Review: Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Links: Goodreads

Rating: 5 / 5

No, I'm not crying. My eye is just sweating. That's all.

This book hit me as deep as The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. No, even deeper actually. It really touched me and maybe that was the reason I couldn't let it go. I finished the book, closed it and hugged it for the next hour or so. Yea, I was that touched.

So the story is about a 10 year old boy called August, or Auggie, that has a "deformed" face. I don't mean a deformed ugly face. I mean a face that would make you wanna run scared. The novel takes you through his life, the challenges, the ups, the downs, the friends, the enemies and everything in between.

Most of you are now thinking that this is one of those spiritual books that shows how a person can be Zen and stuff like that. Well, you're wrong. It is simply just the life of a little boy and the people surrounding him. That might seem a bit too simple for some people but trust me, it's not. It is just....just read it. Perfection!!

Beautiful..... on the inside.

We always say that, beauty is on the inside. "blablabla" We mostly say that to describe girls who want dates or boys that can't find someone. We never actually understand it. But I can say that now I really do understand what it means. Although I keep get reminded in this book of how "ugly" August is,  I just can't get myself to see it. It's not because the book has a bad description of him. No, it was actually quite vivid. But the way he talks, the way he is, just like any 10 year old, innocent, kind..... beautiful.


Different perspectives.

One of the things that add to the emotional depth.... emotional depth??? Is that even a thing???

Anyways one of the things that really adds to the "emotional depth" of this novel is the authors usage of different perspectives to tell the story. So part 1 is through the eyes of the main character, August Pullman; then part 2 is through the eyes of his sister. The story line doesn't start from the beginning again with every new perspective, no, it just continues off where the other part left off.

The "Different Perspectives" adds to the novel mainly because it drastically changes the way you look at characters. Most of the time you don't have sympathy for the "bad guy" in the story, but sometimes if you see their point of view they might turn out to be simply misunderstood or maybe they never meant to actually be the "bad guy"

One of these parts is though the eyes of a boy called Justin. I was surprised by that fact that this part had no punctuation at all. No commas, full stops, quotation marks....nothing!!

Part of me thought that I got my hands on an old edition of the book and that this was some sort of mistake. So I looked online and it turns out that the author (R.J Palacio) actually meant to do that.

Here is what she said:

Why is Justin’s part written without uppercase letters and without proper punctuation?I played trombone for seven years through middle school and high school. And I remember thinking back then, especially when I would get into the really low notes, that  notes on a musical staff looked a little like lowercase letters of the alphabet. I don’t play anything now but I can still read music, and I still think that way. Ascenders and descenders remind me of half note and quarter notes, depending on where they fall on the staff. The baseline of a letter is a bit like a ledger line. Certain serif faces even have strokes that call to mind that graceful little flag on top of the stem of a note. Maybe it’s because I’ve been a graphic designer for so many years, but I’m trained to see typefaces and fonts not just as communication devices, but as visual cues for other things. So when it came to writing from Justin’s point of view, because he’s a musician, someone who thinks in musical terms, it just seemed natural for me to use lowercase letters to represent his thoughts in a very visual way. He’s the kind of person who doesn’t talk a lot, because he’s naturally shy, but has a lot going on inside. The running monologue inside his head has no time for capital letters or punctuation: it’s like his thoughts are streaming inside his mind.

Actually after reading this I think what RJ Palacio did was actually quite smart. Not only writing different characters perspective but trying her best to portrait how they think even in the way she writes.

I think that this review is kinda get it long so I'll just wrap it up: This is R.J Palacio's first book and I really can see great things in this author's future. This is a simply written novel that anyone can understand. Perfect for anyone from kids to adults. Has quotes from great authors in it and star wars references that makes my heart melt.


Final Words: Nothing short of perfect. READ IT NOW!!!

Top 5 Most Favorite Quotes

Guess what time is it ???

It's awesome quotes time!!! 

Do the "Quotes Dance"

I thought I'd share with you my most favorite quotes and this is probably one of the hardest posts to write because I have read so many good books by so many amazing authors, and they have a ton of awesome quotes. So I'm gonna make it a rule to have only 1 quote per author.

Let's begin, shall we? :

“There are times when the world is rearranging itself, and at times like that, the right words can change the world.”

― Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game

Aaaaah!! A quote from my favorite book , Ender's Game. There are so many great quotes in this book. Pure Genius. This was one of the quotes that really struck me. We are in a time of change, a time of flux and this really describes how we are as humans. Most of us are taken by words, tricked by them and bought over by them. The noblest of goals isn't always what people support. What people support is the goal that is most nobly "described".

 ___________________________________

“The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.”

― Paulo Coelho, Alchemist

In life you will fall. No. In life you have to fall. And only through getting up from that fall do we truly learn. Everyone fails but the ones that get themselves up, learn from their mistakes and continue on are the ones who get where they want to go.

 ___________________________________

“If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”

― J.K. Rowling

 Does the way you treat your equals really show who you are?? No, it doesn't. The reason is if you treat people that are equal to you badly, they can and probably will get back at you. People treat their equals well because they want the same from them. It is only in treating you inferiors ― people weaker than you, people that have no chance of retribution and no ability to get back at you ― that it really shows who you are as a person

 ___________________________________

“It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Diary

This book I haven't read but It's on my TBR list. I have seen this quote a while back ago and I thought "hmm... that is completely true." Happiness is great. We love it. We remember who made us happy. But pain scars us and a scar is always there to remind us how we got it...

 ___________________________________

“Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.”

― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

This is my favorite quote in this list. Never be ashamed of what you are,  and then and only then, it can never be used against you. 




Hope you enjoyed this post. If you have any quotes you would like me to look at just leave a comment and I'll make sure to read it. 

Till next time, Bye!!!

Review: Angels and Demons (Robert Langdon #1)

Links: Goodreads

Rating: 3.5 / 5

For me this is one of the hardest books to review. It's a love-hate thing. And before I start this review I want to state something because I know people are probably going to misconstrue this review. I am in no way saying that this is a bad book, not at all. This is actually a really good book and I would recommend it to people IF they haven’t just read another Dan Brown novel before it. And that is a BIG IF.

I have had my fair share of thrillers and can tell when a book is worth reading or not. Plot twists, cliff hangers and the end of chapters, an author's ability to describe fast paced scenes, all of these are main and crucial elements to a great thriller and Angels and Demons is a book that really combines them all.

This is probably the only thriller that I read where I once actually gasped OUT LOUD. I did get weird look but I was so engrossed in the book that I didn't care.

This novel also touches on the ever lasting debate of science vs religion. This is a very sensitive issue to be discussing but I think that it was portaited beautifully. It showed the good and the evil people on each side, the crazy ones and the one's who do everything in their power to try to build bridges between the two sides. There was no actual winner here, just the issue itself discussed over the events in the novel. This was probably the best thing about this novel.

But, The romance part completely SUCKED

Although Angels and Demons is a great thriller in my opinion, the little romance that Dan Brown tried to put into this novel seems too cheesy as if he just forced it in there. It is absolutely unbelievable and I got completely frustrated by it. It just doesn't work. I don't want to spoil it for you .... but UGH!!! SERIOUSLY!!!!!

TO DO: Write Letter to Dan Brown Expressing Hate!!!! 

Predictable.... well kinda

 I had already read another 2 of Dan Brown's books and I have noticed that there is serious, bit time, repetition, not only in his style but in how the story ends for the main character. (Im not talking about how the novel ends but about what happens with the main character after it does) The 2 other novels ended the same for the main character. I knew exactly what was going to happen.

This shouldn't be this big of an issue if this is your first Dan Brown novel though.

If you decide to start reading this novel then Google Images will be your best friend. Dan Brown desribes alot of locations, monuments, statues, artifacts. You could just imagine it in your head as he describes it or you could look it up online and see how it really looks.

Final Words: This is a really good thriller. Not the best, but really good. Although the romance part almost ruined it for me I tried to overlook that and focus on the main story line which was exhilarating at times. 

First Blog Post "Awkwardness" and other stuff

ummm.. Well this is awkward!

I find that the first blog post is the most awkward thing anyone can write. Like what do you start with ??

"Hi My name is....."  Naaah too cheesy.

"Good even to thou"  Ugh.

"I own your soul...." Dafuq??? No No No!!!

I guess I'll stick to the standard first blog post: Hey! My Name is Mohamed, But you can call me "Mr Awesome". Yea, Just call me that. I'm 16 years old. and I live on Earth. (On land, to be more specific)

What should I say now ???

I love reading, so I created this blog to review and share my thoughts on the different books I read and to talk about stuff that really interests me or stuff that I really just wanna talk about. But generally everything will be related to books, reading, writing, authors...etc.

Now the reason I think this post is so awkward is not only because I don't have anything to talk about but also because that probably the main reason you are here and this far into the post is that either you have nothing better to do or you see in me a future star.... *.*

I'm not judging anyone ... I'm just saying. No No, Please don't go.......

So I'll just assume that awesome people are capable of finding awesome blogs :D I'll try my best to post everyday or so.... but I do have lots of studying too so we will see about that.

Anyways, I hope you like my blog and if you have any questions or books that you want me to read or stuff you want me to discuss, you can always comment on my posts and I'll do my best to read your and reply to your comments.

Be sure to stay tuned for my future posts!