crush by tracy wolff review!

greetings earthlings! today I’m reviewing crush by tracy wolff, the sequel to crave.

spoilers ahead!

⭐⭐

Rating: 2 out of 5.

I just reviewed Crave, and by just I mean it was one of the most recent posts. Here’s a short recap of that: basically I didn’t love the book. it was weird and a bit all over the place but the characters were interesting and I thought that they were being creative in ways that I hadn’t seen before. I was actually excited for Crush because as I said the ending was really great and I was excited to see what came next…. and I was let down hard. It started out pretty promising. Grace wakes up a couple months of being stone and doesn’t know what happened and thinks its another day. She walks around and then people are like what the fuck you’re back. It’s pretty funny and gave me hope for what would come. She finds out that she is gargoyle and is pretty freaked out. Once again people don’t give straight answers and it is annoying as hell but it is actually not the thing I hated most about this book. Also Hudson, who is Jaxon’s brother, who tried to kill him at the end of the last book has disappeared and no one has been able to find him. Grace tries to start things up like they were before but she is trying to learn her powers and starts watching up covered in blood.

Jaxon then decides to reveal that Hudson can control people and we found out that he is secretly controlling Grace. What I thought was going to happen was there was going to be a mystery about what was happening with Grace but that ends at like 100 pages. We then finally meet Hudson and I need to rant for a second. It’s pretty clear that Tracy Wolff was trying to make him the Damien of the story but he is the fucking Jacob. He sucks. He is a piece of shit and I wanted to like him. He is sarcastic and a little evil that’s my thing but the book has him be evil and then suddenly be a good guy in two seconds. There was no development. Also like every other character in this book he is never straightforward. Hudson basically lives in Grace’s mind and only she can talk to him. I think my biggest problem with this book is that so much from the first book is thrown out the fucking window. Now if you want to have some unexpected in your sequel that’s fine. But don’t do it out of nowhere. A Court of Thorns and Roses set up the relationship between Feyre and Tamlin but we meet the character Rhysand and it’s clear that there is kind of something happening between him and Feyre, setting up the arch for the two. It was planned.

In Crave we set up Hudson as the bad guy, Jaxon was her mate *can fantasy books stop using this word?, and there was something happening between Macy and Flint. In this book Hudson is barely the bad guy. He is the bad guy for 10% of the book and then nothing happens until the last 100 pages. Jaxon is side lined which I didn’t think I would be sad about until I spent more time with Hudson. Macy finds a new love interest named Xavier. And Flint is gay and has been in love with Jaxon so the whole time. I think that if we wanted all of this to happen then more set up needed to happen. I didn’t care that Flint was gay. I’m all of for gay characters. The thing that stumped me was him being in love with Jaxon. In almost every scene where they two have been together, they are always fighting. I never got the image that Flint was in love with him. Jaxon being side lined disappointed. I wasn’t in love with him in the first book but I liked him. But the book was desperate to put him as the Stefan of the story which went against who he was in the first book. He still loves Grace and there were moments that were cute between them which made me even sadder because the book only focuses on Hudson.

I’m going to take a break from my Hudson rant and take about the pacing of this book. The pacing of the first book was weird and slow as it was long. The pacing in this book is the worst. In this book we start off fast and then literally nothing happens until the very end and everything happens at the same time. Once again there was no build up. I would say that 300 pages of this almost 700 page book is spent with Grace learning to fly and the gang competing in some thing. Like I enjoy these characters but we spent so much time talking about the Dragon’s Graveyard and we didn’t go there into we were like 400 pages into the book. There was just so much that didn’t happen that towards the end I was barely paying attention to what happened. I think that having Hudson be the bad guy for this book and then setting up a redemption arc in the third book would have been the best. Maybe showing issues between Jaxon and Grace because they barely have any issues but Hudson always acts like there is.

Back to my rant about Hudson. This character is such an asshole. I liked him for two seconds but he got annoying real fast. He also doesn’t seem to understand that he is living inside of girl and controlling her and how creepy that is until Grace calls him out on it. The best scene in the book by the way. We find out that he never loved Lia so she did all of the stuff from the last book because he accidentally used his powers on her. He was also treated terribly as a kid. He constantly tells Grace that Jaxon is a shitty boyfriend with very little evidence. I’m gonna go a head and talk about this ending because it is the worst. So this werewolf named Cole who is not important was the bad guy and there is this vampire court I don’t know. But Grace kind of dies and Hudson almost dies and everyone almost dies. And Hudson buries Grace for some reason and it saves but we also finds out that now Hudson is also Grace’s mate. I’m not sure if this means. Flint says in the book at one point that you can have more than one mate and maybe that’s happening here. But I’m not sure if Jaxon and Grace’s bond has been broken. This series has a reddit page by the way which was weird to read and many people think that their bond as been broken and she will get with Hudson. Someone thought that Jaxon was going to get with Flint which I don’t want.

I hate this book but the ending makes me wonder what will happen next. I don’t want to have Grace end up with Hudson and I don’t know if I can sit through a book that is super long and nothing happens. But at the same time I really want to keep reading. Luckily the book comes out next year so I can wait and think about it. I’ll probably read it anyway and make a review. I hope you enjoy this post. hopefully i do more post. as always i posted rants like this every once and a while. look out for more reviews and other random posts. like, comment, and follow for more rants like these! also make sure to follow my social media links.

you know you love fiction,

Grace

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twitter: astudyingigi

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youtube: a study in gigi

the last of us | gameplay

Greetings Earthlings! And welcome to GamePlay!!!! *explosion! …. everything is cooler in my mind Today we are doing The Last of Us!

*spoilers? still not sure if i should tag spoilers. no one has told me

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

You guys probably already know about this game or you probably heard about the sequel that came out recently. It’s a very popular and for a good reason. The first one not the second one. We aren’t talking about the second one because I have played it but I will still probably bring it up because I have some thoughts. Basically this is a zombie apocalypse game and you follow this dude named Joel who lost his daughter and has total dad energy. He meets this girl named Ellie and she is immune to the whole virus so they travel across country to go see this people called the Fireflies so that they can use Ellie to make a cure. This game is super hyped up by everyone you’ll meet and I was bored of playing the same games over and over again so I was like ‘Sure I’ll play’ and then I slowly played it because this game is super episode emotional and I fell in love with the characters and the game as a whole. This game is 100% worth the hype.

Now you are probably like ‘G why the hell are you reviewing a game that everyone knows is already great’ well because I can’t stop thinking about it and I wanna talk about how good it was. Also xbox took off Life is Strange 2 of game pass before I could finish it so I need something to write a gameplay on. But anyway I’m very skeptical about zombie apocalypse stuff because as much I can love those types of stories they can also be very cliche and predictable. The zombie stories always go as follows we meet the character and they have issues but they adapt and becomes a badass. Also other survivors are here and we grow to have an emotional connection to them. Mostly likely one of them is a kid and we grow a bond with them. We then found out that the government/people are truly the bad guys. Then we have kind of a sad ending. Now I can still love zombie stuff that follows this like Resident Evil, Shaun of the Dead, and Train to Busan. But for the most part zombie stuff isn’t something I love.

But when I started Last of Us, nothing that I thought would happen happened. The game starts with you playing as Joel and you are escaping the city with your brother Tommy and your daughter Sarah because the world is falling apart. What I thought was going to happen was our daughter gets bitten by a zombie and he would have to mercy kill her. But that didn’t happen. What happens is that a solider just decides to kill your child. Like I was expecting her to die but not like that! We then go forward in the future and Joel is a smuggler with this girl named Tess. They basically get a job to take Ellie to the fireflies, this group is doing their own thing outside the government. This whole game is just a roadtrip between Ellie and Joel.

Let’s be real as a game it is amazing. The controls and weapon systems aren’t amazing. I will need to pick a new weapon because I ran out of ammo and people are shooting at me and it’s so slow to pick up a new gun. And then you have to pick a ladder by pressing triangle and then put it down by pressing triangle and then picked up everything by pressing triangle. Normally I would be bored out of my mind but the story is so interesting that I kept on going. This game is basically a movie that you have to interact with. I would watch these cutscenes and feel like I was watching a feature film and I loved it. And when it was over I wanted replay it even though it would be very long and I was planning on playing Uncharted but I was so tempted.

The characters feel like real people. They have flaws and trauma and I felt connected to their relationship. The characters are what makes the Last of Us so good. The relationship between Ellie and Joel is wonderful. Their story is beautiful. I think that Naughty Dog got too big of an ego which led to the Last of Us part 2. There could be better ways for them that tell the story. I have a couple issues to pick with Naughty Dog with how they deal with things but at the same time they make beautiful ass games that I can’t stop playing.

The Last of Us is a beautiful game that isnt about a zombies at all. It isn’t even a game really. It feels as if I’m watching movie but its interactive. It’s a beautiful story that I love and I’m forever bitter that the sequel came in and fucked everything over. I’m just gonna pretend like Joel is still alive and everything is fucking fine. sorry for the lack of posts. I started school again and life is kind of terrible. The world is falling apart as we speak and I’m very nervous and scared and depressed. I hate it here. I hope everyone is doing well. have you guys play last of us? did you like it? are you going to play the second one? as always i posted rants like this every once and a while. look out for more reviews and other random posts. like, comment, and follow for more rants like these! also make sure to follow my social media links.

you know you love fiction,

Grace

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twitter: astudyingigi

instagram: astudyingigi

youtube: a study in gigi

crave by tracy wolff review!

greetings earthlings! today i’m reviewing Crave by Tracy Wolff!

spoilers ahead!

“There’s not much to be afraid of when you’ve already lost everything that matters.”

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

I wasn’t planning on reviewing another book anytime soon. Mainly because I haven’t read book that I feel the need to talk about review in recent. But I don’t know man this book is just so crazy and I had so many mixed feelings about the hole thing that i need to write a review. I wrote a review on goodreads but I usually do spoiler free reviews there and I want to do a spoiler review so here we are. I bought this book because I wanted something stupid to read because life is crazy and I’m burnout from school and nanowrimo and it looked like Twilight. Everything from the cover to the description reads like a twilight and I thought that it would be a Twilight rip off. For the first 100 pages I thought that but then the book did a whole ass 180 and it was nothing like I expected.

The main character is Grace who had curly hair and likes books *we are basically the same person and after the deaths of her parents she is forced to move from San Fransisco to Alaska because that is where her uncle and cousin are. Her uncle runs a school there and that’s where she will be going. Now I need to get this off my chest because I got issues. The school is for vampires, werewolves, witches, dragons, and much more. But no one tells Grace any of that until like half way through the book. Everyone is just so fucking cryptic about everything and it’s annoying. They keep telling her that she is in danger but they don’t say what from. Don’t you think that you should tell your niece that she will be at a boarding school with dangerous creatures? Because the school nurse is vampire and that’s a little concerning. Also this book mentions Legacies which is also a show about mythical creatures going to school and that was weird. And then later on the love interest gives her a copy of Twilight and it was too meta for me.

Also just a petty comment, the love interest’s name is Jaxon. It’s like Jackson but with an X and I hate it so much. I know it’s stupid and has no real effect on the story but I don’t like it. Moving on. For most of the time I was reading this book I couldn’t decided if I loved it or if I hated it. I enjoyed this book for several reasons. It was original and I never knew what was going to happen next. Every time I tried to guess I was always wrong. But this book is also very long and a bit frustrating. I normally wouldn’t complain about a book being long but I believe that pacing is the most important thing when it comes to long as books. This book’s pacing is all over the place. Like I said it took 200 pages until we found out what was happening at the school and then everything slowed down again until right before the ending. You can’t just go back and forth with your pacing because it will give me whiplash.

The characters are interesting. I don’t hate Grace but that could just be because like I said we have the same name and have the same interests. I’m bit self centered. Jaxon is like most vampires we seen in media and that doesn’t make him bad. I feel like the book didn’t know if they wanted him to be Edward of Damien but I’m hoping that he will become his own character. He is different in a way because he is pretty funny. In the beginning of the book, he and Grace send each other puns and it was really cute. I’m sucker for puns. I thought Grace and Jaxon’s relationship was cute. I didn’t hate it. It is a bit cliche but I enjoyed reading this book. I was so happy when they finally kissed because they had been so much build up. I think that the character I enjoyed the most was Macy, Grace’s cousin who is a witch. She isn’t the most central character but when it comes to these types of books, the female characters don’t really have best friends or at least a strong relationship that is featured in the book. So having Macy was a nice touch. She is a fun cute character and I want her to end up with Flint the dragon boy.

Let’s talk about the ending of this book because it has an insane ending. So through the book there is this character who I think is named Lisa but can’t remember. She is really nice to Grace and I thought that she was going to be like Alice in Twilight but no she is a bad guy which I didn’t seem coming. She wants bring Hudson who is Jaxon’s dead brother back from the bad. But then the defeat her and I actually thought that the book was wrapping up but then Hudson tries to attack Grace and Jaxon and she turns into stone because she is gargoyle. Now I know that some people aren’t going to like that twist but I loved it. I never saw it coming and I thought that she was going to be a witch. I thought it was cool. Is Crave a good book? It’s okay. I enjoyed but I know that is not for everyone. I wanted something fun and that’s what I got. Will I read the sequel? I already bought it……. so yes.

Overall Crave is fun book if you want something fun to read. If you are interested in reading it then I recommend it. I hope you enjoy this post. hopefully i do more post. as always i posted rants like this every once and a while. look out for more reviews and other random posts. like, comment, and follow for more rants like these! also make sure to follow my social media links.

you know you love fiction,

Grace

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twitter: astudyingigi

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youtube: a study in gigi

the black witch by laurie forest review | controversial book club

greetings earthlings! today i’m reviewing the black witch by laurie forest!

the black witch is written by Laurie forest and came out in may of 2017. If you have been on book tube and twitter then you have probably have heard about this book. If you don’t know I started a bookclub in April where I read books with controversy around them and in may I said I would be reading black witch and it is now October. Literally have no excuse other than I didn’t want to read this book and kept putting it off. But I really want to keep doing the book club and I have some really fun picks that I want to do so I decided to get it over with. I check out black witch from my library because I didn’t want to buy a book on my kindle that I couldn’t return and I’m glad that I didn’t. 

But before I get into my thoughts on the book let me tell about the controversy around this book. I thought about doing in depth video like I did with handbook and blood heir but a lot of the statements and original claims have been deleted. I don’t feel comfortable making a video without evidence. Black witch had hype around it when it came out I remember seeing a lot of people talking about it and how excited they were to read it. I thought about reading because I’ll give anything a try. After a while I then forgot that the book happened because there was any press around it. One day when I was on goodreads I ended up finding that black witch had some issues around it, mainly a review came out saying that the book was racist. Unfortunately the review has been deleted so I can’t read it and look over what it said but the review got really popular and a lot of people starting boycotting the book. Laurie was even excused of being a Nazi which supposedly was false and has been debunked according to the Vulture article I read. Like most situations on booktwitter it was big at the time but now its just a thing that people will reference every now and then to shade on Twitter. This is controversial book club. We are here to read books with drama and giving gigi anxiety. Fun times. I can’t wait to not talk about this book. Laurie Forest came out saying that she didn’t mean for it to be racist and she may have said that she had her foster or adopted kids read it. I’m not sure if that’s true. People on goodreads said that but I wasn’t able to find a source on that. A lot of people have started reviewing the book and saying that the people who thought it was racist were being overdramatic and it was really being great for “discussing racism”. 

Now as you probably know I am white. As I said in my blood heir videos, it is not my place to say if something isn’t racist. There have been a lot of reviews on goodreads where white reviewers have said that this book isn’t racist and that people were overdramatic. If you are white you can’t say something isn’t racist and you can’t accept someone’s apology for racist actions. Those comments aren’t going to apply to you and the apology isn’t mean for you. Also people were clearly hurt by the stuff in this book and we shouldn’t invalidate their feelings.

So lets talk about black witch and spoilers ahead. I tried going in with this an open mind. Blood heir surprised me so I thought maybe I will enjoy this book. And I didn’t. I do have two positives about this book and before I start bashing it I’ll share those two things. One Laurie Forest is a good writer. There were parts of this book that I thought were so well written and I wish she had written something else so that I could have appreciate it more. Two the romance in this is actually good. There is a love triangle thing here and when we meet one the guys, I was kind of into it. And that’s all I liked about this book. I’ll be real with y’all I feel like this book should have come out in late 2000s or early 2010s because it has all of the popular tropes and typically stories you would find in ya books back then. I’ll tell you the plot and let me know if this sounds familiar. This is about a girl who doesn’t really fit in with society and she isn’t like other girls and she is quiet and shy. She has a friend who is slutty and kind of bitch and is actually kind of mean girl because she is slutty. Then this hot dude goes after her because he’s never meet a girl like her before. Also turns out she is special and she is the most special of them all and only she can solve this problem. Don’t forget that the society she has grown up is a total lie and turns out everything sucks. Another hot boy falls in love with because once again she’s different from everyone else. She also has to stop two different groups of people to stop fighting because she is key or whatever I don’t fucking care. LEt’s see that’s Twilight, Hush Hush, the Fallen series, hell even fucking Harry Potter and a lot more. It’s just not that original of a story. It doesn’t help that this book is like six hundred pages long. 

Honestly after a while I stopped caring about this book because it was so boring and very long and I just didn’t care. The characters aren’t good. The main character is annoying. She doesn’t really have anything that makes her stand out besides the fact that she isn’t like most girls and she is the most special girl in the world. I’m pretty sure that I’ve made my thoughts clear about how I feel about the I’m not like most girls trope which is that I hate it and it is usually followed another trope that I hate which isn’t really a trope and it’s girl hate. Yes literally we meet a girl named Fallon and the main character makes a comment about how she gets with all these guys and then Fallon is basically a mean girl for the rest of the book. I talked about this in my handbook for mortals review if you want me to hate someone then make them do something that is worth making me hate them. I don’t know that much about Fallon for me to hate her. If anything this story made me feel bad because she gets slut shamed at every turn.

The world building is also bad. I’ve talked about world building when it comes fantasy books. You need to take the time to explain the world and explain how the magic. Yeah this book doesn’t do any of that. We jump into the story and it acts like I’ve been here before. I’ve never been here before stop using terms without explaining them. There is this thing that I can’t remember what is it called – wandfast and it’s basically getting engaged. Thanks to context clues I was able to figure out what they were talking about but the book didn’t ever take the time to tell really explain the logic. This was honestly one of the reasons I couldn’t connect to the book because I didn’t take any time to explain shit and I was very confused. I also have no idea how being the Black Witch isn’t different from everything else. Like they say that she is so powerful but like she can’t use her magic for some reason. I don’t know man this book is bad. I feel like I’m being mean. Also I just found out that this series has a fan wiki and it did nothing to help I’m more confused then ever.

The two races in this world aren’t anything special. I mean they have some creative stuff like the Gardernia have like shimmy skin and the Icarls have two forms which is interesting but the book doesn’t use them creatively in anyway. Even before the main character finds out about the racism the book is pretty heavy handed about the fact that the gardenias are racist. It doesn’t even try to do anything new. Also our main character is the chosen one and I’m over the chosen one trope. I know some of my favorite books have these tropes but when a character’s personality is only that they are the chosen one it’s pretty boring and annoying. I feel like I’m repeating myself but I want to be done talking about this book. I’m tired of talking about this book so let’s move onto the new thing that I’m doing called questions? I know it’s not a great name but I’m tired and I just want to get this out.

Is this a good way to talk about racism? This is like the easy way most people want to talk about racism. Its like how harry potter talked about racism so very little. I don’t think that this book is brave for making these decisions like the goodreads reviews. 

Is it a good book? In my opinion no. This book is boring and cliche. The world building sucks and the characters are very lacking. Laurie forest is a decent writer but that unfortuantely didn’t make up for anything else. 

Would I recommend you give a try? If you want to read it then sure but honestly no. this book is pretty lack luster and doesn’t really do anything that I haven’t read before. 

Was the controversy justified? I think that people were hurt by the stuff in this book and we shouldn’t say that their feelings aren’t valid.

I know that there was a lot that I didn’t talk about but I struggled writing this review and I wanted to get it out. It sucks but what to do? I’m sorry that this sucks and this isn’t one of my best reviews. Thank you for reading. I appreciate it. 

the mall by megan mccafferty review!

hey guys! today i’m reviewing the mall by megan mccafferty!

New York Times bestselling author Megan McCafferty returns to her roots with this YA coming of age story set in a New Jersey mall.

The year is 1991. Scrunchies, mixtapes and 90210 are, like, totally fresh. Cassie Worthy is psyched to spend the summer after graduation working at the Parkway Center Mall. In six weeks, she and her boyfriend head off to college in NYC to fulfill The Plan: higher education and happily ever after.

But you know what they say about the best laid plans…

Set entirely in a classic “monument to consumerism,” the novel follows Cassie as she finds friendship, love, and ultimately herself, in the most unexpected of places. Megan McCafferty, beloved New York Times bestselling author of the Jessica Darling series, takes readers on an epic trip back in time to The Mall.

So I actually got rejected to read this book early on netgalley and I was really sad because I had wanted to read it. But luckily I got an email asking if I wanted to be apart of the blog tour for this book and I hopped on that train so fast!

I actually was surprised by this book. I knew I had wanted to read but I have been let down by books that are supposed to be like cute romcom books. But I really liked this book. It was everything I wanted and a bit more. The story sounds like a every romcom out there. Girl has her whole life planned out but turns out boyfriend is a jerk and that sends her whole plan down the toilet. But what I think makes this book different from the rest is that the romcom isn’t about another guy. There is another guy but the story isn’t really about him. The story focuses on Cassie growing into herself and her friendship was Drea.

Honestly the whole message of the story is just growing into the person you’ve always wanted to be. Listen when I got dumped, it sucked. It was horrible. But i was tired of holding myself back and I just let myself be. I was able to relate to Cassie because she went through the same thing that I did and it was something I really enjoyed. We need more stories about girls who get their heart broken but a guy doesn’t fix it for them. This book is honestly just a whole lot of fun. It’s one of those picks that can pick you up when you are feeling down.

The Mall is a fun coming of age romcom that I would recommend everyone check out for a fun read.

I hope you enjoy this post. hopefully i do more post. i’m stuck and my house and there isn’t much else to do. as always i posted rants like this every once and a while. look out for more reviews and other random posts. like, comment, and follow for more rants like these! also make sure to follow my social media links.

you know you love fiction,

Grace

tumblr: monsterpandamash

twitter: astudyingigi

instagram: astudyingigi

youtube: a study in gigi

Life is Strange 2: Chapter Two | GamePlay

Greetings Earthlings! And welcome to GamePlay!!!! *explosion! …. everything is cooler in my mind Today we are doing Life is Strange 2: Episode Two!

*spoilers? still not sure if i should tag spoilers. no one has told me

so episode two was not what i expected. i was expecting shit to hit the fan and everything was gonna get crazy. yeah that didn’t happen. now some important stuff did happen but still nothing really happened. when the chapter first started, i had some hope. it was clearly setting up stuff like daniel getting a little crazy with his power. you can clearly tell that he wants to use them more and sean is trying to keep his little brother out of trouble. that because pretty present when mushroom dies and daniel tries to kill the mountain lion that killed the puppy. i stopped it because i’m trying to have daniel be a good boy and it is stressing the hell out of me. mainly because i found out the this game has several different endings which reflects on how you raised daniel. i want the good ending! i want it! i want everyone to be happy and fine! so after the dog died, rip mushroom, i thought that things would start getting crazy!

but it really didn’t. sean and daniel go to their grandparents house while daniel seems to be getting sick. i was expecting drama and for daniel’s sickness to be this big thing. but it really wasn’t. they kept adding all of these things to the story that i thought would be a big deal but at the moment are taking awhile to have any of these things to take affect. literally we go on this big journey with daniel having a bad cough but it turns out to be nothing (at least at the moment). i don’t know it was just so disappointing. i felt like we were going somewhere until to hit a die end. the grandparents are fine and i liked them. i thought that they were gonna die because everyone who these kids care about dies. they didn’t die which i was pretty happy about. we meet this kid name chris who was apart of a dlc that i didn’t play or i’m not sure if i should play it. if you have played it, let me know if i should. this kid and daniel become friends and daniel makes him think that he has powers but i made him tell him the truth and that was apparently a good because after completing the chapter i describe if i hadn’t made that choice apparently the kid could have gotten hit with car! i second guess every choice i make in these games but i stand by this one! i did the right thing dammit!

okay so i met the two love interests of this game. you can chose who you want to be with. and not to be negative but i don’t want to date either of them. one i don’t think that having a love interest is important to the story and i kind of don’t want one. i just feel like the focus should be about the relationship of the brothers. and two i hate their hair. it sucks. i know that its petty. but i don’t like their hair. but i do feel like a romance wasn’t needed. an important part of the story is sean and daniel’s mother or the lack of mother because she left them. she has clearly done something to her parents as they unwilling to talk about her or even let her kids into her room. i thought there was gonna be a plot twist that she was secretly there but she wasn’t and i’m glad that didn’t happen because it would have been stupid. the grandmother is very upset with her daughter and the grandfather is basically i’m gonna play with my trains. so after being told not to go into their mom’s room, they go in and the grandma gets upset. i understood why they wanted to go there. clearly they have issues with their mom and daniel doesn’t remember her so they wanted to go and i get it. the grandma is about to kick them out but then grandpa gets hurt and then daniel saves him with his powers.

you then think that everything will be okay but then the cops show up because daniel and sean went outside which they shouldn’t have. its running away from the law 101 kids don’t go outside! its dangerous out there. the cops didn’t chase which was apparently something that could have happened but i think i did the right thing. i don’t know. having multiple endings is stressing me out. they get on a train and based off the teaser for the next chapter, end up at a weed farm with a our friends with badly cut hair. also while i was looking for a picture for this blog, i found that there is nudity in the next chapter and i don’t know how to feel about it. there is nothing wrong with nudity but it feels so out of place with these games! it’s like with the outlast series. we had the first game which was amazing. then we had the dlc which wasn’t as good but was still a good game. and then they made the sequel and you are kind of wondering what happened. i feel bad when i say bad stuff about this game because i want to like it!! i just don’t know how to feel about it. i’m still gonna continue. because i need to know what happens and i care about the two main characters.

i did enjoy this chapter. i think that my expectations have gone down a bit. i don’t know what to expect with this story. this game is beautiful looking and as a wonderful soundtrack but the story is kind of lacking. like i said before with the first game, we had a bunch of mysteries set up and they all came together and the story was formed into a neat bow. and with this story we don’t seem have much of a story. our two brothers are just on the run and we know where they are going  but there is a lot being dragged on with. there was five minute scene where sean and daniel played dice and IT WAS SO BORING! i want to love this game. but there isn’t really a plot to it. maybe this is just a me thing. i like stories where the plot is pretty present. in the first game you knew what you needed to do but could talk to others and do other activities that where still important to the main story. the plot is a bit more looser in this game. idk maybe its just me. I hope you enjoy this post. hopefully i do more post. i’m stuck and my house and there isn’t much else to do. as always i posted rants like this every once and a while. look out for more reviews and other random posts. like, comment, and follow for more rants like these! also make sure to follow my social media links.

you know you love fiction,

Grace

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twitter: astudyingigi

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youtube: a study in gigi

blood heir by amelie wen zhao review | controversial book club

greeting earthlings! today i’m reviewing blood heir by amelie wen zhao!

i made a whole video talking about everything about this book so go check it out. I worked really hard on it. but today i’m giving you my review of blood heir. i didn’t know what to expect with this book. i didn’t have high exception but at the same time i didn’t have low exceptions. this book does have high reviews but i hadn’t heard many people talk about it. i liked this book. it’s not the best fantasy book out there but i had fun. so this book is an anastasia retelling about a girl who is basically a blood bender and she has been framed for her dad’s death. she is basically going on a mission to find the guy that really did it. i love anastasia. it was one of my favorite movies as a kid. i remember having to go over to my cousin’s house to watch it because i didn’t own it but they had it on vhs so i would watch it over and over again. in terms of retellings its very original. there are hints of the original story here but for the most part, it is its known thing which i liked. i have talked about how fantasy books and how pacing needs to work. i think that if you want to go big and have an in-depth world then you need to talk the time to do that. take the wheel of time books those books are very long and there are 13 of them but the world in those books is wonderful because it’s so in-depth. this book is 400 pages long which i’m not saying can’t get done. say what you want about sarah j maas but i feel like she did a wonderful job in the first two books setting up the world. but more often then not i have been disappointed by fantasy books of the same length. like the bone witch, a book that was also 400 pages long but had a lot of pacing issues. the book starts off the plot beginning and the world not being set up and then having to explain everything along the way. you can have a fast start but that means taking the time to explain everything will slow and it doesn’t work.

this book does kind of have that problem. it starts with ana helping ramson escape from prison and her papa is already did and stuff has already happened. right from then i knew that we might have some problems. listen i know that starting from the fact is fun but then you’ll have to explain everything which slows the plot down so much. despite this the book managed to pick itself up pretty quickly because ana gets knocked out and during that time, she explains everything and yes that does slow it down but not as much because as soon she wake up we get back to the story. the writing of this story is pretty great. there were so many quotes that i just loved. i will be honest it felt a bit repetitive at some points. i felt like ana just kept repeating and telling us how much she was a monster. it does make make sense why she feels like this she has a dangerous ability and has killed people on accident  and her whole life has been told that people like this are terrible. so it makes sense that she feels like this. she has these hatred towards herself. but the quotes of ana saying this feel cut and paste to me. i’m not saying it is but thats what it felt like. also ransom is a conman and all ya conmen are described as silver tongue and his last name is quick tongue. this just really bothered me. it’s not even that big of a deal but it reminded me of in chilling adventures of sabrina how the writers just added dark and un to everything and was like yes that’s satanism. it was always weird because everyone else has russian last names and even though those names aren’t correctly, it’s still weird. like in backyardians where everyone had normal names and then uniqua just pops up and you’re like what?

let’s talk about the plot. it’s alright. we spend the first couple chapter getting to know the characters and ana and ransom agree to work together but then we go and do all this other shit that has to do with ransom. to be honest, it was boring and we spend a lot of time on it. then ana and ransom separate for a reason i can’t remember. maybe they didn’t and didn’t interact for a couple of chapters. ana basically decides to go to the kingdom which was a mistake because may gets kidnapped and very hurt which leads to her death. i’m gonna be honest i found the slavery part of this book not be that big of part in this book. i mean its there and its a thing but its not the main focus of the book. may’s death was pretty sad but i knew about it before hand which kind of ruined it and took all of the emotional out of it. even though a lot clearly happens before the first chapter, may and ana clearly have a great relationship. like i could clearly feel how much they cared about each other. there is also a lot of tension with ransom and ana and the fact that they didn’t fuck made me upset. amelie let’s get on it. let’s gets some romance for that next book.  also ransom calls ana by nicknames the whole book and i fucking love that shit. couples calling each other by last names, nicknames, and anything like that is my favorite thing. i love that.

i’m gonna be real. the ending of this book is good. it’s the main reason i gave this book three stars and not two. i don’t know it was crazy in like a good way. i didn’t know how this book was going to end because it throwing me into loop holes. one second it looked like ransom is gonna die, then it looked like ana was gonna die, and i’m pretty sure that ana died for two seconds there. also it took me this whole book to realize why this book was called blood heir. because ana is next in the blood line to take the throne so you know she is the heir. i’m really stupid. did everyone else know this? am i just really stupid. okay i don’t really have anything else to talk about this book. unlike handbook for mortals i didn’t have much to say about this book which is why it’s not that long.

I hope you enjoy this post. hopefully i do more post. i’m stuck and my house and there isn’t much else to do. as always i posted rants like this every once and a while. look out for more reviews and other random posts. like, comment, and follow for more rants like these! also make sure to follow my social media links.

you know you love fiction,

Grace

tumblr: monsterpandamash

twitter: astudyingigi

instagram: astudyingigi

youtube: a study in gigi

 

Life is Strange 2: Chapter One | GamePlay

Greetings Earthlings! And welcome to GamePlay!!!! *explosion! …. everything is cooler in my mind Today we are doing Life is Strange 2: Episode One!

*spoilers? still not sure if i should tag spoilers. no one has told me

I don’t know if you guys remember but back in 2017 -2018 I review every episode of Life is Strange. It was a lot of fun because i act like a moron when it comes to games mainly games that involve you making decisions that are important to the game. Like in Until Dawn, I accidentally killed everyone in the final moments of the game which I regret and would love to fix but the void that lives in my house ate so i can’t replay which sucks because i really liked that game. i didn’t know anything about that game when i first played it but i really enjoyed my time playing it. my dad bought it for me because i was slowly getting into gaming and he thought i would like it. nice going dad! i really enjoyed that game *even though i had mix feelings about how it ended and when a second one was announced you bet your ass i was gonna play it. I was actually gonna wait for the game to come out in complete set but all the episodes were on the xbox for free so i downloaded the first one.

this game is very different from the first one which i expected. i figured it would be an anthology where its in the same universe but with different characters and i think i’m right. I’m not far enough into the game to say that this has nothing to do with the first game. i was asked whether or not i destroyed the town from the first one and the town does make a cameo but i think thats it. i might be wrong. i tried not to know much about this game because i did that with the first one and i didn’t want to make any expectations. all i knew was that it was about two brothers and a police car crashes because that was in the trailer. but basically this game is about sean and daniel who lives with their dad. sean is getting ready to go a party when their neighbor starts a harrassing daniel and sean and the neighbor fight (at least in my story). a cop sees this and then the dad comes out and the cop shoots him. sean and daniel go on the run and daniel has powers.

right off the bat its a pretty different game for the first. one the one had this mystery about what happened to Rachel, what’s happening with max and her powers, and what the hell is up with the storm and all the other storm events happening in the town. for this story so far, it is more about keeping your brother safe and figuring out the best way to survive. i’m not complaining. i’m just curious about what else will happen in the story because i don’t know what to expect. i think i’m doing good but i always think i’m doing good but then i’ll fuck up. i’m trying though! i really am! i’m trying to take care of daniel. like daniel is my goal of this game. i need him to be okay! i’m not okay with kids or animals dying! that’s why its taking me so long to finish blair witch and the walking dead! i hate it! oh yeah actions have consequences in this game still. but unfortunately  you can’t time travel which sucks.

here’s some of my choices: i told my dad the truth but probably doing weed and drinking and i got $40. i also hugged him because hugs are nice and i figured i probably wouldn’t see him for a while. i decided to defend daniel against the bully because the bully seemed like a dick and daniel probably didn’t do anything wrong. basically my motives for this game was for sean and daniel to have a good relationship. so i chose all the nice options and bought him a lot of food, only to have said food be taken away by racist gas station owner. so i spent 30 dollars for nothing. i opened up to brody about everything and i had sean say that he felt like it was his fault because that felt more realistic. i gave daniel a bubble bath because who doesn’t love bubbles! and i called lydia before throwing my phone away because idk i wanted to.

i love the sketches that sean can draw through out the game. it reminds me of how max takes pictures of random things. its a nice element that i like. i will say its more effort then taking a picture was but i guess with max she had to take to people to be able to get the photo sometimes. once again the settings are beautiful. the first game has also art and its very pretty and that continues in this game. i like the main character of sean and daniel. they are a bit cliche with their relationship dyamtic but i thought the same when i started the first game and i ended up being surprised with the characters and how they grew into their own so i think that might also be the case here also well. i really enjoyed the character brody and how he helps out the characters no questions asked, giving them supplies, money, and giving daniel a present. also mushroom is great. i love dogs. the secret items are fun but kind of not needed. you can put them on your backpack which is fun but then some are just stuff. we do see arcadia bay and guess what? no one is there because i destroyed it.

one thing i was surprised by was how political it was. i don’t know it that’s the right term but i don’t know. this game takes place in 2016 and we all know what went down in 2016. the two main characters are mexican-american and like i said their dad is shot by an police officer and after daniel accidentally causes an explosion, the officer dies which leads to the media say that they killed the officer. a couple characters are racist to them and one of them says that they need to build a wall. i’m not complaining or saying this wasn’t need because if you follow two latino boys in 2016 this would be something that they would be going through. maybe i’m surprised because the first didn’t really focus much on modern day problems. sure it talks about social media and the effects of that but nothing really deep. or maybe they did and i just don’t remember because its been about two years since i’ve played the first game.

so this was life is strange 2: episode one! i haven’t messed up that much but you know me, i’m a mess. watch me get the bad ending. i’m enjoying this game. it wasn’t what i was expecting but i like that. a lot has happened just in this one episode so i’m expecting that a lot will happen in the next chapter. i plan on making a post for that as well. I hope you enjoy this post. hopefully i do more post. i’m stuck and my house and there isn’t much else to do. as always i posted rants like this every once and a while. look out for more reviews and other random posts. like, comment, and follow for more rants like these! also make sure to follow my social media links.

you know you love fiction,

Grace

tumblr: monsterpandamash

twitter: astudyingigi

instagram: astudyingigi

youtube: a study in gigi

princess and the pauper vs princess and the popstar

am i making this because i was watching a top 10 barbie songs list and the remix of to be a princess was higher on the list than written in your heart? yes.

am i being a little over dramatic about a film that came out in 2012 and was made of five year olds? kind of.

having i been watching too many danny gonzalez? POSSIBLY!

hello everyone and welcome to the film review no one asked for. So today we are talking about princess and the popstar. its a remake of the princess and the pauper that no one asked for or wanted. the princess and the pauper is one of my favorite movies a kid and even now i still love it. the songs are awesome and unlike most kids films it doesn’t treat you like an idiot. it some great messages about privilege and love. it’s a great film. can’t say the same about this one. this movie even isn’t even a good barbie movie in my opinion. the songs are either bad or okay. the story sucks. its just not good. i’m gonna tell you want the original story and then we are gonna compare it to the remake. so princess and the pauper is about erika and annalise. they were born on the same day and look similar but have different lives. Annalise is a princess who doesn’t really want to be a princess. she is super into science and in love with her tutor julian. a key thing is that even though she has everything, she feels trapped and doesn’t really want this life. but her kingdom is broke and to save it she needs to marry king dominik. Erika is semtress who is poor and wants to be a singer. to take her when she was young, her parents took about a bunch of loans and left her in debt which is why she is a semtress to work off the debt. the whole thing is that these girls could easily run away and not deal with their problems but they have responibles and have to own up to that. it’s kind of like that episode of teen titans where robin is traveling up this mountain and there is the easy path and the hard path. you could take the easy way but its not the right way. so both Erika and Annelise could easily not deal with their problems but they instead they stay be their responsibilities. PRINCESS AND THE POPSTAR FOLLOWS TO VERY PRIVAIGED GIRLS WHO ARE UPSET THAT THEY DONT HAVE ENOUGH FREE TIME! Seriously we have the princess who just needs to write a speech. that’s it. but she doesn’t want to. then the popstar is just having a hard time writing her album but she is lying to record company and saying that she has written but doesn’t want to give it to them. it’s so stupid.

(also this might be nitpicky but in the original both girl are voiced both by kelly sheridan, who was the original voice of barbie until recently. the singing voices aren’t though. kelly sheridan never does the singing voices but Melissa Lyons who for a while did the singing parts, sounded similar to kelly that you wouldn’t know someone else was singing. in this film only tori is voiced by kelly for some reason and they have a different singer this time. this girl has a great voice but the second she starts singing, you know that she isn’t kelly sheridan. this wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t obivous and they never tried to hide it. its kind of funny at some points. again probably nitpicky but it didn’t work for me.)

i will be comparing more as we gone on. I’m trying to be organized. so let’s just do this. this film starts with a concert where we meet Kiera the popstar who is performing in this kingdom where tori the princess lives. the kingdom is like 500 years old so there is a celebration happening. the kingdom is called Meribella which is a dumbass name. also the stage here must be super rich because the effects and changes used during the opening number is crazy. maybe magic is involved because both girls have magic but we will talk about that in sec. the opening number is here i am / princesses just wanna have fun. honestly i would like the song more if they got rid of princesses just wanna have fun. it just makes me super annoyed with the character and its a bad cover. but here i am part is good tho. tori has two sisters who are younger and she acts like she is their age but she is clearly a teenager. her attitude is pretty awful. her aunt tries to talk to her at one point and she just plays pranks on her. like the girl needs to grow up. she is always a big fan of kiera and she really meet her and same for kiera. she really looks up to this princess. kiera’s attitude isn’t as bad but its not great. she spending all this money on her concert and gets upset when they try and talk to her but like girl they just want you to calm down with the spending! they aren’t anything like the original characters. like if annelise and erika meet these girls they would be like shut up! i just feel like the morals for the original story are gone.

the next song is i wish i had her life which again isn’t a bad song but it kind makes you hate the characters because they are just singing about how they hate their privileged lives and want even more privileged lives. and its like shut up! you are famous. all you guys have to do is write a speech and some songs. you aren’t dying! in the original the girls didn’t know who the other was and even though they were from different, they could still relate to each other in some way. that’s what the song i’m just like you is about!

so basically kiera’s manger is like the main villain of the movie who is a real step down in barbie villains. he also acts jim carrey. like primenger in the original story who is voiced by martin short, basically is stealing from the kingdom and just wants to rule it. you hate his character. but this guy i kind of just pitied. he was annoying but i felt bad for the guy. kiera doesn’t treat him treat as a manger and he can’t do anything right. anyway the girls meet at the castle and we are hinted that the kingdom is in bad shape but we don’t talk about it yet. also random thing i hate the outfits in this film. okay so both the girls have dogs because in the original both of the girls had cats. the cats were fun because one of them could bark and it was cute! also seraphine was so sassy. can’t say the same about the dogs. the dogs weren’t really original. like one is wild and one is classy and that is used in the original but this time its so cliche. okay let’s talk about the magic in this movie. so this is like a recent trend in barbie movies is that they like to randomly add magic and fairies. sometimes it works but some times it doesn’t. there wasn’t magic in the original story and i can understand wanting to change the story but it didn’t work in my opinion. mainly because the magic is not explained. kiera has a magic mircophone that lets her change outfits and tori has a magic hair brush that lets her change clothes and they use this to trade lives. its never really explained where they got these things or how they can do it. like their are numbers for the changes they can make but how do they know this stuff. did it come with a manual?

why they trade lives is different in this film as you might expect. in the original, julian, knows that something is up and uses Erika to make everyone think that Annalise isn’t missing because she has been kidnapped. in this film they just trade lives for fun. like nothing major happens that causes this. they just do it for fun. there is a dominick character his name is liam and he is there. that’s it. there isn’t any build up with their relationship. he falls for kiera as tori as you can imagine. so we find out that the royal family has the secret diamond garden and there are garden fairies. they give the girls diamond necklace because we are now in diamond castle. kiera’s manger see the garden and decides he is gonna steal it because its diamond plant! like how is that possible! the girls planned to trade lives for one day and tori has to teach kiera how to be a princess. you know where this is heading… yep they redid to be a princess. it’s bad. to be a princess was fine! you didn’t need to change! the original is so much fun but they changed and it’s so bad. like it physically pains me listening to this song. i hate it so much. they also do a cover of perfect day for some reason. tori as kiera goes through meribella and discovers that the kingdom is having problems. people are basically losing their jobs because of a draught which inspires her to make the concert free. tori’s sisters also reveal that they know that she isn’t tori and they promise to keep a secret. they decide to keep doing this and kiera finally writes songs again. yay who cares. but she gets locked into tori’s room because she needs to write her speech which leads to tori having to performed. everyone acts like its really dramatic but its not. kiera’s manger steals the plant and like the kingdom falls apart for some reason. they didn’t explain that earlier. basically there is a final showdown but it boring. they plane their diamonds in the garden and new plant grows for some reason. the magic in this movie makes no sense. tori finally writes her speech and the girls sing a song together and that’s the film.

here is the thing with remakes. we don’t want the same story that we got the first time around. there needs to be some changes that make it different but the core values of the film should still be there. I mean nightmare on elm street got a remake in 2010 and while the story is similar, people felt like it was lacking the feel of the original film. that’s what happened here. i’m not saying that this film should have been just like the original that would have been boring. but this film lacks the value from not only the first film but the original story. the whole point of the original prince and pauper by mark twain is that everyone has their own problems and don’t judge people be their appearance. that doesn’t even happen in this film! both girls are fine in each other lives and not seem to learn anything new. surprisingly this film has a lot of positive reviews. but a lot of OG fans like me and julia really hate this film.

don’t watch this film. the songs are okay but the story is frustrating and kind of boring. just watch princess and the pauper. its a much better film and has some really great songs and moments. it’s one of my favorite films from my childhood and even now i still love it. it has a great female friendship, some great romance, and so fucking fantastic songs. i shouldn’t curse. i’m talking about a kids film. i know i’m not the target audience. according to google the target audience girls of ages 3 to 11 and i’m 19. but i still care though!

i know no one but me cares but i’m still doing this . should i do more posts about barbie movies? which ones? do you like princess and the pauper? do you like princess and the popstar? do you agree with me? as always i posted rants like this every once and a while. look out for more reviews and other random posts. like, comment, and follow for more rants like these! also make sure to follow my social media links.

you know you love fiction,

Grace

tumblr: monsterpandamash

twitter: astudyingigi

instagram: astudyingigi

youtube: a study in gigi

handbook for mortals by lani sarem review | controversial book club

hello earthlings! so if you don’t know i have a youtube. i’ve had it for a while but i didn’t talk about it because my mom reads these and she didn’t know. but after i accidentally sent a link to my family, they know and i can talk about it. but i have channel and i decided to start a book club where every month i talk about a book that has been involved in controversy and discuss whether or not the book is good. and this month we are talking about handbook for mortals.

 

so i read handbook for mortals. a book that is mainly known for the fact that it scammed its way on the new york bestseller. i made a whole video about it, go check that out i worked really hard on it. not a lot of people have read this book but still review it on goodreads. i think that’s kind of dumb but at the same time this book doesn’t deserve a high rating. its not very good book. but its not the worst book in the world. maybe its because i’ve read two fifty shades and two after books. but yes not the worst book. i still gave it one star though. i spent four dollars on this book and i’m really glad i didn’t spend another dollar on the hardcover because four dollars was already too much. i feel bad saying that but its true. there was a small part of me that wanted this to be good. i don’t know why. maybe because it has 1.3 rating on goodreads and most of them aren’t really about the book but about the scandal. but the foreword didn’t make my feel better. the first paragraph is about how to say Lani’s name. it’s like annie with L. now i can’t names are hard. people say my last name wrong all the time. but someone should cut this. i can’t judge this too hard because i don’t really count forewords. so let’s move on.

this book follows a girl named Zade who isn’t like most girls, is weird, and isn’t like most girls and is weird, and i’m forgetting something? Ahh yes its that she isn’t like most girls. have mentioned that Zade isn’t like most girls? because this book loves to bring up almost in every chapter. but yeah she is weird and isn’t like most girls so she travels from tennessee to las vegas to join a magic show with this dude named charles who is like david blaine basically even though we never really see him do anything. everyone just talks about what he has done. we learn that Zade is magically. i’m not really sure what she can do or how she can do it because this book doesn’t explain anything. all i know is that she can do stuff and have visions and that magick is spelled with k. she has this thing with a guy named Mac. despite what the plot says there isn’t really a love triangle. there is another guy but like half through he kind of just dips an we are left with Mac. they have a hate to love relationship which has no build up. they go from hating to being in love in five seconds. there aren’t many female characters in this story. there is sofia who is charles girlfriend who he just throws to the side at the end of the novel and its never explained and she automatically hates Zade. because if you don’t know Zade isn’t like most girls. weirdly when it comes to female interactions, i feel like a man wrote them. in one scene Zade is hanging out with a group of girls and they ask her where her favorite place to shop is. you know because they girl. girl like clothes. girl can’t like anything else. Zade can’t relate to the conversation because say it with me now SHE ISN’T LIKE MOST GIRLS! in another interaction, Zade is getting lemonade at the mall and this guy is serving her but then his girlfriend shows up and she literally yells at Zade because she was being nice to her boyfriend and Zade then uses her magic to spill lemonade all over this girl.

Zade isn’t the best main character. for one she feels like a self insert. her life story and description is very similar to Lani’s. I’m not saying that it was on purpose. that’s just how it felt. We don’t know much about Zade other than she isn’t normal and most girls aren’t like her. she uses her magic to harm people. like one time a dude on a bike accidentally bumps into her and she uses her magic to make him crash and is just like ‘karma’s bitch’. it was an accident and all he did was hit your bag. i get it if you were frustrated but like the dude could have gotten really hurt. she just never uses her powers for the right reasons. she uses them to harm people or uses them as tricks. in the beginning she does this trick using her magic and its a bit confusing. she throws a rose onto the stage and the rose stays there because the stage is solid. then she jumps and the stage somehow turns into a pool. i don’t know how she did this but everyone else is like wow so cool which i think is weird. like is anyone even thinking about the physics of this. i know the point of magic is illusions and stuff but even if it was an illusion how would she have do that. how! it makes no sense.

the writing isn’t bad but its not good either. like in the first chapter of the book there are a coupe of lines that i thought were nice. but then there is one line though that you guys probably have heard of but i’m still gonna talk about it.

“I rarely think this but i wish a photographer had taken my picture at that moment as the outfit and the background and i may have produced a cool looking photo.”

i thought that i was just reading it wrong but turns out, i wasn’t. to make sure i sent to j and mason who did confirm that i was not going insane. this first chapter which is technically chapter zero but i’m not calling it that has great atmosphere and unfortunately this is never really in any other parts of the book. a lot of description is given in this chapter and not a lot else happens until the very end. but the descriptions do bring down this book though. its very telly and gives us a lot of information that most of the time we don’t need or things we don’t need in that moment. like later in this book Zade is sees this stage hand and still of giving us his introduction, she just says i would later learn his name was tad and he always says this. like that information would have been so much better shown then told. also if a joke is made the book tells you why its funny. like I’m pretty stupid but i got the joke please don’t explain it.

there’s another line that is another example of how descriptive this book is that i would like to share with you all.

“Both of his hands reached toward his head and he started rubbing his forehead, which he had scrunched up. His eyes were closed and he had the look of someone who had been suddenly hit with a headache. He took a deep breath in and out as if to try to calm himself. His hands moved from his forehead to his mouth and he looked directly at me as if he was deciding whether he should yell at me some more or push me into the pool. He pulled his hands away from his mouth and pressed his lips together tightly. His hands folded together, close to his face. It almost made him look like he was about to pray. He finally brought himself around enough to speak again. His words came out calmly and clearly since he was standing very close in front of my face. It was even, in a soft tone, the way some people sound when they are on the edge of losing it all together.”

i just don’t know how i feel about it. that’s a lie i know how i feel about it. i hate it. the writing has potential to be good but it is dragged down by stuff like this. maybe this would have worked better as film because instead of being told these reactions i could see them. i don’t know.

nothing really happens in this book. everyone is working towards this show, mac and zade continue to have their very boring relationship that lacks any chemistry, charles acts weird and mysterious because that’s his character, and every other female character is girly and a bitch. actually we have zade’s mom who is barely in the story. she is in the beginning and in the end. her relationship with zade is weird because the story isn’t sure if they are lorelai and rory or emily and lorelai. basically in the first chapter they are yelling, then they are crying, then they are making jokes, and then we yelling and crying more. there is are so many mood changes that you can get whiplash. i don’t know how whiplash works. her mom is also magick with k in case you forgot. i think we learn that at the end or maybe we always know that i’m not sure! oh yeah and charles the mysterious guy is zade’s father. which i saw coming. its a pretty predictable plot twist and based off how the rest of this book was i figured that it was probably coming. he is still in love with zade’s mom despite the fact that he has a girlfriend. they get married in the end and i’m guessing sofia just got kicked to the curb which i feel bad about. the book really wants me to hate sofia but i don’t. you have to give a better reason to hate her other than she and Zade don’t get along because Zade just isn’t like most girls.

one thing that bothered was the fact mac had a pov in this book but when its his pov, the book is in italics. this isn’t a big deal. i just didn’t like it. but then later on zade gets hurt and is in coma for a bit. we basically focus on mac and charles but instead of going to mac’s pov like we’ve done before, it’s in zade’s pov. but she is in coma and doesn’t talk or do anything and we are reading this book in 3 rd person but then zade will be like my mom was telling mac this and i’m like GIRL YOU IN A COMA HOW WOULD YOU KNOW! it just makes no sense. why did you bring in this second pov if we weren’t going to use it in the end. i just didn’t get it. it’s so weird. it’s a weird choice to make. this book is filled with weird choices. this book is just a weird book with a weird story and a weird  reputation. at the end of the book does hint at a sequel. it ends with mac saying that there should be a handbook for mortals so that he can understand this world which i get because i don’t get it either. and it then says they lived happily ever after… or DO THEY?? that’s reallyy stupid and i feel like that was added as joke. like no one out there is ever thinking that they need to use this to end a book. i really think was a joke. my kindle edition came with a sneak peak and it’s a bit transphobic if i’m being honest. we meet Zade’s aunt who identifies as women but they use male pronouns when talking about her. also they act like trans people don’t exist because opening seeing her, they are all like THIS IS SO WEIRD OH MY GOD! zade even talks about her aunt like its like weird thing and her aunt is crazy and they are just going along with this act. i know that its not a part of the actually book but its not good. if a sequel is going to happen which i doubt then let’s change that because lani i’m pretty sure you don’t wanna be in any trouble then you already are.

the whole point of reading this book was to find out if this book was good. i talked about the scandal and now i have read the book and i can say that no this book is not good. i was holding up hope that i would be proven wrong and this book was secretly a gem. it’s not though and i’m kind of sad. i think without the scandal some people would have found enjoyment in this book and it would have a higher rating on goodreads. i do have to say please don’t review this book if you haven’t read it. i don’t know why this bothers and this book didn’t deserve high praise but i don’t know. i believe that you should at least give a book a try before you review. in a way if you think about it, Lani wanted this book to famous and in a way it is. just not in the way she wanted.

 hope you enjoy this post. hopefully i do more post. i’m stuck and my house and there isn’t much else to do. as always i posted rants like this every once and a while. look out for more reviews and other random posts. like, comment, and follow for more rants like these! also make sure to follow my social media links.

you know you love fiction,

Grace

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