Slumdog Millionaire Book Review

Hello there people, it's Filippa. Today I will be doing a book review of "Slumdog Millionaire" by Vikas Swarup. We read this book in school so that's why it hasn't been on "Filippa's Currently Reading", and that's also why it has taken me longer time to finish Finale: because I had to read a really boring book of 360 pages in three weeks at the same time as I read Finale. Which I still haven't finished by the way. 

 

But anyways, the book is about a 16-year-old boy in India, from the slum. He participates in a quiz where he wins a billion rupees. But the makers of the quiz show starts to wonder how a boy frpm the slum could know the answers to all the 13 questions. So they arrest him, believing that he has cheated. But a girl comes to this boy (Ram Mohammed Thomas is his name) and says that she is his lawyer. And since no one has proven that he cheated on the quiz he is free to go with this girl. So then he tells her about how he found out all the answers, at what point in his life he got to know them, so there are 13 chapters in the book and in each one of them he tells a story about one of the answers. And all the chapters are at different times of his life. Some when he was only 6, some when he was 14. 

What I liked about this book was that the idea behind it was amazing. That a "slumdog" would participate in a quiz and win a billion rupees. And then that every chapter was a new question was also a really cool idea. 

However, I did not enjoy the book very much. It was pretty boring to read, too many descriptions for everything so my brain got really confused and I didn't remember much of the things I read. And then there was also the fact that all the chapters and the stories Ram told weren't in chronological order, so that got me even more confused. And the book wasn't really my genre either, so of course I didn't enjoy it as much because of that, too. 

I've heard some people say that the book was really good and that they really enjoyed reading it, but that I don't understand. But then again, one of those people was my english teacher, and she doesn't have any taste when it comes to books...

Another reason to why I don't understand the people that said they enjoyed the book, is that I didn't get to know the characters very well. I did find out that the main character was a nice, honest and brave person, but there was nothing deeper than that. I didn't find him interesting in any way and there was nothing extraordinary or funny about him either. There was one thing though that I liked about him, and that was his life story. Even though it was a slow book and I burned some extra callories trying to concentrate on it, the story of his life was pretty interesting and extraordinary, unlike the character himself. 

But yeah, I don't really have anything more to say about the book. There's a film too, which I haven't watched but we will watch it soon in school, since everyone should've finished it by now. 

I would give the book a 3/10 for reasons that I have already mentioned. I hope you enjoyed this entry even though it wasn't about any fantasy, sci-fi or dystopian book.

~ Filippa ~ 

Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick Book review - SPOILERS FROM THE ENTIRE BOOK!

Hi guys, it's Filippa! Last time I posted an entry it was about my thoughts of Crescendo, the second book in the Hush, Hush series. This time I'm doing a book review of Silence, the third book in the series. I know that it's been more than a week since that, and Silence is only about 300 pages. 
I'm not the kind of person who wants to make excuses, but here's my excuse this time; we're reading a book in english class in school and we're supposed to read about 100 pages per week, and it's a really boring book. So I'm kind of struggling to work my way through that book. 

But back to the subject. 

Silence begins with a prologue about Hank Millar and Patch. Patch is making a deal with Hank, that if he lets Nora go he will let Hank rip of his wings. What I really liked about the prologue was that you kind of understood what was going on, but still there was a bit of a mystery going on there too. In the end of Crescendo there was kind of a cliffhanger when Hank suddenly appeared, and then Patch told Nora to run. But the prologue of Silence begins a while after, so you never really got to know what happened after Hank's men grabbed Patch and tried to get Nora too. 

After the prologue chapter one begins with Nora waking up on a graveyard and she doesn't remember anything since April. So when she finally sees someone on the graveyard and talks to him and he tells her it's September she, of course, thinks he is lying. 
After that the police (assistant Basso) finds her and takes her to the hospital. And since it was in June that Nora disappeared they think it's weird that her memory block goes all the way back to April, but the doctors blame it on the trauma she's been through (even though they don't know what exactly it is she's been through). 
When Nora gets out of the hospital (now she knows that it actually is September) her mother and Vee are trying to fill her in on what's happened during the summer break and what happened before she disappeared but that she doesn't remember either. But the thing is that she doesn't remember anything about Patch or fallen angels, nephilim or the archangels, so when she accidentally bumps into one she is very surprised when she hear them talking about nephilim. She thinks that the word sounds familiar but can't really put it in place.
What Vee and her mother doesn't tell her is that she had a boyfriend: Patch. Instead she gets to know about Patch through Marcie, who tells Nora that Patch was her summer flirt, and not Nora's. She doesn't say anything about Nora's and Patch's relationship, just that they were good friends. 
However, Nora meets Patch again, but he calls himself by his real name; Jev. Nora doesn't remember him and the name Jev is unfamiliar to her, but still she thinks there is something familiar about him as a person. 
Later on Nora meets Scott, who has to introduce himself again when she doesn't remember him. And he tells Nora about fallen angels and all of the things Nora told him before her memory vanished. What I liked about this part was that Nora got to know Scott all over again, and she gets a fresh start with him. Even though he tells Nora of all the bad things he has done, Nora can forgive him. 

Ever since Nora came back from the hospital she has had dreams and feelings of the colour black. She doesn't know what it is about the colour, but every now and then it pops up in her head and she sees a pair of black eyes in her mind. This part I found really interesting. Since Patch always dressed in black, had black eyes and black hair, she has feelings for the colour. And it isn't just that she sees the colour in her mind, but she can feel it, as if the colour was a person. 
I don't know if I remember this correctly but I think there was a time when nora met Patch again (as Jev) and he let her see his memories and then she found out that he was Patch. But if I don't remember correctly at least in some way Nora found out that Jev was Patch. 
And then Nora started to remember things from before she got kidnapped. Not entire events, but moments, images in her mind. 
This part, too, is very realistic, it isn't like other people may would have written it. I think that many people would have made it so that she fell in love with Patch instantly again, but instead Nora just lets her feeling start over. She thinks that if she had loved him once, and had forgiven him for being with Marcie, then she could do it again. So she forgives him for that, and then her feeling just naturally starts to feel for Patch what she had felt before, as if they never stopped. It was as if the colour black had replaced Patch when he disappeared from her memory, so her feelings never really stopped, they just replaced Patch with the colour of him. 

After Nora awoke at the hospital her mother told Nora that she is dating Hank Millar, the father of Nora's worst enemy at school, and Nora's biological father. And she always has this feeling around him that he is an evil man and that her mother should watch out. And of course that feeling comes from that it was Hank who kidnapped Nora. 
And later on she finds out from Patch that it actually was Hank who kidnapped her, so she got her mixed feelings around Hank explained through that. 

One time when Nora is at Patch's place, and her feelings for him has grown stronger than ever, he has to leave to go and spy on Hank talking to a captured archangel. And meanwhile Nora stays at his place but then gets a call from Scott. She immediately goes to his hiding place, but when she is finally there she and Scott gets captured by Hank's men. Then they drive Nora to Hank and he gets her to swear an oath that she will lead Hank's men and nephilim when he's dead, and then he turns her into a pure-blood nephilim (he does something where he exchanges her blood to nephilim blood). 
And if you've read the book then you already know how it ends; Nora shoots Hank when he is about to burn one of Patch's feathers, and since the archangels has made a deal about making Hank mortal again, he dies. 
I really liked the ending of the book, especially the part where they throw Hank's body into the ocean, and when Nora asks what will happen with him Patch says that his body will get eaten by sharks, instead of answering of what will happen to Hank's soul (No I'm not a psychopath, I just found that really funny since I hate Hank). 

So yeah, I think that Becca Fitzpatrick is a very good author and I really got to know the characters well, and more and more in every book. And although the books has pretty serious plots Becca always adds a little humor. Almost everything Vee says is funny, and there are those moments between Patch and Nora that are just so romantic and funny. Kind of like the shark joke I wrote about above. 
And now that Hank is dead Nora has to lead his "army" against the fallen angels, but Patch is a fallen angel so that's a problem, because she has to choose sides now; the nephilim or the fallen angels. 

I'm really excited about the last book, however I am not going to read it now. I am going to read a book call "With Hitler to the End" by Heinz Linge, who was a man who was almost as close as you could get to Hitler. So since we're currently working with World War Two in school I thought I would read that book. And I happen to be really interested in history, especially World War Two, so that's also a reason I'm reading that book right now. But after that I will start to read Finale. And once again; I'm really excited for that book. 

I hope you enjoyed this entry, Bye!

~ Filippa ~ 

Thoughts on City of Heavenly Fire- Emma

Oh my freaking God I finished City of Heavenly Fire last night... I have finished the Mortal Instruments series. I can't believe it. 
Anyway, Emma here. I haven't posted anything in a while, and that's simply because I have been reading books that Filippa has posted reviews on already, and I thought that it might be a bit annoying to read two reviews about the same book. But, I just felt that I had to pst something. So here's my thoughts on City of Heavenly fire: 

This honestly was one of the best books I have ever read. Cassandra Clare managed to continue the very interesting storyline and make it even better, and I couldn't stop reading it. I brought the book to school almost everyday, trying to read as soon as we had break. My friends were so annoyed with me haha. But I couldn't stop reading. You know that feeling when you can't stop reading a book but you don't want to finish it because you desperately want it to last forever? Oh yes, that's what you'll feel when you read this book. 
As I'm sure Filippa's already said, this series is amazing, and we both recommend it to you. the characters are so special and amazing every single one of them, and I can promise you that you won't be disappointed. 
City of Heavenly Fire had such a beautiful ending, that I however felt that I could leave the series happy. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have minded a couple of books more, but it was a great ending to a great series of books. But what I loved the most of all in the book was all the mentions of Tessa Gray from The Infernal Devices and Brother Zachariah. I love the way Cass has intertwined the both series, that they both matter to each other. To those of you out there who have read the mortal instruments and loved it, you have to read The Infernal Devices. I dare say it is as equally good as the TMI series. 

Anyway, now I'm going to fangirl a bit with Filippa about the book, I think ;) She has been dying to tell me things, but hasn't been able to since she didn't want to spoil things. 
By the way, there's a surprise post coming up soon, but I won't spoil what it is. Let's just say, you'll get an even closer view of Filippa and I ;) 

~ Emma ~