29./30./31. TAKEN, FROZEN, STOLEN by Erin Bowman

TAKEN

 

Summary:

There are no men in Claysoot. There are boys—but every one of them vanishes at midnight on his eighteenth birthday. The ground shakes, the wind howls, a blinding light descends…and he’s gone.

They call it the Heist.

Gray Weathersby’s eighteenth birthday is mere months away, and he’s prepared to meet his fate–until he finds a strange note from his mother and starts to question everything he’s been raised to accept: the Council leaders and their obvious secrets. The Heist itself. And what lies beyond the Wall that surrounds Claysoot–a structure that no one can cross and survive.

Climbing the Wall is suicide, but what comes after the Heist could be worse. Should he sit back and wait to be taken–or risk everything on the hope of the other side?

MY TAKE:

Pretty promising, huh?!

Taken is quite an easy read for me. Not because i had taken it lightly but because i had finished it in 2 days. The fact that i am used to reading dystopian nowadays made the pace seemed smooth though i admit, it had its ups and downs.

The short synopsis had taken me aback.. It caught my interest from there. A community with no definite history, with boys just disappearing in front of their eyes, at their 18th bday, without a clue what and why it was happening. So dystopian in nature! Somehow, the wall reminded me of the maze runner and the fear of what is outside of that wall reminds me of game of thrones. I liked the brotherly love of Blaine and Gray. At first, i like Emma, but somewhere along the road, that likeness died down. She had that spark before when the story started, but she became dull towards the end, esp. when she thought Gray was gone for good. Wrong move there, girl! (Pearl Harbor bells tolling!haha)

But bree, i like her a lot! With a strong character, i felt the connections between her and Gray more. And that one simple scene, “But if you wake up tomorrow and still wants me to kiss you, i will.” – Gray …awwww! I did love that scene… not as much as when it happened. I just didn’t like how they’ve executed it finally. Oh no! the romantic in me!haha

Blaine was not given credit much here. Owen, not enough fatherly emotions shown. And Harvey ended in the Hunger games’-like projection screen.

The first few chaps were fast-paced and filled with actions but dwindled when it became a history telling time. Plus the headquarters and the rescue mission and the escape part. It kinda became unconvincing. And slowly, instead of becoming attached with the characters, they became distant. You see, I told you, there were ups and downs.

Over all, Taken is okay and I enjoyed some parts of it. I dont hate it thats why i still want to continue reading Frozen and the prequel Stolen. Maybe, this time I will be drawn to them more.

Because i respect Erin Bowman. 🙂

My Rate For TAKEN:

♥ ♥ ♥

 

FROZEN

 

Summary:

The Heists were only the beginning.

Gray Weathersby escaped from the primitive town of Claysoot expecting to find answers, but what he discovered shook him to the core: A ruthless dictator with absolute power. An army of young soldiers blinded by lies. And a growing rebellion determined to fight back.

Now Gray has joined a team of rebels on a harsh, icy journey in search of allies who can help them set things right. But in a world built on lies, Gray must constantly question whether any ally—or enemy—is truly what they seem…

MY TAKE:

Let it go, let it go…. oooppsss! wrong scene haha!

This is not the phenomenal movie of Queen Elsa and Princess Anna of the DisneyWorld, which is by the way I super loved.  This is the second installment of Erin Bowman’s Taken.  And i promise you, my take will not take much of your reading time.

Pilot will always be better than the rest. Or i dont know, i just didnt like this one. It was dull and it lost its taste. it got me bored to the brink of death, save for the one detail that maybe will be the topic of its finale when Erin writes it down.

Short and simple.

My Rate For FROZEN:

♥ ♥

 

STOLEN

 

Summary:

Before Gray Weathersby uncovered the truth about Claysoot and the Laicos Project, a girl named Bree came of age in the coastal settlement of Saltwater—and made her own surprising journey to the world beyond its borders. In Stolen, discover the story of Bree’s life before she was Snatched from her home, before she joined the rebellion, and before she met a boy named Gray…

MY TAKE:

This is what i am talking about loving the book, the story and the characters.

Eversince i met Bree… i rooted for her. Not for Gray or any love prospects for that matter. It is her personality that blew me away. Her strong, independent, scowling most of the time personality. And what did i get from the prequel? a lot of bree! and Lock.. and the chemistry between them. Their story was shortlived, but i felt it! And eventhough I have a very strong feeling that Bree is going to end up wit Gray…unless Ms. Erin Bowman changes the route on the final installment of the series. First love never dies! For me, Lock,was that first love for Bree! 🙂

Tragic but empowering.  I like this novella the most!

 

My Rate For STOLEN:

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

28. MUD VEIN by Tarryn Fisher

(photo courtesy of google images)

MY REACTION:

Wait, that’s it? no further explanation??

Whoah!

What did i just read???

Okay. Let me breath first.  Mixed emotions, i guess.  Somehow, i just love this much … that i hated it that much.

Dark.  Bleak.  Full of emotions, gripping but never exhilarating.  Heartbreaking.  Did i just say dark and depressing?  I was there.  I was there with Senna.  And Isaac.  I felt everything they felt.  It was one h*ll of a roller-coaster ride of emotions.  Their circumstances were clearly presented in a way that I thought i was actually there, and it was actually happening to me.  THE FEAR.   The love and hate, the faith and hopelessness, the holding on and giving up.  Add to the fact that letting go means living or dying.  I just could not help to question what was the point.  How their situation ended, for that matter.  I am not against the actual conclusion for Senna’s story but the way the supposed-to-be-climax had been unfolded, i am just as confused as disappointed as frustrated as ever.  I just didn’t like the resolution, plain and simple.  I can make a lot of different versions in my head, that would suit the story just fine and better.  I can tell you suggestions and what ifs and maybes, but I am not Tarryn Fisher, so this would have to do.

Mud vein, that book that was a total mind f*ck at the start that let you down at the end.

It is not how it was written, the building of the words sans emotion was effective enough to engaged me and my whole attention to it really.  But towards the last chapters, i just felt that it was quickly dragged to end it. It was really the ending that soften it all. I just really expected too much since a lot was given right from the start. A very gripping tale of myterious kidnapping, breast cancer, survival, pseudo-love story, senna, isaac. But the end was not properly justified, for me, at least.

But the writing, SUPERB! TARRYN FISHER knew the words, knew the flow, knew how to get into your nerves.

♥♥♥

Read the SYNOPSIS, if you won’t help get yourselves the suspense that i am talking about!  But don’t tell me i didn’t remind you about the ending. 🙂

“When reclusive novelist Senna Richards wakes up on her thirty-third birthday, everything has changed. Caged behind an electrical fence, locked in a house in the middle of the snow, Senna is left to decode the clues to find out why she was taken. If she wants her freedom, she has to take a close look at her past. But, her past has a heartbeat…and her kidnapper is nowhere to be found. With her survival hanging by a thread, Senna soon realizes this is a game. A dangerous one. Only the truth can set her free.” — GOODREADS

 

MY FAVORITE LINES:

 

• “What’s the difference?” I asked him. “Between the love of your life, and your soulmate?”.  “One is a choice, and one is not.”
• “There is a string that connects us that is not visible to the eye. Maybe every person has more than one soul they are connected to, and all over the world there are those invisible strings… Maybe the chances that you’ll find each and every one of your soul mates is slim. But sometimes you’re lucky enough to stumble across one. And you feel a tug. And it’s not so much a choice to love them though their flaws and through your differences, but rather you love them without even trying. You love their flaws.”
• “Tell me a truth, Senna.”
  “I don’t know how.”
  “Then tell me a lie.”
  “I don’t love you.”
  “The truth is for the mind,” he says. “Lies are for the heart. So let’s just keep lying.”
• “You breathed life back into me. It was instinct for me to be there with you. I didn’t want to save you, I just didn’t know how to leave you.”
• “Senna: “Why are you here?”.  Isaac: “Because you are.”

I took the road less traveled by…

The Road Not Taken

by Robert Frost

 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference.

27. LOVE LETTERS TO THE DEAD by Ava Dellaira (book review)

Dear May,

Ive’ been wanting to tell you, Laurel made me one such lonely girl.  Forgive me for this but the entire story, she made  me feeling down.  When you died, you see, she kept it all to herself.  Let it be known to the dead, whom  no longer be able to answer her letters back or impart some words of wisdom to sooth her confused mind, the burden was all passed to me.  Since I am still a part of the living world, I have to carry all her angst, her loneliness, her grief in this world.  To her family, to his friends, to her first love, whom she cannot be open to and share her feelings.  I saw it in her eyes how she relive you and more of your precious moments together.  The happy ones and the sad ones as well.  As i hear her think of all the times that led you to that fateful night, each revelation was like one step to the burning fire.  I got scared every time she was peeling off layers and layers of  truths around you and your death.  I was so anxious to know.  In the same way, I want to know you more personally.  But it will never happen now.  The faeries and the wings, by the way, was such a hit.  Even i would believe it if I was your sister, too.

I don’t like it when Laurel wrote about your relationship with Paul and Billy.  Sounded like real trouble to me!  I would have gladly let her share it with Sky, I know he can be trusted. But it was between me and Laurel alone. All of it.  That we had to tackle all her doubts and fears, joys and pain, the forgiving and forgetting part.  When she entered highschool, with you being gone, broken family, Mom moving out, ping-pong stay with Dad and Jesus-fearing Aunt Amy, no friends, a past trying to get away from, fitting in, then finally having friends for real, liking somebody, loving Sky and Sky loving her back.  And dumping her soon enough, for lame excuses that don’t matter.  Or they really do matter!  It was not that an easy life to handle for her, you know.  After all, she was just a teenager.  And you were no longer to guide her through this.  Don’t get me wrong, May.  I know you don’t want any of this.  You don’t have any choice.  It just happened.

Actually, the writing to the dead part doesn’t bother me.  It was why Laurel was doing that made me wonder how bad you and your little sister had to endure those last few moments you were together.  What happened to you was sad, even tragic.  Like what happened to all those people she had written letters to.  Kurt Cobain, Amelia Earhart, Amy Winehouse, Jim Morrison, and the list goes on.  Their death put everybody including the people they don’t know in grief and misery.  But in taking a glimpse of their lives when still living, shed a light on how normal people they can be.  It even made me understand how from their background, life took them to different paths.

Laurel really took your passing away so hard that it was sucking away the happiness in her life.  Sky, who at some point, almost gave up on her.   But when i came to know the truth, the reason behind all those feelings, I now understood.  What happened to her, also, was sad and depressing.  But lets be thankful to those who helped her get back on her feet again.  Special mention to friends, Hannah and Natalie, Tristan and Kristen, Mom and Dad, Aunt Amy and Mrs. Buster.  They were not perfect but their imperfections made Laurel accept and understand the world more.  I wish you could have met them all, when you were still here.  You will like them, for sure!

Life has to move on, even when you are no longer around.  You will not be forgotten, May.  But accepting and letting you go, in some way helped clear Laurel’s path to enjoying each and everyday of her life.

She really looked up to you May.  She loved you more than anything.  You were such an amazing sister, an inspiration even though you were as flawed as you can be.

She loved you then, she still loves you now.  Laurel misses you so badly.  But until you meet again, you will be her one and only star, or fairy with the most beautiful and strong wings, for that matter.

Yours,

Arjaye

GOODREADS’ SUMMARY:

It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more; though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her. Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was; lovely and amazing and deeply flawed; can she begin to discover her own path.

 

MY TAKE ON THE BOOK:

Sad and happy at the same time.  I guess, this is the kind of reaction Ms. Ava Dellaira is hoping to get from anybody who reads her story.  Yes, this book might deceive you passing as a young adult novel.  But be aware that though it involved teenagers, it is as depressing a bad life in real world anybody can get.  Yes, it made me feel down, almost all the time but it was only an indication on how effective her writing was.  At the end, it all boils down to whether you relate yourself with the story or you learn something from it.  Books like these, tackling the relationship between sisters, will always have a place in my reader-heart.  I have my one and only sister, and these kind of books made me really appreciate her more.  Treasuring each and every second with her, fightings and making fun with and about us, included. I will be more than happy to take the bad with the good, as long as as we experience life together and grow old together.

I learned a lot, too.  From biographical points to wisdoms in life. These celebrities’ pasts can be quite informative and helpful, though sometimes, it felt to much for me.  Information-overload as you may have it,  from some of those unnecessary letters that can be omitted and still come up with a good book that conveys those messages you want the reader to know and learn from.  But if everything is to be regarded, this book is as effective and touching that it encouraged me to do like what Laurel did.  A letter to May.

After all, MAY is one of the more famous names now.  Love Letters to the Dead is one good book in the literary world nowadays, that makes her one dead celebrity, right?!.  🙂

 

“♥ ♥ ♥ ♥”

 

BREAKING BAD: say bye-bye to me!

Breaking Bad is an American crime drama television series that originally aired on the network AMC for five seasons, from January 20, 2008, to September 29, 2013. The show’s main character is Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer at the beginning of the series. He turns to a life of crime, producing and selling methamphetamine, in order to secure his family’s financial future before he dies, teaming with his former student, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). The show, created and produced by Vince Gilligan, was set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Throughout the series, Walter produces and sells meth to earn money in order to secure the financial future of his family: his wife Skyler (Anna Gunn), and children Walter, Jr. (RJ Mitte) and Holly (Elanor Anne Wenrich). The show also features Skyler’s sister Marie Schrader, and her husband Hank (Dean Norris), a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent who is avid in solving the case involving the meth empire. Walter teams up with lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), who helps him get into contact with drug kingpin Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). In the fifth season, Walter heavily involves himself with Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), Todd Alquist (Jesse Plemons) and Lydia Rodarte-Quayle (Laura Fraser).

Breaking Bad is widely regarded as one of the great television series of all time. By its end, the series was among the most-watched cable shows on American television. The show received numerous awards, including ten Primetime Emmy Awards, eight Satellite Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a People’s Choice Award. On August 14, 2011, AMC renewed Breaking Bad for a fifth and final season. The series finale aired on September 29, 2013. — WIKIPEDIA

Five seasons of Breaking Bad.  I thought, it will never grow on me.  Yes, i admit i am 7 months late from the airing…But as i reached the last episode, the last scene, where Walt White was finally facing the music, so to speak, I felt a tug in my heart.  Not hard, but enough to know that though he screwed himself really bad in this series, he will be missed.  The time that i spent marathoning him and his ingenious skills in cooking blue meth, dodging bullets here and there, escaping any circumstance, by luck or chance.  The love and hate relationship with Jesse Pinkman, his family Skyler, Junior, Hank and Marie.  They were all my companion every night before i get to bed.  And must I say, they bored the life out of me sometimes, but still i went on.  And boy, I was glad i saw through it till the end.

THE END.  The most fitting end to the series that anybody can think about.  Since Mr. White did a lot of bad doings, he must pay for all of this.  In a way, we can say that he deserved this.  But of course, he won’t go unless he made sure that everybody who crossed him will be going down with him.  And the love for Jesse, that was so obvious! I never had an inkling that he doesn’t care personally for this kid.  The methods he used were somewhat against the morals and guilt but only all for the concern he felt he must do to save his family and this junkie-kid.

On the same note, Jesse Pinkman who lived up to the end of the series was supposed to die at the end of season 1, originally.  I remembered chancing upon this article  on the net.  I’m glad it, didn’t happen.  Because Aaron Paul truly did an awesome job in acting as a very screwed-up junkie.

(images courtesy of buzzfeed and google)

Although, it ended with a sad note, deaths here and there, it also ended with a bang..oops! i mean bangs! (you know what i mean if you have seen the finale!)  Mr. White explained to his wife, Skyler, he did “the breaking bad act” all for himself.  Not for his family or anyone, but for himself.  Because he was good at it.  And most all, because he felt alive.

I couldn’t agree more, Mr. White!

P.S.

To all the casts and crew of Breaking Bad,

thank you for making the bad…. SO GOOD!

Knock. Knock. : An Attempt to Short Story Making

KNOCK. KNOCK.

I heard them, though, it was quite just like a tap. I look at the clock hanging in the wall.  2 in the morning.

KNOCK. KNOCK.

There they go again.  But this time, a bit louder.  I look at the door, this time.

I am not expecting anybody.  More over, at this hour?   Every living being is supposed to be sleeping at  this time.

My neighbors are sleeping.  I should be sleeping.  I wonder who is at the other side of this wooden door.  

SILENCE.

I waited for another minute.  Maybe, a dream?   So, i go back to lying in my bed.  As my head hit the pillow,  another set of knocks.  More rapid, more eager.  

KNOCK.  KNOCK.  KNOCK.  KNOCK.

This time i answered, “Who is it?”  

I stood up and head for the door.

“It’s me.'”  I heard it clear, though he just said it  like a whisper.  I can’t believe.  I don’t want to believe.  I know that voice very well.  But it can’t be coming from him.  It has been two years.  Two long years.

“It’s me”, he repeated.  My mind is spinning as i open the door slowly.  I never expected this thing would happen. Not in this lifetime, anyway.  Much things had happened.

But there he is.  Two eyes looking at me intently.  As he uttered the words, “I told you I’ll come back. Im here now.”

I looked back at him, mixed emotions starting to build up inside me.  Anger, relief, broken, happy.  But most of all, sad.  I cannot believe how can he say that casually after two long years of disappearing.  Two long years of my misery.

But i won’t let him know it.  I will stand my ground, so I look right through his deep brown eyes.  It stared back at me, searching.  

SILENCE. 

As I pulled out a long sigh, i got myself to answer.  ” Why now?”  “Why can’t it be now?”, he replied back, too quickly.

SILENCE.

“Because when you left, you left without saying goodbye.  You left my heart broken.”

“I can fix this.  I will fix this, promise!”  Those eyes, begging.

Teardrops fell on his cheeks.  He hugged me tight.

Teardrops fell on my cheeks.  I pushed him away.

“I know you can, I know you will.  But I don’t want you to.”   

Then my broken heart bursts completely, shattering into pieces.  Its beyond repair now.  Forever.

 

This is my very first try. What do you think?  I just altered some major details but this was based from a recent encounter.  Yes, it happened really, till now I cant believe it. Maybe, this is the ending i wanted to have.  Just maybe.