Official Review: The 13 by Aaliyah.S

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stoppoppingtheP
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Official Review: The 13 by Aaliyah.S

Post by stoppoppingtheP »

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The 13" by Aaliyah.S.]
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2 out of 4 stars
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Aria Heart is the main character of the story titled The 13 and written by Aaliyah S. The story is based in the city of Seoul, South Korea and revolves around the relationship between Aria and 12 boys from the university that she attends, Rockfield High University. This story is placed under the C/T/M/H genre, however it can also be placed under the Other Fiction genre.

The story begins when Aria and her friend Selly break into their university at night to retrieve Aria’s lost diary. Here she bumps into the group of guys that she will come to know later on. She doesn’t find her diary, but she does retrieve the concert tickets that were in the diary. She and her friend then rush to the concert. After the concert, Aria is on her way home when she stops off at an ice-cream shop – Sunday Sundaes. She again meets the 12 guys she had met earlier and gets to know them a little more.

The next day when visiting the China Town in the city, Aria’s friend Selly almost gets kidnapped, but manages to escape. Meanwhile they begin to learn that more of these criminal activities are occurring around town where young females are being kidnapped. Thus, they begin to think that these incidences may all be linked.

Later, when at university, Aria sees one of those guys from before, reading her diary, so she follows him to a cabin on the campus grounds to what seems to be their hideout. She doesn’t make herself known immediately, but instead, eavesdrops on their conversation. She learns that they are planning on robbing a bank. They spot her listening in, and she is dragged into helping them plan and carry out the robbery. She eventually befriends these guys and is becomes a part of their group. Thus, the story of The 13 continues.

As you can see the book is written in a very haphazard style, jumping from one plot-line into another. I initially chose this story because the summary said that the book was based in Seoul. I have currently gotten into the habit of watching Kdrama’s. These are films and drama series that are produced in South Korea. Since I enjoy these I thought that the book might be somewhat similar. I was not wrong. The author seems to have written in the same style as a Kdrama, with the same structure. There are many similar scenes as there would be in a Kdrama, these include a rooftop scene, a cafeteria scene and going to China Town. However, many of the plot-lines would begin, but didn't seem to be tied to a bigger picture. I was never quite sure what the main story-line of the book was - the bank robbery, the kidnapping or whether there was a deeper story-line.

Most of the characters in the story are not very deep, this may be because there are too many main characters and it may not be possible to develop each of the characters properly.

This is book one in a series, but I’m not sure how many books there are altogether. The book also has several grammatical errors. In addition, the author sometimes uses strange words such as perspicacious, nugatory, which are real words but not really appropriate in the sentence as they are not often used and most people would not have heard of it before. She also disperses some Korean phrases in the conversation.

At times the book was enjoyable and humorous to read, while at other times it was rather confusing and tedious. Thus I am rating this book a two out of four stars. I think that the author writes well and has the potential to produce good work, but perhaps needs to learn to structure her story better and plot a story-line that a reader can follow more easily. I would recommend this book to those who want to try something new or those who are avid fans of Kdrama's.

******
The 13
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kandscreeley
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Post by kandscreeley »

Hmmm. This doesn't sound like my cup of tea. It jumps around a little too much for me. Thanks for the review, though.
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Post by Teekay »

Thanks for the review... Too many characters in a book real bring confusion
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Post by Rosemary Okoko »

Thirteen plus characters is a big number. It must be difficult to remember who is who. Thanks for the review.
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Post by Kelebogile Mbangi »

Kdramas are the best! After reading your review "The 13" is a must read for me. I wonder though, why such a big group of boys? 12 is quite a big group.

-- 17 Jun 2017, 12:38 --

Kdramas are the best! After reading your review "The 13" is a must read for me. I wonder though, why such a big group of boys? 12 is quite a big group.
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Post by stoppoppingtheP »

I hope you enjoy the book.
By the way, I also love watching Kdramas :)

“there have been so many times
i have seen a man wanting to weep
but
instead
beat his heart until it was unconscious.

-masculine”


― Nayyirah Waheed
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Post by katiesquilts »

I tried reviewing this book, but I couldn't get past the ice cream parlor scene...
I thought the writing style was quite childish, and that the author was just acting out some reverse harem fantasies instead of focusing on the actual plot of the story. (Which, according to your review, seemed to go all over the place.)
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Post by Cherryxing »

I read "The 13" a while ago and I think it's quite an interesting book.
The storyline is something new and I had a good time reading it.
I think the way the author has written this book is fitting to the storyline, sure there were some words here and there which are not used often but that didn't stop me from reading.
I really enjoyed "The 13" and it's a good read for someone who want to try something new like the reviewer said :)
P.S China Town was an exciting chapter!
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Post by ebolen01 »

I find myself feeling the same as you did: I was interested when you mentioned Seoul. I am a fan of the show Sense8 and thought that this book might also be interesting. The fact that you said the storyline is up in the air and that there are too many characters that don't have much depth has put me off on reading the book. Thank you for your review, though.
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Post by Yingtao »

So I found out that obc reviewed "The 13" and came here to see the ratings.
I think that this book deserves atleast a 3 out of 4.
I read this book when it was released and I think that this is one of those books where they say "read it to know it."
I'm a big fan of kdramas and kpop, that's why when I saw the description, I immediately downloaded it.
I really liked how the author named her chapters like "EPISODE 12.5- The missing Victims." it made me feel like I was literally watching a kdrama/anime ^^
I also like that there are these point five chapters in between like mentioned above, where the author gives us an insight of what's happening around with the detective who's in charge of these cases.
I'm the type of reader who doesn't care about grammatical mistakes if the book has a good plot
and I'd say that "The 13" has a good/interesting and a new storyline.
It's really a good book.
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Post by Sakuchi »

If this is book one of the series, then I'd wait for the second book to see if these incidents have a link to one another.
This book seems interesting
Since i love kdramas, I'll definitely check out "The 13"
Thanks for the review! :D
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Post by Cora jean »

Too many characters to keep up with Confusing good story
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Post by Sabina G »

I really like the topics this story deals with but I think too many characters, no matter how simple their depiction is, would make the story very confusing and tedious.
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Post by Fan105 »

This book is some how eye capturing but there are too many characters in the book hence the story gets a little bit confusing
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Post by shish_by_design »

I'd get bored reading this after a while. A book that has no main theme, I don't think this can hold my attention long enough to complete it. Thanks for your review.
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