Ah, completing three books in such a hectic month is certainly more than I could have asked for. I believe I am now two books ahead of my schedule, though pretty sure it will soon fill the hole that is my wrap-up in the upcoming two months. I guess it's fair compensation. Peak season, here I... come.
Following the story of Richard Pappen, fresh from high school to med school to the dark trajectory of his life at a small college in Hampden, this book starts with an unraveling truth: a murder of his friend Bunny, done by him and his little group led by a guy named Henry. A blank page later, the first of the two parts of this book starts. While book one details how everything spirals out of control until the cold-blooded murder takes place, book two talks about the aftermath of the calamity, about how each of the perpetrators deals with it.
A wild ride that it was, upon finishing the last page of this book, I was haunted with even more questions, theories so many that I wasn't sure where to begin. The Secret History was surely not what I had thought it would be: dark yet compelling, I couldn't seem to stop looking for answers, both during and after. In shorter words, you might like this book if you haven't read it yet, but there's no guarantee that the opposite wouldn't happen instead. It's a book you would either enjoy or hate, in between would be a very unlikely case.
2. Distance Between Us by Kasie West (reread)
Distance Between Us follows the story of Caymen Meyers whose mother despises the rich so much due to her bitter experience in the past. Caymen doesn't exactly share the same hatred with her mother but she certainly has a certain thought about the rich. The story itself starts in the small porcelain doll store Caymen and her mother run for a living when one day a very rich boy named Xander Spencers comes by to buy a doll for his grandmother. To Caymen, Xander is just another spoiled rich kid who treats the poor differently, though things eventually start to change when she gets to know him more little by little. The thing is, Caymen now sees Xander very differently that a warning flag starts to fly inside her head and it scares her so much to not be able to say no to him.
Rereading this book proved to still be as exciting as it had been the first time. I was once again reminded of the reason I used to like this book so much in the first place. It's a cute contemporary book with witty characters that would be perfect to spend your weekend with.
Taking the voice of both Juli Baker and Bryce Loski alternately, Flipped begins in the second grade when Bryce was the new boy in town. With his blue eyes he charms his neighbor across the street: the enthusiastic Juli Baker who has since been convinced that it is love that binds her feeling toward him. Bryce, in contrast, finds that pretty much embarrassing. He tries to avoid Juli as much as he can until eighth grade happens and everything eventually... flips.
In case you haven't read or watched Flipped yet, I suggest that you pick up the book first before watching the movie. It's a good coming-of-age story about families, growing up, and seeing things for more than the sum of its parts. It's a book that will leave you wanting more, and let me assure you that I've been trying my hardest to imagine how the future might look for Juli and Bryce.
