Book Reviews

Book Reviews, Opinion, Raffles Reviews

A Refreshing Take on Magical Girls: A Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon
Reading Time: 3 minutes

By Chen Ying (25A01C)

Rating: 3.5/5

Raffles Reads is a collaboration between Raffles Press and Times Reads which aims to promote a reading culture among Singaporean students.

Trigger Warnings: Mentions of domestic violence, idealization of suicide, financial trauma, terrorism, and murder

From Sailor Moon to Winx Club to Lolirock, we’ve seen the magical girl trope done to death in various pieces of media in our childhood. 

Sailor Moon transforming. 

As a loyal consumer of magical girl shows in my own childhood, the intriguing title and gorgeous cover of A Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon (translated by Anton Hur) immediately captured my eye when it came to selecting a book to review. After all, how can a magical girl retire? And how could this magical girl narrative possibly differ from existing takes on this trope?

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Book Reviews, Opinion, Raffles Reviews

The Four by Ellie Keel: Unravelling Mysteries Behind Dark Academia
Reading Time: 4 minutes

By M.B. Dharshni (25S03O)

Raffles Reads is a collaboration between Raffles Press and Times Reads which aims to promote a reading culture among Singaporean students.

Rating: 3.5/5 

High Realms, an elite boarding school, stands as a bastion of privilege where the wealthy and influential reign supreme. It has nurtured the brightest minds and moulded future politicians and leaders. 

Rose has beaten thousands to win the coveted Millenium Scholarship, giving her a chance to enter this exclusive elite world. She dreams of an idyllic boarding school where misfits could become leaders and fairytale-like memories would be made.

But appearances can be deceiving.

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Book Reviews, Opinion, Raffles Reviews

“Well, That Was Unexpected” by Jesse Q Sutanto: Was It Really That Unexpected?
Reading Time: 4 minutes

By Foo Le Xuan Shanice (25S03A) 

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

When I first picked this book up, I was skeptical about the title. I assumed it would be another one of those cliche coming-of-age books where the main character goes back to her home country, falls in love, and finds herself. Nonetheless, being a sucker for books like these, I decided this would be another one worth spending an afternoon tucked under my sheets for. 

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Book Reviews, Humour, Op-Eds, Opinion

A Guide to Male Leads in Romance
Reading Time: 6 minutes

By Chen Ying (25A01C) and Ng Dawin (25A01D)

According to popular lore, your quintessential modern-day romance story goes something like this: Girl meets guy, girl and guy fall in love, girl loses guy, girl gets back together with guy. 

There may be some variations to this plotline—such as girl meets guy on a boat (Titanic), girl meets guy in a school (every teen romance) and girl meets guy who is a vampire (Twilight). 

The core story has been this way since the 1800s (or even earlier), when a revolutionary female writer wrote a book about the courtship between an intelligent lady and an aloof yet heart-meltingly affectionate nobleman. 

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Book Reviews, Raffles Reviews

Too Late by Colleen Hoover: A Wattpad Romance, Published (literally)
Reading Time: 5 minutes

By Michelle Lee (24A01A)

Raffles Reads is a collaboration between Raffles Press and Times Reads which aims to promote a reading culture among Singaporean students.

Rating: ⅗. An experience similar to watching an entire series on Instagram Reels.The other day, I stumbled across an Instagram page posting Reels of low budget, 20-minute video series (so each episode was about one minute long). Each distinct series had titles barely distinguishable from the others, all involving a billionaire husband.

Somehow, I ended up watching all episodes of a particular series, and I found the experience strikingly similar to my experience reading this book. I didn’t know why I was watching it, but I couldn’t stop. 

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