The Wrath and The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh Review

Title: The Wrath and The Dawn

Author : Renee Ahdieh

My rating:  4.3/5

This book was inspired by One Thousands and One Night’s tale or Arabian Night where once upon a time there was a king who was betrayed by his wife because he found that she was cheating on him. So he punished her by killing her at dawn then he swore to himself that he will marry virgins only for every dawn he will kill them, But then one girl, just the night before she was supposed to die she told some stories to the king and when the stories is not finished yet it is already dawn and the king still wants her to continue the stories and then it begins until 1,001 nights.

Synopsis:

” A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights
Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi’s wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend. She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all “

I love this book, the story, the characters and everything. What I love from this book is it’s quite different than other fantasy books I have read before. It involves with the Arabian kingdom and some Arabic terms so it’s really new to me. It was a vengeance the reason Shahrzad volunteered as the next bride of the King. It was because of her best friend since childhood who died because of the Caliph of Khorasan. But what she didn’t realized is that the reason why the king has to kill every new bride for every dawn. It’s all in the book the reason why Khalid has to do that but he can’t kill Shazi because she was different. It’s like he just found his emotional tether.Shazi is smart, fearless and pretty good at archery. She eventually falling in love with the king she was supposed to kill and trust me all the moments when they were together are so oh, very romantic if I must say. I think it’s because they needed each other and they can’t just be apart. Anyway, I just love this book so much. Every words from this story are just beautiful. I love how the author choosing her words on this book. So as always, I will put my favorite quotes and some extra a photo edits I found from Tumblr. I really recommend this book if you guys like a fantasy book. A different kind of fantasy book.

“I know my words only carry a certain weight with the worlds, but I do know enough to realize you cannot control the actions of others. You can only control what you do with yourself afterward.”

“Some things exist in our lives for but a brief moment. And we must let them go on to light another sky.”

“In my life, the one thing I have learned above all is that no individual can reach the height of their potential without the love of others. We are not meant to be alone, Shahrzad. The more a person pushes others away, the clearer it becomes he is in need of love the most.

 Khalid’s letter to Shazi. This is so sweet and sad. Credits: tumblr

 Shazi’s aesthetics.

Khalid’s and Shazi’s aesthetics.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (late post)

So I just watched star wars like 30 minutes ago, in theater obviously. It was so amazing, it was really epic i mean the movie and there are so many things left unanswered. Okay so as you know from the spoilers (gee, spoiler is out literally the day before i watched it i hate it actually) the crawl text begin with Luke has vanished. So luke has vanished to somewhere for years, he left because years ago when he trained new generation of Jedi, Ben Solo which is Leia and Han’s son killed everyone aka killed all the padawan and he turned to the dark side. He’s the leader of Knights of Ren which their master is Supreme Leader Snoke (I believe he’s darth plagueis yes? We still don’t know about it). So yeah of course Luke’s went away, he thinks it’s his fault that Ben turned to the dark side. Anyway, so new character Finn, Rey and Poe Dameron.

 

The first scene is actually start with Poe Dameron and with an old guy (I don’t know who he is) but he has a puzzle map that will lead to location of Luke Skywalker but then the First Order army or trooper came with Kylo Ren to get the map also so Poe give it to BB-8 because it will be safe. Poe got captured and he was tortured by Kylo (he’s strong with force, of course he is. He is anakin’s grandson.) and he spilled it out about the map so it was all about finding BB-8 because it has a key or a map to lead where is Luke. Then Rey who lives in Jakku she lives day by day to trade her stolen things then sell it just to get a food it’s so sad but she has to stay there in Jakku because she’s waiting day by day just for her parents to came back and we still don’t know Rey parents are. Short stories, Rey met BB8 then she help him and finn helps poe to escape from kylo then Rey met Finn then they stole a millenium falcon. OH YEAH MILLENIUM FALCON IS BACK. and they met Han Solo and Chewie and they go to Maz Kanata’s place for help and guess what Rey has found Luke’s old lightsaber which is belong to Anakin before and when she touched it, she got a vision. Yup so it is confirmed that Rey is a force-sensitive. It’s her vision about Kylo on killing all luke’s padawan if I am not mistaken and she also saw the battle of him and her and a flashback where her parents left her and when Maz found out, she tells her that “The lightsaber is calling for you, it’s luke’s lightsaber, take it it belongs to you now”. So rey was shocked about that she basically just covered that she has a force she has that power so the story goes and Rey is captured by Kylo because Rey has seen the map that BB8 shows to Han, Chewie, Finn and her. Rey then is tortured by Kylo Ren and geez they both playing their powers, when Kylo tried to force her to tell the map she used his force to resist everything and SHE DID IT. She said like this “You’re afraid that you will never be as strong as Darth Vader”. OMG. She definitely strong with the force.

Short stories, battle on the Starkiller base (it is like Death Star 2.0 but the size is A PLANET while death star only like a moon), the resistance are trying to shot down the starkiller base and this is where the battle begins. Kylo Ren finally meet his dad, Han Solo. Han was trying to take him back to bring him home. Kylo said something he is in pain and he wants to stop this suffering and he said “Can you help me?” “Of course son” and then BOOM kylo just killed han solo aka his DAD. This was like the “what the fkk?” moment to me. I know it from the spoiler han died but I can’t watch it, I almost cried, it’s too sad. Kylo Ren has no heart he is a demon totally. Back to the stories, so final battle is where Finn, Rey vs Kylo Ren. Finn with Luke’s lightsaber and when Kylo saw that he was “It is mine, give it to me back” so lightsaber battle started ugh love it. But then Finn got scar in his back and everything and when Kylo Ren tried to take lightsaber back he can’t do it because the light saber is now belong to Rey and it is now the battle of Rey and Kylo Ren. Woah it was nice like the lightsaber battle was not that heavy like in prequels, it’s like in originals i guess? And guess what, while Rey just found out that she has a power or the force she literally use it to take Kylo Ren down. SHE USE THE FORCE AND KYLO REN IS BASICALLY DEFEATED BY HER. It is then proved that Rey is very very stong with the force. So yeah starkiller base is now vanished because it was shot down by the resistance so it is very similar to A New Hope then finally R2-D2 is awake and now completing the map to know where Luke is and then in then Rey is the one who go to finds Luke and yeah she met him FINALLY. Luke Skywalker is here, he is back only for ONE scene in the end without a dialogue AT ALL. It’s my another “wtf” moment again but when they finally shows Luke’s face, he is I believe still a jedi, with a long hair model like Anakin in Revenge of The Sith and a light color robe. His face is…..looks so devastated, looks so tired and sad at the same time and that is where I get to the point I assume that Luke’s feeling so sad because Kylo which is his nephew who was trained by him then suddenly turned to the dark side. Anyway that’s the plot and it will be all revealed by tomorrow I believe.

Overall I love it so much it gives you that old feeling about originals but a new feeling too at the same time. I just can’t wait for episode VIII, and I know that it will be a big battle of Rey and Kylo (Kylo is now completing his training with Snoke) and of course we will see more of Luke in next episode but have to wait two years from now. Suffering first.Opinion and Questions:

There are so many questions left unanswered like MANY. Here are some questions like in my mind right now:

1. Who is Rey’s parents? Is it Luke? Is it?

2. WHO IS SUPREME LEADER SNOKE I MEAN HIS MOTIVE AND WHERE HE CAME FROM, IS HE DARTH PLAGEUIS

3. What is Luke doing all this years when he’s gone alone?

4. How can Rey has that power so fast and she can even beat Kylo who is already trained by Snoke? I believe Rey was amongst in the youngling and her memories got wiped out when she was a child to hide it from knights of ren. But who knows right?Okay so here is a review from Chris Stuckmann which I can relate 99% to him, I have the EXACT kind of feeling after I watched the movie just like him, It is a cliffhanger but it gives you to wanting MORE. I promise I will update this more about characters after I watch the movie again second time on saturday okay!

Wrap up and new bookshelf!

I know that it’s not really the end of August but I haven’t write anything in here and haven’t write a review or anything related about my July wrap up because all this summer break what I do was just reading and still reading until now, I have read over 20 books in the past two months which is a good achievement for myself as I haven’t read this fast last year. I put up my reading challenge on goodreads from /20 to /40 and I hope I can reach forty by the end of the year or maybe fifty! That’s even better. Now I have a proper, new and pretty bookshelves (I will put a picture in here post I promise?) I really love my new bedroom because when I enter all you can smell is a smell of books. No kidding, I love that so much.

So on this post I will mostly talk about Colleen Hoover’s books as I read most of her books except Never never. And I came to conclusion that Colleen is so good at writing romance, like how her words can make my heart breaking too.I also read some fantasies too. So here we go:1. Colleen Hoover’s Books.

Confess –  [My rating: 4/5]

AH! Confess was actually my first Colleen’s book I have ever read. The story was good and what I heard from everyone who loves Colleen’s writing style and yes I love the way she write her story but on this book I didn’t really feel that heart-wrenching on my chest, but what I love from this story is that all the confesses were real as in from real people and I think that’s one of reasons why the stories in this book felt so real.

Ugly Love – [4.5/5]

In this book I did feel that heartache or like I were the main character on this book and it has a bit taste of fifty shades of grey but trust me it’s really different stories. I think this is much better than fifty shades and guess what, Ugly Love is coming soon on cinema next year! Nick Bateman will play as Miles and he is so unbelievable I mean he’s the perfect Miles like wow.

Maybe Someday –  [10/5 yes?]

Dang if there is 10/5 I would rate all of her book ten out of five because Colleen’s wrote her stories so perfectly. This is my favorite book of Colleen’s out of the others. This book is beautifully written, it has a soundtrack to accompanying this book. An official soundtrack. Can you believe that? The story is involving a girl, Sydney who just got cheated on by her boyfriend (and he cheated with her roommate, oh well). Her morning/evening routine was listening to the sound of someone who live across her apartment plays a guitar and apparently he is deaf and a song writer. What I really love from this book is not just the soundtrack, like the process when they wrote a song together, through the ups and downs and how they being honest to each other regarding their feeling to each other and somehow they still make it. It’s like riding a roller coaster, like there is some part that really got me and all I can say that this book is really beautiful and so far is one of my favorite books, ever. Here is I put a video down here from the book soundtrack. It’s really perfect, if you guys haven’t read it, I think you really should start read it now. You won’t be disappointed trust me.

Hopeless [4/5]

Oh well, this book has that perfect sweet lovely boyfriend and his name is Dean Holder. It’s another heart wrenching stories and I also recommended this to you guys. I haven’t read the second book (it’s still on the way somehow or I guess)

Slammed series [4.5/5]

Another perfect story by Colleen. I read this series so fast because all I want to know is what happen next to these characters. At first the story was okay like they met because they are neighbor and the next thing happened is that they’re teacher and students. That’s where Colleen’s starts playing with my or our heart. And again it’s like roller coaster reading this ups and downs and ugh! If I can say many words about this book I would but these series is so good. If you like romance new adult novel then read this. P.s. this book involves a poetry so if you like poetry then read this series.

2. Daughter of Smoke & Bone series by Laini Taylor – [4.5/5]

This fantasy series is one of my favorite actually. I haven’t really read fantasy last year, only The Mortal Instruments series and what I love when I read fantasy genre is that I can actually dive into another world, from angels-demons world to a colossal world and it’s just amazing you know? It’s like there are so many worlds you can go when you read a book especially a fantasy book. I have Percy Jackson set, Game of Thrones set (and I’m a fan of the tv series!) and also The Lord Of The Rings series but I haven’t read it yet but I will as soon as possible. I really want to read GoT but those series, each book is so thick but I’ve managed to finish Daughter of Smoke and Bone series which has over 400pgs each book and get thicker in the last book so I think I can do it again. Yes.

DoSaB or Daughter of Smoke and Bone series is about an angels and demons world but the demons in this book was described or called “Chimera” (read: kaimera) and at first time I have no idea what Chimera is but thanks to wikipedia,

The Chimera (/kɨˈmɪərə/ or /kaɪˈmɪərə/, also Chimaera (Chimæra); Greek: Χίμαιρα, Chímaira) was, according to Greek mythology, a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of more than one animal. Usually depicted as alion, with the head of a goat arising from its back, and a tail that might end with a snake‘s head,^[1] the Chimera was one of the offspring ofTyphon and Echidna and a sibling of such monsters as Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra.

for visual explanation it looks like this:

[from deviantart.com by wonkiki]

The synopsis: “Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky. 

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war. 

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”, she speaks many languages – not all of them human – and her bright blue hairactually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out. 

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?” 

I think for this series the main focus is not just about that love or betrayal to their kinds (angels and chimera) stories but it’s also focused on the friendship, family and the adventure. It was really good journey reading this book and thanks to Laini Taylor for introducing me to these worlds. It’s just makes me want to read fantasy more and more like I can’t get enough of it and currently my next read is The Heir and An Ember In The Ashes! Yay.

3. I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios [4.5/5]

Oh what can I say for this book. Just read it, you will love it trust me. Or if you are a fan of Colleen’s Hoover book, read this book. I really recommend this book. Another heart-wrenching stories but it’s really good.

So I think that’s all? Actually I also have read Mara Dyer stories also and I give those series 3.5/5 it was good but i don’t know sometimes I find the love interest is kind of annoying (maybe a little). I also have finished The Grisha series. I will make one post talking about this series. Soon coming up. See you on next post. Last but not least, I promise a picture of my new bookshelves so here it is and you guys can also check my bookstagram: @darklingreads. Thank you, lots of love.x

 

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami review

So I just finished reading and watching this book and the only thing I complained to myself is that I didn’t understand the ending or the ending was not what I expect it would be. Overall, I like the book and this is my Murakami’s first book ever and I think he left me with a good impression so it’s good enough for me to want to read his another masterpiece. Mostly I think this book about growing up, living in the 20s and how to deal with death-suicide.

Toru Watanabe is the main character in this story. He moved to Tokyo from Kobe because his bestfriend (Kizuki) just killed himself just right after Toru was playing with him. The thing is that Toru didn’t understand is why Kizuki killed himself because he didn’t show anything to him his weakness or even his problems and just one day he decided to kill himself. Toru was pretty devastated like he said in the book, it feels like he’s just lost one of his souls taken away. It’s not that Toru that have an impact after Kizuki’s death but also Kizuki’s girlfriend-bestfriend since childhood and Naoko is also Toru’s first love. I think Naoko was really depressed since Kizuki’s death I mean, who can deal with that kind of situation? But Naoko has Toru on her side to help her and he loves her to death I guess.

Then the story is actually involved on Toru’s life like how he didn’t have any friend because mostly he enjoyed solitude and then one day he became friend with Nagasawa (a rich kid) just because he saw Toru reads The Great Gatsby. Nagasawa has some charisma like all girls will like him straightaway when he starts to talk. So Nagasawa also teachs Toru how to get a girl etc like at that and let me tell you this book has a lot of mature contents as in a lot. Anyway, they became good friend and one thing that I don’t like from the movie is that they didn’t show that Nagasawa book in the movie. I mean sure the person who play Nagasawa has some that charisma but the lines or conversation between Nagasawa is not enough.Toru meets Midori, a very quirky girl, short hair and has a boyfriend. She actually on the same class with him in drama class. I actually like this Midori character because she’s weird, innocent nad yet she likes to tell the truth or is like she likes to say what’s on her head. Toru spends his sunday almost with her and it came to the moment when he has to choose either Naoko or Midori.

 

 

Naoko, Toru and Midori in Norwegian Wood movie (2011)

One thing that I appreciate this book more than the movie adaptation (as always book always way better than the movie) is that the movie didn’t really give each characters enough lines to speak or maybe it’s just me that I don’t really understand how a japanese movie what it is like. Anyway, I like every casts who plays Toru, Naoko (they have perfect cast on this two person) but for Midori, Nagasawa and Reiko, I don’t think they have that enough lines to speak that makes those characters are a bit different than in book. I thought Midori is going to be really weird and quirky girl, I mean Kiko Mizuhara as Midori is a perfect option but I don’t it’s enough to say that the movie Midori is equal to book Midori. Anyway, I like this book, it’s like one of those books that will give you lessons of life and down here I will put my favorite quotes from this book.

” What did I want? And what did others want from me? But I could never find the answers. “

” I don’t know, sometimes I think I’ve got this hard kernel in my heart and nothing much can get inside. “

” It’s stupid being 20, I’m just not ready. It feels weird. Like somebody’s pushing me from behind.”

“It’s because I hated the place so much, I wasn’t going to let it beat me. If I’d let it get to me once I’d be finished.”

“You’re normal, I’ve got tons of things I don’t understand about myself. We’re both normal: Ordinary.”

“It’s ok letting out of feelings. The scary thing is not being able to do that. When your feelings build up and harden and die inside, then you’re in big trouble.“

 “I didn’t have much to say to anybody but kept to myself and my books. With my eyes closed. I would touch a familiar book and draw it’s fragrance deep inside me. This was enough to make me happy.”

Laneway Festival, Singapore 2016 (Pt.2 with CHVRCHES, THE 1975 & More)

Just exactly one day before the festival, @lanewayfestsg tweeted to me that I won the meet and greet with CHVRCHES. The funny thing was that I found out about it when I was in airport just waiting for boarding so I was literally freaking out and probably people saw me and thought ‘what is wrong this gurl’ hahaha. I’m so happy like really happy I didn’t expect that I would win because I know  there are so many entries about people who also wants to meet and greet with CHVRCHES. I put my entry like two weeks before the d-day. They sent to my email that the MnG will be at 7pm and I can bring one friend to the MnG so I decided to asked one of my friends (who I met up via twitter). The good thing about Laneway fest is that they have MnG session which was really good. Three of us (there are 5 of us) were waiting in line for THE 1975 MnG but just minutes before they supposed to have the session sadly they cancelled and there were already fans waiting in line like in a long line just for this meet n greet including my friends and I. One of the good thing and a bad thing about winning MnG with CHVRCHES was that the time for MnG clashed with THE 1975 performs and I was so sad but excited at the same time because I will miss few songs when THE 1975 performed but I will get to see CHVRCHES in person, how amazing is that. I will talk about this more for each band I watched at Laneway and I will put my videos of CHVRCHES, THE 1975 and Beach House (sorry if it’s a bit shaky).

East India Youth

He was actually really good but I couldn’t stay long because hell thanks to the hot weather I was burning and I just couldn’t stand the heat while standing so I can’t enjoy the music at all, then we decided to just sitting on the grass, chilling and strolling around the venue, buy some merchandise and I bought CHVRCHES cds for my friends because they want to get the signed cd so I bought for them.

 

THE 1975

They started exactly at 7.05pm and I get to see them performed two songs: Love Me and Heart Out before I have to go to the MnG stall. They were amazing super super amazing. I love their stage with that classic square light which will turn either to pink, green, blue or pink. The first song was Love Me so the stage was lit with pink color which was really cool. After I finished meet and greet with CHVRCHES, I was running so fast as possible to get to the stage and they were playing Robbers which is my favorite song ever from THE 1975. I only recorded the last part of Robbers on my phone but it’s ok i guess at least I can finally hear my favorite song live. So I get to see the last three songs which are Girls, Chocolate and Sex! Yippie. I’m happy at least finally I watched them live and hopefully I will get to see them real soon.

 The stage was lit in pink!

 LOVE ME!

 Why don’t you take my heart out?

 Really digging this new The 1975 pink (but kinda miss the 1975 black and white too)

Beach House

Beach house performed around at 8pm on Garden Stage. To be honest, I only know two songs from beach house which are Take Care and Myth and I get to see Myth live and they were really good! Just as same as the song.

Grimes

I actually only know one song from Grimes but what I didn’t expect when saw her live was that her amazing live show! It was so powerful, energetic and full of dancing! I really enjoyed throughout her performance. One of the main highlight for Laneway Singapore is where Grimes didn’t sing at all and invite Chinese rapper and screamed, it was really cool and like woah I mean even Grimes joined to scream with the rapper haha. Such an unique show.

CHVRCHES (Meet&Greet + Show)

 As you know that CHVRCHES meet and greet was clash with THE 1975 show and I only get the first two songs and the last 4 songs to watch so the other songs I only get to hear it backstage. When I went to the MnG tent I saw a long line for people who also wants to meet CHVRCHES but luckily the winner just can cut the line so it’s more like a vip access. But one thing I noticed when I arrived at the tent was a note saying “CHVRCHES meet and greet cancelled” and I was thinking whether this is the same thing that happened when I was lining up to meet THE 1975 and they cancelled it. The staff said the artist was tired to do a meet and greet, probably because the long lines so only the winner gets to see the artist and guess what? WE WENT TO THE BACKSTAGE! 

This is actually my first experience coming to the backstage in a huge festival like this and I didn’t expect this at all so this is like my lucky day, big opportunity for me and I get to see what artists normally do before their performs. I saw GRIMES and say hi to her (can’t take a pic with her because the staffs only allowed us to take pics with the artist we chose) and I saw the singer of Beach House too! It was really cool to see how the backstage is really like. 

The manager of CHVRCHES asked which one of us who come alone all the way from Jakarta just to see them and I said ‘that would be me’ and she said ‘you really come alone?” ‘yeah i did come alone from jakarta’ haha. 

After a few mins (and I was jamming and singing while THE 1975 performs in the background) finally the band came to us, and I speak to Lauren, Iain, and Martin. I asked them sign a few things like cds and tshirt i just bought at merchandise store. Lauren Mayberry is really cute and she is just the same height as me, I told her that I love the new album and my favorite is Bury It and she said ‘Aw that’s nice’ and then we only have maximum 10 mins so we take pictures and selfies and then we’re done. It was really nice to meet them in person and they were all really nice! I hope to get to see them again soon, hopefully they will come to Indonesia or Malaysia again. Fingerscrossed!

 

With CHVRCHES! I’m beyond happy. Look at that big smile on me.

Lauren signing my t-shirt yay!

After GRIMES finished, I was in second row and trying to get the front row for CHVRCHES and I got the front row and I am so happy. I like to be in the front row during concert because you get to see your favorite artist closer than ever and the best thing is you don’t feel squeezed because maybe someone in the back pushed you and you get free air than people in the back (if you know what I mean). They started with Never Ending Circles and I was enjoying, dancing, singing along throughout their show and it was really really fun. Lauren is always great and she has incredible voice, great presence and CHVRCHES is just a fantastic group. Their live version is the same as in the digital song. My favorite part from their show are: Never Ending Circles, Leave A Trace, Bury it, Recover. 

 

 They were freaking amaaaaaaazing! Hope to see them again real soon.

CHVRCHES set list via laneway instagram

So I think that’s all, I only saw Flume for 20 mins because I have to leave asap due to the last train mrt was around 11.50pm and his show started at 11pm. It was really an amazing festival and this is my new experience as I come alone and met my internet friends for real. I really hope we can see each other again in another festival or another concert! Thank you for Laneway festival for made the meet n greet possible and I still can’t believe that I get to the backstaage and met CHVRCHES in person. Thank you!