13 MOONS will provide you with instant chills. Office workers discover the gruesome secret behind the puppets used as workplace décor. A man tries to help the ghost of a murdered child haunting a playground. An abandoned well and a banana tree in a village garden conceal a decades-old crime. A couple struggles to keep their family together when their son becomes a zombie. And a nightclub with a supernatural door policy — depending on when you choose to go. These stories reveal the darkness that threatens to seep through the veneer of day-to-day life.
Due to my past experiences with Buku Fixi books (yes I know this is Fixi Novo but you get what I mean), I tried to lower my expectations to not only low but non-existent so I wouldn’t emotionally scar myself again.
And to be honest with you the book was okay for me. The book consists of short stories but none of the stories truly resonated with me. I enjoyed them briefly for what they are but not more.
The stories premise was interesting but unfortunately it lacked substance (?) for it to be truly impactful for me. Although, this might be due to me disliking short stories generally.
Short stories don’t express the full story and my curious mind just wants to explore and know more onkh to be left disappointed hence leaving me unable to immerse myself in such stories.
Overall, the book is a good read if you’re looking for something easy and light to read.
Man, this is a short review but what can I say. It was okay hahahah.
Every happy teenage girl is the same, while every unhappy teenage girl is miserable in her own special way.
Meet Anna K. At seventeen, she is at the top of Manhattan and Greenwich society (even if she prefers the company of her horses and Newfoundland dogs); she has the perfect (if perfectly boring) boyfriend, Alexander W.; and she has always made her Korean-American father proud (even if he can be a little controlling). Meanwhile, Anna’s brother, Steven, and his girlfriend, Lolly, are trying to weather a sexting scandal; Lolly’s little sister, Kimmie, is struggling to recalibrate to normal life after an injury derails her ice dancing career; and Steven’s best friend, Dustin, is madly (and one-sidedly) in love with Kimmie.
As her friends struggle with the pitfalls of ordinary teenage life, Anna always seems to be able to sail gracefully above it all. That is…until the night she meets Alexia “Count” Vronsky at Grand Central. A notorious playboy who has bounced around boarding schools and who lives for his own pleasure, Alexia is everything Anna is not. But he has never been in love until he meets Anna, and maybe she hasn’t, either. As Alexia and Anna are pulled irresistibly together, she has to decide how much of her life she is willing to let go for the chance to be with him. And when a shocking revelation threatens to shatter their relationship, she is forced to question if she has ever known herself at all.
I obtained this book from Legenbooksdary as she was giving away her arcs and I chose this book specifically because I am obsessed with Anna Karenina.
Okay, perhaps saying I was obsessed is a bit much considering I have yet to read the actual book but in my defense what hooked me with Anna’s story was the Russian movie adaptation of Anna Karenina.
Bruh, I watched that movie maybe 15 years ago, so long ago I truly cannot remember where and when and how I even got to watch this Russian movie but when Anna flung herself in front of that train… That scene stuck by me… It definitely made a home in the recesses of my brain.
But let’s get started with this book review.
To be quite honest with you, I did not enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. It was a pretty meh book for me. I initially thought the book would make engulf me in the throes of family drama but reading it my feelings were more of okay this is boring I do not understand what is the big deal with all these relationships especially the relationship between Anna K and Alexia Vronsky.
And if you as a reader already feel this way regarding the relationships of the main protagonists, it is not a good sign.
I think that my nonchalance on the romances and the drama that ensues in this book is due to the characters being so young. They’re just teenagers and being an adult who is currently unemployed with nothing to look forward to in terms of a career, I honestly cannot relate. I cannot relate to how much stock they put into their romantic lives especially the insta-love that happens between Vronsky and Anna.
I just don’t understand the insta-love thing and how suddenly they’re just so obsessed with each other without any apparent reason.
At least, from what I understand in the Anna Karenina movie, Anna was in a loveless marriage and then she met with Vronsky who swept her off her feet and introduced her to a world and life filled to the brim with passion and love yet the decision she makes to be with him will ultimately seal her fate. By choosing Vronsky, Anna must forgo everything in her life; her children, her social standing, her family’s social standing and even her friends. Essentially she literally has to give up everything to be with this man and that decision eats her up from the inside until she just cracked and throws herself in front of a train.
The decision that Anna K in this book whereby she chose to cheat on her boyfriend to be with Vronsky just because her boyfriend was in an accident and she did not have the heart to break up with him just baffles me. Especially since this book is set in modern day Manhattan and there has been progress and modernization in terms of women’s rights.
Also, in terms of writing, I feel this book was more of a modernisation of Anna Karenina as opposed to a retelling that has its own plot because whilst I may say that I have yet to read Anna Karenina, I did read the first 20 pages and let me tell you that the first chapter of Anna K and the those first 20 pages in the original book is almost identical.
Another issue I find with this book is the ending which in my honest opinion is bullshit. BULLSHIT!
SPOILERS AHEAD
You’re telling me that in this book instead of Anna committing suicide due to the mental stress she has been under, the author changed it to Vronsky sacrificing himself to save Anna so it is he who dies at the end.
I am not saying that the ending should end in any form of suicide or death or whatever. I am just saying that the author had a chance to retell this story in a different manner because it is a retelling.
They could have just allowed both Anna K and Vronsky to live and then expand on the repercussions of their actions which in all honesty would have been an interesting read. Would their relationship withstand that test?
But, they didn’t so thats that.
Overall, this book was a meh with characters that were meh and I give this book a rating of……
The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.
A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic.
This review has spoilers so please do not continue reading if you do not want to be spoiled.
My non-spoiler review is as follows:
I could not relate nor empathize with the main character due to his actions in the book that contradict with my own personal philosophy and this hampers my enjoyment of the book; it is not fun to read from a perspective of a person you find disgusting
I did not like the ending whatsoever, it truly undermined the main characters redemption story and took away the weight of his actions
With, my non-spoiler thoughts or review out of the way let’s continue to my rant-ish review.
The over-hype made my enjoyment of this book dissipate the more I read on. I kept on waiting and waiting for this miraculous story everybody has been talking about for years to appear through the pages but I was unfortunately left with bitter disappointment.
I was left to wonder was it me? Perhaps I had misread the book or misunderstood key elements pertaining to the core of the story.
Dislike over the main protagonist already coursed through my veins the moment I had started reading. I disliked Amir’s entitlement and after reading that he did not come to Hassan’s aid when Hassan was being raped by Assef just sealed his fate in my eyes that he cannot be redeemed, I truly was repulsed by his character. Thus, reading this book through the eyes and perspective of a character I was sickened by, to say the least frustrating.
It was hard for me to be engrossed in the plot of this book due to this factor. I could not for the life of me empathize with this boy and eventually man who lacked conviction and who had so much self-pity for himself it was honestly bordering on narcissism. There was this one part in the book where Amir said that he refused to sacrifice more for his Baba and that he will make a stand to be a writer and this baffled me.
Sacrifice? What sacrifice was Amir talking about? He did not mean the time he framed Hassan of theft so Baba will throw Hassan and Ali out from their home due to Amir not being able to face the guilt he harbored for not helping his childhood friend. The same childhood friend who stood up for him and I almost understood why Amir did not help Hassan. I understand a person’s fight or flight response is involuntary but what he said in his monologue to justify his actions was just so abhorrent. Amir half convinced himself that this rape did not matter because Hassan is a Hazara, he is just a lowly Hazara boy.
Another issue, I found with the book was the ending whereby it is revealed that Hassan is Amir’s half-brother making Sohrab his half-nephew. The reason I have a problem with this twist ending was that it takes away the weight and significance of Amir’s redemption as well as being completely unnecessary. I felt that making Hassan just a childhood friend is more powerful of a statement in terms of the racism between the Pashtun’s and Hazara’s whereby Amir has finally had enough conviction to throw caution to the wind and just save this boy regardless of his ethnicity.
But by making Sohrab his nephew, it makes Amir’s redemption essentially useless as he has to bring Sohrab home if he does not want his life to be clouded with more guilt. Eventually, Amir did become a better man and Afghani by helping out in the Afghanistan cause after his adoption of Sohrab.
Also, another problem came to mind when Hassan’s heritage was revealed was the fact that Baba knowingly let his other son be illiterate. Baba was an affluent man and yet he couldn’t afford to hire a private tutor for Hassan yet he claims to love Ali and Hassan like his own family and quite literally Hassan IS his family. Keep your racism in check Baba.
Overall, the book when I take my disgust over Amir out of the equation is a good book but it does feel very formulaic and I am glad that I had read the author’s other books first thus I know his writing does improve.
Yeah guys I’m back to using the free WordPress blog due to financial issues in which maintaining my own website was just not cost effective… So hello! I have tons of stuff I wanna share and I am excited to just go into the new year with a BANG!
Hello, guys! I know I just started blogging again but I just wanted to let everybody know that I have my own domain now so you guys can visit me and my new posts from now on at my new blog
I literally just created this website today not five minutes ago… None of my recent posts are at the new blog… I think I imported my stuff wrongly but oh well I still have this blog if everybody wants to read my 2018 – 2019 posts.
There’s really not much reason as to why I wanted my own website, I just wanted to see how it was. I won’t shut down this blog and probs will share new stuff from my new blog here. Well that’s it I guess…
Recently, I had to write an essay/article regarding Dracula and the themes of gender and sexuality written in the book and to be quite honest after writing that article my mind has been blown by the nuance and depth of the book Dracula.
Ezza Syuhada 