Aug 9th, 2026
this is it. my first 5 star book of the year (wait actually its the second).
i finished PHM on 5th aug. it was so good. i literally dont know what to say. funny because when i was in the middle of reading this book, i had so much to say. in my head, i planned what will i say in my review, structure by structure, word by word. but when i finished it, i was left speechless. dumbfounded. astounded. the following rant contains spoilers, if you dont mind.
first off, its actually a difficult book, contrary to what eveyone says. its a scifi, and the reason i bought it was because people said its an easy read. even though its scifi, the author expalain everything clear and well, like the readers are 5 years olds. thats what they said. after reading this book, i gotta say i slightly disagree with that statement. its not explained like the readers are 5, but more like if the readers had taken physics and chemistry in highschool before. so this book definitely for those who never take science or never associated themselves with highschool science stream. which is fair, because science stream is not for everyone. the way the science here is explained in basic manners, which i can follow through. even though i barely recall physics and chemistry from 5 years ago, but i still understand what the MC, Grace, trying to do. i understand the experiement hes doing, the apparatus and machines hes using, the outcome of the experiment etc. i like the way the author explain it and what the experiment will do, because its easier for me to follow through. but still, i wont recommend this book to people who never learn physcis or chemistry. it will only confuse them more and eventually lead to reading slump.
second, its funny. there are some jokes that didnt land, because its giving millennial humor, but most jokes are funny. especially the inner monologue of the main character. i like the way he remains calm and content on the outside but unleashes chaotic energy inside. i also find rocky funny as well. i like their interaction. rocky always makes fun of grace for being stupid human. its so wholesome
thirdly, i love the character, especially rocky. hes just so smart so quick so sassy so cute. to the point i want to pet him. but i know its just weird to treat him like animal when hes like a grown up dude in his own planet. there are some part i think that doenst make sense because rocky basically can do everything with limited supplies they have on the spaceship. he literally build everything grace told him to do without a guide. but because its fiction, so i guess anything can fly. grace also is not bad of a character. i think hes well written and just very patient with everything. even when i read that book, i always feel like "wow this guy is so patient. i could never". especially the part when he runs experiements on taumoeba. he was silmutaneously run like several experiements at once and didnt sleep for days. and then the taumoebas escape and eat all the fuel from the spaceship and he has to go and clean it. then the taumoeba leaks for the seocnd time. like omg. even when reading them i feel so tired already. i dont know how he got patience to deal with all of that. the entire book is just a ride of why its impossible to conduct scientific experiments on the space. theres so many things you need to take into account, especially the gravity. liek i said, even by reading it and not physically experience all of this sounds so exhausting. maybe thats why it took me a while to finish this because its just so draining. one problem after another. but at least its entertaining enough, especially rocky.
lastly, the ending is perfect. i saw some people complain how they dont like the ending because its not what they expect, but i love it. i love how he still gets to reunited with rocky and grows old together. i was said when rocky was unconcious at thd middle of the book. i thought he was dead. his character is the best part so when hes temporarily dead, i feel empty. same as at the end when they have to go separate ways because they finally find the cure theyre looking for. it was sad, i thought theyd never meet each other again, since they are from different planet with different living condition theres no way they got to contact each other. it was pretty sad when they had to say their goodbye. i feel so empty after rocky left the ship, same as grace. hes just alone in outer space with no friends. when hes explaining ways on how he gonna return to earth with limited food supply, i wonder how he can pull it off. if he went into comas, then whos gonna control the ship when they finally reach earths atmosphere. i was a bit skeptical of the people that handle this project, because they dont have a backup plan in case if anything happen to the project hail mary crew. like they really depend the lives of earth people fully on the three crews. and then boom, two of them died before they even reach the destination. and what if grace failed then what? why cant there be other a backup plan.
anyways, i love the ending. as long as rocky is there. i feel bad for rocky becuase of taumoeba destroyed his only chance to save his own people. but thank god grace comes to the rescue. and then they offto rockys planet where rockys people take care of him until he grows old. its a good ending, i never thought of that. i thought he would abandoned rocky, since rockys planet got many more years before the astrophage affecting them. theyre not in critical position, so they can send another rocky to solve it. and i also almost thought after grace saves rocky, they gonna go wander around the tau ceti system and beyond until they run out of food supply and die there, abandoning their people back home. becasue theyre already been put on stressful position and in the end they might question themselves, "is it even worth it?". saving the entire humanity? and the earth only send three people? i would just kill myself after i wake up from coma, if i were grace. but the ending is good, id never think of it that way.
so thats all my summary of project hail mary. its a fun read, but i do not recommend for easy read. you need to use brainpower if you want to understand truly whats going on. but i love it. i can tell the author put a lot of research and thoughts into this book. easy 5 stars.
i also read other book this week. here are some of them:
pakar by nadia khan
bought this boook solely because of nostalgia. ive read this book back then when my family moved to penang and i was in boarding school. my parents would come all the way from penang for our pulang bermalam and we would stay at my old rawang house. theres nothing much to do in thta house since every stuff had already moved to penang. the only entertainment i had were this book and dherbs advertisement. ive read that dherbs ads many time i can basically recall whats the content. they sell boob enlarging pills, skin whitening products and some other sketchy products. so pakar is the second best entertainment in that house.
even though ive read it, i already forgot whats it about, because it was so very long time ago. so when i saw fixi sold this book for rm10 on pbakl this year, i quickly bought it. its cheap nad its nadia khan. so why not. i read it for like 2 days. first day was after finishing PHM, and second day was the morning after that. and then i continued with starling house.
pakar is a quick easy read (literally can be finished in one sitting if youre free enough). it has two stories inside. one is a girl whos asking for the help of cari jodoh agency to get a man whos already in relationship. it has multiple pov of the characters that involve in this. the MC, the man shes stealing, the gf on the man, the two agents of the agency that help the MC to steal the guy, and others. the mc tries to flirt with the guy, one of the agents (guy) try to gain info from the guys gf but at the same time secretly likes her, the other agent (woman) gets jealous because she had like the guy agent for so long. the gf actually realizes her bf is walking redflag. the mc also realizes the guy is also a redflag. the guy agent lose both girls. in the end, nobody gets anybody. win-win?
another story is about two psychologists that has psychology clinic. sandra and max. sandra's patient said he wants to kill his wife because shes hot headed. maxs patient said she saw her husband around the house even though her husband already dead. turns out hes not dead, she just hallucinates that hes dead. max and sandra go off and investigate on sandras patient, in case he actually kills his wife. they hire other people to find information about the patient. they believe all the info is true and go investigate the guy at his house. turns out, there is no wife. the guy has schizo and hallucinates he has a wife. and the people they hire for information? they also have schizo and the info they gave are not true.
the book is okay i guess, the writing is very early 2010s twitter coded. read it only for nostalgia, so i dont have any expectation. i didnt even give star ratings because i dont have a standard for this kind of book. for me, the second story is a bit weaker than the first one. but everything okay i guess. i picked it up just to reduce my mountains of tbr.
starling house by alix e. harlow
my first book by ms harlow, and definitely not the last. i love the writing, however draggy it sounds. i kinda agree with some reviewers saying theres too many purple prose, but i can understand all of them. theyre easy to understand and kinda funny too. kinda remind me of alexandra bracken in a way. i like writing thats easy to understand even how complicated it is.
if its not for the writing, the book itself can be quite boring. but because opal is witty and funny, so its not that boring. i just dont like how to author always repeat how ugly arthur starling is. how terrible opals smile is. like okay, i know shes trying to avoid that 6'4 morally grey ridicolously handsome mmc, but come on. he was referred as ugly like 10 times in this book. as much as i hate when the author mention how big a guys is, i also hate whatever this is. like okay, i get it. hes uggo. maybe thats also why arthur doesnt stick out to me. because hes ugly. in my head, i imagine him looks like josh duhamel. but because the author keeps mentioning how ugly he is, my imagination got disturbed.
opal is also not bad of a character. maybe i dont like how shes so mad all the time and how she likes picking fight with her landlord. but i like how she just doesnt give a damn about her reputation in that town. she shoplifts and got caught, but still do it again. she would do anything for her little brother. maybe my judgement agaisnt her is how she likes to assume things. like how she assume her brother would want to go to all-white private school and she goes ahead paying full for his first semester without telling him about it. arthur also sponsored to pay the rest of the semesters. and in the end, her brother didnt even want to go there and the money just wasted like that. how can you say you love your brother and would do anything for him but cant communicate properly with him about his goals and dreams? sounds like you dont love him enough.
anyway, this book also reminds me of the hazel wood by melissa albert. it also about a young woman who wants to go to a mystery house. even the ending of both MCs going into this fantasy world is almost similar. but starling house did it better, because unlike the hazel wood, it doesnt drag too much. ending is okay-ish. she met with eleanor starling and fix things with her and live in that fantasy world with arthur for god knows how long. in the end, they open the starling house to their friends and family.
i had a good time reading this, even abandoned my fyp so i can finish this book. but thinking back, its not all that. the only thing that drives me to keep reading is the uncovered mystery and the writing. but i definitely wont read it for the second time because i already know what happened. but its stilll good writing tho. i will definitely checkout other alix e. harlows book. i like her wits.
thats all for the book i read this week. its definitely a good reading week. its just not that enjoyable because i keep worrying about my fyp while also doing nothing. i hate how lazy i am. becasue everytime im lazy to start my fyp, my mind goes back to #him. i wonder what he thinks of me if he sees me in this state. i know im male-centered, but i kinda miss him. its been a month since our last class, and i found myself stalking him again. i found his carousell account where someone purchase a couch from him. the buyer posted the picture of him helping her moved the couch. hes so adorably short. i also found his youtube account where he posted interview video for ukm acceptance. turns out we have the same muet band and he studied in matrikulasi pulau pinang. i wonder why its so far away from his house.
im in the middle of a progress of forgetting him right now. i know i dont like him like that. its all just a matter of obsession and attention seeking. he probably forgets about me already. btw, bahraingp website already sells f1 tickets in sepang (13/8). its so damn expensive. the cheapest was rm200 on hillstand, and the other side of hillstand was rm800. idk why theres a big jump of price point there, but of course people would battle for the cheapest first. i didnt manage to secure the ticket. i didnt even manage to get into the ticketing selection. i was in the queue until 60% progress, then they kick me out saying theres database error.
i dont think anybody gets the ticket, because threads is awfully quiet. im sure the bahraingp just face terrible traffic and it will open the ticketing again. but i already lose hope somehow. i will never get to go there. i will never get to see max in sepang. i will never get to see #him or even sit next to him on the hillstand and show him my f1 prediction app. its whatever i guess.
now i got a few hundreds i want to spend to make myself feel better, so i plan to go to ikea this weekend with deni to buy a bookshelf. the bookshelf in my room is full house. not books can go in anymore. so booksheld is very much needed. finally, im being a big girl and buy a furniture on my own with my own money. screw f1. its better to watch from the comfort of your house anyway.
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