Happy Friday, everyone!
A week late, I am finally here with my March wrap-up!
(But come on, how could I possibly resist posting my Tawny Man Trilogy review on April Fool’s Day, when that series is literally named for my dearly beloved Fool? 🥰 I obviously couldn’t!!! Especially when I also love playing tricks on people, and not giving you a wrap-up when you might’ve been expecting one is sort of like a prank… right? 🙃)
Anyway, to sum it up briefly, my March was insanely eventful and utterly exhausting. Which doesn’t mean it was bad or anything! It was just… a lot. I’m actually very surprised I managed to read as much as I did, but then again, I did spend quite a significant amount of time riding trains this month, which is always a major reading booster. But let’s backtrack a little and get to the details…
First off, March constituted my first full month of teaching! And while I am still absolutely hopeless at judging how much content you can realistically fit into one lesson (especially in math, where it is apparently normal for eleventh graders to need half an hour to determine whether, when casting two Laplace dice, rolling a four and rolling the same number twice are stochastically independent events 😅), I am really enjoying it! I am finally at the point where I’m starting to remember my students’ names, despite the additional struggle of never having seen the bottom half of their mask-covered faces. I know how to work smartboards now. And last Friday, one of my twelfth graders nearly brought me to tears when she told me that the Henna Wars excerpt I had decided to force upon them that day (our topic was immigration to Ireland) was the first school text she had ever truly seen herself represented in, and whether I had any more gay book recommendations for her. (Spoiler alert: I did 😁)
The main reason behind my insane travel schedule, though, was that my parents took advantage of all the empty rooms we now have in our house to host a Ukrainian refugee family, a mother with two kids. And since they only speak Russian, my mom and I are the only people in my family with any Russian skills at all, and my Russian is significantly better than my mom’s, I’ve been going home on weekends far more often than I had originally planned to help with communication.
And I’ve learned so many things! Most importantly:
- Cats are absolute idiots. Because of course they would choose the most chaotic time possible to fight so badly with the cat next door that they almost died from their injuries. Thankfully, the idiot in question has pulled through, but he’s already greedily eyeing the neighbors’ yard again now that he has regained his sight and walking skills 🙄
- My Russian sucks. Like, last weekend, I was trying to explain that one of my mom’s colleagues had an old stroller the family could use, “you know, a chair… with wheels… to push kids in…” 🙈 I got completely blank stares and ended up having to use google translate.
- Parents deserve so much more respect! Let me tell you, little kids might be cute, but they’re also very, very exhausting. Especially when they realize that you’re the only person outside of their family who at least somewhat understands what they’re saying, decide they love you, and follow you around everywhere because of it… I mean, yes, being liked is extremely flattering, and, thanks to playing “sort the stuffed animals into categories” a million times over the past few weeks, my Russian animal vocabulary has improved drastically! But when you wake up to a three-year-old excitedly jumping in your doorway at 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning because she has spotted a badly injured cat in your room and wants to pet it, or when a five-year-old’s dragon obsession means you have to stack all of your dragon-featuring fantasy books into your wardrobe to keep him from enthusiastically tearing the covers off, you seriously start asking yourself how parents deal with this every single day 😅
- I am so incredibly lucky. When the kids tell me things like “Daddy is in Mariupol right now but we can’t call him because there’s no internet there” or “our neighbor had a dog like the one in the picture but when the bombs dropped it was out on the street and there was lots of blood and mom wouldn’t let us see it”, I just don’t know what to say 😥 It really puts things into perspective and makes me so eternally grateful that my family is safe and my country at peace!
So yeah, “eventful” doesn’t even cover it… But since most of you probably came here for the books, let’s leave my chaotic March behind and actually get to the books!
Elantris (Elantris #1) by Brandon Sanderson (2/5 Stars)
Umm, yeah… where do I even start? 😅 A Brandon Sanderson book I severely disliked? Is that even possible?
I guess it is. Quite frankly, this debut is a hot mess, and if I hadn’t buddy-read it with an equally unimpressed Line @ First Line Reader – and thus had someone I could complain about the annoyingly perfect characters and all the ridiculously convenient stuff that happened in it with 😇 – reading Elantris would probably have taken me forever!
Mind you, the premise is actually quite interesting. Set ten years after a mysterious event known as the Shaod caused all magic to fail and transformed the once flourishing city of Elantris into a despondent and filthy nightmare inhabited by zombie-like creatures who are barely human anymore, we find ourselves in a politically charged environment in which countless factions are vying for power. To try to bring stability to his country and fend off threats of conquest from the neighboring Fjordell Empire, Crown Prince Raoden of Arelon hopes to wed Princess Sarene of Teod – but before he can do so, he himself falls victim to the Shaod and is thrown into Elantris, considered dead.
However, an intriguing premise and magic system can only get you so far… Because, gosh, the characters were so freaking annoying!!! Especially Sarene, whom everybody constantly praised for intelligence that I was absolutely unable to see any evidence of. Both her and Raoden were so beloved, so kind-hearted, so perfect, and yet still misunderstood that it was truly vomit-inducing, and I was glad we at least had some moral grayness in the form of Fjordell high priest Hrathen – whose character development was then thrown under the bus in one of the most underwhelmingly predictable endings I’ve ever read 🙄
ALSO – THE PLOT CONVENIENCES!!! 🙈🙈🙈 So many gaping holes were explained away by characters acting in a thoroughly unrealistic but extremely opportune way, and a whole lot of other threads were dropped altogether. There were tons interesting aspects about this world that could have been explored in more depth but just… weren’t.
All I can say is – Brandon Sanderson, you’ve definitely improved tremendously as a writer since penning this one! And Line – thank you so much for reading this with me because I don’t think I’d have enjoyed it half as much without your wonderful rants about misused Scandinavian words and Galladon’s horribly annoying “sules” and “kolos”! 🤣
Fool’s Errand (5/5 Stars), The Golden Fool (5/5 Stars), and Fool’s Fate (4/5 Stars) (The Tawny Man Trilogy #1-3 / The Realm of the Elderlings #7-9) by Robin Hobb
At this point, I’m just sliding deeper and deeper into my Robin Hobb obsession 😂 Although I had a few issues with the way it ended, I absolutely ADORED The Tawny Man Trilogy and was so completely engrossed that pausing long enough to take notes for my spoilery reading log / book review came close to torture!
Taking place about 20 years after The Farseer Trilogy, this third Realm of the Elderlings series once again follows FitzChivalry Farseer, who, despite wanting nothing more than to put everything that happened in previous books behind him, is once more drawn into a web of plotting, trickery, and intrigue in order to protect the crown.
Oh my gosh guys, I loved being back with these characters so much!! I laughed, cried, rolled my eyes, even down-right sobbed my way through these books. Reading all the interactions between Fitz and the Fool – who has now securely cemented his position as my favorite Robin Hobb character of all time 🥰 – put me in seventh heaven. And I loved seeing so many clues about dragons and the Elderlings finally come together!
Honestly, if it hadn’t been for the ending, which I severely disliked for several spoilery reasons, this trilogy might even have overtaken The Liveship Traders as my favorite Robin Hobb series… So even though it wasn’t perfect, it was still very, very awesome, and I can only highly recommend you start The Realm of the Elderlings if you haven’t yet!!!
Starsight (4/5 Stars) and Cytonic (3/5 Stars) (Skyward #2-3) by Brandon Sanderson
After hating Elantris so much, I decided my relationship with Sanderson was in dire need of repair. So why not continue on with a series whose first book had absolutely blown me away and instantly shot into my list of sci-fi favorites? 🤷♀️
The good news: Both Starsight and Cytonic were miles better than Elantris. The bad news: They didn’t come anywhere close to the amazingness that was Skyward, either, and it is my unfortunate opinion that this series is steadily going downhill with each book.
Don’t get me wrong – I still enjoyed these a lot! Both Starsight and Cytonic greatly expand the world Spensa lives in, we get to meet new and intriguing alien species, we’re confronted with a ton of interesting philosophical ideas, and our favorite AI spaceship is back and as snarky as ever!
However, what I think really suffered in these books were the relationships between the characters. I don’t want to give too much away, but basically, Spensa goes off on her own to some new place in each installment. Which means we are constantly confronted with new characters and friendships that are never really explored in any great depth before Spensa leaves them behind and runs off to the next place… 😅 Considering how much I had loved the messily complicated relationships in Skyward, this was just a huge disappointment!
Also, quite frankly, the beginning of Cytonic was mind-numbingly boring. I felt like Sanderson had two huge reveals that he wanted to make in that book – And yes, those were epic! 🤩 – but didn’t really know what to do with the rest of it. So he just filled it with endless walking/flying around and weird mushroom jokes that stopped being funny after we’d already heard them for the fifteenth time. Thankfully, the book picked up significantly somewhere around the middle, and its five-star-worthy ending ended up somewhat redeeming it for me, but still! After Skyward, I’d been expecting so much more!
So yeah, I guess my overall verdict is that Starsight was pretty good – Especially since it had Morriumur, whom I absolutely loved!! 🥰 – but that Cytonic‘s weird mixture of boringness and epicness put it firmly in the “average” category…
Would I still recommend this series? Yes. But I’m very much hoping that my trend of dropping a star from my rating with each book is not going to continue…
The blogging community was on fire this month! I came across so many absolutely amazing posts that recommending them all is next to impossible, so I’m just going to give you the ones that were so epic that even my forgetful brain still recalls them. Seriously, go check these bloggers out; they’re all amazing!
- Rachel @ A Bookworm’s Paradise gave us another round of book recommendations based on Disney movies. I think we’ve established by now that I’m a huge Disney fan and simply cannot get enough of these, so Rachel, please keep writing them! 🤗
- Emily @ Frappes and Fiction wrote a wonderfully in-depth discussion about separating art from the artist! This post earned her a comment that was monstrous even by my standards, which should give you some clue as to how much I adored it! 🤩
- Nehal @ Quirky Pages told us about her favorite types of scenes in books, and since all of them involve the heavily emotional kinds of stuff I also always end up falling for, I was a goner the minute I read this! 😭
- Lay @ bookshelfsoliloquies had the brilliant idea of dedicating a whole month to one of our shared favorite books – Andy Weir’s The Martian! All of her Martian March posts were phenomenal, but she absolutely stole my heart with the one about D&D classes The Martian characters would play 😍 (Yes, I’m a huge nerd and have been semi-obsessively playing Dungeons & Dragons with my friends for years. Don’t judge me.)
- Line @ First Line Reader probably thinks I’m spamming her blog with pingbacks at this point, but her Books Featuring My Favorite Tropes and Discussion: Preferring Male Characters posts were so freaking good that I can’t not mention them! Seriously, guys, you have to go read these!!! 🥰
- Malka @ Paper Procrastinators discussed the pressure of continuously writing good content in her considerations on what it takes to write a blog post. Malka, I love you so much for writing this; it might very well be the most relatable post I’ve ever come across! 💙
- Siena @ Booksophobia wrote a really interesting discussion on why she’s changing the way she rates books. I always love comparing my (admittedly super chaotic and complicated 😁) rating system to other people’s, so this post was right up my alley!
- Ash @ Ink Words and Ash discussed the pros and cons of bookish hype. Yet another super relatable post, if you ask me! 🤗
- Mint @ Mint Loves Books asked whether authors should comment on goodreads reviews of their own books, sparking a really interesting discussion! 🤔
- Riddhi @ Whispering Stories had an AI judge her music taste, and the results were absolutely hilarious! 🤣
- Evelyn @ Evelyn Reads completed one of my biggest reading goals, finished Robin Hobb’s The Realm of the Elderlings series, and gave us her ranking of the books! 😍 Of course, I absolutely loved seeing how our opinions compared on the ones I’ve already read, and her thoughts on the others made me even more excited for the remaining installments!
- Suhani @ Random Reader’s Rambles revealed some things she doesn’t like about her favorite books. I adored this idea and might have to steal it at some point – if I can face the pain of admitting to myself that my favorites have flaws, that is… 😅 Seriously, Suhani, how did you survive the torture?
- Sumedha @ The Wordy Habitat shared 20 lessons she learnt in six years of blogging. All of these were super insightful and have made me realize that next time I need blogging advice, I should probably just ask Sumedha… 😎
- Phoenix @ Books with Wings gave us hilarious examples of things she’s used as bookmarks. Boring old page-number-memorizing me cannot compete whatsoever! 😂
And that pretty much wraps up my March! I’d love to hear how yours went down in the comments below, and also whether or not you’ve read any of the books I’ve mentioned here! 😊 Are there any fellow Robin Hobb or Brandon Sanderson fans among you? I would love to know!
(Also, has anyone here watched The Secrets of Dumbledore yet? Because I have 🙄 And I desperately need someone to rant about it with!! Not even German characters who actually spoke real German instead of garbled Hollywood gibberish could make up for the fact that the plot of this movie was beyond-Elantris-terrible!!!!)
A Book Owl's Corner 
Everything you said about Elantris is my fear of going back, reading and editing the novel I’m writing now haha
These books, apart from Elantris, sound pretty great though
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That’s probably every author’s fear ever 🤣 But, I mean, editing and reading over everything again is the first step to reduce the risk of that happening, so you’re on the right track!
(Besides, there also seem to be a ton of people out there who love Elantris, so maybe Line and I are just super picky 😅)
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That’s true haha
Being picky can be a good thing 😀 I always hear people talking about him and his books but never really heard anything about Elantris 😅
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Well, his other books are far, far better than Elantris – at least in my opinion 😁 – so it makes sense that they’d be talked about more! 🥰
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Thank you for the shout out!
I admit, I’ve not kept up with the Fantastic Beasts series so I haven’t seen any of the movies. When I visited Warner Brothers Studios in London in 2020, the Fantastic Beasts merchandise was basically the only thing on sale… so I took it as a bad sign haha
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You’re welcome! Your discussion really got me thinking! 😊
And, trust me, judging by the direction this franchise is heading, you probably made the right decision 😅 The last two movies in particular barely seem to care about consistency, logic, or character development anymore, as long as they can have a ton of flashy special effects and Harry Potter Easter eggs 🙄
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wohoo welcome to the being-disappointed-by-sanderson club!! (though my disappointment was my first ever sanderson book- Skyward, and then i never touched a book by him)
haha yeah i’ve got a 4 year old neighbour who has pretty much been tagging along behind me all her life so I get what you’re feeling. cute and i obviously love the attention but also EXHAUSTING.
YAY being the first post on your list is something i’ll forever flex about lol
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Nooo, but Skyward was a good Sanderson book, Rachel! 😨 (Besides, his adult books are written in a very different style, so I’d recommend not giving up just yet and at least trying Mistborn… 😁🙃) But it also feels kinda nice to have company in my disappointment, I’m not gonna lie! 😂
Awww, your neighbor sounds so adorably cute, though! 😍 But I 100% relate to everything you said about the exhaustingness – especially since I’m kind of out of practice as far as little kids are concerned and haven’t had to babysit this much at a time in ages!
And lololol, I’m glad you feel flattered! 🤣 **wonders whether she should tell Rachel that the posts on the list are simply in chronological order of posting, so that being first doesn’t actually mean anything** (But all the posts on the list are awesome, so you deserve to flex whichever spot yours is in! 😉)
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I’m so impressed you exactly read not just one but TWO Sanderson books after Elantris 🙈😅 I would not have been able to! And thank you for reading Elantris with me, too!! You know I’m happy to provide a rant, but I also needed your frustration with Sarene and the plot conveniences to assure myself I wasn’t going crazy for feeling the same 😁
And you certainly did spam my blog with pingbacks 😂 Were you in league with Maria because I got one from her too today? 😉 But thank you!!! 🥰🥰
Also, going to watch Fantastic Beasts in a few hours so you can rant to me soon if you want 😄 Not sure I’m going to hate it as much though. I mean, it’s a movie with Eddie Redmayne, Mads Mikkelsen and Jude Law in it, so let’s just say I don’t watch those movies for the plot 😅
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I guess I thought while I was already at it, I could see what else Sanderson had to offer because it couldn’t possibly be disappointing after Elantris 😂 And it also helped that I actually own physical copies of both books – my family decided I needed a “starting a real job” gift – and hate having unread books lying around 🙃
Lol, I’m definitely not in league with Maria, though, because that would require planning ahead and you know how bad I am at that when it involves blogging… 😁 But I’m still happy to spam you and even more happy Maria did, too, because that Chapters and Melodies tag is still one of the best things ever! 🤗 I’m definitely going to have to do some good hard thinking to come up with answers that are even half as good as you guys’ 😅
Also, just in case it increases your cinematic excitement for tonight – I suppose if you just watch Secrets of Dumbledore for enjoyment, cute animals, and special effects and don’t try to question things, expect nuance, or draw Harry Potter connections, it isn’t that bad! 😜 I definitely didn’t Cursed-Child-level hate it 😉 But, you know, after they took years to make it, I would’ve thought they’d have put a bit more thought into the plot, too! Eddie Redmayne, Mads Mikkelsen, and Jude Law (and also Dan Fogler 🥰) just can’t save everything! But have fun at the movies, and definitely let me know what you think afterwards! Because I have thoughts I’m absolutely dying to share with someone! (But am also way too lazy to write a full review for a movie I didn’t particularly like 😎)
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Just got back from the movies and I’m kind of afraid to say that I didn’t hate it? In response to what you said, I did give up on the plot after the second one (which I now don’t remember anything about so don’t ask me), so I was literally just watching it for the magic and the actors. I ADORED Mads Mikkelsen in this role so I can’t possibly hate the movie! Why did we even bother with Depp when we could have had THIS the entire time?!? I’m going to be thinking about that performance for days, and that is my main takeaway from the movie so sorry that I can’t join you in ranting 😅 I know the movie in itself isn’t great because I did notice a lot of technical stuff in the storytelling that could have been better but I had no problem ignoring them.
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Well, we do actually agree on something – because I also adored Mads Mikkelsen in the Grindelwald role!! THIS was exactly what I had been picturing all along – a cool, calculating, emotionally shut off person and not all of that weird Jack Sparrow flamboyance Johnny Depp’s interpretation had! 🤩 And also – the German Ministry of Magic!! It was the ugliest, snobbiest, most life-like German government building imaginable, so it obviously fits us to a T 🤣 And Oliver Masucci, the actor playing Vogel, was perfect, too! 🥰
But… I just can’t ignore how much I hated the plot!! 🙈 Like, why the fuck did everybody get so completely swayed by that Qilin thing, even Grindelwald’s own supporters? Or by Vogel’s initial decision to let Grindelwald run, for that matter? Why was Dumbledore, who had always been so utterly relatable in how private and closed off he was, suddenly telling Newt everything about his tragic life and love for Grindelwald without even being prodded into it??? Why have portkeys suddenly merged with floo powder? How did the Germans put their prisoners in that prison? – Because I sure as hell wouldn’t have volunteered for that! Why were nobodies like Jacob and Lally allowed to attend state dinners with a whole bunch of foreign dignitaries? What the HECK was that stupid Aberforth/Credence backstory? Why did the Qilin pick Dumbledore, taking away all of the beautiful flawedness his character was given in Deathly Hallows and basically giving him saintly status? 🙄 Why were Queenie and Jacob suddenly back as our giddily happy couple without even addressing what Queenie had done and gone through? Why, why, why did we get so much internationalness and then not even explore the cultures and politics of the time??? 😤 I’M SORRY, BUT I COULD NOT IGNORE THE INSANE AMOUNT OF INCONSISTENCIES, PLOTHOLES, AND LACK-OF-DEPTH FAN SERVICE IN THIS!!! (And you did give me permission to rant after you’d seen it, so… 😇)
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I know the actor that played Vogel from Dark where he’s a dick so the moment he appeared on screen I just felt an immense hatred and was absolutely certain he was one the bad guys (very substantial evidence I had there, I know 😂). But you’re right, it all looked very German!
And I think your questions are valid! My reaction was just more of a shrug than a rant 😄
However, I do think the Qilin was right in picking Dumbledore because he does have this saintly status. It doesn’t erase anything from Deathly Hallows because the Qilin doesn’t pick people who’ve never made a mistake in their life. Then they would never pick anyone, but the point of Dumbledore’s character is that he overcame those mistakes and flaws and became a better person for it. Now he’s this sincerely good-hearted person that the Qilin picks and that’s all that matters in that moment. He doesn’t want to accept it of course because he’s still blaming himself but that doesn’t change that he’s just a good human being.
But yes, also super confused about the freaky prison!! Why are people being put there without a trial?!? Then again, it also gave us the funniest scene in the movie (the swiveling crab-walk), so that’s why it evens out and ends up as a shrug for me 😄
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Well, I also had Vogel pegged as a dick from the get-go because I mostly associated the actor with Hitler – he played that role in “Look Who’s Back”, an adaptation of a satirical, extremely socially critical, and super popular German novel in which Hitler reemerges in today’s Berlin… Somehow, I think Hitler is even worse than the dad from Dark, so you’re probably off the hook 😂
And even if Dumbledore deeply regrets what he did, I feel like giving him this saintly status is “too much” somehow 🙈 I’m not sure I’m explaining this very well, but I love how Deathly Hallows suddenly made Dumbledore human, and flawed like everybody else. Yes, he deeply regretted his decisions and had become a much better person for it, but part of him was always the manipulator who pulled strings and used people for his own plans – as Snape rightfully criticizes when he accuses him of having raised Harry like a pig about to be slaughtered. He was always the person making the plans, never let anyone else in, and yet, he was terrified of the idea of holding too much power: “I had proven, as a very young man, that power was my weakness and my temptation. It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well. I was safer at Hogwarts.” I think those words show that Dumbledore feared his longing for power his whole life and always believed he could never be fully trusted – and I just don’t think he’d still have that heartbreaking mindset if he had spent over 60 years knowing he’d been chosen by the Qilin and actually borne power well 😅 And even as good-hearted as he is, I think there’s part of Dumbledore that has always thirsted for power, which is precisely why he is so scared of it. So if the Qilin was looking for a completely pure heart, wouldn’t it be at least as likely to bow to Newt or Jacob? I just don’t think any of this made a ton of sense…
But yes, the crab-walk was beyond hilarious, so I’m kind of thankful we got the prison scene, too! I think Theseus became my soulmate when he couldn’t properly swivel 🤣
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He’s just being typecasted as a dick 😂
And I don’t think you should underestimate how an amazing quality being self-aware is and how that is part of why he’s such a good person. He might fear his longing but he is very aware of his flaw and never let it take over. A weaker person would have. He doesn’t accept power. Being chosen by the Qilin doesn’t prove that he would have “borne power well” and he knows this, so I don’t think being chosen by the Qilin would have drastically changed who he is. He knows himself too well for that, but that doesn’t mean that the Qilin didn’t see the good heart he had despite his flaws which all contribute in making him this good.
Well, Newt was right in calling him out for his swivelling. That was definitely the wrong kind of swivels 🙄😂
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Yes, that self-awareness is one of the things I love and admire most about Dumbledore! But I think that’s precisely why the Qilin thing bothers me – it’s so on the nose in how it forces you to see Dumbledore as a grand and goodhearted leader, while in the books, you were led to the same conclusion with much more nuance. You had Dumbledore trying so hard to make the world better while staying on the sidelines, had him sacrife his entire personal life in pursuit of a better future for everyone else. Yeah, he made mistakes, he shut people out, wasn’t always a saint – but that made him so much more human! He gave up so much to help other people, ended up making really tough decisions so nobody else would have to bear that burden, gained so much wisdom through his pain, and still thought he wasn’t a good person you could trust with power – which made me trust him all the more and so heartbroken over how much he suffered without ever telling anyone! But the Qilin choosing him takes away some of that tragedy for me – it’s not that I think that knowledge would change Dumbledore drastically, but that it would give him at least some assurance early on that he is a good person. Which takes away a lot from Dumbledore’s character development because part of what makes him who he is is that he spent his entire life doubting his character and trying to make up for a past mistake that still haunted him! I don’t know… I still think I’m doing a shitty job of explaining what it is exactly that bothers me 🙈 I guess the whole “we’ve got a magical creature that can judge people’s character for us so we don’t have to do it ourselves” just seems like such an easy way out that I don’t like it much 😅 But if you liked the Qilin part, I don’t want to dissuade you! There was so much magic in this movie as well, so don’t let my grumpy complaining get in the way of that!
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Yeah, I still think it’s very important that Dumbledore doesn’t accept the Qilin. It doesn’t change any of his development from the books, it just adds another layer.
And I did like how they had a magical creature be that important in a movie called Fantastic Beasts so I didn’t mind the Qilin. It perfectly ties into the very real debate about whether good people make the best leaders.
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Yeah, if Dumbledore had accepted the Qilin, I would have gone from being mildly annoyed to being absolutely furious… So at least we agree on that much! 🤣
And you do also have a point that a Fantastic Beasts movie should probably prominently feature some fantastic beasts at some point 🤔 I guess I just don’t like how the Qilin sorts people into “inherently good” and “not inherently good” because, to me, that feels a bit too simplistic for anything other than a fairytale 😅 But it’s fine – compared to some of the other plotholes in the movie, I actually didn’t mind the Qilin thing THAT much, so I guess I can learn to live with it!
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Taking care of kids is so HARD I too can’t imagine how my parents did it!
You’ve read so many Brandon Sanderson books, I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the rest of the skyward series as much as the first!
Hope you have a great month ahead!!!
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Same! I have so much admiration and respect for my parents now, especially since they had to deal with four of us at once! In hindsight, it’s a miracle our home didn’t end up in complete destruction… 😂
And yeah, while the other Skyward books were good, they just don’t hold a candle to the first one 😥 At least in my opinion! I really hope I’m just a grumpy twat and that you’ll end up loving them just as much as the first book, though!!
A great month to you, too, Jan! 💙
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Ok it does surprise me that you didn’t like elantris, because it’s Brandon Sanderson but i think ur reasons sound convincing enough…not that I’ve read the book to give my opinion lol.
And oooh you mentioned my post!!! Thanks so much 🤩
Awesome wrap 😀
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Just because it was written by Brandon Sanderson doesn’t mean a book will get my automatic approval! Especially if it is as stupidity convenient as Elantris was 🙄 But yeah… I had also been hoping for more, considering how epic most of his other books are! 😅
And of course, Neigh-hal, thou art most welcome! 😁 That post was epic, so I couldn’t not mention it! 🥰
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Oh, interesting thoughts about Elantris! I remember enjoying it a lot but I agree that the characters are a bit meh…
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Well, maybe part of the problem was that I had insanely high expectations after all of the other Cosmere books I’ve read by now 😂 But I just couldn’t get past how flat the characters were and how conveniently everything fell into place! 😅 I’m glad you enjoyed Elantris more, though!
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Ahh I’m sorry to hear cytonic was underwhelming compared to the others !! I’ve honestly been putting off reading the rest of the series because I’m kind of scared that all my hopes will be let down🙊🙊
AND THANK YOU FOR MENTIONING MY POST AHHH!!💖💖 MWAHAHAH feel free to steal the idea from me, because I basically stole the idea myself, we shall become partners in crime 😈😈 ( fair warning though it was definitely one of the most painful things I’ve ever done, I did NOT survive the torture 😭😭)
AND OH NO I’M GOING TO WATCH SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE WITH MY FRIENDS NEXT WEEK AND NOW I’M SCARED AKSKKS, I PROMISE I’LL RANT WITH YOU AFTER I WATCH IT 😂😂 I didn’t really like the crimes of grindelwald though so I don’t have too high hopes ://
loved reading this!!💖
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Yeah, I was so disappointed I didn’t end up liking Cytonic more when I had loved Skyward so much! 😭 But of course, that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it, Suhani, so I’d say go for it anyway! Worst comes to worst, you’ll still have lots of stubborn Spensa and snarky M-Bot to enjoy! 😉🙃
And lololol, I’ll keep the intense pain in mind should I ever decide to bash my own favorites 😂😂 After all, I now know I have a partner in crime I can come crying to if things get really bad because YOU UNDERSTAND 😭😭😭 Seriously, though, that post was epic, and I’m so glad you wrote it!! 🥰
Also, definitely come back and tell me what you thought once you’ve seen Secrets of Dumbledore! 🤗 Even if you do end up liking it way more than me, I am always ready to discuss anything Harry Potter related!! 🤩 Besides, if you love it, we can also rant about Crimes of Grindelwald instead because I wasn’t the biggest fan of that one, either… 😅
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It seems like you had a pretty good reading month! I’ve heard so many great things about Robin Hobb so I may have to check out some of her books. Thank you so much for mentioning my post, I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
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Robin Hobb is awesome, so I can highly recommend you do check her books out! 🥰🤩🥰 And you’re very welcome – your discussion was super interesting, so of course I had to share it!
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That is an eventful month, indeed. I’m amazed that you managed to read that much despite everything you had going on. Also, congrats on your first full month of teaching, I’m eternally terrified of kids, so that seems like a gargantuan accomplishment! I was super absent from the blogsphere last month so you best believe I will be using your highlighted posts as a guide to check out what I missed!
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Honestly, I don’t know where I found the reading time either 🤣 Apparently, I took away some time managment skills from years of crazy university schedules after all!
And yes, do check out the posts! I feel like there were so many interesting discussions going on in March! 🤗
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Don’t mind me just popping in here 8 months late to thank you for sharing my post! I’m genuinely so glad that you found that post so relatable! And I’m also very excited to check out some of these other posts that you mentioned! I hope no one minds me visiting some of their older content!
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Don’t worry, you’re in great company! I’ve read people’s posts with way longer delays than eight months, so… better late than never, right? 😃 Besides, I always love when people check out my older content! It’s always such an unexpected surprise and gives me such a great opportunity to rediscover it right along with them 🥰 So I’m sure other people will appreciate it, too!
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