ardelia meizana zakirah

The Sky is Everywhere book review

4:42 AM

At first i intended to make this blog as a 'book review' blog.. but after a lot of thinking i kind of reconsidered and chose to not only reviewing book on my blog

that decision is made based on my college life which is sooo busy i barely had time to rest let alone read a fricking book which is an activity that i love so much

but today i decided to do a mini review on one of my favorite books that i've read a long time ago. hm.. maybe like a year ago?



at that time.. when my life wasn't so busy, when everything wasn't insanely tiring (TAKE ME BACK TAKE ME BACK) it usually took 2 to 4 days for me to finish a book but.. not for this one! it was just so good it got me hooked by the first page so i finished it in like one sitting.

 i truly couldn't get enough! it is indeed a beautifully written book; the characters, the descriptions and the emotions. oh my god the emotions! my emotions were everywhere at once. Jandy Nelson is an utterly great author and i find it hard to believe that this is her debut novel.

the overall story is about Lennie, a girl whose sister named Bailey suddenly dies of a heart failure and how she goes through grief and loss, her friendship, and also her love life in the expedition to eventually find her self and gets through her sister's death.

 Jandy's ways of describing how Lennie felt left behind, the unjustness of her broken life and the guilt and also loneliness at being the one that survived, really touched me in many ways.
there's this one example where Lennie writes on a note:

I 
wish 
my 
shadow 
would 
get 
up 
and 
walk 
beside 
me. 

those words are heart wrenching that i wouldn't know how to describe loneliness in a better way than that.

i gave this book 4 and a half star. it's lacking by half a star to be a perfect score just because the character simply didn't feel utterly real to me in the end just because i don't think teenagers could talk and think like Lennie and her friends did. but it's not that big of a problem just because a fiction book doesn't have to be logically real.

but still, a highly recommended book! 

written by Ardelia Meizana Zakirah

ardelia meizana zakirah

The Fault In Our Stars book and movie review

11:34 PM

2 years ago, i read this book per my friend’s request
i spent a large portion of my vacation subjecting myself to read that novel. i probably looked rather pathetic sitting on the airport's waiting room, bawling my eyes out through the last 50 pages. the fact that a piece of writing got me to feel something to that capacity was im not a book crier, im not a movie crier, and im really not a crier at all in general. this book brought out something in me i didn't know i could feel. 

pain does, in fact, demand to be felt.

thanks john green. (ha i just had to do it)

so naturally, i read it three more times. totally normal, right? the only other book i've read that many times was my collection of fairy tale books when i was a kid. it's not just the story that makes the novel so great. sure, the undying love between augustus waters and hazel grace is the definition of perfection, but that's not why i loved the book so it's not just the story that makes the novel so great. 

i loved it bceause it's more than just it's story. it's the way hazel thinks-- as a teenager and a person who has cancer. the way she views the world and the way she finds someone that thinks in the same capacity as she does. it's really hazel and augustus's mental connection that makes the story what it is. not only just because the skinship that they shared (too much) on the movie.

 so months ago, when i found out that john green (i did it again just because) is planning to make a movie based on the book.. i wasn't happy. i mean it could ruin my imagination about the characters, how they looked like in my head, etc and i didn't look forward to it at all. this morning, my friend gave me a link to watch it online and out of curiousity, i've watched it. 

 thank god i didn't expect too much because sadly, the movie hardly showed any of the things that i mentioned earlier. but how could it? a movie is not a book. and a book is not a movie. it was like they represented the same story but you don't see the details that give it meaning. like, i think that knowing about augustus's ex girlfriend (caroline. read the book) explained a lot about how he viewed love and illness- and without the part of his story, he seems naive in his pursuit to be closer to hazel. 


 (above picture is taken from imdb.com)

overall, the movie was kind of a disappointment (for me). and its not because they left out scenes or changed some of the words or because of the casting or antyhing. that's all stuff ic an overlook. it was simply the feelings that came with it. the beginning was the most terrible (in my opinion). sure yeah they had good chemistry adn the whole last half of the movie was really great, but the way they build their feelings toward each other and the way they fell in love slwoly, just their thoughts and feeling and the way they connect in the begnning.... all of that was just lost. even though in terms of a book to film adaptation it was good and as true to the source material as can be, it was still lacking "that something" for me.

written by Ardelia Meizana Zakirah

Popular Posts

  • Back after a long time.
    It's been almost a year since I've written something on this blog. well, I guess I should make a regular routine out of it and set a...
  • (no title)
    It's always a matter of perspective. Our level of gratefulness towards this life is decreasing day by day. You might have no idea how ma...
  • The Sky is Everywhere book review
    At first i intended to make this blog as a 'book review' blog.. but after a lot of thinking i kind of reconsidered and chose to not...
  • 10 ways to fall asleep easily
    Have you ever had trouble falling asleep?   (source: Emil Johansson' Flickr ) everyone likes ok i mean loves sleeping but t...
  • You
    deep down into the vast ocean, what do you see? for me, the endless stream of colours that you bring to my sea. up above in the blue sk...
  • Hope
    I hang on to the hope that is woven through your words but the key to that hope has been thrown in the water of my tears, in which I drown ...
  • To all the 20-something..
    the struggles. I understand the struggles that we all are currently in because believe me, I'm right there with you. our age is the pha...
  • The Fault In Our Stars book and movie review
    2 years ago, i read this book per my friend’s request i spent a large portion of my vacation subjecting myself to read that novel. i ...
  • New year? What's special about it? What's the meaning of it?
    For quite a few years in my life, I thought celebrating the new year was pointless.  "It's just an arbitrary number, and it was...
  • Ways to comfortably enjoy a live concert
    (picture is from bloomberg.com) you must be thrilled to watch your favorite performers performing live in front of you but there are ...

Like us on Facebook

Flickr Images