smolmenace's reviews & ramblings

Hey everyone! smolmenace here! Just a blog of reviews and ramblings! I'll do my best to keep my reviews spoiler-free! But my ramblings will have spoilers!

[melonlord-ramblings]

My Experience and Review of Book Depository

Hey everyone! This is for those who are curious about Book Depository in 2021 with the pandemic and just in general. Just a disclaimer, this is technically my experience with them in 2019/2020 but I did recently order books from them again this year so I'll update with how that went! Let's get started!

I liked my experience with Book Depository! I give them a 4/5! I love the free shipping, and the fact that all the books I've seen and ordered from on their site are much cheaper (and actually available) than what they are in Korea.

I'm not a big fan of the no tracking (but I do know that they've updated so now some countries are provided with tracking! Korea's just not one of them...ㅠㅠ) And when they say i.e. 10-15 days, they mean 10-15 days. Not a day earlier but also most of the time, days later. If it's been past the maximum amount of days, normally I'll just email them and say how much longer should I wait before contacting again for a refund or a new copy and then I just wait.

Sometimes, it'll come around two days or three after the "15 days limit" but it normally comes around the time frame they provide.

And then if it doesn't, after emailing them they normally ask if you want a refund or a new copy and then whatever you decide tends to happen smoothly and quickly.

I like their customer service! They respond within a day or two, and they always refund or send a new copy! Once, I got a book that was slightly damaged (damaged enough that I contacted them) and they gave me a partial refund! So that was nice. I had heard a lot of negative reviews surrounding their customer service so I was really apprehensive on my first order, but it worked out well, and they were quick to respond - both verbally and actions-wise.

Just to be aware, once it's in the country, I think it's delivered through the most basic delivery express, so it could take longer to get to your destination.

But yeah, that's it! A few things to be aware of, but I've been reassured by their customer service and I hope you are too!

I do recommend ordering earlier than when you would like to receive it by, and to keep an eye on the price because it does fluctuate - so sometimes it can cheaper and sometimes it can get more expensive.

Other than that, I do recommend Book Depository! For all the new English books that I've bought since moving to Korea, most of them were bought from Book Depository!

[melonlord-ramblings]

Asus ZenBook 15

Just gonna say, poor design making their touchpad centered with the laptop and not the keyboard. Can’t tell you how many times how many times a program would either be exited out of or messed with somehow because my right palm brushes against the screenpad while it’s on. -_- (¬_¬ )

[melonlord-ramblings]

✨Yowu Cardcaptor Sakura Limited Edition Headphones Review✨

✨Yowu Cardcaptor Sakura Limited Edition Headphones Review✨

Service and Shipping Rating: 4/10

Product Rating: 8.5/10

Service and Shipping Rating: 4/10

I rated their service 4 because of something that happened after I ordered my headphones. I ordered their headphones on a Wednesday and I emailed them (twice) on Saturday after getting no shipping updates - I went to check on my order status, it said it was closed (I got nervous, I don’t shop online a lot, let alone internationally). I got my answers on the following Tuesday - with the first one saying that nothing was wrong and that it was still waiting for delivery. The second response was the answer that I had needed. They answered saying that my package couldn’t ship out because it was stuck at customs because my package needed an “Unified Identity Authentication”. I didn’t even know what this was, and Google was no help. Miraculously, I was able to find out what they were needing by looking up customs regulations for my country and was able to quickly sign up for a personal customs code. I quickly sent them a reply and they answered back saying they’ll send it to the company.  I wasn’t as angry as my sister, but I do agree with what she said. Were they ever planning on telling me that I was needing such a thing? There wasn’t a box asking for such information when I was inputting my address so I was unaware that was required. Five business days had passed, and I only found out they needed an important piece of information because I emailed them. Thus, the reason for a low service rating. I will give them credit that within the time frame of Tuesday and Wednesday, they did answer back rather quickly. But the late initial reply and the fact that I had to reach out to them to find out why my package wasn’t shipping, is why I gave them this rating. After sending them my code, I finally got a confirmation email on Friday. 

Another reason for a low shipping rating is that they gave me the wrong shipping service, so it took me a while to even figure out which shipping service my tracking number was valid for. At that point, I only figured out what shipping service it was once my package arrived in my country.

After that, I received an email from the Korean branch of the shipping company confirming my address and all that. Later, they too, provided a tracking number, but again without a specific courier service. Thankfully, Naver has some sort of feature where you can input all available courier services and the tracking number to see which one it belongs to. Overall, I’d say it was a surprisingly slow delivery. Maybe I’m a little spoiled from fast shipping in Korea. After it passed through customs, it did get here somewhat quickly. They said minimum it would arrive Thursday, it came around Friday at lunchtime. 

Thinking back on it, I guess it was pretty fast shipping - around a week and a half to two weeks, but the lack of information needed from the company really lowered the rating. 

Product Initial Rating: 9/10

Oh my gosh, it’s so pretty!!! From the pictures, I was a little worried about how the gold would look with the pink, but there was no need to worry, the color scheme is so pretty. The earcups are also nice and squishy which is nice. It’s a little on the cheap feeling side because it’s made of plastic - which unfortunately, makes it creaky and a little stiff. I’m worried about potentially breaking the adjustable area because it’s so hard to pull out and push in. Other than that though, everything is so pretty and nice. I will say, it smells very strongly of paint when you first open it. I don’t know why, but especially the earpads smell so strongly of paint I gagged a little. 

I love the details that let you know it’s Cardcaptor Sakura! The fact that they even gave three Clow cards?? I love it! The wired audio cable is based off of her star wand handle and the headphones themselves have aspects of CCS!

My package also came mainly in good condition, only a few minor bumps here and there - very minimal; which is surprising because it wasn’t that well protected. Maybe one layer of bubble wrap and then plain plastic packaging.

The headset case is absolutely beautiful! I thought it would be hard, knockable leather, but it’s actually a little squishy! I think it’s based off of her uniform, and it’s so cute! I think you can use it as an actual bag, but taking out the mold and stuff was a little hard, so I gave up because I didn’t want to risk it.

Product Final Rating: 8.5/10

I am in no way an audiophile or an expert on headphones, but I really like them! The sounds are nice and clear and crisp. I’m not sure if they’re for gamers because I’m not one, but when I used them playing Genshin, it was even more fun than usual! I could hear the fire crackling, the winds howling, and even what I think were wolves howling in Dragonspine! I could hear the little details and I think that was pretty impressive. I haven’t tested them with various genres of music, but I did like what I already heard. 

I wore these for around an hour to an hour and a half and I didn’t even realize that much time passed! The earcups are really comfy and not bothersome, even with glasses. I will say, it’s a little on the heavier side and it weighs down from the top because of the cat ears and I did notice that a little near the hour mark. They also are a little tight to put on and that makes it a little hard to take them off, but hopefully they’ll stretch out over time.

The fact that it can be wired and wireless is also nice in case you run out of battery or just don’t feel like using bluetooth. The USB-C type means it’ll charge faster! Using the volume and function buttons really did make me realize how plasticky it was because it would make a plastic echo-y sound every time I pressed it. 

I don’t think the mic is that good. On the few times I used it to talk with, the person on the other side said I sounded too quiet and I guess it doesn’t pick up on my voice that well. But I have also read other people say it’s good enough for calls, so it’s up to you.

You can manually change the lights and colors or you can do it through the app - which by using the Clow cards, can also unlock new colors. I don’t know if I’ll use the app because you need to input your phone number and I generally avoid inputting such information. 

As for the battery life, it is not that good. It definitely is much shorter than the advertised 20 hours with lighting wirelessly. I can’t say exactly how long because I don’t and can’t wear headphones for that long, consecutively. But I do wear them for around 2 hours a day or so, and I only use them for around 2 or 3 days before I have to charge them. So I’d say around 6 hours total? So yeah, way less than advertised and “guaranteed”.

The headphones are definitely on the pricey side, which makes sense because of intellectual property and licensing - plus the cards and the leather bag headset case. I love this headphones and hopefully I’ll wear them a lot! I recommend these if you aren’t an avid gamer (because I don’t know if they’re good enough for that), love CCs, and have the money to spare! 

extra note: I will say, if you have the money to spare, it is pretty worth it! Especially if you compare it to the airpods pro! These headphones, including shipping, turned out to be slightly cheaper, and it comes with more!

Ramblings:

I don’t know if it had to do with me, but it seemed like I could hear better from the left earphone - it was clearer and louder than the right - I actually had to move the left away to see if the right was even working lol. My sister also said the same thing, so it’s possible that this pair of headphones isn’t in the best shape? It’s not so obvious that it’s jarring, but it’s a little obvious in that it makes it uncomfortable. 

I am wondering if Yowu will eventually offer extra accessories like earpads in case we need to replace the ones we have, or if they’ll give instructions on how to wash them? 

I also would have liked it if Yowu had more details on their shipping and refund policies (mainly shipping) and clearer details and information on the shipping service. 

I was watching Genshin Impact’s 1.5 livestream, and I don’t know if it was cause it was a livestream, but near the end, the audio started to occasionally short out, so there’s that.

Overall, I’d give this pair of limited edition Cardcaptor Sakura headphones a solid 9/10!

[melonlord-ramblings]

Photo source:

Title: One of Us is Lying

Author: Karen M. McManus

Summary:

Pay close attention and you might solve this.

On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.

Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.

Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.

Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.

Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.

And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose?

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.”

REVIEW

I give this book a 3.75/5! I really enjoyed this book. I was thinking about giving this a 4, but it’s been a hot minute since I’ve read this book, so I forgot some details but I started remembering some of them... and it lowered the grade to 3.75. The plot of the book was interesting, it wasn’t perfect, but it was still enjoyable and definitely one I would recommend to other people. I did see the approach the author was trying to go for, and I don’t know if she was purposely trying to make the police imcompetent or not, but the police were really useless lol!! But the mystery was really well-kept - I only managed to figure it out like five pages away from the actual reveal. Also, personally, I really liked the character developments for the main characters! Addy most of all, she became my favorite character so fast! I wasn’t one for the romance between Brownyn and Nate because it was kind of bland and playing really strongly on the good girl-bad boy trope. But I did very much enjoy the friendship development between the four characters!

RAMBLINGS

UGH, I LOVED ADDY. SHE STOLE THE FREAKING SHOW FOR ME. Her development into becoming a strong, independent woman who don’t need no man??? ICONIC. Also, the police were real useless. I thought it was really weird how they were targeting the four people who were in the room with Simon just because they were the next ones about to appear in his next gossip post. I mean, he’s the only one who manages the blog and even keeps it password-protected, how would they have managed to hack it? Also, even if they could hack it, it’s not like they knew they were the next ones - all they knew what that they had a secret that Simon potentially knew, but they weren’t even sure if he actually knew their greatest secret. So how would they know they were next and then plan a murder??? That just didn’t make sense to me that the police didn’t come to that conclusion. It also didn’t make sense to me why they would even try to pin the blame on Nate. I mean, this wasn’t even the first time he was on the gossip blog, and even though it was the most damning gossip, there’s literally no reason to have pinned the blame on him more than on the others. I will say, Jake being an accomplice was an actual surprise. Even with all his need for control, I was not expecting that. Also, I wasn’t really sure how to take Simon’s shameful secret that Jake was holding over him. I thought it was like unspoken knowledge that Simon desperately wanted to be part of the popular gang, so the fact that he included Jake because he didn’t want people to know was rather odd for me. But yeah, this book was a really fun read for me. Oh, also, for Brownyn, her secret of cheating was really weird for me too. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that if even if she had gotten like a low grade on her Chem class, I’m pretty sure her grades would have been fine. If every other class of hers was like an A+, that chem grade probably wouldn’t even have affected her overall GPA. And if she was so worried, why didn’t she just ask her parents for a tutor?? That was what tripped me up - I mean girl is pretty loaded and her parents would have probably been understanding of her wanting a tutor. Like, weighing the options, I would have rather asked for a tutor then risk cheating and getting caught. It’s just, I dunno. Lots of questionable actions done throughout the book. But it was still fun to read!

[melonlord-ramblings]

No longer just a book review blog!

I've decided to just post reviews on general things and not just books!! There's a review coming up soon!!

[melonlord-ramblings]

What Lies Between Us by John Marrs Review & Ramblings

picture source: goodreads

Title: What Lies Between Us

Author: John Marrs

Rating: 3.5/5

Trigger Warnings: non-con drugging, murder, untreated mental illness, forced captivity, ephebophilia, attempted manipulation, disassociation, etc. (I feel like there are a lot of issues that happen, but I’m not too sure if they are triggers, or if they are, how to label them. Read with caution and at own risk)

Summary: 

Nina can never forgive Maggie for what she did. And she can never let her leave. They say every house has its secrets, and the house that Maggie and Nina have shared for so long is no different. Except that these secrets are not buried in the past. Every other night, Maggie and Nina have dinner together. When they are finished, Nina helps Maggie back to her room in the attic, and into the heavy chain that keeps her there. Because Maggie has done things to Nina that can’t ever be forgiven, and now she is paying the price. But there are many things about the past that Nina doesn’t know, and Maggie is going to keep it that way—even if it kills her. Because in this house, the truth is more dangerous than lies.

Review

This book was very interesting. I also feel like because I had read this book with a friend, it was a lot more fun and interesting, especially when it came to our discussions. Anyways, let’s get to the review.

I gave this book a 3.5/5 mainly because I was frustrated by the last few chapters of the book. I felt as though it wasn’t satisfying? enough, and I also agree with my friend in that the ending did seem a little too rushed. 

However, I will say that the book was very fun to read and there were a lot of interesting elements to think and discuss about (if you were to read this with a friend or friends). 

I really enjoyed the aspect of the two main characters, Maggie and Nina. Maggie is the mother and Nina is the daughter. I really liked how neither of them were blameless. Sure, I did root for Maggie more than I did Nina, but both of these characters were flawed. Maggie did what she thought was right, but then, so did Nina. 

Throughout the book, as all the secrets are revealed little by little, you will go through a roller coaster of ups and downs - positives and negatives towards the characters. 

I recommend this book!! Especially if you are interested in complicated relationships and how decisions and actions can affect people and people around them. 

Ramblings

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” 

This saying is basically the premise of the book. And this is also where it gets complicated. How much blame should Maggie get? Her actions and decisions did kick start a lot of Nina’s actions and whatnot. But then, where does the blame shift to Nina? Because like people say,

It can explain your actions, but it doesn’t excuse them.

I feel like these two sentences are very important to keep in mind while reading the book, ESPECIALLY the second one. 

It was a very interesting read because the book starts somewhat black and white: Nina is in the wrong here, and Maggie is the victim. But then that notion starts to, and keeps changing throughout the entirety of the book. 

Is Nina justified?

Is Maggie the one to blame?

But then, the answers to those questions are also not as straightforward as one might think. 

Personally, yes, Nina might be justified, but only in her anger. Her actions I believe, should not be justified, but I can understand her anger. But then there is also the fact that she is a grown 39-year old woman, yet she acts with a sense of immaturity. But then that immaturity also seems somewhat understandable once you figure out what happened to her in her teen years. 

And with the second question, I do think Maggie is to blame, but not for everything. At one point, Nina’s actions can no longer be blamed on Maggie, but must be shouldered by Nina. BUT! BUT THEN! It gets complicated, because could all of Nina’s actions that happened in the present time of the book have been avoided had Maggie gotten her the professional help Nina very clearly needed? 

It’s a very complicated situation and I found it very interesting to read and think about myself. I have very minimum knowledge on the psychology of humans, so maybe I’m missing something quite simple. Either way, this was a very interesting book to read. 

Now, I’m going to talk about the ending and why it frustrated me. I can get very invested in one character and be very stubborn about either the good or bad points on that character. This book was very fun in that it challenged me on that idea - of course, I’m also trying to stop doing that as characters are very 3D and not this one thing or the opposite. 

ANYWAYS

For me, the ending frustrated me, because while I (think) could see the point of what happened, I was very disappointed with how the book finished in terms of with Nina. I get it, she is a woman who needs professional help and I shouldn’t think of her so poorly, but I still wanted like, a harsher punishment for Nina. 

To explain, Nina was very delusional throughout the entire book. Some of it might be due to her upbringing courtesy of Maggie, but at the age of 39, I feel like Nina should have been a little more grown up? Also, while some of it might have been due to her upbringing, the rest of it just seems to be due to her delusions and inability to accept reality and logic. 

The way the book ended was that Maggie ended up setting the house on fire, committing murder-suicide. She committed suicide but unintentionally committed murder- as she was unaware that her grandson was still alive and also imprisoned in the house. Nina was not in the house, so she ended up losing literally everything - her whole life was basically in that house - her mom, her estranged son, and her memories of her father and basically her whole life. 

While I get the message that Nina lost everything she was so obsessed with keeping, I still wanted her to also face reality. I was wanting as well as expecting to see Nina be forced to remember all the murders she’s done and the reasons why and realize that the delusion she was trying so hard to maintain and believe as real is nothing compared the actual reality. 

I was also very confused by some of what seemed like plot holes. The biggest plot hole I think is having a minor character who knew everything that happened, yet doing nothing except staring suspiciously at Nina? I thought that character just had a suspicion, not that she knew everything!! Why didn’t she call the cops? Why didn’t Maggie get her daughter the professional help she needed?

Overall

I recommend this book to those who like flawed characters and complicated relationships!! It was a very fun and intense read - even more so with a buddy!

[melonlord-ramblings]

Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell Review & Ramblings

picture source: goodreads

Title: Then She Was Gone

Author: Lisa Jewell

Pages: ~270

Rating: 4.5/5

Trigger Warnings: Kidnapping, non-consensual impregnation, murder, suicide, sexual situations and mentions, violence, miscarriages, stalking, manipulations, neglect.

Summary: 

**“THEN She was fifteen, her mother's golden girl. She had her whole life ahead of her. And then, in the blink of an eye, Ellie was gone.

NOW It’s been ten years since Ellie disappeared, but Laurel has never given up hope of finding her daughter.

And then one day a charming and charismatic stranger called Floyd walks into a café and sweeps Laurel off her feet.

Before too long she’s staying the night at this house and being introduced to his nine year old daughter.

Poppy is precocious and pretty - and meeting her completely takes Laurel's breath away.

Because Poppy is the spitting image of Ellie when she was that age. And now all those unanswered questions that have haunted Laurel come flooding back.

What happened to Ellie? Where did she go?

Who still has secrets to hide?” 

Review

Wow. Wowowowow. This book was simply amazing. It was messed up, it was sad, but it was good. It did take a while for me to get into it, but when I got to part four and five, wow oh wow. The story started coming together, the mystery was being slowly solved, and you learned more about the characters. I highly recommend this book. 

I took off .5 simply because of how hard and slightly boring it was to get through most of the parts. They were kind of necessary moments - not for the mystery, but for the relationship development, but it was mostly daily life activities such as cleaning a house that it was boring to read. I had to force myself to read through, but even then, sometimes I would skip paragraphs because it was just describing inane activities. 

But the mystery and the characters were interesting to read about - and the one who was behind Ellie’s disappearance?? Dang. It was satisfying I guess? To have a character who did such awful things because of bad reasons. It sounds weird, but for those who read it or will read will hopefully know what I mean. I’ve said it before - I’m a big fan of Criminal Minds, and I think it’s mainly due to how the serial killers are so interesting in their motives and beliefs. Which the “whodidit” fulfilled here. At one point, I had asked, was the way she thought of her family just something she thought, or was it a result of treatment she said she received from her sister? 

I also really loved how I felt towards and about Ellie’s story in the book. Lisa Jewell was able to write a story that invokes sadness, regret, and a sense of unfairness in what happened in me.

The mystery is intriguing, it’s messed up, and it’s really sad. But it was a good book.

**

**

Ramblings

Wooow. This book was craaaazy. It was hard to get sucked into the plot for a little more than half of the book. And Laurel wasn’t my favorite character in the beginning, but I liked her more in the end. Which was understandable though - she was a grieving mother and going through something I couldn’t understand. So my “judging” of her wasn’t very fair. But she also learned and moved on from her thoughts and mindset in the beginning. While it wasn’t fair and definitely not nice to think about in terms of being a grieving mother, I figured I’d still say what I thought about her. When I was first reading the book, I thought Laurel was a little rude and a bad mother and wife, though more mother - I wasn’t her biggest fan. Yes, she was grieving the loss of her favorite (which can happen I guess, but oof, the way she showed it) child, but she wasn’t the only one who lost her daughter that day. Her ex-husband had lost his daughter, and her son and other daughter had lost their sister. I guess I found it kind of annoying how after shutting down and just giving up on being a mother and wife, she wondered why, after 16 years I believe? her daughter wouldn’t tell her she was dating. When I read that, I have to admit, I was in disbelief. Maybe I’m being too harsh, but like I said, the rest of her family had also lost a family member. And the fact that she was clueless as to why her daughter and son, especially her daughter, weren’t really including them in her lives was baffling.

There was also this one moment where she meets Poppy, who’s a splitting image of her daughter that went missing and later whose bones were found, and she thinks to herself, “_This child, Laurel suddenly feels with the immediacy of a kick to the gut, needs a mother. And this mother, she acknowledges, needs a child.” _At this I was shook. I mean, she has two children!!! She could try to pay more attention to them and try to reenter their lives, but she’s fixated on Poppy because she looks like her favorite daughter. 

She also seems to pain Hanna in such a bad light? Like, on the day Ellie went missing, she stared at Hanna and thought to herself that it should have been Hanna missing and Ellie at home. Like wtf??? Wow, I was honestly so shook when I read that. Then she stays resentful of Hanna being the alive daughter, but then is still surprised her daughter keeps secrets from her. Oof, I don’t even know. THEN, we find out that Hanna’s secret bf was Ellie’s ex!! Σ(･口･) (They were dating but then Ellie disappeared). While I was also very shook, I got a second shock when Laurel says, “_Hanna has completely transmogrified in her mind from an ice princess destined to never thaw to a scarlet woman throwing herself at other people’s boyfriends with no thought for anyone but herself.” _WOW. WOW. And this is also coming from the woman who was once the other woman in a relationship!! I was just so shook. 

Because for me, my thought process was, her daughter might’ve died, but she can’t forget she’s got two other children to take care of. Granted, I’ve never experienced this kind of grief before, so I’m probably being unfair and insensitive. 

Now let’s talk about the actual mystery. 

The mystery was almost as messed up as I was guessing when I first read the summary. My initial guess had been that Floyd, the charming man with the daughter who looks exactly like Ellie, had taken Ellie and impregnated her with Poppy, and when Ellie died, he went after the mother to replace her. This is basically the premise of a Criminal Minds episode and that is where my mind went. I was partially correct, but not 100%. 

Turns out, Ellie’s math tutor, Noelle, was very obsessed about Floyd, and she was in a relationship with him. She wanted to give Floyd a baby because his first daughter treated him very badly and he’s a little starved for love, so he wanted a new baby, one that would love him. And she was very determined to give that to him. But her body just could not handle it. After two miscarriages, she finally met Ellie, whom she became obsessed about and decided to kidnap in order to impregnate her and keep the child so she could also keep Floyd. 

Other stuff happens later as well, but just reading and learning about the mystery about Ellie was so horrible and left a gross feeling in my chest. It just really added to the sadness about Ellie’s death because she had so much going for her, and it was ruined by an obsessed woman. Reading the chapters through Ellie’s POV was just heartbreaking. Noelle was truly sickeningly fascinating to learn and read about.

Also, my thoughts about Floyd were a lot worse than what actually was up with Floyd. I actually kind of pitied him in the end. He wasn’t really a bad man, just a lack of love and a large amount of guilt. The phrase his parents would say to him whenever they were mad? Oof. Also, I feel like I couldn’t really pity Noelle the same way, because her backstory was a little ambiguous. Was she really compared to and mistreated by her family, or was this just some weird failed expectation mindset she placed on herself? I’ll guess we’ll never know. 

Anyways, that was my review, hope you enjoyed it, and thank you for reading!

[melonlord-ramblings]

#살아있다 (#Alive/ #Saraitda) Movie Review & Ramblings

picture source: wikipedia

Title:  #살아있다 (#Alive/ #Saraitda) Length: 98 Minutes Rating: 3.5/5 Trigger Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, murder

Review

I’m still not very fluent in Korean, so I wasn’t able to understand the dialogue 100%. However, a good thing for those who either aren’t fluent, or don’t know Korean at all, the dialogue is either not that important, or it’s pretty easy to guess the context of what they’re saying. I gave this movie a 3.5 out of 5 because it was quite the generic zombie movie. Of course, I tend to not watch zombie movies or thrillers in general because I can’t watch them (lol), but I do know at least the basic gist of what happens in one. I gave this a 3.5 because there wasn’t a lot of information on how the zombie outbreak started - unless it was in the dialogue that I did not understand  (ﾉ≧ڡ≦). But yeah, it seemed like the zombie outbreak started just to get the movie started and give it its premise of surviving. 

The male MC also did a lot of stupid stuff that honestly, stressed me out. Like for real, ESPECIALLY for a gamer who most likely played a zombie survival game at one point, should have known NOT to do the things he did!! 

I did lower my rating because some people might like it, but I did not. The movie was very intense and high-risk throughout the whole movie. From the beginning all the way to the end, it was always tense and nerve-wracking! As a person who is very bad at thrillers, horror, etc type movies, I was shaking!!! SHAKING.

This movie was a pretty good movie! Most jump scare moments were easily seen, but they were still pretty good! I gave it a lower score because the zombie outbreak was really underdeveloped and also it was quite generic. Oh! I will say, I did think the ending was quite good because I actually wasn’t sure if they were going to survive or not! Which tends to not happen for me!

Ramblings

I was very confused and curious about the zombie outbreak! I can’t remember if Train to Busan explained it, but I think most American zombie movies tend to have at least a source for the virus? Like they show it in “prologue” of the movie, or explain it later as some big reveal. This movie did not. And I was very curious because was it airborne? Some weird stroke of luck? The thing is, out of the blue, people started turning into zombies, right? So one would assume airborne or something vulnerable in the DNA, I don’t know. Because in the beginning, a mom and daughter are hugging while everyone is running out of the building opposite of the male MC, when all of a sudden, the girl turns into a zombie and bites and I assume, kills and eats her mother. BUT! BUT, from the news, it says that it’s only transferred through transfer of saliva/ infection, whatever! Through biting! But the daughter had shown no signs of a bite, so how did she turn? 

I will say, this zombie movie actually really unnerved me. I honestly don’t know why, because it didn’t have the emotional delivery of Train to Busan, and it seemed just like any other zombie movie I’ve seen or read about. So why did it leave me unnerved for the next few days or so? I think one reason is because of how the movie started. 

The movie starts with the male MC just chillin, when all of a sudden, he hears screams. He looks down and everyone is running out of their buildings with zombies attacking. He then spends the next three days trying to contact his family, only to find out they didn’t make it. I don’t know why, but that scene of just looking out the window and hearing screams and seeing people die and become zombies while worrying about the state of your family just really freaked me out lol. Morbid, but that’s what happened.

Anyways, this was my review and ramble for the movie! Thanks for reading!

[melonlord-ramblings]

Watching You by Lisa Jewell Review & Ramblings

Picture source: goodreads

Title: Watching You

Author: Lisa Jewell

Summary: 

“Melville Heights is one of the nicest neighbourhoods in Bristol, England; home to doctors and lawyers and old-money academics. It’s not the sort of place where people are brutally murdered in their own kitchens. But it is the sort of place where everyone has a secret. And everyone is watching you. As the headmaster credited with turning around the local school, Tom Fitzwilliam is beloved by one and all—including Joey Mullen, his new neighbor, who quickly develops an intense infatuation with this thoroughly charming yet unavailable man. Joey thinks her crush is a secret, but Tom’s teenaged son Freddie—a prodigy with aspirations of becoming a spy for MI5—excels in observing people and has witnessed Joey behaving strangely around his father. One of Tom’s students, Jenna Tripp, also lives on the same street, and she’s not convinced her teacher is as squeaky clean as he seems. For one thing, he has taken a particular liking to her best friend and fellow classmate, and Jenna’s mother—whose mental health has admittedly been deteriorating in recent years—is convinced that Mr. Fitzwilliam is stalking her. Meanwhile, twenty years earlier, a schoolgirl writes in her diary, charting her doomed obsession with a handsome young English teacher named Mr. Fitzwilliam…”

Trigger Warnings: Mentions of grooming and ephebophilia, stalking (will be explained later), infidelity, explicit sexual content, murder, explicit murder details, domestic violence, unhealthy relationships, undiagnosed disorder (I don’t know if this is considered one or not, just putting it just in case), mentions of suicide, bullying.

Rating: 3.5/5

Review

Hey everyone, smolmenace here! Today’s review & ramblings will be on Watching You by Lisa Jewell. I liked this book! It had a good mystery and build up to it, and it was a quick read, so I finished it in less than a day, which I do appreciate. It was a little hard to get fully into the flow of the book because there were just so many characters that I kept losing track and forgetting who’s who and what they do and everything. I did like how Lisa Jewell kept not only the identity of the murderer a secret but also the victim, I mean, it was easy to deduct who, but it was still a new touch! 

I also both liked and disliked the plot twist! I’ll explain it in my ramblings because it is spoilers, but the murderer is someone who I never expected! In hindsight, maybe, but there were so many hints and allusions to other people and other reasons that it was quite shocking! 

This book does have a lot of things to think about and it was a ride to try and figure out who the victim was, and who was the murderer.

I will say, this book can be boring for some people. I had read emmabooks’ review on goodreads and I can see where she’s coming from. This book might be boring and slow because the chapters tend to be the character’s thoughts and whatnot, and not most of them contributes to the actual development of the plot. A majority of the chapters were like character studies? I don’t really know how to describe it, but it was more to learn about the characters rather than see how the plot and murder develops.

All in all, I do recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a quick, but still good, murder mystery!

Warning!

In my ramblings, I will be talking about one of the characters who is later diagnosed near the end of the book with Asperger’s. I wasn’t really educated nor with knowledge over what Asperger’s is and whatnot before reading the book, and even after reading about Asperger’s, I was still on the fence about the character. So, if anything I say about this character (and even other topics!) sounds offensive or uneducated, please do let me know!! Also, my ramblings will be full of spoilers, which dips its toes into the trigger warnings, so please stop reading if any of those are triggering!

Ramblings

Oh man oh man! Let me talk about and explain why I was disappointed by the plot twist. So the whole time, the story really emphasizes the importance of Tom. Who, throughout the story, is heavily thought and implied to be an ephebophile. For those who may not know, an ephebophile is an adult who is sexually attracted to teenagers. So, at this point, I like, really wanna know - is Tom an ephebophile? Everyone in this story (the main character cast) is super sketch and they all have some secret. But, as the story is heavily around Tom - which was actually fun because his was the one POV that the book did not do, so it was everyone obsessed with Tom in some way. Anyways, so yeah, I’m like, super invested in finding out about Tom.

Let me get back to explaining why I found the plot twist a little disappointing. Turns out, that the murderer was one of the MC’s sister-in-law, Rebecca.This was the plot twist because she was such a background character that you really don’t see it coming. However, if one was really good at mysteries or something, they probably could have figured it out. Rebecca’s sister is the one who is talking in her journal about becoming obsessed with Tom in the summary, and she had committed suicide because of extreme bullying from, who - and this gets crazier, is Tom’s wife!! Σ(･口･). Mind-blown. NOT ONLY THAT, but it’s implied that Viva (Rebecca’s sister) didn’t even commit suicide, and that Nicola had murdered her!!! WHAAAT?? ∑(ΦдΦlll) This is implied in the epilogue, where their son finds an envelope that has a lock of dark brown hair - she cut off a lock of hair and kept it as a trophy all these years. And this is a really good twist, don’t get me wrong - writing this now and thinking about it, I’m like, oh dang, oh dang, OH DANG. BUT the thing is, the whole book got me invested in knowing about TOM, and that’s not what I really got in the end. More like, I’m feeling this “oh dang” now having given it some thought, but in the moment of reading, I was wanting to know about Tom.

Lemme also say this, Nicola and Tom’s relationship was real weird. Nicola was 14 years old when she thought to herself that she will marry Tom, and then it happened! When Nicola was 19, she met Tom, who was 35? and according to Tom, she was pregnant and they got married. At this point, Nicola kinda goes downhill. She starts becoming extremely possessive and easily jealous and at one point their relationship becomes sado-masochistic and that leads Tom to cheat on her with Joey who is also married（○□○), yeah it gets real complicated.

Anyways, let’s get into the character that the warning section was for. So this character, Freddie, is the son of Tom and Nicola (the one who bullied Rebecca’s sister). The summary describes him as a genius aspiring to become a M15 and is amazing at observing people. I did not get the genius during the story. I also thought that the amazing at observing people meant he was just really good at body language and whatnot. What I did not expect was him to be keeping photos and video footage of not the entire neighborhood, but a specific set of girls his age, and one of the MC’s, Joey. Like, for real, this ain’t selling me on genius aspiring to be M15. All I’m getting is stalker and creepy vibes. Because that’s not where it stops. He physically follows some of these girls around. 

During the story, he gets so obsessed over his crush that he redirects all this creepiness towards her - so he’s got a single folder dedicated to pictures and videos to this girl. Not only that, at one point, he does something super gross and I don’t know if that’s natural, but it’s just the buildup of everything just made it super gross to read. This escalates to the point where he follows her from her school to her house and stays there to “observe” her. He also finds and buys whatever piece of clothing she was looking at on her way home and leaves it off for her at her house!!! Like???

And then I got confused because the author then reveals that he has Asperger’s and it kinda came off as an explanation for his behavior? And I was like, I don’t think that’s how it works? So yeah, that’s what I was thinking about Freddie.

Back to Tom, is he an ephebophile? I think yes! There is a point where the line gets blurred too much to imply anything else. There’s also a lot to say about Joey, but I think this post is already getting too long lol.

Anyways, for those who have read it, what do you think? Do you think Tom is an ephebophile? What did you think during and after reading the book? Thanks for reading and honestly, kudos for having read all of this! (ﾉ≧∀≦)ﾉ

[melonlord-ramblings]

Witch is When It All Began by Adele Abbott Review & Rambling

Picture source: goodreads

Title: Witch is When It All Began

Author: Adele Abbott

Summary:

“When the going gets tough... Private investigator, Jill Gooder, has been hired to find a serial killer because, as usual, the police can't buy a clue. Jill, the not so proud owner of a crazy, one-eyed cat, probably can't expect too much help from her PA/Secretary, Mrs V, who spends all day knitting. And just in case all of that wasn't bad enough, Jill's just about to discover she's a witch. ...break out the custard creams.”

Rating: 2-2.5/5 Stars

Trigger Warnings: Mentions of murder, semi-graphic descriptions of murder aftermath (victims) - I think that’s it, but if I missed any, please do let me know!!

Review

This book was whatever for me. I read this book because I had seen some reviews on goodreads that this book was a cozy mystery read and I was (and still am) in the mood for mystery but a chill one, you know? So I decided to read this!

It was... decent. It was less of a mystery and more of a “figuring out she’s a witch and exploring her new abilities” which isn’t bad, but I was there for the mystery. 

I was actually quite disappointed with the murder mystery. I had seen another review that the murder was essentially not necessary in the plot, and I had totally agreed after reading the book. To be honest, I’m not really sure why the murder mystery was even there? Other than to give the MC a job as a P.I. I guess, but it really wasn’t necessary here. The murder mystery was also disappointing in how there didn’t seem to be much of “intent” and “motive” behind it. I mean, we do figure out who and why, but it was lackluster and fell kinda flat for me.

 I mean, the murder itself had so much potential to be interesting!! A murderer who seems to target women whose last names are animals?? (i.e. Fox) The potential it had behind the why was so big, but then it just whoosh! goes downhill... 

I was also kinda not into the romance or the MC herself. First off, the romance didn’t really have a good start built up? It had potential to be a really fun enemies-to-lovers relationship but there just wasn’t much build-up on it. I don’t know how the relationship will develop in the series and I don’t really care aha...

Also for the sibling relationship, it was kind of in-your-face? Like, the MC would always say something that would bring attention to how quirky or how “sibling-like” their sibling relationship was - it was weird. I had connected it to like reading about the early 2010′s Wattpad female MC describing herself as really pretty but saying she’s ugly and not like the other girls (you know what I mean, right?), but in like, a sibling relationship version, I dunno, it was weird to read and kinda turned me off. To be fair, I don’t have the sibling relationship that people post about on twitter or instagram posts, but still.

But yeah, this book wasn’t much of a cozy read - it was short, but disappointing.

I will say, I do understand that this is the first book of a series, but this book wasn’t captivating enough for me to want to pick up the rest of the series.

Ramblings (Spoilers)

I don’t have a lot of side rambles or thoughts while I read this book that I haven’t mentioned in my review above, but man! Am I disappointed over the murder mystery!! I would have been so interested behind the killer’s motive and everything else! I don’t know if it was the author’s point to have the murder in the end, have nothing to do with their last names, but I was disappointed when that happened. It was as if she focused all her energy on writing on her discovery of a witch, and then decided to put in some effort on the murder mystery. 

Maybe it’s because I’ve been watching Criminal Minds but I was really wanting a juicy murder mystery, you know?

Let me know what you all thought on this book and why!