#portals review

[loonarii]

Melanie Martinez - 'Portals' REVIEW

“Follow the tunnel, into the portal, lay all your burdens to rest”

Track 1: DEATH

This was a poor choice for a pre-release single. The verse and pre-chorus lyrics are beautifully crafted and much of the production is otherworldly and alluring, but the chorus falls down the same pitfalls that several of the ‘K-12’ songs fell down. It’s undeniably repetitive, and it gets old very quickly. It’s not a bad song, but to start a new era? 6.5/10

Track 2: VOID

This song is EVERYTHING I wanted from this album. The lyrics are poignant, the melodies are wonderfully weird and addictive, and Melanie’s vocal performance is just perfect. I have been singing ‘pipe down with the noise I cannot bear my sorrow’ since I first heard it. Her theatrical style suits the magnitude of her songs beautifully. ‘VOID’ is Melanie at her best - definitely a highlight of the album, and my joint favourite. 10/10.

Track 3: TUNNEL VISION

The opening????? FLAWLESS. The vocoder distortion is straight from the 95th dimension. Beyond the opening, this song doesn’t really do much for me, and the sample from her first album just serves to remind the listener of a great album they could be listening to, which isn’t really a good thing, even if it is from the same person. It’s not awful, but it’s not great either. 6.5/10.

Track 4: FAERIE SOIRÉE

Major Sabrina Carpenter vibes from the instrumental, which I love, obviously. This song suffers from a similar plight to ‘TUNNEL VISION’ - lack of separation between sections, and a lack of journey from the start of the song to the end. The last 45 seconds that transition to the next song however are really fun, but the song is generally quite forgettable. 5/10.

Track 5: LIGHT SHOWER

Through the lens of an interlude, this song is incredibly successful. It sounds like faerie incantations, and the instrumental builds just enough to convey the anger in the serenity. I can definitely see this song majorly growing on me, but it is a shame it’s immediately after some of the worst songs on the album. 7/10.

Track 6: SPIDER WEB

The ingenious way Melanie crafts her melodies is put on full display in this song - it lyrically describes being stuck in the chain, hive minds, and feeling like a puppet, and the production and melodies reflect this perfectly. A fun listen. 7/10.

Track 7: LEECHES

Biggest snooze of the album - very little new is explored, very little is memorable. Everything ‘Leeches’ does, ‘Light Shower’ does already and better. Perhaps it will grow on me, but I doubt it. 3/10.

Track 8: BATTLE OF THE LARYNX

‘Battle of the Larynx’ works for me, but I doubt I will seek out to listen to it on its own. I thought it a little weird at first, but now I love the use of ‘larynx’ in the chorus - in the context of the song it gives Melanie’s voice an almost ethereal, mythic quality - like her words are as powerful as an ancient gorgon. Its themes feel like a sequel to ‘Alphabet Boy’. 7/10.

Track 9: THE CONTORTIONIST

A spiritual sister to ‘Detention’ from K-12, ‘The Contortionist’ is one of the most sonically creative songs on the album. It’s classic Melanie in all her glory. I love the layering in the chorus, this song is easily one of my favourites from the whole album. 8.5/10.

Track 10: MOON CYCLE

This song knows it’s a little goofy, and after a couple listens I’m really okay with that. It’s easily confident, and was clearly written to be a big middle finger to frustratingly common experiences of period shaming. I’m actually glad Melanie shoves the themes in your face in this song, it says that stigmas around such a common experience are ridiculous. 8/10.

Track 11: NYMPHOLOGY

‘Nymphology’ is such a classic genre of Melanie Martinez songs - that nursery rhyme sound with some comically lude lyrics thrown in to keep it fun. I can see it being an easy hit amongst her long term listeners. The ending/transition segment is so fun as well - it reminds me of old Hollywood - it’s very Marylin Monroe. 7.5/10.

Track 12: EVIL

Easily one of the best songs on the album, ‘EVIL’ is a punch up in every sense. This song is cathartic and cleansing, but it’s also raging and just a tad psychotic. The line ‘See the horns on my head? They’re from goddesses, on God’ is so unbelievably good, and I'm not entirely sure why I love it so much, but I do. All the lyrics are extremely well crafted, and the song as a whole has very big ‘STFU - Rina Sawayama’ vibes. My joint favourite song on the album, 10/10.

Track 13: WOMB

A more lowkey track to close the album, ‘Womb’ is an understated bop to inspire another album listen. I don’t especially love it right now, but it’s just a little addictive, so I can definitely see myself coming back to this one. 7/10,

Conclusion:

I think ‘Crybaby’ remains her magnum opus, but ‘Portals’ feels like a really fun experiment for Melanie. It’s a world away from ‘K-12’ and ‘Crybaby’ thematically, and I can tell that she has so much more to do in this industry with Crybaby’s story. Using my individual track rankings, this album has a mean average score of 7/10.

[shrimperini]

Some merch I made for myself with Wooacry!!! I posted a review on IG if you wanna see <3

I’m super happy with everything and I definitely intend to open a shop featuring these designs in the future!

[sarahreesbrennan]

MULTIPLE Starred Reviews for Evil

I can’t thank Booklist & Emily Whitmore enough seeing both sides of my epic romantic portal fantasy, in which scheming ‘Barbie’ crashes into Game of Thrones. I so wanted both sides of the story to come through, from chaotic humour to high fantasy and tragedy. And both stories are love letters to the stories and the tropes and the fandoms I’ve loved, and to living through art and changing the story by being in it.

[goose-24-7]

If I had a nickel for every time there was a game with a creepy atmosphere that featured the end credits song being sung by a sentient AI, I would have 4 nickels

[junuve]

do you think GLaDOS could feel Doug painting on her insides (the facility)?

[kirnet]

Da moots: haven’t picked up the game yet. Should I just wait until it’s on sale or do I need to play it NOW

[bibliophilecats]

Read recently: Summer in Orcus by T. Kingfisher

T. Kingfisher (at least her non-horror books) have become an auto-buy for me and I am working my way through her bibliography. Even the books I do not love are way better than I lot of other books.

This one has a great premise, and I was excited for it. And I was looking for a short, quick read.

Unfortunately, I had a really hard time getting into the story and it took me forever to read the book. I was close to dnf but did not want to give up (there were little morsels I loved, such as the werewolf). And I am glad I continued because the last 1/3 was amazing. So overall, I am finishing this book on a high, with a good feeling and recommend it to anyone - with the notice that the first half was very slow for me.

[vg-bird-reviews]

portal 2 bird the one that took glados away

bird/5

bird :)

[local-hyena]

I finished Half-Life this morning and oh boi. I loved every second of it. I'm not a big fan of fps games, in fact my desire to play this game came from simultaneous recommandations from a guy whom I had an admission meeting for a school with, and a book is was reading (Video Game Storytelling by Evan Skolnick). Both praised its story and I thought "eh, why not ?".

Indeed, the story was very interesting, and shooting aliens turned out to be very fun. I also played a bit of Team Fortress 2 before starting Half-Life. I had a sudden urge to learn EVERYTHING about the tf2 characters while having no prior knowledge of the game, apart that it's a multiplayer fps. It turned out to be very fun. Knowing that Half-Life was also developped by Valve, I was pretty optimistic about my first experience with Half-Life.

One thing I absolutly loved is the graphics. "But, Nethal, they are old and the models only have 6 polygons !" that's exactly what I love. The way the scientists' faces twist when they talk is so funny. I liked having scientists and security guards follow me around, and I did my best to keep them alive as much as I could.

Going back to the story, what the FUCK was that ending ? Who is the G-Man ?? what's his connections to Gordon Freeman ??? Uuuuggrr.

Funfact : before playing Half-Life, I knew two things about the game : 1. The protagonist's name is Gordon Freeman and 2. There is a character named "G-Man", so I thought G-Man was Gordon Freeman's nickname, as in Gordon FreeMAN.

While playing, I also watched Half-Life VR but the AI is self-aware. I found out about it quickly after starting the game. I really enjoyed the beginning, so I kept on watching. Every time I reached where I stopped playing, I would stop watching, and when I continued the game, I would watch the corresponding part of HLVR:AI. I ended up finishing HLVR:AI this afternoon, and I LOVED IT. It started as a simple meme comedy and became psychological horror, only to become pure meme crack at the very end. The recurring jokes becoming actual key elements to the story was way too funny.

In conclusion : Half-Life was a game I enjoyed a lot and it has reconciled me with FPS. It may not be the genre of games I'll seek out when looking for new games to play, but I won't disregard it instantly. When my exams are over, I'll get the Orange Box to play Half-Life 2 and Portal. The next FPS I'd like to try are Doom (2016) and Halo.

[clonerightsagenda]

She remains remarkably composed for the most part but Holly Munro is really going through it tbh. Imagine: you are 18 and your boss is a 15 year old. You have a minor crush on one of your coworkers who hates you because she sees you as a threat to her crush. (He is a boy. You are a lesbian.) The two of you have such a bad fight it destroys a building and then she quits and everyone, including your boss, thinks it's because of you. Then she comes back and you try to bury the hatchet while sharing a hotel room and she reveals she's been enacting a horsegirl movie with an undead graverobbing cultist and fondly reminisces over how he'd encourage her to kill you with various kitchen implements. Over the span of a year you blow up a research facility, rob a grave, fight a crime ring, and take a day trip to hell. You were hired to be an admin assistant.

(Joking tone aside, she's vague about why she left her last job beyond that her boss was "disgusting" and "didn't treat his employees well", but given that she was a young woman who'd just turned 18 working as a secretary for a powerful older man, I wouldn't be surprised if he was acting inappropriately, which would make it even more galling for Lucy to immediately get her hackles up. The last thing Holly wants is special attention from her male boss. I hope she enjoyed blowing up Rotwell's laboratory.)

[lunarlegend]

i think i accidentally got someone in trouble in real life and i feel sort of bad about it

[3gremlins]

how good is dredge? well i started playing it on saturday

and finished ALL the achievements (including the dlc) today (tuesday).

if you like eldritch/portal fantasy and a gameplay loop that uses gathering to support crafting (also the mini games for fish/dredging are fun and not tedious IMHO, as a person who usually has some mixed success with fishing mini games- i liked it and actively sought it out to get all the fishes), really cool aesthetics and has neat world exploration/secrets to uncover, WELL HAVE I GOT THE GAME FOR YOU. [it's been sitting in my steam library for ages and friday i was like, i would like to play something different from my usuals of ffxiv and destiny and well here we are. will write proper/more critical review soon and have up on patreon, but i really enjoyed this! also apparently we're getting more dlc in the future, so that's exciting! (the pale reach dlc is a little lack luster in terms of plot tbqh, but it adds some new tools and FISH that make it fun. it's also only like $6. the blackstone key dlc doesn't really add much unless you want to make it easier to get aberration fish/certain achievements- but if you do all the base game side content, you'll have plenty of tools for this too) ]

edit: apparently it's going to be added to the playstation plus library tomorrow (may 29) so if you have that, you'll be able to play it for free! (i played it on steam using the keyboard controls, tho it apparently does have gamepad support)

[yu-huuuu]

Portalwelten: Das Portal nach Mittelerde

Als Namara, deren Leben nicht gerade ein Zuckerschlecken ist, eines Tages ein Portal findet, kann sie es kaum fassen. Noch weniger kann sie begreifen, dass sie tatsächlich in Mittelerde gelandet ist. Bald muss sie feststellen, dass das Leben hier um einiges härter ist, als ihres Zuhause. Und die Orks, Zwerge und Drachen sind auch plötzlich viel realer als sie es sich gewünscht hätte…

- - -

Portal Worlds: The Portal to Middle-earth

When Namara, whose life is not exactly a piece of cake, finds a portal one day, she can hardly believe it. She can understand even less that she has actually landed in Middle-earth. Soon she has to realize that life here is much harder than at home. And the orcs, dwarves and dragons are also suddenly much more real than she would have liked...

…

..

.

My friend wrote this; and it's a good piece of writing. I recommend you read it if you want to kill time <3 !!’

Book here 📖

autor: @sasori-rp

Favorite quote: 'Her bond with Nele didn't last forever. People changed and true friendship only existed in books. The same books she had always read with Nele. Their chapter together ended here. It was time for a new story. And this time she stood there all alone.'

[franticvampirereads]

This was different than I was expecting. It’s fun and adventurous but also bittersweet. I loved that Lundy found and lost herself in the Goblin Market. And found that her choices had more consequences than she anticipated. It was also nice to be reminded that Lundy wasn’t always the villain and that she had a door too.

Somehow this book had more of a fairy tale feeling than the previous books, which was really nice. I really enjoyed getting to explore the Goblin Market and would love to explore it more. Maybe we’ll get to visit it again in another book? I’m giving In An Absent Dream four out of five stars. And as always, I’m looking forward to the next book in this series!

Reading Challenge Prompt Fills:

PopSugar 2023: historical fiction (starts in the 1960’s)

Shop Your Shelves: my precious (aka a fantasy book)

[8awat]

Portals parfum review : Fiery passion

Scent: 10/10

Notes: smells like wet pink cotton candy ? Very sweet !

Quality: 8/10

Notes: Glass with sturdy plastic, the can is tin(?), the lid is very hard to get off

The container: 7/10

Notes: The green foam on the inside is in 2 pieces (I've seen ppl that have it in just 1 piece so ?) And the parfum gets stuck when I try to take it out so its a process when I open it.

Use: 9/10

Notes: I've already sprayed it about 5-6 times and it doesn't really look like much has been used

Longevity: 6/10

Notes: very very disappointed with the longevity of this. For it being 62$ and being a parfum with the lasting time being 6-8 hours it doesn't really live up to this. I asked a few ppl a few hours after wearing it if the could smell it and they all said no. I could also only smell it for maybe an hour after applying. And for the amount you'd have to apply for it to last 6-8 hours. You'd get very few wears out if it. A couple of sprays isn't good enough (at least from.my experience)

Overall: 8/10

Notes: The perfume smells very nice and ofc its official merch from mel so yeah. The container is very pretty for display and I overall think it was somewhat worth what I spent. I would like to get her perfumes she comes out with of these in the future depending on price !

(Username in image for scam prevention)

[elliepassmore]

The Hollow Places

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: horror, portal fantasy, weird stories, body horror

I was worried it would be too much on the horror side of things for me, but the Evernight T. Kingfisher set was too tempting to resist and I hate owning unread books. This was so good, I had nothing to worry about and cannot believe I waited so long to read it! The best way I can describe it is if T. Kingfisher wrote Annihilation . It's got the a found journal, it's got the weird second world, and it's got both the eco-horror and the body horror, both written in a very suspenseful, psychological sort of way.

The willow world was intriguing and definitely spooky. There were actually a lot of elements to the willow world and it wasn't always immediately clear how they connected (or even ever clear). I enjoyed the mystery of it though and think the not knowing added to the suspense. The world is very atmospheric and you immediately feel there's something off about it. I liked the combination of natural and man-made (creature-made?) landscape, and think it added to the creepiness.

I also love the Wonder Museum. It's such an odd little thing but it's clear that Kara and Uncle Earl (and everyone else) all love it. There's so much personality there and little quirky bits of history behind everything, I think it helped make things feel more fleshed out. I also love it as both a source of comfort and a place where something Weird happens, because let's face it, as much as everyone loves it, where else would a portal to another dimension open up?

Kara was an enjoyable character to follow. She's got a fairly level head and I think she reacts pretty appropriately to the things that start happening. While I wouldn't say she makes the best decisions, I also think the decisions she makes are realistic in the face of everything that's happening. She's also got a good sense of humor and is able to both be terrified and then turn around and start cracking jokes as a coping mechanism.

I liked Simon as well and I enjoyed his and Kara's friendship. The two of them didn't really know each other at first, just friendliness in passing, but I suppose getting transported to another (terrifying) world will bring people together. He was definitely a good sport in going along with Kara to make sure she wouldn't be kidnapped to an alternate dimension by herself, and he was especially good to go back and look around more thoroughly. Simon provided some nice levity to counteract some of the unfolding terror and was also a solid presence when things were tough or needed to be thought through.

While this is not T. Kingfisher's 'found manuscript' book (that would be The Twisted Ones), there actually is a found manuscript (sort of) in this book. The story being told there shoehorns in with the one focused on Kara and Simon, and I appreciated the added context it was able to provide. It also fleshed out some of the more theoretical side of things as well, while also adding to the mystery, which I liked.

Admittedly I did figure out what was going on with the portal pretty early on into the book. Like...as-soon-as-the-passing-line-that-ends-up-being-'surprisingly'-relevant-is-said levels of early on. For most of the book this didn't matter because it, frankly, wasn't relevant. However, toward the end of the book when things have settled a bit and Kara and Simon are trying to prevent anyone else from getting to the portal, I was kind of rolling my eyes a bit at Kara's cluelessness. That being said, I've read books in this genre before so I know how things go, Kara does not realize she is in a book and thus could not possibly predict this. And, like I mentioned, it's really not an issue for about 90% of the book, so it didn't impact my overall enjoyment of it.

Overall I enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it if you like T. Kingfisher's horror books. It's got just the right mix of horror and comfort, creepiness and levity. Plus, if you read and liked Annihilation, this is similar enough that you'd probably enjoy it too, while also being quite different.