ali
2.5 stars
this series is crazy because i thought i already checked out halfway through the novel but somehow the last 20% actually delivered. now, i'm intrigued about the remaining books although i'd probably give the series a rest for now
almost dnf-ed halfway through the book. i enjoyed sem and while this has the same tropes but different execution, it didn't served me as well as sem did. i literally speed run the last 30% because i wasn't that interested to know what will happen
(also glad to see magnus in here though i hate that he's basically used as a plot device lol)
hshahaha nakita q lang kaya i-mark as read ko na. ito yung ginawa naming stage play during senior year of college and this is very DARK. also tuwing naalala ko to ang core memory ko ay yung lumagutok na sampal ni friend A kay friend B sa practice
i started the last 10% of the book convinced that i will only rate it 3.5.
a part of me was thinking, “really? after 90% of almost mundane nothingness we'll get the conflict and climax at the last 10%?”
but i guess i can forgive it because of the imaginary ding that trinkled in my mind when i finally get to the conflict part.
honestly, a lot of their conversations via email bore me. maybe because i just wasn't the type of person who obsesses with the fact that humanity is doomed to fail and we're watching it fall in our lifetime. the only times i enjoyed the emails was when they actually talk about their lives and that was the parts that i started to relate to Eileen and Alice.
i also think that a big part of why i liked the climax was because of how much i relate to the both of them in that situation. i GET them both. very much.
just like Alice, i seem to fall into the ruthless cycle of thinking of the worst out of the people around me. of unconsciously and consciously pushing people away. of choosing the solitary life because i'm secretly scared of letting people in. i'm Alice in a way that i build walls around me, so tall even those who loves me finds it hard to climb over. tiring before they even get to the other side.
at the same time, I feel for Eileen. who was very much loved but not in the way she had wanted. i specifically loved the way Simon talked her down. the way he had explained that maybe she had just found two people who loves her but just not how she wanted them to reach her. I was the same — i know throughout my lifetime people had loved me. but in my mind i kept on thinking that they didn't. that they'll leave me eventually or get tired of me and my endless sadness. but maybe i was just too blind to see it and believe it because i was expecting differently from them. something that i know i wouldn't get from them.
and well, just like them both, i used to believe that i CARED way more than the others did. that i loved people deeper, that all my emotions was not reciprocated equally.
(i was wrong btw. afterall, not everyone expresses emotions the same way)
still, as much as i understand both of them, i like to believe that i have better sense than them both. i don't think i'm much in my head as both of them. and if i am, i sure hope i'm much more of stable person when i reach their age.
like, i find it funny but it's the first time i've read something that both the male characters was much more stable and sensible than the female ones. i didn't like Felix at first but i warmed up to him very much. and i liked Simon greatly.
overall, i liked it. i don't think i'd willingly pick it up again (or maybe i will when i get older) but it was nice. a pleasant reminder that when i get to my 30s i can still be emotional and ~maybe~ fuck up all of my relationships and still get a second chance to fix it all.
2.5 stars
Largely disappointed with how it turned out. It started good and very meta. But as the story goes on, it somehow lost it's path underneath all of Junie's narcissistic self-victimhood. I feel like I would've love the way the events had turned out if it hadn't end up in the most anti-climactic and artificial wat as possible. Like, almost all of the events that had happened (sans Athena dying by choking on a fucking pancake lmao) seems like something you'd actually stumble upon a trending thread on booktwt. But then the last 20% had happened and all the possibilities had died now without much flourish.
We didn't even know what happened with Athena's mom!
The writing aside, I guess the snarky writing helped me go through this without giving up because Junie and insufferable and so unrepentant that it's just too laughable on my end. She's almost a cartoonish character by the end.
i started this book with little expectations and a whole lot of anxiety (because i've never really liked romance books).
but this resonated so much with me. maybe it's nora's need to be always in control or her being the ‘older sister' who always had to fix things. maybe it's her not being ‘that' girl.
maybe it's because of who she is and how she and charlie can read each other like books.
there's so much beauty in realizing that you don't need to be fixed and that you don't need to give up so much of who you are to reach your happy ending. and i love that book lovers gave me that.
saka grabe hindi ako pinatulog nito! and i think mula 60% hanggang matapos ko ‘to, umiiyak lang ako. carried away yarn?
actual rating: 3.5
a slow starter. i think i only became satisfied with the progression of the plot when i'm already around 75% of the book.
cara is a great addition to the story and tbh, i think i enjoyed more of the parts where they are interacting with others (esp cara and henri) than when there's only the two of them.
the ending is also ambiguous and while i'd like a much hopeful outcome, it's still pretty great that this offered me a realistic take
WHAT THE FUCK
my first 5 stars this years...wow
i have so many thoughts i can't parse right now but just wow.
for someone who doesn't particularly enjoy historical fiction nor do have the patience to understand tedious fantasy lexicon, babel has such way for me to be able to understand it all so easily. my reading went on breezily that i didn't even feel any tiredness or ‘umay' despite the long chapters. it was just so good and the writing reels you in even when it seemed like there's nothing particularly eventful going on.
i have to admit that in the middle of reading i got so worked up during professor lovell and robin's ‘stand-off' that i ended up consulting good ol google for reprieve and got spoiled so i knew who survived and who didn't (actually, i only knew about victoire and robin's bcs i've read a two sentence spoiler. so letty's and ramy's was still a shock to me) and upon being spoiled i got vaguely disappointed because as a normal person i was rooting to robin too hard and doesn't want him to perish.
but boy, when i get to that part, i started to understand the motives and thought-process about his chosen path that i just can't be mad about how it all ended. i was screaming, crying, losing my mind throughout the end. like, when his last thoughts was just about remy...man it's like i was with him during the collapse of babel.
AND that part when victorie mentioned griffin's letter about them not being the only ones. CHILLS, LITERAL CHILLS.
r.f kuang, i was not familiar with your game. thank you for showing me a beacon of hope from what it seemed like a thoroughly helpless cause.
2.5 stars
funnily enough i was thinking that this would've worked better on a movie format because the absurdness of the events seems more acceptable on movies than novels. which is why it's a pleasant surprise when it was all a movie in the end.
still, i just went over most of the novel thinking about how stupid the characters and the events happening is. i feel like i trudged over the chapters until i finished it out of curiosity of how far the author will take the absurdness of the text. they did took it far but not enough for me to think of it as redeemable.
what do i need to sacrifice to actually find a thriller novel that is smartly written instead of finding ones that have plot-twists and characters quicks that seems like a cop-out?
actual rating: 3.5
i know i did say that i'd be annoyed if someone dies but now...everything is just too convenient !
ASJZNSKSKSJSJ
a bit predictable (nahulaan ko na agad ang mangyayari in the middle of reading) but i wasn't that bummed about it. i think the best thing about this book is the characters because i wouldn't be that happy being able to guess the plot if i didn't like the characters.
it's also a bit cheesy which i don't dislike. i like that the romance is pretty much secondary and wasn't pushed to be the main focus of the story.
also, we're getting a julian pov!!!! excited na agad ako!!!
i gotta say, this probably has one of the most charming narrations i've ever read. it's so amusing!
at the start this was gearing to be another 5 star for me but i changed my mind towards the end. oliver and luc are both likeable characters and despite their flaws, i didn't find them insufferable. but i felt like with how the events had transpired, the problem was cramped within the last minutes of the book. i read this in kindle and i swear i had 15 minutes left when the ‘problem' happened and i felt like if it was told in another way, we could've explored more of that.
but i probably just want too much from them. idk.
i have mixed feelings about it. very enjoyable read overall but i definitely need a lot of thinking and maybe a few re-reads to properly construct an opinion.
for now i think i would've liked this better if it wasn't so ya-ish. i get that jay's young and that inferred to the way the story worked but i feel like some of the narrative had been held back because of the writing.
in some parts, i feel so disappointed. but maybe it meant that the storytelling is believable? jay believed in jun's goodness and the betrayal was felt as we continue to see the truth.
another thing about the reveal is that it's too convenient. honestly, a lot of things in this book is TOO CONVENIENT to happen in my opinion. like, with how the book made it seem like Jun's story has more to it, just like how jay had been pointing out, but at the end out of all the possibilities they just had to pick the most obvious yet disappointing one.
we didn't explore much of jay's real struggles but the whole thing about how he died and the circumstances around it is so convenient. like the author just picked it because its the path of least resistance and its easier to tie all the plotpoints if that's all that happened. i also think that all that word-vomit about the ejk and drug war lost its sense because of this choice. like, if you're going to choose that plotpoint as jun's background, at least make it convincing and establish it better.
i honestly keep on thinking, dude wouldn't even get away with all the stuff he had done if he isn't a. a man and b. a foreigner on vacation.
(but god, so many plotlines are left open, i feel so confused.)
also, i think what irked me the most was the inclusion of the loveline because i think this book will work without that. especially with a loveline has people migrating to countries to be with a person they only met for about a month and cheaters.
my only problem is that this is so case-centric. we didn't have much time to know how the other characters reacted (pip's parents, andie and becca's parents, cara and naomi etc.) but at the same time i also liked the approach because i don't like to be muddled by too much emotions
probably the 2nd in rank of thee emma mills' book i cried unreasonably for (next to the top 1, this adventure ends, which i'm sure i sobbed badly throughout the end)
at first i thought this would be a 3 star rating but the last 15% of the book made it for me. there was just so many BOMBS and so much open-ended possibilities. a part of me wished that megan pleasant never showed up at all but the fact that she never came back again made sense that i couldn't get mad at that bit.
i feel so mixed about the whole group's personalities yet it's the reminder that they are technically still just kids, learning how to navigate big emotions and enourmous life changes that makes me appreciate them more. sure, they're stupid and has many issues but they'll probably work them out. they will get through it.
overall the most raw of (so far) of emma's mills' books. the characters just seems to still be developing and is on process on learning that the messiness makes sense to me.
it was okay, i guess?
i was amused in some parts and i liked the reveals and cliffhangers but overall, it felt flat to me.
i didn't develop any type of emotions over the ensemble of the characters. i think i also get what the book is trying to say but it also just felt so vague and ‘pasikot-sikot' to truly makes sense of.
maybe i just wasn't that intentionally in reading it but that was the vibe lol