The Tangled Mysteries of Tana French's In the Woods

I've got a job offer! And it comes from a company that seems really great! I'm so grateful and happy and excited. No more job hunting madness! My mom says it's a blessing that is brought by the Holy Month of Ramadhan. Well, I think it's true.

Besides getting the job offer, I also finished reading Tana French's In the Woods  earlier this week. As I wrote in my previous post, In the Woods tells the story of a detective named Rob Ryan who has to investigate a murder that reminds him of his dark past. Twenty years before the murder of a little girl named Katy in Knocknaree, Rob's childhood friends mysteriously disappeared in the woods of the same little town. Rob, who was with the two missing children in the woods, was found with no memory of what happened to his friends. Strange, isn't it? Now, Rob must go back to Knocknaree to investigate the murder case, which is just as strange as the disappearance, and fight the trauma that is caused by the lost memories of the woods.

This book is included on almost every list of recommended books for Gone Girl fans that I've seen. Well, it does have some similarities with Gone Girl. Like Gone Girl, the point of view from which the story is told is very influential in In the Woods. This book also has a shocking revelation at the end, which is pretty similar to that crazy twist in Gone Girl (It didn't hit me hard as Gone Girl did, though. So I'm fine, thank you hahaha.). Besides Gone Girl, there are some parts of this story that remind me of Pretty Little Liars. I also have a theory about the unsolved mystery in this book that is inspired by an old movie starring Andrew Garfield called Boy A (which is about two children who murder their classmate without even knowing what they have done).

My favorite thing about this book is how it lets readers dive into the detectives' world. The author gives vivid, sometimes eerie, descriptions of the police procedures. They gave me an amazing detective experience. The most fascinating yet creepy part of the police procedures that are described by Miss French in this novel for me is the autopsy scene. She describes Katy's autopsy results through a character named Cooper and, man, the descriptions are so vivid! They created very clear images of the dead body in my head which gave me nausea. I could also feel the detectives' frustration about the case. They found so many dodgy things but they lead them to nowhere! That got me flipping the pages brutally because I was so desperate to know the truth. I got a little confused by the leads that are related to the government and the politicians, though. I'm just not good at those matters haha.

The one thing that surprised me more than the revelation of Katy's murderer is the fact that one of biggest mysteries of the story remains unsolved until the end. This just keeps me wondering, what's the purpose of putting the mystery in the story if it's not going to be solved? I assume that the purpose is to show the psychological aspects of Rob; to show how the trauma of losing his friends affects and ruins him. He seems like a solid character at the beginning, but when his judgement starts to get clouded by his trauma and feelings, he turns into a huge mess. Maybe that is the reason why detectives with emotional connection to a case must not be allowed to handle the case. Anyways, I think it would be very nice to know the truth about the unsolved mystery; it will give us, readers, the sense of closure.

This book also has some interesting characters. Rob is the main character and the narrator of the story. When I started reading the book, I liked and trusted him. In fact, I felt related to him. But, as the story goes on, he changes a lot. As I said before, he gets twisted by his trauma. Near the end of the story I just didn't  know who he was anymore. I still feel bad for him, though. Rob's partner, Cassie Maddox, is such a cool character. She is smart and sensitive and strong. I'm so excited to read the sequel of this book because it is told from Cassie's POV (it's about a different case, though). And yes, there is an Amy Dunne in this story, people! Prepare yourself for her! I think the psychopath in this story resembles not only Amy Dunne from Gone Girl, but also Alison DiLaurentis from Pretty Little Liars.

So, I think this book is a great one. It's recommended not only for fans of Gone Girl, but also fans of crime fiction, psychological thriller, and Pretty Little Liars.

Rating : 4/5

Little Stories about Detectives, Robots and Loss

Getting a job is so hard, isn't it?

Since I quit my old job, I have been job hunting like crazy. I have done many interviews, tests, teaching demos, etc. Sometimes this makes me feel exhausted, frustrated, desperate. I'm not giving up, though. But sometimes I just need to escape from all the job hunting madness. And my way of escaping is, you know, getting lost in the stories of films and books haha.

I ordered a book entitled In the Woods by Tana French earlier this week. It's about a detective who has to investigate a murder case that is similar to his traumatic experience in the past. Yup, I'm in the mood for crime fiction again haha. People say that this book is recommended for anyone who likes Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. Well, you know how I feel about that book (read my thoughts on Gone Girl here), so I decided to order In the Woods. The book is expected to arrive next week and I'm so excited to read it.

A few days before I ordered the book, I saw a movie called The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them. It's a drama about Connor (James McAvoy) and Eleanor (Jessica Chastain), who are perfect as a couple. However, a tragic loss that they experience changes everything. There are moments in this movie where I don't understand what is actually going on. But I think this is good because, I think, that's what would happen when you experience something traumatic like that. You feel confused, lost. Everything seems chaotic and messy. Those feelings are portrayed by Jessica Chastain in a beautifully heartbreaking way. I love James's performance too but I think he needs more screen time haha. My favorite scene involves these two actors and occurs near the end of the movie. The two talk about their memories about the person they've lost and their grief. It's just really sad and heartbreaking. Oh yeah, the amazing Viola Davis is in this movie too. She plays a supporting character here, but you just can't ignore her because she's just so cool.

Another movie that I saw recently is Ex Machina. This film is written and directed by Alex Garland, the one who wrote the scripts of Never Let Me Go and 28 Days Later. It is about a female AI (Artificial Intelligence) named Ava (Alicia Vikander) whose human characteristics are tested by her creator, Nathan (Oscar Isaac), using his employee, Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson). The movie is so tense! And quite scary too, I think. The music and the look of the movie play a huge part in making it tense. There is one piece of the music that sounds like the beat of a heart, which makes me anxious whenever it is played. Nathan's modern, sophisticated house and the huge trees that surround it somehow create coldness that makes me quiver.

There are only four actors in this movie: the three actors mentioned above and Sonoya Mizuno as Nathan's assistant, Kyoko. They all are fantastic in their roles. Alicia Vikander's Ava looks so innocent and sweet, which lets me understand why Caleb is so taken with her. But sometimes you can see something different when she demands answers from Caleb; something that makes me hold my breath. Oh, what she does at the end leaves me completely breathless because it's terrible but she still looks innocent. Domhnall Gleeson plays the naive Caleb successfully and makes me feel related to him. I still can't stop thinking about what happens to him at the end. Oscar Isaac plays his strange character so well. His performance truly deceives me and makes the revelation at the end so shocking. And that Kyoko girl! She doesn't even talk but she freaks me out whenever she appears, especially when she reveals her true self to Caleb in Nathan's room.

Despite all the greatness that I've mentioned, I think the most memorable part of the movie is the ending. It is just so shocking and eerie and thought-provoking. Ugh it's so hard to talk about it without giving spoilers haha. The ending gets me thinking, who is the villain in the story, actually? Do Ava's actions at the end make her the villain? Is it wrong for her to want to live freely? Should people keep trying to build AIs? Should we let the AIs look back on us the same way we look at fossils, like Nathan says? Can we, humans with the instinct for survival, let that happen? Are we afraid of AIs?

So that's all from me today. Wait for my review of In the Woods!

It's Not a Bird. It's Not a Plane. It's Not a Man. It's Supergirl!

A few months ago, it was announced that there would be a new tv series about Superman's cousin, Supegirl. They released some promotional pictures featuring its leading lady, Melissa Benoist, in the Supergirl costume as well. When I saw the pictures and the costume, I wasn't really sure about it. But then they dropped the extended trailer this morning, which got me really excited and jumpy.

I love what I see in the trailer very much! 

The way this series looks reminds me of The Flash a bit. Melissa Benoist who plays Supergirl does a monologue throughout the trailer, just like Grant Gustin, the actor who plays The Flash. She even starts the monologue with "My name is...", exactly like Grant's monologue for The Flash. Supergirl aka Kara Zor-El also looks as nerdy as Barry Allen when she's not doing the superhero thingy. I like nerdy superheroes, so I approve this (haha). And both series have former Glee stars as the leads! As you may know, Grant and Melissa used to play Sebastian and Marley in the musical series. We've seen Grant sing in one of the episodes of The Flash, so maybe we'll get to see Supergirl sing as well hahaha. Oh, Jeremy Jordan is in this series too! He is a Broadway actor (who also stars in the movie adaptation of The Last Five Years with Anna Kendrick) whose amazing singing voice never fails to make me melt. They should make a musical episode for this series hahaha.

In the trailer, we get to see Kara fight identity crisis, work in an office, face an intimidating boss, get underestimated, and go on the fangirl mode when she sees herself on television. I like this because it makes her look human. I think it would be easy for me to feel related to her. It's also really cool to see a girl stop a plane from falling with her superpower! Most of superhero films and tv shows today are centered on male heroes so I am happy to finally see a female superhero as the lead.

Our Supergirl, Melissa Benoist.

Supergirl is going to have its premiere in November 2015. The wait is going to kill me haha, but yeah, I'm definitely going to watch this series. Hopefully it would be as awesome as The Flash.

The Day I Went to See Avengers: Age of Ultron

I went to see Avengers: Age of Ultron with my sisters last weekend and we had so much fun. There was an Avengers exhibition at the mall where we could see the superheroes' properties, meet some models who wore the superhero costumes, buy Avengers merchandise and play some games. We took a lot of pictures with the properties. I also met Darth Vader that day! A newly opened store was having a promotional event which is related to Star Wars so they put models in some Star Wars costumes! It was a great day for a fangirl like me haha.

Anyways, I saw the hotly anticipated movie, Avengers: Age of Ultron that day. And here are my thoughts about it.

The movie meets every expectation that I had before I saw it. As expected, there is nothing special about the story. As expected, I still find it difficult to relate to the superhero characters. I don't know why but I always have this problem with the superhero films that are produced by Marvel Studios. I can perfectly relate to other Marvel characters whose movies are produced by other studios, like the mutants from X-Men and Spiderman, but not with these guys from Marvel Studios. 

As expected, my favorite thing from the movie is the Maximoff twins, played by Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. I like how they portray the brother-sister relationship of the twins in this film, especially how they protect each other. It's too bad that [SPOILER ALERT] one of them doesn't make it out alive. It's hard to imagine one of them without the other. The action sequences and the humor in this movie are really entertaining too. My favorite action/comedy scene is when Hulk's mind gets manipulated by Scarlet Witch. He turns into his angry mode and forces Iron Man to fight him. It's scary to see how destructive Hulk can be when he is manipulated but the way Iron Man deals with him is just hilarious. I am also happy to know more about Hawkeye's personal life and kind of fascinated by The Vision. The Vision is just so... graceful haha.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen as the Maximoff twins

So, I think Avengers: Age of Ultron is not a brilliant movie, it is really fun and entertaining. Go see it and have a good time!

And here are some of the pictures that we took at the mall haha. The mall is Gandaria City. I think the Avengers exhibition is still on until tomorrow but I don't know about the Star Wars cosplay. 

Cars, Explosions, Fights and Tears in Furious 7

I saw many interesting things last week. I saw Fifty Shades of Grey, but I don't like it so I won't review it because I don't like shaming movies on the internet. I also started watching Sherlock, which is really fun to watch. Last week's episode of The Flash with Mark Hamill aka Luke Skywalker as the guest star also amazed me. But the most memorable one is the movie that I saw on Sunday: Furious 7.

Actually, I'm not a fan of the Fast & Furious franchise. Well, I don't hate it but I'm not a diehard fan. But I was really excited to see this movie because I wanted to honor Paul Walker, one of the cast members who passed away in 2013, before the production of the movie finished. They pushed back the release date of the movie and altered the script in order to honor the actor, which makes the movie a little more emotional than the previous ones.

The movie is super loud. There are a lot of explosions in this one; I think it has more explosions than dialogues. The fight scenes are also dominating. The craziest fight scene for me is the one at the beginning, which involves Hobbs (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) and Shaw (Jason Statham). The sound of the punches is just crazy; it sounds really painful. Just hearing it makes me feel sore. Well, The Rock used to be a wrestler, right? No wonder. And the car scenes! The cars are thrown from a flying plane, from a skyscraper to another one, from a cliff... I shook my head a lot during those scenes haha. The action sequences are a little too crazy and hard to believe but I have to admit that they are pretty cool.

Despite the full-on action, the chemistry among the cast members also dominates the movie. I think this chemistry is the thing that makes this movie more special compared to other car movies, which usually lack of good chemistry and only focus on the action. These actors look like, just like Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) says, a big family. I could see it even when they are doing the action sequences. I like this because it makes me, as a part of the audience, feel related to the characters and adds humanity to the movie.

Lastly, I really like what they do with Paul Walker's character, Brian. I think it's smart to make his character "go to a different direction". It's a beautiful way to say goodbye to his character, and to the actor as well. When I think of Paul Walker, I will smile because I will always remember that he smiles during his final scene in this movie. 

Favorite quote: "No matter where you are in this world, whether it's a quarter mile away, or half way across the world, you'll always be with me, and you'll always be my brother." -Dom Toretto about Brian O'Conner.

Rating : 4/5

Living Many Lives in David Levithan's Every Day

A few years ago, I found a lovely mini series entitled The Beauty Inside on Youtube (click here to watch it). The mini series tells the story of a person whose body keeps changing every single day even though the soul inside stays the same. One day Alex, his name, might wake up as a big fat Caucasian guy and become an old Chinese lady on the next day. His anomaly isolates him from other people, until one day he falls in love with a girl. I truly love this mini series because the story is unique and sweet while it is also visually beautiful. Oh and the score is sooo lovely! The one thing about it that disappoints me is the fact that it is very short. I wish it was longer. I wish I could know more about the main characters, about living a strange life like that...

My wish came true when I found a book called Every Day by David Levithan.

My copy of Every Day

The concept of Levithan's novel is similar to The Beauty Inside. However, A, the main character in the book, travels around and inhabits other people's bodies. When A wakes up in someone else's body, A must get through one day as the person who owns the body, not as himself, and does the same when he wakes up in another body on the next day. Just like in The Beauty Inside, A also isolates himself from the outside world and keeps his existence a secret. But everything changes when A inhabits the body a sixteen-year-old boy named Justin and meets his girlfriend, Rhiannon. A falls in love with her and, for the first time in forever, lets his desire to connect with her take control.

I've never read a book like this before. Usually, a book lets me experience one or two lives. But Every Day lets me experience so many lives as I follow A's journey. With A, I get to experience how it feels like to be a jerk, a gay boy, a lesbian girl, a teenager who is biologically female but psychologically male, a girl who looks like Beyonce, a homeschooled boy, a mean girl, a drug-addict, a depressed girl who plans to kill herself, etc. It's just so amazing to see the same world in so many different ways like that. It makes me realize that everyone has their own stories, their own struggles. It makes me realize that it is really important for us to be kind to one another and to appreciate one another.

I love how Levithan describes the world from A's point of view. The descriptions of A's opinions about the things in the world are very rich and detailed. Sometimes the descriptions are too long, but I find them very romantic. One of the most interesting thoughts that A describes is his opinion about love and gender. When it comes to gender, A is both and neither (I keep using the pronoun "he" to describe A because, I don't know why, I keep imagining A as a boy). When it comes to love, A doesn't care about gender either. A sees people for who they really are, for what they have inside. So when A falls in love, A could fall in love with either a boy or a girl. Once A falls for a guy named Brennan, but then falls for Rhiannon. A loves their personalities, so it doesn't matter whether they are a boy or a girl. This concept is not easy to grasp but I find it really interesting. Maybe this is Levithan's way to remind us that love is universal, that love is blind and has no gender.

Sometimes I feel sad for A too because it must be very lonely for him to live like that. He doesn't have a place to go home to. He doesn't have a best friend who knows everything about him. He doesn't have a favorite pair of shoes. He doesn't have his own phone. He has nothing that he could hold for more than one day. He has nothing but himself. There are some parts where A longs to have a connection with something or someone in this world and has to stop himself because he can never have it. It's just really sad and heartbreaking; reminds me to always be grateful for everything that I have.

There are two moments in A's story that I don't really understand. The first one is when he falls so hard for  Rhiannon after knowing her for only a few hours. I just don't believe people could fall in love with someone that quickly, without knowing much about the person that they fall for. Well, I believe that people could leave great impression on the first meeting which leads to love but I think love takes time. I can see that Rhiannon feels the same way about this, but A doesn't, which I don't understand.

The second moment is the ending. I just don't get the ending. I'm so moved by what A does for Rhiannon at the end but the thing that he does to himself is just confusing. The ending doesn't give a sense of closure at all. I really like the ending of The Beauty Inside and I think it would be great if Every Day has a similar ending. It's not because the ending of The Beauty Inside is a happy ending, but because it gives a sense of closure. I really need a proper closure for this wonderful story.

Overall, Every Day by David Levithan is a great book. It might not end on a nice note, like Rhiannon says, but it gives you a wonderful experience of living countless lives that you will never be able to experience in real life.

Favorite quote : There will always be more questions. Every answer leads to more questions. The only way to survive is to let some of them go. (page 213)

Rating : 4/5 

Thoughts on Me Before You and Cinderella

After a few weeks, I finally finished reading Me Before You by Jojo Moyes earlier this week and, man, the ending left me speechless. The book is about a very ordinary woman named Louisa who has to work as a carer for a disabled man named Will. The two find an unexpected connection as Louisa learns that Will doesn't want to continue living because he just can't bear living with his illness. This story makes me question a lot of things. Is it acceptable if we want to end our lives because it is so unbearable? What do we do if someone we love wants to die like Will? Should we let them make their own choice and have what they want? Or should we try as hard as we can to keep them alive even though they don't want to live anymore? Which one is the right thing to do? To be honest, I still don't know the answers and can't stop thinking about this. What a thought-provoking story.

I also saw Cinderella in IMAX this week! One of my most anticipated movies of the year! As expected, the movie is soooo lovely!

The way Cinderella and her prince look at each other is just........

My favorite thing about this live-action version of the classic fairy tale is the relationship between Cinderella (Lily James) and the prince (Richard Madden and his beautiful blue eyes haha). I love that they don't meet for the first time at the ball and just fall in love like in the animated version. Instead, they meet before the ball and leave a great impression for each other, which then grows into love as they know more about each other. It seems more realistic. I also like the fact that Ella is fine with just remembering the prince as a beautiful memory. She loves the prince but she doesn't have to have him; just loving him is enough. I think it's very kind and selfless. And the chemistry between Lily and Richard is just really good. The way they look at each other makes me want to smile, squeal and swoon hahaha. There's also a little story about the prince and his father in this movie, which is not explored in the original animated movie. I love the father-son relationship; it's just so sweet.

The costumes are fantastic. I especially love Cinderella's blue dress. It's HUGE and so dreamy. I thought it was a CGI dress but I heard it's real. The dress looks so wonderful when Cinderella dances with the prince at the ball. Oh yeah, the dance scene done by Lily and Richard is one of my favorite scenes in the movie. They say the two actors had to prepare for about 2 months for that scene. Well, it's definitely worth it.