Day 12: A book you used to love but don't anymore.

Uhhh, to be honest, this one was really difficult. I had a hard time sifting through my memory to find a book that actually fit this description. I tend to like most books I read, but only because I'm super selective. I do extensive reading ON a book before I even buy it.

After like forever of deliberation, I decided on...

The Harry Potter series
by JK Rowling.

This was a surprisingly easy decision to make.

Like most of the kids in my generation, I grew up anticipating the release of each book and movie to the point of extreme excitement and I ate up everything that the Harry Potter-verse could give me. I begged my mum to buy me the trivia games and chocolate frogs and the dolls... Basically everything.

Then why do I not love the series anymore? What caused the huge disconnect?

It was disappointing for me as an adult to come back to the series and to realise that there was so much that could have gone right. From the movies, one of the biggest things that bugged me the most was the switch of Lavender Brown from black to white when she became Ron Weasley's love interest. How is that not severely messed up???

From the books, the source of all Harry Potter lore, I found the portrayal of Severus Snape as a redeemed hero very disturbing. Honestly, this dude was way undeserving of Harry naming a kid after him. Snape is one of the most internally screwed up people the entire series. A bully of little children (that's gross guys please don't try to justify that) and deliberately cruel by nature (look at what he did to Remus Lupin!), he could never have been "one of the bravest people" Harry knew. I mean, there's Hagrid, for god's sake.

We don't only have the case of undeserving characters stealing the limelight but also the case of brilliantly written characters emerging sporadically and rarely, with little dynamic impact on the audience because of how little they're emphasised. There's Hagrid, for one. Mrs Weasley. Shacklebolt. Hermione (don't get me started on how underrated she is). Fleur. Oh god, I could keep going.

I'm not going to deny the richness of the world, but I have to say that it's so incredibly flawed. The lack of racial representation is one other thing. The whole thing about Dumbledore being gay but it being nowhere in the books (god, I hate when this happens - you take credit for "contributing" to the LGBTQA movement without actually contributing to it).

This series, for all its greatness, could have been so much more and I guess I fell out of love with it when I looked at it critically as an adult. It was a great series for me, but I doubt that this is one I'd really recommend to kids.

Books I'd recommend to females with an interest in fantasy or for dudes sick of dudebro themes in fantasy books:

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
Suitable for all ages
Young girl fights dragons while defying gender norms and being mixed race and mixed class. She also rejects social norms being badass all the while.

The Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett
Suitable for all ages
Coming-of-age novel about strong willed female who is intelligent and insightful as well as an excellent role model. She goes to train as a witch and defeats multiple adversaries with common sense and second and third thoughts.

When Women Were Warriors series by Catherine M. Wilson
Suitable for older teens due to slightly sexual scenes
Warning: not for people who think anything other than heterosexuality is an anomaly and that "lesbian" is a swearword not to be said in front of children.
Ever read an epic fantasy and thought that it would be improved with more representation of women? Or with scrapping the hero and replacing him with a heroine? This is everything you'd want in high fantasy and more then.

Spindle's End by Robin McKinley
Suitable for all ages
Sleeping Beauty as a strapping lass with a booming voice and tomboyish manners who in no way changes? Hell yeah. Plus you wouldn't see that plot twist at the end coming.

Ash by Malinda Lo
Suitable for all ages
Warning: not for people who think anything other than heterosexuality is an anomaly and that "lesbian" is a swearword not to be said in front of children.
This book is amazing. It subverts the themes of your typical fairytale romance completely. Cinderella but with Cinderella rejecting the perfect prince (Idealistic Love) and running off to be with the Huntress (Realistic Love). Also Cinderella kicking ass and solving her own problems.

Huntress by Malinda Lo
Suitable for all ages
Warning: not for people who think anything other than heterosexuality is an anomaly and that "lesbian" is a swearword not to be said in front of children.
The prequel to Ash but capable of being read as a standalone. Fighter-in-training and apprentice sage being sent out to prevent the end of the world and falling in love with an extremely brave but realistic ending.

The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson
Suitable for all ages
Best fantasy series I've read the entire year.
Badass girl with a rare talent getting shit done on her own while being followed around by dude utterly smitten by her. Also, a world where ash falls from the sky!

Anything at all by Catherynne M. Valente

Day 11: A book you hated.

Argh, too many!

Anything by Nicholas Sparks, for one.

Since this blog post is likely to not amount to much, I'm just going to briefly run through

WHY YOU SHOULD NOT BUY INTO THE WHOLE 50 SHADES THING

It's abusive. It's as close to actual BDSM as Twilight is to romance. Mr. Gray is a stalker, a rapist, a misogynist, and basically everything that can go wrong with him does. Most of what he does is coercive and requires little in the way of ensuring that Anastasia Steele is sanely and enthusiastically consenting to their activities. God, what a complete trainwreck.

Don't read that disaster. Read something like the Boss series by Abigail Barnette (thorough discussion of what constitutes a proper scene including aftercare, representation, diversity, discussion on privilege, hot erotica, etc.) but just none of this bull crap.

REVIEW Animal Crossing: New Leaf

So halfway through Episode 1 of Brooklyn Nine Nine Season 2 I realised that I have a blog I've forgotten to update again.

What have I been doing besides watching Brooklyn Nine Nine and playing Assassin's Creed?

I've been so hooked on Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

If you don't know what that is, it's a simple and relaxing game for the Nintendo 2DS/3DS consoles. It's the latest from the Animal Crossing series and it's addictive as heck.

You start off as the Mayor of a town of your making with a few villagers (generated out of a huge pool of NPCs) welcoming you and showing you the basics. Basically all you do is make life as awesome as you can for you and your villagers. That's it.

The game is deceptively charming and whimsical. The graphics look immensely appealing on my 3DS screen and the music and sounds suit the relaxing vibe that resounds throughout the entire game. Don't get me started on the sounds of the waterfall and ocean waves. I deliberately placed my home in a strategic area beside both the waterfall and the sea so that I can enjoy the sounds even when I'm in my house.

The characters are few but this is a big plus. Each character has its own personality and they each have cute little individual quirks that add to the experience. One of my favourite villagers is a huge rooster named Goose who was generated with the jock personality type. He refers to my character as his "ladybro" and gives me random workout advice.

Everything about this game is completely adorable. The simplicity of the storyline ensures that you never get stuck but there's enough going around as well as random events and routine town festivals that are enough to keep you playing.

The thing about this game is that you can go a handful of days or even a week or a month without playing it and then you pick it up again and you get hooked. It's like one of those Facebook games (at least when they first started out) but with more charm and tranquility (and the added benefit of clogging up nobody's notifications).

I highly recommend this game to anyone looking for something to play on their daily commute (honestly this game is perfect for commuters!) or anyone who wants a game they can mindlessly play for a little bit of time a day to keep themselves occupied.

It's perfect for kids and even adults (you have housing loans to pay off!). I suggest you download it rather than buy the cartridge because it's one of those games you'll want to keep on you constantly.

HUUUUGE thanks to Bear for getting it for me!