Fetch Your Copy Naermyth (Naermyth, #1) By Karen Francisco Conveyed In Pamphlet

it This is the first novel written in English by a Filipino author that I read from start to finish as far as I could remember, I picked the book because of my love for apocalyptic literature and Philippine folklore, but it took me too long to finish it this book is not an easy "speedy" read.
This is a promising debut from Karen Francisco I should say because it is rather uncommon among Filipino writers to produce a project that is set in the backdrop of apocalyptic/dystopian universe.


Naermyth is set five years after the war between humans and supernatural creatures broke, It follows Athena's codename Aegis pointofview, Athena is one of the Shepherds, a group of fighters, who slay every supernatural beast and save those who remain alive until she encounters a boy her age called Dorian.
Little by little, Athena discovers something mystical about Dorian that Dorian himself isn't aware of, And what Athena unfolds can potentially put herself in grave danger,

The downside of the novel are as follows:the book looks like a school textbook or manual because of its size, minimizing its appeal to the readers, although the cover art done by Francisco herself is really catchy.
The codenames of the Shepherds are confusing,The book can be too trivial because Athena explains the background/niche/weaknesses of every creature featured,I spotted quite a few grammatical errors/typos, and the writing can be painstaking sometimes maybe because Francisco studies/d Law the language can be a "hard pill to shallow".
Pacing and transitions are very terrible, too much words the writer could've increased the tension and added action/fight sequences rather than have the characters relax and play chesspages before the book ends!I was expecting too much action scenes for a dystopian literature stuffed with folkloric beings I mean, there are action scenes but not enough to suffice the hype of the story.
Creatures are all over the place i, e. aswangs, batibat, dewende, elves losing the novel's focus,And it took too long to get to its focus which is to confront Mamon and to battle Valarao,And everything is just about the whiny main character Athena, I'm so full of her! I think it's too late to discuss the love story element and some character backgrounds toward the end of the book.


On the brighter side, what I like about Naermyth is the idea of conspiracy and selfinterest, that the last of the human beings can push others down for power in the midst of their survival.
Mamon reminds me of Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter fat and comparable to a poisoned honey,

Francisco said in her official facebook page that Naermyth can expand into a quartet but she is not willing to commit to it as of yet, although the sequel has been rumored to be out soon.
Nevertheless, I look forward to book, If young Filipino readers have appreciated YA dystopian literature from "bestselling" American authors like Suzanne Collins, Cassandra Claire, and Marie Lu, surely they'd consider such stories from local talents.
Ive read this book years ago but was surprised that I didnt log this on Goodreads, Anyway, I remember loving this story the first time I read it, I was interested in local mythology before and it still holds true to this day, Naermyth was a great read for all those reasons, but reading it again made me more perceptive to the mishaps of the story, the grammar lapses, the deus ex machina quality of certain scenes and plot devices used, and the problem of a story told inst person by a main character who I didnt feel that much of an affinity.
Nevertheless, the author did a splendid job of keeping me glued to the page with incredible fight scenes and fastpaced action, I look forward to reading thend installment in the hopes to read more of what I loved, I wish I could rate this higher because I liked the concept and the plot, But the spelling and grammatical errors throughout the book bothered me, I spent more time unconsciously proofreading/copyediting the book than enjoying it : Development was, ermm, . . not quite dull but somewhat interesting, though nevertheless too mild to be flavorful, Characters seemed shallow, or maybe just underdeveloped or underutilized, for the pace the book was going, I had higher hopes from the plot and setting, since it was one that was unlike any other written: unique, creative, ingenious, There were typos here and there, Why were there so many typos Loved the whole mythological background, and how it was presented from key characters' POV's, When I was young my yaya have the power to create mythical creatures into real moving creatures by sharing stories and giving a week of nightmares, I lived in a place where mountains, rivers and forests were not fully discovered with thick bushes and spirits roaming around the grounds, Some said, those places were used to be houses for creatures that are hiding for centuries, Nobody knows when this myth will be real but maybe almost of us already experience or saw this creatures waiting for them to be discovered again, If the time comes are we ready to fight to survive between myth and reality

My yaya told me a story that I won't be forget, it was the popular story of an innocent woman who went abroad and came back with a sudden twist in her life.
She beaten all her son and cooked them for her husband, it was one of the delicious food that er husband tasted, He doesnt have any idea what type of meat his wife cooked for him but, when he checked their refrigerator, He saw the head of his two sons looking at his eyes waiting and crying for mercy, Blood spread through the house and his wife suddenly vanished from mankind, It was the story of an aswang named Maria Labo, A mythical creature that eats human meat with foul odor in human form, Aswang can be hereditary or can be manually acquired through saliva and a stone that came from another aswang after death, Filipinos were well known of their myth and legends, from diwata, a beautiful fairyliked creature to kapre, a giant that smoke that stays in balete.


I want to deliberately explain why I liked this book, although it disappoints me from the beginning to the end of the story, But compared to any other Filipino YA novels, this must be a nice beginning for them to enjoy writing in this type of genre, Mixed with Filipino culture with a grand twist in the end, For those paranormal novel lovers, this is a must read for you guys, I admit that this is not suitable for those people who are not interested in myth or don't have any backgrounds in Filiipino mythology, I suggest that the author should begin with a footnote or a glossary in the back of the book, This must be simple for us Filipinos but if she really wanted her book to be international she should consider the Filipino term used,

I gave itsweets not because I liked the story but because I was impressed with her research, I mean the detailed explanation and historical facts of the myth.
I wish high schools will recommend this book for students to read for Filipino subjects than reading some books that are not interested in current generations, I must confess that I really hate Filipinoauthored books because of my high school Filipino subjects,

Sweets It was an okay read, from the start I was hoping for the book to end, I'm not that rude enough but seriously it was an awkward thing to read this kind of book, but I get used to it in the end, While reading I was dreaming of Twilight with sparkling vampires and a special creature, I don't like to mention the second creature or else it might spoil your reading experience, Aegis or Athena Dizon was a cold lady living with the Shepherds, they are the group of people who fight for their survival, and accidentally saved a mysterious guy guarded by the dwende or dwarfs.


When she came back to the ruins, River discovered something weird on the guy, He was surrounded by aether, Theth element with unknown composition used by the alchemists, Because of her desperate to break the mystery between them, she struggled to save her life and her family from the hand of those who wanted her, the Ibig ng Bathala, a message from above that will change everything from the day the naermyth appeared.


Sweets The novel was wellresearched, the mythical creatures were wellexplained and their history, The author also mentioned some comparison between Filipino to foreign mythical creatures, She also included a special creature in the story that deals with major plot and twist in the middle of the book, Three hundred pages of mythological study is a heavy read for me,

Another Sweets This may contain spoiler, I truly adored the ending it was nice that the author put some cheesiness in the end, I was hoping for a real wedding between the characters, unfortunately it was a different wedding, Well, about the letter, it was so heart warming, Now I'm talking like a fanboy but seriously the ending was worth waiting for,

sitelink image error sitelinkOriginally posted on my blog,

It's a little weird, writing this post months after having read the book and having given my copy away, but my personal need to chronicle my reading life is compelling me, so here we go.


Naermyth by Karen Francisco is a take on postapocalyptic YA that combines the tropes of the genre with uniquely Filipino references, In this world, the creatures of mythology suddenly emerge and lay waste to most of civilization, In the Philippines, these are the creatures parents used to invoke to strike fear into children's hearts, such as the sitelinkaswang, sitelinksigben, and the sitelinkmanananggal, Only pockets of surviving and resisting bands of humanity continue to exist, including a fort in Manila that is protected by the socalled Shepherds,

The Shepherds venture to the aswanginfested territories of Manila to find surviving humans and lead them to relative safety, One of the most efficient and competent aswangkillers among this ragtag group is a girl that answers to the name Aegis, One day, she finds an unconscious man who is about to be attacked by aswangs and saves him, only to find out that this man has absolutely no recollection that the end of the civilization has occurred.


So far so good, right I was initially interested in reading this book because of the premise, A sustained novel of this genre from a Filipino author has been a long time coming, I was ready to experience some intricate worldbuilding, a spunky heroine, and copious amount of Filipino mythology thrown, All requisite boxes are checked, However, I found no pleasure in reading it because the first person point of view, the dialogue, and the plot twists struck me as utterly unconvincing,

The earliest obstacle for me was the use of thest person POV, We see the world from Aegis's eyes and we are led to believe that her experiences with death and violence has hardened her into a jaded person that keeps her emotions to herself.
And yet, throughout the novel, she ends up shouting at people and wordvomiting at the slightest provocation, The strange connection that she feel with the man with the amnesianamed Dorianis alluded to over and over again, For someone who keeps her cards so close to the vest, she sure talks a lot,

Comparisons with sitelinkThe Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins inevitably crop up, Mind you, I read the THG series a couple of months after Naermyth, so my dislike doesn't stem from unfair expectations I may have heaped upon Francisco's novel.
Collins managed to grip my attention from the very first chapter by using punchy language that smartly reveals Katniss's laconic personality and sustaining it for an entire trilogy, This is quite a feat considering that FIRST PERSON NARRATIVES ARE HARD,

An untrustworthy narrator can destroy all the

groundwork the writer has done and makes the story topple like a house of cards, Naermyth illustrates this quite clearly, It's easy to lose the tension because you already know what the most important person in the scene is thinking, Making it work requires judicious editing and making sound decisions on what to say and what to leave out, Speaking of leaving things out, all the characters are invariably given chewy mouthfuls of exposition to advance the story, There are effective ways of conveying the details of a worldPhilip Pullman's sitelinkThe Golden Compass did this admirablyand an inexpertly rendered exposition can destroy the promise of an interesting fantasy universe.


These elements may have been easy to overcome in my head if it wasn't for the inclusion of a clumsily handled, overwrought, and entirely unnecessary romantic triangle! subplot.
I get that this is another trope of the YA genre, but every time the action grinds to a halt for the sole purpose of having Aegis, Dorian, or River he's some guy, don't ask talk about their feelings, I wanted to curl up into a ball and never see the sun again.
And I don't want to spoil the story but let's just say that the fate of the world ends up hanging in the balance unless it is saved by The One.


There were interesting and pleasurable elements, I like how certain Filipino supertitions are woven into the story and the sort of road trip to Pampanga's sitelinkdiwatacontrolled territories is easily the most interesting part of the novel.
If only the characters were given more nuance and more narrative real estate was freed of certain tired plot points, the obvious amount of work that has gone into the research and worldbuilding would have shone through.
For me, Naermyth was unconvincing from the get go and never quite managed to make me change my mind, .