“Neverwhere” by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman’s pretty ok to me. There’s some people out there who are obsessed with him to a ridiculous level. But some of his stuff I like and other stuff I find to be a bit too much.

This story started off as a bit too much, it was the classic “oh send the narrator into a mysterious world with some pretty girl and he pines for home but then becomes a Warrior and doesn’t want to leave.”

But there were some redeeming qualities by the end. I don’t know, I’m just so sick of the archetypes in fantasy.

One example is the Marquis de Carabas, he is a wonderful character, and the version I had even gives a little story at the end about his coat. Others are also very unique, like Lear or Old Bailey.

Having said all that, it constantly annoys me how Gaiman’s women always need help from some guy. I thought that Hunter would be different but nope Richard has to help her in the end. Ugh.

Anyways it is a nice sort of Alice in Wonderland-esque story for adults, and the continual references to London, both past and present, are cool. But it still relies heavily on tropes and doesn’t really do much with them. Ugh.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

My friend and I took the time out of our really busy weekend to go see “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” starring Eddie Redmayne. The verdict: Redmayne is gorgeous and this movie really is fantastic!

It starts with a montage of newspaper headlines to situate the viewer in the environment, which is New York City in 1926. The movie itself is not super steeped in the time period, although there are references to Prohibition and the First World War. There’s also less overt racism and sexism than history would have had, but the xenophobia of the time finds another way of making itself present.

The main conflict involves the relationship between the Muggles and the wizarding world. The wizards have been persecuted and are now in hiding. This means that there is a ban on magical creatures, making things difficult for Newt Scamanda. However this also leads to small children with magical powers being nervous to show them and develop them. If children repress their magical abilities they create what is called an obscurus, which is essentially a ball of dark energy that lashes out and destroys anything in its path. There is one rampant in New York City, but Newt’s creatures are being blamed instead.

This is quite a clever conflict, as there is no definitive “bad guy.” The Muggles are just living their lives, and the wizards are trying to protect themselves. The “bad guy” here is our fear of anything different from us. There would not be an obscurus if people were accepting of others.

The movie does reference the Harry Potter series a little, Dumbledore comes up, and Grindelwald is mentioned as terrorizing Europe. There is also a necklace briefly shown with the Deathly Hallows symbol on it. For the most part, it is its own series which is really nice.

So I’m really excited for where this movie series is going to go next! Drop “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”, this is the follow-up that we’ve really been waiting for!

FUCK YOU TRUMP

Not a real post this week because I am upset and pissed and stressed out by the recent American election. So I'm just going to say this:

Trump, if you think that you are going to change who or what I am, you have got another thing coming. You can try to get me down and have me lose faith in democracy or in myself, but you will not get a single inch with me. I refuse to go back into the closet and I refuse to be anything other than what I am.

You can try to come after me or my friends, but rest assured that I will personally make the next four years hell for you, and if you want to get to anyone I love you are going to have to get through me first. I love and care about them so much that I would do anything for them, a feeling that I am sure you have never felt. I am sure that love will come out on top again, since love is indeed all you need.

"Career of Evil" by Robert Galbraith

This is the sequel to “The Silkworm” and continues following Cormoran Strike and Robin on their adventures solving mysteries and all that. It picks up right where the last one left off, with Robin getting ready for her wedding and taking on a bigger role in the office.

This all changes when she gets sent a human leg in the mail. Cue their next case!

What I thought was cool was how the quotes connecting the chapters were all lyrics from the band Blue Oyster Cult. Chapters that are written from the killer’s point of view (an addition for this book, wasn’t in the rest of the series) don’t have quotes but share titles with some of their songs. Which is an unusual way of linking the whole book together, but the band and its lyrics are kind of important to the story so it works. (The connection here is that Strike’s mom was pretty obsessed with that band, so it’s a way for the killer to get at Strike and into his head really.)

Aspects of both Strike and Robin’s pasts come to light, mostly about Strike’s family and Robin’s reasons for dropping out of university (which is alluded to in previous books but never totally explained).

Topics like rape and mental illness are discussed but I think that the author handled them really well. Having the opposing views of Strike and Robin definitely helps, and I would guess that the book overall is more sympathetic to Robin’s point of view since she understands mental illness more I think.

The plot can be confusing as there are initially like four suspects and keeping them straight is a little difficult, but it’s not that important since there’s only one in the end haha. This also made the ending more interesting since you think that the story is pointing to one solution but then it completely changes course and goes for another.

This was a really great book as well, it is turning into such a nice series.