Before Ever After

Before Ever After by Samantha Sotto

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Eggs.

Whether its well done, sunny side up, creamy scrambled eggs, by the time I'm finished with this book, I was having egg withdrawals.

You guessed it. Before Ever After revolves around eggs which I think, for sometime, was pretty out of the box. That and the egg hunt tour around Europe.

But then, it's what gave the novel a unique charm. I've always been in love with Europe. The cobbled streets lit by the warm glow of lamps. The brick houses and the castles. The history and culture that resonates even now.

For someone who can only dream about going to Europe, I felt nostalgic. Samantha Sotto takes you through Europe's streets with lush and vivid prose, with unexpected twists and turns.

Though it dragged at first and there were many questions left unanswered, what really set Before Ever After above other novels is Sotto's unrivaled take on immortality.

She defied the laws of fiction writing by beginning the past at the end and weaving it with the unfolding present(whew!).

After I read this book, I had a different perspective on eggs, basilisks, and endings.

PS. I'm extremely proud for this beautiful Pinay and her ode to the Philippines!

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Separation anxiety

When I look at my book shelf, all I see is: SEPARATION ANXIETY. The missing titles among the row of books is that obvious I could actually see those two words.

It does feel good to share shove my books into my friends hands. For them to read it and like it is another thing to boost my bibliophilic ego.

But I do miss my books after a while and it worries me that they might never come back. I fervently hope not. That would break me.

My books are important to me. They each carry a piece of me - a memory, a place, a time, a person. They've been with me through a certain point in my life and I clung to them for my dear life.

Maybe one day I could let them go, set them free. Pieces of me in the hundred paperbacks, millions of words, out there in the universe.

Now they're selfishly mine. Living pieces of me scattered within a 300 mile-radius, maybe?