Books

The Rest of the Best: 2021 Edition

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With so many movies, I figured I’d split up all the other rad things I watched, read, and listened to this past year!

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Book Review: Fallen Series

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Almost 2,000 pages later and I’m finally done reading the Fallen book series by Lauren Kate. While my review of the first two books were a little bitter, I will say the series had a strong finish, with a nice short little companion book in the middle.

After Fallen and Torment, the book Passion followed. This book finally takes Luce out of her school surroundings and away from her angel and Nephilim friends. Which was sort of nice. This books main focus was Luce going through her “Announcers” and into all of her past lives to see how she was and how she met Daniel and ultimately died each time. Not too long after travelling alone she meets up with a gargoyle looking figure who goes by the name Bill (why?). he’s there to help her through her past lives and even teaches her how to “cleave” with her past selves. None of this sounds sketchy at all….

Meanwhile, all of the angels and Nephilim have split up also looking through Announcers to find Luce and bring her back. Daniel is not really successful in the slightest, but he realizes that this was all meant to happen and that something Luce does while fiddling in these past lives is what ultimately broke her curse.

In the end it turns out Bill wasn’t so nice after all. In fact, he’s Lucifer! And he’s supremely pissed at Luce. He wants the scale tipped in his favor and Luce isn’t making that possible. So instead, he leaves her is some dark limbo state while he goes back to the beginning to re-initiate “the fall.” This of course would ultimately alter the course of centuries and could make certain people cease to exist! And that’s where this novel ends.

Before reading the final book, I decided to read the short (in comparison) companion novel called Fallen in Love. This book centers on Luce’s renaissance life where many of the other angels and Nephilim friends have caught up to each other. Rather than meddle in Luce and Daniel’s life, they sit back and watch their love take place while also falling in love themselves. That’s right, you get to see Miles and Shelby fall in love. And you also get to meet Roland and Arriane’s romantic counterparts. Both of the angels romances end in tragedy, but they are ultimately glad to see the love be tween Luce and Daniel blossom. Cute, fluff, filler. I’m okay with it.

All of that brings me to the last novel, Rapture. I have to say this one was my favorite, although I still don’t understand how this story takes over 400 pages a book, but I digress. Luce and Daniel have finally found each other and the other angels who now know about Lucifer’s plan. They determine from some old book that Daniel wrote a long time ago that they need to fine three artifacts and that will help lead them to the sight of the fall to stop Lucifer. Oh yeah, they only have nine days to do that. And some seriously annoying foes who keep getting in their way. Ultimately, they end up gathering all of the artifacts, perform some sacrifice that was meant to happen all along, and get themselves to the sight of the fall.

Game-changer! Once this happens, Luce discovers she’s an angel! This is of course a suspicion I’ve had for a while, but it was nice to read. We also learned that she was the Throne’s 3-hand man (cough, lady). AND we learn that Luce loved someone before Daniel. And that someone was LUCIFER! That sh** is bananas. Luce is able to put all of these pieces together and knows she has to go find Lucifer in the fall and convince him she will never be with him and to stop the fall. She is not too successful, so the Throne gets involved. Ultimately, Daniel and Luce choose love once again, and are “sentenced” to live one final life as mortals.

Flash forward seventeen years and we see Miles and Shelby, Roland, and Arriane about to watch Luce and Daniel meet for the first time so their one true love story can start again for the last time. It’s like a move folks. Side note, Cam, my favorite character, really redeemed himself in these last two novels.

I don’t know that I’d recommend this series to adult people, but I definitely don’t regret having read them. Take that however you’d like 🙂

2018 Rewind: Top Albums, Concerts, Books

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Since we’re only one day into 2019 I figured it wouldn’t be too bad to take a look back at my favorite albums, concerts and books of 2018.

ALBUMS:

  1. Underoath, Erase Me – This was quite the comeback! The first album from the band with original drummer Aaron Gillespie in a decade and it was a banger (a head banger that is!). All 10 tracks are a hit with standouts being “It Has to Start Somewhere” and “I Gave Up.” I was also a big fan of all the added clean vocals from lead singer/screamer Spencer Chamberlain.
  2. MGMT, Little Dark Age – I have loved this band since the beginning, but I will say that the duos last two outings were less than. Give them four years and they come out with a wickedly awesome record! It was rocking some serious disco/70s vibes and I was digging it. Standouts for me on this record included “One Thing Left to Try” and “When You Die.”
  3. The 1975, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships – While that album title might not be as long as their 2017 release, it still has just as many jams. I keep finding that they are reinventing themselves with every release, and the band has become a little less elusive since appealing to the masses. They have not sold out despite their ever-growing teeny-bopper fan base (makes me sad) by being themselves and creating some great work. Tracks you should check out would be “Give Yourself a Try” and “Love It If We Made It.”
  4. Avatar, Avatar Country – This Swedish heavy metal band really took concept album to the next level with this release. Singing all about hailing to the king with some serious shredding, this album managed to make me a real fan. My sister introduced (forced) me to them and I’ve seen them in concert countless times. This is a very enjoyable record. Go jam to “Avatar Country” and “The King Wants You.”
  5. Fall Out Boy, Mania – Aside from Folie a Duex, this is probably my least favorite record from them. With that said I liked most of the songs, just not the particular vibe. They still put on a great show and they’ve got an extremely large catalog of work, so I can’t fault them for experimenting. My favorites from this include “Young & Menace” and “Wilson (Expensive Mistakes).”

CONCERTS:

2018 was an ambitious year for me – I managed to attend 28 concerts/festivals! That’s a lot of live music! Below are my three standout shows from the year.

  1. Arcade Fire’s Everything Now Continued Tour was by far my favorite show this year. Even though I wasn’t crazy about the opener, the venue was an hour and a half away on a work night, and it was humid as hell I still had a crazy awesome time! The set list was a whopping 25 songs and they played all of the good ones. I caught myself dancing, which I literally never do at shows – that’s how immersing this show was! The last time I saw them was back in 2014 in a much larger venue, so if you get the chance to see them somewhere a bit smaller – DO IT!
  2. Foo Fighter’s Concrete & Gold tour was also quite magical. My sister and I had got my dad tickets for Christmas 2017 for a show happening in the middle of July! We also splurged on some closer seats and it was well worth it. The Struts opened things up with the small library of songs they have, but they have such strong Queen vibes that they totally killed it. Then the Foo Fighters played for three hours!!! It was amazing.
  3. Warped Tour’s final cross-country tour was also a gem to be at. While I’ve experienced better line-ups and it was ungodly hot, it was still a blast. My sister also took part in one of the TEI workshops with Chris Motionless of Motionless in White (an exceptionally nice guy!). The food was on par, and the performances were all solid. I may not have cared too much about the line-up, but you could tell that the bands there were really grateful to be included on this last hoorah. Best performances were Underoath, Motionless in White, 3OH!3, and Silverstein. R.I.P. Warped Tour.

BOOKS:

Really brief reviews here – I don’t want to ruin anything!

  1. Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage – As far as first novels go, this one was trippy. Told in alternating perspectives by mother and 7 year-old daughter, it’s hard for me to ever want kids after reading this. Like ever. It gave me very strong We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Omen vibes.
  2. You by Caroline Kepnes – Yes, I was influenced by the fact that this was getting made into a TV show starring Penn Badgley, but this book was gripping. A story about a stalker, told by the stalker, who wouldn’t really consider what he was doing as stalking. Doesn’t get more unsettling than that.
  3. The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware – I am a big fan of all novels that Ruth Ware has written in her short career, so it was no surprise that I was going to like this outing. Set in present day, there is a case of mistaken identity, some serious inheritance, and a very intense plot twist. While it gets a bit wordy and repetitive, you’ll definitely be itching to know how it ends.