One of the most passionate and heartfelt novels ever written,Wuthering Heights tells of the relationship between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, the orphan boy her father adopted and brought to Wuthering Heights when they were children.
While Catherine forms a deep attachment to Heathcliff, her brother Hindley despises him as a rival. Heathcliff becomes torn between love for Catherine and the rage and humiliation he suffers. Finally he can stand it no longer and, in the violence of a summer storm, leaves the Heights for three years. During his absence Catherine has married, but her tormented heart belongs eternally to Heathcliff who is now prepared to exact his tyrannical revenge.
With its freedom from social convention and its unparalleled emotional intensity, Wuthering Heights is a highly original and deeply tragic work.
Review:
This is the first time I feel so insecure about rating and reviewing a book, because I think that Wuthering Heights is one of those books you either love or hate. I can't even tell you for sure what this book made me feel.
The writing is amazing, honestly! It's obviously a classic and it would be a shame if books like this simply disappear from our shelves. It felt consistent and I had no problems reading it. The characters were very fleshed out, they were strong and captivating. I'm not really sure about the POV, I guess it could have been made differently...it would be interesting to have access to the real feelings and thoughts of the characters with another type of narrator. I wasn't especially interested in Lockwood and even if I liked Nelly, maybe first person is just not my type of narration.
Wuthering Heights is kind of a suffocating book. You end up in their world, having a very personal perspective about everything. I suffered reading some parts, particularly with Linton and the young Catherine. Heathcliff is a brutal man and I hated him from the start, Catherine (the first) is equally hateful. Well, if you're reading the book expecting to find charming and generous protagonists, then you're at the wrong place. I always thought that maybe they were that kind of character that you're suppose to hate, but you find yourself loving them anyway; maybe they would have reasons to be bad and you would ultimately forgive them because of those. No, that's not what happens here.
Even if most of the characters are pure evil, you have Edgar Linton, Ellen Deans and even Catherine Linton who loves her father unconditionally and sacrifices herself because of her selfish cousin. They always say that the reader must create empathy with the main characters but I disagree strongly. I didn't feel empathy with Heathcliff, not even slightly, and I still think he's a great character, very well written and hoped he and Cathy would be together - after all, they deserve each other.
My favorite characters were Hareton, the kind and smart boy who were turned into an uneducated and violent man because of Heathcliff's cruelty, and Miss Cathy Linton because of the duality of her personality.
I understand that people who suffered from domestic violence or had a troubled family will most probably dislike this book. I have to confess that I hated the first few pages myself. But it's a great book and it proves that literature does not have to be about kind people...it's about a sick, possessing love and it doesn't try to hide that fact. They all felt real to me and it shows a different side to the human being that we're not used to see in novels.
As I said before, you either love or hateWuthering Heights. Nevertheless, it's a brilliant piece of art and you should at least try it.
Classificação:
5 out of 5 stars
Sinopse:
There’s something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.
Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price’s attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah. He’s the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move.
Even Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce – he goes out of his way to make that very clear. But she can’t let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, Luce has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret...even if it kills her.
Review:
At first I liked it, especially because the story was in a reform school and, well I don't know, I just like reading about it. But then Daniel came in and I couldn't feel even just a little fascinated by him. It was like the author was trying to force me to think he was incredible...and then his physical description didn't exactly match my personal taste so it was one of that cases when I would prefer less description and more left for my imagination. I don't like when the character is supposed to be super hot and then the author describes all about him, leaving me no space to create an image in my head according to what I thing is hot.
So, yeah, I didn't like him and I just thought he was an asshole when he flipped her off. Luce was also pretty irritating, she had no personality at all, she cared about nothing but her obsession and, honestly, I wanted to slap her when she became all enchanted by a guy who was plain rude. The pace of the book was the slowest thing ever and I kept reading like five chapters a day because it was easy to read them and because I was always hoping the next chapter would provide some action. I liked Cam's looks. It fits my definition of hot. But apart from that, he and every other character in this book is not flashed out at all. They are all just looks, dumb dialogue and...yeap, nothing more. I know it's fiction, but it's also suppose to imitate real people, right? The secret of the main characters was pretty clear all along and the book had no suspense even if the author seems to think differently. There were no surprises. And actually there was no plot. Nothing happened, the chapters were a bunch of useless information and you could perfectly cut half of it, making it a much shorter book. Since Cam was the only character that I remotely liked (and for very shallow reasons, as I said), Fallen just became even worst in the last chapters when he was so annoying he made me want to punch him. I find the story very frustrating because Kate took an absurd amount of chapters to tell us something and when she did, it was really nothing amazing. There were many things I didn't understand and it didn't gave Fallen a sense of suspense but, on the contrary, it made it boring and irritating. I don't understand how this kind of books can sell. Must be the gorgeous cover, I absolutely love it and I confess I wanted to read the book just because of it, even after I saw the negative feedback. From now on, I will just contemplate the covers, but I shall not read Torment or any of the other books in the Fallen series and I recommend you to do the same.
Classificação:
1 out of 5 stars
Sinopse:
From a life raft cast adrift in the middle of the ocean to the attic of a suburban garage; from the heart-pounding moments just after the dead begin to rise, to the ravaged world generations later, the five stories in The Dead and Empty World present a chilling portrait of what it takes to survive – or not – the zombie apocalypse.
Review:
The Dead and Empty World was a gift for my NaNoWrimo victory and, to be honest, it quite surprised me how good it was. Don't take me wrong, NaNo is an amazing place but I'm a very suspicious person and since it was a free book, my hopes were not really that high. Oh boy, I was wrong! I checked the reviews on Forest of Hand and Teeth and some of them were kind of negative. I don't know if the style of writing changes that much or if it's because this is a collection of short stories but I liked it. I was unsure about giving it four stars and I would give it three and a half if I could, but I ended up rating it with three stars instead. I don't like to evaluate the writing skills because I'm reading this in English and I'm not a native speaker, so I don't think I have the right to do it. I could, if the writing was astonishingly good or surprisingly bad but neither of those were the case with this book. As I said before, it's a collection of short stories, which makes the reading pretty easy and not tiring at all. I loved the different points of view on the subject of zombies and some of the stories were better than the others but I enjoyed them in general - apart from the last one. I don't know exactly why, but Tabitha's story was too long and I became bored at the middle. Nevertheless, it was a good book and I recommend it for people who like zombies or just want to read something short and entertaining.
Classificação:
3 out of 5 stars
1.Amanhecer - Stephenie Meyer
2. A Breve Segunda Vida de Bree Tanner - Stephenie Meyer (2€ Fnac)
3. Twilight - Graphic Novels (46,51 € Book Depository)
3. Saga The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (40,23 € Fnac)
4. Jane Austen (15,28 € Continente) (74,47 € Bertrand)
5. Brontë Sisters (10,00 € Continente; não encontro mais livros e agora também não vou procurar.)
6. Saga Vampire Academy (46,95 € Book Depository)
Total: 253,52 €
Então, eu tenho uma wishlist a longo prazo, mas primeiro preciso de completar as colecções. Esses são os que tenho de comprar com mais brevidade. Brevidade como quem diz que vou demorar precisamente um ano até ter comprado isso tudo.
Sinopse:
London. 1880. In the slums of Spitalfields apprentice blacksmith Luke is facing initiation into the Malleus Maleficorum, the fearsome brotherhood dedicated to hunting and killing witches.
Luke’s final test is to pick a name at random from the Book of Witches, a name he must track down and kill within a month, or face death himself. Luke knows that tonight will change his life forever. But when he picks out sixteen-year-old Rosa Greenwood, Luke has no idea that his task will be harder than he could ever imagine.
Review:
Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange of an honest review.
Pretty, pretty cover. Interesting synopsis. I liked the figures in the beginning of each chapter too (the bird, the locket, etc).
The idea behind the books was good. A secret brotherhood, Luke's power...it all drew my attention. Also, the beginning was quite great with the ritual of knife, fire and hammer.
The characters weren't greatly detailed, they didn't have much of a personality and Rosa was pretty flat, to be honest. But I liked Luke, he was ok. The most frustrating thing about this was Rosa's inaction - she was a witch who barely used her powers and let everyone abuse her.
Sebastian is a truly evil character. You couldn't like him even if you wanted; but why would you, anyway? He's controlling, possessive, abusive...There's also the mystery about his little sister and his mad mother. I would like to know more about them and I'm hoping the next book will give me some answers.
Minna was interesting and I'm also hoping to see her again. Her friendship with Luke was cute and I'm glad they didn't become a love triangle as I feared at first.
This story has a lot of animal abuse, some of it done by Sebastian and those were the most shocking parts of the book. It also deals with forced marriages and the pressure that young girls at that time suffered. Rosa supposedly has to marry in order to save her family from poverty and her father's house, which is full of memories of him.
I understand she felt bad about letting Matchenham be sold out, since it had so much meaning to her but was it really so imperative that she married to save it? Sometimes, the characters reasons didn't felt strong enough to justify their actions.
The love between Rose and Luke was too sudden. They barely knew each other and just because she was all so pretty, he didn't feel capable of killing her and considered dying himself to save her.
It was predictable and had a lot of cliches. The boy was hot and had hazel eyes (hazel eyes are becoming almost a necessity in all YA books), the girl was a damsel in distress who did nothing to save her own skin and was too weak to be consider a good protagonist. I don't mean she had to kick ass in order to be awesome or anything, but she was merely a puppet throughout the story and I still don't know anything about her - apart from her love for animals.
This sounds like I didn't like the book at all but I did, I really did! I'm just advising any future reader not to wait for lots of action and totally fleshed out characters, because you won't find them. But, it's an amusing story. I enjoyed myself reading it and, hey, cliches exist for a reason, right? They work sometimes.
This is a light reading for sure, but I felt the need of keep reading it. I liked the story, the century in which it takes place and the concept of a witch finder who can read the witches auras, as the magic floats around them. As I said before, Luke is a good character and even if it's a slow paced story, it's still a compelling romance (it's way more about romance than paranormal).
So, I'm sorry, I can't really tell you why but I liked it. It was beautifully written, it made me want to read many chapters at once and it didn't bored me at all. I know most people don't recommend it but I do.
Classificação:
4 out of 5 stars
Sinopse:
Seventeen-year-old Raine Cooper has enough on her plate dealing with her father’s disappearance, her mother’s erratic behavior and the possibility of her boyfriend relocating. The last thing she needs is Torin St. James—a mysterious new neighbor with a wicked smile and uncanny way of reading her.
Raine is drawn to Torin’s dark sexiness against her better judgment, until he saves her life with weird marks and she realizes he is different. But by healing her, Torin changes something inside Raine. Now she can’t stop thinking about him. Half the time, she’s not sure whether to fall into his arms or run.
Scared, she sets out to find out what Torin is. But the closer she gets to the truth the more she uncovers something sinister about Torin. What Torin is goes back to an ancient mythology and Raine is somehow part of it. Not only are she and her friends in danger, she must choose a side, but the wrong choice will cost Raine her life.
Review:
Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange of an honest review.
I didn't like it, I'm sorry. I couldn't even finish it.
Somebody told me the first thirty pages of a novel should be the most important ones because if I read thirty pages and I'm still not enjoying myself, I never will. I waited for page 40 to completely give up.
The synopsis is interesting, the cover it's not the best but I like the colors and I was really hoping for an awesome story.
First off, why does every YA book have to be written in first person? While this can be pretty amusing sometimes, at some cases it just ruins things. I didn't like the protagonist, which makes it harder to like the book. And I didn't like the narrative either; it was poorly written, in my opinion.
It had a lot of cliches in it and I honestly didn't care about any of the characters, as they were just tropes and nothing more.
Oh, and please please please let me get what I want, stop creating female protagonists who go all dumb just because a pretty boy talks to them. It's annoying and insulting for me, as a woman (this book is written by a woman afterall, so she should be more careful, I guess).
I don't have much more to say. I'm so sorry for giving up on Runes, especially because I got it through Netgalley and I don't want to sound rude. I know it's really hard to write a novel and the author must have worked very hard to do it, but I just can't bring myself to like it.
When high school senior Paul Wagoner walks into his school library with a stolen gun, he threatens his girlfriend Emily Beam, then takes his own life. In the wake of the tragedy, an angry and guilt-ridden Emily is shipped off to boarding school in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she encounters a ghostly presence who shares her name. The spirit of Emily Dickinson and two quirky girls offer helping hands, but it is up to Emily to heal her own damaged self.
This inventive story, told in verse and in prose, paints the aftermath of tragedy as a landscape where there is good behind the bad, hope inside the despair, and springtime under the snow.
Review:
Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange of an honest review.
Actually, I would give it 3.5 stars if that was possible.
I wanted to read And We Stay because the cover was gorgeous. Honestly, this is one of the prettiest covers I have ever seen! It's simple, it's not overly ornamented (that's a mistake I see A LOT, particularly, in YA and Fantasy books) and it fits the story perfectly.
This is Literary Fiction. It doesn't have much of a plot and the story is entirely character driven with a beautiful, metaphoric prose which was truly a delight. Then, it has the poems in the end of every chapter, each one of them amazingly written.
I like boarding school's novels. I was a bit afraid of it becoming just a cliché kind of novel but, well, it sure wasn't.
Don't expect to find an intriguing plot with lots of action and adventure because, as I said in the beginning, this is a book about a character, it's not plot driven and little happens. But you can certainly expect the matching of a lyrical, flowery, well constructed prose with beautiful, meaningful yet simple poems.
The pace is slow but what gets in my nerves is the fact that I don't really feel connected to Emily, at first. The POV doesn't allow me to do so. So, at times, I felt like I didn't know much about the protagonist and that maybe she was a "flat" character. It wasn't until the last chapters that I began to understand a little more about her.
Another thing that I didn't like was that the narrator kept referring to Emily as Emily Beam during the entire book...it was annoying and weird.
The relationship between Emily and Paul was simple and felt real to me (sometimes adult authors tend to complicate teenage love way more than it is), but Paul, as well as K.T., wasn't a full fleshed out character and it seems to me that I finished the book not knowing much about him.
The constant comparisons between Beam and Dickinson were a bit exaggerated like they were forcing the connection.
I end up not knowing why Paul killed himself either, but the final made me cry and it had something lovely about it. In fact, the last chapters were the best; the more I read, the more compelled about the book I felt and I was able to create empathy towards Emily in the end.
It has its flaws but I really enjoyed it and my general appreciation about this novel is pretty positive. I strongly hope I can find a Portuguese version, but even if the book isn't translated to my language, I plan to buy it.
And We Stay is not for the reader who seeks for action but I surely recommend it to everyone who finds interest in reading beautiful narrative. If you prefer internal conflicts over external conflicts, then go for it.
Classificação:
3 out of 5 stars
Sinopse:
When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms. Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.
(Mini-)Review:
I just gave it up and honestly I don't usually do this kind of things. It was so awful that I felt like I was just wasting my time. I wanted to finish it so I could do a good review about it, but the first pages were enough. Please, do a favor to yourself: don't read it. There's fanfiction way better than this "book".
Classificação:
1 out of 5 stars
P.S: Não estranhem reviews em inglês nos próximos dias, porque as originais estavam nesta língua e não me apeteceu traduzir. Qualquer erro, é culpa minha, but who cares?
Junto-me ao grupo e venho desejar um feliz dia do Livro. Honestamente, não sei o que faria sem ter os livros a funcionar como um escape.
“You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
