Haven't done a review in ages WOO...
Hey guys! I recently finished Aristotle and-Nope I am not typing that again.
So I recently finished this book and I thought I'd better review it, seeing as it's now November AND NANOWRIMO HAS BEGUN (EEK)
I began this book having a) marvelled for hours at the beautifulness of the cover (marred only by the HUGE TWO FOR ONE STICKERS SLAPPED OVER THE PICTURE THAT REFUSED TO COME OFF) and b) read a couple of reviews that told me that this book was brilliant. Apart from what I got from the blurb, I was pretty unprepared for what came next.
WOW.
This book, in my eyes, was utter perfection. Told from the perspective of Ari, a quiet boy who has shrunk inside himself as he's grown up around a brother in prison who he knows nothing about, a mother in denial and a father haunted by the war. That's until Dante comes along. Dante-articulate, smart, caring. His different view of the world changes Ari as an unusual friendship forms. Little do they know, they are the keys to setting the other free.
Essentially this book is a book of memories, strung together not quite in diary form but over a period of time, sometimes short, others longer. It was so brilliantly written, and Ari and Dante's friendship was unexpected but seemed to just work. It wasn't cliched; they fought, they got mad at each other, but they always managed to pull the pieces back together in ways other than just saying 'sorry'. The two acknowledged each other in different ways to maybe me and my friends, but that was what made it so brilliant. The book didn't need to explain that Ari and Dante cared deeply for each other.
You just knew, even if the conversations were often awkward and often silent. I guess the silence was enough.
What I'm getting at here, is that Benjamin Alire Sáenz is the perfect example of showing, not telling. You know, the stuff that your English teacher tells you in Year 4 when you're learning to write effective stories.
I did cry. This means the book must be good because I. Never. Cry. At books anyway. It makes me sad, but it's true. (It's all on the inside.) Anyway, I did cry because it was so heartwarming but so, so sad and the revelation Ari discovers at the end is just ah. It's too much.
So yes, for me, this book was utterly amazing, told in such a beautiful, different way that I finished it in three days.
TEN OUT OF TEN ALL THE WAY.
Hey guys! I recently finished Aristotle and-Nope I am not typing that again.
So I recently finished this book and I thought I'd better review it, seeing as it's now November AND NANOWRIMO HAS BEGUN (EEK)
I began this book having a) marvelled for hours at the beautifulness of the cover (marred only by the HUGE TWO FOR ONE STICKERS SLAPPED OVER THE PICTURE THAT REFUSED TO COME OFF) and b) read a couple of reviews that told me that this book was brilliant. Apart from what I got from the blurb, I was pretty unprepared for what came next.
WOW.
This book, in my eyes, was utter perfection. Told from the perspective of Ari, a quiet boy who has shrunk inside himself as he's grown up around a brother in prison who he knows nothing about, a mother in denial and a father haunted by the war. That's until Dante comes along. Dante-articulate, smart, caring. His different view of the world changes Ari as an unusual friendship forms. Little do they know, they are the keys to setting the other free.
Essentially this book is a book of memories, strung together not quite in diary form but over a period of time, sometimes short, others longer. It was so brilliantly written, and Ari and Dante's friendship was unexpected but seemed to just work. It wasn't cliched; they fought, they got mad at each other, but they always managed to pull the pieces back together in ways other than just saying 'sorry'. The two acknowledged each other in different ways to maybe me and my friends, but that was what made it so brilliant. The book didn't need to explain that Ari and Dante cared deeply for each other.
You just knew, even if the conversations were often awkward and often silent. I guess the silence was enough.
What I'm getting at here, is that Benjamin Alire Sáenz is the perfect example of showing, not telling. You know, the stuff that your English teacher tells you in Year 4 when you're learning to write effective stories.
I did cry. This means the book must be good because I. Never. Cry. At books anyway. It makes me sad, but it's true. (It's all on the inside.) Anyway, I did cry because it was so heartwarming but so, so sad and the revelation Ari discovers at the end is just ah. It's too much.
So yes, for me, this book was utterly amazing, told in such a beautiful, different way that I finished it in three days.
TEN OUT OF TEN ALL THE WAY.