Nuna

Bad Games: A Novel - Jeff Menapace

I was hoping for this to be a thrilling read, but it just fell flat. It felt like watching an episode from Criminal Minds with a bad direction and a bad bad script.
I was expecting twists but there was nothing that made me go 'wow i didn't see that coming' that psychological thrillers have, maybe i was expecting too much from this. Anyways it's an easy reading,it has some moments like the 2 creepy encounters but the rest for me was just meh, at times it even bored me.

Sleep Tight - Rachel Abbott

The story is about an obsession.It starts with a woman that called the police to report her husband and 3 children missing,and after they return it's the husband who reports her wife and 3 children missing.

At an early stage you can guess why the wife disapeared,however throughout the story there are questions that start to rise and keep the reader interested in how this will develop, but it only worked for me for the first half of the book, the other half wasn't as good as the first one,and i felt the story was streched a bit too much.
The writing style also didn't help, but overall it was an ok reading.

Wreckage - Emily Bleeker

I felt cheated by the book's description..it's misleading!
I was expecting some deserted island with a weird mojo, i expected those secrets to be shocking, i expected some mystery, something...instead this book is all about how the relationship develops between the two survivors, a plain love story with plain charachters.

Monsters of Men - Patrick Ness

So...this is the last book of the trilogy, and it was good,i enjoyed the reading like i did with the other two. It was entertaining and it revolves around the war between the spakle and men.
I felt the same way as in book number two, when it seems the story is going somewhere,making progress or conclude, it comes back to square one...repeatedly, a vicious circle. I also found myself rooting for no one but i have to point out that none of the charachters were very likeable,except maybe for Viola and Wilf (Manchee still my fav).

Overall it was good and entertaining, and so was the trilogy, it was written in a way that despite the feelings i wrote above i HAD to keep reading!

Kamakura Kwaidan True Japanese Ghost Stories and Hauntings - Ron Dutcher

This book contains 10 ghost stories from Japan,from a very specific area: Kamakura. So these are not widely known stories throughout the country, but more like known by locals.These are not urban stories either, so they were different from the few i knew.

I did liked the horror folktales and i was amazed by the time some were originated,dated as far back as the XIV century and even BC....that's WOW.
This actually explains a bit about the ultra-supersticious culture Japan has,i mean these beliefs are from so long and are still strong.Probably every corner of Japan has this kind of stories.

The stories mostly are based on history facts, and all the places where bad things happened gave birth to the stories and thus hunted places.
Also besides knowing the origins of the stories there are a lot of: "it is said if you walk,enter,sit,see,etc you'll be cursed" living up to this day, and the reason these stories are never forgotten is because people hear/see these 600+ year old ghosts even nowadays,as said in the book.

I think if i ever go to Japan,i'll wanna make sure i know the hunted places before i touch something :P

Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding

Well,i decided on reading this before exams because i wanted a light reading.The first time i read it was like 10 years ago and i remember i liked it, so i gave it 4 stars. I think my memorie was decieved.

This book...*sighs* i have to say that the writing style wasn't for me, at times i found it a bit robotic, mechanical.There wasn't much going on in the story and her immature thoughts goes wandering page after page.
The bigest disappointment was Bridget's charachter.She was supposed to be in her thirties but i was reading the diary and thoughts of a 12 year old (probably the reason why i liked it the first time i read this). What bothered me is that she has no control whatsoever of any aspects of her life, she is a puppet, and her lack of confidence and her clueless self was very off-putting.

At times i did found it somewhat funny, but it wasn't what i was expecting. Gonna finish the series tough.

None of the Above - Andrea Di Gregorio

I think people should read this and i would recomend everyone to read this book because i considered it to be a light reading despite the complex topic,but at the same time informative and enlightening about intersex and gender identity.

I was very excited to read this book, it's not the first time i've heard about intersex, in fact a few years ago i've watched a series (one of my fav series) about two intesex people and apart of being informative it touched me emotionaly, something that this book kinda failed to do.

The writing style got in the way when trying to find some depth in the main character and her emotions ,maybe that's why i couldn't fully connect with her but i liked her anyway, and the bullying and intolerance towards her made me feel sad but mostly very angry, because it was mean but realistic.

The plot, i have to say,was following the basic steps to be predictable. The story however, does make you aware and makes you think, and raise questions, it makes you realize how sociaety is so desperate to put a label on everything and whatever doesn't fit that ignorance and cruelty takes over. This book shows that.

Secondhand Memories - Takatsu

It's my first time encountering a cell phone Novel and i didn't know what to expect.I was kinda worried that because of the format the chapters and sentences would be too short and cut the flow of the story. And they were short but it was a pleasant expierence, it all went smoothly.

I loved the writing style,it was poetically simple and beautiful,i was dragged into their story and soon i was inmersed in their 'bubble world'.

"I stared at the sky. I couldn't bear to look into her eyes again.
They were too deep, as if she held many secrets inside.
Memories of a thousand years.
And a soul I could never uderstand.
It was combfortable,yet at the same time, it wasn't.
It was as if she could look right through me.

I couldn't tell it to her eyes.
So i had to tell it to the stars."


This was a beautiful moment for me, and it's just one out of many.
The cuteness, the sweetness I was dying when i read it. Simple moments, simple words but meaningfull and everlasting.



The story is about a boy -Seiji- (and his friends) who face a life changing tragedy and the aftermath of it.
The importance of friendship, the pain of loss, the confusion, the power of love and will, Seiji shows it all. I was moved by his transition to become free and feel happiness at last, knowing is okay to do so and also move on. I just wanted to take the sense of obligation out of him.Even if his love changes into friendship love, it'd still be love...
What i liked about Airu's character was her patience, her strength ,her bubbliness, her ability to slowly break Seiji's wary barrier and by doing so she also was changed. I enjoyed and loved the memories the created together, it was endering but somehow they were always under a shade of melancholy.

I didn't see that final coming and was in denial but i realized after (if the last sentences are what i'm thinking of) the closure wasn't that desolated.

28 Years A Bachelor - Rasana Atreya

I really love this kind of books!, the ones that take me somewhere else completly different from what i know.
The book is about the inner issues a 28 year old man has about marriage, traditions,and family.

What I like the most is that he is a FEMISNIST!.He steps up for the women around his life, and defy a heavy patriarcal society, and those conservative traditions that brings injustice and unhappines for women, and leds to the married ones a rather repressive life.
Mostly and specially in the country side -It's very upsetting and sad that pretty much the value of a woman is how much money they can provide to the groom if they marry, and the ultimate realizatiion for a woman is to get marry and be a good wife. 
He also struggles,with deciding what environment is best for him, the city life or the relaxed life he left behind in the village where is grandaparents live when he started to pursue a better future- pressured by his parents.The relationship between the three of them was unstructured and it's the one that is deveoped the most, they were very alike to me but complemented well!

There are a lot of themes the book touches, like arranged marriages,the importance of money in these alliances,widows, what is expected for Indian girls and sons when it comes to parents,family life...all of this written smoothly, and so is the story.

The book and the story of Madhav allowed me to take a peek at a lot of indian costumes, which i really enjoyed, it was an every day life story, simple but full of things to be learned and inevitably makes you thhink. A good good read!

Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn

Before i started to read this, i accidentally read a MAJOR spoiler,so i had that all the time at the back of my head while reading, resulting in no unexpeted twists.

From the start we have a missing wife, and we have to find out what happened to her and who killed her. The story is told by the husband's POV in the present time and the POV (or diary) of the wife that starts when they met 'till the time she disapears.

The book does more than presenting a case and the resolve of it, the strong point of the story is actually how we get to know the dinamics and changes of their marriage, and their individual personalities and their changes.
And oh boy they are so screwed up in the head!! That was the fun part, i thought from the very begining they were so weird and page after page they turned out to be even more dark and psychotic. They were able to be together in the most complicated twisted way.
I liked Amy's character the best.Nick not so much, he was annoyingly empty,controled, emotionless.

The story criticizes the rol of the media and the influence they have in the public in this kind of cases, and also the 'being someone else and being the cool girl etc' to fit and to be liked,in a extreme way.

I enjoyed the psychological game and getting to know the twisted characters but i felt it had 200 more pages that it should have...and the final, agh! After all they've been through, and all that happen i nedeed closure i wanted to see a winner instead of a final resembling a deflating ballon.
before i started to read this, i accidentally read a MAJOR spoiler,so i had that all the time at the back of my head while reading, resulting in no unexpeted twists.

From the start we have a missing wife, and we have to find out what happened to her and who killed her. The story is told by the husband's POV in the present time and the POV (or diary) of the wife that starts when they met 'till the time she disapears.

The book does more than presenting a case and the resolve of it, the strong point of the story is actually how we get to know the dinamics and changes of their marriage, and their individual personalities and their changes.
And oh boy they are so screwed up in the head!! That was the fun part, i thought from the very begining they were so weird and page after page they turned out to be even more dark and psychotic. They were able to be together in the most complicated twisted way.
I liked Amy's character the best.Nick not so much, he was annoyingly empty,controled, emotionless.

The story criticizes the rol of the media and the influence they have in the public in this kind of cases, and also the 'being someone else and being the cool girl etc' to fit and to be liked,in a extreme way.

I enjoyed the psychological game and getting to know the twisted characters but i felt it had more pages that it should have...and the final, agh! After all they've been through, and all that happen i nedeed closure i wanted to see a winner instead of a final resembling a deflating ballon.

The Elite - Kiera Cass

If i was 11 years old maybe i would have liked it (without sarcasm).

This book was very boring, I was very tempted to quit at 10%.

It's more of the same and it had almost no plot, if you ask me what it was about, i'd say it's about her indecision to choose between her two Romeos, going from one boy to the other trying to clear her toughts, and then get angry and confuse, and repeat this all over again.Endless onesided push-n-pull.

This is the second book but I need a clear antagonist. There's no presence of Celeste, all i read about her is Celeste put this face, Celeste said this, Celeste did that (and it's all in an obvious -and sometimes exagerated- way to make a failed attempt to contrast mean VS. lovely) but there isn't a proper construction of her. Or any of the other 3 girls left.

So in this part we have AGAIN the MC doing nice things and commiting 'errors' (like stepping up for your friend) resulting in making herself a lovable-perfect savior and the voice of the poeple of lower casts, because the rest of the girls are too frivolous or stupid (According to how the book portarays them). She never had a true competitor, among the girl's behaviours hers always stands out, and the prince's is preferencial towards her. Obvious ovbious ovbious (from the first chapter of book 1). So was this book needed at all?

The Selection - Kiera Cass

Oh boy this book...I'm affraid i don't have nice things to say.

First I was reminded a lot of 'The Bachelor' tv series: there's a desirable man- the prince- and there are girls who compete to be the winner (of his heart,power,whatever),you have cameras and this selection is televised.So he is chosing the love of his life through this humiliating process (i prefer an arranged marriage but there'd be no book) and you already can sense the shallowness in all this.

America, the MC is a complete Mary Sue,she is seriously annoying, generic and boring. Her character is quite forced..her rudness and temper are percibed as uniqueness and are well recibed and liked, she just loves to snap. So her flaws are no flaws. And to make her look even better, the contrast between her and the 'bad girls' are very drastic: she is super good (perfect) and the bad characters are super rude, childish, superficial, mean,and the rest of the girls were too simple, whiny,irrelevant.

Now the Romeo,he lives the live of the royalty of course,but that shouldn't mean that he has no idea about life, and the country he will rule. So here comes the heroin to teach him infinite lessons. He made her his favourite from the minute they met each other, so what's the point of the competition?

This a book targeted to teens and it barely got interesting at the last 30% of the book, i had a very boring time going through it. I'm not having great expectations for the second part.