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Dee (0 KP) rated Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1) in Books

Mar 12, 2021  
Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1)
Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1)
Laini Taylor | 2011
6
6.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Contains spoilers, click to show
Minor spoilers ...

This started out so well. It was incredibly magical - secret doorways on earth, which took the main character Karou, into a shop where her chimeara 'family' resided. Karou has little knowledge, being human, about her own origins or how she ended up in the care of Brimstone, the shop's custodian. All she knows is that he collects an endless supply of teeth (which she is often sent to pick up from around the world - the shop's doorway acting as a portal that deposits her anywhere on earth). There is a second door within the shop, which Karou is not allowed near and she has no idea what lies beyond it. Messages are sent to her via a crow-like creature. So far, so mysterious. It reminded me a little of Narnia or The Adventures of the Wishing Chair / Magic Faraway Tree. Oh, and if that's not enough - the teeth are used to help grant wishes (ranging from minor to major).

I'm a big fan of dual-world/magic-portal books. However, as the novel went on it became less intriguing. It slips into the sort of insta-love that is ten-a-penny in YA fiction. Also, I just felt that the 'big reveal' of what was behind the second door was a bit of a letdown. And the whole war between angels and chimera felt somehow jarring and unimaginative. I feel mean-spirited saying this, but the dynamic and world-building just didn't capture my imagination. The layering of the back-story also felt a bit forced and I started to find it dull.

I suppose the real test of the first book in a trilogy (as this is) is whether the reader can't wait to pick up the next instalment. Personally, I'm not sure I would bother. A shame, really, as it started out so well.
  
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LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Palo Alto (2014) in Movies

Sep 20, 2020  
Palo Alto (2014)
Palo Alto (2014)
2014 | Drama
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Flooringly seismic, as someone who was around this exact age in this exact time period - this is the perfect representation of high school in 2012/2013 to a T. I'm always put off by how high school kids in movies from around this time never talk right, and even when its ever so close there's still just that slight amount of "out-of-touch adult writes how they think teens speak" jargon which completely takes me out of it. Not here, the way people talk to each other here is scarily dead-on to how me and my shithead friends used to talk to each other to the comma. The fact that there's no clear-cut good or bad guys, just varying degrees of shitty; those tiny but thick iPod touches that had the messaging apps with the grey background and green messages; weird fake meme-sounding music abound parties with lethal amounts of alcohol... trades in the (still tantalizing in its own way) metaphorical cringe that these movies usually have and finally depicts high schoolers from this time as the snaky, rash, social-status obsessed psychopaths that we were - the type who would sooner ask for mouthwash after they vomited up hours worth of alcohol rather than water. The déjà vu I felt during this was unreal, and beyond that it's the movie equivalent to an opiate - not to mention daring, economical, accurate, and cautiously brisk with tremendous performances across the board (Nat Wolff holy *shit*). What happens when you stick a bunch of emotionally unstable sociopaths who don't like each other (or are at least fooled into thinking they do) into a 5-days-a-week institution and leave them to their own devices in the early 2010s. I fucking *lived* this movie - which may even be the best one directed by a Coppola.