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nayyira's reviews
223 reviews
It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be by Roger Kennedy, Paul Arden
3.0
The actual real reason I gave this book 3/5 because I liked the pictures, that were more than half of the book by the way, so I think my rating's fair enough.
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
3.0
All The Bright Places is a book about two seniors, Theodore Finch and Violet Markey that meet on the school's bell tower ledge, and eventually go on a jointly of mutual self-learning after they go around Indiana in search for memorable places for their history project.
The book had a promising beginning, Finch's character was being drawn out nicely and I felt it had much more firmer grounds that Violet's character had more...consistency, I guess. I don't think it was written well at all —it was more of a vague traits and ideas and it sure didn't feel like a real person. I didn't connect with Violet at all, and that affected my view on Finch, degrading it —like why, how, can he like a person that doesn't even feel real to me?
The plot line was maybe one good thing. At the beginning, it felt like it would be a cliché and I thought I might give it a shot —might be different, you know, a couple of my friends recommended it— but then the characters changed that idea for me, and the plot line too, it didn't go like every 'depressed-boy-attempts-suicide-gets-saved-by-popular-but-nice-girl-end-up-falling-in-love.' (Is there even something like that? I'm sure you get what I mean). Finch's character was just so different from your typical. Some of the interactions between Violet and Finch stayed true to that cliché though, and sometimes you can let that pass.
And even though Finch's character was really queer and interesting and mysterious —his dorky humour, spontaneousness, down to earth-ness— it was too fucking mysterious because there were too many things left vague and the reader couldn't tell everything that went through his mind, and I mean this is written in first person for crying out loud?
Speaking about characters and their flaws (not like flaws in their personalities, no, flaws in them as fictional characters, as in something is wrong with this character and it made the story a worse), the side characters —oh my God. Like you know what? Some of them were really real and I could relate to them as people even: Finch's dad; Decca, his little sister; Violet's parents; even Finch's counsellor. But you know these side character that could've given the story a lot more and made it much more interesting and in-depth and added new meaning to it, interlinking several stories and relationships together; you know these side characters? They were so poorly written I wanted to pull my hair out.
To name a few: Finch's 'friends', Charlie and Bren; Ryan; Roamer and Amanda; Kate, Finch's older sister. They all had so much potential? Especially Charlie and Bren? This really pisses me off.
HOWEVER, the story, in a simpler, more general category of just a story, was a very nice story. Enjoyable. Funny. Meaningful. Expected ending. All very simple and nice.
The book had a promising beginning, Finch's character was being drawn out nicely and I felt it had much more firmer grounds that Violet's character had more...consistency, I guess. I don't think it was written well at all —it was more of a vague traits and ideas and it sure didn't feel like a real person. I didn't connect with Violet at all, and that affected my view on Finch, degrading it —like why, how, can he like a person that doesn't even feel real to me?
The plot line was maybe one good thing. At the beginning, it felt like it would be a cliché and I thought I might give it a shot —might be different, you know, a couple of my friends recommended it— but then the characters changed that idea for me, and the plot line too, it didn't go like every 'depressed-boy-attempts-suicide-gets-saved-by-popular-but-nice-girl-end-up-falling-in-love.' (Is there even something like that? I'm sure you get what I mean). Finch's character was just so different from your typical. Some of the interactions between Violet and Finch stayed true to that cliché though, and sometimes you can let that pass.
And even though Finch's character was really queer and interesting and mysterious —his dorky humour, spontaneousness, down to earth-ness— it was too fucking mysterious because there were too many things left vague and the reader couldn't tell everything that went through his mind, and I mean this is written in first person for crying out loud?
Speaking about characters and their flaws (not like flaws in their personalities, no, flaws in them as fictional characters, as in something is wrong with this character and it made the story a worse), the side characters —oh my God. Like you know what? Some of them were really real and I could relate to them as people even: Finch's dad; Decca, his little sister; Violet's parents; even Finch's counsellor. But you know these side character that could've given the story a lot more and made it much more interesting and in-depth and added new meaning to it, interlinking several stories and relationships together; you know these side characters? They were so poorly written I wanted to pull my hair out.
To name a few: Finch's 'friends', Charlie and Bren; Ryan; Roamer and Amanda; Kate, Finch's older sister. They all had so much potential? Especially Charlie and Bren? This really pisses me off.
HOWEVER, the story, in a simpler, more general category of just a story, was a very nice story. Enjoyable. Funny. Meaningful. Expected ending. All very simple and nice.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
4.0
' Men actually this girl exists. Maybe They're fooled because so many women are willing to pretend to be this girl. For a long time Cool Girl offended me. I used to see men - friends, coworkers, strangers - giddy over these awful pretender women, and I'd want to sit these men down and calmly say: You are not dating a woman, you are dating a woman who has watched too many movies written by socially awkward men who'd like to believe that this kind of woman exists and might kiss them. I'd want to grab the poor guy by his lapels or messenger bag and say: The bitch doesn't really love chili dogs that much - no one loves chili dogs that much! And the cool girls are even more pathetic: They're not even pretending to be the woman they want to be they're pretending to be the woman a man wants them to be . . .
. . . Instead, women across the nation colluded in degradation! Pretty soon, Cool Girl became the standard girl. Men believed she existed. She wasn't just a dreamgirl one in a million. Every girl was supposed to be this girl, and if you weren't, then there was something wrong with you. '
This is such a toxic book with characters that are so real and so aware and so goddamned flawed.
. . . Instead, women across the nation colluded in degradation! Pretty soon, Cool Girl became the standard girl. Men believed she existed. She wasn't just a dreamgirl one in a million. Every girl was supposed to be this girl, and if you weren't, then there was something wrong with you. '
This is such a toxic book with characters that are so real and so aware and so goddamned flawed.
Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick
4.0
One book, seven stories, questionable romance, and horror. This is Midwinterblood for you, with a little more sprinkles of themes such as sacrifice and love in its various forms, and the big question of 'what other lives could I have lived?'
A stunning novel that I got completely submerged into (it got me out of a kind of reader's block where I wouldn't start one book and finish it). Seven stories, the next story more exciting to read than the one before it, always trying to find little clues to connect the stories together. Sometimes getting distracted by the events themselves, and how full they are of a nice balance of both actions and information.
The novel starts in 2073 and it goes back from there.
Seven stories, Eric and Merle. Always Eric and Merle. [...] a love so primal and passionate, it slips the bonds of time. A perfect way to describe their relationship.
I found the ending to be very satisfying, if only for the fact that I wouldn't have had it any other way. It felt like the only way for that one big story to end. Or should I say start?
A stunning novel that I got completely submerged into (it got me out of a kind of reader's block where I wouldn't start one book and finish it). Seven stories, the next story more exciting to read than the one before it, always trying to find little clues to connect the stories together. Sometimes getting distracted by the events themselves, and how full they are of a nice balance of both actions and information.
The novel starts in 2073 and it goes back from there.
Seven stories, Eric and Merle. Always Eric and Merle. [...] a love so primal and passionate, it slips the bonds of time. A perfect way to describe their relationship.
I found the ending to be very satisfying, if only for the fact that I wouldn't have had it any other way. It felt like the only way for that one big story to end. Or should I say start?