#mini reviews

[therefugeofbooks]

[27.06.24] 4/50 days of booklr

I've finished listening to Deephaven! It was on my radar for a while, and the setting and characters are super cool. I love middle-grade horror/mystery and this one didn't let me down.

I also finished listening to Boyfriend Material for the second time 🤪 I don't know why but this book brings me such comfort with all the messy characters!

How's everyone reading week? :)

[lolotheparagon]

Every Yonderland Episode in a Nutshell - Season 1

For those who dont know, Yonderland was a British fantasy comedy show about a stay at home mother named Debbie, who finds a portal to another world in her utility cupboard. She finds a bunch of Elders who claim her to be the Chosen One, but they have no idea what a Chosen One does cos one of the Elders threw up on the Chosen One scroll and completely destroyed it in the process. So Debbie and her friends Nick the Stick and Elf go on daily quests in Yonderland, whilst trying to find out what her destiny as Chosen One even is. Meanwhile a Robbie Rotten like villain named Negatus and his imp minions cause trouble as usual.

Its a very tongue and cheek parody of 80s fantasy movies like Labyrinth and Dark Crystal, with the usage of puppets and live action actors in a fantasy setting. The humour and dialogue is quite British, but not enough to be alienating to ppl. You will still get plenty of jokes as the show is reliant on snarky comebacks, Family Guy like cutaway gags and surrealist humour. Which is, quite frankly, what British comedy is best at.

Anyway, I've loved this show so much for being just a sheer riot and the humour is practically tailor-made for me. Even when the show got more 'story-heavy' as much as that phrase makes me want to gag, it still retained its charm and goofy spirit.

So without further ado, here's my quick reviews on each Yonderland episode! Starting with Season 1!

The Chosen Mum - 9/10

The idea of a someone being deemed a Chosen One by the leaders of a fantasy realm only to find they have no idea what a Chosen One actually does cos the one scroll that is all about that has been vomitted on and destroyed is fucking hilarious and that should be in a lot more legit Chosen One stories more often. Also love how Debbie is not at all impressed by the fantasy world. Its like the opposite reaction of an isekai and I love that

The Wizard Bradley - 7/10

Debbie and Elf try to do marriage counselling to get an elderly Caddicarus-like wizard and his Muppet husband to make up so they can continue their magic act. And also so the wizard can help Debbie find a copy of the Chosen One scroll. OH YEAH THERE'S COPIES OF CHOSEN ONE SCROLLS NOW. LEGENDARY SCROLLS ARE LIKE FAX SHEETS IN THIS WORLD XD. Btw I love how Debbie asks the wizard to make a potion to help cure her husband's flu, that was sweet.

Reformation - 10/10

Debbie finds a group of monks that have Sheldon Cooper levels of unfiltered honesty and in order to save them from poverty after their truth has caused one angry customer to destroy their monastery, Debbie tries teaching them how to lie...by turning them into real estate agents. I have never laughed so hard at a TV episode in all my life.

The Ultimate Prize - 8/10

Debbie tries to get a nerdy page to enter a grand tournament cos the knights keep on dying before they enter lmao. A bit weird that Debbie has to kiss the page in order to give him confidence for a kissing trial cos Debbie's been hit on by the characters quite a lot in this season and it gets old really fast. This is what happens when 5 men write a show about a female protagonist. Meanwhile, Negatus risks sending his boss' most strongest warrior behind her back so he can win the tournament. What a fucking dick, I love him.

Closing the Portals - 10/10

When Debbie declares she's had enough of Yonderland, Elf and the entire realm helps her on her last quest and bid farewell to Debbie throughout the whole episode. This episode is one giant guilt trip and I fucking love it. Although, it was really sweet that a tribe of fluffy babus made Debbie an embroidered apology, like do you know HOW DIFFICULT EMBROIDERY IS TO MAKE?? ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU HAVE TINY BBY HANDS?!

The Idiot King - 8/10

The Elders team up Debbie with a narcissistic king (btw love how there's monarchies all over Yonderland and not one of them is in charge of the whole realm) in order to find another copy of the second scroll. Turns out the king is absolutely hated by the public and he's blissfully unaware that him showboating his wealth is the reason why everyone hates him. So its up to Debbie's speech and Little Orphan Timmy to get this king to have a change of heart and give out his wealth to the people. Oh, if only monarchies were this easily fixed in real life. Highlight is definitely the king trying to serenade Debbie and its clear from the first lyric, its not working. He even drags his poor butler to do backup singing. Its hilariously pathetic.

The Heart of the Sun - 6/10

Okay, the joke of Debbie being the only smart person in the room and be practically a mother figure to a bunch of grown men is getting old now. The fact that she has to teach a group of idiots to not be idiots in order to save themselves from catapulting into the sun wouldve been a fine episode on its own, but it only highlights one of the show's biggest problems...Although. The ending does make it worth it. Im not gonna spoil it but it did make me laugh which is all i ask for in a Yonderland episode. Kendall was definitely the highlight. I mean, look at this guy: he was MADE FOR TUMBLR

Dirty Ernie - 10/10

After kidnapping Elf, Negatus dresses up as a hobo in order to lure Debbie into his lair. I love how the characters Debbie has helped in previous episodes: the real estate agents, the wizard and the polite knights have banded together to help her save Elf. It really makes Yonderland feel like a community repaying Debbie for all her good deeds. Its about time this woman got some respect. I also love how the guys came up with a legit clever plan to save Debbie when she gives herself up. Also love that small scene where everyone celebrates at Debbie's house for tea. Man, this episode's just great.

Conclusion:

A great first season to start off the show. Funny, endearing, has that wacky yet dry wit that is a staple of British humour and its just unapolgetically fun. Which is a relief from all the peak tv nonsense that plagued the 2010s. I have been warned that the second season gets a bit more into Debbie's past and her relationship to the looming villain Imperatrix bullshit. but due to the strictly episodic nature of the show and the fact there are 8 episodes a season, its not as bad as other shows cos there's no time for waffling. It also helps that the few bits of season 2 ive seen still have Yonderland's charm and goofiness, so that definitely helps.

[cristalconnors]

51. My Brilliant Career (Gillian Armstrong, 1979)

The work of coming to know yourself, of sticking to your guns and following your heart as gritty manual labor. Judy!!!!!! Rating: 9.5/10

[caitchercatlady]

Ranking Anime I Watched in 2024

The Apothecary Diaries (Fall 2023, Winter)

Where’s the Replay button?; Jinshi is boy wife material; I love him! Maomao is also beast FL I’ve ever seen. Her sarcasm and sudden happy moments make me laugh every episode. I think we finally found a mainstream anime that is actually worth the name of anime of the year. Characters are actual characters instead of tropes or stereotypes. The stories are unique to themselves. The animation is beautiful. What more could you ask for? I also watched this anime under the English dub, and it’s actually pretty damn good. Whoever voices Maomao was destined to be that character. Furthermore, the animation itself is straight up gorgeous! Studios OLM and TOHO animation really did a number on this one, especially in the last episode. They announced a season 2 and I’m stoked for it.

Dungeon Meshi (Winter)

Where's the Replay Button?; I originally had no interested in watching this show at the time, but then the English dub came out and I found out that Damien Haas voiced one of the main characters, so I changed my mind super quickly. Hell, when I found this out, I even surprised my boyfriend with the revelation. As far as the show itself is concerned, I think this is the best anime of the year, and I can’t believe it was released so early. While we’ve been returning to the traditional fantasy settings without the help of reincarnation or isekai, we’ve also been blessed with a hilarious and dramatic show involving cooking monster meat. I never thought I would be interested in a show like t his, but all of the characters and the plot are so intriguing.

A Sign of Affection (Winter)

They Got the Bag; I’ve seen a lot of comments about Yuki being infantilized for her disability, and when I see those comments from both the anime and manga pages, I thought people meant Itsuomi was the one doing that, but that turned out not to be true at all. In fact, Itsuomi is the dreamiest ML in any shojo romance I’ve ever seen. He does everything to make sure that Yuki was both seen and heard throughout the entire show. You know, like normal human beings? The only person who seems to infantilize Yuki is that son of a bitch childhood friend of hers, Oushi. He wasn’t written great in the manga either, and the anime seems to continue the tradition. I think what the series is trying to do is show the audience that Oushi is a tsundere who secretly has a crush on Yuki, but all it does is show the audience that Oushi feels that Yuki being deaf is a burden to everyone rather than just a condition she has, which Itsuomi does the complete opposite of. So for people who still think that this series is disability bait, actually look into this and think again.

Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! (Winter)

Good For What it Was; I watched the drama before jumping into the anime adaptation. Perhaps it has to do with the timing and how many episodes because this anime is way more funny and better paced than the drama was. The only thing going against it is how not great the animation is. I mean, it was a BL, so I wasn’t expecting much, but in more recent years, BL anime have been better animated as if they were mainstream series. After doing quick research, I found out this series was animated by Satelight. You might be familiar with their previous works: Shuga Chara, Macross, partially worked on Fairy Tail, Log Horizon, Nanbaka, and the AKB48 anime series. The majority of the series this studio worked on are unknown or they didn’t do so well in gainly public praise, so maybe I should’ve seen that coming. However, if you look past the animation, the show is actually very heartwarming. Adachi and Kurosawa are adorable together. So were the side couple Wataya and Tsuge. If I had to compare this anime to the live drama, the side couple were a lot more appealing in the anime because they had more chemistry expressed, and I highly appreciated that. THAT ENDING THOUGH! I ACTUALLY CRIED!

Nijiyon Animation Season 2 (Spring)

Good for What it Was; Still just your typical mini series to the main Nijigasaki girls. Nothing special, but the fluff was fun.

I’m Home, Welcome Home (Spring)

Where’s the Replay Button?; This is the first time that anime has tackled an Omegaverse manga story. If you don’t know what Omegaverse is, it’s way too much to explain it here, but I will tell you that this is the most wholesome of the Omegaverse stories you’ll ever find in the entirety of Japanese manga. I’ve been wondering when I’m gonna find the cutest anime of the year, and Tadaima, Okaeri is it. For some reason, I was surprised that this anime was made by Studio Deen, but at the same time, I should not have been because this is the same studio responsible for Sasaki and Miyano, one of my favorite BL series of all time.

I’ll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History (Fall)

Wanted to like but it has eh?; This is my very first villainess isekai series, so perhaps I should treat this as a villainess isekai for beginners type of series. It doesn’t specify much about the main character’s life before becoming Alicia, but it pretty much describes the world of the game the MC played prior to being isekaied into the world. While the setup is how you expect the game’s story to go and how Alicia will change up some things, we also start realizing that the game is not following the script not only due to Alicia’s decisions, but because everything is not exactly what it seems in the game. This story had a lot of good elements that could’ve worked in the story, but I think Alicia’s two plots in taking Liz down and helping out this poverty-stricken village don’t seem to mix much at all. Perhaps I’m missing something because this show is based off of a series of ongoing light novels, and this is supposed to be the season one of the whole thing, but even with that being the case, I feel that some characters, especially those who are supposed to be the meat of the plot, are not crafted well, and it’s very hard to tell what Alicia actually wants to do and who she wants to be. I know in game logic, the character of Alicia is supposed to be stubborn, passive aggressive, and confident beyond belief, and there’s only a few moments in which we see the MC actually falter at times. We don’t really see what MC’s end game is supposed to be. Like why is she doing this after being isekaied into the game? Yeah, she wants to be the best villainess in the world, but what exactly does that mean? Again, maybe that’s the point as the source material is still going, but I would like to know more than just that. As a first season, it definitely solidified that I wouldn’t watch the next one if it ever comes around.

Acro Trip (Fall)

Good For What It Was; This series had all the amount of cornball that I needed out of a magical girl parody. I don’t think it’s the perfect parody of the genre, but it was enough its own story to keep me invested in Chizuku, Chroma, and Berry’s character arcs. Chroma is MegaMind levels of hilarious, and I love him so much. I feel that with more episodes that this show could’ve been expanded more, but considering how long it took for even the show to get made in the first place (I think this thing was announced back in 2022!), this was probably the best we were going to get. I found out before posting that this was Studio Voil’s very first series, so it kinda makes sense why it took so long to make. Animation quality is pretty good for a first show though. The first episode did indeed get me invested, and the show kept me invested.

Love Live Superstar Season 3 (Fall)

Where's the Reply Button?; I don’t know what the producers took but the music for this season is a vast improvement compared to season 2. It makes me feel like I’m reliving season 1 all over again. The member plot points feel more fleshed out now than they did last season. The biggest improvement was Natsumi, who we finally get her reasons for why she acts the way she does now that her sister, Tomari, is in the picture. Also, thank you show for writing Keke less like a dick. All of us at the Love Live fandom appreciate that. Shiki is still best girl. The songs are at their peak this season, which is a massive improvement from Season 2, thank the lord.

[bitchy-peachy]

I watched Beetlejuice Beetlejuice last night.

Keeping it undercut to not spoil for casual screen scrollers. I'll still try to be as vague as possible though. My brain is all over the place so warning you for being nonsensical. (I loved it!)

My nostalgic old ass actually loved it and I usually hate sequels. I even wanted to yell at Lydia on the screen cos girl... this creepy ass mf demon Beetlejuice has loved you (in his weird ass way) for 30 years and you're with the... Well you'll meet her dislikeable meatbag boyfriend in the movie (as you can see I hate him).

OK I'll shut up about this and will probably get hate for my weird ass ships again...

Will admit the mini fake romance with Astrid and the sneaky brat in town was cringe. I knew something was wrong cos I trust no weird, suddenly-we-have-so-many-things-in-common kinda dudes in movies. Only been in town for 2 days and there's already smooches.

As a mom myself I was like, "Nuh uh, child. Me da mala vibra. Bad vibes."

I, of course, was- watch the movie I'm spoiling too much.

Monica Bellucci as Delores (my gods 😍❤️❤️❤️❤️) was and is as eternally beautiful as always. Regret not seeing more of her on screen cos I'm such a hopeless bisexual simp for this goddess. And I loved the romantic goth with black wedding dress and stapled on body parts look. Stunning woman. Quite literally breathtaking me to death.

The musical numbers I enjoyed cos I'm a nostalgic old lady. I wanted to sing along like a goof but I held back to spare everyone. I can be a very nice considerate person... sometimes.

The humor was nice and maybe slightly more mature than the 1st one (OK it was more mature) but it isn't anything extreme so you can bring your kids that are old enough to watch (pg 13).

Personally speaking I'm so used to horror, comedy, dark humor and body horror imagery that I was surprised it was pg 13 cos my weird mind would have put it as just pg. (That's why I shouldn't rate things cos I'd be like "This ain't that bad. I think babies can watch it." 🤣🤣🤣)

Overall I enjoyed and will probably watch again. Maybe others will enjoy it too and this fandom can become more livelier.

I shouldn't do puns. I suck at them.

PS: I feel so bad for Bob. He was just trying to do his job.😭

[isthequeerbookgood]

I'm alive! Just. Between exams and catching covid I managed to finish exactly one book during June, and it was a nonfiction book called A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects. Which I do recommend, but isn't entirely relevant to the theme of this blog.

However I did fail to complete a number of books, so naturally I'm here to tell you all exactly why.

Born of Scourge - S. Jean This one mostly just didn't grab me. The overall concept seemed pretty cool, but the writing felt quite… naive? I bounced off the style and wasn't invested enough to finish, I think other people might enjoy it more but to me it did feel kind of like it was written by a teenager. DNF'd at 20%

House of Crimson Hearts - Ruby Roe Reads like something I would have written aged 14 and that is not a compliment. It's just. So absurdly edgy. The main character is an extra special vampire who is hated and feared by everyone because of the way she was born. She owns a nightclub that has optics full of special flavours of blood. There's dubcon lesbian sex in chapter 2. I'm just too old and tired for this. DNF'd at chapter 3.

Moonlight Love and Witchcraft - Vaela Denarr and Micah Iannandrea This book deliberately advertises itself as low stakes and cosy, which is a legitimate choice. However, the authors seem to have mistaken low stakes for low impact. Lots of things happen but they don't seem to mean anything, and it didn't really feel like the characters or relationships were developing at all (kind of a problem in a romance novel). It felt like the write up of people batting around cool ideas about their OCs, rather than a coherent novel, which is... not the worst thing in the world?

Honestly I would probably have kept reading except for the fact that the character described as ADHD rep was so viscerally annoying that she felt like a hate crime against me personally. Also it's 150k. DNF'd at 40%.

10 Things That Never Happened - Alexis Hall Honestly I quite enjoyed Alexis Hall's other novels in this universe. His writing tends toward the ridiculous, but they are genuinely funny and he has a real awareness of contemporary life. Unfortunately this one seems to revolve around some tropes I personally don't enjoy (the main character faking amnesia - I really hate romance stories that revolve around deceit) so I put it down. I can't remember where I DNF'd because I returned it to the library.

[paperback-bitch]

DNF Friday

Unfortunately, not every book can be right for every reader. Sometimes I can't get through a book for any number of reasons, but I think it's still important to record and acknowledge them, because you might feel differently and want to try them anyway!

So here's my list of DNF reads for this month, and why:

The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson: some books are polarizing, and you either really love them or really don't. Some people really love this book, and I wanted to, but I don't. I couldn't stand the main character Bel, and the pacing was unbearably slow for me. Too much was telegraphed in my opinion, so when I gave up and read a synopsis instead of finishing the book, I saw a lot of it coming and the rest of the ending was just...wild. DNF @ 42%.

Ember of Light by Hannah Jacklin: this book has some great reviews, but it just wasn't for me. It felt a bit rushed and cluttered/chaotic, and maybe I just wasn't in the place to read it, but I tried and it just didn't hook me so I gave up. DNF @ 30%.

[leologs]

Read the full review of the movie "Red Eye" on the link below.

[courtneysmovieblog]

"Totally Killer" and other Halloween mini reviews

I was debating whether or not I should watch Five Nights At Freddy's. I never heard of the video game, and it doesn't seem like my thing. I've read mixed reviews and ultimately I'd rather keep my childhood memories of Chuck E. Cheese untainted by horror.

But that doesn't mean I haven't indulged in other scary movies for Halloween:

The Beguiled (1971): Wounded yankee soldier (Clint Eastwood) picks the wrong girl's school to mess with. It definitely has a more Western feel to it than the Sofia Coppola remake, or maybe that's because of Eastwood. Either way, if you like gothic horror, it's definitely worth a watch.

A Star Is Born (1976): Not a horror movie, but unless you're a Barbra Streisand fan, the Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper version is the best version.

Hollow Man: Kevin Bacon turns himself invisible and uses it to rape women and kill people. That one scene is so messed up...

Malignant: A woman (Annabelle Wallis) is haunted by her imaginary friend. The surprise twist in this movie reminded me so much of Stephen King's The Dark Half, and that's all I will say.

Antlers: Any movie involving roadkill is just nasty.

They/Them: I don't know why this had to be a slasher film. Showing the actual horrors of a conversion therapy camp would have been much more effective.

Sick: There was a right way and a wrong way to make a movie taking on how people have acted in the pandemic. This was the WRONG way. What were you trying to say, Kevin Williamson? That people that want to take Covid seriously and are fed up with how selfish and reckless people are acting are just crazy?! Because, yeah, not cool. Some of us haven't had Covid yet, and we'd like to keep it that way!

Miranda's Victim: Nothing is more disturbing than real life. Abigail Breslin delivers a harrowing performance as the woman whose real-life attack (and how the police botched it) wound up the catalyst for the Miranda Rights. While it is a necessary right for people, the fact that it was because of a guy who actually committed the crime and was trying to weasel his way out of jail by a technicality is just nauseating.

Totally Killer: Two of the best 80s genres, slasher and time travel, come together in this great horror comedy where Kiernan Shipka time travels back to the 80s to save her teenage mom (Olivia Holt). Even if you don't like horror, this is a delightfully fun movie for Halloween that I highly recommend.

[thelowerdecker]

My ratings of the two Episodes!

Space Babies: It was alright, wasn’t a fan of the gross out humour. 🤢

The Devil’s Chord: Now, that was when things picked up, absolutely love that episode, that ending song is still stuck in my head! 🎵

[datamodel-of-disaster]

The Riemann Report: January

I suppose you could say my New Year’s resolution was to do more… idk, real-feeling things. Stuff that feels tangible, like I actually do something with my time and my life.

So… as the year started, I’ve started reading books, again. My result stack for January is small but proud. A shitty job, mental health issues, and life events kinda stole all my attention span and drive to pursue real hobbies last year, so knowing I’m coming from rock bottom I’m genuinely happy with my progress. So… behold the books I finished!

And well… since this is sort of a “book report”, you can find my opinion on them below the cut!

Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie

Am I late to this party? Probably. But holy shit. A genuine page turner, somehow, despite the subject matter. If you’d told me I’d find a book about a domestic abuse situation this hard to put down I wouldn’t have believed it, and yet. There I was, sneaking pages while on the toilet at work, completely enthralled. I can’t explain it, you have to read it yourself.

Delta of Venus - Anaïs Nin

Anaïs Nin should be glad she wrote long before the advent of TikTok, because this book is Problématique (and proud to be so). A series of erotic short stories that read like snapshots from a parallel universe, like a voyeur’s dream -where every action is titillation, every body exists to be seen and fucked, and cheating, prostitution and even assault are but sexy games people play. The only jobs anyone seems to have are model and painter -and even those are but an excuse to get up to sexy shenanigans. In short: it’s absolutely delightful. A peak into the pornoverse, anno 1940.

In Praise of Older Women - Stephen Vicinczey

A fake memoir of a Hungarian man with a remarkable life. At once a ridiculous tall tale, a sexy fantasy, and a surprisingly convincing “true to life” narrative, always balancing on the very edge of believable. Excellent read. Avoid if you are easily upset by…. Let’s call it non-ideal sexual situations.

The Field Guide to Understanding “Human Error” - Sidney Dekker

A bit of nonfiction. Sidney Dekker talks about plane crashes and offshore oil rig accidents, from the perspective of a safety expert and accident investigator -but underneath the specific examples, he talks about the human condition and its many pitfalls and logical fallacies. About how to approach the aftermath of disaster with willingness to understand rather than eagerness to condemn. About what “safety” actually is, and how it can be both built up and eroded in human interaction. Highly recommend even if you work a desk job.

En Dan Nog Iets - Paulien Cornelisse

A Dutch book! Title translates as “And Another Thing”, but I’d wish anyone luck trying to translate the contents. Written by a Dutch cabaretière, it’s a collection of witty observations of the Dutch language in its natural habitat -with its idioms, expressions, trendy words, but mostly, the many almost untranslatable ways people give themselves away in the way they talk.

Girls in White Dresses - Jennifer Close

Did I like this book, or did I find it horrendous? Both. The blurb on the back sells it as a chick lit about a group of women who struggle with romance while continuing to attend the weddings of others. What it actually is, is a painfully astute dissection of life in your twenties and thirties, in all its small-minded, vapid, petty, anxiety-riddled, hopeful, generous, and truly all-too-human glory. “Relatable!”, the blurb promises. I’d say, take that as a threat.

The Social Life of Information - John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid

More non-fiction. An IT book from the year 2000, I can hear you think “what relevance does that even have anymore?” -and you’d be surprised. Most of the book is not about tech. It’s about people, and how people form an indispensable part of any IT ecosystem. It’s remarkable, how relevant much of the contents still are, from the isolation of the home office, the battle against bad actors on the Internet, and the difficulties of transferring knowledge, to the endurance of paper within the office and the value of informal information exchange. A niche read, but valuable.

The Hotel Life - Javier Montes

Did I like this book? No. Would I recommend it? Also no. Was it memorable? Very. This book was at once boring and baffling. Nothing happens for ages; the narrator is not particularly interesting, even as he sinks into an increasingly unhinged parasocial fascination with a female porn director he met only once. There’s nothing sexy or even fascinatingly dark about the main character even as he essentially becomes a stalker. He’s boring, even while insane. (There’s also an almost random murder near the end that happens bizarrely blasé and doesn’t get addressed?) Anyway. A book like a developing psychosis. Proof no one becomes interesting by going mad.

….

Let’s hope I also manage to read some the coming month!

[abookishshade]

So January, 2024 was a productive reading month for me.

I read 7 books in all, of which, I read:

🔹️2 audiobooks

1️⃣▫️The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-eyn, tr. Lizzie Buehler- ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (lit fic, thriller, contemporary)

I had not known about this aspect of the tourism industry before reading this book. So it was quite fascinating to me.

2️⃣▫️All Systems Red by Martha Wells- ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Sci-fi)

This is, I think, the first pure sci-fi that I have read, and I enjoyed being inside the head of a robot.

🔹️1 series continuation

3️⃣▫️Sweep of the Heart by Ilona Andrews- ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (fantasy, romance)

Finally I'm done with the Innkeeper Chronicles. While this was still a comfort read, it was also a slow read. There was a lot of political intrigue involving characters I didn't much care for so this one wasn't as fun as the previous books in the series.

🔹️2 rereads

4️⃣▫️The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (middle grade, greek mythology, urban fanasy)

It was also my first read of the month. The recently released show got me interested in this again. I have made another post on it.

5️⃣▫️The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (middle grade, greek mythology, urban fanasy)

It was also as much fun as the first Percy Jackson book, especially because I have forgotten everything from my first read. Came across the character Circe in this one, and couldn't help myself from wanting to know her pov next before starting the 3rd book in the series.

🔹️2 fresh reads

6️⃣▫️Circe by Madeline Miller- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (greek mythology, feminist retelling)

The Sea of Monsters made me want to read Circe. And this was my favorite read of the month. I loved the character development of Circe. I loved the witchy vibes. I loved the depiction of her solitary independent life on the island. I loved the critiques of patriarchy. What I didn't like was the ending.

SPOILER AHEAD

I understood Circe's loneliness but I didn't like that the powerful witch Circe ended up needing to spend her mortal life with Telemachus and bear his children to get her happy ending.

SPOILER OVER

7️⃣▫️The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (historical fiction, mystery)

I buddyread this one, and enjoyed reading it even though it was a slow read. Buddyread definitely helped in going through with it. There were two timelines. Sometimes the transition from one timeline to another felt like an interruption but at the end both the timelines added to the substance of the story, especially the past timeline was important for the characterization of our protagonist. I loved the various little details including those pertaining to the setting, the law and the architecture and also those pertaining to the various characters and their dynamics with each other. I also enjoying making speculations about the killer. I also liked how it touched upon some of the societal issues of the time period through the lens of a woman.

[authorkarajorgensen]

April 2023 Wrap-Up Post

This week's blog post is our wrap-up of April, so check it out for mini book reviews, what's up behind the scenes, writing progress, and much more.

Looking back at my goals for April, I feel like I was a tad unrealistic considering this is one of my busiest grading months. While I hit quite a few of these goals, others I totally fell short, but I will not feel bad about readjusting or rerouting my energy once chaos hit. Let’s take a look at what I thought would happen when I made my goals back in March before checking out what actually…

[cristalconnors]

126. Faces (John Cassavetes, 1968)

Crackles with combustible creative energy, though it sometimes feels more like an exercise than a fully realized artistic statement. Though that’s not say this movie doesn’t have anything on its mind- the terror of vulnerability, desire, intimacy, and rejection strikes me as a central theme. Alternately tedious and electric. Rating: 8.2/10

[pleasedontbreakit]

February 2023: Mini Reviews

Reviews of books, movies, and shows I watched in February. (more…) “”

[endofapaige]

Everything is Changing

TLDR; I fucked a boy, went on holiday, watched Dear Evan Hansen and got sad about my friends leaving for University.

I never realised how fast life can change. This time last year I was stuck in a rut. Leaving the house was few and far between, I was halfway through my A Level courses and everything had started feeling too real, I was starting to feel too old. I was starting to question everything I knew and trying to distract myself from it all. This time last year I wrote ‘it must be the best summer yet’ but seventeen-year-old me, with her new friends and so much of her life yet to figure out had never really experienced ‘real life’ before. And I suppose a year later, eighteen-year-old me hasn’t really either. Though while maybe, I don’t have it all figured out, I’m moving to a new city, I’m meeting so many new people, and a new chapter of my life begins; it has finally hit me that nothing is the same as it was. Ferris Bueller once told me: ‘life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it’ and ever since I first watched that film in a GCSE Film class in year 10, that has been the quote that resonated with me the most. It’s the one I believe to wholly be true.

Summer this year has felt different, I don’t know if it’s because we’ve all known it’s just 3 short months and everything we know gets obliterated into fragments of what once was. Or maybe it’s just because I’m so vastly different to who I was back then, not only in character but in passion and ability. I never thought for a start this blog would become an important part of my life, that it would become part of who I was to others. ‘The girl with the blog, the blog endofapaige’. It’s been this very blog that sparked the best part of this summer actually, but we’ll come back to that later.

There was a vast juxtaposition to the start of the summer and the head-banging stress that came with my exams. The day I finished, I was packing for a week in Portugal and in that week in Portugal I was wondering what to do with the empty space left in my brain. Schools spend so long warning you of the stress of exam season, but never once do they prepare you for the numbing emptiness when those exams are all over because it really does feel like you’ve lost your purpose in life. It’s tough to stare into the sea and know you’re meant to be relaxing but have your brain convince you you should be revising. Madeira is lovely though, the hotel we stayed in was one of the fanciest I’ve seen. If I were to go complete travel critic on you, I’d tell you that the food was definitely on the nicer side for the buffet style restaurants in holiday hotels. The hotel had four restaurants, a traditional Portuguese, Italian, the Buffet, and the pool bar. We ate at all four, and while yes, the Italian was clearly the worst (probably because we weren’t in Italy), nothing was disgusting. The Portuguese restaurant was actually some of the nicest food I’ve had in a long time, and the traditional Madeiran sandwich ‘bolo de caco’ was to die for. We spent the week alternating between walks into Funchal and sitting by the pool. In Funchal we spent more money than we should have on a cable car ride that wasn’t quite worth it, and I saw some lizards who I named Stan, Steve and Sebastian. None names I purposely pulled from my obsession with Marvel but all that fit as pointed out by my brother. I read two books in total: One Last Stop by Casey McQuinston, another queer romance that made my heart melt just like Red, White and Royal Blue did and To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo. A fantasy book that successfully relit my adoration of YA fantasy when I was in a phase of romance book after romance book.

Looking back on the holiday to Madeira, it doesn’t so much feel like it was part of my summer. It was my first week of freedom, and everyone else’s final week of hell so by the time I got home, it was like I hadn’t missed anything at all, like I had blipped from existence for the week. It was after then that summer began to get quiet again, back into my routine of waking up late, watching something I’d already seen on TV and walking up and down the stairs until something sparked in my brain and I was no longer bored. I saw Georgia a few times to break it up, the two of us sitting in my living room gossiping for hours about things I couldn’t even begin to remember now until we had nothing left to talk about and we put a movie on instead. I know we watched Dear Evan Hansen once, because with the start of July came our trip to London to watch it on the West End, a day I enjoyed so much I wrote an entire post about it in the days following. If you haven’t read that, which I think you should, it was incredible. The show is by far one of my new favourites and the day sparked a goal in me to live the big city life in London once I can afford it and have reason to.

A couple of weeks before held a University Open Day. My parents, brother and I travelling up north to visit the campus that will, though we didn’t know that yet, be my new home for the next three years. With Covid, I never really got to experience the university in a way prospective students usually do. Big talks, all buildings open, something going on everywhere you looked. Instead, we visited in the dead of winter when nobody was around. And even with no students and no atmosphere, I fell in love with it. So, we visited on July 2nd, the first open day for next year’s class of potential freshers, when everything was back to normal, and everyone was bumbling around. I fell in love with it even more. Ask anyone I know and they’ll tell you how I’ve never been more excited for something so utterly terrifying in my life. I’ve made friends already; I’ve researched and read everything I can about the city and the school and what’s tradition and what’s frowned upon. It’s the first time I’ve been so secure in my decision in something, and that in itself is horrifying to me.

Thor: Love and Thunder came out on July 7th, another marvel movie I saw on opening night, another one I had so many opinions on, said I’d share and then never did. Being a fan of the MCU has gotten hard, not because their content has gotten bad, though worse maybe, but because it’s turned solely into a money maker. What was so special about the MCU before the end of the Infinity Saga was that there was suspense. A film released, ties were loose, and we’d have to wait an entire year for the next release to find out what was going on. Now, we get new content almost weekly, so we don’t even have the chance to get excited. That ruins it for me. Thor: Ragnarok has always been one of my favourite MCU films, with the release of Love and Thunder and the return of Taika Waititi directing, I was obviously excited. But it’s hard to be now. The film was good though, great even. Gorr was such an incredible villain and addition to the storyline. They kept the stupidity that did so well in Ragnarok. But it got too much, it was too stupid, too funny, it overrun the genuinely quite heartfelt and traumatic plot points of Thor and Jane. Though not so much that I hated it. The end confused me, I don’t like Thor having an adoptive daughter, I don’t like that Korg’s story seems to be completely wrapped up, I don’t like whoever this Hercules character is and how they made it a big thing. I was clueless. But it was good.

The weekend after that began something I was not prepared for. A simple birthday party, a group of people I didn’t know too well, a mismatch of people in a situation that can never end well. I’m not one for partying and alcohol, you won’t believe that by the end of this, but I don’t drink much, I’ve never been drunk and being around people is hard for me. Yet Em’s 18th birthday party came and went and all of a sudden, I had so many friends, so many plans, and a boy on the scene. I’ll tell you now, developing a crush on a guy a couple of months before you move away is never a good idea. Not even when you’ve kind of liked him since January and he’s kind of likes you back just as much. Mutual infatuation or not, it’s messy and it’s complicated. And for us messy and complicated does not even start to cover it. But messy and complicated is exactly us, and we kind of love it. It was Em’s party that started it all, a fun night of me and Katie stumbling around Em’s house, I a bit tipsy and giggling at everything, Katie practically unable to stand straight. You’ll find even at house parties girls go to the toilet together, though in this case it wasn’t in fear of a potential Katie Bell in the Goblet of Fire moment, but more in fear Katie was going to fall down the stairs and kill herself. You’d never think you’d meet the perfect guy outside the bathroom. Or that your first real encounter would bounce off you trying to get another guy to remember your name and end in a joke about the Olsen twins. But that’s Jack, Jack who remembered my name having met me only once, Jack who bought up this blog to impress me, Jack who had planned to talk to me the entire night, did so for two minutes outside a bathroom and then disappeared while I was stood wondering what the fuck had just happened.

The party was messy, too much happened, but it fuelled the gossip for the next two weeks. The day after I was supposed to go to a music festival, we skipped that one. My social battery had started to fizzle and spark, the friend I was going with didn’t have a great night before. So instead, we sat in bed watching old YouTube videos we used to love.

Another party planned, and that one conversation outside the bathroom turned into an all-nighter and talking every day for a month. He drunkenly asked me out that night, we went out the following Monday. Two basically strangers on a date that neither of them actually knew was a date. It was fun though, he took me to a comic book shop, talked my ear off about characters I’d never heard of. I took him to a bookshop and did the same with the books I’ve wanted to buy but never got round to. He doesn’t read, that’s what he told me, yet we spent an hour in Waterstones. Him stopping and picking things up, flicking through them with a ‘this is so cool’, reading bits out and giving me facts a normal person shouldn’t know. I loved every second of it. We ended the day with a round of mini golf, the same place I went with Elly and Katie just a couple of weeks before which ended in an attempt to ask him out where I got ‘seen’ in response. He won the game, he’d talked himself up the whole day, but I won a free round on the 19th hole. So, who’s really winning Jack?

The 13th of August marked the end of the wait for my mother’s birthday present. Her birthday was back in March but my dad, brother and I all chipped into get tickets to see The Book of Mormon at the Liverpool Empire Theatre. Another musical I loved. I truly believe the theatre is one of the things that makes me the happiest. The show was unbelievably funny, I had no idea what to expect going in because unlike Dear Evan Hansen I only knew a couple of the songs from the soundtrack and hadn’t tried to find bootlegs on the internet. It truly surpassed any expectations I did have, and even my brother enjoyed it which is not an emotion I knew he could feel. We didn’t stay long in Liverpool, we’d explored the town two years before, and me and Georgia had done so again the summer before this one. But I thought it was pretty cool I was back there almost exactly a year after I was there trying to take photos for my Media coursework.

Results day week was a fun one, the stress was overwhelming, but I did all I could to distract myself. The Monday was the date, the Wednesday was the best day of my life. Georgia and I ventured down to Watford and spent the day at Warner Brothers Studios, the making of Harry Potter for those of you who might not know. I��d been a couple of times before, I went with my family when I was 10, and with school when I was 13, but they had added and expanded so much since we’d last been, it was still just as magical if not more so the third time round. Most notably, they’d opened Gringotts’s bank with statues of the goblins and a projector of the dragon that the golden trio escape on in the final movie. They’d also opened the Herbology greenhouse and had a ‘Mandrakes and Magical Creatures’ theme where there were plaques everywhere quizzing visitors on their knowledge of the magical creatures in the franchise. I made it an unspoken competition between me and Georgia – I clearly won. We learnt to duel, we took a ride on a flying broom, we danced about in Bellatrix’s vault. I took more photos than was necessary, and I made everyone sit while I showed them all. The best day of the summer so far, no question, if you ignore the bit where we had to stand up, exhausted, on the train most of the way home.

Abigail and I spontaneously went to Aberystwyth earlier in the month, we hadn’t seen each other since she’d started a new job and I was apparently a social butterfly now. It was a Sunday night, and we were both free the next day, so we spontaneously booked the train and decided to spend the day at the beach. It was hot, and the day was lovely but there really isn’t much to see and do in Aberystwyth. We walked the high street, had lunch at the Wetherspoon’s, I pretty much finished A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. An INCREDIBLE book by the way, I’m currently halfway through Good Girl, Bad Blood. Abi slept over that night; I don’t remember us doing anything of note, but I do remember that she’s become one of my parents’ favourite people.

The day after Harry Potter was Doom’s Day, and the day after that was yet another house party. I spent the day in Birmingham with Emily and Eleni which was lovely. It’s hard pushed to get Len to come anywhere so it was nice to have the trio back again for a few hours. We just wandered aimlessly, in the bookshops, into Lush, Tim Hortons for lunch. All while discussing results and joking like we always used to in English. I went back to Em’s before the party, met up with her boyfriend and one of his friends and Em made us a makeshift Sex on the Beach cocktail that I don’t think anyone else actually liked. Then we were back at Elly’s house, the place the friendship group I’d seen so many times in the last few weeks had first met, back in Elly’s pretty kitchen with Katie and I not fully sober, where I spent the entire night thinking I was going to get kissed. I’d hugged more people than I’d ever hugged in my life that night, I was practically attached to Elly and Katie’s hips and if I wasn’t I had Jack’s arm around my waist. For someone who claims to hate physical touch, I really had a great night.

Another spontaneous plan found Em, her boyfriend Zakk, Jack, and I in a bar in Birmingham for a Marvel quiz. Zakk, Jack, and I have been huge Marvel fans for years, Em knows practically nothing about the franchise, but it was safe to say the three of us went in terribly confident. And by the end of the quiz we were still adamant we’d only lost one point and sure we’d get the bonus points for the best team name. In the end we came 4th, all three of us absolutely gutted. I still think we should’ve gotten the bonus points for ‘The Civil Whores’ was a tenfold better name than ‘MC. Mjolnir’, but I’m convinced the quizmaster had a thing for both Jack and Zakk despite claiming to have a boyfriend and wasn’t impressed when Em and I made it very hard to believe either of them were single. After an almost fight, being kissed, and successfully not throwing up on the bus home while Jack nattered about something I can’t remember, we made it back to Em’s where I stayed for the night. A sleepover one would call it if I’d actually slept at all.

That Monday was the Monday just gone as I write this part of the post. I’m now sat in a little cottage in Anglesey with my brother snoring beside me on our final night of a 4-night getaway. Knowing that it’s getting late, and words aren’t quite wording anymore, and I need to be up early in the morning for a 10am eviction. I’ll get back to you later, maybe soon, maybe just before I move. All I know is I’ve got a month, people are starting to leave, and I need to make the most of the time I’ve got left with all the people I adore.

I’ve decided Wales is not my favourite place, not for any particular reason besides my family holidays have always been in Cornwall or at holiday parks and there’s such a distinct divide between the bustling of children and entertainment and the quaint and peaceful villages like Beaumaris where in truth it’s mostly older people. Don’t get me wrong, Beaumaris was fucking beautiful, there were a plethora of adorable little shops, a bakery we could walk to every morning, a castle and the sea was just around every corner. The biggest problem we faced was the fact their only supermarket was a Spar, and in said Spar there was nothing in terms of substantial meals. So, we lived off crisps and peanuts. It was a good week though, the weather did us well until the very last day. I finished Good Girl, Bad Blood, which I read on a very cute bay window chair I talked about to my friends more than I talked about the actual holiday. I do have to say I think Holly Jackson has become one of my favourite authors, the second in the Good Girl’s series was just as entertaining and gripping as the first and I’m genuinely so excited to start to third, though I haven’t gotten round to that yet. This holiday ended in a situation my family are actually in quite a lot: my mother looking at puppies, my brother and I begging my dad to get a new puppy, and my dad getting more and more pissed off by the second until he shouts at us telling us to shut up. Difference is, he wasn’t pissed off this time. Mum had found a cockapoo puppy at a rescue centre in Wales, he was tiny and apricot and adorable, and his name was Jinx. I fell in love with him. We already have a dog, a black cockapoo named Bella who we got 8 years ago now and we all love her to bits. I tried telling them that because I’m moving away for university soon, they need a new dog to fill the void in their lives I will have left.

It worked. Well, something worked because the following Monday after we returned home, we were on a three-hour road trip to Many Tears Rescue Centre to pick up baby Jinx. He made a beautiful first impression, he trampled in paying no attention to Bella in the slightest (a good thing for us, Bella can get very aggy with other dogs) and just sat in his water bowl. Since bringing him home we have discovered he is in fact a stupid little fucker: his stubby little legs mean he can’t quite get onto and off the sofa, his huge paws just slip and slide all over the laminate flooring, he has run full pelt into the back door and he’s quite a big fan of trying to bite your feet. But he is the most adorable little thing I’ve ever seen in my life, and him and Bella don’t completely hate each other, so a complete win for us.

The Saturday before this marked Jack’s 20th birthday party, a night of lads getting drunk beyond coherency and screaming like a drunk group of lads do. It was a good night, but for reasons that had nothing to do with the shouting men. Though I never expected a 20th birthday party would end up with a group of 15 sat around watching the KSI fight on twitch, us having to swap streams every now and again because copyright would strike and take it down. Also, who’d have thought university drinking games would be so hard to wrap your head around? I sat around watching them play ‘beer goggles’ and ‘the triangle game’ for so long and for most of it I was beyond clueless of what exactly was going on. I grasped it in the end, definitely skills I’m going have to remember for when I go in a month.

Jack was round mine on the Tuesday following, I told him it was only because his birthday present hadn’t arrived in time, and I needed to give it to him. Though, I think we’ve both gotten to the point where we’re just making excuses to see each other as much as possible. It was the first time he’d been to mine, or over my way at all as he lives a twenty-minute drive from mine and everything we’ve done has been over his way. It was a pleasant surprise he said, because my city is very infamously a shithole. It was a good day though, he met the dogs and my family (which I’m sure he was just as terrified about as I was meeting his family at his party) and we watched The Social Network. The dogs were so distracting I genuinely couldn’t tell you what happened in it. However, the girl who plays Anna in The Vampire Diaries was in it.

He was here again on Friday, another day of movies though not nearly so distracting. We watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Breakfast Club, both movies he had never seen and both ones I believe are musts once in your life. He enjoyed them both which made me incredibly happy. One of my biggest joys in life is sharing the things I love with the people I love so I did watch him watch the movies more than I watched the movies themselves. That night we headed to my friend Molly’s house for a farewell party before she moves for uni. Another great night, I drank a bit, watched Jack play beer pong and pool and we played ‘For the Girls’ in which I was nominated most likely to become friends with Kylie Jenner and most suited to become President of the US. Both I completely disagree with. Jack and I walked home, while mine and Molly’s houses are only a half an hour walk apart, the walk back in the middle of the night felt like hours. Jack was also drunk, and it was awfully like I was walking home a five-year-old on the verge of crashing from a sugar high.

The day before Georgia and I tripped into town for some football boots. She met the dogs, we went to Nando’s, and then I sat for an hour in Sports Direct while she handed me boxes of shoes and tried on ten pairs just to end up with the second set she tried on. I decided that day that I’d be a great girlfriend, because I have such a supportive nature that anyone could drag me into anywhere while they shop or game or do something they enjoy, and I will cheer from the side-lines no matter how much interest I have in the situation at all. I like to see others happy, and I will do what I can to support that for them.

It's Sunday as I write this now, and last night I got drunk. Like actually really drunk. I couldn’t see straight, couldn’t quite keep my balance and everything was another level of hilarious drunk. And you could tell too, Katie and I stumbling around a Wetherspoons arm in arm laughing about something. I’m sure nothing was actually that funny. The night started off with a plan to go to a themed pub night and dance to old music and drink a lot. The pub was full of 50-year-old men, and the drinks were expensive, and the music wasn’t even that good. So, we ended up in Wetherspoons, drinking two pitchers each and gossiping about men. It was genuinely the most fun I’ve had in ages; Katie is one of those friends you can talk to about nothing for hours and it’s so mad to think this time last year I didn’t know her at all. That’s exactly what I mean by you never realise how fast life can change, because this girl who I barely even considered a friend 6 months ago, has now become one of my favourite people and it’s been the same with so many people I’ve met this year. Everyone’s moving next week, and it’s hitting how much I’m going to miss them. Life is starting to move really fucking fast, we’ll all be moving on, and I can’t quite decide if it’s a good thing or not that I’ve still got a month to go until I move on too.

I always mark Georgia’s birthday as the end of summer, because it technically is. Now Georgia has entered her 19th year of life, and I’m just 3 months behind her. Summer no longer feels like summer. My brother is back at school, most of my friends have moved into their uni accommodation now, Georgia starts her job on Thursday and Jack starts a full-time training programme tomorrow. So that leaves me, three weeks exactly until I move, left behind with nothing to do and no one to see. I started this post discussing how fast life changes, and reality has just hit again. This ‘making the most of the month I’ve got left’ has turned into ‘fuck I can see my friends 3 more times before I’m off’. It’s hit me now, that everything’s changing, and the excitement is beginning to be overrun by anxiety. I’ve made the most of the last week since getting drunk, Elly, Katie and I went to some 1920s mini golf arcade thing that was incredibly fun and I’m hoping to go with Jack before I leave. I saw Spider-Man: No Way Home in cinema for the fourth time, slept at Jack’s and then went back to his the day after I left to watch movies in the shed he claims is his house. The Queen died, that was something. And with the new week, real life is punching me in the face. I’m thinking the next three weeks will just be prep, settling back into the routine of Netflix and my bedroom, what summer has always been. Jack is staying over Friday night, Brooke is coming up on Saturday and we’re going to see Daniel Howell’s We Are All Doomed.

There’re still things to look forward to. But as Summer shifts to Autumn, the decay of the trees and nature to prepare for new beginnings is such a perfect metaphor for how I feel inside right now.