Oh So Geeky

Four books ago, I was introduced to the world of Velcro: The Ninja Kat by Chris Widdop . His anthropomorphize world of animals using magic and the ensuing conflict of corruption was a real treat to start reading. Now, his series is  coming to a close with the fifth book Velcro: The Egg Hunters – which he gave me a copy of in exchange for a review. Following Tails Mask's widespread fiery attack that had brought an abrupt end to the Polluted War, the world has fallen into chaos. And in the ensuing confusion, many key players have gone mysteriously missing, including the villainous Tails Mask, as well as our hero, Velcro the Ninja Kat herself.  Having now seen just how powerful and dangerous Magic can be in the wrong hands, war has once more been reinvigorated, as a new military faction known as the Phoenix Corps has arisen with the express task of eradicating all remaining Magicians the globe over, and have set their sights on those harboring solace in the Country of Rath. And...

Sony Pictures Releasing Every generation of bookworms experience a new adaptation of Little Women.  As Hollywood brings author Louisa May Alcott's tale to the big screen for the seventh time, it's easy to believe the beloved story fulfills another quota for the reboot machine. Unlike most recent flailing remakes that fail to step out of the box or honor the original, director Greta Gerwig instills enough changes to revitalize the classic as well as stick to its roots. Set during the Civil War, the March sisters face trials and tribulations with their place in the world. While Jo (Saoirse Ronan) aspires to be an independent writer, she struggles alongside her sisters Amy (Florence Pugh), Beth (Eliza Scanlen), and Meg (Emma Watson) to follow their passions or find economic stability through marriage.

Warner Bros. Pictures It's been two years since director Andy Muschietti's adapation of IT took the horror genre by storm. Fans have been craving, dreaming, and waiting for the second half of Stephen King's novel to finally wrap up The Losers Club's battle against Pennywise. In a weird twist of fate, the sequel combines enough elements from the book to be a faithful adaptation, but doesn't organize it enough to feel like a satisfying final chapter. This review contains spoilers and flashing gifs- read at your own risk!

Gillian Flynn's novels are easily some of the most difficult contemporary stories to adapt. She's one of the most hardcore voices out there that dives deep into her anti-heroines' psyche, often weaving their experiences into a disturbing, no-holds-barred thriller. Even after the successful adaptation of Gone Girl (and the forgettable flop  Dark Places ) , one never knows how her rage-filled worlds will come to life. With three generations of complicated female characters tackling everything from misogyny to self-harm and abuse, her original debut novel Sharp Objects becomes a damn fine mini-series. This post deals with themes of the book and show - self-harm, abuse, rape, etc - and contains spoilers - you've been warned.

One of the great joys of watching a series evolve is the growth of the story, characters, and worldbuilding. Every addition reveals where the journey is going to venture. When author Chris Widdop announced the fourth installment Polluted War for the Velcro series, I was excited to receive a copy to review. A masked vigilante feline Velcro begins her adventure in Velcro: The Ninja Kat , righting the wrongs in the Country of Widows when villages across the region are attacked and the activities of a military organization The Devil Corps becomes increasingly suspicious. As the series moves along with The Green Lion and The Masquerade , Velcro begins to understand her connection to the land's magic,  and just how deep the corruption with her enemies runs. Her strength helps win allies to join her cause but also the attention of those from the other side who want to stop her. Now, in Polluted War , the stakes are at their highest as Velcro delves deeper into a war that continues ...

In the right hands, Disney villains can be a fascinating source of storytelling for so-called bad guys. Fans can learn more about antagonists on a deeper level that's often lacking in the animated movies. While I wouldn’t consider the Beast / Prince from Beauty and the Beast a villain per say, an intriguing potential backstory can be explored about his value towards superficiality versus true inner beauty. The Beast Within changes quite a lot about what we know of Disney’s the Prince. For one, he’s great friends with Gaston. Hunting animals and looking down on others, especially women who don't meet their standards, is primarily what they have in common. When the Prince falls in love with a woman who is beautiful, but nothing more than a farm girl, it’s just about the worst thing that could happen. But not in the way he assumes. After a humiliating breakup, she and her sisters reveal themselves to be Enchantresses. Out for revenge, they place a curse on him by turning him ...

With a harrowing protagonist and imaginative setting,  Velcro: The Ninja Kat  by Chris Widdop brings a fun twist to the vengeance-driven hero. This spirited adventure centers on The Ninja Kat, a feline who's vowed for vengeance and justice against the Devil Corps, a military organized that's waged war against its own people. For what reason, only the Ninja Kat knows. In a bid to stop the carnage before it's too late, the masked vigilante thwarts their evil schemes and infiltrates nearby regions to make alliances with survivors and give aid to prisoners. The tale's sequels The Green Lion and The Masquerade ventures further along Velcro's journey as the world becomes more aware of the Devil Corps. In this strange, new world, a hero and fellow inhabitants are pushed to join in the fight or succumb to evil. Even though I'm not a seasoned reader of action/adventure, and couldn't remember the last time I've read a series with anthropomorphic animals, W...

When I saw  The Martian out of the blue earlier this year, I really didn't expect it to be an instant fave. I hadn't heard of the book at the time, and being all out of energy for people-stranded-in-space movies, director Ridley Scott's film didn't hold a lot of interest. But when I saw the flick in theaters, finding the book became one of my biggest missions of the year. After a desperate search through two lost copies, I was happy to finally see if the book lived up to the movie and vice versa. As the story goes, a violent storm forces the Ares 4 crew to evacuate their mission on Mars. During their departure, biologist Mark Watney is lost in the chaos and deemed dead. Unknown to his crewmates on their way home to Earth, he's very much alive and must forge survival with scavenged equipment on a desolate planet.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is finally out. It's the official eighth installment of J.K. Rowling's fantastical world as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger pass the wand off to their children's experiences at Hogwarts. The book is a companion script to the play that will be begin on the London West End. On Harry Potter's thirty-sixth birthday, the special rehearsal edition of the play was published. Of course, I lined up for the  midnight release party  and was super excited to be apart of the phenomenon once again. Even though we're encouraged to "keep the secrets", the play is public now and I couldn't help but want to share my thoughts. WARNING BEYOND THIS POINT - this review contains spoilers.

Imperfect human nature resorts to chaos. Chicago's remaining leaders Evelyn (Naomi Watts) and Johanna (Octavia Spencer) wage war to protect the remaining population's best interests left behind by Jeanine's violent ruling. Tris and her co. venture outside their city's barricades and discover the truth behind the faction system: the Bureau of Genetic Welfare uses pure test subjects like Tris to correct human weaknesses and fortify a perfect genetic disposition. All is not what it seems in this "safe haven". The next leg of the  Divergent franchise  journey plants us further way from the prequels than anyone could've imagined. Unlike the first two series where Tris was challenged to find out what it means to be Divergent and how it's a blessing, here she simply lacks drive. More incited wars don't outrage her. A new nemesis's dubious priorities fail to illicit alarm. She's more inviting to settling down outside of Chicago without real...

Since the epic finale of Harry Potter and Twilight,  several young adult franchises tried to compete against the next-best phenomenon The Hunger Games . The list of franchises failing to get beyond a first installment  is insane:  Beautiful Creatures, The Golden Compass, The Mortal Instruments, Vampire Academy, Ender's Game, The Host, The Giver - to name a few. A lack of interest by movie goers matched with negative reviews by critics is what has killed these potential series. Except for Divergent - the young adult series authored by Veronica Roth. Successfully making its way into a third installment despite less than favorable reviews is a major feat. Though it's not a universal favorite between reviewers and fans, and reached the same phenomenon level as Hunger Games or Potter, it's survived somehow. I, for one, love the Divergent series . With the three-quel on its way to theaters, I realized how much my fandom for the series is quite ambivalent; a mixed bag of ...

One of my favorite summer reads used to be Nicholas Sparks' books. I say used to because when he was served with a lawsuit in 2014 claiming racist and homophobic  behavior, my hobby was somewhat buzzkilled. It was hard to separate the claims from what he was writing. Not only that, but every adaptation following  The Notebook sizzles out into the Blandlands. A lot of people will say his books are virtually the same and I'd agree: they are all about pretty people who are shot with a love-at-first-sight arrow by a North Carolinian cupid. Two people spend two hours or 300 pages in love with each other and don't face the obstacle challenging their true love until the third act. Despite reading the same thing over and over again, there were adaptations I looked forward to - Safe Haven , Nights in Rodanthe , Dear John . Yet every time, something fell flat - either the direction, the acting, the script, or all three. When I heard last year that  The Choice  was goi...

2009 took a turn for the unexpected for the publishing industry: a mash-up of classic literature and supernatural sprang up in every book genre. Author Seth Grahame-Smith mixed Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice with zombies, which was followed by Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and  Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters . When I initially saw the parody novels in bookstores, I didn't know what to think - was it a joke? were classics so uninteresting they had to be remade? Fast forward five years I couldn't wait for this movie, and now I'm jumping on the book as soon as possible. It is a truth universally acknowledged that Hollywood has done its fair share of Pride and Prejudice adaptations. In its most recent version the Regency era is an alternative world where England is coming under siege by zombies. A class system breaks out between the wealthy who can afford to learn defense skills, and those who cannot, as well as humans and zombies. Out in the open countrys...

Photo Credit: Fifty Shades of Grey / Universal Pictures One of the most negatively panned and yet most talked-about series ever should have nowhere to go up but up when it's adapted to the big screen. Of course, pun implied, we're talking about  Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy by E.L. James, the literary, erotic, and controversial phenomenon. And yet for all the anticipation both by legions of devoted  haters and fans, the highly anticipated adaptation manages to coast between the lines to lack that something special the books achieved. BDSM billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) recruits a young virginal graduate Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) into "his red room of pain", aka a sexual contract where she becomes his submissive. He has rules. If she follows them, he'll reward her. If she fails them, he'll punish her. A chance encounter sparks a torrid relationship between the two, one that leaves Ana questioning if she wants a relationship where pai...

{ source } Hollywood has been circulating a remake of director Alfred Hitchcock's  The Birds for more than ten years. Every time a director and a writer commit to the overhaul, the project inevitably falls apart. It's seen its fair share of possible leading stars like Nicole Kidman, George Clooney, and Naomi Watts, hinting that it would be a retelling of his specific version rather than a take on the actual novel. Being a big fan of not only the original film but also Daphne DuMaurier's short story, I finally felt it was time to let go of how I've always imagined the original source material translating to the big screen. The original 1963 film was a cinematic introduction to model Tippi Hedren as Melanie Daniels, a complicated socialite who meets a charismatic lawyer Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) in a pet shop. Traveling to his hometown island Bodega Bay, she aims to surprise his younger sister with a pair of love birds. During her trip, flocks of birds attack t...

Set in a futuristic Chicago, a city is made up of five factions based on various virtues. As teenagers, your rite of passage into society is to take an aptitude test which shows you which house you belong in. If you're brave or smart you belong in Dauntless or Erudite, respectively. Or you may belong in Abegnation or Candor, if you're selfless or honest. And, there's Amity, which stays out of the conflict by holding onto peace. If you don't belong in any faction - which holds more value than your own family - you are Divergent. Veronica Roth's series follows Beatrice Prior, a young woman who grew up in Abegnation and choose to join Dauntless. Her reasons, however, are skeptical. After her own aptitude results, she discovers that she is Divergent. The true faction that she belongs to is one that can't be controlled by the government, where its people live on the outskirts of the city, homeless, jobless, and without a respectable place in society. By choos...

At age twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed had lost her mother Bobbi to cancer, who she considered to be the love of her life. Her brother, sister, and step-father essentially drifted apart after Bobbi passed away and was the glued that held them together. Strayed became an heroine addict and cheated on her husband with multiple partners to the point where her confession led to their divorce. The trip alongside the Pacific Crest Trail is one of purging her spirit of things that had happened to her, and understanding how she ended up where she is by taking one long physically-emotionally exhausting path to do so. Strayed provides a wonderful narrative of her life that is both broken and solid. There is a trend in Hollywood and literature that females are not considered adults, therefore have to baby up their language, sexuality, brains, and humor in order to gain a wider audience. Strayed had so much baggage it feels like you were wearing her overstuffed mountain gear along with her as s...

Photo Credit: The Fault in Our Stars / 20th Century Fox Hazel Grace (Shailene Woodley)'s thyroid cancer has progressively grown into lung cancer. For the time being her condition is stable when she meets Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort) at a support group. Accepting her limited lifespan which has no specific expiration date, Grace tries to limit the relationships she's involved in by not wanting to hurt the people she loves. As she and Gus become friends, her will to avoid his attempts at wooing fail. The typical young adult genre of "love worth dying for" transforms into a story of love worth living for. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green was originally published in 2012 and has managed to stay atop bestseller's list for the past two years. The story of teenagers falling in love despite facing the inevitability of oblivion has become a cultural phenomenon. Millions of readers dote on how the novel captures a voice of a generation, a relationship centered a...

With the help of admirer Alex Prud Homme, six-footer Julia Child recounts the several years she and her husband, Paul Child, spent together in France where her cooking ambitions began in her autobiography My Life In France . What began as a passion towards the French cuisine grew into a cooking empire, and still one of the most influential and iconic cookbooks  Mastering the Art of French Cooking . Every chapter is simple and easy to breeze through. Once in a while, I'll come across an autobiography where the content is so detailed it seems the author is suffering from the classic celebrity syndrome of an unbearably huge ego. None of that can be found here. The Californian-native is detailed about her relationships with fellow Gourmettes and her ventures into the publishing and television world without long-winded stories that finish in a dead-end. Child's descriptions of the scrumptious foods she made are absolutely mouth-watering. The deeply devoted Democrat leads us t...

By the looks of my previous review  for  Divergent  by Veronica Roth (the predecessor to this book), it would seem that I would not touch the rest of the series with a ten foot pole. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, because a girl crush for Shailene Woodley commenced followed by a decent adaptation , I somehow felt compelled to put myself through continuous torture. So, here is my review of Insurgent. Picking up where the last book finished, our heroine Tris and her beau Four have ended the first round of drug-induced simulations where Dauntless (brave faction) were brainwashed to commit mass genocide against Abnegation (selfless faction). On the run from Jeanine Matthews, head of the Erudite faction (intelligence), the lovebirds and company escape to Amity (peace faction). Their next move is to discover why Matthews is hellbent on capturing the Divergent - society members like Tris and Four with special traits that make them immune to her mind-controllin...