Required Reading

via GIPHY      Obviously, I love reading. I run a book blog for goodness sake, I'm not exactly hiding it. However, there are circumstances in life that can make even the biggest bookworm refuse to read. For me, that circumstance is required reading. Whether it's for a class or my mom making me read it, required reading always puts me in a book slump, and it can be hard to come out of.

Identity Crisis: Hogwarts Edition

     Okay, so I never remember my Pottermore information, so every time I go on I make a new account and redo everything, and I've always had the same results. Until NOW! I recently made a new account and took the sorting hat quiz and... my house CHANGED! I've always been a Ravenclaw, I pride myself on it, although I typically walk the line between Slytherin and Ravenclaw. I am now a Slytherin, and I love Slytherin, honestly they're so underrated, but I'm having an identity crisis! What if everything I thought I knew about myself was wrong? I didn't even know my true Hogwarts house! Okay rant over, let's move on now.

The Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling (Spoilers Included)

*I have not seen the onstage version. This review is based completely on the script.*
The Cursed Child

by Jack Thorne and John Tiffany

• Children's Fiction, Fantasy, Time Travel
• 9+ for dark themes
• Published July 31st, 2016 by Scholastic Inc. and Little Brown
• available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Books
• ★★★★★ 

Can Harry Potter be considered Gothic?

     So I was looking through my posts and I found this! It was written by my mom back when our blog when it was first getting started and for some reason it was saved as a draft. I know at some point it was posted so I would like to share it with everyone.




     "I have been doing quite a bit of research lately on Gothic Literature. My life just hasn’t been hectic enough. Anyhow, in this process, I came across a syllabus for an undergraduate class focused on Victorian Gothic Literature. What surprised me was the two novels to be studied, the all too common Bram Stoker’s Dracula and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Of course my brain was immediately reeling to decide which side of the fence I belong on.

     From my research, here is a list of the primary points to a Gothic novel:

• the betrayal of innocence
• enclosed space (typically decrepit castles)
• battles ensued on the villain’s turf
• an orphaned protagonist
• emotional narrative
• a prophecy that sets the story in motion

     I will not sit here and give you a play by play for these bullets. I mean who in there right mind even puts a billeted list in a blog post and expects people to read it? We all know Harry himself is an orphaned child sent to live with his hateful aunt and uncle who stick him in a closet. Is that emotional enough? Rowling has more than a few Gothic structures, but I said I will not go point by point so let's move on.

     What I would like to discuss is battles ensued on the villain’s turf.

     Rowling has quite the creative approach when it comes to getting the heroes and villains together on the stereotypical gothic turf. She has portkeys to transport students, she lures students into dungeons and she takes advantage of character flaws. Above all, she has created such a heartfelt group of heroes that they seek out the danger, starting with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

     Let's take a look

     Typically within the Gothic genre, the villain will lure the protagonist to a grim place (such as a cemetery) before the fight truly begins. Looking at Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,  Harry and Cedric unsuspectingly grab a portkey and are transmitted to the cemetery in Godric’s Hollow where they are to see the rebirth of the tabooed Lord Voldemort. Here, Harry is forced to defend himself against the dark wizard or die.

     Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t love the series any less now. In fact, I have even more respect for J.K. Rowling for her wonderful use of the Gothic genre within the realm of children’s literature."- Tori

     Having read this post it has great points and I never looked at Harry Potter this way. I mean seriously, I don't think most people have thought of Harry Potter this way, seeing as it's a children's book. I honestly don't think I'll ever look at this book the same. I love Rowling even more now for this, as she incorporated this Gothic theme in the books so well they were almost undetectable. This was a great book and I wish there were more posts like this out there!

*This has not been edited, the majority of this content all belongs to my mom, Tori.*

Truth Teller review by Ursula Lygarlis

Hello there happy Bookies! I am so excited about my first ever guest blog post!

I am secretly a book hoarder as well, so don't be ashamed of your overflowing attics. At least you have one, there are only so many places you can shove books when you live in a toadstool. This new creation they call MineEye has been fabulous for such pleasant problems. Now, I can just pop over and grab a book for my kindle. I just hope that those eensy weensy books in there don't overflow out. I don't know where I would put them!


Oh my, I have become quite distracted. I stopped to tell you about Kurt Chambers' Truth Teller. I loved it!! Of course, I grabbed it at first because it was free, perma-free as he says,but  I never expected to be so incredibly blown away. If anyone follows me on Twitter, I'm sure you saw me talking about it. Even poor Grimnien couldn't get a dance in edgewise.

download

So, there's a girl. Her name is Charlotte. Somehow, Charlotte is transported from her vacation place at some beach town into a medieval time period where everyone rides horses and magical beings are running rampant. Middleton, Swallow and their son Elderfield take Charlotte into their home and care for her, promising to do what it takes to return her home. Little do they know, this quest is one of grave danger. They must work together to find Goffer, the only being able to get Charlotte back across the realms and home to her own family.

I am clearly not a middle grade child, however, I LOVED this story. I just couldn't seem to put it down. The themes that we would want our youth to read are just so well written that children will not even notice. The typical coming of age storyline for both Elderfield and Charlotte are just so perfect for a MG reader. They are able to see Charlotte blossom as a person and rise to the occasion to protect herself and those she loves. Then there are those other themes we love to see in Middle Grade fantasy: good v evil, independence, family, friendship.

"Every story has a hidden truth." -Middleton, Truth Teller

I would consider Truth Teller a wonderful mash-up of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Harry Potter. I know Shelfie here often speaks about a Through the Cabinet genre and this wonderful story by Kurt Chambers fits in here perfectly, but you will have to read it to find out why!

Enter for a chance to win Wrath of Siren, book 2 in the series.


What Inspired Truth Teller?

     "I really fancied the idea of writing my own book ever since I was young. I always struggled with reading as a child, but loved reading fantasy books like Lord of the Rings. The only problem I found was they were often heavy reading even for adults. I thought it would be great if someone wrote a book just like this, but that was aimed at children like me to make them easier to read. I kept this idea in my head for years and years, but never put in into practice until I reached my mid 30's.

    Working with children inspired me to start writing. I helped run a local Brownie pack. Anyone who has ever worked with children will know just how inspirational they are. That is how Truth Teller was created. An idea I had from way back in my childhood eventually became a reality." -Kurt Chambers

Ultimate Book Tag!

Not official picture, I made it!

Today, I'm doing the Ultimate Book Tag, originally from Chapter Chicks, a book related YouTube channel. I found this tag on Angel Erin's Book Obsession. I tag anyone reading this who would like to do this tag. I hope you like it!

Harry Potter Moment of the Week #1

This week I have decided to join in on Uncorked Thoughts Meme: Harry Potter Moment of the Week. 

Description: "This is a meme hosted by me here at my blog :).The aim of this meme is to share with fellow bloggers a character, spell, chapter, object or quote from the books/ films/ J. K. Rowling herself or anything Potter related! I will be picking a topic within HP for us to focus on each week and then if anyone wants to take part feel free! All I ask is to link back here, to my blog :)."- quoted from Uncorked Thoughts. Today's topic is: 

 

Scariest Magical Creature. 

For me it's the Inferi, dead bodies brought back to life by evil wizards. The thought of corpses grabbing on to you and dragging you underwater to drown scares me. These things are at the top of my scary creatures list barely beating dementors. I couldn't even read the scene of Harry Potter where Harry was attacked by them until my second time reading the series.One thing that dementors have over them is that Inferi can be killed with fire while dementors can't be killed at all.

In the comments leave a link to your blog post or (if you don't have a blog) tell me which one you think is scariest and why.