Book Review: Galagolia-The Hidden Divination by Dubai Abulhoul

Overview:

It’s the story Maitha BinHumaid, a ten-year-old Emirati girl living in Deira, Dubai.Growing up, she was told that her mother had died soon after her birth. After the death of her father, Maitha finds a portal
to Galagolia, a new world, and learns that, all along, she had known nothing abouther life and that she has inherited the throne to Galagolia. But can a ten year old really handle that responsibility? Can Maitha handle reuniting with the mother she’s never met? Why was her mother
held captive in Galagolia all this time? Step into the spellbinding fantasy, and self-discovery and join Maitha on her journey of dangers, deception,, and sacrifice.Galagolia is a world you do not want to
miss!

I was grateful to know about Galagolia through Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature. Galagolia is written by a fifteen year old author. AMAZING RIGHT? She was inspired by Harry Potter. (Pretty awesome right? Potter fans RULE :P) I met the author and get this book signed. I must say I really enjoyed reading this book as well.

First of all, I have to start my review with the setting:

I loved how Dubai Abulhoul added and was influenced by the Emirati culture throughout the book. You could see Emirates in the book. The people, the culture, everything. This is before the protagonist enters the other world, Galagolia.

The Characters:

Maitha is our main character. She is ten years old. I think Maitha was portrayed very well. She represented an Emirati girl in an accurate way.  Maitha is sometimes annoying with her cheekiness and bossiness toward people, but she is tolerable afterall.

Hamad, Saeed, Meera, and Rashid are Maitha's family. Saeed and Rashid her brothers, Meera her mother, and Hamad her father. Saeed and Rashid don't have much of an appearance throughout the entire book, but they might be important in the future books. Meera and Hamad perfectly portray the parents' love towards their children.

The World:

Galagolia is a very original fantasy world. I loved it. It is full of unique creatures and fantasy elements. I loved the idea of the falcon, horse, and camel.

The necklace was pretty awesome too. I liked the description. The red color. What it did was pretty awesome too.
I also liked how the spells were in Emirati. That was very smart.

The Ending:

The ending was a cliffhanger. I really want to know what happens next.
All in all, great book. Get it if you live in the UAE.

Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Overview:

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

Before I start my review, I have something to say: READ THE BOOK ALREADY IF YOU HAVEN'T.

I REALLY loved this book. This is more than a book. The content is too precious.

On with my review:

The Story:

The story talks about Hazel, a girl who has survived cancer. She has pushed back her cancer.It talks about her struggle and life. It also shows the life of people suffering from cancer.

The Writing Style:

I immediately fell in love with the writing style. That first sentence sucked me right into the book. I can't even explain how amazing the writing style was. I'd like to point out two things about why I loved the writing style:

1- John Green masters talking in a girl's point of view. I don't know how he does it, but I know one thing: this is a rare talent. Not every man can talk in a girl's point of view and not every woman can talk in a guy's point of view. I really could listen to a girl's thought as Hazel was narrating.

2-This book was full of amazing quotes. Touching quotes. I usually write down quotes that I like from books, but this time there was just too much. Eventually, I started marking the quotes I liked with sticky notes. There are just way too much.

My favorite quote in this book is the following quote: “There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. A writer we used to like taught us that. There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful.”

That's just written way too perfectly and beautifully, isn't it?

The Characters:

I'm going to talk about about the three main characters:

1-Hazel Grace: Hazel is the protagonist in this book. As we know, she has fought her cancer. I thought that Hazel's voice was unique. It was unique, but I didn't exactly like her at the beginning, but I think the development and change in her character made me really like her by the end of the book.

2-Augustus Waters: Augustus is Hazel's lover. I think that their love was very deep and emotional. Augustus also suffered from cancer (I can't recall what type). Augustus was a really cool character. He was that kind of character you'd love to read about.

3-Isaac: Isaac is Augustus' friend. He also suffered from another type of cancer. I think what was amazing is the fact that John Green showed the struggle each character went through with their different types of sickness. Isaac is a fine friend. If you want to befriend someone, you have to befriend Isaac.

The Mood:

The mood and theme in this book was pretty sad and depressing. I do not like happily ever afters. I hate them. I'm not saying I'm all for depressing books, but this book was just REALLY realistic. Also, this book made me tear up. This never EVER happened to me before. The words were TOO powerful.

This book was a perfect book. FLAWLESS. I couldn't put the book down. It moved me, changed how I think.

Grab your copy ASAP.

Book Review: Silverbirch by Rob Kaay

Overview:

By eating an extremely rare mushroom that has a red lightning bolt image naturally built-in to its black-gilled underbelly, Nudge discovers he can create a tear in the fabric of the night sky that will allow his soul to legally leave Earth and enter Silverbirch.

I was lucky enough to be sent a copy of this book by the author, Rob Kaay, by a giveaway hosted by Jean BookNerd. I am very grateful.

Now let's start with the review:

From the summary, you know this book is weird. Yes WEIRD. Does that mean it's a good book or a bad one?

I must admit, this book was not what I expected it to be. It was very different. I thought this book, judging by its cover and summary, is a young adult book. I was proven wrong. This book is an adult book, so I must warn you, you should be an adult/mature enough to read adult material.

The Story:

Silverbirch is a very unique story. I don't really know what genre to put it in. It is many thing. Mystery/fantasy/afterlife...
Silverbirch is a world, a world like ours. One of a kind. A world adjacent to ours, made up of Silver. It was a very interesting take on the idea of afterlife.

The Characters:

Nudge is our main character. I honestly wasn't fond of him. He was annoying me. Now, that's a new thing, protagonist getting on my nerves. I don't really know how to describe him, but I would say, Mr.I-Wanna-Swear-Whenever-I-Talk.

Hayley, Nudge's love interest. She was an interesting character. I would call her Mrs.I-Am-Fierce-You-Don't-Mess-With-Me.

Dieter is the sort of Indian guy, I thought he's a very vulnerable character. I would call him Mr.I-Wanna-Escape-This-World-I-Can't-Take-It-Any-More.

Finally, we have Chase,Mr.Brains. Chase was the character I really liked. He was very helpful and sacrificing.

The Writing Style:

The writing style in this book reminded me of Darren Shan's The City Trilogy. That was the first explicit adult book I have read. I thought Rob Kaay is pretty good at writing and bringing his story to life. The book kept me reading. As I mentioned earlier, this book is REALLY weird, but its GOOD weird. Near the ending, there were lots of twists and turns.

Overall, this book was really good, I enjoyed it a lot. It had lots of elements combined in one book. 

Book Review: Red Moon Rising by Peter Moore

Overview:

Being only half-vamp in a high school like Carpathia Night makes you a whole loser. But Danny Gray manages to escape the worst of the specists at his school. Thanks to genetic treatments he had as an infant, most people assume Danny's other half is human. Which is a good thing.

Ever since the development of synthetic blood – SynHeme – vamps have become society’s elite, while wulves like his father work menial jobs and live in bad neighborhoods. Wulves are less than second class citizens; once a month they become inmates, forced to undergo their Change in dangerous government compounds.

For Danny, living with his vamp mother and going to a school with a nearly all-vamp student body, it’s best to pretend his wulf half doesn’t even exist. But lately Danny's been having some weird symptoms — fantastic night vision; a keener-than-usual sense of smell; and headaches, right around the full moon.

Even though it's easy to be in denial, it's hard to ignore evidence. There's only a month until the next full moon, and Danny's time is running out.

Red Moon Rising is a werewulf/vampyre tale. A very unique and different one. Trust me, it has a very different aspect to the werewulf/vampyre stories.

The story has political/racial messages. Wulves are vampire slaves. They are spat on, ordered around, and not accepted in the society.

Dante, our protagonist, is half-vampyre half-wulf. He faces issues regarding this.

The story is narrated in Dante's point of view. I think that Peter Moore perfectly captures and portrays the teenager's voice and thoughts. You can feel for Dante and feel the danger he's going through.

Claire was an amazing character. She was always there for Dante and she was quite interesting.

I don't think this book had much of a plot. It had a quite simple plot and didn't really have jaw-dropping moments, but the simplicity has this charm and works quite well.

Peter Moore's writing style is great. He knows how to express the teenage thoughts in pages; not many authors are capable of doing that.

Overall this book is really enjoyable and entertaining.

Book Review: Circle of Fire by Michelle Zink

Overview:
Book: Circle of Fire
Series: Prophecy of the Sisters #3

With time dwindling but her will to end the Prophecy stronger than ever, Lia sets out on a journey to find the remaining keys, locate the missing pages of the Prophecy, and convince her sister Alice to help--or risk her life trying. Lia has her beloved Dimitri by her side, but Alice has James, the man who once loved her sister--and maybe still does. James doesn't know the truth about either sister, or the prophecy that divides them. And Alice intends to keep it that way.

Circle of Fire is the final book in the Prophecy of the Sisters series by Michelle Zink. The story follows the adventures of Lia and Alice, the twin sisters, and their roles as Guardian and Gate. It is the final war.


Characters:

Lia: Lia is the protagonist She has a mission. She has to stop evil one and for all. But is she strong enough to do it? Lia is a very amusing character. She is not perfect. She's torn between Dimitri and James. Who would she choose? I think that Lia chooses very wisely. She is caring and loving. She undergoes challenges that tests her relationship with characters. I think that her character is very well developed.

Dimitri: He's a member of the Grigori brothers, sent to protect Lia. First of all, I must thank Michelle Zink for writing Dimitri's character. He's a gentleman, always there for Lia, protecting her. He'd do the impossible for her. Also, I admire how he doesn't push Lia in the love relationship. He takes everything step by step. His love for Lia is very deep.

Alice: She's Lia's twin sister. She is controlled by the spirits. She is quite a complex character. Like she has a struggle. She loves her sister, but she has to fight against her because of a prophecy. She doesn't appear much in the book, but I must say, whenever she appeared, her scenes were quite well developed and wonderfully written.

Plot:

I think this book's plot was very well-thought and planned. It fits perfectly with the story. It shows that the characters are indeed in danger and shows how vague their fate will be. Would you guess what happens next? No you wouldn't.

Writing Style:

This book is beautifully written. Lia's voice is very authentic which develops her character quite well. The first person narration even makes it easier to understand Lia. There were lots of twists and turns lurking in every page. Especially the ending. I did NOT expect that.

The pacing in this book was perfect. There wasn't a moment where I felt it slowed down or went too quickly.

There's something that stands out in this series. It is the setting. Yes, the setting is dazzling. Carriages, horses, formal dresses. It is just a spectacular escape from modern world books.

Ending:

Finally, I'd like to talk about the ending of this book. The ending is bittersweet. It was sad but had a glimpse of hope.

I think it was a perfect way to end this series. It exceeded all my expectations.

I only think the final confrontation should have been a little more detailed and action-packed, but it's okay.

To end this review, I'd like to thank Michelle Zink for creating this remarkable series. I really loved it.

You all should read this series.