Something Strange and Deadly

I have the biggest book hangover I’ve had this year and that’s saying something after reading my 68^th of the year. I went on a binge when my exams had finished, sue me.

What book gave me the hangover? It’s actually a trilogy. Something Strange and Deadly, A Darkness Strange and Lovely, Strange and Ever After.

The absolutely amazing Susan Dennard has written the best series I’ve read so far. I realise that we’re only halfway through the year but I feel confident in saying that I don’t think anything (even the release of Queen of Shadows – Sarah J Maas) is going to compare to the fabulousness of this trilogy.

I’m a little late to this party with Strange and Ever After having been available for the past year but, honestly, I didn’t think I would be interested in this series until the Truthwitch announcements. That book seemed so otherworldly and magical that I wanted to read through Dennard’s previous works to get a feel for her writing. It was the announcement of Dennard’s new series – available Jan 2015 – that made me want to read her older one. I’m not ashamed to admit to that in the slightest.

The Something Strange and Deadly (SSaD) trilogy follows Eleanor Fitt and the Spirit Hunters as they attempt to put a stop to the necromancer raising the dead in 1876 Philadelphia. Eleanor’s once wealthy family has been thrown to almost poverty and her extremely overbearing mother sets out to wed Eleanor to a wealthy family to raise the family back to former glory.

Eleanor, our wonderful Eleanor, has other plans involving the finding of her brother and the helping of the Spirit Hunters in their attempt to stop the Dead from, well, doing what the dead do, really. We all know zombies, right? They want to chomp on the living and talk about who’s showing the most bone.

Following Eleanor, Jie, Daniel, and Joseph – the latter three being the Spirit Hunters – as they stop the Dead in Philadelphia, Paris, Marseille, and Egypt, is the most fun I’ve had following fictional characters for a while. For some reason everything I’ve read lately has had the same basic storyline where good wins and the guy gets the girl or, more accurately for these books, the girl gets the guy.

I am happy to report that good does win out, the necromancer is destroyed and the Dead stop rising. I am absolutely fucking ecstatic to report that the girl does not get the guy. For long.

I think that’s why I loved this trilogy so much.

There’s so much build up to epic romance between Eleanor and the wonderful inventor that is Daniel Sherridan, and they don’t get to see it through. Evil triumphs over love. And, you know what? Eleanor gets on with life.

She doesn’t stop living just because Daniel is gone. Sure, she attempts to get him back, but she does not succeed. She is denied the chance to live out her epic love story with a man that may come back as he was or completely changed. Dennard does not give in to the temptation of giving her main character the romantic ending, like so many authors do these days.

Instead we get a strong as hell woman that emerges from the hellish experiences she’s been through from the very beginning of the series. This woman has lost her family, she’s lost the love of her life, to this same person. And she destroys him and gets on with her life.

Her friends are there for her and she knows it. She knows that, with their help, she can continue to live, to see out the dreams she had with Daniel even though he is no longer by her side to see them himself.

That is fucking beautiful.

5/5

Shadow of Mordor

I've only recently remembered that I even had this and thought I should use it to, y'know, get the feels out.

I'm pissed. Seriously pissed.
I am 8 hours away from sitting my Social Science graded unit (that big exam that determines whether I get to stay in education for the next year) so, naturally, I've been playing video games all night long while staring at my study materials and wondering why it's not just all in my head yet.

I started Shadow of Mordor when it was first released. Then I got a wee bit obsessed with all things Dragon Age and it was pushed to the back burner. Dragon Age, seriously, if you like games and love yourself, get involved with this.
Anyway, I loved Shadow of Morder when I first started it. Granted, it's very similar to Assassin's Creed and, well, I love the AC franchise more than almost anything, so I was pretty much guaranteed to love Shadow of Mordor. And I did... For a while.

Well, I loved it right up until the end.

Because, what the fuck was that ending?
There's nothing to be done.
Fight off a horde, climb the Gate, then hit a series of prompts.

Just so disappointed right now.

No Makeup Selfie For Cancer Awareness.

Do not fucking tell me to take a picture of myself without makeup on under the pretence that it is doing a damn thing to promote cancer awareness.

All it’s doing is helping you feel better about yourselves because you’re ‘helping.’

You’re not fucking helping anything.

You want to help cancer patients, cancer research, raising cancer awareness? A fucking selfie fulfilling your own selfish need for attention is not the fucking way to go about that.

Donate money to hospices, to research, to hospitals.

Cut your fucking hair off, donate it to be made into wigs for cancer patients that are willing to go through the itchiness involved with wearing them.

Buy hats, head scarves, bandanas, and give them to hospitals to give them to their patients.

Donate blood; it’ll help a lot more than just cancer patients.

Donate your fucking time by volunteering.

Donate books.

Donate games.

Donate a fucking pad of paper and pens, pencils, crayons.

Donate colouring books. No matter what age you are, those things are fucking awesome.

Donate DVDs/DVD players.

Constantly update/tweet about cancer, about websites raising awareness, about places you can donate to.

Take part in Race For Life. Take part in any fucking activity that revolves around raising money for different cancer hospices and charities.

But don’t tell me that you taking a picture without your makeup on (liars, most of you, by the way) is making a fucking difference.

It’s feeding your ego and making your cheap ass feel like you’re making a difference.

Tick tock.

Time is strange. I'm 21 and have honestly used "I remember when I was young" in complete sincerity. I used to use it all the time because, let's face it, it's always fun to annoy parents/grandparents in that way.

So, yeah.
I'm either old before my time or you youngsters need to stop annoying me with all your crappy talk about how your boyfriend/girlfriend has totes pissed you off.

You're twelve, enjoy your childhood because you will never get another one.

Nerves.

It's absolutely terrifying when you leave a site that you know and love in search of a new place to post your nonsensical rants.

Unfortunately I had to leave through necessity; the old site I wrote on is slowly but surely disappearing and shutting down. The owner has decided it's not worth his time/money to continue updating so I was among the first to up and leave.
I'd rather start here, where no one will know who I am and will probably never ever read anything that I post here than watch as everything I had posted gets removed by scripts so old the dinosaurs were complaining about it. I removed everything myself. From the internet, anyway. I have a lovely little folder containing everything I've ever written, rants, reviews, random short stories, random LONG stories: everything.

I'm going to put this warning in several different places throughout everything I post; If swearing, ranting and sarcasm offends you in any way, shape or form, I suggest you take your ass and leave.

Anyway.

So, this is new. To me. I know how popular it is and it was a huge draw between this and livejournal. I know how to use livejournal which put it in the lead for a long time. I've had a livejournal that I used for many years. Pulling far ahead, LJ, well done.

Then I realised I had one of these attached to my gmail.
Sneaky, blogger, but I like it.

Ultimately it was the simpleness of the app that I downloaded onto my phone. I know that LJ has one, too, but I didn't have to search through mountains of email for a password long forgotten or take the time to make a new one. I'm impatient like that.

So, blogger won out.
Yay, blogger.

If swearing, ranting and sarcasm offends you: leave.
Seriously, no one is making you read anything.

Though if you do read something in the near future then I suggest it be Sarah J Maas' Throne of Glass and its sequel Crown of Midnight. Hell, even read the novellas.
A review will be posted as soon as I write one.

Can you tell I'm nervous? I think I'm hiding it well but I know me so I can tell that I am.

I'm going to run away now.
Books to buy, ice to slide on, coffee to drink.

Ciao.

PS. If anyone actually reads this and would like to offer help, I am more than willing to accept it.
I mean help in any way; who to follow, how to make this all fancy-pants, what to read, what to play, what to watch, anything. Thanks!