"We will have an omelette for breakfast.""I wonder if I could eat a child if I had the chance."
"I doubt if I could cook one," said Constance.
"Poor strangers," I said. "They have so much to be afraid of."
"well," Constance said, "I am afraid of spiders."
"Jonas and I will see to it that no spider ever comes near you. Oh, Constance," I said, "We are so happy."
This is not a horror story.
A horror story would go like this: This is our village, we grew up in our village, we like our village. But we live with a deep dark secret that lays in a huge castle, where its highest tip could reach over and touch the sky, and inside live THE BLACKWOODS, OR WHO REMAINS OF THEM.
We have always lived in the castle is the exact opposite. It`s Merricat Blackwood POV where she stays in the family home with sis Constance and Uncle Julian and sees the villagers in grey and sadness an wishes them dead. They have to be the most bizarre, socially awkward family with some unscrewed bolts in their minds.
And of course the weirdest of the lot would be Mary Catherine (The protagonist), She would rather live on the moon and be taken there on a winged horse where she would be dressed in leaves, and lined moth in winter. She picks Magical words so no change would ever occur in their lives like Melody Pegasus Gloucester, she buries silver dollars and nail books to trees.
Who are we to judge!!
"I was wondering about my eyes; one of my eyes - the left - saw everything golden and yellow and orange, and the other saw shades of blue and grey and green; perhaps one eye was for daylight and the other was for night. If everyone in the world was different colors from different eyes there might be a great many new colors still to be invented."
Joy and sunshine.THE DIVINE IMAGE.
THE CHIMNEY-SWEEPER.
THE LITTLE BLACK BOY.
NIGHT.
THE ANGEL.
A POISON TREE.
And their sun does never shine
And their fields are bleak and bare
And their ways are filled with thorns
It is eternal winter there
"Well, this is a story about books.''about books?"
'About accursed books, about the man who wrote them, about a character who broke out of the pages of a novel so that he could burn it, about a betrayal and a lost friendship. It`s a a story of love, of hatred, and of all the dreams that live in the shadow of the wind.
And, like all true stories, it begins and ends in a cemetery, although not the sort of cemetery you imagine.'
In short, this is a book about childhood friends, secret lovers,
loneliness and loss.
This is how it all starts: A 10 year old Danial wakes up at dawn crying because he realized he had lost all memories of his late mother. His father takes him to this special place, The Cemetery of forgotten books where he has to choose a book because According to tradition, the first time someone visits this place, he must choose a book, whichever he wants, and adopt it, making sure that it will never disappear, that it will always stays alive. It`s very important promise. For life.
And so The shadow of the wind was chosen.
Danial so attached to that book tries to find all the books of Julian Carax but someone has been on a mission to burn all of his books. Wrapped in this huge mystery that is Julian Carax`s life story and books, Danial is introduced to all of these amazing characters.
The thing is this book is so unpredictable with a great plot, books within books, pretty writing (which if I starting putting quotes, I`ll rewrite the entire book and that might be considered spoilers).
All of that with a Gothic undertone, lots of adventures and mystery. And and and Julian Carax he`s just so LEGENDARY!!
I haven`t been excited about a book like this in a long time, and it was compelling and engrossing and addicting, I just can`t rave enough.
Super boring, nothing ever happens with over the top old-fashion writing to make it full on pretentious. Literally gave me a headache.Apparently won`t continue this series.
4.5 starsSiege and storm is so much better than the first book, more characters are involved and great development, the story more mature.
The one great thing about this book is Nikolai *sigh* the most frustrating character to ever exist. He is arrogant, royalty, feisty, funny and the most entertaining prince of all times :D
Felt Like a fairy tail.Or something out of a Miyazaki film but more sinister, thrilling and gory.
Basically it`s a middle-aged man remembering his childhood day, in particular when he was seven "I was a normal child. Which is to say I was selfish and I wasn`t entirely convinced of the existence of the things that weren`t me, and I was certain, rock-solid, unshakably certain, that I was the was the most important thing in creation. There was nothing that was more important to me than I was."
He tumbled upon the Hempstock property where three phenomenon pure, the real deal lived. One that believes the duck pond is an ocean, another thinks she was there when the moon was created.
The great thing about that boy how he thought of the adult world and the children`s as two separate worlds where a child could never win over an adult with all their secrets and their foolish casual cruelty. How he stood up to his father and how easily adults are influenced with beauty, but children? now now Beauty is just an abstraction, not an imperative.
Now after all that's happened after the boy had or hadn`t died, after 11 year old Lettie was away to Australia with her father or recovering somewhere in an ocean of knowledge, old ladies that didn`t edge a day. He was once again at the ocean/duck-pond that started it all.
Let me just say this first: Patrick Ness, you are a god (in the most earthly way), you are the master of plot twists and and genuine characters. I bow to you.First book: The sweet introduction.
Second book: Crescendo.
Third book: Grande Finale.
This series is so great, no amount of gushing will ever be enough to do it justice.
It`s an emotional roller-costar.
At first it was like this:
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And this:
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Mostly:
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This series is so good in every aspect it should be illegal.
It`s perfection.
Only in the second book that you realize how really good this series is, the first book is simple but a beautiful thrilling introduction to the world where people hear each other`s thoughts, and the thrilling run. Only Todd`s POV.
The second book when the civil war begins you know you`re in trouble then :). Todd and Viola POVs.
The last book: The first half dragged a bit, but once you hit that 50% mark, it was just PERFECTION.
I loved the new Perspective of the spackle numbered 1017 It was very refreshing, and the conversation between the land and their united voices as one in the sky was heart wrenching at least. Reminded me of the dances with wolves a bit :D the whole names thing. But it was so beautiful to see the other side of the plan`t POV and so sad because of all the crimes and massacres done to them.
And Todd *huge sigh* what can I ever say about him!!
He is the most innocent, pure, guilty, human, heartwarming character I`ve ever read, even as the story progresses and he make mistakes he still wears his innocence around his neck and his heart on his sleeve.
Viola is the definition of the smart kick-ass heroin as ever.
So much sadness in these books, so much greed and love of power and sacrifices made.
What I loved is how choices were always so black and white and impossible but Todd and Viola always seemed to find new choices, aside from how hopeless the situations are.
A book about wars is what teaches peace and love and the choices you make and how important they are, and how important YOU are.
Even the villains in this books are so awesome and you just want to dive inside the pages to dismember them :D JK
Again the best thing about these books are the character, aside from the main ones everyone contributes to the story and events.
And you get super sad when they die, because A LOT OF PEOPLE DIE, SERIOUSLY.
The ending isn`t a single line at the end of the pages, It was a very long chain of events. It felt like an ending that readers would like, but it felt a bit untrue and a cheat.
So yeah I kinda liked it. :D
WOW.A brilliant, brilliant masterpiece. Clever and unique and one of a kind.
I`m not sure I fully understood it, a bit overwhelming at times and dragged at times too especially the Jesus chapters, the ball and toward the end.
But that ending, that damn ending is EPIC.
“Hope may be the thing that pulls you forward, may be the thing that keeps you going, but that it's dangerous, that it's painful and risky, that it's making a dare in the world and when has the world ever let us win a dare?” Indeed when has the world ever let us when a dare, That`s so very unfair.
Patrick ness takes us for a heart-wrenching journey of Todd Hewitt the last boy of the Prentisstown at the new world, a place where men`s thoughts are always heard in the never ending noise. And it ain`t (yes I said ain`t, shut up) just their thoughts its their past, present and the pictures and glimpses of it all. but that's not all it never is, when he and his dog Manchee find silence, and its overwhelming like a hole of grief has been found in his heart, like the grief of all the world has fell upon him, that all you can do is crumple to the ground and weep and weep and weep like there is no tomorrow.
The boy has to run now, a month left for the birthday that make him a man but still he has to run. He doesn`t know why but he still has to run because the only parents he ever had the only ones he trusts told him to, and probably sacrificed their own lives in the process.
The journey has begun,a quest of men to make boys lose their innocence and boys to regain hope; the one that takes him away from the dark town and into his path to know the truth, the awful truth about the silence about the war that ended before he was born where men fought and killed all spackles that supposedly released all the germs that got men`s noise aloud and killed all the women in town.
But all is about to change...
A great story about hope, greed and madness, About how wars make monsters out of men, the choices that you make along the way. You are those choices.
“But a knife ain't just a thing, is it? It's a choice, it's something you do. A knife says yes or no, cut or not, die or don't. A knife takes a decision out of your hand and puts it in the world and it never goes back again. ”
Beautiful soulful characters: Todd, Ben, Cillian, Viola, Manchee God did i cry when Aaron killed him that sick fucker non-dying piece of shit Wilf and hildy. I mean even the villains where genuinely evil :D
I`m just gonna go on and on and on about how beautiful this is and those sweet moments when they always start having hope again, the hope that Ben and his mother Which didn`t exactly end well, had but it always is risky hope is always like that just get you all mushy that you don`t see that fall coming.How no one is innocent, not ever not one bit, Because sometimes not fighting and dying for what you believe in for whats right could turn you into a killer and choosing the easy way out even if its right ain`t right after all.
“Here's what I think," I say and my voice is stronger and thoughts are coming, thoughts that trickle into my noise like whispers of truth. "I think maybe everybody falls," I say. "I think maybe we all do. And I don't think that's the asking."
I pull on her arms gently to make sure she's listening.
"I think the asking is whether we get back up again.”
Listen taught, even if you`ve given up, even if everything is in ruins and it`s too late and you`re still going forward then you still have that last shard of hope, WE ALL FALL AND WE ALL SHOULD GET UP AGAIN.
Looking forward to the rest of the trilogy SOON :-)
Is it too long?-YES
Does it have too many food recipes that one could be a chef after reading the massive 1300 pages ?
-YES
Do all characters summarize the story every two pages?
-YESSSSS!
On the bright side; The writing and the story is amazing, explicit and unique well it`s a Murakami after all.
It`s mainly about two main characters, Aomame and tengo which are pulled into a new world of 1Q84 instead of the ordinary world of 1984 where two moons hang in the sky, the usual yellow bright moon and a smaller greenish one. They were in elemantry school together. One special encounter is what stayed with them even after 20 years apart, alone in a classroom where he was looking out of a window and Aomame came and held his hand as they stood perfectly still, the moon showing from the open window behind them in broad daylight. And their life is irreversibly changed forever.
Now they`ve entered the world of 1Q84 where two moons hung in the sky, little people emerged from the dead, voices talk to specific people, air chrysalis is weaved and dohta emerges from within, voids are created by ones who pases to the other worlds, friends are mourned and fathers make their minds to leave the world and their own consciousness to make rounds in their own minds.
“Ayumi had a great emptiness inside her, like a desert at the edge of the earth. You could try watering it all you wanted, but everything would be sucked down to the bottom of the world, leaving no trace of moisture. No life could take route there. Not even birds would fly over it. What had created such a wasteland inside Ayumi, only she herself knew. No, maybe not even Ayumi knew the true cause. But one of the biggest factors had to be twisted sexual desires that men around Ayumi had forced upon her.
As if to build a fence around the fatal emptiness inside her, she had to create the sunny personality that she became.
But if you peeled away the ornamental egos that she had built, there was only an abyss of nothingness and the intense thirst that came with it.
Though she tried to forget it, the nothingness would visit her periodically on a lonely rainy afternoon, or at dawn when she woke from a nightmare.
What she needed at such times was to be held by someone, anyone.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84
