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Down the Wormhole by Ana Franco (A Self-Published Novel)

So as promised, folks, here is a post on Saturday :)

Down the Wormhole by Ana Franco 

Page count: 173 pages (in e-book format)

Release date: September 21, 2015

Series status: Book 1 of Wormhole Series

Summary (from Goodreads): 

Medusa is a nice girl, Aphrodite is empowering, Loki vanished on thin air, Isis doesn’t have a memory and Anubis is the only sane one. Join them all in an adventure that mixes the styles of ABC’s Once Upon A Time and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson. What this can possibly mean? Why, chaos, of course! 

My Rating: 2 stars

I received a free PDF of Down the Wormhole by the author Ana Franco in exchange for an honest review. However, I regret to inform you rabid readers that Down the Wormhole just did not do it for me. And it saddens me a lot because I really looked forward to this book. I mean, a combination of Percy Jackson and ABC's One Upon a Time! Who isn't down for that? 

So as seen in the summary above, Down the Wormhole is about a bunch of teenage gods and goddesses pulled from different mythologies. You've got Thomas, a Celtic prince, Natalie, who is actually Medusa, Andrew, who is Anubis. And you've got "Kitty", an orphan girl who pops into their midst. 

The premise of this book is great and it had the potential to be a wonderful, engaging novel but it fell flat for me. For one, I couldn't really understand it. I know that Ana is not a native speaker of English and therefore, I applaud her commitment and effort on this piece of writing. You can truly tell that she worked hard on it. But the plot, the characters and the writing all didn't make sense to me. It didn't flow. The characters did one thing, jumped to the next and did something completely insane without any good reason why. Not only that but the plot was completely crazy--just all over the place. The romance between Thomas and Kitty...ugh, no, that didn't make me sigh, it made me cringe. The girl just decided to have sex with this dude and get pregnant! She's sixteen, for God's sake. 

The writing wasn't great. It was choppy and broken up and I couldn't make sense of what the characters were doing to each other. I couldn't keep track of who was who, who did what to who and why who did what. It was very hard and strenuous for me to read because of that. 

Furthermore, there was really no character development. I hated Kitty. I'm sorry but it is true. The girl burst out of nowhere and changes her mind so quickly. One moment she's talking about having sex with Thomas, then she's having sex with Thomas, and then she's having his freaking baby!! I mean, what?? Kitty is a completely stagnant character...I see no signs of mental and emotion growth. All I see is her getting horny and doing it with her Celtic boyfriend. In my opinion, the plot seriously deteriorated towards the end: it was just sort of fanfiction. Her reactions to things are completely unexpected and wild and halfway throughout the book, I was ready to hit her over the head with my phone. 

Not like the other characters were that much better. Thomas annoyed me to no end, Eris was a douchebag. She's the goddess of discord! She's a pest, something that just infuriates people! She shouldn't be so powerful. Had I been any of the other characters, I would've liked to punt her over the fence. Natalie and Andrew were a little better but only a little. 

All in all, I didn't like this book that much. I didn't know what the characters' aim was and I didn't understand their internal dilemmas. I am a reader that likes things to be obvious and I usually don't get it unless the author pushes it in my face. I want to see glimpses of the characters' deepest fears and what tugs at them when they go to sleep at night. I want that deep stuff, framed by vivid verbs and descriptive adjectives! So yes, I am a reader that asks for a lot of things. I am just disappointed that I didn't see much of it in this book. 

I would like to say kudos to Ms. Franco for some great descriptive language. The beginning was very engaging with the fight between Sif and Eris. I think she should continue to write because this series has a very interesting premise. :)

Some pointers I would give to Ms. Franco: Think about the connections between your characters' actions. What motivates them to do the things that they do? Why do they do it? Also, I would try reading over your work like you're a new reader yourself. That may be hard to imagine but I think it may produce some surprising outcomes. :))

Adjective: Alright

______________________________________

“But you mark my words: I will be there when everything you love is destroyed. Everything you didn't even believe you would have.” 

“It's rather good to pretend to be normal with someone.”  

________________________________________

Ana Franco was born on a small town on the interior of São Paulo, Brazil. She is known as a blogger under the name of “Ana the Bookworm” and her Young Adult novel, “Down The Wormhole”, is her first take in writing in English. Ana attends to college of Literature and Teaching in her country as well as she has taken courses in areas of Children’s Literature, Literature in schools, influences of the world wars at the world’s cultures and in writing for a global market.

In with the New...

Hey you guys,

So there's going to be a few changes. I'm pretty excited about it actually. As you know, most of the books that I read and review are high end books, books that I personally like. Of course, this makes my book review quite atypical. Although I do like talking about bestsellers and books that I love, I am going to start taking the review requests because boy, have I got a bunch of them :-) 

So I make a new vow to you fellow readers: I will post a review every Saturday. Promise. Definitely. I hope. 

It should be fun. 

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

So it's been a while since I've posted. Forgive my incompetence.

It seems like I've been on a historical fiction book spree. First it was The Nightingale, now it is All the Light We Cannot See.

You may have seen this book on Amazon's top ten list or glimpsed the dark blue cover in your local bookstore. I first saw it about four months ago when it appeared in My Recommendations on my Amazon page. Thus began my halfhearted attempts to get my hands on it. Unfortunately, being on the Top Ten List of Books You Should Read makes it very popular. When I tried requesting it at my local library, I was told that I would have to wait for at least three months. So like the prodigal I am, I decided to get the rental book. $1 per week.

That's pretty damn expensive.

Because it was a dollar for a week, I knew I had to get started soon. So about a fourth of the week in, I opened the dark blue book and began reading.

~~~

From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the beautiful, stunningly ambitious instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.

~~~

The mystery, the beauty and the tragedies surrounding this book is unmistakable and unparalleled. 

I mean, take a look at the summary. Even that is lyrical. Five stars. Definitely. 

Everything about this book took me by surprise. I expected a different beginning. I expected a different kind of writing. I expected a different plot. I expected a different ending. The feel of this book...I've never read anything quite like it. 

Doerr's writing is definitely unique. While most authors jump into the mix, throwing descriptive verbs and adjectives at you like a whirlwind, Doerr gives you glimpses of the big picture. A furious ocean, black and dark. A miniature wooden house. A crackling radio. 

Every bit of his writing is tinged with mystery and hidden meaning. Every piece is a clue of what may or may not happen. Every section was devoured and feasted upon by my hungry eyes. 

Doerr gives you snapshots of moments, memories, feelings and emotions. Of the blurring of boundaries and borders that often comes in war. In a way, it is more like a photo book rather than a book. Slowly, Doerr introduces the two main characters: Marie-Laure and Werner, separated by ocean and land. 

Marie-Laure is awesome. She becomes blind when she is six and though she may look and seem fragile, this girl is as strong as iron. The things that she goes through in this awful period are unspeakable and if I were in her place, I would've froze in terror a long time ago. When her father takes her to Saint Malo where her great uncle resides and leaves, Marie-Laure must learn to survive without her father whom she has depended on since she was a child. It was really touching to see her mature from a frightened young girl to a strong brave woman. Marie-Laure, though blind, sees "better than those who have eyes". 

Werner, Werner, Werner. I love this boy so much. Werner is truly the underdog of the story, the one that no one would've expected to succeed. Small and pale, Werner is a German orphan who at a young age, began to take a liking to building and fixing radios. When Werner impresses a Nazi official, he is taken to train at an academy for Hitler Youth. As time goes by, Werner improves in his skills and rises in the ranks. But at a price. Werner, like all the Hitler Youth, are trained and indoctrinated with the idea that the strong preside over the weak and that there is no room for vulnerability. The young men are pushed to the limit, faced with difficult choices of whether to help a friend and get punished or stay back and watch. All the while, Werner struggles with his conscience and wonders if he is doing the right thing. In a way, Werner's journey is harder than Marie-Laure because he faces serious moral dilemmas about himself. 

Werner's and Marie-Laure's paths met a lot later than I thought. Like I've said, Doerr takes you completely by surprise. The book didn't feel like a book with a basic plot, rising action, climax and falling action. Every chapter was a whole book in its own regard. 

I really liked this book. I mean, no surprise since it's a winner of the freaking Pulitzer Prize. But I also adored the beautiful writing that touched each subject with care and empathy. This book is tragic as war always is. But it's important to revisit our history to learn from our past mistakes and make sure we never do it again. 

When asked about the meaning of the title, Doerr replied, "It's a reference first and foremost to all the light we literally cannot see: that is, the wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum that are beyond the ability of human eyes to detect...It's also a metaphorical suggestion that there are countless invisible stories still buried within World War II--that stories of ordinary children, for example, are a kind of light we do not typically see. Ultimately, the title is intended as a suggestion that we spend too much time focused on only a small slice of the spectrum of possibility."

Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See is a heartbreaking yet truthful representation of normal people whose lives were irrevocably changed by WWII. I strongly recommend it.

Rating: Five stars
One adjective I'd use to describe this book: Spellbinding  ------------------------------------

“So how, children, does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light?” 

“You know the greatest lesson of history? It’s that history is whatever the victors say it is. That’s the lesson. Whoever wins, that’s who decides the history. We act in our own self-interest. Of course we do. Name me a person or a nation who does not. The trick is figuring out where your interests are.” 

“What do we call visible light? We call it color. But the electromagnetic spectrum runs to zero in one direction and infinity in the other, so really, children, mathematically, all of light is invisible.” 

_____________________________

Anthony Doerr is the author of five books, The Shell Collector , About Grace , Memory Wall , Four Seasons in Rome and All the Light We Cannot See . Doerr’s fiction has won four O. Henry Prizes and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories, The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, and The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Fiction. He has won the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, the Rome Prize, the Story Prize, the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Award, and the Ohioana Book Award three times. Doerr lives in Boise, Idaho. Become a fan on Facebook and stay up-to-date on his latest publications.

The Nightingale: A Passionate Tale of Love and Courage in War

Hey guys,
I know I haven't posted a while so that's my bad. :( For the past few weeks, I haven't been reading a lot so again, that's on me. So for any of you who has been craving my book reviews, here's the big moment! :)
Today, I will be reviewing The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. LOL, her name though. So without further ado, I give you the usual summary from Goodreads...

FRANCE, 1939

“Men tell stories. Women get on with it. For us it was a shadow war. There were no parades for us when it was over, no medals or mentions in history books. We did what we had to during the war, and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over."

In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France...but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When France is overrun, Vianne is forced to take an enemy into her house, and suddenly her every move is watched; her life and her child’s life is at constant risk. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates around her, she must make one terrible choice after another. 
Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets the compelling and mysterious Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can...completely. When he betrays her, Isabelle races headlong into danger and joins the Resistance, never looking back or giving a thought to the real--and deadly--consequences.

Okee. 
So let's talk review stars. Out of five stars, I give The Nightingale FOUR STARS for an amazing, touching and tragic book that depicts the all-too-real destruction of Europe during and after World War II. I've always been a stickler to the historical fiction and romance and The Nightingale is no different. The first chapter of the book starts off with a mystery woman who is dying of cancer. She heads up to her cellar and pulls out an old trunk and suddenly we are thrust back to the mid 1900s in France on the verge of war. 
In the past, we meet Vianne and her sister, Isabelle, separated by location and emotional strain. Isabelle lives in Paris and Vianne lives in the countryside. Vianne is older than Isabelle and has her own family. When her husband is called off to war, Vianne, a woman who has always relied on her husband for support, feels vulnerable and weak without him. Things worsen when Isabelle joins her after her Paris home is bombed. Isabelle is like a little firecracker and she is furious about the invasion of the Nazis into her home. While Vianne accepts her fate and wants to wait it out, Isabelle is hell-bent on resisting. When a Nazi officer demands to board in Vianne's house, the strain between the sisters grows. Soon after a few fights, Isabelle leaves to join the Resistance, a secret group of rebels who defy the Nazi's rule. 

To be perfectly honest, I knew The Nightingale was going to be a riveting read. However, I had no idea how quickly it pulled me in. From the beginning, the author did a great job of setting the mood and creating suspense (with the mystery woman).  The terror and paranoia that the French felt underneath Nazi rule was reinforced again and again in the book and Hannah did a great job of showing how bit by bit the Nazis grew a little colder, a little harsher, a little crueler, even in a fictional setting. In the book, I felt the pain of Vianne's Jewish friend, Rachel, whose rights were taken away as time passed. I don't want to spoil too much but I'll say this: this book hurts.

I also loved the juxtaposition of Vianne and Isabelle. Here we have two very different yet similar women. Vianne is the typical wife, the mother and the protector. She is a gentle spirit whose patience and quick wit guides her through the dangerous times in France. Isabelle, on the other hand, is unrestrained and fiery. She doesn't want to be held down and pushed around by the enemy. She wants to stand up and fight and it is quite inspiring. Not gonna lie, the ending threw me off a bit (I got a little teary). The two sisters are similar though because they share one important trait: courage. Isabelle acts with physical courage but Vianne also acts with mental courage as well. I don't want to spoil the book but let's just say that they both do tremendous good during the war. The only difference is that they do it in different ways. 

I really liked this book because though I've read a lot of books on WWII, The Nightingale gives us a glimpse of something behind the scenes: the women's struggle during the war. We know pretty well what the men do but what happened to the women is a little more vague. And just because one gender "did" more on the surface doesn't mean that the other gender didn't stand up against what was wrong. Because there is no doubt that the women in this book are exceedingly courageous and truly inspirational. There are some things they go through that are very dark and inhumane. It makes me physically sick to think about what women went through during WWII.

This book is great not because its characters are flawless and heroic. No, it's good because the characters make mistakes. They must decide whether they want to stand up and risk death or stay back to save themselves. They make mistakes regarding family and loved ones but they make up for it and forgive. They grow and mature. Isabelle, for example, changes from a fractious young girl to a young woman who becomes the symbol of the Resistance. There are many dilemmas to be considered and decisions to be made and sometimes the characters don't do the right things. But they try.

This is why The Nightingale is a fantastic read: because it depicts human resilience, faith and love in the face of extreme cruelty and inhumanity. 

________________________________

Kristin Hannah is an award-winning and bestselling American writer, who has won numerous awards, including the Golden Heart, the Maggie, and the 1996 National Reader's Choice award.