So I've finally picked up my pace on reading and finally caught up with the slump that I had to go through the past few months. Let's just say that I am currently at a 'not-so-great' situation, and the reading helped me a lot to zone out and not think about things. I really don't want to dig deeper, but let's just say that everything is pretty complicated and my life has been a total whirlwind in the past weeks. Maybe it was depression, or hormones, or stuff like that, but I just feel like I'm in a very dark place, and reading has helped me to, at least, find a light of some sort. Anyway, here are my past few reads, paired with my two cents. I hope this would also give you an idea on what to read next based on the synopsis and my commentaries of some sort.
Landline
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Published: July 2014
Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Romance
Goodreads Choice 2014 Winner (Fiction)
Synopsis:
Georgie and Neal has been together for years and has been blessed with two wonderful children. Their marriage has been on the rocks for a long time, both of them failing to communicate their feelings because of priorities, and pretty much because of life. Georgie is a driven TV writer, and with everything falling into place in her career, she started to drift apart more and more from her husband and their marriage. As they finally reached the peak of it all -- with Neal and their children leaving for a Christmas vacation, and Georgie being left behind for their upcoming sitcom -- Georgie finds herself lonely and desperate to make amends. She ends up stumbling a magical telephone that lets her talk to her "old" Neal, years before they get married. The question is, what will she say and how can she pick up the pieces that they've shattered today?
My Two Cents:
I've read two books from Rowell (Eleanor and Park; Attachments) and by far, this has been the most mature material that she's presented. It's the first book that actually presents fantasy in her works, where she tried to indulge the readers with some bit of magic, and I must say, she did a pretty good job. I liked how she revisited the past, without losing the trail of the present. One of the things that I loved the most about the book is that it tried to present the idea of marriage, and the things that comes with it. Relationships are not only bound by love, but it is made out of hard work, understanding, compromising, and communication. I loved how Rowell was able to present this idea, that not all relationships are pure fairy tale and stuff. Admittedly, by far, this is my favorite book of her.
Rating: ★★★★
Love Letters to the Dead
Author: Ava Dellaira
Published: April 2014
Genre: Young Adult
Synopsis:
Laurel keeps on writing to dead people. It started out as an assignment for class, which became her hobby. Writing to dead people has been her outlet, expressing her feelings towards high school, towards love, and towards her dead sister, May.
Hidden within those letters is her struggle, a past that she continuously shakes off because of her fears. As she goes on to unfold her stories, she realized that these love letters were not written for the dead, but it is for herself, to discover her real identity, and to find forgiveness.
My Two Cents:
I find Love Letters to the Dead interesting AT FIRST. And then eventually, I got tired reading letters to rock stars like Kurt Cobain and Janis Joplin, written passively by a naive teenage girl named Laurel. It is somehow reminiscent to Perks of Being a Wallflower, but doesn't really make it. The premise is interesting, but after reading so much teenage angst, you'd eventually get tired of everything. I know, I've been through some serious teenage emo shiz before, but the book focused a little too much on that, that it pretty much masked all the other aspects of the story. It was an "okay" read, felt like something that I could relate too, only if I wasn't on my 20s.
Rating: ★★
Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Author: John Green, David Levithan
Published: April 2010
Genre: Adult Fiction
Synopsis:
Will Grayson is a typical teenage boy who can't pick up a girl and who's stuck with his best friend Tiny Cooper. He pretty much don't give a fuck about everything.
Will Grayson, on the other hand, is an angsty teenager hiding in the closet. He's in love with Isaac, an online friend, but he keeps everything to himself.
On an odd night, inside a pornography store at Chicago, they accidentally bumped into each other, and it was never the same way again.
My Two Cents:
I didn't like it. I haven't liked any David Levithan novels (only kind of liked The Realm of Possibility -- it was a poetry collection and I find it okay), so this wasn't much a surprise. John Green was an okay author, I loved Looking for Alaska, but the other books was a let down (TFIOS was fine, but not spectacular, sorry fans), so again, this didn't come as a surprise.
I liked how they tried to present a completely different idea -- I mean, how are the chances that you find someone who has the same name as yours in a small area? -- but in my opinion, they weren't able to pull it off too well. Both Will Graysons are out shined by Tiny Cooper, and towards the end of the book, all I could think of is that they may have picked a wrong title for this thing. Will Graysons were presented with their own back stories, but it was never enough, not enough to make me feel like I can relate to them. Again, maybe it was because of my age (ugh 20s and your life realizations), but I don't really dig teenage angst any longer. I liked how they tried to write the characters very differently -- with Will Grayson 1 (obviously Green's) being all nerdy, and WG 2 (obviously Levithan's) being gay and angry. Maybe I expected more personality from the two, and didn't really liked how Tiny Cooper, a supposedly secondary actor, took all the spotlight.
Spoiler: Tiny is NOT tiny. And he did hoard the spotlight.
Rating: ★★ (or 1.5... really)
