Book Review: Swimming at Night (or also known as The Sea Sisters) by Lucy Clarke

Author: Lucy Clarke

Published: October 9th, 2012

Publisher: Touchstone

Pages: 384

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis:

Katie’s world is shattered by the news that her headstrong and bohemian younger sister, Mia, has been found dead at the bottom of a cliff in Bali. The authorities say that Mia jumped—that her death was a suicide.

Although they’d hardly spoken to each other since Mia suddenly left on an around-the-world trip six months earlier, Katie refuses to accept that her sister would have taken her own life. Distraught that they never made peace, Katie leaves her orderly, sheltered life in London behind and embarks on a journey to find out the truth. With only the entries of Mia’s travel journal as her guide, Katie retraces the last few months of her sister’s life, and—page by page, country by country—begins to uncover the mystery surrounding her death. . . .

Weaving together the exotic settings and suspenseful twists of Alex Garland’s The Beach with a powerful tale of familial love in the spirit of Rosamund Lupton’s Sister, Swimming at Night is a fast-paced, accomplished, and gripping debut novel of secrets, loss, and forgiveness.

Deskynowsky's Review:

I really enjoyed this book.. I think I was in the right mood to read this kind of book.. a good choice for an Adult Contemporary Summer Read..

I bought this book without knowing what it was all about, the cover of the book drew me in and when I read the synopsis at the back, this book promised an adventure of traveling to some summery places in the world.. (well, the mentioned of Bali won me over tho.. haha).

Basically this book was about two sisters, Katie and Mia Greene. And one day, Katie received a phone call at night then a visit from some officials that informed her about her sister, Mia who was found dead in Bali. Long story short, Katie and Mia were not in the best relationship situation and for the last six months (when Mia started her traveling journey) were kinda no-significant-communication and cold. Then after the death of Mia, Katie got Mia's travel journal, marking and answering some important events in these sisters life that lead to Katie who then decided one day to follow her sister's journey, traveling around the world to find some answers following Mia's death which by officials announced as an act of suicide.

I really liked these books mainly because of the characters, the twists, the drama, and the plot. The characters were really intriguing and how then the story shaped the addictive drama plot that untangling the mystery surrounding Mia's death layer by layer. Some of the twists were pretty unpredictable too. At the end, I really enjoyed the traveling adventure story in the book. It was kinda Eat, Pray, Love but with mystery and drama and also someone died in this book.

At first I thought this book was going to be a crime mystery kind of book, but it was not.. It was more mystery, drama, contemporary read and it was perfect to read at the pool-side or at the beach.. :)

This book has other name too, I think Swimming at Night is the title for the American Market. The book's original name is The Sea Sisters, I think this one is for the UK market. And I really enjoyed Lucy Clarke's writing style, recently she has new book published called A Single Breathe, it sounds amazingly intriguing, I might check that out soon ;)

What's New #8: Kinokuniya's temptation!

It was like last week since I posted a book haul post.. Well this time, it's a different story.. I've been avoiding to come to this bookstore, but there was just this pull that calling me to go there and I have been so stressed-out lately at the office, therefore I think I need to reward myself a bit.

So I went to Kinokuniya Bookstore at Grand Indonesia after the office.. I basically got myself (or bought myself) SIX books! hahaha..

Here they are!

Fragments and Unravel Me are sequels to Partials and Shatter Me which I have not yet reading xp well, I just can't let them hanging there, and I will read them eventually, so I decided to get them anw..

Pushing The Limits, I only hear good things about this book, it sounds like a good romantic story with a twist. I had put this book down two times at Kino, I was not so sure I want to read it, but then I was just "what the heck" and decided to buy it.. Because I am just too curious about it, what is the buzz about this book.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, Everybody Sees The Ants by A.S. King, and Life After Life by Kate Atkinson are probably books that I am really most excited about.. XD I've been wanting to get them for so long, and I saw them at Kino then I was like "put them in the basket!!!", so happy..

Okay, so that'd be all for today, I will probably back with reviews after this.. I am expecting The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey to be posted within this week.. and The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson also The Ocean at The End of The Lane by Neil Gaiman..

Alright then, see ya!

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

Year Published: 2012
Publisher: Little Brown
Pages: 503
Rating: 

A BIG NOVEL ABOUT A SMALL TOWN ...

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils ... Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

If I can describe this book in two words, it will be DRAMATIC & UNPREDICTABLE.

This book is amazing! now that I have read this book, I am confused on why it has such a low-rating (based on GoodReads). Well I think it depends on the reader's preference. If you expect smth similar to Harry Potter, you better stay away from this book. It's far far away from it, not even half millimetre close.

If you want to read this, you need to be open-minded and ready to be blown away.

There are three things that I love the most about this book; The Characters, The Endless Drama (Story-Line) and The Feeling of you-have-no-idea-what-is-going-to-happen (Unpredictable).

The characters (for me) were the selling point of this book. They were so rich! It felt like they were real! Rowling's writing style is so vivid and realistic, so it allowed me to feel the emotions of those characters. It was crazy!

The Endless Dramas (story-line), I was not kidding when I said it was dramatic. It brought the meaning of dramatic to a whole new level. The death of Barry Fairbrother triggered multiple dramas in the small town of Pagford. These multiple dramas were so complex, dramatic and different but somehow they were all connected in a strange way but made-sense! And the writing was flowing easily, it felt like I was watching a drama TV series that dragged me for seasons of heartache (in a very good and realistic way).

and it was so UNPREDICTABLE! This is one of among very few books that until the end I could not see or guess or predict what will happen. It was surprising until the end.

phew.. I can tell you that it was such an emotional roller coaster.. I love it and this is definitely one of my faves. I voted this as the best contemporary fiction in 2012. <3

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Year Published: 2011

Publisher: Random House

Pages: 368

Rating: 

"In the small village of Edgecombe St. Mary in the English countrside lives Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the unlikely hero of Helen Simonson's wondrous debut. Wry, courtly, opinionated, and completely endearing, the Major leads a quiet life valuing the proper things that Englishmen have lived by for generations: honor, duty, decorum, and a properly brewed cup of tea. But, then his brother's death sparks an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village. Drawn together by their shared love of literature and the loss of their spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship blossoming into something more. But, village society insists on embracing him as the quintessential local and regarding her as the permanent foreigner. Can their relationship survive the risks one takes when pursuing happiness in the face of culture and tradition?"

This is probably not a usual kind of book I often read. But I feel like I want to be more unpredicted in terms of books I read. This definitely falls to Real-Life Adult Modern Contemporary Fiction. Based on the synopsis above, this is definitely not a romance story between a hot guy with a naive high school girl or in other words teen-love story or hot-steamy-adult story. This is a story about old people (but they are just amazing fictional old people).

But how I love everything in this book. It's just so charming and heart-warming. A story about a widow and a widower from two different cultural backgrounds in a modern-world setting. I love how it feels so real, the story, the characters, the dramas, the intrigues, and (this is what I love the most) the dry humor. It made me laughed, conflicted, cried, smiled, surprised, but all in all it was all very good feelings. It really warms my heart. All things that these characters have to endure and fight for love. This is a very contemporary novel in a very classy style. The writings are so classic and pretty, I feel like when I read it, it felt like I eat chocolate.

There are so many beautiful words and sentences that can really captivate (me) the reader. I love how mature and lovable these characters, especially Major Pettigrew and Mrs. Ali (two of the most charming characters). There are also other amazing characters that I really like in the book thou they are not shared most of the spotlight in the story, but still play a very integral part in it. Other not so charming characters in the book are also so well developed and written.

This book is really worth to read. A beautiful piece of work, really..