"'A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one."
Naty, 19, Brazilian reader. Here to steal all the recommendations I can from you guys!
Name of the blog is a reference to the documentary Paris Is Burning.
Keeping this one short and sweet because I'm still emotionally shook after finishing this series. I kept wondering if I had a reason to give it 4.5 stars instead of 5, but I don't. Two long books full of action and content, and there is nothing I disliked. So have some gorgeous fanart!
God I love this casting. I said before that I loved duologies but now I regret it. I wish I had another book of these amazing six babes!
"I want my new name to be Poppy. Do you think Poppy is a good name?"
"I think Poppy is a perfect name."
God, I'm having so many feels over this one.
"Well. Usually boys don't wear dresses to preschool," Rosie admitted carefully. "Or tights."
"I'm not usually," said Claude.
This, Rosie reflected, even at the time, was true.
"Go. May Djel watch over you until I can once more."
"You can smell it, too. Death. Dying. Decay. The sky is falling, the sky is dying, the sky is dead."
Let me start this by saying I would absolutely die in the world of Bird Box. Walking around the world, afraid to open your eyes because monsters are about to jump at you? Nope. So much nope. There are main characters in horror movies, and then there's that extra that dies 5 minutes in. That's me.
The premise here is terrifying. I can't imagine living in a world where the big bad is the light around us, our ability to see. And the start of the book shows that amazingly, I was terrified for our main character Malorie and her two unnamed children, that have no names for obvious plot convenience. Seriously, Malorie? I know you were busy trying to like, not die, but you couldn't take 4 minutes of your day to stop calling your children Boy and Girl? Name them after chocolate brands for all I care. Twix and M&M's would be lovely kids.
Besides this plot weirdness I thought the start of the book was amazingly written, and so is every chapter set in the present. Every moment that went back to Malorie, lost and blind in a boat, was chilling to me.
In a world where you can’t open your eyes, isn’t a blindfold all you could ever hope for?
The problem with this book wasn't there. The problem was the flashbacks.
Every character in Malorie's flashbacks is one dimentioned. Here is Tom. He is brave. Here is Don. He is cautious. Here is Jules. He has... a dog. Is having a dog a personality trait? I hope it is, because otherwise I would never be able to tell him apart from Felix. They are both completely useless to the plot.
As it usually goes, humans are theo other problem here. While the setting is creepy and unsettling, the humans are flat and boring. Even Malorie got annoyingly one sided in her flashbacks. I couldn't care less if any of them died. The only ones I liked were the children.
The ending was satisfying enough. Surprised me and rose this from 2 stars to 2.5.
Sentence: Honestly, if this has been just a short story with only the parts of Melanie in the boat, I'd be happy. But it wasn't, so I'm sticking to my 2.5 stars rating, rounded up to 3 on Goodreads.
10
There is so much action here that it's blink and miss. Blink and miss Kaz making another amazing scheme, blink and miss Jesper making an impossible shot, blink and miss Inej breathing awesomeness. I love it.
"I would have come for you. And if I couldn't walk, I'd crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we'd fight our way out together-knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that's what we do. We never stop fighting."
There's no better way of celebrating a new year of reading with a new reading goal! If you haven't set up a reading challenge yet, we encourage you to take part in this fun way of reading motivation and friendly bookish competition.
How to set up a reading challenge on BookLikes?
Log into your BookLikes and use the upper menu, select Goodies and then The reading challenge tab.
Decide how many books you want to read this year, type in the number of books and click Save.
The notification about your reading goal will be published on your Dashboard - this means that your BookLikes friends (bloggers who follow your blog) will see your reading commitment.
By clicking the Reading challenge link in the Dashboard notification you can also enter the reading challenge page and view the previous reading years and charts.
The link to your reading challenge page is added automatically to your blog page.
You can change the link name in Settings, the Pages tab.
To spread the news about your 2018 reading challenge, use the Reading Challenge widget and add it to your BookLikes blog and other webpages.
Go to Goodies (menu->Goodies), Widgets tab, find the Reading challenge widget, copy the widget code and go to the customization tab -- use the green link underneath the code box.
Paste the code in the Widget Area and click Save.
The widget will be visible on your blog page. If you have other blogs, webpages, author pages, feel free to use the reading challenge on all of your www pages.
How to update your reading challenge?
If you've taken part in previous reading challenges on BookLikes, click the challenge heading on your Dashboard to update your goal for 2018.
Then click update your reading challenge on the right to select a new reading goal for 2018.
You can also update your reading goal during the year if you decide the number of books for 2018 is too big or too small.
You should also update your reading challenge widget as well as a reading challenge link on your blog. Make sure the link says 2018 Reading challenge in Settings, Pages tab.
How book are added to your reading challenge?
Please remember that only the books with filled up reading dates will be counted to your reading challenge. Make sure you add the start and end reading dates for your reads. Here are 3 easy ways to do this:
1. Use the Finished button on your Currently reading widget on your Dashboard. The Currently reading spot presents all your books with the currently reading status.
Write the dates once you finish reading your book.
2. To add the dates, click +Shelf advanced and fill up the reading dates in the Read status.
Remember to save the dates.
3. Use the shelf table view to fill up the reading information.
Go to your Shelf page, press the table view icon and add the reading dates in the Read Date spot.
What's your reading goal this year?
2
"She was Inej Ghafa, and she would not quiver like a rabbit in a snare."
Beautiful artstyle and a really intriguing plot here, I love the way Marko and Alana interact. This is not what I expected, but it's actually even better. Can't wait to read more.
2
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."
Rebecca starts with the narration of a sweet, naive heroine. Maybe not so naive anymore after being exposed to the pains of life, but still shy and quiet, a regular and unremarkable woman you can find in any place.
This book is not about her.
Our heroine is the narrator. It's life from her eyes we're seeing. And yet, everything is Rebecca. Rebecca, that was perfect in every way. Rebecca, that was the most beautiful creature to ever walk earth. Rebecca, that died before the story even started, and yet still manages to be the protagonist. Manderley is still all hers, even months after her death. Little pieces of her perfection are spread all over the house, and her presence haunts our protagonist, that fears she can never be viewed as Rebecca once was. And she can't.
How can we win against someone that still manages to be the main point of many lives, even after death?
And the twist, oh the twist. As evidenced by my lovely fellow reviewers, I was pretty shook.
(Thanks everyone I'm still shook)
"I am glad it cannot happen twice, the fever of first love. For it is a fever, and a burden, too, whatever the poets may say."
Even the scenery description was perfect. Sometimes I thought I was in Manderley. I could read about our heroine describing flowers for ours and not get bored. This was a stellar read and I'm glad it's still being praised so many years after being written.
We even get creepy Mrs. Danvers as a plus! I loved her!
Sentence: *vague, distant noises of happiness and pain.*
3
Damn. Review to come when I stop feeling shook. Is that ever gonna happen? PROBABLY NOT.
I'm sure my review will have something interesting to add to the thousands of reviews already written of this glorious classic. Ahem.
3
I feel like shit about to blow on this masquerade party.
3
4
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."
3
