A new post and series from me! Featuring books I've recently read and liked! Oh so exciting coz' although I like reading, they are usually chick lits or of the romance genre, which also kinda mean that they are not educational to the eyes of many. Personally, reading is just a past time and leisure for me. I do not seek to learn per say but to escape from the reality and delve into the fictional world. Because fictional worlds are so much more exciting and it helps us to forget our own problems for awhile and learn about the problems of fictional characters. I like easy reads that I can understand without me thinking too hard. So, anything with analogical stories about journeys and difficult vocabulary turns me off. Sounds very superficial and dense of me, but I'm not denying it if you think I am.
Anyway back to the book I was going to talk about. I started reading this book because of a youtuber, missglamorazzi, picked it up and the cover and title of the book kind of called out to me. (I totally judge a book by its cover, literally) I believe its of the young adult genre? I consider myself a young adult, so I think its suited my intellectual abilities. I hardly ever buy hardcover/paperback books, though I want to have my own collection of books, its just not a habit of mine to buy books from young. My mum mostly only allowed me to borrow books from the library, to discourage spending :( I downloaded the ebook version and read it on my book. I now have a sense of satisfaction to have my very own collection of ebooks on my play book library. This is my attempt to summarize the story, if it sucks, remember that I'm not a pro at reviewing books.
The Beginning of Everything revolves around Ezra, a high school student who was the popular jock. However, a car crash resulted in injuring his knee and ruining his athletic career and pushed him down the social hierarchy. From then on, he had new friends, met a new girl, Cassidy, (some romance ensues) and lead a different high school life. He learnt that for his whole life before the tragedy he had been playing the part of what everyone had expected him to be and how challenging it was to fit that mould. It is then through this tragedy that he rediscovers himself and be himself. He realised that tragic endings are also the start of new beginnings. (This is me looking at the blurb of the story and paraphrasing and adding my experience of reading this story)
This story was witty, heart wrenching and just so relatable to all of our lives even if its in a cliched high school setting, which many young adults books have. Schneider's writing has a nice flow and the voice she has taken for Ezra was well narrated which I especially love in this book. I have to point out that the high school setting and characters can be quite stereotypical. Some characters are rather underdeveloped which is a bummer but being able to connect with Ezra made up for it. This book might not be everybody's cup of tea, but if you're into contemporary romance and don't mind the stereotypical high school setting, this book might be the one for you. Or if you're not a big reader or stopped for awhile, maybe this story will help you dive right into reading again.
People come and go in your life, the experiences you had with them would all influence your being, they "lent the spark, perhaps, or tendered the flame," but your life, your decision, the arson is yours. Oscar Wilde once said that to live is the rarest thing in the world, because most people just exist, and that's all. Start living.
