Mini Reviews: Love Her Wild & The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Love Her Wild is a poetry collection I picked up at Target (did you know they had such a large selection of poetry? because I was pleasantly surprised). I've been wanting to read more of the genre and this one wasn't something I recognized but it still sounded good.

Being my first foray into poetry I didn't have very much in the way of expectations. Based on the title I guessed it would be about falling in love/being in love and getting lost/exploring the world. I was pretty close to the mark. But... I honestly can't say I liked it very much or that it was particularly memorable. It was just very bland. And paired with the stock photos every other page, which only barely seemed to connect with the poems themselves, I felt like I had wasted the money.

There were a few poems in there that really struck me and I'm hoping that this is one of those books I can just turn to every once in a while for random feelings. Otherwise I wouldn't really recommend this one.

I'm not quiet when it comes to my love for The Kingkiller Chronicles so I'm actually a tad disappointed it took me this long to get to The Slow Regard of Silent Things. This one is a tangental story that rather than tell more about Kvothe gives readers a peek into a week of Auri's life.

This book was such a treat! I loved seeing how Auri navigated her world and understanding how she thought was so powerful. It's definitely a powerful book, though it's not for everyone. It's quietly powerful but it will connect with so many people.

Not that it didn't connect with me but I think I read it at the wrong time. I read it at a very busy point in my life where I couldn't actually reflect on what was being said. Looking back I wonder why it didn't affect me more because it's also been a very hard time of my life. If you're a fan of the Kingkiller books I one hundred percent recommend this. And even if you're not, I think you may still find something very poignant about it.

Mini Movie Reviews: The Jungle Book & Sing

This movie has gotten only praises as far as I can tell, and I can see why. The animation was stunning, and paired with the voice acting, I would say they nailed all the characters. Bill Murray in particular was fantastic and his version of Baloo really blew me out of the water. He was easily my favorite character in this film (which I'll touch back on in a moment). Neel Sethi, who played Mowgli, was also very good. I'm always worried about children actors, because you either have a  hit or a miss regarding their abilities, but I'd say Sethi definitely falls into the hit category and I hope he has a bright future in acting ahead of him.

The plot was slow for a long part of the film and it felt indeed like several chapters taken from a book. I must admit, I've never read the original story, I'm only familiar with Disney's previous animated version, so I don't know if the book is meant to feel like this on purpose. However, once Baloo showed up I was thoroughly involved and thought the stakes were appropriately high and the tension appropriately dangerous. His part in the plot also moved things forward and he served as a good connection between Mowgli's past and present without being the omniscient force that Bagheera was.

Overall this is definitely a film worth watching, though I am glad I didn't see it in theaters. For me, this is a sit-at-home covered in blankets film. While it would look absolutely stunning on the large screen I preferred the intimacy of watching it on my computer. Which, yes, it is on Netflix right now so there's little excuse not to see it (unless, of course, you don't have Netflix).

Since the first trailer jumped into my lap I have been anticipating this movie. It just looked adorable! And the cast is fantastic! And the music is fantastic! Really there's not much bad I can say about this film, so I won't.

I will say it a fun movie, but it's definitely a kids film. Don't take this to mean anything bad about it though! I certainly enjoyed it and I would see it again, but if this isn't your genre you already know that and you plan to stay away. 

I don't think it's destined to become a classic (not up there with How to Train Your Dragon or Shrek, is what I mean), though I am glad it was a good watch and I'm glad the general public agrees.

Mini Review: Showdown on Smuggler's Moon (Star Wars, Vol. 2)

After seeing Rogue One I wanted to keep the Star Wars bug biting so I picked up the second volume of the comic series. I read volume one several months ago and thought it fit the characters perfectly and did a nice job to fill in the space between the first two films. This one also does a very nice job of that, though I think it veered a bit further away from a plot I wanted than the first did. The characters are still spot on and I swear I can hear the actors voices when I turn the pages, and things jump off the page thanks to the great quality art.

For plot in general, it moved a little too fast for certain things to happen they way they did. In part of it Luke receives training, and I had a feeling, based off of what the characters said, that this lasted for at least a few days, or a week at most, but on the page that only amounted to one or two brief training scenes. Because of this I did get a bit confused over the timeline, which also makes it seem that everything that happens to Han and Leia takes place in about a day, while Luke's story clearly doesn't.

Everything paid off in the end, though, and I loved how it all finished out. Spoiler alert: seeing the original squad all holding Lightsabers was a dream come true.

Mini Manga Reviews: The Case Study of Vanitas (Vol. 1) & Reindeer Boy

The Case Study of Vanitas is Jun Mochizuki's most recent series. I first discovered her manga last year when I picked up the first volume of Pandora Hearts and from page one was absorbed into the story. I'm still making my way through that series but took advantage of the opportunity to jump into this series as it began. The art in Vanitas is just as stunning as that in Pandora, but so far the storyline is slower. Little beyond character introductions has happened so far into the story, but I'm not really complaining because all the characters are pretty interesting.

Vanitas is a human pretending he's a legendary vampire- oh, and he's curing "sick" vampires that have gone crazy using the book that may have cursed them in the first place. Noe is a vampire with a secret agenda who "befriends" Vanitas in an attempt to get closer to his book and promises the reader at the end of the first chapter that he will kill Vanitas. And then there are an array of side characters who we've only seen pieces of and who I'm very curious about, not least of all Jeanne, who reminds me of Brienne from GOT if I'm being honest.

So far I would say this has a bunch of potential and I'll be happily reading it for a while. If you're looking for a new manga without a lot to catch up I'd strongly recommend this one.

I don't know if this qualifies more as a graphic novel or American manga, but it's short enough to be somewhere in between if nothing else. I've been a fan of Cassandra Jean's since I discovered her TMI fan art and I'm so happy to see her doing so well! I believe this is her first professionally published original work and if it's anything to go off of, I think her future works will be just as good.

Of course I loved the art, she's one of my favorite artists, and the story was really cute. My only problem- it ended too soon! And sometimes that can come off as not a bad thing but in this case it was a bit disappointing. I was looking forward to more of a story and it had a lot of momentum that ended rather abruptly in the end. I think this is because it's meant to be part of a series, but since that hasn't actually been confirmed it doesn't really make me feel better about that ending. Sure it was cute but so much was left unanswered!

My favorite part was just the relationships between all the characters. I don't have a word to describe this bond, but when I see it on the page it takes me to some of my favorite stories where the bond is similar (mostly stuff I read when I was younger so there's this HUGE nostalgia factor).

If anything, this is a pretty good holiday read, seeing as it's about Santa and his reindeer.