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Sophia (Bookwyrming Thoughts) (530 KP) rated I Was Here in Books

Jan 23, 2020

Well, here's to my first contemporary audiobook.

Gayle Forman's latest novel didn't exactly give me the feels as much as If I Stay did. I Was Here mainly focuses on Cody, a girl who finds her best friend Meg's suicide a bit fishy and decides to look deeper into her death.

From all of the flashbacks, Cody is obviously a follower – a shadow to Meg. After Meg's death, Cody is a little lost – she's grieving, she wants to find out if Meg actually did commit suicide (or if someone coerced her into it), and all of that leads her to dig deeper into Meg's past year at college. With Cody trying to find her own footsteps after Meg's death, I Was Here felt like a coming of age story.

It's also a story where all of those online safety rules that I learned in elementary school are flipped upside down. I don't know if I should say Cody is just a really stupid character, or a really brave character. Perhaps both. In her digging, Cody is led to an online suicide support group that Meg frequented on, which eventually leads her to a user Meg communicated off the boards as well. In an attempt to weed out the user, Cody decides to pose as a suicidal person as well, which eventually leads her to finding out the person's address (with help) and Cody actually decides to go to that person's home.

I still don't know whether to call Cody an idiot or not. Obviously she has balls to try and find out what really caused Meg's death, and she's obviously not an idiot if she brings someone with her.

Jorjeana Marie seemed quite platonic throughout most of the narration – either for the possible effect of Cody being platonic as she finds her path, or another reason entirely. It was also difficult at times to tell if Marie was making an attempt to have a different voice for male and female characters. If the character was angry or snapping at another character, you can tell there's a bit of rage or snap if you listen closely, but when you're walking to work when there are cars driving by, it's actually hard to tell if Marie did snap.

Marie does, however, do a fantastic job in the very emotional parts of the book, especially when Cody or Ben or any of the other characters are crying. I almost believed the narrator was actually crying, or an actual kid came in and narrated a kid part. I doubt there are books that mainly consists of crying, but if there are, I'm half expecting to see Jorjeana Marie's name on the back. :p

The entire novel is really just about a girl who lived under a shadow of another girl, and when that girl died, the shadow has to try and find her own path without that person. I Was Here isn't exactly emotional unless you can really connect with the story and the main character.

<a href="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/audiobook-review-i-was-here-by-gayle-forman/"; target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>

Kudos

Sophia (Bookwyrming Thoughts) (530 KP) rated The Fire Artist in Books

Jan 23, 2020

The cover and the synopsis for The Fire Artist looked so pretty, I had cover fever for a few seconds while trying to decide between 5 plus other books (I planned on walking away with 3 books for 4 weeks, not 100 books).

And the fact it was one of the newest residents at the library and when you own nearly zilch books (two), getting your hands on a shiny copy of a book is a wondrous feeling and a rarity.

The Fire Artist gets straight to the point from the very beginning there's really no stalling going on here. Whitney reveals early on that Aria has problems as a fire artist, and that it needs to be replenished often if she wants to keep her control and not face her father's wrath. But then Aria is recruited by the M.E. Leagues, the highest honor an elemental artist can get, and she has to find another way to continue keeping her fire powers.

The world building here is amazing the peace in the Middle East isn't just "there" simply because someone in a prestigious family did something while everyone else went down to rock bottom, said someone succeeded and as a result, everyone respects the person and bows down to them. The history of how the Middle East came to be in accordance to the book seems to be based off current events in the Middle East, making the book seem a little realistic rather than utmost fantasy. The granters Whitney portrays throughout The Fire Artist aren't just "there" (though they are just "there") for everyone's beck and call the granters seemed to be unified with rules and whatnot rather than each granter working individually on their own.

The romance between Taj and Aria also isn't one that rushes quickly it's slowly developing as the book progresses and it doesn't overshadow the overall plot (a huge peeve of mine). The conversations between the two are entertaining enough that despite the fact Aria takes her time in making her wish, I personally don't mind because I'm too busy enjoying the book to even care.

I do, however, have a little peeve against Aria for stalking the dude before they even met. Surely that never goes well if the dude actually finds out.

Though to be honest, if Aria had made her wish too early in the book instead of stalling awhile, the book would have ended much too quickly. The world building and character development would have been terrible no one (aside from the author) would ever know precisely how the peace in the Middle East really came to be (oh, so everyone just whipped up a treaty?) or gotten the chance to really know Aria and Taj as characters.

There are no regrets in reading this The Fire Artist is as pretty on the inside as it is on the outside.

<a href="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/review-the-fire-artist-by-daisy-whitney/"; target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>

Kudos

Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Apollo 11 (2019) in Movies

Apr 7, 2020

Apollo 11 (2019)

2019 | Documentary

7.6

(5 Ratings)

Movie Rating

I was sad to miss this one at the cinema, I imagine having it up on the big screen would have been very impressive, but only one of the mainstream cinemas had it on.

Space documentaries are always interesting, to think that all of that technology was really in its infancy and we were making such big strides for humanity is mindblowing... and that's why this felt like a letdown.

It's wonderful that we're getting this unseen footage but they've turned it into a film, it's not really a documentary at all. In a documentary I expect to learn things I didn't know before, but here while I was seeing things I'd never seen it's actually not showing you a new angle on the story. It's great to see everything evolving as it did on the day and through the journey but that isn't new. With such a rich story of science and discovery behind space exploration I am at a loss as to why they would forego having a narrator.

Having a narrator adds an extra layer of information that really does add something and makes the footage accessible to new viewers. I've seen documentaries on things like this before and so some of what I was seeing on screen was recognisable, but there were still some shots where I didn't know what I was looking at. Some prompting would have been useful, it was like walking through a museum where they've taken down the labels on the exhibits.

The footage is generally well edited throughout, and as I said before, the feel is that of a film as opposed to a documentary. They're compiled picture, audio and video images together to follow the crew on and above the Earth and the fact they can line it up so well is impressive. There's a montage as the crew return to Earth and this was particularly good when paired with "Mother Country" by John Stewart.

Putting the footage together can't have been an easy task, but some of it suffered for the sake of a shot. At one point we get a slightly out of place split screen "Go" sequence which showed all the departments calling out. I liked it as an idea but the audio isn't the best quality as it carries through, and after the initial effect it's difficult to understand what's going on and that detracts from some of the impact.

I appreciate the fact they dug into the archives for everything, the studio even used their 1969 logo, and crafting music that would have been possible then was impressive... even if a lot of it wasn't as inspiring as the moments it accompanied.

While Apollo 11 itself is a mindblowing event the way this "documentary" has been produced is not. Well crafted, yes, but its lack of further detail and background had a heavy negative impact for me. If I was rating just for the event then it would absolutely be a 5 star review, as a newly produced bit of work it doesn't bring anything new to the table even with it all being new footage.

Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2020/04/apollo-11-movie-review.html