Review Of ‘The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas ’

"This is How You Lose the Time War" by Amal El- Mohtar & Max Gladstone

The story follows two of our protagonists belonging to two different futuristic worlds which are against each other. It follows different timelines, describing from the past historical events to the things which are probable to happen in the future. Basically, it is a story of time travelling to the past, could be for saving something or destroying things. Red is a time-traveling agent from a world more collective and dependent. Blue's one is calculating and more independent. So, red's the one who runs and Blue's the one who ruins. Red and blue eventually get a form to connect to each other: through letters. So, it's more like a "enemy to lover" romance story in the historical and sci-fi world.

I have really liked the concept and storyline of the novella. But i have found the language a bit difficult to get by. The books at the beginning and some points also seemed a bit messy. I lost the tract and did not understand some of the rapidly mentioned historical references. It took me much time to understand the plotlines as well. I just wish it was more understandable and swift to grab a whole bucket of information (the ongoings) all at once. But the good thing is, as we keep reading, the things start untwisting and it feels less confusing. And slowly you starts to love it.

The message of the story is the best. War is the worst thing we can do. Love is the one thing everyone needs to live truly and fully. Love is another name for freedom, not war, of course.

Just a small friendly reminder:

Everyone knows toxic chemicals are harmful for the physical health. Likewise toxic people are also harmful for mental health. It is wise and healty to stay away from them.

“Dune” Book Review

“Dune” by Frank Herbert is very much enjoying literally from the very beginning. I have soo much to say about this book. No wonder why people still call it a classic. I would say, it is in fact one of the best sci-fi book ever. 

The novel is super fast and highly paced. I never thought I would enjoy a book full of fights and adventures this much. This book hit totally different. In fact, it is also very dramatic. I felt like I was watching a soap opera TV series. In some parts I constantly had to remind myself that I was reading a sci-fi book! I loved the beginning of every chapter which contains a little extract from different writings about Mua’dib and Arrakis by Princess Irulan.

The inner thinking of the characters and what is going on in their minds in every little matter have been explained in the book and it is one of the best parts of it. I loved some of the Bene Gesserit ways very much. They really do have some productive plans which I think is very hard yet very powerful to stay calm and clean in difficult situations. We actually need to get adapted to some of those techniques. One of the great motives of the Bene Gesserit that I liked and Paul & Jessica kept adapting throughout the whole book was ‘I must not fear, Fear is the mind killer”. The mother-son relationship between Jessica and Paul is complicated yet very understanding. I liked the struggle they had together over the dune. Those parts were hard in one way and peaceful in another because they at least had each other. I also loved Paul & Chani together soo much.

Now, I shall talk about some of the characters. Paul is a great observant. He is very curious about everything. The sudden change that happened in Paul was so perfect at least in that disastrous situation.  Jessica is a great mother and protector. She tries to protect Paul from troubles and she is extra careful. There is a strong feminine pride in the reverend mother’s voice. One of her quotes was really good, like “ Humans are almost always lonely”. 

Frank Herbert was definitely a brilliant man with a good fold of knowledge. He was well informed and knows a lot. he created the whole universe fantastically. The descriptions, the rules and rituals of the fremen community is insanely good. one of the sayings of “Dune” is my absolute favorite which is “God created Arrakis to train the faithful”. 

One complain that I have about the book is, there was definitely a need of more female developed and powerful characters other than Jessica. And certainly I didn’t like some of the fremen ways of treating women. So, in a sense, “Dune” is back dated at least while mentioning the feminine situations. 

Overall, the book is crazy. The time when I was reading it, I just kept thinking about it all day and night. It is very catchy and keeps giving you glimpses of scenes even when you aren’t reading it. I loved it and can’t wait for the movie. Absolutely worth the hype.  

Love <3 Mother Earth!

Have we even noticed how fast the temperature is rising? For the last few days, the weather has been so unfavorable. People are feeling suffocated. But do we even acknowledge the reasons behind this condition? It's WE people and our unconscious and monstrous activities. We are destroying our Mother Earth. It is sounding terrible, right? Do we even think about the future of our dearest planet? The future of our future generation?  How can we be soo selfish? It's time to CHANGE, Like for real. Trust me, it won't be too much difficult just to be eco-friendly. We can always try to avoid plastic and polythene as much as we can. For example: using jute or paper bags rather than polythene where you have options. Avoid drinking with straws. Turn off the lights, fans whenever not needed etc. etc. Do these small activities need much effort? NO. So, please let's think about it and try to change ourselves and hence change the environment. Be safe yourself and save others as well.

“And Then There Were None” Book Review

“And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie is one of the best mystery books ever. The plot of the book really touched my heart. The story is short but well decorated. There is no way you can get who is the actual killer. Christie made the whole thing soo much confusing.

The story deals with 10 main characters. actually there WERE 10 characters and they happened to be murdered by someone who was among them. But none could understand particularly who was that murderer. And the murderer killed them in a very peculiar way following a rhyme named ‘Ten Little Soldier Boys’. 

You won’t actually understand how twisting and interesting is this whole story without reading it. The book has created an environment of great suspense and thriller for me. I would definitely recommend it to everyone who likes murder, crime and thriller stories.

“Rain & the Woods”

Just a small drabble. Hope you enjoy!

It was raining heavily. Sofia cursed. She is cursing herself for not bringing the umbrella. If she had brought it, she could at least get out of the fucking car and call someone for help. But alas! Here she was, stuck in the Goddamn car! She couldn’t think how on earth her car had to get stuck in the heavy mud and make herself stuck as well in the middle of nowhere. Her mind was blank, she couldn’t think of anything to do. At that very moment, there was a knock on the window. Someone was standing beside the window, Sofia could see their blurry figure. She opened her window gratefully. 

“Hey, Uh…I’ve been watching the car here for some time. Thought you might need some help since it’s raining very badly you know”, said the guy. The guy was very tall and handsome. He was fully drenched in the rain. There was something really charming about him being wet. Sofia found it really attractive. She kept looking at his face when  he coughed. Being embarrassed, Sofia replied, “Oh hi, umm.. Yes, you see I actually need help because my car got stuck in the mud and I can't move because of that”’. He went to the bottom to see what was wrong. After he got up he said with a sweet little smile, “Don’t worry, I’m gonna get you out of this trouble”. After finishing the sentence, he winked. Sofia’s heart just skipped a beat. That smile, that wink! How can a guy be this sweet and hot at the same time? Am I dreaming? Is my tiny little brain trying to comfort me because I'm in huge trouble? But, why did the brain have to come up with something this cool? Uff, I’m gonna be so miserable if I find out that I’m actually imagining the whole thing. 

“You’re good to go now I think. Will you check if you can start the car or not?”

 “Yeah, yeah sure”, Sofia tried to start her car, being shocked. And the car got started. How on earth did he fix it so fast? What did he do? Is he a wizard or something? 

“So. It's fixed”, he said with that pretty smile of his. 

Sofia, being surprised as hell, tried to open her mouth to say something. At that time he said, “No need to thank me. You just needed someone to help you. So, I appeared out of nowhere” he said and smiled broadly this time.

Sofia had never been impressed this much by any guy she met. 

“You’re really very sweet. What’s your name?” She managed to ask.

“Yeah, right. Well, I’m Atlas, at your service ma’am. If you ever need my service again, do care to visit me here sometimes.”

“Here? In the woods?”

“Yes, here in the woods.”’

By saying that he smiled again and went away. Sofia felt the urge to go after him. Ask him so many questions because he left her confused as hell. Was he really a wizard? Or like my guardian angel? Even if he is, he is cute. Sofia blushed and went away thinking maybe she’ll come away someday and see what happens.  

The Perfect Florence <3

“Dracula” Book Review

Just completed reading Dracula by Bram Stoker. I’ve got mixed feelings for this book. There are some things which I liked, some things I did not enjoy at all. I would like to discuss thoroughly though I am afraid that I won’t be able to as I have forgotten many things. However, lets get started...oops!

The Things I’ve liked about Dracula:

1. The story itself is very good. It has gothic elements, the environment is very scary. 

2. The whole novel was explained indirectly by using different character’s daily journals which is quite interesting.

3. I loved the concept of Jonathan’s going to Transylvania and literally everything happed in there.

4. There were some things which were explained really well. This book contain some little mysteries which were good to read.

5. Totally loved the character of Renfield. Never seen such an interesting character.

The Things I’ve disliked about Dracula:

1. I couldn’t help feeling that this novel could have been a little shorter. There were some really unnecessary details which needed to be excluded to make it more better. 

2. Other than Renfield, none of the other characters I’ve found interesting. Even, Lord Dracula himself wasn’t that fascinating as I’ve thought at the beginning of the book. 

3. Other than some chapters, most of the chapters or scenarios were a little boring.

4. The relationship between the characters seemed really mechanical to me. I didn’t got them as they were portraited. 

5. Last but not the least, I haven’t enjoyed the writing style of Bram Stoker at all. The writings are really hard to follow. 

I am soo much in love with Peter. Ron is ok. But Sweet Pea, Really?

Hello there. Can I get MCU, HP and Riverdale ships? I am 5 feet 2.5 inch, a little chubby, have long black hair,eyes are dark brown. I am kinda introvert, love movies, music and books. I love travelling and I am soo much into fashion. I am a Ravenclaw and Sagittarius. My favourite color is white and fav artist is Katy Perry.

Of course! I ship you with..... Peter Quill, Ron Weasley and Sweet Pea!

Peter Quill

Constantly dancing together 

Showing off your fit to him, daily 

The rest of the guardians would go to you for when they needed outfits for formal events

Always trying to talk sense to Peter after he does spontaneous but dangerous missions

If he trusted anyone for guidance though, it was always you 

You two would binge on modern movies together 

Introducing him to modern music

To which he would rant about how better his music taste was but then listen to Katy Perry secretly

Singing each other’s songs constantly to the point of which you two would be familiar with every lyric

Your honeymoon would be going to Earth and making it a goal to travel to every country at least once

Ron Weasley 

Constantly making sure he looks appropriate for the occasions

Being the only one able to calm him down quickly 

Always singing Katy Perry to which he would join in 

Introducing him to Muggle movies 

To which he gets hooked on The Maze Runner series 

Being close with his family 

Bringing his dad souvenirs from your small trips 

His love language would be giving you small snacks throughout the day as he’d would think you’d be hungry (like him) 

PDA all the time 

Besides when his exes are around, which would make PDA dangerous in those moments

Sweet Pea

Falling for his tough exterior 

Matching 24/7

Having your own customized Serpents jacket that was white 

Helping him study to pass his classes 

He always defends you in case of any harassment 

You always helped him keep his cool though

Road trips during school breaks 

Reading the Twilight series and watching the movies together 

Sharing music 

He would always try to play with and ruffle your hair

A Vision Of Life

This is the first story of the “Avonlea Story Club” for the month (January 15th- February 15th). We tried to write the genre “Adventure” for this month. Hope you like it. My another club member is @emerald-notes​ . Please check out her story for the month too. P.s. The photo has been taken from the internet.

*****

I woke up at 9:40 PM. ‘Shit!’ I’m gonna miss my train,’ I thought. I quickly went to the bathroom, trying to fresh up, but to my unfortunate life, I could never do anything fast. I came back from the bathroom and started applying all sorts of lotions and moisturizers contained in my daily skin care list. But ugh! It always takes a lot of time. However, I tried to finish dressing up as quickly as possible because I had to catch the train at 10:15 PM. It was getting super late. I did not even look at my watch, fearing it would already be 10:15. Instead, I just quickly hopped in my car and started driving to the direction of the train station. But again, the traffic lights! “It’s gonna kill all of my time” I thought. While waiting for the traffic light to turn green, I tried not to think what would happen to me if I was to miss the train. I started to feel very nervous and stressed. But then, to my great relief, the green signal came, and I started driving right away. The speed I was following was greater than ever because there was no way I could afford to miss the train. Finally, I got to the station. But again, to my utter disappointment, it was already 10:20 PM, and the train had already started running. I stood there watching it run. I could not stop thinking only if I had come 5 minutes earlier. Why did I even stop at the signal? What if I’d woken 5 minutes earlier? But there was nothing to do. What happened just happened. I missed the train. I was in great despair. What was I going to tell my parents? They would be disappointed with me as usual. I found a bench and sat there. My phone rang. I did not look at it because I knew it was my mother calling to know whether or not I got to the train safely. I couldn’t just receive the call and tell her that I didn’t get to the train, let alone safely. I started to get annoyed when my mother kept calling me for the third time. I wasn’t to face the situation. I couldn’t even decide what I was going to do now that I’d missed my train. “But I must do something”, I kept thinking. The whole situation was very pressurized, and I didn’t want to be in it. As I couldn’t stay undecided even for some time, I decided I would just sit there until I thought I should move. I knew it wasn’t an effective decision or maybe no decision at all, but I needed it in order to feel relaxed. Yes, I needed it, I needed some free time to make myself distracted. Yes, distraction was all I needed. I deserved it, I couldn't let myself get pressured. I was extremely tired, and I was beginning to feel restless. My eyes were closing. And then everything became black. 

I woke up again with a start. ‘Where was I?’ I thought. It seemed that I was in the station and fell asleep. ‘Of course, I didn’t leave it and didn’t even talk to mom and finally decided to rest here instead. What a silly thing to do!’, I thought. Suddenly, my eyes caught the stare of another  pair of eyes. The pair of eyes belonged to a man. The man was a bit gigantic.  He was looking at me with a wicked smile on his lips. He reminded me of someone I knew but couldn’t remember at that moment. I could not help hating him. He was making me uncomfortable with his continuous staring and annoying smile. I knew that that particular behaviour of that man was intentional. I kept thinking what I would do if this cruel man suddenly attacked me. I could not remember where I had parked my car. But that was not an issue because the keys are going to lead me to my car. So I started to search for the keys. But, Alas! My bag wasn’t with me. Quickly I reached my pocket, and it was what I had expected, my wallet was gone too. ‘What was I going to do?’ I started to become very tensed. I imagined the cruel man to have taken my stuff to put me in this dangerous situation. ‘How can I be this careless?’ I blamed myself. Then a worse thing happened. The man seemed to call someone without moving his disgusting stare from me. He was surely telling his friends to come meet him in the station. I seemed to guess what was going to happen if his friends had arrived. He and his friends were gonna surely hurt my feelings. I was going to be doomed. And yes, to make it obvious, I saw his friend arriving in the direction of that cruel man with a disgusting laugh. ‘No, this is not going to happen’, I pleaded to myself. I stood up and, without thinking twice, started running in the opposite direction. I thought maybe running from the situation would save me that time. But I was wrong. I heard mocking footsteps behind me. Yes, they were also running after me. As I said, I was doomed!

I had to quicken my steps as I was running for my life. I could swear that I had not run that fast in my entire life. There was a kind of forest near the station. Finding no other convenient place, I directly ran into it. As expected, the forest was very dark. As I was running deeper, it was getting darker. At some point, I could not even distinguish the trees. So, I had to slow down as I didn’t want to get hit by a tree and cause me more trouble. I noticed that the footsteps were no longer audible. I thought maybe they became busy with something more exciting. However, I was relieved. So, I sat down under what seemed to be a huge tree. I was sweating and struggling to breathe. I began to  think about a lot of things. I didn’t think it was worth living. Never in my life I did something extraordinary. It was rather boring as hell. I didn’t even like my parents. I was sure, neither did they like me. What was the point of calling each other and knowing stuff, I could not understand. Suddenly I saw a glimpse of light at the far end of the forest. I started walking towards it because my brain was incapable of thinking about anything else. 

As I reached the source of the light, I found a house. It was a wooden house. The house appeared very dark, perhaps because it was made out of very dark colored woods. I knocked at the door. I knocked it twice. An old woman finally opened the door. Her hair was all silver and she gave me a soothing smile. As I was just going to ask her something, she moved away from the door gesturing me to step inside. I obeyed her because she seemed friendly. I thought maybe she was the one who could actually help me get out of the situation. I sat on a tool near the fireplace. The old woman sat beside me. It seemed like she was ready to hear me talk. I could not decide where to start. It was always very difficult for me to start the discussion. Instead I started looking around her house. The house had only one room in which we were sitting. There was no other furniture other than the two chairs (where we were seated) and a table. The contents on the table were really weird. There were some moving dolls and a glass tube filled with a sparkling purple liquid. The dolls were very lovely looking. They had smooth skin and rosy cheeks and were glowing and radiating charisma. I was pleased at their beauty and their movement. Then, the woman spoke. 

“You seem to like the dolls, don’t you?”

“Yes, they are very comforting and lively”, I replied.

“You can be like them, you know, if you want.”

She took the glass tube from the table.

“This is called the ‘Elixir of Beauty’. This can make you happy just like it made the dolls happy”, she said pointing the tube towards me. 

I took the tube. 

“You can drink it” she seemed to suggest. I was hesitating. Things can happen this easily, I did not believe. “Can I really be as happy and lively as the dolls? Shall I trust the woman?” I kept thinking. 

Suddenly I woke up hearing a beep. It was my alarm. I really woke up this time from this peculiar dream. Was it a nightmare or an excitement, I could not tell. But I realized that, I didn’t yet miss the train. The train which was to take me to the job interview was still waiting. I could not miss that chance like I did before. I knew I needed it. ‘No slow-motion work this time’, I told myself. But firstly I had to take some moments to finish up my skin care routine peacefully because it was important. I had plenty of time but I had to make it useful. 

And I did reach the station and hopped on my train timely and safely. As the train was running, I decided what I would be doing after I had appeared for the interview properly. I needed to call my mom. Probably she liked me or liked me not but I did not have to think about that. I also do need to call my therapist and thank her. She was a good adviser after all. As the train started to run faster, I kept thinking about the dream. It felt too relatable. Like I had lived my life in that dream.