Lumberjanes, Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy by Noelle Stevenson (Lumberjanes #1) (DNF)

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Title: Beware the Kitten Holy
Series Title: Lumberjanes
Author: Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, & Faith Hicks
Artists: Brooke A. Allen, Shannon Waters, Kay Leyh, Carolyn Nowak, & Carey Pietsch
Date Added: January 13, 2017
Date Started: July 19, 2018
Date DNF: July 25, 2018
Reading Duration: 6 days
Genre: Graphic Novel, Young Adult (YA), Fantasy

Lumberjanes, Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten HolyPages: 128
Publisher: BOOM! Box
Publication Date: April 7, 2015
Media: Paperback (Library)

At Miss Qiunzilla Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s camp for hard-core lady-types, things are not what they seem. Three-eyed foxes. Secret caves. Anagrams. Luckily, Jo, April, Mal, Molly, and Ripley are five rad, butt-kicking best pals determined to have an awesome summer together… And they’re not gonna let a magical quest or an array of supernatural critters get in their way! The mystery keeps getting bigger, and it all begins here.

I feel like this was definitely geared towards a different demographic than yours truly’s, which is why I ended up DNFing it.  So much wacky stuff was going on that I never got much of a sense of the characters, but to be fair I didn’t get much past Chapter 1.  There was a pattern of the girls finding and/or running from three-eyed creatures .  They start off facing three-eyed foxes, run into a three-eyed river monster, and then Ripley tries to get her candy bar back from a three-eyed eagle (believe it or not).  From what I read, the characters seemed pretty interchangeable, except for the one girl who could recite the Lumberjanes pledge by memory.  I’m hoping they became more distinct as the story went on.  There was decent representation, at least in terms of racial diversity, and I can see the appeal; it just wasn’t appealing to me.  Kinda like Mamma Mia lol.

Wytches, Volume 1 by Scott Snyder (Wytches #1-6)

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Title: Wytches, Volume 1
Series Title: Wytches
Author: Scott Snyder
Artists: Jock, Matt Hollingsworth, & Clem Robins
Date Added: October 9, 2017
Date Started: July 8, 2018
Date Finished: July 15, 2018
Reading Duration: 7 days
Genre: Graphic Novel, Horror, Fantasy

Wytches, Volume 1 CoverPages: 192
Publisher: Image Comics
Publication Date: October 8, 2014
Media: Paperback (Library)

Everything you thought you knew about witches is wrong. They are much darker, and they are much more horrifying. Wytches takes the mythology of witches to a far creepier, bone-chilling place than readers have dared venture before. When the Rooks family moves to the remote town of Litchfield, NH to escape a haunting trauma, they’re hopeful about starting over. But something evil is waiting for them in the woods just beyond town. Watching from the trees. Ancient…and hungry.

This was…okay.  I liked how the novel was cleverly bookended with everything occurring tying in with an incident in the beginning.  There was also an in-story comic that cleverly connected with the book’s plot, and the artwork is decent.

I liked the relationship Sailor had with Charlie, her father, but her character is not well developed.  She had a cool, quirky look, which may have been Snyder’s way of hinting why she’d been bullied, but no personality to fill that role.

Sailor from Wytches. She has reddish and is wearing a yellow hat and yellow tinted, rectangular glasses. Her expression is troubled. Her speech bubble says, "I don't know. What if they all know about me?" where the "know" is in bold.

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The State of the Gamer: 12/19/19

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<–The State of the Gamer: 12/5/19           The State of the Gamer: 1/2/20–>

A weekly post updated every other Thursday detailing my current gaming projects.  I have an account at Grouvee, which is a site you can use to keep track of your backlog, so please feel free to friend me there!

What I Obtained

  • My Brother Rabbit: $1.99 @ Nintendo eShop

What I’m Playing

Title: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Series Title: Ace Attorney
System: Nintendo 3DS

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney gameDate Started: 11/29/19

Some of my questions have been answered, or, well, more some of my theories have been verified.  I still have quite a few questions, but I’m loving this game.  There’s one more case left.

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The State of the Reader: 12/18/19

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<–The State of the Reader: 12/4/19         The State of the Reader: 1/1/20–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Obtained: 5

  • Air Awakens by Elisa Kova (Air Awakens) – $0.00 @ Amazon
  • The First Girl Child by Amy Harmon – $1.99 @ Amazon
  • Extracted by R. R. Haywood (Extracted Trilogy) – $0.99 @ Amazon
  • The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke by Arthur C. Clarke – $0.00 @ Amazon
  • Mirrorstrike by Benjanun Sriduangkaew  (Her Pitiless Command) – $4.99 @ Amazon

Books Finished: 3

Title: Winterglass
Series: Her Pitiless Command
Author: Benjanun Sriduangkaew
Date Added: March 3, 2019
Date Started: November 21, 2019
Date Finished: December 5, 2019

Winterglass coverMedia: eBook/Kindle

The second book came out merely days after I finished this, and not only is that awesome because I can complete the duology, but it also proved me kind of right.  Let me explain…as mentioned in the last update, one of the main characters, the general Lussadh, uses she/her pronouns, but her titles are stereotypically masculine e.g. prince, lord, etc.  Later in the novel, Nuawa, the other MC mentions that she’s neither a man nor a woman (which means she’s non-binary or genderfluid I suppose), and in my head I’m seeing her as sort of a cross between my two favorite generals: Celes from FFVI and Sephiroth from FFVII who are female and male respectively but also super beautiful.  Lussadh is on the cover of the second book, and I WAS KINDA RIGHT.

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The State of the Writer: 12/15/19

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<–The State of the Writer: 12/1/19         The State of the Writer: 12/29/19–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 1

Project: Story
Title: The Broken Rose
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 253,415
Prior Word Count: 253,463
Word Difference: -48
Status: Editing
Progress: First edit of Chapter 21

Because of extenuating circumstances (which I’ll detail in a bit), I haven’t gotten much editing done on Chapter 21.  I have started it, though, and cataloged what I need to add/work on.  I’m hoping to play catch today after some major setbacks over the weekend and be back on schedule with everything soon.

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The State of the Gamer: 12/5/19

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<–The State of the Gamer: 10/24/19           The State of the Gamer: 12/19/19–>

A weekly post updated every other Thursday detailing my current gaming projects.  I have an account at Grouvee, which is a site you can use to keep track of your backlog, so please feel free to friend me there!

What I Obtained

  • Thumper: $0.00 @ Nintendo eShop – I paid nothing because I used my Gold Points
  • Earthlock: $5.99 @ Nintendo eShop – Hard to turn down this kind of a deal.  I was iffy on the demo when I downloaded it, but the low price made me give it a shot
  • Apollo Justice Ace Attorney: $9.99 @ Nintendo eShop – This was also on sale
  • GRIS: $8.49 @ Nintendo eShop
  • Degrees of Separation: $1.99 @ Nintendo eShop

What I Finished

Title: Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
Series Title: Ace Attorney
System: Nintendo 3DS

Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney gameDate Started: 11/4/19
Date Finished: 11/28/19

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The State of the Reader: 12/4/19

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<–The State of the Reader: 10/23/19         The State of the Reader: 12/18/19–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Obtained: 7

Books Finished: 1

Title: Vita Nostra
Series: Метаморфозы (Metamorphoses)
Author: Marina & Sergey Dyachenko
Date Added: December 22, 2018
Date Started: September 23, 2019
Date Finished: November 20, 2019

Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergey DyachenkoMedia: eBook/Kindle

Most of my notes for this are in my Kindle copy, but this book was fantastic.  It’s described as similar to Harry Potter, but the only similarity is that both books are about going away to school.  While Rowling’s series certainly has its positives (and negatives, mostly due to the author not knowing when to just stop), Vita Nostra is an existential masterpiece that shares more paradigms with time loop narratives than HP, but I hesitate to compare it fully to any of those either.  It really is unique and shows why it’s so important to experience media from different cultures.  I’m sad none of the other books in the series have been translated, and I really hope that happens soon.

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