koberreads's reviews
99 reviews

Fair enough for the fifth book. I know there is supposed to be a second girl but  I didnt think Ransom Riggs would just disregard her or even just plainly make Emma exprience emotional damage from all of this, even though it was not her entirely fault that she fell inlove with Abe then with Jacob.. as if he didnt love Emma so much with the first 3 books. Riggs wrote Emma so well and she just like threw her off away from the pages and Jacob is unexpectedly not empathetic with her as if suddenly all the time they spent with three books following inlove jsut because he is falling inlove for another girl in for a few pages in short 3rd book of his. I could care less who Jacob ends up with but can we at least give Emma a proper treatment


I swear if Emma ends up loving Enoch and Enoch loving her.. idk what to do… such a terrible ending for such Emma

One of the most unique scifi books  I have ever really makes you feel more human and think about your purpose even if the MC is half human and half machine/confused fusion of organic and inorganic being/android,,, 

And a future where we travel the galaxy and jump from planet to planet makes me believe more that we have at least enough technology to create such great AI or AI that are at least as self-aware at the oddly named Murderbot 

Repetitive and the advice is so simple and financial wisdom is common sense..  I did. not expect this book is for truly newbies who dont know the value of saving money and investing it…  this wont give you praactical tips on finances

One of the mind-boggling books of Riggs yet

Winning or experiencing victory on your first journey is a bad teacher because it could make you overconfident in your future or current endeavors/journey or goals. And failing on your second journey is often much more painful if you did not fail mostly because of your arrogance

Put that lesson in a science fiction/fantasy world like Riggs of course the results would be an intense captivating 4th novel. His imagination depth and breadth is unparalleled for me. I could never guess what comes up next and the photos just give more intrigue in my mind rather than any sense of clarity with what is happening which is 

Although supposedly targetted for young adults but I guess we all have moments of victory that made us ill prepared for the next project we must tackle or at least a sense of diving into the world we thought we knew but actually is completely utter dangerous mystery to us.

I hate Jacob for acting this way, because he is not as kind and humble and he was before but I do think this is the way to write a story that is closely mirror reality even if it is scifi: Success can get into our heads more than we could ever expect.

Damn! WHAT A JOURNEY! Ransom Riggs got me. He gave me my Childhood. The most adventurous and surreal childhood I never had. I think all of us never had such extraordinary mind blogging and time jumping childhood.

I am not exactly poor or neglected when I was child but to be honest, I felt that it was not enough. Not because my life is too ordinary or my friends are too normal when I was child but rather I did not decide to enjoy it or focus on the few but lovely and very human and peculiar friends I have in their own way. Riggs is right, our lives are extraordinary, we just fail to see it that way which cause us to be bored and label everything beautiful and amazing in our lives as ordinary.

Read the book, but I do advice start from from the first one, first. The plot and time breaking concepts of course wont make first at sense (it only did make all sense to me at my second read which is now, my first read is a few year ago) but nonetheless I still enjoyed the whole story along with the photos, because you could never expect the plot as much as the next photo that Ransom Riggs will show you and weave a story around to connect to the whole multiverse like web of story line. (The book will always be better than the future movies or series version of this but of course still watch those if they do arise in order to support Ransom Riggs) 

It is bad to compare harry potter or Tolkien with this unless I want to be berated by fans of those books but I just want to say,  I never found my harry potter book or Tolkien book when I was a kid (maybe a part from Percy Jackson books) but this is my harry potter book or Tolkien book.

Dont be afraid or dont feel bad for reading fiction. I read a lot of nonfiction books, big ones that are best sellers, from Mark Manson and Ryan Holiday and a great one from Hans Rosling "Factfulness" they have there place and value but fiction is a whole other kind of fruit that will nurture and give you lessons that you often consume unconsciously.

As long as you a reading and enjoy what you are reading, it is healthy and if you are self-help improvement junkie, according to Mark Manson, the healthiest form of escape better than netflix or any other streaming services.

We always have time especially reading fiction. You always have time, you just dont know it yet or dont realize it yet.

We have time

 

ALL THE PHOTOS ARE GETTING CREEPY BY EACH SUCCEEDING PAGE. AND I LOVE IT 

 

 

LIKE CANCER AND BLOSSOM INTO A DARK BUT ENCHANTING FLOWER.. THE PICTURES TRIGGER YOUR IMAGINATION BUT YOUR IMAGINATION IS STILL THE ONE WHO PRODUCES THE REST OF THE IMAGES THAT THE POECTIC PROSE EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR 

 

I have never been so wrong in my whole damn life regarding how I perceive the world and I have never been more joyous and grateful for being wrong. I have never realize as well the simple shift of a perspective is quite practical. I always thought the way we see things and the desire to change it for another is too abstact and often hard to see the results or has any value. I am truly utterly and unmistakably wrong and I love it. 

 

I was always thought the world is going to hell and I often internally say to myself that I am losing hope with humanity. These thoughts profilirated even more when the pandemic hit and now a War between Ukraine and Russia is still ongoing, I totality thought the world is going to hell again and World War 3 is here. 

 

This way of describing the world is not an optimist view but a (using the words of Hans Rosling to describe himself) "possibilist" view. That motivates me to fight for what is possible and progress because it is real even when dips and serious calamities happen here and there like the pandemic and war. I realize believing that the world is going to hell, besides being a delusion, it also does not motivate you to fight for progress because you seem to not see that there is progress. See the progress bar on a loading screen of a website you like or videogame you are eager to play, tend to excite you right? Seeing the progress of the world especially when extreme poverty is declining, really inspires one to live on and actually help other people go to the 4th lvl because it is possible. Our minds are clouded by negativity and dramatic news but through this book, you can see past them and see our world is growing for the better. It really is and I am not being an optimist or naive about this. 

 

 

BOOK REVIEW: 

 

I finished this short story in one day of reading (which 1  to 2hrs for me) 

 

 

Read that story if you felt too depressed after reading this one. Samsa in love is like what happens after the family left the flat at the end of the story 

 

Nonetheless, this story is still great in its own right, and no wonder Haruki Murakami admires Kafka.  (Both of these authors like writing about loneliness, isolation, and estrangement.) 

 

I think you might hate the story because it lacks any obvious moral or the ending is too unfair, depressing, and unjust for our protagonist who is just supporting his family financially and got turned into a bug unexpectedly and left to be mistreated, declined, and die and his family even felt relieved of his death rather than have any source of remorse. They cried out of relief rather than out of great sorrow for losing a family member 

 

But the story has no moral but simply the author's exploration and expression of the great sorrow in loneliness and estrangement a human being could have to the point that other people are repulsed by you as if you become a giant bug one day. 

 

Even though I felt depressed about this story, I respect and love it for the author making me realize loneliness and estrangement, especially the extreme kind not only mine alone. But he and other people as well do feel it. Often even for introverts, feeling that you are the only person feeling this way is one of the most painful kinds of pain a human being can experience. 

This book about loneliness or alienation ironically made me feel less lonely now because all of us want empathy for our sufferings in life. 

 

We should read fiction more so we could empathize with each other and feel that we are not alone especially in our feelings of loneliness 

 

Going to talk to some people now, something an introvert like me rarely does hahaha 

 

Review: One of the best fiction books regarding how our individuality, even though might be a curse or something to fear by other people, is also something they are compelled by, even if they don't admit it. 

 

We should focus more on how wonderful and interesting our differences are rather than derive hate and fear from them. 

 

It is also a story about the eternal need in all of us, no matter how small to live forever, in paradise, even at times we would wish we are gods as well and are unaffected by death. But death is a part of life, not the opposite of it even time loops that seem to escape or make death invalid, from the very words of Ms. Peregine herself, only delay it. 

 

Death gives life meaning. Therefore removing, death will truly make life meaningless or if not, maybe we become monsters in our desire to live like death is not part of life, like the hollowgast and wights. Maybe not physically a monster but just internally slowly. 

 

Read the whole series, you won't regret it. It is for all ages. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

I realized as I grew older that I love fables or stories in general. The short ones with morals like that one told you as child. Maybe because I had a complete lack of such because my culture doesnt have such things.

The stories here are one of the best kind of short stories and you would most likely appreciate it even if you haven read Ransom Riggs first novel “MP home of peculiar children” the story explains itself but always keeps you at your toes

I would love to read these stories to my children in the future but these stories are for all ages because of the morals it brings through the peculiar stories it unfolds to you

Others have shared snippet of each of the stories in the book but ill just share one that I like the most

The Locust” points out how vital a parent’s unconditional love is in the life of their child. 

I never realized this would be my favorite story the second time I read it. The perfect  story to portray how important is the unconditional love of a parent for the development of a child. Ransom Riggs just puts the conditions to an extreme on the consequences if a child doesn’t receive this.