Book Highlights - The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarty

The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarty

Review from Amazon comment by Megan ReadingInTheSunshine

Ellen works as a hypnotherapist and loves her job, she enjoys seeing her clients and helping them. But the one thing that is missing in her life is a man, someone she can love who will love her back. And when she falls in love with Patrick, she feels her life is complete. The only problem is the fact that Patrick has a stalker - his ex, Saskia, but this doesn't faze her in the slightest, in fact, she is intrigued by this. But what Ellen doesn't know is that they've already met and she's been posing as one of Ellen's clients...
It is told from two different perspectives: Ellen's and Saskia's. I particularly liked this as we are able to see things from Sakia's point of view, find out what happened between her and Patrick, how it ended and how she came to be in the position that she is today. We also get a glimpse of Saskia as a person and not as `the stalker' which I found very interesting.
The Hypnotist's Love Story is a complex but very gripping story exploring obsession and love among many other things. There is a lot of suspense and drama, but also well-thought out and developed characters with depth to their personalities and feelings. It is emotional, well-paced

My highlights

She couldn’t control what was about to happen, only her response to it.

Of course, it was to be expected that she thought of them. For a while, each had been the person who knew her best, who spoke to her every single day, who knew where she was at any particular time, who would have sat in the front row at her funeral should she have tragically died. It sometimes seemed so peculiar and wrong to her that you could be that intimate with someone, to go to sleep with them and wake up with them, to do really quite extraordinarily personal things together on a regular basis, and then, suddenly, you don’t even know their telephone number, or where they’re living or working, or what they did today or last week or last year.

You weren’t meant to admit, even to yourself, how badly you wanted love. The man was meant to be the icing, not the cake. She was a bit embarrassed by the depth of her happiness. Thank goodness no one could see the champagne corks popping in her head.

This was the problem with being friends with someone who knew you when you were a teenager. They never quite take you seriously because they always see you as your stupid teenage self.

It had taken a long time for her to reinstall her personality after he’d systematically taken it apart, making her doubt her every thought. He was a selfish, pompous, egocentric, nasty man and yet she had loved him desperately.

He seemed to think collecting luggage was some sort of test of strength and agility, as if he had to crash-tackle his bag the moment it appeared and wrestle it to the ground. It always made me laugh.

From the moment we’re born everyone is hypnotizing us. We are all, to some degree, in a trance. Our clients think we’re ‘putting them to sleep’, but our ultimate goal is the opposite. We’re trying to wake them up.

He’s the star of his own life and I’m the minor character.

Having a baby had been like starting a demanding new job and beginning a passionate love affair and moving to a new country with a different language and culture all at the same time.

Book Highlights - Little lies by Liane Moriarty

Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Review from an Amazon comment

Jane is the newcomer; she's a young, single mother with a young son called Ziggy. Jane is very different to most of the other mothers at the school. She's not obsessed with her appearance, or by money, she doesn't have a husband who earns a huge salary. She's desperate to be accepted though and is delighted to find friendship in two of the most powerful mothers in town. However, things begin to go very wrong for Jane and Ziggy after an incident in the school playground, and suddenly mothers are against mothers.

Little Lies is a very clever story. The reader knows from page one that something terrible happened at the School Trivia Night, we know that someone is dead, but we don't know who it is, or who the murderer is, or why.

Liane Moriarty expertly weaves this story. Hooking the reader from the start with the big whodunnit and then skipping back a few months to gradually build up both the plot and the characters. There is a real credibility to these characters and the development of their relationships are excellently done. The author expertly portrays what appears to be a perfect life on the outside whilst allowing the reader glimpses into the sordid and often violent secrets lying below the surface.

My Highlights
Madeline had told her children that if they were naughty Santa Claus might leave them a wrapped-up potato, and they would always wonder what the wonderful gift was that the potato replaced.

‘Every day I think, gosh you look a bit tired today, and it’s just recently occurred to me that it’s not that I’m tired, it’s that this is the way I look now.’

Every child was looking straight ahead, little backs straight, enthralled by the spectacle in front of them, and every parent had turned to look at their child’s profile, enchanted by their enchantment.

Nothing and nobody could aggravate you the way your child could aggravate you.

‘I mean a fat, ugly man can still be funny and lovable and successful,’ continued Jane. ‘But it’s like it’s the most shameful thing for a woman to be.’

It seemed to her that Jane’s mother had probably helped lay the groundwork for Jane’s mixed-up feelings about food. The media had done its bit and women in general, with their willingness to feel bad about themselves, and then Saxon Banks had finished the job.

‘He’s not sharing!’ screamed Chloe. ‘Sharing is caring!’ ‘You get what you get and you don’t get upset!’ screamed Fred.

There were so many levels of evil in the world. Small evils like her own malicious words. Like not inviting a child to a party. Bigger evils like walking out on your wife with a newborn baby and sleeping with your child’s nanny. And then there was the sort of evil of which Madeline had no experience: cruelty in hotel rooms and violence in suburban homes and little girls being sold like merchandise, shattering innocent hearts.

Book Highlights - 'What Alice forgot' by Liane Moriarty

What Alice forgot by Liane Moriarty

Synopsis

When Alice Love wakes up on the floor of her gym, the last thing she expects is to be told she's a 39-year-old mother of three in the middle of a divorce, particularly since Alice thinks she's 29-years-old, happily married and pregnant with her first child. It appears that Alice has had a large bump on the head and has lost the last ten years of her life. As Alice comes to terms with the fact she's not who she thinks she is, she realises she doesn't like the woman she has become. Can Alice recapture the spirit of her 29-year-old self and more importantly, can Alice recover her memories of the last 10 years of her life?

My highlights

Elisabeth once said – very definitely and severely – that the right man didn’t complete you, you have to find happiness yourself, and Alice nodded agreeably, while thinking to herself, ‘Oh, but yes he does.’

Any troubles in their relationship could always be fixed with a few hours in separate rooms, a hug in the hallway, the quiet sliding of a chocolate bar under an elbow or even just a gentle, meaningful poke in the ribs that meant, ‘Let’s stop fighting now.’

Actually, I don’t think he has any self-consciousness whatsoever. He is a man without vanity. He’s just not a talker. He has no small-talk ability whatsoever.

We talked once about doing something with the partners, but it never eventuated.

Had each argument, each betrayal and nasty word built up into an ugly rock-hard layer covering what was once so tender and true? Well, if it had they would just chip away at it until it was gone.

Now it seemed like she could twist the lens on her life and see it from two entirely different perspectives. The perspective of her younger self. Her younger, sillier, innocent self. And her older, wiser, more cynical and sensible self.

There is nothing more patronizing for an Infertile than to hear a new mother complaining, as if that will make you feel better for not having your own baby. It’s like telling a blind person, ‘Oh sure, you get to see mountains and sunsets, but there are also rubbish dumps and pollution! Terrible!’

Book Review #22 - Love, Lies and High heels

Love, Lies and High Heels by Debbie Conrad

I downloaded this book on my Kindle because it was free and I needed another easy read to make me fall asleep at night!
I quite liked the story although it was soooo predictable! Characters were easy to fall in love with. Of course, the main ones are described as top models! I think the only good thing about this book was the intensity of the relationship between Luke and Rusty. It was pretty hot!
So, in summary, a very cheesy book with hot scenes! Can't go wrong when you want to take your mind off something (in yoru real life!)

My ratings
***

Book Review #21 - The Glass Painter's daughter

The Glass Painter's daughter by Rachel Hore

It took me a while to read this book, the beginning was painfully slow! The setting is - of what I can remember since it was a while ago I read it - a woman finding out her dad, a glass painter, is very sick. A dad with whom she never had good relations following the death of her mother and subsequent dad's mutism on the subject.
This is a classic chick read full of romance, lifestyle remodeling and family crisis! I think I pretty much summarized the plot.
I didn't find myself too attached to the characters, nor to the story. It's quite obvious how it's going to end up like. Still since I read this only in the evenings to make me fall asleep, it did the job pretty well hence the length of time it took me to finish it!

My ratings
**

Book Review #20 - The Secret Keeper

Title: The Secret Keeper
Author: Kate Morton
Publisher: Pan Macmillan, 2012
ISBN: 978-023076294-7
Length: 600 pages





Synopsis

1961: On a summer's day, while her family picnics by the stream on, 16-year-old Laurel hides out in her tree house dreaming of a boy called Billy, a move to London, and the bright future she can't wait to seize. But before the idyllic afternoon is over, Laurel will have witnessed a shocking crime that changes everything.

My thoughts/Summary

As with all Kate Morton books, it is a mystery! It starts off as a normal but intriguing story, but you know that at some point there's gonna be a murder/mysterious death.
I don't know if I'm used to Kate Morton's writing style now after reading all her previous titles but I thought there wasn't as much in-your-face/Shakesperian sentences in The Secret Keeper.
I didn't guess the twist at the end although I knew something was building up.
The story starts and focuses on Laurel and her mother Dolly. We travel through time, from Dolly childhood, Laurel's childhood to present time with Dolly being an old lady.
In summary, in the 60's Laurel witnessed her mother kill a man in their garden and although her mother always claimed to not knowing the man, Laurel did hear the man call Dolly's name before but never said anything.
We are also introduced to Dolly's growing obsession with another woman called Vivien, in the 30's.
We are then shared between Dolly's story during the pre-war and war times when she entertains her "fake" obsessionnal relationship with Vivien, and Dolly's daughter Laurel trying to find out the truth about what she witnessed as a child before her mother passes away.
About pre-war and war times, in brief, Dolly meets Billy and moves to London. Jimmy, a photographer leaves her to go take pictures of soldiers and lost families in France. Dolly works partly as a maid to a rich old woman and partly as a volunteer for the WVS. She entertains fantasies about a friendship with a woman across the road called Vivien. One day, she goes to her place returning Vivien's locket she found at the WVS and when Vivien tells her husband that she doesn't know Dolly, Dolly feels so hurt that she devises a plan to make her pay the humiliation.
We are also transported to Vivien's childhood where we discover that she lost her parents and got transfered from her native Australia to her aunt Ada in London. She's a shy girl who got matched up with a very powerful man whose name was known all over. It turned out that this man was violent, so violent that he has killed out of jealousy before.
Dolly's plan was to get Jimmy to acquaint himself with her, get him to know her and follow her so he could get a picture of Vivien and her lover so they could blackmail her - without knowing of the husband violent behaviour.
Vivien didn't have a lover, she was working with children. Jimmy managed to get into her life through the children . Of course, Jimmy fell in love with her.
Dolly, unaware of this budding love, thought that Jimmy was still going ahead with her plans and took a picture of them together looking at each other longingly. She decided to use that picture instead to extort money out of Vivien.
The plan fell through when Dolly realised that Vivien wasn't that bad.
The following turn of events ended in Vivien's husband receiving the photo, him killing Jimmy and searching Vivien to kill her too.
Being during the war, a bomb blasted off Dolly's appartement where Vivien had gone to look for Dolly to warn her about her husband. One woman died in that blast but it's not who we think it is.
SPOILER: Dolly died, but Vivien assumed her identity to save herself from her husband.
Laurel witnessed her mother Dolly, but really Vivien, kill her ex husband who had never stopped looking for her!

My Ratings
*****  

My Kindle note

"Vivien had learned early, as a child, in a crowded railway station, on her way to board a ship to a faraway country, that she could only ever control the life she led inside her mind " ---- Something I have to remind myself many times per day

Book Review #19 - A Place of Secrets

Title: A Place of Secrets

Author: Rachel Hore

Publisher: Pocket Books (2 Sep 2010)

ISBN: 978-1847391421

Length: 400 pages

  
Description (from Amazon)
The night before it all begins, Jude has the dream again ...Can dreams be passed down through families? As a child Jude suffered a recurrent nightmare: running through a dark forest, crying for her mother. Now her six-year-old niece, Summer, is having the same dream, and Jude is frightened for her. A successful auctioneer, Jude is struggling to come to terms with the death of her husband. When she's asked to value a collection of scientific instruments and manuscripts belonging to Anthony Wickham, a lonely 18th century astronomer, she leaps at the chance to escape London for the untamed beauty of Norfolk, where she grew up. As Jude untangles Wickham's tragic story, she discovers threatening links to the present. What have Summer's nightmares to do with Starbrough folly, the eerie crumbling tower in the forest from which Wickham and his adopted daughter Esther once viewed the night sky? With the help of Euan, a local naturalist, Jude searches for answers in the wild, haunting splendour of the Norfolk woods. Dare she leave behind the sadness in her own life, and learn to love again?

My Verdict
This was an unexpected good read, I have put all her other books in my wishlist now!!!
This is a true mystery again, with a murder/mysterious death to understand as well as an important family story to follow and understand. This is a very good twisted story that is worth a second read.
Like Kate Morton, Rachel Hore likes grand houses, history artefacts and events.

My Ratings
*****

Book Review #12 - The forgotten garden

• Title: The forgotten garden
  Author: Kate Morton
  Publisher: Pan - 29 May 2008
  ISBN: 978-0330449601
  Print length: 645 pages
• 
  

First of all, this is the 3rd book from Kate Morton I'm reading. However I haven't read them in their right order of publication. I wrote previous posts about The Distant Hours and The House at Riverton

• Synopsis
  
  

  It is set in different times:
  
  
  1900: Eliza is brought to a manor in Cornwall after her mother and brother dies. Here she meets Rose and as children they are best friends.

  1913: A young girl is brought to the shores of Australia in the war. She has no family, no name and no belongings apart from a white suitcase filled with clothes, a bunny and a book of fairytales. She is lost and vulnerable until a man down by the harbour takes her in ans calls her Nell.

  1930: On the eve of Nell's wedding her father tells her she's not his, which changes her life forever. The wedding is called off and the girl disappears and her sisters hear nothing of her for years.

  1975: Nell, as an old lady, goes to England to try and find out her past.

  2010: Cassandra's grandmother Nell dies and she inherits a house in Cornwall. She decides to travel to England to try and find out about it.

  My thoughts

  
  
  This is once again a fantastic read!!! Kate Morton's writing is very elaborate. You can seriously a new word or two per page!!!!
  The story in itself is quite elaborate as it's set in 4 major timelines for which Kate Morton adapts her style.
  As in the 2 previous books I read, the themes are grand houses, big family names, secrets and mystery deaths!!! I mean... What's not to like??? 
  Her strong point I think is to explain and expose mother-daughter relationships. Usually dysfunctionnal, but never repetitive, all family bonds are always very elaborate. From one book to another.
  
  
  To summarize the book, I will start with present time and go backwards, just stating facts and will wrote in tiny letters as it is most likely to contain spoilers!!
  
  2010: Cassandra, living in Australia, inherits Nell's house in Cornwall and her secret: she's not her great grand parents biological child. 
  Cassandra was close to Nell, her own mother having "abandoned her" with her, in 1975, when she was little. 
  Cassandra, having lost her husband and child in a car accident recently, decides to investigates the house and this past. 
  All she has is her grand-mother's childhood white suitcase containing a book of fairy tales written by Eliza Makepeace and her grand mother notes about her travels over there when she herself tried to find her past. 
  In England, she meets with several people in London and in Cornwall who know about Eliza Makepeace, ie she's a famous children book writer but disappeared in 1913 (Nathaniel Walker is the guy who illustrates her stories).
  
  1975: Nell, after purchasing a house in Cornwall, where Eliza Makepeace used to live, returns to Australia with the strong will to come back and live in it. But when she arrives in Australia, her daughter "drops" Cassandra off and never returns. Nell gives up her hopes of finding her true identity and stays to bring up Cassandra.
  
  1930: Nell learns from her father that she is not his. He tells her that he found her on the boat that came from England. She was alone, only 4 years old and no one to fetch her so he decided to take her in and adopt her with his wife. Once someone from England sent them a letter asking if they knew about a lost child whereabouts but he burnt the letter. Nell, then remembers that she came on a big boat, she was with a woman that she called "The Authoress". She hid the girl on the boat and told her not to move, but the Authoress never came back. She found food through other children she met on the boat.
  
  1900-1913: Big Family story, the Mountrachet:
  The rebellious daughter Giorgina left the big house and was involved with a fisherman, Makepeace. She fell pregnant of twins, a boy Sammy and a girl Eliza. The dad died unexpectedly but it turned out that it was Giorgina's brother who hired someone to track her sister down and gave his accord for the early demise of her lover. When Giorgina died, Sammy and Eliza were warned to keep for themselves and look out for the devil - presumably the guy who killed their dad. Sammy died in a stupid accident. Eliza got picked up in 1900 by the "devil" without her realising it (it was either that or social services). 
  She went to live in the big mansion, being the descendance of the Mountrachet. 
  The weird Uncle married a maid and had a daughter Rose. Rose and Eliza are about the same age. Rose is very fragile. Her mother is extremely controling and hates Eliza! Eliza and Rose grow closer. Eliza has a talent for inventing fairy tales stories.
  At 18, Rose and her mother travel to the states to find her a husband. They met with Nathaniel Walker - who will later become a famous portrait painter/sketcher. They marry and try for babies. Without success. It turns out that Rose is infertile, after a doctor decided to X-ray her belly for 90 minutes (in 189...) after having swallowed a toy. It was a first for this technology but consequences were unknown, when in fact the X-rays fried her developping ovaries.
  The whole book is written around this secret:
  While the reader is made to believe that in 1909, Rose's baby was really Mary's baby (an unwed maid) and that Eliza helped Mary through the pregnancy and the secrets.
  The real arrangement was that Nathaniel and Eliza actually tried for a baby FOR Rose and when Eliza gave birth, she willingly gave up the baby for Rose and Nathaniel. Mary being aware of it, was paid for her silence.
  1913: Rose couldn't face Eliza anymore, probably jaelousy, she decided to move to New York with baby Ivory and Nathaniel. But before the move, they had to go visit someone, they died in the train crash, the baby having stayed at home after suffering a cold.
  Eliza didn't know about it, she herself had planned to move to Australia (Mary's brother was living there and loving it)
  After finally having heard the news of the accident and while everyone was at the funeral (same day she was supposed to travel to London then Australia), Eliza meets with Ivory and in an instant decides to take her with her.
  They go to London, Eliza puts her on the boat and tells her not to move she will be back as soon as possible.
  Eliza was actually going to get back to the house where she used to live with her mum and brother where she hid a very expensive Mountrachet brooch. But when she arrived there, the lady called "the devil" and he came to pick her up! He drugged her and put her in his carriage. When Eliza came to her senses, she jumped out of teh carriage, hoping to bounce off and go back to the boat on time for departure. In the process, she actually killed herself!!!
  That's why nobody ever saw her again, she was buried in her garden that she treasured!!!
  So, in conclusion, Nell is Ivory and her parents were really Eliza and Nathaniel!
  
  

  My ratings

  
  
  **** - Only missing 1 * because I had guessed the ending pretty early on!

Book reviews #10- #11 - The Hunger games trilogy

I already wrote my thoughts about the first instalment of this fantastic trilogy The Hunger games HERE
For the next ones, I read them so quickly one after the other that it requires to review them at the same time!!!

Title: Catching Fire
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic - Sept 2009
ISBN: 978-0-439-02349-8
Print length: 391 pages

Synopsis

Katniss assimilates herself into her new role as a victor of the Hunger Games. Content with the victor’s spoils that can now feed her family and chagrin that she’ll have to participate in a Victory Tour in the 11 defeated Districts of Panem and the Capitol, Katniss is completely unaware of the trouble she sparked with her final actions in the Hunger Games’ arena. Katniss quickly realizes that she has emerged as a symbol of rebellion when she receives a visit from the dastardly President Snow who cunningly threatens her with a fate far worse than death. Katniss acquiesces to President Snow but continues to notice signs of unrest through her style team and among other Districts. Both Katniss and Peeta Mellark quickly realize if they don’t team up and play their cards right, innocent people will die as a result of their actions. A startling twist in the Quarter-Quell 75th Hunger Games takes Katniss’ focus away from the unrest in the Districts and consumes her with a growing intensity to survive long enough to protect Peeta, Gale, and her family from the dictatorship that threatens all of their lives.

Title: Mockingjay

Author: Suzanne Collins

Publisher: Scholastic - Aug 2010

ISBN:  978-à-439-02351-1

Print length: 455 pages

Synopsis

Katniss has emerged from the 75th (Quarter Quell) Hunger Games as the sole symbol of the Districts’ rebellion against the Capitol: the Mockingjay. Flung into the underground, socialist District 13, Katniss is relieved, appalled, and bitter about the District’s existence. With Gale Hawthorne by her side and Peeta Mellark at the hands of the Capitol, Katniss is forced to weigh the motives and actions of those around her as she navigates her role as Mockingjay. District 13’s President Coin reunites Katniss with former Tributes and an assortment of Rebel leaders scraped together from the surviving Districts with carefully laid plans on how to gain the remaining Districts’ support and infiltrate the Capitol.

Reminder - Spoilers/My Thoughts

In the first instalment, we were left with Katniss and Peeta, both victors from the 74th Hunger games. President Snow from the Capitol had threathened her that she'd better convince everyone that her twisting game with the berries was only driven by her love for Peeta, and was not an act of rebellion against the authorities that could fuel a new uprising.
In Catching fire, life starts again. Both Katniss and Peeta live in new houses, in the victor's village. Their family are rich beyond imagination. Katniss still does her hunting and gives the meat to Gale's family. Gale is now working in the mine. Their relationship is not involving as both would like to although a few lost kisses happen. Peeta and Katniss relationship is at a complete standstill except when they have to act in front of the Capitol people.
As victors of the Hunger games, they have to do a Victor's tour that is taking them through all the districts. A task they are not looking forward to do as that will confront them to the families of dead tributes including Thresh and Rue, from district 8. After a few comments on their part, a small rebellion starts among the gathered crowd which results in a few people being shot by Peacekeepers (Capitol guards).
In their own district, changes are occurring such as a change of Peacekeepers who do apply the law, replacing others who used to take advantage of illegal hunting and trading activities, resulting in Gale being publically battered - stopped by Katniss, Haymitch and Peeta.
It is during one of these hunting trips that Katniss meets with two women in the woods, apparently from district 8, who had escaped and were aiming to reach district 13, not believing that it was destroyed by the Capitol 75 years earlier. They also indicate to Katniss that she has become the face of the rebellion. Their sign being the Mockingjay pin.
Following all these rebellious events throughout the districts, it was time to announce the next Hunger games rules. This year would be the 75th, the third Quarter Quell, so rules would be special as for every Quarter Quell. President Snow himself announced them to a stunned audience. The rules were that instead of the normal reaping choosing any children aged 12-18 years old. The reaping would be among the victors of each district. A rule obviously established by Snow and not as presented being written down 75 years earlier.
It meant that for District 12, only Peeta and Haymitch's names would be in the bag, whereas Katniss would automatically return to the arena, being the only female ever to have won.


Again, the preps, interviews are filled by events but it would be impossible to relate everything as every page is full of new information, new ideas, new names, etc...


What I can summarize is that although the Victors form each district are not happy about returning to the Arena, once they are there, they still do some killing. Which is weird, because even though I've read the first instalment, I was still hoping for the victors to refuse doing anything, I was still shocked!


Realizing that it would be just another killing session and that she might not be as lucky this time, she decided to protect Peeta and sacrifice herself protecting him. Suffice to say, it doesn't turn out like this!
In a desperate act of rebellion and thinking that she was about to die, Katniss breaks the shield of the arena leading to her rescue by the rebels.
It turned out that the Game Maker president had been working as an undercover rebel to free the districts from the Capitol oppression.
This second instalment concludes by Gale explaining that they cannot go back to District 12 because the Capitol has bombed it, killing the majority of its population, and that they are welcomed in underground District 13.


In Mockingjay, the Rebellion is underway. President Coin, chief of District 13, organises troops and manages spied within the Capitol.
Life in D13 is different being underground as everything from their schedule to what they are eating is controlled and specific to each person. However life is restricted, everyone seems happy as it means that no one dies of hunger!
I have to say that trying to remember the story doesn't bring many details like for the 1st 2 instalments. The story is basically how life is for Katniss, and her mother and sister. Her more distant relationship with Gale.
The main part seems to be her acceptance to become the face of the rebellion by embracing her Mockingjay status. At the same time, President Snow, having captured Peeta from the Quarter Quell arena, is trying o break her by sending messages through Peeta, which ultimately lead her to her breaking down.
They therefore decided that in order to save their rebellion face, they had to rescue Peeta.
Unfortunately it turned out that Peeta's mind had been highjacked and that all his memories with Katniss have been modified, making her the face of the enemy and Peeta a killing machine.
When it is time to break the Capitol, having "rescued" all the other districts, Katniss goes on an easy mission with her friends/co-victors to shoot for another propaganda TV spot. When this turned to be deadly, instead of going back to safe D13, Katniss decided to pursue her new mission: killing President Snow. Her fellows, decide to accompany her even though it means likely dead for some of them.


The final battle happens in the square in front of the President Snow mansion. A bit of confusion still resides as to who is responsible for the death of all the children gathered there, as well as the rescuers, including - Oh Shock - Prim, Katniss sister!!!
When Katniss comes back to her senses, war is over, President Coin is in charge, Snow in custody and found guilty.
Katniss, having made a deal earlier that she would be the one killing Snow, appears live on stage to execute him, but instead plant sher arrow into President Coin, on purpose, having realised that oppression was likely to sustain but in other hands, and new faces should be in charge of the new Capitol.


The end of the book is quite bizarre as no explanation is given, we just directly jump to Katniss being acquitted on the grounds of sanity and sent on exile to D12 with Haymitch and Peeta.
She rekindle her relationship with Peeta, get married and has children!


So, very boring end for such a thrilling trilogy. ANother book could have been written of course or just another 100 pages on a new more exciting life for Katniss, This is just one Big Fairy tale ending: They married and lived happily ever after!!!!


I'm still uncertain as to the status of Katniss along the book. On one hand, she represents and does what adult should do, ie look after one another, not kill one another, share with one another etc... She did so by taking care of her family, going hunting, feeding her family but also others, and volunteering for the 74th Hunger games in place of her sister.
But then she does turn into a killing person, mainly to defend herself but also to kill in order to win! Then she completely let down people, and most of all Peeta.
She transforms into a different person into the arena, pretends to love Peeta, kiss him etc... Once out, she goes back to her old life, not able to make a choice between Peeta and Gale, but effectively ignoring both. Ok, she's only 17 and since she does not want to get married, she doesn't see any point in having a relationship let alone address the issue. But again, this is not the point of the book!
Then in the 2nd instalment, she goes through the motions again, not really taking any hero behavior.
It sounds more like she became a hero despite herself. And although her aims have always been to protect her family, she never embraced the fact that she should do more, being the Mockingjay.
She starts doing so in the 3rd instalment but again it's not her doing, it's all about image presented and controlled to and by people.
She only does it sporadically, uncontrollably, not because she's the spontaneous type but she's irresponsible and all her actions end up with the death of people. Maybe for the greater good, as thought by her leaders, but in the end, she rebels even against them. 
Ok, so after writing this, I'd say she's just a teenager acting like a teenager!!! and people watching her on TV, just gave her more importance that she deserved. She admits it herself though.


Now I understand where Suzanne Collins came from when she wrote her book. She says she got the idea of the Hunger Games by watching a stupid reality show and war on the news, and mixing them both. 
It makes then more sense since common practice is too give such importance to people appearing on TV when really they do nothing for the greater good!

My Ratings

****

Book review #9 - The Hunger games

Title: The Hunger games
Author: Suzanne Collins

Publisher:  Scholastic (5 June 2009)  

ISBN:   978-1407109084

Print length:464 pages

Synopsis

Katniss Everdeen is a survivor. She has to be: she's representing her District, number 12, in the 74th Hunger Games in the Capitol, the heart of Panem, a new land that rose from the ruins of a post-apocalyptic North America. To punish citizens for an early rebellion, the rulers require each district to provide one girl and one boy, 24 in all, to fight like gladiators in a futuristic arena. The event is broadcast like reality TV, and the winner returns with wealth for his or her district.

My Thoughts

Well it only took me about 3 days to read this and have already started on the sequel... Needless to say, it's inventive and shocking!!! A real treat as a read.
But I am so glad it's not real, it is fiction!!!


After reading the plot and watching the adverts for the cinema adaptation, I thought there must be a twist! As it is unconceivable to imagine such a story where young people from different districts are thrown together into an arena to kill each other! This being televised and made into a massive reality show!
Honestly I thought that somewhere in the story, we would understand that those children are not really dead but actually they are!!!
As a matter of fact, it's even worse but I can't say for risk of spoilers:


spoiler:
The dead tributes are made into mutts. These are a genetic variations of wolves!




The story follows Katniss Everdeen. She lives with her mother and sister. Her father died in a mining accident and since then has been obliged to take care of her family. In their precarious situation, it means hunting (illegally) and trading roots, flowers and meat for other essentials.
She is 14, her sister is 11.
Every year, the Capitol (big district controlling the other 12) organizes the Hunger games. This show was invented following the rebellion of the districts against the Capitol and is a reminder that they shouldn't mess with the authorities!!
There are 12 districts, each has their speciality in terms of production. Katniss is from the 12th, specialized in Coal!
She has a best friend Gale, with whom she hunts. There is no romantic relationship although over the years they have developed a bond.
She is aware that nothing can ever happens as she doesn't want to get married and bring children into this world of poverty.
The day of the reaping - which is when each district draws the names of one girl and one boy aged between 12 and 18 yo, Katniss sister's name is read aloud although her chances of being drawn were so small. Without hesitation, Katniss volunteers to replace her and as so, seals her own death - in 74 years, only 1 victor came from their district 12.
The boy's name drawn is Peeta, the son's baker.
They are called tributes and will be 24 in total.
Together they go to the Capitol, go through preps, interviews, trainings etc... The objective of these preps is to be classified as highly as possible so that sponsors can be found and bets can be placed.
Sponsors are useful in the arena for when for example a tribute needs something in particular - food, clothes, arm, etc... - these gifts are sent by mini parachutes!!!
The arena is used in the broaden term, to define a place controlled by the Capitol - exactly like in the Truman show.
This year the arena is a vast plain with a seam, a lake, a pine tree area, a crop area, etc... 
So the way you present yourself at the interviews is very important to give you maximum chance of survival.
Although Katniss and Peeta are from the poorest district, it is the first year D12 tributes appeal to the public and to the gamemakers. Thanks not only to Katniss volunteering to save her sister but also because Peeta played the card of the boy in love with his future arena enemy. They soon become the lover stars of this year's game.
Their every movement is filmed and shown - Big Brother like - to all to see. Bets are taken, gifts are sent, money is gathered, etc..


No point explaining the games themselves, the story was intense but impossible to retell!!


Spoilers:
Twist at the end is that the rules were changed at the last minute allowing tributes from same district to be both winners and not have to kill each other. A clear Big brother rule change to please viewers.
However, right at the end, when they do manage to be the winners, the voice of Big Brother tells them that the rule has been changed again and that only ONE winner will be allowed! Peeta and Katniss who have been playing lovers on purpose (actually Peeta was sincere) for the viewers try to escape this by pretending to eat - at the same time- poisoned blueberries and therefore commit suicide, Romeo and Juliet style, making the BB to intervene and tell them OK OK you both win, don't kill yourself. 


If they had both died and no winner was declared, the Capitol would have been defeated in its purpose.


This leads to the end of the book where Katniss has to really persuade EVERYone that she was too madly in love to even think about killing her lover. Something that she half manages to do making the Capitol extremely angry with her and therefore putting her family and her whole district at risk!


This leads to the sequel, how she deals with the Capitol and how the Capitol deals with her...

Book Review #6 and 7 - Tatiana and Alexander and the Summer garden

Title: Tatiana and Alexander

Author: Paullina Simons

Publisher: Harper Collins, 2003 e-book - 2011 

ISBN: 978-0007118892 

Print lenght:640 pages

Synopsis

Tatiana is eighteen years old, pregnant, and widowed when she escapes war-torn Leningrad to find a new life in America. But the ghosts of her past do not rest easily. She becomes consumed by the belief that her husband, Red Army officer Alexander Belov, is still alive and needs her desperately. Meanwhile, oceans and continents away in the Soviet Union, Alexander barely escapes execution, and is forced to lead a battalion of soldiers considered expendable by the Soviet high command. Yet Alexander is determined to take his men through the ruins of Europe in one last desperate bid to escape Stalin’s death machine and somehow find his way to Tatiana once again.

Book review #5 - The Bronze Horseman

Title: The Bronze Horseman

Author: Paullina Simons

Publisher: Harper Collins, 2000

e-book - 2009

ISBN: 978-0061031120

Print lenght: 912 pages

Synopsis

Leningrad 1941: the white nights of summer illuminate a city of fallen grandeur whose palaces and avenues speak of a different age, when Leningrad was known as St Petersburg. Two sisters, Tatiana and Dasha, share the same bed, living in one room with their brother and parents. The routine of their hard impoverished life is shattered on 22 June 1941 when Hitler invades Russia. For the Metanov family, for Leningrad and particularly for Tatiana, life will never be the same again. On that fateful day, Tatiana meets a brash young man named Alexander. The family suffers as Hitler's army advances on Leningrad, and the Russian winter closes in. With bombs falling and the city under siege, Tatiana and Alexander are drawn inexorably to each other, but theirs is a love that could tear Tatiana's family apart, and at its heart lies a secret that could mean death to anyone who hears it.

Confronted on the one hand by Hitler's vast war machine, and on the other by a Soviet system determined to crush the human spirit, Tatiana and Alexander are pitted against the very tide of history, at a turning point in the century that made the modern world.