Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated With the Fire on High in Books
Jul 25, 2019
With The Fire On High centers on Emoni Santiago, a teenage mother struggling to graduate from high school on time. When a culinary arts elective is offered during her senior year of school, she takes it despite feeling like she should be spending her energy on her daughter's future instead of realizing her own dreams. The elective opens up an entire world for her, however, taking her from whipping up magic alone in her own kitchen to being recognized by talented chefs as having something special. The added hours spent on cooking begin to affect her other responsibilities, however, and Emoni struggles to balance everything in her life, a fight that is very nearly upended by the new, very cute boy who just transferred to her school.
Emoni deals admirably with the vast responsibilities of being a parent, the complications of her own somewhat unusual home life (she's been raised by her grandmother after her mother's death and her father's absence), and the pressures of high school. Especially a school where she spent freshman year pregnant. Rather luckily, her daughter's father goes to a different school, so at least she doesn't have to deal with him every day.
Similar to The Poet X, the book deals with the intersection of black American culture and Puerto Rican culture, a combination I've been seeing more and more in Young Adult. (Well, The Poet X was Dominican, but they have very similar worries, mostly revolving around feeling "not black enough.")
I loved Emoni, I loved Malachi (the cute transfer student), I loved Abuela and Baby Girl/Emma. I even didn't mind Tyrone too much. For being a player, he was trying to do right by his daughter. Acevedo has such a talent for characters. Angelica (Emoni's best friend) and her girlfriend were a delight, too.
If you see a book by Elizabeth Acevedo, pick it up. You won't be disappointed. I can't wait to pick up her next book, which appears to be another novel in verse called Clap When You Land, due out next year!
You can find all my reviews and more at http://goddessinthestacks.com
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Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated A Simple Favor (2018) in Movies
Sep 25, 2019
There's no denying that this is an entertaining film. There's also no denying that it's predictable. Even without knowing the plot you can basically guess the way it's going to progress.
Blake Lively is amazing though. I honestly thought I'd never seen her in anything, but of course she's been in Green Lantern and Accepted. The latter being a favourite and the former... well, I thought Deadpool had taken care of that one for us... oh well. She does a great job of her role in this one. You can see her devious nature in the way she interacts with everyone and she really does improve the scenes she's in.
I love Anna Kendrick, she's funny and very talented but I wasn't overly keen on her character in this. While I understand that Stephanie takes a major character shift when she realises what has happened, I didn't enjoy the way they did that on the screen. There were some baby steps followed by some huge leaps. At one point I was convinced that they'd gone... "Anna Kendrick always sings... we should get some of that in there." I don't feel like it added anything to the film at all. I'd be interested to see how her character unfolds in the book.
The humour in it is entertaining but the side story of the other "mums" and particularly their inclusion in the summing up of the story feels out of place and more comedy than was right for this film.
Rating this one is tricky. Apart from those odd bits I didn't hate the film and none of it was badly dont... but I don't think I enjoyed it either. I took the evening to think it over and honestly I'm still not sure so therefore it's sitting at the three and a half mark. There's an outside possibility that I'll watch it again to see if I can figure it out, but I don't think it'll be any time soon unless I'm really at a loose end.
Based on the book A Simple Favour by Darcey Bell.
What should you do?
I personally wouldn't recommend watching this until it's streaming. But plenty of other people would disagree with me on that.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
Emily and Sean's house. Although I'm baffled as to why the kitchen is so small so I'd probably expand into the living room space.
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