[Book Review] Wonder

R J Palacio's "Wonder" is an emotional roller coaster of a wonder child who finds his place in this world. The cover page of this small novel is what attracted me. The blue book with a single eye and a face may sound weird but it does look good. 

The novel is about a boy called August Pullman who is born with a rare mandibulofacial disorder. Home-schooled till fourth grade, August decides to enroll in a normal school to start his middle school. Though middle school proved tougher than he imagined, August with the help of his family and friends finds his place in the world. 

The novel was an easy read; the language was simple and I think the author might have aimed for children. It does sound a lot like Children's novel but I think it would be a great one for young adults too. There wasn't much to talk about other characters apart from August and his sister Olivia. August grabs our attention with his noble characters and understanding nature while Olivia realises her self obsession pretty fast and that was interesting for me. I also liked the thing about August and Halloweens and the whole idea that behind the mask no-one recognises him and thus he is free. There were a few comic elements from August's dad and his friends. All in all, the book won't blow you away or anything. It's just an easy and fast read as it's a small novel. 

[Book Review] The Time Traveller's Wife

 

Audrey Niffenegger's 'The Time Traveller's Wife' is a science fiction with the dose of time travelling. The cover would initially look quite confusing but later when you get on with the novel you'll get a hang of the idea that the author depicts countless times throughout the novel. 

The story deals with two main characters - Henry DeTamble and Claire Abshire. Henry knows that Claire is the girl of his life because of his ability to time travel. Along his paranormal journey, he discovers secrets about his own life. 

The plot is quite jumbled up because of the time travelling. It is nonlinear throughout the novel. Sometimes we have two Henrys from different age and timeline. Personally, I felt it quite hard to follow initially but later on things began to get interesting when the puzzle pieces began to fit. The overall storyline is dull; nothing to be much excited about when you take away the element of time travelling from it. I do appreciate the effort the author must have taken to write in nonlinear form. It's really hard and tiring but the novel was worth it. The Epilogue was a tad bit unnecessary I think. It felt like the author wanted to deliberately play with time travelling a little longer. Overall, would recommend this for one time read if you are a science fiction fan and looking for a little extraordinary something. It won't disappoint you if you read it without any great expectations. 

[Book Review] Landline

"Landline" by Rainbow Rowell is the kind of the book you want to read if you want some paranormal activity in everyday life. The cover is really cool as well as dull at the same time. The yellow rotary phone amidst the grey background gives you the gloomy interesting touch, at least that's what I thought. At first sight, you may end up with the same conclusion as me that this book is another teenage high school romantic drama but no it's not. 

"Landline" tells the story of Georgie, a TV drama writer, her husband Neal and her best friend Seth. A week before Christmas, Georgie encounters a weird old yellow rotary phone that changes her broken relations and her life. 

This is the first book of Rainbow Rowell that I read and I really liked this. The plot was really predictable after the climax but the writing made it worthwhile. By the end of the last chapter I was excited and anxious as much as Georgie to see her family. The whole yellow rotary landline thing was interesting but I expected some kind of explanation at the end but I didn't get any. Teeny bit disappointed but I decided to mark the rotary landline under paranormal activity and also the whole plot takes place around Christmas. Maybe Rowell wanted it to be a Christmas miracle or something and who am I to question Christmas miracles. Or maybe it was because the novel is a Fiction ;)
The characters were memorable. I can still see Neal's parenthesis dimples. Another thing that I really liked was that the author managed to take away all the things from Georgie when she was looking for something to hold on to her present life. The plot was simple and the writing was easy and compact. Overall it was a good read if you keep your expectations on par.