I Am [still] Obsessed: Part Two

Look how consistent and reliable I am! As promised, I Am Obsessed: Part Two.

Throne of Glass
By Sarah J. Maas

The 18 year-old assassin, Celaena Sardothien has served a year in the harsh salt mines, Endovier, for her crimes, when she is brought before the crown prince. He presents her with an offer she can’t refuse: in exchange for her freedom, she must compete as his champion in a competition to become the king’s royal assassin. If she wins, she will serve the king for three years, and then be free. In the competition she faces other criminals from around the kingdom, champions of members of the king’s council, all of whom are male. Forced to hide her talent and identity as the kingdom’s best assassin, so as not to be a target, Celaena quickly grows tired of the monotony of the court, however, when other competitors start turning up dead, she must find the killer before she is the next victim.

Where do I even begin?  I finished this about two months ago and have literally thought about this book every day since. No, that is not a misuse of the word ‘literally,’ it’s a sign that maybe I spend a little too much of my life living in books.

Celaena is a really interesting and unique character. She is incredibly strong, both physically and in character, but at the same is very vulnerable. She is flirty and confident, yet quiet and troubled. She is person who loves both books and dresses. Celaena is essentially, an exercise in strong, well rounded and developed characters. It’s very easy to have characters who fit into boxes, such as the nerdy, bookish character, or the shallow character who likes shopping, when in reality, people are multi-faceted, and have interests that aren’t defined by one label. Celaena is proof that a character can be able to kill any opponent she faces and also enjoy wearing beautiful dresses. This also applies to the other characters as well; they are all realistic and believable.

It’s –obviously- incredibly well written and incredibly detailed. There are also passages in the book that you want to reread over and over. Remember how last week I said I could play scenes from Angelfall in my head like a movie? Yep, this too.

I just love it so much.

Feisty Chick-O-Meter: 10/10

Age rating: 15+

Rating: 10/10

Book or audiobook: Book

Stand alone or series: Series

Length: 432 pages

Obsession level:  10/10

I have not yet read the sequel for...reasons, but i will soon! Also, the third book comes out September this year. Just sayin'...

I Am Obsessed: Part One

During my …hiatus, while I didn’t blog, I did conduct *ahem* research for future blogs… lots of research. In the process I got somewhat accidentally obsessed. With two separate books.

So, in the interest of suspense, and more importantly, giving me a blog topic for two weeks instead of one, here is Part One of I Am Obsessed.

Angelfall
By Susan Ee

It is over a month after the apocalypse, when angels attacked from the skies and laid waste to the modern world. Seventeen year-old Penryn must navigate the now-treacherous streets of Northern California fending for herself along with her schizophrenic mother and 7 year-old wheel chair-bound little sister. When her sister is taken by a vengeful angel, Penryn must strike up an uneasy and unusual alliance with Raffe, a wingless angel, and embark on a dangerous journey to get her sister back.

Dangerous journeys, uneasy alliances, quests for vengeance - what’s not to love?

I’m not entirely sure if I have the words to express just how much I love this book. I listened to it almost non-stop and took any opportunity I could to keep listening to it, even if it was just for three minutes. I even caught myself thinking that I was a part of the book sometimes. Why do I do this? I don’t have to rescue my sister. I don’t have a sister. I realise I have a problem but while it’s a really good sign that I have some serious issues, it’s also a good indicator of an amazing book.

Angelfall is immensely engaging; the narrative is so compelling and everything is described in such detail. I think I could probably play the entire book back in my head as a movie, almost a month later, I can still see scenes from the book in my head in vivid detail. It’s (obviously) very well written and the dialogue flows very naturally. Penryn is a very good character who is both physically and internally strong. I think what makes the characters in this book so compelling is the fact that they are all realistic, and realistically flawed. The pace moves slow enough to allow for detail, but fast enough to keep you (obsessively in my case) hooked.

The sequel was equally gripping and also took a little bit of my heart with it when I finished it. Everything ramps up and just gets even better.

Can you tell I like these books? Now go read them.

Feisty Chick-O-Meter: 10/10

Age rating: 15+

Rating: 10/10

Book or audiobook: audiobook

Stand alone or series: Series

Length: 288 pages

Obsession level:  10/10

Tune in next week for more proof of my issues.

Not feminism, but...

Feminism is often talked about in relation to movies. There's a lot of discussion about how we need more feminism in movies. The thing is, we don’t need “The Next Great Feminist Movie." What we need are movies with realistic representations of men and women. We don’t need feminism in our movies; we need gender equality.

Gender equality means an equal distribution of male and female extras from technicians to civilians.

Gender equality means a realistic male to female character ratio

Gender equality means female characters who have their own storylines instead of being a plot device in the male protagonist’s character development

Gender equality means female characters don’t use their “feminine charms” to get what they want and male characters aren’t “powerless to resist her”

Gender equality means female characters whose bodies aren’t glorified objects to be stared at

Gender equality means emotion isn’t strictly “feminine” and strength isn’t strictly “masculine”

Gender equality means female characters who are female characters, not “Female Characters”

Gender equality means that a male character and a female character can wear equally tight pants, without either character’s bodies being glorified or ogled

Gender equality means that a male and female character can be friends without pursuing a romantic relationship

Gender equality means that you don’t have male characters and female characters; it means you have characters


Do you want to know what movie fits these criteria?

Captain America: The Winter Soldier 
Starring Chris Evans, Sebastien Stan, Scarlet Johanssen

I know, my first guess wouldn’t have been a superhero movie either. Not only is it well scripted, edited, acted and filmed it’s also a very good case study in movies where female characters are just characters, not “lady characters” or objects. I was tempted to write a long post about this, but it’s not made a huge deal of in the movie and I wont either, because equal representation of both genders in movies shouldn’t be note-worthy, it should be the norm.

I strongly urge you to go and see The Winter Soldier, because it’s also just a really good movie. Smart humour, awesome fight scenes surprising plot twists, you’ll love it.

So go see it


Feisty chick-o-meter: 10/10
Age rating: 12+
Rating: 10/10
Number of explosions: Soooooooo many