Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini’s novel A Thousand Splendid Suns is a really good read. It is poignant and it captures a world that most of us living in Western countries cannot even imagine (unless you have been to the Middle East and seen it for yourself). It is one of those novels that changes your outlook on life, not in a bad way, but in the kind of way that makes one appreciate the freedoms that we are able to experience in the West.

This is not a feel-good book. It is gritty and to some it will seem, in parts, a little bit gruesome . This book is not for sensitive readers because it deal with topics such as war, arranged marriages and spousal abuse. There are also a few scenes that do allude to sex, but it is not descriptive in that department. There are also a few cuss words, but in the context of the novel it makes sense. But if these things do not bother you, this is a really good read.

A Thousand Splendid Suns made me feel a mix of emotions during the course of the novel. I laughed, I gasped and I cried. There were moments I was so mad at some of the injustices in the book I wanted to scream. This is not an easy read because it takes you on an emotional roller-coaster ride, very rarely are there happy moments in this book.

The novel is about two women who are almost twenty years apart in age. The first woman is Mariam who was forced to marry the abusive Rasheed by her father for several reasons which i don’t want to state because I am afraid that it might spoil the first third of the book. 20 years later, due to tragic circumstances, Laila is also coerced into marrying Rasheed.

This is not just a novel about a relationship, it is novel that also depicts the various states of Afganhistan over the years and how every time it seemed like the new regime was good, that regime turned out to be even worse than the one before it.

It is also eye-opening to see how women are treated in most Middle Eastern contries and it makes me appreciative of being a woman who was born and raised in a country where I can get an education and I am not forced to get married as a young teenager. This book will change the way that you view the world, especially since it opens your eyes to some of the atrocities that took place in Afganhistan.

This book gets 4/5 stars for being moving, thought-provoking and eye-opening.

Happy Reading,

Janelle

P.S. If you have any book recommendations let me know and I will try to read them. 

Book Review: Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1)

Today’s review is on Marissa Meyer’s debut novel Cinder, which is the first book in a 4-book series called the Lunar Chronicles. 

I first came across this book while browsing through Amazon’s Kindle store. I found the cover intriguing, and once I read the summary of it I was intrigued by the concept but I was still a little bit wary of what it would actually be like. I was afraid that even though the summary made it sound exciting, I would be left disappointed. I bought the Kindle edition of it last year when it went on sale, and that way if I didn’t like it, I would not feel to guilty about spending the money on it. However, it sat on my Kindle for almost a year before I read it. 

Evey time I tried to read it I kept thinking that I should just prepare myself for disappointment. In May, I decided to read it after finishing the Divergent trilogy. I LOVED Cinder!!!! It was a fantastic read, and usually I don’t read Sci-Fi novels.This book had me hooked from beginning to the end, and when it was finished I knew I had to read the second book in this series. 

Cinder is a kind of Science Fiction retelling of Cinderella. It takes some time in the future on Earth after the 4th World War. The Earthen Union is in the middle of peace talks with the Lunar queen, Levana, who is the ruler of the population of Lunars, who are descendants of the humans that colonised the moon a couple centuries before the events of the novel. 

In this futuristic earth, the population consists of androids, cyborgs and humans. However, cyborgs are looked down upon as being less than human, and people have superstitions about them. The heroine, Cinder is one of these cyborgs, she also happens to be the best mechanic in New Beijing.When she meets Prince Kai, she doesn’t realize that her whole life is about to change drastically in a matter of days.  

The author does a good job of describing various “new” things to the readers, but she does it such a way that it does not seem tedious or redundant. This is not a typical Cinderella story and even though there are a few things that are predictable, it is still a phenomenal read. It is also fast-paced even though it is like 400 page long. I can’t wait to read the rest of this series, especially book 4 Winter, which comes out in November. I am also looking forward to reading future releases from Marissa Meyer. 

(Note: I have already finished Scarlet (Book 2) and I am busy listening to Cress (Book 3))

 This book gets 5 stars for being a great read, and for possibly converting me to the genre of Science Fiction. 

Happy Reading, 

Janelle 

P.S. If there are any books you think I should review let me know. 

It’s Been A While

Hi!

So it has been a while since I’ve posted on this blog -over two years!!!! When I first started the Scribbler I thought blogging would be easy, after all I do hope to be a writer someday. Unfortunately, I realized how hard it was to keep up with a blog, mainly because I would get stumped on what to blog about.

It might seem like I am about to say that I am shutting this blog down, but I’m not. While thinking about what I could do for a blog, I have decided that I should use my love of reading as inspiration for posts. This is not a novel idea, in fact there tons of book blogs (and vlogs) out there. However, this will be good practice for me, not just with my writing skills, but it will make me stop and think about what I have just read and why I liked or did not like a particular book.

I look forward to sharing my love for books with those who read this blog.

Happy reading,

Janelle

P.S. If you have any book recommendations let me know and I will try to read them as soon as I can.