September in Review

This September marked the 27th anniversary of my Uterus Independence Day. And literally a week later I found two gray hairs. Sunnuva bitc--.... le sigh. 2016 continues to be the dumpster fire of the century, but, on the bright side, I READ SOME BOOKS! I PLAYED SOME GAMES! I SAW SOME MOVIES! Here's my September in review:

Siege and Storm, Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo. 4/10.

I can honestly say I didn't like a single character in this trilogy (except for the one character I wasn't SUPPOSED to like: the Darkling. He was arguably the only character with any kind of depth or complexity)... Alina was, until the very end, a weak and boring protagonist. Most of the characters were very flat and repetitive, serving no real purpose other than to distract us from how much Alina and Mal suck. 

I really don't want to be this harsh, but I felt horribly insulted by these last two books. After such an investment, that I was left with a lackluster ending that felt more like Bardugo had just given up on the series because she must've known wasn't up to par, was like a smack in the face. And how any editor would've let them pass without heavy revisions to give the stories a more solid plot and more dynamic characters, is beyond me, because it had SO. MUCH. POTENTIAL!

I LOVED the world that Bardugo created, I just didn't like the characters she put in or the story we followed within it. It's as simple as that I suppose!  

But I still am astounded by the change in quality from the Grisha Trilogy to Six of Crows. Had I read the Grishas first, I don't know that I would've even given SoC a chance! But I'm so glad I did, and I don't completely regret reading the Grisha Trilogy, just probably won't ever read it again. 

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. 6/10

I've been meaning to read this for AGES! I follow Sabaa on Twitter and she just seems like such an exemplary example of our species, so I really wanted to read her book. Plus, dat hype train. I wanted on.
And while I DID enjoy the book, I had quite a few issues with it (I'M SORRY, I REALLY AM! I have every bit of confidence that the sequel will find its stride much better though!).

But I'll start with the good first.

Tension.
Sabaa did a FANTASTIC job of building tension throughout--of genuinely making you worry about the safety of the characters (both for the characters themselves and then what they might do to others to achieve their goals). You never feel safe with them and that's really a hard feat to achieve.

The Bad Guys. 
I probably enjoyed the baddies most of all. The Commandant especially. She was so horrendously evil, but you really wondered what made her that way. And her job might've been torturing people and training killers, but DAMN, she was good at it. #BossBitch

The writing. 
No one can say this book wasn't well written. It was. Sabaa has a wonderful style of writing that is both concise and fluid. While she does a lot of telling instead of showing, I still found myself making mental notes of some of her narrative habits and tricks.

The ending. 
OH IT REALLY PICKED UP HERE. SO GOOD. I got to that last chunk of the book and flew through. The pacing and stakes were spot-freaking-on. Much intense. So wow.

Okay, now the bad.
The world building. 
Maybe this is my own fault. When I saw "fantasy" I assumed there would be loads of world building and a wonderfully vibrant story world I could sink my teeth into. This was not the case. A more apt description of the book would me Roman-esque Dystopian. I think then I could've let the lackluster world building slide. I had such a hard time visualizing the book. There was really a lot of telling vs showing and I think that really colored the whole story in gray-tones rather then full-color.

The characters. 
When we first met Laia I kind of assumed she was like, 12. I really struggled throughout the book to believe she was competent or capable enough to do the things she did. There's also a very sudden and rapid growth in her character, but without any real emotional catalyst. In a split second she went from meek and unsure and clumsy to I AIN'T 'FRAID A NO COMMADANT without any REAL trigger for it. There was no "moment." And I really needed that. She felt incredibly out of character by the end of the book without any believable experiences that would've necessitated such a sudden change in her. But she was still okay. I still worried for her life and didn't want her to die, so that's something at least!
Elias started out SO well. This guy genuinely torn between his heart and his duty, something you could REALLY feel at first. But he seemed to quickly lose depth when he started sexualizing every girl he met. His best friend, who he should have had either the utmost respect for or genuine feelings, he instead sexualized and took advantage of.

The romance.
It felt out of place and totally unnecessary. I don't know that it would've changed a damn thing if you scrapped the romance altogether. You could still have every bit of the plot with genuine friendships and moral codes, rather than "Oh he/she's hot, so I'm going to do this."

And, for me, it really undermined Helene's character. And that was the biggest betrayal of all. She started out as this fierce woman, I LOVED HER, but she was very quickly reduced to this sad little girl pining after her best friend. She quickly crumpled emotionally and became much more some pouty teenager and love-struck puppy than the badass soldier she was built up to be by Elias and other characters. As one woman among hundreds of men, she surely would've needed an iron will and ovaries of steel. I was expecting GI Jane and I got sad-sap Sarah. But again, I still held my breath when she was in danger, hopelessly cheering for her.

 All in all, I did enjoy the book. I will absolutely read the sequel. I think it had a potential it didn't quite live up to by being "troped" into the expected formula of YA. But it was a solid read and I think Sabaa will only get better from here.

Far Cry 4: 5/10. Such a solid five. Still fun for about half an hour and then you get to the usual Far Cry humdrum. I'm starting to get sick of the sheer amount of repetitive droll that my 100% completion compulsion is putting me through. Do we really need to pick up all those masks? Do we really need to do all those side quests? YES, DAMN IT, BUT I DON'T WANT TO (but I have to). It's literally just a carbon copy of all the other Far Cry games. When are they going to let me play a female protag?? When do I get to see some man junk instead of lady bits? Hey, Ubisoft, your sexism is really starting to show. 

~Be mindful of the the things that precious time is spent on.~

July in Review

Oh god. So hot. So. Hot. Like wearing a snuggie in a sauna hot. But July had much more in store than fireworks and rat-sized mosquitoes. I actually got back around to reading (albeit beta reading), had some cinematic adventures, and made some leeway with my new WIP during Camp NaNoWriMo! I also decided to make one last push for SB and give #PitchWars a shot this year! There are SO MANY amazing agents participating (like the entirety of my top 10) and I feel like Falon and Wolf really deserve one more shot before getting put in book baby timeout.

Here's my June in review:

I didn't read any books this month. Ugh. I feel like I've come down with some terrible virus that has sapped my need to read from my soul. But I DID do some beta reading for some friends, so that counts, right? I'm trying to keep myself from rereading World War Z and White Shark for the 5th time... I seriously love those books. But I need to start crossing off titles from my TBR list before it grows so long I'll need to read 10 books a month to make a dent in it!

The Witcher 3 (PS4): 10/10. Oh. My. God. In my top 5 favorite games of all time. I fell in love with the complexity of Gerralt's character (holy crap he is a sexay silver fox) and the absolutely unique
and vibrant world this game threw me into. I'm a sucker for mythical creatures, folklore, superstitions, etc, and the Witcher threw all of these things together in one massively fun and original game (even though it's based on a book series). SERIOUSLY SO GOOD. SSOOOO GUD.




Fallout 4: 8/10. I'm loving it so far. I loved Fallout: New Vegas too.  It was the only game in the series I had played and 4 is a lot like it, but characters are all more dynamic, the graphics are amazing, and they added the really unique feature of building settlements across the Commonwealth for you to build and defend (like a really stressful and gritty version of Sims). The Post-Apocalyptic world of Fallout is also really inspiring for my own PostApoc story, especially as it's set hundreds of years after the fall of civilization. So when I'm gaming (I cannot, for the sake of my pride, share how many hours I've logged in it already), I'll just call it research. Yeah... let's go with that.

Ghostbusters: 8/10. So much fun. Like the most fun I've had on a cinematic adventure in AGES! It's rare that I laugh out loud at a movie, and I totally did with this one. So. Many. Times. There is no complex plot or any Oscar-worthy themes or ideas, but it was silly, and innocent, and good-natured and scary at times and so important to me. As a woman. As a fan. As someone hoping to add diversity to hero-roles and change the way we portray women as heroines in mainstream media. This movie is game-changing for ladies. And all the asshole guys trolling it can suck a big one. It's a fantastic movie and don't let anyone convince you otherwise until you see it for yourself.

Who you gonna call? These BAMF'in ladies. 

   

~Be mindful of the the things that precious time is spent on.~

April in Review

So, my favorite thing about April is... EARTH DAY! Though I can't say I enjoy the irony of celebrating the planet that sustains us only one day a year, it's still a wonderful chance to give back to the planet and reflect on the sort of impact you have on it. If you didn't get a chance to give back or want to understand why doing so is important, watch the movie Racing Extinction. It's a serious eye opener. But prepare yourself for some feels.    

This April I participated in Camp NaNoWriMo (see this post for more info) and, HUZZAH, was successful...-ish in meeting my (meager) word goals for my new WIP. Only thousands upon thousands upon thousands of words to go! *cries internally* 

It's also been an okay-decent month for my consumer heart! Finished two games in a week (not bragging, it's a shameful reflection of how much free-time I have, meh), saw some movies, and read some books. Without further ado, here's my April in review: 

Winter (The Lunar Chronicles) by Marissa Meyer. 

So, I have a few issues with Winter. 

1. I couldn't help but shake the feeling that a lot of this book was filler to make it longer. I have NEVER read such a long YA novel before. There was a whole lot of recapping in all the wrong places and I found myself skimming through much of the book (mostly slipping entire pages at times). I NEVER skim. I FROWN upon skimming! How DARE I SKIM? 

2. And then there was my realization that Wolf and Scarlet were completely useless characters in terms of affecting the plot. Literally NOTHING would change if their characters were removed. 

3. And then there's that moment when it becomes the Hunger Games. Poor people live in districts sectors where they do hard manual labor so the rich and extravagantly dressed people of the Capital Artemesia can live their luxurious lives. Teenage girls arrives, becomes the "face of the revolution," leads poor people in a rebellion against rich people. Love interest is captured, used as an unwilling voice against teen girl's uprising, underdogs triumph anyways, governing ruler is killed. The end. Sound familiar? Suzanne Coll--er, Marissa Meyer tried, unsuccessfully, to throw in some kind of political theme that just did not work against all the deeper themes  so successfully established in the previous books. The revolution became the focus in a Hunger Games-esque move that made me wonder whether this dark turn had been a poor suggestion made by an editor and not Meyer's instinctual course of plot. And I would've much preferred them to use guerrilla tactics, have a face-off at the end, and then have the entirety of Luna's people (poor and court alike) betray the psychotic queen who mistakenly thought she was loved and supported by the people she oppressed.

4. The lack of focus on Winter, the TITLE character of the book. Every book before had been centered around the title character, with a wonderful balance of moments that continued to tie the other characters into the plot and to each other. Not the case in this one. And Winter and Jacin were such deliciously wonderful characters that I feel we were horribly shortchanged by the imbalance of time given to them.

That being said, not once did I consider putting the book down. Which says something I suppose! The series has made me a definite fan of Meyer's writing. I'll await the release of her next book, Heartless, with baited breath!

Vicious by V.E. Schwab. 

This was my first book by Schwab, though she's been on my reading radar for some time. And I'm SO GLAD I finally sat down with one of her stories because it's made me incredibly eager to get ahold of the rest! The way in which Vicious' story was told is very unique, with seamless transitions from past to present throughout the book. The time shifts were never jolting and really added to the pace of the book.
I really enjoyed her fresh take on "superheroes" and "supervillains" (called EOs/Extra-Ordinaries) and how they get their powers. Many summaries and reviews boast the book's "moral ambiguity," the weight of which I never really felt as it seemed obvious who were the bad guys and who were the good (both MCs are sociopaths really, which made for a disturbingly fun read). It had a Frankenstein (though someone else has said X-Men) meets Count of Monte Cristo feel to it and I couldn't put it down. Really looking forward to reading Schwab's other books!

     

Non-books:

Infamous: Second Son (PS4): 6/10. In which a sassy Pete Wentz takes Seattle by storm--er--smoke. Lackluster character and story building. But clever Banksy-ish tags that you get to spray paint around the city.

Shadow of Mordor (PS4): 9/10. I'm a huge Tolkien fan, but have come to realize how little I know about the lore of Middle-earth outside of the books. Shadow of Mordor DEFINITELY filled in many of those gaps in my knowledge and understanding in a very immersive way. While the learning curve had me frustrated at first, once I got the hang of things (and changed the skin to female character and badass, Lithariel) I immensely enjoyed the game! It was also extremely satisfying to see the whole of the Orc army under my wraith-y control. Mwahaha >:)  

Jungle Book: 6/10. TORN. FEELINGS. OPINIONS. TORN IN HALF. On one hand I enjoyed it. Was a little trip down memory lane, but that lane just happened to intersect disappointment avenue. A dark plot, voice casting that missed the mark (Bill/Scar/Walken), and some painfully slow scenes took away from the greater moments. Will now go watch the '67 version to make all right with the world again.

~Be mindful of the things that precious time is spent on.~

March in Review

A quarter of 2016 GONE! This year has packed itself up in a jet plane and is FLYING BY! Most of my March was spent reading, gaming, and timidly working on a new WIP. All of which totally broke the routine of "edit, edit again, smack face against keyboard and berate self in mirror, edit some more, then drown sorrows in bags of potato chips."

So March was a nice reprieve from fretting over the State of Affairs of my MS headed to NoWhere Land. Instead of milking my own creative juices from the tap (that's a gross analogy, sorry), I got to indulge in the fruits of someone else's labor (cliche analogy>gross analogy). 

So here are a few reviews of  things I enjoyed (and didn't enjoy) in March:

Cinder, Scarlet, Fairest, and Cress of The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer.

So I'm a bit of a bah-hum bug when it comes to retellings and stories based on true events. To me, half the work is already done for you: the characters, the morals, the major conflicts, they all already exist! So I'm quick to dismiss retellings of any kind and call it cheating. But I'd heard so much of the series and my FOMO was wracking up some serious guilt over avoiding it. So I dove in. And I'm SO glad I did!

Meyer did an amazing job of taking fairy tales that have been beaten over the head again and again and again, pulling them out of that subsequent genre coma, and giving them new life in the form of shiny android parts, spaceships, thoughtful cultural references, and enjoyable character dynamics. While I didn't realize just HOW GOOD Meyer could make this series until Cress (which I enjoyed much more than the first two), the series has been so delightful as a whole that I'm very much looking forward to reading Winter. 

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. 

LOVED! It took some time to get around the odd and archaic language (which was only used in the main character Maia's thoughts to himself and in some dialogue) and the glossary of terms in the back of the book proved invaluable, but overall it was a fantastic read! Both tone and narrative style were refreshingly different from many epic fantasies and though I'd hardly characterize it as being "steampunk," though many do, I loved the little nuances that provided a much needed freshness in the genre. For a book that was relatively devoid of action or any impending doom, it read quickly and the pace was very comfortable, letting (and encouraging) me to really sink into things.

Maia, the exiled, half-goblin prince turned reluctant Emperor, was unique and endearing and, as is rare as far as fantasy emperors go, KIND. In every sense of the word. At times he was a bit too meek and mousy for my tastes, but his goodheartedness and compassion made up for it entirely. One of my favorite things about the book was Addison's usage of ears to convey emotion. In the same way a cat's and dog's ears give us hints, Addison used the twitch, angle, and movement of goblin's and elves' pointed ears to convey emotion, which was cleverly used in deducing a person's true feelings. 

All-in-all, this was a fantastically fresh book that really paid homage to the fantasy novels of the 80's and I hope the genre will see more of a return to this style in the future. While Addison has not mentioned a sequel to the book, there has been talk of a companion piece. Which I will actually be holding my breath for. 

Books by Sarah J. Maas 

After trying, unsuccessfully, to read the first books in two of Maas's fantasy series, I have given up hope of this author being the right fit for me. Both A Court of Thorns and Roses (in my opinion a very flat and unsuccessful retelling of Beauty and the Beast with repetitive language and world-building that leaves much to be desired) and Throne of Glass, had inconsistent and, in my opinion of course, unlikeable main characters. I just couldn't identify with either heroine and, despite some compelling minor characters, had to mark them both as DNFs. I was SHOCKED to see the vast number of glowing reviews for both on goodreads and am now worried that my entire world-view might be slightly askew... (google askew, it's fantastic. Seriously, you won't be disappointed!). 

And because I did partake in things other than book variety, though books are, DUH, the most important, here are some other reviews that I'll keep brief:

Far Cry Primal (PS4): 9/10. Get to ride a sabretooth. 'Nuf said. 

Zootopia: 8/10. SUPER CUTE. I wonder what my guinea pig would do in Zootopia..? She can be a serious diva so I imagine she'd be on a reality show called "The Real Housewives of Zootopia."

Batman Vs. Superman: 5/10. Snyder's Batman was seriously "omg, ugh." Superman should've just lasered that strong, manly chin right off. Wonder Woman was WAY too frail looking. But the hints at other Justice Leaguers: sploosh ;)

~Be mindful of the the things that precious time is spent on.~