The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

To be honest I haven’t read that many fairy tale retellings, the only one I’ve read and actually liked was Ella Enchanted (completely awesome by the way ). Diving in, I was a bit sceptical about The Goose Girl. It had a cherub faced girl on the cover who ‘has the skills of animal speech’ (now tell me that premise isn’t asking to be ridiculed). And I was afraid like most fairy tales the book will revolve around the Prince Charming coming to the rescue and saving the day. Well, I really shouldn’t have worried because The Goose Girl is an epic story about finding one’s true self.

Princess Anidori-Kiladra, Crown Princess of Kildenree, has lived in her magnificent mother’s shadow her entire life. Shy and awkward Ani has tried her best to be the perfect Crown Princess her entire life, but after her father’s death Ani is sent off to marry the Crown Prince of Bayern and bring peace to the region. Shattered, Ani embarks upon the long journey and, free from the pressure of being the next Queen, finds out whom she really is.

So, The Goose Girl is more of a coming of age novel in a charming Ella Enchanted kind of way. It has all the elements that make a good story, betrayal, friendship, love and courage. It is the perfect kind of book for when you’re feeling low or simply bored of reading all those paranormal stories.

And here's some pretty epic goose girl fan art I found on deviantart.

 

Please Stop Killing Innocent People

For the past few weeks I was convinced that Hamas was the perpetrator of this new round of fighting in the Israel-Palestine conflict, that if they just stopped firing missiles Israel would back off as well, but the situation has now become so ironic it's actually funny in an extremely grim way. Hamas's rockets never hit Israeli civilians. Their Iron dome system ensures the protection of all men, women and children, on the other hand hundreds of blameless Palestinians are dying. Especially Palestinian children. Innocents little souls full of all sorts of dreams and hopes. It's clear that Israel has no care for Palestinian lives. It doesn't care whether civilians are dying or not. If Israel cared it would've used more precise methods to target these so called 'Hamas militants'. If it cared it wouldn't have attacked a UN shelter full of displaced civilians. It was a shelter for heavens sake; there wasn't any militant activity! More than 800 civilians have been killed! The UN needs to do something, like impose sever sanctions against Israel and force them stop their military operation.

I actually believe that Hamas's actions are justified. Sure, the way they keep breaking the ceasefire is wrong ,but they're right in wanting to do something. Gaza is a small strip of land full of billions of people, people who used to live in what is now Israel but were forced out once the Jewish regime was created. They have virtually no access to the outside world. The living conditions are deplorable. So isn't it within their rights to want to change things and Hamas is trying to do just that.

So, my message to Israel. Please stop killing innocent people.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

If I were to summarise this book in one word it would be WOW. Because wow, this book was amazing.

You know how the Paranormal genre is overflowing with vampire books and most of these books have roughly the same kind of plot, the same kind of protagonist and the same kind of vampires. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown really stands out in this genre of bland books.

First things first, Holly Black is a writing goddess. Her writing is epic. It does not have short, stupid sentences that leave you wondering WTH? It does not have overly long, overly poetic sentences that again leave you wondering WTH? It’s slightly lyrical, slightly poetic and flows together very smoothly.

The book begins with Tana Bach waking up in a bathtub, completely hung-over, and finding all her friends/classmates/fellow party-goers dead. The only living person is Aidan, her ex-boyfriend, who’s been tied up along with a vampire, Gavriel, by other vampires who were basically responsible for the carnage. After a successful rescue mission by Tana the three proceed to the Springfield Coldtown, the nearest center for vampire activity, and engage in epic adventures.

This book is morbid. This book is gory. Vampires are not just beautiful, sparkly creatures, they’re actual bloodthirsty monsters. Yep, there’s plenty of violence and blood and death.

Another thing I appreciated was the variety of humans and vampires shown. There are some humans who are enamoured with vampires, there are some humans who want to be vampires, and there are some humans who want nothing to do with vampires. Similarly there are vampires who are pure evil and then there are those who are not so evil. Oh and there are also vampires who are completely crazy. Variety, see?

You know those books with dumb, clueless protagonists? The ones where you figure out the entire mystery 200 pages before the main character does and then you have to endure 200 freakin pages of the main character stumbling around in the dark? Well, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown definitely wasn’t one of those books. Tana is, hands off, the coolest, bravest, kindest and cleverest of all YA protagonists.

And then we have Gavriel who is equally enamouring in a crazy, poetic kind of way.

More things I loved about the book?

I loved how each chapter started off with a quotation on death. I loved how the book alternated between modern day America and 19^th century Russia and Paris. I loved how we were provided the characters’ back-story to help understand them better.

The world building was very interesting, but there were a few plot holes that really bothered me. I’d normally be okay since most plot holes are solved in the sequels but I’m not really sure this book is going to have a sequel. Heck, I’m not even sure if I want it to have a sequel. On one hand I’d really love to read more about Tana and Gavriel, on the other hand, though, the ending was just perfect.

Suffice to say I’m a newly converted Holly Black fan and I can’t wait to get my hands on her Curse workers series.

The Israel Palestine Conflict

Talking to someone in Pakistan about the Israel-Palestine conflict is like banging your head in a wall, a really, really hard wall (a wall in which the bricks have been stuck together with super glue). You only have to say the word ‘Palestine’ and people go off like ‘’I know! Israel is such a sun of a gun! It should never have been allowed to exist in the first place! Now look how they’re killing the poor Palestinians.’’ Pointing out that Hamas was the one who started firing missiles has no effect at all. It leads to the argument that Palestinians are a displaced people. Israel was once their homeland and so Hamas is only trying to get back land that is technically Muslim territory. To me, this argument seems pretty valid, but it doesn't change the fact that there’s lots of bloodshed going on and there’s really no hope of ending the carnage until Hamas backs off. The thing is Hamas is just not strong enough to take on Israel. Israel has drones, nuclear power, better equipped troops, US support, while Hamas only has the support of a few Muslim countries. Now I get that the people within Gaza actually support Hamas and want their land in Israel back, but is it really worth all these deaths? Hamas democratically represents the people in Gaza, shouldn't it at least try to protect the people it represents? Shouldn't it follow more democratic procedures to get what it wants?  Also It’s clear Israel just needs an excuse for war. 318 Palestinian civilians have been killed up till now compared to a couple of unfortunate Israelis. Israel says that it’s targeting militants but it’s clear that civilians form a huge number of those killed. And in such a densely populated area it's practically impossible to prevent innocent deaths. There are protests going on all over the world. The government knows how many innocent people are dying. Isn’t that enough incentive to end the attack? Israel has bomb shelters and a missile defense systems. Hamas’s attacks are barely doing any damage. Shouldn't Israel stop it’s attacks and put more effort into negotiating a ceasefire?

 Now, I’m not an expert in these matters and I realize that the Israel-Palestinian Conflict is an intricate issue spanning several decades but this bloodshed really needs to end. It’s Ramadan and in ten days it’ll be Eid. It just kills me to think of Muslims spending Eid with enemy troops prowling the streets or in some stuffy UN shelter after half of their family’s dead. Israel needs to call a ceasefire. Hamas needs to suck up and accept it. 

Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne

Let me start by saying YA second world fantasy is my most favourite book genre ever, and there just aren’t enough YA second world fantasy books. We’ve had some pretty great books in this genre recently (Throne of Glass, Shadow and Bone) but it just doesn’t beat the fact that there are hundreds of more dystopians out there compared to a teeny tiny number of high fantasies. So this might explain why Midnight Thief was one of my most awaited books of 2014, and while I really really liked it, it just didn’t live up to my expectations

.

Don’t get me wrong, Midnight Thief was a great book. It had some unexpected twists and there was always something going on. But I just put this book on a really high pedestal and it was disappointing when it did not fulfill my gajillion hopes and expectations.

Kyra was an amazing character. I loved seeing her mature through the course of the book. In the beginning she’s headstrong and naïve but by the end she’s become considerably more cautious and weary. I can’t help compare her to the protagonists of Shadow and Bone and Throne of glass and, to tell you the truth, Kyra’s just way cooler than either Celaena or Alina. Those two are too ‘’speshul’’ for my taste. Celaena’s chosen by the elf queen for a mysterious task which the safety of the entire world depends upon and Alina’s some kind of light bringer to the Darkling. (I know that’s not entirely accurate but, give me a break, I read them a long time ago)

The book utilized some familiar fantasy tropes like the main character being an orphan and a loving, motherly character(Bella)  but it also deviated from the traditional in that it is the first second world fantasy I’ve ever read that doesn’t mention kings/queens/princes. Yes, I’m telling the truth; no handsome princes, evil kings, jealous queens at all! This was honestly kind of refreshing. But don’t worry I’m 90% sure the sequel will introduce a love triangle with the heir to the throne.

Everything in the book was likeable and all but I had a serious problem with the world building. I mean, second-world fantasy is all about the world building! I wanted an awesome fantasy realm with a rich culture, exotic creatures, odd customs and an interesting history but instead I just got this processed and packaged medieval fantasy world. Not even an actual world, just a city, Forge. The only thing I can recall about this fantasy realm is that there’s Forge and two other cities called something like Padma and Patel (no, they’re not actually called Padma and Patel. I just can’t seem remember their original names, but one of them did start with a ‘p’). I’m sure the sequel will amend all this, but still it would’ve been nice to find out a little more about the world.

Anyways, I have a lot of hope for the sequel. I just can’t wait to read more about Kyra and her awesome adventures. And I also have a feeling that this series, which started out kind of mediocre, for me, is about to get really epic.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Hello all! Welcome to my very first blog post. I’ll be reviewing an amazing book I just finished, We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. 

 

This is my second E. Lockhart book, the first was The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks which I also really loved (it was genius and had an awesome protagonist) but let’s talk about We Were Liars. In fact let’s NOT talk about We Were Liars because the best advice I can give you where this book is concerned is DON’T READ BOOK REVIEWS, JUST READ THE BOOK.

 You’ll see the entire book reviewing community is split on this one. Half the readers found it mind-blowingly good while the other half found it just ‘meh’. It’s a book you have to read yourself to decide whether you like it or not. Plus book reviews tend to have this not-so-subtle foreshadowing that might just ruin the entire story for you.

The story is about Cadence, a girl who suffers from amnesia and severe migraines after a mysterious accident. She belongs to a rich, white, Democratic family which hides tensions and rivalries under a façade of happiness.

Cadence is a very real character. She has her imperfections and discrepancies but I actually really like her. Gat is equally vibrant, if not more so. He makes the selfish group of privileged children think about important stuff. But although I loved Cadence and Gat’s relationship, I felt that the writer didn’t really focus enough on the Liars as a group. I mean, I would’ve loved to know WHY they were called the Liars in the first place and what kind of awesome stuff they did when they were all together. However, over the course of the book we just see the Liars hanging around in the beach house or we see Cady and Gat spending time together while Mirren and Jack are off doing their own thing.

The book is also dotted with these short fairy tales Cadence makes up which reflect the things going on around her. The symbolism in these tales is spot on and I generally just found them beautiful and entertaining.

Another minor fault with the book: there’s lots of purple prose. The narrator has a tendency to dramatically describe situations using lots of weird imagery that might sometimes completely confuse the reader.  Example? Here you go:

A witch has been standing there behind me for some time, waiting for a moment of weakness. She holds an ivory statue of a beautiful goose. It is intricately carved. I admire it only for a moment before she swings it with shocking force. It connects, crushing a hole in my forehead. I can feel my bone come loose. The witch swings the statue again and hits above my right ear, smashing my skull. Blow after blow she lands until tiny flakes of bone litter the bed and mingle with chipped bits of her once-beautiful goose.

That is Cadence describing a migraine

There are also lots of short disjointed sentences that fragment off for no apparent reason like:

I can see the base of Beechwood island and                                                                                           my arms and legs feel numb but my fingers are cold. Slices
of seaweed go past as I fall.
And then I'm up again and breathing.
I'm okay,
my head is okay,
no one needs to cry for me or worry about me.

The author also makes excessive use of adjectives. While I normally can’t stand writing that tries to be poetic but fails, in the case of We Were Liars I was so engrossed in the story I barely noticed. But if this is the kind of thing that completely ticks you off, you might not like the book that much.

Overall though, this is just a really awesome book which ya all should just go on and try!