mermaird's reviews
325 reviews

“Gravity
Keeps me
On the ground,
But you are
A much stronger force;
The one that brings my lips up
To a smile.”
- Theory of Relativity, The Octopus Curse

—
Beautiful, enthralling and empowering!

The Octopus Curse brought me to tears once I reached its final pages. It was indeed filled with clingy love poems, but they were written in such a wonderful way and they were so much more than just about love between a woman and a man. It was also about self-loving, and caring about those who should be loved more by the world. Not only did the poet show how beautiful being in love could be, she also showed how falling out of love and loss would be, and one should not hate themselves for going through the inevitable.

I love how the poems were connected to the beautiful facts of an octopus; despite the book being titled "octopus curse", it felt more like a miracle somehow. Women have to go through so much just to be loved by the world, and this poetry collection further proves that women are stronger than they let themselves believe.

I do admit that I was not able to relate to all the poems (and trust me when I say I bookmarked more than half of the poems from the collection), but the way they were written was absolutely mesmerising that I found myself re-reading them again and again just so that I can find my own meaning through them. It made me more curious as to what were in the poet's mind, as she wrote every single piece of this poetry collection.

If you're a poetry lover, I definitely recommend this beautiful collection of "clingy" poems.

Thank you to the author, Salma Farook, for sending me an e-book copy in exchange for an honest review. The Octopus Curse is currently free on Amazon from November 1st to November 5th, so don't miss this chance!

House of Earth and Blood is by far the thickest book that I've ever read, and it was also a quite difficult read for me. I'll put it out here now: HOEAB is the first Sarah J. Maas book that I read. If you're an avid fan of SJM, I'm sure you might understand my struggle because as I quote some of my friends who love SJM, "You either love or hate SJM's writing, there's no in between", "HOEAB would be a rather heavy start if one is to start reading SJM's writings", "HOEAB felt like a combination of Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses; you should probably read one of those series first before diving into HOEAB", etc.

Of course, despite owning TOG and ACOTAR, I couldn't heed my friends' advice for several reasons and end up jumping into HOEAB anyway. Did I end up loving it or hating it? Perhaps I did neither. I would say the idea of the plot as a whole was wonderful and I was mind-blown by the plot twists—but I may have some problems with SJM's writing style.

I have never read any books with so many curses and swear words.

Don't get me wrong, I'm always open with the portrayal of different types of characters, and most characters in HOEAB are angry people because of their situation, so I wouldn't have mind if their dialogues many colours of swear words. But the thing here is, SJM's writing style itself is full of swear words. They're in almost every single page, in descriptions and places that I found very unnecessary to be including swear words. There were too many f-word scattered everywhere, and I felt like I was reading a very angry text.

In no way am I judging SJM's style of writing because she can write however she wants to; this is just my personal opinion on it. I do admit that there were great qualities in her world building and characters. Our heroine, Bryce Quinlan is a fierce and sexy woman who knows what she wants and acts the way she wants without anyone else's opinion. She had her flaws of course, being stubborn and constantly refusing anyone's help even when she needs it, but those qualities just made her more human (or half human half Fae) because I don't think I would like a too perfect character.

Hunt Athalar, the fallen angel assigned to check on Bryce's whereabouts is almost the typical brooding and cold male character, but I like the fact that his ruthlessness was only a mask for the true angel that he is. Well, he's definitely not an angelic angel though, because that would be boring. Although both Bryce and Hunt are good characters, I would say that my favourite character is neither of them, but Ruhn, Bryce's Fae brother. Ruhn Danaan is the kind of brother I wish I have. Minus the mistake he did to Bryce in the past, the way he constantly wanted to protect Bryce was endearing, and I could not help but hope that no one hurts him. He might be the reason (along with other characters that I'm fond of like Tharion, Aidas and Hypaxia) that I would want to continue this Crescent City series.

As I've mentioned above, I enjoyed the plot and even liked the characters, but keep in mind that I've said that this was a difficult read as well. My enjoyment for the book only became a reality after page 600. Oh yes, I'm not exaggerating at all. I had to read 600 pages of angry texts and repetitive moments—especially regarding the arguments between the two main characters—and it was honestly tiring. I get that the author might have a lot of ideas to invest and no doubt wanted to make the plot very complex, but I felt that there were a lot of things that could be omitted and probably would not affect the progress of the story at all. The last 200 pages were good, but the 600 earlier pages were just too draggy and it threw me off. If the book was shorter and quicker paced, I might have rated this book higher.

I probably would not recommend this to anyone because it was a rather exhausting read for me, but if you're a fan of Sarah J. Maas or if you're into an extremely badass I-don't-give-a-damn-to-anyone and sexy heroine, a brooding fallen angel that have lots of secrets from his dark past, and an occasional sprinkle of demons here and there—then perhaps House of Earth and Blood may be the perfect read for you.

A huge thank you to Pansing for giving me the chance to read House of Earth and Blood in exchange for an honest review! This book is currently available in all good bookstores.

Born on an island secluded from the rest of the post-apocalyptic world, Leilani Ani was raised in a village where sexism and discrimination against women were something normalised intensely. Women in the village of Lehom were groomed to be objects of beauty and desire; they were asked to be alluring, but alluring only for the sake of men and not of their own accordance.

Everyone worshipped their King, but when Leilani was forced to lose her job that she loved dearly and become a Virtue at the palace, she soon learned how horrifying the true intentions of the King were. Risking losing more in her life, she planned an escape, yet escaping her grave fate was not as easy as she thought.

Reading The Moon Hunters was not easy for me; it actually took me almost five months to finish it, making it the longest time I took to finish a book despite it not being a too-thick book. Although the plot was interesting enough for me to keep holding on to this book, perhaps I felt that the build-up of it was too slow. Most of the five months that I took was spent on the first half of the book; my mood pretty much went up and down and it felt very difficult to continue reading it. It could be that the story was written the way that Leilani was retelling her memories that put me off of it a little bit, and the excerpts of The Journal of Samsara Ani on the start of each chapter confused me a lot too at first.

But things definitely took a better turn when Leilani was betrayed by someone she cared for so much. The incident just burned fire within her, and she finally took it upon her to leave everything behind and escape. The second half of the book, I devoured in less than five days. I'm glad I continued on reading this book, because Leilani's character is just the kind of women that I love to read about. Strong-willed, compassionate and independent. Yes, unlike how the people of Lehom believed, women can actually stand on their own without men.

It disgusts me how the men of the village of Lehom thought of women. The King collects a group of women whom they called as Virtues in his court. The Virtues did accompany the Queen most times, but in the end, their main job was actually "sit still and look pretty" for the King to feast upon. Women aren't allowed to do what they wish to, lest it being considered as committing a crime. Women even had to pit against each other in order to gain the favour of the same men who oppressed them. It's horrifying to see how Leilani had to pretend that she fits in the concept of the women that the King wants, while she plans her escape.

It was not easy, and she did receive help from people that care about her including a childhood friend-turned-lover, but it was a huge satisfaction to read that she did not depend wholly on others. She sacrificed so much to leave and find a place where she can be who she wants to be. Where she can be herself. It was not a journey full of smiles, but in the end, it was worth it. Although the way the story is written is not exactly my favourite style—I personally think it would have been better if the plot is linear; that way we won't know if Leilani will be able to survive in the end, adding more suspense to the plot—but I still appreciate how the story was concluded with an open-ended ending, where we can understand that Leilani's journey had only just begun.

The Moon Hunters may be just a fiction story, but the things within it, the discrimination and oppression against women are not fiction at all. A lot of women to this day still struggle to live the way they want to be, and I'm glad that this book exists as another reminder that women can be strong and independent. Women being themselves and respecting other women will make them more beautiful.

Overall, it was a great experience to read The Moon Hunters. I would like to personally thank the author, Anya Pavelle, for sending me the ebook copy, and thank you @BookTasters on Twitter for providing me with the chance to read this book.

Awal sekali aku baca sinopsis buku Topeng ni, aku rasa sangat tertarik akan plot dia. Dan boleh aku katakan memang secara keseluruhan, idea disebalik cerita Topeng ini sangat bagus dan banyak yang boleh dipelajari melaluinya. Cuma, aku rasakan jalan penceritaannya tidak berapa baik. Cara penulisan pengarang agak bersepah, sebab terlalu banyak situasi imbas kembali yang tidak disusun secara baik sampai tahap aku keliru nak memahami jalan penceritaan. Aku rasa sekiranya penulis meletakkan tarikh atau sekurang-kurangnya umur Hasnan dalam setiap situasi, mungkin pembacaan boleh jadi lebih lancar.

Walaupun aku tidak bersetuju dengan cara kehidupan Hasnan yang kerap tidur bersama perempuan-perempuan, aku hargai sisi Hasnan yang tahu akan dirinya seorang pendosa dan dia masih cuba sedaya upaya untuk menjadi seseorang yang lebih baik. Bagi aku, ini membuatkan watak Hasnan lebih realistik, sebab aku boleh nampak pergelutan dia sebagai seorang hamba Allah. Aku juga kagum kerana walaupun bermacam-macam dugaan yang Hasnan tempuhi, dia masih sanggup bergelut dengan kehidupan dan hendak mencari maknya tanpa putus asa.

Watak lain seperti Fairuz dan Kak Dois pun sedikit sebanyak membantu menjadikan Topeng cerita yang lagi menarik. Kadang-kadang aku rasakan Fairuz ni watak yang agak menjengkelkan sebab dia terlalu nak berkepit dengan Hasnan sentiasa, tapi ada juga gunanya kewujudan Fairuz di sisi Hasnan. Dari awal aku rasakan Fairuz ni bukan seorang kawan yang "biasa-biasa" saja dan mereka berkawan mesti sebab kisah silam Hasnan. Pada penghujung cerita memang betul tekaan aku tentang Fairuz ni. Cuma aku tak tersangka dengan cara bagaimana persahabatan Hasnan dan Fairuz ni bermula.

Secara keseluruhan, Topeng merupakan sebuah cerita yang menarik, lengkap dengan elemen misteri dan seram. Aku puas dengan cara cerita ni berakhir sebab boleh katakan yang aku tak sangka cerita ni akan berakhir sebegitu. Aku cuma tak berapa gemar dengan cara penulisan yang agak berterabur dan juga satu lagi, siapa sebenarnya Bomoh Kisman dan macam mana dia dapat bantu Hasnan cari maknya? Persoalan ni sampai ke akhir tak terjawab, jadi aku anggap memang Bomoh Kisman gunakan cara yang bomoh-bomoh suka lakukanlah.

Ever Cursed is a story about princesses being cursed by a witch, and how they went through all sort of odds to undo it. Sounds like your typical childhood fairy tale, doesn't it? Well, maybe think again.

The story is told from two perspectives—Jane, the eldest princess and Reagan, the witch who cursed the princesses. When I first decided to read this book, I had thought that Reagan would be a much older witch to want to curse the royals with something that big. But she was the same age as Princess Jane; she was barely thirteen when she cast the curse to the Queen and princesses. It made me wonder just how terrible the reason behind her anger was, because unlike most other fairy tales where witches do not receive any consequences after performing any spells, the witches from Ever Cursed gain a skirt for each spell they cast.

It sounded funny to me at first, because seriously? Skirts? But when I really considered it, it was actually a brilliant point of the story. A great spell should come with a great price in order for witches to not simply curse everything in front of their way. The heaviness and quality of the skirts depended on how heavy a spell is, and the greater the spell, the more it will weigh down a witch. Despite knowing she would be weighed down permanently by that, Reagan still cursed the princesses.

The reason behind Reagan's anger to the royals was truly horrible, and it was understandable why she cast the curse even if it was directed in the wrong way. I'm glad the author included the trigger warning at the first part of the book, because the topic is a very sensitive one and possibly not suitable with everyone. Just in case, although there was nothing graphic about it, I'll just mention here that it involves the topic of sexual assault. I don't think I've seen much of this topic being discussed in fantasy young adult novels (or perhaps I don't read as much), so it was quite an eye-opener for me.

Reagan did not gain much support from other witches after the curse, but I'm thankful her sweet cousin, Willa, and best friend, Abbott, were there for her even when they did not share the same views. Before I knew the reason of the curse, I had no idea what to feel about Reagan. From what the witches around her claimed, she seemed to be selfish for casting the spell without considering the others' opinions about it. But it was obvious that she only wanted the best for her loved ones, and when she realised her mistake, she worked hard to help the princesses overcome the curse. She's compassionate and bold, willing to go out of her to make things right for everyone.

As for Princess Jane, I think she's a strong character even from the start. It takes a lot of strength to continue pretending to be fine when you "lose" your mother and is cursed with your siblings in a blink of an eye. It takes a lot of strength to continue pretending to be fine when princes and princesses from other kingdoms want you to stay being spellbound and fragile for their own disgusting desires. And it takes a lot of strength to be fine when you learn that the real villain is someone that you cared for your entire life. Princess Jane is a strong woman, and despite doubting her qualities to become a queen, she still managed to overcome the hurdles like a true queen.

The alternating point of views between Reagan and Jane provided a lot of insight on the world building, and I think it allows the plot to move smoothly. I'm saying that Ever Cursed is a feminist fairy tale like no other is because it's a story that portrays girls that can be strong and independent; girls that are brave enough to fight for the right thing; girls that support each other; girls that survive. This is not a story to bring down boys or men, because even if the perpetrator might be a male, that does not cancel the fact that there are girls or women that condone the disgusting behaviours. This can be seen by the behaviours of the princes and princesses of other kingdoms towards Jane and her sisters. I appreciate that the author did not make it into a gender role issue, because men can be feminists as well if they protect women. In here, Abbott's character is the perfect example of it.

Overall, I would say that there's a lot to unpack from Ever Cursed. It's a story of a lot of things; of witches, princesses, family and siblings' love, surviving, lies, painful truths, growth, acceptance; of so much more. This review of mine is a mess, but all I could say is that this book is wonderful and I loved the way everything was laid out. I'm thankful with the way the story is concluded because after everything, these girls and women deserve only good things from the world.

I would like to thank Pansing for sending me a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

If I were to sum up about The Great Gatsby in simple words, I wouldn't say that it's a story about a great man named Gatsby—because it's not. I would say that it's about a lonely man, caught up in his past and unable to move on from the woman that he loved. Although I only gave this book a three out of five stars, I do actually see how this story became a well-praised and loved classic. Fitzgerald's writing are praiseworthy indeed, and despite not being a long story, I believe there are many elements and issues that can be discussed through The Great Gatsby. I acknowledge its worth as a classic, but it's just not meant for me.

My full review is on my blog:
https://www.mermaird.com/2020/07/a-great-classic-not-meant-for-me-book.html

Sunshine and Whiskey is a self-published collection of poetry about love, loss, longing and lust. At rare moments, the poems would be about self love or escaping toxic relationship. I would like to thank the poet, Lauren White, and BookTasters on Twitter for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review. And that being said, I will be fully honest with my words.

This review is rather hard for me to write, because I had to DNF this book. I have never DNF-ed a review copy before, but I could not force myself to continue reading Sunshine and Whiskey, because I might end up disliking it. I'd hate for that to happen, because although I only read the book halfway through, there are good points about it, and if I were to continue, I would feel forced.

The book is divided into five parts—Summer, Lauren, Broken, Awakened and Boldly. I only read until the Broken part, and I still do not see the point of these parts? It might be personal to the poet, perhaps when she had written these poems, those were the categories she thought of. But to me, they seemed rather meaningless, as the poems do not seem to be categorised at all. At one moment, I would be reading about a poem where the persona was longing for the person that she loved, and the next moment she would hate the person and wanted to move on, but the next poem would be about longing again.

I personally think it would have been better if the poet categorised her poems into sections, maybe starting with falling in love, and then falling out of love, continued with longing and lastly moving on. It can be arranged in any way, but it would definitely be easier to read if they were categorised together, instead of being thrown altogether.

I am aware that this book is self published, so maybe the poet had no editor to check on her work, but I think it's better for me to still point this out. I found several grammatical errors and typos, which is not too glaring, but as a reviewer, I do think it's quite noticeable. One of it is the wrong use of "your" and "you're". Please note that "your" means belonging to you, while "you're" is the shortened version of you are. There were occasional times when the word "I" was written in lowercase, which is wrong, (unless it was written like that with a purpose).

And correct me if I'm wrong, but the word "mine" means belonging to me, but if you were to refer to something yours, you would say "my", not "mine". An example of it was in one of the poems (forgive me, but I forgot which one), where the poet wrote "mine ears". I would think that it should have been "my ears". As for the format too, I think each new poem should start on a new page. I'm not sure if the e-book I was given had an error in its format, but there were some poems that started at the end of a page, with one stanza, before continuing at the next page. I think it doesn't look neat, and rather distracting. I'm not trying to be smart about any of this, but I believe that if the poet is to ever continue writing, she deserves to know these.

Apart from that, certain poems seem to be very lengthy. I actually do not mind long poems, but the topic of the poems seemed to be repetitive, and when some poems started right after a poem ends instead of at a new page, it felt like reading a paragraph without a full stop. It was difficult for me to stay focus. I also think that some of the poems should have a trigger warning for them? I found two poems that mentioned self-harm, which can even be considered as a suicide attempt. Maybe it felt personal to the poet, and perhaps some readers didn't mind them, but I think that it's rather unwise to mention about self harm so vividly in a poetry book. A short trigger warning would be appreciated.

I know that it seemed that I consider Sunshine and Whiskey to be full of negative points, but that would be wrong. There are several poems that I truly love, such as Her Lovely Face, Your Loss, Open the Door, Mordant and Forgotten Things. Other poems also have some paragraphs or stanzas that are beautifully written.

The words chosen by the poet are mostly beautiful, and she even used many extravagant words to title her poems. At first I felt overwhelmed by the number of words that I've never heard of, but I had fun learning them. Some of the words include resplendent, rambunctious, vociferous, de rigueur, mordant and many more. I also think that the poet writes good sensual poems, without making them sound cringeworthy or dirty. It would suit best for adult readers that enjoy poetry about love.

Although Sunshine and Whiskey are obviously not meant for me, I do believe that other poetry lovers may love it. To the poet, Lauren White, I wish the best for you in the future if you ever continue writing poetry, and congratulations for your success in publishing this poetry collection on your own ❤️

Sumpah menceritakan kisah tentang Lela, seorang kanak-kanak berumur 12 tahun yang terpaksa berkahwin dengan seorang lelaki tua atas desakan hidup. Lelaki tersebut boleh dikatakan sama umur dengan ayahnya sendiri yang telah meninggal dunia. Tidak lama setelah dipaksa menjadi isteri orang pada umur yang sangat muda, Lela dipaksa berpindah dengan suaminya ke sebuah banglo mewah, dan di situ kehidupannya semakin buruk dihantui dengan pelbagai masalah dan misteri.

Pada asalnya, aku teragak-agak untuk membaca Sumpah ini selepas melihat sinopsisnya, kerana aku cukup tidak suka dengan subjek child marriage. Tetapi pada masa yang sama, aku juga tertanya-tanya kenapa ibu watak utama sendiri sanggup mengahwinkan anaknya dengan lelaki tua tu, dan aku juga tertarik dengan wanita tua dan makhluk misteri yang akan menghantui watak utama tersebut. Sepanjang aku baca Sumpah, hati aku memang panas membuak-buak dengan manusia yang membenarkan Lela dikahwinkan dengan lelaki yang jauh sangat tua daripadanya, dengan alasan jika Lela tak berbuat demikian, keluarga mereka tidak akan mampu bertahan hidup tanpa sebarang harta.

Yang paling aku tak tahan, orang yang mengakui beragama tu sendiri yang mengatakan Lela patut dikahwinkan. Aku sebagai pembaca memang rasa nak menjerit je. "Orang-orang agama" seperti inilah yang merosakkan nama baik Islam tu sendiri sebab suka nak guna agama untuk justify kehendak nafsu masing-masing. Sepatutnya, sebagai anak yatim, Lela patut dibantu oleh orang kampung dari segi sumbangan, bukannya menyerahkan seluruh hidup dia pada orang tua yang mengambil kesempatan keatasnya. Tetapi itulah realiti sedih bagi banyak kanak-kanak perempuan sehingga ke hari ini, mereka yang masih muda dan naif tidak mampu hendak melakukan apa-apa untuk selamatkan diri mereka, termasuklah Lela Palatute sendiri.

Dari segi plot, aku memuji cara penceritaan penulis. Aliran cerita senang untuk dibaca dan mudah difahami, serta penulis juga berjaya masukkan beberapa babak yang aku rasa agak menghiburkan yang membuatkan Sumpah tidak terlalu serius dan bosan untuk dibaca. Aku seorang saja ke yang tergelak bila penulis masukkan "aura calon ke 19", barangkali untuk menyindir orang yang asalnya menggunakan ayat tersebut?