RIP Sadie Lou

I just had a surreal moment. My turtle, Sadie Lou, passed away suddenly this afternoon. I know, I'm pretty choked up about it too. Admittedly I didn't clean her tank/feed her as often as I should have, but I still didn't expect her to die.

But that wasn't what was surreal.

The moment happened as my aunt and I were burying Sadie in the backyard. It just hit me that this was a mark that I was leaving in Virginia. It was something tangible that said I'd lived, breathed, grieved, experienced here in Virginia. Her grave is like a morbid "Trudy Wuz Here" graffitied onto the earth.

I guess this affected me so much because normally any kind of monumental moment like this would either be happening at home with my family or at school with my friends. Instead her death passed quietly in the mountains of Virginia with an aunt I'm just starting to get to know. From now on, no matter where I go or what I do there is a piece of me buried here. And that's just weird, right?

Where else am I going to leave marks? Who am I going to leave them with? Will I ever be able to keep a turtle alive?

Oh, life's unanswerable questions.

The Legend of Korra

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was watching The Legend of Korra, the much-anticipated sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender. I wrote a post about Avatar where I pretty much talked about how amazing it was and that you should go watch it. I stand by this opinion with Legend of Korra. It is fantastic for a children's show--something that can be entertaining and accessible to all ages. I will admit that I wasn't as whole-heartedly thrilled with LoK as I was with Avatar, but I enjoyed it.

The main premiss of Legend of Korra is to follow the next avatar, Korra, and her adventures in the future. It seems to be set in Republic City around a 1920's-esque time period, with cars newly emerging and jazz etc. What this means is that we get to know a whole new cast. The only really familiar face we see is Katara, the only surviving member of the gaang. I actually preferred this to continuing with the characters we know. I feel like Aang, Katara, Toph, Sokka, and Zuko's story was done and that any more story dealing with them would have felt cheap.

That's not to say we leave the old crowd behind entirely. Korra ends up living with Tenzin, one of Aang and Katara's sons, to learn airbending. From their house she can see a huge statue of Aang looming over Republic City. We also get to see a statue of Toph, and meet her daughter Lin Bei-Fong. Lin is the police chief of Republic City, enforcing laws by using metal-bending--a nice connection to her mother.

The producers actually put a lot of little things in LoK that you can just tell are purely for the fans to feel nostalgic of ATLA--and I'm grateful for them.

I came across this picture on Pinterest the other day and it just about made me cry. I feel like Katara must have a very conflicted but strong relationship with Korra. On the one had, Korra is the reincarnation of the love of her life. But on the other, she is a constant reminder that Aang is really dead and gone. I feel like these two images are too similar for the artists not to have done it intentionally. They're beautiful.

Another cool moment was in the finale, after General Iroh II jumps out of a plane and manages to hang onto a rope attached to the statue of Aang's glider. Iroh says something along the lines of, "Thanks for looking out for me, Aang." This is such a tear-jerking moment because, while it's the General who says it, he is voiced by Dante Basco, the actor who voiced Zuko in ATLA. Sooo goooddd.

Avatar and Legend of Korra are different though. LoK is considerably darker than ATLA. The villain is Amon, a mysterious, masked man who somehow can take people's bending away. Only the avatar is supposed to be able to take people's bending away, which makes Amon truly scary. He uses this power to pursue his dream of creating a bending-free world. His Equalist movement is supported by lightning-fast chi-blockers, reminiscent of Tai Lee in ATLA. I found it really interesting that Amon and the Equalists used technology to fight against the benders, kind of like a metaphor for traditional old values being beaten out by technology.

My only real problem with LoK is how rushed it felt. I'm not just talking about the finale (which was much too fast-paced IMO) but the season as a whole. From what I understand, LoK was initially supposed to be a 12-episode mini-series, meaning that the creators had to set up character development, plot, conflict, and resolution all in 12 episodes. This is made even more challenging by the fact that, apart from the finale, the episodes are only 30 minutes long including commercials. Considering that, the producers did a fine job, but now that we know there will be a second season, I would have liked for things to have slowed down and been fleshed out more.

For instance: the romance. Anyone who watches this show can tell you that romance is a major part of the plot line. This makes sense because the characters are in their late teens so are obviously...romantically inclined *coughcough* horny little bastards. But there's just so much romance for 12 episodes! I think what mainly frustrated me was that it appears all the conflict, both romantic and otherwise, has been resolved with the end of the season. Normally producers like to leave you with a little something to push you into watching season two, but we don't get that in LoK. All the characters are left in a pretty good place (I'm trying to do this with minimal spoilers, y'all, but it's hard as fuck) more in line with a series finale than a season finale. It disoriented me, I guess you could say.

I think that how rushed the season was definitely impacted the character development. Without going into details, we learn a lot about Amon very quickly without really having time to process it before the season is over. Other than Amon the characters are reasonably well-developed even though I still want more. But I don't think I'll ever stop wanting more.

Overall I had a lot of fun watching the first season of Legend of Korra and will definitely watch the second. I hope the second is a little more spread out, and I pray that there will be a third season. I feel like they could do a third season because the fandom is so loyal and friggin' amazing that they would watch it forever.

SPEAKING of the fandom, I have some recs for you of awesome people doing awesome things in the ATLA/LoK realms.

First, I believe I've mentioned her before for her Harry Potter fanart, but Viria13 is a lovely artist who also has a few ATLA/LoK drawings. They are amazing and you should go check them out!

I've mentioned the youtuber sawyer7mage before too, but he's worth mentioning again. He reviewed every episode of LoK nicely. I agree with pretty much everything he says and I strangely want to rub my nose up against his. Don't judge me.

You should also check out the myriad of fan-made youtube videos that are out there for LoK. Below is one of my favorites by RoseKnightingale. it combines the  series ATLA and LoK and throws in some Anastasia music to boot. Watch it please! You can check out WooperRevival134 as well. His videos are hilarious!!

Well, that's it for me! I hope you'll give Legend of Korra a shot if you haven't done so already!

What Have I Been Doing?

So, I've been in Virginia for a month now and I wanted to give a little update on what I've been doing. I started this whole blog with the intention and promise to Do Something--capital letters and all. I'm not sure how much progress I've made Doing Something in the manner I meant it when I made myself that promise. My main goal was to not waste so much time. Instead of re-watching my favorite videos on Youtube or stalking pregnant acquaintances I would be doing something more productive. I'd be learning a new skill or hobby, volunteering, reading, and ideally writing.

I'm an expert procrastinator, so I knew this would be a challenge--and it has. I still spend a lot of time on Youtube and I haven't read a book since my internship started. To be honest, I come home at the end of the day, help make dinner, and basically just collapse on my bed watching Youtube videos. And while part of me is like "It's okay, you've had a long day. Relax, don't worry about doing something right now. Have you watched that new Vlogbrothers video yet?" the other part of me is disappointed in myself.

That's not to say I've been completely lazy, and that's what I'd like to focus on today. Call it a self-given pep talk, if you will. I need some motivation right about now.

1) Internship: As I mentioned before, I've been interning with FEMA for the summer. So far the job is...well, pretty boring to be honest. I don't feel like I'm earning my keep because nobody ever has anything for me to do. Most of my day is spent secretly playing bejeweled on my ipod and hoping someone comes by with something (anything) for me to do. The problem is that the people I'm working with deal with a lot of classified material, and I have zero clearance. So I literally can't help out with much. But hey, if they're paying me to sit in my own office with my own bathroom and drink tea all day that's fine with me. Even if it is extremely boring.

There was one fun aspect of my internship this week. I got to go on a site visit! Basically, some of the roofs needed to be replaced throughout the facility. I got to go around with the contractors working on the roofs and inspect them. This means that I was climbing up and down ladders and traipsing across scorching hot roofs all morning with a bunch of old men in work boots. These were the good kind of old men. The kind that call you ma'am and say things like, "Don't be afraid of that ladder; you don't weigh enough to do anything to it," I just smiled sheepishly at that and tried not to think of the 4 sprinkle donuts I'd eaten that morning.

Other than that the internship has taught me about tea. I've always wanted to be a tea drinker. I can't stand the smell or taste of coffee, but I felt like I needed to be able to order something besides a smoothie or a cookies-n-cream milkshake at a coffee shop, and now I can order tea. My aunt is a tea fanatic and has a whole cupboard of different kinds of tea at work. I've been trying a new one each day to find out what kinds I like. So far chamomile, green tea, and blueberry-flavored green tea are my favorites. I know this doesn't sound like Doing Something, but I think it counts as expanding my horizons. Right?

2) Family Stuff: I've been spending a lot of time with my extended family since I came to VA. I hardly ever get to see them all, so I've really appreciated this opportunity. I spent a weekend with my aunt and uncle and their two little girls in Arlington, which was lovely. The girls are brats thought (don't tell them I said that!). I went to two separate Father's Day dinners with a father that wasn't my own. One was at the Peking Gourmet Inn where we all pigged out on delicious duck. I'd only been there once before and I was younger so it was lovely to go back and be able to really experience the new food. Also, they had Jasmine tea, which was wonderful.

The second Father's Day dinner was at my uncle's parents' house. They are from Switzerland and have the most incredible house there with an amazing view of the Matterhorn. They also have a ping-pong table in their basement, where my cousin Erich and I played before dinner.

The most exciting family event I've participated in was a bridal shower. The bride was already married by the time we through this shower (apparently I come from a whole family of procrastinators) and she wasn't even present. Instead we all filmed the shower and my uncle is going to edit the film and send it down to her. It was my first bridal shower ever, I didn't know the bride, and she wasn't even there. It was unusual, to say the least. 

What was so fun about the bridal shower was that it was thrown in a house just three doors down from where my Great Granny raised her thirteen children. That's right, 13 kids. And you should see this house! So small--and no air-conditioning! I don't know how she did it. We took a walk down to her old house and she told us stories and those of her children that were present reminisced. Being so far away from my family I don't get to hear many of these stories, so it was an experience I'm really grateful for.

3) Sandwiches: I helped make 1,780 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches today. I had to wear gloves and a hairnet and everything. A bicycle tour is coming through this middle-of-nowhere town in VA. It is a very scenic town, but I'm still surprised so many people are coming. Anyway, my uncle happens to be the mayor of this very small town and so is in charge of providing a snack of all these cyclists. My aunt, uncle, and I and about 10 other volunteers spent our Friday night making sandwiches, cutting up fruit, and probably wishing we lived somewhere else--but then again, maybe not. There was a great sense of community there. Or that could have just been peanut butter. Tomorrow is the day of the ride where we actually pass out the sandwiches. I have to wake up extra early for a Saturday. Wish me luck.

4) Italy: I bought my plane ticket to Italy. I'm officially broke, but hopefully I'll get paid soon. Buying the ticket kind of solidified how real this is in my mind. It's happening. I'm really going to Florence--for a whole semester no less. Crazy. My mind can't even process this right now.

Well, that's all I've been doing for now. My plan is to start writing for realz on Sunday--did I mention how good I am at procrastination.

My Bucket List

My Bucket List

*As of 6-11-12 so more shit can definitely be added onto it

1) Play a really good prank on someone

2) Run a 10k

3) Go zip-lining

4) Read "Le Petit Prince" and understand it

5) Watch all the Harry Potter films in a row without stopping

6) Meet (*cough*marry*cough*) Charlie McDonnell

7) Knit a blanket

8) Learn to crochet

9) Hike the whole Appalachian Trail

10) Build an igloo out of snow for my children to play in

11) Grow a vegetable garden and eat what I grow

12) Go to...
-Italy
-Paris
-The Great Wall of China
-The gum wall in Seattle
-Disneyland
-Japan
-Antartica
-Yellowstone Park
-King's Cross Station
-India
-The Outback
-London
-Belgium
-Greece
-New Zealand

13) Sing kareoke in a bar where people can hear me

14) Hike El Camino De Santiago again without any taxis or hotels

15) Marry someone I love

16) Go skinny-dipping

17) Finish a book, even if it never gets published

18) Have someone recognize me on the street for something I've done

19) Voice a character in a Disney movie

20) Learn to ice skate backwards

21) Memorize the song "Nations of the World" from the Animaniacs

22) Graduate cum laude

23) See the lights in Alaska

24) Feel proficient enough to confidently put "speaks Italian" on Facebook

25) Don't let Facebook run my life

26) Teach a puppy tricks

27) Appear on a game show

28) Never say "I hate you"

29) Give a mouse a cookie

30) Get my palm read

31) Stop biting my nails

32) Ride on the back of a motorcycle (but not on the highway)

33) Meet Darren Criss in Harry Potter World

34) Eat food that I am scared to try

Guy Who Can't Take A Hint

I pretty much fail at male-female interactions. For some reason, none of the boys I find cute or funny or smart ever seem to like me, whereas the creepers are all up on this. But I'm not here to rant about my lack-of-a-dating-life as a whole, but rather about one individual guy. The Asian.

Our neighbors were having an end of the year party before exams last semester, so we went over. We'd been to a few parties there before and recognized a lot of the faces so it was a pretty relaxed environment. But there were still a couple of people I didn't know, such as The Asian.

I didn't think anything of him. Honestly. I wasn't attracted to him, but he seemed friendly enough and joined into our conversations, but I didn't pay him any mind except to note that he was the only Asian at the party. 

(As an aside here I think I should mention that for some reason Asian unnerve me. And I mean that in the least racist way possible. I don't think Asians are weird or that they are beneath me--I love them! I want to go to Japan more than I want to go to Ireland! But they still unnerve me. If I wanted to be analytical, I would say it had something to do with my Catholic school education until 8th grade, which meant that I never met an Asian until high school. But I don't want to be analytical.)

Anyway, I hardly even noticed The Asian. He was so under my radar, in fact, that "The Asian" isn't a psuedonym. I really can't remember his name. But I that doesn't mean he didn't notice me, cause he did. Quite a lot.

He spent the whole night trying to strike up a one-on-one conversation with me, which I politely deflected hoping he'd take the hint. He didn't, but I chocked that up to alcohol and moved on. Then he made me his "date" in Kings (Paste Spiel About The Dangers Of Underage Drinking Here). Okay, whatever. Then he started going on and on about how much I was drinking and how I was drinking him under the table. 

Just to clarify, I don't drink that much. I hardly ever go to parties; I only went to 6 parties my whole sophomore year--they're just not my thing. Especially because I don't like beer or shots. I pretty much only do mixed drinks, so I'm a kind of high-maintenance drinker. I usually have 3-4 mixed drinks a night and I've never woke up hungover from it. So I'm not exactly Ms. Alcoholic, but I'm not a lightweight either. 

The punch at this party was weak. I mean, really weak. So instead of having 3-4 drinks I had more like 5-6. The Asian kept talking about how I must drink all the time and that I'm probably a partier and that I'm drinking him under the table and that I can really hold my own and what's my gpa?

Are you kidding me? Not only is it a bummer to have this guy constantly telling me I'm practically an alcoholic, but he wants to talk about my GPA? At a party? Where I'm trying to relax before exam week and the last thing I want on my mind is my fucking GPA? And seriously, it's not my fault that he's such a lightweight he's drunk after 3 cups of the weakest party juice I've ever tasted. What a pansy.

But whatever. It gets late, my roomies and I stumble next door to go to bed. I've changed into my pajamas and am brushing my teeth when someone knocks on the door. Whitney goes to answer it and then comes back holding in laughter (really hard when you're drunk, btw) and says that The Asian and our friend Phil are at the door and they want to talk to me. Julia immediately falls to the floor laughing while I try and spit my toothpaste in the sink instead of letting it dribble down my shirt. I don't succeed.

So I go to the door in my snowflake-pajama bottoms and humongous t-shirt. The boys say hello, and then Phil asks if The Asian can have my number.

Whatthefuck.

He can't even ask me himself? He has to get his friend to ask? There is an audience? A combination of booze-impaired judgement and Phil's presence has me giving him my number. Then it gets awkward. Phil comes forward and gives me a hug goodnight and then I shut the door, punch Whitney for not saying I was already asleep, and go to bed. It wasn't until the next morning that I realized The Asian probably wanted a hug too and that I basically just slammed the door in their faces, but whatever. I figured that was the end of it. He was so drunk it wasn't likely he would text me anyway, right?

WRONG

Two nights later at four o'clock in the morning he texts: heyeyyy

I don't respond, and the next morning he texts again and apologizes. I text back "it's fine"

Now, let's have an exercise, shall we? Come on, it'll be fun. I'm going to put below the basics of how our conversation went down, and I want you to tell me how many times this guy was dropped on his head as a baby.

The Asian: Hey, sorry I texted you so late last night lol how're you? 

Me: It's fine

The Asian: Ok haha how are you? you didn't come over for breakfast after the party, were you

hungover?

Me: No

The Asian: haha wow I'm impressed you can really hold your own lol I'm not gonna lie Phil pretty much had to babysit me the next morning lol

Me: NO RESPONSE

THE NEXT DAY

The Asian: Hey! How are you? lol lol

Me: fine

REPEAT FOR SEVERAL DAYS

The Asian: Hey haha we should grab lunch or something hahaha

Me: I'm actually pretty busy with exams coming up

The Asian: Haha okay okay I totally understand that is stressful what about after exams are finished lol we could eat 

Me: Thank you, but I'm leaving on Wednesday right after my last exam

The Asian: Aww bummer lol I guess the plan from here would be to stay in touch over the summer and hang out next semester. lol I hope you have a great summer and I'll talk to you soon!!!

Me: Thank you, have a good summer too.

I know that I come off as slightly bitchy in these text message convos, but with exams and my internship messing up and planning for studying abroad next semester I didn't have time to deal with tip-toeing around his feelings.

Now, I don't know about y'all, but what I took away from that was that I was not interested. I was very curt in my replies, didn't continue the conversation if there was a way out, and politely excused myself from his date offer. I expected him to save his pride and drop it, never to hear from him again.

Summer starts and I get a new phone. Rather than going to Verizon to get my contacts transferred, I like to do it manually because it gives me a chance to delete all the unimportant/old numbers that I never use anymore. His was one of the ones to go.

I get a text "hey" from a number with a Clemson area code. I ignore it, because I figure if they really want to talk to me they'll text me again and then I'll worry about asking who they are and putting them in my new phone. Two days later they text again saying "hey there :)" I respond with "Hello, I recently got a new phone, who is this?" Guess who it is.

I didn't respond again after that and finally expected him to drop it. I'm starting to think I expect to much of him. Here's how it went down. These texts are word-for-word with the exception of his name.

The Asian: Hey

TWO DAYS LATER

The Asian: Hey there :)

Me: Hello. I recently got a new phone, who is this?

The Asian: Oh ha its no prob im sorry. Its Jake, Asian guy ha

TWO DAYS LATER

The Asian: This is Trudy right?

TWO DAYS LATER

The Asian: Hey

The Asian: Hey there

FOUR DAYS LATER

The Asian: Hey

If he texts me again I'm just going to have to be brutally straight with him, cause this is ridiculous. You think I'm being obvious, right? I'm not leading him on--or at least I haven't since that initial giving him my number thing. Any advice on how to say a straight "I'm not interested" without sounding like a complete bitch?

But on the other hand, who cares? I'm going to Italy next semester. It's not like Im gonna see him again, right? Right? Please say I'm right.

Obligatory and Exhausted Post

Quick Update:

• The internship is going...okay. It is kind of boring so far, and all of the interesting information is Top Secret so I'm not learning anything juicy. But I'm being paid. I'm being paid. Repeating that to myself makes the 10 hour days go faster.
• There is a man at work who is quickly becoming my self-appointed mentor/work father. That or he's flirting with me--I'll keep you posted. Either way I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm an idiot. He talks to me like I'm three. I do not appreciate it. I'm being paid. I'm being paid.
• I've gotten no less than three separate tours of the facility in the past three days.
• I have finished Sherlock and Downton Abbey (more on both to come) and am now watching Heroes.
• I have to drive myself to work tomorrow for the first time--wish me luck. This would make a lot more sense if you knew how terrifying driving is for me. 
• See you Friday, because I am totally getting back on a schedule now. Trust me.

The Lost Gate

I was at a library book sale when I happened upon this book. I'd read Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and the sequel Speaker for the Dead last year and loved them both, so I decided to give this one a try. Hey, it's only a dollar, right?

Don't pay more than a dollar for this. Maybe it's just because I loved Ender's Game so much, but The Lost Gate did not meet my expectations. 

Fair warning, this review has SPOILERS

The book is about Danny North, a thirteen-year-old boy who is--you guessed it--different, special, unique. He is a member of the North family, one of several families on Earth that originated from a magical-alien-god race from another planet called Westil. Long ago, the people of Westil came through gates (kind of like portals) created by the rare gatemages and frolicked among us. You probably know them better as every god you've ever heard of, such as Zeus etc. 

The idea of the gods of long ago still being around today isn't exactly unique nowadays. Off the top of my head I can think of American Gods by Neil Gaiman (which blows this shit out of the water) and the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. In fact, the whole book is very un-unique if you ask me. The beginning especially reminded me of a YA book called Graceling by Kristen Cashore. In that book there are also people who have special powers or talents, made distinguishable by the fact that they have different colored eyes. The protagonist of the book is thought to have a killing Grace and is despised (much like Danny is despised for being drekka) but in the end it turns out she had a survival Grace, which is a supremely awesome thing. Read The Lost Gate and you will find very similar ideas.

Anyway, as long as the magical-alien-gods in The Lost Gate had a way back to Westil, they remained powerful. But a gatemage, Loki, mysteriously closed off all the gates leading back to Westil, stranding everyone and weakening their powers over time. Ever since then, the families have promised to kill any gatemages they come across to prevent further disaster.

Danny is a smart, precocious, and seemingly useless boy. He is the only son of the two leaders of the North family, but rather than being a great mage like his parents, he isn't even able to make a clant. (You are probably wondering what a clant is. To answer your question, as far as I can tell it is a golem. If you are wondering what a golem is, you should google it.) Everyone looks down on him because they assume he is a drekka (someone without mage capabilities), but oh-so-conveniently forget that one of the signs of a gatemage is that they are unable to produce a clant. They also show a great affinity for languages (which Danny has demonstrated by showing off in school) and like to play pranks (again, Danny has made this obvious). So I don't really understand why it comes as such a surprise that Danny is a gatemage, but whatevs.

Anyway, Danny flees, and the book basically tells the story of how he comes to learn about and control his gatemagery while on the run from his apparently brutal family. He meets friends and enemies, but mostly friends. Actually, one of my main problems with the book is the marked lack of trouble for Danny. Sure, he keeps thinking about the constant threat of his family finding and killing him, but they never do. Not even close. Years pass and he has no encounters with his family. Plenty of other people find him, sure, but they miraculously don't want to kill him. They followed him to help him. I think my English teacher would call this a lack of stakes.

The book as a whole feels rushed. The layout is odd, in that we pass so much time with Danny, actual time, like years, that aren't covered in scene in the book. Maybe it's just me, but because so much of Danny's life was in summary, I didn't get to see him interact enough with people. Or at least I wanted more interactions, because that's where I really learn about the characters. Instead we just get a sentence like: "Danny trained with the Silverman's for three years without getting anywhere." And then the Silverman duo go from contemplating whether or not to kill him to getting teary-eyed when he calls them "mom" and "dad." That was just one example of where the passage of time was too much of a leap for me. Was that a pun? Almost, right? hahaha I'm so punny.

I didn't much care for the protagonist, Danny North/Silverman/Stone. Most of the time his jokes and smart-mouth came off as obnoxious (which Card does point out, so I guess I can't really blame him for) instead of funny. Like that kid in the back of the class you is always cracking jokes when you just want to punch him so he'll shut up and let the teacher talk already. I would say he is funny about 20% of the time. But when I did find him funny, I cracked up, man. Lemme tell ya. My favorite line in the book was probably:

"I don't want to go to high school for the classes, I want to go to high school because that's where they keep the girls."

In fact, the whole concept of Danny wanting to go to high school was one of the most interesting aspects of the book for me, and I wish it was explored more. It could have taken up its own book in this series, rather than all the awkward time jumps happening--but whatever. I found it especially charming that Danny prepared for high school by ready YA fantasy lit. I did not like how Danny handled high school. He promises himself he is going to keep his head down and just get a normal, high school experience, and then creates a gate his very first day that heals people's acne and bullshit like that. Not exactly subtle, Dan.

I admire and enjoy reading about uber-intelligent and analytical characters, such as Andrew "Ender" Wiggen and Lisbeth Salander. But Danny's intelligence combined with his sense of superiority and obnoxious sense of humor that often ignored people's feelings was the opposite of endearing.

This was so frustrating because I know that Card can write. Ender's Game was fantastic, and the protagonist, Ender, was a precocious, intelligent, analytical child just like Danny, except he was actually likeable. I don't know here Card went wrong with this one, because I know he can do better.

The ending is a great example of how Card could have done better. In the last chapter, after Danny has managed to create a Great Gate and defeat the Gate Thief, there is a reunion between Danny and the North family, where we see his parents for the first time. I think Card should have left this encounter to a later book. Well, what he really should have done is introduce us to the parents before Danny ran away so we can actually form an unbiased opinion of them and see how dangerous they are instead of just hearing it secondhand. Then he should have given us a confrontation earlier in the book where Danny had to escape from the North family scouts that finally caught up with him, and the final encounter should have been saved for a sequel.

I think one of the main problems that doesn't work for the book is how powerful Danny is. He has this superpower so that if he ever needs to escape someone he just pops somewhere else and locks the gate so nobody can follow. He has a natural affinity for languages so he can understand ancient texts and speak to everybody in their native tongue. He can heal himself every time he goes through a gate. He is extraordinarily intelligent. And, for some unexplained reason, he is the most powerful gatemage ever heard of. He can create so many more gates than normal people, and without breaking a sweat. Why is he so powerful when the magical-alien-god race is supposed to be weakening? Who knows.

The Lost Gate was also predictable. I guessed that the Greek Girl (Hermia) was good and powerful from the moment we saw her. I guessed who Wad was. All in all, not many surprises to be had.

I would not recommend this book. If I find the sequel at another booksale for a dollar, I'll probably buy it, but not before trying to haggle the price down to 50 cents.

The Millennium Trilogy

I recently read the Millennium Trilogy and would like to inform y'all that I very much enjoyed all three books and would highly recommend them. Seriously, five stars. Go to your nearest library or bookstore or neighbor's house and find these books, because they are captivating and oh so good. I know I'm a bit late to the boat as far as this trilogy is concerned. My mother read the series when they first came out and loved them, but I have some problems with reading books that my mother read first. Especially if sex is mentioned AT ALL. It's just...icky. But I finally caved and I'm so glad I did!

I'm going to try and do this review Spoiler-Free in part because it's hard for me to wrap my head around the scope of these novels at the moment (who needs sleep?) and also because I know there are still plenty of people out there who are planning on reading them, and I don't want to ruin the surprise.

I would like to start off by saying how surprising it is that I like these books, because Larsson has a...unique, style of writing. Let's call it unique. For some reason, he feels the need to be super detail-oriented, going as far as to name what kind of cell-phone people have and mentioning every time someone has a cigarette. I was able to look past it.

So, book one, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I'm not going to lie to you, the book starts out slowly. One of the hardest parts of the first book for me was that Larrsson introduced me to Lisbeth Salander, gave me just enough of her quirky-yet-lovable personality to get me hooked, and then focused on this Blomkvist character a lot. And I hadn't developed any warm fuzzy feelings towards Blomkvist yet. To be honest, he's still not my favorite character, but I've grown to tolerate him more, you could say. It took me until literally half-way through the book until I started enjoying it. I usually don't persevere that much, but I just kept thinking that a book this famous, a book that my voracious-reader mother had recommended, just had to get better. And it did. The suspense (and presence of Lisbeth Salander) in the second half of the novel really brought the book to life for me.

The Girl who Played with Fire was my favorite of the series. In this book, Lisbeth is accused of murder. While there is plenty of evidence against her, Blomkvist is unconvinced and starts his own investigation to prove her innocence. What made me enjoy this book so much was how fast-paced it was--I literally read it in a day. Also--no spoilers--but the ending was freaking fantastic.

I thought The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest was interesting because, rather than having a completely different plot as in the first two books, the third installment deals with the aftereffects of book two. I've never read a John Grisham novel, but Hornet's Nest is what I imagine one reads like. It was essentially a courtroom drama--but a courtroom drama with super-hacker Lisbeth Salander kicking ass and taking names. This book is the main reason I've felt the desire to spy on everyone recently. I want to learn how to hack computers and tap phones and find out shit about people and you have no idea how much I want to tail somebody. Anybody, just give me someone to follow around sneakily. I had a similar desire after reading Harriet the Spy, but that's a story for another time.

I also found this book a little odd, because we already knew so much. Some characters would be completely confused about why something happened or how and I'd be sitting in my bed screaming "No! Talk to Bublanski! He found out about that last chapter!" There is a marked lack of communication between the characters in the book, marked by the fact that everybody feels the need to turn their cellphones off all the fucking time. By the time the trial rolls around at the end of the book, we already know everything both sides are going to present and can deduce how it'll all play out. Strange, yeah? I guess that's just an example of how these novels are so character driven as well as having engaging plots. It's Lisbeth I was reading for.

Lisbeth really is a fantastic character. She is a kick-ass girl who should be frightening but instead manages to be endearing. Despite her prickly personality, Lisbeth has managed to make many loyal friends--some of them in ridiculously high places, like Paolo Roberto, a famous boxer. Normally a character with multiple tattoos and a promiscuous sex life would make me uncomfortable, but it works for her. The sex life doesn't work for Michael Blomkvist. For some reason he just rubbed me the wrong way--probably because I was having protective feelings toward Lisbeth and her poor, broken heart.

Unfortunately, Stieg Larsson passed away shortly after the publication of the third book. This is especially disappointing because--get this--he was planning to write TEN BOOKS!!! Can you believe that? So much more was going to happen and we will never know what! I've had some time to cool down, but when I first found this out minutes after finished Hornet's Nest I was in a rage. But, big picture, the books are surprisingly well rounded off since there were more planned. The books left the characters in a good place, and all the strings from the 2nd and 3rd book story arc were tied up nicely--but not too nicely, as my English teachers would say.

It's harder to do this without spoilers than I thought, but I hope I was able to at least give you the impression that I loved them and think you should read them for yourself. That's what I was mainly going for.

In other news, I start my internship Monday. Wish me luck. I went to a pathetically small used book sale at a library today (a different library from my usual) and only came away with one book, which compelled me to buy more expensive books at a Books-A-Million later in the day. I can't wait until I'm making money.