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Swift (The Flight and Flame Trilogy, #1)
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
<a href="https://travelingwife4life.wordpress.com/2020/09/13/swift-celebrate-lit/">Travelers Wife 4 Life</a>
Have you ever read a book that made you feel lost in another world? Well, if not, Swift by R.J. Anderson will change that. It is the first book in the series and is a great introduction to the world of fairies for someone not used to it.

I really enjoyed the character development in this story Ivy grows so much as the story progresses, always learning and willing to look at things from a different perspective. Ivy was a very well-done character, and with the addition of the secondary characters Richard and Molly, it left me very invested in their outcomes and the continuation of the story! (and no, this one does not leave off with a cliff hanger, just the idea of adventures yet to come).

The storyline and plot were like getting immersed in a totally new land filled with Pixi dust, fairies, and spriggans. It kept my imagination working to dream of all the different characters and what they might look like; everything was described in vivid detail, so it helped me imagine things as R.J. Anderson envisioned them. I loved the almost coming of age theme to this book and I am really looking forward to where R. J. Anderson will take this adventure next as so much already happened in this book.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars for the creative characters, the amazing storyline, and for the great themes that were presented.

*I volunteered to read this book in return for my honest feedback. The thoughts and opinions expressed within are my own.
  
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
1946 | Fantasy, Romance
6.4 (5 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"La belle et la bête by Jean Cocteau. It’s the movie that made me want to be an actress. I was four-years-old and my dad had it on laser disc. I was being annoying and bratty or whatever, I was a child, and my dad said, “Hey, watch this movie.” This is when we lived in LA and we had this great giant striped couch and I was wearing — I remember this so well — this corduroy dress with red trim, and I lay there and started watching it. I had a really vivid imagination as a child but I had never seen anything like this in my life. Do you remember the scene where she faints and the Beast carries her and he has that incredible cloak that looks like it is actually the night sky? It’s insane. And he carries her and all the arms — we had these arms in our house, these giant arms that hold the candles — all the arms move and he’s carrying her and walks into her bedroom, and as he goes through the door with her, her clothes go from rags to riches. I remember that being the specific scene where I was like, “I wanna do that. How does that happen? I wanna be a part of that.” That was the day I knew I wanted to be an actress. Also, the way that the Beast smokes, when he looks at her and his skin smokes; and when he takes off the glove and his hand’s just smoking. The whole ending… it’s this weird, twisted ending."

Source
  
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Stephen King | 1999 | Fiction & Poetry, Horror, Thriller
9
7.4 (25 Ratings)
Book Rating
I'd never heard of this Stephen King novel before but that's the joys of charity shops. The blurb on the back book didn't give much away and going into any King book blind can be a bit of a gamble, will it be horror, dark tower related, Shining related or some kind of hybrid. Oddly 'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon' doesn't necessarily fit into any of these category's.
Set in Mane (Like a lot of Kings works.) 'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon' follows 9 year old Trisha McFarland as she gets lost in the wood whilst on a hike with her mother and brother. The story is more about coping with horror than an actual horror story as Trisha tries to find her way out of the woods whilst having to contend with the changing landscape, dead animals, hunger, thirst and exposure. Oh and there may or may not be something stalking her and that's the real extent of the horror, the 'not knowing' what's out there. There is no 'Dark man' or plague and no one has any shine, the story is just a little girl trying to find her way home. King mix's the real threats with those of Trisha's imagination , blurring the line so that, by the end the reader is not sure what really happened. Pushed to her limits Trisha is forced to dwell on the nature of god(s) and whether she should wait for a miracle or try to save her self .
Overall a good book that is slightly different to Kings other works and, at just over 200 pages (the copy I read) it's a refreshingly quick read
  
Build Your Home Around My Body
Build Your Home Around My Body
Violet Kupersmith | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry, Horror, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I loved this enchanting, horrific, beautiful story. Build Your House Around My Body is a difficult book to describe. There are at least three timelines, all relevant to what is happening in the present day to the main character, Winnie née Ngoan.

Winnie is a lost soul - she has gone to Vietnam to stay with family while she teaches English to Vietnamese students, hoping to find herself, but she seems to become more and more lost as the story progresses. She struggles with her dual identity as her mother is American, and her father is Vietnamese. The fact that she seems to deliberately sabotage her own life is the most tragic thing about her.

The time does jump around a bit, but this didn’t confuse me at all - the chapter headings made sure of that - in fact they gave some interesting history lessons (e.g. French colonialism, Japanese occupation).

It’s a weird and wonderful one (my favourite kind!), sometimes bordering on the grotesque (ditto). Bodily functions and food that I wasn’t sure about, galore! (I’d still try the food though, although I draw the line at dog…).

The supernatural elements showed that these things are still very much a part of Vietnamese culture (spirits and demons both feature).

Some parts are achingly sad, some made me feel a bit ill, and others were actually quite amusing. I couldn’t put this book down. The joy of it was that I didn’t know, couldn’t predict, what was going to happen next!

I’m really interested to see what Kupersmith writes next if this is her debut - what an imagination!
Many thanks to Jellybooks for giving me the chance to read this wonderful book.