My NOTPs

Hi,
I'm a sucker for a cute romance but not every romance is going to be swoon worthy to every reader. So here are the couples I just didn't gel with.

Anne and Gilbert (Anne of Green Gables)

 

This will be a shock to most because I love this book and the show 'Anne with an E' but I've watched lots of adaptation and read the books and I don't get it. I think that the enemies-to-lovers trope just isn't my thing.

Louise and Reid (Serpent & Dove)

 

This is the last book I read and I couldn't remember their names, even after googling Reid's name I had no recollection of it. This is probably my least favourite couple on this list. I didn't like them one bit, they were weird and possessive. It made me uncomfortable that Lou kept calling Reid 'my husband' even when they hated each other. It wasn't a fun time reading these twos love story.

Tessa and Jem (The Infernal Devices Trilogy)

The only reason that I never liked this couple was because I loved Tessa and Will so much more. As a character I liked Jem way better, he was the love of m 13 year old life. But I just always felt like Tessa loved Will more.

Review - Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

About

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.








My Thoughts 

I was fortunate enough to be able to go see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in London during the summer holidays. I was a little apprehensive because I had read the play and all the controversy around it. After seeing the play I can honestly say DON'T READ IT!!! The play is magical and incredible in a way that doesn't come across from just reading the script.

The main thing I loved about it was the characters and I guess the actors who played them. I thought they all were exactly what I envisioned them to be like. Especially Draco who was my favourite character in the books and portrayed phenomenally in this play. It really understood the depth of the characters and didn't treat them like caricatures of themselves like I feared.

The staging of the play was brilliant. It truly felt like actual magic was happening in front f you. Things happened that you felt sure were impossible. And there were movement scenes that were absolutely stunning to match the equally breath-taking soundtrack. If you like to write or read to classical music I definitely recommend the cursed child soundtrack.

The relationship between Albus and Severus was absolutely played as romantic by the actors we saw and the plot actually felt very realistic and plausible. I think seeing this play really taught me how you can really change a script depending on acting and directing.

Overall, This was absolutely incredible. Insanely expensive but incredibly. If you can I would definitely recommend going to see it.

Review - Ackley Bridge Season 3

 

Ackley Bridge (2017 - present)
Created by: Malcolm Campbell, Kevin Erlis, Ayub Khan-Din
On: Channel 4
3 seasons, 26 episodes

The merging of two schools causes plenty of problems for headmistress Mandy who has to deal with explosive fall-outs and problem pupils.












My Thoughts
I was beyond excited for this season of Ackley Bridge. Last year I binged it so quickly and then I loved it so much that I rewatched it over the Christmas holiday as well. I counted down to the first episode coming back and honestly I have never been more disappointed I my life. The first episode of this season wasn't just a bad episode of Ackley Bridge but one of the worst episodes of telly I've seen in a really long time. Obviously I still had hope and continued with the show hoping every week it would get better, and some weeks the episodes weren't that bad but about 50% of this season was absolute rubbish.

One of the things I hated most about this season was the length. You had no idea of how much time had passed throughout each episode and they crammed a whole year into one season, which just meant I had no attachment to any of the new characters and every story line felt rushed.

Which brings us to the point of the LGBT+ representation in the season. Ackley Bridge is outstanding for having a leading lesbian Muslim character and has in previous seasons has had phenomenal representation but this year it felt like they no longer cared. A running plotline through the second season was the will they won't they between Cory and Naveed and this was completely thrown away in this season. A show that gave the young LGBT+ community such a voice used queerbaiting as a way to get audiences interested multiple times in the show and it was heart-breaking to see them backtrack on the incredible foundation that had given themselves.

This isn't to say it was all bad, it was just all underdeveloped. There were some great moments between Sam and the new deputy head, Martin, and some of the episode were really compelling for example I loved the third episode. But this wasn't enough to save the season from being a genuine disaster.

In conclusion, I love Ackley Bridge but i would no longer call it one of my favourite shows. I will be watching the fourth season if it gets renewed for one and there is a chance that, that season could save the show. I will definitely be continuing to rewatch the first and second season because I stand by them being masterpieces. This season was a two star watch for me and honestly one of the stars is purely because of my sentimental love for the show.

August Wrap Up

Hi,

This month I've read quite a lot of books but most of them were for school therefore the ratings this month have been quite low, which is disappointing but I still had lots of fun reading some books. And had a great month for film and TV.

BOOKS

The Drowned World

I had to read this for school and so far it is the dystopian I have enjoyed the least. It was really hard to push through, I think it didn't help that it was the third dystopian I had read in a row when I started it. I actually took a break from reading this for The Reading Rush and when I came back to it I definitely enjoyed it more. my issue is I don't understand why this book exists. I didn't get the point at all. Honestly this book had such potential and I felt it was too pretentious for it's own good, which was especially disappointing given my English teacher wrote his PHD on J. G. Ballard. I'm giving this 2 stars.

The Hate U Give

I have mixed feelings about this book. Ultimately I don't think it is a good book, I hated some of the attitudes that the book had, for example, in the first page Starr says basically all girls are hoes. I mean are we really still doing that. The plot felt like it dragged or had lots of unnecessary elements and the book could've been more impactful without some elements. However, it dealt perfectly with the topic of police brutality towards black people. While reading it I felt it opened my eyes to some of my ignorance that I now know I need to address and need to learn to use my white privilege to help those of ethnic minorities much better. I'm not sure I enjoyed reading this book but I am glad I read it just so it could challenge me, though I think my further education into race will be non-fiction, not written by Angie Thomas. I'm going to give this book 3 stars.

Mockingbird

This was another book I had to read for school. I read it on audio and really enjoyed it. I think of the books I've read for school this summer, this one was the most enjoyable. It was very character driven and dealt with important issues without seeming preachy or convoluted. The narrator wasn't incredible but it could've been worse and kept my interest while I was doing other things. I'm giving this a solid 3 stars, it wasn't anything mind blowing but if you like the sci-fi/dystopian genre definitely worth the read.

The Demon World

This was basically the only book I was looking forward to this year as I don't really keep up with what is being released. I read the first book last year twice, Sally Green is one of my favourite author and I was so ready for a book I loved but this fell quite flat for me. It definitely suffered middle book syndrome, not a lot happened and the characters weren't strong enough to make that okay. Still enjoyable but I'm giving this 3 stars. I was going to write a full review for this book but I think unless it's a book you really enjoy or really don't they are a bit pointless.

If My Body Could Speak

I've loved her spoken word poetry for years, however I often find poetry books hard to get hold of. This summer I've signed up to scribd which has given me access to so many poetry books though this is the only one I've read so far. I loved this. Quite a few of them fell flat for me because I just didn't relate to them but her eating disorder poetry especially was incredible. I'm pretty harsh when rating poetry books so I'd give this 3 stars but absolutely would recommend it.

Herding Cats

 

This was a 2018 goodreads winner so when I saw it on scribd I figured I should read it. I've no idea how to rate this given there was no continuous plot line so I am not going to. But some of these really made me giggle and it was a fun 15 minutes that it took to read this. However if I'd payed for this I wouldn't be happy with the amount of content. So I'd say worth the read if you can get hold of it for free or a part of a subscription.


Sorcery of Thorns

I read this as an audiobook for 'The Overhyped Book Club'. I've never participated in a booktube book club despite always wanting to so when I saw it I knew I was going to read it. I enjoyed this book so much I was excited all the time to be able to listen to it and purposefully went out my way to do activities that I could listen to this audiobook while do them. There were some issues with it, like Elisabeth's weird relationship with men and how the author seemed to make her boy crazy while also trying to make her a strong woman who doesn't want a man. I found the book quite trope-y and Nathaniel often annoyed me with how cliché he was. On a whole though I would die for Silas, I adored how there was a aromantic character and the plot was thrilling. I'm giving this a 3.5 stars. Definitely worth reading but I don't think it lived up to the hype and think I might have enjoyed it more if there wasn't any hype.

A Hurricane in my Head

Matt Abbott is from near where I live and on a few occasions we have both been at local poetry events. So I have been a great supporter of him for years and to see him finally have a book published was so exciting. This book is filled with children's poetry but that didn't stop me from loving it. I had lots of pages dog eared and lines highlighted. A four star poetry book without a shadow of a doubt, absolutely brilliant for kids.

FILMS & TV


Brooklyn Nine-Nine (season 6)

This season just finished airing in the UK. Obviously this season was a bit different given it was picked up by a different network, I found that the first half of the season wasn't up to the usual standard but the second half definitely was. The final episode was great although I feel the big reveal at the end was predictable and we've done that before. Still there were some incredible this season such as 'gintars', which talked abut adoption in such a beautiful way that I cried. The show is one of my favourites but this season wasn't very consistent in quality therefore I'm going to give it 4 stars because I do still look forward to every episode.

Ted

I started watching this film with my boyfriend but we went out and didn't get time to finish it. It really annoys me when things are on my currently watching so I knew I was going to have to finish it despite not particularly loving it. It was such a big surprise I loved it. The humour wasn't for me and I still thought it was a great movie, the actors were all great but more importantly I loved the plot. The villain genuinely terrified me and I cried at the sad part. This film really got to me. I'm going to have to give it 4 stars because I had a blast watching this film.

Ackley Bridge

Last summer I was absolutely obsessed with this show. It was one of the greatest thing I had ever seen. I was so excited for this season and honestly don't think any show has disappointed me more than season 3 did. If it is renewed for another season I will give it another go, but season 3 was a disaster. The writing was so sloppy and threw away everything that they had built in the previous seasons. Plus the did a whole year in one season which meant storylines where very rushed and I had no sense of time. A 2 star season because there were still moments I enjoyed but bitterly disappointed.

The Muppets

It was a bank holiday in the UK and therefore there were good films on the telly and I watched 'The Muppets' for the first time in years. I have to say I'm not sure I loved all the jokes, I think some of them were inappropriate. But it was a whale of a time. I was obsessed with The Muppets and this reminded me why. A 4 star movie for sure, great fun.

Over The Garden Wall

This is a show that SuperSpaceChick talks about quite a lot and I figured I would give I a go given it was quite short and featured the actor who plays Todd in 'Dirk Gently' which is one of my favourite TV shows ever. It was such a cute show, made me feel so much better as I had been feeling rather sad that day and the final episode even made me tear up. So worth watching when you have some time to kill, maybe on a sick day. It warmed my heart, a solid 4 star show.

The Devil Wears Prada 

This is such an iconic film and again it was just on the telly so I watched it as Anne Hathaway is one of my favourite actresses. I'm not sure I loved this as much as I previously had but it was still fun to watch especially given I'd forgotten what actually happens. The acting is amazing. A 3 star film, definitely still iconic.