i guess i owe this book my left lung because it got me so engrossed in reading that i finished it within a week (this hasn't happened in x amount of yi guess i owe this book my left lung because it got me so engrossed in reading that i finished it within a week (this hasn't happened in x amount of years)
so let's get into it
my first and only disclaimer i'm going to offer: yes i understand this is one muslim girl's experience and we are all on different paths in our journeys, but one thing you must understand, Muslims are people and people are flawed, but Islam is a religion and you can't pick and choose and change that as u please
so if you're going to have your character do flawed thing and make up her own rules, all i'm saying is ADDRESS IT, don't just brush it under the rug
that is all
moving on. (and you're in for spoilers, so watch out)
Maya is truly the villain of this story. my god this girl is so dense. she thinks the whole world is out to get her and to judge her, but honestly NO ONE REALLY CARES
she makes it seem like her mom and her community have judgmental stares on everything she does, but in reality (and you see it on paper) they genuinely don't give 2 craps about her life. and her mom isn't the witch she is made out to be. she's actually very understanding and loving
like Maya is the only one restricting her own life and then she whines about it????
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next up, for our main course we have.....Cheating as the Plot
that's right, you didn't misread that (though i wish i did)
I cannot forgive the act of cheating on a normal day, and i think we can all agree that cheaters = bad bad bad, but it's ESPECIALLY bad for Muslims bc we have very restricted interactions with the opposite gender to start with, so SO KISSING A BOY WHILE YOU'RE ENGAGED
NOT EXACTLY GONNA MAKE YOU THE HERO OF THIS STORY
and guys it gets better
the guy she KISSED, the guy she CHEATED ON HER FIANCE WITH.....
IT'S HIS ESTRANGED BROTHER
so excuse me when i think that maya, the main character, is a bad person. she's trying to play this off as like omg im with my fiancé bc of convenience bc being a brown muslim girl is so hard and no one lets you do anything unless your married and omg this guy i just met on the airplane makes me FEEL THINGS and thats why i need to live my teenage years and kiss him
and imagine it ended there guys, imagine i would be able to sleep well at night
but no
after this girl, flies her whole family out to Pakistan for this wedding, she tells her mom HOURS BEFORE THE CEREMONY that she doesn't love her fiance, her fiance (a hero in all this mess btw) overhears and is like 'ok no problem at all, i will take the blame so no one talks bad about you and btw since ur into my brother... let me GIVE YOU A RIDE ON MY MOTOCYCLE TO CATCH UP TO HIM BEFORE HE LEAVES'
what in the dayooth behaviour is this
anyways, my main qualm with this whole story is that it just seems like any time Maya is opposing my religion or culture, then it's celebrated
like maya breaks off her engagement and starts DATING her ex-fiance's older brother and somehow everything is good with her life
WHEN THE WHOLE PROBLEM HAS BEEN HER ALWAYS AND FOREVER SHE WILL BE THE PROBLEM
and the forced proximity trope was used like 1482981 times. im not even kidding, how were they forced to share a bed 3 separate times??? life is truly insane
and this is not a dig at the author, i love seeing muslim written stories and i want to support them, but it's also my right to speak out about them and the representation
one good aspect about the book, it was entertaining and it lowkey cured my reading depression lol
this main character didn't need a villain to gaslight her bc she did that all by herselfthis main character didn't need a villain to gaslight her bc she did that all by herself...more
representation is sooooooooo important but i dont identify with rich suburban white moms so i'm sure it was an important story but i just couldnt connrepresentation is sooooooooo important but i dont identify with rich suburban white moms so i'm sure it was an important story but i just couldnt connect with it ...more
as someone who likes to believe that they know their way around a kitchen, i always get SUPER excited at the prospect of any book with a focus on the as someone who likes to believe that they know their way around a kitchen, i always get SUPER excited at the prospect of any book with a focus on the culinary arts
but oh my god, this book pretty much kind of ruined that for me. I'm sorry, but I want to challenge this book to a duel to earn back the time I spent trying to read it.
at first, it wasn't so bad, it was following the main character lumi, who is a chef who owns her own restaurant but then her store goes under and now she has to work as a sous chef at a fancy French restaurant run by this grump that she hates
but oh wait, he's not THAT bad of a grump because 25 PAGES LATER THEYRE SO INTO EACH OTHER
THERE IS NO BUILD UP OF CHEMISTRY OR EMOTIONS OR CHARACTER DEPTH i literally disliked them both so much after their inner dialogue about each other. yuck.
anyways, things get really weird after that, like weird fantastical things, and it just put me off more from the book. and idk, it's hard when you don't connect with the writing or characters but when something supernatural occurs as an explanation to the main conflict, i just want to be laid to rest.
me: if i have to read another book with a muslim main character that's entire faith is defined by the fact that they don't eat pork i will S C R E A Mme: if i have to read another book with a muslim main character that's entire faith is defined by the fact that they don't eat pork i will S C R E A M
drive thru speaker: ma'am,,,,,,,this is a wendy's...more
i hope y'all loved this more than i did bc i'm ready to pack my bags and head to Disappointment Dr. for the rest of my foreseeable future
from the auti hope y'all loved this more than i did bc i'm ready to pack my bags and head to Disappointment Dr. for the rest of my foreseeable future
from the author who wrote two of my FAVOURITE contemporaries, i assure you, i am the one who's the most disappointed right now :(((((((((((((((((
i seriously was so confused throughout the entire book. and if you ask me right now what the book is about, i still can't give you a coherent response because i SERIOUSLY DON'T KNOW
anyways, excuse me while i allow my tears and sadness and disappointment consume me ...more
so new plan, we're going to pretend books 3 and 4 of this series never happened
“Beyond life, beyond death, my love for thee is eternal.”
i'm so ridiculso new plan, we're going to pretend books 3 and 4 of this series never happened
“Beyond life, beyond death, my love for thee is eternal.”
i'm so ridiculously annoyed at what happened but also i can't be bothered bc ever since i finished book 3: Escaping from Houdini, i've felt my attachment to this series begin to dwindle and ITS SO SAD BC I LOVE THOMAS AND AUDREY SO MUCH
a few reason why this totally sucked (in my honest, gracious, humble opinion)
1. !!conflict out of thin air!!!
(view spoiler)[having thomas and audrey's wedding interrupted to announce that thomas was already engaged to another girl THAT HAD NO HINTING FOR THE PAST 3 BOOKS OR ANY REMOTE POSSIBLE EXPLANATION other than to bring a ~shocking plot twist~ was sloppy at best. that specific scene took me out of the story and made me feel an instant disconnect from the book (hide spoiler)]
a grand portion of this book was us, the poor reader, being trapped in audrey rose's head while her mind turned into a broken record. honestly it was like reading the same pages on loop. all her inner turmoil over her feelings for thomas and her grief for her brother and her fear of the new Jack the Ripper repeated a BILLION times in a billion different lines and it added NOTHING to the plot or conflict's development.
it was incredibly tedious to read and i am so Exhausted
3. WHERE WAS THE PLOT
the real mystery of this book was finding the plot because she went missing ...more
book #2 completed! for the reading rush, under the challenge of: "read a book with a non-human main character"✓
things i didn't love about this boobook #2 completed! for the reading rush, under the challenge of: "read a book with a non-human main character"✓
things i didn't love about this book: - the characters are flat, the playboy prince and the sweet prince have the some personality and are basically interchangeable - the book didn't ACTUALLY sart until 80%, honestly it felt like the same fact we knew just kept getting reiterated A MILLION TIMES - the mc is too boring to have everyone in love with her. oh!! there it is, i said it - i wish we could get a lot more 'in the sea/with the mermaids' scenes bc they were pretty much non-existent - ENOUGH of the balls and parties omg that felt like the entire book bye
things that were okay about this book: - mette's character and her ending was probably the most entertaining thing about the book - the final chapters were a good closure for the main character, i'll give it that - yeah that's all i can find
colour me sad and disappointed. how one of the most well loved standalones of the 2019 managed to fail every aspect for me is the biggest tragedy in icolour me sad and disappointed. how one of the most well loved standalones of the 2019 managed to fail every aspect for me is the biggest tragedy in itself
i was hooked on this mystery in part 1, but wow, part 3,,,,,what happened???
i'm willing to accept a lot of strange, outlandish, ridiculous plot twistsi was hooked on this mystery in part 1, but wow, part 3,,,,,what happened???
i'm willing to accept a lot of strange, outlandish, ridiculous plot twists but HOW ARE YOU GOING TO TRY AND CONVINCE ME THAT (view spoiler)[A GUY WOULDN'T REALIZE HIS GIRLFRIEND OF 13 MONTHS, WHO WENT MISSING, IS PRETENDING TO BE HER OWN SISTER........WHILE SHE'S LIVING WITH HIM I CANNOT (hide spoiler)]
i really enjoyed b.a. paris's other books so i'm just going to pretend this one doesn't exist
i'm SUPER bummed right now bc i was EXPECTING such a fantastic book but the story was really disappointing and the dialogue was so immature and the chi'm SUPER bummed right now bc i was EXPECTING such a fantastic book but the story was really disappointing and the dialogue was so immature and the characters felt so juvenile, ughghghghg
basically it felt like i was reading badly written fanfiction and i am Sad
after falling in love with A Curse So Dark and Lonely and craving more beauty and the beast retellinjust a whole lot of meh
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after falling in love with A Curse So Dark and Lonely and craving more beauty and the beast retellings, jia and i decided we were going to practice self-love and do exactly that...more
book #1 for #ReadTheMiddleEast readathon (yes, i'm taking part of two readathons at the same time, someone help me) ✓
i'm really disappointed at hobook #1 for #ReadTheMiddleEast readathon (yes, i'm taking part of two readathons at the same time, someone help me) ✓
i'm really disappointed at how this turned out for me. this is a harrowing tale of three siblings, in present day syria, traveling with their father's body back to their hometown in order to bury him there to fulfill his dying wish.
and honestly, i expected so much more from this book
for sure, my biggest issue was with the writing. the story continuously breaks off into tangents, narrating stories of the past and trying to weave those parts into the main story to make them relevant and complex, but my dude, it was so. jarring.
the writing felt so clouded and confused.
on one hand, you're getting these gripping, heartbreaking scenes showing the devastation and sorrow that the country and it's people currently face and then you're RIPPED away from that brutal reality and taken years back to read about an unrelated incident in a character's life and i just,,,,,,,,,,didn't vibe with it at all
it made it really tiring for me to read.
the actual plot of the book was crushing and i'm so sad this didn't work out for me because there were such heartbreaking scenes that made my heart ache for the characters and the people struggling through and i just wish THAT was the part of the book that got elaborated on