Dominika Juillet

We bought this because they brazenly compared it to the feelings you would get from serenity and firefly. But having magic as part of the components completely destroys that comparison. Maybe it's going to get better (on chapter 3) but I don't appreciate them sullying the name of some of the most innovative characters in science fiction which did not rely on aliens or superpowers but on pure human charisma, rizz and expertly woven character dynamics. All I've been thinking about while reading this is when does the next lock lamora book come out

I discovered this book at age 13, right after I found a swear word in my parents copy of Salingers "Catcher in the Rye".. I don't know if they did it on purpose but leaving a particular set of books on the bookshelves in our house and then telling me that I probably wouldn't want to read them until I was older was the best move to provoke me into reading books as a teenager that ended up in my University curriculum. I wrote a lot about it when I was 13... how I felt when I was 13 because I felt even when I was that age that this is a hugely underrepresented and misunderstood point in human development. demian is a book that is written in a way that captures perfectly one of the biggest turning points of going from being a child into a young adult. The literature assigned to teenagers is often disparaging (why they thought reading the red pony was a good idea for us I will never understand)..I feel like Herman Hesse got the memo (or well remembered) how highschool is a profoundly confusing and turbulent space...the memes and audio/visual stims change/evolve but the ethos of being a "young adult" is largely peppered with timeless themes of self awareness, existential quandary and the inevitable questions about "belonging" or "fitting in". The question of your best friend or your friends in general at that age is so under discussed... The delicate dance between competition and camaraderie and the challenge versus the comfort in our selection process when we choose those to call friends.. this book tapped into the unspoken engagement all of us have at some point in life where we take a friend who is either a mirror reflection of us or a toxic fascination of things in others that we may despise but also admire (For me it was ambitiousness and ruthlessness in a fellow friend who would one minute be my best friend and the next minute be talking behind my back saying terrible things). I was naive as is the main character of this book to the unspoken dance of ego that happens between two developing humans as they approach adulthood and define themselves. This book helped me through some of the most difficult behaviors exhibited by others that seemed unnecessarily complicated and political and manipulative without cause. It doesn't feel like reading a psychological profile but this book is a poignant intriguing and illuminating study on what drives people towards one another why they choose to call it friendship or kinship and the fine line between that and arch nemesis. I understood myself at that phase in life and I have referred this book to many of my friends who have not taken time to self-actualize their own friendships that may be founded on nostalgia instead of actual equality... Depending of course what you think the purpose of friendship is between humans. This is my favorite author and this is the second book that I read of his... I highly recommend it to anyone of any age who has been thinking about the meaning of friendship.

One of the best books that I read at age 14, re read at 20 and have continued to share with people as a compelling thought experiment on what might happen if humans stopped engaging in warfare ..could our minds actually develop other skills? What's that 70+% of unused brain capable of? This is an incredibly inspired piece of storytelling w characters that touch at the very prevalent act of yearning and contemplating the concept of "love" and building a relationship (super relevant to that period of my life).. this shaped my own capacity in life in such a unique way...could I also be capable on evolved thinking if I chose to approach conflict resolution in an evolved way? That very sublime component of the story is a very powerful message to give... Instead of choosing violence you can find evolution of your own mind.... True in a metaphysical way and perhaps if we are do it as a species in an evolutionary way also... I remember loving all of the characters and the sense of mystery of the unknown...(I was assigned the red pony in a similar time frame and I absolutely loathed that book to the same degree that I loved this one)

This was assigned reading when I was in grade 9. .. I hated this book so much and I almost got suspended for professing my distaste for it. (My parents are Eastern European so by the time I was in grade 9 I had read a ton of their Herman Hesse, Dostoyevsky, jD Salinger, ts Eliot.. to say I was precocious was an understatement).. we were assigned the first chapter and I came back the next day having finished the book. "Why do you think this is one of the greatest pieces of literature of all time?" My teachers question itself was clearly problematic . I responded by saying ", clearly the people judging books have a clouded view of what constitutes excellence. This book is morbid, fatalistic and completely lacking charisma: I ask why he even bothered calling it the red pony when the unfortunate animal was dispensed with within the first couple of chapters. The gruesome details of the decay are uninspired and boring. The writing is labored and tiresome and I despise this book: having read the whole thing I found nothing redeeming." *and dull and even now in hindsight I wonder why anyone thought this was illustrious reading for a curious young mind of 14. If anything it made me understand why people would avoid classic literature... I don't understand and never will why this won a prize for anything other than successfully making me never pick up another piece of writing by this man. I felt in class that i expressed a thoughtful and detailed rational for my hatred and said even I could write something that would speak more to the idealistic and wondrous nature of my own age... Instead my parents got called to the school because apparently I was "disruptive" because I read ahead and ruined it for everybody. (Thankfully mom & dad had always said critical thinking was important and always valid so long as, before critiquing something I had to study it in its entirety and present relevant thoughtful and compelling evidence for my distaste.. all of which I did drawing on the other literature I was reading at the time of which my teacher had not yet heard of). Even now I get into disagreements with people about this book. It stands out as a bumbling piece of verbose drivel and depressing fascination, mundane obsession w fatalism. Could be replaced by any number of the other books that I read at the time which really spoke to me and the inherent rebelliousness and wonderment of being 14. The chrisalids by John Wyndham is an infinitely superior read that holds up even now