Blogtober Day 15: This Time, Last Year

So, the prompt/idea/question this post was supposed to be about is the following:

What were you reading this time last year?

Initially, I was going to write a short-ish post describing the books I was reading, as the title says, this time last year. There's just one problem: this time last year, I wasn't reading anything. I wasn't doing much of anything. So, rather than talk about books, this post is about how far I've come in a year.

(If you're here for me to talk about books, and not my mental health, today's post isn't for you. Sorry)

This time last year, I was in a bit of a funk. It had been over a year since I graduated college and despite having my degree, I hadn't managed to land a full-time job. I was working part-time at a coffee shop and part-time at a math tutoring center. They both paid fine, for what they were, and I didn't hate them, but they weren't what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing. As a result of my unhappiness with my work situation, I fell into somewhat of a depression. Things I used to find enjoyable weren't fun anymore. Days when I didn't have work, as few as they were, I didn't really do anything.

At the end of November, I got an interview with a staffing office who learned of an open position at a nearby company. The day after I interviewed with the staffing company, I had an interview at the company with the open position.  One week, and another interview later, I received a job offer. My first full-time job. A job where'd I'd actually use my degree.

So, I started my first "real" job. And as I got more comfortable in my role, and familiar with the industry, a strange thing happened. I started picking up some of the old hobbies I'd abandoned. I started reading again. I started writing again. I joined a book club. I did things other than sit around, stressing about my future. And, I'm a lot happier now than I was a year ago.

So, that's where I was this time last year. What were you doing last year?

Blogtober Day 14: The Scarred God

The Scarred God is a 2019 novel by Neil Beynon. It was released on August 26, 2019 and was published by Haynes Ltd. It's a fantasy book aimed at teenagers. It was one of the books I mentioned during my October TBR post.

The novel tells the story of a teenager named Anya who escapes being captured with the rest of her village when they're attacked by invaders. The invading army is assisted by an exiled god of her culture and Anya goes on a journey through a spelled forest, alongside the forest's mysterious guardian Vedic, to save her people and defeat the exiled god. Along the way, she learned not much separates heroes from villains.

There are some books I read because they're recommended to me. Others, I stumble upon and the premise instantly grabs me. The Scarred God fits into the second category. The idea intrigued me, starting with the teaser/tagline on the cover of the book reading "how do you kill a god?" Once I read that this novel was about a teenage girl going on a quest to kill a god, I couldn't really resist.

To begin this review, let's discuss Anya. I enjoyed her as a character. She had personality, she was driven. Her motives and morals were clear. She wanted to save her people. She wanted to stop the Kurah's plans. At the same time, she was dealing with doubts about whether she could do what needed to be done. She wasn't always sure the path she was taking was the right one. Mostly, however, I was happy that she was a dynamic character, and not the archetypal "strong female character" that can sometimes fall flat on the page. Anya was a character the reader could connect with.

There were many aspects of this novel that I enjoyed. One of the aspects I found the most interesting was Beynon's use of deities from more than one culture. Rather than only having gods from the Greek pantheon, or only Norse god, etc, there's a variety of gods mentioned. The main gods we see are Danu, a Celtic goddess, Pan, from Greek mythology, and Cernubus, the titular scarred god, although I'm not sure what pantheon he was part of. There are also illusions to gods and myths that aren't named but the average person would recognize. The story gives off the feel that, for example Greek myths are true, but Celtic myths are equally true without the two mythologies contradicting each other.

Another thing I enjoyed was Anya's personal journey and how it pans out. Anya isn't explicitly a "chosen one"; she's capable of defeating the scarred god, but at no point does the narrative make it seem like she's the only person capable of doing that. Her training, at the hands of her warrior grandmother, has given her an edge, but she's the heroine as a result of circumstance, not destiny. Anya and her connection to Vedic, the protector of the woods, is another noteworthy aspect of the story. Vedic isn't helping Anya for completely altrustic reasons, and while I enjoy stories where people work together for the "greater good", I also like characters who are reluctant heroes or mentors.

One of the best aspects of the novel, from a writing standpoint, is the way it avoids certain tropes. There were points in the story where I thought "okay, this is when [insert fantasy trope here] is going to happen". Sometimes the plot went exactly how I imagined, other times it surprised me. I like being surprised narratively.

While I enjoyed the story overall, there are a few critiques I need to share.Most of my criticism comes from a world-building or clarity perspective. There are a few thing within the world of the novel that aren't explained as well as they could be. Certain terms, how one group related to another and the like.  There were a few times where a specific term or title was used and I needed to stop and remember what it meant in this world. The phrase that often gets thrown around is "show, don't tell" which I feel is a bit vague. "Show, don't tell" is about balancing those two acts, at least to me. Somethings can be shown, others may need be told to the reader. Beynon doesn't quite achieve the right balance in my opinion, with the things being shown not quite giving the reader enough information to fill in the blanks. While I mention the author didn't explain enough, I'd like to be clear that I prefer his style as opposed to having everything explained as exposition-as-dialogue or there being page after page of explanations without context.

I should note that certain passages of the novel, which are depicted as dreams Anya is having, are intentionally confusing. They relate to a big plot point, so I won't explain too much about them, but I wanted to acknowledge that there's a purpose behind those passages being confusing or hard to follow with the rest of the story. I'll freely admit that I didn't think that that particular plot point was going to have the revelation that it did. I thought the reveal was going in a different direction entirely.

The Scarred God is a good book. It's entertaining. I enjoyed what I saw of the world and would be happy if the author wrote another story in this universe. Yet, when I reached the end, I felt like something was missing. The resolution was satisfying, but it felt like the end wasn't quite complete or was maybe a little rushed. Some of this could easily be having plot elements unresolved for a second book, in which case that makes sense.

Rating: 3.9 stars

Blogtober Day 13: Top 5 Horror Movie Villains

Yesterday, I discussed my favorite horror movies. Today, I'd like to talk about my five favorite horror movie villains. Because, while not every great horror movie needs a great villain, they tend to go hand in hand. And a good villain in an otherwise mediocre movie can elevate it to being good. Anyway, here are my top five horror movie villains.



5) Annie Wilkes Misery

Misery isn't the scariest movie I've ever seen by a longshot, but it does have a very memorable villain. Annie Wilkes is just a little bit of a huge fan of author Paul Sheldon's works, so when she finds him unconcious and wounded in the snow, of course she helps him. Then, he wakes up and starts to wish she'd left him to die of frostbite. Annie's villainy comes not from any one act that she does, but from the situation as a whole. Paul is completely at her mercy and his "number one" fan knows exactly how the story for his next book is supposed to go. Annie is just downright creepy and the scene with the sledgehammer is one I can't watch, even to this day. Bravo to Kathy Bates for such an amazingly creepy portrayal in the film.



4) The Xenomoprh Alien

The Xenomorph is the perfect sci-fi horror monster. It has no grand scheme beyond wreaking havoc and finding a way to wreak more havoc. With no apparent weakness and a level of intellect that rivals, and in most cases exceeds, those of the human character, its downright terrifying. Not to mention the pure creepiness in how more Xenomorphs are created. From the facehugger to lay eggs inside of humans, to the chest buster killings its human host, and finally, the fully grown alien ready to cause some chaos. Every part of the lifecycle is disturbing and perfect for horror.



3) Pennywise IT

Is anyone not terrified of clowns these days? Clowns in general are creepy. Clowns that are actually shape-shifting aliens trying to feast on the fear of local children are even worse. Kudos to Stephen King,and the actors and directors of IT, because they took an already creepy concept, clowns, and found a way to make it even scarier and make me hate clowns even more.



2) Chucky The Child's Play Series

As you might've guessed from the above entry, clowns freak me out. You know what freaks me out even more? Dolls. Especially dolls that are possessed by a serial killer's soul and enjoy killing people. Now, while "creepy murderous doll" sounds bad enough, its the humor in the Child's Play series that puts Chucky on this list. He's a creative killer, and unpredictable. Most movies with creepy dolls stop at the "there's an evil entity possessing it" stage, but not Chucky. He's killing, and he's having fun, but the films are also surprisingly entertaining and enjoyable. Most of them, anyway.



1) Leatherface Texas Chainsaw Massacre

He isn't just a serial killer, he's also a cannibal. He doesn't have a larger goal or bigger plans beyond finding more victims, and thus more meat to eat. His victims are random and he doesn't care who he's carving up. He sees his victims not as people, but as livestock and he can't be reasoned with, can't be talked down. He's the archetype of the unrelenting, seemingly unstoppable terror that slasher films rely on.

Blogtober Day 12: Favorite Scary Movies

As I once told a friend, a good horror movie is hard to find. With today's oversaturation of the horror film genre, there are plenty of "horror" movies that come out each year, but only a few that are actually good or actually scary. I feel like some of this was due to horror moving away from suspense-driven scares and more towards just making a gore-fest and not trying to build a sense of dread among the viewer. Movies attempt suspense, but few modern horror films manage to pull it off. Today, I'd like to discuss my favorite horror movies. To make this easier, I'm selecting my favorite in each category of horror film.



The Shining- Favorite Psychological Horror

The Shining is a great suspense film. What I mean by that is this: from almost the very beginning, the viewer gets the feeling that there's something off about the Overlook Hotel. As Jack unravels, the question isn't what's going to happen, but when. It's a great psychological horror film and the intensity of the final confrontation sticks with you. The film is also the reason why I can't watch Jack Nicholson do comedic roles.



Alien- Favorite Sci-Fi Horror

Despite the dip in quality for the series as a whole, the original Alien film, and its immediate sequel Aliens were both entertaining and scary. The original film gives almost nothing away. The viewer only sees what the characters themselves witness, as they witness it. When they find the room filled with eggs, they are clueless as to what it is. The same is true for the face-huggers. We don't see the alien until it bursts out of Kane's chest. It isn't until far into the movie that we see the fully grown Xenomorph. The film did an excellent job of balancing the sci-fi aspects with the horror elements, keeping the suspense for both.



The Conjuring- Favorite Supernatural Horror

While I enjoy classics such as The Exorcist and Poltergest, they aren't my favorite. Genre-defining, yes, but I don't find them particularly scary. This may be because when I saw them, they were a few decades old and horror had become a lot bloodier and scarier. In fact, my enjoyment of The Conjuring comes in part from how it uses a number of tricks and traits from the two other films. The film relies on old school scares rather than having a jump scare every few minutes. There are truly tense scenes that build towards a scare rather than having a ghost pop out of nowhere, scare the character and race off. I keep mentioning film building tension, and that's because suspense is the key to horror, not monsters or gallons of fake blood.



28 Days Later- Favorite Zombie Horror

I'm pretty sure this was the first zombie movie I ever saw. If it wasn't, it was definitely one of the first few ones I saw. I love a good zombie movie, and this one brought something new to the table: fast zombies. Until 28 Days Later, zombies normally shuffled around and it was a little hard to believe the characters couldn't stop them or escape. (Yes, I know I'm trying to apply real world logic to zombie movies and how ridiculous that sounds). Fast zombies though, they open up a whole new world of story-telling and I like it. The film's a little gory, but that comes with the territory. They are dealing with zombies after all.



Scream Favorite Slasher Horror

I won't lie. The meta-ness of Scream is part of why I enjoy it so much. It's a slasher movie that is aware of, and comments on, the tropes slasher movies. Any time a film has a character explain how to survive the film, without it seeming ham-fisted in, that's a yes in my book. It's a slasher film that's aware of it being a slasher film, while at the same time subverting only some of the tropes it pokes fun at. I like it when films are self-aware. I like it even more when the narrative doesn't seem to brag about how smart it is about being self-aware. Scream strikes the perfect balance between being meta and patting itself on the back for being meta. The kills are also interesting  and entertaining to watch.

Those are a few of my favorite horror films. What are yours?

Blogtober Day 11: Books I Meant to Read, But Didn't

Has there ever been a book that you meant to read, but you just didn't? Everyone kept telling you to read the book, the premise sounded interesting, and then you just didn't read the book. Maybe you started it, but found you couldn't finish it. Maybe you didn't get a chance to read it because you outgrew the genre. I have quite a few books like that. Today, I'd like to talk about them.

The Divergent Series

Let's start off with an easy one. In a post-Hunger Games world, I feel like plenty of readers were looking for more dystopian YA. Many gravatated towards Divergent by Veronica Roth. It seemed to hit many of the same beats as The Hunger Games while at the same time, not being too similar. Many websites and blogs suggested the series for fans of The Hunger Games. Yet, I wasn't able to get past the first few chapters. It felt like a story I'd read before and nothing stood out to me. I stopped reading and decided maybe I should give myself some time, reading something a little different and try again later. By the time the series was finished, and I considered going back to give the series a second chance, I realized I was over YA dystopia.

The Sun is Also A Star

I wanted to read this book. I still want to read it. I own it, it's on my bookshelf, waiting to be read. Yet, for some reason, every time I finish one book and try to decide on the next thing to read, The Sun is Also A Star gets glossed over. I can't think of an exact reason why I keep choosing other books over it, but hopefully one day, I can cross it off of my TBR list.

The Perks of Being A Wallflower

This is an interesting one. A friend recommended this book to me before the movie was made. She said I'd enjoy it, knowing I was a fan of the genre. Then, the film came out. The film came out, teens on the Internet gravitated towards it and certain aspects of the plot were glossed over or became cringe-worthy. I realized I didn't want to read the book any longer, since I already knew major aspects of the story and didn't want to read a story with those themes.

Me Before You

When I heard this book was going to become a movie, I thought to myself "maybe I should read that." Then, I started seeing trailers for it and I realized the book wasn't about quite what I thought. Or, I guess it would be more accurate to say, assuming the movie was marketed correctly, it didn't have the tone I thought it would. After seeing more trailers, I realized the story just wasn't for me.

The Mortal Instruments series

I'm not the biggest fan of paranormal romance/urban fantasy, but I was willing to give these books a shot when the first one came out. Then, I went through my  "I'm different from other girls, I don't read the dumb books that they read" phase and decided to forego reading them based on that. I completely forgot about the series until ABC Family/Freeform created the television series. I started the first one and couldn't get very far, because the author's writing style wasn't something I liked or could even tolerate. So, I stopped reading before I got too far in. The television series isn't bad, all things considered.

Those are some books I meant to read, but didn't. Are there any books like that in your life?