aphelele's reviews
5 reviews

Looking for Alaska by John Green

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

I loved the book, but I didn’t read the last few chapters added in the deluxe version. 

I feel like it brought back the writer in me, because in my notes added in the Books app on the iOS device I get influenced by one of John Green’s lines, and my own thought process gets sparked. 
This alone just shows how much of a great writer John Green is, I honestly just felt present through almost every moment in the book, it felt like he wanted me to be deeply included in the reading process, and I felt it more when Miles and Chip (Pudge and the Colonel) tried reliving Alaska’s last few moments, I felt a sense of rejuvenation, it was almost as if Alaska was MY friend and I was a real-time griever too. 

It honestly isn’t the saddest book I read but it is relatively sad, and you find yourself shedding tears quite often after Alaska’s death. Alaska’s personality was shitty at times, but she was a teenager and through her persona her age was depicted, I grew to love her regardless and I was also reminded of myself through her. 

I loved the book, just hated how they didn’t quickly think of the one significant event that occurred in Alaska’s life, which is her mother’s death. Great friends I guess. 

My Policeman by Bethan Roberts

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I never thought I would write a review on this app, but here I am. 

I had stages where I loved Marion and stages were I felt she was being a bit harsh, but I found myself excusing her behaviour after putting myself in her shoes and realizing that she handled the situation pretty well. Yes at times I thought she was crazy because who would stay with a queer man who’s obviously not in-love with them but rather took advantage of them because of the undying love they’ve  had for him since they both were teenagers? Clearly we can see that it’s Marion and I feel she never got the justice she’s deserved because not once did Tom apologize, and not once did Patrick apologize because he too is just as guilty as Tom because he’s been there before Tom and Marion got married. 

I understand the cruelty of the government laws against queers at the time and truly it must’ve been painful, but hurting another person to save yourself is never a solution, you’re just point blank cruel and a disgusting human being. 
I feel like Patrick uses his financial advantage to coax men, and to a certain extent and arguably so, I feel as if he did the same with Tom. However I do not believe that him not using his money as a means of keeping Tom amused whenever he’s around him would’ve helped the situation, it rather sped it up and led to them being caught quicker, I honestly think as an old man who’s been in-love with another guy he should’ve been more careful and he knew how to be but it seems like the writer also sort of ignored Patrick’s previous experiences.

Overall the book is great, it honestly just triggers so many emotions in me because I too, am queer but I’m also a woman and a human.

I would have loved hearing more about Julia though, so that we get a broader idea of opinions. We know that Julia is queer as well but I genuinely wanted to know whether she also had liking towards Marion or not because their last interaction had me questioning things because Julia particularly told Marion alone about her leave for London and I thought that was a bit romantic was it not? 

Overall, great book, I hated how Patrick associated only good qualities with “His policeman” yet his policeman was unbelievably cruel to an honestly innocent woman who happened to have been frequently foolish. 

Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The book was okay, could have been better if I didn’t feel like the writer was desperate for drama when they added a new plot about Bebe fighting for the custody of her child. It was a very simple case to take care of, the laws were presented to us when the case began and it’s quite obvious that if you gave your child up, you gave them to the system and to another family regardless of your racial concerns. Mia was presented as this perfect mom and Elena was the bad guy, believe it or not Mia was also very much a bad guy, she was extremely selfish as a mom, she was controlling and Pearl’s uncomfortability with the subject of constantly having was presented from time to time in the book but it was never properly addressed and dealt with, they [Mia and Pearl] always just end up cuddling after a fight without dealing with shit. Everything felt as though it was left unfinished, and the story felt slow paced at the beginning but rushed near the end and that just ruined the plot for me. I see the sim of the book but the execution was pretty rough on my part. 

Also the whole thing with Izzy was left unfinished, sure she went looking for Mia but what happened?