buthainna's reviews
344 reviews

this is one of the best books I have ever read. 
God, it was dark. the heart-achingly type of painful and beautiful dark. 
I probably could never reread this book again, ever, just because there's no way to look at these characters with an innocent look. I just can't, not after learning their true inner selves. 
the brutality and vast darkness of mankind shines disgustingly bright. 
the descent into insanity is slow, but once you get to the last page, it feels like only 5 minutes have passed since you started reading. 
i will be thinking about richard and everyone else for a long, long time. 

my opinions on some of the characters

I fucking hated Julian from the start. he has always been sketchy, the way he monopolized his students, distanced himself from them. i never trusted that facade. 
as for Henry, I appreciated his intelligence but after Charles ratted him out I got so fucking mad, to have been played by him. I'm glad he was eventually out of the picture, but I hate how he thinks himself a hero. 
Charles is just sad.
Camillia is a manipulative bitch, who insisted on staying miserable until the very end. 
As for Francis, I really felt bad for him. He's my second favorite after our protagonist. 
Richard's my favorite, since he's the one we know the most about obviously. I saw myself relating many times to his loneliness and melancholy. That is not to say he was a good person by any means, it's just that he was the most fleshed out since he's the one writing this whole thing. There are already so many analyses of his character out there that I don't have anything to add further. Francis is the next best written character I think.

One question remains in my mind now: who is Richard writing this entire book to? 

this is not a bad book by any means, it's just that I related to nothing in it at all. 
the memoir of a korean-american girl, who connects to her emotionally distant mother through korean cooking. her mother gets cancer and passes away at a young age, and she has an ever more distant relationship with her american father. 

It was precisely 3 months that I spent reading this book, and I basked in every word. 

Kokoro is an elusive word, though it may simply be translated as "heart", it means so much more. 

I had stumbled upon Kokoro in the haze of melancholy I found myself in after rereading Dazai's No Longer Human back in January. 

Apart from some short stories, I had never read any full-length works of Soseki's. 

Some historical background is essential for fully enjoying this masterpiece. 

It is set during the Meiji era, a time of transformation in Japanese history where the country welcomed Western trade, and consequently, opened its doors to Western values and beliefs. Ideas of individualism were introduced, and adopted by the new generation. 

Our unnamed protagonist is a young university student living in such an era. 

He meets Sensei, a dark, self-deprecating, mysterious older man. Whom as we read more about, we soon understand that Sensei is living two painfully conflicting dualities. 

Between the confucian beliefs of the previous era, and the individualism of the current one. 

Even if you know about none of that, this novel remains an utter masterpiece in its portrayal of the human heart, mind, and spirit.

Absolutely a new favorite of mine. I'll be reading more of Soseki in the future

I got bored of the audiobook. It's not bad but I wasn't keeping up with the story, I think I'll have to read it. 

كتاب قصير جدا وبسيط
ما اضاف لي الروحانية المطلوبة بصراحة وما وجدت فيه ما ابحث عنه 

Addiction is a hideous monster
It's depressing how he still died from it after writing this
No matter what modern society is trying to convince me of, family and marriage and stability ARE important. The phrase "unaccompanied minor" will haunt me for a long time. 

It's crazy how much she went through behind cameras. 

I never expected her to have such a tough life

amazing sequel I have no complaints although I think I'm getting a little burned out because I'm reading these long ass books one after another. it seems the third book is written in dual POVs which is pretty darn exciting but for now I'll be taking a little break from the series.

 the cliffhanger was just phenomenal . we finally have an idea of what is outside the fence and I don't know how the author is going to tie everything in just one more book. I have very high hopes for allegiant.

This book tris is imprisoned by erudite, experiments are done on her in order to figure out how divergent brains work, and how Jeanine could control them better. Unfortunately, things get frail between Trish and Tobias as she suffers through the haze of grief and guilt from her parents deaths Caleb's betrayal, and her killing Will. 

most of the book she is working on her own and devising her own plans. I honestly never thought Christina would be her ally in her crazy plan. She always felt like a red flag to me from the first book but I guess I was wrong.

I'm totally hooked! I feared that I wouldn't enjoy dystopian YA in my 20s but this book proved my wrong thank god! 
Divergent focused mostly on establishing the world, I'm hoping the next book will explore the characters more, and I hope it has higher stakes.

*SPOILERS FROM HERE UNTIL THE END*
Society is divided into 5 factions, established by the government long long ago. Each faction values one trait above all else; bravery, peace, knowledge, truth, and selflessness. At the age of 16, all kids get to choose to stay at the factions they were born in, or transfer to another one, based on aptitude tests they have to take. 

When Beatrice takes her test, she discovers that she doesn't fit one faction more than the other, rather she's Divergent. She chooses to go into Dauntless because she's always been fascinated by their bravery. 

When she gets there, she meets a young trainer called Four, and romance develops between them. 

Together they find out that the Erudite faction wants to start a war, and the book ends with Beatrice discovering that her own mother is also Divergent, and that she was originally born in Dauntless. Both her parents sacrifice themselves for her. 

and the book ends with Four, Caleb her brother, Four's father, and she herself are on the run to Amity. The peace faction 

I don't think I've ever read something this terrible before. Waste of time