Thirteen Days To Midnight

- Patrick Carman

This book was so unique and different from anything that I have ever read that I am a little ashamed that it took me this long to actually get this review up on the blog. It’s terrifying. Amazing. And oh so dark.

The book starts off with Jacob returning to school after a small leave of absence. He just miraculously survived the major car crash that took the life of his foster father. His best friend Milo has taken up with the new girl, Ophelia (or Oh as they call her). Jacob and Oh immediately connect.

Jacob is haunted by the last words his father said to him. “You are indestructible.” Through a series of freak accidents it becomes apparent that Jacob is immortal. Not only that but he can pass the power to other people at will. They decide to use this power to save people. Like superheroes.

Of course, I did say this was a dark book, didn’t I?

Jacob is no Nathan from Misfits. (Okay, so maybe I just wanted to use the gif).The power of immortality eventually drives Oh insane and they become addicted to killing themselves over and over. Jacob in a desperate attempt to save Oh begins to search for the origins of the power granted to him and a way to return Oh to her senses. And when they find the cure? Yeah… it’s not pretty.

The book is incredibly unique with its plot and its characters. It is so dark and amazingly written….

Of course the squeamish may not enjoy so if that’s you, you might want to pass.  Otherwise, there is no reason for you not to read this book. Just saying.

abi

 

LOOK WHAT I’VE DONE!

I’m very proud of my accomplishment, so I’d appreciate it, dear readers, if you did not belittle me. If you look to the side bar and scroll down a bit….. seriously…… do it now and then come back. I’m impatient. Do you see the book covers and the ratings and the sheer incredility of my new addition to the blog? I know I’m a neglectful administrator so I hope that this makes up for things. I mean, look at it! It’s beautiful!

I just joined this amazing community called GoodReads? Maybe you’ve heard of it? Maybe not? It’s like the book nerd supercenter of the internet. You go online and rate books you like (or hate), discuss books with other people and keep track of books you want to read. I spent about an hour or two on there the other day and found over 500 books that I’ve read in the past and over 200 that I want to read. Basically, it’s my heaven. If you have an account already feel free to add me as a friend… I think my username is Ashli3?

here  <- that’s me

So… updates. I might be returning, I might not. I’ve decided to focus on my school work this year a little more, so if I do post, it’ll be more sporadic than before, if that’s possible. Probably book reviews and philosophy rants (because that’s what I’m into now). Maybe more music….

ANNNNNDDD…. that’s it for now. Might post later..

P.S. Check out the books on the side! The highly rated ones are good. My guarantee.

P.P.S. It’s Nanowrimo! Get writing, people!!!!

abi

 

OMG It’s Hunger Games!

I want an I’ll Bake You Pies shirt.

abi

 

MORE MATT AND KIM!

‘Cause if you write in caps it has more meaning.

Son of Hipster has told me to come back. I assure you it was always my intention to return but I suppose that maybe it has been a little while since I actually posted something. So I thought maybe my first post would be on something you people actually seem to be looking for: Matt and Kim! Yeah!!!

Look at them, all posing and stuff...

Besides, Matt and Kim just released a new song a few days ago entitled “I’m a Goner”. I say Matt & Kim, but really it was a collaboration between Soulja Boy, Matt & Kim, and Andrew W.K. (Depicted above). When I first saw this mix I thought that maybe it was some fanmade remix. That had to be the only explanation. I mean, LOOK at that group! What on earth are they doing working together? Soulja Boy is, well, Soulja Boy. Matt & Kim have no actual discernible genre, as we’ve discussed before  (Alternative Dance Punk?), and Andrew W.K. is just… a rocker turned motivational speaker with a kind of questionable past that includes baseball card forgery. This group collaboration was a bit of a shock. What’s more of a shock is that the song? The song is more than decent. Its actually really, really, good.

Post video warning: Video contains scenes of zombie partying and may be confusing/disturbing to some audiences.

Its good, isn’t it? Even if you didn’t like it you have to admit it was good…

The Music Video for “Block After Block” was also released after my first Matt and Kim post. It’s a very summer song, so appropriate? Definitely catchy… And the video is very cool.

And finally, “Cameras”. This video is also violent… I got caught watching it in physics by one of our readers and earned some dirty looks. It also started a weird music video competition. Which I lost.  Anyway, that aside, this is also a very catchy song of their’s…

So long! Admin Out!

 

This is torture…

This being manga. I avoided the stuff for most of my life, knowing deep down inside that if I ever picked one up, I would never be able to stop. Well, I caved about two months ago. I was in the school library, being bored, so I started to shelf read. I guess it really wasn’t a conscious decision. I suddenly realized I was half-way through Fullmetal Alchemist. And that was that.

After I finished your basics like Bleach and Death Note, I started asking for suggestions. It was then that I was asked the fatal question by one of my friends most knowledgeable on the subject. “Do you care if they’re incomplete?” she asked while flipping through pages and pages of favourited manga.

Ummm… I thought back to Bleach. It was incomplete and I didn’t mind that. “No,” I responded eventually.

And thus began my descent into the hellish never ending cycle of manga.

You know, where you wait and wait for the next chapter to be released, there’s a fleeting rush of explosive fangirl jubilation and suddenly you’re done… You have to wait another month for the next chapter. Or year, depending on the manga…. That is the torture. The rush and crash of manga.

Anyway…

Currently I’m taking a break from manga to pick up a novel by the ever splendorous and witty Libba Bray. Nothing in this world makes me happier than brilliant fiction with footnotes. I’m only on chapter five of Beauty Queens (I left the damned thing at work today… Grrr.) but It is incredible so far. Bray is hands down the most real, sarcastic, funny author I have ever read… I believe I already have a post on Going Bovine ( One of my all time favourite books) so I might be just repeating myself. That’s it for now, I’ll attempt to post book reviews soon.

 

Lost and Found: A Novel

[Note of from SOH: Abi has been gone for a while and I feel bad that there's been nothing but my music posts lately so I figured I should write a book review for her. I'm sure that's what she would have wanted.

So the first thing I had to do was find a book that would work. I leapt to my bookshelf and sorted out all the nonfiction books, comic books, Humour books, Magazines, Children's books, Sequels, Classics, Guidebooks, Puzzle books, Books based on movies and other ineligible books. I was left with 3 results, two of which I've read. I grabbed the one I was less embarrassed about reviewing and took off to the Blogosphere.]

The book is a bit different from the other Science Fiction stuff I read in the sense that it isn’t about a dystopian future or anything like that. it is much more classic Sci-Fi but with the author putting his own twists and acknowledgements on the old Sci-Fi plot.

[Oh, it's been a while since I read this book]

This book involves a man who gets abducted by aliens who are taking him back to their home planet as an exhibit in a sort of zoo. I know, it’s nothing new or original but in this case, it isn’t the idea that’s important, it’s how it ‘s handled. From what I remember, most of book is on the ship the aliens are transporting him in.

So the book is generally enjoyable but some readers may have problems with it. It’s difficult to describe, but something about how the author presents details and develops the atmosphere can be slightly annoying. The main character and the bias toward humans are particularly troublesome.

So the book is worth a read if you are look for some light hearted classic Sci-Fi but if you are after something more serious you’ll probably want to pass.

[Come back Abi. We miss you.]

[Also: Musical Monday will not be posted tomorrow.

If you need something to listen to and you have 74 minutes, here's Tommy ]

 

Musical Monday #3: Matt & Kim

Matt & Kim are a band. I guess. I mean, I think what they make is music even though there is no genre I can even attempt to assign them to.* If you’ve never heard anything by Matt & Kim, imagine Vampire Weekend and Owl City cross-breeding to create an awkward sounding music child. This music child then decides to rebel against mainstream and the the hipster substream alike by knocking over musical metaphorical mailboxes while totally wasted. Or something like that. Yeah, actually that works. Not only is the style jarring (and addicting) but the lyrics are the perfect kind of incoherent nonsense of which you might be able to interpret to having obscure political undertones. I love it.

I also love how the all the comments on their videos are either “I hate hipsters so much”, “Better than (insert current pop singer name**)”, and “They used to be so cool”.

Anyway, while looking for the music video to “Cameras”, something EO rhymes with Ne-Yo had told me to watch, I stumbled across another music video of Matt & Kim’s to the song “Lesson Learned”. Youtube censored it but, luckily for me, vimeo let me watch it problem free. Apparently, the police intervention in the video was not staged and the two escaped being imprisoned for public indecency (they strip while walking in Times Square… don’t worry, it’s all blurred) by telling the police that they had been given permission to film a mayonnaise commercial. Personally, I’m not sure what to believe… But hey, the music is good and that works for me.

If you haven’t been turned off by my description and/or the video, Matt & Kim have two albums and a pretty decent following (if that matters to you). Their one song, “Daylight”, even has its own wikipedia article.

abi

*Wikipedia says they are dance punk… I guess that might work.

**As long as it’s not Kanye… I’ve yet to see someone post a “Well, it’s better than Kanye West.” Is it a given that nothing is better than Kanye or that nothing is worse than Kanye? Whatever. 

 

Something I Need to Say

Oh yeah! I have something to say!

I detest the term “hater”. I realize it has that seductive combination of harsh sounds that make the term sound almost impactful (ugh… how I scorn that non-word “impactful”. Why do people say it on TV? Why, deity of choice? Why?) but it’s just stupid. So I’ve come up with an action plan! It will be painful (for me and others) but, in protest to this monstrosity of a poser word, from this day forth I will intentionally use my new set of similes for the pseudo-word “hater”. (Note: these may or may not be actual words).

• Anathematizers

• Detesters

• Abhorists (my personal favourite)

• Despisers

• Disfavourers

• Deriders

• Spurners

• Execrators

• Loathers

• Begrudgers

Now I’m just waiting for my chance to nonchalantly say, “Anathematizers be anathematizing”. Or, alternatively, “Abhorists be abhorring…” And so on.

abi

 

Something Curious: It’s a Teen’s World

It’s a Teen’s World:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

So I thought this was interesting. There is some bias, of course, but the most of the points are valid.

Teenagers find sexism confusing and old fashioned; gender roles as something you cover in class. It bothers me that no one cares to know about these issues anymore. I like this particular series of episodes from Ideas (CBC) as it is informative and is cleanly presented… even insightful if you’re being introduced to the subject. Also, as a teen, I find it interesting to hear how the adult world views teen culture and the actual extent of the cultural gap that exists between us and our parents. The show follows three groups of Torontonian teens, getting them to explain what they think of this youth oriented, hyper-sexualized culture. It’s fair to note that the objectification of men is kind of ignored…

I will warn viewers that the content is graphic at times, and probably best for mature listeners. Scratch that, definitely for mature listeners.

 

The Barcode Tattoo

-Suzanne Weyn

Another cyberpunk dystopian novel! Now that I think about it I went through a stage when I was younger where the majority of my reading list was comprised of such books. You learn something new everyday.

You hear of some Westerfans drawing flash tats (sorry if you don’t know the lingo) on themselves when they’re bored. Some fans of this book have been known to draw barcodes on their arms. Believe it or not I’ve run into a few of these people. It’s like a nerd code. My conversations sometimes go like this:

“Oh I see from your flash tat that you, sir, are an Uglies fan… Wait, you believe Extras was actually a good addition to the series? A trilogy has three books, foolish rusty! Hoverboard away!“

Or something like that.

Again with a futuristic society controlled by a single corporation. I’d be lying if I said the concept wasn’t interesting, I mean, who doesn’t love a good conspiracy? What I really liked was the way the media was utilized in this book. It illustrates a successful brainwashing of the populace via the teen generation. For most of these types books, the new world order (or whatever) has already been established. In a lot of them the new society is being destroyed by awesome rebel teen anarchists (Uglies). In The Barcode Tattoo, the new world is forming. The transformation takes place as the plot goes on and the characters don’t really notice. That I liked.

If you ever want to engage in a geeky dystopian novel discussion with someone under the age of 18, (awfully specific, I know) you may want to read this for references sake.

abi