Title Wires and Nerve (Wires and Nerve #1) By Marissa Meyer Genre Graphic Novel, Sci-fi, Adventure Format Print Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Synopsis
Before Cinder and her friends brought down Queen Levana, she released wolf hybrid soldiers on earth. The hybrids have gone rogue and to help her friend, Iko becomes a hunter. Determined to stop the hybrids before they kill anyone else.
I was excited to read this graphic novel and get more from the wonderful world Meyer created.
Of course, I enjoyed the story but I wasn't as wowed or in love as I wanted to be. A lot of the characters didn't look at all how I imagined them so I'm not sure what I thought of the art.
I loved the relationship between Iko and the guard Cinder sent to help her. It was obvious but funny.
I'm not sure if I'll continue with the series, though. I preferred the novels.
What It's About
I consider myself a Marvel fan but mostly I'm an X-Men and Spider Man fan so I knew virtually nothing about the Black Panther.
So there's this hidden city in South Africa that has this amazing technology but they've stayed hidden for hundreds of years under the ruling of a generation of kings endowed with gifts and known as the Black Panther. Each time a king dies, their son becomes the new king and new Black Panther. When an artifact of theirs that ended up in a museum gets stolen and an enemy arrives and challenges our hero, current king and Black Panther he'll find out a secret about his father and have to fight not only for his title and kingdom but for what he believes in.
Of course I wanted to see this one. It's a Marvel universe movie! I wasn't sure what to expect, though. I knew nothing about the Black Panther. I guess I can't REALLY call myself a Marvel fan. Oh well.
I'm going to be honest, guys. I found this one to feel overly long and was really bored through most of it. AND something just felt off.
After reflecting on it I think I've decided that it just didn't FEEL like a Marvel movie. It felt more like a fantasy movie than a super hero movie. And sometimes it's like the director or writers remembered it was supposed to be a super hero movie and would throw in something but it was too little and just felt weird.
I also was bothered by the villain. If this movie was trying to address racism they shouldn't have made the villain such a stereotypical thug. It did nothing to fight racism in my opinion. Maybe that's just me, though.
I will say that I really loved the MCs sister Shuri. She was great. I'd rather have watched a movie about her.
Anywho, I was honestly just disappointed in this one. I wanted a great new addition to the Marvel universe and this one was just all off.
Let's talk
Have you ever noticed how long a movies sometimes feels? I think it's because certain stories tend to be more episodic rather than one, single, sweeping arc. That episodic trend seems to be coming into a lot of movies and it just makes it feel SO long. What do you guys think?
Recommendation
Sadly I'd just say wait to rent it on Redbox or Amazon.
Title Beauty Queens By Libba Bray Genre YA Contemporary/Adventure/Comedy Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Synopsis
When a plane full of beauty pageant contestants crashes on an island there's only 13 survivors. Will they survive long enough to be rescued? And can they keep up their looks and dance routines until then? The longer the girls are on the island the more they discover who they really are and just how strong they are.
First Sentence
"Are you alright?"
I've had this book on my list for 6 years. The number of years it's been released, I think. I enjoyed the Gemma Doyle books enough to give the author my attention and this one sounded just plain hilarious.
I listened to this one on audio and it was my first audio book read by the author. That was a treat! When the author does all the different voices you know they're done exactly as she imagined the characters sounding. Her voice for Tiara cracked me up!
Filled with "a word from the sponsor" moments and commercial breaks this one was written to be an audio book.
While I was expecting a total comedy I was surprised to find a very feminist "girl power" twist on this one. I had mixed feelings about this. While I enjoyed the message, I sometimes found it a bit heavy handed and taking itself too seriously. But it actually gave depth to the story too so I don't know. I think I ended up liking that it chose to take that road. And of course it was still funny too. I laughed a lot.
There was a lot of eye rolling, yeah right, moments but I think any annoyance I had for those moments was ME taking things too seriously.
My biggest problem with this one was the length. (this seems to be an ongoing annoyance of mine as of late) I'm fine with long stories but needlessly long stories are another story. This one just kept going on and on! And on!!!
Should you read it
If you can buckle in for the LONG ride I'd recommend it for a laugh and a look at some cool messages about the awesomeness of girls.
