Hello.
I know I barely ever wrote about books despite of my love of them. Lately I've been hooked to this new Indonesian series Setiap Tempat Punya Cerita. Or, in English; every place has its story. Basically this series is a collection of novels by various authors, each is an independent story, takes place in places around the world, and written by different authors.
Last Minute in Manhattan is written by Yoana Dianika, publised by Bukune, which I have to say pretty disappointing because the story mainly takes place in L.A., not in Manhattan. I also have to confess that I didn't finish this book since it's too much for me. (tbh it's the first book I skipped... I never did that before.)
★★★★★
If I have to rate this book, I'd rate this book 1/5. Why do I rate it that low? Because I hardly find anything worth loving in this book. It's completely a rip-off for me. (One star is for the card with the Empire State building, thanks! And the quality of the paper too, I guess)
Here goes the story in a nutshell.
Callysta (Cally in short) graduates from high-school but she doesn't know what to do next. Her boyfriend cheated on her, and her father remarries again. Her new mother is American woman named Sophie, and with the marriage she got a new step-brother named Mark. Because she didn't have any future plan ahead (?), Sophie took Cally to live with her in L.A. In L.A., Cally met Vesper (Vessy in short), an emo guy who's also a drug-addict. Cally fell in love with Vessy like Isabella Swan to Edward Cullen.
I didn't read until the ending so I don't know how it ends with them... But I'm sure Cally ended up being Vessy's girlfriend or something like that.
Some points I'd like to criticize from this story.
- Cally's life is too easy. No future? Okay I'll take you to live in L.A. for free, said no mother ever. Even a rich birth-mother wouldn't do that. It's a waste of future for the daughter, duh. Making a visa for living in States without plan is hard, moreover because Cally didn't have any university or anything attended there. The writer should make Cally's life more realistic... Or else the story became a complete rip-off.
- The story sounds too amateur. I didn't know if the writer has ever been in L.A., or she's just finding information in the web, but I personally think the description of things sounds a little bit too unprofessional. A big help from Google, maybe?
- No one in the story has a strong character. Cally is just a lucky girl who's not over her ex. Vesper is just a drug-addict that needed love. Mark is no more but a wingman for Cally and Vesper. Sophie is just a super kind, too-good-to-be-true stepmother who has a lot of cute dresses. Cally's father is just a figure Cally would talk in the phone when she's broken-hearted. Cally's friends (how much of them, again?) is a bunch of young folks who probably don't know how to send a private e-mails so they just send emails altogether in one email account. Like this is the 90s huh? No one has a personal internet connection? Every one is a "just", no one has a bold character worth rooting on.
- I found the quotes from Japanese boyband Hey!Say!Jump! is out of place and irrelevant. You wrote a novel about America, girl. You should put quotes from American songs, at least. And worse, HSJ is a cheerful boyband, and the songs may be too cheerful for the melodramatic background in the book.
- Image editing has many flaws. It's good to put drawings so the book doesn't seem too monotone, but I think the responsible ones should have edited the drawings well. It doesn't take an expert eyes to see how the images' resolution is broken and blurred all over. Nice try, though.
In the end (not quite end though) I am disappointed by this book. Way too bubbly, too much non-sense I couldn't take it anymore. Wouldn't recommend it to anybody.
I opened Goodreads and wondered why this book has the same rating with the Paris book, because I think the two are quite different. Either Paris book is underrated... or the worst case which I hate, this book is utterly overrated. Tsk.
I have read the second book Paris, and will probably post an update in couple of days. Jaa ne.
