“If I could hurt them all I would. Does that make me a bad person? I can’t, of course, so all I can do is somehow try to win. Ou
✰ 2.75 stars ✰
“If I could hurt them all I would. Does that make me a bad person? I can’t, of course, so all I can do is somehow try to win. Out of spite.”
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If there ever was another penguin gif that captures so accurately and perfectly the intentions of Jeremy's woeful if not slightly chaotic intentions, it would be this. ...more
“I’m saying that I don’t know if I love you, but this is the closest to love I think I’ve ever felt. I’m saying that I don’t want yo
✰ 2.75 stars ✰
“I’m saying that I don’t know if I love you, but this is the closest to love I think I’ve ever felt. I’m saying that I don’t want you to not be a part of my life.”
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I was prepared to dislike Kai until the very end, but he grew on me.
I was prepared to hate on Adam for how he treated Dylan, but he surprised me.
I was prepared to give Dylan a piece of my mind and tell him to stop thinking with his unbridled desires during his After School Activities and more with his head. ...more
“After Thornleigh, there was simply a before and an after.”
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To confess or impress? That is the ailing question that burdens Gi✰ 2.75 stars ✰
“After Thornleigh, there was simply a before and an after.”
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To confess or impress? That is the ailing question that burdens Gillian's resolve to speak her mind before her friend, Violet, loses her mind. and for what? ...more
“Something was about to happen. Something big. I could feel it coming, but I wasn’t sure of the source. Was it me, was it him? Did i
✰ 2.75 stars ✰
“Something was about to happen. Something big. I could feel it coming, but I wasn’t sure of the source. Was it me, was it him? Did it matter?”
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So, this wasn't exactly a rocket science kind of romance, but there's nothing wrong with that... I guess. For reasons, Ty despises Walker and doesn't trust him, despite the fact that the very couple Walker had offended is all good with him. ...more
“As wrecked and ruined as I was, I felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be.”
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I really liked the few final chapters; ye✰ 3 stars ✰
“As wrecked and ruined as I was, I felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be.”
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I really liked the few final chapters; yes, the ending is a bit open-ending that deserved a bit more clarity to feel the full brunt of the message being passed down. Yet, was the mystery being unearthed and solved that struck a chord with me; that through the myriad of messes that George has lived in both the medieval era of Greenwich and present-day London, I started to glean a sense of the allegory the author had presented in the form of recently broken up and broken-down thirty-four-year-old George when he spirals through time.
A chain reaction of paradoxes that ultimately led me to the final destination of what George had been searching for all along.
The writing style is a struggle; the start, even more so, for it is a first-person nonlinear narrative, highlighted with long-winded sentences and commas galore to capture George's meandering stream of consciousness and internal musings. It was painting a picture of how sorrowful his life had been and the rather self-deprecating if not self-sabotaging outlook he had on life.
His thoughts drift between the current predicaments he's facing - starting off with his initial capture and beating in Greenwich—a brutal misunderstanding as in to the past (funnily enough, his real-present); reflecting on the events that led to his tumble into a time, a struggling self-loathing dwindling path that somehow seems worse than what he's facing here. The perplexity that he somehow feels better off, better understood, better appreciated, and better wanted than he's ever been - here.
“Did I want to go home? And which one was that?”
It did get a bit wearisome the constant comparisons of both time periods, but I felt it was much needed for George not to forget who he really was; even though a part of him was slowly losing the desire to return. It was interesting how his being a time traveler was readily accepted, if not taken in amusement.
His relationship with Simon had some lovable moments; true, they didn't exactly start off on the right foot, but Simon was so earnest in his "devotion" to George that it scared him; a matter-of-fact approach that was so truthful and earnest in how he expressed it - I’m bound to you that it scared George of how it painfully reminded him of himself.
The aim to please - to mean something to someone, because after all, no matter who you are, is that not something we all crave - companionship? Love. We had survived because we were together. ' A way to fight off loneliness with a longing for openness and acceptance. The feeling to belong to someone that they would care enough for you, to want you, no matter what.
If it took for George Falls Through Time for him to discern the difference between a real relationship than the ill-fated ones he's lived, to snap out of the existential crisis -mental torture, emotional duress, heartbreak - that had shattered his spirit and dampened his soul, than it certainly worked. But, not without a bump or more, or dare I say, a dragon and then some?
“If you are what you say you are, then erase this history from whatever future awaits us.”
When he is tasked by the King of England - a witness to all the world’s capacity for folly - of obliterating the fiery breathing dragon that has plagued their lands, it opens up a whole other portrayal of what this story - well, to me, anyway - aimed to be. You have to want something so badly, in order to obtain it; that you will not lose hope and fight till the bitter end to claim what your heart wants and not give up.
For when he confronts the beast, it's not what he nor I was expecting, and yet, it felt oddly fitting. The hints were there, the clues laid out, the uncertainty touched; but it had to be George's own conviction wavering for him to finally draw his sword to do what needed to be done.
Prince Edward grew on me; his heartache and his tragically doomed relationship with his father could have been explored more, but I know it was not the purpose of the story. But, his interactions with George had a lot of weight to them, a solid reminder of how we should embrace life and make the most of it now, for we don't know when we'll have it again. To live and love - to take a chance, to take a risk, to give it your all.
“The grandeur of being exactly where you’re meant to be, no matter the cost. No matter the cost. It had to be no matter the cost.”
When the dust cleared, I somewhat felt like I had understood what the message was. It's maybe a bit too abstract to really be it, but even if it is a long way from the real symbolism behind the allegory of Saint George slaying the dragon, it felt to me that George's journey was a proverbial manifestation of something we take for granted; that there are things we simply cannot outrun or outlive and that is time, itself.
*Thank you to Edelweiss for a DRC in exchange for an honest review....more
“Maybe, just maybe, by loving you, I could learn to love myself If I could gift my eyes to you, I would If that makes you see yourself t
✰ 2.75 stars ✰
“Maybe, just maybe, by loving you, I could learn to love myself If I could gift my eyes to you, I would If that makes you see yourself the way I do.”
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A new-to-me author, but the cover was nice, so I figured, why not? Take a chance on Eric and Andrew's story and see it unfolds. It is told in a dual timeline through Eric's point of view. The interesting bit about this was that Andrew is referred to as 'you'. So, it is a different form of storytelling that took awhile to adjust to, but as a creative choice for a debut, I won't say it was bad, just different. ...more
“Now I understood that a family wasn’t a particularly solid thing—it was a bubble purely of our own making and just like a bubble,
✰ 2.75 stars ✰
“Now I understood that a family wasn’t a particularly solid thing—it was a bubble purely of our own making and just like a bubble, it could burst.”
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Sometimes I read something that just leaves me kinda speechless - not in a mean way - but more like, okay, and? like, I read it this morning with this build-up to something. ...more
“ The true paradises are the paradises we have lost.”
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It reads very much like a coming-of-age introspective memoir, alternati✰ 2.75 stars ✰
“ The true paradises are the paradises we have lost.”
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It reads very much like a coming-of-age introspective memoir, alternating between the summer of 1983, with eleven-year-old Steven Mills' final months before his father's sudden disappearance from the family, without explanation, and present-day where he's on the search of retracing those footsteps of the past. ...more
“I’m coming for you, Newt,” Thomas whispered, so softly that no one could possibly hear him. “I’m coming for every last one of you.”
[✰ 3 stars ✰
“I’m coming for you, Newt,” Thomas whispered, so softly that no one could possibly hear him. “I’m coming for every last one of you.”
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Written after the completion of the book series and film trilogy, The Fever Code is the prequel that serves as both fan service as well as a way to fill in the blanks for canon fandom. It makes it very easy for the author to carefully pick and choose which characters to focus on, what relationships to develop, what questions need answered, but most importantly, serve as the explanation to that sting of betrayal that hurt more than any Griever's piercer upon learning of Thomas' involvement in WICKED's original plans.
This is Dashner's written statement to absolve Thomas' participation in the Maze Trials, an explanation of reasoning for fans to understand why he behaved the way he did. ...more
“I think now that I was confusing balance with neutrality. Because you don’t know what balance is until you’ve experienced what it fe
✰ 2.75 stars ✰
“I think now that I was confusing balance with neutrality. Because you don’t know what balance is until you’ve experienced what it feels like to lean away from it.”
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An ambitious idea that somehow got lost on its way to the finish line, when the plotlines themselves devolved, allowing only a certain one to prevail. ...more
“I understood that this was what desire was: wanting something I could not have, dreaming of holding it.”
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It's a com✰ 2.75 stars ✰
“I understood that this was what desire was: wanting something I could not have, dreaming of holding it.”
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It's a coming-of-age, which in fact, feels like one that never became of age, for how much James still seems stuck in the past in a relationship that he aspired to be more than what it was, even when he learned how it was possible to love someone in different ways. ❤️...more
Look. I grew up reading The Secret Seven and Famous Five. And whi✰ 2.75 stars ✰
“Why does my life sound like a soap opera?”
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Look. I grew up reading The Secret Seven and Famous Five. And while it never really bothered me that that there was no real police or investigative sheriff departments or local deputy existing in their settings, the total lack of involvement if not complete disregard from a legal standpoint of truly investing the time and effort of either convicting Jake or rather finding concrete evidence to find him innocent, rather than basing the case entirely on the witness of a teenager was appallingly laughable, if not atrociously disappointing here. ...more
“We all wanted to read about the people we wished we could be. The people just a little better than who we really were. The people we
✰ 2.75 stars ✰
“We all wanted to read about the people we wished we could be. The people just a little better than who we really were. The people we were trying to become.”
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From a mystery-lover's standpoint, this certainly felt like the weakest portrayal of it. I mean, even if it's not Always Murder being the necessary means to which a crime can result in, I usually prefer when there are enough clues for us to figure out alongside the protagonist who the possible culprit would be. ...more
“But this is how family and love and life goes. You don’t get to pick and choose the trials of mortality and—”
The opening sce✰ 3 stars ✰
“But this is how family and love and life goes. You don’t get to pick and choose the trials of mortality and—”
The opening scene itself is one that hits you hard enough to give you whiplash at how the numerous characters are bouncing off one another in a dinner that is both pivotal to setting the stage, as well giving you as much breakdown into the history and introduction of what exactly the story is going to be about. A map and family tree is provided beforehand, but I was still very much -- not at a loss -- just blindsided at how the fantasy element of the plot was being introduced. ...more
“Yes, and it’s that simple. You might not get exactly what you want, but if you stop, you get nothing.”
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It's har✰ 3 stars ✰
“Yes, and it’s that simple. You might not get exactly what you want, but if you stop, you get nothing.”
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It's hard sometimes to even find an opening sentence for a story that is simple and straightforward, low-key predictable choices, minimal angst, cheesy cliché, and typical cuteness, and still not entirely a waste of time, but still enough to make for a pleasant enough time. ...more
It's a short read, well, it felt short, considering how o✰ 3 stars ✰
“We were unassailable, everything was ours.”
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It's a short read, well, it felt short, considering how one night I was just lying in bed and two hours flew by without me realizing except for the slight tear that escaped me as the story wrapped. It is told as a nonlinear narrative by an unnamed protagonist, which at first I was annoyed by.
But then I started to kinda sense the reasoning behind it; how the events could be attributed to any one person who has experienced the trials and tribulations of what it means to be gay during a time where it's not so widely accepted in a place where it can be perceived dangerous even to express yourself openly. ...more
“Who knows where it came from, her feisty character, what combination of genes, conversations, and events had shaped it? And choices,
✰ 2.75 stars ✰
“Who knows where it came from, her feisty character, what combination of genes, conversations, and events had shaped it? And choices, she said to calm herself. Above all, choices.”
My word, Goodreads, we need to talk about your tagging system? Thriller? Mystery? Okay, fine, a mystery as to the whereabouts of the teacher after her student's suicide, yes, but a thriller??? They really should read the books before aimlessly assigning genres to them; for a thriller, it was not. Rather, it was a reflective, introspective look at the human psyche when faced with the overwhelming burden of guilt and grief that catapults the heart and mind to have a pseudo-breakdown of isolation and shame.
One late afternoon, in a small Italian village, schoolteacher Silva gently reprimands her eleven-year-old student, Giovanna, for skipping out on school yet again, informing her that she will have to notify her parents, as well, of her transgression. That evening, Giovanna jumps from her bedroom window; the following morning, Silva disappears.
“Madness, in his view, wasn’t something that existed outside people of sound mind, but as a possibility within each of us.”
Setting the scene, itself, was interesting; the sparse details into Giovanna's personality were not quite enough to determine why she did it, but enough to make Silva conflicted and tormented over her possible connection that led to her death. The human mindset is fragile and lays much of its foundation in its upbringing ; the innocence of youth is unpredictable, but with a touch of perception that often takes shape. With a careful hand, the author travels the writing through Silva's past and the various village members' thoughts and speculative theories regarding this bewildering occurence to befall their quiet village - a mixture of panic, bewilderment, and love - while carrying on their own daily lives that inadvertently were affected by Silva's disappearance.
Did Silva leave out of shame? Guilt? Remorse? Was her action too drastic, or was it without the realm of understanding? Was she an enigma, whose own past laid roots for the possibility of making her own rash decision? Was it fair of her to expect such loyalty from one of her students to keep her location a secret till her mind was at a balance to finally accept her involvement or rather not as the cause of Giovanna's impulsive decision? Was it her duty as a teacher that finally reached a breaking point? Was it Martino's own ambitious drive to be the victor of discovering her that kept him quiet, or rather somehow knowing in his ten-year-old heart that maybe, she just needed her own time to process the actions that had occurred.
“Giulia, for example, believes you’re dead. But you’re not. On the contrary, you are someone who’s alive.”
The cover looked hopeful with the promise that there would be some kind of emotional relationship that would develop between Silva and Martino; sadly, much of their reflections happened on their own, in that whatever life-altering moments affected them personally, it was also solved individually. Silva also looks a lot saner than who she was portrayed during her self-imposed banishment, what with her feverish visions and her gnawing shame over the loss of her student. It's a strange story, but I can't bring myself to entirely dislike it. The slow unraveling of various story-lines that slowly glued the plot together was enough for me to somewhat appreciate the overall message.
For with a rather poor rating to show for it, I read with a sense of gnawing uncertainty that I would display the same poor judgment. I was confused as to why we did not get some insight from the students' parents. I struggled to put faces to the names that were moving in and out of the pages. I felt certain scenes were unnecessary and crude in depiction. I was frustrated and annoyed with Silva's selfish decision of running away and how she imposed upon Martino to keep a secret (that) was both a burden and a compensation.
“The novel emerges from that lacuna and fills it with imagination.”
The Author's Note, however, helped settle a bit of my conflicting thoughts. It did not quite explain why the parents were not given any preference, but considering how the real-life girl was treated with such bewildering facts, I respect the author's decision for not doing so. It also gave me a clearer perspective of very slightly being more forgiving of Silva's 'breakdown'. The Note from the Translators was also helpful in allowing me to see the finer sides of the writing style I may have overlooked; the lyrical harmony in the lengths it took to capture the raw power and beauty of the author's words that I grew to appreciate.
Parents are also teachers; children can also teach something. It is depicted in the various lives the author takes a look at during Silva's absence from the village; the changes and the reveals that impacted them with her disappearance, allowing them to take certain liberties, but also take a closer look at one another and 'trying to see herself through her daughter’s eyes and wondering what she was teaching her.' Because it is that crucial moment when Silva's mind and heart discern a rational sound judgment into the fault in her behavior, does she break free of her own crippling conscience and find a way out....more
“Everyone had their own person out there, that special someone who felt like an extension of their weird little soul.”
One of my most ✰ 3 stars ✰
“Everyone had their own person out there, that special someone who felt like an extension of their weird little soul.”
One of my most awkward moments of high school happened during freshman year - a lapse in my no- filter moments that still has me cringing; yes, here be my walk of shame - forever seared into my heart. ...more