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[yourresidentreader]

Beartown Review

There's a story about a bear from Bear town that broke the internet on its strangely familiar gist and ideas about human nature that still are feverishly gobbled by readers time and time ahead; haunting the bookstores again and again.

I have been positively alarmed by how praised this book has been. And a wide reason why I picked it up.

This book's premise revolves around a town that collects frost almost all seasons; captivated by a thick forest of wild animals buzzing around. It already seems like a book worth to read on, because you see a type of civilisation that grew with the forest.

And Fredrick does a good job at amplifying this. You get to learn little-little bubbles of thoughts of people on a moral subject like rape. The humility, the exasperation of parents, the droughting of the victim; I have never seen a book collectively add diverse notions on how something serious can have wide ranging viewpoints to think from.

It hasn't only been the moral lessons; it bought people and liberated them about sports being a good faith.

I had a good time reading this book, and I'll always remember to end it on that. It's a perfect book to have a good time with. It's pitch perfect.

[yourresidentreader]

We Are Okay Book Review

Do you sometimes ever wonder how a book leaves you? The last words? But you simply can't recall anything, perhaps simply just afraid you are not able to?

Now compare that to a person you last time saw or could never see again. We Are Okay is one of those books that heeds to the buried grief in the reader's heart. I simply cannot stop over how this small journey clicked all the comfort spots, lies, and left truths inside me. Perhaps it's not only a read but a step to see through your own grief side by side with the characters.

I had saved this book off for later, hoping maybe this pride month with late June nights I'll open a book that I have never heard about or even tried to. We Are Okay is one of those books I opened without reading the summary, ready for a voyage with new characters.

What I got was if not exorbitant, but the caliber was empathetic, emotional and the planes of my heart felt touched. You don't open a book with a plain heart, you have everything residing there, all the washed-up grief, sadness, pain, loneliness, guilt. And maybe I was a person too like millions of others who had been lying to themselves like Marin's story and today when I finished this book it made complete sense.

We have all been in loneliness. And if I had determined a choice today; having this book encroach on that loneliness was enough.

[yourresidentreader]

Red Seas Under Red Skies Book Review

Scott Lynch's second addition to the Gentlemen Bastard series, PIRATES PIRATES PIRATES (to be allowed to sink in everyone's heads with lots of adventures spindling this novel) the brilliance calibre to rate this novel is enigmatic, and here's why even if many found this book a bit too slow-paced, it was exactly what Gentlemen Bastard's series needed.

Locke and Jean after tragic loss of their very gentlemen bastards are found in the gambling fountain of Tal Verrar, the land of fortunes ready to bet their money over a few deck of cards.

The con-artist Locke Lamora changes his disguise to Lecanto, a fine gentlemen who eyes on everyone's hunger to reel in the fantasies of solaris. We are back on deceiving people, bridging past new challenges yet we are also tapping into the darker sides of Locke's and Jean's character. Scott's brilliancy to remind us our characters are no more than humans that readers relate to breaches in their way of earning their status through the gambling inns.

Ahead of the mess Locke gets swept into, barely keeping above the waters, he is poisoned. Now everything depended on playing puppets under Strago's fingertips. We enter a new avenue on a sea voyage.

Every way possible Scott's foreshadowing gets better and better in the second book. The custom chairs, the deck of cards that mystiques into concrete come to click into place.

Remarkable characters come into the journey. One of the most commonly discussed element of the second book in the sequence is its pacing for the second act. It felt like we were pushing through a whole chunk of 400 pages and more of voyage and unprecedented attacks. However, there was a reason and I believe when I traced my eyes past it I was shell-shocked.

Scott Lynch purposely intended the readers to stay longer in the sea voyage, learn the language of sailors, go down into every meticulous detail of politics in the downplay because Scott wanted us to experience the time taken to shed someone's doubts and trust someone. We were not only in the sea with Locke, but we were experiencing the trust he was building with the pirates.

And I believe this was the best part of The Red Seas Under Red Skies because it wasn't just only a concrete piece of fantastic narrative, it was an immersive experience.

[yourresidentreader]

The Lies of Locke Lamora Book Review

After surfacing in every galaxy the Internet had to echo books', Inej Ghafa fanart, the perfect fantasy world keywords in, it was an impulsive decision to pick up The Lies of Locke Lamora. Yes, I bought the book.

I meant the whole series.

This book review will withhold only the premise, scenes, and discussion of the first book of the Gentlemen Bastards by Scott Lynch. If you have read the book, go ahead and give it your sheer attention.

I'll start with how Scott Lynch as an author has two very unique skills. His first skill is comprehensively writing engaging characters you will root for and in further understanding will realize how each character is molded. Lynch introduces the readers to a group of people who are like a coin, and those two sides of the coins both represent their flaws and reliabilities. Not only are they dynamic, but they are also diverse, unique, and always carry meaning to the story.

His second skill is breaking conformity. Scott is not afraid of consequences, story structure, and precise traits. His stories do not follow a specific structure which conjures the story to be ten times more unexpected, unique, and new. Albeit, I am an advocate of story structures because I believe they can help us narrow down the nuances of tension tightening our story.

The Lies of Locke Lamora has too many things to wander therein. This necessarily does not make this lazy planning, it's called selecting a perfect writing structure for your story and Scott knew his story needed more than the regular.

While reading this book, I found myself penciling down this same sensation.

"The Lies of Locke Lamora is a cleverly crafted story. I think the reason I am more excited with its prose, worldbuilding, and characters is due to its very sheaf of comprehensive detail found in every flipping page."

Let's move in more depth on the story's elements. The story's focus has constantly been on our group of characters and their greed. Since it is a dark story, the stakes and consequences are very high. Locke fools even the most dreaded criminals of Camorr resulting in very brutal consequences. That said, Locke is beaten up, threatened, and tried for assassination for his actions and maybe that is why every time Locke is beaten up, Scott gently pushes up the door to remind us what Locke had done is and would still be unforgivable.

I was impressed with Locke's skills to mold into any disguise he came up with, and the writing made sure his disguise scenes weren't boring. I have never seen an author writing someone so beautifully, I was fascinated with Lukas Fehrwight and his accent-vocabulary imitations, thank you very much Father Chains.

Father Chains was another fantastic character. His ability to take in these orphans and master them into such beautiful cunning thieves is unpardonably worthy. The pacing is slow, it is a big chunky book of 719 pages and I think the plot could have been tightened up, but I don't mind seeing my favorite characters make the very fun of how Locke Lamora is a loser to let his love of life Sabetha run across the continent. Everyone who read the book would agree. The whole Camorr would agree.

[yourresidentreader]

Why you should read The Yellow Wallpaper?

The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that speaks more than written and elucidates more than intended. The main intention of the literature narrative was to testimony the position of women in the structure of marriage and the superlative misguided hierarchy of men after her own personal experience in 1887.

[yourresidentreader]

Red White & Royal Blue

Red White & Royal Blue is a modern political narrative. This piece of fiction sparked controversy and discussions in the reader’s community; there has been hate and love in perfect tows. Despite every word out there, I thought this book deserved more than my biased opinion. Albeit I can continue gushing over Alex and Henry but this book which is the perfect expression of freedom of press deals with more complexity Casey dabbled in the novel than addressed.

I’ll love to take over each of this one by one, and will try to understand where this book broke out hate and where it warmed hearts and called the book their love of life.

To start with, this book is gay. Very gay. If that wasn’t obvious, I’ll still emphasis we have a fervent gay paradise in this book, and if you have missed it, the very first gay thing Henry who shows he is gay all the time and Alex together did was sharing love letters of lovers in fun emails late at night, early in the morning or in the middle of Jurassic Park turkey crisis. Not to be associated with queer stereotypes, we all know Alex is chivalrously bisexual and Henry is the closeted prince. It starts off as a hate relation then a pretended mess and finally an arcane romance. The romance doesn’t feel forced, it flows smoothly on the page making this book a page turner.

Of course, this gets complication because the devil’s hiding above the tree Alex and Henry kissed below the very first time in a party full of politicians. Perfectly the right place to kiss a prince.

I know, Casey is a genius.

This world is deeply flawed, and inspired by 2016’s political situation in America. The alternate America is no different, yet every character is fictional. We step in the shoes of politics and while I admit politics is a constant argument for debate, Casey on intent took this side to show politicians and how wrecked politics presents itself in the politician’s lives itself. To show the world’s thoughts, Casey used politics as an element to communicate how her world thinks and reacts.

There are many hateful comments, like this

A comment: The First Family Has Been Lying to Us, The American People!! I WHAT ELSE Are They Lying About??!?!

And many slur comments, like this

A comment: lmaoooo wait look at page 22 of the emails alex is such a hoe.

Ahem, moving on Casey took the advantage of her contemporary world to point out whether people in her world like or hate politics through social media. That is well thought.

Another thing to point out is this novel overcomes the race structures in society. You get to read more diverse people than you have ever seen in this novel. And this represents the modern America’s reality which is why I pointed out this is a modern political narrative.

Let’s go over the resolution and Henry’s character before I conclude this review.

Henry is the love interest in this novel. His character is likable. He blushes, is scared of people finding out that he has hots for Alex and clearly shows this and vaguely defends himself he doesn’t like him. His actions are ambiguous to the perfect prince the royal family expects of him. We can feel the pressure set on his shoulders. It generates empathy in readers, a console from a character to a reader.

The book’s resolution is even connected to Henry, this book was not all about Alex, it is also about Henry who feels oppressed by monarchy, however there was one thing that didn’t quite sit with me while I read the last few pages, and it was how Henry developed as a character. There was a lack of relief, perhaps no believability to his growth that was also the end. It felt somehow forced because Henry’s character already had the pressure of another sub-plot submerged with his problems that lead to a rather crass end to the story. I love Alex and Henry’s chemistry, but maybe there was so little place for an intellectual presence of a non-conformity that the ending was a shortcut or not seen coming. This is where I’ll halt. I am in no position to rate this book and hence I’ll leave it on that.