Aside from the biggest surprise of 2020 being that we are in a global pandemic and this year just keeps on getting worse, there have been some surprises in my life. I'm always finding new books and TV shows/films that I love, there are always some that take me surprise. Here are some of the biggest surprises- both good and bad- of 2020.
A big surprise of 2020 has been how much I've gotten into film and TV shows. I've always enjoyed them, but I've been taking more time watch them this year. It's probably not good as a bookworm that I've watched almost double the amount of books I've read.
A film I didn't expect to enjoy as much as I did was 1917. I wanted to see it after hearing friends rave about it. War films aren't usually my cup of tea. They all tell very similar stories, in my opinion, but I ended up really enjoying 1917. The story was compelling and the cinematography was breathtaking. The acting was also amazing. My favourite part was probably the music. I adore film soundtracks. I can't wait to add this one to my collection. I've watched a lot of behind the scenes features on 1917 as I'm a sucker for behind the scene stuff. 1917 pleasantly took me by surprise and ended up being the second and last film I saw in the cinema this year.
Birdman had been on my radar for a while, so my family and I finally watched it. Again, it was a film I didn't think I would enjoy as much as I did. The cast were superb, but the story was incredible. As it was a "one-shot" film, the story kept moving at the right pace. I'm very glad that I've finally watched it. I highly recommend it.
A TV show that also took me by surprise was Fresh Meat. It's a 2011 sitcom about a group of uni students living together. It looked good fun and stars Jack Whitehall, a comedian I quite like. I didn't expect to be fully sucked into the story the way I was. I was invested in these characters lives fully and felt like I was going on this journey with them. It could be as I'm about to go in my third year of uni. I haven't watched any UK university shows so this was a really good one to watch.
However, a book I ended up being quite disappointed with was Infinity Son by Adam Silvera. Adam is one of my favourite authors and I adore his contemporary novels. But his first foray into fantasy just didn't sit well with me. I found the characters very annoying and I did not understand the magic system at all. I hope he releases more contemporary novels as I think I'll be sticking to those in the future.
Some books that I enjoyed that I didn't expect to enjoy were the Legend trilogy by Marie Lu and Crescent City by Sarah J Maas. I had owned the Legend series for years but I finally read it. It was a fun and easy to read. It was nowhere near the most highbrow series I've read. I flew through the series in the space of a week. I have no intentions of reading the new books coming out, but Marie Lu is a good author and writes fun, easy to read books. Crescent City was a book I was not interested in at first, but seeing everyone read it, I had to pick it up. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. After ACOWAR in 2017, I thought I was done with Sarah's books, but this has restored my faith a bit. I will be continuing with this series.
So those are some stories I've consumed that surprised me in one way or another!
Carenza :) x
