book thoughts: the 5th wave by rick yancey

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
Genre: Paranormal(/Sci-Fi) YA
Goodreads

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one. Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

This post contains spoilers, read at your own risk!

I finished this a week ago and have been trying to let this settle in my mind before reviewing it. What with my recent Hunger Games ~episode~ and the fact that I'm currently reading the Animorphs series for the first time, it's safe to say that I'm having pretty intense war kids feelings at the moment and on the basis of that I really loved the first part of this book. The stories that I get invested in are always the ones which hook me in with their protagonists and proceed to give them narratives which are both interesting and emotional. On the basis of the first 25% of The 5th Wave I genuinely thought I was on to a winner. This section in particular was a real dream:

I might be - no, I probably am - doomed.
But if I’m it, the last of my kind, the last page of human history, like hell I’m going to let the story end this way.
I may be the last one, but I am the one still standing. I am the one turning to face the faceless hunter in the woods on an abandoned highway. I am the one not running, not staying, but facing.
Because if I am the last one, then I am humanity.
And if this is humanity’s last war, then I am the battlefield.

It's pretty much everything I wanted from YA at that moment in time: a lady soldier embodying making choices for herself, taking action and then having to deal with the consequences. I would happily have stayed in Cassie's head for a full book.

Unsurprisingly then I was initially sceptical when Ben's POV kicked in. I'm happy to report that he won me over. In line with my war kids interests my interest in him really kicked in once he started his miliary training and I thought that the book was raising some interesting comparisons about stances in war. What it means to be a soldier in terms of being an armed individual in a combat zone versus what it means to be institutionalised as a soldier. The difference between being consumed by emotion as opposed to being devoid of it. The later stages of the book didn't work quite so well for me and I think that can be attributed to the fact that the focus on character development gave way to a (over)complicated plot. There were undoubtedly some interesting character ideas in the later chapters (I especially liked that Cassie questioned why it was that she instinctively trusted Ben after everything she'd seen up until then) but I think it's telling that most of the passages I marked are in the first half of the book.

Ultimately I think my issue was that this book, clearly the first in a series, was trying to do too much. I admire Rick Yancey's ambition but it felt like too much, too soon. It's entirely possible that it's just my war kids myopia talking but I felt that this may have been more satisfying if this first book had simply left the aliens as 'other', if they had remained foreign and unknown. I think I would have preferred a book which was just about Cassie and Ben and their different paths to war and the notions of guilt and trust which accompanied that. The book could have repositioned the climax and built towards Ringer 'going Dorothy' and Cassie beginning to suspect Evan. As it was I felt that the attempts to describe/explain/justify/explore the alien psyche through Evan (and Vosch's monologues) were the weakest points of the novel. I don't hate the idea, actually I'm really interested in exploring the concept of humanity, but it all came too close to the end of the novel so that these huge concepts which are worthy of books of their own felt tacked on. There wasn't enough time to explore the idea of 'alien-ness' fully (demonstrated by the very limited uses of Evan's POV) here - it would perhaps have made more sense to place that all in a sequel and develop that concept more fully.

On the strength of The 5th Wave's first half I'll definitely check out the sequel when it's released but I worry that it, like a lot of teen TV shows (I'm looking at you The Vampire Diaries!) may have put too much on the table too soon and will end up relying on over-convoluted plot to pad out the pages.

movie thoughts: short term 12

Having been to the cinema very little (for me at least!) in the autumn, I've been three times in the last week! By far the most impressive of the films I've seen so far this year is Short Term 12.


It's a small, quiet independent film about a short-term group care home and it's really wonderful. The film is dealing with some really harrowing subject matter but I came away from it feeling surprisingly elated; walking home afterwards I was consumed by a feeling of heart-expanding contentment. It wasn't just a response to the quality of the acting/production either, it was the story itself that left me so full of joy. Running throughout the film was the idea that however terrible things are in life, there are always moments of hope and happiness. Just because one person couldn't love you right doesn't mean that no-one ever will; just because your past has been full of pain and grief doesn't mean that your future will be. The characters' faith in that concept wavers throughout the film and it's that conflict which provides the plot but the despair is never absolute. For all that the film is rooted in abuse narratives, at its heart are moments of kindness and love, some fleeting, others more consistent. Always both surprising and completely natural. The film knows that it's impossible to cling to such happiness in the face of true adversity but never doubts for a second that respite is on the way; hope is never unfounded.

Two of my favourite film critics Film Crit Hulk and Alyssa Rosenburg each reviewed the film with far more eloquence than I can muster. I think FCH put it best however: "IT'S A FILM THAT IS AS EXPANSIVE AS THE HUMAN HEART." It's less than three weeks in to the new year but I'd be very surprised if I see anything else in 2014 that moved and delighted me to the same extent that Short Term 12 did.

tabula rasa

It's nearly the middle of January so it seems right that I should explain my new year's resolution: to become more discerning about the ways I respond to popular culture. This all came about when a friend showed me Film Crit Hulk's 'review' of Man of Steel. It's a pretty long piece (dissertation length in fact!) but I highly recommend it - it deconstructs the failings of MoS in an intelligent and insightful way and has some really compelling things to say about the art of storytelling. Of particular note are the introductions to the piece (yes, there are 4 of them) which discuss the nature of film criticism and why it is that people react so differently to movies. Reading Film Crit Hulk's piece made me reflect upon how I react to popular culture, in particular film and literature, and it made me realise how problematic my approach has been.

The aspect of FCH's piece that affected me the most was that discussing the differences between emotional and 'intellectual'/expert responses to film:

[...]WE ASSUME THAT JUST BECAUSE WE KNOW THE END RESULT OF HOW A MEDIA EXPERIENCE AFFECTS US, WE THEREFORE UNDERSTAND HOW IT WORKED ON US. AND IT GIVES RISE TO ONGOING HABITS OF OPINION THAT MAY BE TOTALLY JUSTIFIED ON AN EMOTIONAL LEVEL, BUT THEY ARE NOT "RIGHT" IN THE WAY THEY ARE DIAGNOSING WHAT IS GOOD AND BAD. FOR INSTANCE, SOMEONE CAN DISLIKE SOPHIE'S CHOICE BECAUSE IT MADE THEM SAD, BUT THAT DOES NOT VALIDATE THEIR OPINION THAT IT IS "A BAD MOVIE." IT DEPENDS ON A CRUCIAL UNDERSTANDING OF FUNCTION, NOT MERE EFFECT. AGAIN, THE THING ABOUT TANGIBLE DETAILS IS THAT WE ALL HAVE OUR RELATIVE CAPACITIES TO PERCEIVE BEYOND THEM OR FALL VICTIM TO THEM. FOR INSTANCE, TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE MAY WATCH NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN AND BOTH LIKE IT, BUT ONE WILL JUSTIFY IT WITH SOMETHING SIMPLE LIKE "It was awesome they had the gunfight in the hotel!" WHEREAS THE OTHER COULD HAVE MORE THEMATIC, NUANCED LEANINGS AND SAY: "The ending is just a perfect encapsulation of how one essentially 'retires' from the world of material pursuits when they've seen the cost of those pursuits and the cavernous loss that it creates! The constancy of death is haunting!" BOTH CAME TO THE SAME EVALUATION OF "GOOD" THROUGH RADICALLY DIFFERENT MEANS. THE SAME WOULD BE TRUE FOR PEOPLE WHO DIDN'T LIKE THE MOVIE. ONE PERSON CAN JUSTIFY THEIR DISLIKE BY SAYING "I thought the ending was stupid! I didn't get it! I wish we saw him get killed!" WHEREAS SOMEONE ELSE CAN SAY "I have a long-winded explanation for how the approach to the ending does not satisfy me on a cathartic level, even though that's totally the point of this movie and it builds to that message beautifully!" [...] THE POINT IS THAT WE COULD JUST CHALK THESE DIFFERENCES IN OPINION OVER THE MOVIE UP TO A MATTER OF DRUTHERS, BUT WHILE EVERYONE IS CERTAINLY ENTITLED TO THEIR OPINION THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT EVERYONE IS ENTITLED TO THEIR OPINION BEING RIGHT. THAT'S SIMPLY NOT WHAT SUBJECTIVITY IS ABOUT, YET WE MAKE THIS MISTAKE ALL THE TIME. JUST BECAUSE OPINIONS AREN'T FACTS DOES NOT MEAN THAT SOME OPINIONS AREN'T MORE COHERENT, HELPFUL AND PRODUCTIVE THAN OTHERS. AND THE OBVIOUS DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "The gun fight is awesome!" AND THE "perfect encapsulation of..." IS THE QUALITY OF INSIGHT. IT'S THE ABILITY TO ENGAGE THE TEXT FOR ITS EXPRESSED PURPOSE, AND THEN THEIR RESPECTIVE ABILITIES TO PROVIDE AN EDUCATIONAL PROCESS TO THE READER, FAR BEYOND THE LAME CONCLUSION OF BAD/GOOD WITHIN THE OPINION ITSELF.

I can make no claim to be an expert in film or literature - I studied literature at school and never studied film. I like to think of myself as an observant reader/viewer and I'm well-educated but I'm not a 'trained' critic or 'story diagnostician'. In terms of my own engagement with pop culture therefore, this passage (from Introduction #4) is interesting to me less in terms of the amateur/critic debate but in terms of emotional/rational responses to stories. Looking back over my blog posts from the last year I realised that my reviews are a confused and messy combination of emotional/rational responses: my 'reviews' confused how I felt about books/movies with what I thought about how well they worked. I liked Man of Steel enough to see it more than once at the cinema but revisiting that review it's clear that I attributed my enjoyment of that film to it's aesthetics - Henry Cavill's face (and other body parts), the cinematography, the music etc. My review gave very little consideration to aspects of narrative or character arc or to whether the film actually told me anything.

Having emotional responses to the stories we consume is natural (media has completely failed if we feel nothing but ambivalent) and I am very prone to emotional transference - I cry at everything to the extent that it is not uncommon for me to have cried at least once during the trailers before a movie! Moreover, I'm very wary of people who try to deny audiences their right to instinctive emotional reactions to pop culture. For example, I found the reaction of authors and commentators to the backlash against Veronica Roth's Allegiant deeply troubling. That authors such as John Green, who hold themselves up as champions of young readers, dismissed readers' reactions to the book outright and criticised them for not reading 'generously' was deeply condescending and problematic. The notion that the only valid responses are those accompanied by rational thought and extensive analysis is just wrong. These readers were simply articulating their gut reaction - maybe upon reflection they'd be less vehement in their criticism but their dissatisfaction and disappointment in that moment were perfectly valid.

As FCH explains, emotional responses are valid and important BUT it's important to recognise that we're consuming media on that level of transference and projection. It's one thing to express you emotional response but another thing entirely to be able to explain why a film did or did not succeed in tell a coherent and meaningful story. I too was deeply disappointed with Allegiant and at some point in 2014 I'd like to reread it with a critical eye and analyse whether or not it is a failure and if so why. In the meantime I need to be aware that my 'review' of the book (as with so many of my so-called reviews) represents not a critical analysis but an account of my emotional response to it.

This isn't just a 'problem' with media I don't like. In the summer I read a couple of books that I really loved and when it came to reviewing The Dream Thieves I really struggled to review it without descending in to exclamation points and capslock. I don't possibly have the time to analyse and critique every book I read but I'm no longer content to 'accept' my enjoyment of things that I like so passively. I've got to stop thinking that my 'academic' and my 'fangirl' brains are two separate entities.It would be nice to have a more interesting response to, 'How did you find it?' than 'Oh, yes, it was good. I liked it a lot'.

This has all been a very long-winded way of getting to this:

SURE, MOVIES ARE THESE GRAND ARTISTIC THINGS THAT WE ALL HAVE EMOTIONAL REACTIONS TO, BUT THERE REALLY ARE THINGS LIKE CRAFT, COHESION, PURPOSE AND THE EFFECT ON THE AUDIENCE, WHICH THEN MEANS IT'S ABOUT OUR ABILITY TO CONTEXTUALIZE AND EXPLAIN TO THEM THAT MATTERS, NOT THE SHOUTS OF "This is what I thought, dammit!!!" SERIOUSLY, JUST BECAUSE WE CAN'T COME TO DEFINITIVE CONCLUSIVE STATEMENTS WITH ART DOESN'T MEAN WE CAN'T DO OUR DAMNEDEST TO ESTABLISH A FIRMER GRIP ON THE NOT-SO-TANGIBLE DETAILS THAT HIDE BENEATH THE SURFACE AND UNVEIL THE REAL ENGINEERING OF MOVIES.

In light of all this reflection therefore my new year's resolution is to be more self-critical in my reaction to pop culture. I want to spend more time interrogating my feelings towards the media I consume. This doesn't necessarily mean writing academic-style essays on everything I watch and read but it does mean becoming more careful in how I talk about literature and film and being more discerning in terms of articulating how I feel as opposed to what I think. It's not that this is an entirely new concept to me - I've spent a lot of time (too much time one might say) dissecting The Hunger Games series trying to work out why Mockingjay is such a problem - but I'd like to become more consistent in interrogating what I consume.

This will of course mean that there will be some changes on the blog - I'll probably be posting reviews less frequently and I'll probably only post about the things which really make an impact. I'd also like to spend more time thinking about the nature of pop culture engagement and hopefully some of that will make its way on to the blog. Finally, I think I'll probably move away from using a numerical rating system and instead simply judge things on specific criteria. On there own these changes look quite small but I hope they'll make the blog far more interesting!

I started this blog because I needed a place to talk, a space in which I could unload some of my thoughts. Having found my voice (to some extent anyway) it's time I start to question that a little. It's exciting and I hope that in the next year you find a thing or two here that resonates with you too.

2013 roundup: books

Overall, it's been a very good reading year - I completed (exceeded in fact) my 50 books in 2013 challenge and have read far more fiction this year than I have done in any other year since I've been keeping track of my book consumption. Not everything I read was wonderful, looking back through my lists there is quite a lot of filler and plenty of things I have no interest in re-visiting. By far the biggest disappointment of the year was Veronica Roth's Allegiant - I was really sad to see a series that I had really loved end so poorly (you can read me review here). In line with one of my new year's resolutions (which I'll blog about later this week) I think I'll probably force myself to reread Allegiant in order to better rationalise/understand why it left me so unsatisfied.

Fortunately however, I read many books that I really enjoyed. The most important of these are:






By far my favourite book of the year was Carol Rifka Brunt's Tell the Wolves I'm Home (review). I loved the book when I read it back in February and it's been playing on my mind ever since then. I was deeply moved by all this book had to say about childhood and the unique agonies of mourning, growing up and navigating family relationships. It's definitely the book I've recommended the most this year and I expect that it will continue to be for some time.

For all that Allegiant was extremely disappointing, there were plenty of other gems to be found in YA literature this year. Worthy of special mentions are Katie Coyle's whipsmart Vivian Versus the Apocalypse (review) and Maggie Stiefvater's The Dream Thieves (review) which made my heart ache in the most wonderful way!

I hope that you all had a good reading year and that 2014 brings us all the excellent literature we deserve! I hope that the next year is full of deeply moving character stories and romping great high-concept novels. May all the sequels and final installments to series published this year come from the Deathly Hallows school of satisfying conclusions, rather than from the Mockingjay school of squandered potential!

2013 roundup: films

In part 2 of my 'faves of 2013' posts I thought I'd talk a bit about my favourite movies of the year. Most of the awards bait comes out in the next few weeks and therefore isn't on this list - I posted about the ones I'm most interested in over the summer, you can see that here - but I saw plenty of great movies this year.

According to my 2013 list I saw 27 movies at the cinema this year (not including multiple viewings - Star Trek x2, F&F6 x2Man of Steel x3, Catching Fire x3), by my maths that means I've spent around £160 on cinema tickets in 2013! In my defence a drug habit would be much more expensive!

So, in rainbow order, here 9 of my favourite new releases of 2013:



Lore - IMDB | Review
Populaire - IMDB
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - IMDB |Review




About Time - IMDB
The Kings of Summer - IMDB | Review
Fast and Furious 6 - IMDB | Review




Pacific Rim - IMDB | Review
Man of Steel - IMDB | Review
Star Trek Into Darkness - IMDB


Do these match up with your favourites of the year? If not, what would you add?

2013 roundup: music

It's that time of year again when everyone tries to compile lists of the best and worst of the last 12 months. I'm pretty partial to lists and it's always interesting to see which pop culture artefacts have most influenced the people I follow around the interwebs. As you may have gathered from my book and movie review posts over the last year I'm not always very good at differentiating between the things that I like and things that are good. What I've come to realise though is that I don't really care! Life's too short to spend it apologising for things that make you happy. For the next few weeks then I'll be posting about my favourite things in 2013. Some of them are technically good and possess a certain amount of cultural merit; others just bring me joy and are therefore equally deserving of a place on the list!

I'm going to start with music today and then work through books, movies and miscellany in the run up to new year. Most of the lists will be 'top 9s' because 9 makes for neater graphics than 10!

Just to get everyone in the right frame of mind please take the next 5 minutes to dance around to this, the greatest of year-end traditions:


Don't you feel better already?!

I tend to be quite up-to-date with films and books but I'm not always so on-the-ball with music (I think I'm overwhelmed but just how much of it there is) and so one of my favourite things about December is seeing what friends and commentators I admire consider to be the best albums of the year; I always end up buying wayyyyy more music in December than any other time of year!

Each month this year I've posted a list of my favourite (upbeat/pop) tracks in my monthly roundup and you can find all of those playlists over at 8tracks.

In terms of albums, these 9 are the new releases that I've enjoyed the most this year:


The National - Trouble Will Find Me (Performance: NPR Tiny Desk Concert)
Neko Case - The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You (Performance: NPR Tiny Desk Concert)
Gabrielle Aplin - English Rain (Track: Keep on Walking)
Little Mix - Salute (Performance: 'Move' on X Factor US)
KT Tunstall - Invisible Empire//Crescent Moon (Performance: Made of Glass Live Acoustic)
Lissie - Back to Forever (Track: The Habit)
Milo Greene - Milo Greene (Track: Son My Son)
MSMR - Secondhand Rapture (Track: Dark Doo Wop)
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire OST (Track: Sia ft The Weeknd & Diplo - Electric Heart

This year has clearly been very good for female artists and pop music!

So! What do you think? Would any of these artists make it on to your favourites lists? Anything you're tempted to try out?

film review: the kings of summer

The Kings of Summer (2013)
Director:  Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Starring: Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias
Genre: Coming of age comedy
Rating: 9/10
IMDB

Three teenage friends, in the ultimate act of independence, decide to spend their summer building a house in the woods and living off the land.

This is a real gem! It's the story of three teenage boys who decide to run away from home for the summer and build themselves a house in a nearby forest. It was only shown in a handful of cinemas in the UK but thanks to lots of very positive reviews it was very quickly released on DVD.

The Kings of Summer is charming and laugh out loud funny. The cast is great - the adults (including Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally) are particularly nuts and the two leads are really well cast. The scenery and cinematography are also lovely. There's a montage set to 'Youth' by MGMT which is an especially nice sequence. Most importantly, the movie really nails the tone, making a coming of age story that's both escapist and heartfelt. It doesn't shy away from the self-centeredness of adolescence but it's very generous in its portrayal of late-teenagedom, also capturing the characters' insecurities and vulnerability. For all the masturbation jokes, TKoS has a huge thumping heart.

Undoubtedly one of my favourite films of the year, I can't recommend The Kings of Summer highly enough. It would make for great double feature with Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom.

monthly roundup: nov 2013

Although I've been pretty terrible at blogging in November it's been a pretty good month pop culture-wise. I spent the first part of the month riding a huge nostalgia wave and rewatching Dawson's Creek!I should clarify that I basically spent a fortnight obsessing over 2 seasons of the show (s3&4) and odd episodes in S6 because they're the only ones worth bothering with (read: I only care about Pacey/Joey!). After years of being burnt by TV shows I've learned to become selective as a self-preservation tactic! Fandom should be fun - why subject yourself to stories/characters etc. you don't like?! That petered out and now I'm in the midst of my anticipated Hunger Games spiral. Unfortunately this is the one series where my self-preservation instinct falters - there's too much that I love to bail completely but there also so much to be frustrated with and bitter over!

Anyway! I've watched a lot of new movies that I really enjoyed.this month and I really love some of the music in the mix - if the Demi Levato track isn't one of your faves of the year then I'm not sure we can be friends!

books read

Holly Black - Black Heart (7/10)
Marcus Sedgwick - Midwinterblood (7/10)
Craig Thompson - Blankets (6/10)
Yann Martel - Life of Pi (9/10)

new movies watched

To Catch A Thief (6/10)

Philomena (7/10)

Gravity (8/10)

The Royal Tenembaums (8/10)

Thor: The Dark World (8/10)

On the Town (8/10)

The Kings of Summer (9/10)

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (8/10)

music

Listen

Neon Lights (Betty Who Remix) - Demi Levato
Elastic Heart - Sia [feat. The Weeknd and Diplo]
The Habit - Lissie
About The Boy - Little Mix
Falling - Yuna
Such Great Heights - Anderson .Paak
Boy - Little Mix
The Boy Is Mine (Kulkid Remix) - Brandy and Monica
Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Lorde

film review: catching fire

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
Director:  Francis Lawrence
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth
Genre: Dystopian Drama/Action
Rating: 8/10
IMDB

Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark become targets of the Capitol after their victory in the 74th Hunger Games sparks a rebellion in the Districts of Panem.

I've seen Catching Fire twice now and it is definitely true that I have thoughts and feelings about it but as with so much with this series my feelings are kind of a mess! It follows then that in true cop-out style I'm going to make lists and not really synthesise my thoughts. If you're a sucker for punishment and enjoy watching normally very rational 25yr olds spiralling over fictional teenagers I suggest you wander over to my THG tag on tumblr!

OBVIOUSLY, THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BOTH THE MOVIE AND THE BOOK!



Things I liked (Katniss and Gale edition):

• The movie begins and ends with Katniss and Gale. More than that, the first hour did a real great of streamlining the first half of the book without screwing with their dynamic. The movie really made a point of stressing how important Gale is to Katniss and how that relationship will come to shape a lot of what comes later.
• The whipping scene and its aftermath deserve a mention of their own because they were almost perfect. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get Katniss being hysterical and having to be forcibly removed from the room but otherwise it was right on point.
• One of my favourite things about K/G is how tactile they are. So much of Katniss' narration of their relationship in the book revolves around their bodies; Katniss is particularly obsessed with his hands. Obviously that inner monologue isn't really a feature of the movies (a blessing and a curse!) but man, THEIR HANDS! In pretty much every scene but the first one they are touching. In that first scene they're still trying to 'go back' and the distance between them is startling and painful. But then the rebellion begins and that distance closes. There are no words for how delighted I am that the movie managed to depict that so well!)

Things I liked (other characters edition):

• JHutch did a great job with Peeta again and I was glad that the script had a slightly better handle on his charming snarkiness. (See * however)
• Jena Malone and Sam Claflin were great as Joanna - I have no strong feelings about them in the books but I enjoyed them a lot here.

Things I liked (production aesthetics edition):

• The soundtrack was lovely. In parts it very eerily channels 'Lily's Theme' from Deathly Hallows Pt2 - that did not help my emotional state.
• There were some gorgeous visuals. The close-ups of Katniss in the last few minutes were very striking (JLaw is pretty phenomenal at conveying pure emotion with her face). My favourite visual of the film however is just after the lady morphling dies - in silhouette against a sunset we see Katniss standing, Peeta kneeling in the water with a dead body floating between them - it's striking and terrible and a fairly accurate depiction of their relationship.
• The original music that accompanies the film is a bit of a mixed bag tonally (they've decided to move away from the broken-down country/folk feel of the last one) but there are a couple of great tracks and perfect lyrics. I like Sia's 'Elastic Heart' a LOT!

Things I wasn't crazy about:

• *I'm still not convinced by the movie version of Peeta. They're happy to cast him in the damsel-in-distress role but they don't seem to know how to incorporate his skills at emotional manipulation in to that and when that's important to the story (i.e. the pregnancy announcement) it never feels authentic because elsewhere he's depicted as being unswervingly good.
• I think the movie needed to do more to ground the origins of the rebellions; it needed more about starvation and slave labour, it needed more about decades of suffering and destitution. The districts aren't just angry about the deaths of their children in the Games, they're angry about the ongoing deaths of their children at the hands of a tyrannical state.
• The movie is pretty long and I think it could have done with less of the Games. I know why Peeta has to be such a liability but it became almost farcical - drowning, forcefield, poison gas, monkeys etc.) I think the message could have been adequately conveyed with a couple fewer 'Peeta's died again!' moments. I like Peeta, I like the inversion of traditional gender roles but it ended up being blackly comic.
• Finally and most problematically, the movie didn't do much to assuage my anxieties about how the movies will deal with K/G/P in Mockingjay. This movie really downplayed K/P in the first half in its service of K/G. I'm worried that the movie producers view this relationship as existing in a standard either/or love triangle (this has not been helped by recent assertions by Francis Lawrence). I prefer to think of their relationship as a triumvirate but it's difficult to talk about that without ranting about MJ so I'll leave that there!

In short, I have feelings. They are intense and complicated. If nothing else the movie starred some very attractive people doing some excellent things with their faces and it could be recommended on that basis alone!

monthly roundup: oct 2013

This is just a little late! I thought that I had posted it already - the mix has been up for weeks! Ooops!

books read

Patrick Ness - More Than This (6/10)
Holly Bourne - Soulmates (4/10)
Cheryl Strayed - Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (7/10)
Cathy Brett - Everything is Fine (and Other Lies I Tell Myself) (6/10)
Holly Black - White Cat (7/10)
Veronica Roth - Allegiant (6/10)
Holly Black - Red Glove (6/10)

new movies watched

(I'm not sure if this is entirely accurate - if it is it's a little sad!)

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs (6/10)

craft projects

A Cowl & Crochet Mitts
Geraldine the Giraffe

music

Listen

Move - Little Mix
Rikki - Blende
Here We Go Again - Johnny Stimson
We Sink - CHVRCHES
Keep on Walking - Gabrielle Aplin
You're Lucky to be Alive - CHVRCHES x Empire of the Sun
Unbound - CATHEDRALS
Electric Feel (Kygo Remix) - Henry Green

book review: allegiant by veronica roth

Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Genre: Dystopian YA
Rating: 6/10
Goodreads

The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered—fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she’s known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies, tangled loyalties, and painful memories. But Tris’s new reality is even more alarming than the one she left behind. Old discoveries are quickly rendered meaningless. Explosive new truths change the hearts of those she loves. And once again, Tris must battle to comprehend the complexities of human nature—and of herself—while facing impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice, and love.

OBVIOUSLY THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS! READ ON AT YOUR OWN RISK!

I'm not sure what I was expecting but I wasn't expecting this. I'm not mad. I'm not raging. I'm not going to write a scathing review on Amazon. I am, however, very disappointed.

To get straight to it, I don't hate the idea of Tris dying. In principle I don't think it's a terrible way to go - at every point up to now she's been willing to sacrifice herself (if not always for the right reasons). In practice however it just felt wrong. It was underplayed and underwhelming - it should have been this huge moment about Tris and it didn't feel that way at all, it was about everyone but Tris. I was sceptical of the dual narration from the start - I liked Tris' unreliable narration and viewing this world solely through her perspective, it was flawed but it felt real. As Allegiant went on I couldn't shake the feeling that Tobias' POV was designed as a structural device; it wasn't there to give profound insight into his character, it was there to make sure that the story could continue when Tris was no longer able to narrate. I suppose that works in theory, you need some way to discuss the aftermath but it meant that Tris' death was completely overshadowed by people's reactions to it. It wasn't about her sacrifice, it was about Four's grief - she gave her life for a cause that was never really mentioned again. Worst of all, her sacrifice didn't seem to mean anything - there was no real sense that the world was very much different. The Bureau was one branch of a government that was never developed or explicitly discussed. Chicago and its inhabitants didn't lose their memories but what did they really gain? There was no suggestion that the broader societal conflict was cured, just that Chicago was now safe space (until the government deem otherwise).

To quote myself: "By no means Mockingjay awful but broaching Mockingjay levels of wasted potential."

I loved Insurgent. While I maintain that the plot was convoluted, I'm willing to forgive that because Veronica Roth did such a great job of balancing character development and broader themes/philosophies. As a Ravenclaw I was so excited to read a book exploring the philosophy and ethics of knowledge and it all played out not only through Tris' narrative butg in the character development of Jeanine, Caleb, Cara and Peter. In Allegiant however, those two processes were separated and Roth's ethics lessons completely overpowered character story. The moralising about the ethics of surveillance, of genetics, of intervention, of social structures and of race relations was so unsubtle and completely hijacked the book. I also grew increasingly frustrated with the suggestion that all governments are ultimately corrupt - it's tiresome and bleak - and for Roth to try an reverse that by suggesting that hope for Chicago lies in a democratically elected government felt really hollow.

Overall though, I'm most frustrated by the fact that Allegiant shelved the primary message of the series in order to solely focus on stories of grief, betrayal and sacrifice. It took me a little while to warm to Four but I always felt that one of (if not the) most powerful ideas in this series was the one that he articulated towards the end of Divergent:

"I think we've made a mistake," he says softly. "We've all started to put down the virtues of the other factions in the process of bolstering our own. I don't want to do that. I want to be brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind, and honest." He clears his throat. "I continually struggle with kindness."

The idea that our choices define us and that in order to be our best selves we must embrace numerous qualities not just cling to a single identity is really powerful and at the beginning of Allegiant it looks as though that's going to be the driving force of the narrative. Early on Four reflects on the changing dress code of the new factionless society: "...new clothes, but beneath them, my Dauntless tattoos. It is impossible to erase my choices. Especially these." His aptitude was Abnegation and he chose Dauntless but he chose to embrace all factions. His body is physically branded with his belief that we can only be our best selves if we look beyond our instincts and dominant qualities. Later on, after the discovery of the genetically pure/damaged divide, Tris tries to explain why it doesn't matter, why she is so uneasy about that distinction being used to define individuals and to account for social unrest. The set-up is perfect to develop this notion of nature vs. nurture and for the characters to come around to the conviction that your genes matter less than your choices, to articulate that message to the world and to embrace diversity. But that didn't happen. Instead, all that build-up was passed off as the story became about defending the city from a big bad that wanted to remove their memories. It was no longer about trying to fix a flawed ideology of human psychology and behaviour but about a dubiously waged war and a sabotage plan riddled with plot holes.

The book traded in its important and relateable message about agency, responsibility and self-awareness for an ethics lesson on abstract social injustices. Not only that but it executed that message poorly.

On the plus side, there were some A+ make-outs...

top ten tuesday: books i was forced to read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

top ten books i was 'forced' to read

This is quite the nostalgia trip! I'm twisting the meaning of this so that it's less focussed on 'forced to read' and instead features novels that I was encouraged to read for various school/uni classes and projects.


GCSE English Literature

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
1984 by George Orwell

When my class revolted against having to read Hemingway (they objected to the endless pages describing hand cramp!), our teacher suggested 1984 as an alternative. That decision was quickly reversed when the class realised that 1984 was much longer and far more complex! I wasn't a particular fan of the Hemingway but as I liked history and was interested in the USSR, I really enjoyed 1984. It was the first dystopian novel I read and I'd encourage any fans of recent dystopias to check it out.


AS/A2 Level English Lit

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

My experience of English Literature in the Sixth Form was very positive - I had wonderful teachers who were enthusiastic and engaged and tiny classes (in Year 13 there were only two of us!)- but the curriculum was a bit of a mixed bag! Worst of the lot was Heart of Darkness which I really didn't connect with (I'm not sure I ever finished it). At the other extreme however, was the A2 synoptic paper on Gothic Literature which I loved! We had to study a whole range of novels/short stories and poems for that module but the two that I really loved were The Bloody Chamber and Dracula. Also, as there were only two of us in my A2 class, when it came to choosing a novel on which to write our coursework, our teacher gave us complete freedom. I chose The Handmaid's Tale and wrote my essay on the various depictions of women in the novel - it was the first time I'd ever really considered gender in an academic piece of work, it has a lot to answer for!


MRes Dissertation

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

It's a bit of a cheat to include Rebecca on here as I'd read this before I studied it but I didn't fully appreciate it until I went back to study it in more detail this summer. I read all of these books this summer as part of my dissertation on adultery in interwar Britain. Of the four Rebecca is my favourite, followed by The Good Soldier which really is stylistically excellent though more than a little depressing. A Handful of Dust is hard to like as all of the characters are so ridiculous but Waugh's gift for razor-sharp wit is evident throughout. I'm still not sure how I feel about Lady Chatterley - some of the prose is beautiful but Lawrence's constant moral/philosophical interjections are tedious in their misogyny. As someone who has something of a mental block when it comes to pre-1950s literature I was pleasantly surprised by how accessible all of these were and am glad that I had this incentive to read some modern classics!

craft post: geraldine the giraffe

Say hello to Geraldine!


Ravelry project page

If I may say so myself, she's lovely! You can't tell through pictures but she has the most wonderful bobbly head!

Although the basic pattern wasn't that much more complicated than the one I used for Bozwonk, the colour work made it extra fiddly. If I was making her again I'd reposition the legs and add more beads to the body to make sure she sat upright but I feel that her tendency to recline adds to her charm!

book review: more than this by patrick ness

More Than This by Patrick Ness
Genre: YA Sci-Fi?
Rating: 6/10
Goodreads

A boy named Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America. But the neighborhood around his old house is overgrown, covered in dust, and completely abandoned. What’s going on? And why is it that whenever he closes his eyes, he falls prey to vivid, agonizing memories that seem more real than the world around him? Seth begins a search for answers, hoping that he might not be alone, that this might not be the hell he fears it to be, that there might be more than just this. . . .

A couple of weeks ago I was complaining about how hard it can be to review books that I love, today I'm worried about reviewing a book that really disappointed me. I'm not quite sure which one is worse.

The real trouble here comes from that fact I have a huge amount of respect for Patrick Ness. I adored the 'Chaos Walking' trilogy and A Monster Calls and I really admire his attitudes towards his audience and young people in general and although I knew little about the premise, More Than This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. Based on previous experience I expected a lot - I expected to be moved and deeply affected and I expected a book with an exciting plot and insightful character studies. I felt that the More Than This was trying for all that but it missed by a mile.

The book isn't bad - there was nothing that left me shaking my head or made me want to stop reading. It has some interesting things to say about the nature of reality and guilt and maybe younger readers would be more taken by the various morals of the story, but I never felt connected to the characters and so the story and its messages never resonated with me. Compared to the nuanced characters and plots in the Chaos Walking series everything here felt very superficial. By far the sections that I enjoyed the most were the flashbacks/memories - I found myself anticipating these interludes, hoping that they'd fill in the otherwise bland characterisation but they never managed to flesh out the personalities of the main characters. Too often things just happened to characters - the sense of agency that was so immediate and important to the development of Todd and Viola in The Knife of Never Letting Go etc. was sadly missing here. It's difficult to say much more without ruining the book's twists but I'd also add that the observations on internet culture, immigrant experience and child abuse were very heavy handed and the bluntness of their social commentary distracted from their role in characterisation/narrative.

I'll definitely read Ness' future publications because I refuse to let one disappointing experience completely tarnish my respect for him and his writing but (apologies in advance) I really hope there is more than this.

top ten tuesday: series endings

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

top ten seven series endings about which i have feelings

I tried really hard to shake things up so these series' weren't exactly the same ones as in my top ten mid-series installments post from a couple of weeks ago but that didn't really work! I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT THESE SERIES' OKAY?!?


I LIVE ON WAR STORIES WHICH ARE HOPEFUL AS WELL AS DEVASTATING

	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter #7) The older I get the more problematic I find aspects of this series and certain aspects of the conclusion (yes, the epilogue is meh but I also hate that Ginny never got to kill a Horcrux as closure for her possessed-by-Voldemort arc in CoS and would have liked to see Neville face Bellatrix) but The Forest Again is a chapter that exists and I don't think I'll ever be over it. Harry's arc in this book is PERFECT.
	The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials #3) As a whole I'm not sure if this is my favourite book in this series but there are so many moments/sentiments etc. that I adore that it definitely warrants a place here.
	Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness (Chaos Walking #3) Probably the best exploration of war in modern YA lit. Brutal, hugely emotional but full of hope, this made me cry on a packed commuter train.

DISAPPOINTING

FitzOsbornes at War by Michelle Cooper (The Montmaray Journals #3) I'm still not entirely sure why this disappointed me so but something just didn't click for me.

SQUANDERED YOUR POTENTIAL

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games #3) I've ranted about this before - the things I love (GALE!!!!!!!!) I really love and everyone ends up pretty much exactly where I expected them to but everything else is terrible!

YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT IT ALONE

Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares (Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants #5) A perfect case for not returning to a series you've already finished. This really doesn't do the rest of the series justice. You can read my initial review here.

I'M STILL NOT SURE

Spellbound by Rachel Hawkins (Hex Hall #3) I was so thrilled with this when it was first published last year - this was one of those series where I cared about the characters WAYYYYYYYYY more than the plot and all of my favourites got what they wanted (they're going to college together and it's WONDERFUL!) so I was really happy. I re-read the whole series earlier this year though and this really fell flat - I still loved Sophie and Jenna and ARCHER but everything else is really flimsy and half-baked so I'm conflicted!

monthly roundup: september 2013

After a pretty stressful summer, I could not have had a more stress-free September. There was the odd twine of anxiety as I tried to get registered for my PhD and find somewhere to live but I spent most of last month reading, shopping, watching movies and The West Wing and crocheting. I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up that level of stresslessness or the same frequency of blog posts as I begin my PhD but it was fun while it lasted!

books read

034 Mary Ann Shaffer - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (7/10)
035 Marissa Meyer - Cinder (7/10)
036 Marissa Meyer - Scarlet (7/10)
037 Katie Coyle - Vivian Versus the Apocalypse (9/10)
038 Maggie Stiefvater - The Dream Thieves (9/10)

new movies watched

The King and I* (5/10)

About Time^ (8/10)

The Princess Bride (7/10)

Rush^ (7/10)

craft projects

'Bozwonk', The Crochet Cat

Crochet Cushion Covers

music

Listen

Forest - Park, Squares, And Alleys
Renaissance Girls (Nick Zinner Remix) - Oh Land
We Can't Stop - Bastille
Cannabutter Kisses - Elli Ingram
Elliot - Roosevelt
Grand Union - Arthur Beatrice
Darling Are You Gonna Leave Me - London Grammar
Stay With Us - Seoul
Cry No More - Vaults
Rescue - Yuna

craft post: a cowl and crochet mitts

In the last couple of weeks Autumn has definitely descended on the UK and while I'm not a fan of the cold I do love knitwear and winter accessories! It only made sense that I'd make some of my own and these were both really simple mini-projects.

I made this cowl in only a couple of hours.


Ravelry project page
The pattern is free and very simple. I did have to extend my initial chain though so it would go around my neck twice. I'm not completely happy with the colour of the wool - in the ball it looked much bluer - but it makes for a very cosy cowl! We'll be very closely acquainted by the time spring rolls around!


These gloves took a little longer but I finished them in the space of an afternoon.


Ravelry project page
I made these mainly because my house is FREEZING at the minute and my dad refuses to turn the heating on until at least the middle of October. I needed something to keep my hands warm while I crocheted and these were perfect as they leave my fingers free. Again, this pattern was free and very simple. This isn't a colour combination I'd usually go for but I wanted to use up some wool in my stash that I'm unlikely to use for much else.

Do you have any favourite homemade knitwear or scarf/hat/glove projects that you're working on in preparation for this winter?

craft post: crochet cushion covers

I'm all for alliteration but try saying 'crochet cushion covers' 5 times fast!

I'm trying not to have WIPs on the go at one time because I know that I'll just lose interest but while my jewel-tone blanket is an excellent way to keep my hands busy while marathoning TV in my bedroom (over the last two weeks I've been catching up on Scandal - I love it's campy ridiculousness!), it isn't so great for an evenings when I'm with my parents in the living room so I've been doing a couple of small/medium size projects which I'll be posting about over the next week.

First up were these cushion covers. I picked the cushions up in Ikea and chose a couple of fairly simple motifs/patterns for the covers.


Ravelry project page

The blue cushion was based on the Modern Romantic Cushion Cover pattern which can be found here. The first side ended up slightly misshapen as a result of my terrible counting but the second side was fine and now the two are stitched together you can hardly tell (unless you count the number of bobbles per line!).

The white and blue cushion is made up of a fairly simple circle-in-a-square granny squares. It turned out all right but if I were to do it again I'd use a denser stitch pattern to square each motif so that less of the cushion was visible.

top ten tuesday: sequels and mid-series installments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

top ten seven sequels and mid-series installments


This was HARD! I was originally planning of only having books which I felt surpassed the original but I struggled with that so these are just sequels which I really like. I've ended up with a list which will surprise no-one - I think I've probably mentioned my love for all of these series' several times before! For that reason, I'm not going to comment on each book individually but have instead included a quote which sums up my favourite aspect of each of them (consider this a spoiler warning!).

	The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Cycle #2)       You can see my review of this here We can pretend. Just once. And then we'll never say anything about it again.
	Girls in Pants by Ann Brashares (The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants #2) He couldn't stand to watch her shake. He got up and came over to her. He picked her up inside her ball of covers and moved her over on the bed. To her great astonishment and joy, he lay down alongside her. He put his arms around her and tucked her face into his neck, and she felt as though her fevered heart might burst. He held her as though he thought he could absorb her fever and her sickness and her sadness at not having a mother or even a father she could count on. He stroked her hair and lay with her like that for hours.
	Insurgent by Veronica Roth (Divergent #3) So I agree. But I do not change my mind.
	The Ask & the Answer by Patrick Ness (Chaos Walking trilogy #2) "If you ever see a war," she says, not looking up from her clipboard, "you'll learn that war only destroys. No one escapes from a war, No one. Not even the survivors. You accept things that would appal you at any other time because life has temporarily lost all meaning."
	The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials #2) The fact was that where Will is concerned, she was developing a new kind of sense, as if he were simply more in focus than anyone she'd known before. Everything about him was clear and close and immediate.
	Demonglass (aka. Raising Demons) by Rachel Hawkins (Hex Hall #2) "Beg to differ, Mercer."
	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter #5) "I DON'T CARE!" Harry yelled at them, snatching up a lunascope and throwing it into the fireplace. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH, I'VE SEEN ENOUGH, I WANT OUT, I WANT IT TO END, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE!" "You do care," said Dumbledore. He had not flinched or made a single move to stop Harry demolishing his office. His expression was calm, almost detached. "You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it."
	The FitzOsbornes in Exile by Michelle Cooper (The Montmaray Journals #2) “Simon called you 'Machiavelli disguised as a debutante.'" "Gosh," I said, not sure whether to feel flattered or insulted."

Agree? Disagree? Want to fight it out over Order of the Phoenix?!