Books I've Read -- August

Sorry I'm like a week late! School started the last week of August and I honestly forgot about finishing this post until like two days ago;; But anyway, since school's started, I'm hopefully gonna have more books in the upcoming posts! I've already finished two books in school within the past two weeks, so that seems promising.

Among the Nameless Stars by Diana Peterfreund, finished 8/4. I read this because I found it online for free. It was a little hard for me to get back into the world of For Darkness Shows the Stars, but I think it was interesting to show what Kai went through. That said, I wasn't all that impressed with the first book in the series, so the little novella / short story didn't seem all that impressive, either.

Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund, finished 8/7. Surprisingly, I loved this book a lot more than I loved its prequel! Maybe it was just the setting and how it affected the storyline -- I really loved the tropical, Polynesian-like-ness of it. I also think the concept of both the main characters hiding secrets from each other worked out pretty well. I kind of wish that there was more to the book, especially since I think there's still so much of the world that could be explored, but I also think it ended nicely. The technology like flutternotes and the Helo Cure were pretty cool, too.

The Slanted Worlds by Catherine Fisher, finished 8/14. I liked that there was more of the concept of time travel in The Slanted Worlds, especially since in Obsidian Mirror it seemed like mostly world-building and angst. The way the book was set up was a little confusing, what with Alicia's diary and the split 3rd person narration, but it did work well in terms of creating suspense. There are still a bunch of things I'd like to know, though, so I'm hoping that the final book will cover that. Unfortunately, Goodreads lists its publication as 2015...

Emerald Green by Kerstin Gier, finished 8/20. I've gotta be honest -- up until about halfway through Emerald Green, I kept wondering why I continued reading this series. That said, once I reached about the halfway point, it got good really quickly. Like, almost whiplash fast. There were at least two plot twists pretty close to each other. I really wish that sort of action had been spread throughout the other two books as well; the end of Emerald Green was the most captivating the series had been for me. All of the questions I had were wrapped up almost simultaneously, and I can kind of understand why it took two and a half books to get to that point, though it had been long enough between the past two books that I'd forgotten a bunch of details that had been established in them. I'm planning to go back and re-read the series at some point, hopefully all at once, because from what I can remember, the series was set up well. It just took a while for it to be apparent.

Catch a Falling Star by Kim Culbertson, finished 8/23. Plausibility-wise, I'm pretty sure Catch a Falling Star is like 99.99% impossible, but it's a pretty cute, fluffy love story. Though honestly that's a little more depressing when you take into account that technically Carter is being paid to like him. I have no idea if any of the details about Hollywood business and stardom life are accurate; it did seem kind of weird for some random girl to just get paid to act as an actor's girlfriend. The character building seemed pretty good though, even if the story followed a typical fluffy-romance kind of setup. It wasn't exactly something to stand out, but I appreciated the fluff.

Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil, finished 8/29. I wasn't actually expecting much when I picked this up, so I was really surprised by how much I ended up liking it. I honestly really loved how the romance was slowly built up, and that it wasn't even apparent by, like, halfway through the book. The characters were all really interesting and more multi-layered than I'd expected. It took me a little bit to figure out where it was set, but other than that, I don't think I honestly had any problems or complaints? I think I'd definitely read it again sometime. Also, I think it definitely deserves mentioning that one of the side characters identified on the LGBT spectrum and wasn't treated out of the ordinary. I really liked that.

Otakon 2014

This year marked my third Otakon! It fell the weekend before my birthday again, and I've gotta say it's really cool to consider such a con as a sort of "birthday gift" from whatever luck of fate landed it that weekend.

That said, that luck of fate didn't quite carry over into the first part of the weekend.

On Wed, Emily and I tried to do some last-minute cosplay prep for her. We tried dyeing two different white tops for her rave Snow White cosplay, and both turned out purple instead of the intended blue. Luckily, the one she initially wanted to use turned out indigo when we left both in the dye overnight, so she was able to use it.

Emily and I decided to try Thursday badge pickup this year. And in case you didn't hear, it really backfired for everyone this year. We ended up getting a late start up to Baltimore that evening, getting in line sometime around 8:30, and unfortunately we were one of the thousands of people in line at 10:30 when they announced they were closing the doors. That really wasn't executed well -- while I can't blame the con for computer problems, the staffers were just yelling the news from where they were standing, and we really only heard from word-of-mouth spreading through the line. There were even a few staffers standing in front of the main entrance that had megaphones in their hands but weren't using them. So that wasn't very cool.

So Emily and I woke up early on Friday morning and started again with our usual camp-out until the doors opened. And it went much better. We were much further in the line than in the previous years, most likely due to the people in our situation, so I was a little worried about how long we'd have to wait. However, staff was able to open up registration earlier than planned, so while we were in line since sometime around 7, we were inside with our badges around 9. We were really grateful for that.

All in all, Otakon felt a little more chill than the other two years had. My original cosplay plans had fallen through for the most part, so the most recognition I'd gotten was on Friday as Annabeth Chase. I had a lot more fun than I expected as Annabeth! A lot of people recognized the cosplay or at least that I was from Camp Half-Blood. I didn't complete my Hibiya and Isaac cosplays because I figured the wigs wouldn't come in time. So of course they showed up Saturday while we were at the con;; Saturday I wore my Sailor Moon wig and a cute dress I liked, and on Sunday I went as an OC from my novel using the wig for Hibiya.

While I didn't go to any of the Sailor Moon panels or get any autographs, I was lucky enough to get the special coin! It took me all three days;; The Sailor Moon cosplayer had given both Emily and I the stamp sheets on Friday, so I was carrying around her unwanted one in my bag. I was only able to get two of the scouts on Friday, so Saturday morning I asked Emily to grab the sheet off my desk and she grabbed her empty one instead .... Luckily I was able to get the two I'd missed on Saturday, and on Sunday they were all much closer to the Viz booth, so I finished pretty soon after they'd started the event for the day! I also got pictures of all five scouts. I didn't get any of the shirts that they supposedly had, but I got two different official artwork posters, so I don't really mind.

I also totally overspent on Friday but managed to come in under budget in the long run! On Friday, I really only bought the things that I knew I wanted from artists I followed before the con had even started. Saturday and Sunday I bought less. My haul consisted of mainly posters, but I also came home with a Luna plushie, a shirt with "fight like a magical girl" on it, and a little Tuxedo Mask figurine from a blind box!

TL;DR despite the slight rocky start Otakon had, it was still a really good con overall! My con vlogs can be found here, and hopefully I'll have a new video up every Thursday!

Now begins the prep for Anime USA...

Books I've Read -- July

Still not spending as much time reading as I expected. I ended up not finishing half the books I checked out at the beginning of the summer...

Anything But Ordinary by Lara Avery, finished 7/5. The premise of Anything But Ordinary was really interesting, but it didn't really live up to it. Bryce was kind of an idiot and all of the characters are kind of static. Her powers were never really explained and didn't really even affect the plot as much as they should have, considering the description of the book. And it has a really disappointing ending. I think it might've been interesting as a series, maybe, but it didn't solve anything with the way it ended. It just introduced a lot of problems and just kind of left them there.

Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, finished 7/11. This book series is going to be the death of me, I swear. I'd been trying not to read it in a hurry, especially because I still have a stack of library books from the start of the summer, but I ended up starting to read it again during an all-nighter and finished about half the book in one sitting this afternoon. And I loved it. I think part of that might've been finally learning to keep Google Maps open as I read. Even though I caught a couple little geographical inaccuracies, it was really helpful to build a more accurate mental map. And the geographical inaccuracies were really just because I'd been to Anchorage already and realized some of the street names in the book didn't match up exactly to real life. Anyway, I'm really glad I bought a copy of this book. And now I just want Mark of Athena. Right now. It ended almost the exact same way as The Lost Hero did and I really don't want to have to freaking wait to keep reading.

Vortex by SJ Kincaid, finished 7/14. You know, I don't think I ever wrote a review for Insignia. So I'll kind of combine them. I really like the premise of the series, since it's almost like Ender's Game but a lot closer to home -- also considering it takes place just across the Potomac. I've gotta admit, Tom is a complete idiot, but combined with the rest of the cast, his dynamic is super interesting. It's also kind of similar to Legend, I think, in the way of futuristic things and war and politics. Vortex did surprise me with what it pulled, so I'm really looking forward to reading Catalyst when it comes out.

Starglass by Phoebe North, finished 7/16. Starglass reminds me a lot of the Across the Universe series. It's mainly just because they kind of have the same premise, what with traveling in a spaceship to colonize a new planet. It was really interesting to read, and I've gotta say I did enjoy it more than I liked Across the Universe.  There was one part that tied in to the end of Starglass that's a little questionable, but I'm hoping it'll be explained more in the coming book. I also wish there was more of the diaries that were given to Terra, but that's just something small.

Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan, finished 7/21. Mark of Athena, man. I think it might be my favorite so far. 600 pages, and I read it in 24 hours. That's a record. It was great. Annabeth is definitely my favorite character, and I'm super excited to cosplay her at Otakon. All of the characters are great, honestly, and there's so much more to everyone than I'd figured. Their dynamic is the best. They're so much stronger than I could ever be in the situations they've been thrown into. I didn't keep Google Maps open with this like I did for Son of Neptune, but they were moving out of my area of personal knowledge and more into what I'd learned back in, like, middle school, so I did pretty okay. I also didn't really have a computer handy for most of the time I was reading.

Allies by SJ Kincaid, finished 7/28. I was really only able to read Allies because the library happened to have a digital copy on Overdrive. And I really enjoyed it! I liked learning more about Wyatt, especially since it was kind of hard for me to remember what Insignia established about her. It was nice to learn things through her point of view, especially regarding her personal history.

House of Hades by Rick Riordan, finished 7/31. I ended up rating House of Hades a little lower than I had the first three books in the Heroes of Olympus series, but that is probably just because it came directly after Mark of Athena and I was still kind of reeling from that. It also was missing the dynamic that I had liked, since Annabeth and Percy were basically stuck in Hell and everyone was kind of struggling. It still was really interesting, though I have to say the ending wasn't as strong as the endings of the other books. I'm super excited for the final book to come out in the fall. I'm really curious as to how the series will wrap up. That said, I'm kind of torn as to how to feel about it ending so soon after I finally got into the series -- I'm glad that I'll be able to read the final book along with everyone else, but I've only been able to enjoy this for seven months, and it's ending.

Books I've Read -- June

I now have a lot of free time on my hands. And waste it doing anything but what I'm supposed to be doing. Sorry this is like a week late.

Champion by Marie Lu, finished 6/1. I think Champion was my favorite out of the entire series. It was also super stressful for me -- potentially because Allegiant kind of scarred me, and I was so afraid that the same thing would happen that would ruin the series for me. (It didn't.) I'm actually really happy with how the series ended, and I think it totally does the series justice. I'm also really glad I got to read it straight after Prodigy.

This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales, finished 6/2. The book was actually hard for me to get into at first. It just seemed kind of slow. It did pick up, but my feelings about it didn't really change. For a while I was enjoying it, and then Elise made some pretty stupid decisions. Which she tended to do a lot. I'm not sure the book is all that realistic, but I did enjoy reading about music and being a DJ. I don't think I'd read it again, though.

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan, finished 6/3. (Goodreads says I read this in a day. I'm not sure if that's true.) So, like Champion, I think that The Last Olympian did awesome with wrapping up the first part of the series. It did really well for a final battle that's been building up over 5 books. The only thing I can say is that it might have seemed like it wrapped up too well, but again, it's pretty MG. And there's also another series that comes right after it. Which I'm totally excited about.

The Boy on the Bridge by Natalie Standiford, finished 6/4. The Boy on the Bridge was new for me -- I don't think I've ever read about Russia outside of a fictional account of the last czar's family, and definitely not anything about the Cold War. So while that was interesting, I really wasn't impressed by the romance. It was definitely pretty insta-love and Laura was really dumb with her decisions regarding Alexei. She learns by the end, but I feel like that wasn't really worth reading the entire thing.

Blackout by Robison Wells, finished 6/8. I actually really enjoyed the concept of Blackout. More of the superpowers than the whole collapse of things because of terrorists, though the focus was of the book was on the superpowers anyway. It was kind of weird with all of the military involvement, though. I really don't think the military would act like it did in the book. So, it's definitely not realistic, but once I got into the book it was pretty fun to read. The description for Dead Zone isn't that helpful, though, so I'm not entirely sure if I'll continue reading.

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan, finished 6/10. I had to return this book back to my friend by the day of our last exam, and I timed it wrong, so I ended up finishing the last third of it well past midnight the morning of. And I don't regret that at all, honestly. I really enjoyed the new characters, and the fact that the chapters alternated perspectives between the new trio. I had to google more of the mythology than I had to for the first part of the series, but that was mainly because I have even less knowledge of anything that's not Greek or Norse. Also, while I had an idea what was happening because of Jason, I was completely surprised by what they ended up revealing at the end of the book. And I was extremely mad that I didn't have my hands on a copy of Son of Neptune. Because I'm really excited for that now. AND I CAN'T READ IT YET.

The Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede, finished 6/15. I'm not sure I've read many books that deal with alternate histories, and it took me a while to realize it was actually set in what would be the US. I had figured it was a completely fictional world;; But I found it really interesting! I liked the whole concept of "frontier magic" (which is the name of the series). It took me a little bit to get into, but by the time that they moved west I was pretty intrigued. I'm planning to continue reading the series, though I'm not sure if the library will have Across the Great Barrier.

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan, finished 6/23. I really only started this series because I couldn't find Son of Neptune. I figured it had to be pretty similar to what I wanted, anyway. And it was! I liked that it dealt with Egyptian mythology (something I'd really only else found in The Chaos of Stars), but it still hinted that it was set in the same universe as the Percy Jackson series. It also dealt almost entirely on familial relationships rather than friendship (or being stuck on a quest with someone). The formatting was a little hard to get used to, since it was told in a way like the two were recapping their adventure via a voice recorder, but it was still pretty interesting.

Vortex by Julie Cross, finished 6/30. I'd checked out this book once before and never got around to finishing it. It took me about 20 pages into it this time to remember that;; I really liked the concepts of the story, especially in the first book, but Vortex kind of seemed like a mess. Maybe it's just because of all the tense confusion that comes with time travel and doing things that end up not being in chronological order. And the fact that they totally started to undo events that happened. That said, I still don't know much about Eyewall (or whoever they're battling) other than that they've got a sucky future, and I'm really not sure the last book is really going to cover it. Also, the ending was definitely not what I expected and I just stared at the book when I finished it.

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!