Cruella Film Review (Contains Spoilers)| Carenza Bramwell

Taken from Google Images

Title- Cruella

Creator- Dana Fox and Tony McNamara (writers) and Craig Gillespie (Director) 

Cast- Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Mark Strong and ensemble cast 

Genre- crime, comedy, drama 

Length- 2hours 15minutes 

Platform- Disney+ or the cinema (UK)

Rating- 4/5 stars 

Plot

A live action prequel feature film following a young Cruella de Vil. 

Taken from IMDb. 

Opinions 

Taken from Google Images

Cruella was my first cinema experience since March 2020. I think it was a really good film to see in the cinema. I had seen the trailer and thought it was promising. I am glad I saw it in the cinema. I have missed it so much and can't wait to go back more now it's safer to do so. If you can and feel able to, I'd recommend going and seeing it in the cinema. It's a solid cinematic experience. 

I will get my only negative out of the way now. I felt that the plot was questionable. It was very much you just have to roll with it as it wasn't the best. Her origin story was that her adoptive mother was killed by her birth mother who used some dogs? It was a bit weak. However, I think if you remind yourself that it's just a film, then it's okay. Asides from this plotline, the rest was good. I liked that she was unapologetically herself and you can see her moving towards the Cruella we know from 101 Dalmatians. 

Taken from Google Images

The performances were great. Emma Stone and Emma Thompson were clearly having a blast in this movie. The rest were also having a great time. I think the cast made this film. They made the story believable and enjoyable. You really can't go wrong with having Emma Stone and Emma Thompson in your film. One of the best casts I've seen in a long time. 

Taken from Google Images

The music and set designs were also impeccable. Honestly, aside from the plot, I didn't have any problems with this film. The costume designs were amazing. Someone clearly had a lot of fun designing all of these amazing costumes. The punk-rock music went alongside this so well. I don't want to repeat myself, but everything but the plot was great in this film. 

Taken from Google Images

This was a thoroughly enjoyable film and surprisingly good at that. You leave the cinema feeling empowered by this story. I would happily watch it again and I know a sequel is in the works, which I would be excited to watch. They can have some fun with this character and take her on this journey towards becoming the puppy killer we know she is.   

What did you think of Cruella?

The Mid Year Freak Out Tag 2021| Carenza Bramwell

Despite the fact that we're still in a global pandemic, time is going very fast and we're over halfway through the year. As we're over halfway through, I thought I would do the Mid Year Freak Out Tag. This is my third time answering these questions on here and I love looking back on my answers from previous years.

 

1) Best Book You've Read So Far in 2021

Hands down the best book I've read so far is If We Were Villains by M.L Rio. I have a full review, which you can read here. I was hooked from beginning to end. I didn't want to stop reading. I loved the story and the characters. I imagine this will be one of my favourite books of the year. 

2) Best Sequel You've Read So Far in 2021

I'm technically cheating as last year I chose Heartstopper Volume Three and this year I'm choosing Heartstopper Volume Four by Alice Oseman. These are some of my favourite books. I reread the whole series so far in preparation for this volume and it made me happy. These are fun and fluffy, yet capture some serious topics beautifully at the same time. I can't believe this series ends with the next volume. 

 

3) New Release You Haven't Read Yet, But Want To

I'm putting off reading Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid for one reason and that is because the book is set in August, so I want to read it in August. I just thought it would add to the reading experience reading it in the same month it's set in. I have loved the two other books from Taylor Jenkins Reid, so I imagine I'll enjoy this one too. 

4) Most Anticipated Release for the Second Half of The Year

I have chosen Gods&Monsters by Shelby Mahurin as it's one of the few books I know that's coming out later this year. I had mixed feelings about Blood&Honey, but I'm going to reread the series in prep for this one and hopefully my love will come back. I remember being blown away by Serpent&Dove and I want that feeling again.  

5) Biggest Disappointment

This may come as surprise to some, especially those that have been reading my blog for a while, but I was really disappointed by Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare. I have a review, which you can read here. But this series nowhere near lives up to Clockwork Angel, which is my favourite Cassie Clare series. I want to love it, but I don't care for the plot at all. I still really enjoyed it, but for me to give a Cassie Clare book anything other than 5 stars is quite rare. 

6) Biggest Surprise

I struggled for an answer for this question, but then I remember being surprised by Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas. I read it really quickly, as it had that "I need to know more" factor. I have a review of this book, which you can read here. This is the perfect Halloween book, with amazing LGBT+ rep. Aiden is a great writer and I can't wait to see what they write next. 

7) New Favourite Author (Debut or New to You)

R.F Kuang has to be a new favourite author. I adored The Poppy War and can't wait to dive back into this series. I know she is writing some kind of dark academia book, which looks really good. I have a feeling she's going to be an auto buy author for the future. 

8) New Fictional Crush

As mentioned in my answers to these questions for the 2020 version, I don't really do fictional crushes, so I'm going to give Jesper from Shadow and Bone show a shout out as a new favourite character. I think I just have a thing for characters that begin with J, such as Jaskier from the Witcher and Jake from Brooklyn Nine-Nine. 

9) New Favourite Character

Speaking of new favourite characters, I had to choose Rin from The Poppy War by R.F Kuang. She's just so badass and we need more badass characters out there. I'm very excited to see where her journey goes in the other books in the series. 

10) Book That Made You Cry

I haven't cried over a book since 2018 so I can't answer this question. It really takes a lot for me to cry at a book. 

11) Book That Made Me Happy

A book that made me very happy was Flake by Matthew Dooley. This is an adorable graphic novel and I adored it. It's set in the North-West of England, which is where my family is from, so the humour in this book really appealed to me. I laughed out loud at multiple times while reading this. It's going to be a favourite of mine for a while. 

12) Most Beautiful Book You've Bought/Received This Year

Like last year, I am choosing the Fairyloot edition of Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare. Despite my problems with Fairyloot, they really do the prettiest editions of books. They're stunning. 

13) What Books Do You Need to Read by the End of the Year?

I have decided that I want to read the complete Sherlock Holmes stories by the end of the year. I have had them for so long and adore variations of these stories. It's high time I actually read them.

I hope you enjoyed this tag! 

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo Book Review (Contains Spoilers)| Carenza Bramwell

Title- Last Night at the Telegraph Club        

Author- Malinda Lo

Series- N/A

Published- 2021

Page Count- 394 pages

Publishing House- Dutton Books for Young Readers

Genre- YA Contemporary, LGBT, Historical Fiction

Rating- 3/5 stars 

About the Author

Malinda Lo is the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of several young adult novels, including Last Night at the Telegraph Club, which received eight starred reviews. Her debut novel Ash, a lesbian retelling of Cinderella, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Andre Norton Award for YA Science Fiction and Fantasy, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and was a Kirkus Best Book for Children and Teens. She has been a three-time finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Malinda’s short fiction and nonfiction has been published by The New York Times, NPR, Autostraddle, The Horn Book, and multiple anthologies. She lives in Massachusetts with her partner and their dog. She writes the biweekly newsletter Lo & Behold on writing and culture, and she can be found on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Her website is malindalo.com.

Taken from Malinda's website.

Plot

Acclaimed author of Ash Malinda Lo returns with her most personal and ambitious novel yet, a gripping story of love and duty set in San Francisco's Chinatown during the Red Scare.

“That book. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other.” And then Lily asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its leaves and demanding to be shown the sun: “Have you ever heard of such a thing?”

Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club.

America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father—despite his hard-won citizenship—Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.

"Lo's writing, restrained yet luscious, shimmers with the thrills of youthful desire. A lovely, memorable novel about listening to the whispers of a wayward heart and claiming a place in the world."—Sarah Waters, bestselling and award winning author of Tipping the Velvet and The Night Watch

Taken from Goodreads.

Opinions 

Last Night at the Telegraph Club was a book I had been really excited for. I had heard a lot of good things about it. It sounded like a book I would enjoy. A YA historical LGBT book? Definitely something I would read. I had heard good things about Malinda Lo as a writer, particularly her Ash series. I always like to support LGBT and POC writers, so I decided to get this book. However, I ended up not enjoying it as much as I thought I would. It started out strong, but ended up letting me down. I've now seen a couple of reviews that have similar thoughts to mine. 

While I didn't enjoy it, I did find this book an easy read. I could read a 100 pages a day quite easily. The information was easy to absorb. I did quite like that it wasn't too dense as I was in the mood for something a bit lighter and fun. However, the pacing was all over the place. I wanted to see Kath and Lily's relationship develop a bit quicker than it did as this was a slow burn romance. It wasn't until the last 100 pages that there was an indication that they were in a relationship. Given that this book, well the main story line, covers from September 1954 to January 1955, it took a long time to get to the heart of the action. 

A lot of people have commented on this, but I have to say that I really didn't like the random other perspectives we would get at the end of each section. They didn't really add anything to the story. I feel like they could have been removed and the story would have been fine. It felt like an odd creative decision to have five other POV moments that didn't add to the central story. 

I think the main let down of this book was that it tried to pull the reader in too many directions. The main plot was about Lily learning about the LGBT community in a time when it wasn't widely accepted. I found that the most interesting plot line, especially with some of the side characters. We then also had the communist plot line, which was interesting but took away from the main plot line. Then there were also information about the space race and a beauty competition. All of these together just felt a bit much. I think I would have liked a stronger focus on the LGBT community and Lily's passion for science. Those were the plot lines I had the most interest in. 

Despite this, I have a feeling I would read from Malinda Lo again. I am interested in reading her Ash series. I think for LGBT and POC rep, then these books are strong, but plot and character wise, this one was a bit of a let down. 

What did you think of Last Night at the Telegraph Club?     

So, What Comes Next? My Life Beyond Uni| Carenza Bramwell

As of June 4th 2021, I have officially finished my degree. I am going to write a whole blog post about the experience in July when I've had some time to think about it, but for now I thought I'd share what my plans are now that I've finished. It's very strange to think this is something I've done as I was always someone who wanted to go to uni and now I've done that. 

So, what comes next? Well that is a very good question. I don't have any short or long term plans. COVID has made it a bit difficult to plan anything. For example, I was supposed to go travelling around Europe last summer but had to cancel. I can't go this summer, so it looks like it will be another year before that happens. When this goes live, I will have had my first COVID vaccine, which means I'm one step closer to life going back to normal.  

My short term plans (i.e my plans for the next few months) involve the following: going back to my uni accommodation to have one last hoorah as a student, seeing family I haven't seen in nearly a year and working towards getting a job. I have started the process of trying to secure my first job and it's not going very well. I've applied for 8 jobs in the last three months and have been rejected from them all. If I'm being honest, I don't see myself getting a job this side of 2021. I know it's going to be a long process. The job market has been decimated by COVID, especially the creative sector, which is where I want to work. So, I am going to spend some time working towards getting a job.

While I do that, it does mean for the first time since I started my blog and other social media platforms, that I am able to essentially do this full time. I can go back to writing two blog posts a week and I'm thinking of posting everyday on Instagram. I started putting in a lot more effort to my social media sites in January and have seen a bit of growth, but not much. I don't do this for the numbers or to get famous, but I know a lot of creatives will agree with me, that it is nice when your hard work is recognised. So I might as well make the most of it and do this full time while I can. 

My long term plans are to get some kind of writing related job. I'm not sure what that will be yet, I've been applying for script editor positions, jobs in publishing and social media assistants, so hopefully along those lines. All I know is that I want to be a writer and have some kind of job connected to it. Writing has been a passion of mine for ages and I can't see myself turning my back on it.   

So this was a bit of a rambly post on what the future holds for me. As much as the job hunt makes me anxious, I am excited for what comes after uni and to have the time to work on my blog. I can't wait to share new content with you guys.

Shadow and Bone TV Show Review (Contains Spoilers)| Carenza Bramwell

Taken from Google Images

Title- Shadow and Bone

Creators- Leigh Bardugo and Eric Heisserer

Cast- Jessie Mei Li, Archie Renuax, Freddy Carter, Amita Suman, Kit Young, Ben Barnes plus ensemble cast

Genre- YA, Fantasy

Length- 8 episodes

Platform- Netflix

Rating- 4/5 stars

Plot

Alina Starkov, a cartographer in the First Army of Ravka, discovers that she is a Grisha (a person who can perform "small science") with the ability of summoning light. When her ability is revealed to the world, tensions arise between the nations of Ravka, Shu Han, and Fjerda. With the mentorship of General Kirigan, a Grisha with the ability to control darkness, Alina becomes Ravka's only hope of destroying the Shadow Fold—a region of impenetrable darkness that has stained the land for hundreds of years and split East and West Ravka. At the same time, a crew of thieves in the trade hub of Ketterdam known as the Crows attempt to kidnap Alina and win a fortune.

Taken from Wikipeida

Opinions

I will be totally honest and say I was not that bothered about this show before it's release. I knew that the Grishaverse was being adapted and that was it. I had read the books between 2017-19 and thought they were okay. I feel I was one of the few people that wasn't blown away by Six of Crows. I had seen the trailer and thought it looked good. A friend of mine convinced me to watch it as I wasn't planning on watching it around the time it was released.

Taken from Google Images

I have now watched it twice. After a underwhelming start, this show really picked up. At first, I found the writing, the dialogue especially, to be very clunky. Now this could be because I was going through the process of rewriting my own scripts and my mind was very dialogue focused, but the first couple of episodes had some not so great dialogue in my opinion. The actors managed to salvage it. As the show went on, the writing got better and by the end, I was desperate to know what happened next. I finished watching it and found myself in a position where I didn't know what to watch next. So I decided to rewatch it, because why not.

Taken from Google Images

I knew they were planning on intertwining the storylines and I actually quite enjoyed it. I really liked the episodes were we had the three storylines of Alina's story, the Crow's story and Nina's story. Those episodes stood out to me and were the ones I couldn't stop watching. They moved between the three quite naturally, in a way that always kept you interested. It was a smart choice not to just adapt the Shadow and Bone storyline on it's own as that wouldn't have been as strong.

Taken from Google Images

Let's talk about the design/technical side of the show. I loved the music, and have listened to it several times since. The set and costume designs were great. Aside from the writing, I don't really have any complaints about the show. I thought the actors all did incredible jobs in their roles. That Netflix budget really came through and made this a solid show. 

Taken from Google Images

As already mentioned, I read the books back in 2017-19 and was underwhelmed by them. I remembered enjoying the Shadow and Bone series over the Six of Crows series, which meant it was odd when I ended up preferring the Six of Crows storyline. I thought the cast had great chemistry and felt like they were the characters (from what I remembered about them). I remember loving Jesper and thought Kit Young played him very well. I'm excited to see what they do with their storyline when we get to it.

Taken from Google Images

I think it would be unfair of me to not mention some of the controversies around this show. The first one was about the attitudes towards race within the show and how it wasn't needed. Some people have liked it, saying it was powerful, other people have said it was unnecessary. Then there was the inconsistent way it was handled, and how it seemed to be only Alina on the receiving end, when in the show Mal, Zoya, Inej and Jesper are all people of colour. Zoya seemed to be the one making most of the statements towards Alina, I'll link an interesting article on it so you can read it here. Recently, it was revealed that Amita Suman's stunt double was in fact a white woman who was made up to look like she was the same ethnicity as Amita. A lot of fans have called that out, with the show-runner making a formal apology. I hope these are issues that are fixed for the future.    

We're all now waiting for it to be renewed for a second series. I'm kinda surprised that it's taken this long as normally it's within a month a show gets renewed, but there's still time for it to be renewed. It would be a shame if the show didn't get a second series as it was well received by fans, despite the things I mentioned above. Hopefully we'll find out soon.

What did you think of Shadow and Bone? 

Pride Recommendations 2021| Carenza Bramwell

Happy Pride Month! 

In case you didn't know it, June is Pride Month, a celebration of the LGBTQ+ community. Obviously, they are celebrated all year around, but this month is particularly special for them. I made a similar post last year called "my favourite LGBTQ+ books", which you can read here. This post links to a series of posts I'll be making on my Bookstagram throughout June promoting a different book for each colour of the Pride flag (including a pink book, even thought that isn't a part of the Pride flag). A lot of these will be quite popular Pride books, but I hope there are some you might not have read before. 

Red- Simon vs the Homosapiens Agenda (Love, Simon) by Becky Albertalli 

I want to start of my recommendation with an amendment from my 2020 pride post. In that post I said that Becky identified as straight. She has since come out as bisexual after a lot of harassment online. Firstly, it was wrong of me to assume that she was straight. As it literally says in her book, "why do we assume that straight is the default?". I apologise for doing that, I made a mistake and will work towards being more careful in the future. Secondly, what Becky has had to go through is truly horrible. I don't know the whole story, but I hope she's okay. 

Now onto the actual recommendation. Simon vs (or Love, Simon as I think it's now known) is a YA classic. It follows a boy called Simon who is outed as gay and has to figure out who the mysterious "blue" is, as he's been emailing him. I read this back in 2018 in one sitting. It was funny, heartwarming and did the coming out story justice. I still haven't watched the film, but I am going to. I have fond memories of this book and it would be wrong to not recommend such as classic LGBTQ+ novel.   

Orange- Trans*A Quick and Quirky Account of Gender Variability by Jack Halberstam

This is one that I haven't read, but am planning on getting to in June. I won a free copy from my uni library last year. As far as I know, this is a non-fiction books about being trans and the gender spectrum. As someone who identifies as cis, this is something I'd like to know more about. The trans community had a very difficult time last year with the whole JK Rowling controversy, so I would like to expand my knowledge on gender and be able to be an ally to the trans community. They are valid and welcome members of the LGBTQ+ community. 

Yellow- Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman

Alice Oseman is one of my favourite authors and it just so happens that she is an LGBTQ+ writer. She also writes LGBTQ+ stories. I could have done an entire Pride rainbow flag from just her books. Nick and Charlie is a novella within the Heartstopper series about the titular characters. It follows them as Nick finishes school to go to uni and where this leaves their relationship. I read it last year and enjoyed it. There was a bit too much drama for my liking, but the LGBTQ+ rep was great. 

Green- Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

I wasn't joking when I said I could make this entire Pride post about Alice's books. I've already touched on the Heartstopper series, so I had to include this on here. The Heartstopper books are some of my all time favourites. They follow Nick and Charlie from the beginning of their relationship (as friends, then boyfriends) and how it progresses. I've read all four volumes this year and they never fail to put a smile on my face. They do tackle some quite serious topics, such as mental health and eating disorders, but mostly these are soul warming books. 

Blue- Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

Another one I haven't read and am hoping to get to this month. This was on my radar at the beginning of the year and I'm very happy I picked up a copy. This is set in the 1950s as communism is sweeping America. It follows two girls, one about to be deported, as they discover their sexuality in a time where being LGBTQ+ wasn't widely accepted. I've heard a lot of good things about this, especially that it is someone discovering their sexuality, rather than someone who is comfortable with it. I can't wait to dive in at some point this month.

Purple- You Should See Me In A Crown by Leah Johnson

I adored this when I read it last year. This is about a young black girl hoping to win Prom Queen in order to win a scholarship so she can attend her dream university. Along the way, she meets and falls for the new kid who is also competing to be Prom Queen. This was a fun, summer contemporary. It did tackle some quite major these such as homophobia and racism, but the overall tone was quite hopeful. I know Leah Johnson has another book coming out this year, but it's apparently very different from this one. If you are looking for a cute, summer, female-female romance, then look no further. 

Pink- Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuinston  

Casey McQuinston also has another book coming out, but we're here to talk about her other book. I read this on holiday in 2019 in Bruges, so I will always associate this book with good memories. This follows ficticious versions of the son of the President of America and the Prince of England as they are forced to form a friendship that then evolves into a romance. I believe this is the only adult book on this list, so it does feature some more explicit sex scenes. Like You Should See Me In A Crown, this is another fun, summer romance novel. 

That concludes my list of Pride recommendations for 2021!