Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea | Read-along

 Introduction:

I have watched more movies in the past three months than I have watched in the last three (3) years. Despite all the movies I have been watching, I would not call myself a movie fan. Instead, I would say that I enjoy the act of watching a movie rather than the movies themselves. Horror movie marathons with my brothers and cousins on our "diabetes Saturdays" get-togethers, sudden trips with the old people to watch the movie with the longest runtime as a way beat the heat in our AC-less house, and our attempts to gift another tickets with what we hoped the other would revel in. But us kids would fall asleep to the Saw sequels, the olds would talk loudly in the theaters like they were still in our living room, and our thoughts would quickly move onto where to go (and eat) next. And so, of course those experiences of watching movies together became fond memories to me. 

At the moment, the act of watching a movie provides me a set amount of time that I have to myself. A time to not worry about the future or the present outside the theater. I am exempt from knowing anyone else as my phone is kept on silent inside my purse. I am exempt from a role as an auntie, a daughter or a friend. I am nothing and I love it. Though I often go alone now, it has not changed the fact that I still cannot tell you what happened in the story. Hell, sometimes I have no idea what is going one while I am watching the movie. 

All of this just to say that I rate the books I read in a similar way to how I rate movies. Feeling. Barely any logic. Actually, I don't even like rating things at all, but I get asked so many times so I've had to formulate a scale myself. Like lots of movies I read, I think most books are fine and good. To me, three stars is fine and good. It did its thing. 

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea | Read-along

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is a 3.75 out of 5.0 for me. It's good. It kept me wanting to read more but not dying to read more. And yet, I kept finding myself lingering to the world each time I finished a reading session. I would pause to think about them.

The story progressed at a slow-to-medium pace where it started to pick up towards the last hundred pages. The slow pace presented more about the characters, especially the main character, Shek Yeung. This is a book about pirates and not at all similar to the One Piece pirates. It was easy to feel for those that were forced into the life of piracy but still hard to root for anyone that could raid innocent villages. I know that I'm an idealist. I found myself rooting for the Red Banner Fleet and the alliance to lose. I was hoping that if piracy would end sooner, then maybe the lives forced into the sea would stop. Maybe ending piracy would save lives? But saving lives is not the goal of the government. 

The relationship between characters or characters with themselves in the world made me think. Although I may not have been able to think them up in my mind, they are real and complex. I cannot understand them but that's a good thing. 

Random thing I liked: Maynila (Manila) they docked in the land of my people at least twice and if I understand correctly, they didn't rob us so -woot- 

I thought I would finish this book and back too Book-off it would go. But, I think I'll actually keep this in my possession for a little while longer. I cannot think of ever being in the mood to read it from start to finish, but maybe, just maybe, I'd want to skim the pages and try to understand the characters a bit more. 

Note: this is sort of an attempt at a read-along but because I don't take notes as I read, this sorta turned into a review / badly summarized thoughts. Which, if you didn't already know, I don't know how to put my thoughts and feelings into words so this is sort of an exercise for me. I'll try to get better.