WWWoW – I Am Reading YA

Sup guys. After posting entirely nothing these past days, I’m back with a bunch of novels that needs to be reviewed, ranted, pondered and cried about.


What are you currently reading?


The premise of Traveler is anything I could ever hope for. Parallel words, metafiction, time loops and people dying—yup, sounds like my cup of tea—and yet the author manages to make these wonderful elements boring. It still is interesting and I hope it picks up its wits halfway.

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Traveler by L.E. Delano

Jessa has spent her life dreaming of other worlds and writing down stories more interesting than her own, until the day her favorite character, Finn, suddenly shows up and invites her out for coffee. After the requisite nervous breakdown, Jessa learns that she and Finn are Travelers, born with the ability to slide through reflections and dreams into alternate realities. But it’s not all steampunk pirates and fantasy lifestyles—Jessa is dying over and over again, in every reality, and Finn is determined that this time, he’s going to stop it… This Jessa is going to live. (Goodreads)


What did you recently finished reading?


Hah. I’ve read quite a lot of books the past months thanks to my long commute to work and my handy phone. I finished most Rick Riordan’s novels whilst sitting inside a noisy jeepney with its noisy passengers. The Knife of Never Letting Go was read between trips to home and to whatever place I feel like going, mostly by bus where the aircon is either too cold or too warm.

And hey, I’m finally reading YA books. I’ve always been a bit snobby to the genre but inevitably end up reading them. This year was a quite a good year for me in YA because I discovered a few beauties I loved and a few terrible ones that I still enjoyed anyway (glances at Ten and Scythe).


Waiting on Wednesdays


Okay. I decided to put WWW and WOW together since I couldn’t follow-up with the books that I intend to read. Something always comes up that deems far more important to read, so, instead, I’ll post here the books I want to read.

Hah. I never thought I’d be so pumped up on a book that I disliked and liked so much. Look at that cover. Look at that cover.

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A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin’s maneuverings and the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit-and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well.

As war bears down upon them all, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords-and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

In this thrilling third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling series from Sarah J. Maas, the earth will be painted red as mighty armies grapple for power over the one thing that could destroy them all. (Goodreads)


Not Alice In Wonderland

“What about Alice? Did she have a happy ending?”

It’s no secret that I love Christina Henry’s take on Alice and have been eagerly anticipating to read its sequel, Red Queen. Being a lover of the darker arts (I hope this does not change your sunnier opinion of me) (I am no sunny person in any way), Henry’s dark and grotesque version of wonderland hyped me up to read more from her. Yet, as all sequels are, there are bigger things to expect and my high expectations for Red Queen left me enjoying the novel less than its predecessor.  Continue reading

Gods Bless (and Curse) America!

“Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood.

If you’re reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now.  Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life. 

Being a half-blood is dangerous.  It’s scary.  Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.”

Unless you live inside a cave or something, I don’t think anyone here does NOT know Rick Riordan’s beloved Percy Jackson, a series of adventures by the titular character himself that takes place in the modern world where Greek gods, heroes and monsters exist. The final months of the last year had left me book-less, in which during this phase I absolutely lose my reading appetite. It is during this time when I choose books at random, mostly ones I have no intention of reading ever, and as the Fates had decided, the wheel pointed to Rick Riordan, whose books are displayed in every bookstore that you couldn’t possibly miss it on a reading slump phase. As it seems, Percy Jackson has always been a fly hovering at the corner of my sight. It is constantly everywhere, from bookstores to Facebook posts, and never did I had the desire to follow-up its hype or simply put, read the books. Until now.

Now, what is it in this book that appealed to so many? If you have not read it, why should you read it? What should you expect from it? Why is that person hushing me when I mention the name Zeus in public? Why do girls and boys like Nico so much? Why did Luke deserve better (no really, he deserves better)? All these, I won’t answer, unfortunately, but there are more than enough reasons to start reading the series.  Continue reading

Read-Along | The Riddle-Master of Hed | Part One

Some of you may be familiar with Patricia A. McKillip and some of you may not. To those who are familiar with the name, then you probably know The Riddlemaster of Hed and probably wondered if the author wrote it drunk or half-asleep. To those who do not know this masterpiece, then I advise you to read it just so I could ask you what the experience felt.

I have gracefully summarized the contents of the book for you. I emptied three ice trays while making this post, you could imagine the stress in figuring out this damn book.

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It’s about time I make use of my Ron Swanson gifs

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Top Ten Reasons Why I Hate and Love ACOTAR and Sequel

I have kept my feelings welled up inside me– I have many times considered tearing the book apart were it not for my parent’s peaceful upbringing. So, I had to settle on tearing potato chips with my teeth as I scan the book and write my review.

Because I HATE A Court of Thorn and Roses yet, at the same time, I LOVE it.

Damn you Sarah J. Maas. Damn you.

I intended this as a different post but when I saw that TTT is having a freebie week, I decided to put the two together since I was having a hard time organizing my thoughts. The post shall contain rants and praises and god knows what else. Maybe profanity unless my zen upbringing proves stronger than I thought. At the moment, I’m listening to the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack, thinking of the time when fairytales were simpler but memorable; ACOTAR is anything but simple and its impact to me is as powerful as an ant crawling inside my ear. I think it is a brilliant book that subverts common fairytale cliches such as Instaromance and Happily Ever Afters into realistic affairs and turns innocent kisses to hot, steamy sex scenes. At the same time, it is a flawed book, which makes it more or less an interesting book to discuss. I’ll be talking about BOTH novels so there are spoilers of course.  Continue reading

Four of the Hottest Lines from A Court of Mist and Fury

A Court of Mist and Fury is the second book of  A Court of Thorns and Roses trilogy (or saga? I don’t know), a series filled with violence, sex, and common teenage struggles such as animal slaughter and kidnapping. As I browse the pages of the book for my upcoming ACOTAR post, I saw lines I have never seen before and reread lines I was glad to read once more. As a refresher course for my ACOTAR (and sequel) rant and rave, I decided to write down four quotes from the sequel that are so hot, it’ll boil your brain and make you rethink about life.  Continue reading

WWWoW – Strange Novels. Just an Inch Strange.

What are you currently reading?

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The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

A writer’s story comes true..??

It seems my hang-over reading The Watcher in the Shadows never vanished, so now I’m reading Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s second book~ I’m just afraid I won’t like it as much as The Watcher in the Shadows because it certainly set the bar too high. We have the Sempere & Sons cameo though, and that enough could make my heart jump (and damn how it did).


What did you recently finished reading?

27003Thursday Next: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

A strong female heroine tries to catch a super villain who thought it a great idea to kill characters from novels. It was.

 Aaaarghh. What the hell were you thinking Fforde?! What the hell?! Eyebrows were raised while reading this book. I’m not sure what to think about it at all. It’s horribly written but really fun to read. Thursday is bland as much as Acheron is amusing. The story is all over the place and some chapters are better left out. I have a lot of issues about this book but enjoying it is not one of them. This is so confusing.


Waiting on Wednesdays

Okay. I decided to put WWW and WOW together since I couldn’t follow-up with the books that I intend to read. Something always comes up that deems far more important to read, so, instead, I’ll post here the books I want to read.

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The Emperor’s Railroad by Guy Haley

Global war devastated the environment, a zombie-like plague wiped out much of humanity, and civilization as we once understood it came to a standstill. But that was a thousand years ago, and the world is now a very different place.

Conflict between city states is constant, superstition is rife, and machine relics, mutant creatures and resurrected prehistoric beasts trouble the land. Watching over all are the silent Dreaming Cities. Homes of the angels, bastion outposts of heaven on Earth. Or so the church claims. Very few go in, and nobody ever comes out.

Until now…

Expected publication: April 19, 2016

Post-apocalyptic stories are always good reads; this is why I’m wondering I don’t read much of them. This one looks weird enough, and I don’t think I’ve ever read a post-apocalyptic book with zombies, monsters and angels.


In Which I Give You Reasons Why To Read Anansi Boys

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SYNOPSIS

Fat Charlie Nancy’s normal life ended the moment his father dropped dead on a Florida karaoke stage. Charlie didn’t know his dad was a god. And he never knew he had a brother.

Now brother Spider’s on his doorstep — about to make Fat Charlie’s life more interesting… and a lot more dangerous. (Goodreads)


It is hilarious. Pretty much the main reason why you should check out the novel. It’ll have you chuckling, giggling, chortling and everything as the story goes on. Neil Gaiman nails the humour on this one and it was a nice, pleasant change from his darker novels. If you want a warm, funny read, then this is the book to savor. I read this one during my trips to work and found how difficult it is to pretend to cough for long, several minutes just to hide the guffaws stuck at my throat.

“There are three things, and three things only, that can lift the pain of mortality and ease the ravages of life,” said Spider. “These things are wine, women and song”…

“Curry’s nice too” pointed out Fat Charlie.

Continue reading

The Fun and Happy Adventures of Geralt

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SYNOPSIS

Geralt of Rivia is a witcher. A cunning sorcerer. A merciless assassin.

And a cold-blooded killer.

His sole purpose: to destroy the monsters that plague the world.

But not everything monstrous-looking is evil and not everything fair is good. . . and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.

The international hit that inspired the video game: The Witcher. (Goodreads)


The Last Wish is the first book of The Witcher series, more popularly known as a video game with the same title and praised by critiques due to its immersive world, rich characters, dark story, and impressive pornography. The novel is written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski and was first released as a series of short stories in the 90s. It was not until 2007 when the novel was translated into English and recently, this February, Orbit Books revealed the cover of the fourth novel, The Tower of Swallows. A good time to be fan and for me, who couldn’t finish a single video game without screaming, it is an opportunity to explore the franchise without raging in front of a screen.

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Eight Books I Really Love But Feel Like I Haven’t Talked About Enough/In A While

Hah. Here we are. The post where I get to talk about my favorite novels. And ten eight of them. Gush.

THE STAND

My favorite of all King’s novels. It drove me to read twenty of his novels and become obsessed with anything related to King. This epic book provides lots of room for discussion, especially about its characters, so I’m not sure why I haven’t brought it up that much in my blog, or to anyone at that matter.

The Stand begins with Captain Trips, a virus that wipes out most of the population…

No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side.

Or you don’t.

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There was an instance of my life when I was driven to madness by Tumblr. Shuuen no Shiori was one of the catapults that turned me into an academic in that wretched place. A terrible one. I just couldn’t stop talking about it. I made twenty-pages worth of character analysis, with bits of psychology and sociology thrown here and there. The funny thing is that it barely comes across my mind these days.

Shuuen no Shiori or Bookmark of Demise is a vocaloid series about four friends who got involved in a Demise Game where one of them is the fox. They have to kill the fox or else, all of them will die. It’s a wonderful psychological horror/drama with lots of unexpected twists and turns.

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I’ve been a huge reader of Martha Grimes works since I was 15. I even wrote a letter to her once.

Her RY books is a series of mystery novels starring Richard Jury, our melancholic yet charming detective and his sidekick, Melrose Plant, the ex-earl who can buy pretty much anything with just a card and cheque and one of the funniest characters I have ever come across. A very fascinating mystery series with lots of quirky yet thoughtful characters (especially the dogs and children~). It’s always a delight to read.

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Oh yes. I was one of those people who gawked hallelujah to this series, which spawned hundreds of YA Dystopian rip-offs and quadruple movies that are better off as trilogies. I thought it was pretty awesome book, and still is. It was an exciting read that kept me awake for days with a powerful ending.

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A middle-grade book that more people should read and I ought to talk more about. It features a boy who could see witches and takes place in New York City, where magic is being replaced with machines. It’s a very colorful book with lots of promise. Now, if Moriarty could just start writing the next book

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The third book/series that blew up my mind. The Discworld series couldn’t taught me enough about race, politics, jingoism, morality, and so much more but not without pulling off laughs. I used to contribute a few Disc stuff on Tumblr but haven’t talked much of it lately.

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To Kill a Mockingbird was the second book that blew me away. A lot of explosions happened during my teenage years and thankfully enough, this book was one of them. I was fifteen when my eyes were opened about racism and, though the book didn’t explicitly said that word, I grew to learn that such things happened. Racism isn’t a common topic in our education (but patriotism and the English language are, funnily enough) so, after reading this book, I was simply stumped. 

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Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.

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You guessed it. The first book that blew away my life and my world. I’ve been an avid fan of the series when I was twelve onwards and what it did to me was very, very life-changing. It taught me to think and listen. It taught me to flip over the chessboard and see things from another person’s point-of-view. It made me love puzzles, mysteries, and most of all, books. It taught me that space in reality that is reserved for magic and how to grasp that. It taught me how to look beyond the catbox. It taught me to empathize and to reason. How I miss this one.

It is easy to cast magic on other people. And believing in other people’s magic is not so difficult. The hardest thing is casting magic on yourself.