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Louise (64 KP) rated The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl in Books
Jul 2, 2018
**I received a copy of this book from the publishers and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**
The Incredible adventures of Cinnamon girl takes place in a small town in Australia, nothing ever happens in Eden Valley until one day a YouTube video goes viral. Ned Zebidiah has predicted an apocalypse and the only safe haven is the one and only Eden Valley.
17-year-old Alba loves her little town in Australia where nothing much happens, however she is at a stage in her life when she needs to make decisions, life changing ones. Alba wishes everything could remain the way it is, her friends and family all in one place as she likes it. Her friends on the other hand have different ideas, the majority of them cannot wait to say goodbye to Eden Valley and see more of the world. With an impending apocalypse, the return of an old friend and decisions to be made, can Alba keep it together?
I really like Alba's character, she is artistic, witty and loveable. She is at the stage of her life when she has just finished school and she has to make decisions about what to do with her life, should she go to college? work? travel? Alba also has curves and a healthy figure which is portrayed in this story really well, there is no self-consciousness with the way she looks, she is confident and it's so refreshing to see this in a YA book especially as the younger audience are so impressionable. Alba also loves to draw and Cinnamon girl is her creation, drawing frame after frame trying to get her image right or the background just so. I have recently started being interested in comics and I loved the idea of someone creating them and the illustrators thought processes. Alba was a great strong protagonist and very relatable.
Grady is Alba's best friend in the whole wide world they have grown up and done everything together. Grady has his flaws like most of the characters in this book but he is such a nice boy, knowing what he wants to do with his life and being there for Alba giving her encouragement with her drawings of Cinnamon girl.
One character I didn't like was Daniel, he just appeared to be egotistical, very self-conscious and a bit of a sleaze. With masses of people flocking to the safe have of Eden Valley, Daniel returns years after moving away and has become a bit of star in TV and is stirring a lot of emotions within Alba and Grady.
This book is so cute, it has a slow burn romance with no love triangle, the writing style is amazing and loved that it was set in Australia. I really like that the book incorporated comics and a few famous comics/names were mentioned such as Fiona Staples and Persepolis. This was my first Melissa Keil novel and have been recommended life in outer space
I recommend this book to anyone who reads YA with a slow burn romance, art/comic content.
Overall I rated this 4 out f 5 stars.
The Incredible adventures of Cinnamon girl takes place in a small town in Australia, nothing ever happens in Eden Valley until one day a YouTube video goes viral. Ned Zebidiah has predicted an apocalypse and the only safe haven is the one and only Eden Valley.
17-year-old Alba loves her little town in Australia where nothing much happens, however she is at a stage in her life when she needs to make decisions, life changing ones. Alba wishes everything could remain the way it is, her friends and family all in one place as she likes it. Her friends on the other hand have different ideas, the majority of them cannot wait to say goodbye to Eden Valley and see more of the world. With an impending apocalypse, the return of an old friend and decisions to be made, can Alba keep it together?
I really like Alba's character, she is artistic, witty and loveable. She is at the stage of her life when she has just finished school and she has to make decisions about what to do with her life, should she go to college? work? travel? Alba also has curves and a healthy figure which is portrayed in this story really well, there is no self-consciousness with the way she looks, she is confident and it's so refreshing to see this in a YA book especially as the younger audience are so impressionable. Alba also loves to draw and Cinnamon girl is her creation, drawing frame after frame trying to get her image right or the background just so. I have recently started being interested in comics and I loved the idea of someone creating them and the illustrators thought processes. Alba was a great strong protagonist and very relatable.
Grady is Alba's best friend in the whole wide world they have grown up and done everything together. Grady has his flaws like most of the characters in this book but he is such a nice boy, knowing what he wants to do with his life and being there for Alba giving her encouragement with her drawings of Cinnamon girl.
One character I didn't like was Daniel, he just appeared to be egotistical, very self-conscious and a bit of a sleaze. With masses of people flocking to the safe have of Eden Valley, Daniel returns years after moving away and has become a bit of star in TV and is stirring a lot of emotions within Alba and Grady.
This book is so cute, it has a slow burn romance with no love triangle, the writing style is amazing and loved that it was set in Australia. I really like that the book incorporated comics and a few famous comics/names were mentioned such as Fiona Staples and Persepolis. This was my first Melissa Keil novel and have been recommended life in outer space
I recommend this book to anyone who reads YA with a slow burn romance, art/comic content.
Overall I rated this 4 out f 5 stars.
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Last Night in Soho (2021) in Movies
Nov 11, 2021
Edgar Wright’s Haunting Love Letter to the Swinging Sixties.
A young 21st-century teen walks in her nightclothes down a darkened alley emerging into a bustling 60’s Soho street across from a theatre showing “Thunderball”. She enters the Cafe de Paris with a reflection mimicking her actions but showing a very different girl. So it was that the trailer for Edgar Wright’s “Last Night in Soho” hit earlier this year.
The trailer grabbed me by the gut and firmly cemented it as a “must see” in my movie-watching schedule. Frustratingly, Covid got in my way. But now free of the wretched virus, this had just HAD be my first outing.
Plot Summary:
Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) is a Cornish teen whose fashion and music tastes are firmly rooted in the ’60s. She is also blessed (or plagued) with having visions of people who’ve passed, including her dead mother.
Travelling to a London fashion school, Eloise is a lost soul in a raucous world. But at night, she is mystically transported back to the swinging 60’s into the body of aspiring singer Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy). Sandie is under the thrall of ‘manager’ Jack (Matt Smith), and Eloise witnesses events that she needs to tell people about. But who would possibly believe such a tale?
Certification:
US: R. UK: 18.
Talent:
Starring: Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Terence Stamp, Diana Rigg.
Directed by: Edgar Wright.
Written by: Krysty Wilson-Cairns (based on a story by Edgar Wright).
“Last Night in Soho” Review: Positives:
This is SUCH a tour de force of filmmaking. Honestly, there were moments in here, particularly in the first half of the movie, where I was beaming from ear to ear at the audacity of it all. That ‘time travel’ reveal is even better in ‘the flesh’ than it was in the trailer, enhanced by the vibrant cinematography of Chung-hoon Chung.
Thomasin McKensie again impressed me immensely. She was of course the ‘girl in the attic’ from “Jojo Rabbit” and the best thing in the lacklustre M. Night Shyamalan feature “Old“. Anya Taylor-Joy is as spectacular as you would expect and Matt Smith also delivers, although I wasn’t completely convinced by Smith’s cockney accent. And what a wonderful thing to watch veteran actors Terence Stamp and Diana RIgg strut their stuff on the big screen. (This was Rigg’s final screen performance, and the film is dedicated to her: “For Diana”. RIP Ms Rigg.)
The combination of ‘in camera’ and special effects here are gob-smackingly effective. Some of the ‘mirror’ effects involving Eloise, Sandie and Jack in the club are gleeful. And I’m not sure how they were all done. And a dance sequence where Eloise switches to Sandie and back again is just so clever.
The Production Design is just brilliant. It oozes a combination of 60’s style and sleaze. Surely an Oscar nomination is due here.
As with other Edgar Wright movies (like “Baby Driver“) the choice of music is superb. The score is by Oscar winning composer Steven Price, but you can be sure that Wright was heavily involved in the track selections. These prominently feature a Cilla Black track – heralded by 15 string beats of total perfection – that is in my top 5 songs from the 60’s. And Anya Taylor-Joy’s haunting version of “Downtown” is just superb.
Acting Royalty…. Diana Rigg in her last role, and….
Negatives:
The second half of the film just doesn’t *quite* live up to the promise of the first half (which was running as a clear 5*s).
While the inevitable twist in the tale is clever (and unexpected), I thought it was rather clumsily introduced. (I can’t go into details without introducing spoilers, but an envelope is involved). Something more subliminal would have been my preference; something that you would have had to watch the film again to catch.
A stunning starring role for Thomasin McKenzie. Just wonderful.
Summary Thoughts on “Last Night in Soho”
I loved this one. It lived up to my expectations, and came close to “classic status”. I need to give this careful consideration as to where this sits in my “Top 10 Films of the Year”, but it is undoubtedly up there in the list.
Highly recommended, if you are content to stomach some violent (and quite disturbing) horror imagery.
The trailer grabbed me by the gut and firmly cemented it as a “must see” in my movie-watching schedule. Frustratingly, Covid got in my way. But now free of the wretched virus, this had just HAD be my first outing.
Plot Summary:
Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) is a Cornish teen whose fashion and music tastes are firmly rooted in the ’60s. She is also blessed (or plagued) with having visions of people who’ve passed, including her dead mother.
Travelling to a London fashion school, Eloise is a lost soul in a raucous world. But at night, she is mystically transported back to the swinging 60’s into the body of aspiring singer Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy). Sandie is under the thrall of ‘manager’ Jack (Matt Smith), and Eloise witnesses events that she needs to tell people about. But who would possibly believe such a tale?
Certification:
US: R. UK: 18.
Talent:
Starring: Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Terence Stamp, Diana Rigg.
Directed by: Edgar Wright.
Written by: Krysty Wilson-Cairns (based on a story by Edgar Wright).
“Last Night in Soho” Review: Positives:
This is SUCH a tour de force of filmmaking. Honestly, there were moments in here, particularly in the first half of the movie, where I was beaming from ear to ear at the audacity of it all. That ‘time travel’ reveal is even better in ‘the flesh’ than it was in the trailer, enhanced by the vibrant cinematography of Chung-hoon Chung.
Thomasin McKensie again impressed me immensely. She was of course the ‘girl in the attic’ from “Jojo Rabbit” and the best thing in the lacklustre M. Night Shyamalan feature “Old“. Anya Taylor-Joy is as spectacular as you would expect and Matt Smith also delivers, although I wasn’t completely convinced by Smith’s cockney accent. And what a wonderful thing to watch veteran actors Terence Stamp and Diana RIgg strut their stuff on the big screen. (This was Rigg’s final screen performance, and the film is dedicated to her: “For Diana”. RIP Ms Rigg.)
The combination of ‘in camera’ and special effects here are gob-smackingly effective. Some of the ‘mirror’ effects involving Eloise, Sandie and Jack in the club are gleeful. And I’m not sure how they were all done. And a dance sequence where Eloise switches to Sandie and back again is just so clever.
The Production Design is just brilliant. It oozes a combination of 60’s style and sleaze. Surely an Oscar nomination is due here.
As with other Edgar Wright movies (like “Baby Driver“) the choice of music is superb. The score is by Oscar winning composer Steven Price, but you can be sure that Wright was heavily involved in the track selections. These prominently feature a Cilla Black track – heralded by 15 string beats of total perfection – that is in my top 5 songs from the 60’s. And Anya Taylor-Joy’s haunting version of “Downtown” is just superb.
Acting Royalty…. Diana Rigg in her last role, and….
Negatives:
The second half of the film just doesn’t *quite* live up to the promise of the first half (which was running as a clear 5*s).
While the inevitable twist in the tale is clever (and unexpected), I thought it was rather clumsily introduced. (I can’t go into details without introducing spoilers, but an envelope is involved). Something more subliminal would have been my preference; something that you would have had to watch the film again to catch.
A stunning starring role for Thomasin McKenzie. Just wonderful.
Summary Thoughts on “Last Night in Soho”
I loved this one. It lived up to my expectations, and came close to “classic status”. I need to give this careful consideration as to where this sits in my “Top 10 Films of the Year”, but it is undoubtedly up there in the list.
Highly recommended, if you are content to stomach some violent (and quite disturbing) horror imagery.
Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) rated The S-Word in Books
Jun 7, 2018
(This review can be found on my blog <a href="http://themisadventuresofatwentysomething.blogspot.com/">The (Mis)Adventures of a Twenty-Something Year Old Girl</a>).
I was super excited to read this book! I had wanted it since I first heard about it. While it wasn't as good as I had hoped, it was still a good read.
The book blurb above does a good job in describing what this book is going to be about, so I won't put it into my own words or else it'll be a bit repetitive.
I don't really know if I like the title or not. It does sum up the book pretty well because it's the s-word that starts off a whole chain of events.
I do like the cover! I enjoyed the simplicity of it, really, so it was a great choice by the author. What I liked most was how some words were etched into the cover.
The world building was a bit wishy-washy. Personally, I really don't think someone would be as forgiving as Angie if their best friend (or any girl for that matter) slept with their boyfriend, especially one of four years. Secondly, I really don't think a high school student would conduct an investigation into who made their friend commit suicide. However, there is some creditably to this world. The different people in the high school really make it feel like it's taking place there. The feelings in the book also come across as being genuine.
The pacing was good. There were a few parts throughout the book where the pacing does get a bit shaky, but it quickly goes back to being a decent pace. I wouldn't say it's a book devouring pace, but it's still good enough where you do want to read it quickly.
I enjoyed the plot. It definitely picks up on a very real problem happening around schools (and well, a lot of places) - bullying and its consequences. I loved the message it was conveying. I did predict something about Lizzie which I can't say because of a spoiler. I also predicted a plot twist as well which I won't elaborate on due to spoilers. There was one plot twist that I definitely didn't see coming!!
The characters were alright. Sometimes the character of Angie felt a bit one dimensional and unrealistic. As I've said before, I can't imagine anyone conducting an investigation about who was calling someone a slut and all that after the fact. Sometimes, there was something about her that made her seem like she wasn't a teenager even though she was meant to be. She didn't really act like one through a lot of the book. I did enjoy that the author didn't make her out to be a stuck-up cheerleader though because not all cheerleaders are snobby. I liked how she would take chances on people. I felt like I didn't get to know too much about Drake to pass that much judgement on him. He comes across as a bit of a sleaze for cheating on Angie. I wish he was featured a bit more. I loved the character of Jesse. I enjoyed his flamboyant nature and how he didn't care what anyone really thought about him. I would even dare to say that I found him to be the strongest and most believable character. Lizzie comes across as a goody two-shoes and your typical teen sweetheart. I don't really have a a clear feeling about Lizzie because, although we get to read some of her diary entries and she's talked about, there's nothing strong enough to give me a clear picture of her personality.
The dialogue was believable for the most part. What I didn't find believable is some of the times Angie would question people. For example, in one scene in the book, Angie is questioning a character named Shelby. She circles around her interrogating her, and while Shelby is an actress, I just couldn't ever imagine that scene and that dialogue taking place. Also, there is a bit of swearing in this book, and while some of it does seem like everyday teen speak, some of it seems forced like the author was just throwing it in for good measure. Other then that, the dialogue came across as teens speaking which is what this book is.
Overall, The S-Word by Chelsea Pitcher is a good read. However, the main character and some of the world building does let it down, but the plot and pacing do help to make this a good read.
I'd recommend this book to those aged 17+ who have been affected by bullying.
I'd give The S-Word by Chelsea Pitcher a 3.5 out of 5.
I was super excited to read this book! I had wanted it since I first heard about it. While it wasn't as good as I had hoped, it was still a good read.
The book blurb above does a good job in describing what this book is going to be about, so I won't put it into my own words or else it'll be a bit repetitive.
I don't really know if I like the title or not. It does sum up the book pretty well because it's the s-word that starts off a whole chain of events.
I do like the cover! I enjoyed the simplicity of it, really, so it was a great choice by the author. What I liked most was how some words were etched into the cover.
The world building was a bit wishy-washy. Personally, I really don't think someone would be as forgiving as Angie if their best friend (or any girl for that matter) slept with their boyfriend, especially one of four years. Secondly, I really don't think a high school student would conduct an investigation into who made their friend commit suicide. However, there is some creditably to this world. The different people in the high school really make it feel like it's taking place there. The feelings in the book also come across as being genuine.
The pacing was good. There were a few parts throughout the book where the pacing does get a bit shaky, but it quickly goes back to being a decent pace. I wouldn't say it's a book devouring pace, but it's still good enough where you do want to read it quickly.
I enjoyed the plot. It definitely picks up on a very real problem happening around schools (and well, a lot of places) - bullying and its consequences. I loved the message it was conveying. I did predict something about Lizzie which I can't say because of a spoiler. I also predicted a plot twist as well which I won't elaborate on due to spoilers. There was one plot twist that I definitely didn't see coming!!
The characters were alright. Sometimes the character of Angie felt a bit one dimensional and unrealistic. As I've said before, I can't imagine anyone conducting an investigation about who was calling someone a slut and all that after the fact. Sometimes, there was something about her that made her seem like she wasn't a teenager even though she was meant to be. She didn't really act like one through a lot of the book. I did enjoy that the author didn't make her out to be a stuck-up cheerleader though because not all cheerleaders are snobby. I liked how she would take chances on people. I felt like I didn't get to know too much about Drake to pass that much judgement on him. He comes across as a bit of a sleaze for cheating on Angie. I wish he was featured a bit more. I loved the character of Jesse. I enjoyed his flamboyant nature and how he didn't care what anyone really thought about him. I would even dare to say that I found him to be the strongest and most believable character. Lizzie comes across as a goody two-shoes and your typical teen sweetheart. I don't really have a a clear feeling about Lizzie because, although we get to read some of her diary entries and she's talked about, there's nothing strong enough to give me a clear picture of her personality.
The dialogue was believable for the most part. What I didn't find believable is some of the times Angie would question people. For example, in one scene in the book, Angie is questioning a character named Shelby. She circles around her interrogating her, and while Shelby is an actress, I just couldn't ever imagine that scene and that dialogue taking place. Also, there is a bit of swearing in this book, and while some of it does seem like everyday teen speak, some of it seems forced like the author was just throwing it in for good measure. Other then that, the dialogue came across as teens speaking which is what this book is.
Overall, The S-Word by Chelsea Pitcher is a good read. However, the main character and some of the world building does let it down, but the plot and pacing do help to make this a good read.
I'd recommend this book to those aged 17+ who have been affected by bullying.
I'd give The S-Word by Chelsea Pitcher a 3.5 out of 5.