post-christmas state

Reading this:

Image from Goodreads

This book makes me want to delve into another fantasy project! Leigh Bardugo has a knack for creating vividly imagined worlds, endearing characters with fully fleshed out back-stories, and quiet tension that keeps you flipping the pages way past bedtime. It's not hard to see why she has such a passionate fanbase, or why Six of Crows debuted at number one on the New York Times Bestseller List.


Watching this: 

Image from Drama Fever

My Lovely Girl (starring Rain and Krystal) came with mixed reviews. Some said the plot was too slow, and some loved the character development. But it's surprisingly engaging, with the sort of K-drama moments that I love (you know, the ones where the characters don't say a word and the music swells and you just feel all the feels and hear all the unsaid words? It's those moments where you feel yourself falling for a show and start rooting for the characters. Those are the moments I want to create in my stories.)

Plus, Krystal is always a joy to watch.

Girl crush!

Missing this:

Discovering this: 

His name is James, and he's the bass guitarist of the Royal Pirates. You're welcome.


Listening to this:

It's been two years since they debuted. Can we please start appreciating this under-rated band more already! I've raved about them here on ZALORA Community (yes, unabashed plug here), so I won't say more. Just give them a listen.


Writing this:

Receiving this:

Sigh. Into the Rejection folder this goes. But I am still beyond grateful for the feedback, even if this isn't quite the result I was hoping for.

Nothing like some heartwarming fan mail to lift your spirits and spur you on!


And lastly, finding strength in this:

Happy holidays! :0)

Drama Review - Pinnochio

I've been meaning to talk about Pinocchio, the Korean drama series I just finished watching. I started watching it around the same time I read Jellicoe Road (still wrecked by that book), and finished around the same time I finished reading it too. So a lot of what I wrote for No Room in Neverland was very much influenced by the mood of these stories.

So, Pinocchio.

It's about a girl who has the Pinocchio condition, wherein she is unable to lie because it causes her to hiccup endlessly until she tells the truth*.

Despite her condition, In Ha decides to follow in her estranged mother's footsteps to become a high-powered broadcast journalist (who is rumoured to go to any means to get her scoop, even if it means fabricating stories and twisting the truth).

After her parents' divorce when she was a child, In Ha and her father go to live with her grandfather in the countryside, where she finds her "uncle", this boy her age posing as her distraught grandfather's son who died out at sea.

Going by the name of Dal Po, the boy has also recently lost his entire family - his fireman father died on the job and is accused by the media of sending his team into an empty building on fire, his mother took her own life following the incident, and his older brother is missing. While Dal Po harbours a crush on In Ha*, he also learns that In Ha's mother is the journalist who accused his father of killing his team in the fire and left him an outcast for the remainder of his life.

Meanwhile, In Ha struggles to reconnect with her mother by sending her text messages she hope she would one day receive a reply to. On the day before she goes for her interview at the news station with Dal Po, she receives one. But the sender is not her mother. It is the son of retail tycoon who decides to apply for a journalist post to meet In Ha.

The show centres on Dal Po's quest for revenge against In Ha's mother, his search for his older brother, In Ha's struggle to make sense of what happened 13 years ago, when the media misdirected the focus of the fire and laid the blame on Dal Po's father***, as well as the mystery of why In Ha's mother's cellphone ended up in the hands of the heir to the retail conglomerate.


*Because obviously they couldn't make her nose grow longer.

**Yes, of course Dal Po and In Ha have a thing.

But it wasn't heavy-handed or overly sappy. The development of their relationship was natural and comfortable, not melodramatic with copious declarations of love. Think Wes and Macy from Sarah Dessen's The Truth About Forever rather than Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell.

***This just goes to show how the media can warp public perception.


This show is just SO FREAKING GOOD. In terms of plot, subplot, character growth, character interaction, pacing, everything was perfect. Okay, it got a tad melodramatic at times, but every character has motive, agency, and flaws, and the antagonists come in proverbial shades of grey. This show is so under-rated compared to You Who Came From the Stars, which, while engaging enough to leave you hooked on every episode, didn't bring me to tears and a hair-tearing state the way Pinocchio did.

The scene that particularly got me was the part where In Ha's mother, the cold, aloof, successful news anchor

 
realises the devastation she wrecked on others, as well as her negligence of her daughter, while she was busy pursuing her career.

I tried so hard to stave off the ending, but as with all good things like Jellicoe Road, it eventually came to and end and now I'm in an existential crisis where I don't know what else to read or watch that can fill this void in my life.

So I'm starting on It's Okay, That's Love, which centres on mental illnesses and the stigma faced by mentally ill patients. I also have Hyde, Jekyll and Me (which I'll watch after all the episodes are out because waiting for a new episode each week is a bitch) and Kill Me Heal Me lined up. So please let them be good!

Reading material-wise, I'm reading Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta, which I read when I was 14 but need to reread to jog my memory before reading the sequel, The Piper's Son. Also, I'm still on Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo because dammit the trilogy must not end!

and the to-read list keeps growing

Another book update. So soon? Yes.

BOOKS TO READ:

1. Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard

Expected publication: 26 March 2015

In a world where people are divided by the colour of their blood, silver or red, a girl finds herself endowed with magical powers. There's rebellion, forced betrothal, and the struggle of the underdog (the protagonist belongs to the Reds, the inferior class). Kinda like Gattaca, come to think of it. Only with magic. And princes and princesses.

Plus, that cover is GORGEOUS.

2. The Girl at Midnight, by Melissa Grey

Expected publication: 28 April 2015

This is purportedly a mix of Cassandra Clare's City of Bones and Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone. An ancient race of people with feathers for hair and magic running through their veins are kept hidden from humans thanks to age-old enchantments. When her home is threatened by a centuries-old war, a runaway pickpocket decides to find the Firebird, something that can end it for good.

3. Monstrous, by MarcyKate Connolly

Expected publication: 10 February 2015 

As Bookworm007 said:

Sounds insanely interesting!!!

A protagonist

...with the wings of a raven, the tail of serpent, and the razor-sharp vision of a cat?

...who rescues captive girls from an evil wizard and avoids human interaction?

...in love with a page boy but has yet to reveal her appearance to him?

...forced to question who the real monster is: the wizard, her father, or.....herself?

Lordy, sign me up for this adventurous ride!!!

I'm inclined to agree.

(Seriously, how do these people come up with ideas like these??)

4. The Wrong Side of Right, by Jenn Marie Thorne

It says on Goodreads that "fans of Sarah Dessen and Huntley Fitzpatrick will enjoy this smart debut young adult novel, equal parts My Life Next Door and The Princess Diaries."

Girl meets rebellious bad boy, family conflicts and duplicitous relationships amid a presidential campaign - all the ingredients of a Korean melodrama YA contemporary novel.

(Speaking of Korean melodramas, I'm currently watching Nice Guy - AKA Innocent Man. More *here!)

This could be good.

Good thing there are books ALREADY published so we don't have to wait to immerse in awesomeness:

5. Dreams Underfoot, by Charles de Lint

Jilly paints wonders in the rough city streets, while Geordie plays the fiddle while dreaming of a ghost. The Angel of Grasso Street gather the fey and the wild and the poor and the lost; Gemmins live in abandoned cars and skells traverse the tunnels below; while mermaids swim in the grey harbor waters and fill the cold night with their song.

This book is "a must-read not only for fans of urban fantasy but for all who seek magic in everyday life".

THAT WOULD BE ME, THANKS.



(Published in 1993?? How did I not know of this book until now and how can I get my hands on one?!)

6. In the Night Garden, by Catherynne M. Valente

Published in 2006? How did I ever miss this?!

I mean, shape-shifting witches and wild horsewomen, heron kings and beast princesses, snake gods, dog monks, and living stars, all these stories inked on a girl's eyelids that are clues to her hidden identity? I WANT TO GET LOST IN THIS BOOK ALREADY!!!



JULY READS:


1. Sinner (or rather, SINNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), by Maggie Stiefvater

Anything from the Mercy Falls series is bound to be good. And I say that with utmost conviction. Shiver was life-changing, and Sinner is only going to rock (pun intended - you'll get it if you read the books!).



(I did rush down to the bookstore during lunch to buy the book, but it's not here yet. I know you're thinking, Just buy it online, dinosaur! But I like the experience of heading down to the bookstore and making a purchase there, okay?)


2. The Midnight Thief, by Livia Blackburne

A con artist recruited by the Assassins Guild meets a palace knight intent on avenging his friend's death. In my shopping basket now, please.



* So, Nice Guy.

It started out intriguing enough, with the male protagonist, a promising pre-med student, taking the blame for his childhood sweetheart's accidental homicide. He goes to jail for a few years and comes out to find that the girl has moved on and married the CEO of some multinational company. (Nice.) He meets her stepdaughter, and makes use of her to get revenge on childhood not-so-sweetheart, but ends up falling for the daughter instead.

It's a lot to digest, with a power struggle and backstabbing and deception and dead parents and sick sister and amnesia and car accidents and divided loyalties and personal agendas and OMG CALM YOUR HORSES PLEASE, SCRIPTWRITER.

That said, I'm going to finish watching it since I'm already three quarters of the way through (mostly by skipping the draggy bits). Plus, the male lead is easy on the eyes. He has an adorable smile, and fits perfectly into the sweet-nerdy-guy-turned-angsty-protagonist role, even if my dad thinks he has a fat face. Boo.


If you have any book or drama series to recommend, please share! I'm always in need of new narratives. Hope your week's going great! :0)

June Read-List and Watch-List

Read-list: 


1. Midnight Thief, by Livia Blackburne

O.M.G. How awesome does the plot sound. Gotta love characters with conflicting agenda, when the love interest is also the antagonist. Can't wait to read this!


2. The Girl from the Well, by Rin Chupeco

Yay for horror that doesn't involve monsters and gore! A girl who hunts murderers meets a strange tattooed boy with a dark secret. Plus, creepy doll rituals and Japanese exorcisms. YUM.


3. Forget Me, by K.A. Harrington

"Psychological thriller with a romantic twist" is what it says on the Goodreads page. Reason enough to read it.


4. Of Metal and Wishes, by Sarah Fine

More horror. A unique setting. A girl who is drawn to the Ghost in a slaughterhouse where she assists her father in the medical clinic. The whole thing sounds very Phantom of the Opera-ish. And The Phantom of the Opera is one of the most haunting, beautiful books I've ever read.


5. We Were Liars, by E. Lockhart

This one has a very deliciously twisty plot.

And bonus reason to read the book: Maggie Stiefvater loves it.


6. Deep Blue, by Jennifer Donelly

I will never get tired of mermaid stories. This one's about mermaid heroines who gather their forces across the 6 seas to prevent a war between the Mer nations. Sign me on.


7. Trust Me, I'm Lying, by Mary Elizabeth Summer

Grifters, con artists, swanky high school and its dirty politics, missing fathers. What's not to love?


8. Inland, by Kat Rosenfield

This seems to contain elements of magical realism, and goodness knows I've been searching high and low for magical realism books. We need more of those, especially in YA! And you know what Toni Morrison said:

9. The Museum of Extraordinary Things, by Alice Hoffman

Speaking of magical realism, here's one of the masters of that genre. I'm still in love with the last Alice Hoffman book I read, The Story Sisters. This one, though, is set in a freak circus. You can't really go wrong with a setting like that. Remember Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby? So yes, I have high hopes for this one.

10. The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare, by M.G. Buehrlen

A 17-year-old who has visions of the past is actually a Descender, someone who can travel back in time by accessing Limbo, the space between Life and Afterlife. Alex is in fact one soul with fifty-six past lives. And each of them features this mysterious boy with "soulful blue eyes". SO reading this.


What's on your read-list? Any other recommendations?

*

Watch-list: 


1. Dream High 2

Dream High was a pretty entertaining and compelling drama series, so hopefully the sequel won't disappoint!


2. Pretty Little Liars

Yes, I'm late to the game. But I've heard it's got a great twisty plot like Vampire Diaries, so I'm sold. There's the stigma attached to PLL - a lot of people probably dismiss it as some high school drama series - but I'm hoping it will, like TVD, change my mind and wow me right from the first episode.


3. God's Quiz 4 

One word: Donghae.

Also, this is the cutest thing you'll see today:

(The boy, I mean. Not the fangirls.)

Okay, okay. Something cute that's not for the fangirls:

I don't know, bananana sounds catchier to me.


Happy mid-week! :0)