In The Presence Of Presents

My mom likes to do this thing where, if I'm with her while she buys a present for me, she will keep that present hidden until she thinks I've forgotten all about it and then can surprise me at the next present-giving occasion.

The thing is, I don't usually forget. I'm just waiting for it to happen. But sometimes, my mother will keep it hidden past like 3 to 4 gift-giving occasions. And I'm stuck with the dilemma of wanting to remind her and not wanting to because she'll keep it tucked away for even longer.

Right now there is a DVD of Fantastic Mr. Fox (which I've never seen but it is one of my favourite Roald Dahl books so I really want to see it.) somewhere in my house and it has been there for at least a year and I'm dying.

HP Fandom Emerges

The Harry Potter fandom. They are basically just like Fawkes the phoenix. The last book came out July 2007. The last movie came out July 2011. Everyone thought the Potterheads were done for since no new material was being made. Sure, there were musicals and puppets and references to turning 11 and not getting their acceptance letter still floating around but it wasn't the same. It was the same as being dead. But no, thanks to some wonderful news, the Harry Potter world lives on. They have risen from the ashes and are at full power once again.

What could this wonderful news be? JK Rowling is taking a stab at screenwriting and making Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them into a movie. It follows the life of Newt Scamander and his quest to gain more knowledge about all the magical creatures in the wizarding world. It is set in the 1920s New York so the setting and cast will be brain new (With the exception of perhaps the oldest such as Dumbledore!) but the magic and world will be familiar still.

Another beautiful thing that many people pounced on was the fact that JK mentioned that it would be the first in a series. We're not sure if it's all about this particular book mentioned in the Harry Potter series or if maybe all the other books, such as Quidditch Through the Ages and Hogwarts: A History, are going to get their share of the screen as well.

This is amazing news that no one saw coming but that everyone is ecstatic for because, let's face it, who isn't a fan of Harry Potter?

Feast Your Eyes (Warm Bodies Review)

It went like this: my friends and I needed to see a movie and there was hardly anything good playing in the theatres. We picked Warm Bodies even though I have an aversion to zombies since they just don't make sense. (See my rant here: Why I Hate Zombies)

I AM SO GLAD THAT HAPPENED. Seriously, I loved the movie. Sure, there were some flaws like the science was not working for me but I got over that quickly since it wasn't the point of the movie. Here are my thoughts in blurbs about the movie:

There were some hilarious parts in it. Like the entire inner monologue of the main zombie, R, at the beginning really caught my attention and made me giggle. It showed you that while he was full out zombie on the outside, on the inside he had thoughts but just couldn't communicate them.

"I'm so pale. I should get out more."

"I am lonely, I am lost. I mean I am literally lost, I have never been in this part of the airport before."

 Since we're speaking about R, why don't we just continue talking about him. I don't know how Nicholas Hoult did it but he made a zombie look hot. Props to his parents for creating this guy. At the beginning he was pretty gross, veins showing and eyes sunken in but as he became more "human" after he met Julie, they subtly started lessening the make-up and he started looking more like his incredibly attractive self.

And while he is nice to look at, I'd say he is extremely talented as well. He went for whole scenes without blinking and I have to say his zombie shuffle was very convincing. It looked kind of fun to do actually. His posture was so bad though, perfect for a zombie but horrible at the same time because it made me feel super self conscious about my own terrible posture.

The number of times I reminded myself to sit up straight...it was a lot.

For anyone who has seen it, did you notice all the Romeo and Juliet references? For anyone who hasn't, dudes zombies and Shakespeare how can this be? To be fair, it is very hidden, only made obvious to me when a balcony scene happened. But when you get the idea in your head, you start noticing all the other pieces of the puzzle and it all makes sense. It was mainly the characters that matched someone from Shakespeare's play:
R - Romeo
Julie - Juliet
M - Mercutio (Romeo's bestie)
Perry - Paris (Juliet's supposed to be husband)
Nora who wants to be a nurse - the Nurse
AND if you want to get all deep into the meaning of it, in Romeo and Juliet they both end up dead (spoiler alert) but in Warm Bodies they become alive at the end, both physically in his case and mentally in hers.

And while we're on the topic of noticing things (man am I good at segues right now) the actress who plays Julie, Teresa Palmer, looks so much like Kristin Stewart from Twilight it's insane. Just dye her hair brown and you're good to go.

Lastly but not leastly, DAT SOUNDTRACK. The music went perfectly with what was going on in each scene and really made things more memorable. I actually have some of the songs on my ipod now and when they shuffle on (pun NOT intended but still happily there get it shuffle like zombies but also shuffling your music) I can imagine the montage or whatever that went with it. Good job sound people. Pat on the back. Gold star. I just really enjoyed all the songs, ok.

All in all, this ZomRomCom was pretty sweet and pretty funny.

Prodigy: a Review

Goodreads says:

June and Day arrive in Vegas just as the unthinkable happens: the Elector Primo dies, and his son Anden takes his place. With the Republic edging closer to chaos, the two join a group of Patriot rebels eager to help Day rescue his brother and offer passage to the Colonies. They have only one request—June and Day must assassinate the new Elector.

It’s their chance to change the nation, to give voice to a people silenced for too long.

But as June realizes this Elector is nothing like his father, she’s haunted by the choice ahead. What if Anden is a new beginning? What if revolution must be more than loss and vengeance, anger and blood—what if the Patriots are wrong?

I say:

Ok, so Prodigy is the sequel to the book Legend by Marie Lu. I loved Legend so I had high expectations for this next installement.

And I have to say, it did not disappoint! You see, usually in these trilogy books, the middle one is a little boring and/or pointless because you already know everyone and the premise has been introduced but it's not quite time for the big showdown at the end where all is resolved and you can happily stop wondering every second what is going to happen next while you wait for the next publication date. Also, for some reason, a second love interest comes into play (they're starting to introduce him earlier on but back in my day you met him once the second book rolled around.) and that gets really annoying. ANYWAY, all that was to explain why second books usually don't tend to be good and why it's awesome that Prodigy didn't turn out that way.

This book could've been its own story aside from the fact that you wouldn't really know how they got to the part where it starts off.

I really liked how you got both perspectives from the main characters, June and Day. Not even just to get more storyline when they're in two different places but to know what they're thinking of their situation and of each other. Segueing from that, I also liked how their relationship was real. It wasn't love at first sight, they're getting to know each other better, having doubts but still trying. It's not perfect at all times but what relationship is? That was awesome to see instead of one where there is only instant attraction from some helpless female and a mysterious dude. (QUESTION: What was the first book that popped into your head when I said that?)

The secondary characters were great, it was nice to get to know some, like Kaede and Tess, better.

As for the plot, I never know how much to give away since I hate having things ruined for me personally but I still need something to talk about. I guess I'll stay within whatever Goodreads says as the description. They inevitably team up with the Patriots since both are against the Republic. It was kind of random that the Elector just dies but since this story is happening in a book and not in real life, it's ok for things like that to happen because it makes for a better story. I just like how it turned out, with each of them learning more about how people and places have more than one side, including ones you never saw coming. (Major twist near the end, props if you saw it coming cause it's sure blindsided me!)

Overall, conclusionary statement that I'm not very good at making: This book was tres tres good. Legend was a wee bit better, but then again, Legend was earth-shatteringly good so what do you expect. June and Day are both strong characters that can both be fine without the other but also depend on each other if that makes any sense at all. The plot is fast-paced and riveting so don't be starting with a massive deadline looming.

Twilight Grocery Shopping

Last night I commented to my mother how we needed some items of food for me to properly pack my lunch the next day. She absentmindedly told me to get some money and walk to the grocery store for all of it. "This is totally normal. I help around the house with activities such as grocery shopping too." you may say. The thing is, this was at 9:30 at night. I don't think she was fully awake or else she would have made me wait until tomorrow afternoon but I didn't want to have a lame lunch so I grabbed my sister and we were out the door.

The grocery store is a short 7 minute walk from our house and we amused ourselves by being dressed in our pyjamas and singing along to my sister's ipod.



Please note that she was the one who had the earphones in. I was just singing from what I could get from her singing so I was usually a beat off or didn't know where we were since she was mumbling the melody due to LACK of MEMORIZATION SKILLZ. We were listening to the silly song Bellybutton from VeggieTales and when it got to the part where the caterpillar raps, I completely aced it. We were a sight to behold, skipping through a parking lot rapping about "umbilical equivocals".

Anyways, we got the groceries and went along our merry way, all the while probably getting weird looks from the adults who were also there because since when do two teenage girls go to the store at nighttime to buy healthy stuff like carrots. (Well, we also bought ice cream but that is beside the point.) No one else was talking but that didn't stop us from carrying on our conversation about how non-2012 a Chicken Soup for the Soul book cover looked.



And that was the extent of our close-to-midnight adventure. I think we should do it more often.It was the right time of night that everything was slightly silly and we weren't tired enough to be zombies.