April Breakdown

While people were celebrating Easter and commemorating 100 Years of Gallipoli I was sitting in my bedroom and doing the following during the month of April

Books I Read

April was not a good reading month but only because I was occupied by other things which will be later mentioned in this post. Oh and just click on the book title to read my review of it…only if you want to.

We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach 

Post-apocalyptic, music centered and philosophical you have got to give this one a chance.

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfield 

Unlike anything I have ever read before. One word. Bookception

Little Women by Louis May Alcott

I just finished it today so there isn’t a review up yet but all I’m gonna is Oh My.

Exciting unrelated to books news!

So this was a bit impulsive and unexpected but you know me I love impulsive so my best friend and I launched a Youtube Channel. It’s just a place for us to get crazy and learn cool video making stuff

But if you wanna watch us be weird you’re more than welcome to!

Things I watched

Okay April was THE month for watching stuff, mostly because I had school holidays and therefore, more time.

Game of Thrones Season Five

No amount of exclamation marks can express my excitement! This was literally my face when the opening song started blaring

Oh and I’ve been reviewing every episode of course so to start from the start go here 

The Duff 

I watched this movie during the holidays and it was hilarious!

Hannibal Season One

I’m still stuck on Season One because Hannibal is like the show I watch when I have nothing else to watch. I like the whole psychological side of it I guess.

Best of Infinityreads

Film Review: Divergent (still haven’t watched Insurgent oops)

Top 10 of 2014 | Best Villains of 2014

Discussion | Losing Creative Freedom

That was my month of April in a nutshell.

April and May are just meh months in my opinion, the fun doesn’t start till July (it’s my birthday wink wink)

 

 

 

Discussion | Losing Creative Freedom

The Free English Dictionary defines freedom as

The condition of being free of restraints, especially the ability to act without control or interference by another or by circumstance

Now when it comes to creative freedom, be it writing or art or music I guess everyone’s definition varies.

I would define creative freedom as total self expression without being restrained to fit social norms or to serve a purpose other than being true to oneself.

I recently read Afterworlds which I reviewed here and as you may or may not know the protagonist is writing a novel and towards the end of the editing process, she is asked to change the ending of her story because a “happily ever after sells better” (correct me if I’m wrong)

Isn’t that just commercializing the story though?

If I wrote a justifiable ending to my novel and someone told me to change it for sales purposes I would feel torn.

So I finished reading Afterworlds and the next book I pick up, Little Women has a rather long introduction which spoils the book but that’s besides the point. What this intro also discusses are the changes and alterations the author had to go through to please the audience.

Louisa May Alcott had to “tone down” her writing and replace slang words with finer prose to make it more “ladylike”. Not even that, she had to write a sequel to Little Women where she had to marry them off

BECAUSE THE AUDIENCE DEMANDED IT.

She even said herself she didn’t want to write a sequel and why couldn’t people let the Little Women be just Little Women and not things that had to be married off.

So what do you get at the end of all that?

A literary classic which lacks the author’s originality cuz creative freedom ain’t got nothing on money making.

The other side of the argument is, books are a means of business after all and musicians and artists probably have restrictions too, I just feel like books go through so much editing and there’s so much pressure on the author to “impress the audience” instead of staying true to themselves.

No one probably agrees with me on this but that’s just what I’ve been thinking lately about creativity and freedom and yeah.

So tell me your opinion on this. What’s your take on creative freedom?

 

Book Review | Afterworlds

Title: Afterworlds

Author: Scott Westerfield

Genre: YA Fantasy

Page Count: 599

Synopsis 
Darcy Patel has put college and everything else on hold to publish her teen novel, Afterworlds. Arriving in New York with no apartment or friends she wonders whether she’s made the right decision until she falls in with a crowd of other seasoned and fledgling writers who take her under their wings…

Told in alternating chapters is Darcy’s novel, a suspenseful thriller about Lizzie, a teen who slips into the ‘Afterworld’ to survive a terrorist attack. But the Afterworld is a place between the living and the dead and as Lizzie drifts between our world and that of the Afterworld, she discovers that many unsolved – and terrifying – stories need to be reconciled. And when a new threat resurfaces, Lizzie learns her special gifts may not be enough to protect those she loves and cares about most

This book was unlike anything I’ve ever read. I mean it’s a book inside a book , how can you not expect queerly brilliant things already?

Scott Westerfield just manages to make it so easy for the reader to transition from Darcy into Lizzie chapters and I feel like he’s one of the few authors that can pull this book-ception off.

Since they’re essentially two separate stories I have two separate things to say about them so to avoid confusion let’s begin with

Darcy

Darcy’s PoV told in third person is a brilliant inside scoop into the world of novel-making and publishing. We follow the business side of writing, the editing and the marketing but we also see the social side of it, from parties to lunches.

One thing I realized is that when your novel is actually going out into the world there is so much you have to consider, I mean people’s opinions and politics and gah I thought writing was just about pouring your heart out and not caring what anyone else thought.

Darcy’s chapters also provided a backstory to some of the decisions Lizzie makes in her story and I quite like that.

As a character, Darcy is flawed, she doesn’t handle things in the most mature way, she feels like a child who’s been handed a basket of responsibility and she doesn’t know what to do with it. But the best thing is, I feel like she’s meant to be flawed you know, people are meant to be flawed and Darcy was a very good representation of a person. (as in she was realistic)

I believe Afterworlds is one of the first novels if not the first novel I’ve read where the protagonist is involved in a same sex relationship and I love it cuz huzzah for diversity in YA. Imogen, Darcy’s girlfriend is just as flawed and beautiful and I like how their relationship was…like a real life relationship. (I’m SO GREAT at describing things!)

Lizzie

While Darcy’s PoV is systematic Lizzie’s is chaos, it is dark, oh so dark. I know many people have and will already say this but that first chapter when the terrorist attack happen? Brilliant.

At the beginning of the book curiosity had me hooked to the Lizzie chapters. Finding out about the Afterworld and Lizzie having freaky experiences.  But towards the end I preferred Darcy’s chapters more and more, I don’t know Lizzie’s so inconclusive, I mean you never really find out everything about the Afterworld and the ending is a bit out the blue I believe.  There’s just room for more detail is all I’m saying.

Afterworlds was a unique novel which definitely left an impression upon me so you should totally check it out

Rating

 

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March Book Haul

I have acquired some pretties over the past couple of weeks so I decided to show ’em off to you!

Excuse the bookmark but yeah new books ahh!

Assassins Blade by Sarah.J.Maas 

Little Women by Louisa May Ascott 

I recently finished Heir of Fire and loved it so it’s a no-brainer that I got the novella collection.

Ever since the Youtube web series of Little Women started I’ve wanted to read the book so I finally got it and it may well be the longest classic I’m going to read but can’t wait!

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfield 

The Handmaid’s tale by Margaret Atwood 

I have wanted to read Afterworlds since the beginning of time, well since it came out anyway so I decided right about bloody time I at least bought the book.

The Handmaid’s Tale has been catching my eye cuz two words “feminist literature”, the cover is freaky because of what the book symbolizes (fertility) but i like freaky!

And last but not least in all its glory we have…..

The 10th Anniversary version of Looking for Alaska!!!!!!!!

The pages are black edged and there is a heap of never before seen content at the back and just gah I love John Green

That was my little book haul for March so far!

What new books have ye acquired?