4.4 - Trapped

goodreads.com

"The terrifying true story of a young girl's secret world of abuse."
The short sentence on the cover of the book caught my eye when I saw it displayed on the shelf of our local bookshop. The prologue and the blurb did their job and surprisingly, I was hooked after the first few sentences. Could it be that I had finally found another perfectly original outlier that will be able to surprise and fascinate me as all the amazingly written creative books I have read before?

Rosie Lewis, the author of "Trapped" (writing under a pseudonym) and a full-time foster carer, lives in northern England with her 11-year-old son Jamie and 14-year-old daughter Emily. In this book, she describes her encounter and the struggle of forming a relationship with Phoebe, a 9-year-old autistic girl. Phoebe Steadman is taken from her parents by the police after her teacher notices something strange and informs authorities that everything might not be as it seems in the Steadmans' household. The small malnourished girl with tangled brown hair is handed into Rosie's care shortly before the Easter Holidays in March 2009. Rosie and her family expect another traumatised frightened child lacking proper care and longing for a loving family and the safety of a proper home. Unfortunately, Phoebe turns out to be the exact opposite of the picture of a meek scared little girl Rosie had in mind. Phoebe is the perfect little devil: from inappropriate comments and throwing objects to threats to kill and self harm. The autistic 9-year-old manages to wreak havoc within the peaceful welcoming environment of Rosie's home and its inhabitants. At first, Rosie blames Phoebe's strange behaviour on her mental illness, but gradually she starts to uncover the disturbing truth hidden behind Phoebe's veil of alleged insanity...

I would be surprised if Ms. Lewis didn't have a secret interest in writing. The story, although having a somewhat predictable ending, is told in such a gripping way that I managed to finish the book within 24 hours. The author manages to build suspense with such ease, and surprise the reader with Phoebe's frightening out-of-the-blue burst outs at the same time, creating an atmosphere similar to that of a first-rate thriller. Even though I already suspected how this book would end, the author gave me many reasons to consider other options and suspect otherwise, later throwing me down and confirming my first suspicions. "Trapped" has evoked in me a range of different emotions: from anger to grief to joy, this book has it all. An amazing story told in an even more amazing way. Seriously, I haven't read something so good in a long time!

3.3 - Divergent

After reading so many dystopian novels that one would think I'd die of boredom if I ever read another, I decided to give this exciting genre another chance and hope that it will manage to surprise me again as it has done so many times before.

To prevent conflict and create a stable and peaceful society, the future government decides to split all population into five factions. Each faction focuses on and values certain positive aspects of a human personality: Abnegation values selflessness, Erudite intelligence, Candor honesty, Amity peace and Dauntless bravery. Following the motto: "Faction before blood", at the age of 16, each individual gets to choose the faction that he or she will belong to for the rest of their lives. Choices are made, families are separated, and children are raised by the ideologies and principles of their chosen faction.
The story is told from the viewpoint of sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior. Being a member of Abnegation, Beatrice often struggles with completely surrendering herself to others. At the day of the test designed to help her choose the appropriate faction, Beatrice is informed that the test didn't work on her. She is rendered "Divergent"- exhibiting traits of multiple factions. Unprepared and confused, Beatrice is forced to make the decision between staying in Abnegation, or leaving her family in pursuit of a completely different lifestyle. All she knows is that Divergence is dangerous, for her and for everyone else. Then, on the day of the Choosing Ceremony, Beatrice decides to join the Dauntless. She is introduced to the dauntless headquarters and the tough, dangerous, exciting daily life of the dauntless members. Joining other "transfers"- people that have decided to leave the faction they where they were raised in favour of another, she is lead through the difficult life-threatening initiation process, competing against her fellow transfers as well as dauntless-born initiates in hope of becoming a dauntless member. Throughout this dangerous journey into the great unknown, Beatrice slowly starts to uncover the secrets behind arising conflicts between and within factions while having to cope with the struggles of the daily life of a dauntless initiate and with the threatening reality of being labelled "Divergent", discovering new powers and benefits that arise from this fact, and even experiencing some unexpected romance.

veronicarothbooks.blogspot.com

I wish so much to say that this book has surprised me, but I'm afraid that too many futuristic dystopian novels have really gotten on my brain and the excitement from reading an awesome, original, action-packed story has long since gone. However similar to books like "Hunger Games" "Divergent" may be, I must say that I consider this book quite overrated. The writing style didn't surprise me at all: it was bland, simplistic and uninteresting: I'm not saying that this is positively bad, in this case, actually, the author managed to create a quite convincing voice of a shy and frightened sixteen-year-old girl. The fact that the writing style was so unoriginal required an exciting plot to keep the reader interested, which was also, even if only partially (more of the action, less of the originality), provided. Nevertheless, I feel as if this book was just a different version of something I've read so many times before: frightened character in life-threatening situations, fighting to stay alive, slowly finding out the world is corrupted and discovering the love of their life on the way. I just can't seem to find anything that would make "Divergent" unique. Sure, the book is a good example of its genre (ignoring the rushed ending and certain unexplored characters and issues....), but if you have read dystopian novels before ("Hunger Games" in particular) and are on the hunt for something new and exciting, its really unnecessary to bother with reading this book. If you haven't and are totally fine with reading something too similar to what has already been written, "Divergent" surely won't disappoint you.

25.1 - And We Fell

I saw,

I dreamt,

I drew,

I felt.

I learnt,

I knew,

I tried…

…and I fell.

The past, the present, the future.

I fell, and I fell deep,

with me,

The memories,

All the things I couldn’t keep.

They fell, they fell with me,

Misused,

Dragged deep below,

With their eyes closed, I couldn’t see.

We fell, we fell alone,

Ignored,

By the “other” world,

Drowning in all we weren’t shown.

The world shouted, but I couldn’t hear.

The shield,

Of arrogance is hard to pierce

Soon everything will disappear.

The voices.

 Whispering,

Scolding,

Lecturing,

Nagging.

They always knew,

But were ignored.

Chattering,

Gossiping,

Spattering,

Bragging.

Their very intentions,

Were to prevent the fall.

But we fell,

We fell below,

We fell fast,

And we fell slow.

We fell small,

Though we fell big,

We fell with snippets,

Of memories unlived.

We didn’t know,

But we still did fall,

Confused, anticipating,

When we’d finally hit the floor.

Seeing all was lost,

Knowing not much was left.

Minutes, Seconds,

Before they start singing in my head.

Sneering at the chances I had but had denied,

They laugh:

It’s over, you’re finished, you’ve died.

We saw,

We dreamt,

We drew,

We felt.

We learnt,

We knew

I tried…

…And we fell.