No, it's not Loki. It's a book of essay written by a young mom, raised in US and currently living in Indonesia. It's my January reading book. I was looking for a book that outside my cup of tea, I was toward Agatha Christi, but then decided to give these simple looking book a chance. Actually, I was more toward the other self-portrait series, called "I am My Own Home" by Isyana Artharini, because of the description of 30 years old single woman living alone, but somehow I was ended up bought these book more in the end because of the title. Just from the prologue, I was directly put in Ebi's view of the world. I couldn't stop put these book down, in the end, I couldn't sleep, and my brain just keep repeated the story of my own. I decide to write it a little bit in my post about Finding Life Companion. Aside from out similar love of pink hair, we are both Indonesian born Chinese with many similar thinking. Ebi writes everything form her views of being women, her childhood in US, her view of Chinese heritages and her family history, her beliefs to her marriage. While reading these, you can't help but reflects yourself, do I agree with her? What would I've done if I was in her shoes? The grass is not always greener on the other side. I agree with the term "self-portrait" when they launch three books, one of them is these book. I could fit my feet in her shoes, view the world with her eyes. We may agree or disagree with her thoughts, but it's beautiful to see how other people view the world. I don't know her personally, but reading these book, I felt like we could be best friends.
And I love Ebi's honest view. She was raised in US, where lifestyle and relationships are different. She openly says her view in sex, which I don't think it was impolite or rude or vulgar, it was honest. It open my eyes of certain things, and definitely it made me thinking about my own life. It is two decades of her life in writing, while I lived one decade more.
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I read Harry Potter book first, then movie.. While Hunger Games, I watch the movie first then the book. But these time, I read the book first from Monday to Thursday and on Friday, I watched the movie. It's different, that's how I can say about the book and the movie. Different stories, same plot, slightly different character's personality. Note : I only read the first book and haven't read/google the second book. (Spoilers ahead) I found the book a little bit slow, you have the anticipation to see Jack finally found Miss Peregrine. Miss Peregrine finally show up in the middle of the books, so you spend half of the book wondering if Jake really insane or not. Or maybe he really not insane til the end (twisted ending). And to see Jake and Emma develop romance, it's a little bit weird. I mean technically, Emma is Jake's grandpa's old romance. I honestly found it weird. I have the anticipation to read something about Miss Peregrine and end up with weird romance story. I notice that Miss Peregrine is Young adult's book, the stories are about adventure with a little bit romance. The plot on the book are for youngster while the movies are developed for everyone. Adult like me, find the movie are more interesting than the book. The Plot
Stories on the book are from Jake's point of view. It was begin from the day Jake found his grandfather's death on his backyard with final words he didn't understand and the thought of him saw something weird monster-like. His grandpa love to tell him stories about monsters, that he thought growing up were just bunch of fantasies made up just like Santa. While Jake's families won't believe his stories about monster, his psychiatrist thought it was best to follow his grandpa's old stories, revisit his old orphanage, as hoping Jake found closure. While on Wales, where grandpa's orphanage located, Jake found the orphanage are now just abandoned ruins of second world war. It didn't make sense since Jake found old letter from the orphanage dated two years before. Jake decided to wondering around the ruin to find his grandpa's old belongings, only to found/meet his grandpa's old friends still alive and never growing old. From these, the books and the movie took separate ways. The differences that I found between are :
I love the movie more than the book in my opinion. They gave peculiar children as the star of the movie, while in the book, it's all about Jake's point of view. Maybe the movie don't give more explanation about Jake and Emma's personality as detailed in the book. I prefer book Jake and Emma, because Riggs give new color to the heroes of young adult fantasy story; rebellious adventure-thirst rich kid with hot headed mature women in forever teenager's body. But they changed the personality to boring typical stereotype heroes. Another thing I love about the movie are Enoch's character. They made Enoch become bold teenager who do everything to keep peculiar children safe. He is like second in command. Good job to Finlay MacMillan for portraying Enoch's character. Also applaud to Ransom Riggs, he create all these characters, inspired from the collection of old photos; made it so real. |