But who are we really, eh? We've told each other what we think, but we've no idea what we feel. That requires a conversation. Having words, having language, to connect us to ourselves and to each other."
Frankly, I don't know where to begin. Sometimes I read a book purely for entertainment. Sometimes I read a book because I want to learn more about a subject. But, all of the time, I read purely to understand the condition of being human.
Ella and Jamie taught me that. Their shared love of knowledge and academia and poetry... was beautiful and called out to the nerdy student in me. They were clever and mischevious along with all the other characters present in the book.
Through Ella's journey- neverending fear, unbridled joy, unconditional love, and worrisome thoughts are constantly present. But as Jamie says we must "Carry on."
The hardest thing is love, with no expiration date, no qualifiers, no safety net. Love that demands acceptance of all the things I cannot change. Love that doesn't follow a plan."
Side Note: I cried more than a few times while reading this book. I think I was meant to read this book at the exact moment my life demanded it. This book needed to tell me something, and it did and I will cherish it always.
This will be a top-shelf book.
Leave this world a better place than how you found it.
Reading about the inner circle felt like coming home after a long time away. I love their chemistry with each other, their banter, their funny moments (especially the scene where Feyre and Cassian drunk decorate the house- I was laughing hysterically). All the characters are just so themselves. Maas does such a great job of shaping their personalities and having all of them, even the side characters, have an active role in the story. No character, even one that says one line, is thrown in there carelessly. I love that about her. That is what gets me invested in these characters.
The only disappointing thing is that I have to wait a whole year for the next book. Sighhhh. <3
Side Note: I'm happy Nesta finally got told to stop being cruel and being a brat. I completely understand that she has PTSD, but she's been mean from the beginning. I can't wait to see how she does in the next book. She needs breakthrough boot camp and to be nice to her sister Feyre.
Brilliant, phenomenal, freaking hilarious. I was cracking up the whole time! Semple used emails, doctor's notes, FBI intel, letters, Bee (Bernadette's daughter) narrating to tell the story of how Bernadette goes missing.
Bernadette is both hilarious and heartbreaking. I feel for her and I also want to shake her. But I love her despite all those feelings. I don't want to give too much away, just know this book includes: the techy world of Microsoft, crazy over-bearing PTA moms, a Russian tech mob, a trip to Antartica, an FBI investigation, and one daughter searching for her mother.
I can't wait for the movie.
“It came, over and over, down to this: What made someone a mother? Was it biology alone, or was it love?”
Like a growing fire, the book was a bit slow to start, I was getting impatient, but then- all at once everything happened. The books characters, like a flame to paper, consumed me.
The characters, oh dear lord, the characters were some of the richest I've encountered in a book. Their stories, and emotions, their dirty laundry that only we as a reader could witness and watch them struggle as we all do. Celeste Ng accurately wrote a book that depicts motherhood, daughterhood, friendship, spouses, teenagers, young adults- human interactions in all its confusing and loving glory. Not one relationship is perfect.
This book will stay with me for a long time and will be one I reach to time and time again for hope, encouragement, and how to take your life into your own god damn hands. I will forever take Mia's advice/question, "What are you going to do about it?"
After the burning the soil is richer, and new things can grow. People are like that, too. They start over. They find a way.
In actually I give this book a 4.5. It was just a wee bit slow in the beginning to merit a whole 5, but once the ball got rolling, I couldn't put the book down.
The book was not what I expected it to be at all. Spooky? Yes. Magical? Definitely. It helped a lot that I was reading this book in the dead of night during a hurricane, with the wind rustling the leaves outside. Perfect setting to read this book.
The characters Cara, Sam, Bea, and Alice were so amazingly lovely. I loved them so much (flaws and all) that I wanted to be friends with them. I wanted to be a part of this bizarre and magical family. Every year in October, the Accident Season begins. Weird situations happen. Bruised bodies, broken bones, bloody lips, car wrecks, and deaths have occurred during this Accident Season, and their eccentric mother worries every year when the season comes along. Alice, the oldest sister is very suspicious about this season, while Cara (the main main character) knows there is more to the story, especially after she realized that a girl name Elsie has been appearing in everyone one of her photographs since she was a little girl. Does she have something to do with the Accident Season?
The whole time while reading, you can't help but shift back and forth between reality and fantasy, which is the main thing when it comes to magical realism. You don't know what is real and what isn't, and this is some of my favorite type of reading. Being someone that looks for the magic in the every day, I eat this kind of novel up. One of my favorite scenes without giving too much away is the party scene. Wow... the author did an amazing job in making me feel like I was in the scene. I felt as drunk as the main character. Confused, happy, melancholy, tipsy... even more so during the party, the lines between reality and fantasy were blurred and her confusion was magical. I felt so connected to her at that moment. The added aspect of the Changelings made the scene even better. It was like having two alternate realities happening at once.
Don't get me wrong the book got spooky, and ultimately the families demons are confronted and the truth is let out like a gust of wind that knocks all the walls they have put up throughout the years. Throughout the book, you get hints of what is really happening... and not everything is said but I like that the author gives the reader credit to put two and two together. A perfect example of show, don't tell. Secrets, friendship, family, and the supernatural are definite themes in this book, and sometimes we cover up things with half truths only so we don't have to confront what we truly are afraid of.
Spooky and magical book, I could relate so much to the main character, Cara. Now I want some silver converse.
