How do you write a review for a 1,000 page book full of complex plot lines and complicated characters without spoiling the whole thing? Not sure, but I’ll give it a try.
REAMDE is, like I said in my first update, a story that begins fairly simple but quickly spirals out into a series of events spanning several weeks. Every character has no idea what they are getting into, and often throughout the seemingly unrelated sub-plots, they are all operating on different levels of information, and from different locations. The fascinating thing is how they all come together in the end, for a huge and action packed finale.
This book is written in a way that gets you attached and interested in every single aspect of the plot, from a hacker in China to a mountain cat in Iowa. It’s incredibly engaging, and forces the reader to think hard about what connections every detail mentioned has to the plot. I would confidently recommend this to anyone looking for something long to read, that will still manage to keep them going even several hundred pages in.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a classic novel that follows a group of British schoolchildren during world war 2, after their plane crashes onto an uninhabited island. At first they are all content to be without adults and have fun and live a productive life under the rule of charismatic leader Ralph. After many days on the island however, with no sign of rescue, things take a turn for the worse for the boys as violent hunter Jack butts heads with Ralph, until eventually everything spirals down to a chaotic and bloody ending that teaches us a valuable lesson on how easily society can crumble.
Overall I enjoyed it a lot and would recommend reading this classic story.
Gordon Korman’s 3rd book in this series was good, but not the best out of the trilogy. To me, the book felt like a lost opportunity to tie up loose ends and end the series with a bang. Even for a children’s fiction book, some events didn’t seem plausible or almost as if the author included them in the plot just so something could happen. Random characters from previous books kept being randomly inserted into the plot line, which may have been the author’s version of tying up all loose ends and trying to tie everything back together. The climax also seemed much shorter than most, and only occurred because the story would not have made sense otherwise. It was overall a good book, but I’m not sure it was worth reading. If you are looking for something to keep you occupied for a few hours this is the perfect fit, but otherwise it would be better to invest your time in a more intricate book.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling is an amazing book that invites the reader to a magical story that introduces us to the main protagonist, Harry Potter. Harry’s story starts off with his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, they are not the nicest people. Harry became an orphan at a very young age and was left with the last resort of Harry’s mothers sister, Aunt Petunia. One morning, Harry goes to do his normal chores, wash the dishes, make breakfast, and to fetch the mail. Although one morning when Harry was grabbing the mail, he noticed something strange. This time, he had gotten a letter… but he had never gotten mail ever before in his life. He had but utterly surprised because he somehow had gotten accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, when he didn’t even know he applied for it. With resistance from Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon on his decision on going, Harry was easily convinced to be escorted by a representative of Hogwarts, Hagrid. After little to no time, Hogwarts became his home, a place where he could be himself, explore his capabilities, make new friends, and find happiness.
I know I haven’t posted at all but now i’m back with an update with the book i’m reading anyways… during the book our main character named Rowan has finally graduated high school and is now doing a scavenger hunt with her entire senior class and she has many adventures during this scavenger hunt which includes our other main character Neil who partners up with Rowan which leads them to deep feelings and deep talks with each other and bits of them come together as they go along with each other. thank you for reading this short update see y’all sometime again.
This book was one that I had been meaning to read for a while, and I finally got around to it after the new year started and I decided I would read 36 books in 2023. This was my first one, and it was pretty interesting.
The main premise of this book is that a man named Aiden Bishop is trapped in a time loop, and every day, he will wake up in the body of another person. He has eight days to solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle, who dies every night at 11:00 PM.
When I first read it, I enjoyed it, but there are a few things that I think are confusing. This book definitely requires you to pay close attention to it, and even then, the ending will catch you off guard. I really enjoyed this aspect of it, because there is truly no way to know how the mystery will be resolved.
Unfortunately, while the time loop provides room for a lot of interesting worldbuilding, you never really find out what’s going on behind the scenes. There’s certainly some clarity provided in order to reach a resolution, but if you’re looking for a book with time travel mechanics that are very well thought out, this isn’t it.
I recommend this book if you like complex murder mysteries, books you have to pay attention to, and amnesia and time travel with tiny elements of psychological horror.
I would not recommend this book for those who don’t like scenes of violence, semi-anticlimactic endings, and complicated plot lines. There’s also not much humor, and the font (at least in the copy I got) is pretty tiny, the text is pretty dense, and the book is very long ( 133,607 words/~528 pages).
1 of 36: The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (Rating: 3.5/5)
When reading When Dimple met Rishi, the reader needs a little more patience. It is a romance book but it doesn’t start off as one. There is an incident where you might be intrigued but apart from that a reader must wait to see more. Since the book is romance, anyone who reads this could wish they were in that position and hope for that level of affection for themselves, so that immerses you into a new world. I know that I certainly want that type of romance in the future. In addition, Dimple is the most complex character in the book, she is set on the fact that she doesn’t want to follow anything her parents tell her to do. She wants to live her own life, find her own partner, and be a rebel. She feels strong emotions about this because she is 18 and doesn’t have to experience harsh things in life yet. She does experience some change in her personality, there are times when she is selfless and other times where she puts herself first. In some moments you are drawn in by how lovely the scene is but then the character gets a thought that just ruins it all, most of the time it’s Dimple. A sentence I feel describes this book is “Opposites attract.” There are a lot of cute scenes between the main characters so if a reader enjoys those I think they would love this book.
The book Family of Liars by E. Lockhart is a prequel to We were liars. Both books are amazing but reading We were liars first would make more sense but the books could go in either order. This book follows a privileged family with 3 daughters who spend every summer at their private island. The summer this story follows is different because a group of boys comes to island as well. This book is a mystery it uncovers more and more secrets after every chapter. Exposing the Sinclair family for what it is. The family is constantly putting up a facade and painting a perfect picture from their family. Under all of that there are a lot of secrets and problems especially with Carrie who is the narrator and the oldest daughter. In the story she is dealing with the loss of the youngest sister which no one seems to acknowledge. This cause lots of problems between Carrie and the family especially her sisters. This is a story of betrayal, secrets, and lies. I would recommend this book to someone who likes mystery’s and drama. It is a great books with lots of levels and plot twists and gets better and better every chapter you read.
In this book by Ursula K. Le Guin, Lavinia, a side character from the Aeneid, is given a whole plot. She becomes a person with emotions and thoughts and a role to play, instead of just Aeneas’ wife. This book showcases the world even before Rome was built, and goes deep into culture and the inner workings of a city during times of trouble. Overall, the story manages to take many characters and make every single one of them fleshed-out and alive. Definitely worth a read.
Metro 2033 is a post apocalyptic novel in the formerly grandiose catacombs of the long since decayed corpse of Moscow, Russia.
Written by the Russian writer Dmitry Glukhovsky, who created his bestselling novel after becoming enthralled with apocalyptic stories and the interesting nature and uses of the Moscow Metro
This novel is set a fresh 20 years after the end of the world, where the former citizens of Moscow have been reduced to less than moles living in the durable yet decaying tunnels of the once beautiful Moscow Metro. Though nobody knows who fired first, what came of it was destruction. The citizens of Moscow rushed into the metro as the bombs fell, those who could be considered unlucky survived and those who did not make it were either gunned down in protest or evaporated in nuclear hellfire. However, the story begins with one such survivor, nameless they may be, important nonetheless because they are the mother of the then one-year-old Artyom, our protagonist. The story starts (like many others) with our protagonist the aforementioned Artyom awakening, but this time to an argument between his adoptive father: Alexander Sukhoi and his father’s friend Hunter. Taking place directly outside of his tent. While the cause of the argument is unknown to us, we can listen to the argument through Artyom’s ears as he eavesdrops on the spat. The topic of the argument is about the future of humanity and more importantly the looming threat to the subterranean citizens of the metro, the “Dark Ones”, boogeymen for the people of Moscow. Hunter prevails and wins the argument Sukhoi lurks off in defeat, Hunter having noticed Artyom eavesdropping calls out to him. Finally Hunter Gives Artyom a request, one that will send him across the entirety of the metro and will ultimately decide the fate of the humans that dwell under the deceased corpse of Moscow.
Metro 2033 is an amazing book that can immerse even a rock into it’s living world.
By constantly describing the environment that the characters live in, whether it be a frigid and grimy tunnel or a station converted into a town bursting with life, rife with the smell of manure and rat-kebabs. Glukhovsky likes to leave hints throughout his books, they could be small yet meaningful metaphors, or unassuming sentences that foretell the end of the story. The main actors in this depressing book, feel like people, they act on fear, they have meaningless conversations, and they live.
As much as I like this book it has some flaws.
Mainly redundancy, the environments the book trudges through are usually grey, light grey, dark grey, etc. Now this is not to say there are no exceptions. One thing is action or lack thereof it. If Glukhovsky is good at one thing it’s action, whenever (if rarely) there is a fight or a high-stakes situation. You can smell the stale air abundant with gunpowder, you can see the flashes among the blue rays of sunlight peeking through the cracks in the metro, and you can feel the glow of the blood red emergency lights reaching every corner of the tunnel as you are rocked back and forth by the reverberations of gunfire. However the wonderful paragraphs that are his action rarely appear. Throughout the book Artyom is traveling through dingy tunnels monologuing on the nature of his quest to save the metro, or having philosophical conversations with a stranger.
Ultimately Metro 2033 is not a book for everyone.
If you have a short attention span or do not have the time to put in, then this book I would not recommend for you, but by all means please do read it if you want to! On the other hand if you love long reads and want something to kill time Metro 2033 is perfect for you, along with the rest of the series: Metro 2034, and 2035. Or if you want to see the Metro with your own eyes 4A games and Deep Silver have adapted the books into a video game series of the same name: Metro 2033, Last Light, and Exodus all great games with praise from critics and journalists everywhere! in the end you should read Metro 2033 before world war three really does happen!
The book Regretting You by Colleen Hoover is an amazing book. The book is in a unique perspective where each chapter switches back between a mother and daughters perspective. In the book their family deals with tremendous loss and have to figure out how to now function individually and as a family. On top of the deaths secrets begin to be uncovered about those who died. Through the different perspective we get to see the mother and daughters different approaches. The book also has a romance factor with both the mother and daughter which makes life both tolerable but more complicated.
While navigating through these hard times the Mother daughter duo have to figure out how to work out their issues and begin to rely on each other without the family falling apart for good. I recommend this book it has so many levels, plot twists, and will keep you entertained and wanting to read more.
The Watchmen is a graphic novel collection Written by Alan Moore
Alan Moore greatly shows the superhero genre in a way that has not been seen much before, most but one of the characters aren’t actually super, creating an interesting and human dynamic that allows readers to deeply connect with the characters.
Speaking of characters, the book has really greatly developed characterization as well, each character being unique and different from others in a very notable and memorable way, each with their own quirks and talents, covering each area of what a hero could be. There are those who are dark anti-hero vigilantes, those who inherited the act of heroism despite disliking the idea, and those who are treated as celebrities and famous icons.
It also captures the regular life aspect of the characters as well, featuring returning side characters who help to move the story forward without taking part in any heroic or villainous actions, such as the news vendor, who have a fair share of memorable moments as well. The book has no clear protagonist, rather it follows each character as they live in a large metropolitan city.
The book is regarded as one of the best current superhero comics of all time, and it certainly holds up to these standards. It feels memorable, has unique characters, a thematic art style, and well fitted cultural events that can be related to regardless of who the readers are.
8/10, have not finished it yet but am excited to see how it ends. Would recommend.
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