#qtrwm

[grazinginthefield]

“She had grown.”

This book has left me with a longing I can’t explain. It guided me through different sets of eyes and made me understand their intentions. If I met the people in this book, I would side and be friends with the Newlings, who are just a normal and healthy family. And definitely would be judgmental with Wavy’s parents and the people around them, who are deeply involved with drugs, adultery, and just recklessness. I would only see them as the “people” on the news. So this book had to break my walls and made me see that are no bad people, only people who do bad things. They’re not just people on the news, but also as real as I am. Yes, the characters were deeply flawed, but what I love about this book is they were written around the main character, Wavy. And we can see how they treat her with kindness understanding. It made a good balance for having such horrible parents. I was initially worried with every new character introduced, that they could hurt Wavy more but I was always proven wrong. 

There’s also the discussion of a forbidden relationship that was hard for me to take upon. Maybe in any angle, it can only be categorized as pedophilia. I had a hard time worrying about where it would go. But in the end, what the book only prove is how we refuse to acknowledge the voice of children. That’s what hit me the most. I was trying to pinpoint while reading the book what was making me frustrated, which later on I figured out was the child voice in my head saying, “Why can’t they just listen?” When that person did, it only got me more confused. I read the author’s note in the end, giving a commentary on why some children can be easy preys. Society don’t usually give them a voice, and when they still push to make themselves heard, no one would believe them. In Wavy’s life, I didn’t see who did her right or did her wrong, all it made me realize is who valued and respected her as a person.

All I can say through all of this, it would be one of the books I’d go back to. It opened my eyes by showing me the realness of people. I need to stop looking at them as merely shapes and forms who look like me. There’s always more to them.

“I thought then of Voyager 1 and 2, so far away. They were launched the same year I met Kellen, and now they had reached the end of the our solar system. Although their programs were being powered down one by one, they traveled on. NASA said that in another twenty-five years, they would exit our heliosphere and cross into interstellar space. In another three hundred thousand years, Voyager 2 might reach as far as the star Sirius, but it would never come home. 

That was how I felt, as I walked down the driveway to my car. I was moving forward into space, but I would never come home again.

Hours later, walking up the stairs to the apartment, I still felt like a satellite untethered from gravity.”

[grazinginthefield]

I find this book timely and relevant until today. And I'm glad that reading this book has opened my eyes with my own faults: to recognize more of our own.

Quotes that resonated with me:

"Mas madaling manahimik. Mas ligtas magtago ng opinion. Mas kumportableng hindi magsalita. Pero may mga tao noon na hindi nakuntento sa mga "mas" na yan. Bilang kaparusahan, sinunog sila sa harap ng taong bayan, pinagbabato hanggang mamatay, isinabit ng patiwarik at hinati sa gitna, kinuryente, nilunod, pinugutan ng ulo, ipinalapa sa mga leon, binaril sa Luneta, at ... bahala na yung imagination mo sa iba. Pero anuman ang sinapit nila, isa lang ang naging resulta: mas nakilala natin ang mundo, ang buhay, at mismong ang mga sarili natin."

"Malakas masyado ang hype tungkol sa 'the gifted child'. Kahit na ang mas magiging biyaya sa mundo ay ang 'the giving child'."

- Stainless Longganisa, Bob Ong

[grazinginthefield]

“How can awful people be good?”

I have found this book at a thrift bookstore and only bought it because I kept hearing Karin Slaughter’s name at that time. I am really glad to own this copy now because it was such a good read.

This book kept me engaged and urged me on turning the page furiously. It doesn’t help the copy I got is in mass paperback format. The writing on the action scenes were intense and breathtaking. I love how that the sequences wasn’t described in detail, rather it was written from the character’s point of view. So, as the characters were taking in what’s going on around them, so was my mind. I love both of the protagonists on this book. Their upbringings are significantly different from one another and yet they found mutual respect. It is also so satisfying to see women standing up for each other on this one. At the same time, it didn’t turn a blind eye that there are still women out there who thinks that women in the same community are meant to compete against each other. Sadly, this is something I just heard recently from someone I know. I have just really identified with this book. I know I would keep coming back to that conversation of Kate and her father. Besides portraying a parent-friend relationship, that conversation was able to elaborate my own thoughts and feelings, which applies to me and which I can pass on to someone else. This tackled sexism, racism and homophobia as well. Some parts where hard to read due to descriptions of abuse and discrimination, but it was also a reality check especially reading it in the comfort of my home. I guess the period this was based on, was one of the waves of diversity cutting through our society. In my opinion, it was an insightful representation of those issues. 

An excerpt from the conversation between Kate and her dad:

She settled on banalities. “I will always be your daughter.”

“I know hat, sweetheart.” He gently cup his hand to her face. “Your mother was worried that this job would turn you into somebody you’re not. I worried it would turn you into the person you really are.”

Kate wondered why his honesty didn’t wound more. “Is that such a bad thing?”

The ending was satisfying for me as well. I love the tropes were the protagonist gives a monologue to an evil character or a villain, of how much of a cowards they are. It’s not necessarily proving that the protagonist was right, but more of showing the villain of what they really look like from the outside. Take away the bad person inside of them and present it in front of the remaining good person in them. They can allow it to redeem themselves, or to destroy. It’s sooooo good.

[grazinginthefield]

Quotes that resonated with me:

"There was over me a yearning for sleep in some sort of blind belief that to wake would be to find things changed, and that any change must now be for the better."

"It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature. Let any obstructing cause, no matter what, be removed in any way -- even by death -- and we fly back to first principles of hope and enjoyment."

-Dracula, Bram Stoker