Lee C

Lee C reviewed a book.

“I am currently on page 132 of Scott Westerfeld’s Specials, the third book to the series that started with the Uglies. It was a pretty frustrating read to be honest, because Tally, the main character, changed almost too much compared to the previous series. Her entire mentality had been altered...”

“I am currently on page 132 of Scott Westerfeld’s Specials, the third book to the series that started with the Uglies. It was a pretty frustrating read to be honest, because Tally, the main character, changed almost too much compared to the previous series. Her entire mentality had been altered from the Special surgery, and as a reader, knowing what kind of characters she had before, and also just witnessing how ignorant and egocentric she turned out in this novel irritated me. After the surgery she’d always look down upon everyone else in the society, even David – her old boyfriend who stayed an Ugly after he turned 16, which is extremely abnormal in this society. She is “disgusted” to see his ugly appearance (64). This is a significant change, because it illustrates how Tally lost the ability to look beyond simple appearance, and examine the inner beauty of minds and personalities. Although I was aware of the surgery and its impacts, it still frustrated me to watch Tally stuck in that state without any improvements for almost one half of the entire novel. I wouldn’t really recommend this novel to anyone. It didn’t have the sophisticated thoughts and ideas as the previous two novels, and I personally was just irritated with it the whole time.
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Lee C added a book.

Lee C reviewed a book.

“I recently finished The Book Thief. It left me with lots of ideas to think about, all of which I really enjoyed. This novel is about a foster girl named Liesel Meminger, living outside of Munich during World War II in Nazi Germany. What I really like about this novel is that the narrator was...”

“I recently finished The Book Thief. It left me with lots of ideas to think about, all of which I really enjoyed. This novel is about a foster girl named Liesel Meminger, living outside of Munich during World War II in Nazi Germany. What I really like about this novel is that the narrator was especially peculiar- the entire novel is narrated by "Death", and not any other human being actually involved in the plot. This way, the author incorporates new ideas about life and death without interrupting the plot. Often times, Death would drop a few thoughtful comments about life, happiness, ups and downs, and death here and then, providing opportunities for readers to think about these ideas. “I witness the ones that are left behind, crumbled among the jigsaw puzzles of realization, despair, and surprise. They have punctured hearts. They have beaten lungs.” (pg. 34) Such quotes serve either to simply pass a message, or to describe a situation. This specific quote was used to describe Liesel’s situation where she was left with endless despair after seeing her younger brother die. From Death’s point of view, living with the death of a loved one is much worse than dying.
As previously mentioned, Death himself narrates the story of Liesel in World War II, in the midst of the holocaust. Because it’s a novel set during a war, written with a heavy atmosphere most of the times, it was inevitable to face some downfalls and failures of our main characters. Death’s narratives completely captivated me into the plot, and got me traumatized at the sight of such downfalls of one of my favorite characters, Hans. Hans was the foster father of Liesel who helped her find her comfort again by teaching her to read. From then on, reading would become her only means of escape from reality. He was such a sincere character whose every action warmed my heart. Death described Hans like this: “To most people, Hans Hubermann [is] barely visible. An un-special person. … he was able to appear as merely part of the background. He was always just there. Not noticeable.” (pg. 34) It was this specific characteristic of his that caught my attention. Hans was not a type of bombastic person who bragged his positive traits out to the world. He was in fact, the complete opposite. Hans didn’t try to have other people acknowledge him for his innate traits, but indeed worked behind the scenes regardless of people’s attention. His heroic acts went unnoticed, but he still stayed an amazing character throughout the book. Of course, the sight of this character, who was one of my favourites depressed me. However, despite the collapses of such heroic characters, I knew that it was absolutely necessary to include these realistic events in the novel to perfect its final impact. In the end, it was these events that helped bring the fictional novel to real life.
Overall, I thought that this novel was extremely well written. Even the dismaying parts of the novels played crucial roles in the book, and as depressed I was when reading these sections, I still am happy that Markus Zusak included them, because these were the parts that really improved the novel’s overall quality. In addition, I personally found this book not easy to fly through; it’s a slow, sophisticated read that you need to pause and really take time to digest all these ideas thrown at you before moving on, so I wouldn’t recommend it to someone looking for a light, easy read. If you’re a person who enjoys getting introduced to original and innovative ideas, this is a perfect novel for you.
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Lee C rated a book.

• Rated 5 stars

Lee C has read a book.