Heyyyy everyone! Today I am giving two reviews, one is a book and the other a movie. Also, there’s some announcements at the bottom so watch out for those. If you would like to skip the movie review (may contain spoilers!!!), feel free to do so.
How To Train Your Dragon 3 Review
So, this past weekend, my family and my uncle’s family all went to the theater to see the new HTTYD3. My uncle’s family was the one who first introduced the films to us a few years ago and we’ve been in love with Toothless ever since, I suppose you could say. So, we were all pretty excited.
Unfortunately, the sound wasn’t loud as it usually is in the theaters–which at first I thought it was just me since I’m partly deaf–but everyone else was complaining about it too. Other than that, it was such a good movie.
The cinematography was amazingly well done, especially this scene with sand. The sand looked so real I could almost feel like I was walking on it. And the light fury with white, blue, and purple shades and so glittery was so pretty. Plus, it was nice to see all the classic characters again with some new ones thrown into the mix–the villain was finally a good one compared to Drago Bloodvist. The storyline was actually quite different than what I had expected after seeing the trailer, so it was a nice (if sad) surprise.
I’m doing my best not to give away any spoilers, but the ending… T_T I was trying so hard not to cry. It was so cute and terribly sad and sort of happy but still really sad. Go to the theaters, guys, and watch it. It’s worth it! 10/10.
Now, for the next review… You might remember a few posts ago I did a review on the WIP Rachel Andric and The Editor. This review is on the third book in the series by the same author. (If you want to buy the first book which is now in print, here’s the link: Rachel Andric and The Story)
Title:
I’ve already said that the series and book titles in the series aren’t the most unique. However, I think this one is the most eye-catching of the three. In fact, last night, I was reading it and my dad was sitting next to me and he exclaimed, “What is Rachel Andric and Final Death???” XD
Cover:
Again, the covers aren’t the most eye-grabbing either, though I like this one perhaps the best of the three. I don’t really care for the girl model though because it always looks like she’s wearing too much eye-liner or something that makes her eyes rather scary.
Blurb:
The blurb is a bit too long–and I mean just a bit. It has enough to excite me, certainly, but there are phrases and such that I think would be better taken out. Plus, so many references of The Story get a little redundant; it would be good to limit those.
The Good:
Surprisingly to me, this book was a lot better than the previous one in the series. (Not quite sure how you managed that. For me it’s usually the other way around…) There were little to no typos, and the pacing was a lot smoother than the previous book. I was able to actually enjoy reading it without feeling like I was on some super fast car ride through the countryside without much time to enjoy the scenery. Your descriptions and details were also a lot better. Good job!
The Bad:
Yes, there were few grammar mistakes. The only ones I kept noticing every here and there was your use of putting punctuation outside quotation marks. Granted, it’s the English language and there are exceptions to that rule, but there were a few places in your book that I noticed the punctuation was outside the quotation marks and that really needs to be fixed before getting it published.
Secondly, while the pacing was smooth and the descriptions and stuff were fun to read, I honestly think it could still do with more. It was so much better than Book 2, but I really would like to see the story fleshed out even more to make it more enjoyable.
Also, your jumping to various characters in different parts of your story was a bit confusing at first. I know you can do a good job of it based on reading other works of yours, but a lot of times I had forgotten what was going on with some person over here while I was reading what so-and-so was doing over there and it took a few times of rereading to remember what was going on. And I wasn’t even taking breaks while reading, so I think that could do with a bit of smoother pacing. Maybe have what happened at the end of the chapter be put at the top of the next chapter with said characters and put it in italics. I don’t know, just an idea.
My only other concern is that the ending of the story seemed a bit rushed. I think it would flow better a little more drawn out, especially the epilogue.
What the Reader Thought:
I know I’ve said this quite a few times above, but this particular book in your series was so much better than Book 2. I really enjoyed reading this one, and I was nearly in tears at the end. The characters are very memorable (I still can’t get over Merlin and Alan-a-Dale’s constant feuding XDDD) and I really enjoyed this series. I think that it definitely needs some work to make it better, but it is definitely a gem that needs more popularity.
In closing, best wishes to this story and I can’t wait to buy the next ones when they’re in print!
Score: 8.5/10
Now, the reviews for this post are done and it’s time for a few announcements. During the next few weeks, I’m going to be extremely busy due to a writing mentorship that needs to be completed in less than two months (and I’m still waiting for my edit letter). Plus, I’m competing in the Open Novella Contest II and I decided to take down my 13k story and completely rewrite it. I finished the new version of chapter 1 last night which was already up to the first milestone of 2k words, but if I make it past round 2, I’ll be rushing to reach the deadline of 20k in just a few weeks. I mean, I did that all the time during NaNoWriMo, but it’s going to be really cramming doing that on top of the mentorship.
However, I’ll do my best to still have a post every week, though I’m thinking of posting little snippets of stories and poems here on occasion. I am also starting to plan a super secret special project that hopefully I can start “launching” in a way this summer as I’ll have more time to record. 😉 But more about that later.
I hope you all are doing well!
~ Gwyn
The Dancing Bardess 