Ari Reviews: The Lover's Dictionary

 

A dictionary with select words whose definitions showcase a nonlinear pattern of events in one couple's relationship. That's all you need to know about this book - it's formatted the way a dictionary is, and instead of the literal meaning, an experience is shown revolving around the meaning of the word. Now, let's get away from my serious explaining and onto the reviewing! I won't be putting up a read more because really, there won't be any spoilers. You can't spoil anything about this book no matter how hard you tried, really.

 

The Lover's Dictionary was written by David Levithan, and I've been dying to buy it ever since I read Every Day (which I also reviewed here). After reading that book, I did some research on the author and stumbled upon The Lover's Dictionary, which immediately piqued my attention. Searching was a massive pain, and I was only able to buy it two days ago, when I was having some bonding time with my family over at the mall. Of course I was excited to read it and finished just a few hours ago. Usually, I'd finish a book within a few hours or so, but I wanted the savor this book and just read at my own pace.

 

It goes from A-Z with a number of words here and there. When I was reading the first half, I decided to gather my small post its and stick them in the pages of the definitions I loved, sort of like dog-earing them except with post its. Midway, I realized my post its would have better use in my Junior year coming this June and decided to simply list down the words whose stories I loved.

 

At first, I had forgotten that the book was about one relationship and ended up thinking that each word's experience came from a different couple. Again, it was only in the middle where I realized that it was centered around one and only one couple. So I read on until the end, and put down the book with a bitter disappointment that it was other. It's times like these where I wished I was a slow reader.

 

So after reading, I checked out opinions of people regarding the book, and I'd have to disagree with one point made: you have to be in love/in a relationship/be bitter over a recent ex to fully come to love this book. I disagree. I am not in love, not in a relationship, nor am I bitter about a nonexistent ex, yet I still loved the book. Perhaps it's the romantic in me speaking, but whatever. And really, why would you exclude a certain type of people from reading what they wanted? I don't get it.

 

Here comes my outburst: I loved it. And I especially loved that it was nonlinear, meaning that the events shown were not in order. So an experience in section E could have gone after a word in section Y, so on and so forth - it makes you think, what really happened, which came first? After reading the last entry (Zenith), I was momentarily upset at what happened and then remembered it wasn't in order. They were all scattered, as if the person narrative was remembering one random memory at a time and connected them to a certain word.

 

I enjoyed the book very much and will most definitely read it again. And I hope you guys read it, too! Not all parts of the book are about being in love.

 

 

Flipside: One and Seemingly the Same

How long does it take for you to heal?

 

Hello and good evening, dear readers! This will be a Behind the Scenes on my latest post entitled "One and Seemingly the Same", which focused heavily on The Shoujo Parallels series which you can very much read over here. Surprisingly enough, this is not a challenge-related post, but one that just spawned from my own imagination. If you've read it and are familiar with The Shoujo Parallels series, you may be wondering what on Earth? No worries, though, for I'll be explaining what pretty much happened and why I decided to write something like that.

 

The Read More button is there if you're interested.

 

One and Seemingly the Same

The black-haired woman turned around. There wasn’t anything else in the room. The walls were painted white and the floor was as well, making it seem like the room was actually curved, with no corners whatsoever. She was amazed and didn’t notice the absence of her pistol, glancing around her with a gleam in her dark green eyes. It was clean, it was different – it was…peaceful. She let a smile come to her lips. It was peaceful after what had just happened. So many events back at Technika, heartbreaking, soul-crushing, hopeful, blessed events –

“Well isn’t she different from us?”

Flipside: White Dresses and First Dances

Hello and good afternoon to you guys! I posted something a while back, entitled White Dresses and First Dances. It was an OTP Prompt/Challenge given to me by Giselle last night, and I just finished it a few hours ago. This is going to be fairly short since I don't really have much to say, haha.

 

So basically, it's set into the future where Matt and A are already married and have a daughter who has her prom in a month. I kept the setting unclear, as I couldn't decide where to have them live after they would marry (though they'd probably be in England). Alice, currently sixteen in the short, had just told her mother that her prom was in a month...and A didn't know of this. But Matt did. The short includes a shopping trip with the couple arguing, and then the eventual day of the prom itself.

 

A little quirk that somewhat foreshadowed the ending was A saying that she didn't get to experience prom, and neither did Matt. I'm guessing that Matt wanted her to experience it for herself with him as a date, yes? So he just made it simple. Dimmed the lights, have her dress there, put on some slow tunes and a bottle of wine, probably make a nice dinner for them to eat after.

 

I wanted to focus on the relationship with their daughter, but couldn't help putting in some loving at the end part, because after all, it was an OTP prompt. The two even had an argument regarding Alice's dress in the shop, aha. Luckily for them, the section where they were didn't have people in it. Matt wanted the dress to be modest while A preferred something Alice would enjoy.

 

I think it's safe to say that I did a lot of research on this, especially with the dresses. Alice was supposed to be in a long red dress, but I decided to change it after typing A's argument regarding long dresses. Haha! Also, I think this pretty much shows my hopes for my own prom experience. Not that I want my parents to bicker about the dress (my mom already sketched a dress!), but I want it to be fun and something worth remembering, you know?

 

For those wondering, Alice's dress looks like this:

So basically, it was a family-bonding + otp short in one. >w< I was pretty happy with the result. So, I hoped you enjoyed reading the short and this - see you all in my next post! <3

White Dresses and First Dances

“It’s your what next month?”

A girl of sixteen cringed lightly and glanced at her dad, who remained impassive despite the look on his wife’s face. “Mum. It’s my prom next month. I didn’t want to stress you out about it because of your work, and dad was sort of free, so I told him…” she trailed off, gulping at the shifting expression on her mother’s face. Shock, frustration, anger…a hint of excitement? Finally, the older woman pinched her temples.

Ari Rants: "New" and "Old"

Now, I was raised to respect peoples' opinion, no matter how ridiculous or silly or just plain irritating. But tonight, something struck a nerve and I really got the need to rant about it. It was actually quite silly. I just went on YouTube to listen to two bonus tracks not included in a certain album, and when I peek at the comments, I see all this. A lot of irritating comments that made my blood boil like how water boils when I prepare it for my usual milo, or when my dad asks me to get him hot water for tea.

 

For your information, the album was Paramore's Paramore. The two bonus tracks are Native Tongue and Escape Route, which are pretty amazing in my opinion. I have nothing against Paramore. They're my favorite band and this album is definitely one of my favorites...it's just, people don't agree with me. Before you argue and scream, let me tell you that I have no problem with that. It's just, their reasoning, for me, is utter bull and doesn't make sense to me. It's silly and just...wow.

 

Read more for more ranting.

 

Golden Beams of Apprehension

After receiving my report card last April 6, the idea of being an upperclassman hadn't really gotten to me. I felt like how I always felt - young, goofy, and pretty much the fifteen-year-old I've been since January. However, it was only a day or two ago when our batch representative posted something rather alarming on our batch page. And that, ladies and gents, was a list of things to prepare for as we entered our Junior year. It only consisted of three events, really. The School Intramurals (Sports Event), the Medical Dental Mission, and the highly-feared Prom.

That announcement was a splash of cold water on my face, finally snapping me out of my so-thought fantasy of being relaxed for the whole summer. I realized, that no you cannot be calm. All of it got well, worse when my mom came home on the eighteenth with my schoolbooks. There was a Chemistry book, my Religion book, a book for Programming, the books needed for English and Filipino class...nothing felt more real than that. Than the feeling of the books staring at me as I took them out one by one from the plastic bag. That kind of feeling didn't even make me flinch as I entered my Freshman and Sophomore year.

With a heavy mind, I realize what Junior year would have in store. It would mean having to know what you wanted for college, what kind of dress you wanted for prom, what kind of grades you needed to make sure all the great universities would pick you. It meant having more problems, less sleep, more projects, and more challenges. It meant more subjects, more memorization, more mathematics (and I cringe at the thought of it). Especially in my case, now being the Secretary and News Editor of the school publication club. I was previously warned that everything experienced in Sophomore year would be a lightweight compared to the trials of Junior year.

If this is how I feel right now, then I wonder how the upcoming Seniors feel.

Biology would turn into Chemistry, Statistics into Geometry and Adobe Flash into Basic Programming. On the upside, World History would be a subject I would enjoy in the upcoming schoolyear. But on the downside? A whole lot of business as I would study and study. Not just for my subjects, but for the college entrance exams. It's a whole lot of...well, hysteria.

But then, I have to realize that this is yet another opportunity. Another chance for me to actually make things right and to realize and bring out my true potential. It could possibly give me a chance to explore around and make friends, or to even restore old friendship and burning rivalries or whatsoever. Maybe I can send or receive a sweet promposal (probably not happening) or actually figure out what I want to do after high school.

 

This morning, my parents asked me what course I wanted, and it just occurred to me that I haven't really made a final decision yet. I've narrowed it down to Law or Journalism, but from there I'm definitely not sure which to take. I can only hope that the college talks in third year (if there are any) and the Integrated Field Trip can help me on which one I really, really want to take.

 

And then there's prom, but I sure as hell am not going to talk about that.

 

I'm just hoping that third year will be better.