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review: rooftops of tehran

book info: on sale: now copy from: public library pages: 348 review written: 21.12.17 originally published: 2009 edition read: Penguin NAL 2009 title: Rooftops of Tehran author: Mahbod Seraji In a middle-class neighborhood of Iran's sprawling capital city, 17-year-old Pasha Shahed spends the summer of 1973 on his rooftop with his best friend Ahmed, joking around one minute and asking burning questions about life the next. He also hides a secret love for his beautiful neighbor Zari, who has been betrothed since birth to another man. But the bliss of Pasha and Zari's stolen time together is shattered when Pasha unwittingly acts as a beacon for the Shah's secret police. The violent consequences awaken him to the reality of living under a powerful despot, and lead Zari to make a shocking choice... my thoughts: This book was first published in 2009 and I remember adding it to my list around that time but never actually reading it since I preferred checking out library books to ...

The Secret

Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock

Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock
Series: Hemlock #1
Source: Kindle Version
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication Date: May 8th 2012
Age Genre: Young Adult
MACKENZIE AND AMY WERE BEST FRIENDS.
UNTIL AMY WAS BRUTALLY MURDERED.
Since then, Mac's life has been turned upside down. She is being haunted by Amy in her dreams, and an extremist group called the Trackers has come to Mac's hometown of Hemlock to hunt down Amy's killer:
A white werewolf.
Lupine syndrome - also known as the werewolf vius - is on the rise across the country. Many of the infected try to hide their symptoms, but bloodlust is not easy to control.
Wanting desperately to put an end to her nightmares, Mac decides to investigate Amy's murder herself. She discovers secrets lurking in the shadows of Hemlock, secrets about Amy's boyfriend, Jason, her good pal Kyle, and especially her late best friend. Mac is thrown into a maelstrom of violence and betrayal that puts her life at risk.
Kathleen Peacock's thrilling novel is the first in the Hemlock trilogy, a spellbinding urban fantasy series filles with provocative questions about prejudice, trust, lies, and love.
Hemlock is one of those books that has been on my tbr for ages, alongside Unearthly, Shadow and Bone and a few others that blew up around the same time. I was always enticed by the general love my friends had for it--but the actual summary didn't really compel me to pick it up immediately.

To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about this book. I left it feeling very confused - did I like this book?? Didn't I like this book???
I swear to god, I can't decide.

I mean, it's not a bad book. It's not a bad story. But at the same time I feel like I spent more time wishing I could just fast forward to the moment Jason's eyes are finally opened, Mac would finally clue it to what everyone but her already knows and exasperated at Kyle's righteous self torture than actually enjoying the plot.

So, basically, I kind of... wanted it to be a completely different story? A feeling that was consistent until the very end of the story, as I wished for a completely different ending as well.

Can you understand my uncertainty? I didn't dislike the book, but at the same time can I say I liked it...?

Also, I was very annoyed with the "romance". Mostly because we are told Kyle and Mac are best friends, right? They have this entire huge history that we never got to experience and their whole relationship is based on feelings that sprang from that history. And yet, I didn't feel like they knew each other so well or were such great friends or were in love for a long while or anything.

So basically - the book tells us they're in love, but I never once felt it.

Not to mention the love-triangle that you can see coming from a country away but still manages to smack you in the head with the whhhy-ness of it.

So, yes, I have complaints, but as you can see - the rating I gave this book is still pretty good. It's because that this book flies by, and I can definitely see most of you guys enjoying it to the fullest. I'm just kind of over a lot of the themes and tropes in this book.

Nitzan

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review: the elementary particles

book info: on sale: now copy from: public library pages: 263 review written: 23.5.16 originally published: 1998 ("Les particules élémentaires") edition read: Knopf, 2000, translation by Frank Wynne title: The Elementary Particles author: Michel Houellebecq The Elementary Particles part-story part-metaphysical-rants in an interesting narration from two characters, half-brothers borne of a hippie and absentee mother in the 60s: Michel and Bruno. Michel is an asexual scientist who "expresses his disgust with society by engineering one that frees mankind at last from its uncontrollable, destructive urges" and Bruno is a crass brute driven by sexual desires that lusts after his lost youth. This book follows their stories from childhood to their middle age, spinning around the past and present and major and minor characters in an intriguing narrative that had me reading every single word for fear of missing anything crucial. (quote from book summary) When I first began to...

The Woman Who Ride Like a Man by Tamora Pierce

The Woman Who Ride Like a Man by Tamora Pierce Series:   Song of the Lioness #3 Source:  Bought paperback Publisher:  Atheneum Books For Young Readers Age Genre: Young Adult Challenges: Flights of Fantasy Challenges:  Prequel-Sequel Challenges:  TBR-Cleaning my Shelves Alanna fights on... Newly knighted, Alanna of Trebond seeks adventure in the vast desert of Tortall. Captured by fierce desert dwellers, she is forced to prove herself in a dual to the death. Although she triumphs, dire challenges lie ahead. As her mysterious fate would have it, Alanna soon becomes the tribe's first female shaman, despite the desert dwellers' wariness of the foreign woman warrior. Alanna must battle to change the ancient tribal customs of the desert tribes--for their sake and for the sake of all Tortall. That's me. With everyone else clapping in the background. Once again, I find myself unimpressed with the Song of the Lioness. It's not that I dislike the books. It's just that th...

The Sweet Gum Tree by Katherine Allred

The Sweet Gum Tree by Katherine Allred Source:  bought Kindle copy Publisher: Ellora's Cave Publication Date:  May 12, 2005 Age Genre: adult (not graphic) Sweet tea, corn bread, and soup beans—everyday fare for eight-year-old Alix French, the precocious darling of a respected southern family. But nothing was ordinary about the day she met ten-year-old Nick Anderson, a boy from the wrong side of town. Armed with only a tin of bee balm and steely determination, Alix treats the raw evidence of a recent beating that mars his back, an act that changes both of their lives forever. Through childhood disasters and teenage woes they cling together as friendship turns to love. The future looks rosy until the fateful night when Frank Anderson, Nick's abusive father, is shot to death in his filthy trailer. Suddenly, Nick is gone—leaving Alix alone, confused and pregnant. For the next fifteen years she wrestles with the pain of Nick's abandonment, a bad marriage, her family and friend...

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