Location: Malaysia
Member Since: Nov. 30, 2009

Anna Tan


Where to find Anna Tan online

Twitter: natzers
Blog: http://natzthinks.blogspot.com

Books

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Anna Tan's favorite authors on Smashwords


Smashwords book reviews by Anna Tan

  • Misfit McCabe on Aug. 20, 2011
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    I am a voracious reader. Science fiction enthrals me, fantasy rivets me, romance gives me goose bumps and detective stories intrigue. There are books that grip me so that I can't sleep until I find out the ending, and there are books that make me laugh out loud. However, very few books make me want to cry - LK Gardner-Griffie's young adult novel, Misfit McCabe is definitely one of them. Reading Misfit McCabe stirred up long buried emotions - feelings of internal dissonance, disappointment, abandonment, fear, overwhelming embarrassment - all the ups and downs of a highly strung teenage girl that I thought I had long gotten rid of. What do you know - they were merely lurking beneath the surface, waiting for Gardner-Griffie's well-placed words to stir them from their slumber. One of the reasons I identified strongly with Katie McCabe, the story's protagonist, was when she claimed, "It's not fair I have to be a certain way just because of my last name." Story of my life, seriously. There have been times when I have wanted to yell, I am not my father, when people place ridiculous expectations of how I should behave just because of the family I grew up in. Which of you hasn't ever felt driven to do something mischievous for revenge just because it seemed fun at the moment (AND would seriously annoy the person) and then regret it later? Which of you hasn't felt the pang of first love, when that cute guy you enjoy hanging out with just so innocently - or not so innocently maybe - slips his arm around your shoulder? Gardner-Griffie doesn't just deal with the good stuff, though. Katie has some pretty tough times to go through that none of us would like to deal with: a hospitalised father, living with unknown relatives, nasty bullies and a long cycle of revenge with horrible results. Misfit McCabe is a well-crafted book that definitely deserves the Pearson Prize Teen Choice Award it received.
  • A to Z Stories of Life and Death on Sep. 05, 2011
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    Birthed out of a month-long blogfest, D. Biswas’ A to Z Stories of Life and Death presents 26 short stories organised according to the letters in the alphabet. Beginning with the innocence and wonder of a child finding snails in her Aquarium and ending with a fiery funeral pyre in Zone, the stories run the gamut from love, murder, sex, abuse, addiction, myth, sickness and mourning - all revolving around the issues of life and death. Majority of the stories are very poignant vignettes focusing on slices of life, with several longer flash fiction in between. Reading them makes you feel as if you are collecting memories from various sources and trying them on for size. Each story has its own personal twist - the endings are never quite what you expect - and most would leave you with a tear in your eye. What I like about Biswas’ writing is the descriptive way she writes, which helps put you right in the middle of the scene. She is very good at invoking emotions and making you feel the story without a sense of detachment.
  • Sept-Iles and other places on Oct. 12, 2011
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    I've been following Donna Carrick on twitter for a while now and leapt at the chance to pick up this book of short stories free on Smashwords. I'm glad I did because I thoroughly enjoyed the whole book. Each story is gripping, delving deep into the psyches of her young protagonists. One thing I did have trouble with was keeping the stories separate, as all of them were written in first person, often by a young girl, and many have similar backgrounds, such as an abusive father and/or a younger sister, so I had to stop in between each story to remind myself that it was a new set of characters. You probably will not face this problem if you don't read it all in one sitting as I did.
  • Letters to My Ten Year Old Self on Oct. 16, 2011
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    I enjoyed all the entries - each had a very unique voice. Am also very priviledged to have been able to contribute. Good job, Nina and Drew!
  • Empire (In Her Name: Redemption, Book 1) on Dec. 17, 2011
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    Reza Gard, an orphan from House 48, is captured by the Kreelans, a race of female warriors with blue skin, fangs, and razor sharp talons, as part of a grand experiment to discover if humans have souls. Immersed in the brutal conditions of Kreelan life, Reza forms a new Kreelan identity in his struggle to survive, slowly gaining the grudging acceptance of his captors. However, time is running out and Reza must prove that he has a soul or be killed after his seventh and final Challenge. The book started off pretty slow - whilst much of this back story is important to the novel as a whole, most of these could probably have been dealt with as a flashback within the story proper. As it was, the first few chapters dealing with Reza’s life as a human felt rather like a prolonged prologue, with the real ‘meat’ only starting with his wary dealings with his guard and tresh, Esah-Zhurah. Despite the rocky start, I was captured by Hick’s writing as he navigated the fragile teen through the complex, rigid, and unforgiving Kreelan society. Within the 491 pages (on iBooks), he fleshes out realistically a harsh and yet beautiful world, a culture so alien from our own - one trying to survive an ancient curse and pursuing release through an ancient prophecy. This is a story of a boy growing into manhood on a world not his own, a society that doesn’t understand or accept him, and how he survives through sheer determination, grit, and guts. This is also a story of learning to understand different cultures, not just by knowing the way they do things, but to understand the reasons behind them. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the trilogy, Confederation.
  • The Backworlds on May 14, 2012
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    Run out of house and town by the Verkinn council elders at the instigation of his father, twenty-year-old Craze sets off to Elstwhere in search of his fortune. Craze soon falls in with two aviarmen, Lepsi - who’s trying to trump his brother Frederoy, and Talos - determined to establish a trade route in honour of his mother, in search of a new home. Their crazy new partnership leads them to adventure, dangerous places, and lots of money, or so they hope. M. Pax writes with stunning imagery, creating a wonderful world of different species, bio-engineered humans and space travel. Her characters are vivid and varied, emerging fully-formed in your imagination. Her writing style is breezy and easy to read.
  • The Backworlds on May 14, 2012
    star star star star star
    Run out of house and town by the Verkinn council elders at the instigation of his father, twenty-year-old Craze sets off to Elstwhere in search of his fortune. Craze soon falls in with two aviarmen, Lepsi - who’s trying to trump his brother Frederoy, and Talos - determined to establish a trade route in honour of his mother, in search of a new home. Their crazy new partnership leads them to adventure, dangerous places, and lots of money, or so they hope. M. Pax writes with stunning imagery, creating a wonderful world of different species, bio-engineered humans and space travel. Her characters are vivid and varied, emerging fully-formed in your imagination. Her writing style is breezy and easy to read.