The Wrath and The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh Review

Title: The Wrath and The Dawn
Author : Renee Ahdieh
My rating:  4.3/5

This book was inspired by One Thousands and One Night's tale or Arabian Night where once upon a time there was a king who was betrayed by his wife because he found that she was cheating on him. So he punished her by killing her at dawn then he swore to himself that he will marry virgins only for every dawn he will kill them, But then one girl, just the night before she was supposed to die she told some stories to the king and when the stories is not finished yet it is already dawn and the king still wants her to continue the stories and then it begins until 1,001 nights.

" A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights

Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi’s wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.

She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all "

I love this book, the story, the characters and everything. What I love from this book is it's quite different than other fantasy books I have read before. It involves with the Arabian kingdom and some Arabic terms so it's really new to me. It was a vengeance the reason Shahrzad volunteered as the next bride of the King. It was because of her best friend since childhood who died because of the Caliph of Khorasan. But what she didn't realized is that the reason why the king has to kill every new bride for every dawn. It's all in the book the reason why Khalid has to do that but he can't kill Shazi because she was different. It's like he just found his emotional tether.Shazi is smart, fearless and pretty good at archery. She eventually falling in love with the king she was supposed to kill and trust me all the moments when they were together are so oh, very romantic if I must say. I think it's because they needed each other and they can't just be apart. Anyway, I just love this book so much. Every words from this story are just beautiful. I love how the author choosing her words on this book. So as always, I will put my favorite quotes and some extra a photo edits I found from Tumblr. I really recommend this book if you guys like a fantasy book. A different kind of fantasy book.

"I know my words only carry a certain weight with the worlds, but I do know enough to realize you cannot control the actions of others. You can only control what you do with yourself afterward."

"Some things exist in our lives for but a brief moment. And we must let them go on to light another sky."

"In my life, the one thing I have learned above all is that no individual can reach the height of their potential without the love of others. We are not meant to be alone, Shahrzad. The more a person pushes others away, the clearer it becomes he is in need of love the most."

 

 Khalid's letter to Shazi. This is so sweet and sad. Credits: tumblr

 Shazi's aesthetics.

Khalid's and Shazi's aesthetics.

Norwegian Wood

So I just finished reading and watching this book and the only thing I complained to myself is that I didn't understand the ending or the ending was not what I expect it would be. Overall, I like the book and this is my Murakami's first book ever and I think he left me with a good impression so it's good enough for me to want to read his another masterpiece. Mostly I think this book about growing up, living in the 20s and how to deal with death-suicide. 

Toru Watanabe is the main character in this story. He moved to Tokyo from Kobe because his bestfriend (Kizuki) just killed himself just right after Toru was playing with him. The thing is that Toru didn't understand is why Kizuki killed himself because he didn't show anything to him his weakness or even his problems and just one day he decided to kill himself. Toru was pretty devastated like he said in the book, it feels like he's just lost one of his souls taken away. It's not that Toru that have an impact after Kizuki's death but also Kizuki's girlfriend-bestfriend since childhood and Naoko is also Toru's first love. I think Naoko was really depressed since Kizuki's death I mean, who can deal with that kind of situation? But Naoko has Toru on her side to help her and he loves her to death I guess. 

Then the story is actually involved on Toru's life like how he didn't have any friend because mostly he enjoyed solitude and then one day he became friend with Nagasawa (a rich kid) just because he saw Toru reads The Great Gatsby. Nagasawa has some charisma like all girls will like him straightaway when he starts to talk. So Nagasawa also teachs Toru how to get a girl etc like at that and let me tell you this book has a lot of mature contents as in a lot. Anyway, they became good friend and one thing that I don't like from the movie is that they didn't show that Nagasawa book in the movie. I mean sure the person who play Nagasawa has some that charisma but the lines or conversation between Nagasawa is not enough.Toru meets Midori, a very quirky girl, short hair and has a boyfriend. She actually on the same class with him in drama class. I actually like this Midori character because she's weird, innocent nad yet she likes to tell the truth or is like she likes to say what's on her head. Toru spends his sunday almost with her and it came to the moment when he has to choose either Naoko or Midori.

Naoko, Toru and Midori in Norwegian Wood movie (2011)

One thing that I appreciate this book more than the movie adaptation (as always book always way better than the movie) is that the movie didn't really give each characters enough lines to speak or maybe it's just me that I don't really understand how a japanese movie what it is like. Anyway, I like every casts who plays Toru, Naoko (they have perfect cast on this two person) but for Midori, Nagasawa and Reiko, I don't think they have that enough lines to speak that makes those characters are a bit different than in book. I thought Midori is going to be really weird and quirky girl, I mean Kiko Mizuhara as Midori is a perfect option but I don't it's enough to say that the movie Midori is equal to book Midori. Anyway, I like this book, it's like one of those books that will give you lessons of life and down here I will put my favorite quotes from this book.

" What did I want? And what did others want from me? But I could never find the answers. "

" I don't know, sometimes I think I've got this hard kernel in my heart and nothing much can get inside. "

" It's stupid being 20, I'm just not ready. It feels weird. Like somebody's pushing me from behind."

"It's because I hated the place so much, I wasn't going to let it beat me. If I'd let it get to me once I'd be finished."

"You're normal, I've got tons of things I don't understand about myself. We're both normal: Ordinary."

"It's ok letting out of feelings. The scary thing is not being able to do that. When your feelings build up and harden and die inside, then you're in big trouble." 

 "I didn't have much to say to anybody but kept to myself and my books. With my eyes closed. I would touch a familiar book and draw it's fragrance deep inside me. This was enough to make me happy."

Laneway Festival, Singapore 2016 (Pt.2 with CHVRCHES, THE 1975, GRIMES, BEACH HOUSE)

Just exactly one day before the festival, @lanewayfestsg tweeted to me that I won the meet and greet with CHVRCHES. The funny thing was that I found out about it when I was in airport just waiting for boarding so I was literally freaking out and probably people saw me and thought 'what is wrong this gurl' hahaha. I'm so happy like really happy I didn't expect that I would win because I know  there are so many entries about people who also wants to meet and greet with CHVRCHES. I put my entry like two weeks before the d-day. They sent to my email that the MnG will be at 7pm and I can bring one friend to the MnG so I decided to asked one of my friends (who I met up via twitter). The good thing about Laneway fest is that they have MnG session which was really good. Three of us (there are 5 of us) were waiting in line for THE 1975 MnG but just minutes before they supposed to have the session sadly they cancelled and there were already fans waiting in line like in a long line just for this meet n greet including my friends and I. One of the good thing and a bad thing about winning MnG with CHVRCHES was that the time for MnG clashed with THE 1975 performs and I was so sad but excited at the same time because I will miss few songs when THE 1975 performed but I will get to see CHVRCHES in person, how amazing is that. I will talk about this more for each band I watched at Laneway and I will put my videos of CHVRCHES, THE 1975 and Beach House (sorry if it's a bit shaky).

East India Youth

He was actually really good but I couldn't stay long because hell thanks to the hot weather I was burning and I just couldn't stand the heat while standing so I can't enjoy the music at all, then we decided to just sitting on the grass, chilling and strolling around the venue, buy some merchandise and I bought CHVRCHES cds for my friends because they want to get the signed cd so I bought for them.

THE 1975

They started exactly at 7.05pm and I get to see them performed two songs: Love Me and Heart Out before I have to go to the MnG stall. They were amazing super super amazing. I love their stage with that classic square light which will turn either to pink, green, blue or pink. The first song was Love Me so the stage was lit with pink color which was really cool. After I finished meet and greet with CHVRCHES, I was running so fast as possible to get to the stage and they were playing Robbers which is my favorite song ever from THE 1975. I only recorded the last part of Robbers on my phone but it's ok i guess at least I can finally hear my favorite song live. So I get to see the last three songs which are Girls, Chocolate and Sex! Yippie. I'm happy at least finally I watched them live and hopefully I will get to see them real soon. 

 The stage was lit in pink!

 LOVE ME!

 Why don't you take my heart out?

 Really digging this new The 1975 pink (but kinda miss the 1975 black and white too)

Matty!!

Beach House

Beach house performed around at 8pm on Garden Stage. To be honest, I only know two songs from beach house which are Take Care and Myth and I get to see Myth live and they were really good! Just as same as the song. 

Beach House performing Myth live.

Grimes

I actually only know one song from Grimes but what I didn't expect when saw her live was that her amazing live show! It was so powerful, energetic and full of dancing! I really enjoyed throughout her performance. One of the main highlight for Laneway Singapore is where Grimes didn't sing at all and invite Chinese rapper and screamed, it was really cool and like woah I mean even Grimes joined to scream with the rapper haha. Such an unique show.

Credit to: Instagram

CHVRCHES (Meet&Greet + Show)

As you know that CHVRCHES meet and greet was clash with THE 1975 show and I only get the first two songs and the last 4 songs to watch so the other songs I only get to hear it backstage. When I went to the MnG tent I saw a long line for people who also wants to meet CHVRCHES but luckily the winner just can cut the line so it's more like a vip access. But one thing I noticed when I arrived at the tent was a note saying "CHVRCHES meet and greet cancelled" and I was thinking whether this is the same thing that happened when I was lining up to meet THE 1975 and they cancelled it. The staff said the artist was tired to do a meet and greet, probably because the long lines so only the winner gets to see the artist and guess what? WE WENT TO THE BACKSTAGE! 

This is actually my first experience coming to the backstage in a huge festival like this and I didn't expect this at all so this is like my lucky day, big opportunity for me and I get to see what artists normally do before their performs. I saw GRIMES and say hi to her (can't take a pic with her because the staffs only allowed us to take pics with the artist we chose) and I saw the singer of Beach House too! It was really cool to see how the backstage is really like. 

The manager of CHVRCHES asked which one of us who come alone all the way from Jakarta just to see them and I said 'that would be me' and she said 'you really come alone?" 'yeah i did come alone from jakarta' haha. 

After a few mins (and I was jamming and singing while THE 1975 performs in the background) finally the band came to us, and I speak to Lauren, Iain, and Martin. I asked them sign a few things like cds and tshirt i just bought at merchandise store. Lauren Mayberry is really cute and she is just the same height as me, I told her that I love the new album and my favorite is Bury It and she said 'Aw that's nice' and then we only have maximum 10 mins so we take pictures and selfies and then we're done. It was really nice to meet them in person and they were all really nice! I hope to get to see them again soon, hopefully they will come to Indonesia or Malaysia again. Fingerscrossed!

With CHVRCHES! I'm beyond happy. Look at that big smile on me.

 Here are the stuffs they were signed and 3 of it are for my friends

Lauren signing my t-shirt yay!

After GRIMES finished, I was in second row and trying to get the front row for CHVRCHES and I got the front row and I am so happy. I like to be in the front row during concert because you get to see your favorite artist closer than ever and the best thing is you don't feel squeezed because maybe someone in the back pushed you and you get free air than people in the back (if you know what I mean). They started with Never Ending Circles and I was enjoying, dancing, singing along throughout their show and it was really really fun. Lauren is always great and she has incredible voice, great presence and CHVRCHES is just a fantastic group. Their live version is the same as in the digital song. My favorite part from their show are: Never Ending Circles, Leave A Trace, Bury it, Recover. 

 They were freaking amaaaaaaazing! Hope to see them again real soon.

CHVRCHES set list via laneway instagram

So I think that's all, I only saw Flume for 20 mins because I have to leave asap due to the last train mrt was around 11.50pm and his show started at 11pm. It was really an amazing festival and this is my new experience as I come alone and met my internet friends for real. I really hope we can see each other again in another festival or another concert! Thank you for Laneway festival for made the meet n greet possible and I still can't believe that I get to the backstaage and met CHVRCHES in person. Thank you!

Laneway Festival Singapore (Part 1)

In this part one I will just talk about my day before Laneway and maybe talking about the outfits what were people wearing. I decided to go to Laneway just 2 weeks before d-day and I was like 'Okay that's it, I don't want to miss out my favorite bands again (which is The 1975 and CHVRCHES). I bought the concert ticket then later on I bought the flight ticket, my first plan was actually to just take a plane on the same day as the festival but then I was thinking that I can be tired as hell and luckily I'm really happy with my choice to stay two nights in Singapore (I left on Friday afternoon). I came alone all the way from my country to Singapore (yes, you read it right I did come alone.) and then I asked on twitter to find people who also going alone to Laneway, guess what? I found like around 3-4 people that I will be meeting up at the venue and one person meet up just near my hostel. On friday, after I went to check in to my hostel (Wink Hostel) I directly went to the H&M store in Orchard to collect my wristband then just walking around Orchard and Chinatown. This is actually my second time staying at hostel and the reason I chose Wink Hostel is mainly because really close to MRT and the rating for this hostel is also good. Then later at midnight I was preparing for the festival here is my check list on what to bring and hopefully it might be useful for you guys who are about to go to the music festival!

Music Festival What To Bring List:

• Outerwear
• Picnic Mat
• Rain jacket / Poncho (if the venue is in tropical country then you need it)
• Cash
• ID Photo/ID card
• CAMERA (#1)
• Hat
• Sunscreen

I was strolling around the city with my friend who I met on twitter because she came alone in the morning and she really needs a friend and it was her first time coming to Singapore so I was like her tour guide haha but it was really fun because the last time I went to Raffles place or Merlion was like 9 years ago and I was still a kid which I just remember some part of this place and yes everything has changed because they didn't have Marina Bay Sands or Gardens by The Bay back then so it was really nice to exploring new place. I like Singapore so much although it's really expensive in here but I'd like to go back and forth to here maybe for another concert or festival? Hahaha but I have to see if the band performs is my favorite or not.  

 Chinatown at night at Pagoda St. there are many souvenirs shops and it was really crowded at night. 

 Got my wristband for the festival yay!

 Wink Hostel, it's a pod-hostel and I was staying in the ladies dorm room. It was really nice if you want to stay at affordable place or if you just staying at singapore for two nights like me. I would really love to stay at this hostel again! Check them out: Wink Hostel

 The first three photos were taken at Merlion place/Esplanade and you can see those tall skyline buildings in Singapore. I walked from Raffles Place MRT to Gardens by The Bay and it was not that far maybe just a bit tiring.

'Supertree Grove' and the view at night is waaay beautiuful and more picturesque. 

Then I finally arrived at the venue around 12pm and I met up with people who also come alone and then surprisingly we were like a group haha so it was really nice, so in the afternoon because it was really freaking hot and thanks to the weather now I get a sunburnt, we decided to just chilling around near the stage, sitting on the grass while eating and enjoying the music. I already wrote in here in the WTF post that I really love to come to music festival because I get to see people really dress up either because they want to 'dress to impress' or just casual dress up. So here it is I got some pics what people mostly were wearing at the festival: boho style, grunge style. My outfit is just a simple one, white lace-up top with short pants and sneakers because I know I will stay the whole day so I decided to just go simple. I think the music festival combo is: a top with a kimono outer then short jeans with a gladi shoes or maybe boots.

 This was my first time meeting up with internet friends for real and they were all really nice (we were at different age I was the second youngest one in here lol). I was really nice to know them and  hopefully we will meet in another festival or maybe Laneway next year? :p

 Just chillin and p.s I think this was around 2pm and it was really really HOT like I was sweating a lot.

 Festival Combo: top with short jeans and sandals!

 Or maybe wearing a tie-dye long skirt with a tube top? 

 Going grunge?

Boots or sneakers? Either of them is still a go-to shoes for music festivals. If your legs don't want to get tired fast then maybe sneakers is really a good choice.