lucía

4.5 !! ★

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୨ৎ “A veces, lo peor no es que te hagan daño, sino que nadie se dé cuenta.”

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my thoughts ⁎⁺˳✧༚

Invisible es una historia que te parte el corazón en mil pedazos de la impotencia. es una historia creada para hacerte sentir impotente, y para concienciar a toda la sociedad de que, sí, que veas una situación así a tu alrededor y no hagas nada al respecto te hace igual de monstruo que el perpetrador y que la gente que es conocedora del problema y, en lugar de actuar, minimiza el problema porque son cosas de críos.

'‘¿Qué clase de sociedad hemos construido? ¿Cuándo nos volvimos monstruos?''

la pluma de Eloy Moreno me ha enamorado, aunque a veces es algo repetitiva. es el primer libro que leo del autor, y ya estoy segura de que será uno que vuelva a leer en no mucho tiempo. bien es cierto que el inicio de la obra es bastante confuso, pues se refiere a todos los personajes con apodos que caracterizan su aspecto físico: el niño de nueve dedos y medio, el niño de la cicatriz en la ceja... aún así, merece totalmente la pena.

por desgracia, el bullying es un tema que hoy en día está en boca de todos, ya sea porque lo hayamos visto en las noticias, lo hayamos visto, o incluso lo hayamos vivido. la historia está contada desde la inocencia de nuestro chico invisible, que cree que nadie acude en su ayuda porque ha desarrollado un superpoder que le permite ser invisible. como a mí no me afecta, no tengo porqué meterme. enlazándolo con este tema, me gustó mucho la introducción de los elementos de los superpoderes y los superhéroes, pues ese era el refugio de nuestro protagonista.

'‘¿Qué pasará con ese Superman que de pronto ha vuelto a ser Clark Kent?''

además, conocer los puntos de vista de los distintos personajes era un punto necesario para comprender al máximo la historia. por un lado, están Kiri y Zaro, que se arrepienten profundamente de no haber ayudado a su amigo cuando más lo necesitaba. y es que a pesar de haber estado presentes, el miedo a convertirse en víctimas les carcomía. de lo que no se daban cuenta era de que, de alguna manera, se estaban convirtiendo en victimarios. por otro lado, tenemos a MM, que tras un accidente, necesitaba la debilidad de alguien para demostrar su fuerza.

luego, también está el personaje de la profesora, que en lo personal fue mi favorito. la comparación entre ella y el dragón y su decisión de hacer todo lo posible por ayudar al chico invisible cuando el resto de profesores no querían arriesgar su trabajo por eso... algún que otro docente debería aprender de ella.

para finalizar, creo que es un libro que todos deberíamos leer al menos una vez en nuestra vida independientemente de nuestra edad y, sobre todo, que sea una lectura obligatoria en los institutos, porque muestra la cruda realidad del acoso escolar. muchas veces, inconscientemente, omitimos la situación; pero no debería ser así.

4 !! ★ 🏠

this was my first approach to asian literature, and i'm not disappointed in the slightest. the story was witty and it managed to surprise me when i thought it wouldn't. it definitely requires big brain power because there are so many floor plans it was hard for me to keep up with them, and i had to grab a notebook and note important points down. still, it's a quick read for anyone who wants a shocking yet fast story!

4 !! ★ 🏰

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      ୨ৎ “Reading poetry is a conversation of feeling between two people.”

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my thoughts ⁎⁺˳✧༚

i have been fooled. i wanted to read this because of the movie that came out a few weeks ago (and still have to watch). i love reading the respective books of the movie adaptations and then compare the differences between the two of them. it's a hobby of mine, definitely.

what i would have never expected was... this.

when i started reading, i thought it would be the same cheesy story of a girl who goes to Oxford and finds the love of her life. i even thought the romantic aspect of the story wouldn't be that important. i just thought it would be a coming-of-age book with romance as a subplot. and it's ironic because i didn't understand how their love story would be, because it simply didn't have a starting point.

but it's necessary to talk about Julia's writing style, which made me fall in love with the story again and again. it's brutally descriptive, which makes you feel more immersed in the story. it is as though you're Ella and you're the one in Oxford. it has his touches of history and literature, something truly appreciated because now Thomas Cranmer lives in my head rent free. seriously, i spent my fair share of hours researching about him and Henry VIII... anyways, i start rambling.

also, i would like to make a big remark about the setting. is it crazy that i started looking for exchange programs for students who want to go to Oxford? it might be, but i fell in love with the city all over again. i feel like this book was written for all the humanities students that feel like they're not enough because they didn't choose to study Medicine or a science-related career. it even made me rethink my career path. had i been right about choosing to be a Languages & Translation student? now that i think of it. yes.

      “Whenever I say what I'm studying, people tilt their heads at me.”

i didn't expect the sad turn the story would take. it made me reflect on different aspects of life and love. like one of the poems in the book says: In death, love is all there is. i will admit that i had been mad at Jamie at first. unlike Ella, with whom i had connected from the the very beginning because of her enthusiasm for life and learning, her optimism and her adventurous spirit, three aspects that reflects my own personality; i couldn't connect with Jamie until he reveals his illness because i couldn't understand why he was so distant and why he did what he did. i sometimes wondered what turn the story would have taken if he had been honest with Ella from the beginning. i think it would have been the same.

i am glad i waited to see Jamie's side of things, even if it was through Ella's point of view, because it helped me connect to the fullest with him. he seems life so optimistically. he was brave, and he showed a bright side of himself because he didn't want people to worry about him. he is definitely a remarkable person, and i hope it's still like that in the movie (yes, i'm writing this before watching the movie).

both characters showed their strength as a couple, as well as individually. as i said before, i don't think the story has a starting point, because one day they're sharing a taxi, and the other, they wake up next to each other and decide to be friends with benefits. nonetheless, the development of their relationship was pure and raw. it shows the conflict that staying with someone you know it's going to die sooner than later supposes. but we're all going to die sooner or later, right? Jamie didn't want to make Ella feel stuck with him. he just wanted her to travel and see the world, like she initially wanted. but she chose to ditch the big job offer she got because she thought that was what would make her happy, and chose to stay with him. she didn't feel forced, she just wanted to, because there's nothing better than to go knowing that you've been loved.

      “Love well those who are dying, so that they may die in love.”

i loved both main characters and secondary characters. well, william was the exception; but i understood where he was coming from. he was coming from a place where he had already lost a child, and he didn't want to lose the other. he was just trying to protect Jamie, to make him live longer. but at the end of the day, he was the one making his own decisions. as for Ella's friends, i loved them and i loved their friendship, but they weren't that remarkable.

now that i have rambled so hard, just to say something negative about this book... some of the dialogues were cringe and wattpad coded. nothing more to say about that. lol.

as a final note, with this book, i have learned to pay more attention to the small details in the stories, because they could be useful! now i'm off to watch the movie!

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quotes ⁎⁺˳✧༚

“If you don't open yourself up, how can you ever be surprised by life? And if you're not surprised, what's the bloody point?”

“It just doesn't make sense to me. How someone so full of life can have it leaking away.”

“I can't imagine enduring the pain of death without having been able to love someone whilst they were dying.”

“I love believing in something and fighting for it.”

“I came to Oxford looking for a Once-in-a-Lifetime Experience. I chose to experience a lifetime.”

3 !! ★ 🎧

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      ୨ৎ “I don't want to ruin my chances of spending as many days with you as possible because I love you. More than football, more than racing, more than anything else in this universe—Pluto included.”

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my thoughts ⁎⁺˳✧༚

i had been putting this book on and off my tbr because i had seen all the negative reviews (once again, i'm letting myself be influenced instead of seeing it myself), and i was honestly not motivated to pick it up. however, when i read Asher's small appearance in Twisted Hate, my interest perked up. but it was the announcement of The Defender what made me finally pick it up.

and it's not a bad book, it just has its flaws.

it's a slow story, judging by the large amount of pages, which makes the story sometimes boring. i've read books with more than 500 pages, and they haven't felt as long as this one has felt. sometimes, i didn't feel like picking it up to read because there were dull and unnecessary scenes.

either way, despite the fact that the story is slow, Scarlett and Asher's love story is too fast paced (ironic, lol); more fast paced than i would have enjoyed. even though their love story was pretty and cute, and i feel like Ana wanted to experiment in that aspect, something i particularly enjoyed, because she tried to focus on their emotional connection, even if they had almost none; both characters have no chemistry between them. i liked their relationship, though. it felt different, more emotional. Asher constantly tried to encourage Scarlett to get out of her comfort zone, and i found it adorable.

speaking of Asher, and i don't really want to talk about the characters as they were plain; he wasn't what i had initially expected at all. at some point in the book, Vincent describes him as a cocky son of a bitch with a superiority complex. i didn't feel him like it at all. well, sometimes he acted too childish and egotistical for his own good. i swear, why were there so many fights? they're grown-ass men, not children! aside from that, i liked Asher.

as i said, i didn't want to focus on the characters (i know i've already talked about Asher), because they were plain and forgettable, and there's not much to say about them. still, i would like to mention both of their backstories. they're so freaking heartbreaking. i didn't expect it to be that deep. throughout the book, we can see how Scarlett's accident trauma affects her; and Asher's self-destructive behaviour, shown in his street races and car crashes; which will lead to the third-act breakup, and me to speak about it.

i don't usually like third-act breakups, since they feel too artificial and made-up to add some nonexistent drama to the book. nevertheless, this one was clearly justified by Asher's broken promise and self-destructive behaviour. Scarlett told him: I can't stand by and watch you self-destruct; and she was utterly right.

      “I was in love with someone who didn't love himself, and I didn't know where that left me. Where that left us.”

despite the fact that it was justified, it happened too late, and it stressed me out. there were five chapters left, and the issue hadn't been resolved!

also, the book was pretty predictable. it was obvious what would happen with Clive; Vincent's reaction, which in my opinion, was given too much attention and credit; and Asher's broken promise because his ego was too strong.

overall, it's not a bad book for the first time Ana experiments with a sports romance. i will just... probably forget about it in a few months. that being said, i'm pretty excited for The Defender. the fanarts give me RyanIndy vibes, and i love it!!!

if i had to describe this book with just one word, it would be underwhelming. i'm a firm believer that it wasn't for me, and that i had been 14 or 15 years old at the time of reading it, i would have enjoyed it. as an aware adult, there were some aspects that caught my attention while reading it, and not in a positive way.

it was a quick read and it was sometimes cute. the writing style was simple, which made the reading experience even quicker. however, the use of some rather exaggerated words to describe something simple, especially since all her work is based on using vocabulary that's easy to understand, bugged me. like, wdym you use descombobulated out of nowhere??? and although it was simple (partly), it also felt repetitive most of the time.

most chapters were fillers, focusing on bree's routine as she goes to work in the diner and meets new people in pelion. moreover, the moments that were supposed to be important, such as the love confession and the reunion, were ruined by smut. it's important to know when to stop, lmao. those filler chapters could have been used to complete their backstories.

as for the characters, bree was plain and annoyed me at most. yes, she had a deep backstory, and as a SA victim myself, i feel deep sympathy for her, but other than that, i felt annoyed, because she was the cliche character that constantly embarrasses herself (that was how she spent the first quarter of the book).

archer will always be my beloved, though. i'm sad i wasn't able to get to know his character through his own point of view, as it had been through bree's, his childhood and other people's testimonies that filled his story. maybe it was meant to be that way, the fact that archer is known through other people's eyes, but it wasn't my piece of cake.

this is my first "long review" in a long time, but i needed to yap. i'm not rating it lower because the small town aspect was actually endearing.