[Review] Jane Eyre ~ Charlotte Bronte

Title: Jane Eyre
Author: Charlotte Bronte
Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: Orphaned into the household of her Aunt Reed at Gateshead, subject to the cruel regime at Lowood charity school, Jane Eyre nonetheless emerges unbroken in spirit and integrity.   She takes up the post of governess at Thornfield, falls in love with Mr. Rochester, and discovers the impediment to their lawful marriage in a story that transcends melodrama to portray a woman's passionate search for a wider and richer life than Victorian society traditionally allowed.   With a heroine full of yearning, the dangerous secrets she encounters, and the choices she finally makes, Charlotte Bronte's innovative and enduring romantic novel continues to engage and provoke readers. (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10210.Jane_Eyre?ac=1)

Okay, so I can't believe I didn't read this book until now, at the age of almost eighteen. (hey, almost Jane's age, come to think of it)

I bought this a few years ago but since I wasn't very good in English yet I had to postpone the reading. (don't ask me why I bought it in English when I couldn't read it, because I really don't know......)

So now that I've finally had the pleasure of reading all five hundred pages of Jane Eyre I can happily say that I loved this book. The Bronte sisters are obviously very good at narrating of loves that trascend time and space (hi Heathcliff). 

But what I liked most about Jane Eyre wasn't the love story (althought that was also very good), but Jane's interior growth. At the age of ten, she was a weak girl who had no relatives, no connections, no self-esteem, not one single person on this earth who cared about her and made her feel special. Everything changes when she starts school, though. Here she meets her first friends, and here she has the possibility to learn and be good at something. It's gratifying for her, she finally feels like she's worth something, Jane feels like there's something that she can do well and that there are people who care about her. That's when everything changes for her and her life begins. She find the self-esteem she was lacking before, she develops a very strong character and she turns into the strong woman we know. She doesn't let other people tell her what to do. She knows her own, and she wants respect. All the respect she wasn't given when she was a child.

I loved her character for that. It told an important story, one which everybody should keep in mind: that no matter how low you are, how worthless you feel, you can always rise on your feet, and fight, and be strong, and beautiful in your own way, and people will love you because you'll get to show them how good you are. Never give up. That's what I learned from Jane.

Of course, her lovestory with Mr Rochester was very nice too. It kind of annoyed me how Charlotte Bronte would keep saying that they were both really ugly, though, to be honest. I couldn't help imagining two trolls strolling around with how many times she repeated that. So I had to fight that nasty mental image all the time. But anyhow.

What I liked most about their romance is that they were really true, and funny, and good characters. They loved each other even though they were ugly (so Charlotte says), and they made each other angry, and sometimes they despised each other, but they couldn't get enough of each other and each was the other's missing piece. That's a kind of love that everyone would aspire to (contrary to, for example, Cathy's and Heathcliff's, which as much as it was romantic, I think you will all convene was not healthy at all). Honest, real, down-to-earth. 

Jane also had the self-respect not to give herself to Mr Rochester when she found out he already had a wife, although being with him would have made her very happy. She stayed true to her values for all that time. And even when coming back to him (for she couldn't stay away too long, which was very understandale) she found him a *spoiler* blind cripple *end spoiler*, she stayed with him. 

Because that's what real love looks like.

About the style of writing, well needless to say it was written in the nineteenth century so I can't really say much. I'm not an expert. The only thing that I noticed is that sometimes Charlotte would switch between the present and the past tense in moments where there was no need to, so that confused me a bit. Other than that, the periods were not too long (hello, Dickens), so I wasn't the least bored when I read (which is something that, admittedly, happens to me sometimes when reading Classics) and that's a plus.

There's not much else I'd like to say about this novel. I really really liked it, I liked the message that I gained from the book and therefore four stars. (I am not giving it five stars because some things in the book were a little too coincidental to be true, and also that present/past tense problem I pointed out)

TOO STRESSED TO WRITE AND READ AND DO WHATEVER

Hey yaa.
What's up? I know, it's been a long time since I last posted on this blog, but I have excusesreasons.
You'd THINK I didn't write here because I didn't feel like it, but honestly I actually didn't read anything.
Which is, possibly, even worse.
Fact is, people say how teenager life is easy, void of the problems 'real life' presents. And in a way, that's true. We kind of live on a seperate planet in these years. But, it's not exactly stress-free.
School is hard, I've been stressing a lot over college choices and what I really want to do with my life, and with all of these things to do I really didn't have the time to read. And when I did, I was too stressed out to really concentrate on what I was reading so yeah. It's been a tough month and I bet the next ones won't be easier.
But at least Christmas' on its way! Yay! I'm happy. Lots of time to relax and read, I'm hoping. I'm gonna post something useful as soon as possible.
Sooo.. yeah. Keep reading and DON'T STRESS. :) (keep calm and read?)

Elena

[Book Review] Stephen Chbosky ~ The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Author: Stephen Chbosky
Book: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Rating: 

Synopsis: Charlie is a freshman. And while he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it. Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But Charlie can't stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.


Review:


I went through stages with this one.
When I first started Perks, after all the good reviews my mind was set on liking it and I had pretty high expectations.
Halfway through the first fifty pages, though, I realized I wasn't liking this in the least. The writing sounded so impersonal, and flat. I just couldn't relate to Charlie at all, which is a pity because he was telling of things we've all got to go through at some point.
Also, Charlie was really naïve. Which would be good, if that was done realistically. But honestly? I cannot imagine a fifteen-year-old boy who's that naïve. I myself wasn't that naïve at fiteen. Not even at thirteen, to be honest.
He constantly cried. Constantly! Who cries that much?
Although in the end the reason was kind of was explained so I sort of relented on that point.

One character I really liked is Patrick. He was great! I enjoyed getting to know more about him. He looked so tough at the beginning but actually he was just a scared little boy. He was definitely more realistic than Charlie, to tell you the truth.
The thing with Charlie is that he's supposed to represent all of us teenagers. And in a way he kind of does. But there was this sort of wall between his thoughts and his actions.
Sometimes he would say something and I'd be like, "wow. That happens to me a lot." But then he'd go out and do things NO NORMAL TEEN would ever do. Like breaking down in front of all his friends for such stupid reasons?
He really did look like a little kid. It would've just been better if the book was centered on a ten-year-old or something.

What made me like the book a little more, though, was the ending. Finally, at the end of the book, Charlie realizes he can't always be a wallflower. He's got to stand up and hold his own ground. Not always be pushed around by others.
So finally there's some growth on the main character's side, which is what I'd been waiting for all along.
Also, all Charlie's break-downs were kind of explained which is why I can say that The Perks of Being a Wallflower kind of reedemed itself at last.

Also, there was this scene in which Patrick (or Sam, I can't remember who) asks Charlie was his favorite book is. And when they ask the reason of Charlie's choice, he's like, "Because it's the last one I've read." I really liked it because, as a bookworm, I can relate to that. I especially appreciated it because it meant that he liked books so much that each of them was his favorite. It made me smile.

So my final opinion on The Perks of Being a Wallflower? I'd say 3.5 stars.
I do think it's a bit overrated, but all in all it was pretty cute.
I wouldn't say Perks is one of my favorite books, but if you get through all of it I believe you can definitely learn something from it.

This review can also be found at: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/364629229

[New Read] Wendy Higgins ~ Sweet Evil

And I've finally gotten my hands on this book!
I've been meaning to read it for MONTHS. But for some stupid reasons I never actually did.
Until now.
To be honest, I was reading Arcadia Awakens by Kai Meyer. It doesn't really have good reviews but the storyline sounded so cool that I wanted to try it anyway and shove in everbody's face how much I loved it.
But unfortunately everybody was right.
I've reached the half book line and things still haven't gotten better, so I decided to start Sweet Evil, too, because I was dying to read it and getting stuck on that other one wasn't in my plans.

So, about the book. So far it's good, but I haven't really read much of it yet. I just met Kayden, the male MC, and he doesn't seem to be bad. Anna is kinda cool, too, although she freaks me out a bit.
The storyline sounds about as fresh as you can get with the billions of PN books coming out these days, so I'm quite satisfied. It does have some pretty high reviews on goodreads, so I do have some expectations.
I just hope SE will do it for me.
I like the cover, although from what I've read so far the models don't really match up with the descriptions.
But oh well, that dress is adorable.

[New Read] The Perks of Being a Wallflower!

I have made it. I finally have.
I have started reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

This book has been advertized so much I don't think I could've seen more of it if it hung outside my front door day and night. Seriously.
I'd been wanting to read this for months, waiting to find out what the fuss was all about, and now I've finally started it.

What bugs me about this book, though, is that I didn't find out about it myself.
Now you have to know a peculiar thing about me: I like finding things on my own. I like being able to say, "oh, no one told me to watch/read this. I found it by myself and loved it."
I guess I kind of like the pride I take in saying that.
And now I can't.
As I've said, Perks has been advertized and commercialized very much in the last months. I guess it has to do with the movie coming out (which I'm going to watch as soon as I finish the book).
And that's the thing about things going mainstream.
That they kind of lose a bit of that sparkle they had before. I'm not saying a movie makes a book worse, but somehow it takes the imagination out of it. And it attracts those people who wouldn't be interested in it otherwise.


Example.
Twilight.
Don't booh me now, please. Listen up. Twilight was not an exceptional book, but it's not as bad as some make it sound, either. The thing about it, though, is that going mainstream it also aquired some of those fans that I personally would not be proud to call fans. What I mean is that now there's a bunch of people who fake themselves literary experts, and at the fatidic question, what's your favorite book? (which, by the way, is a very stupid question, if you ask me), they answer TWILIGHT without a shadow of doubt.

And the readers community is all one big, fat facepalm.


But why was I saying this? Oh, yeah, The Perks of Being a Wallflower being made into a movie.
No, I am not in any way saying this book is as bad as Twilight (principally 'cause I haven't even finished it yet so I can't say). What I'm saying is that with the movie coming out it will aquire a lot of fans who do not actually like the book for the right reasons, but because it's just the movie.
I don't know if you get why I mean so I will try to say it more clearly.
People will like it because its popular and they will not get the true meaning that's behind it, and the geniality of it all.
It happens.
A lot of times, it happens.
But that's the way things goes, so I guess I can't complain much. I should just be glad that a nice book is receiving attention, I guess.


So yeah, I have currently just the passed the half book line and I'm nearing the ending. I'll tell you in a new post what I thought about the book! and if you have read it, or if you plan to, or even if you don't, comment or say something and tell me what you think about it. :)

Thank you for reading,


Elena