February 2019 – Life and Other Disasters

Publisher: HarperTeen
Page Count: 352

TW: depression, self-harm, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal ideation

You all thought I was raving about Echo North, didn’t you? Well, my enthusiasm for that one pales in comparison to all the feelings I have for The Light Between Worlds. I did not expect to relate to this book as much as I did and I definitely didn’t expect for tears to keep flowing for 100+ pages straight. I hope I can find the words to describe to you why The Light Between Worlds has managed to impact me so deeply. The book plays with your perception of reality, by adding fantasy elements in place of events that could be easily substituted by more ordinary things. So, you read something out of this world, but at the same time, your brain tells you that similar things happen for real all the time. You wonder about the meaning behind things and know that there is more to it.
I wasn’t ever whisked away to a Narnia-esque land, but I have lived and shared my life with people in other countries and on other continents. And sometimes, you leave a bit of yourself behind, you find home away from home but there are ties you cannot shake to your past regardless and it takes time and courage to find who you are at the end of the day. All the Hapwells struggle with finding themselves and keeping up appearances after something massive has happened to their lives.

“We’re all a bit frayed around the edges, aren’t we? It doesn’t surprise me and it doesn’t frighten me, finding out you’re only human like the rest of us.”

It was really easy for me to dive into the story, because the characters made it so easy to relate to them. This is a book for all the people who enjoy a good sibling-story (there aren’t nearly enough of those out there if you ask me). Family is always complicated and never easy and Evelyn and Philippa were the perfect example of that. Their love for each other went so very deep, but there are times when you have to take care of yourself and can’t continue to be the lifeboat the other might need. I wish they had included Jamie a little more in the tale, but I understand that the sisters had a special bond altogether. Still, he was an intriguing character nonetheless.

Once upon a time, I knew all the right words to say to Jamie, to my darling older brother who worked so hard to prove himself in the Great Wood, and who can’t quite stop feeling like he’s failing here. Now all I do is hurt him, when I want to offer words that heal.

Lastly, I also want to give a little shout out to the love interests in that book. These boys were so darling and kind and open-hearted. I wish I would meet more people like them in real life. Somehow they were there when needed, gave them space when necessary, understood being broken but still offered so much hope for what was yet to come. Love (especially the romantic kind) doesn’t fix everything, and the book in no way implies that, but if I needed a shoulder to lean on, these characters would be more than welcome.

I’ve seen war and death and darkness, but I’ve never before walked home with a boy, heart in my throat, knowing that at the end of the walk will be people who love him and who will take a measure of me.

I don’t know how else to tell you that I adore this book, except maybe by mentioning it’s brilliant use of paintings and poetry as metaphors and imagery that added to the story. It was a real treat of a read!

Fazit: 5/5 stars! Used up my entire reservoir of sticky notes, because this book is just full of magic words.

I hope I could give you at least a little bit of a taste of what The Light Between Worlds is about. Have you read it? Do you want to? I am definitely here to talk if you want to!

I’ve long thought about what I would post this week. Obviously, I am going to do my yearly rendition of Kiss, Marry, Kill on Valentine’s itself, but it didn’t feel right to just do that alone. So, instead I also want to celebrate Galentine’s Day this year … because I can! All my fabulous friends who are always there for me when I am in need are simply too amazing not to be celebrated on their own day every year.

So, I was trying to come up with something creative when I realised, I could perfectly combine this with something I wanted to talk about for a while now – web series! The thing is, I mainly watch German language web series and very few of them are available internationally or with subtitles, so I don’t want to post about it and get your hopes up about cool new content when you can’t even understand a thing. Not so with this one though, so let me dive in about DRUCK!

A while back, I could not log onto Twitter without the word SKAM floating around somewhere. It took me a while to realise that it was a Norwegian web series, but back then I didn’t have the time or interest to really dig into the matter. However, that show became so widely popular that a bunch of countries adapted it and I am watching SKAM Germany aka DRUCK religiously (I also started watching SKAM France, but that’s a whole other matter).

But why did I think this was a good fit for today’s post? Well, even with the trailer showing a lot about the love life of the girls, it’s mostly about their friendship group and dynamic. Each of the two seasons (so far) has a focus on a different girl from the group. It’s about how they met, how they supported each other but also how they fought, had differences, overcame prejudices and grew. It’s not all black and white, these are teen girls that make mistakes and sometimes really bad ones! But that’s part of what makes the show feel so real.

Another part of why I enjoy this show so much is that it operates on multiple platforms. On the one hand, you have the regular content on Youtube (click here if you want to watch the episodes in German, click here if you want to watch them with English subtitles). But even that is special, because throughout the week they release clips in what feels like “real time”. Say the scene plays on a Monday around 8AM, well, then the clip will be on uploaded to Youtube on Monday at 8AM. However, every Friday they post an entire episode which includes the clips from the week as well as new material.
Then in addition to this already pretty dope schedule, all the actors and actresses put their real life Instagram accounts on private and have public profiles as their character. That way they can post additional content in the shape of pictures or stories that won’t be featured in the actual episodes, but will add a certain touch of realness as well. And lastly, there’s the option of adding the show on Whatsapp, where they send you screenshots or voice messages the characters leave each other. (As well as updates about the show and new episodes) All of that makes the show incredibly interactive, even if you aren’t really interacting with them at all.

I know this was a super random post, but I hope you could still enjoy it to some extent. Feel free to ask me questions about the show, because I do realise it was rather short on the actual content of it, but it’s basically just teens in high school and the drama of their lives. I enjoy that sort of stuff!