I know, I know! Don't nag me. This post is long overdue and I'm once again doing the mistake of abandoning my blog until I forget about it. But no, you're wrong. I'm not abandoning it and I'm definitely not forgetting it... not after five years of maintaining this humble little diary of mine.
Anyway, I was supposed to write this post about two months ago and this was supposed to be a book review of Stephenie Meyer's latest book The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. Unfortunately, because of my busy schedule (oh no, I was not really busy :-) I just had some other things to do...), I decided to shelf this little task. Until, I found myself reading 5 more books and I felt really obligated to write reviews for each one of them.
But that task is really tedious and boring. Plus, I don't want this blog to be just about books because this is about life, love, movies, music, sports, dreams... all about my fantasies and the realities that surround them. So, I decided that this isn't going to be a compiled book reviews of each of the books that I have recently read but this is going to be my honest opinions on each of them. Yeah... let's get this over with...
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner - Stephenie Meyer
Plot. Obviously, this is a story of the vampire life of Bree Tanner. Those who have read Eclipse can remember that Bree Tanner was the vampire soldier who was spared by the Cullen family during the battle they encountered against Victoria and her gang. Apparently, Bree Tanner was a runaway when Riley found her and turned her into a vampire. She underwent training along with the other 'newborns' and they were told a lot of lies including the effect of the sunlight on their skin. While training under Riley, she met a fellow vampire named Diego who was always skeptical about the 'facts' that Riley was telling them. Although very close to Riley, Diego often wondered Riley's purpose of creating the newborn army. Bree and Diego spent a lot of time with each other and eventually fell in love. They created an unnatural bond, which they didn't even know existed, and vowed to find out the truth about their existence. Upon following Riley one night, they finally found out that he was taking orders from the orange-haired vampire. Diego then decided that it was too dangerous for Bree if Riley found out that both of them knew the truth. So, Diego decided to face Riley's wrath alone and sent Bree home. Not knowing that Riley already killed Diego, Bree continued to follow Riley's orders and hoped to meet Diego in order to runaway with him. However, Riley knew better. He tricked Bree in believing that Diego would be meeting the rest of the newborn army in their battle against the Cullens. It was too late when Bree realized that Riley lied to her and found herself in the mercy of the Cullens. Believing that she didn't know what she was doing, Carlisle and Esme decided to spare her. Unfortunately, Jane of the Volturi arrived at the scene and refused to give Bree a second chance.
Opinion. I think, Stephenie Meyer's reason of writing the book was because she was capitalizing on the success of her Twilight Saga. There's nothing wrong with that. But I was expecting a little bit more of this short story. The problem is that it is a part of a very successful series of books that readers would expect that it would at least match the intensity of the those that came before it. But it didn't. It was too simplistic and Meyer wasn't able to put more depth into its plot. Perhaps the reason of the lack of depth is the shortness of the story's main character's life, as the title suggests. But Stephenie could have narrated the back stories. Instead, everything is explained by the newborn's blurry memory of her human life. Quite consistent though. Through all her books, vampires' memories of their human lives were not clear. The remarkable thing in the book though is that, it is consistent with all the other 'facts' Stephenie established in all of the Twilight Saga books. Stephenie took note of the littlest details to make all of her readers accept that the story of Bree Tanner happened within Eclipse. It was still quite a good read. Overall, I'll give a three out of five.
One Night at the Call Center - Chetan Bhagat
Plot. Six call center agents tell the story of their lives within one night. Shyam, Priyanka, Esha, Vroom, Radhika and Military Uncle. They compose a team of customer service representatives who talk to Americans who don't seem to know how to make their appliances work. All of ther lives get messed up in a single night. Military Uncle tries to reach out to his son and grandson in the US but gets rejected. Radhika finds out that her husband is having an affair with another woman while she patiently takes the nagging of her mother-in-law. Vroom questions his life at the call center when he should be a journalist. At the same time, he is doubting whether or not he would court Esha as she has rejected him many times. Esha struggles on her morals, feeling guilty about sleeping with a man because she wanted to have a modelling career. Priyanka tries to please her family by agreeing to be engaged to a wealthy programmer in the United States because she felt that her ex-boyfriend, Shyam, is too coward to stand on his own. Shyam whines as he follows his manager blindly hoping to soon get a promotion so he could get Priyanka back. At one point during the night, the six of them found it too much to handle and decided to unwind on a nearby bar. While going back, they found themselves at the brink of falling in a pit. Unable to ask for help because of the lack of telephone signal, they miraculously received a call from God. They received a lecture on life and God saved them from falling off.
Opinion. As someone who doesn't speak English as his first language, Chetan Bhagat has done a wonderful job in narrating and in slowly heightening up the conflict in the story. The story between Shyam and Priyanka is not extraordinary but Bhagat has added a different flavor on it. The issues raised are something any person can encounter in his everyday life. Very real, it is almost tangible. As someone who came from the call center industry, I cannot help but be amused how Bhagat's characters hate their job but at the same time love the money they earn from it. But despite the brilliance of the storytelling Bhagat has displayed in the early parts of his book, he failed to impress me with the climax, of all parts. While reading the synopsis and knowing the background upon which the story was built, I expected something more from the call from God. I expected that God will call at the call center and do something extraordinary whatever it is. Instead, God called on a cellphone and interacted with all of them as if He's just someone you meet at a corner. You know what I mean? It just didn't have much impact on the story. In the part when God called on a cellphone, I felt that all the background Bhagat has built disappeared and rendered useless. For me, it's a major, major flaw. It was still a good read though. And on a scale of one to five where five is the highest, I'd give it a four.
Five Point Someone - Chetan Bhagat
Plot. This book aimed at the youth is a story of Hari and his friends Alok and Ryan, who were consistently below average students of the premier university in India. Their families and the society had high expectations of them. Alok came from a poor family. He wanted to be on top of the class because he needed to have a good job for his family. Ryan was a son of a wealthy couple who had several businesses abroad. A happy-go-lucky guy, he was the bad influence of the group. While Hari was the neutral guy who wanted to study but easily gets influenced by Ryan because he wanted to be him. After getting the lowest averages during the first semester, the three were branded as the five-point-somethings and never got an average higher than that. When Hari fell in love with the daughter of the chairman of their department, Neha Cherian, he knew he needed to have better grades. So Ryan deviced a scheme so all of them could get A's in Professor Cherian's class. The three raided Professor Cherian's office and searched for their examination papers. Everything went well until Alok decided to use the professor's telephone to call home. They got caught and almost got expelled. Luckily, a professor who believed in their capabilities helped them through the investigation process and the punishment they received was only a one-year suspension. In the end, the three graduated and found jobs in reputable companies. Hari and Neha continued on their relationship with Prof. Cherian's blessing.
Opinion. Again, Bhagat is exceptional in organizing the series of events that led to the climax. The distinct characteristics of the characters were built remarkably well and the way the story was written would give you a feel of the university. And again, Bhagat failed in the most critical part, the climax. As per my understanding, the climax would be the part when they got caught stealing their examination papers. Bhagat could have added some scenes that could make the climax more intense. He could have put more details on the shame that the three felt, on the anger of Prof. Cherian, on how Neha felt about the whole thing. But Bhagat ended everything with what he called as a 'studio' and the things that happened after that were less intense than any other part of the book. A three for this.
The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown
Plot. Robert Langdon was tricked to believe that he was going to give a lecture in Washington, DC. When he arrived, he found out that his mentor and close friend, Peter Solomon, was kidnapped by the same man who tricked him to go to Washington, DC. In an attempt to save Peter Solomon's life, Langdon and Peter's sister Katherine, gave the kidnapper's demand, which was mainly to decipher the masonic pyramid which led to the exact location of a lost ancient treasure. After all the mind-boggling puzzles Langdon had successfully solved, the kidnapper named Malakh brought Peter Solomon to the ultimate place of sacrifice. Malakh believed that he obtained the lost word and ordered Peter Solomon to kill him, as a sacrifice. That could have been easy on Peter Solomon considering that Malakh killed his son and mother, and tried to kill his sister. However, one of the revelations he discovered that night was that his son did not die after all. His son was Malakh himself. With the CIA intervening, Malakh was killed and the masonic treasure was kept secret. Later on, deciding that Langdon was worthy, Peter Solomon revealed to him the exact location of the lost treasure. The lost treasure? It was the Bible.
Opinion. I can't compare the book to neither Angels and Demons nor The Da Vinci Code. As usual, Dan Brown used symbologies, architecture, geography, and history in order to make the story more believable. But the book was way too dragging and way too unbelievable. Malakh's character was way too one-dimensional. He didn't have feelings. He was nothing more than a crazy killer. The plot desperately needed the twist, which was Malakh being Peter's son. Without that, the whole book wouldn't have mattered. It was a long drag with spurts of interesting information. The novel could have been good if it made believable revelations about the ancient treasure or Noetic Science. But in the end, the ancient treasure that took a long time for Malakh to find (which he didn't), and the secret that Peter Solomon sacrificed his and his family's life for, was the Bible. I mean, there are thousands of Bible everywhere. Why in the world would a lunatic kill for something that is buried 500 feet below the ground when he could have simply bought it for a hundred bucks? Oh yeah, and the answer is obvious -- he's a lunatic. Fine! Also a three for this.
The Zahir - Paulo Coelho
Plot. The narrator was a successful novelist who mostly writes about love. He had a very supportive wife who loved him more than herself. He loved her as well but not all things went well between the two of them. His wife, Esther, suddenly found herself unhappy despite their relationship and wealth and ranaway without notice. When he lost her, his search for her became an obsession. He suspected she ranaway with a man named Mikhail, whom she met while covering a war in Central Asia. He eventually met Mikhail and asked for his cooperation to find Esther. As he searched, he discovered things about himself and about love and life, and decided to wait for the right time, as Mikhail has taught him. Following the 'voice', the narrator found Esther in Kazakhstan and reunited with her.
Opinion. There is no doubt that Paulo Coelho has deep understanding about love and life. He raises real issues that are almost unfathomable by the human mind. However, he also has a lot of mystical ideas. He attempts to answer life's questions through mystical beliefs which is hard to comprehend. And to be honest, I didn't quite get the whole point of the story. Well, at least there was a happy ending. At one point, I thought it wasn't. Overall, a two for this.
The Lucky One - Nicholas Sparks
Plot. Son of a war veteran, Logan Thibault felt obligated to join the marines when his father died. While serving in Iraq, he found a picture of an attractive lady. He waited for someone to claim the picture he found but when no one did, he kept it for himself. After that, his luck drastically improved. His friend, Victor, believed it was his lucky charm. Soldiers in his battalion die one after another but Thibault survived every ambush, every firefight, every battle. With Victor's influence, Thibault thought he owed the woman on the picture and decided to find her. He walked across the country and finally found Elizabeth. They eventually fell in love. When Elizabeth's influential ex-husband Keith Clayton found out about it, he did all he could to break them up but he was unsuccessful. He confronted Elizabeth which resulted to his death. Thibault and Elizabeth pursued their relationship and Thibault felt he has repaid his debt by giving the picture to Elizabeth's son, Ben.
Opinion. Nicholas Sparks never fails to make a good love story. A good amount of the 'kilig factor' plus the realities of failed marriages made this story natural and believable. Though luck is something we can always debate about, Sparks did not make it the central point of the story though he made it important enough to affect the lives of the characters. A good read on a boring day, I give this one a three point five.
Comments
Post a Comment