Safahat - Mehmet Akif Ersoy itibaren Evrensel İletişim Yayınları içinde LIT biçim

Kdessireé Castillor dessireecastillo — During the first half of the book, I found the stories and characters interesting enough to keep reading, but felt the general tone of the book was kind of depressing. It deals a lot with loss, both physical and mental, disenchantment, suicide, and so forth, which for someone in their midlife who has suffered losses, makes for rather grim reading. In the second half, it did come together for me. I felt I was able to get to know and understand Olive a little better. Inside her coarse, controlling, protective person, there were glimpses of kindness, desire to serve, need to be loved and fear of letting go enough to allow that. I recognized some of those traits in myself as well, and that I too, as Olive and other characters in the book, can be quick to judge, be it a book, person or situation....it's good to be open to discovering the truths about people and life...while it is not all pretty, warm or predictable, there are times of great clarity, beauty and deep human connections that can nourish us if we are alert enough to notice them and brave enough to open ourselves up to them. The writing itself, was descriptive and emotive and I enjoyed her use of similes with unordinary objects to express feelings familiar to many of us (i.e. “her stomach had started to feel like a wet balloon, with its insides stuck together” [p. 234], or feeling overcome by a sadness that feels like “being squeezed so hard she felt like a package of vacuum packed coffee…” [p. 252]). I loved the interview at the end as well - tied it all up nicely for me. It’s definitely a book to digest for a couple days before passing judgment.

German Di germandiciccio — Across the universe revolves around Amy, a 17-year old, who is cryogenically frozen along with her parents on board a spaceship, Godspeed, and are scheduled to awaken in 300 years, as part of a mission to travel to a new planet that is believed to support sustainable life. Not everything goes according to plan, however. Amy is woken up 50 years too early and must adjust to life on the ship, in a society that is built on secrets. When she discovers that someone on the ship is trying to kill all the frozen people, one person at a time, she becomes determined to unravel the ship's mysteries. She is helped in her quest by Elder, the future leader of the people on the ship and together they try to uncover the truth behind the lies and deception that surrounds them. Even though the concept grabbed my interest from the start, I could not really connect to the protagonists. Amy’s character could have been a little more developed. Her character for the most part is consumed by worry about her parents, the boyfriend she left on Earth and her favourite hobby, running. The only things I liked about her character is the fact that she does not immediately fall for Elder and that she befriends Harley, a patient in the hospital in which she stays. Elder’s character, too, lacks depth. His name made him seem a little impersonal and cold. For the most part of the story, he is confused about whether he can trust Eldest or not and for the rest, he is lusting after Amy. His character needed more depth. Harvey was the only character I liked. He was deemed crazy by the ship’s society because of his creativity and talent, and his background story is really tragic. Eldest, the villain of the story, is a megalomaniac, drunk on years of being in power, to the extent that he even messes with the genetic make-up of the people born on the ship. He lives and breathes for the opportunity to control the people around him, to bend them to his will .Also, he thinks that Hitler was a great leader. Go figure. Across the universe tries to be too many things at once and this is where it fails. The romance between the lead characters was unnecessary and for the most part, unbelievable. The story line was predictable and the world-building needed more work. Nevertheless, despite its many flaws, what kept the story interesting was the portrayal of life on the ship and how the society was organized. The science aspect, though a little sketchy at times, was very interesting . The twist at the end of the book was especially good . I am undecided on whether I love or hate this book, but I would read the next book in this series just to know where the author will take the story .

Ahmad Akbar akbaryashin — Beautifully written. I have to think really hard of what else I can say.