#short reviews

[sealwithfeels]

Spring 2023 Anime Wrap-up

Didn't watch a huge number of anime this season, but enough to have some short reviews, plus some fanart. Some spoilers for Witch From Mercury.

Heavenly Delusion (Tengoku Daimakyou) - the standout of the season, definitely the best of the shows I watched in Spring 2023. Fascinating world thats revealed naturally, characters that feel really and have a great dynamic, slowly unfolding mysteries, excellent animation that even messes with style a bit. Heavy content warnings though, deals with some heavy stuff, in a way I'm not sure I've decided how I feel about it yet. Hoping there will be another season to adapt more. Feels kinda like a combination of The Last Of Us, Made In Abyss and Shinsekai Yori so it was kind of inevitable I'd be into this.

Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) S2: Swordsmith Village arc - great animation, pretty fun, but otherwise standard battle shounen. Still enjoyed it. Though the supporting cast are much more likeable than the Entertainment District arc, the fights felt much more messy, and villains not as cool or interesting. Mitsuri deserved more spotlight though, they did her dirty.

Gundam: Witch From Mercury S2 - such mixed feelings here, as a lot of it is good enjoyable stuff, but then there's also so much blegh. Some interesting characters and conflicts dragged down by a bizarre obsession with focusing on things that don't matter in the end. Really needed to either have a third season do the concepts justice, or to have cut them entirely and focus on what mattered. Guel and Miorine continue to be the best, and Prospera steals the show as a villain. The ending was lackluster, with sudden third faction distracting from the core conflict of the show, sudden asspull power-up to defeat the threat, and generally killing the conflicts and plot threads in a very sudden and rushed way. Suletta and Miorine got married, so there's that, but they didn't kiss and their relationship got shoved to the side in the latter half, so the shipper in me is annoyed.

The Marginal Service - dropped, and the less said about this the better. Just kinda incompetent and boring tbh.

Oshi no Ko- the big hype machine. Absurd but attention-grabbing premise and a memorable first episode, but kinda peters out afterwards. I do think I'd have gotten more out of it if I was into the aspects of the entertainment industry it covered. Aqua was rather boring as a main character, and it was baffling that he had all these girls fawning over him, but it could have been worse. Kinda wish they ditched Aqua and had the whole show about Kana and Akane's acting rivalry instead. Lots ups and downs by episode, never really amazing but far from bad either. Solidly enjoyable, but far from living up to the hype.

[allys-diary]

books i finished: q1 2023

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne – 3.75/5

"You're always beautiful." "I always want you with me

It honestly baffles me the sheer hatred I see toward this book on TikTok. Personally as someone that begins to stew when the slow burn is burning a little too slow I do feel like this could have been shorter and we could have done with one or two scenes less of these two at each other's throats, as well as a little less of Danny. But as soon as they reached the wedding the pace picked up at a rate that I was definitely feeling a lot more.

Now here's the thing…I went into this under the notion that there was going to be some ✨spice✨ and…maybe like 0.5 out of 5 on the spice meter. I've read fanfiction with more spice. I've written fanfiction with more spice. And maybe that's on me because I was holding this up to the expectations of what I'm seeing in the smut section of the fan fiction community, but yeah…the smut wasn't smutting as hard as I thought it was going to.

And the last thing I'm going to say about this: Would have been a solid 4 stars if the epilogue was included in the published version instead of just posted on Tumblr.

Alpha's Mate by Leah Brooke – 2.5/5

I really don't have any strong opinions about this. It was on my TBR from years back, I read it, I didn't see the twist at the end for who was trying to kill Lacey so I gave the 0.5 star bump for that. The smut was like a good 1.5 out of 5. The pacing was fine. But really? Nothing stood out to me.

That's all I have for q1. It's shameful I know, but here's hoping that I can actually read a little bit more throughout q2 and actually chip away at my TBR at a semi-steady pace because boi howdy that list is turning into a behemoth real quick--

[signourneybooks]

Pocket Reviews 2024 | Part 4

Nearing the end of 2023 I discussed the idea of mini reviews with Jenna from Falling Letters I believe . I read so much and don’t always have the time nor enough opinions to write a whole review on them. But it also feels like a shame not to adress them at all. So now this new feature is born in which I will share mini reviews of all the other books that I read throughout the year. These might…

[loveelizabeths]

love elizabeth s.

[expendablemudge]

The Pearl-Rule Report for September 2023

It's the last Sunday of the month...time for a few short #BookReviews! Each month I do a few @Nancy_Pearl-inspired explanations of unenjoyed books; a few @NathanBurgoine-inspired quick takes on enjoyed ones. This month's crop: https://expendablemudge.blogspot.com/2023/09/september-2023s-burgoine-reviews-pearl.html…

[mylifeincinema]

My Week in Reviews: April 30, 2023

Only two this week...

Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Bi Gan, 2018)

A visually arresting, excruciatingly overlong, insufferable bore of a film. I'm not even interested enough in my dreams to spend 138-minutes with them. - 3/10

God’s Country (Julian Higgins, 2022)

Almost completely lost me because of the exceedingly stupid decisions Thandiwe Newton's character makes throughout. And then there's the fact that every single other character in the film is tissue thin. But, the former of those at least makes sense thematically, Thandiwe Newton is quite good and the ending was satisfying, so I'm not entirely unhappy that I watched it. - 4.5/10

Enjoy!

-Timothy Patrick Boyer.

[frankensama]

A Few Words... November 2022 | FrankenSama

Final one of the year. After that, I'm back in January with more content

[kael-writ]

All you Brennan Lee Mulligan fans should check out this strange and haunting short film he did in 2018, it's very good and impactful, definitely very emotionally riveting, disturbing, thought provoking. It's different from his other work because he is appearing as an actor with a different team (writer, director). The writing and directing is fantastic, holy shit, and the performances range from good to what the fuck (complimentary). It's a dark comedy, so there's lots of comedic moments and there's a glimmer of potential hope that can be read in it but it is also a gut wrenching exploration of trauma, survivor's guilt, and guilt by association... It's a lot, I could write a whole essay on it, it's fascinating.

(some content warnings may apply, it's a bit of a spoiler but there is a backstory involving violence against women committed by an offscreen character that isnt seen in any way but is a major visceral theme. It's something I like about it, but it definitely could be triggering and feel free to ask for clarification).

[welcometogrouchland]

I understand that literature nerd Jason Todd is kind of overblown in fanon compared to it's actual presence in canon (a few issues during his pre (and post?)crisis Robin tenure that highlight it) BUT consider that I think it's hilarious if the unhinged gun toting criminal has strong opinions on poetry

[cfffrk]

+ little bonus

I think I accidentally created their son instead of Jeeves when I was drawing the first frame😭

[sealwithfeels]

July 2023 Book Wrap-Up

Belated, but been on holiday.

'They Both Die At The End' by Adam Silvera - 4/5 - the big cry book, and while I did not bawl my eyes out, it was still very emotional and I loved the worldbuilding details to make it feel more real, how this version of Earth would react to Death-Cast. The characters and their relationship were sweet and sad and ultimately very human.

'Heart Of The Sun Warrior' by Sue Lynn Tan - 3/5 - Sadly I liked this one a lot less than the first, and it's hard to say why. Maybe the charm of the first wore off, or maybe I just really did not mesh with the final love interest at all. Still, I enjoyed a lot of it, especially the family stuff.

'The Ballad Of Never After' by Stephanie Garber - 4/5 - This series is kind of insane with how Evangeline is as dumb as a sack of bricks and there's nonstop plot twists, but damn if it isn't weirdly fun to read, and Jacks is genuinely quite entertaining. Definitely file this one under 'guilty pleasure'.

'Shadows For Silence In The Forests Of Hell' by Brandon Sanderson - 4/5 - short and sweet, cool spooky setting and an interesting protagonist who's a nice change from Sanderson's usual upstanding heroic types.

'Something Wicked This Way Comes' by Ray Bradbury - 4.5/5 - read this one as an audiobook, and the narrator combined with the prose makes an immensely evocative experience, capturing so much autumnal wistfulness, eerie horror and the experience of growing up.

'Painted Devils' by Margaret Owen - 5/5 - Absolutely adored this, this is 100% the book that if I had a time machine to send something back to my preteen/teen self it would be this one, and I can only hope it's doing as much for modern teenagers reading it. Loveable and complex characters, great sense of humour, and excellently plotted, I have no idea how the author manages to juggle it all but somehow it works so well!

[bacchuschucklefuck]

❗❗Official Class Swap Sorcerer!Kristen Post Alert❗❗ you can: look at her

[signourneybooks]

Pocket Reviews | Part 5 | Graphic Novels & Comics

Nearing the end of 2023 I discussed the idea of mini reviews with Jenna from Falling Letters I believe . I read so much and don’t always have the time nor enough opinions to write a whole review on them. But it also feels like a shame not to adress them at all. So now this new feature is born in which I will share mini reviews of all the other books that I read throughout the year. These might…

[loveelizabeths]

love elizabeth s.

[ellsieee]

Just when I said I was disappointed there were no updates about Meet You At the Blossom, I see that they wrapped filming. The cast posted wrap videos and the production company posted this:

Oh my. 😳 This is super gay by mainland bl standards. Stay With Me pushed the boundaries with their dialogue and innuendo, but even they didn't go this far with physical contact. Will I have to eat my words about there being no kissing? I certainly hope so, but I'm still going to be pessimistic so I don't end up disappointed.

I'm not mad about the 2nd cp either. 🤭 Source: Big SuperStar's tw

[freshstitches]

Last month, Sixth & Spring publishing reached out to me to review the new Short-row Colorwork Knitting book by Woolly Wormhead. Woolly  is best known for designing clever hat patterns that employ the use of short-rows to create dynamic shapes in colorwork. I've never made one of her patterns, but have long appreciated them as a sort of brain teaser. Each one seems to fit together like a puzzle of yarn. I've now spent a month with this book, reading through it and using it as a textbook to learn Woolly's signature short row technique.

The cover of the book has a frosted glass feel, which I think is nicer than a glossy cover. Three of the brightly colored stitch patterns are displayed along with the title. The book contains 50 stitch patterns and 10 projects. The yarn for the publication was provided by malabrigo so every stitch pattern is shown in beautiful tonal yarn. I also noticed a stitch key on the inside of the flap of the cover that folds out so you can look at it when you're working on a pattern. I love the consideration for the reader and the functionality.

This book is written like a workbook, it starts by giving you all the tools that you need to use to knit the stitch patterns then use them in your own projects. The first few chapters explain the short-row colorwork fabric, the chart system, ways of altering the motifs in the book and color theory. I was not left with any questions about the instructions. The next section of the book contains tutorials teaching the basics of short row knitting, the skills that are needed to complete the patterns are shown with photos. There's even a photo tutorial on knitting backwards - a huge time saver. It seems like Woolly and I have the same party trick. 

Next, I tried making a few of the stitch patterns with my new skills. The chart system was intuitive. The first swatch is the Sine Stripes pattern. The swatch in the book showed a selvedge, which I added on my swatch as well. Next, I tried making the Anemones motif. I did not add a selvedge this time, but felt confident using the lessons to shift the placement of the short rows. None of the short rows were changed,I just cast on extra stitches and practiced moving the motifs. I did not have a chance to try any of the "repeatable" stitch patterns yet which can be used in the round as well as flat. The majority of the book is spent on these adaptable stitches.

I didn't have time to try any of the projects, but noticed a good mix of different accessories. I appreciate the inclusion of multiple designers showing different perspectives and approaches to the Short-row Colorwork technique. The final chapter of the book explains different design considerations, inviting the reader to actually use the stitch dictionary portion of the text for their own applications. The properties of some of these stitches are unique and the lessons are helpful and explaining all different scenarios that may come up.

I always intended to get this book, and it definitely lived up to my expectations. It's incredibly thorough without becoming overwhelming. If you enjoy learning new things, this is a great purchase. It's currently available for  pre-order and will be available in the US on April 16th and in the UK on May 14th. More info is available on Woolly's website. And you can preorder a copy of the book on Amazon.