Warcross by Marie Lu (Warcross #1)

“I’ve never been good at following instructions. I’m a bounty hunter.

And if my bounty’s still out there somewhere, I need to finish this.”

I received a free digital ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All quoted lines have not been corrected and are subject to change.

Ever since her father died, Emika Chen spend her life trying to survive by becoming a bounty hunter. She dropped out of school and take risky jobs of catching criminals by hacking into a virtual reality game called Warcross. People all over the world play this game, and like most of things in the world, there are the dark side of Warcross’ world where some people doing their bad deeds for money. Warcross is created by a 21 years old tech prodigy, Hideo Tanaka when he was only a child.  Desperate to gain money to pay his debt, Emika gambles her life by hacking into an annual Warcross International Tournament to grab some rare items that she can sell to the black market. Unfortunately, her plan is ruin when her identity exposed. Confidence that she will be jailed, Emika is surprised to find that she is being offered to work as Hideo Tanaka’s personal hunter instead. Her job is to go undercover as a contestant to hunt and investigate a hacker who threatens Warcross International Tournament. As her investigation getting deeper, Emika uncovers a sinister plot which could affect more than just Warcross empire, but also the rest of the world.

Perbudakan Seksual (Sexual Slavery) by Anna Mariana

“Because of the practice of sexual politics,

they became the target of state officials.

They were stripped naked, gang raped,

and tortured as a form of authorization.”

Perbudakan Seksual: Perbandingan Antara Masa Fasisme Jepang dan Neofasisme Orde Baru (Sexual Slavery: Comparing Japanese Facism and Neo-Facism of New Order) is a book written by Anna Mariana. In this book, Mariana reveal her research of many sexual assault, sexual slavery and sexual abuse that happens in Indonesia during Japanese Occupation in World War II and during New Order regime under Soeharto presidency.

City of Saints and Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson (ARC)

“People don’t look for revenge to make them happy.

They do it because they must.”

City of Saints and Thieves tells a story about a girl named Tina, who escaped from Congo with her mom years ago as refuges and begin their new safer life in Sangui City. Unfortunately for them, safe doesn’t last long. Her mother was murdered, shot dead in the middle of the night. Seeking for revenge, Tina spends her life on the street and training as a master thief with local gang, the Goondas. Four years went by, and now her job with the Goondas brings her back to a place where her mother was killed and open a path for Tina to avenged her mother’s death. But revenge is not an easy game to play as the faces from the past starting to haunt her and unravel some dark truths that Tina might not ready to face.

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter

“I was a young girl, a virgin, and therefore men denied me rationality just as they denied it to all those who were not exactly like themselves, in all their unreason.”

I will forever be thankful to the person who post a line from this book on tumblr. That post got me so curious and lead me to maybe one of the best fairy tale retellings anthology I’ve ever read. Whoever you are, thank you so much! The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories is an anthology of fairy tale retelling short stories written by Angela Carter. Unlike most of fairy tale retellings I’ve read, the stories in this books are dark, sensual, and quite gruesome. The only fairy tale retelling that I feel to have a quite similar dark feeling to this book is Carolyn Sturgeon’s The Fairest of Them All. But, while The Fairest of Them All lacks of subtlety and the quality of power in its characters, The Bloody Chamber managed to deliver it.

Girl of Nightmares (Anna #2)

“She crossed over death to call me. I crossed through Hell to find her.”

What’s that? Did I made a pentagram for this book? Nah, it’s just a star, I promise. ( ͡º ͜ʖ ͡º) Girl of Nightmares is the second and final book of Anna duology by Kendare Blake. The story picks up months after the event in Anna Dressed in Blood. Cas couldn’t move on. He’s seeing Anna everywhere. He see her in his dreams, and sometime he sees him in waking nightmares. But Cas noticed that these aren’t just daydreams. He doesn’t know what happened to Anna, but he knows something is wrong. Now Cas is trying to look for an answer, and he will give everything to returns the favor and make sure that Anna is okay.

Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna #1)

“But hey, at least we’ll have this strange story to tell, love and death and blood and daddy-issues. And holy crap, I’m a psychiatrist’s wet dream.”

It’s October, and that means it’s Halloween month, and that means I have to read at least one horror book. I just feel like I have to, because I like ghost stories. So when I saw that Retri from @darklingreads and a couple of other bookstagram made a bookclub and chose Anna Dressed in Blood as their October read, I decided to read it too.

The Armageddon Rag

"What's the use of messing around in things you don't understand?"

The Armageddon Rag is a mystery/fantasy book written by George R. R. Martin, who I’m sure you know by his well-known and most beloved works, A Song of Ice and Fire. This book revolves around Sandy Blair, a journalist turns novelist who investigates the murder of a rock promoter, James Lynch and its weird circumstances around it. This circumstances set off Blair to not only find out who killed Lynch but also launched a suspicion towards Blair’s favorite rock band, The Nazgul, and their connection to Lynch. During his investigation, Blair unfolds many secrets surrounding, Lynch, The Nazgul, and the occult mystery surrounding rock and roll world at that time.

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.

The Night Circus

“You think, as you walk away from Le Cirque des Rêves and into the creeping dawn, that you felt more awake within the confines of the circus.  You are no longer quite certain which side of the fence is the dream.”

This is gonna sounds so cheesy, but that quote above is exactly how I feel when I finished this book. The Night Circus is a stand alone fantasy book written by Erin Morgenstern. The story revolved between two magicians who set against each other in a magical challenge by their venerable masters with Le Cirque des Rêves as their battle ground. Things get complicated when the two of them start to fall for each other and their thread of fates got tangled with others who live inside the circus.

And Still Peace Did Not Come

“Reopening old wounds will be painful, but in the end, the scar will be smaller.”

When I pick this book, it was meant to fulfill the ‘Political Memoir’ category on this year Pop Sugar Reading Challenge. But, after I read this book, I realize that this book isn’t only a political memoir  of a country, but also an autobiography of a woman.  This is a woman journey to help rebuild and bring peace to her country. This book tells stories about Liberia journey through their Civil War, or like they called it in this book, their own version of ‘World War I’ and ‘World War II’. War that last from 1989 to 2003, between the government, rebels, and warlords. Wars that make the lives of so many Liberian children turn into nightmares and terror, as they forced them to be child soldiers. It’s also a story of a woman named Agnes Fallah Kamara-Umunna, who largely escaped the worst effect of the war, but ended up as a journalist trying to bring peace to her country by talking about what really happened in these wars.

The Fault in Our Stars

“My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.”

The Fault in Our Stars is my first John Green book, and boy how head-over-heel was I with this book. The story revolves around Hazel Grace Lancaster, a 16 years old girl with lung cancer. Hazel believes that she knows what will happen to her by the end of her life. She believes that she’s chaotic, she’s a burden to her parents, she believes that she’s a grenade, that’s why she keep her distance from other people so they won’t get hurt when she dies. But, one day, the universe sent Augustus ‘Gus’ Waters to her. Gus is an ex-basketball player, osteosarcoma survivor, who has an attractive physique, beautiful blue eyes, unique personality (just like Hazel), and a big believer in metaphors.