The Gentlemen’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee beautifully illustrates a twist to the historical friends-to-lovers romance. Our protagonist, Henry “Monty” Montague, is a roguish and charming, high-society English lad who is deeply in love with his best friend, Percy—whose gentle nature serves as a fantastic catalyst to Monty’s bravado. Monty’s stern sister, Felicity, also reluctantly tags along on their grand tour of Europe, and uses her book smarts and savage one-liners to survive everything from parties to pirates. Although Monty is thoughtless and selfish, it’s impossible not to love him. His voice and perspective are perfect for fans of British humor—dry and sarcastic but still ridiculously entertaining.
Owlcrate is monthly subscription box for Young Adult book lovers. Each OwlCrate box theme centers around a chosen book. Each book is a newly released Young Adult novel, and according to the creators, they will be releasing exclusive covers for the rest of the year. You also get a signed bookplate and a letter from the author with each book received. I’ve received Owlcrate boxes since, August 2016 and, I’ll be honest, I don’t always like the book. In fact, there’s maybe four so far I would have chosen for myself, but that’s the risk you take with subscription boxes. However, even if I don’t like the book, there’s usually something in the box that I do like. They also give peeks throughout the month on their Instagram of what will be in the next box so you can decide if you want it that month.
This month’s theme was MAKE IT OUT ALIVE, or as I like to call it, celebrating women who most definitely don’t need a man to survive. This box is a little different from other OwlCrates, as it contained two books, one that was released in the United States in January 2016 called New World Rising by Jennifer Wilson, and another that was released this month by Harperteen called The Sandcastle Empire by Kayla Olson. Both books feature seventeen-year-old protagonists who are trying to survive in a world that seems hell-bent on killing them. Although there are two books, you only receive the exclusive cover, book plate, and letter, from The Sandcastle Empire.
‘Tis the season of socially relevant cinema, from Moonlight to Hidden Figures to Thirteen to I Am Not Your Negro. But, as always, it is the speculative fiction genre that distinguishes itself in its ability to package the sociopolitical ills of our present day into fantastic scenarios that entertain, spook, titillate, inspire, and fuel. While Get Out is much more overt, The Girl With All The Gifts is an artistically subtle tale of power, fear and exploitation.
Zombie fiction tends to have a common theme – the destruction of civilization sparked or exacerbated by the frailty of humanity. Centuries before George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) attempted to portray the relationship between race and fear through a zombie apocalypse, zombie mythos among western hemisphere Africans was a metaphor for racial oppression. While race may be deemphasized in recent zombie franchises (e.g. The Walking Dead, Resident Evil), zombie fiction continues to be a backdrop for dialogue on social power hierarchies.
Written by GeekGirlCon Copywriter Sarah “SG-1” Grant
I never saw any of the original Mad Max movies; part of that is because the first one (Mad Max, 1979) came out when I was four years old. My parents probably thought that it might be a little too much for their impressionable daughter at that point. The second film (The Road Warrior, 1981) came out when I was seven, which was still too young. Even at the tender age of seven, I was already obsessed with starting at the beginning of a story and going forward in order, so I wouldn’t have wanted to see the second film before the first anyway. I was ten when the third film came out (Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, 1985), and at that point I don’t recall having any interest in seeing it. (I’ve never been a huge Tina Turner fan. Don’t tell my friends.)
When the DVD/Blue-Ray release of Frozen occurred, my social media timelines filled with parents posting that they were watching the movie that night with their kids. When it was premiered in theaters on Thanksgiving, I heard mostly positive reviews from so many sources, parents and non-parents alike, I thought I’d see it if I could. So, within a weekend or so of the DVD release, we had a family movie night and watched the Blue-Ray of Frozen. Mostly my fourteen-year-old daughter, who was the only one of all her friends to not have seen it yet, and I were the ones interested in watching. However, my husband and thirteen-year-old son were happy to do family movie night with a Disney movie.
I am someone who really dislikes spoilers. If I don’t think I’m ever going to see or read or consume a thing, I don’t worry about them. Initially, Frozen was one of those things. However, what I had read caused me to want to see Frozen, and I had some spoilers. While I normally try to write spoiler-free reviews, I’m going to assume that since the movie was in theaters Thanksgiving 2013 and released for home video March 18, 2014, if you are interested in the movie, you’ve seen it already.
Loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, the story focuses on a pair of sisters. I felt like it was really the younger sister’s story more than the Snow Queen sister, but it was definitely their story together. The opening scenes introduce us to the culture and Kristoff and Sven, which is sort of too bad because it had me wondering who this character (Kristoff) was in the grand scheme of things pretty far into the movie.
The initial scene that sets the premise for the story of Anna getting Elsa to play with her Snow Queen powers, leading to the accident that requires the separation of two girls previously inseparable is very touching. It was very hard to watch Anna try so hard to get her sister back. However, I don’t think the isolation of Elsa and how she felt was as well displayed.
Of course, the parents die. The parents always die in Disney movies. (Every time parents die in film I always recall seeing The Lion King in theaters and a child a row or so away screaming “Not the Daddy! Not the Daddy!”) As a kid, I actually didn’t mind that so much, but as a parent it’s a little rougher.
The love song portion with Anna and Hans confused me. It seemed ill-fitting for the message I had received from sources, but I held on for the ride. I’d heard the Prince was a terrible person, but like Anna, I kind of bought it during the love song. Spoiler: don’t buy it. It’s an interesting nod to the oddity of all previous Disney movies where during one song, the girl and guy fall in love.
One of our film watchers did not really get into the movie until Kristoff and Sven came back on the scene with some real lines. This was because he could identify with a guy having a friend that didn’t talk, but he used a funny voice for to make up lines. For my family, Kristoff was a good source of humor, along with Olaf. Anna also had her moments. The adults in the family thought her “trust fall” line was well done. Likely a little out of character if I must analyze, since it’s doubtful this isolated princess ever did trust fall exercises.
I’ll admit, I thought Olaf melting to help Anna stay warm might do the trick to save her. I’m very happy with Anna saving herself by sacrificing herself for her sister. I’ll also admit that I didn’t get why everyone loved “Let It Go” so much until seeing it sung in the movie with what it truly meant. Now I get it.
I’m not thrilled or even okay with the diversity of the cast (either as drawn or as voiced.) I’ll give Disney their small steps of at least getting some women-power in there, but they have huge racism issues to overcome since their early days and continuing through the current day. There are also body size issues in this movie. Disney draws all the “good” guys in culturally idealized body shapes for both women and men. The only non-idealized bodies are by those who are plotting bad things (or are made of snow).
I’ve encountered several people who also watched Frozen after the DVD release for the first time and they were disappointed or at least not wowed the way one would expect based on the theatrical release noise. This is why: it was over-hyped. For those who went to a theatrical release expecting a typical Disney movie and got something that focused on two women as central characters and self-saving, this is a huge step forward and was amazing and cool. For those of us who listened to months of how awesome this is, it doesn’t live up. I spent the entire movie up until the actual sacrifice/savior scene wondering when the movie was going to live up to the hype. That’s extremely late in a movie for that. And then it wasn’t, oh wow! It was, oh, that’s why people liked this so much. Yeah, it shouldn’t be that intellectual.
Overall, this is a good movie. If you have a child with death-fears, maybe not this movie or any Disney movie where the parents die on-screen. But I think this is suitable for all ages and all genders (although some are not represented).
I was recently introduced to a new board game that I’d never heard of before. It was quite entertaining, enough to drive me to share my experience with everyone else! With the typical (and reasonable) constraints of allowing for 2-5 players ages 8 and above, Small World is a game that will keep you captivated and on the edge of your seat for about an hour with the continuous shift in activity. It’s a game of rise and decline, conquest and defeat, and excitement for all of the players!
You’re about to be reminded that “It’s a small world after all.” No, I’m not talking about the incessant little robots of Magic Kingdom that sang and danced around your boat as your naive mind wondered what this chorale had to do with Disney World in the first place. Not to mention, Earth has about 510 million kilometers of surface area, which in no way could be considered small! In this case, however, we’re talking about the fictional world (Small World) occupied by Elves, Giants, Orcs, and Sorcerers, and despite the clicheness, it is indeed a small world. It is made up of small chunks of land—certainly not enough to accommodate for the 14 Fantasy Races that intend to conquer and thrive there. Because they can’t all inhabit the land at once, your goal is to build an empire of your race and eventually dominate all of Small World in only 10 short turns!
The Cover of Small World
You will be allowed to select the race you wish to play, paired up with a random Special Power that gives your race a unique benefit. You then use your Race Tokens to take over various regions of the map—in turn, forcing other races away. You must try to cover as much of the land as possible, for each region occupied at the end of your turn allows for the acquirement of Victory Coins, the system of points used to determine the winner at the end of the game. It’s not as easy as it sounds—conquering a region takes two Race Tokens, of which your supply is limited. If a region is already occupied by another race, it takes an additional Race Token for every enemy token already present in the region, and an additional Race Token for each obstacle on the region. This makes it difficult to conquer regions occupied by many Race Tokens and obstacles, so it is important to build a large and powerful army of your race if you wish to take over a large amount of land.
The game board: The land of Small World and its various regions.
Equally important as conquering land is defending it, for other players will be trying to take over your regions as you do to theirs. Sometimes your Active race (more on “active” races below) ends up being spread so thin that it is unable to recover, and the best option is to adopt a new race and begin a new conquest. In doing this, you must first send your original race into Decline. This means that their special powers are eliminated, they are reduced to only one Race Token per region, and the tokens are flipped over to reveal the greyed-out “In Decline” side. Those left on the board will still gain you Victory Coins during scoring, but they are not Active and will typically die out quickly. It is always an emotional time when it becomes necessary to force your own Declined race off of the map to make room for your newly expanding Active race. After 10 turns of continuous rise and fall of supremacy, each player will total his Victory Coins to discover the ultimate winner—the dominator of Small World!
The main reason I like this game so much is that the Fantasy Races / Special Powers combinations are always so unique. They are randomized before the game, and each one is completely original and creative, allowing you to get sucked into the fictional atmosphere. The first time I played, I started out with the Ratmen race and the special power of Spiritry. My Ratmen had no benefit going for them other than their sheer number, and their Spirit ability allowed them to stay on the board after Decline no matter how many races I had on the board. At first I didn’t realize how useful this would be, but it ended up causing my many Ratmen to inhabit a majority of the board to start, and they remained scattered about for almost the entire game—a victory point gold mine! The combinations are different each time, be it Stout Orcs, Commando Elves, or even Flying Skeletons, so the game is always kept fresh and lively.
Some of the Special Power/Fantasy Race combination signature banners
Even though this game has a lot of rules and situations to consider, it is very simple once you get the hang of it. The time goes by quicker than you would expect as you mourn and celebrate the losses and successes of your races and attempt to hinder the other players’ expansions while augmenting your own. You learn quickly that it is most certainly a small world. The one catch is that no matter how many times you play the game, you will always have stuck in your head the little “Small World” Disney tune that has haunted your mind since you were a child. Say what you will, but that song is awfully catchy!
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