Just a couple weeks ago, I posted about how all my favorite books are about grief and loss (check it out here, in case you missed it), so it should come as little surprise that I was drawn to Brother by David Chariandy like a magnet. I had seen the below trailer and just knew that I NEEDED to read this immediately.
Brother is one of those quiet but impacting books. It wins you over with descriptions of daily life, slowly building up to the devestation you are bound to face all the while accompanied by the inner turmoil of the narrator. Most stories about grief are that way, I think. Slow, deliberate, but crushing.
Experiencing loss is such an intimate thing and can look so different for everyone. Some people can’t let go and there’s a question in there somewhere of whether they should. Grief, for many, feels like something to wallow in alone, but can also be a beautiful, albeit sad, forger of bonds. Switching between past and present, I often found myself tearing up the most at the moments about the people that remained. I can’t quite put into words why that need for community in our direst moments was so hard hitting, but it speaks to something deep inside me.
If I could change one thing about the book, it’s that I’d probably add one more chapter. It doesn’t necessarily need it, but I would like to have it for personal closure.
I think this story, despite being set a couple decades ago in Canada, is unfortunately still very timely and something many people are confronted with. I also believe that it will translate powerfully on screen.
Fazit: 4.5/5 stars! Grief books and I just work.
TRAILER TIME
Now, if you didn’t believe what I had to say above, you just watch that trailer and tell me this story won’t rip your heart out. I already recognized so many scenes from the book in the brief sequences we got to see here. The fact that Lamar Johnson, who just delivered another heartbreaking performance as someone’s brother on The Last of Us, is just the cherry on top. I will be seated when the movie releases later this year!
Did you read Brother or do you think you might want to check out the book/movie in the future? Let’s chat!
My mind is currently still circling around what I watched in vol. 1 of Stranger Things’ Season 4, but that’s a conversation for another day. Now it’s Sunday, which means we have to take a look at some trailers!
I will be honest with you, I’ve spent a lot of time on YouTube, but not so much watching actual shows and movies, so the post will be fairly short this week. Enjoy!
FINISHED TV SHOWS/SEASONS
Halo (Season 1)
Not going to lie, this show was SUCH a surprise to me! I guess I was craving more sci-fi content, but the game “Halo”, which this show is partly based on (which in turn was based on books, from what I’ve learned), has exactly zero appeal to me, so I’m not entirely clear on why I finally watched it. Maybe the fact that Pablo Schreiber has a lead role? He’s a big draw for me ever since he played Mad Sweeney.
Anyway, I’m so glad I knew absolutely nothing going in! Legit the best decision ever, because I had so much fun, while most gaming fans hated it or at least were deeply unhappy with certain elements that I ultimately had zero problem with. I definitely think it could have expanded on the world- and relationship-building some more. It’s fairly slow-told, so there was room for more depth, but I’m happy with this first season.
WEEKLY TV SHOWS
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Season 1)
The fact that there’s only 10 episode in the first season feels like some sort of crime. I mean … it just keeps getting better as we get to know these characters on a deeper level. You can’t put all of that in one season and then make me wait forever, it at least needs double.
I’m still obsessed, as you can see!
My crew!
MOVIES
As always, don’t forget to add me on Letterboxd if you want to be up to date on all my movie experiences!
Star Trek (2009)
This was a rewatch, I think that should be pointed out first. In fact, I’ve seen this movie so many times, I lost count a while ago. Star Trek (2009) was my proper introduction to the Star Trek universe and part of why I never was interested in any of the prior material. I just wanted *those* actors and no one else. Now my stance has visibly changed and I’m not as attached to them as I was, although I still see Chris Pine as my personal James T. Kirk favorite. Either way, I’m looking forward to them finally doing another movie. Maybe I’ll rewatch the others as well …
Did you watch any of the things I mentioned or do you plan to? I’ve now decided to continue watching Star Trek: Discovery, just because the weekly wait for Strange New Worlds is the worst. Let’s talk about that!
The weather this week couldn’t have been more April-esque, although it was also really nice on the sunny days. Now it’s Sunday though and we all know what that means – trailers!
You won’t believe it, but I’ve watched stuff again! I know, big shocker! Well, before I draw this out any longer, let’s get started.
FINISHED TV SHOWS/SEASONS
Conversations with Friends (limited series)
I’ve been feverishly waiting for this show to release. After the massive success of Normal People and the complicated feelings I have towards it, I knew that this was going to be either hit or miss with me. While I think the show has some serious pacing issues, it managed to capture the Sally Rooney vibes perfectly again. Check out my full thoughts on the book and the show here.
Star Trek: Discovery (Season 1-2)
I fell into a bit of a Star Trek hole after checking out Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and not getting some of the backstory, so I just binged two seasons of Discovery. Honestly, I really liked it. I understand the people who would have preferred a more episodic approach instead of these complicated seasonal arcs, but I still loved the characters. Sure, Michael basically being the chose one got a tinsy bit repetitive after a while, but she is a beautiful and complex character and I understand and support the focus being on her. Meanwhile, I don’t understand the criticism of this “not being Star Trek”, because if I got the chance to adapt something anew, I’d also like to put my own spin on things. I don’t feel like it betrayed anything crucial, although I’ve never been a serious Trekkie.
I can’t say that I will continue with the remaining seasons, at least not for now. I think I’d prefer to stick to the crew of the Enterprise for the time being.
WEEKLY TV SHOWS
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Season 1)
This show is my everything right now. Seriously the highlight of my week, I just love having my Captain Pike around. (And the rest of the crew as well .. obviously.)
9-1-1: Lone Star (Season 3)
The season finale was really solid, although I thought that the season as a whole focused a bit too much on Owen as a character. I just don’t think he’s actually that interesting, even though the incident from his childhood was masterfully done. Really got me emotional.
9-1-1 (Season 5)
I don’t really know what Lucy added as a character other than to have Buck’s character development be ruined a little bit? This season had some ups and downs, but I still love it and am looking forward to more.
MOVIES
As always, don’t forget to add me on Letterboxd if you want to be up to date on all my movie experiences!
Senior Year
I know that Rebel Wilson’s humor isn’t for everyone, but I enjoyed the movie. I get the common comparison to Never Been Kissed, although the creepy element is taken out in that everyone is very much aware that she is an adult woman and not a teenager. Generally, I wouldn’t say that there is too big of a focus on romance though. It was actually just cute and wholesome for the most part, despite some cringey jokes.
Did you watch any of the things I mentioned or do you plan to? Let’s talk about that!
I meant to watch Conversations with Friends today, but instead I’ve fallen into a bit of a NewGen Star Trek bingefest. Anyway, we’re here to check out some trailers, so let’s do that!
I didn’t forget about the post again! I was just really busy, so it took me a while to get the recap done, but here we are. Let’s dive right in.
FINISHED TV SHOWS/SEASONS
Outer Range (Season 1)
This was one of the strangest shows I have watched in quite some time. It’s almost like Dark meets Yellowstone, because time-travelling cowboys is truly what I would describe this as! For the most part, I found myself very confused with what was going on, because I struggle to see the big picture, but I did guess some developments and twists throughout the show, so there’s that.
The storytelling is quite slow and sometimes I found myself getting a bit bored, unfortunately. I’m not sure it’s a must-see, but it has an excellent cast with amazing performances considering the strange material. I think I’m curious enough to tune in for another season, but wouldn’t be super miffed if it didn’t get more episodes.
The Wilds (Season 2)
I’ve waited so long for this new season and it was a bit of a case of “the wait between seasons made me loose a little bit of interest”, but by the time the final episode rolled around, I was fully invested again!
The thing is, we had the girls and they were amazing and intriguing and now they had to split the time with the boys, who were more or less their counterparts in many ways, and do the whole getting to know spiel again. I ended up totally loving most of the boys, even some of the douchier guys, but the show always ends when it gets most interesting. I NEED another season. Desperately.
As a side note, I love how Charles Alexander weaves into most interviews that Alex Fitzalan is his best friend. It makes me so soft for them.
WEEKLY TV SHOWS
9-1-1: Lone Star (Season 3)
Didn’t I just say that Nancy and Matteo would be cool? I totally did. But Judd in danger again is not what I like to see.
9-1-1 (Season 5)
Well … is Taylor breaking her promise worse than Buck cheating on her? That’s what we have to deal with next week.
Legacies (Season 4)
How can you call a super powerful god … Ken?
MOVIES
As always, don’t forget to add me on Letterboxd if you want to be up to date on all my movie experiences!
Along for the Ride
I’m going to keep this short, because it was a really lovely movie. I had a great time watching it, although I don’t think it’s something that will stick with you for the longest time. If you want to hear my full thoughts, you should check out my book to movie comparison here.
The Lost City
I’m so glad I finally got to watch this movie!!! Interviews with Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum have been absolutely hilarious and I’ve been craving the cinematic return of romcoms and The Lost City fully delivered. The comedic timing was excellent and I actually felt the chemistry nicely. Why can’t we have more movies like this? I genuinely want to know, because they are fun and a crowd-pleaser. We do need the good stuff too and not just Hallmark-esque films.
Did you watch any of the things I mentioned or do you plan to? Let’s talk about that!
Today is Mother’s Day where I live, so I wish all those who celebrate a happy day! Show some appreciation for the mother figures in your life, whoever they may be. Now, swiftly moving on, let’s check out some new trailers!
What is better – the book or the movie? It’s an age old question that we bookworms ask ourselves and I’m happy to share my perspective on the novel Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen as well as its Netflix adaptation. It’s been a while since I’ve done a post like this, but I hope you’ll love diving into this as much as I did reading, watching and now writing the post for it.
General Plot
Ever since her parents started fighting and eventually divorced, Auden hasn’t had a full night of sleep. She did, however, do everything that was expected of her. Got good grades, excelled in academics, attended her mother’s soirees rather than hang out with people her own age … forgetting to be a kid/teen in the process. Now, it’s the summer before college and Auden decides to spend it with her father and stepmother in a quaint beach town. What promises to be a carefree summer proves to have more challenges in store for her, especially after meeting fellow insomniac Eli.
Book
Some of you already know this, but Along for the Ride was my first foray into the writing of Sarah Dessen. My expectations were pretty high, just because so many of my friends and fellow bloggers have gotten lost in and fallen in love with her stories. I can confidently say that I devoured and enjoyed the book, but that I was also painfully aware that this was written more than a decade ago.
The way “girly” things were constantly put down and judged, even after some growth on several characters parts, just really nagged me. A lot of Auden’s POV was very much along the lines of “I’m not like other girls” and that was honestly quite frustrating. I’m not saying that this doesn’t happen in books today at all, but I think we’re more aware of that kind of internalized misogyny and try to avoid it.
Auden was hard to love at first, but it made sense in the context of the story and how she was raised. I loved seeing her warm to the people in her life and while her love story with Eli was cute, I preferred her interactions with her stepmother, Heidi (I did not and probably never will like her biological parents in the book). I also appreciated that Auden’s friendship played a huge role in the book. In general, the teen romance came second to the parental struggles for me. I don’t know if that has something to do with my age or because I thought that these conflicts were better developed, but those were definitely the emotionally hard-hitting scenes. Complex family structures will forever be my jam.
Still, Eli is a big part of the picture and something about their late night adventures just really appealed to me. I wasn’t a very adventurous kid myself, even though I’m sure a couple people would like to disagree on that, but something about the way their relationship came to be satisfied a yearning within me. Nonetheless, I kept wishing to know more about Eli. To maybe follow his perspective every once in a while to truly understand his pain.
Rating: 3.5/5 stars! True to the story, I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish reading it.
When the movie started, for the first ten minutes or so, I was certain this was going to be a super faithful adaptation and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I liked the book alright, but I knew that it wouldn’t hurt to update a lot of the material. The longer I watched though, the more changes I noted and … I think most of them are for the better?
The main story still stays completely the same, barely anything major differs from the source material, but a movie only gives you a limited amount of time to tell a story and Along for the Ride is on the longer side of YA fiction. There had to be some decisions made and I’m on board with most of them. Here are the most notable ones:
In the book, Auden has an older brother, which is not the case in the movie. He is the kind of boy, who can seemingly do no wrong and does all the carefree and irresponsible activities Auden never dared to. While I think he was an interesting counterpart in the book, I think it would have diluted what they were trying to tell here. He also tended to jetset around the globe and it would have just been too complicated to incorporate for not a very big payoff.
When Auden first arrives, she goes to The Tip, a place where all the youth comes to party. She ends up making out with this guy, Jake, which sparks a lot of drama. That does happen in both stories, but felt way less annoying in the movie because of one big change – Jake is never mentioned to be Eli’s brother. I’m not saying this never happens in real life, but it did make things unnecessarily uncomfortable, when there was plenty of Jake-drama to be had without that little detail.
The entire third act conflict – which is one of my most dreaded elements of romantic storylines – was handled so much better. By cutting some characters and instead using already established ones, they tightened up the relationships and even made some people more likable to me. It also wasn’t dragged out over weeks, but rather quickly resolved through some internal reflection. I was here for that!
I really loved this movie. It made me miss being by the ocean, which is a general state of being for me, but was amplified here. It made me want to go on adventures with strangers in the night and made me reminisce when I did some stupid stuff when I was younger. Due to the time constraints, there wasn’t as much depth and exploration of the family troubles, but I think that Eli got a better third act instead, which was maybe also necessary.
I still would have liked to dig deeper on some parts. I don’t want to say that relationships were rushed, but I definitely felt like I was connected more to the characters because of my knowledge from the books rather than what I learned through the movie. Maggie, for example, is beautiful and warm in the movie, but I think that I knew her even better in the books. She’s a key figure, but we definitely don’t harp on her story as much. I’d still watch it again in a heartbeat though!
As a last note, I just have to say that this was some really perfect casting! Everyone was exactly how I envisioned them to be, down to little mannerisms. Kudos to the casting director!
Conclusion
For me, the movie is a winner. I missed some of the deeper emotional bits from the book, but much of the things that annoyed me were changed for the better and I have to give credit for that. Sofia Alvarez (who adapted the book for the screenplay and directed the movie, but was also involved with TATBILB) knows how to transform books into lovely movies.
I know, I know … I skipped last week, but I’m back now. Sometimes I just need a little longer to watch things and I’m still contemplating moving this feature to Friday. Just saying.
FINISHED TV SHOWS/SEASONS
Our Flag Means Death (Season 1)
I am SO in love with this show and I don’t even know how to express those feelings. I’ve always liked Taika Waititi and the projects he undertakes, but this one was extra fun. I don’t know if it’s because I have a soft spot for pirate stories or because the romantic chemistry between Taika and Rhys was off the charts, but I so hope that there’s more.
They took real life pirates, but made this story completely their own. After so many of my friends tweeted about wanting another season, I gave in and watched it and have to fully agree! We need more of these kind of shows on our screens, where not everything is dark and gritty. Where things can be different and vulnerable, but still fun. MORE PLEASE!
WEEKLY TV SHOWS
Outer Range (Season 1)
I really don’t get what’s happening. I don’t even know who’s side I’m supposed to be on?
Superman & Lois (Season 2)
This show is so fantastic and the bizarro episodes in general were amazing, but I don’t understand why there’s another break. This is why network television is so freaking annoying.
9-1-1: Lone Star (Season 3)
What a huge episode on fathers and I was here for it. Owen’s character is really getting some depth to him, which is great, but I also like to see other characters shine.
9-1-1 (Season 5)
I CALLED THE THING WITH JONAH. I know it was fairly predictable, but I’m still proud of myself.
Good Trouble (Season 4)
Davia and Dennis – they really need to get a move on. I hope Luca sticks around, but this was already the spring finale. I hate the wait.
Legacies (Season 4)
Alright, I took a break from the show, but I’m all caught up now. I’m so over the whole Landon/Hope stuff, I just don’t care. I’m here for the gods and especially Ben and Jed. Zane Phillips is a sight for sore eyes.
MOVIES
As always, don’t forget to add me on Letterboxd if you want to be up to date on all my movie experiences!
Crush
Crush was a really sweet and fun sapphic movie. The chemistry between the leads was great, the adults supportive and the friends amazing – everyone deserves friends like that! However, sometimes the movie was just too loud and over the top. It robbed the story of some of its authenticity. Still, cute and definitely alright for a nice movie night.
Uncharted
I have zero investment in this franchise and just watched this on a whim. The beginning totally reminded me of some frames that could have been taken from a video game, so that’s nice? Other than that, it was alright for a treasure hunting movie? I liked the chemistry and banter between most characters, although the women were done dirty for the most part. I’m outing myself here, but I mostly watched for Rudy since I love him on Outer Banks and he’s genuinely not a good reason to watch the film.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
This is going to be short and spoiler-free. I might do a whole spoiler-filled review in a week? Unsure – sound off in the comments if you would be interested in something like that!
I left the movie with a deep sadness inside of me. Phase 4 of the MCU is just the era of pain and I’m not sure I’m 100% here for it. Having said that, they promised more horror and delivered. I fell for every. single. jump scare. It gave me a lot of food for thought. We shall see where it leads, but I hope everyone gets to enjoy this with as little prior knowledge as possible.
Did you watch any of the things I mentioned or do you plan to? Let’s talk about that!
: Bloomsbury
Some of you already know this, but Along for the Ride was my first foray into the writing of Sarah Dessen. My expectations were pretty high, just because so many of my friends and fellow bloggers have gotten lost in and fallen in love with her stories. I can confidently say that I devoured and enjoyed the book, but that I was also painfully aware that this was written more than a decade ago.
Life and Other Disasters 