Review Tokyo (The Devil Of Nanking)

 

Tokyo (The Devil Of Nanking)

by Mo Hayder, Rahmani Astuti (Translator)

1937. Tentara Jepang melakukan pembantaian besar-besaran di Nanking saat mereka melakukan invasi ke China. Mereka melakukan pemerkosaan, perampasan, pembakaran, serta eksekusi terhadap tawanan perang dan penduduk sipil. Ini merupakan peristiwa paling tragis yang dialami bangsa China. Karena kekejamannya di Nanking, seorang letnan Jepang bernama Junzo Fuyuki mendapat julukan yanwangye—si Iblis.

1990. Fuyuki menjadi pemimpin sebuah geng Yakuza. Ia dipercaya biasa menyantap daging manusia agar tetap sehat dan panjang umur. Fuyuki selalu didampingi oleh tangan kanannya, Suster Ogawa, yang dijuluki Jahanam Saitama karena kesadisannya. Suster Ogawa telah menjadi mitos di dunia bawah tanah Jepang.

Shi Chongming, profesor di Universitas Todai, beserta Grey, seorang mahasiswa dari London, bekerja sama untuk mengungkap rahasia Fuyuki dan Pembantaian Nanking. Ketika satu per satu fakta terungkap, Grey berada dalam bahaya karena telah membangunkan kembali Iblis yang pernah merajalela dalam tragedi di Nanking dahulu...

496 halaman

Dastan Books 2009

Sybill: I just finished listening to The Devil of Nanking. Because it is about Japanese atrocity in Nanking during WWII, it is not surprising that the theme is the terrible things humans do to others. It is perhaps surprising that it is more about the terrible things we do to ourselves. It is hard to review this without spoilers. The story unfolds small bits at a time. The pacing is excellent with the story moving between a young mentally scarred English woman and an elderly Chinese scholar. Their stories intertwine with poignancy, raw emotion and grace. I think I this book will stick with you long past the end.

Samantha: This book centers around the Nanjing Massacre that has happened a long time ago. In thsi book, an Englishwoman named Grey comes to Japan to look for a document or footage the captures the horrifying event of the Nanking massacre. This book literally broke my heart because of the gruesome things the Japanese soliders had done to many of the Chinese civilians/people. They raped them in the streets and murdered thousands of people. I think many people should be informed about this genocide which is a mass murdering of many people because we need to make sure that history does not repeat itself- even though it has known to do so. This book brings out the horrors of humanity and I would reccommend this book to the young adults and mature age group.

Kathrina: I can't stand to read a thriller that contains nothing more than a bag of cheap tricks the author must construe a plot around, so I read mass market thrillers with a huge degree of trepidation. I want to be compelled, not manipulated. Hayder hits the mark; she's intelligent, does her homework, and writes with dexterity and skill. She's woven a contemporary mystery that runs sidelong with an historical atrocity, and both are compelling and thrilling. As far as I can tell, this is her only novel with an Asian setting (too bad, because she's very knowledgeable, having lived in China for a portion of her life), but I'd be confident enough in her skill to try one of her British settings, just because I like her style.

Teresa: "Tóquio” é um livro que me manteve em permanente angústia durante toda a leitura.
É baseado num episódio da história da humanidade – o massacre e tortura de milhares de chineses, pelo exército imperial japonês, durante a invasão da cidade de Nanquim, em 1937. A acção desenrola-se, capítulo a capítulo, entre a cidade chinesa e Tóquio 50 depois, onde encontramos Grey, uma jovem inglesa, que procura um filme que relata um episódio do massacre.

É um livro muito bem escrito e muito complexo, que expõe o lado mais negro do ser humano, até dos inocentes.
O final é inesperado e avassalador. Não é fácil de ler. Até porque fala de amor: “...sempre foi para mim claro que o coração humano se vira do avesso para pertencer a alguém, que tenta aproximar-se do primeiro e mais próximo afecto...”

Veronika: Haunting... gave this book 4stars because I couldn't put it down...it had a good transition between wartime Nanking & present day Tokyo...I will say that the "magic elixir", once I found out what it was, gave me nightmares days after I finished the book. I will not be able to read it again, and really can't find myself recommending the book because the nature of the massacure in Nanking bothered me so much. It bothered me the most when I kept thinking that really could have happened. Even though the characters are fiction, the war was not...the massacure was not....I guess the evil that man can inflict on each other will never cease to amaze me.

If you have lost a child, I strongly recommend you NOT READ THIS BOOK!!! It has haunted me for days....I can not even begin to describe the horrors inflicted....

However, like I said, I did give it 4stars because it was a well told story, that had my heart racing and on the edge of my seat.

 

Review Parfume

 

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

by Patrick Süskind, Bima Sudiarto (Translator)

Seorang pembunuh genius,

aroma perawan,

dan parfum terbaik...

Pembunuhan berantai yang misterius. Dua puluh lima gadis perawan tewas mengenaskan. Pakaian beserta rambut dan kulit kepala mereka hilang. Tubuh mereka benar-benar layu, seolah tak pernah hidup sebelumnya. Seakan seluruh daya hidup yang pernah ada telah terisap tak bersisa. Semua pembunuhan identik. Dilakukan dengan amat rapi dan terencana. Masterpiece seorang seniman genius.

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille lahir tanpa bau tubuh namun memiliki indra penciuman yang luar biasa. Ia mampu memilah-milah seluruh bau yang ada. Dari seorang ahli parfum ternama, ia mewarisi seni meramu berbagai minyak dan tumbuhan. Namun kegeniusan Grenouille melampaui itu semua. Setelah “menangkap” aroma seorang perawan cantik, ia terobsesi untuk menciptakan ‘parfum terbaik’ beraroma perawan!

Dituturkan dengan amat brilian, Perfume adalah kisah yang sungguh memikat tentang pembunuhan dan kegeniusan yang menyimpang. Novel bestseller yang eksotis dan sensasional ini membangkitkan rasa penasaran yang menakutkan tentang apa yang terjadi ketika bakat, hasrat, dan kecenderungan seseorang akan bau dan aroma mengubahnya menjadi seorang pembunuh. Membunuh demi ‘parfum terbaik’.

428 halaman

Dastan Book 2006

Maulana: Tegang sampai akhir. Setiap manusia memiliki "wewangian khas". Dalam istilah biologi disebut feromon, sejenis aroma yang mampu memikat lawan jenisnya. Feromon tidak hanya dimiliki manusia, semua jenis hewan juga memiliki. Telebih menjelang musim kawin (baca: birahi), kadar feromon tubuh meningkat drastis. Mungkin basik pemikiran dari pembuatan novel ini ya? :)

Pera: This book say: see the world by smell...its new point of view and its amazing!novel ini keren abiesz...buku ini membuat pembaca membayangkan melihat dunia ceritanya melalui penciuman hidung....hanya saja yang sedikit menggelitik tentang pengertian cinta oleh penulis dalam cerita ini...cinta hanyalah wangi dari 24 gadis cantik????heheheh

Nielam: the cover was quite interesting.i guess that was the main reason why i read this book.

i wonder,do virgins really smell that good?n do pretty girls smell better that the ugly one?

but,if u can control people just by making some fragrance,i'd love to learn chemistry to get that effect.

its a good read though...

recently added:

i just pipping somebody review about this book, and he said, the reason why he read this book was because he loves the movie beyond reason.

and he also said one word to describe the movie is "lush"

i think i better start looking for the movie right away,hohoho...

Rini: This is a story about a man who felt different at first, but finally he embraced it. I admire this man because he is evil in-and out side, since the day his mother gave him birth.. and no fear to show it-he didn't afraid anyone will hate him.He thought and felt that (other) humans are unworthy, lower than him... the thing that i really admire this character is the firmness of his own thought, he didn't give a damn care about what other's talk and think about him. Not like me... sometimes i like to be an ignorance person so i can simplify my life but i just can't.

This book tell a bit strange story but it was not the story itself that so attractive. It has different point of view in describing the place, the scene, the people. Other books would take sight description as the place is beautiful, full of colors, and so on... but, not this book. Perfume use nose to make the story flow..., use smell to describe everything. A very unique book.

Review Daddy's Little Girl: Putri Kesayangan Ayah

Daddy's Little Girl: Putri Kesayangan Ayah

by Mary Higgins Clark, Kathleen W. (Translator)

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Ada tiga tersangka: Rob westerfield, pemuda tampan dari keluarga kaya setempat, yang diam-diam menjalin hubungan dengan Andrea; Paulie Stroebel, teman sekelas yang diam-diam mencintai Andrea; dan Will Nebels, pekerja serabutan yang suka menawarkan jasa kepada para tetangga.

Kesaksian Ellie membuat pria yang ia yakini pembunuh kakaknya, dipenjara selama 22 tahun. Namun si terhukum tak pernah mengakui kesalahannya. Ketika orang ini dibebaskan bersyarat, Ellie memprotes pembebasannya. Namun si pembunuh tetap dibebaskan, dan kembali ke Oldham. Tak ingin nama orang ini dipulihkan, Ellie juga kembali ke Oldham dan melakukan penyelidikan untuk membuktikan orang ini memang bersalah.
Penyelidikan itu ternyata mengungkap peristiwa yang lebih mengerikan, yang selama ini tidak diketahui.

440 halaman

Gramedia pustaka utama 2005

Gwe: Kisahnya benar-benar menyentuh. Kisah sebuah keluarga yang memiliki 2 orang putri. Diawali dengan terbunuhnya seorang gadis di sebuah gudang. Kejadian ini pada akhirnya membawa dampak yang sangat mempengaruhi keutuhan sebuah keluarga berhubung gadis yang terbunuh itu adalah putri sulung kesayangan sang Ayah. Pelaku pembunuhnya masih belum tersingkap dan hal inilah pemicu hancurnya sebuah keluarga.

Kini yang tertinggal hanyalah si putri bungsu yang pada usia mudanya harus menghadapi banyak perubahan-perubahan yang tidak seharusnya dia alami.

Kematian sang Kakak telah mengubah segalanya. Ketika dia menyadari bahwa kematian tidak akan memindahkan kasih sayang sang Ayah dari si Kakak ke dirinya, malah justru dia harus kehilangan sosok Ayah itu sendiri.

Perceraian tak terelakkan lagi karena sang Ayah tidak pernah bisa memaafkan sang Ibu yang mengijinkan putri kesayangannya keluar rumah pada malam dia terbunuh. Tidak ada kata yang terucap selain semua itu adalah kesalahan sang Ibu.

Sejak perceraian itu dia (si bungsu) pindah bersama Ibunya yang mengalami depresi berat dan beralih pada minum-minuman keras.

Setelah bercerai, sang Ayah menikah lagi dan memiliki seorang putra yang pada akhirnya harus berhadapan dengan si putri bungsu.

Sementara Ibunya sendiri, sejak perceraian itu, mengalami depresi berat dan beralih ke alkohol dan klab-klab malam.

Hingga suatu hari setelah dewasa, dia memutuskan untuk meninjau kembali kasus pembunuhan kakaknya dan mulai melakukan penyelidikan dengan cara kembali ke kampung halamannya, tempat dimana dia dan kakakknya pernah hidup bahagia dalam suatu keluarga yang sempurna, jauh sebelum pembunuhan itu terjadi.

Penyelidikan ini mengalami banyak halangan dan rintangan, dimulai dari tidak adanya pendukung, kamar yang sengaja dibakar, hilangnya berkas-berkas dan kartu-kartu penting lainnya, namun dia tidak pernah putus asa. Tekadnya hanya satu : mempertaruhkan apapun untuk bisa menemukan pelaku pembunuhan kakakknya.

Pada akhirnya dia memang berhasil menemukan pelakunya, baca deh... Pasti seru..

Ceritanya sangat menyentuh, mendidik dan membuat kita berpikir untuk bersikap lebih bijaksana, bahwa tidak selamanya pengalaman pahit itu membawa kehancuran dalam hidup. Hanya kita sendiri yang bisa melawan itu semua .

Doris: This enthralling story is a first person narrative told by Ellie Cavanaugh, the 30-year-old survivor to a murder that devastated her family when she was only 7. She is now an investigative reporter, and has twice gone to the parole board to fight the parole of the man convicted of the brutal murder of her big sister Andrea. For 23 years, she had been convinced her sister's murderer was in prison, but now he, and his extremely wealthy family, are fighting to prove her wrong.

This story twists as Ellie researches the murder, with several episodes along the way that could have turned out much nastier. The episodes only convince her that her research is bearing fruit, and it comes to a powerful conclusion.

There was only one area that was never cleared up for me, but it would probably have been a dangling teaser regardless. (view spoiler)

Overall though, my reaction when I finished was to say out loud "Wow!"

A masterfully told story from the "Queen of Suspense", which helps to show the ways that murder and violent crime don't affect just the victim. There is a ripple effect that takes a toll on everyone.

Jerry: We're not likely to skip a novel by (mama) Clark, but this -- her 21st -- is far from her best. A good start leads into an absolute slug of a middle book, with most of the exciting action reserved for the three-page epilogue. Ironically, there is a reasonable degree of suspense to the plot, but our interest ebbed and waned so severely we might have put this down if we hadn't lined up for the hardback.

The plot revolves around Ellie Cavanaugh, a 30-year-old investigative reporter, fighting unsuccessfully the parole of Rob Westerfield, convicted some 20 years earlier for the murder of Ellie's sister Andrea. Though only seven at the time, Ellie's testimony in court weighed heavily in the guilty verdict. But Rob is being sprung on parole, and his wealthy family is pursuing all means, including illegal ones, to have him retried and acquitted. The rest of the book is basically the war between Rob's antics and Ellie's fact finding, and in the end Andrea's murder plus another one from long ago are all neatly re-solved and tied up with ribbons. In between, Ellie is harassed and followed and injured, etc. yet never succumbs, like virtually all of Clark's leading ladies, no matter the hurdles or the challenges. Some all too convenient helpers bail Ellie out of more than one predicament.

So what we find is not really the recipe for a whopping best seller. A dash of suspense is overwhelmed by plodding story lines, improbable action, implausible developments, and a leading lady who after all is said and done is not that easy to really care about. Clark's innately good story crafting and writing are not enough to make this cake rise and shine.

Review Unwind

Unwind (Unwind Trilogy #1)

by Neal Shusterman (Goodreads Author)

Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.

The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers 2007

Karen: this is a great book to use as a springboard for discussions about reproductive rights and governmental responsibility and what kind of world we are creating and leaving to the next generation.

but i'm just going to talk about me. cuz i am a very laissez-faire individual, and i live my life like i am reading a book someone else is writing, and i am just tuning in to see where it all goes, and any discussion of this sort always leads to conflicts, and i think goodreads has enough of those, yeah?

i am of two minds on this book. on the one hand, i got completely sucked into the story, and i love the characters (especially lev), and i thought it was one of the rare dystopian YA books that actually took the time to world-build enough so that its characters made sense in the world they were given. but even at the beginning, i was picking it apart, and finding flaws in the construction; ways that the system could be abused and that just would not work, even as a dystopia. catie's review goes into a lot of concerns i had, and even though i liked the book a lot more than she did, i agree with a lot of her observations.

i am late to this book's party, and most of you have already read it, but for the newborns out there who can't even read yet, i will lay out some of the plot points, so your folks can read them to you.

in this book, abortion is no more. there was a war between the pro-lifers and the pro-choicers which resulted in legislation (apparently only half-seriously proposed) that satisfied both sides: no more fetus-abortion, but parents had the right to "unwind" their unwanted kids once they reached the age of thirteen, but once they turned eighteen, they were there for good. unwinding is a process whereby the kids are used for parts, and nearly every single piece of them is transplanted into a needy recipient, ensuring the donors would "live on", but in a different state. and all these parts retain the muscle-memory of their previous owners, which seems medically implausible, but who am i to judge? this results in "more surgeons, fewer doctors" because no one needs to be cured anymore, they can just get some spare parts and fix themselves up that way.

for people who are unable to raise their children until the age of thirteen, there is another feature of the legislation that is called "storking," where unwanted babies are left on the doorsteps of strangers, and THEY HAVE TO RAISE THEM. i mean, it is better than a dumpster, by far, but what a drag. this is the part i had the most problems with. i mean, how easy is it to abuse that law? and i was grateful that he included an anecdote about one such incident that was horrifying, but i can't see how this was a law that ever got accepted. assuming that financial responsibility for thirteen years at least? no thank you.

but whatever, if i can accept the chinks in divergent's armor, i can accept this. it is a teen fiction book; it's not flawless, but this is the world we are given. and it is admirable that he took the time to a) construct such a fully-developed world and b) point out its flaws, occasionally.

and its strengths are numerous. there is great detail-work here, even when it is just given briefly, in the anecdotes of the various unwinds. the variety of reasons a kid can be unwound are numerous and heartbreaking. and just the number of wonderful moments of revelation - (view spoiler)

but overall, i was completely engaged in the story, and i do think the characters grew and became different people, (view spoiler)

overall, i thought it was a great read, and i appreciated the care that went into writing it, even though it is one of those books you have to accept as-is, without going over it with a hyper-critical eye.(

Janina: An astonishing and at the same time disturbing read. Took me some time to get into, but from then on I was hooked. The world Shusterman created feels so vivid and real, it almost scared me. Thought-provoking and highly original. I haven't read anything like this ever before.

Also, it contained one of the most disturbing scenes I have ever read - not on a graphic level, but more due to the fact that what exactly is happening is left almost completely to the reader's imagination (if you've read the book, you will most likely know what I'm referring to).

Set in the near future, the novel follows three teens about to be unwound – which is the thing to do with unwanted teens and basically means that they are to be scavenged for body parts to be transplanted to those in need of them (though the signification of 'need' can be stretched here: someone can also 'need' new eyes because his girlfriend doesn't like the old ones' colour)

Connor has always been trouble, sometimes unable to control his temper. When he finds out that his parents are about to have him unwound, he runs away and crosses paths with Risa and Lev. Risa is a state ward being sent away due to shortage of money and Lev is a tithe, sacrificed by his religious parents for a greater good

Connor and Risa have only one goal: to be able to make it until their eighteenth birthday, when the law will protect them from being unwound after all. Lev, who has always believed in his special purpose, is deeply conflicted. Should he run with his two 'rescuers' or should he turn them in?

I not only found the three main characters, but also the friends and enemies they make on their journey drawn realistically and very relatable. Everyone has his own way of dealing with their situation and nothing is painted in black or white. Those characters have their faults – some more than the others – but in the end there was no one who deserved to be treated like he was nothing but human spare parts for those who could afford it.

The only thing that felt a bit off at times was the writing style. Sometimes the present tense sounded awkward to me, and the frequent switching between the different points of view made it hard for me to become fully attached to all the characters, but I loved Connor, Risa and Lev.

I will definitely be looking out for more of Shusterman's work.

Edit: I originally rated this book four stars, but I've decided to up my rating ;). I would recommend Unwind to everyone looking for a good YA book, I would label it a favourite, and I don't think I'll ever forget it. If a book makes me think about it even months after reading it, it definitely deserves five stars!

Kat: I was walking back from my playgroup with my son on Monday, I came out of an elevator to find a teenage boy waiting for me. Fear and an urge to protect my son came over me as he looked a little "rough" around the edges.

Instead of pulling a knife or picking a fight though, the teenager turned on me with big, embarrassed, doe-eyes to ask in a quivering voice, "Excuse me, can I please have fifty cents to call my mum?" I fished out fifty cents worth of coins and left as soon as I saw him head towards the telephone, not waiting around to see if he got through to her. True story.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman is a novel about a world gone mad in which children between the ages of thirteen and eighteen can be legally signed over by their parents or guardians to be put through a harvest camp so that others can take their organs, tissue and blood.

Abortion is also illegal but people can leave infants on other people's doorstep as a method of "storking" and thus legally handing over their responsibilities of the child.

A common phrase used throughout this book is, "Someone else's problem." This encompasses the spirit of the book and is said often by adults who have had children fall temporarily into their hemisphere and require dealing with. There are very few adults in this book who do more than the bare minimum of what they have to do to sit right in their conscience and there's a whole bevy of others who don't do that much.

Connor, one of the trio of main protagonists and an indisputable Christ metaphor, is a "problem" child. His parents are at a loss as to how to handle his behavioral problems and his poor grades so they consign him to being unwound. Risa, a ward of the state, is a bed that the government can free up for a child that they can't legally unwind yet and so is also handed over to the harvesting camp. Levi, the last of the trio is a religious tithe by his parents - born and raised to serve God by handing him over to be tithed as part of their duty to the community and God.

There are many other such stories in this book from a boy whose loving parents died, leaving him an inheritance that his aunt feels would be better off putting her kids through college once he's been unwound and a boy whose divorcing parents couldn't agree on any custody solution and would rather, literally, divide him.

This whole book is about the powerlessness of children in the hands of those who should be responsible for them. It is at times nerve-wracking, heartbreaking, devastating and a complete adrenaline rush.

What it is most of all, though, is sad. Sad because the truth is that children are not the problem and they shouldn't be treated like a problem. They are a symptom at worst and a blessing always. They are a gift that requires attention. They are an innocent package and in the case of 99% of them - if they are running around the street as twelve year olds being a menace to society then they have not let us down - we have let them down.

I love this book because it is well written, I love this book because it is compelling. I love this book because sometimes it is a hard and challenging read on a personal level. I love this book because it asks you to think. I love this book for the many things it has revealed about me - most of them not positive. I love this book because it is well-written with absorbing characters and a great plot.

Most of all, I love this book because next time I come across a kid of the street asking for fifty cents to call his mum, I'll let him borrow my phone and make sure she's coming to get him.