Review: Black Flame novels

I love Halloween. I think it would probably be one of my favorite holidays, and I think it doesn't get enough time to shine. Christmas items usually make it to the store at the same time as Halloween items. Most of the time I just celebrate Halloween by watching scary movies, but sometimes I read scary books too. When I was younger I only read scary books. I seemed to devour every single Goosebumps book that I could get my hands on until I grew into Fear Street. I soon moved on to Stephen King, but my late teens lead me to a series of books that I would like to talk about today. I was fairly new to computers when I read an article about a series of books based on Final Destination, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and the Friday the 13th series. I managed to track down a few at my local Barnes and Noble and then I had to get the rest from eBay. I don't have them all, but I do have a small collection. The book novelizations added things that I found strange, like a relationship between Kevin and Wendy in Final Destination 3. Each book seemed to add unnecessary sex that added nothing to the plot, and then there were the typos. I had never found a typo in a book before reading these. Sometimes the plot didn't make much sense, or the characters were highly unlikable. I was young and figured that I could publish a book through them because they weren't known for the best quality. They actually denied my request, which did hurt me back then. I had even written a Final Destination fan fiction, but I have to admit that it wasn't very good. Despite all this, they never saw a writing sample. This was the first time that I'd ever sent out a query letter. I remember googling one of the authors (Natasha Rhodes), because I couldn't believe that she was a real author. I guess her books were the first books I'd ever quit reading because I disliked them. She was the first author I'd ever googled. I did enjoy one of the books, Looks could kill (my cover is different than the one pictured). It did have typos, but it was easier to overlook them because the story was interesting and took the Final Destination in a different place.

Weekend Review: Netflix's Death Note [[SPOILERS]]

To say I’m a fan of Death Note may be an understatement (I’ve even named my dogs after two of the characters who are missing in the American adaptation). I’ve seen most of the Death Note media that I could find, so I feel like I’m in a good position to write this review. I wish I could say that I enjoyed this adaption, but I’m going to be joining the pretty much every other reviewer on the internet in hating it. I’ve read somewhere that this adaption of Death Note is supposed to focus more on the notebook and less on the characters so I will start there. The notebook is barely used. It is shown that there are a ton of rules, most of which don’t exist in the anime, but no one ever goes into detail about any of them. Light is shown reading the rules but he doesn’t bother to explain anything (even when he tells Mia that there are a lot of rules). In the anime there is a scene where Light explains that he wrote his own rules in the notebook to benefit him when the police obtained it, but nothing of that nature happened here. In fact, some of the original rules were ignored, like the cause of death not being written became ‘dealer’s choice’. There were entries from past owners, and the more I watched the more I wished that I was watching some of their stories instead. Now I will move on to the rest of what I had issues with. First, Light had to be forced to use the Death Note. Why was he given a Death Note in the first place? It was clear that he was only using it to please Mia. He also decided that he wanted to be called Kira, and that’s why he drew police attention. No one gave a second thought to his crimes before he used the name Kira. That’s another problem I had with the movie, no one figured things out the way they were supposed to. L seemed to figure out that Light was the killer after doing almost no research. The characters weren’t believable and did not behave in ways they should have, like L exposing himself to Light as soon as he met him, Mia got in a relationship with Light because he used to stare at her creepily when she was at cheerleader practice, etc. Ryuk may have only been on screen for a total of five minutes, which annoyed me. He told Light that he wasn’t like his dog, which was practically the only thing similar to the anime. Ryuk wasn’t Light’s friend, he wasn’t there to help him, and he was only along for the ride. This time he didn’t seem to have a notebook of his own and barely anything was explained about him. There was a scene where Light was looking at a book that had a picture of Ryuk, but he closed it without letting us learn anything about him. L was also a big problem for me. He acted more like an emotional breakdown than a character. He was always let his feelings guide him, even if it meant putting himself/his job in danger. He wasn’t the intelligent character for the anime, and it was hard to watch him eat candy. The movie basically ignored everything about Death Note and tried to make something similar to the Suicide Squad. The closest thing this resembles is the Death Note tv series, but even that isn’t close to what this mess is.   

Weekend Review: Pokemon Go!

I haven't even logged into my blog in a long time, so it surprises even me that this is the topic I've chosen to write about. I haven't been writing or editing lately either. I just haven't been in the mood, which upsets me because I thought writing was my dream. I was also just about to release Zombie Bite. Anyway, this blog post isn't about that, it's about Pokemon Go, but I do promise that I will try to pull myself out of this funk. Anyway, I've been a huge fan of Pokemon since the release of the first American games, so I was thrilled to learn that there would be a mobile Pokemon game. I remember telling my now ex boyfriend and he complained about how it would take up his time with me. Now that I know more about the game I would have said that we could have played together. The game does make me want to walk around more and go to places like the park or even the hiking trail near my work. It's a fun being surprised by the different pokemon that pop up in odd places, but it's no match for the other pokemon games. It does share a lot of the same elements, and even adds some social aspects to the game that weren't there before (I met a cute doctor while playing the game), but there's something about the games and visiting the different parts of the world that can't be beat. I also love trading pokemon and the story aspects of the game that are missing on this mobile game. I miss getting to beat a gym and get a badge and then move on until being able to fight the final four, In pokemon go the winner of the gym battle takes over the gym, but if it's your team you get to put a pokemon there as a defender. I don't really like the combat system on pokemon go either, but that's probably because I don't understand it. Lastly, it annoys me that people are blaming their own stupidity on a game. A game that clearly says to be aware of your surroundings. A girl got hit by a car and her mother claimed the game forced her across the street. While it's sad that the girl got hit (she didn't die), the game isn't the reason she got hit. If she had been paying attention she would probably be fine. Also, people are claiming that they are being robbed because they are going into bad neighborhoods to catch pokemon, When I play the game I only go to places that I know. I just wish that more people would do the same and play with caution.

Weekend Review: Awkward.

I recently posted about this show and I honestly didn't think that I would again. Maybe I have a lot to say because I've been in Jenna's shoes recently. I hoped the writers of this show would decide that it was time for Jenna to grow past the love triangles and her undying love for Matty, but they haven't. I'm actually not here to talk about Jenna and Matty in the romantic sense though. The thing that's been bugging me lately is Jenna has an unpaid internship at a place called Idea bin, basically she's writing articles for a website. On the last episode she wrote an article that ended up on the front page of Idea bin, but that article also hurt Matty. I mostly write fiction, but sometimes I write nonfiction in my blog. Anytime you write your version of the truth someone will get their feelings hurt, I know this from experience. Some of the blogs that I wrote about my ex hurt them, but at the same time every word was true to me. He may have thought that he was fighting for us to stay together and be happy, but it couldn't have been my truth because I wasn't living it. I'm kind of on the fence about the article itself. I haven't taken down the articles about my ex, even though I know it hurt him. The articles may have hurt him, but they also helped me to grow as a writer. I may take them down in the future, but I'm not sure. I didn't write the articles with the intention to hurt anyone, the articles were the truth as I saw it at the time that I saw it. I don't even think he reads my blog anymore, although he claimed to read every new entry in the past (after we parted ways). Sometimes you don't like seeing the negative impact that you have on other people, but at the same time you should use the experience to grow into a better person. I honestly don't think she should have gotten her article taken down.

Weekend Review: Mario and Luigi Paper Jam

I was planning to start reviewing books every weekend, but I didn't read anything this week. I am considering a book review and a movie or some other type of review each weekend. I think it would be fun, and I am always checking out new things. I am currently considering watching that movie Maggie with Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie where he has to protect his zombie daughter. Anyway, I am trying to get a video gaming youtube channel off the ground and to do that I have to play lots of video games. I love Mario games and have loved them since I was little. I also love to share them with others, as this video shows. One video game I would not recommend picking up is Mario and Luigi Paper Jam. I already knew about the negative reviews of this when I decided to check it out. I love Paper Mario, although the last one on the ds wasn't that great. I remember playing the first one on the N64 and really loving it. Mario and Luigi paper jam is basically about catching Toads. I hate Toad. Whenever I see Toad I know that something stupid is about to happen. Toad is probably the most helpless character in any Mario game. Also, in the very first Mario game why do Toads just randomly hang out in Browser's castle? Anyway, the princess is kidnapped, but you have to find and catch Toads so they can make things out of cardboard for you. I never get game rage, or almost never do, and this game made me very honestly annoyed.

Weekend Review: Persephone by HP Mallory

I don't know if I started to do a review on this book before. I started to read it and then stopped because I was in the process of losing my boyfriend. I only got to read it in short bursts when he was in the bathroom. I found that this book made up for the last book being so short. I loved the first two books, but this one seemed to drag on just a little bit. I feel like this one had a lot more action than the last one, but I think it could have been shortened. This was also kind of a give or take novel. I feel like it really did nothing for the series. I do still plan on picking up the next novel, which I know is already out.


I also wanted to add a note that I am trying to get more focused on reviewing books or book based movies for the weekend review. I will still review other things, but I think maybe I could squeeze in two weekend reviews, one for books and one for other things. I also have been working on my youtube channel, so please check that out, the username is Geezenstack444 or Jade Plays Games (I'm not sure which, but I will try to add the link to my contact page). Thank you to everyone who enjoyed my '100 word' story. I might try to do another one sometime in the future.

Weekend Review: The Final Girls

I love horror movies, but I was hesitant about picking up this horror comedy. I have only enjoyed a few horror comedies, like Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, but I am glad that I picked up The Final Girls. The Final Girls is about Max, who loses her mother and gets somehow sucked into the horror film that her mother is best known for. I love how the movie mixed modern horror with 70's and 80's horror. Parts of it reminded me of Friday the 13th. The horror film characters were all stereotypical, which added to the fun of watching the movie. The killer even had a backstory: he took too long in the bathroom so some mean kids set him on fire. I really enjoyed the Final Girls, but it was not without flaws. I kind of felt like something had been cut out of the movie, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. The movie was still great, and I would suggest it to anyone looking for a light horror comedy.

Weekend Review: Pokemon Yellow

I remember playing Pokemon yellow when I was younger. I was hooked to my game boy color until I beat the game and caught the legendary Pokemon. I was so excited when I heard that yellow, red, and blue were going to be available for the ds. I knew that I had to get yellow. I love Pikachu, and every pokemon game has had me hooked for days or weeks. I thought they would remake the game and improve the graphics, but it is just the same game from the gameboy color. Gameplay is the same, since it's the same game. I love playing the old game, and had forgotten how hard it was compared to the newer ones. It's the same game that I fell in love with, I just wish they had at least upgraded the graphics. Despite that, the game still looks good, just not as good as the newer pokemon games. I may purchase red as well, but I am undecided. I would give pokemon yellow a 9.5 out of 10.

Weekend Review: Izombie season 1

I was so excited when I learned that the guy who created Veronica Mars (Rob Thomas) was making a zombie show. I remember making another post reviewing the trailer for the show, and with that being said, I thought that I would get to watch the show a lot sooner than I did, but it just so happened to come on during the time my ex boyfriend used to come home from work with a need to be fed. I thought that I would have time sometime after the first season to watch it on netflix, but that didn't happen until now. The show does remind me of Veronica Mars in many ways, a blonde who solves crimes. Even some of the clothing choices the characters make remind me of Veronica Mars. I always found myself wanting to raid Veronica Mars's closet, and now I want to raid Liv's. I do think Veronica Mars is the darker of the two shows, where Izombie still has some lightness to it. Izombie seems more upbeat and fun to watch, despite it being a murder of the week type show. After each episode of Izombie I found myself wishing for the next and I was disappointed after I'd watched them all. The only character that I don't like is Major. He just seems bland and boring, the kind of guy a girl like with goals like Liv's would have been attracted to, but it seems like the chemistry between the pair doesn't exist.

Weekend Review: Deadpool

I love comic book movies, so I couldn't wait for Deadpool. I have enjoyed Deadpool in other media, but for I just found this movie to be ok. I felt like all the funny moments were in the trailer. I don't remember laughing the entire time that I was in the theater. The biggest problem that I have with this movie is that it is a love story. I know many other Marvel movies feature a love story, and that works for those movies. My favorite comic book movie of all time, The Crow (while not a Marvel movie) is a love story, and it works. It doesn't work for Deadpool, He never even had that much of a relationship with Vanessa in the comics, so it's odd that they paired him with her. I would have much preferred a movie with no romance. Why couldn't he have just wanted his face fixed? The movie was enjoyable, but not as much as I thought it would be.

Weekend Review: Warm Bodies

I had planned to do this review back in May (there was a draft of this from May), but for whatever reason I didn't. I was probably too busy searching for jobs or just dealing with life itself. I had also planned on comparing this to the movie, but I didn't get very far through it. I only read about half of this, and I do intend to finish the book. The book is divided into sections, and the first one is basically where he meet Juliet. I like the character of R, but not so much Juliet. She's different from the Juliet in the movie. She does drugs and does other things to abuse herself, she's even a cutter. R is different from who he is in the movie as well, instead of a hoodie he dons a business suit. The book is a good read, but it's been almost a year since I picked it up and I'm not sure what else to say about it, but I can't wait to finish it.

Jessica Jones review

I know I'm doing a review on a different day than I've set aside for reviews, but I'm trying to whip this blog back into shape while editing and preparing to release my novel. I'm a big marvel fan, but I had to google Jessica Jones when I first heard she was getting a show. I'll admit, after reading about her character, I wasn't that thrilled that Marvel had picked Jessica Jones to give a show to. I would have loved a strong female character, but Jessica Jones is more of a bully. She makes choices that she should know aren't smart, probably just because she can. She's a drunken mess. I almost stopped watching after the second episode, and my boyfriend said he would have stopped watching if it wasn't Marvel. I think the only reason that I finished watching this show was because I didn't want to miss anything that may be seen later in the Marvel Universe, but the whole time I watched this I was asking myself why did this show exist, and couldn't they have found a better Marvel comic to adapt?

Weekend Review: Even White Trash Zombies Get The Blues by Diana Rowland

I want to start out by saying that I do not like the book covers in this series. It kind of grossed me out to see Angel sitting on the toilet right on the cover. Toward the middle of the book the main character is kidnapped and held in a room that she believes was once a bathroom, so I think that's the main reason for this cover choice. Angel had some issues in this book that I think everyone could relate to, she's having trouble at work, people are using her past against her, and she's having trouble with her boyfriend. Her past is a major issue in the book, since people don't believe what she says because of her past. She does make an effort to better herself despite what others say about her, which I think makes her a strong character. Even though the character is kidnapped, I never felt like she was in real danger because she was always such a strong character. The entire time she was being held I kept wondering when she was going to get herself out of trouble. Let's get to the part that I didn't like, her boyfriend. While I like that this isn't one of those books where all the males are in love with the female lead, I don't like the guy that is dating her. He doesn't seem suited for her, and I would like to see her with someone else, someone that she has chemistry with. She says herself that she isn't sure how much she likes Marcus, which is another point in the book that I really liked. Usually the female character falls in love with one of the male characters over the course of one book. Towards the middle/end of the book there's a lot of action. There's a part that shows that there is a bond between the new zombie and the one that created it, which is suspected to be the reason Marcus is so taken with Angel. I think that would be interesting, but I'm not sure if I would like that to be the reason he's so taken with her. Overall, this was a good book and I do plan to read the other two.




BUY THE BOOK, It's on sale

Weekend Review: After Dead by Charlaine Harris

I decided to do another weekend review since I had checked After Dead out of the library as well. I remember when After Dead was released, I had already lost my excitement for the Sookie series and did not buy this or the last three Sookie books. This one was about fifteen dollars for the hardcover and very thin. I browsed through it in the store, but to be honest, it wasn't that appealing. I decided to pick this up at the library while giving Harris's new series a try. I advise anyone who may be interested in this book to do the same, go to the library. Do not waste money on this "book". I had forgotten who some of the characters were and skipped through to the ones I actually remembered and cared about. None of them had great endings, some of them were short, some of the endings were terrible (people dying and divorcing everywhere). It's the type of book you can read in five minutes.

Weekend Review: Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris

I want to start out by saying I loved the Sookie Stackhouse books, and thought that I would be a huge Charlaine Harris fan. I found that Sookie Stackhouse was one of the characters that I related to most(in the older books). She felt like an outsider, and I think everyone feels like an outsider at times. I devoured the older Sookie books like candy and while I was waiting for the later books to be published I checked out the Harper books. Both characters had something supernatural about them, but Harper was the more realistic of the two. I loved both series, but I did want Harper to end up with Manfred. Speaking of Manfred, he's in Midnight Crossroad. Midnight Crossroad has a mixture of odd characters, including a vampire, a witch, and Manfred. Even the cast of supposedly interesting characters didn't help me to finish the book. Places and food were described way more than they needed to be. I only read the first fifty or so pages so this is more like a first impressions blog, but my first impression is that this book felt too much like it was trying to copy the Sookie books. In the end this book wasn't for me. I'm still trying to find a book that I can love as much as the Sookie books.


Buy The Book

Weekend Review: Bewitching: The Kendra Chronicles

I don't read many young adult novels, but whenever I do I wonder if it will be too young for me. I decided to read this one after reading Beastly, only to find that this one is too young for me. It's basically a retelling of Cinderella with bits of other fairy tales thrown in. In Beastly I liked Kendra, she was probably my favorite character, in her own novel she's basically a supporting character. I did like hearing what happened to her family and I guess the retelling of Hanzel and Gretal didn't bother me. I also liked that she explains why she keeps going to high school. I didn't care for any of the other characters, they were all bland. I honestly couldn't find myself caring about any of them, but I did wish that the book would have focused more on Kendra and not the other characters. This book is such a disappoint to me. Hopefully Towering is better because I bought that one too.

Weekend Review: BookPerk App

I'm always looking for something new to read, so I subscribe to a few emails that showcase free books. I noticed an ad for an app at the bottom of one of those emails and decided to check it out. I already have the kindle app and I love it, so I figured this would give me more titles to read on my kindle. I was wrong. The app itself is a reading app and the titles you download are only in the app. None of the books appear to be free, and I rather the design of my kindle. I can't see myself using this app very much so I am planning to delete it after this review.

Weekend Review: Avengers Age Of Ultron

 I know that I need to get back to writing reviews on books, but I haven't been reading very much to be honest. I do love comic books, and I love checking out their adaptions. I did have a problem going into this movie though. This movie was released about a week earlier overseas, which means it was pirated and online already. There were already reviews up on this movie and a lot of them were negative. I wasn't sure that I even wanted to see it, but my boyfriend did so we got tickets and went. I'm glad that we did because it was better than the first. The only thing that I really had an issue with was the Hulk's lack of original story. He's been self loathing since his very first movie, and I understand his self loathing is a big part of his story, but he has so many other story lines that unfold in the comics that it seems to be a shame that this one is the one that keeps getting used. He's also Natasha's love interest, but the romance didn't seem real. It seemed like the romance was there to make flesh out Natasha's character, which they did. Hearing about her past was interesting, but I just don't think she could ever carry a movie. My two new favorite characters were the twins. I was just a little disappointed that they weren't called mutants and there was no Magneto reference. I know the characters are owned by different studios, but it would have been nice. I couldn't get interested in Hawkeye. I did like Thor in this movie, which is unusual since I don't like any of his movies. I never cared for Iron Man either, but here he was decent. Captain America didn't feel like a leader. It felt like everyone was doing their own thing, but I did really like his ending. The action was ok, but it didn't blow my mind.


Four Out Of Five Stars

Weekend Review: Mortal Kombat X

I know that I'm probably a little behind with this review, but I wanted to test everything out before posting a review. Mortal Kombat has always been one of my favorite games. I remember going to a place called Mo's Pizza(where they served amazing pizza) and playing Mortal Kombat on the arcade machine while I waited for my dad to get the pizza. I've managed to play almost all of the Mortal Kombat games, including the Special Ops one with Jax that was probably one of the worst games that I've ever played. When Mortal Kombat X was announced my boyfriend preordered it and we even went to the release event at GameStop. The ac was broken, but we ended up staying for hours to get the game. Upon playing it I realized that I liked the graphics of the game more than any of the previous games. I liked seeing some familiar faces back to fight again, but I couldn't care less about the new people. Not even Cassie Cage, the daughter of Sonya and Johnny Cage. The normal combat mode was great, but I had problems with the story. I think the story should have started earlier, like five years earlier when Shau Khan was replaced with Kotal Khan (who is probably my least favorite character to fight with). I pretty much sat there with my mouth hanging open at the end of story mode. Nothing was resolved, and the final match was too easy. The difficulty on this game is too easy. If you play the game on medium it feels a bit like you're playing on easy. The story was lacking, but the visuals, fighting, and special moves make up for that.



Three Out Of Five Stars

Weekend Review: To Hell and Back

I decided to do two reviews this week, one on Daredevil and one on To Hell and Back by H.P. Mallory. H.P. Mallory is an author that I really admire because she started out as self published and still publishes some of her stuff like that. After reading the other two Lily Harper books, I could barely wait for this one to come out, but now I wish I hadn't picked it up. The idea that the female heroine of this story could be attacked and still like her attacker is promoting unhealthy relationships. I just couldn't get past that. I didn't enjoy this entry, but I will give the next one a try. Hopefully Lily gets more character in the next one.