(If you ever seen this post before, I'm sorry. I accidentally posted this when it's unfinished)

Can you hear me screaming/squealing/blushing/shipping them hardcore allover again????

Do you thing adaptations affect your reading experience?

I nominate:

“Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.”

I love the topic about good and evil presented in this book. It's just a matter of perspective. Like someone on the internet say, "Villains are the heroes of their own story" (except of course, the villain is the Joker who create chaos just for fun).  The characters are really complex and interesting and definitely make me wondering about the topic of good and evil. There is no heroes, nor villain in this book. All the characters are morally grey, trying to get what they want. It's really refreshing seeing this kind of characters.

I love especially, how V.E Schwab written Eli and Victor. Even at the beginning, you could sense that there's something really wrong about them, that gives me chill. They're both ambitious, extremely smart, and they posed to be friends but tbh I'm sure they actually hate each other. You can see how unhealthy their friendship is, full of jealousy and dark thoughts. Their descend into darkness was written beautifuly and tragicly. People that believed they're messenger of the God honestly creep me out the most, but add genious-ness, patience and darkness that's always been there, then the character actually managed to scare me. The whole thing makes the atmosphere of the story really dark and gritty, with all the dark thoughts about revenge, death and blood. But the characters also somehow have morbid sense of humour, which I really like. 

I really like the relationship between the gang, a.k.a Victor, Mitch, Sydney, Dol, and Dominic. Victor could kill someone without remorse, but he has soft spot for picking up strays and actually care about them as friend. He actually considers Mitch as his friend (he panicked when he thought Eli shot Mitch!) and also let Sydney keep Dol. I love how protective everyone is with Sydney (even Dominic) and Dominic, as the newest member, decided to stick with them after those things happened. 

My only complain is that I'm an impatient person, so I have pacing issue around the end, I literally scream "JUST DO IT!!" at my phone. But honestly, it's really tense and keep me at the end of my seat, so I guess I'll let it go. Also the ending. I literally cheered. MY BABIES YAY. It perfectly wrapped the story, albeit a bit loose. 

Overall, I'm really surprised with how much I liked this one. I mean sure, I've heard so many people raving about Vicious, but I don't really know if I'd like it, especially with the adult tag (which I think not so adult? It's like between YA and adult). It doesn't exactly blow me away, but it made me think. Highly recommended.

 

Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson || Goodreads

This one is a really beautiful book. I really enjoyed reading the story, but I also find myself struggling through some points in this book, especially in the beginning. I love how the author writes Marie-Laure blindness in a realistic way. Yes she's disabled, but that doesn't mean she stays in house or person around her are all protective. She's still capable of walking around the city (through a lot of studying, patience, and still stumbling sometimes), read in braille, and even participate in the movement against the Nazi. She's brave, smart, compassionate, curious and honestly such a beautiful and adorable soul. 

I'm struggling through some of Werner's narration because honestly, all that physics and math talk really giving me headache. Neverthless, I really love how passionate he is with radios (and physic in general), how naturally talented he is (I wish I'm that talented) and how good his heart is. He still cares for Frederick after all these years,  and his relationship with Jutta, Frau Elena and Volkheimer really warms my heart.

I also cared really deeply for the side characters. Etienne, Volkheimer, Madame Manec, Frederick, and so on. This book really tugs my heart and make me feel for them.

If you expect this book to be similar with The Book Thief, then you might be dissapointed. This book has heavier and darker vibe than The Book Thief, which is why I struggle with this book. But this book has the same beautiful prose and story within, so just hold on and try enjoy the beauty of this book as its own.

I really enjoy Lily of the Nile, but this book fell short for me.

The writing is still incredibly vivid and powerful. I could imagine Mauretania, Rome and Selene's dream. And the side characters totally stand out in this book. Augustus is definitely not a man to be underestimated. I kinda hate Juba, but I think he's just blinded by his devotion to Augustus. I'm just really dissapointed with Selene in this book. She thinks herself so high and mighty, being the last of the Ptolemies, embodies Isis, queen of Mauretania and yadayada. She's reckless, and just can't see that the game she plays with Augustus is a political flirting, it could put both of them in danger, and creates Anthony-Cleopatra 2.0. I have no problem with Augustus storyline's though. I know from the first book that his ambition and obsession with Cleopatra would lead him that way.

Overall, I would've enjoyed this even more if it wasn't for Selene. I still want to read the final book, but not anytime soon.

When I first find out about this series, this book is what pulls me in (I didn't read TLH at that time), but yet this one is my least favorite in this book. After re-reading? WOW. I think this one would be in my top 3!

The humor still gets me everytime, I even laugh out loud at some parts. I really like the writing style, it gives you new info about the greek myth, without feeling like reading a textbook. And I just noticed how ignorant and clueless Percy is in this book! But I guess that's why he's called seaweed brain, right? And Tyson is really adorable, protect him at all cost!! And the party ponies; I'm glad Mr. D isn't in the mood for celebrating, because I'm 10000% sure disaster would happen if he parties with the party ponies.

Overall I really enjoyed this the second time reading it, I guess I just appreciate it even more than the first time! :D

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

So.... I was so excited to review this book because this is my first time receiving an ARC from NetGalley, and the description sounds really awesome. I mean, some sort of Eskimo tribe magic? Sign me up! I was expecting something like Brother Bear or Pocahontas (I know they're Indian, but I mean I was expecting those kind of magic, shaman, old wise people, elders, etc). Well if you're putting this book on your tbr because of that aspect, then prepare to be dissapointed. (Also it's going to be a long review so prepare your popcorn)

The problem with this book is it tries to cover so many problems. I think it's better to write 2 different books, contemporary OR fantasy. It's like the author googles "what problems are usually in a book" and use all of them. Let me list it for you: depression, suicide, pedophile, rape, disfunctional family, magic, romance, cancer, bitchy friends, deaths, teen pregnancy, birth defects, and religion. It makes this book unecessarily long and seemed unfocused. I guess this book should've been a contemporary? I was 50% into the book and the most magic we have is rattling trees and swirling gold in Aggie eyes.

The writing style was also not my favorite. I got the impressions that this is a MG book, because of the cover and the synopsis but apparently our character is 15 going on 16?? Which also confuses me because the story feels juvenile for me, and the characters are really really immature.

"You hurt me. I don't know what you did to me, but you hurt me because I wanted your stupid cats. You hurt me on purpose and I'm telling my dad."

I mean, what kind of 15/16-yo girl that fight and then threatened "to tell her dad"?

It also overly detailed, does the author tried to incorporate purple prose in this book too? There are a lot of descriptions that could be cut off.

As they watched the helpless babies, tears welled in Aggie's eyes. "Somebody threw these babies away like they were garbage." One shiny orb overflowed and trickled down her cheek.

Okay, I don't think you need to describe tears in that way? Also since Aggie cries a lot in this book, we get a lot of "tears/orb trickled/rolling down" her face thing, which is not necessary. I know how crying looks like thanks.

"Okay. Say hello to Jackie and Sakari", Sonja smiled in her direction then turned back to the show flickering on their big 60-inch flat screen.

I'm sorry but I don't see the relevance of how big her tv is to the story. Also the description definitely doesn't fit her family condition. (her mom work in a library and her father is unemployed but they could afford 60 inch flat screen?)

It also tries to be hip and cool by incorporating texting slangs, social media (PeoplePlace) that's basically facebook, and swearing. And lastly, it doesn't focused on Aggie only. We get insight of Sonja hanging out with her friends, Bishop and Billy talk, the teacher talks, and worse, seeing John and Sonja, Billy and his wife, and Mr, Dennings and his wife PDA-ing. No, I don't want to see parents PDA-ing and the warmth and giggles and the FEELINGS that spread between them. It's really unrelevant to the story.

Each chapter is really short, but nothing happened really since like I said, this book has too many things going on and it took a lot of set up, so the pacing is crawling. I'm 50% in and I'm waiting for something big to happened and when it does happened it MAKES ME SO MAD. I literally cried because I just WHY. After all this problems you had in this book and set up you really have to add more issues?? I also think that was the point I actually considered dnf ing this book for real.

The so-called magic is useless in general. Does it heal or do anything? No. The whole "you can't help people unless they want to be helped" really makes me mad. Well then, I'll just go to normal psychiatrist or doctor then. It works the same way, doesn't it? If the magic element is deleted from the book, it would be a decent read.

I think I would enjoy the romance, because it's written as one of my favorite tropes, but the execution is just NO. The way she acted whenever the love interest do something is just ridiculous. Easily blushed, "jelly legs" and so on. It makes me cringe and wonder why does the romance exists in the first place.

Now, let me point out the thing I disliked in details. Beware of spoilers, and as usual, highlight to see the content.

In conclusion, I'm very very dissapointed. I was expecting for magic, but it was barely exists and instead I got this whole mess. From what I read, the magic element is an analogy for religion/consience. This book has too much going on, and instead of following one single plot, it keeps adding more and more issues. It's an okay coming of age read, but the whole mess and experience really left a bad impressions for me. If only the (sorry!) useless magical element erased, I would enjoy the story more.