#strigoi Kelly

[theconjurervfx]

The Master.

[iamsancho]

Kinda fucked up that Eldritch is my favorite character on the Strain.

[evilamongstus]

MGK.. Just another pedophile with a stinger.

[olbas006]

The Strain - main title concept-arts artist is Jane Ro

[metalshockfinland]

STRIGOI Unveil Lyric Video For 'Nocturnal Vermin' + Announce New Live Members

STRIGOI Unveil Lyric Video For ‘Nocturnal Vermin’ + Announce New Live Members

On the cold morning of November 22nd, STRIGOI shall rise from its crypt to unleash its debut album upon the world. With an approach that was as nihilistic and crusty as it was cinematically grand, PARADISE LOST‘s Greg Mackintosh teamed up with former EXTREME NOISE TERROR and VALLENFYRE bass player Chris Casket to record a truly bonecrushing beast of old-school death metal, titled »Abandon All…

[lexidanger]

Eclipse Reminder

please refrain from looking at the Occultation without proper eyewear as it will cause serious retinal damage and you may find yourself as one the Master’s Feelers when he takes over the human race

[nuclearblastuk]

GREG AND CHRIS DISCUSS PRODUCTION AND LYRICS IN NEW ALBUM TRAILER ABANDON ALL FAITH WILL BE IN STORES ON NOVEMBER 22ND

After unveiling the second single from their debut album Abandon All Faith last week, as well as their two new live members - drummer Guido Zima Montanarini (The Secret, ex-IMPLORE) and rhythm guitarist Sam Kelly-Wallace (ex-VALLENFYRE) - Strigoi has now launched the second part of their album trailer series, in which they talk about the production and lyrics of the record: youtu.be/nIeSjyn6WfY

  Pre-order Abandon All Faith now: nblast.de/Strigoi-AbandonFaith

 Pre-order digitally to receive 'Nocturnal Vermin' and 'Phantoms' instantly (via Amazon and iTunes only) or pre-save the album via Spotify, Deezer & Apple Music: nblast.de/STRIGOIpreSave  

As daylight breaks on November 22nd, the group shall rise from its crypt to unleash its debut album upon the world. With an approach that was as nihilistic and crusty as it was cinematically grand, Paradise Lost's Greg Mackintosh teamed up with former EXTREME NOISE TERROR and Vallenfyre bassist Chris Casket to record a truly bonecrushing beast of old-school death metal.

Watch and listen to the vicious track 'Nocturnal Vermin' here:

youtu.be/4BEsKqx8xII

The 12-song-debut was recorded and mixed at Greg's Black Planet Studio between January and March 2019. The English duo announced the album alongside their haunting first single, 'Phantoms'. Watch the official video for 'Phantoms':

youtu.be/4ZGsNENJyW4

Named after the troubled spirits in Romanian mythology who could rise from the grave and assume an entirely different form, STRIGOI's bassist Chris Casket was also tasked with writing the lyrics for the new project. Mackintosh gave him simple thematic guidelines: attack organized religion, sparingly discuss grief and dive into the countless horrible things that humanity continues to inflict upon itself.

The debut album will be available on jewelcase CD, black vinyl in gatefold and digitally - full tracklist below:

01. The Rising Horde

02. Phantoms

03. Nocturnal Vermin

04. Seven Crowns

05. Throne Of Disgrace

06. Carved Into The Skin

07. Parasite

08. Iniquitous Rage

09. Plague Nation

10. Enemies Of God

11. Scorn Of The Father

12. Abandon All Faith

ICYMI:

Watch as Greg and Chris discuss how the band came into being after disbanding VALLENFYRE, and how they collaborated on the music and lyrics during the songwriting process:

youtu.be/p_VnXIYeQMQ

Visit STRIGOI online:

strigoi.co.uk

facebook.com/strigoibandofficial

instagram.com/strigoi_official

nuclearblast.de/strigoi

[doktordismemberment]

Roundup #4: Albums of the year II: Supersize Me Edition

Oh, I'm sorry, did you think all these stupid fucking albums were ever gonna fit into just one list?

As before, these are in no particular order.

-

Sigh - Shiki - I feel like Sigh are one of those bands like Merciful Fate/ King Diamond where you either just "get it" or the entire concept is totally alien and off-putting to you. As for me? I like it.

-

Strigoi - Viscera - Terrifying blackened doom with slight hints of crust and grind via ex Paradise Lost, The Secret, Extreme Noise Terror personnel.

-

Sumerlands - Dreamkiller - These guys sound like a modern era version of my favorite Ozzy album, to the point I find myself really wishing they'd cover Secret Loser.

-

Astronoid - Radiant Bloom - Soaring ambient-pop-metal from Lowell MA. If you reimagined Mew's "And the Glass Handed Kites" as a thrash album it would probably sound a lot like Radiant Bloom.

-

Aeternam - Heir of the Rising Sun - Avenger/ Crusher era Amon Amarth meets Blind Guardian with lyrics about the crusades.

-

Wilderun - Epigone - I have never been the biggest "symphonic metal" guy but for whatever reason this album works for me, probably because I'm a gigantic prog nerd and vast swaths of this album remind me of Genesis/ Yes/ Van Der Graaf Generator... I have to assume at least one of these guys is a BCOM student 'cos it sounds like a lot of the arrangements here are coming out of a "classically trained" headspace.

-

Cult Of Luna - The Long Road North - Isis are long dead and Scott Kelly pretty much shit all over any chance of there ever being a new Neurosis album, so it is in Cult of Luna that we must place our hopes.

Luckily, "The Long Road North" carries the apocalyptically heaving quiet/ loud post-metal torch admirably.

-

KEN Mode - Null - I feel like KEN Mode have been getting progressively more brutal and terrifying for the past 20 years with the end result being NULL... An album that sounds like the nightmare bastard child of My War era Black Flag and early Swans. God help us all if they ever top this.

-

Otoboke Beaver - Super Champon - Splattery Japanese chick-punk that gets stuck in my head mercilessly. I feel like almost any track on this album could be subbed in for the theme song to Dorohedoro if that's any indication of the level of derangement happening here.

-

Ereb Altor - Vargtimman - I stumbled across this album while I was in the depths of a months long Bathory kick and wound up really enjoying it. Total Twilight of the Gods/ Hammerheart/ Nordland vibes.

I've heard that Vargtimman is a bit disappointing compared to some of their older albums but it's honestly the only one I've bothered to check out so I can neither confirm or deny that statement.

-

Chrome Ghost - House of Falling Ashes - Massive sludge/ grunge/ doom from California. Packs kind of a Floor meets Yob punch.

-

Freedom of Fear - Fairly straightforward 90s style melodeath/ melodic black metal with a touch of proggy technicality and killer vocals. My friend Jessie (RIP) would have absolutely loved this band.

-

Mordant Arrow - Rhythmic industrial crunch, icy washes of noise, and impeccable synth design combine with a rugged crust punk energy to create one of my favorite electronic albums in ages. A perfect soundtrack to the vast and inescapable surveillance state where we're all currently serving time.

-

40 Watt Sun - Achingly sad. Achingly beautiful. And oozing with a palpable sense of loss and desperately reaching for something as it slowly falls away from you.

"Wherever you are, the light will reach."

-

Major Parkinson - If Nick Cave's recent forays into electronic music had been a whole lot more successful they probably would have sounded something like Major Parkinson. YMMV but I really enjoy this album. This has kind of a Bowie vibe happening too, for whatever that's worth to anyone...

-

The Sawtooth Grin - Imagine Pg.99's Document #8 reconfigured as a Discordance Axis album and that's sorta the ballpark you're in with The Sawtooth grin. The lyrics to "What's Cremation?" fuck me up.

-

Grand Harvest - 90's Peaceville style doom 'n' gloom via mud-caked Bolt Thrower style death stomp and more than a slight hint of blackened snarl. More "At Last Light" than first light... A fitting soundtrack to a world that seems to be mostly on fire these days.

-

Lament Cityscape - Jesus christ why am I still writing? Anyway, I feel like this new Lament Cityscape is slightly more electronic sounding than some of the older stuff maybe? And the tracks are shorter. But it hits hard and gets out before you have time to get your bearings which is an approach I always appreciate.

-

Ok, I was gonna do Video Games too but seriously fuck that (for now)... Writing even this much has taken literal days and I haven't even copied the links yet.

I'm sure I forgot a ton of stuff I liked, and missed a ton of stuff you liked because how dare I, but realistically I can only make one of us happy so I'm gonna say fuck it and go hang out with my wife.

[theheadbangers]

STRIGOI unleash fan made 8-bit version of 'Carved Into the Skin'

With an approach that was as nihilistic and crusty as it was cinematically grand, PARADISE LOST's Greg Mackintosh teamed up with former��EXTREME NOISE TERROR and VALLENFYRE bassist Chris Casket to record a truly bonecrushing beast of old-school death metal last year. 'Abandon All Faith' was released in November 2019 via Nuclear Blast and extreme metal fans will be pleased to hear that the band are currently writing their second album. By way of a celebration, STRIGOI have unleashed a fan made 8-Bit video of their single 'Carved Into The Skin'. The 8-bit version of the song and video was created by Vladimir Chaplinsky. Order »Abandon All Faith« now: https://nblast.de/Strigoi-AbandonFaith 'Abandon All Faith' Track Listing: 01. The Rising Horde 02. Phantoms 03. Nocturnal Vermin 04. Seven Crowns 05. Throne Of Disgrace 06. Carved Into The Skin 07. Parasite 08. Iniquitous Rage 09. Plague Nation 10. Enemies Of God 11. Scorn Of The Father 12. Abandon All Faith STRIGOI is: Greg Mackintosh | lead guitar, vocals Chris Casket | bass Sam Kelly-Wallace | rhythm guitar (live) Guido Zima Montanarini | drums (live) More info: Website Facebook Instagram Twitter Nuclear Blast #HEADBANGERS #headbangersgr #Strigoi #VIDEO Read the full article

[spotlightsaga]

Kevin Cage of @spotlightsaga reviews... The Strain (S04E01) The Worm Turns Airdate: July 16, 2017 @fxnetworks Ratings: 1.443 Million :: 0.52 18-49 Demo Share Score: 5.5/10 @thestrain-fx TVTime/FB/Twitter/IG/Tumblr/Path: @SpotlightSaga **********SPOILERS BELOW********** 'The Strain' has always been a series that, good or bad, feels like it's episodes pass via time set on a cartoonish grandfather clock purposefully set to go way too fast, it's hands spinning out of control until it eventually breaks; revealing coils, a mini explosion, and puff of smoke. Seriously, it's that breakneck, speedy pacing of the show that creates the genuine illusion that the show's episodes are over just 10 minutes after they start... Always ending on either a cliffhanger or a shocking moment of truth, which also lends to that semblance that there's literally no possible way 45 minutes to an hour could have possibly passed by. I found myself checking the clock at the end of 'The Worm Turns' and then smiling as that feeling of familiarity washed over me... It's like riding a massive roller coaster full of massive dips, flips, and sometimes even small, shaky hills you could probably do without. Yes, this is 'The Strain'. We already know that S4 will be 'The Strain's last and there's something comforting about that. You don't have to worry about incomplete conclusions or loose ends (most likely, anyway). It's pretty much a given that we will definitely get a solid beginning, middle, and thrilling final resolution... Whether it's in the favor of The Evil Strigoi or the The Righteously Flawed Humans (or neither). Showrunner Carlton Cuse told 'The Hollywood Reporter' that the decision to take the 9-month time jump was a way for the creators and writers to 'redefine the show'. We've seen 'time jumps' make or break series before. At the risk of completely alienating the horror genre, I always point to The WB & CW series 'One Tree Hill' when discussing successful time jumps. They aren't necessarily easy to pull off. The fun of it, is to play "catch up" as Cuse put it, and he's right. Answering the question of 'Just how the hell did we get here,' should be a fun endeavor for the writers to end the series on... Its also a great way to introduce new, important characters into the fold, and writing old ones that have outlived their usefulness into fictional oblivion. However, just because we didn't see the likes of Dutch (Rita Gedmintas) or Setrakian (David Bradley - who does appear in the episode but not outside of a nightmare), doesn't mean that the characters have lost their way... Or it could. That's part of the fun. The Master is now taken on the form and body of Eldritch Palmer (Jonathan Hyde), which is extremely dangerous for everyone living in this slightly less chaotic, more harmonious world than we remember, thanks to 'The Partnership', which is explained in the most terrifyingly chipper way possible via a video where a woman tells us 'it's tough to say goodbye to her family & friends, but being of rare B+ blood type, she knows she's making the sacrifice for a greater good'... Yeah, no bueno, mami. Eldritch Palmer is one of the richest men in the world... Not just in traditional dollar bills, but in power, in contacts, allies, and pretty much a 'green light' wherever he wants to go in a patriarchal society... Even one inhabited by ancient, former underground dwelling, bloodsucking Strigoi. Palmer got played... 'Master'-fully. 🤣 I liked that one, anyway. Even though 'The Worm Turns' feels like it passes in just moments, it still doesn't get a whole lot accomplished. I know, it sounds like an oxymoron, and it technically it is... But that doesn't mean the episode is a waste by any means. It's just that when an episode feels like it passes by in 10 minutes, you would automatically assume that more would be established. Well, you can count on television's most hated tween, Zach Goodweather (Max Charles) to still be dancing with the devil on the wrong side of the fence. He even ppears to be strung out on tiny samples of that Strigoi 'Good-Good'. Thomas Eichorst (Richard Sammel), The Master's most faithful right hand man-well-Strigoi, is keeping a close eye on Zach and even messing with his mind a bit, stringing him along by mental manipulation through forced hallucinations... Turning disgusting, weathered, sexless Strigoi (post-males?) into visions of Zach'a mother, Kelly (Natalie Brown). 'Mirage Kelly's purpose is clear; Continue to keep Zach in line and adamantly against his father, showing up when Zach is feeling the most lonely and vulnerable. It appears to be working just fine... As does keeping Zach a hated heel. I watch A LOT of television and there isn't a show currently on the air where a character is hated as much as Zach is. As soon as the audience has a chance to feel any possible empathy or even sympathy for the kid, the writers effectively pull back and remind us just how easy to hate this kid truly is. Zach's father, Eph (Corey Stoll) is in Philly just trying to stay alive, fighting the good fight... Accidentally meeting new characters and suddenly gaining sympathy for them, like Angel Parker (Alex Green) and whoever she's trying to keep alive. Fet (Kevin Durand) is out in North Dakota with a woman named Charlotte (Rhona Mitra), having nightmares of Setrakian turning Strigoi, and searching for nukes and missiles, which apparently are near impossible to find because they've all been fired. New York and San Francisco are gone, so Justine died for nothing, which makes me terribly sad... She was truly a bright spot in what's been everything from a great horror series, to a meandering fantasy-thriller that picks up and puts down story arcs whenever it damn well pleases. Oh and Quinlan (Rupert Penry-Jones) is basically busting down doors right at the exact time Fet needs him to show, as he's actually done several times before, and even making snarky comments about his ironic timing. It's truly hard to say just who the audience is that is left watching S4 of 'The Strain'. I really, really enjoyed S1, even though there were times when it was just plain unnecessary. S2 was where I realized the show wasn't what I thought it was... And S3 had Justine. God, I miss Justine. I'm a horror fan and I think that's who is left at the end of the line... Rabid horror fans and OCD completionists (and there are a lot of us, surprisingly), I find myself to be a lotta-bit of both. Whatever happens, I would hope that Cuse, Guillermo del Toro, and Chuck Hogan would at least give 'The Strain's faithful fans the opportunity to see Zach die a slow, painful, and incredibly boundary-pushing death on cable television. If SyFy can show the crap that they're pushing out for their wannabe Exploitation Series 'Blood Drive', then 'The Strain' owes its faithfuls some serious loads of blood buckets, Strigoi Slicing, and angsty tween mutilation... But I gotta feeling that's exactly what they plan on delivering. Stay tuned.

[grupomiranda]

The Strain (La Cepa): 2×1 Eph y Nora trabajan en un arma biológica para matar al strigoi, y Setrakian arriesga la vida de todo el grupo para encontrar información acerca de un texto secreto muy bien guardado. El Amo comienza la siguiente fase de su plan, creando un nuevo tipo de criatura terrorífica y colocándolos bajo el control de Kelly.

[evilamongstus]

The Internet Is Calling Out MGK After Making 'Toxic' Comments About Megan Fox In An Interview

[olbas006]

[metalshockfinland]

STRIGOI Discuss Production And Lyrics Of “Abandon All Faith”

STRIGOI Discuss Production And Lyrics Of “Abandon All Faith”

After unveiling the second single from their debut album »Abandon All Faith, «‘Nocturnal Vermin,’ as well as their two new live members – drummer Guido Zima Montanarini (THE SECRET, ex-IMPLORE) and rhythm guitarist Sam Kelly-Wallace (ex-VALLENFYRE) – STRIGOI has now launched the second part of their album video trailer series, in which they talk about the production and lyrics of the record.…

[njawaidofficial]

Critic's Notebook: 'The Strain' Series Finale Ends With Both a Bang and a Whimper

http://styleveryday.com/2017/09/19/critics-notebook-the-strain-series-finale-ends-with-both-a-bang-and-a-whimper/

Critic's Notebook: 'The Strain' Series Finale Ends With Both a Bang and a Whimper

[Warning: Spoilers ahead for the series finale of FX’s The Strain.]

Sunday night’s TV offerings had a little something for everybody. Most eyeballs were probably focused on either the Emmys or Sunday Night Football, but the programming slate also included Fear the Walking Dead for zombie lovers, the premiere of The Vietnam War for documentary enthusiasts and Ballers for Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Sunday also marked the end of FX’s The Strain, though if you’re like me, you probably didn’t see or hear much conversation about the conclusion of the vampire saga, which points to how easy it is for a show to go from buzzworthy to functionally irrelevant, while still lasting a reasonably successful four seasons, in a saturated TV climate.

It’s become hard to remember, but when The Strain premiered in 2013, there was a lot of hype behind it. FX was hoping The Strain might be its version of The Walking Dead, an apocalyptic horror monster mash with blockbuster aspirations and also pretensions of quality. The Strain arrived with literary pedigree, coming from a decent series of books by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. As elevated and reliable as genre auteur as you could hope to find, del Toro was directing the pilot and Lost co-mastermind Carlton Cuse was serving as showrunner. Off his season of House of Cards and a couple movie roles, Corey Stoll was one of Hollywood’s most in-demand leading men, and the supporting cast included actors bringing Alias (Mia Maestro), Lost (Kevin Durand), Game of Thrones (David Bradley) and Lord of the Rings (Sean Astin) credibility.

I really like the pilot for The Strain. It’s slow-moving, but also mighty creepy and when the strigoi (as the show preferred to rebrand vampires) began attacking people with their phallic tongue/sucker things, there was a visceral response that felt much in keeping with del Toro’s body of work.

The series inched along for most of its first season, picking off only a couple humans per episode and leaving some doubt on the strigoi’s commitment to overwhelm New York City with sufficient speed, and, as it meandered, people kept being distracted by silly things instead of the show itself.

There was also Stoll’s wig. It was not a good wig. It was not a purposeful wig. It was written off of the show in the second season amidst claims that they needed Stoll’s Dr. Ephraim Goodweather to have a look that he could change when he became a wanted man in an increasingly vampire-friendly city. Still, the wig became a running joke and a narrative, something it probably wouldn’t have become if the show had been hooking viewers in different ways.

There were the billboards. One of the series’ best vampire-related conceits was the idea that the “strain” of vampirism was carried via white blood worms that, once loose, could crawl into your skin or, more primally, into your eyes. A series of billboards including blood worms crawling into an exposed eye became topics of controversy and conversation in Los Angeles, but maybe the grossness of the billboards kept people from talking about the similar grossness of the TV show?

Then there was Zach, son of Eph and quick-to-become-a-vampire Kelly (Natalie Brown). In no time, Zach became a poster boy for bad cable child characters, a pouting whelp who couldn’t stop whining about his dad not playing catch with him, even as the world was ending. Ben Hyland, the original Zach, was not especially good and between the first and second season, he was replaced by Max Charles under the ostensible claim that they wanted an actor more able to track Zach’s journey into darkness.

It didn’t work, and I guess complaints about Zach are, unlike the wig and the billboards, complaints about the show. The writers got hung up on Zach being important to the series’ endgame because he was important to the endgame of the books, but by the third season and especially into the fourth, the show had nothing to do with the books anymore and Zach had evolved not into a crucial piece of the narrative tapestry, but into one of the worst characters ever to be integral to an otherwise decent program. Things around Zach got darker and darker and Zach pouted more and more aggressively. Like really aggressively. How aggressively petulant did Zach get? He detonated a nuclear device in New York City in the third season finale because his dad wanted to kill his vampire mom. Now that’s pouting. 

After reaching that crescendo, Zach’s four-season plotline was basically: The Master, serving as a surrogate father to Zach, gave him a cute slave girl to clean his quarters. Zach fell in love with her, but she already had a boyfriend and so, having been put in the friend zone, Zach pouted and let her get eaten. I don’t think I’m doing a good enough job explaining how bad this was as a multi-episode arc for a major character in what had already been announced as a show’s final season.

Then, in the finale, Zach detonated another nuclear weapon, this time underground. The first detonation was out of pique, the second was out of love. My favorite hacky Twitter punchline is the one that goes, “In the end, the real [enter show/movie title] was love.” And that’s what The Strain went with for its series finale. The vampires thought they could use human connections and relationships to spread their “strain,” but they failed to properly gauge that our human capacity for love would also be their undoing, because Zach was willing to choose his father over the vampires and blow them all up, safely beneath the city.

This had always been part of the show’s DNA, so I’m only going to somewhat fault The Strain for this and for the repetitiveness of ending consecutive seasons with a bratty kid blowing up a nuke.

What can’t be escaped and what caused the show to have such an unsatisfying finale is that it killed off its two best characters with weeks to go before the end. Anybody who lists favorite characters in The Strain without Setrakian (Bradley) and Eichhorst (Richard Sammel) in the top two positions (in either order) isn’t trustworthy, and I get that their rivalry, dating back to the Holocaust, wasn’t necessarily the endgame of the show and had to be completed early. But that meant we reached the finale and what we were left with was pouty Zach, wig-free Eph and an odd narrative reversion to pretend that the romance between strangely accented exterminator Vasiliy Fet (Durand) and sexually fluid hacker Dutch (Ruta Gedmintas) was meaningful enough to be an endgame relationship. It really was not. We got to the last scenes of the finale and I guess I was pleased that Zach blew up The Master and the sun came back out, but a happily-ever-after for Fet and Dutch meant nothing. When we met Dutch, she had a girlfriend and then she was with Fet and then with Eph and then with Fet, even though Fet had been with some new character I didn’t care about at all as recently as two or three episodes ago. And that’s before we get into how I’m pretty sure Miguel Gomez’s Gus only survived to the end because the writers kept forgetting he was there.

I guess it was an appropriate end in that, at its best, The Strain was a show that often featured great elements, but never knew what to do with any of them. That’s the sort of thing that happens when you have a three-book series as a template and abandon the books and then go from a three-year plan to a five-year plan to a four-year plan. The last season had these spectacular conceptual ideas related to a society in which vampires treated humans as cattle, but other than some prematurely truncated material in a fertility clinic/blood farm, it ducked away from any complicated speculative fiction allegory or imagination and concentrated on a couple separate road trips in search of the bomb and associated parts, as well as Victorian England vampire flashbacks that were just an excuse to keep Rupert Penry-Jones’ Quinlan around, while also letting him wear a bit less makeup for a few weeks.

The legacy of The Strain ends up being not a huge hit for FX, but also not an embarrassment the network should avoid discussing at parties. Instead, it was a show with some cool ideas, a couple great characters, one all-time awful character, some properly disturbing effects and no idea of how to bring it all together. And that’s how you end up airing your series finale opposite the Emmys without anybody noticing.

The Strain

[daniellethamasa]

Hey all, Dani here.

Today I’m bringing you a book tag that I simply could not resist doing. I first saw it over on Rachael’s blog (rachaelrexds) so you can check out her post here, but it was created by Arkon and Annie so you can find the original post here.

Basically this tag was created in honor of V.E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic trilogy, which I think is an awesome trilogy and I definitely recommend it to my fellow fantasy lovers, particularly if you like alternate reality type books, because these ones allow you to travel between four different versions of London and they are just so interesting.

Anyway, let’s just jump into the tag.

Grey London: A Book That You Keep Going Back to Despite Trying to Quit It

– Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard

So I read the first one and it was pretty good, not anything where I found myself begging for the next book or anything, but I liked it. The second book definitely suffered through the sophomore slump in my opinion and I wanted to say goodbye to the series, but with the way book two ended I knew I would probably end up going back to pick up the next one. I bought book three shortly after its release and read half…and then put it aside. Again, the book is just okay to me. I mean, I like it, but it isn’t begging me to keep reading. I know I need to finish King’s Cage because I don’t like leaving books half read but it isn’t exactly a priority for me at the moment.

Grey London: A Book/Series That You’ve Left Behind Forever

– Night World by L.J. Smith

I’ll be completely honest…I absolutely devoured the first nine books in this series. Were many of them fairly formulaic? Well, yes, but most paranormal romance tends to be that way and nevertheless I enjoyed the books. However, the series was first published in like 1996-1998…and we are still waiting on book 10, the final book in the series. Come on! I can’t just keep the books on my shelves and wait for a finale that may never come. It was time for me to walk away and give up.

Grey London: A Majorly Bad Book/Series With Just One Beautiful Spark

– Beautiful series/Maddox Brothers series by Jamie McGuire

I don’t know if these count as having a beautiful spark in them…mainly they are just an intriguing guilty pleasure read. I haven’t finished the series, but there are so many issues in these books that just aggravate me. I find some of the character naming conventions to be pretty lazy, and some of the stories seem a bit far-fetched, and typically the characters make so many bad decisions that I wonder how they have managed to still be okay, but I sometimes still find myself thinking that I need to read the last couple books.

Red London: A Book/Series That You Feel Blessed to Have Read. Aven

– The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

This was one of my top reads of 2016. I just can’t say enough about the awesome adventure and widely diverse cast of characters in this book. I still need to read the second book, especially since there should be a third one coming, but I want to savor the experience so for now I’m waiting. Plus, the covers are gorgeous…well, for the UK editions; I am wholly unimpressed with the US covers. And yes, technically the official cover for the third book hasn’t been revealed yet, but I bet it will be stunning.

Red London: A Book That Changes Every Time You Read It

-Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series by Ann Brashares

There is just something about this series. I grew up with it, and when the fifth book was released years after the original four concluded, I had aged right along with the Sisterhood. And every time I read these books–because I still own them and like to reread them every now and again–I spy something else in the pages, or I connect with a different character or a different plot in a way I hadn’t before.

Red London: A Fictional World That Makes You Feel Love and Fear. Antari

-Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Although really, I guess this one is only partly a fictional world as it takes place in the UK. Anyway, these books, these characters…you love them and you hate them. When I originally read the series I certainly was afraid of what would happen to everyone as the books got darker and more dangerous. But they just stick with you as well; Harry Potter is not a series that is easily forgotten.

White London: Book/Series That Started Off Meh But Ended Up Being Great

-Vampire Academy/Bloodlines series by Richelle Mead

Don’t get me wrong, I love all of these books, but if I look at Vampire Academy objectively, it was pretty similar to a lot of other vampire literature of the time, but then the world developed more, as did the mythos of these particular vampires (Moroi and Strigoi) and the dhampirs, and I got more and more obsessed with it. That was even more apparent when the Bloodlines series came around and Sydney became the main character, because I related to her so much more than I did Rose.

White London: The World is Dying. Save One Book

-The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

This is such a hard question. Honestly I would try to save as many books as possible; no way would I settle for just one. But for the purposes of this tag, I guess I’ll go with a piece of classic literature that contains quite a bit of material. With this large collection of plays and poems, this is a great choice with lots of reading options.

White London: A Book/Series That You Would Kill For

-Guardians of Time Book #4 by Marianne Curley

I don’t know the title of this book or the release date or anything except for the fact that Marianne Curley announced that there would be a fourth book coming. I absolutely adored the first three books and devoured them when I was in high school. They stuck with me since then…and I just really REALLY want this next book, like right now.

Black London: Name a Book/Series That Has Utterly Consumed You

-Critical Role: Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting by Matthew Mercer

I feel like this one is cheating just a tiny bit, but the world of Exandria and the stories that take place therein have completely consumed me. I have watched over 100 episodes of this live streamed show where a bunch of nerdy professional voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. Each episode is typically 3-5 hours long, so you can see that I’ve invested quite a bit of time in the world. And the campaign setting book is coming out very soon (I was able to immediately download the PDF when I preordered the hardcover) and I read through the book so fast. Now I have the ability to explore the continent of Tal’Dorei on my own and I am so happy about that.

Black London: A Book/Series That You Refuse to Open

-Cthulurotica anthology, edited by Carrie Cuinn

This was a monthly book pick for Felicia Day’s Vaginal Fantasy Book Club basically five years ago. Tentacle porn was how it was tentatively described. I wasn’t interested in it then. I’m not interested in it now.

Black London: An Author Who Controls Your Purse Strings a la Osaron

-Rachel E. Kelly, author of the Colorworld series

It wouldn’t be a book tag or a best of/favorites list or anything similar if I didn’t have at least one mention of the Colorworld series, which I am absolutely obsessed with. I have read the whole series (most of the books several times) and I have the privilege of knowing the author and getting to be a part of her creative journey. I have purchased three copies of each book (paperback, e-book, and illustrated editions), pledged to the Kickstarter for a monthly comic book series, and just in general donated money to help Team Colorworld with their book tour. Oh, and I don’t even know how many art prints and/or metal bookmarks I’ve purchased from them in the past couple years. It’s quite a few though.

Well, I suppose that’s all for today’s post. If you would like to do this tag, then by all means, consider yourself TAGGED! I’d love to see your answers if you do decided to do this.

Biannual Bibliothon Update

Okay, so I actually didn’t get much reading done yesterday. I read all of 70 pages in Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh, so I have some catching up to do if I want to complete my TBR before the end of the readathon. My plan is to finish this book today and hopefully get through a decent chunk of The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee.

Readathon totals

# books completed: 4

# reading challenges completed: 1.5

Four Londons Book Tag Hey all, Dani here. Today I'm bringing you a book tag that I simply could not resist doing.