Twistandshout

My April 2020 Roundup—A Lot of Books, And Others

It’s been a while since I did an actual roundup. (The one for March does not count cause that one’s just mainly about books.) But here I am. I wasn’t planning on doing this actually but I already did the featured image for this post and I’d hate for that precious “artwork” to go to waste.

Anyway, April went by in a blip. And of course, seeing that we’re still under community quarantine, it’s…

Well well, I haven’t actually done this in a while. And by a while, I meant since May of 2018—wow, almost two years ago. It really has been a long time. So, I wrote a draft of this post last last week and I intended to have it published last week, but you know, things happen, brains get sidetracked. Yadah yadah yadah.

Anyway, let’s get on with this then.

(more…)

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I know that I’ve always said that I prefer being in the confines of my own home and I’m more of an introvert (not full on, but I usually am anti-social), but there are instances—although far and few in between—when I want to get out and see people.

While I do dislike socializing with other human beings, I do, however, like to watch people. Not in a…

Hello, anxiety, it’s been a while. Okay, no, not really a while. It’s been a good week and yet here you are again.

My anxieties coupled with several frustrations is not really something I look forward to having. It’s annoying and quite frankly, a fucking pain in the ass.

Although, let’s be real here, what I feel

I was going through my Drafts because apparently, it has ballooned to 124 posts and I didn’t even notice until today. I already trashed some of them but this particular post caught my eye. I don’t know why it’s in my Drafts because upon checking, I already published that post back in 2018.

Not sure what I was thinking then but anyway, shit happens, my brain goes haywire sometimes, and now here…

I’m not the biggest fan of Filipino movies. The recipe for most local films has been the same for what feels like centuries. The genre changes, of course, but for every genre, the shit’s basically what it was two or three or even five decades ago, save for a few indie films.

We have marital affairs, rich boy/girl falling in love with a poor boy/girl (and no, it’s never homosexual), an adopted…

The Mystery Week on Goodreads ended yesterday (or earlier today, I’m not sure anymore). And my Mystery Week ends today, with this post about The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas.

I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to squeeze in one more mystery novel before my self-imposed deadline because Sadie was still looming over my head (even though I’ve already read another bookafter that) and it was just too…

For those who still care about what I think about makeup, here’s a quick update. A few weeks ago, I got these babies (courtesy of the amazing girlfriend who gave them to me as a surprise—well, the ColourPop ones, at least, and bought me the rest while we were at the mall) and have been testing them in rotation since.

Not much has changed when it comes to my lipstick preference—matte and…

I’m gonna be honest. I’m not really a big fan of British novels, for various reasons. For starters, the “accent” in my head while I’m reading is not pretty. I try to avoid reading it with an accent but since I’m fully aware that they’re British, it’s a bit hard. Plus, there are instances when they’d throw in characters who are Irish or Scottish so the whole accent fiasco gets even worse.

Then,…

Sadie is for ‘The Girls’

Before anything else, Sadie is not your usual mystery, suspense-thriller novel. It’s not the kind that’s longing for a big reveal. It’s basically a true crime but fiction. Although you may not know it at the time yet or maybe you’re in denial (just like I was), you already know the ending.

Trigger warning. Trigger warnings every-fucking-where.

(more…)

Mystery Week Lives On with ‘If You’re Out There’

Curious. The whole time I was reading this, I was nothing but curious. Intensely curious? Can you even say that? Well, if you can, that’s what I was.

I slept last night after finishing half of the book and at some point during my sleep, I think I had dreamt of this. More like I dreamt of myself readingthis. I guess I’m the sort of person who dreams about the books she’s read…or reading. I…

Never Never… Seriously

I haven’t finished—started, actually—a mystery novel after Verity but since that book reminded me of the disaster that is this series, I’m gonna talk about this instead.

I read the books waaaay back in 2016, though, but it feels like it was just yesterday (now that it was unearthed from the depths of my memory).

(more…)

‘Verity’ Haunted My Dreams

Last night, after an entire day of basically scrolling through this book on my phone (I honestly do not miss physical books, don’t hate me), I finally finished it. And the whirlwind of emotions that came after were just as intense as the ones I felt while I was reading it. Imagine, I actually dreamt about this book!

Now, I can’t get it out of my head and I still feel a little bit disturbed.…

Two Can Keep A Secret… If One is Dead

Last week, I found out that Mx Karen wrote a sequel to One of Us is Lying, a Young Adult Mystery novel that I loved and read back in 2018.

Needless to say, I was excited. But after having read the book, all I felt was extreme disappointment. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting. And for the most part, it was really just corny and boring.

(more…)

Last weekend, I woke up to an invite to this Facebook group called Tumblr Online Rambulan.

If I haven’t mentioned it before (which I doubt), I used to blog—more like write shitty life updates—on Tumblr. And it was fun… until it wasn’t.

(more…)

I’ve always been vocal about my political stance. My social media connections (“friends”) know it, my actual friends know it, my relatives know it, even most of my blog readers know it (except if you’re new then hello, I’m vocal).

The thing is, I’m only 28 years old. Statistically, I still have a whole life ahead of me. I’m not some 60 or 70 or 80++ year old who can easily say that I’ve lived…

Reading is a truly funny thing. One minute I’m so into it, then the next I’m just tired of it all even though I’ve loved reading since elementary (I remember going through my cousin’s Nancy Drew books collection).

Or maybe reading isn’t the funny one and it’s actually me, the person whose attention span is similar to that of a toddler. And true to a kid’s nature, I easily change my mind about…