Soulmates

I've just finished reading Perks of Being a Wallflower last week... which I consider as a very big achievement. I started reading the book way back in 2010 but I put the book down only after the first few pages. I know Charlie (protagonist) would understand. Come on, he once left Ian (from the book The Fountainhead) for a while because he was starting to get mad at him. Except that, I didn't get mad at Charlie. It's more like I was in a boring mood when I read the book, i.e. when everything seemed boring even if they weren't.

Or so I thought. Because I've tried picking it up for a few times, during my happy times, and got the same results: I've always stopped after the first few pages, chapters, or one time even after midway. Don't get me wrong, it is a good book. After finishing the book, I can say that it has a good narrative, well-developed characters, unique style, and ofcourse, a very thought-provoking plot. Just not my cup of tea, though.

This "cup of tea" issue made me think.  We all have our own set of preferences. Books. Movies. Television Show. Music. Sports. And I realized, maybe this same concept also applies to the people we meet and interact with. There are many psychological and sociological concepts that can be attributed  to forming relationships and how really it is different liking living things from non-living things haha.

But for the sake of this short blog post, let's make it this simple: Just like how we can't like every book, every movie, every TV show, every song, or every sport... not everyone we meet has this certain "click", or as my friend calls it, "spark". Not everyone we meet leaves us with this unexplainable connection. Some people come and go, and we don't care. Yet there are some people that we want to put in a safe lock and keep forever. These people may not even matter to other people, yet to us, our world won't be just as bright without them.

Be thankful if you found yours. :)

WANTED: EXPLANATIONS OF THE TWISTS

I've finished reading Wanted last night. It's the last in the series of eight books of Sara Shepard's Pretty Little Liars. I think it only took me less than two weeks to finish the series, because the books can actually be categorized as easy-reads. It was kinda chiclit-ish, with mystery as its central theme. I won't go around telling the plot again, because I've already said it when I reviewed the fourth book Unbelievable that can be found here.

So okay, since the first four books of the series tells about A, and the fourth book reveals who A was, the other half of the Pretty Little Liars series focus on solving the mystery on who killed Ali. Plus, a new A appeared. So, as usual, it was a page-turner.

There were many unexpected twists too. And when I say many, I really mean it. Haha. Halfway reading the series, I've read a review that unfortunately contains a spoiler. I felt like I'm going to die, because it won't be exciting anymore. But really, that twist was only one of the many. After reading all, I was mindfucked, because the initial twist was again twisted. Twist within twist. How cool is that?

The twists were really great. I didn't expect it. Even the littlest idea of some twist didn't occur to my mind. And that is again my problem with the series.

The twists were surprising, such that it seems impossible. Not that it can't happen in real life, but in a way that when you read the series, the facts relating to the twists were loosely given. Some facts just don't go along with others. Plus, there were a huge blackhole. I mean, I'm looking for more explanations. How did A do all that? Things like that.

Like what I've said in my previous entry, I still recommend you to read the series because the characters are interesting. Plus, it is really a huge page-turner because of the twists. :)

Unbelievable is... unbelievable

Because I've been a bum for four months already, I'm running out of things to do. Thanks to my Tumblr dashboard, I happen to be informed about a TV show that had just finished showing in US called Pretty Little Liars. I got interested, the title is catchy, right? My internet connection at home is so slow, such that to finish downloading 10 episodes of Pretty Little Liars (each ep is almost 350MB) takes years. HAHAHA, just kidding. So... I decided to read the books first.

At first, I thought I wasn't going to finish reading even the first book, I just finished re-reading the Harry Potter series that time and I'm still in a harrypotter-is-the-best-bookseries-intheworld mood. But Pretty Little Liars got me. I was hooked by the book. It's a mystery novel, and I love solving mysteries.

The author, Sara Shepard, trully made it to the point that the readers will buy the next book, because the mystery wasn't resolved in the first book. I quickly read the second book Flawless, and the third book Perfect, each page increasing urge to get the next book so I'll know the ending. Interesting as it was, I paused after the third book and watched the TV episodes. The TV episodes weren't a copy of what's in the book, but I enjoyed watching the series because it's equally mysterious.

The plot is simple, there are five friends, one dies. Then the remaining four receives threatening messages after four years. These messages contain their deepest secrets. The sender is only known as A. And yeah, the book slightly revolves on them questioning who A was and resolving the issues that A brought.

The first three books make me suspect certain people as A. I was dying to know who A was. But I didn't expected that A will be revealed on the fourth book Unbelievable, which I finished reading last night.

I really thought that A will be revealed on the last book, or if not, on later parts of the series. But nevertheless, I was happy that I knew at last who A was. The feeling lasts for only a second because my immediate questions were: What? That's A? Why?

I know, I suspect that character as A, but I really can't believe that she's A. It's as if the author hasn't decided who A was until writing the fourth book. It's as if, the author picked from the characters, see who matched and voila: You're A!

I mean, it was somehow obvious, the facts match, but it wasn't explained how A did all those things. I guessed how A knew the secrets. The reason was acceptable, but I think her character's not introduced much as that.

Okay, the character is capable of being A, the character is really there when things happen, but there were no hints!

I've read other novels with surprise endings or characters, but when the secret was revealed, I'll realize something that makes me think that: Wow, yeah. That's why he acted this and that or something!!! You know, hints that don't tell you what the secret it, but hints that are there somewhere. Hints that might say: Hey, I was there. But you ignored me.

Anyway, I'll still read the remaining books of the series because there are still unknown mysteries. Plus, the characters are really interesting. Each is unique from others.

TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Teens
Author:	Jay Asher

Thirteen Reasons Why. Huh? What? Aren't you curious what these reasons are all about? Intriguing title, isn't it? I never knew that such a novel exists, and I never expected that I would invest my precious time reading a masterpice of an author I've never even heard before. But I simply just wanna satisfy the GG (xoxo, haha) side of me, that's why I checked on the first page just to know what it is all about, and then the second page, and then the next one, until I realized that the time I finished a chapter, the more I was interested on proceeding to the next.

What's the novel all about? Say hello to Clay Jensen, the ninth reason why. Tadahhhh! Clay received a box addressed to him one afternoon, with seven CASSETTE tapes inside it. These audiotapes were recorded by Hannah Baker (Clay's classmate) before she comitted a suicide. (So you might have guessed by now that the complete title of the book should be THE THIRTEEN REASONS WHY HANNAH BAKER KILLED HERSELF. Haha) The audiotapes said it all about the life of Hannah before she ended her life, and how these thirteen person somehow affected her decision. Each of the thirteen had a side of a cassette tape dedicated to him/her. Sent to the first person that started it all, Hannah gave only two rules to the LUCKY 13. Rule number one: Listen to tapes. Rule number two: Pass it to the next person involved.

Who are the other twelve persons?
Why are they on Hannah Baker's list?
What happened to Clay after listening to the tapes?
So I think that's the rest of the things you'll know after you read the novel.

I am contented on how the novel is written. Though centered on Clay Jensen's point-of-view, I love the idea of putting Hannah Baker's point-of-view through the cassette tapes. The story? Interesting enough. Not only that the whole book is a mystery, but each chapter is fascinating. And of course, I love the meaning beyond the words. The ideas and lessons presented by the novel, I don't know if intentionally or unintentionally, that were applicable to the real world. My favorite is the idea of snowball effect. I just think that I didn't know some characters that much. I don't know. But I think something is incomplete on how the characters are presented. But overall, I think the novel is good. A must-read!

--some of my favorite quotes from the novel-- (apparently all said by Hannah Baker)
* Because it may seem like a small role now, but it matters. In the end, everything matters.
* Things get better, or worse, depending on your point of view.
* Stupid? Yes. But did it make sense? Yes...at the time.
* I guess that's the point of it all. No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of other people. Oftentimes, we have no clue. Yet we push it just the same.
* Sometimes we have thoughts that even we don't understand. Thoughts that aren't even true--that aren't really how we feel--but they're running through our heads anyway because they're interesting to think about.
* If you could hear other people's thoughts, you'd overhear things that are true as well as things that are completely random. And you wouldn't know one from the other. It'd drive you insane. What's true? What's not? A million ideas, but what do they mean?
* If you hear a song that makes you cry and you don't want to cry anymore, you don't listen to that song anymore.
* You don't know what goes on in anyone's life but your own.
* And when you mess with one part of a person's life, you're not messing with just that part. Unfortunately, you can't be that precise and selective. When you mess with one part of a person's life, you're messing with their entire life.
* Everything...affects everything.
* You can't go back to how things were. How you thought they were. All you really have...is now.
* I could have stopped it--end of story. But to stop it, I felt like I'd have to stop the entire world from spinning. Like things had been out of control for so long that whatever I did hardly mattered anymore.
* The signs were all there, all over, for anyone willing to notice.

Identity?

Isang eksena sa buhay ni Samantha. Pasok! Haha, corny ko talaga. (Samantha Sweeting, lead characted sa novel ni Sophie Kinsella na Undomesticated Goddess. Iris. Nanay ni Nathaniel na love interest ni Samantha sa novel. Si Iris din ang nagturo sakanya magluto. Bakit? Basahin mo nalang basta ‘yung novel. Maganda.)
 

Samantha: I don’t know who I am. Or what my goal is. Or where I’m headed in life. Or anything.

Iris: It doesn’t matter. Don’t beat yourself up for not knowing all the answers. You don’t always have to know who you are. You don’t have to have the big picture, or where you’re heading. Sometimes it’s enough just to know what you’re going to do next.

Bakit ko nga ba pinorward ang quote na ‘yan via SMS? Hmmm. Bakit nga ba? Siguro nga naka-relate lang ako.

Sa isang lecture namin sa PolSci160, tinanong kami Ma’am Lusterio-Rico, “What’s your identity?” (para sa topic about nation-states and ethnicity) Sabi ko sarili ko, “Ano nga ba?”

Ilang tao ba sa mundong ito ang matapang na nakakapagsabi kung sino ba sila. Kung saang grupo sila kasali. Kung ano ang pinaniniwalaan nila. Kung nasaan na sila sa landas na tinatahak nila. Siguro nga, masuwerte ka kung alam mo. Ako? ‘di ko pa yata siguro.

Kung sa Psych point of view, nasa stage siguro ako ngayon ng “identity searching”. Pero my god dear, parang antagal ko na yata sa stage na ‘to ah! Napag-iiwanan na ba ako? Future searching. Buti sana kung ‘yun lang. Sabi nga ni Iris, hindi kailangan lang na alam mo ‘yung next step mo. Yeah, I agree with her in some cases. Pero paano kapag kahit ‘yung next step mo hindi mo alam?