Brave new world book review

Hello! 

Today i bring you the review of a book I had high expectations for “Brave new world” by Aldous Huxley. Considered one of the greatest classics of all time and constantly compared with society current situation. This was brought me to read this book, after reading 1984 i wanted to read another distopyan classic with other point of view.

Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress…

Unlike 1984, “Brave new world” shows us a society happily ruled by the rules of one person, even agreeing with it’s ideologies and techniques. From “fabricated” humans to death itself being meaningless, society doesn’t seem to mind the division in levels and the lack of free will, because these feelings are repressed and taught to be out of the ordinary. 
When meeting, what we call, a normal human being, everyone get curious about him and his way of living, lacking any empathy towards him and his way of thinking.

 Overall, characters are well constructed, ones better that others, but the main ones have a good evolution through out the book and  Bernard as interesting points of view changing thought out. Lenina was for me a very hard character to like, enjoy of even understand but i get the role she is playing in the grand scheme. She is the antagonist to us, the reader, who will probably side with Bernard. Regarding the other characters, i have nothing to point out, i think every single one fulfilled their purpose and got their points straight.

This book is hard to read, not going to play it nicely, i had a hard time fully understanding it because of all of the things that are exposed to us. Specially in the first chapters, where the world is being introduced to us. After those, the story became a lot easier to understand and not lose track of. Still, by the end i was still trying to understand everything i read and how it played out.

To end the spoiler free section, this book is a good read, don’t skip it and don’t under play it if you read other dystopian classics. I have it 4.5 because it was a hard book for me. Read more, at your own risk!

The Sun is Also a Start Book Review

Hi again!

I’m having a good reading month! I guess holidays do this to my reading slumps and guess what, Nicola Yoon has amazing books for a quick read so I decided to give this book a go after Fahrenheit 451.

Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

Quick, easy, cute and entertaining read, its how I would describe this book. It’s a young adult, no plot twist, in the end, no complicated dynamics and because this is a stand-alone (thankfully) characters are easy to get. Regarding character development, I can’t point out any flaws, given this book is so small. We see a ton of perspectives and how people actions are justified by something that we don’t know like the security lady (THE BEST PLOT) or the mistake made by the lawyer.

Love plot? Cute simple, we don’t get the end we expect at the beginning, don’t get me wrong, the end great, different unexpected from what we usually get on YA’s. All the book is like this, as I was reading I just kept turning the page with joy and when chapters from other perspectives appeared I was even more excited because you would get a different view. The author did a good job explaining the main character’s struggles, Natasha deportation and Daniel family life being of Korean descent.

Is this a must-read book? No, it’s not is it a good book to read in between other more complex reads or on a Sunday afternoon? Yes. I really enjoyed it but it’s another YA book, that has the same ingredients has Everything, Everything but the author made a real effort to change how teenage stories are told.

I gave it 4 stars.

Thanks for staying until the end and i hope to see you back soon!

Viviana

Fahrenheit 451 Book Review

Hello!

Here we are again 🙂 After reading 1984, I got really interested in old dystopian books and decided to give Fahrenheit 451 ago. It is short so I expected to be an easy read, not exactly what I got!

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.

Starting this book I knew the main plot, firefighters don’t put down fire, instead, they set it up and I knew about an important character that is often changed in book-to-movie adaptations. I didn’t know the writing style of it or the author previous/future works, also, my English isn’t native, therefore reading a classical book in English can be challenging. This was exactly the case, during my read I felt confused with the plot, having to read some pages all over again. By the end, I could understand the main idea of the paragraph/chapter but not easily.

Plot-wise, I don’t find this book as interesting as 1984 and especially as Animal Farm. The idea that books are forbidden and people are not even interested in reading, because of all the media available is really relevant currently. It’s confusing, the book doesn’t follow a single structured chapter format, it felt that Ray just wrote and wrote and wrote. Given this, I see how this was written 1953, the writing style and especially how the future is seen. I have to give it to Ray, he had it all along! He knew in 1953 how media would be available to people and how they would be consumed by it but the idea of how books would be remembered is hard to believe, I know is a book, but was the hardest thing for me to get. (spoilers after the stars)

I gave it 3.5 stars.

Thank you for the visit 🙂

Viviana

1984 Book Review

Hello! It took me so freaking lot to start reading this amazing piece of literature. The minute I ended “Animal Farm” I picked up this one. It took me some time to finish it :S reading slumps suck, I loved this book, I loved reading it and the story/plot makes you think but I lacked the will to read every night. So after a while here it’s the review.

Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thought crimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching…

This is a classic, it’s known for the amazing writing of George Orwell and how this feels “real” at the moment. The book focuses on the dictatorship present on the country (previously known as England), in a dystopian future. Winston is one of the people, not the plebs but a state worker. We follow is day to day as he describes the party, the war, the ideologies currently implemented.

I don’t need to describe this a lot more, everyone knows this book. I decided to start my George Orwell journey by reading “Animal Farm” and I loved it, next on the list was 1984. With all the hype I felt this could be a disappointment but it ended up being one of my favorite books in a long time. I was never a classics person, but this, this is not a classic book in a traditional way. It felt real, it opened my eyes even more to things that I thought that could be a reality. I know that we do not suffer from this at the moment, we have freedom of speech (or at least most than most places on earth) but thinking that we can become what Oceania became it’s scary.  It had great character evolution, good descriptions of events (not too long), great twist to the storyline, amazing points of view and finally, a great description of both sizes and how people ideologies can change when triggered.

Thinking about it after a while you the complexity of this book, unlike Animal Farm, 1984 see’s society has a lie (in my opinion) you don’t know what is true or what is a lie (either if we are at war or not, if yes with which country, are who the only one questioning everything? what is the state of the world currently?) you just know one single truth, whatever big brother tells you is the truth and you have to believe it, even if you know it’s a lie. Otherwise, you suffer the consequences. This is no spoiler, this is what happens currently with dictators, either North Korea or Russia or China. Information doesn’t flow only the things defined has reality matter, if a terrorist attack happens in Russia, what will be transmitted to the Russian citizens is that it was an accident, the driver fell asleep, a gas pipe exploded and so on. And what is the truth to them? Exactly that.

Regarding the ending/plot twist, through my reading, I kept thinking that the end would be exactly what it was because that is what the book makes you feel. If you are curious about the origin of dystopians and one of the most famous ones give this book a shot, it might surprise you how much you enjoyed it. If you want a lighter read, read “Animal Farm”

I keep being told that “A Brave New World” is a lot more relevant now than 1984 and because of this it’s next on my list.

I will have no spoiler review because I managed to express my conclusion above, but if you want to have a discussion feel free to message me 🙂

5 out 5 .

Viviana

Ready Player One Book Review

Hi! I finally read one of the most popular books of the last 3 or 4 years, Ready Player One. As expected i really enjoyed it, reading it in just 5 days, that currently for me is an amazing thing! I also saw the movie on the same day I finished the book so I have a really strong opinion about it, which I will leave at the end.

In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade’s devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world’s digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator’s obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade’s going to survive, he’ll have to win—and confront the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

A book about being a geek what else would be more appropriate for someone like me? This was what got me to read this in the first place, together with all the hype created around it. I was never a big geek for 80’s pop culture but I really enjoy this time and all the movies, music, games etc. Therefore reading every reference was a great experience.

We follow Wade/Parzival after he discovers the first key in James Halliday easter egg hunt. Halliday, the creator of the OASIS the biggest and greatest simulator in the world, planted an easter egg on the game, after his death, that would give ownership of the OASIS to the player that could find it first. To get to it you would have been knowledgeable of 80’s pop culture and Halliday’s life/tastes etc. Wade was one of the Gunters (Egg Hunters) and after 5 years of nothing, he was the first to solve the first riddle.

The book is amazing, from the references to character development. I started the book with the impression that Wade was very selfish/childish, from his opinions to his reactions but by the end, I saw an evolution on his personality. I believe this evolution mirrored his age also since at the start he is 18 and by the end of 22. The other characters felt like expected and created a perfect geek group.

Overall, 5 out of 5, it has its flaws but I loved it at the end. Now the movie… LOL a big fat LOL, maybe because I had the book story really fresh in my head but the movie has absolutely nothing to do with the book and I’m sad to seed Ernest had power over the script. From making Art3mis and Parzival a thing from the start to having Halliday and Og being side (FAR FAR) characters to making the OASIS easy to hack (that would not happen on Halliday shift). It is a good movie but doesn’t even compare to the book. I understand all the changes but what made the book so good to me (the logic being every clue and key/gate) was missing.

Read this book just for the fun of it!

Spoillery review next, a small one this time.

Viviana

The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus #5) Book Review

Hello,

Here we have it, the review for the final book in The Heroes of Olympus series! It has been a long time since i started this series, my reading mood wasn’t the best, the series dragged out a bit but all is good now! I finished this book while on vacation and I have, to be honest, I read it really quickly after getting the hang of it.

Unlike the previous one, it has a faster pace, things don’t drag out a lot and like the others, a ton of stuff happens throughout. It can be tiring but in this last installment, i didn’t felt that, quite the opposite. I’m glad i read it in a short period of time, even though i had started it a few weeks ago. Now regarding plot, it has the ending this series needed, the main plotlines are resolved. For a final book, it fills all the criteria for a great ending.

I decided to give it 4 out of 5 stars because it wasn’t my favorite but it’s on my top 3.

Now for the spoilers!

Thanks for the attention and for following me on this adventure!

Stay awesome,

Viviana

Animal Farm Book Review

Hi! Long time no see! Book reading has been slow but with a 3 days vacation, I finished 2 books and I’m really proud of it! I read “The Blood of Olympus” and as you see in the title “Animal Farm”. The latter had me shook. 

As ferociously fresh as it was more than a half century ago, this remarkable allegory of a downtrodden society of overworked, mistreated animals, and their quest to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality is one of the most scathing satires ever published. As we witness the rise and bloody fall of the revolutionary animals, we begin to recognize the seeds of totalitarianism in the most idealistic organization; and in our most charismatic leaders, the souls of our cruelest oppressors.

You might know Animal Farm as being a classic, or you might have passed this one by giving priority to 1984. I decided to do the opposite, as an introduction to George Orwell and i made the best decision I could have done! Thinking about it know I can’t see why this book is not taught at portuguese schools rather then some of the ones that are used. This book is food for thought, this book is open for interpretation in so many levels and is not even complex to read. Students are given big books to read and conclude what small details mean but not all students like to read, this books combats this problem, it can even be read in class. Maybe in the future who knows.

As you can imagine this is a satire of our own reality, I always got George Orwell recommended because of his approach of this themes. I read this in a day, it’s easy to read and keeps you hooked. As I was reading I had to stop to make small mental notes, the way metaphores were being written through the book, how Orwell always referenced the leaders the same way. For once, a book left me completely amazed! This book was written in 1945 and it felt so real. Because i want you to read this book i will leave my detailed view next.

I gave it 5 out of 5 and I will be reading 1984 next!

Stay awesome, 

Viviana

The Last Star Book Review

Hello there,

Long time no see, it’s taking me some time to actually finish books but slowly and surely i will get there! Today (in the most joyful of days because of the finale of Game of Thrones) i finally finished “The Last Star” the last book in the 5th Wave trilogy. You can check my review for book 2 here. I’m currently on vacations hoping i finish another book that is not even in my good reads list. Just like in other books in a series, i will not post the synopsis and details will only be available in the spoilery review.

Has it was to expect, being this the last book in the trilogy, Rick Yancey tried to tie all the plots. He did it successfully but with some bumps in the way. Some of the character development isn’t following what was written before, my favorite book is still “The Infinite Sea”. “The Last Star” pickups right after the previous book but it gains a different feeling from the ones before. If you read the previous book this one is kinda of important to finish of everything. Otherwise, if you are reading the first book but you aren’t enjoying it maybe skip the trilogy in whole.

I gave it 3,5 stars. Maybe i’m out of YA mood right now… i’m actually thinking of rereading ASOIAF just because the last season got me pumped.

Stay awesome,

Viviana

The Immortal Iron Fist: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 Review

Hi guys,

after watching Netflix “Iron Fist” and really enjoying it i decided to read more about it and go for the most acclaimed comic of his.

Experience a brand-new kind of Iron Fist story, one steeped in legends and fables stretching back through the centuries! Orphaned as a child and raised in the lost city of K’un-Lun, Danny Rand returned to America as the mystical martial artist Iron Fist – but all his kung fu skills can’t help him find his place in the modern world. After learning that the legacy of the Iron Fist holds more secrets than he ever dreamed, Danny is invited to fight in a tournament against the Immortal Weapons. At stake is the life of his friend, the legacy of his father and mentor…and the future of K’un-Lun!

This is a collection of volumes, so for me was kind of new. It got confusing at times but i blame myself for that, it does give you an inside look on previous Iron Fists and how they ended up. Regarding the origin story of Danny i think is not explicit but gives us little pieces through the story that we need to gather. Still, it should be direct, at least i don’t remember a lot just the major.

I liked the story and i’m curious about the next volume, already ordered 😛 let’s see what expects Danny!

I gave it 4 out of 5.

Stay awesome,

Viviana

 

 

 

The House of Hades (The Heroes of Olympus #4) Book Review

After months of hiatus, i’m sorta of back.

It took me months to read this book, not because it sucks but because it drags a lot and i wasn’t in the mood to read it. I didn’t read anything else in between. No excuses, this blog was always for me to write my reviews and never feel like a chore. So i hope you (those who find this on google 😛 ) read it and enjoy it.

So, like i said before, this book drags too much for my taste. Is the fourth book in a series and it felt like it, like a filler at least to me. Main spoilers next.

Even with all the action and interactions will different environments and characters there can be too many things happening. Still, the book has the same feeling as the previous, which can also be boring to read 4 books all with the same tone. Still i have it 3.5 out of 5.