Pesona: Mempesonakan atau Tidak? || A Book Review / Ulasan Buku

Pesona

Author: Arif Zulkfli

Publisher: Buku Fixi

Released: November 19th, 2019

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 280

Format: Paperback

Characters: Azlan, Razak, Wildan, Cikgu Iskandar,…

English

This book follows Azlan, a teenager who lives a mundane student life. However, he has a dark past with great family secret and great power awaits for him to discover.

The story brings readers into Azlan’s journey in discovering his power and abilities, seeking revenge for his family and saving his loved ones.

Malay ( Goodreads )

Kemunculan simbol-simbol aneh dan kejadian dua rakannya yang tiba-tiba histeria selepas melihat wajahnya telah mengubah hidup Azlan. Dari kehidupan seorang pelajar biasa yang rutinnya bangun pagi, pergi sekolah, main bola, makan, buat homework dan tidur, tiba-tiba Azlan terpaksa berhadapan dengan hakikat kelahirannya sendiri.

Tatkala bulan kembali berdarah
Dia, yang berdarah dua
Darahnya bakal tersimbah
Mewarnai bumi dengan warna merah yang menyala

Dendam yang bertahun-tahun lamanya telah membawa dia bertemu sekumpulan manusia yang tidak pernah diketahui kewujudannya selama ini. Dari mereka, dia belajar tentang pesona dan cara menyerunya. Itu senjata baginya untuk membalas dendam. Bagi Azlan, hutang itu harus dilunaskan, walau dengan apa cara sekalipun.

English

This year I have read quite a number of Fixi books, mostly were so-so, but Pesona has definitely exceeded my expectation. I’d like to speak on the writing style first. The author’s writing style is very poetic, it feels like it suits more for a ‘karya sastera’ instead of YA fantasy kinda book, like Pesona. However, I still enjoyed it anyways. Loved the writing style. Everything is described very well and mind you, the vocabularies used are huge, like I need to google some of them because I thought those words don’t exist in the first place. But wow, I learnt some new words from Pesona instead.

Plot wise , I think everything was paced nicely. But towards the climax, everything was happening too sudden. The secrets were revealed way too fast, it was getting exciting , yes, but it has a not so great effect on the main character, Azlan, unfortunately. I found that Azlan became too panicky and over dramatic. I just didn’t like him as a character. His friends though, were very cool. They were funny, supportive and they just lit up the story with their personalities.

The world building was very convincing. A matter of fact, it is one of the best world building I have read this year. The idea of the powers and magic was very original: using the symbols and elements and how humans were divided into three categories based on their abilities. The author also told the history of the powers through different resources in the book, not just through explanation by the main character’s mentors and friends, also through journal, which I think is very brilliant.

Spoiler Alert

Another thing that I found not so appealing is that some parts are similar to other books and movies. Like the starting of the story. I admit that I was sort of influenced by some tweets and reviews saying that it has similarities with Harry Potter whereby Azlan’s parents were killed by the villains just like Harry’s parents were. In the book, he was also being mentioned as ‘The Chosen One’, I wish the author would just stop at “yang terpilih.”, like why bother to include an English translation for that? Then we have this academy thingy. Since the author did include some Islamic elements in this book, I don’t understand why not use Madrasah instead? Because academy sounds a lot like the ones in the X-Men movies or Percy Jackson’s movies, where the students are trained to master their gifts and powers.

End of Spoiler

That ending though was kapow! Loved it and I really hope that this book has a sequel because we need to know who is Nuha and what’s going to happen in that other world and how the story is going to develop after this.

Overall, this is one of the Fixi books that I’d actually recommend because it is one of the better reads. The ending with cliff hanger actually made me wanna read the sequel. I must say that it has more potential compared to other some other Fixi books I read this year.

Malay

Dalam banyak-banyak buku Fixi aku baca tahun ni, Pesona memang exceeded my expectation. Pertama sekali, aku minat dengan cara penulisan penulis, agak puitis, macam lebih sesuai untuk karya sastera. Tapi bestlah juga untuk Pesona. Oh, kosa kata yang diguna pakai juga amatlah wow eh, aku sampai ingat ada typo, tapi rupanya wujud those words.

Perkembangan plot okay sehinggalah ke saat klimaks dan resolusi. Bagi aku, plot dah dibina dengan pacing yang amat baik. Tapi tiba-tiba, nak sampai ke penghujung, jadi rushing. Memang aku mengaku, cerita jadi lagi exciting tapi ada satu kesan yang tak berapa best ke atas watak utama, Azlan. Dia jadi drama nak mampus, emosi, membuatkan aku rasa dia meh. Nasib baiklah kawan-kawan dia kelakar, supporting dan supportive. Dia orang jadikan vibe buku ni lebih menarik.

Pembinaan dunia (world building) sangat original. Bagi aku, konsep penggunaan simbol dan elemen sebagai kuasa superpower, ditambah lagi dengan kelompok manusia yang dibezakan dengan kuasa mereka amatlah bijak.

Spoiler Alert

Ada satu lagi benda yang aku harap aku dapat unseen tapi dah ter-seen. Hari tu adalah terbaca tweet ke review orang pasal buku Pesona ni ada persamaan sikit dengan Harry Potter. Pastu mungkin aku ter-influence, permulaan Pesona memang ada persamaan dengan Harry Potter, di mana orang tua Azlan dibunuh oleh watak jahat, sepertimana orang tua Harry Potter dibunuh oleh Lord Voldermort. Kemudian, ada satu part ni, Azlan digelar sebagai ‘The chosen one’, walhal boleh je penulis berhenti di ayat ‘yang terpilih.’. Tak faham kenapa kena translate lagi into Bahasa Inggeris, but oh well. Kemudian, penggunaan akademi yang aku rasa agak sama seperti dalam movie X-Men atau Percy Jackson, mungkin penulis boleh guna madrasah ke, sebab ada je unsur-unsur Islamik dalam buku ni. Anyways, ni semua pendapat seorang reviewer yang tak seberapa, no offense.

End of Spoiler

Ending Pesona lah yang paling mempesonakan. Sebab apa? Sebab best lah. Nak tahu, kenalah baca haha. Satu je aku boleh cakap, buku Pesona ni amatlah memerlukan sequel, sebab banyak lagi yang tergantung, yang tak terungkai. Secara keseluruhan, aku enjoy buku ni lebih dari buku-buku Fixi yang lain aku baca tahun ni.