For someone whose first ever bought-with-her-own-money books were the Hunger Games, it was obvious that one way or another I would also read t3.45/5 ⭐
For someone whose first ever bought-with-her-own-money books were the Hunger Games, it was obvious that one way or another I would also read this prequel to the story that helped me get into reading. However, I cannot say I am entirely pleased with it.
In a way, it did feel like lore. The Hunger Games lore. Even though yeah, I know, it was happening before the story we all know with Katniss and Peeta. But it still showed you the legacy the main series represents because, during the 10th Hunger Games edition, so many rules have been installed—the culprit: Coriolanus Snow.
I despise Snow in the main series and I despise him in this book so this was from the beginning going to be tough for me to get through. I did enjoy the story and the atmosphere, I got mad at so many injustices, but Snow as a main character was still a big fat no. I did like some other characters, like the District 12 tribute, Lucy Gray, and Snow's cousin, Tigris. But no, not Snow, no way.
I also didn't like the fact that this was dragging the story unnecessarily. The whole thing could've been much more compact and at least 100 pages shorter, in my opinion. Some chapters simply elongated the agony that should've been much tenser in a cinematic way. Because, all in all, this is a very cinematic story. And that's one of the best parts of it, the ability to imagine it like a movie, simply playing before your mind's eye.
I wish I liked this one more. It was good and I was excited about it, I was even willing to go past my dislike for Snow. But it lacked something on one side and it was too full of something else on the other. Maybe I would've personally liked shorter chapters filled with build-up and more rapid-fire events, to not be able to catch my breath. Or more political schemes from behind the scenes.
Am avut Cerul ca oțelul în raza mea periferică de lecturi pentru aproximativ un an jumătate. Cu cea mai mare sinceritate, suna a ceva ce aș f4/5 ⭐
Am avut Cerul ca oțelul în raza mea periferică de lecturi pentru aproximativ un an jumătate. Cu cea mai mare sinceritate, suna a ceva ce aș fi citit. Mă fascinează gândirea autorilor de romane postapocaliptice. Ceea ce mi s-a părut fascinant la cartea asta totuși, a fost faptul că era un roman distopic scris în limba română de un autor român. Something unheard of pentru mine până în acel moment. Mulțumită clubului de carte în care am fost racolată cu succes, ideea s-a materializat în faptă și, uite-așa, am citit primul meu roman distopic postapocaliptic românesc. Doamnelor și domnilor, Cerul ca oțelul de Cosmin Leucuța!
Încep prin a spune că acesta este un roman care te ține cu sufletul la gură și nu pentru că se întâmplă ceva, dar pentru că s-ar putea întampla. Ideea în sine nu se deosebește cu mult de orice fir narativ tipic romanelor si filmelor distopice, mereu există un erou care pare a face un drum inițiatic dublat de descoperirea de sine prin atingerea unor scopuri aparent imprecise de-a lungul drumului, însă per total, întreaga călătorie inițiatică nu ne spune altceva decât ce ar fi in stare un om să facă pentru a supraviețui. Această călătorie este de fapt descoperirea puterii interioare (fizică și psihică).
Autenticitatea lumii distopice în care ne aflăm vine de la faptul că niciun personaj nu are nume, nu exista repere spațiale precise și nici temporale, totul fiind un amalgam uniform de întâmplări ce levitează în busola timpului fără a participa la actiunea şi forța istorică a acestuia în mod exact. Cu toate acestea, există și mici elemente de reper presărate de autor ici-colo ca niște hidden gems ale poveștii. Lumea este dură, rece, grea, oțelită, un sentiment de prea mult și prea puțin în același timp. În timp ce citești, simți discomfortul pe care personajele îl simt la rândul lor. Așa cum una dintre fetele de la bookclub a punctat extraoridinar, aceasta este o carte incredibil de senzorială. Simți setea pe care personajele o simt, cu gâturi uscate, cu buze crăpate, cu disperare. Simți frigul ce-ți pătrunde în oase. Simți durerea mistuitoare a unei lovituri aproape fatale. Simți foame nestavilită și halucinezi miros de cafea sau de friptură. Simți lipsa celor mai neînsemnate lucruri în viață care, atunci când dispar cu desăvârșire realizăm cât de importante sunt pentru noi.
Cu toată sinceritatea (again), nu am fost de acord cu câteva dintre întâmplările din carte pe parcurs ce citeam însă la final am realizat că de fapt, era vorba despre o poză completă pe care eu o vedeam doar în detalii până în acel punct. Câteodata, povestirile mă bulversau, sărind între trecut și prezent parcă prea brusc și parcă fără o legătură neapărat precisă, însă acest mic detaliu a fost cumva umbrit de faptul că autorul are o capacitate foarte bună de povestitor, iar stilul scriitoricesc (să-i zicem asa) a fost curat si destul de limpede si fluent, iar tensiunea narativă a fost prezentă pe tot parcursul cărții, ceea ce este un mare plus.
Am apreciat, de asemenea, atât modul în care autorul și-a construit personajul principal, cât și faptul că a ales ca personaj principal o femeie, o mamă, o soție și o supraviețuitoare, o adevărată războinică tăcută cu o putere interioară imensă. Iar detaliile cât se poate de intime cu care autorul a reușit să își contureze, construiască și dezvolte acest personaj este, și el, demn de o aplaudă puternică, rezonantă și apăsată. Poate chiar două.
Sunt multe de spus despre această carte, îndeosebi pentru că autorul nu îți oferă niciodată toate detaliile necesare poveștii și, în acest fel, te lasă pe tine să completezi cu mintea și imaginația ta spațiile goale. Sunt multe detalii de finețe în schimb, plasate strategic și lăsate să foe dezvoltate și dezătute și interăretate, ceea ce face întreaga poveste să fie învăluită într-o aură (oțelită) de mister.
Chiar dacă da, nu a fost romanul perfect, cu siguranță a fost un roman demn de citit. O poveste puternică, dură, morbidă, sângeroasă, apăsătoare, dar în același timp, este o poveste inteligentă, o poveste care te ține cu sufletul la gură și care te face să simți și să gandești. Este, până în final, și o poveste cu speranță. Dacă lista lecturilor nu vă este suficient de condimentată, recomand Cerul ca oțelul pentru un plus de savouare....more
I will be honest, to me, this book looked overall like it was still an unfinished and unrefined draft of a story that could be so good, so fut2.45/5 ⭐
I will be honest, to me, this book looked overall like it was still an unfinished and unrefined draft of a story that could be so good, so futuristic and also full of mystery and a bit of angst. The story of the two sisters in different environments and different times, the mystery of Cee getting to that place without any trace of memory, the way Kay was trying to bring Cee back, the jump between then and now, the idea of an eco-city built specifically because the nature is raging against the human waste. All of these are great elements. Sadly, it just felt poorly executed from start to finish. Thank god for the gorgeous cover though!...more
Well, when I thought I had all the heart attacks one could possibly have, a new shiny set has been gifted to me by this book. And it fucki5/5 ⭐
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Well, when I thought I had all the heart attacks one could possibly have, a new shiny set has been gifted to me by this book. And it fucking hurt, okay?
Action-wise, everything went balls up, I had no idea who to trust anymore, I had no idea what’s going on, I simply had NO IDEA.
It was stressful and it hurt.
Character-wise, things can be summarised pretty easily with a few tiny ideas I wrote down in my notebook. Very accurate. They went like this:
[image] (ye, I know, ugly handwriting :P)
Nothing I said there ain’t true. Nothing.
After all that, I went from shock to shock so that explains a lot about what the hell was happening in this book. In the end, I was a puddle of feelings.
I absolutely believe that this is going to captivate the majority of the readers and I also encourage every single one of you to pick it up! It deserves more appreciation!...more
Hello, yes. This is the ghost of me picking up this sequel because of the mere inconvenience that my soul has been ripped away from my body in th5/5 ⭐
Hello, yes. This is the ghost of me picking up this sequel because of the mere inconvenience that my soul has been ripped away from my body in the previous book :') If I screech around, don't mind me, I am not haunting you, I'm simply wailing because of feels
This is the second instalment of the series and I think it is also my favourite, but mainly because I fell in love with that dimpled and tattooed rogue named Nik Malikov and because I also felt a desperate need to be friends with his little cousin Ella Malikova.
Hands down the best characters in this one.
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So, the action shifted to the other side of the universe where different characters got the spotlight. Nik, Ella and Miss I-am-too-good-for-you Hanna.
Yeah, you guessed right, I’m not the biggest fan of hers. She was indeed a smart girl who had certain skills that no one can compete with (what’s hers was put aside as we say in Romanian), but there was something about her personality that simply didn’t work for me.
Things went to hell in this book faster than I expected, some parts funny, some brutal. Death and betrayal followed the characters everywhere they went, there’s not much time to be very lovey-dovey or something. It was crazy.
And also, this is the book that, besides giving me 203 heart attacks, also broke my brain a little bit. I wasn’t expecting the whole hell that happened there but honestly, it was so good. One note in the notebook I use to keep track of my ideas while reading says ‘Okay, I’m stressed AF’ and yep, that was the whole mood of this book. That’s my most accurate note in there.
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One more thing I want to say about this book – I’m 99% sure that Nik is just Jay Kristoff’s alter ego. That’s it. That’s all I have to say....more
me: *wakes up* OHHH today I start Illuminae!! my anxiety: are you picking up another stressful series wtf is wrong with you have mercy! me: shut up I'm me: *wakes up* OHHH today I start Illuminae!! my anxiety: are you picking up another stressful series wtf is wrong with you have mercy! me: shut up I'm picking it up deal with it my anxiety: [image]
5/5 ⭐
This one started off with a panic attack. Which wasn’t great (of course, who thinks panic attacks are great?) but it also was great because it caught my attention and got me interested to the point where I was so emotionally invested that I couldn’t stop reading.
The main focus in this book was on Kady Grant – a very stubborn but very smart girl, with a big mouth and sassy attitude, who was definitely Jay Kristoff’s work of art – and Ezra Mason, the golden boy of a generation, who was actually a very sweet and brave lad. Oh, and he was very much in love with Kady. They were actually such a sweet couple and there was indeed something that kept them together through all that uncertain distance. I loved their story.
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Also, in this book, there was a nasty-ass virus roaming around space in the year 2575. Honestly, this whole thing was like a welcome slap in the face from whatever the hell is happening on this planet right now in 2020.
Like, they were even supposed to wear their damn face masks out there! Does it sound familiar? *wink wink* Crazy, I know. But they did wear their face masks. In outer space. Points for that.
But now, this whole book was kind of nuts, action-wise and character-wise. Everything and everyone was a certain shade of crazy, which – mind you – gave me multiple heart attacks in a very short period of time.
And AIDAN was a computerised maniac and no one can change my mind about that. Even though it had its little moments.
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