#spoiler review

[ilovetomdaya]

🚨This is going to be my spoiler Dune Part Two review. It's going to be long so please bare with me. I loved Dune Part two and I would definitely watch it again.🚨

So let's start off with Chani. She's a total bada** and Zendaya did an amazing job playing her. She really seems to understand Chani and who Chani is. Her performance of Chani really blew me away. Chani is obviously a very strong believer in Fremen. She doesn't believe in what the other Fremen do. I love that she makes that very clear and she never let's anyone change her mind. Then she falls in love with Paul. He makes her all of these promises and says all of these things about fighting for Fremen. Chani is definitely a strong independent woman who gets sh** done, fights for her people but also seems to love hard. She has conflict with herself because she loves Paul but disagrees with him on some things. Over all Zendaya knocked it out of the park with Chani. I feel so bad for Chani because she sacrificed so much for Paul and got other Fremen to believe in him and treat him like family only for him to stab her in the back. Asking Irulan to marry him right in front of her. Just mere minutes after telling Chani "i will love you as long as I breathe." I'm glad she walked away from him but my heart hurts for her. She deserves better. I wonder what she'll do next? I'm so proud of Zendaya. Timmy did a great job playing Paul. He really dug into the deep dark part of Paul and brought that out. Paul felt and seemed so much more darker this movie and was power hungry. He became a character that I don't like. I'm glad that Chani slapped him. He deserved it. His hunger for power definitely came out when he went to the South for sure. He had a little bit more of a softer side in the North side. He doesn't truly love Chani the way he's suppose to. He wants power and will do anything to get it. Even if it means hurting Chani and people that he supposedly loves. Over all Timmy did a great job playing Paul. Okay so let's talk about Paulchani. One of the problems I had with this movie is how fast paced Paul and Chanis relationship was. They go from just meeting to all of the sudden telling each other I love you and being in love. It makes no sense. I also personally think that Zendaya and Timmy don't have the best on screen chemistry with each other. They obviously have okay onscreen chemistry but it's not the best. I found myself struggling to connect to their relationship/ love story. Their relationship just didn't make me feel anything really. I honestly think that's due to how fast paced it is/ was though. Another issue with the movie that I had (like others did) is the pacing. It started out slow but then it got really fast and it seemed like they were trying to fit in a lot of material in a short amount of time. Austin absolutely blew me away with his acting. Couldn't even tell it was Austin. All I saw and heard was Feyd. He portrayed the physcotic person Feyd is/ was amazingly. There were times where Feyd genuinely had me scared. Like other people have stated the accent he did for Feyd was cringy but the acting was great. Rebecca straight up bodied the role of Lady Jessica. She was terrifying. She had me scared asf sometimes. Especially when she became a Reverend Mother. The fact that she betrayed her own kid... has me saying "damn." That woman is ruthless and a bada**. You couldn't tell it was Rebecca. All you could see was Lady Jessica. Javier did an amazing job too. I loved that you could see how strongly Stillgar believed in what he did. Zendaya, Rebecca, Austin, and Timmy were the stand outs for me though. I definitely want to watch the movie again. So glad I got to experience it in theaters.

[miribooksies]

Jack and the Cockoo Clock Heart (2013)- Movie, Spoilers

HEHEHEHEHHEHHEHEHE

I watched this movie when I was a kid, tiny me, and I found it again because its songs kept worming around my head, and I'm so glad I did.

It starts with a our protagonist, Jack, being born in the coldest day on earth, his heart is frozen, so it is then replaced with a clock. It all starts from this, his heart. This movie is, in my opinion, a tragedy, but I think it's very debatable and interpretation-oriented.

The art style is very captivating, making everyone look like some sort of pristine doll. The backgrounds are very thought out and a highlight with how imaginative it is and how much it aids the story, especially regarding time-skips and travel. THE MUSIC IS AWESOME, I enjoyed this the MOST, it's very rhythmic, very thematic, and it explores multiple genres and atmospheres depending on what part of the story they're currently on. The MUSIC WAS MY FAVORITE, if nothing else just watch it for the melodies.

That being said the story is very captivating too, it's very motive driven, so it's very fast paced (including the dialogue, but I think it's because of the translation from French and not a choice to cut time) and every moment is key to the storytelling. Despite this quick pace, it is a slow burn, but they do a very good job of keeping it dynamic while keeping the tension of the main plot.

It is, however, a very sexual story, despite nothing being very explicit. The sister-figures of Jack are sex workers, when Jack meets his love interest (IMO most important part of the story, and best chorus, and very stunning atmosphere) he references tearing her dress to confetti with his teeth which ???? he's a kid in this moment so that was very confusing and weird, relationship between George Meliès and the two headed woman, and other instances of sexual innuendo achieved in many, many angles. I feel this is very notable, since Jack never is involved with anything. Being so enamored with Miss Acacia and his heart situation, we can probably assume he's a virgin, yet it doesn't stop the main and side romances from being very suggestive.

From what I hear the book is much more sexual, and the presence of it in his childhood in both book and movie is commonly tied to the sister-like sex workers, who are very open about their work and do share work stories in front of Jack.

Miss Acacia's powers are also never noted, which is strange because it isn't like every stranger walking the street suddenly sprouts thorns around their body or purple cones in their tits, it might've been very intentional though? I like the fact it was never a center of attention, and I think it really aids characterizing Acacia, pushing forward a fairly well-rounded character for the short amount of time. It helps us visually see her feelings, emotions, and intentions, kind of like wearing her heart on her sleeve.

On that same locomotive of thought, Joe has the same birthday as Jack, which is such a random piece of lore to drop, but giving it a bit of thought forms a solid idea. Jack was born on the coldest day on Earth, this is what caused for his heart to be mechanical, meaning that Joe was also born in that same coldness, but we don't see him walking around with his own pendulum, so why is that? Probably because, following the film's very direct and literal nature, his heart is simply cold, which pushes him to be as cruel as he is to Jack.

It might've been because it was 1 AM and because the beat might've scared me, but I really felt the final kiss in my chest, and I think the building up of the whole narrative really makes this such a good ending. If it's a good ending is probably debatable, but me personally I appreciated the direction in which it was taken, and that the tragedy was taken to the end, without letting go of the romantic plot for a second. It feels very complete, I guess. Even as he climbs the snowflakes, it feels very true to the story, that's probably why I like it so much.

Props to the whole team honestly they REALLY know how to make atmosphere, and the way they used those tools to convey storytelling is PHENOMENAL!!

I also see where and why the movie could be strongly disliked, if you end up hating it, but I thought it was fire.

I watched it here!

[lilmackiereads]

Winter Solstice (2000) by Rosamunde Pilcher -- Spoiler-Filled Review

My Score Chart:

0 Stars = Hate it/ Regret reading it

1 Star = Meh, not for me

2 Stars = Ok/ neutral

3 Stars = I liked it

4 Stars = I loved it

5 Stars = One of my favorite books ever!

Overall Rating and Basic Summary: 2.5 Stars

If you don't want a spoiler version, click here!

I found this novel in the Little Free Library and took it for a spin. From the cover and title, I thought it was going to be a story about witches celebrating Yuletide, however, it ended up being a bittersweet drama taking place during Christmas in Scotland where a group of five people with tragic backstories bunk together. I finished it in three days while I was sick with a cold, but if I hadn't been home sick it probably would have taken me longer since there were a lot of redundant bits of repeating plot and dialogue every time a new character was introduced (which was often!) This book would have been better at about 300 pages total since the inciting incident of Oscar's family dying in a car crash is nearly 100 pages in. There seems like there is a lot of dead air between plot points as the characters are brought into each other's lives through very loose family relations and persnickety. I kept waiting for something to happen and would have to speed read at parts since it was going so slow.

Even though this had nothing to do with witches, I did appreciate that they explained the difference between Yule, Christmas, and Winter Solstice especially since this is a very Christian-coded book! I also agree that Jesus (if you believe in him) was born in the spring and that the original Christians and Catholics stole a lot of Yuletide practices (decorating a tree indoors, gift exchange, mistletoe, caroling, bonfire/ Yule log, worshiping the moon and change of seasons, etc.) since they were trying to eradicate pagan beliefs. ANYWAYS, I digress...

Something I did like was that there are a lot of character foils with different emotional and socioeconomic backgrounds. While all of the characters are ethnically Caucasian and from the U.K. and/ or the United States, there was a diverse range of different character ages and marital statuses. Singles, divorcees, widows, widowers, mistresses, and the like were all mixed together in this abode. It was very PG as not much happened between characters other than kissing or "making love" instead of using more graphic terms or smutty scenes.

My favorite characters were Carrie, her niece Lucy, and friend Rory. I couldn't stand Nicola and Gran! Carrie was my favorite character until I found out she was a mistress. If she had been unaware that she was a mistress and was tricked into dating a married man, that would have been one thing, BUT SHE ADMITS TO KNOWING THAT HE WAS MARRIED WITH KIDS. UGH. I understand that Pilcher was trying to make her more well-rounded and make her imperfect, but I feel that there were other ways to show her flaws. When she kept dreaming about her ex-lover, Andreas, I thought maybe he had died in a skiing accident because she works at the lodge in Austria. I was so disappointed when this cheating part was added in, ESPECIALLY when Pilcher tries to set her up with Sam, A MAN WHO IS GETTING DIVORCED BECAUSE HIS WIFE CHEATED ON HIM. So annoying. The whole thing just felt cheap and stupid. She was the most amazing aunt to Lucy and sticking up to Gran and Nicola (Lucy's mom), and I would have rather that she been a spinster or figuring out her sexuality -- a LGBTQIA storyline would have been way more interesting and progressive, especially in 2000 -- than this crappy storyline.

Lucy and Rory were sweetie-pies, and I have no complaints about either of them. At first I thought that Pilcher was trying to set them up romantically, but I think Rory sees her more as a little sister. It was hard to tell though because in Lucy's diary she talks about Rory as a "best friend," and "older brother," but then she will contradict herself and gush about him. Someone has a little crush. Ooooohhoooo.

The rest of the characters, including, but not limited to, Elfrida, Oscar, Sam, Major Billicliffe, Arthur, Mrs. Snead, Peter, Tabitha (and more) were ok. I didn't dislike them, but I wouldn't go out of my way to hang out with them, either.

My main issue with the relationship between Elfrida and Oscar wasn't that they met when he was married and that they had a spark. I feel like that is very reflective of real life, especially for people who have loved and lost, as they are both in their 60s. My issue was that they got together like A WEEK OR TWO after his 12-year-old daughter and wife and dogs died in a drunk driving accident! That's insane and gross. Yeah yeah, I know some people would say "you can't choose who (or when) you fall in love." I DON'T GIVE A FUCK. That's NOT ok. Pilcher should have had the accident occur in the spring and then had them get together in the winter to give them like a six month lead up so he's not hopping into bed with another woman so fast while he's still actively grieving. I do like both Oscar and Elfrida, since they are spunky, snarky and fun, but I just hated their romantic timeline. Even their engagement at the end bothered me. It was too quick. Not even two months after their deaths. That's some bullshit.

Sam was ok. I thought he was kind of stuck up with Carrie at times and it bothered me that he fell for a woman that literally did what his wife just did to him. Like huh??? I'm so confused. Go be single you moron. Both of you! I did like that he bought her a painting at the end, since I think it's more romantic and thoughtful than the average gift, but it was a bit expensive and felt flashy like he was showing some sort of dominance or something. Idk maybe it's just me.

I would put my liking of Horace the dog in-between the two groups as he was a bit of a dummy, but I liked him more than most of the human characters. At least he wasn't problematic!

The end was a bit predictable, but full circle and a mostly "happy" ending with Osar and Elfrida getting to take care of Lucy and living in Major Billicliffe's house after his passing. I would have liked it to end after Christmas since there are still some unanswered questions. I think if it continued it probably would have ended with Sam and Carrie officially together (lame) and Elfrida and Oscar's wedding (cute, but too fast). I'm not sure if Rory and Lucy would end up together due to their age gap, but this would have been fun to explore.

Would I read this book again?

No, but it did help pass the time on a weekend at home! I would give one of Pilcher's other books a chance if one sounded interesting. On the bright side, I learned over 100 new words while reading this 500+ page book, most of them U.K. slang or phrases. Since I don't plan on rereading it, I will put it back into the Little Free Library for someone else to read.

Would I recommend it to others?

You may like this if you like Hallmark-y dramas (especially ones with lots of solemn backstory). I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who are depressed around the winter holidays (even though most of the characters are also depressed, this is a story of how they "get over it" since it could send some people into a deeper depression.) Specifically, if you have trauma regarding drunk driving, marital infidelity, or fatal diseases.

[truessences]

TV Show: The Umbrella Academy S4 (2024) Spoiler Talk

I wanted to do a spoiler review because my regular review which you can read here, is so basic because I wanted to be as spoiler free as possible. But I’m about to let loose in this one with everything I wanted to talk about. Continuity Errors – People have been pointing this out in a few places but because I haven’t rewatched I can’t point them out here but I do want to acknowledge that they…

[jonberry555]

Star Wars - The Acolyte: Day Review | Episode 4

"A Hundred years before the rise of the Empire, the Jedi Order and Galactic Republic have prospered for centuries without war. During this time, an investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master against a dangerous warrior from his past." "A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes but" "as more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems…" Join me for my Full Spoiler Review Star Wars - The Acolyte Season 1 Episode 4: Day.

[magic-belodie]

My Candy Love New Gen Episode 2 Is Online.

[dragoninwinterfell]

Or the one where I drone on and on about characters and relationship development in The Frugal Wizard's Handbook For Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson.

[dprdonuts]

Nevertheless, Ep 3: Woman Takes Brief Break from being an ethical non monogamist to enjoy a tv show

Sol continues to be the hottest one in the show, and she is so wasted on Ji wan, 

Ok so next episode, Jae-Eon picks up some girl at an airport. And NaBi is angsting bc she doesn’t hear from him all day. “Does he not like me or is he teasing me?”

So. Him just…you know…having shit to do. Isn’t an option?

Ok. noted. =.=

NaBi wanders off to get food, and runs into her boy working on his project. He doesn’t see her, he answers his phone, she follows him creepily and sees the other girl.. Cue angst. “She’s the one his heart belongs to.”

Because it can only be one. 

Now it’s JaeEon’s turn to see her leaving a convenience store and giving her number to another dude, another student. 

He’s sort of watching from a distance with the other girl. He neutrally mentions he knows them, and girl gets jealous. Turns out they had matching engraved zippos, but she lost hers.  Very much giving gf vibes. He talks about Na Bi and she’s all “you’re into her, it’s fate” and he's’ all “you’re my fate”

Convenience Store Guy acts more like she would expect from a dude pursuing her, and she seems comfortable, and considers him.

And he’s an absolute Cinnamon Roll, I love him. He brings her snacks and is just…nice.

Ope, now my boy’s being dumb. Walks in on Ol girl talking to Cinnamon Roll and gets jealous, and tries to like. Put lil man in his place, and gets put in his instead. She’s got a spine!

Sort of. She kind of…half ass calls him out on being a jealous dick. He doesn’t really admit to it.

Like,  she hasn’t heard from him for a couple days, and now he jumps in being possessive and trying to draw attention to him. That’s douchey and fucked up.

So she goes on a date with cinnamon roll and it’s adorable. Very sweet, direct, little chatterbox of a man

And now I’m mad again.

Nabi goes to a school festival to see Cinnamon Roll, and there’s another girl there. Apparently his HS Crush who rejected him reached out. So NaBi gets awkwardly rejected, Jae Eon sees the whole thing. Home girl goes home, and she’s laying in bed, appears to be coming down with a cold…and FuckBoy Jae Eon totally calls her like “hey can I come over?”  No apology, no acknowledgement he acted like a possessive asshole, just “i’m by your house, wanna hang out?”

I apparently completely missed this bit before. Ope.  This is also where he finds out she had deleted his number from her phone. This is important later.

 Her phone dies, so she goes to the convenience store to get medicine, when she gets home, there’s an ambulance at her house.

FuckBoy called a got damn ambulance cus he thought she’d passed out or something. Remember what I said before about losing their tiny minds over a papercut? Yeah.

In a cute way now tho.

So she sends him packing..and this mf comes back with a care package of meds and snacks for her, and I have feelings about this.

I’m super annoyed they didn’t address him being a possessive douche. Like, it’s one thing to make his interest known, and to be nonmono, but it’s absolutely not ok to act like dog at a fire hydrant when she’s around other dudes. 

So. Perfect was def too strong of a word.

…so she’s like “i don’t like this bag of stuff take it back” and he’s all like “i’m hungry” and she tells him to eat the food while hanging out together.

And this turns into him spending the night holding her hand, hunched over next to the bed, like a hospital scene, so he can earn her trust back.

He addresses his jealousy-doesn’t outright say he was a douche, but does admit to being jealous. She assumes that he liked seeing her get rejected. Which is reasonable, I think, because of how he called her basically immediately after, acting like they’d never argued. 

But that’s not what happened. He admitted to being jealous, and that it bothered him to find out that she’d deleted him from the phone. 

And this is why the fuckboy allegations are so confusing to me. Because he’s not treating her like a hook up, or a casual relationship. He’s treating her like a partner. Literally the only thing that is different between how he pursues her, and how any other dude would, is that there’s no assumption of monogamy. I would argue that the way he goes about it is questionable, but that’s mostly because the culture of enm in the US is of transparency and enthusiastic consent.

…and he is very much working to sell her on nonmonogamy. Thaaats why it makes my brain itch.

Jae Eon is solo nonmonogamous. He has partners, but non exclusively, he does not have a nesting partner, nor seem to want one, and he isn’t invested in the relationship escalator. He also does not have the language or a supportive enm community around him. So, he performs enm, and persuades people thru open practice, rather than naming it.

So, in episode two, there was an interaction that I ignored, because I found it uninteresting and maybe a little fatphobic. When they were all hanging out at the bar, there was a dude-one of the only fat people i’ve ever seen in a kdrama- who was doing the “ambiguously creepy” guy thing. If he was an american, he’d prob be wearing a fedora. Like he specifically asks NaBi to sit next to him, and when she does he gets all fixated on the fact that she’s single now, and asks her why she hasn’t taken her jacket off and…a few other just. Weird fucking things. At one point, NaBi, Jae Eon and Bit Na are outside having a smoke, and Fedora Dude comes out is being really obnoxious and pushy about finding out what Nabi and jae eon’s relationship is, and Jae Eon tells him “nah, we’re just friends.” Nabi walks away and Fauxdora starts the “she’s not pretty enough to be this stuck up” and Jae Eon puts him in his place and everyone gets on with their life.  

NaBi was bothered by Jae Eon not “claiming her” ig. For me tho, the way to handle Fedora Dudes is to straight tell them to get to fuck, it’s none of their business. And that seems like what Jae Eon did. In my mind, he was showing her the same respect he would any of his other friends/partners, in not “staking a claim” so to speak, and also shutting down the ass hat. 

So when he engaged in jealous twattery around Cinnamon Roll, it was extra surprising. Ofc, the reason is that Cinnamon Rolls was a threat, and Fedoradouche was not. Jae eon was shielding her from Fedoradouche, and competing with Cinnamon Roll. Valid. 

So on the one hand, the narrative is showing that NaBi is “special” (gags) by him being possessive of her in ways he isn’t possessive of others. He’s also…gently aggressive with her, after she finally consents to kissing him. He just…keeps pursuing. It’s a behavior that irritates tf out of me, ignoring soft nos, and pushing for a hard no. Then when he gets a hard no, in the form of her deleting his number, and sending him packing after the ambulance leaves, he still keeps pursuing her. 

So he essentially tells her that he’s going to keep being nice to her until he earns her trust and gives him a chance. Which…irl would stalkery and annoying af. But because we’re inside her head, and we know she’s completely obsessed with him, and also because of my own biases against monogamy, and my general annoyance that enm is not even discussed as an option, it gets a pass, both narratively, and in my head. 

And then they bang, because that’s exactly what they both need when she has a cold. Fuckin tv, man

[enixamyram]

Guardians Of The Galaxy Spoiler Review

I just wanted to babble and go into greater detail about just everything I loved so much about this film!

First off, I was actually really worried about this film. For multiple reasons.

I was worried they were going to kill off Rocket. I'm pretty sure at some point someone online said something along the lines of; "what if they kill off someone" and it just kind of became an assumption among myself and others that it was a fact that someone was going to die in this film. However, I figured pretty early it wouldn't actually be Rocket. There are not many films that dedicate the whole 2 hours to saving someone only for them to die in the end anyway. Still, I was pretty worried this might be one of those films and I was SO incredibly relieved when Rocket made it through!

I was worried they were going to have Quill and Gamora get together again. I was never crazy about this ship in the first two films, to be honest. But I accepted it enough. However, I was really worried they were going to push them together again despite the fact that this Gamora is not the same person as the old one. So, again, I was SO relieved when they actually pushed that point as well and had Peter grieve without giving in and letting him win the girl again.

I was worried Rocket was going to be out of the entire film. I love films where a friend is in danger and they have to save him but I also want to see that friend as part of the group as well. So I was so happy when Rocket came back for the last third. I especially loved him confronting the High Evolutionary. It was what I was desperate to see most of all after everything he put him through but it was made even better when the rest all showed up and took turns beating the crap out of him. I nearly jumped up and cheered in the middle of the cinema when that happened!

I was worried it would focus too much on one character. The problem with big cast films is they tend to end up focusing on a single character a lot and the others get forgotten about or pushed aside. It's one of my biggest problems with GOTG 2 (not saying it's a bad film, just that since I don't care for Quill's character, I didn't much care for his story either). But this film gives everyone a story without overshadowing the main villain and we get to see all of them develop and have a bit of attention in a perfect blend.

It makes for a brilliant finale where they all go their separate ways. One of my biggest issues with Endgame was it felt they rushed too many characters out of the Avengers at once. Tony and Natasha's deaths made sense but Steve's leaving felt very forced in terms of timing. For the Guardians, however, it makes perfect sense how and why they each depart. It's actually very sweet to see them each go their own way and have their own new adventure.

But as amazing as the film is. My God. DID I CRY! I sobbed! All out sobbed in the middle of the cinema. Any scene with Rocket and his friends. I still hear Floor shouting constantly in my head; "Rocket, Floor, Teefs go now!" and it's so painful! I was really hoping they would survive but the scene where he reunites in the afterlife was still pretty wonderful.

Even Rocket seeing and freeing the animals at the end had me in tears. When he was scooping out the baby racoons, I was mentally screaming for him not to leave the others and was getting so worked up. So when Rocket then said they had to save them as well, I was so happy!

If I had to criticize, there's two moments I wasn't big on. - The joke about Nebula trying to open the passenger door is so old! I don't know why people are still pushing this joke like it's a hilarious bit. Is it just me? Do other people really find this so funny? It must have some audience if it keeps coming back but I genuinely don't see why. - Peter's fake out death was really cheap. At this point I still had it in my head that someone said it was a fact someone was gonna die so I almost believed it could be genuine thought I was doubtful at this point. But either way, whether you believed it was a real threat or not, we had just had a fake out death with Rocket, so having another one for Peter not that long after was really weak and weird to me. It felt very extra and unnecessary. We could have still had Adam save him just without the drawn out, oh my God, Peter's dying scene added onto it.

But those are two minor issues. The rest of it was funny! It was sad! It was exciting! It had me tense! It had me crying, it had me laughing, it was just genuinely a GREAT film. My FAVOURITE of the Guardian films and easily in my top 3 favourite MCU films of all time! Can't wait to get it on DVD/Disney + so I can rewatch it all over again!

[el-ffej]

One of those rare reviews that, I think, gets it. (Mostly; of course I have quibbles.). Absolutely chock-full of spoilers.

[nerbviews]

My summary and spoiler review of 1990’s TMNT.

My next review will be shorter.

[bookhouseboy1980-blog]

The Terminator (1984) - Spoiler Review/Discussion

Sub to my channel for more: https://www.youtube.com/@borednow5838/videos

@theterminatort1000-blog @sulietsexual @scifi-fantasy-horror @action @horrorfixxx @1984jp

[lilmackiereads]

A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins – SPOILER REVIEW

For my first official review, here is the fourth Hunger Games novel which I finished last week. A spoiler-free version of this review has already been posted on my blog if you prefer to read that.

My score chart: 0-5 stars

0 stars = Hate it/ Regret reading

1 star = Meh, not for me

2 stars = It was ok/ neutral

3 stars = Liked it

4 stars = Loved it

5 stars = One of my favorite books of all time!

Overall rating: 3 to 3.5 stars. I liked it, but it is my least favorite book of the series of four. I do recommend reading it though if you are a big fan of the Hunger Games trilogy, but if you are a casual fan then you can skip it. I would love for Collins to write two more books, one about the actual war while it was happening (at least 10 years before this story) as well as one that takes place between the end of Songbirds and Snakes and The Hunger Games. There is a whole six decades between these stories, so she has a lot of content to work with if she wants to. 

Do you agree or disagree with my review? DM me for your take and your recommendations. 

——

Detailed Review:

Plot = 3 stars

Part 1: The Mentor

Collins choosing to narrate the story from Coriolanus’s perspective was very refreshing to me. When reading the original series, I didn’t spend too much time considering what life would be like for Capitol innocents, such as children, who were affected by the war. The story he mentioned about being a child and seeing a neighborhood woman dying in the street and being eaten by a cannibal was such a wakeup call for me about what the Capitol experienced in the aftermath. I didn’t realize how much they were also starving since all of their food is grown in the Districts. 

Having the story take place during the 10th Hunger Games was very exciting since I was very curious to see how they have developed over the years, especially since they would have been harder to enforce directly after the war. Lucy Gray’s Reaping moment was iconic; I can’t believe that she was daring enough to put a snake down the mayor’s daughter’s outfit! I can’t wait for it to play out on the movie screen. 

Later, when Coriolanus sees how the tributes are bound and put into carnival train cars to be transported reminded me at how much the Capitol sees the tributes as animals. While Katniss and Peeta were still mistreated, at least they had a bullet train with gourmet food, luxury furniture, and air conditioning. On that note, keeping the 10th Games tributes in the zoo really hit the nail on the head for the lack of humanity. I was shocked when so many of the tributes died from starvation and exposure before the Games even started. I wasn’t sure if they would call for another Reaping to replace the tributes lost and that was making me anxious.

Another shock was when Arachne was killed by her District 10 tribute. How can I say this...? I was surprised, but not surprised. I wasn’t surprised at Arachne’s cruelty toward her tribute by taunting food in her face in front of the crowd and media, but I was surprised at how quickly the tribute was able to murder her, especially when surrounded by Peacekeepers. This (in a morbid way) is where the book drew me in. Another interesting touch was when the bombs went off in the arena before the Games during the Mentor and Tribute tour. This moment showed the Captiol that the District members meant business and actually helped the tributes by giving the arena more hiding spaces.

I feel wishy-washy about Coriolanus helping Lucy Gray cheat by giving her the idea to poison the other tributes with the makeup compact full of rat poison. Cheating can get her whole District in trouble and have had way worse repercussions than what he actually got as punishment in part 3. I really thought that they might kill Lucy Gray in public, even as a victor, to show the Districts that winning doesn’t mean anything. Perhaps this wouldn’t have worked and caused another revolt and maybe that’s why they just “punished” Coriolanus by not letting him go to University.

Part 2: The Prize

The relationship between Coriolanus and Sejanus was like a rollercoaster. I understood how Coriolanus felt about being afraid to put his family and future in danger, but at the same time, I think Sejanus was right about society as a whole. To be honest, I am definitely more like Coriolanus and would have put myself first, which sounds horrific, but... sorry not sorry. I think I would have been too much of a coward to be like Sejanus and would not have tried to martyr myself for Marcus or my former district. On that same track, Marcus’s death was brutal! Beheading is just a whole other level, but I do think that when the female tribute was whispering to him that she was asking for his permission to put him out of his misery and put herself ahead in the media’s eyes. I don’t think there was any malice in it. 

I was soooo worried for Sejanus when he stormed out after Marcus’s death and even more afraid when he trespassed into the arena to bless his body. I despise the fact that Coriolanus only went in to save his own skin, not because he really cared about Sejanus, which is especially sad since Sejanus sees him as a brother. Coriolanus defending himself against Bobbin was a great nerve-wracking scene because even though I knew Coriolanus was going to survive, Sejanus might not, and Coriolanus could still be greatly wounded. If he had been permanently wounded, I don’t think that he would ever reveal it to others. I think that he would imagine that others would see these wounds as weaknesses (proving that he is not invincible) rather than strengths (that he was brave and survived a tragedy). 

The fact that Lucy Gray won the Games was very predictable to me because she is a character foil and foreshadow toward Snow’s resentment (and respect) toward Katniss. However, I like that Lucy didn’t use physical combat to take out her competition, but rather used poison and mercy. The whole rabies aspect was spooky. It’s sad to think about how the Districts are not given adequate health care such as vaccines. I really hate her relationship with Coriolanus because he does not see her as an equal, but as property to be controlled and admired. She is just a trophy. A pretty songbird that he can put in a cage. 

Oh, and side note, I truly dislike how fricken direct the symbolism of Coriolanus is a snake and Lucy Gray is a bird. I mean, even her last name is Baird, which of course sounds like “bird” and literally means “someone who sings songs or poetry.” And Coriolanus Snow is cold-hearted. Cold, like snow. Ha. Soooo funnyyyy. I had never heard the name “Coriolanus” before, but it is originally made famous by the Shakespeare play. I haven’t read it, but this link here basically tells the same story as Songbirds and Snakes. So, I guess this prequel is really a Hunger Games fanfiction about Shakespeare’s story? It was a little disappointing to find out. I thought it was an original concept. Boo. 

Part 3: The Peacekeeper

I was very confused at first about why Dr. Gaul and Dean Highbottom would send Coriolanus to District 12 after winning the Hunger Games because it means he would reunite with Lucy Gray. I found this part to be a bit slow (which of course was to make us feel how bored Coriolanus was since there were no mental challenges in the Peacekeepr training other than executions.) I rushed through the blandness so I could get to the climax faster.

Yet, a few parts of this section that I liked are reading more about The Hob and the origin of “Katniss’s songs” from Mockingjay, which were created by Lucy Gray. The Hanging Tree scenes were terrifying. I wanted Coriolanus to act out and become a rebel, but I knew his sense of loyalty to the Capitol and self-preservation would get in the way. I liked how we learned how and why people become Peacekeepers since it seems like a terrible job to me, but apparently it has perks for a lot of people. I didn’t ever think about how the Rebels organize revolts with bombs or guns in their own districts. It makes me wonder if when Katniss’s dad died in the original story if that was a revolt gone wrong, just like how one of the mines was destroyed in this book. I always wondered why Suzanne Collins uses the mockingjay as the main symbol of the series because I feel like the reason was a bit vague in the trilogy, but I feel like I did get these answers in Songbirds and Snakes. Sejanus’s death was so sad. I had to read it quickly to get it over with so I would not get too emotional. His final word, “ma,” was absolutely haunting.

Lucy Gray’s end was a bit annoying. I knew deep down that Coriolanus would never run away with her or marry her, but I wasn’t sure if he was going to end up killing her or letting her go. Even worse, we don’t actually get to know. I would have liked a more definite answer on whether or not she escaped or was killed on their way north, but I get that Collins left it ambiguous like the song Lucy Gray was named after.

Heading back to the Capitol, the fact that the Snow family is responsible for most of the concepts used in the Hunger Games is both awful and amazing. I did like reading about how Coriolanus “innovated” the 10th Games to be more high-tech and interactive with the drone gifts, the betting, and the tributes and District winning a prize, but it makes me shudder to know that this infamy is what kept him in power all those decades. I wonder how old he was when he got elected president.

______

Overall Main Characters Rating = 3.5 stars

Coriolanus: 3 stars

Coriolanus describing the lack of nutrition, the hand-me-down clothes, the inability to afford his familial home, the desire to go to university without any savings, and being an orphan made me feel a lot of sympathy toward him. It now makes more sense into why he evolved into the villainous President Snow. I would have loved for him to have taken this trauma and turn it into something good, but he chose selfishness over selflessness. I feel like his “snap” against Sejanus was a bit rushed, like Daenerys Targaryen, so I would have like a little more to happen before his change. He always valued his own life over Sejanus and others who lived in the districts, but his decision to turn against him just felt a bit hasty. 

Lucy Gray: 4 stars

Despite the fact that Lucy Gray and her successor, Katniss Everdeen, are both thin brunettes with lovely voices from District 12, I find Lucy Gray much more likable. She has so much spunk and passion for life and art that I think she would be a fun person to be around in person. She is definitely a glass half-full kind of girl and sees the beauty in the frightening. I find her Covey background interesting and want to know so much more about those who live “outside” of the Districts and Capitol since I had no idea people exist outside of there (which is exactly what the Capitol wants you to think). However, I am grateful that this story was not from her persepective because it would have been to similar to the original.

Sejanus: 4.5 stars

He was my absolute favorite! I think he was the best because he was the only person we met that could really bridge the gap between District and Capitol lives. His conflicting relationships with Marcus, Coriolanus, and his family broke my heart. Even though the book is narrated from Coriolanus’s perspective, I would have liked if this was written like Marie Lu’s Legend series where it goes back and forth between characters that have different opinions about the war. He would get 5 stars if we got chapters from his perspective. He is the exact opposite of Coriolanus since he is impulsive, outspoken, and ashamed of his family, while Coriolanus is calculated, reserved, and proud of his heritage to a fault. I like seeing the two of them together because they are so different. 

Dr. Gaul = 3.5 stars

I really enjoyed Dr. Gaul, but I can’t give her more than 3.5 stars because I yearned to see more of her lab experiments, and I feel like the readers didn’t get to see much more than the snakes. Her manipulation throughout the plot gets snaps from me, especially sending Coriolanus to District 12 for him to spy for her when he didn’t even realize he was a spy. Brilliant!

Tigris = 3 stars

I like how sweet she is, but other than taking care of Coriolanus and Grandma’am, she doesn’t do much. I need to know how and why she became the woman she is in Mockingjay. Considering I didn’t even mention her at all in my “plot” section, I think she definitely needed to be more fleshed out.

_____

Would I read it again? Yes. Especially after the film comes out since I enjoy comparing books to movies. I’m afraid of what they will cut out because they are only doing one film and there is a lot of content here. I have a feeling they won’t show Marcus’s beheading due to its gruesome nature or the District 12 hangings. They might just mention it or cut away when the actual violence happens which is understandable for a PG-13 film, but disappointing in showing the true fear of the moment. I think that’s part of why these books are so scary though. Violence can happen to people at any age, and it has throughout history. Keeping it from people doesn’t protect them from it, but showing too much numbs people to it. It’s a hard balance. I hope that the film shows the whole story justice.

[bookshopsbizarreblog]

100% agree with this. I enjoyed it quite a bit overall but really wish it'd clung to and explored Shesheshen's inhumanity more, particularly as it contrasts with Homily's entire dealio. We get a little bit of that in the tent where her identity is revealed, but most of her more carnivorous and inhuman instincts get ignored or sidelined for the generational trauma part of the plot. It also felt like Shesheshen's lack of knowledge/annoyance with human emotions and communication styles, a core aspect of her character as a fundamental inhuman entity, dropped away unexpectedly when it came to address human trauma. It felt a bit odd for her to go from not knowing basic things like how to make a good first impression to suddenly being savvy enough to back up her girlfriend-of-one-day by tactfully drawing away the Baroness' attention with her words.

Additionally, given how much emphasis was placed around Shesheshen not having a mother and missing knowledge due to that, I was expecting things to go way differently with her child. Her teaching Epilogue things she had to figure out for herself, being there to comfort it, sharing a beartrap with it, any of those things could have strengthened the inhumanity angle, the generational trauma angle, produced a satisfying resolution (or at least a concrete promise of growth rooted in previous themes), and given Shesheshen more space to continue being herself outside of Homily. Instead, it felt like she wound up becoming a human with a few weird quirks, scared and worried about whether the unknowable flesh-eating monster would kill and comsume someone she loved. Which could work if the story was about becoming more human, but as is felt like a bit of a betrayal of a core premise of the book.

Idk, it just feels like the first half created up a ton of potential in truly fascinating character to inhabit, and then gradually let it dwindle with a plot that was unfortunately weak. I'd rate it 3.9⭐/5

Someone You Can Build a Nest In was, in fact, pretty good, but it went in a different direction than I was hoping for and I'm not sure how to feel about it.

The story follows Shesheshen, a solitary shapeshifting monster who hunts the travelers and merchants that pass through her territory, along with the occasional monster hunters who come to slay her. She is rather lonely, and reminisces fondly and lovingly about her mother, who was slain when she was young, and her father, whose body she grew inside and who she ate her way out of when she was ready to be born. On her hunts, she keeps an eye out for someone who might make for a similarly loving parent to plant her own eggs in. After a close encounter with some hunters while in a roughly human shape, Shesheshen is nurses back to health by a kind woman who has mistaken her for human, and promptly falls head over heels. Before she can get around to explaining her true nature and enquire about how her newly beloved would feel about being a parent, they are both drawn into a new and concerted effort to hunt down the local monster - Sheshen herself. Hijinks, of course, ensue.

The thing that immediately captured me when I started reading was how well the narration captured Shesheshen's fundamental inhumanity while still making her layered, complex, and intelligent. Her visceral emotional reactions are shaped by her biological nature as a predator, and these emotions lead to distinctly inhuman values and morals - Shesheshen places no intrinsic value on human lives and feels no compunctions whatsoever about eating sentient people. Her love and lust are consumptive in nature, and she romanticizes this. The fact that she cannot have her cake and eat it too is something she has difficulty dealing with. But she's also capable of a great deal of sympathy and empathy for specific humans, and the love she has for the father she ate causes her to care a great deal about consent - she doesn't want to consume out of love someone who doesn't want to be consumed.

In addition to her psychology, Shesheshen's physiology is also excellently inhuman and conveyed in great visceral detail, and the way her body functions is very interesting. My favorite parts of the book are the introduction and the denouement, because these are the areas where her psychology and physiology receive the most undivided attention. They aren't ignored throughout the rest of the book by any means, but they take a backseat to the plot, which is why I feel a bit conflicted about the book as a whole. I was really enjoying the in-depth character study of the introduction, and would've really liked to have the whole book be in that vein.

The plot, to be clear is not bad - it's honestly quite good, and it delves heavily into themes of generational and familial trauma, self-sacrifice, the normalization and romanticization of profound harm, and the difficulty of growth and self-actualization, all while being fairly entertaining and well-executed as a story. I think its themes were a bit heavy-handed in places, and I think some of its exploration was hobbled and flattened by the book's queernorm setting, but I won't relitigate that old argument here. It was suitably gripping and solidly entertaining.

I think the central relationship was solid and compelling, though again, I would've liked it more if the whole book had been focused on a deep exploration of their characters and dynamics. There's a lot of rich ground to the basic premise of "monster falls in love with human, wants to express that love in a way that is actively dangerous/horrifying to the human, doesn't know how to talk about it", and the story layers additional complexities onto that dynamic that are very compelling, but for as much of that interesting ground that the book explored, it left plenty more untouched. One detail that I did find both novel and enjoyable is that both the love interest Homily and Shesheshen herself are all but explicitly sex-averse asexuals by human standards, which is something I have not encountered in a lot of media. The exploration of that experience is not particularly deep because, again, queernorm, but it is present and it was compelling.

This was a really unique and compelling read, though, and I expect it to be one that stays with me. Given my own interest in body horror and inhumanity (shameless plug for Memoirs of a Flesh Eater in the notes), I wouldn't be surprised to see some influences from this book in my own writing going forward.

On the whole, I definitely enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it, but not without a few warnings. Body horror is a constant element in this book; Shesheshen's shapeshifting is purposely off-putting, and she eats people. This is described in substantial detail. Also, there is a lot of parental and familial abuse depicted, much more than you would expect from the basic premise, so go in prepared. On the other hand, though, if you're looking for a true gothic horror tragic toxic doomed romance or a heavy character study that really plumbs the depths of an inhuman psyche, you will probably be frustrated by how close it comes to being that without actually being that.

[cinematicnomad]

obsessed with this letterboxd review for CHALLENGERS (2024) by rocky/WAYSTIAR

[jonberry555]

Star Wars: Ahsoka Part 8 - The Jedi, The Witch, and the Warlord REVIEW

Star Wars: Ahsoka has premiered and its now time to talk about it. This video will my full spoiler review of Part Eight: "The Jedi, The Witch, and the Warlord" written by Dave Filoni and directed by Rick Famuyiwa in which "The heroes race to prevent Grand Admiral Thrawn's Escape."