#maybe i’ll do a little trilogy of it for insta

[unspecifiedfigure]

what’s your favorite scary movie?🔪

[pacifymebby]

I always lean towards messaging you when I have a catb thought Ik you aren’t my therapist but you seem to write and reblog things that I relate to and I feel like we’re very similar people anyway I’m so sad about how much and how fast everything has changed like afew years ago their music was my escape from reality and I could just pretend I lived this life that Was frankly mainly just romanticised and idk the fact that everything’s changing is really fucking with my head and I just want good old van back uno? Like I miss seeing their stupid little shit like Larry tied up on their Instagram it’s like now we don’t even have those little things that tell us that they’re atleast okay? I feel like I’m losing it abit after reading it had me so fucking emotional trying to analyse everything and figure out how they’re all doing and I know it’s my own fault for putting all this emotional trauma into their music and I’ve just lost it I’m genuinely nuts without putting all my shit into the next time I’ll go and see them Idk I had the best time at Leeds but it scared me so much to think that that was the last time I’d get to feel that feeling

Hi anon, you can message me whenever you want to about anything my love!!!

I think i know what you mean with this one because I've really leant on this band throughout my darkest times and I really have used them as an escapism thing. When I broke up with on of my abusive exes I was writing Oxygen and I used to use that as an escape from my life and live vicariously through my characters. I think catfish, especially when they first started, were such happy go lucky lads and their social media presence was just funny, it made me laugh and picked me up and gave me something to smile at that was just daft.

I used to listen to the balcony when I was feeling low because it always raised my spirits. I remember being so excited when the ride came out and then being secretly excited for the balance. I remember longshot would play on the radio at work when I was super stressed and I would turn the radio up and sing along and it would just make me feel that little bit lighter. Light enough to get through the rest of the shift.

And I understand what you're saying when you say that it's scary thinking that Leeds might be your last time ever feeling that way but believe me it won't be.

I still personally don't think they will split up, but I know that if they do, you will still get that joy and that release and that comfort from their songs and the old videos and everything. I remember being devestated when my chemical romance split up, thinking that it would ruin everything for me, but it didn't and years later I still fall back on thst band when I'm in a bad place.

It'll be the same with catfish. Its a shame how they don't communicate so much anymore but I think, we have the old videos and the old interviews and we still have Bondy when he resurfaces from time to time.

I think that although things feel very strange and sad now and like stuff might be coming to an end I think it's more likely that it's the end of an era rather than the end of everything u know?

Maybe they will leave those three albums like a trilogy and the stuff they make next will be different, or maybe they just need a break and some rest, or maybe they want to keep making music but they don't want the responsibility of fame (the killers are a good example of this I think, like they gig they release albums but shit u see nothing from them in terms of casual content) and idk, I think what am trying to say anon is don't lose all hope and don't panic.

You'll always have the albums and the interviews, the video diaries and all the dumb shit on their instas. And I think, they'll keep going in one way or another, I just think this is what happens to most bands who hit their 30s,they just calm down and grow up don't they. They're not teenagers anymore and maybe they don't feel as sociable and as lary and as much like they want to be in the limelight anymore.

Even oasis mellowed didn't they.

Idk anyway I feel am just ranting now but message me again whenever you like love. I'm glad you had such a good time seeing catfish, I hope u get to treasure that memory forever x

[thinkingbookthoughts]

Strange the Dreamer, post read thoughts.

I just finished it last night, and hoo boy was it a read. This is the first book I’ve read by Laini Taylor, and it’s got me wanting to read more. I’m starting Muse of Nightmares tonight or tomorrow, and maybe after that the Daughters of Smoke and Bone trilogy. Anyway, [spoilers probably]:

First off, I don’t care for fantasy. I tend to have little patience for made up words (yes, I know all words are made up, you know what I mean) and hyper detailed world building. I enjoy the fantastical, but fantasy as a genre generally bores me to tears. I don’t want to read about fake cultures when I could be learning about real ones. That’s personal taste, whatever. Taylor however, writes it almost exactly the way I want to read it. She dips occasionally into exposition dumps, but I find it nowhere near as tiresome as the typical Tolkienesque approach. Even then, I’m interested. She’s created such a wonderful world that I want to know whatever she’s going to give me, and uncovering some new detail feels like a treat, not a slog. My eyes still glaze over at all the made up words and politics, but everything else makes up for it.

What keeps this book interesting to me is definitely not the plot though. I have no major issues with it, it’s fine, whatever. But it falls into the category of legendary fantasy tale that generally I have no interest in. Hero’s journey and all that. I find it boring. Again, personal taste, whatever. I tend to enjoy character driven more than plot driven anyway, and this book is absolutely character driven. The story itself is so simple I might even go so far as to call it formulaic, but the people who carry it are something else. When their hearts break, so does yours. I won’t lie, she does go for some easy gut punches, but they do still feel earned and in their place. She’s not afraid to let you dislike her heroes. Except maybe Lazlo, I’ll talk more about him later (though I feel like the sequel may challenge him more). Most of the people that we grow to like are complicated. They’ve done terrible things, or harbor toxic beliefs, but they’re also justified to a certain extent. And to what extent that is, is left up to you.

She does kind of beat you over the head with her themes, but I mean, this is technically YA. It’s not terribly clumsy, you just find yourself wanting to go, “OK I get it! Move on!” every once in a while. But that’s a hard line to toe as a writer, and as far as shortcomings go, it’s really not that big of a deal. I’m willing to forgive it, anyway. Sometimes you can feel when the “correct” answer is coming through, usually because Lazlo is taking a hard line moral stance, but it never felt so overwhelming to me that it seemed like right and wrong were being truly dictated. It’s not perfect, and writers are allowed to have opinions, so eh.

In general, I’m a big fan of her writing style. I get the feeling the novelty would wear thin if I read all of her books back to back, so I won’t lmao, but from the one I’ve read I love it. She has issues with repetition to the point where it crosses from emphasis to unnecessary and redundant pretty often, but god I am a simp for flowery prose, so I will forgive it. If I had to describe the way she writes to someone who is deciding whether or not to read it, I’d say that she writes like those verbose, rich paragraphs you find on tumblr. You know, where someone has had a few nice sentences flow into their head, but they aren’t going to expand on it so they post it as is, without the context that might make it anything more than pretty words. (No shade, but... look they’re not exactly high art, ok?) Except that she’s actually written the book. And I find it a very pleasurable experience. Like I said, I am a simp for all things purple. If you’re not, you’ll probably hate it.

It can, at times, absolutely feel indulgent, but in a way the whole book is. I mean the fantastical elements of this story really go hard. She’s not really attempting realism here. Grounded (enough), sure, but definitely not realistic. And it’s fine by me. I’m willing to give a story a lot of passes if I feel like the writer has earned them in other ways. I don’t care if every little detail is what would really happen. Not at all, actually. If I wanted realism I’d go outside. I’m reading a book, not a newspaper.

One example is what I saw described as the “insta-love” between Lazlo and Sarai. Personally, I had no issues with it. It felt earned and in place in the context of the story. It makes sense for the two characters, both of whom are young and have felt painfully isolated for their entire lives. And then in walks someone with a mutual attraction, who can interact with them and appreciate them in a way no one else ever has. Yeah of course they fall in love. Even if the relationship wouldn’t have worked out long term, it makes total sense that one would have started. And as for how quickly it happened, eh. They literally met in a dream, what do you want?

There are plenty of other crimes that I’m sure I would defend, but here’s one I won’t. Thyon Nero. He is so criminally underutilized in this story, I question his place in it at all. Which is a goddamn shame because I love me a petty bitch like Thyon. It feels like he’s all wasted potential. In a sea of interesting, well drawn characters, he’s flat as Saskatchewan. Unforgivable. If it had been another character, fine. But Thyon? Come on! We spend enough time with him that he should feel more interesting, but he just doesn’t. There’s an attempt to give him a tragic backstory and whatever, but it’s so cliche (rich pretty boy with an abusive family behind the scenes controlling him and making him feel like a pawn in their game. Snarky on the outside, hurting on the inside, blah blah you’ve heard it a million times.) that I need more! You can’t just give me a scene of him getting whipped by his shitty dad, toss off a sentence about him wanting to free from his family’s exploitation, and then dust your hands and call it a day. UGH. He honestly serves as little more than an occasionally funny, almost interesting character foil for Lazlo. He exists to show you what a good boy Lazlo is. And that’s it. They aren’t even proper enemies. How much they dislike each other in any given scene is directly inverse to how much the plot needs them to get along in that moment. Before they’ve even reached the city Thyon is little more than a mild inconvenience. So why set him up as this scary antagonist??? I’m really hoping the second expands on him. I need more. You cannot dangle a funny bitch like him in front of my face and then do nothing with him! RUDE.

Ok, now Lazlo, I said I’d talk about him. Here we are. Lazlo Lazlo Lazlo. First of all, hate his name. That’s a nothing issue, I just had to say it. Second, he’s kinda lame, huh? I wouldn’t say that he’s underdeveloped, I feel like I have a much better idea of who he is than I do Thyon, it’s just that his development isn’t that interesting. He very much feels like a protagonistTM. He’s passionate and funny, driven and like... always in the right on moral issues. He’s the immediately accepted outsider who’s also able to bring a new, but more importantly, morally correct perspective on their issues. He’s charming, but humble, shy but not enough to actually impede social interaction. I don’t hate him, I’d probably hang out with him if I was on that journey (assuming I wasn’t following Thyon around like the simp I am). He’s just that kind of perfectly imperfect character. His flaws only make him more likeable, he’s never outright wrong about anything. I’ll say it, Lazlo is a Mary Sue.

Lazlo is a Mary Sue and Thyon was wasted on his basic ass. And that’s that on that.

I will let that (correct) declaration wrap this up. It’s way too long already. Thank god not a single person on earth reads these. Small miracles.

[ettawritesnstudies]

Etta’s big creative to do list for when I’m not drowning in final exams

(the rest are below the cut because this got LONG! I am putting this here so you have some idea of the stuff I’ll be posting about come Monday 5/11 and also so I can find it again instead of putting it in my notebook where it will inevitably get lost among my fluids practice and history essay jottings. if you’re curious about the fact that I am not yet done with my semester, yes, I am absolutely procrastinating an essay right now by writing this. don’t worry about it.)

FINISH STORGE!! I’m only like 3 chapters away from writing The End and I desperately want to do that this year so I can edit and start sharing snippets with alpha readers by this time next year at the latest :D

Outline the Laoche Chronicles

this includes the trilogy outline in broad strokes to make sure everything sets up the next points

a detailed outline for the first book which will need a name eventually

(my outlining process can be found here!)

Character profiles for all the new OCs

(this process can be found in this post!

worldbuilding write-up questionnaire for the new civilizations that’ll feature in the main trilogy and differ from Storge

Learn how to make edits for tumblr because graphic design and anything resembling Proper Authors Platform Branding continue to elude me

This won’t happen this month, but I need to do a cleanout of the social media’s I do have so I can put writing stuff there too and start a proper Author’s Internet Presence. If I do finish Storge this year, I’ll be looking for beta readers eventually and I need to have something to show for myself. This includes...

doing a mass edit of this blog and organizing my tags

teaching myself HTML/CSS and making a custom blog theme that works for my needs or commissioning someone to do this for me

making a Laoche Chronicles wip page

buying a domain and designing an actual authors website

making an #aesthetictrash book Instagram? I’m vaguely aware this is something people do but I only use insta for it’s chat feature with my college friends so I know not the first thing about how that works

I have a disasterous Pinterest that’s 100% private boards for my various bits of nonsense that needs to be turned into a place to showcase WIP aesthetics

I refuse to touch twitter nor facebook nor snapchat nor ticktock with a fifteen foot pole

if you couldn’t tell by now, I was that kid who had a brick trac-phone until 10th grade, and used my smartphone primarily as a music device until very recently

Write a considerable backlog for my Newsies fanfic so I don’t fall behind whenever I go to my internship in a month

Finish the intro for my Vampire Plague Doctor Buddy Cop story and the Chaotic SFF Academia idea that I started last month, and write a few one shots for those Maybe start posting them somewhere if I’m happy with how they turn out?

Make a proper quilt from the 10389238320923 old event t-shirts I have sitting in a pile in the basement so I can take it to college with me in the fall. (also maybe mockup a walking skirt out of an old sheet, so I at least have an idea of what to do whenever proper fabric stores open again)

It’s going to be below freezing tomorrow for SOME REASON despite being MID- MAY, but I need to plant my garden and make a compost pile at some point

Make a list of art skills to start practicing so I can tackle the concept of “learning to draw” in a logical manner like you would in a class, and start doing these drills

Also participate in the rest of MerMay

Read a few books! My current next list of TBR looks like this

Illthdar! I have been dying to get my hands on @illthdar‘s book but I didn’t want to start it during the school year and then have to inevitably put it down like two chapters in because I had boring real life obligations to attend to, so this is my first read for as soon as I’m done with the semester on Sunday.

Pride and Prejudice, which I've heard is excellent and regrettably not actually read yet (nor any of Austen, yes I’m a heretic I know, but I’m also an engineering student and 90% of my time is spent doing maths)

Storm of Fire and Blood - I have had this book for a year and put it down because of school which is a crying shame because I really love this series! For any religious/historical fiction fans I highly recommend the Sword and Serpent trilogy! It’s a retelling of the story of St. George and the Dragon long before he’s ever a saint. I think anyone could enjoy it, but if you’re Catholic or enjoy early Christian history, you’ll get a lot of the references and saint cameos and it’s just! A lot of fun!!

also my patron St. Katherine of Alexandria is a major character in the 2nd and 3rd books and she’s absolutely wonderful so I might be just a little bit biased

Make a few watercolor maps of the world of Laoche! Including detailed maps of the city of Maaren where Storge takes place, and Arga (one of the countries in the later trilogy)

update my bullet journal which has been languishing unused on my dresser since march when I moved home from college 

Carve new dulcimer hammers and teach myself a few songs. (also maybe try to make a longbow or new bridges for the dulcimer but that’s all probably a BIT of a stretch)

Brush up on my piano and guitar practice because I am very very rusty. I need to find some new songs to learn because I don’t really want to relearn Debussy or Chopin again, but I need to find some good ones first...

If you’re still reading this. Wow. Congratulations. That was a lot. and thank you! But yeah! This is what’s been knocking around in my head recently while I was supposed to be studying, but now that it is out of my head and into a post hopefully I will be able to focus again :P This is extremely ambitious and I 100000% will not be able to finish everything on this list, but! it is a plan! Wish me luck!

[elliepassmore]

The Never Tilting World Review

4/5 stars Recommended for people who like: fantasy, multiple POVs, goddesses, magic, demons, LGBTQ+ romance, strong female leads, kick-ass women, women engineers, disability representation, mental illness representation, characters of color, complex morality I will say that for the most part I really enjoyed this book. The concept is fascinating and the characters and world were splendid. I took off a star because, as nice as it is sometimes to not have every detail of a world explained, with something like magic, it does have to be explained to a certain extent. By-and-large I understand how the 'gates' work, but we're dropped right into the terminology within the first couple of pages without explanation and it was a little confusing and took me a few tries to get at it. Then, I just wasn't a huge fan of Odessa and it does take away from the book a little when you just don't like one of the MCs or narrators, but I'll explain more about Odessa when I get to her. Lan, Tianlan, is the first narrator, so I'm starting with her. She's what's called a Catseye (also something whose we had to figure out figure out ourselves), which means she can heal people or inflict sickness upon them in a form of dual magic. Two sides to every coin, right? I really, really love this idea and think it's a fantastic spin on the typical 'healer' character you see in fantasy. I suppose, theoretically, healers could always turn their magic to use by harming people, in fantasy books healers are relegated to only healing, save for here and in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha and Six of Crows trilogy, where healing and harming are seen as two sides of the same magic, though a person typically has more strength in one than the other, so it doesn't come out quite like it does here. I enjoyed being in Lan's POV because she's caught between wanting to do the right thing by the world that's been plunged into eternal night and also wanting to keep Odessa, her lover, safe. I also thought that Chupeco writing Lan has having PTSD after a pre-book incident was refreshing considering the number of books that just skip over the psychological effects events have on characters. This was also an area where Chupeco turned the 'healer' trope on its head a little, as Catseyes can work with physical illnesses and injuries, but also mental ones, taking on the role of healer and therapist (though obviously not for themselves), so not only do we get to see Lan experiencing PTSD, but we also see her coming to terms with it and seeking therapy-like treatment for it, which is pretty unusual in most novels. Despite being in the 'healer' role and having magic that can infect and destroy if she wishes, Lan is also skilled with a blade and hand-to-hand combat and has something of a quick temper. She's definitely the 'protector' type more than anything else and is striving to make sure everyone comes out alright in the end. Odessa comes next, because I'm grouping the characters based on where they're from and Lan and Odessa are both from Aranth. Odessa is one of the daughter-goddesses in the novel who is unaware her twin is alive. She has some kind of chronic illness that prevents her from being very active without tiring out and that Catseyes have been able to treat but not cure. In the beginning Odessa seems like she'll be a pretty good character, a little too doe-eyed and teary for my tastes, but has plenty of potential. Then she starts to get bratty and doesn't seem to have the ability to logically think things through. From a writing standpoint I really appreciate how complex Chupeco makes Odessa and I think within the plot it's super fascinating. It's even explained to us toward the end why Odessa made the sudden turn from teary-but-okay-princess to brat-with-little-rationale, so I appreciate the cleverness of how the reason was woven throughout Lan and Odessa's chapters for us to find but maybe not pinpoint exactly. However, the great reasoning behind it doesn't stop me from not liking Odessa. The weird power-imbalance Odessa has going on with Lan and their relationship that I'm not a huge favor of. They love each other, great, fantastic, I believe that and I actually think they make a great couple in the beginning of the novel. They certainly have a better set-up for a romance than Arjun and Haidee do, though their 'love' is only marginally slower moving, but I'm just a teeny bit uncomfortable with the power imbalance of Odessa being a goddess/princess and Lan being the person assigned to guard and protect her. It's one thing when Lan is serving the crown in some general 'technical' sense and the two of them are in a relationship and it's another thing entirely when Lan is serving Odessa and her mother directly. It would be better, I think, if Lan wasn't serving directly under Odessa or it was like Lan's previous relationship where both girls were rangers. While Lan has no issues disregarding Odessa's commands, the imbalance is still there and becomes a bit of a problem later, but is never fully addressed, so I'm not sure how I feel about that or about some of the scenes with Lan and dark!Odessa. The relationship has the potential in the beginning and it is, for the most part good, but then once the difference in rank and power becomes clearer and Odessa becomes darker I get just a little uncomfortable with it. Haidee is the other daughter-goddess and she lives in the Golden City on the always-day side of the planet. She's what's called a 'mechanika' in the world, but what we would classify as an engineer. She's quick on her feet, fiery, stubborn, and extremely empathetic. In one of her very first scenes she's crying over a days-dead whale, if that's any indication. As much as I love her determination, smarts, and stubbornness, her ignorance of the world and optimistic attitude do grate on my nerves at times. She's just a bit too happy-go-lucky in some instances, though it largely works out for her. I will be fair, Haidee is one of my favorites, but I feel like Chupeco set things up so that Haidee would always have things work out for her and it seems a bit too obvious at times. Despite my dislike of Odessa, things go wrong for her, sometimes very wrong, and while things do occasionally go wrong for Haidee and seem like they'll be bad, I don't ever really get the full-on sense of dread like I do with Odessa. Arjun and Haidee meet by the whale and their first scene involves them trying to kill each other. Naturally, he becomes her love interest. Arjun is, hands down, the funniest person in the entire book. He has a very dry sense of humor and can be extremely sarcastic. He follows along with the idea of prophecies and with Haidee's ideas a little to mellowly for what I'd been expecting given our introduction to him, which I think says more about the whole 'everything works out for Haidee' but than about him. I also enjoy that Arjun decided to go with a prosthetic magical rifle after he lost his hand (not a spoiler, it happened pre-book). I don't know how they engineer the things they do in the desert, but I just found it amusing that instead of engineering a hand or hook or knife or something they went with a rifle that could channel his fire magic. It really fits his personality, honestly. While Arjun's and Haidee's romance is definitely more power-balanced than Lan's and Odessa's, there are still some holes in it. Mainly that they meet and fall in love within the span of the book, which I'm pretty sure takes place over, like, a month. I love fantasy and dystopian, and sci-fi, but oh my god I am getting sick of the quick romances. Chupeco did a decent job of showing why they fell in love and how they respected each other and became friends before they fell in love, but it's still only been a month. Sorry, but I know 19-year-olds, being one and being in college, and I'm just really not certain that your 'month to love' romance is gonna last. There are different depths to love and you can love more than once, but the insta-true-love, will-survive-anything has just, for some reason, been getting on my nerves lately. Maybe in a couple months or years I'll be fine with it again, but right now I'm just not a fan, even if I do like the characters together. The mythology and general world-building in the book is also something I enjoyed. Chupeco keeps the ideas of duality, sacrifice, and "a demoness is what they call a goddess that men cannot control" going throughout the book. It centers around two young goddesses whose mother(s) are goddesses and a world that somehow stopped spinning and split into only-night and only-day, so there's obviously a lot of mythology and magic going into the base of this book. Since the 'Breaking,' as they call it, neither mother-goddess has really told the twins much about previous generations of goddesses. Odessa gets more of an education about it than Haidee does, but both are still largely left in the dark about their world's mythology, which allows Chupeco to reveal it to the reader in a way that feels natural without info-dumping. There's a lot to do with goddesses, prophecies, and rituals that starts to get unpacked in this one, but which mainly sets up for the sequel. I'm super interested in learning more about the goddesses and rituals in the next book and have plenty of theories regarding them. The duality piece of things is interesting, because you don't necessarily recognize it in the beginning or even halfway through the book. It was more toward the end that I began to see what Chupeco was doing with the night-day, ill-healthy, healer-'plague-giver' sort of balance. The goddesses are twins, as all goddesses before them have been, and that set-up is a fantastic literary device for setting up dualities. You can have the good twin vs. the evil twin, the knowledgeable vs. the ignorant, and so many other varieties, and Chupeco plays with a bit of each in each twin. Odessa knows more about their past from the start, but it's Haidee who learns more about it and their world on the way. Odessa starts out as the chronically-ill sister, but Haidee ends up drained and exhausted. Odessa becomes more and more morally complex and dark but still has soft spots, Haidee is blindingly optimistic but has moments of destructive rage. They're set up to mirror and foil one another, yet each still comes together in the end and finds strength in knowing their twin. The girls are quite similar even though the book sets up a lot of their differences. Without giving too many spoilers I can say that this is 100% reflected in where the plot takes us and the things that are revealed. In terms of world-building I thought Chupeco gave us very distinct settings, creatures, and peoples. The night-side of the world is described as very rainy and cold, with threats of storms, kraken, and icebergs. Though Lan and Odessa are only in the city for a short period of time, I remember the impression I got of it. Old bookstores, tall buildings, dreary because of the rain. This is set against the next setting Lan and Odessa experience, which is the borderlands near the Abyss. While these lands are still dark, there's more foliage described as well as eerie lakes, currents made of air that are strong enough to hold ships, and creatures of darkness and shadow. It is also here where the sky begins to lighten as they move closer to the Abyss and the always-day side of the world. This is even more different from the settings Arjun and Haidee encounter. The desert is vast and deadly, full of dangerous scorpions, an acid sea, and a sea of sand complete with sand-dolphins and sand-sea creatures. The desert is full of raiders and nomadic clans instead of shadow people, but the former can be just as deadly. The Golden City is more steampunk than the night city, Aranth, is described to be. It also seems to be full of snootier people than Aranth does, and all-in-all, despite it being a city run by a twin goddess with a twin goddess daughter, Haidee's city is a very different city from the one Lan and Odessa left. Then there's Inanna's Temple and the Abyss itself, which remind me of dawn and pure darkness, respectively, but still have their own distinct feelings and descriptions. It's very easy to get immersed in the world Chupeco has created here and it's one of those rare world-building experiences that makes me wish I could see it artistically rendered. The Never Tilting World is a good book with unique, distinct characters each with their own strengths and weaknesses that are explored throughout the book. Chupeco writes the characters relatively realistically, meaning they deal with physical and mental trauma as well as tough decisions they sometimes respond to poorly. The Arjun-Haidee romance felt kind of rushed and the Lan-Odessa romance felt like it had a power-imbalance I wasn't 100% comfortable with. Since there is another book, however, and since the Lan-Odessa romance had a lot more promise in the beginning than the middle and end, I'm hoping it'll get itself sorted out. I also dinged the book's score because of terminology that we're left to figure out for ourselves that really would've been better if it had just been explained outright. Definitely think it's a good read, though and would recommend picking it up if you enjoy fantasy.

[toxikbubblegum]

May Reading Wrap Up

I'm actually really proud of myself. I finished 13 books last month. Spent a lot of extra time away from screens and focusing on my mental health so I burned through way more than I normally would. So anyways, here's my reviews. - Also please understand that these are just my opinions and if I shit on your favorite book I'm sorry that I didn't enjoy it as much as you. Also, also Im terrible with character names.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor ⭐⭐⭐

I actually started this book at the end of April but didn't finish it til May 1st so whatever, here it is. This books is a YA urban fantasy novel about a girl with a double life. She spends half her days studying art in Europe and the other half running errands for a tooth collecting wish monger. I don't want to say a whole lot more because I dont want to spoil anything important about the plot. So, I'll try to be vague. Let me start by saying this story is amazing. I loved the writing and the world. I rated it so low solely because I can't stand the two main characters and it really dragged down what would have otherwise been an amazing novel. So yeah, great book but its a preference thing. Also took points off for the insta-love but not really insta-love shit. Idk. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this read even a month later. Gonna read the second to see if maybe my hatred of the two mains was just a fluke.

3/5 Stars

Spellbound by Rachel Hawkins

⭐⭐⭐

This is the third book in the Hex Hall trilogy. Not much to say about it. It was a meh ending to an overall pretty good series. 3/5 stars. Moving on.

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

⭐⭐⭐

Realizing now how many of my reads this month were pretty middle of the world. Hopefully next month will be filled with 4 and 5 stars. Anyways, this book was honestly a struggle for me to finish and Im not sure why. It's a YA mystery magical realism story about a tiny coastal town that is cursed by the spirits of 3 sisters who were suspected of witchcraft and drowned 2 centuries prior. Because of this, every year the sisters return from the sea to take the lives of teenage boys by luring them to the sea. We follow the life of kind of meh and standard YA girl #1. She meets a strange non tourist boy and hires him to work in the lighthouse her family owns. Her dad randomly disappeared years ago and her mom is a loon. So yeah... I dont know. I kind of felt like this story was hot garbage in places. I usually dont have any trouble with the suspense of disbelief in magical realism stories but this one just had too many plot holes. Like, I get morbid stuff becomes tourist attractions but why wouldn't someone have stepped in and evacuated the town if at least 3 teenage boys die there EVERY SINGLE YEAR without fail? I honestly feel like the FBI or some other government agency would have cleared the place out after the first 20 or so deaths. There was also the whole MC can see the ghosts of the girls possessing people but chooses not to tell anyone? Like, I get it. You dont want people to label you a freak or think you're crazy but come the fuck on. You live in a tourist trap where people flock to watch local teenage males wash up on shore and you really think the authorities arent going to take you up on the help? It wasn't an awful book by any means. It was well written and extremely descriptive. Just had major beef with some of the details. Anyways, I wont say much more so I don't spoil the whole book.

3/5 Stars

An Enchantment of Ravens by Maragret Rogerson

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Finally, I get to talk about one of my favorite reads of the month. I love anything to do with the Fae in my YAfiction and this was literally everything I wanted in a Fae novel. It takes place in a town called Whimsy, a humanish town in the world of Faerie. The fae cannot do any Craft, or what we would consider craftsmanship. Art and humans who can do it well are very precious in this world because the Fae can't ever do it themselves. We follow the adventures of a girl who has been commisioned to paint the portrait of the Autumn King and the chaos that ensues. Let me just start by saying this is one of those insta-love situations where I feel like it's genuinely ok. I might be making excuses because I loved the title so much but whatever. It's explained and I accept it. Also, I realize that Gadfly had a lovely description but my brain willl not let me picture him as anything but Mr.Waternoose from Monsters Inc.

5/5 Stars

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

⭐⭐⭐

This book started out so good and went downhill very quickly. It follows the story of these two magicians who were fated by their Master's to one day fight to the death. There were so many things I loved about this book only for the last 100 pages to just take a firey dump on my face. I loved the setting and the majority of the characters. The supporting characters were so deep and interesting that I almost cared more about them than I did Ceilia and Marko (Im proabably wrong and I dont feel like googling but I think that was his name) . I don't know. I don't want to complain about anymore meh books.

3/5 Stars

Matched by Allie Condie

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Went into this book expecting to hate it. I usually don't like contemporary love stories but this had major City of Ember meets The Giver vibes and it just appealed to that 14 year old girl in me again. That seems to happen with a lot of dystopian utopia stories. Anyways, story is about a girl who lives in this town where when you hit a certain age you are brought to a place and told who the government has chosen for you to marry. She is matched with her life long best friend and all is well. Except that her little Get To Know Your New Husband microship thing showed her two guys instead of just one. And lots of bullshit ensues. I honestly think I rated this so high because I enjoy the world and not so much whats actually happening to the kids. Like, I loved the idea that art is harmful so the government chose 100 acceptable pieces and thats all these people know. I loved the brutality of the government in general. I can't say much more without spoiling some of the twists but geez did it have me hooked. I'm going to be started the second one soonish, though my TBR for June has gotten intense so we will see.

4/5 stars

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I cannot say enough good things about this book. It is so fucking good! Not going to rant about it or anything because y'all just need to go read it immediately.

5/5 stars

Would give it every star in the sky if Im being completely honest.

Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh

⭐⭐

Got sucked into this book by the cover and honestly that was the best part of this book. Its about this world where necromancy is pretty highly regarded and used to resurrect the royals after they die. The only downside is that if a living person ever lays eyes on the resurrected person's skin then they turn into these horrible monsters. Maybe it's just me but like that absolutely does not seem worth the risk. Plus, in order to bring the person back, these reapers have to go into the death world and bring the spirit back. And it's HELLA DANGEROUS. So like, WHY? Anyways, there is this stupid underlying love story that I absolutely wasn't invested in. This just all around was not a good book.

2/5 stars

Monster High by Lisi Harrison

⭐⭐

Little known fact~ I'm obsessed with Monster High and Ever After High. So yeah, I realize this wasn't targeted to me as an adult but even going into it with an open mind I was disappointed. Granted I didn't read the description of the book prior. I just saw this franchise I love and grabbed it. First, if you are a fan of the mini series and the movies do not read this. It doesnt follow the cinematic canon and I think that was my biggest problem with it. Frankie's character was all wrong and I hated the whole"Normy" cast. Was really excited for these but I definitely won't be continuing the series. I don't even want to torture myself with seeing how they manage to ruin my sweet baby Draculara.

2/5 stars

Unhinged by AG Howard

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I can't say enough good things about this series. This is the second book in the trilogy and it was a fanatstic bridge book. It had me engrossed through the entire audiobook. Morpheus is still everything. If you loved Splintered I would highly reccomend continuing.

5/5 stars

Truthwitch

⭐⭐

Have had this on my TBR for a while because of how many Booktubers have hyped the series. Buy, was I disappointed. I was soooooooooo bored. Maybe it's because I don't really enjoy this type of fantasy or maybe it was just the slower paced story but I just slugged through this book. Both of the main female characters were bland to me and I didn't care about their friendship. The world was cool but not enough to keep me invested. Just wasn't my cup of tea.

2/5 stars

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

⭐⭐⭐

Picked this up because of how much I loved The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein and it didn't meet my expectations. It follows this girl who works for a paranormal gorvenment group. She has a special ability that makes her really useful to them so they are trying to groom her basically. They capture this changeling and she befriends him and there is an overarching plot that I just didn't get invested in. The friendship between the two main characters was pretty much the only thing that I enjoyed in this title. The mother figure was insufferable and I just didn't really understand the whole org that they worked for in general. Not an awful book but not fantastic.

Solid 3/5 stars.

The Siren by Kiera Cass

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Going to preface this by saying I might be biased. I love Kiera Cass and have enjoyed almost everything she has written. That said, this wasn't nearly as good as The Selection series but it was a pretty good stand alone novel. It about a girl who becomes a siren on her deathbed and spends the next 100 years serving the sea by luring people to their deaths. After doing this for 70 years, she falls in love and pretty much ruins everything. Loved the characters, especially the male lead. The insta love was a little pet peeve of mine but the love interest was so sweet and genuine that I was willing to overlook it. Pretty good read if you dig supernatural romance.

4/5 stars

June holds the Ghibli-a-thon but also lots of holidays for my family so we will see how much I actually get read. So far my tentative TBR is 5 books but we will see where the days take me.

[betterreadthandeadbookclub]

Review of After You by Jojo Moyes

Spoilers ahead! Enter at you’re own risk. This review can also be found on our website! Here’s the link to the page!

Addie’s Take:

 First of all, I still feel very ‘eh’ about this book. To quote the great Geneva herself when talking about the new Beauty and the Beast movie “It was the definition of adequate”. I had a lot of issues with the large plot points of this book. After loving Me Before You, I was left with the hope that Louisa was going to be okay after Will, that she was going to live well and boldly. She was going to travel, yes she was going to grieve, but she would have the memories and know that Will was satisfied with his decision.

Lou really disappointed me.

 Not in how long she grieved or was depressed, because do you really get over something like that? Or does it just become a part of who you are and you live on despite it? Lou was working at an airport bar, hating her job, boss, and uniform. I can just see Will cringing. He’d be saying something like “Are you fucking kidding me, Clark? I literally told you, you only get one life and it’s your duty to live it as fully as possible."

This Lou feels so different to me. She's lost her large personality, and I'm not sure if that's her grief or just poor writing. Lou was always the girl with a clever comeback and had absolutely no filter. Now it feels like she barely cracks a joke. The whole book was spent with Lou wallowing in self pity and guilt. I kept asking myself "Where the hell is this going?"

   I felt the events in this book were so unnatural and improbable. It came across forced, like drama just for the sake of drama. What are the chances that she falls off a roof, through an awning, and lands on a fucking daybed? AND LIVES? And if that wasn't enough suddenly Will's long lost kid shows up who no one ever knew about. THEN when Lou finally finds a new guy, her paramedic no less, HE GETS SHOT. Honestly this felt more like fan fiction and not work that we know Jojo is capable. 

Back to the random kid.

 Lily is inconsequential to the story, she just brings in the Will aspect for readers. Without her, Lou still would have fallen, survived, gone to her therapy group, met Sam the paramedic, and STILL would have gone to New York without him.

  I felt like this book was really unnecessary, it doesn’t add anything to the original story. On top of that, Jojo recently announced she’s writing a third book, because ‘I’ve always seen it as a trilogy’.JAYSUS. If a second book wasn’t necessary, what the hell is going to happen in this third book?

         Lou gets shot in NY? Hit by a taxi? Gets her green card revoked by a new Executive Order travel ban? Will has another kid no one knows about? Sam dies in a plane crash visiting her? Somehow Lou survives another improbable situation? Because doesn’t SOMETHING have to happen? Otherwise we’d just be reading about Lou changing bed pans and making tea in New York for her new employers. Because there’s a crying need to publish that, I’m sure *eye roll*.

     Ok so this is pretty harsh, but despite that I didn’t entirely hate it. Without comparing the two stories, it’s okay, it just doesn’t compare to Me Before You… like at all.

         Part of my dislike might be that Will simply wasn’t a part of it. It was really hard for me to grasp that this isn’t Will’s story. It also isn’t Lou’s and Will’s story. It’s Lou’s story, and I had a hard time accepting this.

         Let’s be honest, when Jojo publishes the third book, I’ll read it. Because it’s Jojo. But will I enjoy it? Not likely. The only possible way this story was ever meant to be a trilogy was if Jojo stretched out Will’s death until the third book. Then we could get more witty banter, more detail of the short time Lou spent with Will. Maybe then I would actually enjoy all three.

         With the first book, I loved it: I cried, I worshiped it. That’s not the case here, and if I have to think of the journey ending with Me Before You just to sleep at night, I will. I had hope then, I was happy then.

If this feels like a rant, sorry.

BUT! There were a few good things that came out of this reading experience. Louisa’s dad said “Jaysus” at one point in response to climbing too many stairs and it has now become Geneva’s and my own favorite saying and reply during texts. Also- back, crack, and sack- I just can’t. I actually burst out laughing when Lou’s dad said that.

         Anyway… If you loved Me Before You, and read it mainly for Will (like I did), I wouldn’t recommend this sequel. If you weren’t satisfied where the previous book was left, and you want more of Lou after Will, then this is the book for you. Bear in mind- you might not like how she spends her life after him.

Geneva’s Take:

I had high hopes for this book, and I am not going to be as harsh as Addie , but I will be honest and say this book is definitely one I wish I skipped. It has its moments, but they were sparse. Overall, I was underwhelmed and slightly annoyed, but I don’t think all readers will feel this way. For instance, if you had experienced a death close to you, maybe you would relate more and appreciate the 75% of the book that was a wallow fest straight from Gilmore Girls.

 Also, if you are super into the feminist movement, 10% of this book is for you! Go get it girl! Mothers with bratty teenage girls, you get a spot on the team as well-20% (Why you would be reading a young adult novel is another issue). Anyone with a medical personnel fetish, you’re in- 2%. I am attempting to give this book a break, but WHAT WERE YOU THINKING JOJO!

 For anyone that read the first book, it is clear that it ended on a positive note, with Lou in Paris ready to follow in Will’s footsteps and get out of her small town bubble. This however came to a crashing halt as readers stepped into Lou’s current world in After You. Honestly, it was a large amount of complaining, majority being self deprecation, dash of relationship, sprinkle of a bastard child, hint of bad parenting, and finish it off with the cherry of almost fatal gunshot wounds.

As you can see, this novel is everywhere and nowhere that the audience wanted it to be. I looked at the comments that literary critics gave the book on the back cover (they only put the good ones obviously), and I found a striking number of ones that said it was unexpected. I can appreciate that because it was definitely unexpected, but it wasn’t followed through as well as I hoped. Reminded me of an off brand Fault in Our Stars without the cancer (there are an overwhelming amount of similarities actually).

 I mean look at any one of the Bridget Jones books/movies. British. Out of relationship. Lonely. Staying in crappy flat. Not supportive mother. Nice dad. But what is After You missing? A strong influence of Colin Firth-like character (strong, bold) and WITTINESS. Lou lost her character. Her appeal, and unfortunately the book suffered because of it.

I’d like to think I am an average reader that doesn’t take much to be pleased. Little romance, little humor, and an actual plot and I’m ready to go. Though, this seriously felt like they were trying to get more money from their viewership and readers. The book didn’t add a whole heck of a lot to the original story line either. Who knows? Maybe I just had unrealistic expectations like she would be traveling all over, meet some friends (did anyone notice she has none?), find a guy, perhaps get a dog…?

         I can see a third book as well as Addie. After I finished this novel, I called her and said that Moyes will certainly end up breaking up Lou’s relationship, Nathan may come on to her making her quit her job and work at a gas station, she may get mugged, insert bad view of America on top of it. It’s all rather bleak. But hey, no where to go but up I suppose!

         All I know is that I wasn’t impressed, and I guess not a big enough fan to stay with Lou through the thick of it (I did for you guys, you’re welcome) and enjoy it.

Better Read than Dead, Addie & Geneva 

Have you read After You? Let us know what you thought! Join the conversation on our website forum. It’s super interactive and you can talk to us about books we’ve read or books you think we should read!

Also check us our on Twitter @betterreadbc and on Insta @betterreadthandeadbc 

[uomo-accattivante]

I love this entire commentary below by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. (contains spoilers)

Recently, I went to see the new Star Wars. I know, I wanted to see it sooner, but I have babies. Anyway, getting home from the cinema, I was curious to see what people were saying about the movie, and what I discovered surprised me. While most critics and many fans loved it as much as I did, there was also a passionate contingent who decidedly didn’t.

I was intrigued. A lot of my favorite movies polarize audiences. Many, many voices had much to say, and I only got through reading a tiny speck of it, but right away, I noticed a recurring theme in the various objections. In fact, I noticed a number of recurring themes, and I’m tempted to write down my thoughts about several of them. But in the interest of brevity (and the likelihood that I actually manage to finish writing this), I’ll limit myself to this one:

What happened to Luke Skywalker?

Before I dive into what I think, forgive me for prefacing just a bit more. I should say, the writer and director of The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson, is a good friend of mine. I played the protagonist in two of his movies, Brick and Looper, and in fact, for the sake of some kind of brotherly streak, he gave me cameos in his other two movies, The Brothers Bloom, and this one. However, and this is important, I’m NOT speaking for him here. He doesn’t even know I’m writing this. I guess I should probably make sure it’s cool with him if I’m gonna post it publicly. I’ll worry about that later. But for now, I’m gonna repeat myself, because I want to be really clear, this is just my own opinion, and in no way do I carry any special authority on this movie. I’m probably biased in its favor, but then again, we’re all biased somehow, so there’s that.

I also wanna say, I’m not here to tell anybody they’re wrong. Personally, I don’t think it’s possible to be wrong when it comes to movies, or art, or literature, or whatever you wanna call it. In our ever more gamified culture, with endless awards shows, publicized box office figures, and the all-knowing Tomatometer, it seems conversations about movies are more and more often put into quantified terms of good and bad, best and worst, right and wrong. And then there’s the twitface-insta-fueled tribalism, people taking sides, pointing fingers and spitting venom at the other guys. There seems to be a lot of that going around right now from both lovers and haters of this movie. Dear oh dear, folks. This isn’t politics or sports. The fruit is in the subjectivity. If you feel differently than I do, I’m 100% cool with that. I think it’s often in these very differences of perspective that movies can be at their most enlightening, helping us learn something about each other and ourselves.

So, with all that said, I’ll ask again… What happened to Luke Skywalker?

The Luke Skywalker we meet in The Last Jedi is very different than the Luke Skywalker we remember from the original Star Wars movies. In the past, Luke was hopeful, an idealist, deeply driven to venture out into the galaxy, find his destiny, and do the right thing, no matter the cost. Now he’s apathetic, cynical even, hunkered down on an island and seemingly passionate about nothing but his own isolation. He’s wasting his talents on an eccentric day-to-day routine of laughable animal husbandry and death-defying spearfishing. When a young potential Jedi with profound aptitude, Rey, comes to find him seeking a mentor, he literally tosses her lightsaber over his shoulder into the dirt. And later, when facing said youngster in combat, he ends up on his knees, defeated.

And even worse than becoming personally weird and physically weak, he’s become morally questionable. The plot hinges on a moment from the recent past where Luke contemplates killing Ben Solo, his own nephew, in his sleep, sensing the young man’s attraction to the dark side of the Force, and fearful of the damage he might cause. I saw the point made several times that decades earlier, in Return of the Jedi, Luke is so righteous, so forgiving, he even refuses to kill the reprehensibly villainous Darth Vader. Clearly this is an enormous departure.

It makes sense that all of this might not feel very good. For so many of us, Luke is the epitome of a hero. He is what we strive to be. He’s also our access point into a world we love. We got to know Star Wars through the eyes of this character. And now, after all this time, we finally get to see him again, and he sorta sucks as a person. He’s disrespecting everything a Jedi is supposed to stand for. Ultimately it feels like he’s disrespecting us. Or, as some fans concluded, this just isn’t the real Luke Skywalker, but rather a bastardization perpetrated by bad storytelling or corporate interests.

And again, if that’s how you feel, more power to you. I think there’s a certain enjoyment to be had from taking a subversive stance against the biggest “Big Hollywood” movie of the year. And I know I couldn’t kill that buzz even if I wanted to. But if you’re feeling disappointed in the man Luke Skywalker has become in The Last Jedi, and maybe it’s getting in the way of you really loving the movie, and you’re kinda wishing you didn’t feel that way, because you want to love the movie… read on.

The way I see it, The Last Jedi takes two big risks in its depiction of Luke. 1) He’s different than he used to be. 2) Not only is he different, he’s changed for the worse.

As for the first risk, he didn’t have to be different. He’s one of the most iconic movie characters ever. A safer bet would have been to bring him back and make him just like he always was. This is what The Force Awakens did exceedingly well. For example, the Han Solo we meet in that movie is pretty much the same charmingly roguish character we loved in the original trilogy. Yes, he’s gotten older, had a kid, but it hardly seems to have changed him much. And that was fine by me. Seeing him again after so many years felt like a sweet reunion with an old friend. So, why not do the same for Luke?

Leaving Luke unchanged would have been a huge missed opportunity. Think about how rare this is. A trilogy of movies is made with a young protagonist played by an actor in his 20s. Then, no fewer than 40 YEARS LATER (A New Hope came out in 1977) this actor gets to play the same character as an older man. I don’t know how many times that has ever happened in the history of movies. Has it ever happened?

This gives the filmmaker and the actor an extraordinary opportunity to tell a story about one of the most universal truths in human experience — getting older. We all get older, and those of us who are lucky enough to survive our youth all face the joys, the terrors, the puzzles, the pitfalls, the surprises, and the inevitabilities that come along with doing so. Re-meeting our beloved protagonist decades after we last saw him, only to learn that the passing years have changed some of his most fundamental qualities, I’ll admit, it’s almost hard to see. But in that glaring contrast between the Luke of old and the new Old Luke, The Last Jedi offers a uniquely fascinating portrayal of a man’s life marching inescapably forward.

Time changes us. Go talk to anybody in their sixties and ask if they feel very different than they did in their twenties. The look on their face will almost surely speak volumes. As do so many such looks from Mark Hamill in what I feel is a beautifully nuanced and heartfelt performance.

The second big risk I mentioned was that Luke has not only changed, he’s changed for the worse. But to me, the obvious response here is that movie characters are usually better when they’re flawed. Speaking as an actor, when I’m considering whether or not I want to play a certain character, I’m always looking for a healthy balance of virtues and shortcomings. Otherwise, it doesn’t feel real. No one is a perfect hero or a perfect villain, we’re more complicated than that, every one of us. Flawless characters feel thin. And forgive me if I blaspheme, but the young Luke Skywalker always did feel just a little light to me, which is why it was so cool this time around to see him fill out into a more imperfect human being.

A flawed main character is one of the main distinctions between a story with substance and a gratuitous spectacle. It’s often through a character overcoming their flaws that a movie can really say something. Yes, when the movie begins, Luke has grown cynical. He’s lost faith in what it means to be a Jedi. He’s let fear of the Dark Side of the Force corner him into isolation and inaction. But he needs to start there, so that he can overcome this grave deficit.

To me, this is a story about not losing faith: faith in the outside world, faith in your allies as well as your enemies, in the future as well as the past, in the next generation that will take your place, and yes, faith in your own damn self. Luke has made mistakes that had terrible consequences, and his regret is so strong that he wants to give up. We need to see that despair, hidden under a crusty front of indifference, so that when he finally decides to put himself out there and make the ultimate sacrifice, it means something. It means more than just stalling the First Order to let the remainder of the Resistance escape. Our protagonist has arrived at the end of his journey. He’s re-found his faith, both in the past and the future of the Jedi Order, and even more importantly, in himself. Again, it’s in that glaring contrast between a journey’s beginnings and its end where we find a story’s meaning.

And so, speaking of faith, I’ll end on a bit of a meta note here. It feels to me like a good chunk of the backlash against The Last Jedi is about exactly that. Star Wars has a certain sanctity for a great many of us, and it’s understandable why current circumstances might rattle a fan’s faith. The ultimate authority in this world, its auteur, George Lucas, has recently passed the torch onto the next generation. The new owner of Lucasfilm is a massive media conglomerate. But I think the new Luke Skywalker of Episode VIII gives us good reason to feel reassured.

That a big Hollywood studio would take such risks on such a big property — again, to present their central hero in a drastically different light than ever before, to unflinchingly deliver the ominous message that even the most pure-hearted idealists can struggle through darkness and doubt — these are not the kinds of decisions that get made when short-term profitability is prioritized above all else. These are risks taken in the interest of building a world that is not only good for selling popcorn and action figures this year, but that thrives in the long-run on a bed of literary substance and artistic dignity. As a fan, I take it as a sign of respect that the movie was not only a good time, but a provocative challenge. A lot of studios and filmmakers don’t think so highly of their audiences. In the end, to me, The Last Jedi demonstrates not only that we can still have faith in Star Wars, but that Star Wars still has faith in us.

[sapphoesie]

11 Questions Tag - Part I

Thank you to the lovely people who tagged me: @illyriangoddess @runesandfaes @justbooklover @aelin-and-feyre ​! I’ll try and squish all the answers in one post and if any questions are repeated I’ll skip them just so this doesn’t take up half your dash! 

1. Author you’d unconditionally buy anything from? Cassandra Clare probably. I haven’t read her Magisterium series but I’m going to pretend that doesn’t really count cause it’s co-written. Maybe SJ Maas too. 2. Favourite Flower? Peonies (and hydrangeas) 3. What kind of Music do you like? I have a really eclectic music taste. I like a lot of stuff 😂 4. Hogwarts House (obviously)? Ravenclaw  5. Star Sign? Leo 6. Cats or Dogs? Both!  7. Favourite Classic Novel? Just one? The Great Gatsby. The Catcher in the Rye. Pride and Prejudice. A Tale of Two Cities. The Bell Jar. Little Women. The Secret Garden. Wuthering Heights. (how can I choose?) 8. Favourite Contemporary Novel? The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo. 9. Favourite Fantasy/Sci-Fi Novel? Just one (part 2)? ACOMAF/ACOWAR, Lord of Shadows, Empire of Storms. Six of Crows. City of Heavenly Fire.  10. Do you have a (celebrity) crush atm? Just one (part 3)? Gal Galdot is an utter babe. Matthew Dadario is a hottie. Josephine Skriver. Always. I drool over her every photo on insta. Chris Hemsworth (this one doesn’t need any explanation). And I’ve just seen Rogue One and Diego Luna is pretty cute and has an adorable accent. 11. If you could change something in the world what would it be? More tolerance and empathy. Also chocolate that grows on trees would be pretty fab.

1. When is your birthday? 12th of August 2. Favorite season? Spring or Autumn 3. Favorite villain?  The Darkling from The Grisha trilogy, Sebastian/Jonathan from The Mortal Instruments series or Amy Dunne from Gone Girl 4. Stars or the Moon? Stars.  6. An unpopular opinion? Flip phones are cool and need to make a comeback. 7. If you could be any mythological/magical creature, what would you be? Mermaid or siren or any variation of that.  8. Which book character can you see yourself in the most (Personality/Character traits-wise)? Ugh, this is so hard! I have no idea...? I see bits of myself in loads of characters but idk who I’m most like overall. 9. Which book character, in your opinion, do you think would be the best partner for you? I think it’s weird because my favourite characters aren’t necessarily people I think I’d be compatible with but I think I’d get along just fine with Dorian Havilliard or Cassian or Julian Blackthorn ... 10. If you could control any one of the 4 elements, which would you choose? I’d be a water bender 😎 11. Your OTP? Me + my bed. The best love story there ever was (I’m tired)

1. Cold or hot weather? I’m bad with both but hot I guess 2. Favourite sweet food? cookie dough ice cream 3. Favourite movie/s? Inception or Shutter Island 5. What do you like to do in your free time? Read, write, waste my time on Tumblr...  6. Have you ever wanted to smack someone’s face against a wall? Yep 7. Do you smile often? I think so but when I don’t I look like a pissed off bitch so I think it balances out 8. Pineapple on pizza? DEAR GOD NO! 10. Single, taken or waiting for a special fictional character? Single as a pringle 11. Sweet or salty popcorn? Why not both😁?

1. How did you get into SJM? I randomly read the first two back in 2014 when only Tog and Crown of Midnight were out because they were popular on bookstagram and then I forgot about the series until last December when I binge read all of them + ACOTAT & MAF 2. What would you do with a million dollars? Pay off my student loans, give some to my parents, buy myself a house somewhere in the world, find other hardworking students/ prospective students who can’t afford university and pay off their tuition and lastly donate to charity and buy small gifts for people with the rest 3. Do you consider yourself a morning or night person? I’m a night person who tries to be a morning person. I go to bed late and always insist on waking up early and I’m perpetually tired 4. What tv series are you into right now? I haven’t watched any TV shows in so long 😭 6. If you had to pick one fictional character to spend the rest of your life with, who would it be? Nesta Archeron. We’d just chill and talk about books. If she brings Cass along, even better. 7. If you were stranded on a deserted island and there was one naturally growing thing there for you to eat, what would you want it to be? POMEGRANATES. My favourite thing ever. 8. How many followers do you have atm? a bit over 2.1k 9. What would you say is your favorite thing in the world? words 10. Would you go back inside a burning house to save your pet(s)? I don’t have any pets atm but I’d go back to save other people’s pets 11. Have you seen/did you like Spiderman: Homecoming? I haven’t seen it yet

I tag: @nessiansmut @cassiancalore @dr-woodsprite @modernbookfae @paperbacktrash @highladyofnorta @highladyofdreamcourt @rowan-buzzard-whitethorn

1. What is a book you have that has sentimental value to you? 2. Is there a scent that reminds you of something nice? 3. Who would you choose to be stuck in a lift with for 24h (real life person or fictional character)? 4. Do you have a lucky item? 5. What would you order if you went to a restaurant right now? 6. What’s the most beautiful book you own? 7. Walk on the beach or hike in the mountains? 8. What’s next on your TBR? 9. Favourite poem? 10. Who are 5 people you’d invite to dinner (real people, either dead or alive)? 11. Who’s your favourite person who shares your name?

[filligan-universe]

Game Review: CRASH BANDICOOT: THE N. SANE TRILOGY (2017)

Whoa! [Translation: Click “Keep Reading”]

Oh, how I have waited for this day...

The year is 1998, or something. My mom bought me a PS1 and, what was probably recommended to her by the Futureshop employee on shift at the time, Crash Bandicoot. The original. The first. The beginning. The hardest fucking thing I’d never played.

8-year-old me was dumb, though. I sunk around twenty hours into Jersey Devil without ever understanding its mechanics or how to progress (a couple years back I thought, “How did you progress in that game?” and found out that you progress like any other free-roam platform and 8-year-old me was just an idiot who liked the game’s spooky aesthetic). I played the shit out of Beast Wars and could rarely progress (in fairness, that game was tough). It took me maybe a year to get to Darth Maul in the Phantom Menace game, but I could never beat him. Then I lost the save file, tried again, and got stuck in a Rancor pit halfway through the game, inexplicably decided to save my game there, and from then on insta-died every time I loaded it back up. 

But Crash is a fairly linear platformer, and those I understood from my SNES days. What Crash beat into me and thousands of kids around the world was that the hand-holding days of cute dinosaurs was over. See that fish? That innocent little fish flopping around? IT JUST MURDERED YOU. Oh, you fell in the water? Haha -- NOW YOU’RE DROWNING AND DEAD LOOK AT YOUR FLOATING CORPSE. 

1998 was also in the era of cheat code books and passwords. I made it, impressively I think, to Road to Nowhere before I gave up and found myself copying these codes down. Once I unlocked free movement across all levels, most of my time in Crash Bandicoot was spent fighting all of the bosses in succession (the hardest is N. Brio by the way). Levels like Road to Nowhere, Slippery Climb, The Lab -- these never got touched. I beat the system so I didn’t have to beat the levels.

Then Crash 2 came out. And I beat it from start to finished. Ditto Crash 3. So enough down memory lane; how does the remade trilogy stand up?

The answer is: pretty goddamn perfectly. There are some things I’ll address, but the overall package is sharp and faithful. It feels like re-living the games of my single-digit years and that was the biggest box Vicarious Visions had to check. They’ve tszujed up that bandicoot sheen while recapturing the fun of Naughty Dog’s original gameplay. Were this a remaster instead of a remake using assets from the PS1 classics, it wouldn’t be so remarkable, but VV built this from scratch and still managed to nail everything. Huge kudos to them on this. Not sure anything of this magnitude has been achieved -- remake-wise -- in the industry before. 

When the game released, the Crash Bandicoot subreddit exploded. Highest among the complaints were: jumping is off, hitboxes are off, and Crash’s shoes have been coated with bacon grease. And they weren’t technically wrong: these things are changed from the original games. Jumps are not as high as they were and I don’t remember having to hold X in the first one to gain distance. Hitboxes can be wacky and drastically different from what they were in the originals, making veteran players misjudge when to spin. And Crash doesn’t land flat on surface edges anymore -- with today’s scary technology, he can realistically slip off instead of standing on 85% thin air. Creepy! Wrong! Worst game ever! Back to the PS1 classics that look like ass on my 70″ 4K HDTV!

I was in the same camp when I first booted up The N. Sane Trilogy. My first death was on the very first game on the very first level on the very first enemy. One of those giant fuckin’ crabs that you only see in level one because they’re huge and slow and the training wheels are still on. It killed me because I spun when I always used to spin in the original, and that was wrong. The hitbox for them changed. This probably caused most of my frustration with all three games for the first several hours, but I’m what the baby boomers call a “video-machine gamer,” all right? I’m adaptable. I can alter my approach to things. I can learn from errors. And a changed hitbox, as it turns out, is not the same thing as a broken hitbox. You just re-learn when to spin stuff. Now I’m not bothered by it.

Same goes for the jump. Mastering this again took time and patience, especially with certain parts of the game that don’t function properly like the ice physics in Crash 2. However, after nailing when to hold X for greater height and understanding that now Crash needs a more precise landing to avoid slipping, I’ve gotten adept at this as well. All of this is to say that those players who initially flipped out at these tweaks were hopefully just following their gut reactions like me but have now adjusted and are now having fun -- like me. 

The slipping, though, man. It makes Crash 1 even harder than it was, but I still won’t call it a mistake. From what I’ve ascertained, Crash’s character model is now pill-shaped, meaning he’s gonna slip, all right? It’s just gonna happen. BONUS: watch me, in the Twitch chat room for my friend’s first play-through of this game, try to offer this advice and him taking it the wrong way.

So what are the biggest criticisms I can levy against the trilogy? Well, the music stands out as subpar, especially in direct comparison to the louder, more interesting original score. The new music feels timid -- like it’s afraid to be the bombastic presence it was in the classics. A more faithful approach to the music’s original sounds would’ve been appreciated. I’m still listening to the original score because the new one is too orchestral. It’s not as video-gamey -- not as wacky, and so that charm and atmosphere are lacking in the new trilogy. Here are some comparisons:

Temple Ruins [Original]

Temple Ruins [Remastered]

Crash Dash [Original]

Crash Dash [Remastered]

This isn’t to say the music is bad or that every remastered track is worse than its original counterpart (see: Hang Eight, Toad Village, Toxic Waste, & Future Frenzy for just a few examples of excellent new takes), but even when the music is worthy of the original score it often fades into the background and gets lost in the sound effects. I know you can adjust the volume settings to make the music louder, but I shouldn’t have to, nor do I want to -- I like all the noises in Crash Bandicoot (except the goddamn didgeridoo Crash-angel plays). This is just an area where the flame doesn’t burn as brightly as it ought to.

Also? I don’t like Cortex’s design or voice. Or most of the voice acting in general. I don’t mind how Crash sounds, but I’ve been hearing John DiMaggio voice every character in existence since 2006 and now when I hear him I can’t unhear him -- I know it’s him. Kind of like when you know Tom Kenny voices Spongebob, you’ll always know when Tom Kenny shows up in something. I know the original actor for Dingodile died 12 years ago but come on. I blame Twinsanity for this, which was the first time the series saw a massive design shift and Cortex became the weird cartoon he is now. He’s lost his menace. 

I think it’s the gums. I miss Cortex’s gums. 

Cutscenes are particularly bad in Crash 2 whenever Cortex addresses you in the warp room. There are no effects to show Coco taking over the broadcast. Seems kinda lazy. 

These complaints are superficial to a quality game, though. I did something 8-year-old me couldn’t do the other day: beat Crash Bandicoot without any cheat codes. I sweat and swore through The High Road and Slippery Climb, came out of it, and climbed the tower to kick Cortex off it. That feeling of accomplishment has been missed in most games these days. And now I find myself obsessing over gems. Those clear sparklies that 8-year-old me never sought because I’d shrugged them off as “way too hard” to get. I’m over halfway to nabbing them all in each game and I’m going -- oh yes, I’m going to get that motherfucking red gem on Slippery Climb. I spent 45 minutes trying to get the yellow gem on The Lab, you think I’m gonna stop now? I’ve got a collectible mind, motherfucker. I can’t pass that shit up. I’ll probably snap my controller but that’s all right because you know what? I’m a fucking adult now and I can just buy a new one. Fucking red gem!!

...Yeah, so, I love this game.

[divinitions]

Bajillion Questions Meme!

Rules: Answer all questions, add one question of your own and tag as many people as there are questions!

Tagged by @finasol​! Thank you for tagging me! 

1. Coke or Pepsi: I don’t drink sodas, but I guess Coke

2. Disney or DreamWorks: Both!

3. Coffee or Tea: Tea! I can’t really stand coffee ;^;

4. Books or Movies: Definitely books

5. Windows or Mac: Oh, God, Windows hands down. It runs better and is a lot more versatile, and I don’t want my Mac to come crashing down to smoke if it runs any games (which happened to my friend’s acquaintance)

6. DC or Marvel: None, because I’m not a huge fan, but if I must pick, Marvel

7. Xbox or Playstation: Xbox is the one I play more, but I’ve got a good game for PS that I really like

8. Dragon Age or Mass Effect: Uh, both, I suppose. DA2, DAO and the original ME trilogy, but I did not finish DAI (because I found the quests especially redundant, sorry) and ME:A (because I don’t have an Xbox One)

9. Night Owl or Early Rise: More night owl, but I’ve slept for an hour and felt fine, so there’s that

10. Cards or Chess: Cards, because I’ve never learnt how to play chess properly

11. Chocolate or Vanilla: Both, because food

12. Vans or Converse: Converse. I’ve never worn Vans in my life

13. Lavellan, Trevelyan, Cadash or Adaar: Lavellan, because let’s face it, you get an egg boyfriend

14. Fluff or Angst: ANGST! Angst all the way! I eat, drink, write, read and breathe angst! ANGST IS LIFE!

16. Dogs or Cats: Both, because why not?

17. Clear Skies or Rain: Rain, because it’s soothing and I have a reason to procrastinate, albeit a weak one.

18. Cooking or Eating Out: Homemade food is good, so cooking is preferable. Eating out is great too, I just have to be more careful.

19. Spicy Food or Mild Food: Spicy food. I grew up on spicy food so if I eat stuff that isn’t spicy, it’s not flavourful enough sometimes ._.

20. Halloween/Samhain or Solstice/Yule/Christmas: Christmas, I guess. I don’t really pay attention to both

21. Would you rather forever be a little too cold or a little too hot: Hot, because I’m used to it

22. If you could have a superpower, what would it be: Control and read minds, because it’d be nice to know what they’re pondering about. Otherwise, time manipulation, because I just wanna slow down and chill

23. Animation or Live Action: Animation

24. Paragon or Renegade: Paragon. I always go for diplomatic/persuasive options more than intimidation.

25. Baths or Showers: Showers, much more convenient and efficient, but a good bath once in a while to destress in is good

26. Team Cap or Team Iron Man: Neither, but if I had to choose, Iron Man. 

27. Fantasy or Sci-fi: Fantasy

28. Do you have three or four favorite quotes? If so, what are they?

“Nothing is true, everything is permitted.”

“Stop right there, criminal scum!”

“The Dragon awaits.”

“In the end, you return to the Gods as nothing (Omne reme a di re na).” -iirc, a translation of a line from the DA2 song Mage Pride

I need to remember all this stuff better

29. YouTube or Netflix: Youtube, because I don’t have Netflix where I am

30. Harry Potter or Percy Jackson: None. HP is too black-white for me and while I did like PJ series, it wore down and I got too tired :/ 

31. When Do You Feel Accomplished: Uh, when I BS my way through a paper and get good grades :D

32. Star Wars or Star Trek: Not a big fan of both because I don’t follow them

33. Paperback Books or Hardback Books: Paperback because it’s generally cheaper. But hardback books are prettier.

34. Handwriting or Typing: Both, really. Handwriting when it comes down to writing quotes and typography, but typing for writing my fics.

35. Velvet or Satin: Satin

36. Video Games or Movies: LMAO I think this one is obvious enough

37. Would you rather be the dragon or own the dragon: If I am a dragon, the Dovahkiin can still kill me. But I’m THE Dovahkiin, so I’d own the dragon

38. Sunrise or Sunset: Sunrise, but I’d pick sunset for Skyrim because c’mon, the auroras are stunning :0

39. What’s your favorite song: Currently Troye Sivan’s “There For You”, but I listen to a multitude and they’ll change soon enough. KARD and Dean have great songs too tho, hnnng.

40. Horror Movies, yes or no: Um, I’ll pass.

41. Long or Short Hair: Long. I like it better that way even tho it’s a pain to deal with

42. Opera or Theatre: I’ve never exactly seen any of these so :/

43. Assuming the multiverse theory is true and that every story ever told has really happened somewhere, which one of the movie/book/tv show/game/etc worlds would you pick to travel to first: The Elder Scrolls universe would be great, mainly because I would like to travel across Tamriel, despite the draugrs and wolves, snow bears and mudcrabs. If not, Assassin’s Creed.

44. If you had to eat only one thing for the rest of your life what would it be: Eh, granola. Or salmon.

45. Older guys or young guys: Older guys. I know this is a generalisation, but most are more mature and responsible. Plus, I just can’t see myself with a younger man.

46. If you could erase any show from TV history, what would it be: No opinion on this

47. Singing or Dancing: Both.

48. Instagram or Twitter: I’ve got insta, but tumblr, really.

49. Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit: Lord of the Rings. I liked it better, though I am very partial to it.

50. If you could create either a sequel or bring back any tv show/movie, what would you choose: Eh, none.

51. Who is your movie/tv show character that you are looking up to and why?: None, if it’s TV/movie, but if it’s a game, then the guards in TES IV: Oblivion. They pop up everywhere, anytime, even when nobody’s there. C’mon, that deserves a reward.

52. If you were ever convicted of a crime, what would it be?: Shoplifting a gaming console, the games or taking money from the cash register. Pickpocketing, maybe?

53. Anime- subbed or dubbed?: Subbed, but I like listening to hilarious dubbed ones. Free! for example.

54. City or countryside?: Countryside, especially to those that are very lavish in nature and are situated in terrains that resemble those of Iceland, Alaska or Norway.

55. What book have you read over and over?: Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak 

56. What is your personality type?: You see, here’s the thing: I don’t know. The tests chuck back different results. Most likely ISFP but the tests keep saying ISTP - T

57. Would you rather change a moment in time or have a glimpse into the future?: Change a moment in time.

58.) Would you rather have an ex that you hate start dating your best friend, or have an ex that you’re still attached to hook up with someone you revile?: I’d rather just have the latter. I gotta let the ex go someday and it might just be much easier. Not exactly my problem anymore anyway :/

My Question:

59. Oblivion or Skyrim?: Oblivion has better immersion, better thought out quest lines generally (Companion quest in Skyrim was ??????) but Skyrim’s gameplay is great ( + Thieves Guild is a great questline)

Tagging @dxsturbxa, @damnlettuce and @198cm-of-vetra-nyx

[wingedwalls]

Rapid Fire Book Tag

I nicked this off Wordpress - not sure who originally came up with it, but thanks! 

Question 1 : E-Book or Physical Book?

Physical book for everything except academic papers.

Question 2 : Paperback or Hardback?

Paperback! Mostly because I have a tendency to drop books on my face when I read in bed and paperbacks are lighter. Also because they’re easier to lug around.

Question 3 : Online or In-Store Book Shopping?

In-store, always. I get such a kick from picking up new books in person.

Question 4 : Trilogies or Series?

Single stand-alones. 

Question 5 : Heroes or Villains?

Anti-heroes... But no, in actuality, whoever is best written. Some series write heroes better than villains (e.g. Harry Potter), others write villains very well (e.g. Neverwhere).

Question 6 : A book you want everyone to read?

The End of Mr Y, by Scarlett Thomas. I found it by accident and I can’t recommend it enough. I haven’t read such a fun, thought-provoking rollercoaster of a book in a long time.

Question 7 : Recommend an underrated book?

If you’re reading this I’m already dead, by Andrew Nicoll. People often dismiss it as ‘a silly but fun’ book, but it’s about as silly as Catch-22 really is.

Question 8 : The last book you finished?

Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere. I don’t know what I was expecting, but that wasn’t it. I’m very, very impressed. Excellent world-building and storytelling.

Question 9 :The Last Book(s) You Bought?

The Pillow Book by Sei Shounagon - an 11th century Japanese book by a Court gentlewoman who apparently really liked to make lists. I also like to make lists.

Question 10 : Weirdest Thing You’ve Used as a Bookmark?

Honestly? A full mink skin. I was on the steppe in Mongolia and came across one, and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Question 11 : Used Books: Yes or No?

Yes, duh. They smell delicious, and everyone knows smell is the most important thing in a book.

Question 12 : Top Three Favourite Genres?

Fantasy, Travel, Detective stories.

Question 13 : Borrow or Buy?

Buy if I can afford it. I tend to lend out books I liked though and rarely get them back.

Question 14 : Characters or Plot?

Hmmmmmm maybe plot? What I really look for in a book, at the end of the day, is a good story. And to me good storytelling has three components:

* Characters (and this includes dialogue, how characters relate to each other and to the reader, etc. Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter Chronicles is a good example of a series prioritising characters - you feel like you know them all personally, they ring true and feel like real people you return to for regular visits.)

* Plot (do you want to turn the pages and keep reading? Do you keep asking yourself, ‘what happens next??’ Do plot twists make you gasp or bounce in excitement rather than think I knew it all along...? A book that does this really well is The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar.)

* World-building (Can you picture yourself walking around and living in that world? Does it stay with you, like a coloured lens, tinting your vision of the world around you for days or weeks after you’ve finished reading? Make you want to eat different foods, wear different clothes, speak in a different manner? Then it’s a world-building success. The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch, does a spectacular job of this.)

I think a book tells a good story if it has two of these. It is an excellent story if it has three.

A story with only one of these will probably keep me reading, but ultimately leave me with a general feeling of ‘meh’ - I’ll remember it as an average book with some redeeming elements that spoke to me. One such example is Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha series. The world-building is excellent: despite being a little shaky in the first book, Shadow and Bone, the ‘Grishaverse’ truly comes to life in the later books, and had me listening to Russian music, wearing military fashions and seasoning my food with cream and dill for days. Unfortunately, most characters are two-dimensional and the plot is predictable and full of holes. So, would I re-read them? No. Would I read other stories set in that world? Yes.

An example of a book that has two of these components down is A Darker Shade of Magic, by VE Schwab. I absolutely loved that story - it really spoke to me. This is because a) the characters are particularly likeable. They have very distinct personalities, the dialogue is both witty and believable, and they interact with each other in a way that feels like a natural progression rather than stunted or forced. And b) The world-building is like a storyteller ate all of your childhood stories and dreams, pirate ships and fairytales and Studio Ghibli and one day I’ll be able to fight!, and vomited them back up into a format your adult self never knew you wanted.  The plot? Well, the plot was... predictable. But the other elements of the story held my attention and captivated me so much that it made for a bloody good story, and had anyone been reading it aloud to me they would’ve collapsed before I’d let them take a break.

A book that has all three? It seems like a cop-out to reuse an example, but The Lies of Locke Lamora (Scott Lynch) has it. And the result is truly phenomenal. I went through all five stages of grief when some of the characters died. I missed Tube stops and walked into people on the streets because I couldn’t put the book down. I was late for work. It made both me and my boyfriend dream so much we’re planning a holiday to flipping Venice, even though I’m completely broke. And you know what? I’m not even sorry. 

Question 15 : Long or Short Books?

I like alternating between the two. Long books are great for falling into a new world, short books are great for traveling and insta!satisfaction.

Question 16 : Long or Short Chapters?

I think long? I don’t feel particularly strongly either way, but the constant staggering of short chapters sometimes annoys me.

Question 17 : Name The First Three Books You Think Of…

Anna Karenina - Tolstoy, Throne of Glass - Sarah J Maas, Today I Wrote Nothing - Daniil Kharms

Question 18 : Books That Makes You Laugh or Cry?

Laugh - I like books that make me bark out my appreciation in loud and uncontrolled laughs, it keeps me entertained when I’m reading in public places. 

That said, some of the books that have affected me the most and stayed with me the longest have made me cry like a madeleine (this is a genuine French idiom and I’ve never questioned it before, but I now realise I have no idea where it came from). Again, usually in public spaces. My 14-year-old self read Balzac’s Le Pere Goriot on the Eurostar and was massively embarrassed when I found I couldn’t stop sniffling after having complained about how ‘boring’ it was for days. Naturally, my family called me out on it. I finished the Amber Spyglass (Philipp Pullman) in a bookshop and came out in tears, to the utter puzzlement of the staff.

Question 19 : Our World or Fictional Worlds?

When both collide. I suppose for modern fiction this mostly amounts to Urban Fantasy.

Question 20 : Audiobooks: Yes or No?

I couldn’t say - I’ve only ever listened to one audiobook, The Lies of Locke Lamora. Some things about it bugged me, but overall I think I liked it, so I will try again.

Question 21 : Do You Ever Judge a Book by its Cover?

All the time, but in many ways that is because I have nothing else to rely on.  I went into a bookshop once that had a recommendations table, where staff had not only picked out their favourites but left a little note in each of them marking out a page or scene that best illustrated the essence of the book. It was great. I think all bookshops should do that. In fact, I think publishers should do that, and put it on the cover. “Open up to page 138 to read about the Floating Market!” Now I always try to do that when recommending books to people.

Question 22 : Book to Movie or Book to TV Adaptations?

I love that this is a question. Book to TV, definitely! I spend so much time with the characters and worlds of a book that I feel movies can never do them justice, and I end up frustrated more than anything. With a TV adaptation, they can add in detail and build up a story that is familiar, yet a little different.

Question 23 : A Movie or TV-Show You Preferred to its Book?

True Blood! I read the first couple of books of the Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Mysteries series by Charlaine Harris, and couldn’t get into it. The first few seasons of the show, by comparison, were very good - they figured out what had worked in the original content and built on it.

Question 24 : Series or Standalones?

Standalones - mostly because I don’t have the patience for series anymore. To me some of the best series are those that feel like one book cut into episodes.

[broadway-book-badger]

May Reads

Hello from exam hell! 5 down and 1 to go for my final exams of the first year at uni. I actually can’t believe that that’s my first year just about done, considering how slowly it seemed to go at first when I was struggling to find my feet. Time definitely flies when you’re having fun!  A week on Sunday I’ll be coming home for the summer, well, for like 5 days before I go off to America for the summer. Speaking of which, this might be my last long and rambly post for a while. I’m not planning on taking my laptop away with me, and tumblr mobile is shit, but we’ll see how it goes. I might try to keep doing my monthly life update/book posts, but without pictures etc, just because I enjoy doing them and don’t really care if nobody reads them. I don’t actually know how busy I’m going to be and whether I’ll have time, so yeah - until I post again!

I’m excited for my trip, but its come round far too quickly. Still I’ve got all my stuff planned for travelling once I’ve finished working, and I get to play piano for some really good shows while I am working at the camp, and I can’t wait! I was in a concert last night too, getting back into all my musical theatre stuff - because I wasn’t busy enough! Nah, I figured it would give me a nice little break from revision, which is slowly killing me, but I’m almost there!

In the month of May I managed to read 4 books, which is pretty good going considering exam hell. Admittedly, there were a few train journeys where I just read the whole time, and in several cases I just had to sit and read because I knew that no more work was going to get done until I finished the book... Anyway, my thoughts on what I read are under the cut, and major spoiler warnings apply to all of them because there are important plot points that will be discussed.

1) Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

It feels like a really long time since I read this, even though its only been a couple of weeks - I need to back to writing stuff down when I finish a book so that I can remember things that I wanted to say! Never mind... So, I’ve finished this trilogy. As I think I’ve said before, its pretty decent YA fantasy, not one of my favourites, but I did enjoy it. Part of me wonders if I would have maybe enjoyed it a little bit more if I’d read it a couple of years ago, before I’d read quite so much of certain tropes. Sometimes I wonder if I’m starting to outgrow YA a little bit, but then I’ll read something else YA and love it, so I guess it really just depends on the book.

Although I enjoyed it, I do have a couple of frustrations. I don’t think Alina’s the most interesting of main characters, and all the love triangle angst was super annoying, although those are criticisms I know I’ve had with other books in the past. I thought the whole Saint/cult thing was kind of weird, and the Darkling and Alina’s attraction/connection continued to be weird and uncomfortable to me. I feel sorry for Nikolai; I really like his character, just not as a love interest to Alina, but he went through some shit in this book, and is now the King, and I just hope he’s ok and gets some kind of happy ending eventually. There were also some nice moments with some of the other side characters; Genya, Nadia and Zoya (off the top of my head).

I liked that the firebird wasn’t the third amplifier, because that would have been a little bit too easy - having it be Morozova’s daughter and passed down through her line was cool. I thought that Mal’s tracking skills might be some kind of Grisha power - so I count that as being technically right. Although, I thought they were going to find some kind of loophole to him having to die, like “he’s metaphorically given his life to her so that’ll do” kind of thing. I was not expecting Alina to stab him! Although he didn’t die, but they both lost there powers, which I thought made at least some kind of payoff, and was a fitting end to Alina wanting the amplifiers to get all the power. I thought the epilogue was cute where they went back to Keramzin and the others came to visit them and stuff. Now I can read Six of Crows!

2) Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

Wow, did I love this book. Laini Taylor has one of the most beautiful writing styles I’ve ever come across, super poetic and just lovely. I was expecting great things from this book, although I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect going into it, and let me tell you it did not disappoint. Unlike Daughter of Smoke and Bone, this is entirely set in a fantasy world, one which I just loved. The mythology is pretty interesting, although all the stuff with the Gods taking the citizens of Weep was pretty dark and messed up.

Our main character, Lazlo Strange, is just perfect. He’s so precious, and kind and just wants to know everything and find magic and I love him so much. Especially how he looks tough, but his nose was actually broken when a book of fairytales fell on it - I think that tells you everything you need to know about him really. I love a lot of the other characters too, Calixte was cool, and Eril-Fane and Azareen were quite interesting, but I really loved the Godspawn. Sarai is also great, and the Muse of Nightmares is such a good name, and I liked Sparrow, Feral and Ruby too. Minya is creepy as hell, and horrible, but she’s kind of complicated and I think she’s a good villain.

One of the issues I had with Daughter of Smoke and Bone was the insta-love between Karou and Akiva in the first book. I feel like you could possibly make a bit of a case for this being slightly insta-lovey too, but honestly, if it was, I didn’t mind it all. The relationship between Lazlo and Sarai was just so cute and lovely, and all the descriptions of them exploring Lazlo’s incredible dreams were just beautiful. I’ll say it again, Laini Taylor is one hell of a writer.

The only problem now is that I have to wait for the sequel, and I have no idea when it’s coming out. That ending was not ok. I was waiting the whole way through the book to see how the prologue was going to fit in to the rest of the story. I wasn’t sure if it was something that had happened in the past, like when the Gods were killed, or if it was a moment that everything was building towards. When I realised it was the second thing, I was hoping that it wasn’t going to be Sarai, but then she had all the plums in her pockets and I was like, shit. They never actually got to meet properly, face to face! And then the bit with Minya controlling her and using her to get Lazlo. I have so many questions that I need answering, especially about that plot twist involving Lazlo. Like, if he’s a Godspawn too, but he’s older than the others, so somehow he must have gotten out of Weep as a baby, way before all the shit went down there, but how and why? And why did he only turn blue when he used his powers? Also, where the hell is the plot going to go in the next book and how will it all get wrapped up? I have to know!!! When is it coming out??? 

3) Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare

I’d like to start by saying WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK WAS THAT?!?! Just needed to get it out of my system. I will come back to that in a little bit, but I’m going talk about some of the other stuff in here first. I’d been looking forward to this coming out for a while; I love the Shadowhunter books, they’re a hell of a lot of fun to read.

I continued to love all the faerie mythology added to the world in this one, and especially loved that they got to go to faerie itself and have some cool adventures there. My love and emotions for Mark Blackthorn have definitely continued if not grown, and I did grow to like Kieran a bit more too. While I went into this shipping Mark and Cristina, and I still do, I’m really interested to see how the love triangle will play out. I sort of can’t believe I just wrote that. Normally I HATE love triangles, but I kind of like both sides of this one so I’ll be interested to see what Mark chooses in the end. Hell, I’d be down with “a hot faerie threesome” to quote Emma! Speaking of Emma, I was so frustrated by the rift between her and Julian. I know why she did what she did, and I thought that the friendship between her and Mark was really sweet, but I was just like Tell the Poor Boy the Truth! Please!!!

Another dynamic I loved in this one was the relationship between Kit, Ty and Livvy, and how they got to go off and have their own little adventures and solve mysteries and stuff. I’d say I’m looking forward to more of that, but... Again, I’ll come back to that. Kit really grew on me over the course of the book too, and I loved all the little callbacks to the Infernal Devices, especially when they were in the London Institute. Although, how the hell is Bridget still alive??? Although, I am super concerned for the Wicked Powers now, as I assume that that’s when Clary’s visions and whatever’s happening to the warlocks is really going to come into play. 

We finally got to learn Diana’s backstory, and what she’s hiding. I don’t know what I was expecting, but that definitely wasn’t it, and I thought it was really great. And her relationship with Gwyn is so cute too - “Now I know you’re the bravest woman I’ve ever met.” Dru also got to have some of her own development and adventures, and I know I’m not alone in wondering who Ash is. I know a popular theory is that he’s Sebastian’s demon baby with the Seelie Queen. My friend Emily told me this theory before this book came out, and I wasn’t sure, but I’m not going to lie, it does have some merit. That, or Ash is the Unseelie King’s heir who got kidnapped all those years ago. We shall have to see.

Final point before I come back to the big one. Zara Dearborn is such a bitch and I hate her. Originally I thought her engagement to Diego was going to be because she was pregnant, but I’m glad that turned out not to be the case. But yeah, her bigoted, self-righteous behaviour is just awful, as is the fact that she has all this support, but you can’t deny that it’s very topical at the moment given current events if nothing else. Some of the characters gave her some epic burns and put-downs though which were very much appreciated. I hope something terrible happens to her in the last book because she absolutely deserves it.

Now, the deaths. I knew before I went into this that 4 characters were going to die. Here’s what I thought of each of those scenes. Jon Cartwright - He was kind of a knob in Shadowhunter Academy, but he was alright really, especially compared to the other centurions, and I was quite sad to see him go, especially like that. Arthur Blackthorn - I’m not going to lie, I didn’t think that the odds of him surviving the series were very good, and I was right. Still, it was sad to see him go, especially since he sacrificed himself for his family like that. Also what the hell - Malcolm came back? And Annabel?! Finally, the big two, that I did not see coming at all. I’m not going to lie, there was a hell of a lot of shit went down in that last chapter, a lot of big things happened in a very short space of time. As soon as one person had a knife out in the council hall, I though, oh shit, is this going to be like the Red Wedding? And honestly, Shadowhunter Red Wedding is a pretty apt description of the end of Lord of Shadows. I felt quite sorry for Annabel, until she fucking murdered Robert Lightwood and Livvy! I was not expecting Robert to die at all, and it was made worse by the fact that there had just been the bit where you could see how proud he was of Alec, and yeah... And Livvy!!! I thought that the odds of the entire Blackthorn clan surviving the series were slim to none, but I still had hope that they might. Yeah, nope. It was just so sudden, and Helen had just come back so they were finally all together, and Julian holding her in his arms, and then the book ended. It just ended there. I think I sat there in pure shock for a good 5-10 minutes after I finished it, just in a state of AAAAAAAHHHH! WHAT DID I JUST READ?!?!

So yeah, I have a lot of questions that need answering in Queen of Air and Darkness, which we have to wait 2 YEARS for. I’m excited for the Last Hours, but this was just not ok. I’m very worried about what Livvy’s death is going to do to Julian - he already has this dark, ruthless side where his family is concerned, which I’m not going to lie, I quite enjoy reading, but I’m afraid that this is really going to tip him over the edge and he’s going to do some bad stuff. I also wonder what Emma and Julian are going to do about their situation, because Emma clearly can’t go into exile now, and I don’t think(?) they’d take the Seelie Queen’s deal, or maybe Dark!Julian would. Then all the stuff with the Cold Peace, and the Cohort and the warring faerie courts is all coming to a head, and I honestly have no idea how it’s all going to get wrapped up in one book (it’s going to be a bloody enormous book), but I’m so excited to find out! 

4) All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

I love a historical novel, and World War 2 is one of my favourite eras to read about, although I’m not 100% sure why. I first heard about this book as something to try if you liked The Book Thief, which I very much did. I don’t know if I liked this quite as much as the Book Thief, but I still really enjoyed it, and felt all the emotions. Given that it’s a WW2 book, compared to the Book Thief I was expecting it to be sad, and it really was in places, but there were all these little moments of happiness in amongst the bleak and sad bits that were just really lovely.

I enjoyed how it was two parallel stories, and followed both characters from when they were young, right through the war and afterwards. I haven’t read much set in occupied France, so I found all the resistance meetings in the kitchen and the siege in Saint-Malo quite interesting. I thought that Marie-Laure was such a great character, and how even though she was blind, she still managed to do so much. She loved her books and learning and managed to play her part in the resistance and survive all the bombing, and I loved that she went on to get a doctorate in molluscs and travelled the world and everything.

Werner’s story on the other hand, was so heart-breaking. Like, he was just a kid, who wanted to escape the mines and he happened to be really good at maths and fixing radios, and then he got caught up in all the Hitler Youth Academy stuff, and got sent to the front far too young. And he did some terrible things, but I think because you’d followed his story for so long, you felt so sorry for him, because it was such a difficult situation that he was in. I know I was really rooting for him to do the right thing, but because of everything that had happened it was sometimes difficult for him to know what the right thing was, and I think it would have been incredibly difficult to rebel and get away at that point. I mean, what happened to Frederick was probably one of the saddest, most awful parts. 

Following the 2 parallel stories, as well as the one about the guy trying to find the diamond for so long, I was wondering if/when they were all going to join up with each other, especially when you found out that it was Etienne’s broadcasts that Werner and Jutta used to listen to when they were little. But yes, I really loved that Werner saved Marie-Laure, and the scenes where they were together were really sweet, like I said before about the little moments of happiness. But it was too short-lived. I was hoping that maybe they would find each other again after the war or something, because I knew it skipped ahead to the 70s and then 2014. I’d been doubtful that Werner was going to make it earlier on in the book, but at that point, I thought he might. I was wrong.

I’m glad at least, that by saving Marie-Laure, and not taking the diamond, that Werner sort of redeemed himself a bit, and managed to make something right. But then, he stood on a land mine. After everything he went through, what a way to go. Werner Pfennig hurts my heart guys. I did like that after the war, Jutta took her son to France and managed to find Marie-Laure, to try and get some closure. I think her complicated feelings about her brother make a lot of sense, and it was good to see, although not the happiest. I really liked the writing style of this, and thought it was a good, emotional story, and you can see why its won some of awards that it has.

[nadbooks]

Most Disappointing Books of 2016

Hello again! Today I am here with my most disappointing books of 2016. I actually really enjoy posts about books that people dislike because I think they are more informative in letting me know whether a person has the same taste in books as me, as compared to their favorite books. These books were not necessarily awful (although some of them are), but it’s more that I really expected them to be great but they just turned out to be kinda meh. I gave these books either 2 or 3 stars on Goodreads. Oh, and of course, these are ranked from the least worst to the worst worst. Also, the disclaimer that these are just my opinions and if I don’t like your favorite book, it doesn’t mean you’re wrong for liking them. To each their own, ya know!

9. The Explanation for Everything by Lauren Grodstein

This book is about a biology professor and a hardcore evolutionist who is working on a paper with a student who is an evangelist and is trying to prove the existence of an intelligent creator. Sounds real technical, I know. At the time I was reading this, I was taking a class on Evolutionary Psychology which kinda blew my mind and I thought this book was going to be an interesting discussion/debate about evolution and faith and how we can believe in both. In the end, the book was just about a student-teacher affair, a professor going through his tenure review, and the promised discussion on evolution and faith was basically nonexistent. It wasn’t really that bad of a book I suppose, it had interesting insights into life as a professor and I did take away the message that it is okay to believe in something that you don’t completely understand, especially in times of grief and devastation, whether it is scientific or not. Sometimes we just need a little bit of faith. So it was not the worst book ever, but I did expect something more from it. 

8. Sea by Heidi R. Kling

This one was again my fault because I expected too much from it even though I should have had no reason to. This is a YA book set in Indonesia which I just thought was super interesting because I never read a YA book set in my home country before! It’s about a girl who accompanies her dad on a trip to Indonesia to help tsunami orphans deal with their PTSD. She is also dealing with the death of her mother so her dad thinks that this would be a good experience for her. Ultimately, the book is not about dealing with PTSD so much as it is about two teenagers falling in love. I didn’t really appreciate the romance because the main character only seemed to find the love interest interesting because he was foreign and exotic. She made some really stupid decisions and got kind of annoying and whiny towards the end. Still, the backdrop of the tsunami relief efforts was interesting and enlightening and I’m glad the author touched at least a bit on some of those themes. But ultimately, it’s really just another average YA book.

7. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Okay here is where we start to get a little controversial. This is a best-selling adult literary fiction about a group of four friends and it kinda just follows them throughout their lives from their 20s to their 50s. One of them, Jude, has an incredibly dark past though and we see his and his friends’ struggles as he tries to move beyond his traumatic past. I was told that this book would make me cry. I can see how it would I suppose but mostly, I was just disgusted by all the awful things that happened to Jude when he was a child. It was very jarring, shocking and graphic, the descriptions of what happened to him, and maybe that’s a good thing, when a book can make you feel that way. However, after a while, I just found everything kind of gratuitous because it seemed that every bad thing that could happen, happened to Jude. It didn’t seem very realistic as we uncovered more and more of his dark past. I thought his present-day struggles with his trauma were a bit more realistic, if a tad depressing. The book also seemed to be incredibly long and I really didn’t think it was necessary. I think a good third of the book could have been cut out. If I had to summarize my experience reading this book, it would be boredom (during the third where nothing was really happening) and then disgust and soul-sucking emptiness (as we learn more and more about Jude’s past), which I don’t think the author was really going for. Needless to say, this book comes with trigger warnings for abuse, rape and self-harm.

6. This is Our Story by Ashley Elston

This is a mystery novel. A group of five friends goes into the forest to go hunting but only four come out alive. Our main character is a girl who is an intern at the district attorney’s office and she investigates this mystery with her aging boss who relies on her to see all the details that he might miss. Interesting premise but the plot itself is very cliche and formulaic of many mysteries. I think I’ve read too many mystery novels and watched too many crime procedural TV shows that the plots become too predictable after a while. This is a basic crime storyline and there was nothing impressive about it at all. The big reveal at the end was no plot twist and it was also unrealistic how our main character, a high school intern, can be taken seriously when she just barges into court during a trial. Don’t even get me started on the romance in this story which was totally unnecessary, annoying, interfered with the plot, and made our main character do stupid things. Four pet peeves I have about romances in books. Overall, a disappointing mystery and nothing to rave about really.

5. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Aha another mystery on the list. This one is crazy hyped up though and I think the hype is what makes this one more disappointing than This is Our Story. I have the same complaints about this one. It is a cliche mystery plot that is not unique and the big reveal in the end was kind of disappointing and not very plot twisty. Seemed like a regular plotline of a procedural TV show, and not even a good one. Our main character also makes all sorts of stupid decisions and I am just not here for that kind of protagonist. The movie starring Emily Blunt does look interesting though so perhaps it translates better to the screen. But the book itself is definitely not worth all the hype.

4. 172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad

This book is about three teenagers who are sent to the moon by NASA in an effort to rebuild interest in the space program. But when they get to the moon, things are not all they seem to be. This is a horror novel set in space and honestly, that description alone is enough to make me pee my pants. I cannot read horror novels because I’m a coward and I also have a fear of outer space. All that vast nothingness where no one can hear you scream and where you can’t even rely on the basic laws of physics? No thank you. Given all that, you would think this book would terrify me to pieces. Nope. It was pretty boring and the writing was so GOD AWFUL. The sentences were so jarring and they didn’t flow smoothly at all that it really hindered my enjoyment of the story. Oh but the story itself was not very enjoyable either. The scary things that were happening were just glossed over that we didn’t really get to comprehend just how scary it was, and the characters were little shits too. They were not likeable and they were incredibly one-dimensional. Not an enjoyable read and it didn’t scare me at all, even though “horror novel set in space” is the easiest way to frighten me. And I’m easily frightened.

3. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Continuing the trend of shitting on popular books. This one is a classic so getting super controversial here. This book is about a woman working temporarily in New York and we sort of follow her downward spiral into... depression? I’m really not sure. We then see the kind of treatment she is getting and it’s not so great to say the least, because psychologists back then had no code of ethics. Interesting premise for me because I like reading about mental health and also, psychologist in training over here. Unfortunately, this was so incredibly boring. Nothing was happening and I honestly didn’t get the point of this story at all. Maybe I’m too stupid to understand classics or something but man, I was bored out of my mind. I just couldn’t understand how this became a classic. Maybe it was the writing but I wasn’t too impressed with that either. Overall, I kinda felt like it was a waste of my time. 

2. Unteachable by Leah Raeder

So we’ve kinda reached the end of my disappointing books. The books I talked about above I didn’t actively hate but I just expected more from. I gave them all 3 stars. Now we are getting down to my 2 star reads, which I actively hate. Unteachable is about a student-teacher relationship and I’ll admit, I only read this because I just wanted something trashy to read. Still, I have standards for my trash. The relationship was fun and steamy in the beginning but then it dragged on and on and on and got so dramatic and I was just sick and tired of both of them in the end. I wanted to drown them honestly. I just wanted something fun and light to read and this took a turn for the dark and dramatic and veered into 50 Shades of Grey territory which I did not appreciate. It was really just an unhealthy relationship. This book is trash, and not the good kind.

1. Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins 

Speaking of unhealthy relationships and trash. This book was definitely my worst read of 2016. I actually enjoyed Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door, which are the other novels in this companion trilogy. Isla is the last one and by far the worst one. Unlike the other two, the romance in this one was insta-lovey and underdeveloped and holy shit, the characters did some really stupid things. Isla refused to accept the consequences of their stupid decisions and just became a whiny brat. I really couldn’t stand Isla. I also cannot stand high school romances where they think that this is it, that if they get through the high school drama, they will live happily ever after (that goddamn title). How about college hmm? How about work? These characters think they know so much about the world and that “love will conquer all” even though they’re only in high school. Life is hard and high school is not even the worst part so I can’t stand it when books set in high school end with the idea that the couple is going to stay together forever. That is just not how it works. Wow, I think I’m really getting too old for YA.

So there we go, we have learnt that I’m a bitter old lady and that maybe I just can’t read pure YA romances anymore. I also can’t stand it when main characters make stupid decisions. I should also really not let the hype get to me and get my expectations up too high because that’s how I end up being disappointed. Oh well, it’s still fun to look back at disappointing reads and I don’t mind having them. It just means that the good ones stand out more!

Cheers and happy reading!