Bump in the Night Tag

This post is going to be the Bump in the Night tag that has been going around on Youtube amongst booktubers. I would have done this as a video, but today is Halloween and I wouldn't be able to get it up today. So, I'm doing it as a blog post instead. I learned about this tag yesterday from Elizziebooks, and you can watch her video here.

1) Which are your favourite supernatural/horror/scary characters to read about? (e.g. vampires, werewolves, witches, monsters, serial killers, murderers etc).

Witches have to win before everything else. The idea of being able to perform magic is awesome to me, and it seems like the funnest. The others all seem painful or something. Witches are fun. My second favorite would be werewolves though. I don't really have a reason for that. I just like them.

2) Which scene from any book would be your ultimate nightmare to have been part of?

I'm scared of everything, so there are plenty of options for me to choose for this. One that came to my mind is the scene in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets where Harry and Ron are in the Forbidden Forest and are attacked by Aragog's kids. Giant spiders trying to eat me would be horrific to me. I'm sure I could say something even scarier, but for some reason that's just the first thing I can think of.

3) If you could visit and explore any one scary or evil setting which would you pick and why?

Can I explore Snow's mansion in Hunger Games? The setting itself isn't necessarily scary, but the fact that it's Snow's house would creep me out, especially if I went in the rose room.

4) Which book was so frighteningly terrible that you almost fell asleep for eternity trying to finish it?

One book that I didn't even bother to finish relatively recently was Goddess Legacy by M.W. Muse. I did not like that book at all.

5) Name one book you wish you could pull certain pages out of and swap for others to make it better?

This is a hard question because I have no idea. I don't know how you could take pages out of one book and put it in another and things would actually make sense.

6) If you could turn any 'bad or evil' character into a good character, who would you pick and why?

I think the best evil characters would lose what is most intriguing about them if they were a good character. I can't think of any character that I would find as interesting if they suddenly became good instead of being evil.

Quick fire round:
1) Favourite vampire character?

I don't really have a favorite vampire character. One character that comes to mind is Nicholas from the Talisman series by Brenda Pandos. He's actually only a half-vampire, but I enjoy that series. It has some other interesting vampires as well.

2) Favourite werewolf character?

I absolutely without a doubt have to choose Remus Lupin from the Harry Potter series. There is absolutely no other werewolf that I could choose.

3) Favourite witch character?

Considering Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series is my favorite fictional character ever, I'm going to have to go with her.

4) Favourite monster character?

I honestly can't think of any book I've read that deals with monsters that aren't a specific kind of mythical creature or something.

5) Favourite ghost character?

Nearly Headless Nick from the Harry Potter series. (I know there's a lot of Harry Potter on this list already, but I don't really read ghost stories. I can't think of any others.)

6) Favourite serial killer/murderer character?

I don't really have an answer for this either, since I don't read many of those types of books. I can only think of the evil characters that kill but aren't like serial killers.

It's very clear that I don't read many spooky books since I get scared easily. I really do want to change that. For some reason I've gotten a strong urge to read spookier stuff lately.

Halloween and the Boy Who Lived

It's Halloween! I'm not really doing anything special for the holiday, but I still really feel in the Halloween mood. It might help that I don't have class tomorrow, so I'm basically getting an early Friday. That's put me in a good mood, even though I still have to get through today's classes.

It's supposed to rain all day though, and that puts the damper on things just a bit. I'm not looking forward to walking around campus and getting soaked. Still, I'm not letting that bring me down.

I also can't let today go by without mentioning what else today is. I can never forget that today is the day that James and Lily died and Harry became the Boy Who Lived in Harry Potter. I know it's just in a book, but that's such an important anniversary in the Harry Potter series, so I have to acknowledge it somehow each year.

Book Review: The Accidental Movie Star by Emily Evans

ISBN: 1477582312
Published: May 31st, 2012
Publisher: self-published
Read from October 25th to 29th, 2013
Synopsis from Goodreads:

How did Ashley spend her summer vacation? Imagine the hottest guy in Hollywood. Do you see the girl next to him, the one handing him a cup of coffee? Yeah. That’s her.
Interning on a major motion picture is not all bad. She gets to watch some of the scenes and even offer her opinion. “That kiss looked lame. Laughably weak. There’s no chance at an MTV award with that kiss.” LOL.
Until the director says, “Hey, Intern. Yeah, you. Ashley. You’re right. So, teach Caspian how to kiss. Oh, and get in front of the camera. We're going to need you in this next shot."
OMG.

Review:

I thought this book was really cute. It wasn't the greatest or most entertaining book by any stretch of the imagination, but I did enjoy it in many ways. The only plot the book really has is Caspian and Ashley's relationship, and it's pretty clear how that's going to go from the beginning. While it's not suspenseful and a book that will hook you in and make you incapable of putting it down, it is still fun enough that I enjoyed reading it and enjoyed the story.

I'm not very knowledgeable of the film industry, but from some of the stuff I do know, I'm not really sure a lot of the stuff in the book is realistic. Some of the stuff was, I'm sure, but there were a lot of things that just did not seem like how they would really happen in Hollywood. Still, since this is more of a book that you read because it's cute and fun, that didn't really bother me much.

Overall, I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes cute, fun romance stories. There's not much going on plotwise, but I thought it was an enjoyable book.

HIMYM Review: Season Nine Episode Seven: "No Questions Asked"

The first comment I can even think to make about last night's episode is that I really want to know what Robin was up to when she asked Marshall to help her out with no questions asked.

Not much really happened in last night's episode. A lot of it was flashbacks, but I found it entertaining. I really loved Marshall coming to the conclusion that he never lies to Lily, and that's what makes him finally tell her the truth. I'm happy she finally knows, and it will be interesting to see how that goes in the coming episodes.

I enjoyed Ted, Robin, and Barney's various ways to get into Lily's room when the door was just unlocked. Although I have no idea why Ted would ever think climbing up a drain pipe is a good idea (although the vents wasn't much better really).

I would have been unbelievably frustrated if I was Lily and the hotel people kept making excuses about the room because of ghost stories. I don't think I could stay in a room that was supposed to be haunted in the first place though. I don't believe in ghosts, but I get scared too easily.

I want to know why Lily was willing to destroy her phone with no questions asked. There is no way I would ever do that. New phones cost way to much for me to just willingly destroy mine with no reason why.

The mother is apparently going to be in next week's episode again, so I look forward to that. I also hope that they continue addressing the Lily/Marshall storyline and don't let it get pushed to the side for a while.

Book Review: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

ISBN: 014131088X
Published: October 22nd, 1999
Publisher: Puffin
Synopsis from Goodreads:

Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Because there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth. This extraordinary first novel has captured the imaginations of teenagers and adults across the country.

Review:

Speak is one of those books that I've been hearing about for years, so I was extremely excited that we were reading it for my adolescent literature class. I saw the movie years ago, but I had more or less forgotten about it. The ending of the movie was what is still clearest in my mind, and it was only when I got toward the ending of the book that things started being familiar to me. Although, I'm not sure how faithful the movie is at all because of how fuzzy my memories of it are.

I think this is a brilliant book. I wish this was assigned reading in high school. It deals with a tough subject and it's hard to read at times, but it's also a very important subject. I don't want to say too much on it, since it's a spoiler for the book, but unfortunately, far too many people will have to struggle with this sort of thing in their life. That's why it is so important that books like Speak exist. I think Andy's character and even Rachel towards the end show why it is that this book is important. Far too many people think like that. Even Melinda questions what happened and whether or not it was "bad." People shouldn't think like that.

I thought Speak was an amazing book, not just for tackling a difficult subject but also because it did it well. Not even just the larger issue in the book, but high school as a whole was portrayed in a relatable way. Melinda is definitely on the pessimistic side (which I hardly blame her for), but I'm pretty sure anyone who's been in high school can relate to her comments on various things happening at school and how the other students interact with each other and her.

I highly recommend Speak to anyone. I especially think it's a great book for high schoolers to read. It's a tough subject, but it's something they need to be educated about.