Literary Pick (****)
Rarity of the Century
-Fawzy Zablah
Last night I had to tear myself away from this book because I had to wake up early for work, I promised myself I had to absolutely stop reading it by 11:00 pm, so at 11:01 I took my Ambien, but kept reading until I started feeling funny. I woke up half an hour early just so I could finish the book, and I re-read the last two pages of the chapter where I left off, just in case.
Honestly, this story captured me from the very first sentence to the last page, and left me feeling like I wished there were at least 3 full pages more. This is the second time I find myself in a conundrum in how to word my review of Zablah's books without spoiling it for the next reader, because it's almost like he places little Easter eggs in his story for you to find, and I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but I have to say that my favorite part of the whole story, and I thought this was absolutely brilliant, was that it was told from each characters own perspective, but what was even more unique was that it was almost hilarious to witness what each of them really thought of certain situations that they had experienced together, how almost clueless Chucho was, and how aware on the other hand Shiraz was, when at the beginning of the story one thought the total opposite. I thought that part was especially crafted so perfectly.
You know, when I first read the word "alien" in the description of the book, I thought, oh no, I'm not a sci-fi person at all. I shun all sci-fi, and will continue to do so, but this wasn't one of those kind of "sci-fi" stories, it wasn't about aliens, or any of that shit, it was about the relationship of the people in the story, not so much about the events, actually, but about the realism of their relationships.
What I loved even more was Benito's whole back-story, just when you thought it couldn't get better, you start reading a whole new dimension to the story, adding just a dab of historical fiction to the mix. The story continued to culminate into such a cohesive apocalyptic tale. I would've never imagined such a small book would've been filled with so much thought-provoking circumstances.
I started my book challenge in January, and so far it's the best book I've read all year, and I'm pretty much a hard-grader when it comes to rating books. I don't easily give books 4-5 stars. This really is a must-read. It's one of those subtle thrillers that keeps you thinking long after you've finished it.
-Fawzy Zablah
Last night I had to tear myself away from this book because I had to wake up early for work, I promised myself I had to absolutely stop reading it by 11:00 pm, so at 11:01 I took my Ambien, but kept reading until I started feeling funny. I woke up half an hour early just so I could finish the book, and I re-read the last two pages of the chapter where I left off, just in case.
Honestly, this story captured me from the very first sentence to the last page, and left me feeling like I wished there were at least 3 full pages more. This is the second time I find myself in a conundrum in how to word my review of Zablah's books without spoiling it for the next reader, because it's almost like he places little Easter eggs in his story for you to find, and I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but I have to say that my favorite part of the whole story, and I thought this was absolutely brilliant, was that it was told from each characters own perspective, but what was even more unique was that it was almost hilarious to witness what each of them really thought of certain situations that they had experienced together, how almost clueless Chucho was, and how aware on the other hand Shiraz was, when at the beginning of the story one thought the total opposite. I thought that part was especially crafted so perfectly.
You know, when I first read the word "alien" in the description of the book, I thought, oh no, I'm not a sci-fi person at all. I shun all sci-fi, and will continue to do so, but this wasn't one of those kind of "sci-fi" stories, it wasn't about aliens, or any of that shit, it was about the relationship of the people in the story, not so much about the events, actually, but about the realism of their relationships.
What I loved even more was Benito's whole back-story, just when you thought it couldn't get better, you start reading a whole new dimension to the story, adding just a dab of historical fiction to the mix. The story continued to culminate into such a cohesive apocalyptic tale. I would've never imagined such a small book would've been filled with so much thought-provoking circumstances.
I started my book challenge in January, and so far it's the best book I've read all year, and I'm pretty much a hard-grader when it comes to rating books. I don't easily give books 4-5 stars. This really is a must-read. It's one of those subtle thrillers that keeps you thinking long after you've finished it.
posted by Rachel at
10:13 PM
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