Tag Archives: drama

Bibliomantic Book Club: “Days of Blood & Starlight” by Laini Taylor

3 Dec

Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor
Release Date: November 6, 2012
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Drama, Awesomeness (That’s a genre, right?)

Summary: After the stunning revelations in Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Karou has a new purpose in life: doing whatever she can to help the remaining chimaera of Eretz survive to fight another day. Unfortunately, none of her newly re-discovered brethren seem to trust her. Especially not rebellion leader Thiago, who had her executed a lifetime ago. When Thiago’s attacks against the enemy become increasingly pointless and disturbing, Karou begins to question whether what she’s doing is right or only driving her world further and further away from the dream she and Akiva shared years before.

Since losing Karou for the second time, Akiva  is once again forced to question his own place in the war. He gains fame amongst his brethren as the “Beasts’ Bane,” but nobody but his brother and sister know of his true skill with magic, and that he’s using it to help chimaera civilians escape from the slaughter his father has commanded. Can he continue to fight for his father… or can he do the unthinkable and fight against him? 

In this thrilling sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone, it’s time for everyone to pick a side. But who says the war only has two sides?

After much anticipation, we finally got our hands on the phenomenal book known as Days of Blood and Starlight. From the gorgeous language to the Monty Python references, to the heartbreaking reality of a war torn world – everything about this book was just epically awesome. Laini Taylor has captured our imaginations and we hope she never lets us go! Guys, we loved this book a lot. Slightly spoiler-y reviews ahead!

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This Is Probably The Last Time I Can Mock Twilight: Cassie-la Dubs “Breaking Dawn: Part 2″ Best Fake Out Comedy of the Year

16 Nov

Book: Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
Movie: Breaking Dawn: Part 2
Genre: Young adult, romance, vampires, werewolves, drama, teen angst, best fake-out in the history of ever, “Law & Order: Forks, Washington”
Rating: 2.12 out of 5 stars (movie)

Summary: In the second half of a book that didn’t need to be split up into two movies, vampires of every ethnicity ever (and the Avatar) come to help stop a fight that doesn’t really ever happen, Bella is sad because she doesn’t understand the concept of forever, Jacob wants to bone a baby, there’s the most boring vampire sex in the history of the world, and the vampire marching band arrives to give the movie a plot and a little bit of entertainment. Also filler. So much filler.

Last night- or rather when the clock hit midnight and last night became today- I was in a theatre full of Twi-hards ready to mock Breaking Dawn: Part 2. It’s become one of my favorite annual traditions since Breaking Dawn: Part 1, the #1 comedy of 2011. You can read my full mock worthy review of that film HERE. If only I had been able to loudly yell through Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse, but that was before it was cool to mock Twilight.

WARNING: I very rarely include spoilers in my reviews but it is imperative to my snark filled commentary to discuss the amazing clusterfuck that is the final battle and explain why this movie wins MOST UPROARIOUS AUDIENCE REACTION OF THE YEAR.

Don’t worry, I’ll give you plenty of warning before I ruin the best fake out in Twilight cinema history.

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Cassie-wa Reviews “Unspoken” by Sarah Rees Brennan

10 Sep

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan (Galley)
Release Date: September 11, 2012
Genre: Mystery, Fantasy, Dramaz, Hilariousness
Rating: 4.88888 out of 5 stars

Summary: Jared has been Kami’s best friend since they were little. The thing is, she’s never met him. He’s always been a voice in her head, and may or may not be real. This has made Kami something of an oddball in Sorry-in-the-Vale, but she’s okay with that.

When the creepy Lynburn family returns to its famously big and creepy manor after a long absence, it seems like the perfect story to cover in Kami’s newly-founded school newspaper. But with the ensuing ominous whispers, weird animal mutilations, murder, and downright mysterious behavior from just about everybody in town, Kami realizes it’s up to her to uncover Sorry-in-the-Vale’s dark secrets before anyone else gets hurt.

Worst of all, she can’t seem to trust anyone. Not even Jared.

Unspoken, you started out so, so funny, and then you got so, so sad. Why do you do these things to me? Why?

You’ll find more of this intrepid reviewer’s opinion after the jump!

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All the Indie Feels: Cassie-la Talks “The Underwater Welder” by Jeff Lemire

7 Sep

The Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire (Galley)
Release Date: August 7, 2012
Genre: Fiction, graphic novel, science-fiction, drama, relationships, “Twilight Zone” with less pig monsters and more heartbreak
Rating: 4.92 out of 5 stars

Summary: Workaholic and expectant father Jack is an underwater welder with a tragic past. Haunted by the disappearance of his father who drowned on Halloween night, Jack goes through an existential and hallucinogenic crisis at thoughts of fatherhood- literally jumping through time and space to face his problems. Not your typical indie graphic novel, this science-fiction drama will give you all the feels. ALL OF THEM I SAY!!!

Reason number one to fall in love with The Underwater Welder: the introduction touts this as akin to a great, never aired episode of “Twilight Zone”. And it does not disappoint, with it’s gorgeous black and white sketchy artwork combined with a water color style that provides a setting that is at both times eery and haunting. Add in time jumps, prophetic dreams and hallucinations and you have some great mixing of the real and fantastical. You won’t even miss Rod Serling.

The story follows Jack, the titular character who likes welding under water more than most things. Living with his very pregnant wife, this local boy who can’t seem to leave his hometown is tortured by the open ended and mysterious death of his father. Jack reveals to have increasingly strained yet surprisingly realistic relationships with his worried wife, nagging mother and the ghost of his absentee/alcoholic father- which seem to be acerbated by the impending birth of his first child. Not a great time to have to solve mysteries with missing pocket watches and disembodied underwater voices.

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Bibliomantic Book Club: “City of Lost Souls” by Cassandra Clare

16 Jun

City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare
Release Date: May 8, 2012
Genre: Young Adult! Action! Adventure! Romance! Drama! Snark!

Summary: Picking up right where City of Fallen Angels left off, City of Lost Souls finds our heroes desperately searching for Jace, who appears to have been kidnapped by the totally-not-dead Sebastian. Things get tricky when they discover Jace hasn’t been kidnapped, he’s gone off with Sebastian willingly and the two are apparently BFFs now. Unable to go to the Clave for help, the kids decide to rescue Jace on their own. But as always in the lives of our favorite Shadowhunters, things are not as they seem…

City of Lost Souls!!!! Here’s the breakdown:

Simon is the best.

Clary does what she wants and it’s pretty stupid.

Jace, for once, wants to be happy with Clary instead of being a withdrawn, emotionally self-flagellating weirdo, but unfortunately it’s because he’s kind of EVIL.

Isabelle learns that it’s okay to need people. <3<3<3

Alec is an idiot dummy stupid idiot.

Magnus has SEQUINED BATTLE ARMOR.

Maia and Jordan are basically happy, and therefore boring.

Sebastian tries to convince us that he’s really nice now.

All of the adult characters… are there adult characters in this book?

Everyone is a snarky sassy-pants.

WARNING: Very slightly spoilery reviews ahead!

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Cassie-wa Reviews “I Hunt Killers” by Barry Lyga

26 Feb

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga (Advanced Reader Copy)
Release Date: April 3, 2012
Genre: Drama, action, suspense, mystery
Rating: 4.8999 out of 5 stars

Summary: Jasper “Jazz” Dent has a lot to deal with. He has the misfortune of being the son of Billy Dent, one of the world’s most notorious serial killers. For the first thirteen years of his life, Billy trained Jazz in the art of murdering people horribly and getting away with it. As a result, Jazz knows just about everything there is to know about killing. And he knows he would be really, really good at it.

Another dangerous result of his father’s training: Jazz is an expert manipulator. He’s so good at fooling other people, he hardly knows himself when he’s being truthful. And considering that he occasionally has to talk himself out of killing people, it’s no wonder he’s worried he might be a sociopath like his father. 

Years after Billy is sent to prison, bodies start turning up in the small town of Lobo’s Nod, and Jazz is the first to recognize the strange pattern in the murders. He becomes obsessed with solving the crimes, and he has one advantage over the police: the mind of a serial killer.

I Hunter Killers was AWESOME. I was super lucky to get an advanced copy, and proceeded to read it in less than two days. If you’re looking for a book that will make you audibly gasp or exclaim things like “AHH!” and “OHMYGOD!” and “OH NOOO!” and cause your roommate to look at you strangely, I HIGHLY recommend it!

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You Knew This Was Coming: Cassie-la Votes “Breaking Dawn: Part 1″ Comedy of the Year

18 Nov

Book: Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
Movie: Breaking Dawn: Part 1
Genre: Young adult, romance, vampires, werewolves, drama, teen angst, “I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant: Vampire Edition”
Rating: 2.43 out of 5 stars (movie)

Summary: Bella and Edward are getting married, and no one is happy, not even Bella herself, who doesn’t know what a smile looks like. With two hours of running time and only 30 minutes of plot, the penultimate movie in this franchise is full of enough nip slips, shoddy acting, and bad vampire CGI to make even Twihards lose some brain cells.

For my view on the book, please read my even snarkier post here.

Before I begin reviewing what is inarguably the best comedy of the year, I have a question to pose to the sparkly vampire loving audience. What happens when Bella gets her period? Seriously. Edward can barely get to second base without freaking out, what happens when Bella is menstruating? Please let me know if you have any theories/would like to cite Stephenie Meyer’s misuse of prose to prove to me that I’m thinking too much into this.

Breaking Dawn: Part 1 opens up as expected, with Jacob taking his shirt off and Edward and Bella getting married. The marriage of these two bothers me for multiple reasons. For one, Bella’s mother (who is inexplicably dressed in short shorts) seems to be finding this out for the first time when she receives her invitation. She also seems HAPPY that her 18 year old daughter is choosing to marry someone who left her alone in the woods two movies ago rather than going off to college. She’s a wonderful role model for young girls, isn’t she?

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Mirror, Mirror: Cassie-la Pits “Once Upon a Time” Against “Grimm”

28 Oct

TV Show: “Once Upon a Time“
Genre: Fiction, fractured fairy-tale, fantasy, this is the show that pushed out “Fables”?
Rating: 2.87 out of 5 stars

Summary: From the writers of “Lost” comes this new ABC drama featuring fairy tale characters trapped in a powerful curse brought on them by an evil witch. 28 years later, Snow White and Prince Charming’s daughter returns to them, fulfilling her destiny to break the curse and rescue the town of Storybrooke from a life of no happily ever afters.

In the magic land of fairy tales (I’m assuming that’s where fairy tales come from), Snow White and Prince Charming have fallen in love, but the Evil Queen (who is much prettier than Snow White- that mirror had it all wrong) curses them for their happiness. The curse she brings makes them forget their previous lives, freezing them in time to never grow old, and sends them to the town of Storybrooke where there are no happy endings. Thankfully, before she can do that, Snow White and the Prince send their daughter in a magical wardrobe to Narnia our world, making the infant promise that she will return and save them in 28 years.

28 years later lady bail bonds-woman Emma (AKA Snow’s baby) is brought back to Storybrook by her abandoned biological son to save the fairy tales from their imprisonment. I think I just got a brain aneurysm typing out that description.

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It’s No Shakespeare: Cassie-la Soliloquizes About “Falling for Hamlet” by Michelle Ray

29 Jul

Falling for Hamlet by Michelle Ray
Genre: Fiction, retelling, young adult, drama, well, I guess if Stephenie Meyer can get published
Rating: 2.7 out of 5 stars

Summary: In this retelling of Shakespeare’s classic play, Michelle Ray takes famously insane heroine Ophelia and sticks her in a poorly conceived version of modern day Denmark complete with twisted royal family, weakly conceived plot, and shoddy writing.

Will have you clamoring to watch the Mel Gibson version of Hamlet. Let the cringing begin!

One of my favorite Shakespeare plays is Hamlet, so I was super stoked when I heard a modern young adult retelling was coming out. I even pimped it in my post about upcoming novels in 2011. If only I could go back in time and take away that excitement, because despite all the mind-boggling five star reviews this novel received on Amazon (who is reviewing this- fans of James Patterson), it is truly a painful piece of “literature”. Although it’s unfair to refer to it as literature, even in quotation marks when I’m pretty sure it’s just bad fanfiction.

Cassie-wa has a really awesome anecdote about Milton writing the first fanfiction when he penned or rather had someone transcribe Paradise Lost. Now I have read a lot of fanfiction in my time, most of it bad but a select bit of it really damn good. Unfortunately, Falling for Hamlet isn’t even boring good like Paradise Lost, nor is it good bad like less famous fanfiction. Instead, it’s merely bad. Painfully so. Having to listen to Henry Rollins’ spoken word poetry would be less painful.

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Stephanie Talks About Books That Make Her Cry

4 Apr

I’m going to go ahead and admit it to the internet – books totally make me cry all the time. I admit that it sounds totally crazy, but I know I’m not the only one who ends up crying all over the pages of an amazing book so I don’t feel too bad talking about it. So many amazing stories have just taken hold of me over the years and become a huge part of my life – become part of me. So when the characters I love hurt – I hurt. When they die – I grieve for them. And when stories are just so epic and unbelievable – well, I cry then too. Here I will share four books that have had me crying the most.

This post contains spoilers!

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