Stories & Songs #7

I'm back today with another instalment of Stories & Songs - enjoy!

American Vampire, Vol.1

by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Stephen King

"Born in the USA"

Bruce Springsteen

Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Got in a little hometown jam so they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land to go and kill the yellow man
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.

Ms. Marvel, Vol.1: No Normal

by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona

"Cartoon Heroes"

Aqua

We are what we're supposed to be
Illusions of your fantasy
All dots and lines that speak and say
What we do is what you wish to do

We are the color symphony
We do the things you wanna see
Frame by frame, to the extreme

Our friends are so unreasonable
They do the unpredictable
All dots and lines that speak and say
What we do is what you wish to do

It's all an orchestra of strings
Doin' unbelievable things
Frame by frame, to the extreme
One by one, we're makin' it fun

We are the Cartoon Heroes - oh-oh-oh
We are the ones who're gonna last forever
We came out of a crazy mind - oh-oh-oh
And walked out on a piece of paper

Rat Queens, Vol.1: Sass and Sorcery

by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch

"Bad Girls"

M.I.A.

Live fast, die young
Bad girls do it well
Live fast, die young
Bad girls do it well

My chain hits my chest
When I’m banging on the dashboard
My chain hits my chest
When I’m banging on the radio

Get back, get down
Pull me closer if you think you can hang
Hands up, hands tied
Don’t go screaming if I blow you with a bang

Saga, Vol.1

by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

"Out of the Woods"

Taylor Swift

Looking at it now
It all seems so simple
We were lying on your couch
I remember
You took a Polaroid of us
Then discovered (then discovered)
The rest of the world was black and white
But we were in screaming color
And I remember thinking…

Are we out of the woods yet?
Are we out of the woods yet?
Are we out of the woods yet?
Are we out of the woods?
Are we in the clear yet?
Are we in the clear yet?
Are we in the clear yet?
In the clear yet?
Good

Books I've Pre-Ordered

It's only in the past year or so that I've started to pre-order books. I've pre-ordered books before - my dad pre-ordered the final Harry Potter book for me so it'd be delivered to me on the release day and I could read it without being spoiled - but for the most part I'd just wait until a book appeared in the shops before I bought it, or I'd just put it on my birthday and/or Christmas list.

Now that I'm earning my own money, though, I spend the majority of it on books, and I'm glad I do. I love books, and even though I'm running out of room I like building up my own personal library. Besides, I like a bit of organised chaos so the slowly encroaching clutter doesn't really bother me.

So today I thought I'd share with you some of the books I've pre-ordered!

Winter

by Marissa Meyer

Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend–the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters?

I mean, of course I've pre-ordered Winter. It's my most anticipated book of 2015, and I can't wait to read it!

The Birds and Other Stories

by Daphne du Maurier

A classic of alienation and horror, The Birds was immortalised by Hitchcock in his celebrated film. The five other chilling stories in this collection echo a sense of dislocation and mock man's sense of dominance over the natural world. The mountain paradise of Monte Verità promises immortality, but at a terrible price; a neglected wife haunts her husband in the form of an apple tree; a professional photographer steps out from behind the camera and into his subject's life; a date with a cinema usherette leads to a walk in the cemetery; and a jealous father finds a remedy when three's a crowd...

Don't Look Now and Other Stories

by Daphne du Maurier

A married couple on holiday in Venice are caught up in a sinister series of events. A lonely schoolmaster is impelled to investigate a mysterious American couple. A young woman loses her cool when she confronts her father's old friend on a lonely island. A party of British pilgrims meet strange phenomena and possible disaster in the Holy Land. A scientist abandons his scruples while trying to tap the energy of the dying mind. 

Collecting five stories of mystery and slow, creeping horror, Daphne Du Maurier's Don't Look Now and Other Stories showcases her unique blend of sympathy and spinetingling suspense.

Earlier this year I collected all of du Maurier's novels that have been released in the VMC Designer editions - Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, Frenchman's Creek, and My Cousin Rachel - so when I saw they were releasing two of her short story collections in the same editions I just had to order them. I haven't read any of her short fiction yet, but I'm looking forward to reading it!

Dumplin'

by Julie Murphy

Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked . . . until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.

Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does. Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.

With starry Texas nights, red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs, and a wildly unforgettable heroine— Dumplin’ is guaranteed to steal your heart.

The minute I read the synopsis of this book I knew I had to have it. It's so rare to come across a book with a plus size protagonist where the story doesn't revolve around them losing weight, and that's so important. All bodies are different; I have friends who are slim and who will always be slim even if they ate their weight in food, and I have other friends who are plump and will always be plump no matter how much they exercise. I think we have this poisonous way of seeing 'thin' and thinking 'healthy', but that's not always the case. Everyone should be able to feel confident in their own skin, no matter how big or how small they are, and I'm really hoping this book doesn't disappoint!

Demon Road

by Derek Landy

Full of Landy’s trademark wit, action and razor sharp dialogue, DEMON ROAD kicks off with a shocking opener and never lets up the pace in an epic road-trip across the supernatural landscape of America. Killer cars, vampires, undead serial killers: they’re all here. And the demons? Well, that’s where Amber comes in...Sixteen years old, smart and spirited, she’s just a normal American teenager until the lies are torn away and the demons reveal themselves.

Forced to go on the run, she hurtles from one threat to another, revealing a tapestry of terror woven into the very fabric of her life. Her only chance rests with her fellow travellers, who are not at all what they appear to be…

I love Derek Landy - the Skulduggery Pleasant series always makes me smile - so I couldn't let the opportunity to pre-order a platinum, signed edition of his new book pass me by. I know very little about this book, but I'm looking forward to reading it!

Descender, Vol.1: Tin Stars

by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nyugen

Young Robot boy TIM-21 and his companions struggle to stay alive in a universe where all androids have been outlawed and bounty hunters lurk on every planet. Written by award-winning creator, Jeff Lemaire, Descender is a rip-roaring and heart-felt cosmic odyssey. Lemaire pits humanity against machine, and world against world, to create a sprawling epic. Collecting issues #1-6 of Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Trillium) and Dustin Nguyen's (Little Gotham) critically acclaimed, bestselling new science fiction series!

If you've been following my blog for a while you'll know I've been reading a lot of graphic novels this year, and I've really enjoyed it! This one was recommended to me over on amazon and it was available to pre-order for only £5 so I thought 'why not?' So far it's gotten some great reviews on Goodreads and apparently the art is beautiful, so I'm looking forward to reading it!

Saga, Vol.5

by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Multiple storylines collide in this cosmos-spanning new volume. While Gwendolyn and Lying Cat risk everything to find a cure for The Will, Marko makes an uneasy alliance with Prince Robot IV to find their missing children, who are trapped on a strange world with terrifying new enemies. 

I've been eager to get my hands on Volume 5 of Saga ever since I finished Volume 4. I managed to plough my way through the first four volumes at the beginning of this year, so I'm looking forward to getting back into this world and seeing these characters again.

I've also pre-ordered the second volume of Copperhead, but it still doesn't have a complete title, a cover or even any information about all of the artists who've worked on it. Soon I'll be pre-ordering Volume 7 of American Vampire and Volume 4 of Ms. Marvel, too; I know American Vampire, Vol.7 has already been out for a little while, but I collect the paperbacks rather than the hardbacks, so I have to wait a little longer for my copies!

Have you pre-ordered any books?

Review | American Vampire, Vol.4 by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Jordi Bernett

American Vampire, Vol.4

by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Jordi Bernett

My Rating:

AMERICAN VAMPIRE flashes back to two very distinct points in American history. The first tale comes from the early 1800's with the "The Beast in the Cave" featuring art by the legendary Jordi Bernet (Torpedo, JONAH HEX). Learn about the original American Vampire, Skinner Sweet, and his involvement in the brutal Indian Wars, and an ancient evil hidden in the heart of the Old West. Plus, more about the man Skinner used to call his best friend - James Book!The second tale comes straight from 1950s America, where AMERICAN VAMPIRE is terrorizing the suburbs with hot rods, teenyboppers and fangs! "Death Race" focuses on ferocious new vampire hunter Travis Kidd - but what is his connection to Skinner Sweet? As the story comes to a violent end, a sworn enemy's identity is finally revealed, and lots of blood is spilled!

Considering how much I enjoyed Volume 3 (reviewed here!) of American Vampire I was bound to pick up the next instalment as soon as I could afford to - I love graphic novels and I'm happy to pay a little more for them than I would for any other book, but when you need to catch up on a series and buy three at once it gets pretty pricy pretty fast!

A part of me was hesitant to pick up Volume 4 because I loved Volume 3 so much, I was worried I'd somehow find this volume hugely disappointing because it wasn't the previous one, but I ended up enjoying it quite a lot. After the sheer awesome that was the previous volume, I think Snyder's decision to take a break from those characters was wise; instead our first story in this volume shows us James Book and Skinner Sweet in their youth - it was nice to see a pre-vampire Skinner and a not-dead Book! - the second took us to the '50s and introduced another new character: Travis Kidd, and the third showed us something of Calvin Poole and the racial tensions in mid-20th century America, with just a brief glimpse of Pearl and Henry.

My favourite story in this volume would have to be Travis Kidd's, which surprised me. I was a little wary going in that Travis was going to be a very typical character; a Skinner Sweet in miniature, only with less fangs. Instead he was an interesting character with an interesting set of wooden teeth, and I loved the James Dean, rebel without a cause vibe to his story which really suited the era it was set in. I look forward to seeing what he gets up to next.

I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about the first story which explored the history between Book and Skinner. I feel like too many enemy stories start out with two guys who were 'once like brothers', so I was a little disappointed Snyder decided to go down that route for these two, but having said that the two of them once being like family does make their inevitable war against one another all the more bittersweet.

I would like to see more of Mimiteh in future, a Native American vampire who seems like a cool, but lethal, lady. I'd love to know if she and Skinner have ever crossed paths.

I liked the way Calvin's story played around with prejudice, and also introduced us to what seems to be a new species of vampire. Snyder just keeps on expanding this world he's created, and I love how his imagination works.

My main criticism of this volume, and the reason I didn't rate it as highly as the previous, was simply because there weren't enough ladies in it for me. I wasn't too keen on the fate of Piper, Travis's 'girlfriend', and there were times when I felt Mimiteh was rather sexualised, but that could just be me being very picky. Pearl and Felicia usually have quite a bit of 'screen time', so I suppose it's only fair the boys get some, too!

I'm still loving this series, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in the next volume!

Review | American Vampire, Vol.3 by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Sean Murphy

American Vampire, Vol.3

by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Sean Murphy

My Rating:

In the Pacific, Pearl's husband Henry joins a clandestine group on a secret mission to Japan to hunt a new breed of bloodsucker. Meanwhile, Skinner Sweet has plans of his own...

And in Europe, vampire hunters Felicia Book and Cash McCogan go behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied Romania in search of a rumored vampire cure. 

I'm so glad I decided to carry on with this series because if I hadn't I wouldn't have read this, which has definitely been my favourite volume of the series so far.

I continue to be very fond of Pearl who, when faced with some difficult choices, still managed to do the right thing even when it was hard. What I love most about Pearl's story arc is that this is the story of an immortal woman and a human man in a relationship, rather than the other way around as it so often is. Even more so, she isn't overtly sexualised or treated like a no-good temptress; Pearl may be a vampire, but she's still a woman who loves her husband, and it was a nice change to see the man of the relationship struggle with the idea that his wife will stay young forever while he continues to age. 

This story included more Skinner Sweet, too, who is a favourite of mine; he's just such fun to follow even though he's basically a terrible person, and I loved the glimpse into his past we were given through his reunion with his old flame, Kitty.

What surprised me most about this volume, however, was how much I enjoyed the story involving Felicia and Cash, who we meet properly in Volume 2. (I say 'properly' because we get a glimpse of Felicia at the end of Volume 1). I enjoyed their story in Volume 2 but I didn't think it was particularly spectacular, this story I loved. Felicia is on her way to becoming one of my favourite characters - there's something about her that reminds me a little of Tanya Huff's Vicki Nelson or Suzanne Collins's Johanna Mason, both of whom I love - and her chemistry with Cash was wonderful. I'd happily watch a crime caper drama starring the two of them playing good cop/bad cop.

I was surprised by how much I did enjoy their story because I've always been rather wary of stories that combine the supernatural with Nazi Germany. I don't know why I dislike that combination so much; I don't know whether it has something to do with implying the supernatural cheapens the horrifying events that actually happened during this period of our history. For whatever reason, though, it didn't bother me here at all - possibly because Hitler himself doesn't make an appearance, and Snyder has combined vampirism with history so flawlessly throughout the series that it doesn't feel like vampires have been thoughtlessly tacked on to Nazi Germany.

I really enjoyed this volume, and I'm looking forward to continuing the series!

Mini Reviews | Aliens, Vampires and Fairy Tales

Sometimes I have enough to say about a book to warrant a full review, and other times I don't but I still want to share my thoughts somehow. I've been reading a lot of graphic novels recently, and while I've enjoyed the majority of them I haven't found much to say individually about all of the ones I've read. So today I'm going to do three mini-reviews for three graphic novels I've recently read!

Copperhead, Vol.1: A New Sheriff in Town by Jay Faerber, Scott Godlewski and Ron Riley

I knew absolutely nothing about this graphic novel until it was recommended to me on Amazon, described as a story about a single mother who moves her and her son to a new planet to work as a sheriff there and deal with everything from alien hillbillies to a local massacre. I really enjoyed it; it was a lot of fun, I liked the art style and I liked the world. If you're a fan of aliens and cowboys, or a fan of female-led sci-fi, then I'd recommend checking this one out. I'm hoping there'll be another volume out later this year!

My Rating: 

American Vampire, Vol.2 by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Mateus Santolouco

I read American Vampire, Vol.1 last year after finding it in my local library. Check out my review here!

I wasn't sure if I was going to carry on with the American Vampire series at first, until I realised the fact that it kept popping into my head despite having read the first volume back in October had to be a sign that it was time to track down Volume 2. Sadly Volume 1 was the only one my library had, so I used trusty old Abebooks and found a couple of secondhand copies of Volume 2 and Volume 3 in really good condition. I really enjoyed being back in the world of American Vampire; it's easy for me to get bored by vampires, but I think Scott Snyder's created something really different with this series, and that's special. I'm definitely going to be continuing with this one.

My Rating: 

Fables, Vol.1: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham, Lan Medina, Steve Leialoha, Craig Hamilton and James Jean

Unfortunately I didn't like this very much, but considering the reviews I'd seen I didn't expect to, which was the main reason I found myself a secondhand copy rather than spending a bunch of money on a shiny new one. I just wanted to see what it was like for myself. I love Bigby Wolf - I have a big crush on him in The Wolf Among Us - but I didn't enjoy any of the characters in the graphic novel as much I did in the game. It almost felt as though Willingham was playing paint by numbers with fairy tale characters; he made sure they were all there, but he didn't really take the time to make any of them three-dimensional. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either. I just felt kind of 'meh' about the whole thing. Needless to say I won't be carrying on with this series, because judging by the reviews it only continues to get worse...

My Rating: 

Have you read any of these? What are your thoughts?

Review | American Vampire: Volume 1 by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Stephen King

American Vampire: Volume 1

by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Stephen King

My Rating: 

From writers Scott Snyder and Stephen King, AMERICAN VAMPIRE introduces a new strain of vampire – a more vicious species – and traces the creatures' bloodline through decades of American history.

Snyder's tale follows Pearl, a young woman living in 1920s Los Angeles, who is brutally turned into a vampire and sets out on a path of righteous revenge against the European monsters who tortured and abused her. And in King's story set in the days of America's Wild West, readers learn the origin of Skinner Sweet, the original American vampire – a stronger, faster creature than any vampire ever seen before. 

I enjoyed this. Honestly I've never been the biggest fan of vampires. I don't hate them, but if I'm given a choice between reading about vampires or reading about another mythological creature I'm likely to choose the other option. This I liked!

So many books that feature stories about vampires in the past tend to take them back to the 19th century, which is understandable considering that was when staples of vampire literature like Carmilla and Dracula were written. I loved that this was different. We have an actress in the 1920s - and I don't read enough books set in the '20s! - and then we have the origins of Skinner Sweet, mainly set in the early 20th century that has a very Western feel to it. It was great fun, and I'd definitely like to read the other books in the series.

My rating could have been higher, but there were a few flaws. The main one being that all of the women were very similar in terms of their body types - which is a real shame when it comes to something as visual as a graphic novel - and they all seemed to be, for lack of a better word, defined by their relationships with the men around them. I'm hoping there'll be as many diverse women as there are men in the other issues.

But I did enjoy this, and I think with Halloween coming up it was the ideal time to read it!

J.