Erene Gnoy

My mother is a woman of surprises. She used to strike me as being cool-headed, popular with the elderly and a good housewife. I never thought of her as being outspoken. But there have been occasions when I was surprised by her bouts of guffawing at a TV scene, or her hidden talent at imitating my father’s agitated voice and temper. That made me laugh, every time. It is also interesting to note that her English skills are something that she needs help with. Reading the newspaper is her version of getting the daily updates on the world outside. As our household has only English newspapers, and she isn’t particularly inclined to acquiring Mandarin publications daily, she acquiesces to reading it whenever she has free time. Oftentimes, she needs help understanding certain vocabulary, like pillion rider . Suffice to say, her English skills could use some polishing. I had a 180 switch of my opinion about that, one day. If it wasn’t for her, going Dutch would still be an alien phrase...

     Karen M. Mcmanus’s books were everywhere during the year 2019; it was on every booktuber/ book reviewers’ list of books to be read or reviewed. Many of the feedbacks were positive, so I felt compelled to add this to my wish-listed books. But, the thing about books waiting its turn to be read is, they wait forever. Fast forward to 2020, when time equates to boredom (since the majority of us has ample time on our hands now), one of her books - One Of Us is Lying - which is her award-winning debut novel that is in the works of being turned into a TV-series, coincidentally appeared in the recommended section of the website I scour for my next read. The name seemed familiar, and the plot synopsis was intriguing, so I wondered, Heck, why not ? Little did I know, that it took me only three days to ravish the novel. The book is good. But today is not the day I talk about that. I’m here to review her second book, Two Can Keep A Secret.   The Story:      Th...

When social media suffocates me, I turn to my primary source of calm and relaxation; reading and writing. Reading, is where I slip into a world of fantastical constructions, where my worries ceast to exist, and I drown in problems belonging to others. I sink into their characters, delve into their thoughts, and entangle myself with their dilemmas, choosing them and casting my worldly concerns aside, even for just an infinitesimal moment. As ironic as that sounds, I find comfort in the worries of another. I forget myself when I am them. Writing is not my release of pent-up emotions. Instead, it is my way of immortalising them by inking them on blank papers, each fret and frustration locked down in black, like the sins of past dictators carved into stone, waiting for spectators to judge and mock. I will look back at my writings and laugh lightly or howl, depending on my mood then, for the worries and anxieties that had once haunted me will no longer hold me captive. It will be like...

You wake up to darkness. Surrounding you are invisible claws, inching forward with every palpable moment. Terror grips your heart, and your mind  freezes, sanity fleeing. You start to feel like you are losing yourself. You sit up, trying your best to breathe. Chill air rushes through your nostrils but breathlessness fills up your lungs. You choke as endless fear creeps up on you. The sense of impending doom makes you feel inescapable. There is an inflating bubble of pressure within your being that makes you want to cry. You struggle for a plausible connection to that growing balloon yet your reasoning tells you that the rubber ball is made-up fiction. The balloon grows larger still. Conflicted, confused and with craze-filled thoughts, you sit up on your bed, then recline. You can't stay lying down because the unseen fear threatens to eat you from the inside. This enemy is lethal. You know it from your trembling bones. Contemplation fights for your attention. You struggle be...

In this world, we never have all the information. In reality, we don't have enough, or we have too much. You will have to keep putting one foot in front of the other even when you have too much or too little, and you can't decide. But it'll be fine. You'll be fine. God gave us something very good. What's that? You may ask. It's your intuition . Things that catch your eye. Things that make you curious about how they feel. Things that send a shiver down your spine. You just have to search for those things. -Babylon (anime) Episode 10  (altered)

Based on the knowledge that I currently own, I believe that education is not teaching "A is right and B is wrong", but rather teaching the young ones to think "Why is A right and B wrong?", "Why can't A be wrong and B be right?", or "Why can't both A and B be wrong/right?" -Ray's strand of thought