Characters I Liked From Books I Disliked | Top Ten Tuesday

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Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl to bring bookish friends together. A new topic is posted each week. 

TTT

Well, disliked is a strong word, but these books were three stars or less out of six. Give me some slack, it’s a hard list to make because most books I dislike is exactly because of the characters.  

Wax and Marasi from Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson (look, they’re on the cover!). Wax and Wayne is an awesome team, but Wax brings the casual genius plans and humor.

The whole gang – Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam – in The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater. I have a thing for group dynamics, especially when they are so different characters as these.

Julep Dupree from Trust Me, I’m Lying by Mary Elizabeth Summer. Less than average plot, good female main character who’s a con artist and doesn’t stop lying.

Julian from Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare. I feel for him, I feel like him, I would read the books solely for him if he didn’t become a smaller and smaller part of them.

Margo from Paper Towns by John Green. The main character was average, Margo was much better. Probably not the best person, but a good character.

Percy from House of Hades by Rick Riordan. Especially from that book because I didn’t like it, but he’s been great through most of the series, until he fell into hell or whatever and changed. Then it all went downhill.

 

 

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green | Review

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Pages: 290

Genre: young adult, contemporary, mental health

Synopsis

Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett’s son, Davis.

Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.

In his long-awaited return, John Green, the acclaimed, award-winning author of Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars, shares Aza’s story with shattering, unflinching clarity in this brilliant novel of love, resilience, and the power of lifelong friendship.

My thoughts

Rating out of five:

fem

“The thing about a spiral is, if you follow it inward, it never actually ends. It just keeps tightening, infinitely.”

Ahh I loved this book, I read it in a day about a week after the release. And I haven’t been able to write a review since because of the feelings (and physics).*

I cried so much for the first time in a while because this story is so moving and the characters felt so real, and they all had their problems. Of course, I want to side with Aza, because that’s the perspective you follow through the book. But the book doesn’t let me, it points out the people who feel hurt by Aza. It was good to represent how people doesn’t automatically understand each other, it demands a lot of willingness, effort and communications from all parts. Especially when it comes to anything like illness. I don’t know much about OCD, but from all I’ve heard this book is a good representation of it. Obviously, OCD doesn’t manifest in only one form, but I still felt like I learned a lot about thought spirals and how obsessiveness can manifest itself.

If I would give any negative criticism of this book, it would be that it’s difficult at the beginning to distinguish John Green’s voice as the author and Aza’s narrative. The problem vanished for me after a while, which I can’t really explain, might be getting used to it, might be getting to know her better. I do not agree with the characters being too mature, we need that as well in young adult novels. I feel like it’s needed to say this is not a mystery novel, a disappearance is a element of the plot, but it doesn’t drive it. If you want that I would recommend “Truly Devious” by Maureen Johnson.

It’s one thing to know of how serious mental illness can be, it’s something completely different to get it (literally) spelled out and in your face. I especially liked the part at the end, in the darkness, where Aza tries to explain her thoughts and fears. I’ve followed vlogbrothers for years, and you can kind-of notice when John is worse than normal, but not to what degree. It was a really positive surprise to realize how open, informing and serious he was about displaying OCD after not having gone into depth about it for so long.

“Turtles all the way down” also has humour and a good balance between darker and lighter aspects, but from the beginning it shows how it’s all intertwined. It’s simply a brilliant book, the writing, characters, mystery and depth is all there. Would completely recommend, it’s worth all the hype it’s getting.

*this was originally written some time ago, a few weeks after the release

SPOILERS: have you checked the inside of the book jacket?

*

*

 

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton | Review

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Pages: 320

Genre: this is honestly a difficult book to place. magical realism?

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Summary

Foolish love appears to be the Roux family birthright, an ominous forecast for its most recent progeny, Ava Lavender. Ava—in all other ways a normal girl—is born with the wings of a bird.

In a quest to understand her peculiar disposition and a growing desire to fit in with her peers, sixteen-year old Ava ventures into the wider world, ill-prepared for what she might discover and naïve to the twisted motives of others. Others like the pious Nathaniel Sorrows, who mistakes Ava for an angel and whose obsession with her grows until the night of the Summer Solstice celebration.

That night, the skies open up, rain and feathers fill the air, and Ava’s quest and her family’s saga build to a devastating crescendo.

My thoughts

Rating out of five:

fire

 

– the plot – 

The synopsis, along with the perfectly fitting long title, creates the idea that this is a book about Ava Lavender. It’s simply not, for the most part. More than the first half of the book is about the family she’s a descendant from: with their strange abilities and being caught up in one tragedy after another. We’re learning about the generations before her, but when Ava and her story came into this world, it felt like a lot rested on her shoulders. The family, this story, they all needed something good.

Ava Lavender is the relatable one, it’s why her name is in the title. It is a young adult novel after all, not a tragedy or historical family drama. But maybe it should have been. This book would have been better as a more complete story about her ancestors. Ariel (check her out if you haven’t!) said this book was more like a fairy tale than magical realism, because in magical realism the magic usually goes unnoticed, while here Ava’s wings marks her as different. The ancestors had a better sense of smell and other, much stranger and more twisted abilities, and no one questioned it. That’s what I loved most about this book, that feeling when I’m sitting here like: that’s fucked up, but look at them, they keep going as if nothing ever happened.

 

– some confusion –

Also, let’s talk about how it’s a waste of potential when a kid have these crazy ancestors, are born with wings (!!), and you make her feel isolated and excluded from the rest of the world because of them. I realize this is an important message, but any person written with a mental or physical illness or a handicap could have made that point in a clearer way. Was it really necessary to give a girl wings to make that point? Of course, the wings are surely some kind of symbol, and they helped the plot unfold later on, but that didn’t help my frustration.

– the writing –

The strange and beautiful sorrows of Ava Lavender had a lot of lovely moments and details. The writing style was alive, but dreamy, in a way I loved. I don’t know how it is possible to connect words in such a way it becomes this level of magical, and I was completely fascinated by it. Just for that thing alone, this book is absoloutly worth reading.

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I enjoyed this book. However, I still feel it natural to divide it into before Ava Lavender and after. And I liked before a lot better. Not just because of Ava, she’s nice enough, but because of her mom and how the whole family at that time transformed into something like a picture, stuck in the memory of what it once was. It won’t make much sense until you read it, and I highly recommend it.

 

– more favourite quotes – 

“Summer rain smelled like newly clipped grass, like mouths stained red with berry juice—blueberries, raspberries, blackberries.”

“While the thought of being dead seemed appealing, the actual act of dying did not. Dying required too much action.”

“I found it ironic that I should be blessed with wings and yet feel so constrained, so trapped. It was because of my condition, I believe, that I noticed life’s ironies a bit more often than the average person. I collected them: how love arrived when you least expected it, how someone who said he didn’t want to hurt you eventually would.”

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami | Review

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Pages: 300

Genre: contemporary, romance, japan

Synopsis

Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable. As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.

My thoughts

Rating out of five:

fire

A fabulous bestselling book, which somehow reminded me of “The secret history” by Donna Tartt, but set in Japan, with less murder and just as much insanity. 

“I have a million things to talk to you about. All I want in this world is you. I want to see you and talk. I want the two of us to begin everything from the beginning.”

All the characters are wrong and troubled, although the main character Toru seems to be the most normal at first. It’s something they’re mostly aware of and Toru even ponders why he chooses to get close to a certain type of person. Is it because they don’t claim or pretend to be normal?

“Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Only assholes do that.”

The characters are what drives this story as you want to know how they end up. It’s obvious they all are in either dangerous sitations or can’t follow the same path for long without it becoming critical. My favourite and the likely the worst of the bunch is Nagasawa who is a womanizer, clever and rich dirtbag. He doesn’t think any good of anyone, but chooses Toru as his friend, and the contrasts and similarities between them is very interesting.

It is a love story. Kind of. As much as it’s about mental health or college/uni. At times all the different aspects of the story didn’t match up for me, but in the end it made sense. It’s all about Toru’s life and development. I can’t claim to completely understand this book yet, and it was slow at times, but I quite liked it. Murakami’s writing is as wonderful as always.

Jade City by Fonda Lee | Review

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Pages: 510

Genre: urban fantasy

Synopsis

 

TWO CRIME FAMILIES, ONE SOURCE OF POWER: JADE.
Jade is the lifeblood of the city of Janloon – a stone that enhances a warrior’s natural strength and speed. Jade is mined, traded, stolen and killed for, controlled by the ruthless No Peak and Mountain families.
When a modern drug emerges that allows anyone – even foreigners – to wield jade, simmering tension between the two families erupts into open violence. The outcome of this clan war will determine the fate of all in the families, from their grandest patriarch to even the lowliest motorcycle runner on the streets.
Jade City is an epic tale of blood, family, honour, and of those who live and die by ancient laws in a changing world.

My thoughts

Rating out of five:

tre

– the action –

This book had a well thought through plot, a lot of action in between slower scenes and lots of crime family conflicts. The fight scenes was well-written, it reads like those of a superhero action movie. I especially noted it when someone slits the enemy’s throat from behind. Personally I’m not much a fan of fight scenes like this, I like my action to come with emotions or a lack off, written with a different perspective than just cinematic-looking decription. This is an opinion that hasn’t affected my rating of this book, because I think it’s very well done and something many readers want. It would make it easy for a movie adaption as well.

– the jade –

The concept of jade as a powersource was something new for me and made perfect sense. The mix of asian and western is something that makes this book special, it’s a big part of the plot. Just the levels of formality in the culture is a something that fits perfectly with the dynamics of the families. The crime families agree that outsiders are dangerous to invite in, to give them this drug and control of powers they didn’t understand, which leads them to a certain degree of isolation and a good scene for this internal struggle to play out.

“So it came to be, remarkably, that the ruling family of No Peak was all the family Anden had.”

– the characters – 

The story is told from multiple points of view, which was tricky. I didn’t really care for the character we started out with, there’s this kid who tries to steal jade that I didn’t feel for much. Poor circumstances made it hard for him, but he’s no evil mastermind or accidental hero. Probably going to become one in later books though, with the focus he got sometimes. There were other characters I didn’t care much for as well, which I realized is because you don’t get to see much of the internal life of them, even through their point of view.

Shae is the sister in one of the biggest crime families, and she’s returned after basically running away attending school overseas. She could’ve been such an interesting character, but her plans without jade was so ridiculous and uncertain for someone who had taken such a deliberate choice to separate her from her family. She’s too smart not to have a plan or even dreams as she returns from abroad. Multiple times I felt like her character came apart, where the way everyone described her didn’t match up with how undecisive she acted and thought about events, especially in her pov.

There should’ve been more backstory and personality quirks in a book of five hundred pages, to give readers a reason to care about Hilo’s top men and even all the major characters. I cared about Lan because he had a lot to say in how it would go down, which family would win power. Aden got some backstory and we got a quick look into how hard he was working to be best at the military school.

“Heaven help me, Shae,” he whispered into her ear. “I’m going to kill them all.”

Politics and the parts where Shae and Hilo is organizing were good. I have a weakness for characters like Hilo, who is used to violence, but has a conscience somewhere and is very protective of his family and friends, even though he’s arguing with them. Even Aden remarks that he has a remarkable way with people, but then sometimes he shows how dangerous and spontaneous he could be, which was awesome.

 

– in the end –

It ended on an exciting note and I think I’ll pick up the next book in the series pretty quickly when it comes out. It took a long time to build up the characters and plot, but now I have all hopes for a good series, as it was well done in many aspects.

*spoilery discussion on characters below*

Continue reading →

Mary Oliver’s New and Selected Poems Vol. 2 | Review

aquapages // eline4 Comments

Genre: poetry

 

My thoughts

Rating out of five:

fire

I like the individual collections I’ve read more (A thousand mornings, Upstream and even volume one of this one), because they are a better mix of varied subjects, so it doesn’t become too much nature all at once (I didn’t know that was even possible before this). These new and selected poems still gives a good direction in which to continue reading Mary Oliver’s poetry, as my favourite poems here seems to have been published around the same time and I will certainly look up those collection.

It’s still brilliant poems, with Mary Oliver’s usual focus on nature, landscape, animals, people, writing and love. I’ve collected my favourite ones in a document and there’s fifteen, which was way more than I expected. Oliver’s words just speak true, the observations are lovely to read and gradually thought-provoking at the same time.

 

THE FACES OF DEER

 

When for too long I don’t go deep enough 

into the woods to see them, they begin to 

enter my dreams. Yes, there they are, in the 

pinewoods of my inner life. I want to live a life 

full of modesty and praise. Each hoof of each 

animal makes the sign of a heart as it touches 

then lifts away from the ground. Unless you 

believe that heaven is very near, how will you 

find it? Their eyes are pools in which one 

would be content, on any summer afternoon, 

to swim away through the door of the world. 

Then, love and its blessing. Then: heaven.

– Mary Oliver

 

WORK, SOMETIMES

I was sad all day, and why not.  There I was, books piled

on both sides of the table, paper stacked up, words

falling off my tongue.

The robins had been a long time singing, and now it

was beginning to rain.

What are we sure of?  Happiness isn’t a town on a map,

or an early arrival, or a job well done, but good work

ongoing.  Which is not likely to be the trifling around

with a poem.

Then it began raining hard, and the flowers in the yard

were full of lively fragrance.

You have had days like this, no doubt.  And wasn’t it

wonderful, finally, to leave the room?  Ah, what a

moment!

As for myself, I swung the door open.  And there was

the wordless, singing world.  And I ran for my life.

— Mary Oliver

Books That Take Place In Another Country | Top Ten Tuesday

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Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl to bring bookish friends together. A new topic is posted each week. 

TTT

Most of the books I read are from another country, since I’m norwegian. But I’ll include more books that aren’t placed in the US/America, since that’s where most of the authors I read are from.

Kafka on the Shore and Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

  • Japan
  • Absoloutly worth reading, the writing, the characters, the plot all amazing

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

  • Kabul, Afghanistan
  • Haven’t read the whole book, only long excerpts for class, but it’s heartwrenching and I have to pick up the whole book soon

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

  • Alaskan wilderness, USA
  • Okay book, based on a better story

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

  • Pacific Ocean, with a Tamil boy

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

  • Germany
  • Historial fiction from nazi germany with a girl who steals books, her parents taken away to concentration camp.

Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn

  • Japan
  • A fantasy book I read as a child and loved, but I can’t vouch for how good it is since it was so long ago

The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

  • Barcelona, Spain
  • Gothic mystery

I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

  • Pakistan
  • Non-fiction and biographical book of Malala’s life in Swat Valley in Pakistan and how she got shot in the head fighting for her education

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

  • Venice, Italy

 

 

Currently Reading | Book Things

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Hey! I’ve stopped doing the www wednesday posts recently, it doesn’t make sense to give a weekly update that strictly scheduled right now. But here’s a little update on what I’ve recently finished reading and my current reads.

 

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Mary Oliver’s new and selected poems vol. 2

A good poetry collection, generally I like these “best of” collections less than Mary Oliver’s other poetry collections like A Thousand Mornings.

Simon vs. the homo sapiens agenda by Becky Albertalli

I couldn’t put this book down and ended up reading it, over three hundred pages, in one saturday. There was some crying, a lot of “aahhh” sounds in sympathy and some good humor in here. To be honest, the title as well as the “coming out” plot put me off this book for a long time. I read positive reviews and that the movie “love, simon” is coming out soon and decided it was now or never. No regrets, as this book is fantastic. A more in-depth review out soon.

Alt som ikke har blitt tjoret fast by Eirin Gundersen

I’ve read some more norwegian books lately, this one was good, but I had some thoughts on it. Review will be out soon, but only in norwegian probably (which will be weird, but the only thing that makes sense as it’s not translated)

Truly devious by Maureen Johnson

An incredibly murder mystery young adult book that I higly recommend! 5/5 stars definitely.

 

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The snow child by Eowyn Ivey

I rarely stop reading books, usually I skim-read to the end. But I couldn’t get into this, the plot wasn’t interesting to me, even with the lovely writing.

The faster I walk, the smaller I am by Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold

I read this in norwegian, and it seemed good, but the plot and theme wasn’t anything I wanted to read right now

 

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Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Trying to get through some more classics, but this one is slow and kind of boring, even if I’m wondering where the plot will go.

One of us is lying by Karen M. McManus

I’m reading this in norwegian, just started and excited to see where it goes.

The collected poems of Emily Dickinson

Not much to say yet, except the poems are lovely.

Harry Potter e la pietra filosofale

It went really slow for a while, but I decided to try more again. Btw, I’m not very good at spanish, which is why I’m trying to read this book, but I am able to understand it surprisingly well. When did that happen? I’m 28% in, with 94 highlights/things I’ve translated, in one month. Could’ve been better.

 

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin | Review

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Pages: 452
Genre: young adult, paranormal
md

Synopsis

This book is confusing af, but it starts simple enough with a friendgroup who goes to an abandoned building for fun, but it suddenly collapses on top of them and kills everyone but Mara Dyer, the main character. She wakes up in a hospital, disoriented and not able to recall anything of the incident. But no one else has answers to what happened either. What they know is that four teenagers went in, but only one came out.

Struggling with memoryloss and PTSD, Mara convinces her family to move away, talking about fresh beginnings and less reminders, but not really believing it herself. She’s having flashbacks and hallucinates, memories of her and her two dead friends and boyfriend constantly haunting her dreams. Slowly, but surely her memories seem to return, but she doesn’t know how to make sense of it all.

My thoughts

Rating out of five:

to

 

This book has more psychological elements than paranormal ones, which was okay, but confusing for the main part of this story. It’s written to be all mysterious, but honestly I just grew impatient and annoyed. Mara believes she’s going crazy, but won’t immediately find help because of her overprotective mom who seems to control much in her life. At first I found it a bit extreme as I realize she needs help to function, but she’s already back at school so how bad can she be? But when shit goes down, I realized Mara might need more supervising than what is shown from her own unreliable narrative.

And she should not be in school full-time! How would anyone allow it, hadn’t it been for the sake of the story and her love interest being there? As Mara slowly works out her new life, or pretend to, she meets a mysterious boy named Noah Shaw. She is repeatedly warned against him for his reputation of dating and dumping girls. I won’t comment on this relationship anymore than I wouldn’t read this book for the romance because it’s very stereotype “bad boy turns good for The One Girl” with a twist or two. Still, even if it’s nice twists and I like Noah in himself, they don’t really work good together. Mostly he’s just there, saying a few lines and filling out the plot when necessary.

I feared for a long time this book would be all stereotype high school drama, because it was clearly heading that way, but right before I laid the book down in defeat strange things started to happen around Mara Dyer. The book was back on track! When the plot twist came I was done again; I saw it long time coming and it couldn’t have been more expected. If you’ve read a couple of paranormal ya I think you’ll figure it out. It’s not a bad twist, it just reflects the biggest problem of this book – it’s predictable. Some occurences might be unexpected and interesting, but the plot and story as whole goes in a boring straight line.

There’s two more books in this series, which could turn out better now that it took 452 pages to reveal one secret and lay the base of the story, which really has just been “high school drama with paranormal stuff somewhere”. I don’t think I want to read two more books like that. The title is good; “The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer” is just what happens in this book, but nothing more. Did you like this book? Is the second and third book better?

See How They Run by Ally Carter | Review

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Embassy Row #2

Pages: 336
Genre: young adult, mystery

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Summary

Grace’s past has come back to hunt her and if she doesn’t stop it, Grace isn’t the only one who will get hurt. Because on Embassy Row, the countries of the world are neighbours and stand like dominoes. One wrong move can make them all fall down.

My thoughts

Rating out of five:

to

No. Noope. Glad to be done with this book. It showed the series had a direction, but too much went wrong along the way.

I don’t even know why I would review a book I didn’t like, but I feel like I would appreciate it if someone warned me? I liked the other series by Ally Carter and if I’d read a review like this, I wouldn’t have bothered to pick this one up. Go read the Gallagher girls or even better; the Heist society. They’re both better than this one, even if it has its moments and good quotes.

To start off on a positive note: here you got young adult characters that actually behave like young people, however serious the situation is. It’s refreshing and it seems like they characters have grown up a bit since the last book, which makes completely sense.

I didn’t really know what this book would be about – at all – since in the first book every secret seemed to spill over and was eventually wrapped up with a bow on top. How could there be any more skeletons in the closet after that? All praise to Ally Carter’s creativity to figure that out – and she did. This book have good action, it’s fast-paced and have its moments. You think the plot twist is obvious, but there’s always more undetected hidden behind them. The mystery wasn’t as original as I hoped. It got an okay backstory though, and that’s about what I can say without spoiling anything.

These teenagers got to be very energetic. That’s a looot of running around, which I don’t really care for. It might be a choice taken to keep things interesting and the reader alert, but I don’t really care to follow when they return to places for the who-knows-how-many times. You got a lot of hiding spots, and surely need them with all this drama, but it’s a bit overkill.

That’s the thing about being the girl who’s spent years convincing the world she’s not afraid of anything: at some point, someone is going to find out you’re afraid of everything.

The main character, Grace, has changed since the first book too. She’s as wild and upredictable as usual, but no longer considered as paranoid because she’s proven herself at last. The relationship between her and her brother seemed more real, as did the friendships she finally developed with the other embassy kids. She seem to have PTSD, or something similar, and it’s well shown throughout the book. It makes Grace and the plot seem more real, since you’re shown the consequences she has to deal with. I was worried at the beginning that this book would follow the usual recipe: girl meets boy, drama happens and they have to fix it together, everyone acts before they think, but it magically works out anyway and finally they get together. It wasn’t completely like that, to my relief. Some of the elements are certainly there, but Carter managed to add some dimension to it.

Also, the adults seem to finally have been introduced to the plot, even going so far as keeping an eye on them. Wow, who would have known they could have information and perhaps be willing to help? “See how they run” was predictable at times, but well-written and a step up from the first book. Still it didn’t do enough for me to concider picking up the third book of the series. I believe I’m done with this, there has to be better mysteries out there to read. I think it’s beccause the plot is built on one too many clichés, and that’s honestly why I didn’t figure out all the plot twists; I thought it wouldn’t be that obvious. This book certainly tries to keep your interest and who knows, perhaps it will work for you, but I’ll throw in the towel and say I’m happy to have finished it.

“She’s right, of course. There’s a loop in my life – a pattern of violence and death and heartbreaking sorrow that I would give anything to stop. To rewrite. To end. But my walls are not yet high enough, not strong enough. What Ms Chancellor doesn’t know is that I never will stop building.”