Gerhana Kembar, a novel by Clara Ng

Lendy, book editor on big publishing house got bit surprise when she found old manuscript and letters in her grandmother’s cupboard. Now, her grandmother’s is dying because of cancer in hospital. Lendy read the story as if she go inside the locked world. The deeper she read, the more concern she felt about the story that it is a true story. Story that her grandmother kept for a long time. Story that involved her grandmother’s past and as the link to her existence in the world. With the story, Lendy learned her life and her relationship with her mother: try to be honest to herself, feel free to forgive and be friend with the past.

The story is the journey of the heart. Story about family: bravery, power and toughness. Love story that will never lose its meaning though it is between two women.

I feel I was being cheated. When I read the synopsis on the back of the book, I thought this story is about fantasy world mixed with real world. In few chapters, I realized and sure this is homosexual story. Wow! Ms. Ng is brave to write novel with sensitive theme. I kept on reading because I wanna know the ending. It flowed smoothly. And my sympathy to them is increasing a lot, especially to Diana and Selena in this story. It’s not they want to become like that. They struggle between themselves and family. And the family win. They sacrifice their life and they don’t insist to get what they really wants.

I have to confess: I thrilled when I read and imagined how Diana and Selena showed their love. They have to play hide and seek. In our society, life and relationship like this is not normal. But I don’t care with what they do (it’s their life and I can’t step forward to play as judge or to be their heroine with joining homosexual organizations). My head is spinning and I have to stop for a while to calm down myself. I said, “This is what they feel, this is what they face everyday for the rest of their life, this is their world.”

The story consist of two sections: (1) Lendy is looking for the truth from manuscript she found and (2) Diana’s writing, told by turns per chapter to the ending of the story. The story is beautiful. Diana’s and Selena’s fighting to be together is hard. Separated in different continent, they can be together again after 47 years (although it only happened in story written by Diana).
NB: I prefer not to read such story anymore. One is enough knowing their feeling.

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Midnight Sun is Postponed?!

Ms. Meyer said in her website that Midnight Sun is postponed. The manuscript of the story was illegally posted on the internet. Oh, no! Who did this? I can’t believe I may not read Twilight from Edward’s perspective.

“So where does this leave Midnight Sun? My first feeling was that there was no way to continue. Writing isn't like math; in math, two plus two always equals four no matter what your mood is like. With writing, the way you feel changes everything. If I tried to write Midnight Sun now, in my current frame of mind, James would probably win and all the Cullens would die, which wouldn't dovetail too well with the original story. In any case, I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working on Midnight Sun, and so it is on hold indefinitely.” – Stephenie Meyer on stepheniemeyer.com, August 28, 2008.

"For all intents and purposes, 'Breaking Dawn' is the last book," she told MTV News. "It might easily happen that I quit here. There'd be a lot of good reasons for doing that, so I don't know if we need to get into all the future possibilities and speculations, 'cause I'll just go crazy, and I'm so close already!"

Is there a chance that Meyer will change her mind after a break from the Cullen universe? We'll wait and see. - Sabrina Rojas Weiss

Midnight Sun is officially postponed. Or is it possibly canceled?

Vampire according to… (1)

We know vampire is fictitious figure. Good looking immortal human-like with canines and love human bloods. But recently, vampire is not like that anymore. Many authors describe new class of vampire of their own.

Dracula (Bram Stoker) – 1897
- Father of vampire clan
- Good looking
- Live in castle in Transylvania
- Sleep in coffin
- She-vampires as his servants
- Drinks and sucks human blood. If drinks til dry, the human will die. If drinks a little, the human will be vampire within few days.
- Afraid of sunlight, cross and garlic
- Immortal, unless stab with wood stake through the heart or cut the head off
- Pale skin
- Sharpened longer canines
- Turn into bats or vanish in the smoke Continued...

Wanderlust, a novel by Chris Dyer

The only novel written in email form I know. I don’t see other novel in this form. It’s very exciting. I’ve read novel in diary form (Princess’ Diaries, of course) and SMS form (I forgot what the title is, wait, I think I remember, soulmate.com by Jessica Huwae, yeah, that’s it).

I followed Kate’s journey around the world (exactly it’s half around the world because it’s US-Europe journey) looking for life and love. The author asked us to join Kate with flashback style. She told her friends and mom what had happened to her via email, so it’s like to be told by her. That’s flashback, right? I enjoyed Kate’s talking and her relationships with two men.

But it made me bored soon. All the characters used email as their dialogs. No ordinary dialogs. No real conflicts. Just the story of their doings, their works, their problems. I really can’t get into Kate’s mind. I don’t know what her intentions are or what she was thinking or what to do to her confusing love. No clues about what happen next at all. It’s like pulling trigger from far away. Nobody knows who he target is unless the bullet had got him/her. There is one other minus thing with this novel. The time setting is jumping around within emails. Sometimes they emailed 3 times a day. Sometimes they emailed once in 3 days. I don’t know what happen in those gaps. And I feel uncomfortable with that.

After all, it’s funny writing novel in email form. This is what people are looking for, UNIQUENESS.

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Autumn in Paris, a novel by Ilana Tan

Love doesn’t always as beautiful as our imagination. Sometimes, love is forced to fall when it blooms. How can bitter past life destroy love? Can past life be changed?

Tara Dupont, half France, half Indonesian like autumn in Paris. She has everything in life. She lives with her father and works as radio announcer. Tatsuya Fujisawa, Japanese architect who hates autumn in Paris. He meets Tara and it changes his thought about autumn in Paris. They become closer and spend their times going to beautiful and romantic places in Paris together.

Unfortunately, fate don’t do it right and make them in dilemma. Slowly but sure, their past will destroy their love. Tara and Tatsuya don’t realize the link connecting their past. A secret that break hope, feeling and faith. When the truth is revealed, desperation and powerless are floated too. Reality that push one of them to finish life.

“As long as she is happy, I will. Just as simple as it is”

Ilana Tan’s second book. This time, it’s about Tara Dupont and Tatsuya Fujisawa. Tara is Han Soon-he’s cousin (Summer in Seoul female lead). The beginning is good. Tara met Tatsuya and they became close. The story is sunny and cheerful. But, the Pandora box is opened too fast. In the middle of the book, Tara cried and felt desperate. As if , her life and Tatsuya’s are so cruel to them. Ms. Tan wrote their feelings so blue. They can’t work. They can’t smile anymore. They do anything feelingless. I cried a lot reading their sadness. I felt life is so unfair to them. And all I can say is: there are more tears in the end. I was shocked reading the ending.

Yeah, that’s life. We can’t blame our life. If we stuck at something, find another way to live our life again. If we have to run around the world, if the things are worth it, then go and grab them.

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