jana teresechka

the story told in sokphal din's the killing fields of cambodia is truly gut-wrenching and gruesome, but his writing is bland, boring, emotionless, stagnant and monotone, and it feels like he is giving me a run-down of what happened and who passed away with no emotions. i don't blame him because he doesn't necessarily work as an author and the things he went through under the despicable khmer rouge are enough to make your insides twist, but from a story-telling perspective this book was mediocre.

i really liked this, but it ended up just being too long for me

countries are countries, but people are people.

life is short. please tell the people you love that you love them. even if you think they won't say it back.

i had a good time reading this but from a literary standpoint it was ass

 it's easy to despise this life and everything about it because none of it is mine. 

he continued, “the cold war was a conflict between socialism and capitalism, and capitalism won. moreover, we all got the us-centered capitalism that washington wanted to spread. just look around you,” he said, gesturing to his city, and the entire indonesian archipelago around him.how did we win, i asked.winarso stopped fidgeting. “you killed us.”

can't stop crying. could not put this book down. my soul is drained.

above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world. this is the most beautiful quality in a revolutionary.

took me too long to finish. don't know why

i really, really loved this book. the twist was obvious but the writing was so beautiful and i am now obsessed with smyrna. 

— what does it mean, to rest in silence?— to be in love with death, sister. thoughts of death chase after me. day and night, i think about killing myself. my reasons unclear. to carry on with life, or to die–either will do, a vague disquiet, nothing more. troubled thoughts, pushing me towards giving suicide a try. then i want to be in love again. he has the bluest eyes. it turns into a passion. i pour into it all the love i have ever felt for others, all the love i have in me. it's as if i'm living all my loves, past and present, with this one man.

marianne, i'm not a religious person but i do sometimes think god made you for me.

“you can leave if you like, but you're welcome to stay. you might flatter yourself you've hurt me very badly, but i can promise you i've been through worse. and when i said i loved you, i was telling the truth.”

this started off really strong but for me the story became bloated. i loved the short chapters but there were some povs of characters that i didn't think were necessary to hear from and at the end the book just felt like it was simply too long. the story itself is really good though, but it's a very character-driven novel i have to say, and at the 40% mark i stopped caring for any of the characters, so...

my expectations were way too high for this book, but i based them off of the blurb, so is that my problem or ashley's?

what is the point of my waiting or your waiting

meh, okay. nothing special. unfortunately i will not be picking up anything else written by janice hallett. — joel halliday, obe

“all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

i did not connect to any of the characters, the events of the second half just fell flat for me and i was just bored. not only that but the way andrew o'hagan introduces his characters to us was (for me at least) confusing

“i don't know what to do with this agony. i don't know how to carry this.”

i will never ever ever forgive the book community for having fourth wing as the #1 romantasy of 2023

downgraded to one star coz this book was a big bore and i ended up hating it more

i really like nita prose's books. the plot twists aren't anything mind-blowing but i love her writing.. it's so comforting and cosy. and molly, i love molly too.

america i love you but you have to get your shit together you're pissing me off

this is a long overdue love letter for the selection series and america singer..

when i was 10 life was heavy. i was never really happy, i never really felt the joy of life as other people may have felt it, and this un-happiness remains to this day, but i'm glad that i have a hobby (more like an addiction tbh) that allows me an escape, even if brief, from life.

i bought this book from a local indonesian bookstore chain, gramedia. i only bought it because of the cover. yes, i was shallow, but there was something about the all-white cover and audrey hollister's eyes that really pulled 10-year-old-me to this book.

alas, that was how my love and passion for reading started. the selection series. i stayed up all night reading the one, and i remember finishing it in only 3 hours. i was surprised that i read it so fast. i was even more surprised over the fact that i was sobbing for maxon and america; full blown, snot ridden sobbing. you see, i started this series with the one and not the selection or the elite so i had no background, no context to work with, but the feelings, emotions, love & words in this book were so raw that i was touched despite not having read the previous 2 books.

america, you are not the perfect character. sometimes i want to pull you out from the pages and give you a good smacking—you have a good man there, maxon, please don't waste your time with the brute who broke up with you because he didn't feel like he was good enough for you. but your resilience, and rebellion shaped me as a child, and i needed those traits.

maxon, you are an angel. lowkey i want to name my son (if i ever have one) after you and i probably will, if my husband allows for it. your patience and “epitome of everything good” made 10 year old me fall in love with you and here i am, 10 years later at the old age of 20 still in love with you, bawling over your words, wanting to give you a hug.

to kiera cass: i hope you see this.. thank you for creating this world. thank you. (p.s. i stand by my initial opinion that aspen & celeste should've been end game! i think of celeste all the time, no joke, from the first time i've read this book; so 10 years of thinking of celeste newsome and always being kind to people even if they're being book 1 & book 2 celeste to you)

this is my love letter for the selection, and i just want to further express again my gratitude for this series and its domino-effect into me loving reading.

love,
the 10-year-old teresa marianne who sat on her bed clutching her copy of the one to her chest crying & wanting a love like maxon & america's so that maybe life would be, even if only a little, lighter.

i don't want to call this amazing or excellent because i feel like i'd be calling masaji's life that as this is a memoir after all and his life has been full of nothing but sadness and starvation... this was very well written, and masaji paints a very, very vivid and horrendous picture of north korea. i really hope that north korea will be free of the government one day. nobody should be that restricted by their government. but i have to say that i find it selfish of masaji to have had 3 children.