Book Review: Severed Heads etc.

The Beginning of Everything

A not-so-much-of-a-book-review-but-more-of-a-diary-entry-slash-book-review-kind-of-blog-post by Eingel Calayag.

After days of being unseen and unheard here in my blog, I have returned with so much in store for you guys.

First, I would like to welcome back myself here in my blog with this book review of a book I just finished earlier entitled, "The Beginning of Everything".

Let me just say that this book was--without a doubt--the most bizarre thing I've ever read. Not because of its loss of "urmph" or commonality between other fine works, but because it reminded me of one of my friend's actual writing style. It was as if she possessed the author and used her name for the book to be published.

Now, I may sound a little too overboard here but I kept on telling this friend of mine about this book and that we happen to go on and on about how Schneider's writing style was amazingly as close as hers.

So now, she bought the book as well. (Though I think she hasn't read it yet but she spoiled herself on some of the parts of the story from my copy)

Now, here's the thing: The book is basically about tragedy but not really tragedy. And how life is tragic but we don't always have to make it that way. And that severed-heads from a roller coaster ride could haunt you for life. Seems interesting, eh? Well, don't stop now. The book is also about popularity and how it slowly fades away. But in a perfectly good way.

The whole thing is pretty much unpredictable. Like, this just happened in one part of the story and suddenly, this happens to the other part and you have no idea how that happened until you reach the end of the book.

It's not a mystery book, though. And I wouldn't count it as a normal teen fiction either. Or a chic flick. I would just call it a Not-So-Teen-Fic Teen Fiction. Considering not all teenagers would get the idea of the book and not every book has this kind of story.

The book also reminded me a lot of John Green's characters, such as Margo Roth Spiegelman from Paper Towns, Alaska Young from Looking for Alaska, and so much more. Overall, it was like a John Green Fan Fiction but with different fictional characters and a bit of twist and turns in the actual story.

To sum it all up, it's a book worth reading. I wasn't even able to put it down by the last minute. Even though I'm pretty much lazy with reading books.

It's just so sad that it wasn't labeled as a "New York Times' Best Seller". I mean, it's so worth that prize. The Beginning of Everything should at least get placed somewhere in the middle of Looking for Alaska and The Lucky One in every bookworm's bookshelf.

On the other hand, here's a picture of my own copy before I even took off the plastic: