sweetsxrrxw's reviews
100 reviews

this is my first-ever 5 star review. that doesn't mean all the other stories i have read before aren't good enough; it just means i am a huge perfectionist. however, for the first time, i feel like a book was everything. 

this graphic novel is set in an alternative world (specifically, in cairo) where wishes exist and you can actually buy them. these wishes are divided in different categories that define the power of each class, how much time it takes to be produced, their efficacy, etc. 

this might be a little hard to understand at the beginning but, trust me, the author does an incredible job at showing AND explaining everything. you can get a basic idea of how they work while reading the story. but in case you don't, between each part, the author has included interludes with definitions, schemes and infographics that clarify everything you need to know about wishes, as well as how they've affected history and several laws made to regulate their use. so, as you can imagine, the world-building is just fantastic. i really admire how the author created such a complex story based on a relatively simple prompt.

one of the things i liked is how the wishes are kind of a secondary plot to the story. the book focuses more on its different characters and their problems. so that's how the author gets to portrait different topics, such as poverty, classism, social injustice, bureaucracy, mental illnesses, therapy, religion, morality... 

anyways, going back to the main characters there's three of them, and their stories are interwined:

so, the stories were well-built and interlaced in smart ways, they delivered reflective, humoristic and dark moments in great quantities. sometimes it is hard to grasp the plot in some graphic novels but this one's length allowed the author to write with coherence and cohesion.

moreover, the art style was really good too. the interludes are completely colored, while the rest of the book is in monochromatic shades. maybe it is a bit upsetting at first, but one has to keep in mind that the coloring process is really long and complex, and printing is never cheap. furthermore, there are some parts of the story where the best coloring option is definitely black and white. 
oh, and i am not egyptian myself but i really loved the representation, how the author drew the cities, the pieces of clothing, and how the translation still keeps the essence of the original story written in arabic.

summing up, this is a must-read book. unless you truly despise magical realism i think you can enjoy reading it, find yourself loving the characters and reflecting on their stories while also appreciating the drawings and the little details.

since during last ramadan i decided to read love from a to z, i thought it would be a good idea to read its second part this year!

but there's a few reasons why i did not like it as much as the first book and one of them is the pacing of the conflict. it just lasted for like 80% of the book and it could have easily been fixed if they just talked to each other... miscommunication is truly something, lmao. however, i guess i can kind of understand why they couldn't. and that's the point where i get to talk about the subplot, aka one of my favorite things in the book.

although it was sad that a and z didn't get to spend many cute moments together, i think that it is totally normal for couples and marriages to go through times where they are not at the same place, either mentally, physically and spiritually. obviously, both their struggles were equally valid and relatable. 
zayneb has been under a lot of stress because of some allegations about her going on at college and bc she doesn't have a place where to live. 
adam is struggling to find a job and starts wondering if he should not have dropped out of college. he feels guilty and he know zayneb's family won't accept him if he can't "stand on his two feet". 

amidst these different stressful situations adam's dad intervenes and proposes they should both make umrah. adam thinks it's a great idea, a good oportunity to literally pray for a job. but zayneb is not feeling really in the mood for that journey so she basically goes to umrah for adam and not herself.

however this journey helps both of them to realize things about themselves and by the end of their umrah they feel like they have changed and maybe life is smiling at them.

not only it was interesting to read about them, their introspection and realizations but it was really nice to read about the setting. i feel like it's a great book to learn more about the umrah, even if you're muslim. for example, i am a muslim myself but i had no idea of some things such as the distance between safa and marwa or the order of the things you have to do.

going back to some things i did not really like,

one of them was the ending with sarina. okay maybe she was jealous of zayneb or maybe she felt she was better for being nice or whatever. but pairing her up with yasin, the haram police, after she said she wanted a religious guy was not it. i think she definitely deserved better. 
then there's the resolution of the miscommunication. i feel like the conflict lasted way too long to fix it in less than one page. i get the adam and zayneb love each other. a lot. but i feel like they should have talked about the situation better and be completely open with each other. im guessing it partly happened off camera but idk, the make up stage just felt super rushed :/

but yeah, despite that, this was cute and realistic and it hit so close to my faith. i truly enjoyed reading it and i recommend it, specially if you're muslim <3

ps: i need to get this out, im sorry, lmao. i excluded it from the main review bc it's not something involving the plot or writing, but the audiobook. i was listening to it while reading, in order to focus better. and the narrators were amazing, of course! now i can't imagine the MCs' voices sounding any other way. i noticed they hired a brown and an asian narrator which is cool. but... i just wish they knew how to speak arabic lmfao. 
like im sorry but everytime there was an expression in arabic, specially the girl, struggled to pronounce the words and ngl it kinda hurt to listen, lmao. like, the "labbaik allahuma labbaik" dhikr always makes me tear up. but in this audiobook it was just awful to listen to, im sorry

this has been the first time in months in where i cried reading a book. althoug i am someone who cries easily, the sadness that some books made me feel didn't turn into tears... until now.

this is a brutally sad story which portraits extremly well the pain syrians have been feeling since about a decade ago. just the few first chapters chapters will have you crying or, at least, feeling brokenhearted. the book might be a bit slow paced during its first half but it is definitely a must-read. 

the book is set during the beginnings of syria's revolution and the main characters are torn between staying or leaving rhe country. i believe this dilemma was really well-written and i could totally emphathize with both salama and kenan and their reasons for wanting to stay. and yeah, kenan was an absolute sweetheart but i would like to focus on salama because she just felt too real.

while reading i could totally feel her pressure and anguish. i think the fact that she was working on a hospital (despite being a pharmacology student) somehow gave the story more depth. i mean, if it had been narrated by someone else, who didn't have to face all of those dying people it wouldnt have hit the same. 

also, i loved how the author decided to portray khawf. instead of writing constant monologues to express salama's fear she just "took advantage" of her ptsd to humanify that emotion and make its interventions lighter to read. and, fuck, that final plot twist made my heart skip a beat.

but tbh it made me really sad. i was truly loving layla and salama's friendship. i just absolutely loved how layla gave hope to salama and convinced her to try to be happy. i was rooting for them to be happy together in germany. so learning she was actually dead hurted so much.

all in all, this is a raw story that not only did a great job at showcasing syria's situation but also that even in the worst scenarios, hope and faith can exist. even if everything around you is crumbling, you still have the right to find little pieces of happiness to keep you going.

ps: i actually never read book acknowledgements, im sorry, but this time i skimmed through them and i have to say i loved them. i dont think i've ever seen someone shouting out taylor swift and bts, lmao. also i love how she also mentioned other authors, specially muslim ones!

the main reason why i picked up this book is because it was one of the shortest in my tbr. it took me about 4 days to finish it, not gonna lie, but still it was a nice read.

overall the book was really sweet. i felt like the main characters (even some of the side ones) were well-built and three-dimensional. like, i don't know, it was easy to understand them and see where they were coming from. (this is dedicated to kai, i dont care if they portrayed him as someone who was constantly panicking or stressing about stuff, he is so me)

both teo and bel were really relatable characters. i could totally understand bel's struggle of not knowing what to do with her future and never really having anything planned. i would be totally lying if i said i stopped being like her. i do not have a filipino mom, divorced parents or an older brother who i should look up and, what the hell, im not even a stem girlie, but it was super easy to understand bel.

btw, i loved the fact that she ended up not attending mit. it was a nice way to prove that, even if your plans fail, you can still succeed and/or be happy with your path.

and what can i say about teo? a character who feels the need to fix everything and not ever letting anyone down? someone who believes people will stop loving them if he stops being perfect? HE IS SO ME. and if we take into account the love for his girlfriend and how he would do anything to spend time with her or see her smile, he just turns out to be one of those characters you can't help but love.

however, even though i know this was a short romance novel and that she lowkey did so, i am kind of disappointed that the author didn't deepen more in that topic. but i guess we can forgive that because of the sick confession!

but it has to be said that the romance plotline was a bit fast-paced and partly ofr-screen. i can understand why, though. i believe that since this is a book focusing on women on stem, it had to show the struggles they face.

one detail i really loved is how neelam, the character who had probably faced more of that sexism (mixed with racism because, yeah, it happens) never really changed her personality. although she becomes friends with bel once she understands why neelam acts the way she does, by the end of the book neelam hasnt been sugarcoated or anything and is still true to herself. AND OF COURSE, i was super happy when bel let neelam be the driver. i truly did not think about that option for a few pages, but it was nice to see a female friendship boooming

so, yeah, i am not sure if this is one of the best romance books i've ever read or whatever but it was truly nice to read; it was cute, funny, empowering and inspiring... each thing at the right time. and the diverse cast of characters is definitely a big plus so i would truly recommend this if you're in the mood for a stem-themed ya romance <3

ps: when i added this book to my tbr i had absolutely no idea it was from the author of the atlas six. i guess this counts as my first olivie blake book, lmao.

i decided to read the manga right after finishing dazai's book, as there were some things that i couldn't still understand.

horror is not a genre that i really like. in fact, i tend to avoid it. im also super sensitive to blood and im not much into smut (written or drawn) since this is a manga, the author portrayed some of the triggering things in dazai's version in a more detailed way.however, i must admit his artstyle is really good!

i am not going to give a full plot review once again but i'd like to highlight some things:

all in all, i can recognize it was good but it was not my cup of tea. i definitely recommend reading the original book first and then reading the manga!

sigh... how do i start this review? this was such a complex book and i have complex feelings about it.

it has been on my tbr since maybe about one or two years? it caught my attention because, honestly, i have kind of a savior complex and i've always been interested in mental health issues.
but the main reason why i decided to finally read it this time was because of its short length and because of my reading slump. so if you want to read this, i would recommend you to wait until you're in a good state of mind because it can be triggering. 

i must also admit that after finishing the story i found myself confused at some things. so hence why i decided to read junji ito's manga adaptation, which has helped me to get a better overall view of the story.

i think it's easy to emphathize with yozo's character at the beginning. he is a people pleaser who can't say no and can never wish bad things to anyone. he makes everyone believe he is a comedic clown-ish guy.
although terrible things happen to him (which perpetuate his nihilism and pessimism) he doesn't talk about them with no one. 

he is not very good at keeping friendships and doesn't have any special bond to his family. i guess that's understandable, since his belief of everyone being a terrible person alienates him from society.
so, as he grows up, he ends up becoming an alcoholic and, eventually, a drug addict. 

another important theme in yozo's life are women. disclaimer: this was written in the 40s or so, therefore it is clearly a product of its time. expect lots of misogyny. 
the thing is that im not really sure of how he felt about them. did he just 100% think they're impossible creatures who he couldn't understand? were his insecurities and anxiety making him believe he was not worth enough to be loved? a mix of both things? i also can't understand how did he attract so many women (specially after he grew up and stopped acting funny 24/7), did they sense he was broken and thought they could fix him? or did the author just see women as desperate human beings who would do anything for some male affection?

personally, i think the most interesting parts were the first one and the epliogue (as soon as i finished, i went super quickly to read the prologue again and it all made sense, lmao). during the other parts sometimes the writing felt off and i couldn't understand exactly what was going on.

for example, i was super confused about why he felt relieved by his father's death by the end. i even had to skim through the book to find out if i had missed some horrible thing he did. but i guess that, just like other terrible things in the story, it was something implicit

as this is kind of an autobiography, i am not completely sure of what message the author meant to give. 
but what i got from this story, is how alienation, depression and not properly coping with traumas can fuck up a person. but i guess one of the main conclusions leads to a couple of questions: how many pain can a human being go through? how much can everyone else emphathize with them? at what point do these two answers collide and when does someone become no longer human?

im a super empathetic person so i was always waiting for yozo to get better? maybe to actually fight and pursue for his dream of becoming a painter, even after that man laughed at him?
but i lost part of my faith on him after he just watched his wife getting raped without a word. i guess that triggered some memories in him? so that's why he couldn't do anything, but i still felt uneasy. 

ps: a part that really hit me, for some reason, is when he got in the psych ward and said that, after that, he was no longer human. maybe this whole book is just about his "journey" to dehumanization?

due to my mood swings during the last couple weeks, it took me a while to finish reading this book. however! my slow reading was not in vain, as it helped me to, somehow, focus more in the story? so get ready for a kinda long review, lmao. 

anyways, let's just start from the beginning. i enjoyed reading if you could see the sun so i decided to give this a chance because, why not?

at first i felt like eliza was a bit way too similar to alice and i really didn't like that, as i was expecting a whole new story. nevertheless, even though they have some similarities, they're not totally the same. i relate to both of them, to be honest but, of course, let's focus on eliza for now. 
even though i have never moved from my hometown, i know what it's like to be the kid that no one befriends and the fear of getting attached because you feel like you won't be important enough to be remembered and you know your love is so deep that this would scar you. and i am also a hopeless romantic who is always doing her best to not annoy everyone, so yeah, she is so me! some of the things she did  such as stop waiting outside because she knew no one would wait for her and instead go to class and pretend to be studying OR when she said she felt more comfortable showing her true personality to strangers online rather than people she knew irl... that hit so close.

i was also heartbroken by how she believed that loneliness is her default setting and that everything will go terribly (she's so me once again) but the ending really made me smile. i love how she learnt how to accept that life doesn't always work out and that she can end up heartbroken sooner or later, but living life as you want is worth the potential pain because people need people.

i couldn't really relate much to caz but that didn't stop him from stealing my heart, ha. he is such a sweet person who, like eliza, tends to hold in his emotions. i feel like he also tries not to be a burden to everyone else and, while doing his own thing, tries not to disappoint his parents.

i also loved the way he always sees everything and how much he loves his job. his ambition is impressive, like woah, he really kept doing stunts although he had his arm broken? he did not deserve that hand slap, btw. and of course let's not forget his teasing when eliza told him he should eat and take better care of himself. idk the taking care of another person, "stay, don't leave", and "i have always secretly admired you" tropes make me so soft.

as it is said in spanish: está chiquito hay que cuidarlo. 

i can't say much about the side characters, as they're not fully developed, but i'd like to highlight on eliza's family and zoe.
although her dad and her mom weren't really huge characters, i loved their family dynamic. both her mom and dad were really sweet and emily is just loveable. she's like a middle-aged lady trapped in a nine-year-old girl's body. i think it would have been fun to deepen into her character. she deserves the best. i hope someday she gets that nice heartwarming long-lasting friendship she wants.

she is truly the sweetest sister ever, like that "the main reason why i liked him was bc of how you act when you're together [...] happy MADE ME WANT TO SOB

about zoe, i must confess there was some point where i lowkey disliked her

specially when she changed the playlist's name. and this is not totally her fault but i spent some time disappointed. but i guess i can't complain at all because, by the end, before even fixing things with caz, she decides to try to make what's between her and chloe clear.

 

other details i loved are the author's inclusion of several subtopics such as (asian) diaspora, racial microaggressions, and feeling like something's wrong with you; believing you're unlovable because of how everyone else treats you and how this can affect others.

to sum up it was a really nice and sweet book to read. i guess my only complaint is how the ending felt pretty rushed. i understand that the author probably wanted to showcase the beginning of their true relationship, but still, i would have loved a more slow paced ending. 

ps: i saw that chanel cao cameo. i love how my girl is always supporting what's right, lmao.

i wrote this review back in february 2023 but i have recently learnt the author is a zionist, so fuck her <3

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i don't know how i found out this story takes place during valentine's day but once i did i knew i had to read/finish it on february 14th. so that's what i did!
i did not hate this story but it's not going to become my favorite book so i think this rating gives it justice. but i have to say that if i had read this a few years ago i would have probably loved it more. 

the whole time loop trope is okay but it's always predictable. you always know that, soon or later, it's going to end. of course there's things that you can't fully predict but the plot was lowkey predictable

like i think it was so obvious how the day the main character decided to just not give a fuck about anything would be her final day in the loop. and even eric's death happening on valentine's day was predictable, if you think about it. i am guessing the only weird thing is the fact that the ending implies that somehow he was the one to bring his brother and emilie together. i guess i can "turn off" my scepticism for some magic realism but i couldn't help but think that proposed cause was unbelievable. like out of all people in that city, why would emilie be the chosen one?

anyways, there were some funny moments that made me giggle and some fluffy scenes that made me giggle too but in a romantic way, you know HAHA. it's obviously not the best romance i've ever read and i guess it could be labeled as some kind of insta-love? and also the character development wasn't that huge.

like, ok, emilie learnt how to stop making lists for everything, planning her whole life and just letting herself live without any kind of scheduling, which is cool (and probably one of the main morals of the story), so good for her! on the other hand, nick was just coping with grief? i am guessing by the end he learnt how to take risks and became a little bit more of an extroverted but that's it.

as i said at the beginning, it was not a super great story for my 19-year-old ass but it wasn't bad so, yeah, if you want to read it maybe you can give it a shot!

i read and reviewed this book back in january 2023 and i have recently discovered the author is a zionist, so fuck her!

ps: going back to my review makes me realize i used to hate "being mean" and thought of 3 star reviews as bad reviews when i absolutel hated every character's guts. yikes. 

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please don't come at me for my rating, let me explain myself, lmao.

i am writing this review two weeks after finishing the book and i've been pondering between giving it 4 or 3.75 stars. i choose the latter because i spent about half of the book annoyed at the thoughts of "oh no, this man is going to cheat on his wife AND SHE DOES NOT DESERVE THAT" and "why can't he let his members feel included and do their thing" so yeah, maybe billy was my main problem. 
i am guessing my other problem were... the songs? i know it's a story about a band but songs in books are just not my thing. in fact, i must confess i haven't really read all of the lyrics at the back, i'm sorry!

although i did not really like billy, i loved the way tjr writes her characters. i mean, so far, this is her first book im reading (i did it for the show, duh) but, i don't know, despite the interview format, she somehow managed to give each one of the characters a complex and unique personality. even if you dislike them or they're not that important in the plot, you get to develop feelings towards them.

for example, when pete said he was leaving the band i got genuinely sad, and when his reasoning was something like "im always saying this stuff doesn't matter", idk, i just felt something.

moreover, there were several quotes that really hit close. so i am really looking forward to read tjr's other books!

but going back to this one, it was not bad. it was actually good but i guess the plot didn't really impact me but instead it was the deepness of the characters and the way the author managed to make this a personal story shared between a bunch of people. 

so, yeah, i can't wait to watch the show!

the first half of this book was slow and, tbh. it got me into a slump and i spent days without reading anything. however, the second half was great! i finished about 40% of the book in almost one sitting and i truly enjoyed it.

the reason why i am not giving it 5 stars is because some things were kinda annoying. i can understand why the characters didn't do it but the lack of communication was awful (at least they acknowledged it, lmao). and, of course, even if i loved it by the end i don't think i can give a perfect rating to a book that took me so much to finish.

putting that aside, this was a perfect fun book about second chance romances! it was nice to see how the characters evolved, learned from each other and fell back in love. there are some parts which really made me blush, giggle and kick my feet such as

nicholas going back home because naomi missed him

but, overall, their acts of service towards each other were super heartwarming <3 it just felt refreshing to see them embrace their ugliness and letting it be a reason to fall harder with each other. 

something else i really enjoyed are the side themes of the story. nicholas' struggles of not being capable of cutting off toxic people hit so close home because i am a people pleaser too, lmao. moreover, although im currently studying for a degree, i think it's important for media to talk more about how it is okay to not go to college. i also liked how naomi needed her little cozy family with her friends and co workers, because i am a firm believer of the importance of platonic relationships.

to sum up, even though it took me a while to get into it, i really love how this author wrote about the second chance trope.