Critical Eleven

“Expectation is a cruel bastard, isn’t it?”

Critical Eleven is my entry for this year Pop Sugar Reading Challenge on the category ‘A Book Recommended by Family Members.’ This book is recommended by my little cousin A, who is actually a 14 years old girl, and that makes me have a mixed feeling. I tell you why later. So, do you ever feel something like, that moment when you met someone new, and then you feel like that person kind of resonates with you on personal level. But then, when you takes your time and get to know them more, it turns out that they’re the kind of person that you despise? It’s like when you receive a birthday gift, and the wrapping is so pretty and the size is huge, but the inside is just full of shredded papers and styrofoam bits and the actual gift is kind of meh? Well, that’s how I feel about this book.

In the blurb on the back cover, Ika describes that the most critical moment when you meet people is like critical eleven in aviation terminology. The first three minutes is critical because your first impression will shaped your thoughts, then there’s eight minutes before you separate with each other that will decide if it’s just the end of their encounter or also a beginning of something new. The book takes off (haha, get it? takes off? I’m so proud of myself) when Anya met Ale on a plane from Jakarta to Sydney. During the flight, Anya is intrigued by Ale, and vice versa. They’re ended up swapping contacts and decided to build a relationship. Now, five years after their first encounter, Ale and Anya must face a tragedy in their life which might burn all the bridges they have built.

The early part of this book is really good. In the first few chapters I really like the characters. I feel their personality really resonates with me. But then as I get further into this book, their characters change.  It’s weird, I feel like somehow they’re so out of their own characters from the first few pages I fell in love with them. The way they act and their way of thinking change almost 180°. It started as good, and then turn into not-so-good, and then it became just totally annoying. I’m confused, the characters seems like they’re contradicting their own thoughts in early pages, that’s so weird and reek of bullshits.

The other thing that feels weird to me is the writing. This book has two points of view, Anya and Ale. I quite enjoy Anya’s POV, but then I get to Ale’s and I just don’t understand why did Ika feels like she needs to make Ale sounds like a complete douchebag after she write his character so nicely from Anya POV. She made Ale sounds like that jock-dude-bro-fresh-from-sorority-party, the kind of guy that makes you want to say ‘bye’ when you meet him. It changes his character from the first few pages and it makes me cringe. No, seriously, I cringe everytime I read Ale’s POV. I couldn’t stop cringing and roll my eyes.

There’s also movies/arts/books/music/foods references in this book that I deemed too much. I feel weird writing it, because I usually love references like this, but really it’s too much. It starts off as interesting and informative to totally unnecessary.  It even gets to the point that I feel these characters are so pretentious, and it comes from me, a real pretentious person. You know what else is unnecessary? The number of sex in this book. Everyone who knows me personally must be shock that I said this because I enjoy steamy and smutty scenes. But the number of sexual act that mentioned in this book is unnecessarily a lot. I’ll admit that some of the sexual acts are kind of plot-driven, but a lot of them are not. This is also the reason why I have a mixed feeling when I remember that the one who recommended this book to me is my 14 years old baby cousin. I mean, I’m not gonna stop her from reading this book (she hasn’t read it, yet she recommend it to me). I have read way more explicit stories when I was younger than her. But, I’ll have to make sure that she has enough sex ed first before she start reading this book.

The next thing that bother me is this book is borderline sexist by objectifying women. And it bothers me so much because, from the first few pages I saw Anya as a woman who won’t stand to sexist remarks, but then a few chapter later she’s okay with people around her making sexist remarks? Where did the woman I fell in love with in the first chapter went?

Though I don’t like the ending, I do like how Ika wrote about grief and tragedy in this book. The way she write about the pain feels real, and somewhat fresh and difference considering this is an Indonesian romance novel. The plot actually have a pretty good potential if only Ika decided to went to another direction with the plot, but unfortunately she didn’t. Well, I know it's her story to tell, but I have my own preferences and, let's just say that the ending is not my cup of tea. It feels like the problem is solved without they even try to solve it. I also kind of disappointed that the metaphorical bits about critical eleven that basically make her blurb interesting doesn't really imply to the whole story, but only to the first few chapters which I like.

• Title            : Critical Eleven

• Author        : Ika Natassa

• Language   : Indonesian

• Page Count: 344 pages