Riverdale: The River’s Edge

Riverdale is a chilling “teen soap opera” with romance and all the mystery a small town with it’s quirky inhabitants could get.

Season 1, Episode 1

Riverdale, season 1 Trailer

Rating: 

Over the past few days, I have seen much hype around the new TV show, Riverdale. It continuously popped up on my Facebook feed as the show adapted from the Archie comics. I was impressed, but the trailer didn’t immediately make me want to binge the show. I had my questions about it. Eventually, with it’s continuous marketing on my social medias, I decided I would test the waters, see if this show was good enough to continue.

When the show arrived on Netflix, I was eager to begin and within the first few moments knew I was going enjoy the show.

Archie Anderson

Betty Cooper

Jughead

Veronica Lodge

So, the characters. Jughead is the narrator of the story, a quiet boy who was once Archie Andrews’ friend. He spends his time writing a novel about the death of a Riverdale inhabitant, known as Jason Blossoms. He and his sister, Cheryl, drove out to Sweetwater River for a boat ride where soon, a boy scout found Cheryl sitting by the waters edge, Jason nowhere in sight. It is later presumed he is dead after his body cannot be found.
In later scenes, Cheryl is shown to be the grieving sister, still the head of the school, popular, mean and devious.

Archie is the main character and boy, oh, boy he is the most handsomest around! He has a knack for writing music (he has a beautiful voice!) but finds he is expected to work for his father’s company and play varsity football. His ultimate dilemma in this episode is choosing how to juggle his passions. Over the summer, he hooked up with his music teacher Ms Grundy which leads to scandals and secrets throughout the show.

His best friend is Betty Cooper, who we find has a crush on Archie. She is the typical “girl-next-door” who needs to find the courage to ask Archie about moving forward in their relationship and gets reassurance from her best fried Kevin Keller that he feels the same way. She’s the sister of Poppy, Jason’s girlfriend. Soon, Betty befriends the new girl, Veronica Lodge and finds this is a way to stop her from always being what everyone believes her to be, perfect. To be honest, I found that I shipped Betty and Archie more than any other character.

Veronica Lodge presents herself as a confident girl, coming to Riverdale after being in New York. Her father is on trial for fraud and embezzlement and so her mother and her decide to start afresh. She catches the eye of Archie, and upon a dare are both locked in a closet for seven minutes where they soon kiss. Veronica frets that it’s wrong and unfair to Betty but does it anyway. I found this scene to be so annoying! This is mainly because I want Archie and Betty to be together.

Archie (left) and Betty (right) are at the Chook’Lit Shoppe where they first meet new girl Veronica (middle). Doesn’t she look so good!?

The scenes in this show are very cinematic. The colours and camera shots create a very beautiful and intriguing look. The music score is fitting and the set locations are perfect.

Jason (left) and Cheryl (right) Blossoms at the beginning of the episode.

I found the town of Riverdale to be somewhat similar to the town of Rosewood, where the inhabitants of the show Pretty Little Liars reside. Within the town are secrets in every single person which gives this show something dark to ponder over. I love it! After all, aren’t secrets the foundation of a good teen drama?

From a distance, it presents itself like so many other small towns all over the world. Safe. Decent. Innocent. Get closer, though, and you start seeing the shadows underneath. 

This episode ended on a definite cliffhanger … they found Jason’s body. It happens that he was shot in the head which gives us more questions, especially since Archie and Ms Grundy heard a shot when they were together. I think there are a ton of more secrets to do with Riverdale. We’ll just have to find out.

Overall, this show definitely stepped up and proved to be an excellent teen drama!

Shadowhunters: A Door Into the Dark

Season 2, Episode 2 

Promo 2×02 “A Door Into the Dark”

Rating:

This episode begins with Jace and Valentine returning to the ship after escaping a risky situation where Jocelyn tried to kill Jace.

This fuels anger between all of the characters especially Clary and Jocelyn, who reveals that Jace has demon blood in him and shows a scene where Jace is a baby and turns the flowers all black.

Everyone says that Valentine is the monster but you—you just tried to murder your own son! 

Victor Aldertree is continuing to stir things around at the Institute and I still feel something shady about him. We’ll see in the coming episodes.

Now, Valentine is beginning to build his army, going to fight clubs to find the best and strongest. I love how Alec and Izzy’s relationship are shown in these scenes. I enjoyed their fighting scene very much. So badass!

This episode is the time when Clary is beginning to question her role as a Shadowhunter. She feels unwanted, Alec fuels this feeling even more, and wants to return to the way things were before—when she was a mundane. This causes her to ignore everyone around her and try to become human again, returning to painting and blocking the world away. However, she gets sucked into Valentine’s trap by seeing that Dot is alive and trusting her!

At the same time, Simon is trying to find Camille after Raphael (yes!) talked to him. Simon enlists the help of Magnus and they travel all the way to India (how convenient is portal travel?) to find her. In this scene, I began to view how Harry Shum Jr plays the role of Magnus. Don’t get me wrong, Matthew Daddario and Harry Shum Jr are probably the best at depicting their characters, but in this part with Simon, I felt the acting to be a little forced. I love Harry Shum Jr and how he plays him, but I really didn’t connect with Magnus this time around. Maybe I’m a bit too harsh? I know it’ll definitely get better as the episodes go by and I’ll begin to loosen up!

Jocelyn and Luke are trying to find Clary after being taken, and after some deliberation, the only way they can track her down is to use Alec and his parabatai bond with Jace as they think Clary is with Jace. Luke uses an adamas stone made by the Iron Sisters (Lisa Berry will be playing Sister Cleophas in the show. Instead of taking the role of Luke’s mother, Sister Cleophas will now be Luke’s sister) with a parabatai rune marked on it and they gather Alec to start tracking Jace and Clary. They are aware of the consequences which can end badly for Alec, but begin despite some trepidation.

Alec is able to find Clary and Jace, but he suffers a lot and the adamas is beginning to hurt him. My heart was beating incredibly fast at this time! MY POOR ALEC! The pain transpires to Jace who is trying to escape off the ship with Clary. This slows them down and they are incredibly close to being killed. It’s now that Dot opens a portal for them to escape to, risking her life which results in her later being killed.

This episode was good and the tension was at an all time high! I’m so pumped for episode three when Maia makes her appearance.

Catch my next review tomorrow!

A Sleighing Song Tonight

I thought that for this post, I would turn it down a notch. As Christmas draws ever so near, I find myself wanting to cling to these few days. I remember as a child, Christmas was the best holiday in the world and when one Christmas had passed, I would wait the whole twelve months for the next one.

But as I’m growing older (gee, that makes me sound like a fifty-year old woman), I feel bittersweet thinking about this Christmas because once it leaves us, it means that we are so close to yet another year ending. 2016 has been … well, let’s say that it’s been interesting and I feel like I want to stay in this day forever, but also move on with life.

The thing is, when Christmas comes it’s a time when you realise that you should savour these last few moments of the year, for who knows what could come next month? So, just remember, whatever is happening in the world, stay true to you, love one another and continue to believe.

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I would like to say this especially for the victims of the many terror attacks that have happened throughout the year, for all of the victims of war and their countries now turned into a battlefield, and for the many people who are going through a rough stage, whatever that may be, in their life. Remember, we are here and we will always be. X

Making Spirits Bright

Today I would like to show you my Christmas reading list. Unfortunately, the books featured on here have nothing to do with Christmas, but it’s what I’ve been reading during this festive time!

READ

• Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

CURRENTLY READING

• The Great Gatsby by Scott F. Fitzgerald
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

(Yes, I’m reading two books at the same time, but I have such an extensive list for the holidays, mainly because of school, that I’m forced to devour more than one book at a time!)

TO BE READ

• The Night is for Hunting by John Marsden
• The Other Side of Dawn by John Marsden

Notice any books that you would like to read or have read? Comment them down below! Merry Christmas! X

Laughing All The Way

I decided to make a tag this Christmas and it’s all to do with fictional characters … let’s go! And tag me if you want to do this yourself! I would love to see your answers!

Which character who would hate Christmas the most?

Church from The Mortal Instruments. He’s a cat, but a really grumpy cat and would hate everyone frantically running around the Institute, almost stepping on him as they try to finish last minute gifts!

Which character would throw the best Christmas party?

Definitely Magnus Bane from The Mortal Instruments! Boy, how good would that party be?

Which character would make the best food for the party?

I would like to say Isabelle Lightwood from The Mortal Instruments just to mess with you all, but it’s definitely got to be Julian from Lady Midnight (oh, my sweet Julian!)

Who would be the best dressed at the party?

Lilac LaRoux from These Broken Stars. I mean, you saw her dress on the cover, just imagine in real life!

Who would be the best singer at the party?

I would like to say Theodore Finch from All the Bright Places. Him and Violet would write all these metaphorical things and I would just get them to mash it into one whole song. Except, it would be kind of hard considering Theodore … you know …

Who would be the best dancer at the party?

Isabelle Lightwood, but this would be going off of Shadowhunters because the first episode she danced a little (Season 2 returns January 2^nd 2017!) and she looked good!

Who would bring the music to the party?

Simon Lewis because he has a band! He would definitely be able to rock on all night!

Who would be kissing under the mistletoe?

Can I say Malec? Because I’m going to say Malec. It’s just Alec and Magnus are so perfect and I just love them as a couple. Of course there are a bunch of other characters I would love to see kissing under the mistletoe, especially Emma and Julien from Lady Midnight because after the ending of that book I need some more action from the two of them, but I guess they would have to do it in private because you know, parabatai rules, the Clave and just everyone seeing them … it would kind of be bad.

Who would be your partner to the party?

Okay, now here is where it gets tough! Who do I want to bring to the party? Okay, so I haven’t technically read the book (I will soon, don’t hurt me!) but I’ve watched the 1995 TV show with Colin Firth and that show was good as so I’m going to have to say … Mr Darcy! And I would make sure that Mr Colins is nowhere near the venue of the party!

What would you say? Merry Christmas! X

Over the Fields We Go

A segment on my blog is One Quote Thursday. I love quotes, but I thought that as a special, I could share some Christmas poetry with all of you!

12 Days of Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! As per last year, I will once again be doing a twelve days of Christmas whether this be about fashion, make up, decorations and presents!

You can find the links from last year’s Christmas here:

1st day: https://thebooktypegal.wordpress.com/2015/12/12/on-the-first-day-of-christmas/
2nd day: https://thebooktypegal.wordpress.com/2015/12/14/on-the-second-day-of-christmas/
3rd day: https://thebooktypegal.wordpress.com/2015/12/14/on-the-second-day-of-christmas/
4th day: https://thebooktypegal.wordpress.com/2015/12/16/on-the-fourth-day-of-christmas/
5th day: https://thebooktypegal.wordpress.com/2015/12/17/on-the-fifth-day-of-christmas/
6th day: https://thebooktypegal.wordpress.com/2015/12/18/on-the-sixth-day-of-christmas/
7th day: https://thebooktypegal.wordpress.com/2015/12/19/on-the-seventh-day-of-christmas/
8th day: https://thebooktypegal.wordpress.com/2015/12/21/on-the-eighth-day-of-christmas/
9th day: https://thebooktypegal.wordpress.com/2015/12/21/on-the-ninth-day-of-christmas/
10th day: https://thebooktypegal.wordpress.com/2015/12/23/on-the-tenth-day-of-christmas/
11th day: https://thebooktypegal.wordpress.com/2015/12/24/on-the-eleventh-day-of-christmas/
12th day: https://thebooktypegal.wordpress.com/2015/12/30/my-true-love-gave-to-me/

Enjoy! I will be beginning it tomorrow!

Peculiar Photographs.

I love photography. I love the way someone can capture a single moment through a lens and keep it forever. I decided to get into the Halloween spirit, I would show you a bunch of spooky photos. Get ready …

        

Interview: Lili Wilkinson!

Surprise! We have an interview with fantastic Australian author Lili Wilkinson! You’ll love her answers—they’re absolutely hilarious!
Lili Wilkinson has written a ton of books (ten award-winning to be exact!) such as Green Valentine, Scatterheart, Angel Fish and recently released her book The Boudless Sublime, all about cults. Interested? Then read on!

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What could your personality be described as?

Bossy. Opinionated. Overachieving. Messy.

At what age did you realise you had a passion for writing? 

As long as I’ve been able to read. For me, reading has always been like breathing in, and writing is breathing out. They’re such a part of me I can’t imagine doing anything else.

Where do your inspirations for books come from?

EVERYWHERE. The Boundless Sublime was born from my obsession with cults and new religious movements. I read a book called Going Clear by Lawrence Wright, about Scientology, that really kicked things off for me. 

What is the Boundless Sublime about?

It’s about a girl called Ruby who is vulnerable and broken after a tragedy tears her family apart. She meets a boy called Fox who she has an instant connection with. He seems wise and soulful, but he’s also strangle naive – he’s never been to school or handled money. He belongs to a community called the Institute of the Boundless Sublime, led by an enigmatic man called Zosimon, who everyone calls Daddy. Ruby is a bit sceptical about it all at first, but slowly she gets sucked in, and then it’s too late to leave.

You created a seven part YouTube series about cults called “Lets Talk About Sects”. What started your fascination with cults and new religious movements? 

I grew up in a non-religious household, but my extended family contains Scientologists, fundamentalist Christians and followers of Guru Maharaj Ji. I’ve always felt like a bit of an outsider looking in, when it comes to religion. I’m fascinated by the idea of belief and how it can be used as a tool to manipulate people.

Describe the Boundless Sublime in three words. 

Cults are bad.

How does the whole publishing process work? 

It’s different for different people and publishers, but for me: I meet with my publisher and we have a conversation about what I’m going to write next. I then go away and write a proposal – usually a synopsis and the first two chapters. After that I get offered a contract, and I go away and write the first draft, which takes 6-9 months. Then it goes through a period of revision. Several people read different versions – my editor of course, as well as people from my writers group and other writers whose feedback I value highly. The book gets reworked and refined through levels of editing – big structural stuff early on, through copyediting which is more finicky, and finally typesetting and proofreading at the end. Then it gets sent to the printer and becomes a real book!

Where do you see yourself in the future?

Hopefully doing this! Writing books, and being excited that people are reading and enjoying them.

If you would like to see more of her, catch her on her Twitter, Instagram and Facebook! Visit her website here: http://www.liliwilkinson.com.au/

Mash-up Tuesday 23. 06. 2015

Hey guys!

It’s the first mash-up Tuesday! What!? I’ll just put up some very Tumblr photos for today!
I know, I can’t believe that I didn’t do Music Monday TWO weeks in a row! And I had such good songs for those weeks!
It’s the last week of school, so it’s getting a bit hectic sorting out everything AKA swapping and borrowing books! But to be serious, my mind has been all over the place currently and I just need to take a long break to get back on my feet! Don’t worry, though, only six months and one hundred and eighty six days until Christmas. Excited yet?

The theme for Mash-up Tuesday today is like I said, Tumblr. Some grunge themed and wonderfully edited photos in store!

Sorry that it’s kind of blurry! These are just mash-ups from the internet taken from Tumblr.

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I finished Day 21 today so I’ll leave a book review one of these days!
Stay crazy! xx