Senlin Ascends - Josiah Bancroft

"“I still recall a line from that feckless Everyman’s guide. It said something like, ‘the Tower’s real trade is in whimsy, adventure, and romance.’ I cannot imagine a less accurate trio. Though, who in their right minds would’ve come if the editors had said, ‘the Tower’s true trade is in tyranny, dismemberment, and heartbreak?” - Every Man’s Tower, One Man’s Travails by T. Senlin"

Hello!

I think this cover looks amazing.

I started reading this book while in Brussels because Daniel was taking so long with The Unknown Soldiers. Senlin Ascends has been getting a ton of hype lately, and for a change, I feel like it was every bit deserved. 

Thomas Senlin, a school headmaster, goes with his wife on a honeymoon to the prestigious Tower of Babel - a place for the cultured, the luxurious, the ones who need nothing more in life.

It all goes bad within minutes, as fate would have it. Senlin and Marya get separated in the market, and Senlin is left with their money and train tickets back home. He decides to climb to the third ringdom of the tower that reaches to the skies, and meet her at the Baths, where they were going to go.

Only the Tower isn't what he thought. It's full of criminals, corruption, dictators and straight-up torture. He meets what he believes to be friends, only can you trust anyone in a place where everyone is indebted, threatened and alone?

The writing and the characters are both incredibly strong in this book. Senlin is very intelligent and capable of sharp wits and analysis, and everyone he meets feels like a person even before you find the burden they might be carrying. I loved most of the characters in this, but also the way they were all so different and in the Tower for their own reasons. My favourite was probably Edith, though I will tell you nothing about her because you shouldn't know too much. Even as I say this, I liked all of the characters and their backstories a lot. Senlin himself has a tremendous amount of character growth and it still feels believable and not like an awkward level up.

The setting is also excellent, not necessarily 100% real but something I can still imagine, with an old-school steampunk vibe but with added bits of intrigue from everywhere. It felt East more than West, but in a believable way. The different ringdoms of the Tower are very creative and different from one another, but the book never forgets about the ones it's already gone through. That's really cool. Each chapter also open with a quote from a book, at first from "Everyman's Guide", which is Senlin's trusty guidebook from the beginning. Later it becomes "Every Man's Tower", which Senlin writes himself. These quotes are often witty and sometimes downright ironic, and they're a lot of fun to read.

Senlin Ascends is the first in a four-book series, the last two not being out yet. I think I'll give it some time before reading part two, but at the same time I am so excited to do it! Meanwhile, I recommend this so much!! Please read it!! It's amazing and I want everyone to get this sort of experience of a great book that feels fresh and engaging. While writing this review, I bought physical copies of this one and Arm of the Sphinx, the sequel, on Amazon. Whoops. How did that happen.

All in all, a strong 5/5 because I wouldn't even dream of trying to change anything in this amazing little masterpiece. I'm definitely in love.

For the Helmet 2017 reading challenge I put this in category 2: A book discussed in book blogs!

Paras mahdollinen maailma - Riikka Pulkkinen

'Elämästä paljon suurempi osa kuin uskallamme itsellemme myöntää on unta.'

'A much bigger part of life than we dare admit to ourself is a dream.'

Hello again!

This is the other book my mum bought me for Christmas - maybe it's because the main character's father has a stroke or maybe because the book is quite heavily about the Berlin Wall. Maybe it's because she's read books by Riikka Pulkkinen before and I haven't yet. Anyway!

Aurelia was born on the day the Wall fell. Her father is dying in a hospital and she's not answering the calls from her mother. She's an actress and she has just landed a main role in a huge production about the Wall. Her father wanted to say something, before, and now it's too late. Her mother is trying to tell her, but maybe that's too late as well. There's also friends and sex and musings about being and overlapping stories of Berlin and pain and loss and love. In that order. Most of the story is told through Aurelia's eyes, some is through her mom's messages to her, and some is from the past of the director of the play.

The writing is very prose-like, maybe even overly poetic. It goes on and on and on and twists and turns and it's really quite interesting but at the same time you're secretly hoping that maybe just maybe it could stop sometime soon.

The weather has been lovely so most of this
was read outside! (Bought a raspberry
chocolate muffin from Starbucks even
though I shouldn't have because that's
what spring is for!)

A lot of the characters were very well established, which is one of the biggest compliments I can bestow upon this. I liked Aurelia, even though sometimes she got annoying. Sometimes she supposedly could read other people's thoughts and every time she did, they were supposedly thinking of how amazing she herself was. Kind of like seeing a really hot guy and believing that their current thought is that you are a goddess; self-centered and not even realistic. Her friends were nice even though they weren't that prominent, but whatever she had once had with her ex-boyfriend Niklas didn't end up feeling like anything to me. The eccentric director was very interesting, and I think his story ended up being the one that was the most captivating to me. Seija was also incredibly cool, see the following:

'Jos Seijasta on jotain sanottava, hänestä voi sanoa tämän: hän on ihminen joka kantaa käsilaukussaan voiveistä. Koskaan ei tiedä milloin mieli alkaa tehdä juustoa tai kokonaista kakkua, josta leikata palasia.'

'If one had to say something about Seija, it could be this: she is a person who carries a butter knife in her purse. You never know when you start to crave cheese or a whole cake, out of which to cut pieces.' 

Role model, definitely.

On the other hand, I didn't like Aurelia's (dying) father at all, because in the flashbacks from her mum's point of view, he didn't come across all that nice. And this was through the eyes of the woman who loved him. Weird.

This is where I finished the book!

The plot, while captivating at first, kind of fell flat when I learned that there's really nothing more, and the last hundred pages (almost a third of the book) didn't really introduce anything new. Even the twists felt like I already knew, and maybe I did. It was cool to see and hear about what it's (presumably) like to be an actress in a theatre production and I could have definitely read more of that too. Additionally, while all the Berlin imagery and theme was really cool in a way, it was also way too convenient to feel any kind of realistic. In a more light-hearted book I'd definitely let that slide but when a book wants to be taken this seriously, it feels a bit off.

Overall a solid 3.5 though I'll have to round down to a three, since it's not quite a four for me. Will read her other works and hopefully I'll like the plots better then. From what I understand, a lot of people liked those better than this, so that's good to know.

For the Helmet 2017 reading challenge I put this in category 45: A book about a Finnish woman! Kinda self-explanatory, I suppose.

Shadowmagic - John Lenahan

"Fergal and I looked at each other like naughty schoolboys. When she was out of earshot, we both let out a very quiet yeehaa in defiance."

Shadowmagic was apparently a big part of J's childhood so he wanted me to read it for The Bookclub. And while I loathe to admit he ever does something right, it was a very good read (and very underrated, since if you search for it, Google comes back with "Did you mean shadow magic?"). It's available as a free audiobook read by the author, who's very, very excited about what he does and does it extremely well. There's also Kindle and paperback version so there's literally no reason you shouldn't read it (unless you really hate fantasy or teenagers or both for some reason).

Conor is an 18-year old living with his father and doing whatever teenagers do until he gets pulled into a magical land of Tir na Nog, where he's a prince and everyone wants to kill him because of an old prophecy. The book is heavily laden with Irish mythology, which was very refreshing and interesting to read about. Conor is also a very point of view -character for the reader, taking all of the magical things as a curiosity and cracking jokes about them every chance he gets. The description isn't very heavy since Conor seems a bit harebrained and doesn't really care about the finer details, which I suppose is fair enough.

There's some things I didn't really like all that much, one of them being the lack of female characters. There's literally only Conor's love interest, his mum (you don't want to know the first thing Conor says about his mum, trust me) and aunt, and I don't think that's near enough. Also, sometimes Conor is too immature to be likeable, too defiant to be relatable. While I understand his purpose as a POV character, I feel like sometimes it would have been better if he could just once do whatever he's told without questioning everything. Quite a few of the plot twists also come across as expected (as an audiobook, there's a cliffhanger at the end of each 15-ish minute long chapter), but the ones I didn't expect really kinda managed to blow me away. Conor didn't spend near enough time in The Real World for us to establish his life or personality there, but that might have been an "imagine your life here" type of gimmick. Still, I'm hoping the next two books will open that up for me a bit more.

Also, most of the characters didn't really get much of a personality. While Conor got some well-needed character growth during the book, both of his parents remained very distant. The love interest Esa (note: Conor also has a real-world girlfriend he doesn't seem to care much for) was mostly just a sort of badass love interest who didn't do much but be around so Conor could pine over her. There were a couple of others I already forgot. Fergal however, whom Conor befriends quite near the beginning, was amazing. That's all I'll say on this.  

All in all though, Shadowmagic was a really fun read. Lighthearted and warm and the kind of book that will take you on a grand adventure with the characters. I'm perfectly willing to overlook my less glaring complaints (although please give me female characters) and give it a solid 4/5.

For the Helmet 2017 reading challenge I put this in category 11: a Book by an acknowledged professional! This because John Lenahan is famous as an illusionist and (wikipedia tells me) was the first person in 85 years to be expelled from The Magic Circle (which I didn't even know existed). The more you know!

Band of Brothers on Steroids - Unknown Soldiers

(This is a guest entry of sorts written by Daniel since I feel like as a Finnish classics, his thoughts on this one may be more intriguing than mine :) )

The inaugural premise of this book leaves a curious impression on the reader, it is introduced in a way which paves the emotional wave awaiting the reader; this is followed by brutal, desperate situations that you share with the soldiers whom you have come to know and love.

After reading this moderately long book, I have a sense of loss; one of the most memorable aspects of this novel is the connection that you gain with the characters. One can confidently compare this connection to the relationships seen between the soldiers in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. This connection does not necessarily stem from the bonding between each character but rather from the delicate descriptions and intricate stories belonging to each of the characters. Some characters I abhorred and some I highly enjoyed; but whether I hated or loved I still cared for them. I will purposefully avoid any information relating to spoilers but it was quite an exciting/traumatising ordeal following each character; that is all I will say on this.

Unknown Soldiers was translated from Finnish to English by Liesl Yamaguchi. I therefore cannot give a judgement of the novel through how the author intended it to be but for what I read I gained a sense of pride, courage and how brutal war can be. It is all too common these days for war to be glamorised in Hollywood by a single soldier, cemented in mud, blood and usually an American flag as he simultaneously eradicates numerous people with a single bullet. The beauty of Unknown Soldiers is its raw, in-depth, realistic cruelty and violence. Nothing is glamourized and it feels like the most realistic account of war I have read; this expresses the quality of the book as, it is fictional.  I have never read or watched anything similar to this, it was frightening to imagine and is definitely the closest I wish to be to a war zone.

I am a very lucky individual to have Finnish girlfriend, due to this my knowledge of Finnish history is much greater than the average non-Finnish person. This novel appropriately articulates a sense of pride and understanding from a Finnish perspective. It discusses the topic of war from a point of view that doesn’t necessarily fall under the term ‘slander’ but rather understanding. I believe my former, non-Finnish experienced self would sympathise with the characters and opinions of the book. It is not a lecture about the diplomatic decisions circulating around the ethics of war, but it highlights upon the peoples war and why ‘dancing with the devil’ might be the way to go.

On the most part, the translation was very good but sometimes the sentences did not flow as well as they could, they all made sense but seemed to stem from a verbally spoken point of view, rather from a written piece of literature.

The plot of this novel was very simple. I am very glad it is not complex and full of crazy side plots that are so very common these days. It shadows a battalion of soldiers from the completion of their training until the end of a four year long war (1941 – 1945). This is based upon the continuation war of Finland; I would recommend you read upon this war, as from an Englishman’s point of view I found this rather interesting. The simplicity and elegance of the plot did not drag, even when the book lead us through the standard lives of soldiers on the front line. There is an eloquent assortment of surprise and normality, which gives a steady and exciting pace of the novel.

An interesting point is that this book is based upon a war, yet it is entirely fictional. Some of the characters are vaguely based upon real life individuals but none of the battles actually took place. The author participated in the war and started writing the first half while at war. For myself, part of the enchantment of this book is its ability to describe and articulate situations that could be real. Instead of replicating something real, it produces a passage of text purely from abstracted imagination of events, in essence this book is more detailed than a text that stems from a real battle as little details are not missed.

The characters in this book exceeded in captivating my interest, as their development was profound. Similar to real life you get individuals who stagnate in a pitiful array of arrogance, some who have always been what they are or what they want to be and those who desire is to excel in every way manageable. The range of characters I this book satisfy these characteristics in the best way possible as you can see and feel how the war wears them down and turns them into someone new.

Unknown Soldiers was given to me as a present; gifted as a prized collective of Finnish literature and read simultaneously across four countries with my beloved girlfriend. I was pleasantly surprised with its direct, ruthless expression of war and the progression of how men can develop into inhumane machines but still hold humanity to their heart. It takes you through a relinquished journey, from childish wishes, adult impersonations to absolute abandonment; this is truly a novel that should be seated upon the greats of war related books.

PS. I love the cover.

Tuntematon sotilas - Väinö Linna

Started this book on our way to Helsinki
halfway through January.

'Ei tarvittu kuria, ei isänmaata, ei kunniaa eikä 
velvollisuudentuntoa. Noita kaikkia mahtavampi käskijä ruoski heitä eteenpäin. Kuolema.'

'They needed no discipline, no fatherland, no glory and no sense of duty. A commander stronger than all of those lashed them onwards. Death.'

Here's my main(?) Finnish book for the 100-year anniversary - four hundred-ish pages of a pure classic of the Continuation War of 1941-1944. I bought my boyfriend an English copy for Christmas and convinced him to buddy read it with me. I asked him to write about his thoughts too so I'll link that here after it's done 😀 (edit: here you go!) There's so much I want to say about this, so bear with me for a long review!

As mentioned, Tuntematon sotilas (The Unknown Soldiers) is about the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union, from point of view of the Finnish soldiers on the battlefield. Historical background is that the author, Väinö Linna, actually served in the war and wrote the book - fictional as it is - based more or less on his own experiences. You must admit that's pretty cool. By the way, we lost this war in a crude, horrible manner that wasn't pretty and just kind of depressed everyone. You should know that - this is also a bitter tale of loss. That's beautiful.

'Heidän kärsimyksensä oli yksin heidän. Kaiken muun he olivat saaneet luovuttaa. Heiltä oli vaadittu viimeinenkin hiukkanen, mutta kärsimyksensä he saivat pitää itse. Se ei kelvannut kenellekään.'

'Their suffering was theirs alone. Everything else they had had to give up. From them had been demanded even the last speck, but their suffering they got to keep for themselves. It wasn't good enough for anyone.'

Critics didn't enjoy the book all that much when it originally came out in 1954 because of the non-idealistic way it portrays the war and the current (political) environment, but the standard people still really liked it. (Same thing happened to another Finnish masterpiece, Aleksis Kivi's Seitsemän veljestä (The Seven Brothers), almost a hundred years earlier)

Anyway, I've been a bit apprehensive about reading this, as it's written with a heavy dialect that's difficult to describe to someone who's not Finnish. It's like Glaswegian, but written, if you're not even from Scotland, I suppose. Also, it's lengthy. But it's one of those books that's just so satisfying to read that I didn't mind working my way through it slow and steady.

Tuntematon sotilas is a very, very good book and incredibly deserving of its place as a beloved Finnish classic. As far as war novels go, it's very honest and realistic - it doesn't portray the cause as purely noble and the soldiers aren't only delighted to serve in the efforts. They don't always die as heroes and they're not always even remembered. They don't fall down in slow motion and say their last words tearfully. Sometimes they're crude and they swear and hate their uppers and want to go home. They die quickly and ruthlessly and that sincerity, in my mind, is the best thing this book has to offer.

Of course, the quality doesn't stop there. The book also describes humanity in all its beauty - how ugly and broken it is, and how it can rise from its own ashes, if that's not too poetic for this book. It's also very down-to-earth and incredibly Finnish in what it does, and since I'm very patriotic, I really enjoyed that side of it. There's also many named characters - almost all of them soldiers, of course - but all of them manage to seem very human. They also have a huge variety of political and ideological natures and different personalities, which is really great. As a war novel would have it, most of them don't stay with you for very long, but they still stayed with me long after they were gone. Some of them I liked, some of them I hated. All of them mattered.

All in all, this book was incredible. I enjoyed it more than I've enjoyed 95% of everything I've ever read, and I feel a sense of loss now that it's over. It certainly benefits from knowing about the history but even if you know nothing, it won't leave you cold. It deserves its place in history and I really hope more people will choose to read it internationally with the new English translation.

'Hän hymähti pari kertaa katkerasti, ei niinkään paljon valtiollisesta vihasta kuin sen vuoksi, että hänen kengässään oli hiekkaa, eikä hän voinut jäädä poistamaan sitä, koska olisi jäänyt toisista liian kauas.'

'He sneered a couple of times bitterly, not so much from a governmental anger as it was because he had sand in his shoe, and he couldn't stay to remove it, because he would have been left too far behind from the others.'

Cool story: I bought my copy from an antiquarian in Hämeenlinna a couple of years ago while on an adventure with my father. The shop was very cool and the owner so nice I talked to him for nearly an hour and then felt compelled to buy this book I had been eyeing. As you can probably see, it's a pocket size one, but also an anniversary edition for 60 years of independence - 40 years ago. So I think it's really cool. It has sentimental value, and lots of it. For the past month it's also come on many adventures with me. Oh, and the antiquarian moved fully online only a couple of months later - a bit of a shame but I'm really glad I got the chance to visit!

This book took too many cups of tea
to even count and this tea shop is also
where I finished it.

For the Helmet 2017 reading challenge I put this in category 3: A Finnish classic!

PS. If you ever decide to read this in English somehow, pick up the new 2015 translation by Liesl Yamaguchi. The old 1955 translation is all sorts of wrong, with many changes that have no basis in, well, anything.

'―Viipuri vallattu, kähisi hän eteenpäin, huomaamatta muuttaa äänensävyään, niin että edelläkulkeva mies sai ilmoituksen vihan pakahduttamalla äänellä, ikään kuin pahinta, mitä Lehto tiesi maailmassa olevan, olisi ollut Viipurin valtaus.'

'―Viipuri has been taken, he croaked ahead, without noticing to change his tone of voice, so that the man walking in front of him got the announcement in a voice bursting with hatred, as if the worst thing which Lehto knew in the world had been Viipuri being taken.'

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling

'Hermione was now teaching Krum to say her name properly. He kept calling her 'Ermion. 
"Her-mi-o-ne" she said, slowly and clearly.
"Herm-o-nini."
"Close enough," she said, catching Harry's eye and grinning.'

I picked this quote because that's how it goes with most of my university encounters. Close enough. It made me chuckle.

So, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is my latest 'listening while walking to uni and back to make it a bit more productive' book, and as far as Harry Potters go, it's undoubtedly my favourite so far. (Though I still love Chamber of Secrets as a movie, nostalgia trip) At first it was a little intimidating at 21 hours, but it was a lot of walks well spent!

Kind of pointless mayhaps to summarise these plots but maybe my mum will read this or something, so here goes: Harry Potter goes back to Hogwarts for year another year of wizarding studies. This time the academic year is made all the more exciting by the Triwizard tournament. Only those over the age of 17 are supposed to be allowed entry into the dangerous tournament, but when someone enters Harry into it, he's forced to compete. And whoever it was obviously didn't do it as a favour.

This book was what I've been waiting for while reading these (and I might have mentioned this before, too); the book that'll make me go, so that's why everyone loves these books. Goblet of Fire was very interesting and well-written and just generally all around a very very good book. The tasks of the Triwizard tournament are exciting and just strange enough so that you don't really know what's going to happen next. Additionally, the side plots are interesting and serve the core of the book well. This world feels so alive, and more so with each addition to it (except Fantastic Beasts, I still don't really agree with that).

The tone of this book is darker than in the previous ones, and from what I understand it's the direction the works from here on will take. That's pretty exciting, as the more mature tone really did this work justice.

I don't know what else to say. This book is great. Read it if you haven't yet.

For the Helmet 2017 reading challenge I put this in category 29: A book's main character can do something which you would like to learn (magic, obviously!).

Charisma - Jeanne Ryan

Hey!

This book was so dull it put me off writing about it for nearly two weeks after finishing it. That bad.

Charisma is from the same author as Nerve, which apparently isn't all that good. It is, however, a basis for a movie from last year that was pretty enjoyable on its own right. So when Charisma, with its colourful 'from the author of Nerve' cover (right there on the right) started popping up at Waterstones and the synopsis sounded interesting enough, I thought I could check if it's really that bad.

Well that was a mistake, clearly.

The idea of the book is this: Aislyn has suffered from crippling shyness all her life, and would do anything to be more outgoing, so that she could live her life. When the anything comes in the form of an experimental drug called Charisma, she jumps at the opportunity. For a moment, she has everything; fame, popularity, charm, love. Soon, however, she comes to discover that you can't have your cake and eat it too, as the side effects prove to be dangerous, even fatal.

There's also this side plot that's supposed to have you wondering whether gene therapy is ethical or not, but all I could think of was how Charisma tried to seem all smart and deep, without any of the work or thought that normally goes into being either of these things.

The execution of the whole books is one of the worst ones I can imagine. Just for the plot, I have dozens of ideas of making it more tolerable, even good. That doesn't even start to cover the dull writing style...

Aislyn as a character is quite plain with the whole 'too shy to live' thing, but after the side effects kick in (this is around 1/3 in so the idea itself isn't all too fleshed out), she becomes downright tolerable. You'd be surprised to learn just how much a person can whine and cry and complain after (briefly, sure) getting everything they've ever wanted. Also, my empathy was further reduced by her knowingly taking the drug, acknowledging it's experimental and there might be side effects and even signing a consent form(!!!). So I didn't really feel for her.

Her best friend's name I've already forgotten, but she was the opposite of Aislyn in nature; outgoing, happy, brave. She also abandoned Aislyn when she really needed her to hang out with her new boyfriend, so that was nice.

Aislyn also has a super dull boyfriend, John or Jack or something. He's basically there so that Aislyn could complain some more about maybe dying in the future, just when she's so happy (although all the complaining she did could have fooled me).

All in all, this was the dullest thing I've read in a while (I'm at university, too!). I think I should stick to less obviously bad books for a change.

For Helmet 2017 I put this in category 10: A book with a beautiful cover (mostly because that's the only compliment I can give this book...)

PS. Apparently I didn't pick up a single quote while reading this. Yes, that bad.

In Order To Live - Yeonmi Park

'This is my story of the choices I made in order to live.'

This book was incredibly moving. Interesting, also. I obviously have very standard subpar knowledge of North Korea, the standard stuff most people know but rarely stop to think about. I know and acknowledge that life must be awful there, but it's not common I actually consider what this means for the people.

In Order To Live is the story of a young girl who at thirteen starts the most difficult journey to escape her North Korean home, Hyesan in the north near the Chinese border. Yeonmi Park tells a powerful, painful story about her own life that must have been difficult to get into paper or even remember, and I think she's incredibly brave to do so. She describes in a very honest manner how she felt and what happened to her, which is very humbling to read. She's what she never aimed to be, a role model and an ambassador, and a voice for her people.

The story is split into three parts; Yeonmi's time in North Korea, China and finally South Korea. The first one is obviously the longest and perhaps the hardest, but it doesn't get any easier even when you think it would. In the 1990s, the government in North Korea stopped being able to provide its citizens with food because they stopped receiving Soviet support. Yeonmi Park was born in 1993, so she's of the generation named after the black market, Jangmadang. These younger people may not quite share the blind faith their elders had for the government and their fearless leader, but they're far from free. In the book, Yeonmi describes how she believed that the leader could read her mind, and was always afraid to even think bad things of the country. These old habits die hard, especially considering all western media and entertainment is banned in North Korea, and even every school subject and songs and books are filled with propaganda.

Kudos to the Kindle edition for including
these photos like in the paperback, they
really bring this story to life.

The book is incredibly informative, considering it also tells a cohesive story. You can tell that since she fled North Korea, Yeonmi has really absorbed other cultures and stories, because the book clearly understands what parts of the culture are interesting to people outside of its reach. I learned so many curious and deeply worrying details about this undemocratic country through reading this book, yet I never felt like I was being lectured or straight-up taught anything. Yeonmi has also clearly learned a lot about critical thinking (a practice obviously forbidden in North Korea) since she fled, because she is able to say things about herself I would perhaps never be humble or brave enough to admit.

The story told in this book is raw and cruel and horrible, but it's also a story about humanity. The author has gone through the most terrible places and situations only to find that there is more to life than just surviving. There's also kindness and purity and good. I truly believe she's accomplished a lot if only by telling her story to people, but I also hope it's brought her some peace. She's only two years older than me today, and less and less so throughout the book to the beginning. I can't imagine going through what she has, but it is inspiring. I'm grateful that she has decided to share this story with us, and hopefully it will make a change in the world.

It's a bit odd to rate a story that's based on truth, but if not for the events themselves, then for the information, the thoughts and the bravery, I'd like to give this one a full five out of five. I don't see a reason not to recommend it unless you are a bit like my mum and feel the need to carry the sadness of the whole world on your shoulders. If you want to know what life and escape is like at least for some North Koreans today, this book is very interesting.

For the Helmet 2017 reading challenge I put this book in category 40: A book by a writer who comes from a different (from yours) culture.

Heartless - Marissa Meyer

'She fidgeted with a yellow ribbon. 'With this hat, it seems possible. Why' - her eyes brightened - 'this morning, I even had a fantasy that I'd single-handedly balanced the budget for the Royal treasury, and all of Hearts saw me as a hero.''
Hi!

I bought this book as a preorder because I was so excited about the blurb. It took me 2.5 months to waft through, so it might not come as a surprise that I didn't really completely enjoy it.

Heartless is written by Marissa Meyer, who's mostly famous for her Lunar Chronicles -series, which are reimaginations of classic fairy tales. (Which I've not read and after this one, never might) Heartless is different in that it's the origin story of the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland, so it's kind of like a supervillain's origin story. No, exactly like one.

Catherine Pinkerton is, at the heart of things, a very likeable character. She is the daughter of the Marchioness and has somehow caught the attention of the King of Hearts, who wants to marry her. This couldn't be farther away from Cath's wishes, as she just wants to open a bakery with her servant/best friend, Mary Ann. She also meets a court jester (called Jest, haha wow such creativity) who manages to steal her heart almost instantly. She can't just marry the King, whom she doesn't even love, can she?

What did work for me in this book is that it was generally well-written. The description was good and the dialogue okay. I liked most of the characters, and especially Cath herself and Mary Ann were very likeable. On the other hand, while I initially swooned over Jest much like Cath did, I soon found that as a character, he was boring, cardboardy, chivalrous, too good to be interesting in any level. This is really a bad omen in a book were much of the centre is taken by how much I'm supposed to like him and want him and Cath to be together. I must admit I would've never been sad if Cath had just gotten over him and started that bakery with Mary Ann.

The main issue I had, however, was the plot. It is difficult to write something where everyone knows the ending - hello, she's the Red Queen, of course she marries the King of Hearts - but it can be done well. Just look at Romeo and Juliet and all those other "hey guess what, at the end everyone dies" -type of books. It can work, but it needs to be done in a good way, if you hear me? What Heartless tried is this 'did she or did she not' -game where plot twist after another has you trying to figure out whether she did marry the King or not. Instead, the focus really should be on how that happened.

With all these plot twists that didn't feel too interesting, the story also moves at an agonisingly slow pace. Sometimes I could swear it doesn't know which story it wants to tell and thus ends up picking up a cherry on top of each cake, one at a time.

In the background, there's all this "women aren't suited for the man's world of business" and "you shouldn't sell your dowry because that's your only worth" -stuff going on and it was actually a quite interesting portrayal of the Victorian times when that was the focus (not often). There were also some interesting slight undertones of study of determinism, which was quite cool. All the characters eventually got their own fates and no matter how no one wants it, fate is fate.

Anyway, 2/5, wouldn't recommend but a ton of people seem to love this so maybe I'm the one who's wrong.

For the Helmet 2017 reading challenge I put this book in category 14: A book you’d choose by its summary on the book cover.

Animal Farm - George Orwell

'All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.'

Hey.

I got this book from my brother for Christmas and decided to start it on my birthday. It was very good, incredibly creepy, very harrowing. I'm a bit at loss as to what I can, should or could say about it without utterly spoiling the experience from anyone who has yet to have the immense pleasure of reading it.

So, the Manor Farm is owned by a Mr. Jones. He has the animals working long hours, takes the spoils and drinks. The animals, after a seed of revolution is planted, decide to take control and turn the farm in Animal Farm. This revolution, fuelled by noble ideas and nobler values, brings them all equality, the Seven Commandments and harmony, but this does not last for long.

This novel is, safe to say, an allegory and a satire for Soviet Communism. It's mostly harrowing because it feels so real; the animals are very well fleshed out as characters from the beginning and I can experience everything with them. They're all so distinctive from each other, I never had any trouble figuring out who was who and who did what where. I could also imagine it really happening; it's not fictional in a way that would mean all the events could not take place exactly as they did in the book.

My edition had 95 long short terrifying exciting pages and in them, there's a full arc of drama and then some. I can tell in hindsight and even at the time when the most important things happened, but the story never gave me a restful moment when I thought I could relax without anything crucial going on in the book.

I loved the cat as a character most of all. She was not very prominent, and was described as much a cat as anything, and for her character I could not figure out any Soviet relation. What a charming mystery this was. Maybe I'm not thinking hard enough. Or maybe sometimes, a cat is just a cat.

I'll give this a full 5/5 because I certainly couldn't wouldn't shouldn't change anything and because it was an impressive, important read. I'd recommend it to anyone so long as in your current mindset you're not too put off by thinking of these things. I really don't know how to properly praise this work. There's so many allegories and thoughts I don't know how someone thinks of writing something like this, and I don't have any doubts as to why this thing is considered a classic. At the same time, however, it doesn't require any prior knowledge or understanding about these subjects to be appreciated.

Also, for the Helmet 2017 reading challenge I put this book in category 41: There's an animal on a book's cover!