Serpent & Dove Book Review

Warning!: This review will contain spoilers. I mean no disrespect to the author or anyone who enjoyed this book. Also I apologise for the spelling, the poor quality writing and overall unprofessional nature of this review – It’s currently 02:56 in the morning and this is a very poor laptop!

Rating: * * * ( 3 stars )

I knew nothing about this book or the author when I bought this book off the Amazon Kindle store yesterday morning and so every bit of this book was a mystery to me.

I was relived to find that Serpent & Dove was better than From Blood And Ash — ( the quote “I put the fun in dysfunctional” still haunts me to this day) — and found it more entertaining than To Kill A Kingdom. However, this book has a few faults.

For one, there are characters who are straight up copys of Shadow And Bone. Now I’ve only watched the show on Netflix but even I can clearly spot blatant attempts at poorly mimicking the characters and their dynamics from the Grishaverse. Prince Beau is so similar to Prince Nikolai it’s laughable. Beau shows up in the halfway point a flirty prince, who has respect for the grisha, – I mean the witches – and is disillusioned by his father the King and simply joins in the fun. There are others but it’s late and I’m too tired to type them all.

I was annoyed by the reveals that every single character is the chosen one/related to a vital villian or side-character. It made any revelation or plot twist feel cheap,

I love shipping ships. I often struggle with romance in books because I find too many of them cringe and sadly whislt this book did start off well – the final act was filled with cringe. Like so many other books, the romance is rushed and becomes cringey. The two main characters are a fully-fledged couple by the end of it and are nauseatingly cringe.

Lou has a couple self-reflective monologues that annoyed me. She wonders if she’s any better than the other witches or the church. Now self reflection is not a bad thing for a character to have but it always felt out of place and frustrating. It was like — ” I’ve put a carton of milk in the fridge. This means I’m a hypocrite and so similar to all the bad people…” — It was annoying.

Also Ansel shifting from believing that all witches should die and be burned at the stake to being totally fine – with not only the idea of witches, but by betraying his organisation in covering them up – in a single page was, embarassing.

The whole group of charaters interacting, all bound by the same mission/goal at the end lacked any meaning due to the fact that two of them were totally random and one had such inconsistent characterisation and the ending felt rushed as well as having an overall cringe feel.

In my opinion what would have made this book better would have been to end the book with Reid and Lou still in the tower, with Reid still unaware of Lou’s witchiness.

I have made this review sound like this was the worst book ever – it’s not. In fact up until the final act ( I’d had some problems with it ) but I’d found it quite enjoyable. It’s only in that last quarter that I felt the story had lost it’s way and had become dull and cringe.

To conclude this book was enjoyable in parts and in others anger-inducing because it simply reminded me of much better books and shows that I’d much rather have been watching/reading.

Daniel Radcliffe has pissed me off

When I was a little girl, I watched the Harry Potter movies and so I’ve known of Daniel Radcliffe for a long time. I never knew, however, that he was a coward. 

I was recommended a video featuring Daniel Radcliffe by YouTube from a charity called The Trevor Project, a crisis service for ‘lgbtq+’ youth. In this video I watched a group of young people state sexist rhetoric that a few years ago would have been considered worthy of an eye-brow raise, to yes-man Radcliffe.

In the video, a young person claiming to be a she, he and they, stated that growing up he had been very feminine. He tells the nodding Daniel Radcliffe that his grandfather had warned his Mum about how his liking ‘girls’ toys could result in him being gay. This is a common factor across many of so-called trans and non-binary young people’s experiences – that they have homophobic family members and they are bullied at school for not liking stereotypical ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ things. He later says that he “felt like gender didn’t matter” to him and to that I say…yeah, that’s the point. Stereotypes of what a boy should or shouldn’t like doesn’t matter. 

These kids are not evil people but bullied indoctrinated silly children who deserved much better treatment from those around them. ‘Concern’ is not ‘condescension’ Mr Radcliffe as you will soon realise when you and your partner’s child is born.

Daniel Radcliffe nods in docile agreement as a young woman describes the ‘gender euphoria’ of breast binding, a practice that is nothing short of self-harming. Radcliffe is embarrassed to have never heard of the term ‘gender euphoria’ and whilst I think his embarrassment is warranted, – it’s not for not knowing the phrase ‘gender euphoria’.

It’s not that I necessarily blame the young girls who no longer wish to be women anymore, as quite honestly, I can understand that. I’ve noticed the rise in the ‘red-pill’ community who believe women have a shelf-life of their mid-twenties and only exist to make men look more impressive and macho to other men. God, who wants to be a woman when you’re considered past your best before your life has fully begun? Who wants to be a woman when you are damned if you do and you are damned if you don’t.

Because what many woke warriors, in my opinion, fail to realise is that gender ideology and women-hating red-pill losers are two sides of the same coin. They both reduce what it means to be a woman to stereotypes.

But the answer to sexism is not to claim to be non-binary or trans. 

It’s to not give in to the people who want to decide what you should or shouldn’t like. You are still a man if you happen to like stereotypical ‘feminine’ things and vice versa.

Whilst neither Radcliffe, the young people in this video or the charity are soley responsible for this rise in sexism; – They have undeniabley contributed to it. Shame on Daniel Radcliffe – a rich man who is promoting sexism, self-harm and misogyny to make himself look like a ‘good person’.

Sanditon Season 2 Review | Spoilers | By Medusa

What the heck am I doing?

The last time this show was on TV was before the pandemic when I was still in high school. I remember watching the sad edits on YouTube with Sidney and Charlotte to sad pop songs and loving it.

Now as I watch the second season it all became so much clear that the first season should have ended with a happy ending.

There were numerous good scenes in season 2 and some very likeable new characters. I thoroughly enjoyed Georgiana and Charlotte’s friendship continued from the first season and Charlotte’s relationship with those at Sanditon.

I wasn’t that interested in the inclusion of the characters of Alison and the various military soldiers being there? Alison is a fun character but I don’t quite understand the need for her to have so much screen time in this season. Her romantic life is sweet but I’m here for the characters I’d fallen in love with in the first season and not the drama of Charlotte’s sister who all of a sudden is now in Sanditon and whilst Alison’s arc ends on a happy note I feel as though we could have skipped the majority of it to the same effect.

Esther’s storyline was interesting but the conclusion to Edward and Clara’s evil plan felt very predictable to the extent that I was a bit frustrated with it. Lady Denim and Esther’s relationship in this season was a highlight. I hope that Lord Babington returns for the next season as his and Esther’s romance was an unexpected favourite of mine and many others.

Charlotte remains a good person with a good heart but her sense of happiness has been slowly sucked out of her by her and Sidney’s parting. Even watching the show made me feel jaded and unloved as Charlotte took another L only to find herself engaged to a farmer from back at her home whom she does not love. Whilst Charlotte excels at being a Governess, she is adamant to never again have her heart broken. There is a tragic irony to her being now against marriage not unlike the way Sidney was before they fell in love. But Sidney has died of yellow fever ( though I hope this will end up being retconned in the next season however unlikely) and now Charlotte has lost the love of her life to another woman but also literal death.

The absence of Sidney Parker is felt deeply in this season and I do wish that they had brought back Mr Stringer as aside from Sidney, I did ship him with Charlotte and like them together.

Colbourne and Charlottes’ romance is very good but it’s nearly impossible to NOT look behind the couple expectantly, for the dramatic reveal that Sidney is alive after all and back to win Charlotte back. When they grow closer it feels like finally, things may be looking Charlotte’s way until Colbourne allows his fears of ruining her happiness to control him and he fires her.

By the end of it and the dramatic reveal that Georgiana’s artist lover is actually the source of all of the Antiga problems. That indirectly his greed resulted in a chain of events that killed Sidney just felt like another thing to dump on the sad mess that is Charlotte’s life. Whilst Georgiana suffers another heartbreak, she learns to accept the Parker’s as her friends and now remains hopeful of finding her mother. I hope to see more of Georgiana’s story in the next season with more screen time for her storyline and less for side plots that don’t really affect the overall story arc.

Whilst I did not like the too realistic sad love story of Charlotte I also equally enjoyed it. It was like watching the sixth season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the characters are suffering and it’s painful at times to watch but it is also a great story.

This season is really good despite its many, many faults. Too little attention was paid to Charlotte’s relationship with the Parker’s and the Colbournes’ and too much attention was paid to various side plots that weren’t all that necessary. I don’t understand why there was never a conversation between Tom and Charlotte after he found out she and Sidney were in love and couldn’t be together because of Tom’s debt. I feel as though Tom should apologise and express remorse for his part in everything.

Maybe it’s because I binged the whole of season 2 in one night and it’s now early morning the next day that I feel a sense of emptiness and misery but I feel it nonetheless.

Had season 1 ended the Jane Austen way I would have been sad not to explore more of the story but content in seeing my ship sail. Season 2 ends equally as miserable with my new ship sinking and Charlotte now engaged to the farmer, the very thing she didn’t want to do.

Every time Charlotte visits Sanditon her life gets infinitely more depressing so hopefully, the third time is the charm and in season 3 ( which I hope Theo James and other cast members return for and, though that seems unlikely, so too did any hopes of Sanditon being saved until it was) we get to see our ships sail.

All in all I’m looking forward to season 3 of Sanditon! #SanditonSisterhood

Blood and Ash Book 1 & 2 Spoiler Review | Rated: *

As usual this review will contain spoilers and I do not hate the author or anyone who enjoyed these two books. If you enjoyed this book – that is great, I however would like a refund.

I’m not even going to attempt to summerise these two books because I have neither the energy nor comprehension to understand what I have just read.

After reading “To Kill A Kingdom” I was looking to read some fantasy without the cringe of Lira and that other guy’s romance. I was wanting some good angst, plot and romance and I decided to give this series a go after reading a review saying it was dark.

I know realise that the “dark” aspect was not from tension, angst, stakes and character developments, but from the empty hole these books leave in your soul. Like a slow-acting poison the first book starts off promising (maybe a little flowery with the description but that’s something I can try to ignore) and with an interesting enough concept. And then just when you think that midway the annoying hint of cringeness that happens is the worst that it would get; – the ending of the first book and the entirity of the second, takes a full 180 and it becomes, excuse my language, a fucking mess.

Poppy as a character was extremely confusing. First of all the whole ‘Maiden’ thing makes no sense especially after learning the truth to the situation. Her behaviour and personality in the first book was somewhat more consistent despite being erratic at times. I found some of her naivity to be really uncomefortable when it came to her relationship with Hawke/Casteel because it felt like she was remarkably vulnerable despite the ‘strong independent woman’ message I think the author was trying to portray. Her behaviour in the second was literally insane and it made the less-believable aspects of her character in book 1 look even more jarring. Her relationship with Tawny and arguably the Duchess (I obviously did not think the Duchess was a good person but I was very much interested in her character and relationship to Poppy) which made their absence from the second book (minus the Duchess for a few pages near the end) greatly affect the way I saw her character. Tawny and Poppy’s friendship was a highlight of the first book for me and I only really realised it in the second book when Tawny was absent.

I especially hated Poppy’s inner monolouges which were annoyingly similar, albiet worse than the ones in “To Kill A Kingdom”. Poppy seemed to say the most cringe-worthy things that made me roll my eyes numerous times (especially in the second book) and it got old fast.

There was something annoying about the subtle rip-off moments that felt just that bit too like other books. The glowing of Poppy when she did her gift, the characters who were copy and pasted from other books and even the name “The Dark One” after watching Netflix’s Shadow and Bone based on a book series struck a nerve too.

Let’s talk about Hawke/Casteel/Cas. What a goddamn mess of a character. He starts off a semi-interesting, well-developed character until near the end of the book before the betrayal is revealed where he says “I’m so unworthy of you” to Poppy and I nearly vomitted in my mouth due to the cringe. Then when he betrays her as he planned all along you get the impression not that he some sort of attractive bad guy as I think was intended, but that he illogical. That’s the only word that springs to mind when I read that he was the traitor all along or whatever “huh? that’s illogical.”

At the end of the first book and the whole of the second I get horrible Rowan from the Throne of Glass series and Rhysand from the ‘A Court Of Thorns And Roses’ trilogy vibes from Casteel/Hawke. The ‘banter’ between Poppy and Casteel was agonisingly repetitive and I swear parahraphs were copied and pasted muliple times.

Casteel saying he “put the fun in disfunctional” is line that will haunt me to the day I die. When I suffle from this mortal coil – I will still cringe at the thought that this line was not cut from a fantasy new adult novel. Other moments such as “does my face look surprised?” and “random!” were words I did not want in the book and that’s only the tip of the cringe ice-berg.

Despite my harsh words there is a confession I must make. I read the first book from start to finish never so much as skimming a sentence. I had my full attention on the story as I did with th second book until one word was read that made me lose hope in humanity. It gave me Vietnam war flashbacks to ACOTAR and TOG. And that word was “Heartmates” and after that line all bets were off. I skimmed the rest grateful that I was no longer wasting another moment of my precious time on this Earth.

Anyway thank you for reading this review and I hope you have a wonderful day. Take care!

-Medusa

To Kill A Kingdom Book Review – SPOILERS

Warning if you have not read the book and do not wished to be spoiled please do not keep reading!

I’ve just finished the book mere minutes ago and I have a lot of thoughts about it so I’m going to skip the summary as I’ll assume that those who read this review have also read the book.

Honestly this book disappointed me quite a bit. It’s by no means a terrible book but it by no means lived up to my expectations based on the synopsis. The first half of the book I enjoyed, though it had it’s flaws retrospectively, they didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of the story. Unfortunately for the last half of the book, it’s a different situation. The pacing is wrong, the writing becomes more like Netflix romcom dialouge rather than banter between characters ( to the extent that I was cringing! ) and glaring failures in the overall characterisation of Elian and the rest become more and more noticeable

In the first few chapters, the set-up to Lira was great. Our understanding of the Sea Queen and her politics was poor ( unfortunately that never really changed other than when the book chose to simply inform us that the sea is ruled through the Queen’s forced loyalty ) but I believed that the lore would be further explained so I bit the bullet and embraced the unknown. The set-up to Elian was less great, we hear he loves killing sirens and all but what the guy loves to do more than anything is ramble on about how much he loves the ocean, still I continued with the story fascinated by the premise.

Halfway through the story, things suddenly felt different. Lira was coming up with more random self-descoveries than an internet phycology quiz spits out in a day. Her behaviour went from ruthless killer to “I love being part of my pirate family” WAY too quickly to the point where it undermined her character and the story. Lira’s sudden realisation that humans are good and that she hates her mother were so random and plot-convenient that it actually annoyed me. Lira and Elian’s relationship was interesting until the cheesiest moments in history started happening ruining the dark tones of the first chapter and setting the story up to become more and more corny.

The romance in this book should be good and the fact that it’s not is really disappointing. Instead of getting a complex dynamic between killer siren princess and ruthless siren-murderer prince we got two teenagers playing dress-up in pirate clothes. Elian needed to be grittier and darker, not just a plot device so that Lira could go “humans are nice”. Her apathy to his killing of one of her subjects, was not out of character for Lira, but Elians’s sudden remorse for Maeve was ridiculous coming from a chracter that is supposed to be a ruthless siren killer – this also ruined the lesson of Elian having to change the way he thought because he was clearly already unsure of himself. The minute that Elian finds out Lira is a siren the dialouge becomes painfully immature and the stakes of her keeping it a secret are made basically redundant as it takes him mere pages to be TOTALLY 100% FINE WITH HER BEING THE THING HE HAS DEDICATED HIS LIFE TO KILL. Lira and Elian’s ‘we’re the same’ comments got old fast too.

I could rant about how we learned nothing about the sirens other than the mention of a couple of them, how the ending was really unsatisfactory and how the final battle was boring but I won’t go into too much detail. The life of a siren is barely touched upon in terms of their culture and their day to day lives and I would be surprised is anyone would be convinced that the Saad crewmates were supposed to be hardened pirates when they are simply goofballs. The plot points of having a heart being a source of a siren’s power is never touched upon after a brief mention and the character’s make the most plot convenient realisations ever.

No hate to the author as it is still a fine book to read – it just could have been amazing with some changes. All in all this book was frustrating and disappointing but the brilliant concept is worth noting. I think the author shows real talent and promise but this book feels too rushed and unsure of itself. I do look forward to reading more books from her in the future though.

Rating out of 5: * * *

Depressed, Angry And Then…Came A Moth

Dear Diary,

My OCD is shocking today. I’ve broken my own rules by showering two days in a row for the sole purpose of pleasing my OCD. I don’t even care though; that seems completely irrelevent to me right now.

I can’t find myself caring enough to do anything right now. My parents are annoying me ( a sign I’ve not had enough sleep ) and I’m feeling frustrated by the fact that it seems life is going to take a lot longer to get back to normal due to COVID-19.

My printer is not working – which was the only thing keeping me calm and busy. Printing off photos and stickers for my sketch book was a happy distraction and coping mechanism but thanks to shoddy WiFi it won’t bloody work.

I just don’t care anymore again. I’m finding that challenging my OCD is not working when there feels like there is nothing to challenge it for.

And then like a sign from the heavens, a pesky moth flew into my bedroom. Scared of having a moth fly into my mouth whilst asleep or secretly die somewhere only to give me a heart attack when found three months later, I enlisted help to get it out of my bedroom. At first I called my Dad but he made it clear there was nothing he could do. Determined to rid myself of the moth I enlisted my nine-year-old brother’s help – though I had to make it clear stomping on it was not an option.

We managed to lure the creature into my en suite bathroom. I managed to catch it in a plastic sheet of paper and throw it out the window – only for the little shit to imediately fly back in again. Eventually my twelve year old sister joined the crusade and managed to single handedly remove the moth from my bathroom. Afterwards we all laughed and now my little brother is sitting in my room intensely telling me about his video game theories.

Even though I feel like crap right now – a half hour ago I was angry, upset and depressed and I’m still those things – but I feel slightly better. What I’m trying to say that sometimes life gives you lemons, other times it gives you moths. So make lemonade or go on a mission with your siblings to try and rescue a moth.

My Dog Died Today

My Dad told me this morning that my dog Oscar had died a few hours ago. I got up and rushed downstairs to see my dog in blankets. I touched his fur. We will bury him tomorrow and his body is currently wrapped in blankets in our Summer House.

Regret is the one thing I feel right now; that and guilt.

Five years ago my OCD told me that Oscar was contaminated and so from then on I treated Oscar like he was a monster. I refused to touch, walk or even be near him despite doing so for years. Even in my OCD Rehabilitation I still refused to be near him – refused to be near all my dogs.

Last night when he was sick I kept poking a spot above my eyebrow and it got infected. I put a plaster on it last night and when I took it off this morning it took of a third of my right eyebrow. So now I have an infected spot area and only two thirds of an eyebrow. Things are not going great.

Now I’m in my room with puffy eyes and a deep pit in my stomach. I thought there would be more time to get over my weird dog OCD fears – I thought there would be more time to make an attempt at getting over my OCD dog problems. But there isn’t. He is dead and all I can think about are the walks I refused to take him on, the pats I refused to give him for the last five or so years and my avoidance of him. I am so consumed with contamination that past memories of him prior to him becoming contaminated are almost non-existent.

I feel like I have a hole in my stomach and all I want to do is scream and cry.

Oscar

Representation Or An Insult?: “Music” Film Trailer By Sia

Ugh. Never have I ever seen a celebrity try and show how great they are and how progressive th- actually that’s all celebrities seem to do these days. Fair play to them, if I was rich I probably wouldn’t give a shit either.

I know a lot of people are upset about how the person playing the titular character is not Autistic. Personally that’s not my problem with it. My problem with this trailer is that, the girl portraying her is Maddie Ziegler who is a young reality star with very little acting experience playing a young girl with a disability because in the trailer at least, she portrays her like some drunk with two cans of Stella that makes an ‘autistic’ impression in poor taste that is ultimately amusing but not to be shared with the world.

Unfortunately a lot of people are jumping on the “don’t be an SJW” bandwagon saying that “everyone is too sensitive nowadays” but for myself who detests cancel culture and still honestly believes that Sia has every right to make these films regardless of how shitty they seem, sucks. The problem for me is not that Maddie Ziegler is not autistic, the problem for me is that a non-professional actor is portraying a severely autistic girl.

I honestly would have felt better if this was an edgy joke film played by people mimicking stereotypical autistic traits. Comedy and humour can be both hilarious and used in a good way to spread awareness about autism stereotypes etc. But this film is supposed to be a serious piece of art that is to be hailed as stunning and brave.

The difference between Freddie Highmore and Dakota Fanning’s portrayals of autistic people in film and TV compared to Maddie Ziegler in this trailer is that a) Maddie Ziegler is not an actress. The others have acting experience and manage to portray realistic and therefore inoffensive characters. From the trailer the character “Music” is acted by Ziegler the way I would expect someone would behave to mock a person with autism. I have no problem with Ziegler ultimately she is just a young girl working with her godmother but she is not autistic or an actress.

Of course autism is a spectrum and some have more needs than others but the way that “Music” is portrayed at least from the trailer is just angering. It’s almost like she’s channeling Simple Jack from Tropic Thunder. Actually that’s exactly what it kind of looks like.

Her responses to the criticism begs two questions. One: I get being defensive but Jesus Christ Sia, harsh! And Two: Who the hell is her PR person and why the hell are they not stopping her from tweeting?

Now I’m not saying that Maddie Ziegler or Sia are intentionally doing this, I don’t think that. However I do think Maddie Ziegler and Sia do not have the acting/directorial ability to portray a semi-decent example of an autistic person.

This also may be petty of me to say – but this is my blog so I can be as goddamn petty as I want without detracting from my original valid arguments. For me personally there is something very sad about a girl roughly my age who is seen wearing makeup, pretty, surrounded by people who she can communicate to without fear of rejection and someone who is able to stop acting autistic when the camera stops that hurts me. The difference to this compared to the other non-autistic actors is just that, they are professional actors. My saying of this however is purely personal and is of no value to this argument or the honest to God points I’ve made.

Well I’ve said my piece. I still like Sia’s songs and ultimately like the singer but she is being very childish in her response to criticisms on Twitter and in her attempt at “raising awareness”, she has so far only made me cringe.

No-one will believe this but I’m going to say it anyway because it is true. I honestly hope that this trailer is just bad and that the movie is good. And hey, I could be completely wrong and the film is tasteful and fun. But if it’s not then I will have so many self-deprecating jokes to make about myself that will be a blast anyway. So either way I win.

I’ll give it a go but so far I’m far from feeling optimistic.😂