#i told her Percy Jackson was basically like Harry Potter but make it Greek mythology

[creative-hanyou-girl]

Just now convinced my mom to watch the Percy Jackson show with me by playing some songs from the musical and showing her the tv trailer. I got her now, boys!!!! I'd call this a win!!!!😈😈😈

We love watching Harry Potter together and I'm hoping Percy Jackson will be the next big thing we marathon together!

Even better is that my mom was asking who Percy's godly parent is and I refused to tell her. She knows nothing about Percy Jackson so I can't wait for her to find out all the stuff I already know.

[writingfulfillment]

The Overarching Power of Belief

I believe that every story ever told is true because of the creative power of belief of Humankind. I believe that there are not millions of fictional places where heroes live, but one place that houses the collective dreams of all who’ve ever existed. In many of the works of fiction that I’ve read, they speak of the creatures and Gods’ being able to exist because there are still humans who believe in them. And this belief is what gives them their power. There is not one story or belief that reigns supreme over the others because they all share the same origin story: they were created by humans. Whether in one sitting by one author, or if it’s over years by a collection of people, they are all creations of our minds.

In this dream world, the people reflect what we see in ourselves. They are stubborn and have flaws, but are overall good. These people will see what they will expect or believe that they will see, such like ourselves. And this is how this collective dream world functions. Both on the creative power of the imaginations of the humans who fuel it existence, and the ignorance of the reflective humans there.

In series like Percy Jackson and Harry Potter, they talk a lot about how the regular people view their secret world. For example, In his first book Riordan notes the differences in how people believe. “But if he’s a preacher,” I said, “and he believes in a different hell…” Grover shrugged, who says he’s seeing this place the way that we’re seeing it? Humans see what they want to see. You’re very stubborn-er, persistent, that way.”[1] This fits with how so many dreams could live together, as well as with the nature of the reflected humans. In the first Harry Potter book, Harry notices the Muggles’ obliviousness.“The people hurrying by didn’t glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big bookshop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn’t see the leaky cauldron at all. In fact, Harry has the most peculiar feeling that only he and Hagrid could see it.” [2] The mundane people couldn’t see it because they didn’t believe that it was there. I believe that in this dream world, the ordinary people are excessively ignorant for the sake of peace between the dreams.

In most, if not all stories, there is an ordinary character who leads a mundane life until they discover a Secret world. Everyone dreams of being swept away as a crucial member of something. We all want to be important and we all want to be remembered. This is why we love to create and read these stories, they reflect the dreams of our childhood selves. All of this imagination and collective hope cannot amount to nothing. This is why the dream world came into existence, somewhere for the dreams to live and for us to visit when we miss them.  

The creation of this one world relies on the same desire for acknowledgement that lives in all our hearts. This is where the Hero’s Journey comes in. Joseph Campbell theorized that every story is, in fact, the same story except it is told differently and that every protagonist is actually the same character wearing a different face. In his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, he discusses the idea of a monomyth that spans genres, authors, and time periods. Joseph proposes that every good story follows a basic plot map that he calls The Hero’s Journey. Since it’s publication in 1949, it has been referenced by creators,(Perhaps the most popular of which is George Lucas, Director of Star Wars) authors, and artists in the telling of their stories. I believe that the subjects of this one story that has been told a million different ways live in the dream world.

The Hero’s Journey, although it has many different versions, is largely made up of 12 stages that the Hero goes through. These can be identified in most popular stories. The 12 are: 1. Ordinary World, 2. Call to Adventure, 3. Refusal or Acceptance, 4. Meeting with the Mentor, 5. Crossing the Threshold, 6. Tests, Allies, Enemies, 7. Approach to the Innermost Cave, 8. Ordeal, 9. Seizing the Sword, 10. The Road Back, 11. The Master of Two Worlds, 12. Return with the Elixir. You can read about them in more detail elsewhere.[here] I will just be focusing on the Ordinary World v.s.  the Secret World.

In the Ordinary World, the people cannot see, or do not know about the Secret World, because they do not believe that it’s there.  And the same is true for why the Secret World exists, because the Hero and his companions continue to believe in it and its creatures. The belief in the Secret World and it inhabitants in turn give them belief in themselves, increasing their power and existence. There are hints of the belief to power transfer in many popular works of fiction.

In Harry Potter, the most curious aspect of magic is its distribution. There are children of generations of wizards that possess no magic, or very little. (Ariana [3], Neville [4])There are also children of muggles who have great magical powers. (Lily [5], Hermione [6]) In all of these cases the power of the witch or wizard was dictated by their belief in themselves. Ariana was a fine little witch until some boys traumatized her, then she lost the power to control it. Neville had always struggled with magic, partially because his grandmother was always telling him that he wasn’t good enough. As he grew older, he learned that he was worth it and his magic greatly improved. If any muggleborn had the wits and guts to excel at magic, it was Lily and Hermione. From the start they were both know-it-alls who had no qualms about their intelligence.

Despite what you may think, Harry really wasn’t all that great of a wizard. At least when it comes to book learning and memorizing complicated spells. Courage and loyalty, on the other hand, were Harry’s best traits. When it came time that he knew that he had to save his friends, he always came through magically, even though he wasn’t all that gifted. In The Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry saves himself and Sirius by performing the advanced charm Expecto Patronum. He produces an extremely powerful patronus and keeps numerous dementors at bay. A task, that would be difficult, if not impossible for a fully grown wizard, and yet Harry was just 13 at the time. “‘I knew I could do it this time,’ said Harry, ‘because I’d already done it… does that make sense?’”[7] Harry’s personal belief in himself skyrocketed because he’d already done it, thus giving himself enough power to do it.

If their power of belief in themselves was enough to boost their power and self-worth, then who’s to say that our belief in them isn’t powerful enough to make them real? Who says that dreams turn to naught but dust? Humans can do amazing things while we’re awake, why not when we’re sleeping? Isn’t billions of people dreaming each night powerful enough to cultivate something more than dust? I believe that it is enough, and I believe that our dreams become real in the dream world. That there is a place where the characters that we love and dream of exist together.

In all of Rick Riordan’s work, the mythologies that he uses are interconnected. The different Gods and cultures coexist because of the different peoples who continue to believe in them. “‘But Gods can’t die,’ Grover said. ‘They can fade,’ Pan said, ‘when everything that they stood for is gone. When they cease to have power, and their sacred places disappear.” [8] In some instances, such as Pan, the Greek God of nature, when people ceased to believe in him, he faded. But there will always be the Gods that are believed in and worshipped by these secret worlds that might be more connected than we think.

These are taken from two of Riordan’s books, “Lacey had warned me about Drew the first day of school. Apparently the two of them had gone to some summer camp together-blah, blah, I didn’t really listen to the details- and Drew had been just as much of a tyrant there.” [9] “Lacey looked like she might fall apart from nervousness. ‘Oh, well-’ ‘Drew might find out,’ Mitchell explained. ‘I might have to wear the shoes of shame!’ Lacey gulped.” [10] Amongst other evidence, this proves that they exist in the same universe. Also, in his other series, the protagonist, Magnus Chase, is cousins with the partner of Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase. “...I haven’t thought about them in years. I have an uncle and cousin in Boston.” [11] “‘I just don’t want to put you in danger,’ I said. ‘I kind of hoped that you could be my one connection to the regular world.’ Annabeth stared at me. She snorted and began to laugh. ‘Wow. You have no idea how funny that is.’” [12]

Riordan loves the idea that all of the Gods and the different mythologies could coexist. He has even written several crossover stories between the Greek Demigods and the Egyptian Magicians. [13] He has never said anything outright about his belief about why they might exist in the same universe, but I think it’s safe to gather from his books, that he thinks that there is something very powerful about belief. He also makes references to other cultures and their beliefs. In his second series, The Heroes of Olympus, his characters have more diverse background. Frank is Chinese and his grandmother believes in the Roman Gods and Buddhism. [14] Piper is Cherokee and the old Native stories that her father tells her play a part in her success as a demigod. [15] Leo is Mexican and he speaks of Dia de Los Muertos and his experiences with spirits. [16]

He hints that there may be much more than one truth or one belief. Of course, in order for this to be true there would have to be rules and/or magic separating these religions, if you will, from each other. Simply because there would be too much confusion and contention over which one was true, when in fact they would all actually be true. It’s a daunting concept, but simultaneously a very interesting one. They would all be very delicate barriers, easily cracked or broken because of the masses that they are hiding. But it poses an interesting situation for the deities or beings of power in these different “religions”. Of course, being a God, they would know things. And someone has to know the rules in order to make sure that they are kept. “‘The tradition is still strong among … our people.’ ‘Our people?’ I asked, but Sadie muscled in with another question. ‘So you can’t live in Manhattan?’ She asked. Amos’s brow furrowed as he looked across at the Empire State Building. ‘Manhattan has other problems. Other Gods. It’s best we stay separate.” [17] It makes sense that the future Chief Lector of the Egyptians would know the new location of Mount Olympus and Vice versa. It can be very confusing, but the cumulative power of human belief is very strong and I believe that it is strong enough for this. The suggestion that because we can believe in something, it can or must exist? Even if it contradicts other beliefs or laws? But this is very prevalent in works of fiction like Riordan and Rowling. (There are so many others that I didn’t highlight because it would have been way too long, but you get my point.)

It is very interesting when you combine it with the Hero’s Journey. That every story is the same story of the same character but wearing a different face, alongside that they all must be true because someone believes in them. It’s a little mind blowing, but it actually makes a lot of sense. We all would like to think that we have our own story, but in reality, we just aren’t that creative. Everything that’s ever done is something that has been done before. So we must make it our own by creating magical worlds around the old stories to make it seem new. Or at the very least, have us fall in love with the new characters. I believe that all of this exists in the dream world.

You’ve seen the raving fans of books, movies and TV shows, people love these predictable fictional characters with all their heart. How can all of that love and belief accumulate to nothing? I don’t think that it can. I wonder if by desiring these stories to be real because we love them so much might just actually make them exist. Thuss, the existence of all of these beings and stories in the Dream World. The human psyche is a mysterious and powerful place that scientists can only guess at and pretend to understand. Who’s to say that we aren’t more powerful than we think? What defines creation or a creator? What excludes us from creating art, music and emotion? Nothing. What excludes us from creating beings or worlds? Perhaps, nothing. If only the understanding of such a process.

When an author writes a book, they put so much into creating that world, and so do their fans. Thats a lot of collective belief to come to nothing. What if our power of belief is enough to create? Whether in this world or another, what if our beloved stories do exist? How could so much emotion go into art and music, such that it can evoke emotions in us, and not create something more?

Works Cited

[1] Riordan, Rick. The Lightning Thief. New York: Miramax /Hyperion for Children, 2005. Print, 293.

[2] Rowling, J.K. The Sorcerer's Stone. London: Bloomsbury Children’s, 1997. Print, 68.

[3] Rowling, J.K. The Deathly Hallows. London: Bloomsbury Children’s, 2007. Print, 564.

[4] Rowling, J.K. The Sorcerer's Stone. London: Bloomsbury Children’s, 1997. Print, 125.

[5] Rowling, J.K. The Sorcerer's Stone. London: Bloomsbury Children’s, 1997. Print, 53.

[6] Rowling, J.K. The Sorcerer's Stone. London: Bloomsbury Children’s, 1997. Print, 105.

[7] Rowling, J.K. The Prisoner of Azkaban. London: Bloomsbury Children’s, 1999. Print, 412.

[8] Riordan, Rick. The Battle of the Labyrinth. New York: Miramax /Hyperion for Children, 2008. Print, 314.

[9] Riordan, Rick. The Serpent’s Shadow. New York: Disney Publishing Worldwide, 2012. Print, 83.

[10] Riordan, Rick. The Lost Hero. New York: Disney Publishing Worldwide, 2010. Print, 178.

[11] Riordan, Rick. The Blood of Olympus. New York: Disney Publishing Worldwide, 2014. Print, 393.

[12] Riordan, Rick. The Sword of Summer. New York: Disney Publishing Worldwide, 2015. Print, 487.

[13] Riordan, Rick. Demigods and Magicians. New York: Disney Publishing Worldwide, 2015. Print.

[14] Riordan, Rick. The Mark of Athena. New York: Disney Publishing Worldwide, 2012. Print, 492.

[15] Riordan, Rick. The Blood of Olympus. New York: Disney Publishing Worldwide, 2014. Print, 384.

[16] Riordan, Rick. The Blood of Olympus. New York: Disney Publishing Worldwide, 2014. Print, 68.

[17] Riordan, Rick. The Red Pyramid. New York: Disney Publishing Worldwide, 2010. Print, 52.

[couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name]

What do you think of the PJO films?

Okay, but seriously- if you went in with absolutely zero knowledge of the books, the first one would be pretty okay. Decent enough to keep you entertained but ultimately a very forgettable fantasy adventure that came in the wake of Harry Potter Is Ending Soon So Let’s Try To Be Cool. The second one though??? Very Bad. 

I once compiled a list of everything Wrong™ with the movies…Haven’t gone over it in a while but I’m pretty sure it was close to like fourteen pages? 

What happened with the first one was they essentially went ‘Greek gods. Stolen lightning. Character names. Cool.’ and then created their own mess? Percy’s like, a junior in high school, and Annabeth and Grover and Luke were all played by 30 year olds. None of the characters matched their descriptions- from small things like eye color, to big things like Luke’s scar and, like, personality traits. They cast Pierce Brosnan as Chiron solely because someone was dicking around instead of writing the script and like, just drew Pierce Brosnan as a centaur. Mr. D was missing in action, as were all the other campers with names, as were??? The cabins??? Everyone was living in single tents except for like Percy and Luke, who had a bunch of stolen electronics, it was weird. Instead of going to the Oracle and receiving a quest, the trio just kind of sneak out with literally no plan? Luke told them they had to find “Persephone’s Pearl’s” that were hidden across America because that was the only way they’d be able to leave the Underworld (Instead of, you know, Percy’s Literal Father Giving Them To Him So He Can Save His Son okay). They kept in the Medusa scene, but there was no spell cast on them, they just wandered in like dumbasses. The fought a hydra in Athens, Georgia??? It was very bizarrely handled??? Percy and Annabeth had too much sexual tension, with Annabeth knowing him for literally less than an hour, and only having one conversation with him, during which she said ‘I definitely have strong feelings for you’ like what??? They made this whole subplot where the gods didn’t use to abandon their children, no, it’s all Poseidon’s fault because he loved Percy So Much that he forgot to be the god of the sea so Zeus banned the gods from seeing their kids??? There was no big three oath. Hades??? Dressed??? Like a poorly aging rock star???? Persephone was not only in the underworld for some reason (It!! Was!! Summer!! She’s!! Above!! Ground!!), but she complained that Hades was crazy mean and abusive to her??? Literally no one who worked on this movie ever read a single mythology book I swear. Grover sacrificed himself and like, implied banged Persephone, and Luke stole the lightning bolt for no reasons mentioned. They had a fight on the empire state building, during which both Percy and Luke actually FIRED the master bolt (which…shouldn’t be possible), and then Percy literally…stabbed Luke through the neck with a trident and tossed him into a river. I’m still???? I’m still. 

There were a few funny moments that redeemed it- while he didn’t play a very good Book Grover, Brandon T. Jackson was funny enough and kept things moving. The Lotus Casino scene was probably the best part of the movie, because since they aged the characters up, they didn’t feel the need to make it PG, so they literally just got high it was great. The marketing was a mess, though, I remember- a bunch of dramatic Harry Potter-pandering trailers, long slow shots up the Empire state building, interviewers trying to sexualize the end scene between Poseidon and Percy while Kevin McKidd was visibly dying inside as he desperately pointed out he was playing the child’s father…A Mess. A forgettable mess.

But then…the second one. Oh God. 

So they like. Somewhat listened to fan complaints about the first movie? And they attempted to fix what they could…but sloppily, in ways that kind of made them worse. Annabeth’s randomly blonde now, don’t question it. Clarisse has always been here and she and Percy have always been rivals, don’t question it. Luke is somehow still alive and somehow got a scar on his face, don’t question it. Mr. D is here, don’t question it. Stuff like that. It could’ve been handled a lot better, but when you saw that going in it was like, ‘oh! They’re listening! Maybe this one will be better!’ but HA. The plot was once again, baseline- the have to find the golden fleece. They somehow invented, like, Ancient Greek transportation devices??? Like, beam me up scotty, but as a portable disc. Wild. Tyson was handled so…so bad, from his casting to the fact they didn’t want to spend cgi on a cyclopes so they made ‘spray-able Mist in a can’ to give him two eyes. The movie was doing that thing where they kept throwing in future references that had nothing to do with the plot but solely for the audience, but it wasn’t well thought out- like, it came out during the gap between Mark of Athena and House of Hades, so they had Luke throw out a line like “I crawled through Tartarus!!” thinking it was a fun line for the fans, but it just made people Very Upset. Nathan Fillion appeared, made a Firefly joke, and then gave a very unconvincing plea about him wanting Luke to be saved. The Princess Andromeda was a tiny ass yacht instead of a gigantic luxury cruise ship that can hold an army, and they had camp demigods on board that like…weren’t supposed to be there. Percy’s entire character went out the window, he spent the entire film moping about ‘maybe I’m not a Real Hero’, and Annabeth spent the entire movie waiting for him to act first. Grover didn’t get kidnapped until half way thru, and he only spent a few hours with the Cyclopes. They cut out basically everything else and invented an abandoned amusement park for the cyclopes to live on. They….this gets me so mad still, they literally RE-WROTE Greek Mythology just so Percy can have an ‘I’m-like-my-daddy’ moment. They also rewrote the Great Prophecy, which like, okay, with the cast I could understand changing the ages- but then they changed ‘the hero’s soul’ to ‘the evil’s soul‘ and the person sitting behind me in the theater actually yelled out in protest. The Golden Fleece Was Not Golden. And there was this whole scene with Kronos and Percy and Luke near the end….A Mess. 

The only good parts I can remember are Stanley Tucci’s like, five minutes of screen time as Dionysus, and for some inexplicable reason, Luke yelling ‘Get off my roof!’…literally nothing else comes to mind. It’s like, where they tried to make up for the first movie, they let everything else drop? So while the first movie was a Bad Adaptation but a relatively average children’s fantasy film, this one was just. Not even good as a standalone movie. There was no good storytelling flow at all, and things were very poorly explained or ignored. 

You probably didn’t want this long ass thing filled with arguable spoilers, but, sorry. I Am Very Salty About These Films. They had so much potential and just. ugh. 

[thejollyshiner]

 rules: answer 30 questions and tag 10 people, but I’m not. Tagged by @infinite-wonders

# following:1,461 mostly just artist, but have been meaning to clean that out.

# of followers: around 150

average hours of sleep: anywhere between 4-9 hours (depends on the day). 

lucky number:3 or 7 or 13 or 24 or even 424

instruments: used to play violin in high school

what are you wearing:some very loose comfy jeans, my pink long shirt with my comfy plaid pullover sweater.

dream job: A job where passion and happiness are my overarching emotions along with a decent income 

dream trip: Italy! Spain! Japan! Puerto Rico! Poland! England! Canada!

birthday:April 24

height: 4 ft 11 in ( very short from my Hispanic blood, same height as two aunts, a lot of cousins, and my grandma. It basically runs in the family.

gender/pronouns: she/her

other blogs: none

nicknames: ren-nae-nae ( only by a couple family members lol )

star sign: tarus

time:5:30 pm

favorite bands: don’t really have one *shrug*

favorite artist:don’t have one as I like too many

favorite tumblr artist: *sweats nervously* they’re all so talented! It’s so hard to choose!

song stuck in your head: its a mixture of these three currently give or take

. Rock Da Boat by Anthony Florey

. Me and Your Mama by Childish Gambino

.Telepath by Sound Station

last movie you watched: Hmm... I think it was Guardians of the galaxy during when visiting family and the movie really sucked.

last show you watched:March comes in like a Lion season 2

why did you make your blog: For funsies

what do you post: MEMES, aesthetically pleasing things , fanfic, art, animals, politics, fandom stuff , positive self help/love (as every one needs that, including my hot mess self)  things I love :)

last thing you googled: hmm..I’m not sure I think it was a location to an international food store 

ao3: I don’t have one *tears* I keep on trying to get an invite at least five times now but I never get the email invite. So, I basically created a note for just fanfic stuff. Most of what I read is Yuri on Ice, so I’ve created a system to remember all of the fanfics I liked reading.

do you ever get asks: sometimes. Thank you my lovely mutuals <3

how did you get the idea for your url:

Hmm...years and years ago I went to a winter retreat with friends and on the last night it was tradition to play one last game of a mixture of hockey and soccer. As we ran on the ice with our snow boots, as we hit a ball into a goal with pathetic looking hockey sticks. As there was a tie, I was at a stale mate with another person as we tried to get the ball to hit anywhere towards our destination as we were on opposite sides of the team. As I was on the defensive and was defending well enough that th girl forgot to not swing the hockey stick too high in risk of injuring someone. That someone was me, as she swung it high enough she whacked me a good one to my left eye that i fell head first onto the ice, until I got my bearings and told everyone that I was fine and we should continue the game. 

As I was fine with a mixture of selfishly continue playing/not wanting to concern others/ showing off how tough I was. Yeah I was pretty dumb, but my team won. Anyway by the end of it holding some ice to my eye, with the beginnings of a black eye or a shiner. That was my nickname at the end of the trip which was shiner as everyone who went gets some dumb nickname from whatever they did on the trip.

I simply liked the word jolly as its super fun to say and makes me think of robin hood/ I honestly needed an reminder to stay positive or jolly. As I can get really stuck in my head sometimes and need to remind myself to smile more.

favorite food: pasteles, tamales, yellow rice, and stew

last book you read: My Greek mythology textbook for class

top 3 fictional universes: The Percy Jackson universe( i honestly owe so much to these books as everyone was reading harry potter I was reading these and I never cared about reading until I read these books which has made an huge effect to my own love reading now, to Greek mythology influencing my class decision for my art history minor, along with making a thesis show about about Atalanta the only Greek heroine), The YOI universe where there’s just… so much love, and Marvel comics/cinematic universe

Tagging: You! Yes you, the person reading this! If you would like to participate, please feel free to do so and tag me because I want to see your responses!

[beths-escape-from-reality]

Hey Guys!

Despite being twenty-three years old, I still occasionally read middle grade books. they are what got me into reading all those years ago. There are some truly incredible middle grade books around that are fantastic, no matter our age. So, today, I wanted to talk about a few of my favourite middle grade books that you are guaranteed to love, no matter your age!

Percy Jackson/Heroes Of Olympus/Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan

Basically, anything by Riordan. He is the master of middle grade. All of his series are centred around the concept of ancient gods and civilisations in modern times. The Percy Jackson series’ centre around Greek mythology. They follow Percy, a demi god (the child of a Greek god and a human) on his adventures. The Kane Chronicles centre around ancient Egypt and follow Sadie and Carter Kane as they are fight to keep the Egyptian magicians alive. There is also now a series about Norse mythology. All of Riordan’s books are amazing. They are so interesting and exciting. And you also learn a lot about history while reading them. They are perfect for any age.

Harry Potter by J K Rowling

I cannot talk about middle grade books and not mention Potter. These are the epitome of middle grade books. They are just truly incredible, whether you read them as a child, or an adult, you will fall in love with the story. In-case you have been living under a rock, in these books you follow a young boy names Harry as he discovers his true identity and starts at a school for magic. You follow him on countless adventures and watch him grow, develop and fight the greatest evil that the world has ever known. If you have somehow made it this far in life without reading these books, you need to read them asap.

  Wonder by R J Palacio

Welcome to the book that will make you think like an 11 year old again. This book is a contemporary middle grade story about a young boy with serve facial disfigurement. You follow Auggie as he goes to school for the first time. The story is set over the first year of middle school and is told from multiple perspectives. You get chunks of the story from different people. From Auggie himself, to his sister, friends and even his sisters boyfriend. Each character tells the whole story from their perspective, but also progresses the story. This is a truly stunning book that leaves you with so many feelings. It contains some very important life messages and is a book that everyone needs to read in their lifetime.

  Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend

  This is a fantastic middle grade full of magic and mystery. You follow 11-year-old Morrigan as she is unexpectedly thrown into a world full of wonder. The book spans the course of a year in her life as she adjusts to her new life, starts to learn about herself and competes in The Trials. This is a great book, and a fantastic audiobook, that is perfect for this time of year. It is just so gripping and brilliant

Young Bond by Charlie Higson

Have you ever wondered about who James Bond was, before he was 007? well then this is the series for you. In these books you follow a teenage James as he starts Eton and develops a taste for adventure and danger. These book are honestly brilliant. They are fast paced and gripping, dark and fun, just perfect. There is something for everyone in these books. I love them. But, a word of warning, if you do decided to read these, I would suggest only reading the first 5 (Silverfin, Blood Fever, Double Or Die, Hurricane Gold, By Royal Command). After that Steve Cole took over writing the series and they went drastically down hill. But the first 5 are brilliant.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

This has got to be one of the most messed up and unnerving books that I have ever read. it is just deeply disturbing. The story follows a young girl named Coraline as she is essentially kidnapped and transported to a parallel world full of monsters and clay people and all kinds of creepiness. I listened to the audiobook for this one and was generally unnerved the whole time I was listening to it. this is such a creepy book. if you want a really quick, spooky read for Halloween, this is the book for you!

Lockwood And Co by Jonathan Stroud

This is one of the most underrated book series on this list. These books are essentially about a group of teenage, private investigators that deal with ghosts. Each book follows a different investigation and they are brilliant. They are funny and dramatic, dark and sometimes twisted, full of adventure and friendship and so much more. I absolutely adore these books. The storylines are fantastic, the characters are amazing, the whole books are just brilliant. I am not sure I would give them to the intended age group, because they are pretty dark at times (in the first book there is a bleeding room), but I feel like everyone should give these books a go.

City Of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab

This middle grade book follows a young girl named Cassidy who can see through the veil, and see ghosts. Based in Edinburgh, this story is brilliant. I read it in just a couple of sittings, it had me hooked. it was funny and mysterious and kept me right on the edge of my seat. this is a really intriguing story and I am so happy that it is going to be a series. I can’t wait to see where Cass’s story goes next.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

This is a stunningly beautiful book. It is essentially a contemporary story, but with a fantasy, supernatural twist running through it. In this book you follow teenager Conor as he deals with all the emotions and struggles of his mothers illness. When he is visited by a monster, you learn some very important life lessons with him. This book is absolutely incredible. You will sob uncontrollably but you wont care. As soon as you start reading it, you wont want to put it down. It is the perfect book to curl up with and loose yourself in.

Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo

This is a stunning book. I read it for the first time when I was about 10 or 11 and then reread it last year and it is honestly amazing. It focuses on a young boy who finds himself shipwrecked on a desert island. The book follows his struggles to survive and find a way home. This is a beautiful story full of drama and love, determination and unlikely friendships. Morpurgo is the king of heart wrenching stories.

And there we have it. those are a few of my favourite middlegrade books. all of these book are fantastic and are well worth a read, whatever age you are. what is your favorutie middlegrade book? I hope that you have enjoyed todays post and I will see you all again very soon

My Favourite Middle Grade Books Hey Guys! Despite being twenty-three years old, I still occasionally read middle grade books. they are what got me into reading all those years ago.

[goodgreycious]

How to Succeed in Fangirling Without Really Trying

[Insert nervous laughter here]

I guess we should start with the basics like introductions and the more important things you need to know about me. Hi, my name is Grey. I am a person of the adult-ish variety who is, more importantly, a fangirl. Very soon, I will be graduating from college with a degree in history. And yes, just history. And no, I do not want to be a teacher. (This is important to the overall narrative I’m trying to create here, but we’ll get to that later.) I am a Hufflepuff and I take almost as much pride in that fact as I do about my remarkable ability to eat and drive at the same time (my friends might say otherwise, but they’re lying to you). My idea of a “lit” night is when the light radiates from my Netflix account. I love a good book and a bottle of dry, red wine. Preferably together. If there is one other thing I know for sure about myself at the ripe age of “almost-22,” it’s that being a fangirl is all I really know how to do. Maybe through this blog, I can take people on a journey they can relate to. Maybe if I share my story, it can help someone else who is out there feeling the way I’m feeling. Maybe they’ll even start a blog. It’s what I did.

To kick off this shindig, there is a little bit more you need to know about me. Like where and how my story starts. From a young age I was encouraged to be the best I could be. Not the best out of everyone, but my parents knew what I was capable of and they wanted me to do well for me, not anyone else. However, I was an awkward kid. No matter what my parents say. Isn’t everyone? Throughout my K-12 education, I somehow managed to stick myself right in the middle of the herd. I guess the more appropriate description would be “average.” I played one sport in my four years of high school, so I was not jock material. I was in choir, but not a soloist. I was in the musical, but felt more comfortable being part of the stage crew. I spent most of my lunches in my school’s library. The average high school student will experience some form of bullying and I was no exception. Not to the extent that others were, but it was enough to scar me so that my goal for that part of my education was just to get through it with as few waves as possible. So, I adapted and figured out that being stuck in the middle of everything is what made me happy. I didn’t want to be the center of attention. That would’ve been my worst nightmare. I hated myself back then and I had already given people enough of a chance to hate me in my earlier years. It might not have been bad, but it was enough.

I, also, might not be able to remember all the details, but I can pinpoint the moment I knew I was a fangirl. I was in 6th grade and I held in my meaty little hands a copy of The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. I read the opening part of the first chapter entitled “I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher” and it is, to this day, the closest thing I can equate to finding myself. Tiny little me, reading a book about a kid not much older than her who feels it in every fiber of his bones that he is different and can’t do a damn thing about it at that moment, it just felt like coming home. I inhaled the words on those pages. I injected them into my bloodstream once every month. No other book could ever compare as I reread it over and over and over again. It was Wonderland and I was Alice, falling, falling, falling down the rabbit hole and but with no intention of ever stopping the free fall. And as I grew older and wiser, and my tastes expanded, I started to realize that I had always been like that. Disney movies were (still are) the pinnacle of my movie tastes. I wouldn’t watch anything other than animated movies until I was well over the age of 12. My mom begged me to play outside as a kid when all I wanted to do was sit down and watch Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, or the Disney Channel. Percy Jackson and his journey finally put it all into perspective for me. And I’m still spiraling. I started to consume knowledge about Greek Mythology more than my studies. I read anything fantasy based that I could get my hands on. Harry Potter, Fablehaven, Peter and the Star Catchers, Oh. My. Gods., House of Night, the list is as endless as it is ongoing. As I grew, my tastes expanded. I got into anime, sci-fi, comics, crime, true crime, literally anything that took me away from the normal life I was leading. What I wanted more than anything in the world was to be there.

All of these things carried me through my high school career, but not in the way I was expecting. I loved my stories, my otherworlds, more than I ever loved the real world, but it beckoned. Not so much like a siren’s song, more like the annoying alarm clock in the morning that you just perpetually want to turn off, but somehow end up hitting SNOOZE so it keeps waking you up every few minutes. High school was a time where the answer to the question “So, what do you want to be when you grow up?” was finally starting to be the most important question you could answer. I’ll give you three guesses as to what girl never, ever had the answer to that question and the first two don’t count… Yup, t’was me. I’m pretty sure every time someone asked me that, my answered changed. The only thing I really knew, at least at that point, was there were two things I loved. History and what I’ve come to now realize is my all-encompassing, heart-stopping, soul-crushing love for the creative process. Everything in this world that is created has a story that I need to know. I fawn over fan art just as much as Picasso or Van Gogh. I think fanfiction and their authors can sometimes be written better than the original. I have music on at all times during the day. If I am not reading, I am watching something. If I am not watching, then I am trying to hone my own creative processes. Everything about being a fangirl appeals me like a drug. Where bullying knocked me down, I bathed myself in fantasy and used it as my armor. When the only thing I wanted to do was just get through, my fandoms taught me how I should live. Whenever I felt like I wasn’t loved or good enough or whatever enough, somehow, some way, fiction would wrap its arms around me, remind me that I was, and lift me up to carry me home.

Sounds like a wonderful thing to make a career out of, right? But if bullying had taught me anything, it was that I wasn't good enough. I was never going to be a content creator. It was always going to be my destiny to be a content consumer. I could never be J.K. Rowling, Chris Hardwick, Wil Wheaton, Felicia Day, Lin Manuel Miranda. If I could go back and tell my younger self anything, it wouldn’t be any of the clichés like ‘it gets better’ or ‘just stay strong.’ I’d tell that little punk to stick it to whoever told her that what was making her feel whole wasn’t worth making a life out of. I would tell my younger self to be brave enough to prove them all wrong. I was constantly told that I could not make a sustainable career out what I loved.  So, I did what I do best and adapted. History was the only other thing I really loved. It was the real stories, the non-fiction that inspires fiction. If I couldn’t create the stories, I would learn everyone else’s. That would surely solve that problem? It’d be a good enough substitute, right?

While I love history, it was like going from Ferrari to a Honda. The Honda will most definitely get you from Point A to Point B, but more so because you can’t afford a Ferrari in the first place. Which kind of brings me to where I am now and the whole reason I started this blog in the first place. Here’s me, about to graduate college with a degree in a field I love (even though it doesn’t sound like it) feeling like I’m doing nothing more than staring into a deep, vast, dark thing called The Void of Adulthood when the only thing I really want to do is take a nap. Or curl up with a good book or a new TV show. Forget the horror genre, adulthood, or the precipice of it, is the scariest shit I have ever encountered. And I am looking at this Void, wanting to take a ForeverNap™️,  neck deep in a big-girl-full-time job search, wearing a Captain America shirt, Prisoner of Azkaban clutched in one hand, sonic screwdriver in the other, screaming my throat raw about how I am just not ready.

But getting back to the present. I mentioned that my degree in history would somehow be important to the overall narrative I’m trying to weave here. This is why. It goes back to being too scared to do what I really wanted to do. While I love history, it just doesn’t compare to the other thing. But, I was also too scared by real life to ever do anything to change it. I was too scared to tell everyone: “DAMN THE CONSEQUENCES AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR COLLECTIVE ASSES, I’M GOING TO DO THIS.” I never wanted to shake it up, challenge the status quo, and now I’m kicking myself for it. History was a safety net I didn’t realize was there until it was too late. All this suddenly came into perspective because I found my dream job. Given the chance, it would be one that I would be really, really good at… but I can’t get it. I don’t have a degree in a relevant field, I don’t have the job experience. I’m not prepared. And it sucks royal hippogriff.

And that, dear readers who have stuck with me all the way to this point, is why I am here. I started this blog to finally break out of my shell. I am no longer content with being a consumer. I want to be a creator. I want to contribute to the discussions. I want to write things that matter and that people can relate to. I want to be fully qualified. If writing this blog and finally, finally being able to contribute something to the worlds that have loved me when I thought no one else did is the only way I can give back and get experience, then so be it. If it is the only way I can be apart of the things I love right now, then I’m going to do it. This is how I stick it to those people who told me I couldn’t. This is how I throw it back in the faces of people who tore me down. I hope that I can take people along this journey with me. I have some fun things planned. And if there are people out there who are listening to the voices of negativity in whatever forms they take, I hope I can help you realize that you are strong enough to face those demons and win. I hope that together we can find a way to forge our own paths. I don’t want anyone to ever feel like I felt. No one deserves to feel like that.

Hi again, I’m Grey. Welcome home. Here, you will always be encouraged. Here, I promise to help you in whatever way I can. Here, you are safe. And here, above all, you are seen and you are loved.

[seasonsofreckoningrp-blog]

Congratulations, Mai! You’ve been accepted for the role of Pari Omisha. Please make sure to check our checklist, and you have twenty-four hours to send us your character’s blog. We’re really happy to have you in our family!

This sample was so well-written! The paradoxes used in conjunction to the theme of Death and how much of a love/hate relationship, as well as an internal struggle for her, gave us a good look at how you are able to portray Pari. Your headcanons along with the para really painted the picture for us of how we could see Pari and we can’t wait to see more of what you will do with her!

INTRODUCTION: Mai. 22. GMT+2. She/Her.

ACTIVITY LEVEL: Honestly, my activity will vary quite a lot over the next month. I have exams soon, and I initially planned to wait with applying until I was over them, but I just couldn’t help myself (curse of being a roleplay junkie), and I need something to reward myself during my breaks between studying, so I am certain that I can uphold an activity of 4/10 until the 15th of June when I’m officially done with the semester. After that, my activity will rise to a solid 8/10. I am quite a mood-driven writer though, which means I can have slow days, and then I can have insanely productive days. I usually follow the muse while, of course, maintaining activity as best as I can and replying to the threads I have.

FURTHER CONTACT: [Removed]

HOW DID YOU FIND THE ROLEPLAY?: I was cruising through the lsrpg tag, just looking for a roleplay to join after my exams (lmao don’t judge me), but then I fell in love with this roleplay and particularly this character and all the possibilities and thought about how sad I would be to return in June just to see her taken by someone else, so here I am.

ROLEPLAY EXPERIENCE: Oh boy, I think I started roleplaying back in 2008? It was a Harry Potter roleplay in my native tongue, I was in that roleplay for probably 2 or 3 years? I only had one character and after several years, I had exhausted my muse, and I hesitantly left to try new things. I was in a couple of forum roleplays, I can’t even specifically remember what they were about, but they were all in my first language. However, back in 2011 or 2012, I discovered Tumblr roleplaying and I was immediately intrigued, wanting to try my hand at roleplaying in English. I joined a Percy Jackson roleplay where I played Clarisse La Rue, I was also there for a year before the roleplay, unfortunately, closed down. I had become good friends with the admin of that roleplay, so I followed her to the next roleplay, another HP roleplay, where I played an original character named Elizabeth, a pure-blooded Slytherin in love with a half-blood Gryffindor. I was also with that roleplay for 18 months or so, and then my muse started to die along with the roleplay, and that was it. I quickly found a new roleplay (told you guys I was a roleplay junkie), it was a Greek mythology roleplay where I consistently played Hera and Aphrodite through two revamps, I also dabbled with Rhodes and Ariadne. In total, I was with that roleplay with the same group of people for 2 years, I was even an admin for a year. After it closed down, I decided to try and get into asoiaf/got roleplaying, where, after experimenting with several characters, I ended up picking up a character that I didn’t even like very much at first, but through my own go at her portrayal - and extensive researching - I fell in love with. I am currently still portraying her with a 1x1 that I have going with my friend, which also portrays my most recent writing. You are welcome to take a look here: http://fireinmyblood.tumblr.com/ - please be aware that the latest posts there is smut, we have no warning or triggers tagged simply because we only follow each other. If you would like to avoid all the smut, then please check out: http://fireinmyblood.tumblr.com/tagged/%28thread-5%29

TRIGGERS: [Removed]

ANYTHING ELSE?: [Removed]

Having been an admin myself, I realise it can be quite daunting accepting someone whose activity won’t be impressing at first, but I promise you that I will have more time to invest in the wonderful Pari in a short month, but the opportunity to be a part of the roleplay in its opening stages, and to not let Pari slip between my fingers was just too irresistible. I think my commitment to previous roleplays prove that I am dedicated, I just need to get past my exams, and then I can give 110%. I will still be here, however, but the difference between my activity at first and later will be obvious, since I’ll probably be around almost all the time during the Summer break.

IC INFORMATION

DESIRED CHARACTER: Pari Omisha.

FACECLAIM: I am perfectly happy with the chosen faceclaim.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THIS CHARACTER?: There are several reasons why I fell for Pari in particular, the first is my fascination with banshees. I was quite surprised to find that as a species here, so I was immediately intrigued, and went on to search for which banshees were available, and I found Pari’s bio.

However, I quickly fell in love with the character as well. I really like her background, the story of how her family became cursed, how she is personally dealing with it, her Indian heritage and the prospect of character development. Her connections are all very interesting as well, considering what might develop with friendships and crushes, especially when you think about how she insecure she feels about her old form, and how much she worries people would stop loving and liking her, should they ever see her in such a state. I see a lot of potential for character development, and God knows I’m a sucker for that. Basically, I have a weak spot characters who are suffering from internal strife, stuck between knowing what is right and wrong, yet feeling like they have no choice but to do wrong. I love how she has chosen to become a nurse to try and balance out the darkness and lightness inside her, and no matter how hard she has worked, she is still drawn to darkness and death while looking like an innocent flower.

PARA SAMPLE: Death was the only constant companion Pari knew of. It followed her everywhere she went, she followed it too, perhaps it was not Death seeking out her instead she was the hunter of Death, always on the hunt to fill herself with the dark essence which brought so many the pain of losing loved ones. Death was her best friend, Death was her worst enemy. These uninvited dark thoughts entered her mind, refusing to leave her be as she stared down at her hands. A few wrinkles had appeared, nothing noticeable to anyone else, but she could see it as clear as day. It was the first warning sign that she had hidden from Death for too long. She was laying in her bathtub, relaxing in the warm water after a long work shift at the hospital. She closed her eyes to try and ignore it, but the heart-wrenching feeling in her gut was frustratingly insistent on being felt, it would not be ignored. The guilt tore through her veins again, no matter how many people she had helped save today, no matter the hours she spent comforting and healing others, the guilt was still there. It was no counterweight to the destruction she was forced to revel in, simply to keep her beauty intact and keep the horrid, ugly hag at bay. She looked down at her body, it was covered by bubbles from the soap, yet she could easily imagine her smooth, young skin wrinkled and stained with marks. The world was cruel to those it deemed ugly and unworthy.

As night slowly started falling, Pari found herself mindlessly driving out of Boston. She was going nowhere, in particular, but she was drawn by an invisible magnet, a pull strong enough to allow her to simply shut off her brain, only focusing on the road straight ahead without thinking of a destination. She often took drives when the Banshee inside her started acting up, it was a part of her that she desperately wished to ignore, but no matter how hard she tried, the knowledge of what would happen to her often forced her to act on the urges. Death was a relief, Death was a curse. After driving for about 30 minutes, she found herself driving into Moon Island, a place she had briefly been told about by a chatty patient. She found herself stopping her car by a cemetery. She threw her dark hair over her shoulder as she stepped out of the car, finally taking in her surroundings. The last light in the sky was dying, darkness had covered the island like a thick blanket. It felt eerie standing by her car, so close to a place where bodies laid in the ground after Death had taken their souls away. Pari could not string together an explanation for why she had stopped here, why she had even found herself on Moon Island. As she opened her car door to get away from the depressing place, her hand curled around the handle and she lost control. A scream tore its way out of her throat and into the chilling night air, it forced her head to snap back. It was terribly loud, the sound powerful enough to vibrate the windows of her car. When the scream died out, she found herself struggling to take in deep enough breaths. There was a chill in the air, the cold wrapped around her bones, encapsulating them in frost. She quickly got into her car, afraid anyone might try hunting down the source of the scream.

Pari drove further into town, her curiosity and the guilt of knowing someone would lose their life soon, both were enough to urge her forward. She continued to explore Moon Island, she let the hours pass with driving around before exploring the heart of the town as she waited. She was unsure of what exactly she was waiting for, something strange and unexplored within her forced her to stay. If someone was bound to die, perhaps she could be in the right place at the right time, either to her satisfy the supernatural hunger for death, or to help save a life. As she sat on a bench, a coffee in hand from the only shop she had found still open, she felt the unusual chill in the air prickling at her skin again. She bound her coat tighter around her waist, the moment her hand was about to let go of the leather strap, a rush of energy hit her like a tidal wave. She gasped gently and dropped the to-go cup in her other hand, coffee spilt across the ground as she was pulled to her feet. She absorbed the energy surrounding her, it was almost too overwhelming, it felt special, infinitely more satisfying than anything else she had experienced. Death was her best friend. As Pari was defeated by her Banshee side now controlling her, she blindly followed the source of the energy, so pure and powerful and so tainted by the hands of Death. She felt no shame at that particular moment, she simply felt high off the energy and its effects on her, but the shame would come for her again, the woman knew it all too well, but for now, all she could do was revel in darkness, and the whispers of the dead.

EXTRA

PERSONALITY: + kind, high-minded, intelligent

The first trait and last trait speak for themselves, I think, and although quite simple, I think these two classically good traits are really defining for Pari’s character. I also imagine her to be quite aware of morals and having her own set of morals, and although she cannot always act on it, she has a clear view of what is right and what is wrong. So she does have incredible strong morals, she just lacks the ability to always act on them, a large part of this flaw is the Banshee curse.

- troubled, stubborn, guilt-ridden

Pari can be quite troubled which can result in her seeming sullen, not very often but she is affected by her close relationship with death and darkness, and the urge she has to come people alive and wishing to see them thrive instead of faltering. These two contrasting sides often cause internal strife, which leaves her restless at night. She is also known to be quite stubborn, although it can be seen as a positive trait, it’s what has driven her to achieve her goals, it can also be dangerous when surrounded by supernatural beings, and alliances ready to destroy each other. She is, of course, very often guilt-ridden after absorbing the energy left from the dead - and even screaming despite having no control of it. She is especially guilt-ridden because she is aware that she does not need death to survive, but she is also acutely aware that no one would ever love her if she is stuck in her old form.

HEADCANONS: 1. When Pari was a little girl, her father would sing her a specific lullaby every night. Whenever she was upset even in her teenage years, he would sing it to calm her down whenever another scream was torn from her throat, condemning someone to die. When she left India, he surprised her with a special recording of the song, she sometimes still listens to her father’s voice singing it whenever she’s stressed or sad. It is safely tucked away in a box below her bed.

2. During her years studying at university, one of the first nights in her new home, she woke up her entire dorm by letting out one of the loudest screams to date. She successfully managed to convince all of them that she simply suffered from bad nightmares, but soon after she found a small house to live, with help from her parents, so she could be left alone and not hear the whispers of how the strange foreign girl wailed at the oddest times.

3. Pari is usually the patients’ favourite nurse, she sits with them even after her shift has ended if they are very sick, or even if they are dying, she holds their hands and tells them stories, even sometimes singing. She always wears a bright smile, never allowing them to see her sad or upset. Even though Pari is very kind by nature, this also satisfies a more selfish need. She does not allow anyone to come too close, she has plenty of friends sure, but there is always a barrier between herself and the others, so this closeness with the patients, the feeling of actually cheering others up, it quickly grew addicting for the woman who fed on death.

NOTE: I am aware my para sample is quite short, I am currently cursed with a headache, but I wanted to send in the app regardless, so I hope it is alright. I am usually a bit more detailed in my writing, but I feel like it’s a good representation of the skeleton of my writing :)