Catalyst - my book review

Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


True rating: 2.5 stars

There is one word that illustrates this book: ordinary. That word itself is as dull sounding as what Catalyst actually is.

After reading two of Laurie Halse Anderson's books (first Wintergirls then Speak), I was convinced that every single one of her novels were worth 5 stars. But I was wrong. Naivety got the better of me. This was an awesomely tedious book. To tell the truth, I was sort of glad to be able to turn the last page.

The main thing that saved this book from a 2 star review was the fact that I never got bored or skipped parts, even though I wanted to do so.

I felt that there was no depth in this book. One accident leads to another, and then...? What about Mitch? (They didn't really seem to break up.) What about the university? (We don't know what happened with that in the end.) What about Teri? (She doesn't seem to hate Kate that much.) And the BIG incident that changed everything... well, it was quite sad, I admit that, but I didn't find that it affected Kate personally.

Aside from the above, I also disliked the characters. Except for Mikey, of course. But apart from him, none of the characters were very likeable in my perspective, and there was no real background information on them. Like, I know Sara less than Kate knows Melinda.

Speaking of Melinda, as a side-note, I enjoyed her cameo role in this book. I loved Speak, so naturally I liked her guest appearance in this book, starring as herself.

There's not much else to say, but I've got Prom and Twisted on my TBR list. I'm definitely gonna read them sooner or later. I hope they won't be as disappointing as this book was...!



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The Lovely Bones - my book review

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The Lovely Bones is like the Bible. Not much feeling, but continuous descriptions chucked at your face. Once you think about it, you don't really know Susie feels towards being murdered. Any normal person would be bawling their eyes out, but here is Susie Salmon (like the fish), calm as a pond of ice.



The transition from gruesome to pleasant scenes can be shocking to the mind at times. You jump from Susie's explicative homicide to her illustrating the niceness of her heaven. Huh?



I was impressed with the descriptions of the characters, particularly of Abigail, also known as Ocean Eyes... The several strolls down the memory lane were enjoyable. They brought Susie's tale to life: her games with Lindsey, saving Buckley's life.



It's no wonder The Lovely Bones got transformed into a movie. It is utterly beautiful. But not quite my style. Still gratifying though.







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Stolen: A letter to my captor - my book review

Stolen: A letter to my captor by Lucy Christopher

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The descriptions of the desert are so vivid. I can picture it in my mind. Feel the individual grains of blood red sand rubbing against the soles of my feet. Here the soothing yet menacing voice of Gemma's captor. He expected her to love him. And so she did, in an odd, twisted kind of way.

We follow Gemma's story, or letter, of her kidnapping from Bangkok Airport. From the start to the end. Gemma's letter to Ty explains it all.

I found Stolen: A letter to my captor slow to begin with at first. It was just an endless, wordy chunk of what happened. It was only from Page 102 that things got interesting. And the thing was that it wasn't romance that caught my attention. I was ultimately surprised that there was not one kiss shared between the two of them in this book. The relationship between them is unique. She hates him, she loves him and he loves her only. He thinks that he has come to her aid, separating her from what she is used to, and bringing her into the Australian Sandy Desert.
To sum up, below is an image that perfectly illustrates what I thought their surroundings looked like:






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Catching Fire - my book review

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Firstly, I think this novel contrasts greatly to its predecessor, The Hunger Games. This book is told on a much bigger scale of things, and its focus is more on the Capitol than the Hunger Games itself. I must say, my favourite section of the book was Part I. I was very surprised when Katniss was participated in the Games again (woops... is that a spoiler!?!?). The part i disliked most in the book was at the very end. I found that Suzanne Collins rushed the ending and I finished the book in a has-the-book-really-ended? confusion. Otherwise, I really liked how the story talked about other things apart from the Games (BTW I think I liked 'last year's' Games more than this year's... how about you?). A thing a found really disturbing was President Snow's breath. Didn't you squirm in your reading cosy when you read Katniss' description of him? Well, I certainly did, and I think I puked a bit in my mouth when I pictured his puffy lips.

Anyway ... I love Peeta Mellark to bits... I do not understand why Katniss prefers him to Gale. But I dunno. It's the work of those hormones, I guess. Oh, and HOW could I leave out Cinna? I really admire him. If he was a real person, I would probably be his #1 fan ;)


NOTE
Due to the suspense and wild hunger for the remaining of the series, I will DEFINITELY be reading Mockingjay. Look out for my review on it soon!!!




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Delirium - my book review

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Like most other people, the sole reason I started reading 'Delirium' was because of Lauren Oliver's 'Before I Fall'. But honestly, I much prefer her first book compared to this one.

For me, this book provided a lot of — and I do mean A LOT of — eye-rolling moments and not enough room for suspense. Everything was predictable (apart from the end, but I'll get to that later) and cheesy. Like Romeo and Juliet minus the conflict scenes.

Lena reminds me of Bella Swan... unbearingly ordinary and naïve. Both of them lack that OOMPH that a protagonist needs, thus pushing the spotlight onto their lover-boys, which in this case, is Alex.

Like all male-leads, Alex is: handsome, mysterious, brave, tender and sticks up for his girl, no matter what the risks are. Alex seems even more agitating than Edward Cullen though. A few reasons is that he seems equally as naïve as Lena, and he seems so shallow. From the start he loved Lena. From the start he wanted to obey her. Another thing that has occurred to me is HOW ON EARTH can he trick those 'ruthless, strict' regulators into thinking he was Cured? Even in this world, a simple scar does not prove that you are 'one of them'. The idea of Invalids is pretty vague as well. Along with sympathizers and resistors, Oliver leaves us wondering just exactly who these people are.

Now... The ending. The final chapter is action packed. It's thrilling. And it certainly surprised me. I thought that — like the rest of the book — the ending would be some kind of cliché, but it wasn't. I didn't expect what happened to happen. There is no lead up to it. Just BAM! and the dirt is gone (sorry for that). Because of the unexpected twist, I finally started to like this book. But, alas, it was already too late. An eye-catcher in the last few paragraphs is not good enough, even for Oliver.

To be honest, the part I was looking forward to most was when Lena would get Cured. I knew that this wasn't really gonna happen, but the idea of her foolish mind getting cured was too good to ask for.

Oh, and another thing that I found wrong in 'Delirium' is that even though it is in the future (as it is a dystopian novel, afterall), it seems as though the world hasn't really progressed. Apart from the 'cure', the world hasn't changed. There is no mention of cool high-tech gadgets, and they're still using dingy radios. And why an electric fence when you can use laser beams? Duh!!!

What's really sad is that this book could've had potential, but it was easily sorted into the pile mediocre books. As I mentioned before, the best part was the ending. That's all that it's worth.

...and I purchased 'Delirium', too. What a rip off.






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