Divergent Review

I'm creating a separate post for Divergent because I have a lot to say, and I don't want to take over half of my "Books I've Read" with just one book. There might be spoilers for the book or series as a whole, though I usually try to avoid those in reviews. Anyway:

Divergent by Veronica Roth, finished 3/18. I first read Divergent a while ago -- either before or right around when Insurgent came out. And the first time, I loved it. To bits. I've been excited for the movie ever since I learned there was going to be one. Unfortunately, then Allegiant happened. I decided to re-read Divergent just to brush up on what happened before I go see the movie, and to hopefully restore some faith in the series. 

... It didn't help. Yes, I think Divergent is still my favorite out of the series, but it wasn't quite as strong as I remembered it. Maybe I'm just getting sick of dystopians and (practically) insta-love romances. Maybe the writing reminds me a little too much of how I feel about my own writing. (Which is to say, not very highly.) Maybe I'm just subconsciously so mad about Allegiant that I refuse to love the series. I don't know. 

One thing I can definitely say is that I feel like Tris and Four seemed weaker the second time around. It could be from knowing what goes on in the other two books. It could be because I've read more books since the first time, ones with stronger characters. It could be because they're flat characters. I can't tell you for certain. And honestly, I'm not sure I could point out any specific character growth over the course of the series. Divergent Tris and Four don't seem much different from Allegiant Tris and Four in my mind.

I can also say that the lack of a love V is a strong plus for the series. I'm so incredibly sick of those. So while Tris and Four sort of suffer from insta-love, at least Tris isn't trying to choose one of two guys. And I think their relationship is more realistic than some I've read. They disagree, they fight, and they apologize. (Or at least as far as I can remember. I do know that they disagree a lot.)

So while I don't think that the characters are strong, I do love the world-building. I think factions could definitely replace Hogwarts houses as a way to quickly identify yourself and others with an ideology. (Which is the point of factions, anyway.) And I think a part of my love for the setting is the fact that I visited Chicago before I ever learned about the books. I could clearly picture the "capture the flag" scene in my head, and at least had a pretty good understanding of places in the rest of the book. I wish the world-building had been clearer towards the beginning of the series, as you really don't learn the basics of their world as a whole until Allegiant.

And I seriously don't think it works well to compare Divergent to the Hunger Games series. Really, all they share is a dystopian society. They work in very different ways. And besides, there's no love V in Divergent. I don't think it's really fair to keep comparing books to the most recent best-seller.

TL;DR I would recommend the book, but I don't think that it quite deserves all of the hype and prestige it's being given by the media.

As for the movie, I would recommend that even more. I think the movie can stand alone without reading the book, and the movie does differ from the book a significant amount, but I think the background knowledge would help. The movie has to cover a whole lot of ground in about an hour and a half, so some things are skipped over or just barely touched. I'm going to make an entire post for a movie review as well, but I'm not going to avoid spoilers for the movie. 

Books I've Read -- Feb

February has felt like a slow month. Maybe it's just because there are fewer days than the other months.

Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier, finished 2/3. So apparently I read Ruby Red exactly a year ago, finishing it 2/4/13. I had no idea. I have to say that I liked Sapphire Blue more than I liked the first book, but I still don't think it warrants being anything more than a one-time read. All I can remember from Ruby Red is Gwen completely fawning over Gideon. While that still happens in Sapphire Blue, it at least has some plot, and the feelings seem to be mutual. It's also kind of frustrating that Gwen, and by extension the reader, are given no answers for what's going on or why nobody will tell Gwen anything. The goodreads ratings for both books seem to be pretty high, so I might be in the "eh" minority for this one, but I also don't trust goodreads ratings all that much after I noticed that Itch showed it had no two-star ratings even after I gave it one.

Just One Day by Gayle Forman, finished 2/6. So I've learned that Gayle Forman's books are heartbreaking, but they're also really good. (I rated If I Stay and Where She Went as three stars, but that was mainly because I couldn't handle how sad they made me feel.) Just One Day started out as a fluffy romance, and then things just fell apart. And, of course, there was a point towards the middle where I was wondering why Allyson wasn't doing anything to fix the situation. But then she did. And from that point on, I absolutely loved the book. I noticed Allyson fell into a trend that can be seen in at least a few Sarah Dessen books, among others -- the girl is super book-smart and is always working to be "perfect", which is all due to their mother's insistence, and eventually they snap and rebel against their mother and everything goes downhill. It's not a bad thing, but the fact that I've noticed it a few different times in contemporary YA is making me question if it's a trope or a growing trend.

Cress by Marissa Meyer, finished 2/7. I don't even know where to start with this book. It was amazing -- everything I had hoped for and more. I wish I had more friends into the Lunar Chronicles, because there was so much I wanted to talk about, but I felt kind of dumb rambling on about it to people who have never read the books, and I felt bad about spoiling it for Alexa (though she didn't mind). Anyway, I think Cress might be my favorite, even compared to Cinder. I think my only wish would be to hear more about Scarlet, as there were only a few chapters on her specifically. I think Iko's my favorite character though. Iko's so cute! I really suggest this series if you haven't read it already. I'm kind of sad that the series will be ending next year, but I absolutely can't wait to see what ends up happening in Winter.

Invisibility by Andrea Cremer and David Levithan, finished 2/10. I was actually pretty disappointed with Invisibility by the time I reached the end. It started out okay, though I did have a few questions -- Stephen's invisibility and Elizabeth's ability to see him were explained by the middle of the book, but the whole "omg the new girl next door can see me when nobody else could before" and the basic insta-love weren't all that great to start out with. The book started out with a basic explanation of Stephen's predicament -- which is understandable as basic info to know going into the book, but it just felt like an info dump. There was no plot to it. It also switched POV every chapter, which took the entire book to really get used to, especially with my habit of reading bits and pieces whenever I can in class. None of the chapters were labeled as to which narrator it was and I often got a page or more into a chapter before realizing I was wrong about who was narrating. And then somewhere in the middle, everything just turned angsty. I ended up mad at the ending of the book because I felt like nothing was resolved. I was holding out just to see if there was going to be a sequel book, but goodreads suggests it's a standalone book. And as a standalone book, it's not good.

The Obsidian Mirror by Catherine Fisher, finished 2/21. I hadn't realized I'd marked this as to-read when I picked it up from the library. I also didn't realize then that it was a little out of my genre range. But I still read it. I'd say it was pretty good! To me, it had almost a "shounen anime" kind of feel to it. I'm not sure if I can really give it a good review, because it isn't what I usually focus on. I still enjoyed it, though, so that should count for something. I think the only problem I really had with The Obsidian Mirror was that everybody was keeping secrets from everyone else and not much was explained, but that might go along with the genres it fits into. I'm not quite sure.

Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow, finished 2/28. I honestly didn't think I'd finish it in enough time to stick it in this blog post. This book was long -- not really so much with the pages, but the font was fairly small and there was a lot of text per page. But I managed to finish! Most likely thanks to a few classes in school where we did almost nothing and I had the time to sit there and tackle it. I picked up Pirate Cinema on a whim. Honestly, I don't think the book jacket summary really matched what goes on in the book. (Goodreads does a better job.) It was a little hard for me to read Trent's narrative at times, but that was mainly because he went on talking about a ton of guy stuff, and I'm obviously a girl that has no idea what he's talking about. The computer / technical stuff got a little bit confusing as well because I don't know too much complicated technology like that. The computer stuff was usually explained, at least in how it was important to the plot. But it wasn't too bad. Other than that, I liked all of the characters. They were pretty cool. The ending of the book seemed pretty fast, at least in the amount of pages it took up compared to the rest of the book. I don't think I'll read it again, but it was still pretty good. Honestly, the future that's painted in Pirate Cinema is pretty believable. I think the book wrapped up a little too nicely, but it also seems like a standalone book, so it at least kind of makes sense for that.

Current Makeup Kit

I do actually use makeup. Just ... rarely. Really rarely. Meaning: cosplay. And concealer and maybe mascara if I want to look nice for the day.

I don't remember where I got most of these or how much they cost. They were most likely from Target or CVS and were most likely under $5, especially if I had a coupon. Everything is definitely under $10. Because I'm cheap. Also, I'm super pale, so keep that in mind in regards to the colors I chose.

BB cream: I used this as my foundation until I found my foundation again, which matched my skin color better. I use the BB cream now for when I don't want to look as pale as I normally do. (And it has sunblock in it.) 

Foundation: I actually forgot I  had this for the longest time;; It had started to separate so I put didn't use it often. And then it got completely replaced by the BB cream until I rediscovered the foundation bottle. I shook it up more and it works just fine! 

Eyeliner pencil and mascara: I bought these because they were supposed to work well with my eye color. There were at least three different color options (at least for green, blue, and brown eyes). I actually can't tell what color my eyes truly are, because different people tell me different things and they're more of a mix of both colors to me. 

I really don't remember what set I bought. The other set I was debating was something along the lines of "sapphire blue".

Concealer: I think I've had this the longest? I use it to cover up zits if they're really bothering me. It doesn't make them go completely away (you can still tell I have something), but it does do a really good job at making them look less bad. 

Eyeliner pencil: To be honest, I don't think I've ever really used this for eyeliner. I've always used it to darken my eyebrows;; The black tends to smudge, though I don't know if I put too much on my face at one time. The green has worked really well when I've used it for my Gumi cosplay. 

I keep everything in a cute bag I picked up from Otakon! I also have a SHINee "Sherlock" pouch and a cute Rapunzel and prince-like couple, but I don't have pictures of those bags. All three were made by this lovely artist!

The other side of the pouch is cute too! 

I also attempted to swatch my concealer, BB cream, and foundation (from left to right), but I think I used too much... 

I don't think my hand makes for a very good model, because a lot of my face has a pinkish tint that my hands don't have. It's also winter so my hands are constantly dry and cracked, which is pretty obvious;; 

I also did a Target run before Katsucon. The liquid eyeliner I haven't opened yet, but it was to replace one I had a year ago that got lost in my backpack and dried out. I suck at liquid eyeliner, so it'll mainly be for my Matryoshka Gumi makeup. The pencils are combination eyeliner / eyebrow pencils, which have worked well during a cosplay test so far! The powder foundation is to (hopefully) keep my makeup better ... sealed? Is that the right word? The powder foundation is also really nice. 

 I took before and after photos of a quick makeup test, but I don't like how they turned out, so I'm not going to include them. Sorry! Anyway, this is all the makeup I use when cosplaying. And it'll probably stay that way for a while, as I don't see myself running out of any of the makeup anytime soon;;

Katsucon 2014

Katsucon XX was held Feb 14 - 16 at the Gaylord National in National Harbor, Maryland. It was my fourth year of attending Katsucon! I still can't really believe it. I've been con-going for four years now, and I think it's only gotten better as time has gone on.

I spent most of the weekend with Emily and her boyfriend Jason. It was a little bit awkward, especially on Friday it was Valentines Day and I was third-wheeling, but it was still fun nonetheless. Neither of them had been to Katsucon before (and it was Jason's first anime convention), so I acted as a kind of tour guide for them. Luckily, I've finally gotten a good handle of the Gaylord's layout, so we never really got lost.

I also got to meet a lot of sempais this year! I was lucky enough to cross paths with mangosirene, domineau, alexpinku, and stickehbun, and I also got to meet up with staciastarburst, who I started talking to through tumblr. I also got to talk to uberwren, dejavudea, and Alec from DTP. It amazes me that people know and remember my name / face after meeting them!

I spent less money than I have in previous years, but I think I came home with more? I don't have a definite comparison compared to other conventions or previous Katsucons, but I still came home with $90 after buying many posters from AA and a few things from Dealer's. I think one of the favorite things I bought was my Tsukino Usagi / Sailor Moon wig, which was only $40! I've always dreamed of cosplaying Usagi, and I'm finally taking those steps to completing it! I also got tons of cute Pokemon / RotBTD fanart (including a Jack Frost tote bag), and I got a print from the artist of High Tide, an animation short that has made me consider pursuing animation.

I didn't have any big cosplay plans this year. Friday I wore the blue hamster kigurumi I bought at last year's Katsucon. Saturday I wore a combination Jack Frost / Danny Phantom cosplay I made a week before the con, and on Sunday Emily and I cosplayed as Danny Phantom and Danny Fenton.

I think for once I didn't have any sort of problems with the convention at all! The past three years there have been conflicts regarding friends or sharing the Gaylord with another con, but this year there didn't seem to be any major problems! I'm really grateful for that. I was able to buy everything I wanted to, and much more than I actually needed to. I had lots of fun with my friends and I didn't feel any sort of insecurities about my cosplays. I wish I had recorded more video and vlogged more in-depth, but that's something I can improve on in the future, and I still was able to get around an hour's worth of video.

Books I've Read -- Jan

Yay! Books of 2014!

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis, finished 1/6. Enchanted is basically a retelling of pretty much any fairy tale you can come up with -- all wrapped up into one novel. Seriously, I didn't even bother counting. But for having as many different story elements as it did, Enchanted did okay with handling all of them. Sure, some of them were pretty cliche (but that comes with the territory, really), and some of the fairy tale references were just in passing. It was a really light-hearted book for me and I enjoyed it. However, it is kind of predictable, so I don't know if everyone would like it. (Goodreads reviewers also have an issue with the "insta-love" and plot, so I guess keep that in mind?)

Itch by Simon Mayo, finished 1/9. I originally wasn't going to finish the book. The margins were "messing with my zen". Eventually I did get over it, but the book was kind of a weird size for me. Anyway, I'd say the book overall was just okay. It wasn't absolutely terrible, but I'm still debating the three star rating I gave it. A lot of the book seemed implausible. I mean, okay, it's fiction, so you have a lot of wiggle room with it. But a fourteen year old being able to get his hands on dangerous elements (not to mention one that hasn't been discovered)? A teacher that's okay with torturing a student and possibly letting him die over the new element? Teachers that know a student has a radioactive chemical and don't do much about it? I was questioning a lot of characters' sanity over the book. If this actually a middle grade book like the Goodreads shelves suggest, then it makes sense in my head, but it seems too big of a book to really be middle grade. And there are no reviews of the book under three stars, which is fishy. I'm tempted to change my rating to two stars to see what happens.

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick, finished 1/30. I totally binge-read this book. I got over halfway through in one afternoon, and just about finished it in an hour the next day in school. It's a "fluffy romance book". And it was really cute! It reminded me slightly of Along for the Ride, especially with Samantha's relationship with her mom. Sam and Jace did seem to have a kind of insta-romance, but they've also been aware of each other's existence for a long time, so it's not like they just fell totally head over heels for someone they just met. I will say that the book was kind of lacking plot-wise -- not just with the romance, but also with how Sam is somehow good with babysitting Jace's siblings despite never doing it before (and she got a lot better than I did over one summer than I have over more than a year) and how it built up to the climax. Things built up slowly but steadily, creating a sort of perfect existence, and right when Sam points that out, it's pretty obvious that it's gonna go downhill from there. The whole "downhill" part seemed a little strange, though, because it wasn't just a few things crashing -- it was pretty much Sam's entire life that fell to pieces around her, and at least with Nan, it was for almost no reason at all. Like it fell to pieces just to make her life miserable, and for no other reason. Other than that, though, I did like the book. Sometimes predictable ones are okay to recover from an emotionally-tolling book. (Or Itch, which really bothered me.)

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, finished 1/30. You know, I should probably go back and add in all of the books I've read for English in the past. I'm glad that we were assigned The Glass Castle after having to read The Things They Carried and Fallen Angels. It was a really interesting story, especially since it's a memoir. Some of that stuff, you'd have to be really imaginative in order to make it up. Or just want to make the characters as miserable as possible.

January seemed like kind of a slow month for books. February is looking better, though, with the release of Cress and the remainder of the library books I have.