Wishlist Wednesday: The Ghost Bride

10:10 Cilla 0 Comments

"One evening, my father asked me if I would like to become a ghost bride..."

Though ruled by British overlords, the Chinese of colonial Malaya still cling to ancient customs. And in the sleepy port town of Malacca, ghosts and superstitions abound.

Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects. But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and powerful Lim family. They want her to become a ghost bride for the family's only son, who recently died under mysterious circumstances. Rarely practiced, a traditional ghost marriage is used to placate a restless spirit. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at a terrible price.

After an ominous visit to the opulent Lim mansion, Li Lan finds herself haunted not only by her ghostly would-be suitor, but also by her desire for the Lim's handsome new heir, Tian Bai. Night after night, she is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, with its ghost cities, paper funeral offerings, vengeful spirits and monstrous bureaucracy—including the mysterious Er Lang, a charming but unpredictable guardian spirit. Li Lan must uncover the Lim family's darkest secrets—and the truth about her own family—before she is trapped in this ghostly world forever.


This has been on my TBR for... a year, maybe? I'm really keen on reading it, but never got around to finding a copy. As I've mentioned somewhere on this blog earlier, lately I've been craving books that are set to a cultural background other than American or European. I want to read this book because I have a Chinese background. While my family doesn't practice the ancient customs discussed in this book, we still do paper funeral offerings. My relatives still burn money, paper cars (complete with the chauffeur), and lay out a meal when we visit our grandparents' graves - all to ensure that our grandparents are comfortable in the afterlife. Our knowledge about the tradition is patchy, but the superstitions live on.

It'll be fascinating to read about these Chinese customs. Add romance and supernatural touches to that, and this sounds exactly like the kind of book I will enjoy.

Review: Cinder

11:46 Cilla 0 Comments

Title: Cinder
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Source: Dymocks Books, Melbourne
Synopsis:

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.


Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future

Review: ⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆

"I'm sure I'll feel much more grateful when I find a guy who thinks complex wiring in a girl is a turn-on."

I read this book in April 2014 while I was still in Melbourne, and since it's been so long, I wasn't going to post the review on this blog. However, I was browsing one of the big bookshop chains yesterday and saw Cinder among their newly arrived books. (Apparently that is how behind Indonesia can be with books, unless it's a really hyped title or author.) Anyway, given this and the fact that Winter is coming out this year, I've decided to post this review after all. And now that you've read through my rambling, let's get on with the actual review!

I'm in love with this book. I love retellings of fairytales, and this is easily the best I've read. I love the the fact that the story - a YA dystopia - is centered somewhere other than North America and that there is a global community as well as the local environment. In books like The Hunger Games, you can't help but wonder if Panem exists in isolation from the rest of the world, or if there is even the rest of the world. I didn't need to ask that question with Cinder. Also, isn't it about time we have an Asian heroine?

The characters are so alive. I adore Iko, the android with a 'faulty' personality chip; she made me laugh so much. It would've been easy for Queen Levana, the big bad, to come across as caricaturish with her obsession with beauty and her quest for (quite literally) world domination, but Meyer managed to inject and maintain that sense of danger to Levana's every threat. And Cinder! My heart ached for her often, but I love her strength and determination. I was able to guess one of the major plot revelations, but I didn't really care because the journey to it was not predictable. (My friend told me that the same revelation totally took her by surprise, so maybe I'm just really used to fairytale retellings.)

I couldn't put it down, and would absolutely recommend this book to everyone who loves fairytale retellings and a bit of science fiction.

“Even in the future the story begins with Once Upon a Time.”

My Top Six Literary Crushes

21:47 Cilla 4 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is an original meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Click here for information.

It took me a while to think of what to do for this freebie week, but then a conversation with a friend reminded me of how much fun it is to gush over fictional boys. I tried to think of ten, but I came up a bit short. So, here are the six fictional guys who have stolen my heart:


1. Peeta Mellark from The Hunger Games.
'And then he gives me a smile that just seems so genuinely sweet with just the right touch of shyness that unexpected warmth rushes through me.' I have a real weakness for sweet boys, and Peeta won me over the moment we learn about the burnt bread.

2. Jem Carstairs from The Infernal Devices.
'Jem is a steady flame, unwavering and honest.' Again, I have a thing for sweet guys, and Jem is not only sweet, but dependable and good. I'm not sure how I feel about the resolution to his storyline, but I still adore him anyway.



3. Simon Lewis from The Mortal Instruments.
“I wouldn't change it," Simon said. "I wouldn't give up loving you. Not for anything. You know what Raphael told me? That I didn't know how to be a good vampire, that vampires accept that they're dead. But as long as I remember what it was like to love you, I'll always feel like I'm alive.” Simon is the best. He's loyal, funny (his banters with Jace are some of my favourite parts of the books), and nerdy. Plus, he's a musician.

4. Ron Weasley from Harry Potter.
“Excuse me, are you the imprint of a departed soul?" Funny, loyal, and generous (he never had much but he opened his house and shared his family with Harry),  for me Ron is the heart of the group. Sure, he's insecure and prone to jealousy, but wouldn't you be if you grew up poor, with five really cool older brothers, and ended up best friends to a celebrity?
5. Peter Pevensie from The Chronicles of Narnia
"Peter did not feel very brave; indeed, he felt he was going to be sick. But that made no difference to what he had to do." Okay, admittedly this one is more of a movie crush than a book crush, but technically he was a book character first. I adore the way Peter looked after his siblings, and how he stepped up and became a leader.


6. Carswell Thorne from The Lunar Chronicles
'A hand landed on Cress's head. She gasped and recoiled, but Thorne was already wrapping his arm around her shoulders and squeezing her against him. "Just checking it was you," he whispered.'  If Thorne were real and in my life, I'd be equal parts super frustrated with him and totally drawn to him. He's charming, funny (his interactions with Cinder are some of my favourite things about the series), and rather complicated. Life would not be boring with him.

Current Bookish Affairs

10:16 Cilla 0 Comments

I'm a book polygamist. At any given time I could have one book on my nightstand for bedtime, another in my bag and another on my phone just in case I'm stuck waiting somewhere. Or. I start one book, get sidetracked with another, get bored and go back to the first one, and so on. The only time it doesn't happen is when a book has truly captured my attention (and it's the right size to fit in my bag so I can keep reading while I'm out and about).

At the moment, these are on my 'currently reading' list:

Review: Leaving Time

17:10 Cilla 0 Comments

Title: Leaving Time
Author: Jodi Picoult
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Source: The library
Synopsis: 

Alice Metcalf was a devoted mother, loving wife and accomplished scientist who studied grief among elephants. Yet it's been a decade since she disappeared under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind her small daughter, husband, and the animals to which she devoted her life. All signs point to abandonment - or worse.

Still Jenna - now thirteen years old and truly orphaned by a father maddened by grief - steadfastly refuses to believe in her mother's desertion. So she decides to approach the two people who might still be able to help her find Alice: a disgraced psychic named Serenity Jones, and Virgil Stanhope, the cynical detective who first investigated her mother's disappearance and the strange, possibly linked death of one of her WC mother's coworkers.


Together these three lonely souls will discover truths destined to forever change their lives.

Review: ⋆⋆⋆⋆

'I think grief is like a really ugly couch. It never goes away. You can decorate around it; you can slap a doily on top of it; you can push it to the corner of the room—but eventually, you learn to live with it.'

I know when I pick up a Jodi Picoult novel that I'm bound to enjoy reading it. So, instead of wondering whether it will be a good book, the question is whether this one would be the one to top Nineteen Minutes for me.

For Leaving Time, the answer is no, but that didn't mean it sucked. I enjoyed the mystery in this book, and that twist at the end was brilliant. After I finished, I flipped back through the book to re-read the clues she'd dropped and wondered how I missed it. I also loved reading about the elephants; the stories about their plights and how they grieve at times affected me more than the journey of the actual characters. And speaking of the actual characters, I found some of their relationships were predictable - The Metcalf's marriage is a pattern that's in every Picoult book, but I suppose you can't have a family drama without it - and so I didn't really care about how those unfolded. I loved Serenity Jones though, and her character is one I'd love to see again.

So basically, I loved the plot and was sucked in every time I opened this book, but I can think of a few Picoult novels I've enjoyed more.

Wishlist Wednesday: Prisoner of Night and Fog

21:56 Cilla 0 Comments

'In 1930s Munich, danger lurks behind dark corners, and secrets are buried deep within the city. But Gretchen Müller, who grew up in the National Socialist Party under the wing of her "uncle" Dolf, has been shielded from that side of society ever since her father traded his life for Dolf's, and Gretchen is his favorite, his pet.

Uncle Dolf is none other than Adolf Hitler. And Gretchen follows his every command.

Until she meets a fearless and handsome young Jewish reporter named Daniel Cohen. Gretchen should despise Daniel, yet she can't stop herself from listening to his story: that her father, the adored Nazi martyr, was actually murdered by an unknown comrade. She also can't help the fierce attraction brewing between them, despite everything she's been taught to believe about Jews.

As Gretchen investigates the very people she's always considered friends, she must decide where her loyalties lie. Will she choose the safety of her former life as a Nazi darling, or will she dare to dig up the truth—even if it could get her and Daniel killed?

From debut author Anne Blankman comes this harrowing and evocative story about an ordinary girl faced with the extraordinary decision to give up everything she's ever believed . . . and to trust her own heart instead.'

The first time I saw this book was in a closing sale of an independent bookshop (does anyone else's heart break a little bit when a bookshop closes?), and I was actually trying to limit myself to just one book. I eventually chose another title. I didn't regret that, but I checked out the reviews for Prisoner of Night and Fog on Goodreads afterward, and now this book is haunting me.

Have you read Prisoner of Night and Fog? What did you think? If you haven't, does this sound like something you'd read?

Ten Books I Will Probably Never Read

22:25 Cilla 3 Comments

1. Fifty Shades of Grey. I thought about reading this once, just out of curiousity. Then I was clicking through the interwebs one summer holiday and stumbled upon a blog that included excerpts in their review of the book. I think that - and everything else I know about the story from the hype and controversy - is enough. Definitely not interested in reading the whole thing.

2. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I know it's a parody, but still. Why mess with a classic? Plus I'm not a big fan of zombies.

3. The Shining by Stephen King. Or any other Stephen King's novel, to be honest. I'm a big scaredy cat and I will probably never sleep again if I read this book.

4. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. I'm just not interested.

5. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I actually really want to read this book, but as I mentioned earlier, I'm reaaaally terrible with horror stories.

6. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Saffran Foer. Okay, I loved Jonathan Saffran Foer's Eating Animals, and I would love to get into his novels too. However, I peeked into a copy of this particular novel of his and I don't think I can stand the way it's written.

7. The Selection by Kiera Cass. This doesn't look like my type of book anyway, but I was made aware of the way this author responded to a negative review, and that has completely put me off.

8. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. I put this on my to-read list on Goodreads a long time ago, but that was before I realised it's as thick as a brick. Having watched the musical and movie, I feel like I've got the gist of the story and probably won't ever want to invest the time and effort to read it when I already know how heartbreaking the story is.

9. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. This is another case of the author's profile prejudicing my opinion of the book. I did check out the trailer for the movie, however, and it doesn't look like the kind of story I'd love anyway.

10. A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. I know, I know. I can picture the shock and horror on my Game of Thrones-loving friends' already, but if the TV show is any indication, there may be way too many deaths and gruesome things in this story for my taste.

Review: Shadow and Bone

09:16 Cilla 0 Comments

Title: Shadow and Bone
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publisher: Indigo
Source: Periplus Bookstore
Synopsis: 
"I've been waiting for you a long time, Alina," he said. "You and I are going to change the world."

The Shadow Fold, a swathe of impenetrable darkness, is slowly destroying the once-great nation of Ravka.
Alina, a pale, lonely orphan, discovers a unique power that thrusts her into the world of the kingdom's magical elite - the Grisha. Could she be the key to setting Ravka free?
The Darkling, a man of seductive charm and terrifying power. If Alina is to fulfil her destiny, she must unlock her gift and face up to her dangerous attraction to him.
But what of Mal, Alina's childhood best friend? As Alina contemplates her dazzling new future, why can't she ever quite forget him?


Review: ⋆⋆⋆⋆

'And there's nothing wrong with being a lizard either. Unless you were born to be a hawk.'

Lately I crave novels that are not set in America, futuristic or dystopia or current. Most of those books are great, but I want to read about other places and cultures too. So when I started reading Shadow and Bone and realised that it is steeped in a culture I know nothing about, I was excited. There was just enough information and foreign words sprinkled in the narrative about Alina's world to keep me engaged in every description. There were times, however, when I did have to keep flipping back to the first page to keep all of the Grisha ranks in order in my head. I still don't think I can tell you who's the lowest ranked Grisha, but I can picture their kaftas and the palace and Ravka in general. This book would - or should - make one gorgeous movie.

A well-built world is nothing without the characters, and I loved the characters too. I was wary at first - the cover makes it sounds like any other YA: ordinary girl discovers extraordinary power, gets chosen and has to deal with a strange world, and she's caught in a love triangle. To be honest, I still don't know how I feel about Alina by herself. I like that she's vulnerable and feels her emotions, but when she's alone, she's not as interesting to me. When she is with other characters though, whether it's Genya, Mal, or The Darkling, I can feel for and with her. Her and Mal's moments were my favourites; the heartache and that need for one another came across so well, I wanted to hug them.

And The Darkling! I knew he was a bad idea for a girl (he's called The Darkling, after all), and it's slightly creepy to think that he is 120 years old, but I couldn't help being attracted to him. I'm usually dismissive of handsome, mysterious men in novels too, so the fact that I fell for his charm spoke volumes of how well he is written.

Not much surprised me about the story arch, and the parts that did I wouldn't discuss here because of spoilers, but I loved the end of this book. There was a believable sense of danger and death, and I was left wanting more. I'm definitely going to read the rest of the series.