THAT FIRST SITE IS EVERY WRITER’S DREAM DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY TIMES I’VE TRIED WRITING SOMETHING AND THOUGHT GOD DAMN IS THERE A SPECIFIC WORD FOR WHAT I’M USING TWO SENTENCES TO DESCRIBE AND JUST GETTING A BUNCH OF SHIT GOOGLE RESULTS
Okay, I tested that first site. Let me just say….
WHERE THE HECK WAS THIS WHEN I STARTED WRITING?! It’s so amazing I want to cry. I can’t even begin to remember all of the times when I was stuck in my writing because I forgot what a word was. I knew the definition, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember the word itself.
First of all, yes, I know I'm like 6 years late to the TID party and that it was back in 2013 when people were going crazy about this trilogy. But I discovered the magical world of booktube in 2015 and that's when I heard of this little gem. The Shadowhunters Chronicles. If you haven't heard of it, maybe its 2013 movie, it's 2016 Freeform/Netflix series adaptation or its book series of over 12 books + companions and counting, then you've been living under a rock, buddy.
Like I said, my first approach with this series was the movie. I liked it, but I had no idea of its massive foundations. Then in 2015, I learned of the book series and that it was going to be a Netflix series, and I liked the first episode and everyone's hype had me curious so I decided to give the books a try. I would read the first series The Mortal Instruments (6 books) and the star of this review The Infernal Devices (3 books) in the recommended order, which is the order of publication as these two series are intertwined.
If you didn't know (which I doubt), the recommended thing to do before starting The Infernal Devices is to read the first 3 books of The Mortal Instruments. And I read the first two back in 2016 and... they didn't grab me. So I gave up.
But I kept seeing so much hype around the TID trilogy, and that there were people who had only read that trilogy and skipped the TMI books because TID was a lot better and it had the best love triangle they'd ever read.
But do you think I read it right after that? Well, no. I finally started the series in December 2018 and finished it last week. And I did not regret it. Now brace yourselves for the longest review I'd ever written.
Summary
Since this is a summary review, obviously I can only tell you what the first book is about as if you didn't know already.
In 1878 in Victorian London, 16-year-old Tessa Grey just arrived from New York to meet up with her brother Nate, the only family she has left after her aunt died. But she is met by these 2 women, the Dark Sisters, who hold Tessa hostage and tell her she’ll only see Nate if she cooperates.
The thing is that Tessa has a very strange ability that no one else in the world has. She can shapeshift into anyone dead or alive as long as she has an object of that person and she can also truly become the person by accessing their memories and even their personality. The Dark Sisters knew this but Tessa had no clue, so they torture her to train her into mastering this ability so they could deliver her to the main villain of the story, The Magister, who wants to marry Tessa.
One day Tessa is rescued by everyone's favorite literary husband, Will Herondale, and she's taken to the London Institute where the Shadowhunters of London live. Charlotte, the head of the institute, Henry, her husband, a clumsy inventor, Jessamine who hates everything to do with the world of the Shadowhunters, Jem, the sweetest boy ever, and of course his best friend and fighting partner, Will. The Shadowhunters give Tessa refugee at the institute and they help her find her brother as long as she cooperates with them.
Review
Oh man! Where do I start with these books?
First, let me say that I really, really liked them, and I don't know why I waited so long to read them. I mean... I do know. Because I wanted to read all the books from both series and thought I couldn't read this one on its own. But I don't know why I waited so long after finding out that it was ok to only read this trilogy.
The prologue and the first chapter of the first book hooked me in on the character of Tessa. She really is an amazing protagonist and one of my favorite parts of the entire trilogy. She's so vulnerable at the beginning, but she was never weak. She's kind and friendly with everyone at the institute and even though she's new into this world of Shadowhunters and demons, and werewolves and vampires, she doesn't look away from it but instead insists on learning everything she can. She always has a question, always has her nose buried in a book and isn't afraid to speak her mind no matter who it is, and I love it how other characters think the same of her.
She isn't a fighter and can't get involved in the conflicts the way Shadowhunters do, but she's always there, she insists on helping, whether that is using her ability or just sitting down with them and thinking or doing research. She learns about some harsh truths along the way, but they never knock her down. She accepts them as reality and they only make her stronger. Tessa is really the kind of protagonist that's very easy to get attached to, and you're glad to be proud of her by the end of it all.
Then we have our favorite boys, Will and Jem.
Now let me tell you, everyone on the internet will tell you that they're in love with Will Herondale so I had a lot of curiosity about him. In some ways, Will is a walking cliche, he's hilarious, he has the face and body of an angel (seriously, each book and every character loves to remind you at least 10 times how Will is the most beautiful man alive), he's outgoing, mysterious, oh! and recites poetry and loves the books Tessa loves too, but most importantly he's a bad boy with a tragic backstory. And I really liked him. I've learned not to take characters like him too seriously for their cliched actions (they made me laugh, to be honest, I feel like that's what cliches, when they're too obvious, are there for) and in doing that I was able to enjoy Will's character. I enjoyed his dramatic interactions with Magnus Bane, and his friendship with Tessa and Jem (also known as one of the most beautiful friendships I've ever read), and the way he acted when he realized that both he and Jem were in love with Tessa.
And then, of course, we have Jem. Now, Jem is also a boy with the tragic backstory. I truly felt bad for him when I read that, but all that tragedy only turned him into the sweetest boy ever. Jem is the kind of person that always knows what to say (or not to say) to everyone, even Will, who sometimes can be rude. There's a part where Tessa asks Jem about why Will is like that and he tells her that if he hasn't told anyone must be because of a reason and that he's able to get along with Will better than anyone else because he's the only one who doesn't ask him all the questions that everyone wants to know.
Jem is so kind, and that tragic event only made him stronger as a person and he's a character that I'm really proud of, to the point where I preferred Tessa to stay with him rather than Will (but I also liked Will so it's not like I wanted him to stay alone too). Throughout all three books, I always rooted for Jem, and the books sorta favored Will which made me a little bit sad, as if being with Jem was only a filler until Will came around for the big finale. And another thing that bothered me a little was that we don't see Jem's POV. We see almost everyone's POV, except Jem's :( (or maybe once on book 3?) But still, I liked that even though both of them had feelings for Tessa, they didn't resent each other, in fact, they were happy that they had found someone they loved, even if it was the same person. But Jem's love for Tessa made me happier!
And, I know I just rambled on about Tessa, Will and Jem but really I truly liked all the characters in here. I think the only one I didn't like was a certain Consul who, on the third book changes completely to add a bit more of conflict for the other characters that aren't Tessa, Will, and Jem, but I did like how it shaped these other characters and how they were more present in the third book. The villain I liked, I thought his plan throughout the 3 books was clever, but I didn't like his motive. To me at least, it doesn't count as a good enough reason, and it sounded kinda like a tantrum to me. But his plan was good so he's forgiven.
Also, I really enjoyed reading about such a different time period and I think I want to read more books that take place that far in the past. The last books I read that took place many many years ago were the books in the Shades of Magic trilogy (which also happen to take place in London) and I ADORED those books. Everything was described so beautifully, and I loved the way the characters talked. I always found it a little funny because we obviously don't talk like that, and even though it looked funny in some characters, it's one of the reasons why I liked Tessa so much. Everything she said always sounded stronger because of that extra polite manner of talking.
As for my experience reading the book, I wish I'd read them faster because I really liked them, all three of them, but... the chapters were so long! It really threw me off and I felt like I had to take breaks every time I finished a chapter. On the days that I read most, I read 3 chapters, one in the morning, another one in the evening and another one at night. And it sounds silly to say this after I just said that the books grabbed me (because if a book grabs me then I'm going to read it twice as fast). But that's the problem with that. Each chapter left me kind of exhausted that I felt I had to stop and do something else. Another thing that confused me, on the third book, pretty much everyone (except for Jem and like, 2 other characters) gets to be the narrator and after having just Tessa (and Will sometimes) as the narrators on the first two books, this sudden switch from character to character was kind of exhausting and confusing. I felt like I could stop between POV switch in between every chapter and I didn't like that very much.
As for each book I liked best... I feel like they're all tied. What I liked more about the first book was definitely Tessa and the way she reacts to the Shadow World and her first interactions with the rest of the Shadowhunters of the institute, especially Will and Jem. What I liked more about the second book is that we see the friendship between Tessa/Will/Jem develop a lot more, nothing too big related to the villain happens in this book (in my opinion), but for me that was ok. And what I liked about the third book (the first 30% I didn't like very much, felt too much like filler, the remaining 70% I really liked) was its fast pace, and that we finally learn the truth about Tessa's existence and her family, which I'd been wondering since book one.
And finally, I'd always heard that the third book's epilogue was heartbreaking, so I eagerly waited for it, and I can see now that the heartbreaking thing has to do with Will, but it was the part about Jem that almost made me cry. And not to give anyone any spoilers, but Jem has a sort of ability where he can play a song with his violin and the person who listens can actually see something. That's all I'm gonna say. That's the scene that almost cracked me.
Verdict
I really, really enjoyed this trilogy. Like I said, I don't always marathon trilogies, so for me to read these books back to back, means that this was a favorite. The only bad thing is that it didn't make me want to read the rest of the books in The Mortal Instruments series. I think I was more attached to the characters in this trilogy than to the world itself, but I truly admire the intricate thought and effort that was put into this and of course, the creativity to imagine a world so extense to write over a dozen books about it and still have enough inspiration for more.
What I am thinking though, is reading that new The Last Hours trilogy that Cassandra Clare is releasing in November since, chronologically, it takes place after this trilogy and some of the characters from this trilogy will be in it. I don't know if I can do that though because I haven't read the rest of the TMI saga or the TDA trilogy, so I’ll have to do research.
And so, after arriving in London and being thrown into the Shadow World and finding love and loss but most of all lots of love, The Infernal Devices trilogy has me awarding it with an overall score of...
“Viscious” & “Vengeful”, by V.E. Schwab || a review by pj
Fun fact: I actually tried reading Viscious 2 times and both times stopped after 10 or so pages. But then, I decided to give it a third try at the beginning of this year (because the story did sound interesting) and now it’s officially my favorite book of 2018 (so far, but you know…the year is almost over so…). I thought the book was excellent as a stand-alone (and to be honest, I kinda prefer stand alones over series) but then the second part came out and OF COURSE! I had to read it!
So here we go!
-magical girl transformation sequence into reviewer pj-
Summary
So, in the “Villains” (that’s what the series is called) universe, there’s people called ExtraOrdinaries (or EO) who have X-men like powers. The two main characters, Victor and Eli, are 2 pre-med students at this fancy university, preparing to write their thesis and Eli decides to write his work on what makes an EO, and Victor decides to help him, both actually succeeding in becoming an EO.
The interesting thing about this story is the way in which it’s told. You go back and forth between past and present, and in the present it’s been 10 years after Victor and Eli’s university days and Victor has just escaped from prison and is looking to get his revenge on Eli.
As for the story of Vengeful, all the characters we know and love from the first book return, with two additional main characters, Marcella and June, who will antagonize the city of Merit and get in the way of what Victor and Eli want more than anything else. To kill each other.
Review
Well, let me start by saying that I absolutely LOVED EVERYTHING about these books. You would think that with the way the book jumps back and forth between the past and present and between characters it might be a little confusing, but it’s actually pretty great because you have the whole perspective of a story. From the beginning of each chapter it is stated who is the main character of that chapter and it’s the best way to guarantee that your readers will understand all your characters. It also makes it harder to take sides.
More on why the jumps between past and present are great? It’s a really good way to tell a story that’s takes place in two timelines without relying too heavily on the use of flashbacks on every chapter. This goes on during first half of Viscious and like 70% of Vengeful (because there’s more characters) until it’s time for the great climax, that’s when the flow is more linear, but still jumping between characters.
Viscious takes place between today and 10 years ago and Vengeful takes place between today and 5 years ago (where the first book ended). It’s a lot like the first Deadpool movie, when he tells the audience “And now you’re all caught up.”
Another thing that’s to be praised about the books is definitely the characters. And the thing is that they’re all, as the name the series says, villains (maybe like 3 of them can be saved to be called that, but they’re not entirely innocent anyways). And even though, they’re villains, in their minds (and in ours too) they’re the heroes of their own stories, motivated by revenge, justice, self-preservation, power, and they will move whoever is on their way to get it.
Both books maintain an calmly, detailed, yet not slow pace that makes it hard to stop reading, and jumping from character to character keeps you from getting bored. There’s always something happening somewhere.
One thing I really like to notice when I read books with multiple POVs is how the narration switches for every character, and that’s really something to be admired (speaking a little bit more as a writer than a reader). Even between the same character and different time periods. You would be able to tell the difference between Victor and Eli from 10/15 years ago and Victor and Eli from the present. Obviously you would need to be pointed out which time period is which, but it would be pretty easy to tell by the evident changes in their narration, their dialogue and even in the way they moved.
As for which book I prefer, I feel like everyone will say that they preferred Viscious, and so do I. “Viscious” is a clear example where characters win over story, not that the story is weak at all, but you have a “simple” revenge story, and while the side characters have their subplots too, there’s only 2 more of them and their subplots blend gracefully into the main story, adding to it (and to their development as a character) without feeling like something tossed to the side.
In “Vengeful”, it feels like the 2 main characters of the first book, of the series, kinda get pushed to the side, (which is funny because Victor’s motivation in Viscious 10 years ago was to not become a side character to Eli’s story of greatness) and Marcella, the new villain, gets the main story to herself (which, now that I think about it, feels very fitting for her character. Maybe that’s why she’s on the cover). And I did like Marcella, but I didn’t like her better than Victor or Eli. Their stories felt like they were an appetizer or a side dish to Marcella’s story, and they didn’t end in a very satisfactory way (in my opinion). It is kind of an open ending, but at the same time it also feels like… not a bad place for all the characters’ stories to end.
However, Victoria Schwab did say on her instagram that she’s almost sure that she will write a third book, and with the way this one ended, I am really curious to see what the next one will be about.
Verdict
In my opinion, what makes these books unique are its characters and its take superpowers and superheroes, a topic that we’re seeing a lot of lately on books and in movies. Everyone knows that with the Marvel and DC movies everyone wants to be a superhero, and as for the villains, they all shine in here. It’s a cast full of antiheroes whose motivation is to survive in this world that doesn’t give them what they need, but they, but they play by their own rules, no matter who gets in the way.
And so, after almost (definitely) dying on that tragic accident and being brought back to life with ExtraOrdinary powers, Viscious and Vengeful have me awarding them an overall score of…
5 out of 5 stars for Viscious
4 out of 5 stars for Vengeful
I seriously believe that if you’re anyone who loves to read, you’ll like these ones.
This is another series that I didn't have a special reason to watch it. One day I was browsing Netflix for something to watch and I happened to come across this one. The trailer looked promising and it seemed to add something new to the typical body-swapping story, adding a supernatural touch to it and it was based on a manga, so I thought it might have some mind-blowing plot twist as it's almost always the case with anime and manga.
So, "Switched" is a Japanese series produced by Netflix based on the manga called "Sore wa Kakeru Yodaka" by Shiki Kawabata. I can't be sure of the year it was released but it has 3 volumes and 15 chapters. There's not a lot of information on it aside from the news that it was being adapted into a live-action series by Netflix and its first season premiered on August 1st, 2018.
Normally I don't do reviews on life action series because I like to take my time watching them (and because I wasn't born with the magical ability to binge-watch series like everyone else) but this one is 6 episodes long and I managed to watch it in a week. Besides, I finished it yesterday so I figured I'd write a review while it's still fresh in my mind.
-magical girl transformation sequence-
Summary
The story starts with Ayumi Kohinata, a 16-year-old girl who has everything. She's pretty, kind, popular in school, has a lot of friends, loving parents and she recently got asked out on a date by the boy she likes, Koshiro Mizumoto. On the day of their date, she receives a call from Zenko Umine, a girl from her class who's bullied for her weight and appearances, saying that she was going to kill herself and made Ayumi watch as she jumped from the roof of a building.
Ayumi passes out and when she wakes up, she finds herself in Zenko's body. She thinks it's a dream, but everyone else thinks she's Zenko, so she's forced to go to school looking like Zenko. At school, she finds her body walking normally with all of her friends. That's when she connects the dots, if she was in Zenko's body, then Zenko was in Ayumi's body. She doesn't know why but they switched and Zenko won't tell her how or why.
Review
First of all, I'm really glad that they used only the amount of episodes that they really felt they needed and didn't go by the typical 13 or 24-ish episodes format that most series use these days, even if it feels too short. And even if this doesn't get a second season then that will be perfectly fine because it covered all of the original material, though it would be cool if the manga's author decided to continue the series on Netflix instead of a manga. We'd have to see how well it does. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find much on how is the series doing so far.
Second, the best thing about the series is definitely the characters. I'm not going to let anyone deny that. It's a heavy character-based series and the pacing of the series worked really well in developing the characters that you learn to like in the first episodes, even the villain Zenko and lot of it is thanks to the actors.
One of the most explored topics in this series, and that you see some of it in every episode is loneliness and isolation, and how your appearance can be a decisive and involuntary factor. At first when Ayumi has to come to the realization that she might be trapped in someone else's body forever and that she won't be able to go back to her house or eat dinner with her parents, or talk to her friends like she used to, or that now her classmates hate her and make fun of her for looking different, it all really transmits the immense feelings of loneliness and how shallow society can be. There's even a line by Zenko's mother that says something like "If only we'd been more beautiful, you and I, life would have been so much easier".
Overall, it's something that it's very well represented by all of the characters, with the help of flashbacks and music, but really the actors, the 4 main kids, deserve major recognition for their performance.
There's also a lot of body-swapping in this series and at some point, all the actors have to play someone else's characters and it's definitely the most believable body swapping performance I've ever seen. More points for Switched!
My only problems with it were a) the excessive use of unnecessary flashbacks. For example, you'd have one scene and then you'd have another scene with a flashback to the first scene we just saw 3 minutes ago and b) the lack of focus on the supernatural. When I first saw the trailer, this series screamed 'supernatural' to me and... the series does dedicate a couple of scenes to explaining the body swapping phenomenon and there's also the character of Ukon (a woman who knows a lot about the phenomenon) who is there basically to guide the cast and us, the audience, through this supernatural journey but, like I said, it focuses 80% more on the two main girls and their relationships with the two main guys and their families and classmates.
There's also c) lots of people jumping off of buildings in public places and no one ever notices it. Oh, and on the first episode it looked like the cameraman went crazy with the close-ups to the characters but luckily it's only on the first episode. The rest is good!
As for the ending, I've seen one or two articles asking if there's going to be a second season, and like with every other show, we'd have to give it time. In this case, though, I doubt there's space for a second season as it ties everything up, it covers everything from the manga, it doesn't leave anything open or any mystery or cliffhanger. There is a nice post-credits scene but it could have easily been excluded from the episode. I wouldn't mind if the producers left it like that. It's better to have a short, but good series, than a series that's lengthened just because.
If they do decide to make a second season though, I find it hard to imagine how the 4 main characters could be the protagonists. Maybe we could see another case of body swapping with different characters and they would be aided by Ukon, but I worry that it wouldn't be the same thing since the characters are what we already love from this series.
Or who knows, maybe the manga author other adventures planned for these characters. That would be the best scenario in my opinion.
Verdict
While I did like the series, I'll admit it wasn't exactly what I expected. I was hoping for something with a supernatural focus. Instead, I got this beautiful series with a heavy focus on friendship, so that's good too, we definitely need more series like this one. Also the acting! Someone needs to watch it and agree with me that the acting was great! I feel like I never praise the acting in movies/series, so for me to point it out as one of this series best selling points... Well, I'll just say that that's something new... so go watch it.
And so, after jumping off of a building (because apparently, that's the only suicide method that these kids could think of) and ending up in the body of my sworn enemy with a perfect, dreamy life, "Switched" has me awarding it with an overall score of...
3.9 out of 5 stars
It's fun, it's good, you could even watch it in a day (or in a week if you're like me and don't possess the ability to binge-watch stuff) and it definitely deserves some recognition because of its script, its actors and its message.
I would have never heard about this movie if it weren’t for the manager at my work. He likes to watch cheesy romantic movies and this movie, being about an open marriage, caught his attention, so he talked to us about it at lunchtime. Not that…my boss has an open marriage but he thinks weird stuff like if a woman cheats on her husband/boyfriend with another man is worse than when a man cheats on his wife/girlfriend with another woman, so… he’s into that kind of controversial topics.
Anyways, romantic movies aren’t really my thing. I have nothing against them, but I think I’ve only watched full romance movies on someone else’s recommendation (not romantic comedies though, I do love those). Only that…the only reason why I watched this was because I wanted to watch something simple while I did my hair.
But the reason why I decided to review it is that it reminded me of my favorite anime movies of all time, “Five centimeters per second”. I guess if you know how that ends I kinda spoiled the movie for you, but if not…
-magical girl transformation sequence into reviewer pj-
Summary
So, in “5 to 7″ our main character, Brian, a struggling writer in New York. He’s written dozens of stories and has been rejected dozens of times. He also seems like a hopeless romantic and loves looking at the park benches with love quotes engraved on them, as they’re the “real-life love stories”. One day he meets a French woman called Arielle and it’s love at first sight. They agree to go out but she’s only available on weekdays from 5 to 7pm.
What Brian doesn’t know yet is that “5 to 7” refers to the time of the day that French men/women reserve for their extramarital affairs, and that Arielle is married with two children and his husband has a mistress. Also, Arielle and her husband have an open marriage and they’re fine with each other having their respective lovers, so she proposes to Brian the idea of having a 5 to 7 relationship.
At first, Brian is reluctant to the idea, but eventually he agrees to be Arielle’s lover boy (boy… because he’s 24 and she’s 33) as he can’t take her away from his mind. And so, their weird love square begins!
Review
Ok so… I feel like the plot of this movie is too simple to form a very lengthy opinion. You see a bunch of montages of the two of them being perfect for each other, you meet Brian’s parents, Arielle’s children, her husband’s lover, then Brian’s life becomes a little more interesting and…that’s pretty much it. It’s strong topic lies on the extramarital relationship theme and its controversy.
The first thing that comes to anyone’s mind when they hear about these relationships is that they’re just wrong and they would never agree to it because of their morality and because they simply don’t work, and Brian knows this at first. He doesn’t want to be with Arielle because she has a husband but he can’t stay away so he agrees and it turns out to be not as bad he thought. To his surprise, it works. Arielle’s husband, Valery, is happy for Brian and Arielle and welcomes him into the family, saying that he’s happy that she’s found somebody she loves. Even her kids tell Brian that they’re happy he’s their mother’s lover. Their relationship is shown like it’s the most normal thing in the world.
Too ideal, isn’t it? So you’re left thinking “Hey, and where’s the conflict? The thrill of the forbidden? The consequences? The despair? The sweet drama I pay Netflix for?” Well, something does happen near the climax of the movie that could be considered a conflict but it dies faster than you can say cinq a sept.
If you put it like that, then I guess you could say that that makes it different from most of the movies out there. First, because most movies with a theme like this one (having more than one partner) would fall under the romantic comedy category. And second, because it tries to give the viewer a different perspective on the whole extramarital affair thing. You think something like “Well, if they can make it work, they all agree on it, and they’re really not hurting anyone, especially not me, then what’s the harm?” Everyone’s fine with it. It’s almost like a big slap on the face to all the people judging and criticizing the people who do this in real life.
There’s a line that Brian’s mom tells her husband after he keeps showing disapproval towards Brian and Arielle. She tells him “Not everyone is as lucky as we were.”
You see… you have ideal, perfect examples of people who apparently make this type of relationships work, and then you have real-world examples: One of the girls at work has a friend who’s been married to this guy for years (no children) and one day she found out that he’d been cheating on her with someone else so she confronted him about it. He didn’t deny anything and told her that he wanted to remain married to her, but that sometimes he needed a “getaway” and to please let him continue with his affairs and she agreed.
Not so ideal and movie-like anymore, right? And the relationship in this movie started out like this. We even see some flashbacks to Arielle’s life before Brian, of how she always looked so distant and disconnected from her life, agreeing to share her husband with someone else. From what I see, you can look at it in 2 ways. You can see the lack of commitment from the man to his wife or the wife’s over-commitment to stay in a “marriage” like this one because of her children.
Maybe the real theme of this movie is honesty. It’s the reason why they and anyone else could make this crazy idea work…
But yeah, if it were me, I’d take my children and go far far away so that I would never have to see his cheating face again.
Verdict
Underneath it all, it’s a romance movie. It’s cute without being cheesy (unless you don’t like the “love at first sight” trope), simple but not dull, visually pleasing with very beautiful shots of the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It’s alright. But most of all I think it’s a good movie for discussions, which is what the manager at my work did, and then got most of us to watch it and talk about it at lunchtime.
And so, after finding my writing muse in another married man’s eyes only to be crushed by the reality that I’ll never be more than his cinq a sept mistress, “5 to 7” has me awarding it with an overall score of…
2.5 out 5 stars!
I don’t know what I expected when I went into this but… I don’t think it was this. Not in a bad way, though. I thought it was an enjoyable movie, but it wasn’t quite there.
There isn't a grand story behind the reason why I chose to read this book. I suppose it randomly caught my attention. I learned about it on a video of this girl talking about the books she was planning to read on her vacations. Shee talked about the synopsis and since then I thought it would be a nice adult contemporary, a quick read and I felt like that's what I needed in between of this other heavy series I'm reading (the "Captive Prince" trilogy). I started it in 2016 then abandoned (because it gave me headaches) it and finally picked it up again last month and now I'm on the second one.
But yeah, back to the book. The plot seemed interesting... (I mean... interesting enough to kill some time) and then thought about it for a few days. I thought I wouldn't be able to find it online because it was a recent release, but somehow I did.
So I read the first chapter and thought it was ok. It was a good start. But I was closest to finishing the first Captive Prince book so after that, I dived right into this one.
But oh boy! If I thought that first CP book gave me headaches... just wait until you meet this "Me Oxford Year”’s protagonist, past pj!
-magical girl transformation sequence into reviewer pj-
Summary
So, in this book, we're introduced to Ella and she's a politics passionate/planner/overachiever who's dreamed her entire life to go to Oxford ever since she read an article in a magazine about this person's "Oxford Year". So, she studied her butt off and landed the prestigious Rhodes scholarship with all paid expenses for a year at Magdalen University in Oxford!
Right after she lands in Oxford, she receives a call to work for her dream Senator candidate and she agrees to work with them from Oxford, promising that she'll be back in the US in a year to continue to help on her campaign.
On her first day, while strolling through the beautiful streets of Oxford looking for something to eat, she ends up in a fish and chips restaurant where she encounters Jamie Davenport, a sexy guy with a sexy voice, apparently, that is until he accidentally ruins her blouse with her fish and chips, attempts to flirt with her while trying to help her clean herself and, a few moments prior, almost ran her over with this car. Needless to say that that did not end well.
That is, until the next day he ends up being one of her teachers at Magdalen, and after Ella tries to deny their inevitable chemistry for like a chapter or two, the two of them agree on what they want...or more exactly, on what they don't want. A relationship.
Review
There's something about contemporary romances that is so alluring to me. Perhaps it's the promise of a book that'll be easy to read, not having to think too much outside of my little old boring box, not having to imagine any crazy settings too far away from my reality, or maybe it's the promise of reading fun and quirky characters that get into fanciful situations that would probably never happen to us, normal people, because really... how many English, attractive, young, rich, single, literature/poetry teachers that don't believe in relationships are out there just waiting just to fall in love with us?
But yeah, this book was definitely a guilty pleasure. I knew it wouldn't be the greatest story, but sometimes books of this genre (whether that is YA or adult) have managed to surprise me, to add in something extra to their story that ranked them a little higher than what I usually rank them. If the ending of the story is predictable but the characters are likable and the stakes feel real, it gets 3 stars. If the story is predictable, yet addictive and the characters are ridiculous but funny, it gets 2 stars.
But then you have books like "My Oxford Year" where the main character tries to be funny but it's really annoying and everything in the plot becomes convenient for her until the point where it stops making any sense? Because if you attend an Oxford University on a very prestigious scholarship and have a seemingly demanding job (your dream job, might I add) in the US, you obviously wouldn't have time to do all the other things that happen in this book. Unless, of course, your name is Ella Durran.
Ella starts out fine in the first chapter. I really thought I would like her. She's awed by how beautiful Oxford is and the descriptions of everything she sees and everywhere she goes are very detailed, almost as if you were there. I'll give it that. She's a little confused at how different is everything and everyone from back home, but still comes out as cheerful and friendly, and looking forward to enjoying her Oxford year, her once in a lifetime experience, more than everything. Cool. Nice. We're off to a good start.
In the first 2 or 3 chapters, you can see that she's a very friendly and social girl who speaks her mind, and from those chapters, I thought I was going to like her. But then her narration went from being funny...to just childish. Just...
He’s flirting with me. Holding the towel poised and ready, all dashing smile and twinkling eyes.
My head explodes. “Are you kidding me?”
“I would never dare kid about such matters,” he charms.
“You’re flirting? You should be apologizing!”
“For flirting?”
“For nearly running me over!”
“You’re suggesting I apologize for something I didn’t intentionally do? I’d rather apologize for the flirting.” He’s smiling.
“Y-you . . . you posh prat!”
Now keep in mind that this girl has, allegedly, dealt with people worse than this, according to her backstory as an assistant in previous political campaigns. But still, without having that sort of impressive background, someone please agree with me that this isn't normal, that yelling at a stranger like a child and making a scene in a restaurant because a guy is flirting with you isn't normal. This is how she treated those people at those campaigns she helped at? If so, how did this girl ever achieve anything in her life, how is she working for the future president of the US? I've said this before and I'll say it again, but even if you're upset because of something he did, this is not how an adult behaves. This girl is supposed to be 24 but her actions, her dialogue, and even the writing sometimes made me feel like I was reading the diary of a 13-year-old.
And it only gets worse from there and Ella becomes your typical Mary Sue. And it's all just a huge somehow. She somehow isn't expelled from her classes because she only goes like two times in the entire book, and they just happened to be Jaime's classes, then rarely mentions them afterward. Somehow she isn't fired from her job, you just know she's doing excellent and that her boss and the Senator candidate love her based on 4 phone calls where all they talk about is how excellent Ella is, she even somehow saved the almost Senator's campaign from...something that didn't make sense? She somehow becomes best friends forever after one-half conversation with this group that now would do anything and go anywhere for her. She somehow gets the guy of her dreams, who just happens to be rich. Eventually, she meets Jaime's parents and somehow they both end up loving her, even though it's been less than 6 months since they met. Like I said, it's impossible to be this great in such a record time unless your name is Ella freakin Durran.
Then we have Jaime Davenport and he's just your typical contemporary co-protagonist guy, charming, dreamy, is friends with everyone in Oxford and his family is rich.
He sighs heavily. “Let us accept the fact that my family is, I believe the American vernacular would be, ‘loaded,’ and move on, shall we?” Jamie air-toasts me, that charming smile still on his face.
I really don't have much to say about Jaime, he (and his mother) just didn't annoy me like Ella, her friends and the rest of the characters did. He still won't be a character I'll remember in the next months. He liked to use words that no one says like "vernacular" and loves poetry but would never write it because a guy like him...writing poetry? Who do you think he is? A walking cliche?
As for the plot, I don't have much to say about it either. I knew it wouldn't be a romantic masterpiece but the "twist" mentioned in the synopsis caught my attention. Before I learned what it was I was already beyond annoyed but I wouldn't spoil myself. Then I got to the twist and I thought that meant this book go down a bittersweet path. I was hoping that it would, that would have helped the book's score a little bit. But nope, again I sucked at predicting book endings and its score... well, it can't be worse.
Verdict
I read that this book is a lot like "Me Before You", but there are only two resemblances between these two books and, in my opinion, that's not enough to compare them. I read "Me Before You" 2 years ago, around the time that the movie came out and, while it was better than your typical adult contemporary romance, it still didn't hit me like it hit everyone else...
But it was definitely way better than this one, so read that instead.
So finally, after studying my butt off to get a scholarship I'm not even going to take advantage of, landing my dream job securing myself a future in politic for the rest of my life but finally dropping all of that to fool around Europe with the richest and most handsome guy in all of England, "My Oxford Year" has me awarding it with....
THAT FIRST SITE IS EVERY WRITER’S DREAM DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY TIMES I’VE TRIED WRITING SOMETHING AND THOUGHT GOD DAMN IS THERE A SPECIFIC WORD FOR WHAT I’M USING TWO SENTENCES TO DESCRIBE AND JUST GETTING A BUNCH OF SHIT GOOGLE RESULTS
I'm writing a story for a game. There's a bunch of characters and someone suggested that I do an outline and map out what the character goes through and then fill in the details. It sounds like a good idea but I don't know how to do it. Do you know how to outline a story with multiple characters and developments?
I’m not sure how well it would work for your game, but when I’ve got multiple intertwining characters and plots, I use a spreadsheet.
This is what mine looks like right now for one of my projects:
Each row represents a chapter in the story and then each column shows whats going on for different characters/plots at that time.
The nice thing about using a spreadsheet on the computer is that it’s a lot cleaner and it’s easy to copy paste if you decide to change things around.
Here’s also an article on mentalfloss where I discovered this format:
Warning: This post may not be for everyone and may come off as petty.
I regularly read unpublished work. A lot of writers have a cool idea for their protagonist’s backstory, one that is meant to create a sense of mystery for the reader. I love stories like that. I love backstories. I even love a good flashback. But I cannot tell you how many times I’ve read sentences similar to this one in an opening of a story:
Jasper pushed the memories away from his mind.
To the average person, there is nothing wrong with this sentence. But when you read a lot, and you read that sentence a lot, you start realizing the problems in it.
There are many variations to this sentence, or at least lead-ins to this sentence. Here are a few others:
Alice used to go the festival every fall with her sister, until her sister got in that accident. Alice shook her head and pushed the thoughts from her mind.
Milly looked at the old photograph and her eyes watered up. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it, Milly thought. She filed away the memories.
It was a border collie, just like … Adam pushed the thoughts away.
Now before anyone freaks out or protests–I’ve written this sentence before. And there are times where this sentence is fine. But if you write it intentionally in the opening of your story, you should know it’s very cliche and whoever is going through the submission pile has seen it so many times that’s it’s more annoying than mysterious. Besides, there are better alternatives that accomplish the effect these writers are looking for, and I’ll share some of them, after I talk about the problems.
Cliche. I already mentioned this, but the thing is, this might sound like a fine sentence, but thousands of other writers thought it was a fine sentence too and so there are loads of stories that have this same sentence. It doesn’t spark curiosity or intrigue in the editors who have read it thousands of times. Some of you might be saying, “Yeah, but there are always going to be sentences like that.” And this is where I say that there are actually other problems with doing this.
White Flag. This sentence is a sure warning signal to higher-ups that this writer doesn’t know how to handle backstory on a professional level yet. I know that sounds really weird, because the sentence is punctuated correctly and seems innocent, but it’s not the sentence itself, it’s the fact that experience shows again and again that writers who are still learning how to weave backstory in well, use this sentence.
One of the problems with this sentence is that you are drawing attention to the fact that you are withholding important, possibly traumatic, information about your protagonist, and alerting to the reader that “Hey, this is going to be an important backstory that’s kind of mysterious and I’m going to tell you about it later.”
It feels a lot less mysterious when the writer is advertising the mystery that way. We’ve all seen this backstory structure in narratives before. We don’t want to be told that it’s the structure you are using, we want to notice that and figure it out for ourselves.
Some argue that this sentence is a problem solely because you are hiding important information about the protagonist from your reader, and that if the protagonist is the viewpoint character that the reader should be privy to that important knowledge by default. I actually disagree that it is always bad to withhold important information from the reader, because I believe you can do it, but it’s difficult and takes a lot of talent to do well enough to get away with it. I would argue that the fact the writer is withholding information isn’t so much the problem as the way they are withholding that information.
Have you ever talked to someone who is clearly trying to get you to ask a specific question about them? They might say things (out of the blue) like, “Uugh, I can’t believe that happened!” wait a few seconds, then sigh heavily, and follow-up with “Now I’ll never get to do X,” sigh again. And you know they just want you to ask them what’s wrong.
This sentence is sort of like that. The writer is broadcasting the fact they are withholding information and signaling to the audience that it will be a mystery that will come out later. They want the reader to ask, “Wow, what was that memory about”? It takes some of the power out of that backstory structure. In this way, it’s kind of similar to writing sentimentally, like a talked about in this post.
I touched on this next one earlier, but this sentence is questionable because it seems to contradict the whole “I’m writing in this character’s viewpoint” thing. If the character is reminded of an unfavorable memory, shouldn’t we at least get some kind of flash of said memory? Or some indication as to what it is? I think that’s debatable, but 9 times out of 10, the answer is yes.
Now, all this doesn’t mean you have to completely chuck the whole “mysterious backstory” thing, which is the advice you might get from some, usually because most people aren’t conscious of when this is done well. It’s that subtle.
And that’s one of the keys to fixing this. Be more subtle. Don’t make the fact that your character is pushing away his bad memories as obvious–don’t tell me that he’s doing it. Get deep in his head and show me instead. Give me a well “told” suggestion of the memory, then show me the character consciously thinking of something else (show me what that something is). Instead of drawing attention to the fact you aren’t telling me about the character’s backstory, put enough in and then draw my attention away from the fact you aren’t telling me. As a reader, I’ll pick up on the fact the character doesn’t want to remember something in his past on my own–which is exactly what needs to happen if I’m meant to feel like it’s a mystery.
J.K. Rowling uses this tactic in other forms of mystery in the Harry Potter series. For example, in Prisoner of Azkaban, when Harry, Ron, and Hermione take Scabbers to the pet store, Rowling suggests that there is something odd about Ron’s rat, but almost immediately after, she draws the reader’s attention away from the fact. She doesn’t stay there and point at it with her sentence structure and style.
Another similar but different option is to present any suggestion of the suppressed memory as information you are giving, not information you are withholding. Don’t point at the fact you aren’t telling the reader everything to make sure the reader gets there is something more. Drop the hint as information. You can do it in a way that makes the reader curious on her own and makes her wonder about it more. Or you can do it in a way that the reader won’t think twice about until later. You can expand on this information that you as the writer so “generously” gave as you go, until the picture and situation becomes clearer and clearer to the reader. You can use foreshadowing, instead of playing monkey-in-the-middle with your reader.
You can drop information in passing. After all, it seems to me that a suppressed memory lives in the subconscious part of your protagonist’s mind, so let it surface, but be subtle about it.
And hey, if you’ve already done a good job at cluing me into this suppressed memory and the fact the character doesn’t want to relive it then you can write that sentence, further into the story, and it won’t be annoying, because I’ll know the information behind it, and I’ve already witnessed and decided for myself the character doesn’t want to remember.
I know to some this post sounds petty, but really, when you’ve read that sentence as much as I have, you’ve got to do a blog post explaining why it’s annoying and how it can be handled better. And really, some of the stuff I touched on goes beyond that sentence and into how to write mystery itself. Thanks for listening.
BLESS THIS POST. This sentence is one of my biggest pet peeves, up there with characters letting out breaths they didn’t know they were holding and “it was all she could do not to ____.”
The only thing that makes me close a book faster is finding out the protagonist is 16.
Glad I’m not alone. Also, don’t know if you care to know, but one of the reasons so many protagonists are 16 is because of marketing in the industry. And we won’t be seeing less of them in the future.
The winner will be the one who gets the closest to the right answer
The bet is placed on the character with the highest score
Characters who are not bet on will be scored a zero (0)
The loser will have to invite the winner to the movies at broland 2k? or take them to canada (this is still debatable)
This will be posted exactly at the same time for bro movie night (9pm/10pm) on Wednesday, april 6th
Once they’re posted, these must not be touched
To avoid cheating, each must reblog the other’s post
In case of a tie…idk, both will receive a snow ball to the face(?)
if you’re anything like me, working on a computer is a dangerous thing. i’ll get distracted by everything - that one email i should respond to, all the pictures of my dog, tumblr, and so on. I recently discovered an amazing resource to stop that.
it’s called writer’s block, and is free to download!
when you open it, it shows this screen, where you can choose either a time limit or word goal
then when you start, it opens a document that fills the entire screen like this
and you cannot quit the app or open anything else until your word/time quota is filled. i just wrote half of my english speech that i’ve been putting off all morning, and it took only 20 minutes!
so yup, it’s called writer’s block and is free for both mac and windows. enjoy!
