Let me begin by saying that Mathis Malzieu is one of my favorite authors. He has such a way with words that you can’t help but fall in love with his stories.
The first book I read by him was The Boy With the Cuckoo Clock Heart (you can read about it here.) and I just fell in love with it. That is why, when I saw The Smallest Kiss in the library I had to buy it and read it, and let me just tell you, it did not disappoint.
I think you’ve all heard about the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth. If you haven’t, this trilogy has three books (obviously!): Divergent, Insurgent and Allegiant. The main topic of the books is this dystopian world (like most books these days) that young people try to escape. It’s somewhat similar with The Hunger Games, but at the same time different.
The main character of the book(s) is Beatrice Prior (Tris) who at the age of 16 has to choose between the 5 factions their world is divided in: Dauntless, Amity, Abnegation, Candor or Erudite. Normally, they have to choose according to their characteristics or traits they have, as persons. However, there are people who can’t be constrained within the characteristics of only one faction, but rather have traits for all of them (these are usually hunted down), and Tris is one of those people.
To be honest I was really looking forward to reading the third book because I truly enjoyed the first two. The plot was interesting, full of suspense and you were always looking forward to the next chapter. In the third book, on the other hand things were a little different…
The first ten (or so) chapters I was looking forward to the last chapter of the book rather than the next chapter. Then, somewhere around the middle, it got interesting and I finally got excited. Too bad for me, because after another seven chapters (or so) it got boring again and it kept going like that until the end of the book.
Now you might ask why I kept reading it if it was so boring. (I asked myself the same thing every time I was reading a new chapter.) The answer is simple. Because I liked the first two books and I really wanted to see how it ends. And the end was not disappointing. I was actually surprised and shocked by the turn of events.(I don’t know how I didn’t find out the end before reading the book, but it happened.)I wasn’t expecting the ending that it had and I felt like the characters deserved more closure than they were given. Also, I feel like the story of the last book could’ve been condensed in less pages, which I think it would’ve made it more interesting.
All in all, the Divergent Trilogy wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad either. If you like The Hunger Games or The Maze Runner you should definitely give it a try.
Have you read Divergent?
Alex D.
One of my favourite books is one I bought some time ago from Germany, while I was travelling and is called The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
The book tells the story of a young girl, well a teenager, who has to fly from the US to London, for his father wedding. Of course, she doesn’t want to. She misses her flight and, call it faith or chance, but at the airport she meets a boy, who happens to also fly to London and has his seat next to her.
Yes, it is a love story, but it isn’t your normal love story (or at least I don’t think so). The whole book takes place in more or less 36 hours and it has a lot of things happening in such little time that you don’t have time to get bored.
All in all, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Time is one of my favourite books and I recommend it to anyone who wants an easy read this summer. However if you find the plot interesting, but you’re not into reading, there’s a film coming out soon so you could wait for that.
Here are some of my favourite quotes from the book:
“It’s not the changes that will break your heart; it’s that tug of familiarity.”
“Love is the strangest, most illogical thing in the world.”
“He’s like a song she can’t get out of her head. Hard as she tries, the melody of their meeting runs through her mind on an endless loop, each time as surprisingly sweet as the last, like a lullaby, like a hymn, and she doesn’t think she could ever get tired of hearing it.”
Do you have a favourite book?
Alex D.
Everyone who knows me, also knows that I love books and I love reading them every time I get the chance. Not so long ago I was wandering through a book shop (as I do so many times) and I found this little book that caught my eye called La Mécanique du cœur (The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart en.) by Mathias Malzieu. I bought it and said to myself that I’ll read a couple of chapters before doing some work for uni. Bad idea, because once I started reading it I couldn’t put it down.
La Mécanique du cœur tells the story of Jack, a little boy with a clock instead of heart who falls in love with a young andalusian singer and decides to go on a journey in order to find her and confess his love.
I don’t want to give too much away but I honestly believe that it’s a book worth reading. You will fall in love with the characters and it will bring your inner child back to life.
Here are some of my favourite quotes from the book:
“We love each other like matches in the dark. We don’t talk, we catch fire instead ”
“If you spend your whole life being careful not to break anything, you’ll get terribly bored, you know … I can’t think of anything more fun than being impulsive.”
“What I’m afraid of? I’m afraid of you. Of me without you.”
Hope I made you just a little bit curious about the book and if you’re not into book reading there’s also a film adaptation, so you could see that instead.
And remember, it’s all about being happy, people!
Alex D.
Alex. D. Neagoe 