I haven't written any reviews for a while. It's seems as if I am i a stump. I'm currently reading 'Hold Me Closer, Necromancer' by Lisa McBride and it's taking me quite a while to get through it. I've started it a couple of days ago already but I'm not even a quarter into the book. I'm also quite busy with revising and internals and deadlines and rehearsals that I haven't had much time to have a good read. Hopefully, I'll at least finish and post a review on it by the end of the week but I can't make any promises.

Have a nice week, everyone :)

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I would just like to make a note...

That was the best opening ceremony in the whole universe. It was a celebration of all things British.
Now I wish I was one.
If only.....

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Encouraged by Josie's own proclamation over at You Only Write So Much, I would like to mention that I have not read the well-loved classic Lord of the Rings. I have read The Hobbit, but I found it to be such a drag! It took me so long to finish it and I kept having to reread passages because I couldn't process what it was talking about the first time. And I think I managed to finish like three or something book in the middle of reading The Hobbit. I'm not proud of it, but at least I can say that I tried, right?
It's such a shame, really because I loved the movies.

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Musing Mondays (1)

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading.

This week's musing asks:

Q: Do you read magazines? If so, which ones? If not, why not?

I do! I read National Geographic and Times magazines, mostly for the amazing photographs. If an article catches my eye, then I'll read it. But the layout of the text just puts me off so bad. Sometimes, I read Popular Mechanics/Science because there are some really interesting gadgets and whatnot on there. A few fashion magazines now and then.

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Review: Shatter Me - Tahereh Mafi

Title: Shatter Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me (1)
Publisher: Harper/Harper Collins
Release Date: 15 November 2011
Date Read: July 2012
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

I really, really wanted to like this book. I wanted to like this book much more than I actually did. Sigh.

All her life, Juliette felt isolated. It is because of her strange ability to bring intense pain and death to others by means of physical contact. She was locked up and thrown into an asylum after accidentally murdering a little boy. She is dangerous and she must be kept away to ensure the populations' safety, is what they said.

264 days has passed since she had human interaction. It's time for her to rejoin the world. The Reestablishment has decided that Juliette can be used as a weapon in their campaign for total control over our world. Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

The writing had a big impact on the novel. It was written in Juliette's first person point of view and she is supposed to be a creative, mentally unstable teenager. There were great writing like:

"Someone picked up the sun and pinned it to the sky again, but every day it hangs a little lower than the day before. It's like a negligent parent who only knows one half of who you are. It never sees how its absence changes people. How different we are in the dark.""Hope is hugging me, holding me in its arms, wiping away my tears and telling me that today and tomorrow and two days from now I will be just fine and I'm so delirious I actually dare to believe it.

Then there were these ones:

"I hate the lackadaisical ennui of a sun too preoccupied with itself to notice the infinite hours we spend in its presence.""Hate looks like everybody else until it smiles. Until it spins around and lies with lips and teeth carved into semblance of something too passive to punch." 

Mafi had all these ridiculous metaphors and figurative language. I mean, I'm all for being metaphorical but Mafi just completely went overboard with it. She tried so hard to make it deep and philosophical that it came across as an angsty, emo 12-year old's attempt at writing fiction. The writing just distracted me so much from the actual plot of the story. Oh, and Mafi had this striky thing with the words. I really liked that she used that because it can add something to the text and it's interesting. But Mafi didn't even do it right (see Every You, Every Me by David Levithan). It even seemed like she forgot that she was doing it in the first place. She did it for about 100 pages in (not well, I might add) then stopped.

The characters were all flat, unrealistic and too perfect. Juliette was interesting, only at the beginning. Adam did not have any faults. Warner was a crazy, psychotic creep obsessed with the idea of Juliette. He wasn't even a convincing villain because all he did was obsess over Juliette, having meals with her, giving her great clothes and trying to make her fall in love with him. We were mostly told that Warner was evil, instead of being shown that he was. I was actually surprised to hear that quite a number of readers are fond of Warner. They credit his character depth. Whatever. I still think he's creepy.

There was full on insta-love in Shatter Me. The author tried to excuse it by saying that Adam and Juliette already knew each other from when they were in 5th grade or something. She said that they were already in love with each other then but didn't say anything to each other because they were both scared and shy. They didn't even know each other at all. See? Full-on insta-love.

And that plot. It was really confusing. It was mainly about the love-triangle-that-wasn't-there between Warner, Adam and Juliette. The dystopian part of the novel was a side thing more than anything else.

Like, I said. I wanted to like this book much more than I actually did.

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In My Mailbox (2)

This meme is hosted by The Story Siren weekly. It showcases your recently acquired books; whether it's from the library, bought, ebooks or whatever. Share.

Books I recently got:

I've heard lots of good things about Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and I really loved Graceling so I'm excited for Fire.

Not much this week. But then again, I haven't even finished the ones I borrowed from the library last week. Whoops.

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Feature and Follow (2)

Feature and Follow is hosted by Paranjunkee & Alison Can Read every Friday. Complete Rules and Instructions are here: Feature and Follow

This week's question:

Q: Christmas in July! Someone gives you a gift card for two books (whatever that costs). What two books will you buy?

Ok. That's a hard question. But, I would have to say 'Book Thief' by Markus Zusak (the paperback with the blue-y cover) and 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' by JK Rowling (hardcover). I've just always wanted own those books and I can't find the editions I want in book stores.

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