Where Every Scroll is a New Adventure
Melissa - Blog Posts
Just felt like drawing something cute with my fancharacter and fankids. I also decided to give one of my fankids a unibrow because the guy I headcanoned to Edmund’s dad has one. It’s not much, but it’s cute and it makes me smile. Edmund belongs to Craig Bartlett and the rest belong to me.
just finished watching the new ep, and from the bottom of my heart i can confidently say: what the fuck.
black Jesus <3 by pinkflowers2003 featuring a crop top
Crop top / Boohoo ripped jeans / Melissa peep toe flat shoes / Givenchy shopping bag / Footnotes Too braided leather bracelet / Betsey Johnson cross earrings / ASOS cross jewelry, $7.63
jenna burgess, photographed by sophie nélisse
yellowjackets season 3 🐝🧢
𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝!
(𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐬𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧'𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧)
This is more of a rant than an analysis, an opinion, you can disagree/agree.
BTW, I haven’t watched the series but read all the books. There would be spoilers on some of the books, on who A is. This is more why it should be animated and how.
𝐖𝐡𝐲?
In live actions, it's hard to find an actor that looks like the character. However, I think PLL needs some characters to look similar to their book counterparts, not exactly but similar.
In my point of view, it could have been easier to convey the story to an audience.
E.G Emily’s parents were racist; they didn’t like Maya because she was black (so it would make sense for Emily’s struggles), of course they can’t find the perfect actor to look like Emily in a live action but can animate her.
Also, Rosewood has a classy school that the girls attend with uniforms. Obviously, it's hard to use uniforms in a live action but it’s more easier animated (saves hassle to draw different outfits for kids to go to school)
Honestly, this is more of an idea (sorry I can’t explain this properly).
𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐲?
Mona Vanderwaal’s; in the earlier books she’s described to look similar to Alison by Hanna. This foreshadows what was going to happen in the future, that Mona was the first A. In the first book (throughout the next 3 books as well), all 4 girls kept seeing blonde hair, this would add to the curiosity of the audience if Alison was still alive before finding her body.
It makes sense to an audience that the blonde was Mona, make sense to the PLL girls that they were targeted by Mona not Alison. Adds more creepiness if they kept seeing blonde hair.
Spencer Hastings; when she discovered that her Ali was actually step-sisters. Also, it would make sense if past Ali and current/past Spencer look a little bit like each other. Along with Melissa.
Ali; if there was some scenes of 6th grade Ali and 7th grade her it could show her to have darker blonde hair in 7th grade also darker blue eyes. This would convey on the twin switch, foreshadowing that the Ali they knew was never the real one. (sorry if this part was confusing)
Nearly any blonde because in Spencer’s flashbacks she always sees someone with Ali who is blonde on the night the murder took place.
Hanna; It would be more easier to differentiate past her and present her. And to portray how she doesn’t want to go revert to her ‘ugly’ past life that she had. Also to illustrate how much she had changed prior to Alison being missing.
𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝟗-𝟏𝟔
My personal opinion would be to cut some parts that are useless, to shorten them. This is because the books drag the new A torturing them (which is real Ali).
𝐒𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬?
I haven’t read Pretty little secrets (which I don’t plan on doing) but definitely read Ali’s Pretty Little Lies (honestly my favorite book in the series). Ali’s Pretty Little Lies could be an animated movie.
𝐈𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧!
In my opinion, any PLL character would be better animated, and it could be more better telling the story. Only if it follows the story of the books.
Finally, I honestly love the book design of the characters and would like to see it animated.
February book haul 📚
Okay y’all, Melissa here and we have something extremely important to discuss today. I just finished reading the third book in the Winner’s Curse trilogy, so let me give you the spoiler-free lowdown on...
The Winner’s Kiss
First off, I’ll just say that I hate the title. Like, YES there is considerably more kissing in this book than in Crime (LOLLLLL ‘cause there was none in Crime), but kissing wasn’t the point of this finale??? I personally think that The Winner’s CROWN would have been a much better title (also would have kept the “C” trend. It’s actually perfect. ugh no one consults me.)
BUT I will TOTALLY take a dumb title over the AWFUL NEW COVERS they were proposing! For those of you who somehow missed that whole debacle, Macmillan announced back in November that they were going to do a complete overhaul of the covers. Before the series was even finished. After releasing the original cover for the new book (as seen above). COMPLETE MAYHEM ENSUED.
UGH. I physically cannot look at them. The best part, though, is that... Don’t these covers look familiar? Hmmmm... Like, super familiar.
WAIT. I KNOW.
Look at that. It’s uncanny. And so unfortunate. ‘Cause unlike Celaena of Throne of Glass, Kestral is not an assassin. IN FACT she can barely throw a knife. No, Kestral uses her wit and smarts to tear you down. As soon as you show any weakness, she will destroy you with her words and war tactics. She’s very Sherlockian at times. So these new covers make no sense.
But this rant has a happy ending! Macmillan heard our cries! They listened! Over Christmas they announced that they were throwing out the new covers and going back to the originals. Which is HUGE. I have been lamenting various cover changes since the dawn of time and no one has ever listened. It is so heart-warming.
Anyway, the point of all of that is that I would take a title like The Winner’s Poop Bucket if it meant I didn’t have to look at those covers on my book shelf. REJOICE.
So let me get back to my thoughts on the actual content of the final book, haha.
The Winner’s Kiss (foreal this time)
Ugh, guys, it was SO. GOOD. You will not be disappointed in this last installment. I will admit that I had been extremely hesitant about starting this book because I just couldn’t see how everything would be resolved in a way that I wanted.
First, the ending of Crime was BRUTAL. Like tear my heart out, throw it on the ground, and jump on it repeatedly brutal. Let’s just recap the ending real quick (if you don’t want to be spoiled because FOR WHATEVER REASON you haven’t read Crime, don’t read):
Kestral gets shipped off to a prison camp in the north
Arin sails away for his home in Heran
They both said some pretty gross things to each other beforehand
My babies, come back! Love each other!
So how was Kiss going to fix everything?! Even if Arin and Kestral somehow made their way back to one another, how could they reconcile all the things that were said??? Needless to say, I was emotionally distraught before I even started this book.
BUT WORRY NOT. Marie is badass, and she throws some completely unexpected twists at you from the very beginning. And, between you and me, she COMPLETELY makes up for the lack of kissing in Crime. And then some. (I’m wiggling my eyebrows right now). Girlfriend totally got my back.
And, some might say more importantly, she wraps up the major conflict with the emperor of Valoria in a way that I greatly enjoyed, but didn’t guess at all. You go, Marie. Like, I had a couple guesses for how everything would end, but even when I only had 50 pages left to read, I still had no idea. So HOLLER.
The Winner’s Kiss is definitely worth the wait and all of the drama over covers. Honestly, I’m going to go back and read it again ‘cause I sort of inhaled it this time around lolllll
The book doesn’t actually come out for another month (March 29), but GUYS IT’S SO WORTH IT. Just hold out a bit longer! And then come back here and discuss it with me, obvs.
Peace, Melissa
Made a note on my manuscript while slightly drunk last night, looked at it this morning and all it says is “#foreshadowing”
Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin
Man oh man oh man oh man OH MAN OH MAN. This book was ammmmaaazzzziinnnngggggg. So good. Wow. Five stars. Fiver.
Let me break it down for you. So let’s pretend that Hitler and the Axis powers never actually lost WWII. IN FACT, they won and slowly began taking over the world, filling it with death camps and just lots more death. Enter Yael. She and her mother were taken to a camp, and Yael became the subject of some extremely nasty German experiments. Unfortunately for the Germans, the experiments that were just supposed to change the pigment of Yael’s skin to that trademark Aryan White actually gave her the ability to skinshift, i.e. the ability to change all aspects of her appearance.
Fast forward ten years, and Yael has found the perfect opportunity for revenge. Every year the Third Reich hosts a cross-continental motorcycle race to commemorate their great victory, and the prize is an audience with Mr. Adolf Hitler himself. Yael only has to enter the race as Adele Wolf, the only racer and person Hitler has ever let close to him, win it, and then kill Hitler. Easy Peasy!
Unfortunately killing Hitler is not as easy as that, especially when Adele’s older, overly-protective brother Felix enters the race, along with past love interest Luka–two people who know Adele PRETTY well. WOWWWW.
Let me further break this down for you:
Alternate history!
Sci-fi skinshifting!
Super attractive love interest with murky past!
Hunger Games-like competition that pits teens against one another at the expense of their safety and lives!
Knife fights, and fist fights, and gun fights, oh my!
Death
Basically everything you could ever want from a YA.
ALSO let me just say that Yael is the most badass girl I have ever encountered. She puts Katniss Everdeen TO SHAME. She’s super complex, cares a lot about people, and has trained to KILL HITLER. idk what else you could really want.
I am also going to add that I have an extremely awful habit of reading the ends of books before actually finishing them (I am fully aware that this is shameful bye). I did that while reading this book. I WAS STILL COMPLETELY BLINDSIDED BY THE ENDING. Don’t ask me how that happens, idk. And predicting endings is kind of my job (editor over here y’all). Surprise endings don’t really happen for me anymore. But this IS an alternate history with skinshifting and motorcycle races, so what really could I have predicted lol
Read this book. It’s amazing.
~Melissa, Book Wench
Here’s a list of what us wenches are reading right now!
Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee & The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubraker Bradley
Whatcha reading, Brett?
Wing & Claw by Linda Sue Park
By Break of Day by M L Buchman
Indeh by Ethan Hawke and Greg Ruth
Whatcha reading, Jo Ann?
Burn Math Class by Jason Wilkes
Passenger by Alexandra Bracken & Ninth Key by Meg Cabot
Whatcha reading, Tori?
(lol sorry for the weird ass pic. This coffee place is super crowded and I can’t smile at my computer without people looking at me like I have the plague)
Heyoo! I’m Melissa and I’m Book Wench number… four? I am 24, live in good ol’ New York City, and I used to work with these lovely ladies in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Well, I’m def no stranger to the book industry. Former English major, former production editor at Pearson, former Cincinnati bookseller, current freelance editor (Mosaic Editing holler at me, this is a shameless plug for your editing services), current bookseller at Books of Wonder. I’m currently working on procuring a full-time job in publishing (aren’t we all HA HA HA).
A little about myself: I love Beyoncé with every fiber of my being. More than is really healthy probs. I listen to a lot of Christmas music. I’m really into astrology currently even though I’m very skeptical of it (it doesn’t make sense to me either). My favorite author is Hemingway, but not as a person. My favorite person is Libba Bray, but not necessarily as an author. I read primarily YA and middle grade (Books of Wonder is a children’s book store), and the occasional feminist adult fic. My reviews and recommendations will primarily be YA, holler.
I’ll post a normal pic of myself, idk, when one exists.
(That’s my cat, Casper. Casper the Friendly Cat. He’s probably the most important thing about me tbh)
𝗛𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗲𝘀.