Peshawar Attack

It’s been three days since the attack on the school in Peshawar. Three days since a hundred and forty school children lost their lives. Three days since the nation has been in mourning. Everywhere I go I see solemn faces. It’s as if the people are afraid to smile. If someone does let out a careless laugh they immediately quieten because how can one laugh when something so terrible happened a mere three days ago?

I can go on and one about broken dreams and crushed futures but no amount of poignant words can help ease the sorrow. I can go on and on about cowardly terrorists and rightful vengeance but it won’t take away the anger. 

It’s just that the irony of it all puzzles me.

Decades ago, when the west was fighting its war against communism they handed weapons to conservative Islamists in the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. These people were instructed to fight against Russia, which was invading Afghanistan at that time. Well, Russia was eventually defeated but these people with the weapons remained. At least, that’s what my history book says. Over time, only God knows how, the influx of weapons in the region led to the creation of the Taliban.

So, you see the irony of it all? The west played a direct role in the creation of the infamous Taliban and yet when the 911 happened the world turned against the Muslim community. I know that many people around the world, people of different cultures and religions, support the Muslim community. I know that after the hostage situation in Australia happened many good people were acknowledging how blameless the Muslims were for these happenings. But, when CNN and BBC and other countless news channels around the world keep using words like ‘Islamic Extremists’ and ‘Islamic militants’ people can’t help but associate Islam with terrorism.

But this time, once again, we’ve suffered the losses. 

Another thing that completely baffles me is how these terrorists are still alive and thriving. For years and years the Pakistan army has been carrying out operations against these militants. For years and years they’ve conducted drone strikes and ground operations. How could a couple of bearded men holed up in the mountains with a handful of weapons survive all this? Now, I don’t mean to go sprouting off conspiracy theories but all this just leads me to believe that there is someone out there supporting these terrorists-someone providing them with the intelligence, money and weapons. Some organization...maybe some country? Of course, all this is just speculation.

In the end though, my dear Taliban, you killed a hundred and forty children. Whether the purpose of this attack was to send a message to the Pakistan army or to put a stop to education I’d just like to tell you lot this. One day all of us are going to grow up and turn into educated, cultured men and women and then we’re going to put an end to all you sick bastards.

#UnitedWeStand

Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M. Lee

In the Labyrinth, we had a saying: keep silent, keep still, keep safe.

In a city of walls and secrets, where only one man is supposed to possess magic, seventeen-year-old Kai struggles to keep hidden her own secret—she can manipulate the threads of time. When Kai was eight, she was found by Reev on the riverbank, and her “brother” has taken care of her ever since. Kai doesn’t know where her ability comes from—or where she came from. All that matters is that she and Reev stay together, and maybe one day move out of the freight container they call home, away from the metal walls of the Labyrinth. Kai’s only friend is Avan, the shopkeeper’s son with the scandalous reputation that both frightens and intrigues her.

Then Reev disappears. When keeping silent and safe means losing him forever, Kai vows to do whatever it takes to find him. She will leave the only home she’s ever known and risk getting caught up in a revolution centuries in the making. But to save Reev, Kai must unravel the threads of her past and face shocking truths about her brother, her friendship with Avan, and her unique power.

First of all, let us take a moment to admire that gorgeous cover. While we’re at it let us also appreciate that beautiful title, I mean, ‘’Gates of Thread and Stone’’ does have a certain poetic ring to it.

Now, this was a book I’d been eagerly waiting for. Like, seriously. I was sure it was going to be THE BOOK to get me out of my temporary non-reading phase. Y’know when you read lots and lots of books and then you sometimes don’t feel like reading anymore and you glue yourself to the television instead? That phase. So, like I said, I knew Gates of Thread and Stone was going to be awesome, and then when it wasn’t so awesome I was bound to feel disappointed, right? And so, this is the story of how another eagerly anticipated book turned out to be a major let down. Alright then, enough with the unprofessional whining. Here comes the review! Tada!

The story started off with a blast. We’re introduced to a fascinating new fantasy world, a nice, independent female protagonist and an intriguing magical element. There’s plenty of action within the first, few chapters and I find myself settling down for a captivating story but then somewhere, somehow I’m reading a boring old romance about our amazing, super dooper main character, Kai, and a fine, gentlemanly specimen called Avan. We have romantic tension and pounding heartbeats and blushing and hand holding and I’m suddenly reading another YA romantic fiction. What irks me the most is that Gates of Thread and Stone had a huge amount of potential. The story had this aura of novelty about it, but the intrusion of the romance completely ruined the book by diverting the entire focus of the plot. The author needed to spend more time exploring the world rather than give acute details about the muscles on Avan’s back.

The ending was this big, gooey mess that I really don’t feel like dissecting right now. 

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD

You know those books where the male love interest loses all his memories of the girl and she’s all sad and crying like ‘’How could you forget me? We luurve each other’’ and then the guy looks at the girl with all this tenderness and is like ‘’you’re so beautiful. Who cares if I don’t remember a thing about you, we’re meant to be!’’ and then they walk off into the sunset and shizz. Oh, you haven’t read any such book? Well, there’s Split Second and a couple of other totally indistinguishable YA out there. What I’m trying to say is, such endings kill me. They make me die inside. I mean, for heaven’s sake, you don’t remember the girl, you’re supposed to be creeped out by her mad affection, not immediately reciprocate her feelings of love. And that, my friends, is the ending of Gates of Thread and Stone.

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.