Otakon cosplay plans

I know it's still too early to really be posting about Otakon, but I wanted to talk about my cosplay plans. I've already got most everything planned out, and I've already ordered the two wigs I needed, so I really just needed something to funnel my excitement into.

Amamiya Hibiya from Mekakucity Actors

The song "Kagerou Daze" was what got me into the Kagerou Project fandom and the Mekakucity Actors anime, so I thought it'd be nice to honor my recent fandom by cosplaying the kid that got me into all of it in the first place. I also considered cosplaying Kisaragi Momo, but I decided to postpone that. Also, Otakon falls pretty close to the Heat Haze / time loop, so I figured it was relevant. He'll probably be my Saturday cosplay, since it'll be the most recognizable.

 Isaac O'Connor from Paranatural

Paranatural is my favorite webcomic right now. It's not all that big, but I love all of the characters and the premise of it. Isaac is pretty much my favorite character, and pretty much ever since he was introduced into the series I wanted to cosplay him. I'm not sure anybody would recognize me at the con, but I still want to do it anyway. (So he'll probably be my Sunday cosplay.)

art by burdge / coloring by juliajm15

Annabeth Chase from the Percy Jackson series

I've been looking at a lot of Percy Jackson fanart recently, though I initially found the artists through coincidence. Annabeth would be really easy to cosplay and still pretty recognizable, I think, so I'll probably be her on Friday. Originally she was going to be a backup for my Chimecho cosplay, since that one is a little more revealing than I'd like, but honestly at this point I'd rather cosplay Annabeth than Chimecho. I'm still not sure what I'd put on the t-shirt, though, because I've seen a couple different fanart designs and I'm not sure which one I like the best. (Probably the one where "CHB" is in stick-like black letters so the C looks like <.)

I don't think my plans will change between now and Otakon. The only thing I can think of would be having to drop Hibiya because the wig is currently on backorder, but that's a worst-case scenario. I'm really looking forward to Otakon at this point! I have easy cosplays planned that are of characters I really adore, and hopefully I won't have to worry about the weather!

Don't read the book first

(Possible spoilers for TFIOS)

I recently finished reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, and started on Heroes of Olympus. Even before starting the series, I'd heard that the movie The Lightning Thief was terrible. And was curious about it anyway. So when I finished The Last Olympian, I asked my friend for his opinion on the first movie. He told me I should've watched the movie before reading the book.

I have learned that this is very good advice. Because the book is almost always better than the movie.

Movies end up having to simplify the books a lot -- whether it's streamlining the plot lines or cutting out dialogue / entire scenes. In the case of the Percy Jackson movies, they made enough changes that they establish a canon different from the books. I think that's why people didn't like them -- they were expecting to see all of the book's battle scenes, and they didn't get it. They ended up watching someone's creative liberties, when that's not what they wanted to watch. However, I really don't think a more faithful adaptation would've been better. It would have been too long, or possibly more confusing. (Percy's narration was what made the books perfect for me, but I'm not entirely sure you can effectively add that into a movie.) I personally think that The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters movies are fine if you see them as removed from the books they were based off of. I'm used to dealing with different established canons, whether it's for the Pokemon series in all its different mediums or Rise of the Guardians and the almost completely different Guardians of Childhood book series.

But, of course, The Lightning Thief is not the only book that got a movie. The Fault in our Stars was super hyped, and it's a fairly simple book, so not much would be cut, right?

Not exactly. Personally, I thought the TFIOS movie did a wonderful job, but by watching it with a friend who absolutely adores the book, she called to attention everything that had been cut between the book and the screen. The movie plays up the "tragic love story" even more than the book does, and while the movie still kept most of the well-known quotes, they apparently changed some of the circumstances in which they were said. (I didn't notice.) Whether these are creative liberties or just to simplify / shorten the movie, I'm not entirely sure. I've only read the book once a few months ago and it wasn't a book that made me pay attention to every single little detail. I mainly went just because I'd promised to go with my friend, not because I necessarily wanted to see the movie.

The main reason we're getting all of these YA movies is because the YA genre is a huge audience that's willing to pay over $10 for each time they see their favorite book on the screen. YA books aren't restricted to just teenagers -- kids younger than us still read the books, and a lot of adults seem to be jumping the bandwagon, either because it's new and interesting to them or to give themselves an added "cool" factor. And I love the fact that suddenly we're getting all of these movies for books I've read, like Divergent and If I Stay and The Maze Runner. However, the people in charge of making these movies don't necessarily care about staying completely faithful to the books. That's not the reason why they decide to adapt them. In some cases, like Divergent and TFIOS, the movie adaptations are great. Depending on who you talk to.

Because if you talk to a die-hard fan, they might be upset about the changes. Which makes the movie seem like a disappointment, when really it was a great movie. The general consensus I've noticed is that "the book is always better".

So the conclusion I've come to is: watch the movie first. The book will always elaborate more than the movie can. Not to say that reading the book first is bad. I just think it'll save some disappointment in the series when you go for the condensed version first. Now, if you read the book before the movie was ever announced, it can't be avoided.

Another alternative is to just set the bar low when you go to the movies. It's easier to be impressed by a movie you don't have extremely high expectations for.

Books I've Read -- May

Sorry for not posting anything else during May!;; I really didn't do anything interesting to blog about other than read... I'll hopefully have at least a few cosplay posts coming up before Otakon this August!

The Fault in our Stars by John Green, finished 5/1. Reviewed in a separate post because I had a lot of thoughts about it.

The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White, finished 5/2. The Chaos of Stars was a pretty quick read -- I checked it out right around 7:00am and had it finished by 6:00pm at the latest, classes and going to the public library included within that time frame. I loved the concept of the book. I don't think I've ever read a book regarding Egyptian gods. It's always Greek or Roman. Never Egyptian. And I liked that sense of unknown, learning about a culture I'd only briefly googled and searched wikipedia for in context of references peppered through other series. One thing I can say is that Isadora is a very rebellious teenager. But stuck in that middle school mentality at an age where she should have gotten over it long ago. Whether this is due to her relative isolation to the rest of the world and actual human contact, I can't exactly say. But I thought the rest of the characters were pretty okay (even if Ry was pretty predictable). And I liked Isadora's sentiments about not needing romance in life and turning down Ry's advancements for most of the book, even if there was her dark "everything is finite and will end" mentality behind it. I liked being able to read about a girl who didn't fall for the guy at first. Whose relationship with him was more than just 'I like you like that but I'm not sure if I want to get with you'. The romance was fairly standard for a YA novel, though. It wasn't entirely unique. I really wish there was a sequel, though.

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan, finished 5/14. One of my friends was really surprised that I had only read the first book of the Percy Jackson series, and when I said it was because I couldn't find the second book at the library at all, he lent his copy to me. And I probably would've read it a lot faster if it weren't for the two AP tests I had soon after he gave the book to me. I really liked The Sea of Monsters! I think the Percy Jackson books are just unfamiliar enough that I can't really see what's coming, and I really like that. I also like that it incorporates something as old as Greek mythology with modern-day stuff. It makes it a lot easier for me to understand. (If only we could study this in school instead of the originals. I'd enjoy it more.) I was also caught off guard by the ending. The only negative thing I have to say about the book is the narration, as it is a little ... stiff? It is considered a "middle grade" book, so it's understandable. And it's not even so much as stiff, but it does sound like a stereotypical, reckless middle school boy telling a long but organized story. Which could be good or bad, depending on if you can tolerate that kind of storytelling.

The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr, finished 5/16. I don't have much to say about this book. It was honestly kind of boring -- I ended up putting it down a lot. It could just be the narration, which, according to goodreads, was a step out of the box for the author (using 3rd POV instead of a usual 1st). I also thought the relationships were a little weird, as well. The characters seemed out of character for themselves at some points through the book (like being soft / mean when they were usually the opposite), and Lucy's crushes on two different teachers was a little weird. I mean, the book's not terrible, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to read it again.

The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan, finished 5/19. I am enjoying this series a lot more than I expected to. I think I really needed to read about mythology and reckless middle-school aged kids after reading so many melodramatic YA books with so little action. I kind of wish there was a little bit more about the di Angelo twins, and that Bianca got a little more time, but I also hope that there'll be more in the next book. (Also, I found a geographical error, but that's just me being a nerd and has no impact to the story.) Again, I really liked how the mythology was worked with to fit in the 21st century.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman, finished 5/20. Someone in my English class recommended this to me, saying it was kind of like Harry Potter, but written for adults. He said he really liked it, and I trusted him, so I read it. Which took me a long time. (Just over two weeks.) It was ok, though it was really out of my genre range. I have a hard time reading books written for adults, especially when they're large books with really tiny print. (The library's copy was.) The book also covered a lot of time, at least six years, when in YA it probably would have been made into an entire series. Either the plot wasn't paced correctly, or I'm just not used to reading things outside YA. I wouldn't have finished it if it weren't for my classmate asking for what I thought about it whenever we saw each other.

False Sight by Dan Krokos, finished 5/21. There was a really big shift between False Memory and False Sight. The first thing I noticed was the narration, which really threw me off. I'm not used to first person present and there were often two or three simple sentences when they could've been combined together into one longer sentence. (That also made me self-conscious about my own writing. And I've been struggling to write since I realized it.) There were also huge elements of the plot that weren't really any part of False Memory, which was actually pretty annoying. There was no groundwork at all for what happened (to be spoiler-free) and it seemed to just come out of nowhere. I didn't feel any sort of attachment to the characters, and I really only finished it because of how much free time I've had in school recently.

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan, finished 5/23. I forgot everything I had to say about the book;; I liked it, but basically everything I said in the past two reviews for the Percy Jackson series applies. I was surprised by one of the plot twists regarding the characters, though. Which could have been caused mainly by my lack of knowledge regarding the mythology around the labyrinth. I don't know. I'm a little nervous about the series ending with the next book.

Prodigy by Marie Lu, finished 5/26. I read Legend well over a year ago, so I struggled a little bit to pick up the series again. I really liked learning more about the Colonies, which is apparently something I'd wondered about when I wrote my review of Legend. It was also really easy to read, and I ended up reading around half the book in a day. I'm pretty unfamiliar with the military and politics (since those are about the same in the Republic), but I think the books have done a good enough job to include the terms but also make it easy enough to get by without a large understanding. I really liked the narration differences between June and Day, especially the font and colors used for each of them. It made it really easy to know when the perspective was changing. (*cough* Unlike Allegiant.)

Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff, finished 5/26. Stormdancer took me a long time to finish, partially because of the small print of the paperback copy I had and partially because I carried it in my messenger bag and really only read it when I was outside of the house and bored. (I've had it since November.) And part of that could also be how slow the beginning seemed to be, which really wasn't compelling me to pick up the book instead of checking my iPod. But, as I got further into the book, things did pick up. (Though the frequent pick up / put downs I had with the book made it a little confusing when things were actually happening, because I'd lose my place on the page and forget what's happening.) I can say that the book would probably be confusing to someone who doesn't have a strong understanding of Japanese terms / language, though there is a glossary at the back that I hadn't noticed until the book ended with 15 pages left. I am glad I finished it, though. And I do feel a little bad about letting the book get some wear and tear before handing it over to Gigi (and for taking so long.)

Leap of Faith by Jamie Blair, finished 5/28. The goodreads summary for Leap of Faith was really interesting, but the book itself kind of wasn't. I don't know if it's just my lack of understanding regarding growing up in a broken family and drugs or what, but I really had trouble understanding Leah/Faith's reasoning. Kidnapping a baby is one thing. Trying to take care of the baby completely on your own and lying constantly to the people that are helping you out is completely different. I understood why she wanted to get Addy out of the situation she was born in, but she had plenty of opportunities to come clean to the family that was helping her, and she just took advantage of them instead. I started getting pretty annoyed with Leah/Faith by the end of the book. And it ends pretty poorly. If there was a sequel, that'd be one thing, but the ending didn't actually resolve anything at all.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, finished 5/31. I knew from the moment that I saw Fangirl at B&N that I wanted to read it. It was really my first time reading about a character that I felt I could entirely relate to. I've never really written any fanfiction, especially not anything as nearly as popular as Carry On, Simon supposedly is, but the absolute adoration for a series (dressing up, release dates, walls covered in posters and fanart) was something that I loved seeing printed in an actual book. And Fangirl had a lot more than just fandom-related problems -- there was the issue of adjusting to college life, and family problems, and relationships (which thankfully did not involve a triangle / V at all). I do wish that a little more attention had been put into Cath's reluctance to write original fiction instead of fanfiction, and her eventual finished final project, instead of her just putting it off. Also, it was really cool to have excerpts from the Simon Snow series and Cath's fanfictions. I would probably read the Simon Snow series, to be honest;; And I would probably also buy my own copy of Fangirl if I found myself with enough extra money to.