Just like the line in one of Taylor Swift's best songs, "August slipped away into a moment in time." It's probably what August always does best (I don't know where it goes. I'm pretty sure it was here a second ago). It goes without saying then that it almost felt like I barely did something meaningful this month. How ironic, considering I opened August with a belief that everything would turn out more than great, and now in a heartbeat, it is almost nowhere to be found.
So here are the three books I finished this month:
Skyhunter follows the story where in the future all countries have been conquered by The Karensa Federation except for the last free nation called Mara. As a refugee from Basea who has sought the last standing land for home and made herself a Striker protecting it, Talin refuses to give up even the tiniest hope. Facing unnatural creatures sent by the Federation called the Ghost, Talin fights alongside her best friends—Corian, Adena, and Jeran—and the other Strikers from the Inner City. One day, when a prisoner from the Federation is captured and brought to face his sentence in the city hall, something inside Talin stirs. There is something about the prisoner that captures her attention more than it should have. The same thing pushes her forward to save someone she doesn't know then. Someone who may become a major breakthrough in this war against the Federation.
In my opinion, Skyhunter was an interesting book to read. It contained everything that was necessary for a great young adult book though sadly I wasn't compelled to drop everything I was doing just to continue it. I even took quite a lot of breaks in between my reading because of the exact same reason. In conclusion, I will definitely pick up another book by Marie Lu in the future (I love her Warcross duology so much!), but I still am not very certain whether or not I'll make a beeline for the second installment when it comes out next month.
(It's a local book so I'm gonna write the review in Bahasa)
Surat untuk Hera bercerita tentang Hera yang sekarang tinggal di rumah Safira, sepupunya, sepeninggalan kedua orang tuanya. Namun selang berapa lama, Hera terpaksa menyaksikan Safira bunuh diri dengan melompat dari jembatan sembari menuduh bahwa semua ini adalah kesalahannya. Untuk melupakan rasa sedih, Hera pun memutuskan untuk pindah ke Jakarta dan melanjutkan sekolah di sana. Semuanya tampak berjalan dengan baik hingga suatu hari Hera mendapat SMS dengan tautan aplikasi bernama JanganDiklik. Sejak saat itu, kejadian-kejadian aneh mulai bermunculan seiring dengan usaha arwah Safira untuk membunuh Hera dan menyakiti orang-orang di sekitarnya. Banyak usaha sudah Hera coba untuk memperbaiki keadaan, tapi seisi sekolah seperti tidak percaya dan berbalik menyalahkannya. Kecuali Max, si berandal sekolah yang suka membully orang dan bersikap anarkis itu.
Jujur, saya awalnya agak kaget dengan pace cerita ini yang tergolong cepat. Di beberapa halaman awal, pembaca langsung disuguhkan beragam konflik yang menurut saya cukup bikin merinding. Tapi justru karena itulah saya gak bisa berhenti baca karena betul-betul dibuat penasaran. Overall, Surat untuk Hera menurut saya jelas bacaan yang seru. Di sepanjang cerita, saya ikut deg-degan plus terkadang ngeri sendiri, jadi saya jelas akan merekomendasikan buku ini bagi teman-teman yang suka fiksi horror remaja atau memang fans berat karya-karya Lexie Xu.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine follows the story of a thirty-year-old Eleanor Oliphant who works as an account receivable clerk in a design company. Having no social skills whatsoever, she tends to avoid unnecessary human contact by sticking to her organized schedule: planned meal every day, phone chat with Mummy every Wednesday, and vodka on weekends. Everything changes though when she meets the new IT guy from the office. Raymond is unhygienic, way sloppy, and kind of a heavy smoker. When the two save an elderly man who has fallen on the street one day, their lives change. As the two grow closer, their friendship starts to heal a wound in her, and Eleanor eventually finds the courage to acknowledge her unspoken past and mend herself from within.
In short, as you may have already guessed, I truly adored this book. With its open ending, I found Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine quite hard to part with and so my mind started to make up every possibility that seemed great enough for our main characters E and R who deserved the world and more. So yes, this book might not be the one that made me feel all passionate and fiery inside, but experiencing Eleanor's development through this book was a journey I would like to revisit in the future. Having someone like Raymond in your life, on the other hand, would be something of a warm and fuzzy feeling.
