#198s films

[cressida-jayoungr]

One Dress a Day Challenge

July: Green Redux (+ Blue Redux)

Ivanhoe / Lysette Anthony as Lady Rowena

Return of the Ren Faire! The big pearl beads are like something out of The Court Jester, but at least that movie had the excuse of not even pretending to be period-accurate.

I really do love this movie's costumes out of all proportion to what they frankly deserve. I guess I was just at an impressionable age when i saw this movie/miniseries. Plus, it's just so obvious that the costumers are doing their best on what must have been a miniscule budget, bless their hearts. I just want to hug them and pat them on their heads.

[pinkfey]

mewchies do u have any movie recs 🤲🤲

[yourdailymag]

Lee Yu-bi for 1st Look Vol. 198 (2020)

[project1939]

200 Films of 1952

Film number 198: Against All Flags

Release date: Dec 24th, 1952 

Studio: Universal 

Genre: adventure 

Director: George Sherman, Douglas Sirk 

Producer: Joseph Hoffman, Aeneas MacKenzie  

Actors: Errol Flynn, Maureen O’Hara, Anthony Quinn 

Plot Summary: A British naval officer goes undercover on the coast of Madagascar to break up an infamous colony of pirates. Claiming to be a deserter, he works to win their trust. Things take an unusual turn when he meets a very unexpected pirate- a gorgeous, strong-willed, sword fighting woman! 

My Rating (out of five stars): ***¼  

I can tell you why I enjoyed this film in two words: Maureen O’Hara. Wait! Make it three words: Maureen O’Hara’s outfits! Put O’Hara in trousers and high boots, and I am lost. Lost! She was so dazzlingly beautiful, I had trouble focusing on much else. Thankfully, the rest of the film was just bright high-energy fun. It wasn’t particularly remarkable, but it breezed by quickly and never got tiresome. It may even be one of my favorite pirate movies from 1952. (minor spoilers)

The Good: 

Maureen O’Hara! Normally I’m not a big fan of hers; although undeniably striking, she’s such a man’s woman type. Here she was swaggering around in pirate garb, taking no shyte from nobody, and I fell in love. Amid so much sexually harassing behavior by men in the media in 1952, I wanted to jump for joy when her character pushed Flynn away and said- “I kiss when I feel like kissing, and see that you remember that!” 

Prudence “Spitfire” Stevens, the character O’Hara played, was one of my favorites of this project. She was sexually in charge, she could handle her own with men, she was good with a sword... everything about her was the opposite of a wilting little damsel. This lady would never let John Wayne drag her across the ground by her arms and hair! 

My favorite quote, spoken by O’Hara: “I was a fool to think that you might be different from the others- swaggering, misbegotten bullies who think that a girl is without pride of her own- just something to satisfy their selfish lusts and vanities because she’s weaker! Well, I’m not weaker! I go after what I want, just like they do. I can defend my own self-respect, and if any man dares to damage it, I’ll shoot the eyes out of his head- both of them!!” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

The Technicolor looked amazing. It especially made the costumes look good. 

The plot was briskly paced, entertaining, and lively. You might even say it was buoyant? Ha! Couldn’t resist the pun. 

Most of it was clearly filmed on sets, even the scenes at sea, but it looked noticeably better than Blackbeard the Pirate, which I watched only a couple of days ago. 

The scene where all the sabotaged cannons fire was also one of my favorites. 

The Bad: 

Errol Flynn was a bit too old for the role, in my opinion. He looked quite weathered and a little paunchy, making his swashbuckling scenes less convincing. It was kind of a sad reminder of the prowess and agility he used to have. In his younger days, he made my knees weak, but he didn’t age as gracefully as someone like Cary Grant. (Who does?!) Flynn was also severely alcoholic by this time, and he wasn’t sober during filming, which definitely didn’t help. He could still be charming and appealing, though. 

Anthony Quinn didn’t have enough to do! I love Quinn, but all his character really got to do here was snarl. 

Flynn and O’Hara didn't have much chemistry. O’Hara told stories later of how Flynn would be so drunk in the afternoon, she had to do her love scene close-ups across from a flag with an X marked on it, while a script girl read Flynn’s lines! So the lack of chemistry shouldn’t be surprising, I guess! 

The sword fighting, while not bad, was a little underwhelming sometimes. 

A white girl playing the role of a Southeast Asian princess? Of course, this is Hollywood! (Hey! It was Alice Kelley- I was kind of mean about her acting ability in Francis Goes to West Point. She was much improved here.) 

So the pirates raid a ship with the sign of Islam on the flag, yet the ruling princess inside is surrounded by Hindu statues? 

Do harems have Irish governesses? 

It was definitely gross to see a teenage girl and a man who looked 50 kiss each other. 

The scene of auctioning off captured harem girls as wives was horrifying. It was played almost comedically when a kidnapped teenaged girl was bought by a slovenly, stupid, ugly man at least 15 years older than her. There were even jokes about the wedding night! It was really a rape auction for god’s sake! It was disgusting and infuriating, and the only girl actually saved from that fate was the princess.

[geeknexus]

Barbie, o filme estrelado por Margot Robbie, recebeu uma data de lançamento para a mídia digital. A produção da Warner Bros. em parceria com a Mattel estará disponível para locação e compra nas plataformas digitais a partir de 5 de setembro. Apesar do sucesso do filme nos cinemas, ainda não há contratos assinados para sequências

[snailspng]

Random PNGs, part 198

(1. Tomato frog (Dyscophus Antongilli), 2. Caterpillar bunting, 3. 1980s alligator brooch, 4. Glass bead necklace by Jenine Bressner, 5. Arachnoidiscus ehrenbergii diatom, 6. Magazine cover by Enoch Bolles for "Film Fun" (1930), 7. Ape head mug, 8. Carpet stitch embroidery, 9. Sandwich elf)

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Beyoncé - Work It Out 2002

"Work It Out" is the debut solo single by American singer-songwriter Beyoncé. It was released on June 11, 2002, as the lead single from the soundtrack album to the film Austin Powers in Goldmember, in which Beyoncé stars as Foxxy Cleopatra. It was later included on international editions of Beyoncé's debut studio album, Dangerously in Love (2003). Beyoncé co-wrote the song with its producers, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. It is an R&B song which incorporates elements of 1960s and 1970s funk and post-disco.

The song was generally well received by music critics, many of whom complimented its retro style and various influences. It has been credited as the beginning of Beyoncé's career as a successful solo artist, after fulfilling a career as the lead vocalist of Destiny's Child. "Work It Out" was nominated in the category of Best Original or Adapted Song at the 2003 Black Reel Awards. It topped the US Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart, and reached the top ten in Norway and the UK. It went to number 12 in Ireland, number 14 in Denmark, number 36 in New Zealand, and number 23 for two consecutive weeks in Australia.

"Work It Out" received a total of 56,3% yes votes. Previous Beyoncé/Destiny's Child polls: #51 "Jumpin', Jumpin'", #198 "With Me", #234 "Hymn for the Weekend".

[canmom]

Animation Night 198: Gints Zilbalodis

animation night, coughing and spluttering: stop piling dirt on me! i'm still alive you bastards!!

Hey everyone! We've been on unofficial hiatus for a good few weeks, but I'm not done yet with streaming animated films illegally on Twitch.tv. And tonight I have a real treat!

At the Annecy film festival last year, I had the opportunity to watch Flow (Straume), a beautiful, wordless film about a cat trying to survive a sudden, mysterious flood in a world the humans abandoned, full of giant strange statues. At first timid, the cat grows into itself as it finds companions on its journey in a random assortment of animals - a capybara, a secretary bird and a lemur among them. Charming, numinous, full of characterful animal-performances and entirely animated in Blender, the film absolutely stole my heart - and indeed the jury's uh. collective heart.

Well, luckily for me, I now have the chance to show it to you!

Flow is directed by Gints Zilbalodis, of Latvia, who can be seen tiny on stage in this photo that I will self-indulgently include:

It has gone on to sort of completely outshine every other film made in Latvia at the box office. It is maybe the biggest sign that Blender has 'made it' in the film industry, and as such, the Blender world is very excited about it - for example, here's a pretty extensive interview with Zilbalodis where you can read about how it was put together over the course of five and a half years by a small Latvian team, eventually growing bigger with French and Belgian help.

Most remarkable to me is that such a pretty film was rendered entirely in Eevee, Blender's PBR rasteriser, meaning final render times per frame could be as low as 0.5-10 seconds. Zilbalodis could compose shots in Blender with a previs, hand them off for painting and detailing by environment artists, and render the whole film on a single PC. Here's a video about their workflow if you wanna spend an hour learning about how cats are like accordions:

I cannot wait to rewatch Flow and introduce more people to it. 2024 had a lot of great movies but this one's really up there. But tonight I wanna do a little more than that, because this is not Zilbalodis's first movie - even if it's his first Blender movie - and I wanna get a sense of where this whole thing came from.

Before Flow came a number of short films (all of which can be seen on his vimeo). From the beginning we see an interest in stylised rendering, mixing 2D and 3D, and a strong sense for character acting. Before long he would switch from 2D animation to 3D stylised characters, and his shorts take on more complex composition and lighting.

This all led to the feature film Away (Prōjam), which is pretty damn remarkable because Zilbalodis made the 75-minute film almost singlehandedly: writing, directing, animating, creating the score and all the rest. Much like Flow, the film depicts a wordless journey through a strange environment, with stylised rendering (here more flat kagenashi-like shading than the fur shaders in Flow) and it's got an animal (the bird that accompanies the main human character). And while it didn't reach a wide audience, it seems to have struck a similar note with the people lucky enough to see it, who throw around words like 'haunting' and 'transcendant'. Well, it's on torrent sites, so let's join that club!

There's so much more that can be said about Zilbalodis and the themes that run through his films, but for now I will leave it at that. Tonight we'll take a chronological tour, from his early shorts up through to Away and Flow. I'll go live now and we'll start the films in about half an hour at 8pm UK time - see you at twitch.tv/canmom!

[homestuckreplay]

john: become movies

(page 194-198)

EB: i discovered a comet that is going to destroy the earth, and it was named after me. EB: now i am famous, and everyone wants to talk to me a lot.

There's a post that shows up on various sites that's something like 'you suddenly wake up inside the world of the last movie you watched, how screwed are you?' Well, this just happened to John Egbert for real, and god damn this is the worst possible scenario. He'd be way better off inside Mac and Me.

Two main takeaways from these pages: first, how literal John's movies have suddenly become in the story. As early as page 21 John examined the Deep Impact poster and we learned that 'Films about impending apocalypse fascinate you.' I've thought so much about their themes that I never expected John to actually live out their plots, but this opens up so many new possibilities. I'm certain now that should he survive this, he's going to start meeting ghosts, monsters, and aliens - if the game can summon meteors, what's to stop it from creating these too?

Second, WHAT A FUCKING ESCALATION. In just under 200 pages we've gone from 'John struggles to locate his own arms' to 'John has three minutes to live before a meteor impacts the Earth'. In Deep Impact, they had about a year to prepare for the meteor, in Armageddon they had a few weeks, and John has THREE MINUTES. The stakes have skyrocketed extremely suddenly and out of nowhere.

And yet, John decides that high fiving the harlequinsprite is more important than...I don't know, trying to get to shelter? Trying to figure out a way to stop this? This isn't fight, flight, freeze or fawn, it's the secret fifth response, Fool. It's fitting that the harlequin was dropped in the all-important sprite, because John is going to be a clown until his last seconds.

[juliehowlin]

Pretty in Pink

Pretty in Pink was filmed at same Los Angeles high school where Grease (1978) was made.

10 things you might not know about Pretty in Pink.

[hairscare]

im trying to beat my record from last year of movies ive watched and recorded on letterboxd but in order to do that i need to watch 54 more movies and theres only 59 days left of 2024. anyways if you have any movie recommendations pls send them to me

also heres my letterboxd

[frogdadskeleton]

28.1.

Kcal: 727

Fast: 24h

Steps: 14 700

Exercise: 65 min treadmill, 40 min gym (chest), 22 min stretching

Lemon water (1)

2 cups of black coffee (4)

Coke zero (1)

Gum (1)

Celery (38)

Orange (63)

2 raw bars (306)

Rooibos (1)

Sugar free protein drink (198)

Baby corn puffs (114)

I ate a bit more today, but didn't hit my macros tho :p

Do as i say not as i do.

I felt rly weak at the gym. Like i was able to do my normal reps but i had no energy left in me after chest. I was shaking like crazy. So i cut it short and did some stretching instead.

I filmed some of my stretching too bc i wasn't by a mirror and as i watched it back i almost couldn't recognise myself. My legs looked a lot thinner than i thought they do. Maybe the camera is warping it idk.

(Also i have a bad case of gym rbf like i looked as if i wanted to kill someone)

[yourdailymag]

Lee Yu-bi for 1st Look Vol. 198 (2020)

[samanthahirr]

samanthahirr's 007 Fest 2023 Masterpost

COMMENTS

510 comments! With comment-multiplier bonus points, that's 700 points for comments!

FICS 

(>750 words)

(No) More Than This (Chapter 1-2)

We Eat First With Our Eyes (2022 Prompt #6 "nsfw")

The Chase (Chapters 1-4) (2022 Prompt #6 "nsfw")

(750-2,500 words)

Relating in Kindness

With Heart Hardened

FIC SUMMARIES (i.e. "stories sam isn't writing")

The Vampire from the Deep * (2020 Prompt #31 "Vesper is a vampire")

Office Hours

The Quartermaster's Mission Holiday (2018 Prompt #22 "And then they were roommates" & 2023 Prompt #222 "Enjoying a nice view")

COCKTAIL RECIPES

The Skeleton's Bite *

The Jamaica Contact with a Side of Danger *

Jinx's Bikini *

The Blow Me Away *

Mr. Hinx Fizzy *

Paradise Bird ^

INCORRECT QUOTE MEMES

00Q - I want to wake up with you

Bond/Swann - You often use humor to deflect trauma ^

NomiPenny - How's the sexiest person here? ^

Bond/Moneypenny - Better off as friends ^

Bond/Tanner - I'm getting in the shower ^

Bond/Boothroyd - I want to kiss you ^

Q/Bond/Moneypenny - Sorry I'm late *^

Tanner/Mallory - Are you trying to seduce me? *^

Bond/Tracy - I don't do relationships ^

Bond/Mansfield - I really like your top ^

Bond/Felix - We both look very handsome tonight ^ (2023 Prompt #223 "Insecure about how they look")

HEADCANONS

10 Hosiery Habit Headcanons *

Bill Tanner's Bedding Set (2023 Prompt #22 "Flowers")

Original Character - Gina Castillo's Case File *

5 Biggest Swimwear-Embarrassments Headcanons * ^ ^ ^

7 HR Complaints Against MI6 Staff Headcanons ^

SCAVENGER HUNT TASKS

#1 leave someone an anonymous comment of positivity *

#6 create a crossword puzzle: "007 Animals"

#9 (x5) create an incorrect quote meme, images optional

#12 write an acrostic poem: "Moon Moth" *

#17 create a film poster with a local landmark "The Dying Reflection"

#25 show a character's bedding set "Bill Tanner's Bedding Set"

#26 show your pet working for MI6 "009-Lives"

#29 (x2) solve a Find the Difference post (@bluebellofbakerstreet & @kitten-kin)

#30 create a cocktail recipe "The Skeleton's Bite"

#33 (x3) solve a crossword puzzle (castillon02 & bluebellofbakerstreet & kitten-kin)

#35 spot a Bond reference in the wild "50 Bond Gadgets You Can Own"

#36 create a fancast film poster "First with a Bullet" (Aldis Hodge)

#43 gift a fanwork to a member of another team: "Drabble: Alec/Bond" for @emiliasilverova

#46 create an incorrect quote meme, images required: "I want to wake up with you"

#48 collaborate with a teammate: "The Chase" with @aprettyspy

MOODBOARDS/COVER ART

The Vampire from the Deep moodboard

The Quartermaster's Mission Holiday moodboard

Office Hours moodboard

Original Character - Gina Castillo's Case File moodboard

(No) More Than This cover art

We Eat First with Our Eyes cover art

6 Cocktail Recipe title cards (see above)

MISCELLANEOUS

Off the Books playlist (2023 Prompt #198 "create a playlist for a fic")

Fancast Film Poster "First with a Bullet" (Charlize Theron)

Drabble - MoneyTanner ^ (2017 Prompt #4)

Drabble - Tanner/Mansfield * ^

Drabble - Alec/Bond *

BETA'D WORKS

1 fic for @emiliasilverova (Achillean Delights)

2 chapters for @hammerbacks (Taking in Water chapter 2 & Warm Water chapter 9)

2 chapters of "The Chase" for @aprettyspy

EVENTS

1 film (Flash Gordon) hosted

1 Productivity Hours hosted

1 Bond Bingo Hour attended

4 Productivity Hours attended

5 Longfic Readalongs attended

* indicates Theme Day bonus ^ indicates Unique Rare Pair Ship bonus

510 comments, 15 theme days, 17 unique rare pair ships, 9 fics/chapters posted, 3 fic summaries, 11 incorrect quote memes, 3 drabbles, 6 cocktail recipes, 24 headcanons…and a dozen more miscellaneous creations! I had no idea I could be so productive/creative in a single month! 

Endless thanks to my @teamqbranch captain and cheerleaders and teammates for their support and encouragement! I'm grateful I got to spend so much time with all of you this month. And a huge thank you to the @mi6-cafe mods for organizing such an awesome event! And now I need a nice long nap.

TOTAL POINTS FOR 2023 FEST = 1,670

[peterlorrefanpage]

WHAT

August 1936: Peter Lorre in tuxedo talking into microphone at premiere of the film "Anthony Adverse" (a Fredric March/Claude Rains/Olivia de Havilland movie).

But no sound!? From Getty here.

This has to be out there for real (and with sound)! Full clip seems to be over 8 minutes. Source is "Archive Films Editorial 527-198" with credit to Petrified Films.

My Google-fu is failing me right now helllllp

[bookaddict24-7]

REVIEWS OF THE WEEK!

Books I’ve read so far in 2023!

Friend me on Goodreads here to follow my more up to date reading journey for the year!

___

196. The Alien by K.A. Applegate--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was such an interesting perspective! I wasn't expecting it a few books back and was curious how Applegate would tackle it, especially since we know so little about the character. It definitely added a new pov to the story and I'm excited to see how they are represented in the future after more time has passed and more character development has happened!

I can't say too much because spoilers. But I am genuinely enjoying this series and can't wait to get to the next one!

___

197. The Grip Of It by Jac Jemc--⭐️⭐️

If there is one thing this confusing and jarring book did really well, it is the representation of what it might be like to slowly fall into madness. The way the characters worked off each other in their madness and the way the dialogue and chapters worked together to create a choppy and disorienting dialogue was genius.

What wasn't so genius was how confused I was most of the time. There are so many unanswered questions and the story is full of confusing moments. I know that Horror can sometimes truly be a hit or miss and that one person's horror won't be another, but this is the kind of horror that should probably be read more than once to fully grasp just what the hell is actually happening.

I will say that while the structure of the story definitely works in creating the mood of the story, listening to the audiobook was an interesting and frustrating experience. The chapters would end rather abruptly and would often leave me wondering what had just happened.

Overall, this book was everything I was expecting, but also underwhelming in its over-all presentation. It was wild and so brain twisting. I don't know if I'd recommend it, but if I did, I'd recommend reading it slowly and maybe more than once LOL.

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198. The Island by Adrian McKinty--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

THE ISLAND was both exactly what I was hoping it would be and still completely different than what I was expecting. I knew it was going to be a ride, but I wasn't prepared for the level of wildness that this book would adopt.

Imagine that you're on vacation with your new husband and his children, shortly after those kids' biological mother has passed away. You're in a country you know close to nothing about (Australia) and being the tourists who should be featured in a horror film, you find yourselves on a small, private island being chased by a trigger happy and aggrieved family. What ensues is something straight out of Hollywood.

I saw this as a cautionary tale for "actions have consequences" and while yes, the consequences here are dire, we have to admit that the catalyst for this was heartbreaking. I think McKinty does a good job of showcasing the dangers of grief and the magic of morally grey characters. Let's be real, the MC and her husband are no saints. They do a pretty twisted thing in order to save their asses and while yes, I was rooting for them and the kids, a corner of my mind couldn't forget the awfulness of their choices.

If you're a parent, this might be a little bit of a rougher read since it does include younger kids in dangerous situations. We get to see an MC who grows as a character in order to make sure these kids survive, but I know some parents, especially those who have younger kids, might have a harder time with stories like this one. Keeping that warning in mind, there were some pretty badass moments, but also some very human ones, as well.

I really enjoyed this and I'm glad I finally picked it up!

___

199. Aesthetica by Allie Rowbottom--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

AESTHETICA was a lot and to be honest, I think that's necessary in the world we live in. So many young people obsessed with social media and their appearance on those apps are incredibly impressionable. What can help them be more famous? What can make them look more beautiful? The exploration of beauty standards and how they affect a young woman, in particular, and those around her can be relatable to at least one reader.

I think that Rowbottom's book is also a great look into generational trauma because of how the MC's mother raised her and how she herself had a level of dislike towards her mom that is a whole other side to this book. While we have the clear main story of the MC regretting the choices she made and dealing with that trauma, we also have her disentangling her love/hate relationship for her ill mother.

AESTHETICA was brought to my attention by an article presenting it as a horror story. In some ways, I can understand that. There is a certain kind of horror behind the trauma of selling yourself in the name of success. There is definitely a particular kind of horror in wanting to face all of the trauma you've faced, to the point where you're set on undoing everything that is the physical proof of that trauma.

Though this is a relatively short book, I think it carries a lot of weight. We see the power of social media and a naive mentality. We see the dangers of those who present themselves in a certain way. And we see the sometimes incredibly complex relationships between mothers and daughters and how deeply entwined these relationships and our own self worth can be. Also, a brief mention on the power of childhood friendships and how they can scar us if they end too soon, or shift in any way that is beyond our control.

I'd recommend this if you want a bit of an acid trip of an exploration into the above mentioned topics.

___

200. Icebreaker by Hannah Grace--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

RE-READ: September 2023:

My library got the audiobook version, so of course I HAD to put a hold on it. I was a little scared I wouldn't love this book as much as I did the first time around, but I'm happy to say that I DID! ICEBREAKER is still one of my favourite romances, if only because of the level of communication between the characters. I also forgot how spicy and full of sexual tension this book was.

Overall, super happy I re-read this. Maybe it'll be a yearly re-read. 😌

___

201. Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham--⭐️⭐️⭐️

There's something interesting about an older man writing a young kid--especially when his MC mentions in the book that at 13 years old, boys don't even notice girls and actively try to stay away from them. LOL. I actually laughed at that because I was thirteen over twenty years ago and I distinctly remember that not being the case. I just thought that was hilarious and felt super disconnected. Not that I want a romance story in a middle grade book, but just...let's be real. And I mention this first because it happens pretty early on.

Anyway, the MC was a pretty cool kid--he knows everyone and even has a little side gig where he gives advice to his classmates. His smart take on the current case and his enthusiasm jumps off the page. I'm not sure how I will feel about the rest of the series, but we will see!

___

202. Misery by Stephen King--⭐️⭐️⭐️

I went into MISERY knowing that it's a fan favourite. I don't know what I was expecting, but I was a bit let-down. I think that while I did enjoy some aspects of this book and was genuinely freaked out at times, this kind of fell into the same category of THE SHINING for me. When I read THE SHINING, it was incredibly hyped up and even though it DID have a terrifying take on the fall of madness, it was otherwise meh for me.

One of the best things that King does with his writing (or at least back them) was his creation of madness in a character. He somehow knows how to take the most terrifying characteristics of humanity and integrates them really well into his characters. The brutality of this villain was something else, especially when we actively see her professing her love for the MC and then causing him bodily harm.

I think one of the downfalls for me in my reading experience of this was listening to the audiobook. It was disjointed and confused the hell out of me. Maybe physically reading it would have been a wholly different experience, but the disorientation of the audiobook could have either freaked me out or confused me and sadly, it was the latter.

Not my favourite King novel, but I can see why so many love it. Will continue on my reading journey with King's books.

___

203. Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Phew, this book was weird and wild and hooked me right from the beginning.

Huang explores so many topics in her skin crawling novel: Racism, social perception of beauty, the addiction the wealthy sometimes have when it comes to "self-care", unexplored sexuality, envy, and SA in the most unusual of ways but could also be an allusion to how the rich can sometimes use money when it comes to getting away with sexual crimes.

I never expected body horror when I picked up NATURAL BEAUTY, but here we are. I remember when that started to show up in the narrative, along with the changing physical body of the MC, I paused what I was doing (while listening to the audiobook) and became even more enthralled. This was such a creepy and genius exploration of societal expectations and the things people will sometimes do to be either "different" or "like everyone else".

There's also an interesting sub-story about the MC's experiences as a child musical prodigy and how that definitely played into her malleability as a victim for the people who would eventually take advantage of her. It definitely played into the stereotypes society has about young Asian children when it comes to classical music.

And somewhere along the way, as the MC is evolving (both metaphorically AND physically), she starts to discovery a side to her sexuality never fully explored. During these scenes, it truly reminded me of the "will they/won't they" that usually accompanies blossoming sexuality--the "I want this, but do I really? But should I? Do THEY want to?" narrative that usually flashes through our minds when we're right on the verge of making that exploration.

Anyway, I'm just rambling now. I really enjoyed this, much more than I thought I would because this book was WEIRD. Like, mind-bending weird. And if it was ever made into a movie, I'd be watching it with the biggest side-eye.

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Have you read any of these books? Let me know your thoughts!

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Happy reading!