Kyra Smith sees a bandwagon and jumps...
It took me a while to get off my arse and write this but here goes. As promised I have reviewed whatever cultural artefact (or the closest approximation) happened to be in my vicinity when my phone made a noise.
Details of the original Random Review (aka what the hell is going on here) can be found: here
Tuesday 24th June:
Time: 18:08
Location: Starbucks Concession in Borders Bookshop
Subject: The Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen
I picked up this pretty much at random to entertain me alongside a Java Chip Frapuccino with extra cream (maybe I should be reviewing that...?) while I waited for a tardy friend. It's young adult fiction, and genuinely rather moving. Its protagonist - Macy Queen - lives a seemingly perfect life but as the book progresses it rapidly becomes apparent that this is a faade she constructed to allay the grief she feels over the sudden death of her father. However, when her equally "perfect" boyfriend Jason goes away to Braincamp for the summer, Macy meets the Wishe family and ends up helping them with their catering business. Through her emergent relationships - particularly with the free-spirited Kirsty and the hot and arty Wes - she finally comes to terms with her grief, grows into the person she really is and learns that there is really no such thing as perfect. The Truth About Forever offers up pretty much what expect from YA fiction but its exploration of loss and bereavement is subtle and nearly moved me to tears to tears on more than on occasion (or would have, if not for the frappucino). Set this against the delicate and detailed characterisation and the book is an immensely engaging read. I didn't quite connect with the hero but I think that's because I'm not sixteen and I'm just too cynical to believe that teenage boys that sa-woon' worthy exist.
Time: 18:17 (dammit, stop texing me)
Location: Starbucks Concession in Borders Bookshop
Subject: Java Chip Frappucino, tall, coffee base, extra cream
This is basically a caffeine-and-cream-and-chocolate fest in a plastic cup; it's delicious, especially on hot days and early mornings, and it's probably horribly horribly bad for you. Also it takes about half an hour to order, since it is quite highly customised and, gasp, no longer on the standard menu, so it does makes you look like a sugar-addicted yuppie. Also if consumed too rapidly or in too large quantities, it seems to present a range of anti-social side-effects, including giggling, shaking, and talking very quickly indeed. And the characterisation could probably be better.
Time: 18:59
Location: St Aldates Tavern (still waiting for bloody friend)
Subject: Deal or No Deal Pub Quiz Game
This is a Class A drug and should be avoided at all costs. Pushers - disguised as friendly Welshmen - can often be found in our nation's quieter pubs. They will hail you with a seemingly innocuous question like "Which of these novels did Ernest Hemmingway write?" and that is all it takes to render you a drooling, twitching slave of Noel Edmunds. This resultant mania can encompass an entire bar. Literally hours can pass. Unspeakable sums of money can be lost. And still the question remains: What is Canada's highest city?
Time: 23:54
Location: Walking down Cornmarket Street
Subject: Amaranth, by Nightwish (playing on MP3 player)
Amaranth is the second single from the album Dark Passion Play by the Finnish symphonic metal band, Nightwish. It's very accessible and very catchy (reminding me faintly of Evanescence, actually) but still carries the Nightwish hallmarks of soaring orchestrals, enthusiastic vocals and utterly incomprehensible lyrics.
Well quite. The video is equally batshit, featuring the band flinging their hair around in what appears to be an underground wind tunnel interspersed with pastoral scenes of, well, some kids, like, finding an angel bleeding from its eyes and then taking it home ... and putting it in a house ... and then burning the house down ... and stuff. Or something. On the other hand it does feature also feature their new singer, Anette Olzon (a very welcome replacement for Tarja if you ask me) looking exceptionally exceptionally hot. So, yes, definitely a winner.
Details of the original Random Review (aka what the hell is going on here) can be found: here
Tuesday 24th June:
Time: 18:08
Location: Starbucks Concession in Borders Bookshop
Subject: The Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen
I picked up this pretty much at random to entertain me alongside a Java Chip Frapuccino with extra cream (maybe I should be reviewing that...?) while I waited for a tardy friend. It's young adult fiction, and genuinely rather moving. Its protagonist - Macy Queen - lives a seemingly perfect life but as the book progresses it rapidly becomes apparent that this is a faade she constructed to allay the grief she feels over the sudden death of her father. However, when her equally "perfect" boyfriend Jason goes away to Braincamp for the summer, Macy meets the Wishe family and ends up helping them with their catering business. Through her emergent relationships - particularly with the free-spirited Kirsty and the hot and arty Wes - she finally comes to terms with her grief, grows into the person she really is and learns that there is really no such thing as perfect. The Truth About Forever offers up pretty much what expect from YA fiction but its exploration of loss and bereavement is subtle and nearly moved me to tears to tears on more than on occasion (or would have, if not for the frappucino). Set this against the delicate and detailed characterisation and the book is an immensely engaging read. I didn't quite connect with the hero but I think that's because I'm not sixteen and I'm just too cynical to believe that teenage boys that sa-woon' worthy exist.
Time: 18:17 (dammit, stop texing me)
Location: Starbucks Concession in Borders Bookshop
Subject: Java Chip Frappucino, tall, coffee base, extra cream
This is basically a caffeine-and-cream-and-chocolate fest in a plastic cup; it's delicious, especially on hot days and early mornings, and it's probably horribly horribly bad for you. Also it takes about half an hour to order, since it is quite highly customised and, gasp, no longer on the standard menu, so it does makes you look like a sugar-addicted yuppie. Also if consumed too rapidly or in too large quantities, it seems to present a range of anti-social side-effects, including giggling, shaking, and talking very quickly indeed. And the characterisation could probably be better.
Time: 18:59
Location: St Aldates Tavern (still waiting for bloody friend)
Subject: Deal or No Deal Pub Quiz Game
This is a Class A drug and should be avoided at all costs. Pushers - disguised as friendly Welshmen - can often be found in our nation's quieter pubs. They will hail you with a seemingly innocuous question like "Which of these novels did Ernest Hemmingway write?" and that is all it takes to render you a drooling, twitching slave of Noel Edmunds. This resultant mania can encompass an entire bar. Literally hours can pass. Unspeakable sums of money can be lost. And still the question remains: What is Canada's highest city?
Time: 23:54
Location: Walking down Cornmarket Street
Subject: Amaranth, by Nightwish (playing on MP3 player)
Amaranth is the second single from the album Dark Passion Play by the Finnish symphonic metal band, Nightwish. It's very accessible and very catchy (reminding me faintly of Evanescence, actually) but still carries the Nightwish hallmarks of soaring orchestrals, enthusiastic vocals and utterly incomprehensible lyrics.
Caress the one, the Never-Fading
Rain in your heart - the tears of snow-white sorrow
Caress the one, the hiding amaranth
In a land of the daybreak
Well quite. The video is equally batshit, featuring the band flinging their hair around in what appears to be an underground wind tunnel interspersed with pastoral scenes of, well, some kids, like, finding an angel bleeding from its eyes and then taking it home ... and putting it in a house ... and then burning the house down ... and stuff. Or something. On the other hand it does feature also feature their new singer, Anette Olzon (a very welcome replacement for Tarja if you ask me) looking exceptionally exceptionally hot. So, yes, definitely a winner.
