Welcome to the end of 2019, everyone! Normally I do a year-end All the Movies I Watched list (which I might still do), but this year, I thought I'd also throw together a list of my favorite books of the year. I read some nonfiction this time, and enjoyed it for a change! These are by no means all the books I read in 2019--that number is closer to 90ish--just the ones I enjoyed the most that were also published in 2019. A couple are part of a series, so I'm trying to focus on ones that have at least one entry published this year. Links go to the GoodReads page for that book.

All right, here we go!

Magic for Liars, by Sara Gailey
To paraphrase my GoodReads review: What if Jessica Jones went to solve a murder at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and her sister Trish was also there as the charms professor? It's only kinda like that, and it's set in the US so the atmosphere is more American Preppy than British Boarding, but there's a vibe, and I love it. Plus, having it told from the perspective of the adults put a different spin on the "Bad Things Happen At Magic School" subgenre of fantasy literature. I received this as an ARC at the Tor Books panel at ALA this summer, and all the positive buzz you've heard is true.

( More! )

(Cross-posted to rhoda_rants.)

This is one of the best, possibly THE best, comic book movie I've ever seen.

First of all, I'd like to thank the Internet in general for keeping all the spoilers under wraps. My mind was completely blown, over and over, and that's entirely due to how little I knew going in.

That said, I know I'm late to the party here. All my fellow reviewer folks have been collectively singing the praises of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse for months, and I'm just lucky I could find a theater where it was still playing this week. AND now it has an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Nobody needs me to tell them how great this movie is, because chances are you know. What I didn't know was how emotionally affecting it would be. I'm going to try to dive into why without spoiling things.

"" (Watch on YouTube)

( Read more. . . )

You know, it's not all roses being an internet reviewer. Often, you can guess at least a little how you're going to feel about a piece of media. If you're going into fangirl mode, you scrounge up presale money and plan outfits for opening weekend. Or, if you suspect it's going to grab you by the throat and give you nightmares, you mentally steel yourself until you feel like you can take it in without it overwhelming you. The thing is, this doesn't normally happen in the same movie.

Avengers: Infinity War, Part 1 was a curve ball. On April 27, I wore my Captain America shirt all day, and went to the movies right after work. By the time I was driving home I was stunned. I spent most of the weekend buried in fix-it fics and yelling "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO REVIEW THIS?!?!" into the void. Then I said to myself, "Lady, you somehow found a way to review Darren Aronofsky's mother! and finish it in time to have it published in the April edition of Belladonna Horror Magazine. You can handle a spoiler-free review of a superhero blockbuster movie for your DreamWidth blog."

Can I though, world? CAN I?

( No Spoilers )

Like any holiday, Halloween comes with certain traditions. I always dress up, I always make sure we're stocked with candy, and I have a number of movies I rewatch every year. Hocus Pocus is a must of course, as are Practical Magic, Sleepy Hollow, and whatever vampire movie I'm in the mood for that year. But on Devil's Night, October 30th, which also happens to be my half-birthday, I watch The Crow. This year I read the graphic novel by James O'Barr for the first time. It was . . . surprising. Not that I didn't expect it to be different from the movie. I always expect that. However, usually in adaptations the plot is shortened and simplified and the characters are pared down from what they were in the source material. In the case of The Crow, it is completely the opposite.


GIF silhouette of man and crow walking towards a broken circular window
(Source.)

( It can't rain all the time. . . )

Let's.

Blogger’s Note: This is a revision/amalgamation of two previous blog posts I made elseweb, entitled “#GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend” and “The Trouble With Agent 13” respectively. Expanded my thoughts on both after rewatching Civil War, and reading Ed Brubaker’s The Winter Soldier. For *ahem* “research.”

It’s been eight years since the first official MCU movie came out--Iron Man in 2008.

Do you guys realize how long ago that was? Obama was in the process of moving into the White House. Heath Ledger had just died, and the dark, gritty, realistic Christopher Nolan-verse Batman movies were the exception, not the norm. David Tennant was still playing The Doctor. Okay, eight years isn’t really an astronomically long time. BUT the MCU has churned out thirteen two-hour-plus episodes of their staggeringly successful franchise on a regular basis since it started. And we are still waiting for one--Just one!--canonically LGBT character.

HI THERE!

It is Bisexual Awareness Week, and if you didn’t know this, I am not straight. I’m bisexual more or less, although a more apt description is “panromantic demisexual” (words which aren’t recognized even by my spellchecker, but I encourage you to Google them), and I’ll answer to both.

What you probably do know is I watch lots of superhero movies and read fewer but still lots of comic books. That doesn’t really set me apart. And I’d like to see more awesome action movies with characters that reflect my POV/orientation just a little bit. Which . . . also doesn’t set me apart, because I think everyone wants that. Who *wouldn’t* want to be a superhero, at least in a power fantasy kind of way? However, when you’re not a straight, white dude between the ages of 18 and 35, it’s a little trickier to split the difference.

I’m here to talk about Bucky Barnes.

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Let's see if I can do this without spoilers.

SHORT VERSION: Good times! Fight scenes! Character development! Lots of characters--like, LOTS! Man, this franchise is getting crowded. Didn't feel as overstuffed as it could have though. Everyone has their role, and that's good. Oh, and for the record, I'm Team Captain America. Seeing the movie didn't change that.

( Less short version. . . )