Books
Hunchback
Saou Ichikawa, (Polly Barton)
Contemporary Fiction
112 pages
★★★★☆
What a read. I find myself relating to the main character; not in severity of disability by any means, but a lot of the surrounding factors and themes. A real: she’s just like me!!!! character for me.
Stunning writing style, amazing disability representation. I wish there was more to this little gem! I wish it dived deeper into the sexual aspects, too. Challenging in the way that it provides discomfort that is otherwise mundanity to a lot of dsiabled people, offering light patters of laughter and always so, so intelligent. A very honest and informative glimpse into a world that most aren’t aware of, or even comfortable with. The ending mistified me a little, but I still enjoyed the vibes. And I thoroughly enjoyed the main characters thoughts/way of telling the story.
Hex
Jenni Fagan
Historical Fiction
112 pages
★★★★★
Stunning. I wish I had the right words to communicate exactly how special this book feels to me. Set in a familar place, perhaps my reading of this novel is biased given that the history it depicts is something I have spent a lifetime learning, loving, and expressing anger through just like this novel.
I love that the whole book takes place over one night, and how effortlessly it weaves reality and magic together into this amazing, lesbian, tragic tale. It was recommended to me as something along the lines of “gay Scottish witches” and I left with such a deeper appreciation—though it is also gay Scottish witches! I too love you Geillis Duncan. I loved how dialogue heavy it was because it didn’t necessarily feel like dialogue, and when it did, it felt so natural. Extremely moving, and relatable, and angering, and honestly made me cry! I loved every second of this book and will be looking to read more from this author!
Rosarita
Anita Desai
Literary Fiction
96 pages
★★☆☆☆
All icing and no cake unfortunately.
I read this during a heatwave which definitely helped! And don't get me wrong, the writing style is gorgeous… Stunning prose at such a sweet melancholic pace that matched the setting and helped me connect primarily. But I could not tell you what actually happens in this story. It's short and sugary sweet, but so languid which feels double edged for me. Pretty, but felt rather empty. The ending landed so flat in my opinion and I was left hungry for more... ( ◞ ⌓ ◟)＝3
Petty Lies
Sulmi Bak (Sarah Lyo)
Fiction, Thriller
160 pages
★★★★☆
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and finished it in one day! It helped kickstart my love of writing and reading again and I honestly wish it was longer!
Throughout reading, I felt so many emotions. Joy, empathy, disgust—it even made me cry! The animal cruelty is this book is not the most grotesque described, but it left a mark on me because it was a child that was enacting the violence, and the dichotomy between childhood innocence and violence left me a bit stunned. Not that I don't know it unfortunately happens in real life, but the callousness of the child in question left me speechless. The story was told so matter of factly, the cruelty no different, which I think helped the novel strike a chord with me. Despite the subject matter, the novel made me feel sympathy where I thought I wouldn’t, and then ripped it away a moment later, terrifying down to the details. The ending left me feeling incredibly satisfied!
Movies
21 Jump Street
Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Crime, Action, Comedy
2012
★⯪☆☆☆
I hate guy humour. Ass titties drugs haha gay!
I only watched this because my partner put it on. I'd have never wanted to watch it by myself—and for good reason apparently. This shit sucked so much ass omfg... And I have no other means to describe it beyond just 'guy humor' like... It pmo so bad. I'm happy other people find it funny but I don't think I laughed ONCE.
The penis scene is when I decided the rating. I'm no prude by any means I promise, it was just so egregiously stupid that it honestly single handedly secured the low score for me.
Elephant
Gus Van Sant
Crime, Drama
2003
★★⯪☆☆
I wanted to watch this because it seems like the majority of viewers hated it, but the ones who liked it LOVED it yknow? And I wanted to know what was so polarizing about it...
In the most neutral way possible, this felt like 'walking simulator the movie'. SO many long shots of just straight walking and nothing else. I don't particularly care for them, but I also don't love them. On the contrary, the casual reveal of the Dylan and Eric stand ins genuinely made me anxious. Got my heart racing with fear omfg...
I do not hate nor love this film. It was fine. A bit slow for my liking but that felt like a stylistic choice so I respect it. The utter normalcy of it all is a bit frightening. The ending pmo.
Trainspotting
Danny Boyle
Crime, Drama
1996
★★★★★
Renton looks exactly like my dad when he was younger. Acts like him too. As such, I have complicated feelings about this character, but mostly sheer pity.
An incredibly harrowing film. The withdrawal scene is so cool, and so, so sad... Relatable too. I saw someone say that the baby scene is a bit too much, but I'd like to strongly disagree! While the tone of the film is generally depression with a slice of the classic self-depricating Scottish humor, moments of reality like the baby scene felt necessary to include given the main theme of addiction. Amazing soundtrack too omfg... I had a fun time despite it all!
I wish Begbie a very slow death.
Games
Deadlock
Valve
MOBA
TBA
★★★★★
For the simple reason that this game got me off LoL, I have to give it 5 stars.
I don't remember getting into the beta for this game, but I did, and my partner wanted to try actually playing it together. Since then two months ago, I've played at least one game a day; though usually more! I main Rem, but don't mind playing Graves or Seven either. I'm not the best aimer in the world, but the game is still a lot of fun and I'm steadily progressing through the ranks of this title! Not that ranking up is any of my concern, but it's nice regardless.
It's still in development, but it already feels polished enough to be considered finished in my opinion. I've not ran into any bugs or anything as of yet, and the playerbase is pretty strong. If you're able to get into the beta, I'd strongly recommend it! ദ്ദി ( ᵔ ᗜ ᵔ )
