Tag Archives: YA

Reading Buddies: A Monster Calls (3)

Posted on by
Reply

Part 1 | Part 2
Possible spoilers below.

Part 1 – From Americans Don’t Get Much Holidays to No Tale

1. In the monster’s second tale, the parson’s home was destroyed. Do you think it was the right thing for the monster to do, given his explanation?

I think we’ve already established from the monster’s first story that he likes gray areas, and it’s the same for this one. I don’t really feel that the parson’s house should have been destroyed — I found that it was too cruel. But if you’re willing to give up everything, then you should also be ready to lose everything, too — after all, you’ve given them up. Sometimes, we just don’t know how much that everything is.

This reminds me of one line I read from a YFC conference: If you don’t stand for anything, you will fall for everything. In this case, everything fell for the parson because he let go of all he stood for.

2. Why do you think people find it easy to give up everything they believe in when times are harder?

I think it’s because people want something concrete to hold on to in times of trials. They want some surefire solutions for their problems, or at least, something that will tell them that it will be okay. Beliefs are usually abstract, something that requires faith, and faith requires you to believe even without seeing or knowing if it will be okay. It’s not easy to surrender and trust that everything will be okay so people will grasp anything that comes their way, regardless if it’s for or against their beliefs, if it means ensuring everything will be fine.

3. “Belief is the half of all healing. Belief is the cure, belief in the future that awaits.” Do you think Conor had this kind of belief?

No. Not yet, anyway. He wanted to believe it, I think, but at the back of his mind, there are still those doubts. I’m sure we’ve all had this moment — wanting to believe that things will be okay, but also preparing ourselves for things to not go well in case it doesn’t.

4. Why do you think his Grandmother reacted that way to Conor’s actions? What about his dad?

Like what everyone else in the discussion said, I think his grandma is also just trying to be strong. You know how when want to cry but you stop yourself because you can’t cry yet for some reason? But then when someone else cries, or when someone hugs you, the tears just come? I think it’s the same situation with Conor’s grandmother — she’s been trying to be strong for her daughter, but when she saw her grandson lose control, she finds permission to do so, too.

As for his dad — like I mentioned in the last post, his relationship with Conor is already strained, and I don’t think his dad knew how to really talk to Conor. It doesn’t make it right, but I don’t think it’s wrong either. It’s just sad — sad to be strangers with someone you’re not supposed to be strangers with.

 


Reading Buddies: A Monster Calls (2)

Posted on by
Reply

Part 1
Possible spoilers below.

Part 2 – From The Wildness of Stories to Champ

In the next chapters, the monster tells Conor his first story. We read of a tale of a prince, a witch and a farm girl, of a villain who isn’t quite what she seems. This first tale surprises Conor in such a way that it leaves him more confused.

Conor’s dad from arrives from America, and he wishes for him to be more approachable. But Conor’s dad is estranged and offers little comfort to his son.

1. Who is the hero in the monster’s first tale? Who is the villain? How does the story keep surprising Conor? What does Conor hope to learn from the story? What does he actually learn?

When I first read the story, I expected the same thing as everyone who’s read it: that there is a clearly defined hero and villain. So color me surprised too when the story was twisted. Like what everyone else had said in the discussion, Conor was expecting the monster to provide him straight answers, but the monster doesn’t work that way.

This tells us that life is rarely in black and white. People are rarely ever plain good or simply evil — we are more complicated than that. In every “evil” person there’s some good and in every good person, they have junk, too.

2. While the monster was finishing the story, Conor asked him, “So how is that supposed to save me from her?” The monster replied, “It is not her you need saving from.” If it wasn’t Conor’s grandma, then who do you think the monster means?

I think it’s pretty obvious that Conor needs saving from himself. While Conor knows that his mom was sick, I don’t think he’s ever really accepted that. Denial is a strong defense mechanism and I think it tends to keep people in a cage, or at least, blind them with what they need to see. I think Conor needs to see that he needs to save himself from his denial, and not from his grandma.

3. Describe Conor’s relationship with his dad. Do you think it would have been easier for him to go through this if his parents weren’t divorced?

Their relationship was awkward. I do think Conor wanted to get to know his dad even if he wasn’t close to him — there were those moments when Conor seemed to want to talk to his dad more, especially now that things were starting to get worse.

I’d like to believe that their strained relationship is an effect of the divorce. I’ve always believed that quality time is one of the things that builds relationships, and that’s what Conor and his dad lacked. As for making it easier, I think it would still depend on how his dad would handle the ordeal. I don’t have any experience to speak of (and I pray not to have that), but from what I’ve seen and read, people react differently to diseases, especially with cancer. However, I know that with whatever challenge, it’s always better when you have someone by your side.


The Piper’s Son

Posted on by
6

The Piper's Son by Melina MarchettaThe Piper’s Son by Melina Marchetta
Candlewick Press, 336 pages

The award-winning author of Finnikin of the Rock and Jellicoe Road pens a raw, compelling novel about a family’s hard-won healing on the other side of trauma.

Award-winning author Melina Marchetta reopens the story of the group of friends from her acclaimed novel Saving Francesca – but five years have passed, and now it’s Thomas Mackee who needs saving. After his favorite uncle was blown to bits on his way to work in a foreign city, Tom watched his family implode. He quit school and turned his back on his music and everyone that mattered, including the girl he can’t forget. Shooting for oblivion, he’s hit rock bottom, forced to live with his single, pregnant aunt, work at the Union pub with his former friends, and reckon with his grieving, alcoholic father. Tom’s in no shape to mend what’s broken. But what if no one else is either? An unflinching look at family, forgiveness, and the fierce inner workings of love and friendship, The Piper’s Son redefines what it means to go home again.

One of my favorite things to hear back during those high school graduation programs is the class prophecy. I think I heard my first class prophecy back in elementary, when our teacher read a prophecy of one batch for us. Then sometime during sophomore year in high school, I wrote an incomplete class prophecy on a whim, set about ten years later, one where I apparently lost contact with most of my high school friends and even crashed into my best friend’s car. And finally, during senior year, I was assigned to write our batch’s prophecy, which was kind of boring now that I remember it. Boring compared to the sort of morbid prophecy that the higher batch had before us, anyway.

But again, I love those things because it has that infinite feel to it. I can write practically anything about what our fortunes will be (and because it’s going to be read to everyone, I have to make sure all of us were successful, sort of). It had all those possibilities for all of us, giving all of us in the batch hope that we could all fulfill that prophecy that I had penned.

That’s what The Piper’s Son read like for me — a class prophecy. It’s been five years since Saving Francesca, and the little group that I have grown to love in that book has changed. Will is now an engineer in Singapore, and having a long-distance relationship with Frankie. Frankie’s parents are in Italy and she now works in a local pub with Justine. Siobhan is in England, Tara is in Timor, Jimmy is somewhere out there. And Tom. Tom Mackee is lost. Ever since his uncle died in a terrorist attack in London, Tom’s life had fallen apart. When he finally hit rock bottom, he finds himself living with his pregnant aunt Georgie, who’s also deep in her own grief. Tom is going to have to start picking his life back up again, but will the people he’s left behind be there to help him?

What can I say about The Piper’s Son that the other readers haven’t said yet? Once again, Marchetta shines in this book. This is one of the best spin-off novels I’ve read ever. Like I said, it reads like a class prophecy, so I was thrilled to read about what happened to my favorite group of fictional friends five years down the road. It wasn’t the same as my “we’re all so successful” prophecies though, because Tom is broken. And it’s with Tom that makes this book so heartbreakingly good. There were so many layers to him and his relationship with his family and friends. I think it was Aaron who once said that he had more personality than Will had in Saving Francesca, and it’s true. I liked that this book gave us a way to know him more than the smart-aleck seemingly bad guy character he had before.

To be honest, I had no idea where this book was going and a part of me keeps on wondering where. But I think the beauty of contemporary novels, especially that of Marchetta, is she makes even the most ordinary seem extraordinary. Tom’s days in the pub, his encoding work, his family, most especially his emails to his sister and Tara made this book so much more emotional than I expected. His aunt Georgie’s point of view also gave us a different perspective. It wasn’t opposing, but just different, and it gave a certain depth in the story that made us understand just how much they all lost when Joe Finch Mackee died in that explosion. Oh, but it’s not completely sad, though — there’s still humor, especially when the Tom and his friends banter, and even with their grudge on Tom’s abandonment, it’s clear that they all still care for one another. My favorite moments include the one with Lord of the Rings, Tom playing with Callum, the one with “I think we’re getting our Tom back”, and Tom telling Frankie to stop listening to the news. Oh, and of course, the reunion scene — I’ve been an inexplicable fool / A thousand times, yes. :)

I had to marinate on this book for a while before I decided on its final rating. It’s not exactly an easy read, especially with all the issues it tackled. Somehow, this made Saving Francesca seem like a sunshine-y happy book, even if it also tackled pretty serious issues. I guess it’s because Tom was dealing with harder ones, and being a guy, he handles it differently. But after a few days of thinking about it, I finally got to the point where the beauty of this novel has finally settled deep into my bones, and I am just in awe of how Marchetta can keep me thinking about her story and her characters long after I’ve finished reading. If that isn’t a sign of a great book, then I don’t know what is.

The Piper’s Son is not an easy book to read, but it’s one of those books that you’d want to read. Because a story such as this deserves to be read. It just wraps itself around your heart like that. If you’re off to read contemporary YA books, do yourself a favor and put Melina Marchetta high on your list. I promise you won’t regret it.

Rating: ★★★★★

2011 Challenge Status:
Required Reading – September

Other reviews:
Chachic’s Book Nook
G-Reads!
Persnickety Snark

 

Past Perfect

Posted on by
2

Past Perfect by Leila SalesPast Perfect by Leila Sales
Simon Pulse, 322 pages

All Chelsea wants to do this summer is hang out with her best friend, hone her talents as an ice cream connoisseur, and finally get over Ezra, the boy who broke her heart. But when Chelsea shows up for her summer job at Essex Historical Colonial Village (yes, really), it turns out Ezra’s working there too. Which makes moving on and forgetting Ezra a lot more complicated…even when Chelsea starts falling for someone new.

Maybe Chelsea should have known better than to think that a historical reenactment village could help her escape her past. But with Ezra all too present, and her new crush seeming all too off limits, all Chelsea knows is that she’s got a lot to figure out about love. Because those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it….

Oh how this cover lies. This cover has absolutely nothing to do with the story, no matter how cute it looks. I know covers are really for sales, and I may be able to forgive this if the book gets more sales because of the cover. Still, I can’t see any connection.

But anyway, in Past Perfect, Chelsea is stuck in the past — literally and figuratively. Chelsea is back to work for the summer in the Essex Historical Colonial Village, where she dresses up as a colonial woman named Elizabeth Connelly, and it was really the last place she wanted to be. She wanted to get out even more when she finds that her ex-boyfriend and first love, Ezra, is also working in Essex. And she’s far from getting over him. But when Chelsea falls for a guy from the Civil War Reenactmentland next door who has been at war with Essex for as long as they can remember, it makes Chelsea’s summer a little more complicated than what she expected.

Past Perfect is my first Leila Sales read, but I’ve been curious about her other book, Mostly Good Girls, because of the good reviews it has been getting. I was really glad that Galley Grab had this up in their list. :) I love that the book is set in a historical village — I’m not too fond of history back in school, but if I had the chance to visit places like this, I probably would like it a lot more! I’m not sure if we have a historical village here in the Philippines. I think the closest we have of one is in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, but I don’t think it’s even close to what Chelsea had at Essex.

Chelsea is a real darling in this novel, and she’s someone I would like to be friends with. She’s funny, witty and honest — far from perfect as she makes some pretty stupid decisions in the book, but all in good faith and she learned from it in the end. I liked how even if she didn’t really like working in Essex, she still considers her friends there as family, at least even for the summer. I wasn’t able to get any summer jobs when I was in school because summer was really just for lazing around or attending YFC activities, but I also do know the feeling of having a “summer family”. I also really liked Fiona, Chelsea’s best friend. She seems like a really good friend and one of those who will definitely have your back even if she seems flighty at first. The supporting characters were also quite stellar, and I think the thing that made them so fun was the war. I don’t think I could ever be a part of a war like that. I have no competitive bone in my body. I loved reading about the strategies and the intimidation and such, though. :D

I also liked how the idea of moving on is tackled in this book. It’s true: sometimes we tend to idolize certain experiences or people because they’re the only things we can hold onto when it’s all over, but when you really think about it, these moments in history aren’t always the shining, shimmering, splendid moments we thought they were. We tend to wear rose-colored glasses over some things and people, and when it’s time to move on, we need to remove it and see things as they really are and not as what we want it. I liked how this lesson was juxtaposed with the actual historical setting that the characters worked in. It made what Chelsea learned more resonant somehow.

I didn’t exactly fall head over heels in love with this book, because the “I could relate to this!” factor was kind of low. However, it is a very fun novel, and I can’t think of anything that I disliked about this. Now to get myself a copy of Mostly Good Girls. :)

Rating: ★★★★★

My copy: e-ARC from Simon & Schuster’s Galley Grab

Other reviews:
Chachic’s Book Nook
G-Reads!
inkcrush
Hobbitsies
Good Books and Good Wine
Forever Young Adult

Reading Buddies: A Monster Calls (1)

Posted on by
3

You’d think I would have had enough of A Monster Calls after I sung praises to it when I reviewed it, and then sang more praises to it after I saw the trailer. And truth be told, as beautiful as the book was, it’s really not a book that you’d want to reread immediately. Okay, I would reread it for the writing, but not really for the story, especially because I think it has that The Passion of the Christ movie1  effect: you only want to read it once, but it’s not the kind of book you’d read again for pleasure. Unless you’re looking for a good cry.

But that doesn’t stop me from pushing it to people, of course. And push I did, especially when I saw a copy in Fully Booked. Anyway, long story short, Aaron and I convinced Ariel to get this book (And I quote: “It’s Patrick Ness. Of course it’s auto-buy.”). Ariel caved in, and got so excited about it after2 that he roped me and other friends to read the book together. And since I’ve read the book already, I was the default discussion leader.

And so here I am again, reading the book for the second time, and this time, paying more attention to the details because I had to ask some questions. This time, though, I’m more prepared — I have tissues with me all the time. :P

Anyway, so I’m hosting the first blog-based Reading Buddies discussion in the Goodreads Filipino Group. Basically, we’d read the book together, the leader would ask some questions, and we’d answer it on our blogs and discuss further in the thread. I know there’s a lot of channels with this, but think of it this way: more people can participate, even those who are not a part of the group (this means you, whoever you are who is reading this).

For A Monster Calls, we divided the book into five parts, based on how the story goes. Since there are no chapter numbers, we just used chapter titles:

Part 1 – From A Monster Calls to Grandma

Part 2 – From The Wildness of Stories to Champ

Part 3 – From Americans Don’t Get Much Holidays to No Tale

Part 4 – From I No Longer See You to 100 Years

Part 5 – From What’s the Use of You to The Truth

Each part will have about 3-4 questions which we will answer on our blogs and I will round up here. The discussion will run during the month of October. If you haven’t read the book but would like to, you can join us by writing a post on your own blog, or just leaving a comment. If you do decide to write a post about it, you can leave a link to your blog on the widget below so we can drop by and read your answers, too. :)

So! After that long introduction, I’ve got the first set of questions and my answers under the cut below. Disclaimer: Some questions were taken from Candlewick’s discussion guide for the book. Slight spoiler warning for those who haven’t read the book yet. :) Mister Linky widget is waaay below, scroll down if you want to just leave a link.

Continue reading →

  1. Hold your horses! I’m not saying that this book is religious or I am comparing the story to Jesus’ and all that. I am merely using the movie as an analogy. Because I really liked that movie, but I cannot, for the life of me, ask my friends to watch it with me again because it hurts to watch it. [↩]
  2. This might be my fault, with all the “I really think you will like this!” I said to him. [↩]

There You’ll Find Me

Posted on by
1

There You'll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones There You’ll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones
Thomas Nelson, 320 pages

In a small cottage house in rural Ireland, Finley discovers she can no longer outrun the past.

When Finley travels to Ireland as a foreign exchange student, she hopes to create a new identity and get some answers from the God who took her brother away and seems to have left her high and dry.

But from the moment she boards the plane and sits by Beckett Rush, teen star of the hottest vampire flicks, nothing goes according to Finley’s plan.

When she gets too close to Beckett, a classmate goes on a mission to make sure Finley packs her bags, departs Ireland-and leaves Beckett alone.

Finley feels the pressure all around. As things start to fall apart, she begins to rely on a not-so-healthy method of taking control of her life.

Finley tries to balance it all-disasters on the set of Beckett’s new movie, the demands of school, and her growing romance with one actor who is not what he seems. Yet Finley is also not who she portrays to Beckett and her friends.

For the first time in her life, Finley must get honest with herself to get right with God.

When I was younger, I used to write stories about a group of friends who lived in Ireland. It was just a random country I picked out in the world atlas, and I thought I liked the sound of Ireland as a setting. Of course, I really knew nothing of the country then, and it wasn’t until later on that I read and watched some stuff about Ireland on TV that I realized none of what I wrote was even the least bit realistic. But my recent trip to Europe got me to meet a YFC mission volunteer from Ireland, and meeting him reminded me of those days when I’d write those stories.

That’s what made me pick up There You’ll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones from my trip readings. Here we meet Finley Sinclair, Save the Date‘s Alex Sinclair’s younger sister. After they had confirmed that Will, Finley’s other brother, had died in an terrorist attack in a mission trip, she was devastated. Her life spun out of control as she tried to cope with her loss. After a year of therapy, she proved herself stable enough to go on an exchange student program to Abbeyglen, Ireland, one of the places that Will had gone to. Finley hopes to find herself and get answers from God who had seemed distant from her ever since she lost Will. But a movie star, the school’s queen bee, a cranky and sick old lady puts a wrench on Finley’s plans. As the pressure all around her builds, Finley starts dealing with things in the only way she knows how, even if it meant harming herself in the process. Can Finley find a way to get it right with God?

I liked Jenny B. Jones’ other novel, Save the Date, a lot, so I was thrilled to find out that There You’ll Find Me was a spin-off novel to that. I always like seeing how other characters I liked from a previous novel were doing in another novel that is not a sequel. There You’ll Find Me is more YA this time around. Finley is such a strong-minded character, sometimes a bit stubborn, but we can also see that she has a big heart, especially with her friendship with her host sister, Erin and her concern for Cathleen Sweeney, the old woman she was assigned to visit for class. I liked Finley’s voice, and I could definitely feel and relate with her need to control things. I liked that she wasn’t portrayed as too depressed or too angry — just very lost. And it made me want to wrap her up in a big, big hug, and tell her that God has not forgotten her.

St. Ciaran's Monastery -- I think this was one of the places Finley and Beckett visited. Image from saintsandstones.net

And speaking of God. The spiritual aspect of this book is not preachy, and I think Jenny B. Jones excels at that. Well, compared to Save the Date, there were more mentions of God, but Finley was in a spiritual journey, so what do you expect? I liked the Finley’s power verse, too, and I admit to shedding some tears at the moment when Finley found what she was looking for. The actual Irish journey was a treat to read, too, and I wished I was actually in Ireland to see the things that Finley was seeing. I wanted to spend a night at a pub enjoying good food, music and company. I want to look at the Celtic crosses that Finley was also looking for. Ireland sounds like a beautiful, beautiful place from the way it was described, and I have already written that place in my bucket list after I was done reading this. :D

There just seemed to be a little too many issues that Finley was trying to get over with in the book: grief, control issues, school stuff, Cathleen Sweeney, a possible eating disorder. Add romance to that and I’m surprised that Finley took that long before she had a melt down. I assume that it portrays real life, but it was just kind of hard to follow and it made the resolutions a little too quickly wrapped up.

And speaking of the romance. Unfortunately, I don’t think there wasn’t anything exciting about the romance, even if it was kind of sweet. I hope I’m not being cynical. I liked Beckett and I thought he was a nice guy, but I felt that the movie star + normal girl pairing has been done a few too many times. Plus points, though, on the development of their friendship to romance, which was fun to read.

There You’ll Find Me is a good follow up from Jenny B. Jones. A little bit paler in comparison to Save the Date, but nonetheless a good one. If you’re looking for a clean contemporary novel that will tickle your romantic and traveling fancies, then I think you’ll like this one. :)

Rating: ★★★★★

My copy: e-ARC from Netgalley

Cover and blurb: Goodreads

Other reviews:
Nightly Reading
Book that Thing!
One Page at a Time

Related Posts with Thumbnails