Bir Yazarın Notları 3 kitap serbest oDF biçim

Petra Van petravandermade — All Of The Feelings for this book. It is the sort of ‘it’s as if a hand has come out and taken yours’ kind of book. Remember the great line from Hector from The History Boys? This beautiful line that encapsulates all of my #Feelings about books and reading: ‘The best moments in reading are when you come across something—a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things—that you’d thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you’ve never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it’s as if a hand has come out, and taken yours.’ It is quite surreal how the other book that I read after hearing the quote above from a film is also one that was extensively referenced in ‘The Elegance of the Hedgehog’. And that book is Anna Karenina. A background on my reading experience on Anna Karenina: When I read the book, I had to pause countless of times because I really felt as if Leo Tolstoy was writing about me when he wrote about Levin, my favourite character from the book (actually, one of my favourite characters in all of literature). I really felt like a hand has reached out from the depths of Anna Karenina and held mine. I understood the book, the book understood me. I was overwhelmed with #Feelings for Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece. ‘The Elegance of the Hedgehog’ is the same. Two hands (or more, I think) reached out and clasped mine as I read along: Renee’s and Paloma’s. (But I think Kakuro’s and Manuela’s hands also touched mine, in some ways. But it was mostly Renee and Paloma.) these two ladies, one, a 54-year old concierge of a Parisian apartment building, the other, a 12-year old lonely child genius and a resident of said Parisian apartment building both expressed in their respective chapters (or journal entries) thoughts that have been brewing in my mind for the longest time. When I read those texts in the book, I felt less alone. And this is why we read, right? To know that we are not alone. One major theme of ‘The Elegance of the Hedgehog’ is friendship. A significant part of the book was spent talking about the development of Renee and Kakuro’s friendship. It was a beautiful thing, seeing friendship (and even something more) blossom in the pages of a book. I’ve felt that way often, when I’ve made brand new friends. It reminds me of a quote (yeah, I really love quotations, k) from C.S. Lewis stating: ‘Friendship is born at that moment when one man says to another “What! You too?”’ This is almost always how I react to people I meet who share the same Obsessions that I have. And this is how I reacted when I read Renee’s and Paloma’s thoughts on paper. ‘What??? You too???!!!’ I made some new #BookBestFriends in this book in the person of Renee and Paloma. They really reached out and touched my hand. That’s why the ending left me tearfully washing my lunch box in the pantry. I was really sad. ;________; And Paloma’s profound thought at the end was really beautiful: ‘always within never’. That’s how she described life: a series of always within a never. It reminds me of the ‘Always’ and the ‘Until the end of time/very end’ in Harry Potter. And then I cried some more. You have to read the book in order to appreciate the ‘always within never’ line. Even though the ending left me really sad, the book was actually quite funny. Renee and Paloma made me laugh so much. They’re both incredibly funny. Or maybe that’s only because we share the same kind of humour. Or maybe I’m in on the joke with them. It would be easy to say that this book is pretentious. But only unintelligent people will say that. Those who don’t understand it will decry this book as too highbrow. But it’s not, really, if you truly understand it. Or if it understood you. I folded a lot of the corners of the pages of this book because I want to remember my favourite parts and my favourite lines.

Romina Perez _omina_erez — I remember I enjoyed this series a great deal when I was an early teen. I also remember that as the series went on it got darker, weirder and a little pervier.

Ji Won j2wstudio — The most thrilling ride! The ending was killer! This book held me enthralled throughout - intrigue, edge-of-my-seat thrills, bittersweet and tender moments and one heart ripping scene. I can't say enough about how wonderfully written The Chicagoland Vampires series is and how the characters are fleshed out and developed - their growth with each book and the pacing of the story kept me engaged from Book 1 to Book 4. I look forward to Book 5 - Drink Deep and what Chloe has in store for us.