerie blend of reality and the fantastic. The suspense and secrets pulled me through the plot, but the blend of realistic fiction with haunting fantastic power didn't seem quite balanced to me. The writing seemed too realistic-fiction-genre for me to wholly believe the eventual magic of the mystery. I'm left wanting a different sort of dissatisfying ending: was it or was it not? Did she or didn't she? The depths (ha, no pun intended) of an unreliable, biased narrator could have been plumbed further.
Also, I was discomfited by the excess of description of Ruby's "stunning" beauty and "gleaming bare legs". Perhaps these visions/interpretations of her are meant to be traced back to her power over the town, but this perpetuation -- with no release -- from the beauty myth doesn't sit well with me.