Sinarut 1994
Author: Alis Padasian
Publisher: Self published
Publication Date: June 15th, 2019
Genre: Historical Fiction, Thriller, Paranormal
Pages: 308
Format: e-book
Characters: Bubin, Deh, Sulitah, ….
Malay (Goodreads)
Lebih kurang tiga minggu sebelum berlakunya kejadian tragik tersebut, Bubin, ibu dan tiga adik-beradiknya yang lain berpindah ke sebuah rumah sewa di Sinarut untuk memulakan hidup baru. Namun baru saja dua malam berpindah, dia mula mengalami mimpi buruk.
Dari hanya sebuah mimpi, ia bertukar menjadi igauan yang mengubah hidup. Tidak kira siang atau malam, lembaga hitam berbulu dan bermata merah itu sentiasa mencari peluang untuk membuatkannya berasa takut.
Rakan baiknya, Deh juga mulai mengalami gangguan yang serupa. Bermula dari mimpi biasa, sehinggalah tingkah-laku dan aktiviti seharian mulai terjejas.
Mereka bertemu Saipol, mengharapkan lelaki itu dapat membantu mereka menghentikan gangguan yang dialami. Adakah mereka berjaya menghentikan tragedi yang akan berlaku setiap sembilan tahun itu? Atau mungkinkah mereka bakal menjadi mangsa yang seterusnya?
English
This book follows siblings of four, including Bubin, as the second child with their mother, who’s practically raising them by her own as the father has a second wife and lives with the second wife. They moved to a new house and from there, things started to happen. He had dreams and he saw creepy creature following and watching him. After that, his friends started to have similar fate and got the same disturbances from the creature. From here, the story tells how the tragedy of Sinarut 1994 happened and what actually happened to Bubin, the main character and his friends.
Hello everybody, I received this e-book from the author, Alis Padasian under a collaboration review project with Untitled Book Club in exchange for an honest review. I’m really excited as Sinarut 1994 is not only a local book, but it’s a local book focusing an event happened in Sabah and it’s self-published! Andddddd it’s a good one. It’s been a long time since I get to read a good local book. I’m really happy with story and I’m happy to tell you that this review is going to be lots of rainbow and it’s not as long as my other dual language reviews. So, enjoy!
Malay
Bila dapat emel daripada penulis dan baca sinopsis buku ni, I was immediately sold, sebab buku ni fokus kepada Sabah. Sebuah negeri yang jarang muncul dalam novel-novel lokal, so bila dapat offer untuk review buku ni, memang nak sangat lah. First impression, Sinarut 1994 memang ada aura creepy. Prolog dia memang mantap habis, cara penulis tarik perhatian pembaca amatlah menarik.
Cara penulisan penulis juga senang diikuti. Aku sangat lega sebab nampak banyak unsur-unsur Sabah yang dimasukkan. Antaranya daerah-daerah dan bahasa-bahasa yang terdapat di Sabah. Dia punya slang, bahasa aku tak pernah tahu wujud, semua tu membuatkan aku rindu dengan kawan-kawan Sabah aku. Nampak motif penulis yang hendak memberi pendedahan kepada pembaca mengenai Sabah, beliau memberikan pengalaman secara langsung kepada pembaca dengan bahasa yang diguna pakai. Kepercayaan di Sabah turut dimasukkan, termasuklah kepercayaan agama dan kepercayaan masyarakat setempat. Rogon adalah salah satu benda baharu aku pelajari dalam buku ini. Kalau bercakap dengan somebody, make sure tu betul kawan hang, jangan pula kau bercakap dengan rogon. Eh, seram aku masa menulis benda alah ni haha.
Suspens. Benda ni buatkan aku enjoy baca buku ni dan sampai satu tahap, jadi bosan juga. Sebab apa? Sebabnya penulis telah memasukkan unsur suspens terlampau awal dan benda ni berlarutan sampai ke klimaks. So, pertengahan cerita ni jadikan aku tertunggu-tunggu ‘bila la climax nak sampai ni?’ Masa pertengahan cerita, banyak benda yang diulang-ulang melalui situasi yang berbeza tapi almost alike. So, at one point, aku rasa bosan. TAPIIII luckily, climax dia best weh, IT WAS SO GOOD! That scene memang killer scene lah. Then, dia punya after event pun best, especially right at the end, sebelum epilog buku ni. Like daripada climax sampai ke sebelum epilog tu memang part favourite besides the prolog.
Another thing yang aku rasa boleh improvise maybe ialah epilog. Untuk aku, epilog dia was a bit too long. Macam benda-benda tu semua boleh diringkaskan lagi, tak perlu panjang sangat kot, sebab nama pun epilog, asalkan readers tahu apa yang terjadi to everyone else, that’s good enough.
Kesimpulannya, Sinarut 1994 is the best local book I’ve read so far this year. If you want to support Malaysian authors, support this author, she’s very promising and she’s a self published author, the more reason you should support her. Satu lagi, sequel Sinarut 2005 pun dah nak keluar tak lama lagi so nantikanlah buku kedua Alis Padasian.
Side note, I think if you like IT, you will like this book. Ada few similarities between IT dengan Sinarut 1994, aku tak nak bagitahu la, kang spoilers pula. Kau baca sendiri then boleh discuss dengan aku kalau nak haha. Dm je kat ig @endless_chapters 😉
English
First impression of this book is ‘It is going to be creepy as hell.‘ It sent chill over my body. The book started off with a kick-ass prologue. It was so good and it hooked me with the whole story immediately. However, I think the author inserted suspense way too early that when I got to the middle part, I was quite bored. BUTTTT, the climax is a game changer. It was phenomenal. It is everything that I had hoped for and a bit extra. I loved everything that happened in between the climax right to the part before the epilogue. I think that was just brilliant write up.
Through this book, the author has obviously set a very clear message. She wants to educate readers about her state, about her culture, about the languages and dialects in Sabah. Reading this book made me miss my Sabahan friends so much. I even read the dialogues in Sabahan tone. I was always mistaken as a Sabahan by the way. I really enjoyed all the information I got from this book, including the word ‘rogon’. It means evil spirit, according to the author.
If there’s one thing I could improve for this book, it would be the epilogue. In my opinion, it was a bit too long for a epilogue. It could summarized and made shorter, just enough for the readers to know what happened after the tragic incident and maybe create more curiosity for the sequel.
Overall, I loved this book. It is more than just gruesome, tragic occurrence, it is also about Sabah’s cultures, languages, beliefs and their lifestyle. One of the best local/ Malaysia book I’ve read this year. Definitely worth your time and money. Go get it if you want to support local books and self published author.
Endless Chapters 