Transitive Verve

  *edited to add* I apologize for errors and typos and I typed most of this with one hand while holding a fussy baby. I have been SO excited for this! I'm a big Leigh Bardugo fan, and I've been following the progress of this adaptation since they first announced it and started announcing the cast members. (PS--to see my reviews of the books, click the "Leigh Bardugo" tag! I still have not read the newest Grisha series though--I am going to reread the originals first.) I'm not going to summarize the plot here because that's easily google-able, but I will sum up the major "difference," which is that the series combines the main plot of the original Shadow and Bone  trilogy, and then melds in the Six of Crows  characters by incorporating some new original content plus some character backstories, since SaB takes place a bit before SoC does. So we meet the Crows before the events of the actual books take place. So it really is a full Grishaverse that we g...

It's July, and apparently this is a thing bookish Internet people do :) 1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2019? 2. Best sequel you’ve read? (Well, I read all three of these this year, but yeah!) 3. New release you haven’t gotten to, but want to? 4. Most anticipated release for the second half of 2019? 5. Biggest disappointment? I can't say that I have one! I mean, I've read books this year that I didn't love, but to call them a disappointment would mean that I had high expectations to begin with, lol... 6. Biggest surprise? The plot twist was DEFINITELY one I didn't see coming, and plus, this book challenged me in surprising ways. 7. New favorite author (either debut or new to you)? Stephanie Garber, author of the Caraval  series (new to me) 8. Newest fictional crush? The gang of The Raven Cycle , but I'm a Gansey girl for sure. 9. New favorite character? The entire gang of Aurora Rising . Like, their entire dynamic together...

For my review of the novel, by Nicola Yoon, please click here . I really liked the novel when I read it a couple years ago, so I was really excited for this movie to come out. (Not the least of all, because Yara Shahidi and Charles Melton are like, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE I'VE EVER SEEN.) The quick sum-up is that Natasha and her family are undocumented immigrants, and the day before her entire family is due to be deported, she meets Daniel, an American-born son of Korean immigrants, on the way to a college interview. Tasha is all science and sensibility and facts; Daniel is a poet and a philosopher. Daniel is a writer who doesn't want to become a doctor like his parents want him to; Tasha is a New Yorker who doesn't want to be forced to leave the city that has become her home, even though the American government feels otherwise. Daniel tells Tasha that he could get her to fall in love with him in one day, using scientific methods from a study he read about fallin...

I am blasting this message on every platform I have--if you have Netflix and some spare time, please watch this wonderful, cute adaptation of Jenny Han's novel, To All the Boys I've Loved Before . This is the sort of movie I wish I'd had when I was in high school and questioning my identity as an Asian-American teen. Every movie I could think of back then that had Asian people were about Asian-Asian people and/or martial arts or whatever, and I never saw just a regular American teenager who looked like me as the main character in a movie. (Sure, there were sidekicks and minor characters. That's how it always is.) While I haven't read the book myself, I can't speak to how well it worked as an adaptation, but on its own, it was cute, funny, and fun. I do know that the protagonist, Lara Jean, and her family were made to be half-Korean, half-white (John Corbett plays their father), whereas I think the book had them as full Asian? And while I DO have thoughts ...

Not spoilery, but if you want to be TOTALLY surprised, then maybe read this after you watch it. I haven't read A Wrinkle in Time  in a VERY long while (save for the first handful of chapters, which I read a few weeks ago in preparation for the movie, but then I got sidetracked and didn't continue), but this book will always have a place in my heart because I remember being assigned to read the first chapter in sixth grade English over a weekend, and I ended up reading the ENTIRE thing that Friday night. It was the first school book I had ever read that didn't feel like a school book, and I loved it so much. So when I originally heard there was going to be a movie, I flipped. And THEN when I heard that Meg would be biracial, I freaked the F out. The book was first published in 1962, and while there was a lot that was forward-thinking about the book, I loved that the filmmakers decided to push the story forward even more. I know that not all the critics' reviews o...

The book Thirteen Reasons Why  by Jay Asher has been on my radar for a long time, and I still haven't read it, but the internet has been buzzing since the series adaptation premiered on Netflix recently, so at the very least, I decided that I wanted to watch it, even though normally I like to read the book first. The basic story is that the students of Liberty High School are reeling from the suicide of fellow student Hannah Baker, including Clay Jensen, who was her coworker and friend, and who also had a crush on her. About a week after her death, Clay receives a mysterious box full of cassette tapes: before her death, Hannah had decided to record herself discussing the 13 reasons - specifically, people and incidents - that had slowly eroded away all her hope, self-esteem, and will to live, resulting in her decision to take her own life. The box is meant to make its way around to all 13 people whom she discusses on those tapes, and Clay, it seems, is one of those 13, and the ...

Valentine's Day is coming, and if you happen to be unattached, you may be looking forward to spending some time with your favorite book boyfriend. Hell, I'm even in a relationship myself, and I will probably end up spending Valentine's Day with a book. (Though, this is because we choose not to celebrate, so don't feel bad for me or anything.) I thought I would take some time to make a list of some of my favorite dudes. These are the guys who make me swoon every time I read, who are just too precious cinnamon-roll-y for the real world, but whom I love all the same. Note: I fully acknowledge that this post is absolutely heteronormative. Also note: For any teenaged YA guys that I choose, that crush is coming from Teenaged Me. Or I'm projecting them forward into adulthood. I am not literally imagining mid-30s me with a teenage boyfriend, because that would be Not Okay. Also ALSO note: Spoiler warnings for all the books listed below. There were MANY I could...

OH MY GOD YOU GUYS. OKAY. Before I get into the thick of it, let me explain, for the uninitiated. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries  is a vlog-style Youtube-based modernization of Pride and Prejudice,  and it was amazing and won an EMMY, and  I LOVE IT , and... and... JUST WATCH IT OKAY. If you love Pride and Prejudice , you just HAVE to watch it. Even though it's been over for years now, I have still been holding out hope that someday the creators will give us SOMETHING, some sort of scraps of our generation's version of one of the greatest literary couples of all time, Lizzie Bennet and Mr. Darcy. Well.... *deep breaths*... that someday was TODAY.

In short: Fantastic Beasts  is tons of fun in its own way, but don't go in expecting Harry Potter . Let me start by saying that I was super excited because I've never seen an HP movie in the theaters (I didn't read the books until a couple years ago, so all the movies had been long out), but I also wasn't sure what to expect since I actually have a copy of the Fantastic Beasts  book, and upon flipping through it, I wasn't sure what sort of story they could put together from what is essentially a textbook about magical creatures. What I had gathered from the various Pottermore  essays and such in the last year or so was that it would involve Newt Scamander, author of the textbook (so it would take place long before Harry Potter was born), and it would involve wizards in America. (I got sorted as a Thunderbird among Ilvermorny's houses, how about you?) This is what I have! In the movie (and I promise to be spoiler-free), it's 1926, and Newt Scaman...

On a recent trip to SoCal for a Disney race, I decided that I HAD to visit the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter that just opened at Universal Studios. Because how can I NOT, right? HOGWARTS! It's a small "land" within the theme park, with two rides, lots of shops, and of course, FOOD. My general plan was to take lots of pictures and to eat lots of things, because while I can read the books and watch the movies at home anytime I want, what I can't  do anytime I want is have official butterbeer. So basically, this is going to be a pic-heavy post, just to warn you.

This weekend I went with some friends to the Hunger Games  exhibition at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. It's basically a cool glimpse behind the scenes of the movies. It was AMAZING to see costumes, props, etc., up close and to check out what went into creating the world of Panem on-screen. If you're a HG fan and you're able to come visit, I highly recommend it - click the link to go to the official website. (There is also an exhibition in New York.) I took a TON of pictures, so this post will be pic-heavy.

In short: You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love this movie. Note: I haven't actually read the PPZ book (always meant to, never got around to it), so I can't draw comparisons between this and its book, but I've read the original P&P, obviously, and seen multiple adaptations, so that's where I'm coming from with this. Spoiler warning! Movie spoilers below!!

I had meant to do these weekly, after each episode, but life gets in the way sometimes. So here are two of them together. Spoilers for the books and the episodes ahead. When we last left off, Simon had just been kidnapped by the vampires, who offer to trade him for the Mortal Cup. Episode 3 is basically about what happens to Simon while he's being held at the vampires' lair, Hotel DuMort, and the shadowhunter crew's attempt to retrieve him. Notable differences include the introduction of Camille Belcourt, whom I don't think we met in the book series until later (definitely not in the first book). In the book, Raphael is the one who feeds off Simon, and in this universe's vampire mythology, being bitten by a vampire makes the victim want to return to that vampire - kind of like a siren call, I guess? In this case, it's Camille who has Simon under her thrall, and there are heavy hints as to what's in store for Simon, as he drinks up a little of her blo...

Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments  is based on Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments  book series. Previously, there was a movie based on just the first book, City of Bones , but it didn't do very well, and any plans for sequels were scrapped. (See my review of the movie here .) But, since it's still such a popular series, they didn't quite want to give up on it yet, so it is now a TV series on Freeform (formerly ABC family), with an all-new cast. Short summary: The series focuses on Clary Fray, who finds out after her mother's kidnapping that she is actually a shadowhunter, an ancient race of demon hunters. Her mother has been kidnapped by an evil dude named Valentine, who was long presumed to be dead and who is looking for something called the Mortal Cup so that he can create his own army of shadowhunters for his own nefarious purposes. With the help of human best friend Simon and shadowhunters Izzy, Alec, and Jace, she plans to get her mother back and...

(Spoilers for the previous movies/books from here on out. But I am going to avoid spoilers for this one.) Links to all my writeups for the previous HG films available  here . So, if you truly understood the message of The Hunger Games  (I mean... some  CLEARLY .  Did .  Not ), you should not go into this movie expecting to be "entertained." I cannot with conscience give this a "Two thumbs up, fine family fun!" sort of review. Don't go into this expecting to have fun. Don't go into this expecting to be amused. Don't go into this expecting an escape from the very harsh realities of the world we live in today. Because that's what I feel this series is all about - The Hunger Games  is not about a teenage girl in a love triangle (which so many people mistakenly assume), it's about a corrupt government, it's about systemic inequality, and it's about war. It's about a nation that is fed up with seeing its children die, if not from v...

This morning it was announced that the 10th anniversary edition of Twilight  would include a genderbent version called Life and Death , in which Bella is now Beau, and Edward is now Edythe. As you can probably imagine, a lot of the Internet response has been pretty disdainful, as most discourse has been regarding anything having to do with the series, including Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, who have since moved on with their lives to do other awesome film projects. I'm not going to lie - I can be snarky about Twilight  sometimes too. It's very easy to do so - there are a lot of problematic elements within the book series itself, and then add to it the fandom fervor, the gossip headlines, etc., and it's a perfect storm of mockable elements ripe for the picking. There has been a lot written and said about what is bad about Twilight . So I'm going to talk about what I  like about it instead. At the time that I first read Twilight , which was well after t...

Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) I'm filing this under "book to movie adaptations," though it is actually a book and not a movie. This is because it's a sequel to a book based on a series that is an adaptation of a book. Wow. That sounded complicated. Okay, some backstory: Pride and Prejudice  is my number one favorite book. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries  is a modernization of P&P, and is framed as a series of vlogs posted by Lizzie, who is a 24-year-old grad student getting a degree in Mass Communications. Her life consists of her two sisters, Jane and Lydia; her best friend, Charlotte; and her upcoming senior thesis project. And then all of a sudden, rich med student Bing Lee moves to town, with the even-richer William Darcy in tow, and everyone's life changes. On camera. On the internet . Full disclosure: I am a SUPER fan of this series. I mean, not super enough to have befriended the cast members and creators, but some of them actually ...

     There’s a big variety of movies, but they do have one thing in common: all of these movies are not about whiteness. They are not about white people. They are not about the experience of being white and they are not historical dramas that are just about white people. They’re not about whiteness. They are about really universal and very human themes. They’re about love and they’re about loss. For example, “The Fault in Our Stars” is an incredible book. I love that book so much. John Green, I think, is a wonderful writer. I’m a huge fan of his. But nowhere in his book was anyone’s race ever mentioned.      So my question with these videos is why are we using white people to tell these universal stories? And what is that saying? I think it’s saying something really dangerous and the message it gives to people of color — and I can say this as a person of color who grew up watching these stories that I related to thematically and didn’t see reflections of m...

I just got to spend a Night on the Towns! As with TFIOS , there was a special early showing of Paper Towns simultaneously across the continent, followed by a livestream Q&A with the cast, crew, and John Green.  A short summary of the story: Quentin has been in love with Margo ever since they were kids. Over the years, they've drifted apart, and Quentin has watched Margo become the most popular, legendary girl at school, thanks in part to her hijinks of mythical proportions: she often takes off to go do whatever, leaving behind clues as to her whereabouts. After Margo solicits Q's help out of the blue for one night of crazy schemes, she suddenly disappears. With the help of his friends, Q finds clues that Margo has left behind, and he finds himself on a mission to bring back the girl he loves. For a more detailed discussion, check my writeup of the book here . My writeup of the movie assumes that you have read the book, or that you don't care about me spoili...

I found out today that Jonathan Crombie, who played Gilbert Blythe in the three tv movie adaptations of Anne of Green Gables , passed away a few days ago . I never saw him in anything else (though I hear he was a wonderful, talented actor and a kind, warm person), but I'm feeling sadness all the same, because he wasn't just an actor playing a role - he was the physical embodiment of a most beloved character and one half of possibly my favorite romantic pairing in all of literature. When I was young, my parents went through spurts when they decided that we shouldn't have cable, but when we did, I would sometimes catch this movie about this red-headed girl who cracked a slate over a boy's head when he called her "Carrots." And then she would keep getting in trouble in funny ways, like when she tried to dye her hair black, but then it turned green, or when she accidentally got her best friend drunk. I got so swept up in the story, and I would keep tuning int...