Grimmella

Goodness. Where have I been? And how in the world am I finally finding time to write in the midst of the holiday season? I don’t know. I do know I’ve missed this outlet for myself. Is it too early to be talking about New Year’s Resolutions? Well here’s mine: to start writing more. And not just here- it’s time to really work on getting the stories in my head down on paper. Anyways. I remember when…

Written by Erika Johansen; Published 2015. The second book in the Tearling trilogy by Johansen, I liked this one more and less than the first book, The Queen of the Tearling. It started out poorly, which I think turned me off it but I continued reading and was well rewarded. ****SPOILERS TO FOLLOW**** I had two main issues with this book. First, the book starts off with a closer look at the…

Written by Lev Grossman; published 2014. The Magician’s Land is the final book in a trilogy written by Lev Grossman. I read and reviewed the first two books a few years ago (The Magicians and The Magician King) and loved them both. I was thrilled to finish up the trilogy and was even more thrilled by how well it finished. The Magicians trilogy unashamedly rips off two of the big fantasy stories,…

Cinderella

I went to see the new Cinderella movie with a friend last week and absolutely loved it. It was sweet and innocent and just all around lovely. My only issue? Not enough Helena Bonham-Carter (she’s been a long time favorite of mine). But the real stand out here was the set and costume design, both of which were absolutely magnificent. It was a glorious riot of Rococo, Victoriana, and 1940’s…

Almost exactly three years, I wrote about the discovery of a collection of previously unknown fairy tales by Franz Xaver von Schonwerth. At the time, a small collection had been published in German but there was no word on when an English translation would become available. But I just found out a paperback collection of 72 of the tales was published this past February and it is now available to…

Despite a longtime love for Disney princesses and Jane Austen, I’ve never been a fan of romantic stories. I know there are plenty of other people who share my indifference (or outright distaste) for overly sappy love stories so I’ve decided to compile a list of books where women are the main characters and the main plot line has nothing to do with a romantic relationship (and maybe a few…

The Queen of The Tearling

I should have known better than to start a series that isn’t finished yet. Because, naturally, I loved this book. And, naturally, it’s only the first book of a planned trilogy. So who knows when I’ll get to finish it. (*sigh*)

Written by Erika Johansen, The Queen of the Tearlingtells the story of 19 year old Kelsea who has lived her life in hiding as she is trained to be the new Queen. Her…

A Bit of Horror

Despite the fact that I am an absolute coward, I still love a good horror movie. And no, I don’t mean movies like Saw or The Texas Chainsaw Massacrewhere the fear factor comes from crazed maniacs wielding sharp objects and blood splashes across everything. I’m talking the sort of movies that unsettle you and make you wish you weren’t alone. I recently watched two movies that have been highly…

Am I the only one who liked this movie? Granted, it had plenty of problems but overall I enjoyed it. (Disclaimer: I wanted to like this movie. And generally when I want to like something, I do.)

Jupiter (played by Mila Kunis) is an illegal immigrant from Russia, spending her days as a house cleaner with her mother and aunt. But it…

CHAPPiE http://wp.me/s1WOab-chappie

Happy New Year!

There’s a lot of great stuff in the fantasy/sci-fi realm coming out in 2015 but the one I’m most excited about is CHAPPiE. I’ve been seeing the previews a lot recently in front of movies that are out already and while I realize that previews are meant to make movies look as appealing as possible, CHAPPiE‘s got a lot going for it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhNshgSYF_M…

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

And so it ends.

I went to see The Battle of The Five Armies this past Saturday in 3D, a format I still feel unnecessary and gimmicky although I will admit to some pretty cool effects because of it (that snow!!). There’s no denying that The Hobbit trilogy has been inferior to The Lord of the Ringsbut it’s still been an entertaining…

Clariel http://wp.me/s1WOab-clariel

Oh, how quickly resolutions fail. I recently claimed that I was taking a break from YA fiction because I was tired of reading the same bad story over and over again. And yet, here I am reading more young adult novels. However, Clariel by Garth Nix justified my broken resolve.

Every now and then we read books that touch a chord in our imaginations that continues to hum the rest of our lives. The…

This movie had a lot against it in my opinion. I’ve never been a huge fan of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (#BeautyandtheBeast4lyfe!) and I get tired of villains being made sympathetic. Sometimes evil really is just evil. But this retelling worked, for the most part.

First the bad:

The Moors, where Maleficent lives, looks a bit like it…

Today is the first of December. Thanksgiving is over (hope it was lovely for all my American friends), the snow is falling on WordPress blogs, and yesterday was the first Sunday of this Advent Season. Which means that it is now socially acceptable to begin celebrating Christmas. Last yearI wrote about my love of Advent Calenders after discovering a fantastic online Tolkien Advent calender with…

This was not a movie I planned on seeing, at least not in the theater. I like Christopher Nolan; Momento, the Batman movies, and Inception were all good movies that hold up well under repeated viewings. But I don’t particularly like Matthew McConaughey or Anne Hathaway and, well, we all know how I feel about Space. But a friend wanted to see it on a mutual day off so I obliged, knowing there was…

Ruin and Rising; Or Why I’m Taking a Break from YA Fiction

Oh goodness.

It took me over a month to finish this book. For me, that’s a long time. A reaaalllly long time. Like, I might have read War and Peace in that same amount of time. (Ok, not really, but you get my idea.)

Ruin and Rising is the third book in a young adult trilogy written by Leigh Bardugo. I read the first two in the series, Shadow and Bone and Siege and Storm, last year and was on the…

About this time last year I discovered a really interesting new graphic novel called Saga written by Brian K. Vaughan. The third volume recently came out and, as I’ve enjoyed the series so far, I decided to see what else we have in our system by Vaughan. Three series looked promising so I’ve begun reading them all. Here are my thoughts, from worst to best.

Y: The Last Man

I heard about this comic…