Title: By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead
Author: Julie Anne Peters
Genre: Young Adult / Juvenile Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5
Warning: Spoiler alert

Review:

The title of the book speaks for itself: it is a story of a suicide.

This is a story about fifteen-year-old Daelyn Rice, a girl tormented from bullying virtually all the years of her life. Her failed suicide attempt rendered her mute and unable to eat solid food, and now, she is on 24-hour suicide watch. 

Despite the close guidance of her parents, she is determined to die successfully this time. She stumbled upon a suicide forum called through-the-light.com, which gives her open and honest guides on her options to go, a countdown of her "date of determination," and anonymity in posting in forums. In through-the-light, Daelyn finds solace in purging her painful past—of bullying and abuse that started at a very tender age.

Daelyn has 23 days to live—23 days to prepare for her suicide. As the days count down to her death, she meets a geeky and socially inept boy named Santana who, in spite of Daelyn's silence and social isolation, persists in befriending her. Santana and Daelyn eventually form a bond, and Santana reveals to Daelyn a secret that leads her to question her decision to take her own life.

By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead is a book that I recommend to everyone to raise awareness on mental health—whether you're struggling with suicidal thoughts or otherwise. The book covers a broad range of very sensitive and taboo topics, openly giving the grisly and provoking details about depression, bullying, and suicide.

Of all the books that I read about mental illness and suicide, this is the best I've come across to. It's a short read, only 200+ pages long, with handy information sheets about depression, bullying, and suicide at the last few pages.

Julie Anne Peters wrote a poignant tale of a deeply wounded girl, beautifully written in a prose that is easily understood—no frills and fancy words, just simple and downright honest about the thoughts of a person who is severely depressed and suicidal. 

From the very first chapter, you can feel Daelyn's despair, of how hopeless she is, that the only way out is for her to die. As the book progresses, you go deeper to her mind and be drawn to her dark past. Her desperation to die is somewhat brought to a lighter note by Santana's awkward social advances and his endearing humor and personality.

The ending brought a mix of emotions to me. As I flipped through the last page of the book, I was at peace, believing that Daelyn didn't commit suicide; rather, she chose to "kill" her past and be reborn to a new her. 

Spoiler Alert and Final Words

The narration of her last visit to through-the-light gave me the idea that her deleting the account was a sign of her coming at terms of her past, that it is where her date of determination ends. Her pondering of hoping for Santana to get a dog on his birthday gave me the impression that she went to his party, as opposed to her original plan of skipping school and going home to drown. Emily was also a vital character in the story, in that her friendship with Daelyn serves as a symbol of hope for both of them.

This is not so much as a "trigger book" for the suicidal, but a book that gives hope and a better perspective about life in spite of all the darkness. It does not promote suicide as well; rather, the thought-provoking questions from the book make you think twice about how you see life and death.

I love this book so much, I can read again and again. :) 

Title: The Bell Jar

Author: Sylvia Plath

Genre: Semi-autobiographical

Rating: 5 out of 5

Review:

Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar was one of the books that I read during my episodes of depression, and there is no other book that could depict just how vague, complicated, and difficult  mental illnesses are.

Esther Greenwood's decline to depression, and eventually suicide, speaks volumes about the complexity of the human psyche: that even the smallest and minute events can lead to the dwindling of one's self-worth and will to live, that no one can really pinpoint the one and true reason for someone's depression. I, for one, keep people's minds boggled why I have succumbed to depression: I have a wonderful family, I have a job, I have a blossoming love life, I have great friends, and I have a generally good life—but I am still depressed. So why? 

I don't know. And this is how Plath portrays Esther's story: the reader cannot fully understand the root of her depression, why she decided to die, and how she still fears that the "bell jar" of depression will cover up and invade her world again. 

Plath describes depression as a bell jar: it hovers over your head, covers you under its dome, and keeps you trapped in a prison of sadness, emptiness, and solitude. She clearly describes the pains of going through electric shock treatments for her illness, her attempts at ending her life, her constant inner battles, and her days in the asylum.

Plath's writing is spontaneous, one that really depicts just how unpredictable life is—that life is a series of events that one cannot expect to happen in spite of how much you plan it so. When you read The Bell Jar, you cannot guess what happens next, unlike most novels where each and every plot is carefully laid out to create a climax and a resolution. The Bell Jar parallels Plath's life and her personal experience on her treatment for depression, and this is where the true beauty of the book springs from: it is a story of a life.

Title: Nectar in a Sieve
Author: Kamala Markandaya
Genre: Semi-autobiographical
Rating: 4 out of 5


Review:

Nectar in a Sieve is a poignant tale of a woman’s life, set in a time when urbanization sprung to life amidst a resistant but hopeful rural India. The story revolves around the life of Rukmani, the youngest daughter of a village headman, who was married at the age of twelve to a tenant farmer, Nathan, whom she has never met until their wedding day.

Child bride—this was what caught my attention when I read the synopsis of the book. With the recent news about the eight-year-old who died on her wedding night in Yemen, the concurrent issue of child marriage has resurfaced with higher intensity than ever before. I expected more gruesome details about child marriage in Nectar, but as I read along, I discovered that it tells much more than that—much more harrowing, more touching, than being married at a very young age. 

Nectar tells about a young mother’s struggle in an impoverished area in India. It tells about how Mother Nature is indifferent to the livelihood of people that are dependent on weather. It tells about the destructive effects of infertility in marriage. Markandaya has woven a wonderful, graphical picture of poverty, of the menacing promises of modernization, of the dark pleasures of prostitution, and of the heart-breaking eventuality of children growing up and leaving their parents. 

A slight warning, though: Nectar can be, at first, depressing. Of all the hardships that Rukmani and her family has gone through, it may be hard to believe that someone can have so many misfortunes in life—but it’s real. There is no other book that can pull your heartstrings without having to use the mushy theme of romance. It can leave you both aching and hoping, crying and gushing, with a satisfaction that you have read something worthwhile.

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This review is also published in SunStar Cebu, thanks to Fiona Escandor. You can view the online version of the article here.

Title: The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
Author: Jonas Jonasson
Genre: Fiction/Adventure/Comedy
Rating: 5 out of 5


Review:

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared is the first book written by Swedish author Jonas Jonasson. What makes this book stand out from the rest is its title—it's long, it takes up almost all the space in the book cover, and of course, it blatantly describes what this story is all about.

Jonasson's debut novel is about a centenarian named Allan Karlson who, during his birthday, climbed out the window of the retirement home he lived in and went on an epic journey that involved a drug dealer, a bagful of money, an elephant, the Manhattan Project, Einstein's dimwit half-brother, Stalin, Harry Truman, Mao Tse Tung, and other historical figures during World War II.

The Hundred-Year-OId-Man is an action-packed novel that gives a funnier light to history and tells you how Allan helped shape the world—without him even knowing it. The events are so absurd, they turn out to be funny, even if it meant killing off a character in the most far-fetched way imaginable. What I love most about this book is that you can read it without really thinking, because the book is really spontaneous, but at the same time, it gives you the chance to learn about the back story of major historical events. 

If you're looking for an easy and lighthearted read but don't want to sacrifice time and money on a book that'll make you stupid for that purpose, you will want to read The Hundred-Year-OId-Man. 

Title: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Author: Patrick Süskind
Genre: Horror / Mystery
Rating: 5 out of 5



Review:
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a German book (originally titled Das Parfum) by Patrick Süskind. It has been made into a movie recently, starring Ben Whishaw as the lead character, and I am very pleased to know that the film has captured the vital essence of the story line: a tale of obsession and greed, and of the dark yet enticing power of the sense of smell.

The story revolves around Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, who was born without an odor. The book tells about Grenouille's life, from birth to death, and how he lived day by day without feeling or knowing, set in seventeenth-century Paris. He is described as a person with an exceptional sense of smell, even smelling the most un-smellable of smells like dirt, water, and rock. 

What I find misleading is the subtitle, The Story of a Murderer. I would have expected more gruesome details about the murders Grenouille has committed in search of the perfect perfume. True to the book, and as portrayed in the film, the method of killing wasn't graphically described: only that Grenouille hit the back of the neck of the victims, and then shaving their heads and stripping them naked. I am not sure if I am much of a sadist, but I feel that the book lacks the element of gruesomeness in the murders.

It does, however, make it up by the absurdity of the whole story line itself and for the beautiful way Süskind described the odors that Grenouille can discern. What I loved the most was how Süskind is able to let you smell the odors just by describing it. His writing is very rich in adjectives that weave well to form an almost cinematographic portrayal of the book.

For people who are in for some strange content, Perfume is the perfect book to read: orgies, cannibalism, and a whole lot more. Perfume is a wonderful book with a disturbing story that will leave you staring off into space after reading the whole thing, trying to digest what you have just read. 

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This review is also published in SunStar Cebu, thanks to Fiona Escandor. You can view the online version of the article here.

IT ALL ENDS.

The seven sequels of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter has finally commenced with the second part of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie. 

Warner Brothers has recently launched a five-minute tribute video of the much-loved Harry Potter series. For HP fans, this will truly bring nostalgic moments of the movie and book that have become part of our childhood. Let us journey back to where it all started and where it now comes to an end—but then again, Harry Potter will always live by in our hearts forever. <3