Top Ten Tuesday | All the Single Ladies

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

Happy Valentine's Day! This week's theme is all about romance, and as I talked about my favourite OTPs last year, I figured this year would be a good opportunity to talk about the characters I think should have remained single.

Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games trilogy: Sorry Peeta fans (specifically Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight), but I hate the ending of Mockingjay. My ideal happy ending for Katniss was for her to live somewhere peaceful with Prim and if that couldn't happen then I wanted her to either live alone or die. I know that sounds grim, and I understand the comfort she probably finds in Peeta because he's gone through so much of what she's gone through, but I hate the way people use Peeta against her. I wrote a whole post about it here if you're interested.

Rachel Green from Friends: The more I re-watch Friends, the more I realise Rachel should have stayed on the plane. Ross is a pretty awful person and he consistently makes her choose between him and her career and it pisses me off. When they're first dating he's constantly looking down on her interest in the fashion industry, but if someone says they're not interested in science it's like they just told him Santa isn't real. He's a hypocrite and I don't like him, and to be honest by the tenth season I think Rachel and Joey have way more chemistry.

Juliet Capulet from Romeo and Juliet: SIX PEOPLE DIED. This applies to Romeo too, I guess, but to be honest Romeo's always seemed pretty flaky to me while Juliet has all these amazingly violent monologues throughout the play and has always felt like the more fleshed-out character to me. I understand that she doesn't just want to marry some stranger her father picks out for her, but was there really no other option for her than a whirlwind romance that KILLED SIX PEOPLE? Come on, Juliet, you're better than that.

Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre: I think Jane and Mr. Rochester have amazing chemistry but let's be honest: Rochester is a problematic fave. Let's not forget that he literally locked his wife in the attic and then lied to his second wife about it. What exactly in that scenario suggests great husband material?

Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones: In no way can Sansa's marriage to Ramsay Bolton be described as a relationship because he was abusive and she was in no way able to give any form of consent. Really I'm just angry the writers gave her that storyline at all; she deserved better than to be abused in that way, especially after already spending so long at Joffrey's mercy.

Tauriel from The Hobbit movies: I love the fact that someone thought 'we can't ask little girls to sit through 9 hours of film without a single main female character', but they butchered any progress when they created Tauriel just to act as eye candy. There didn't seem to be any depth to her character, instead she was a watered-down mix of Eowyn and Arwen.

Marianne Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility and Lydia Bennet from Pride and Prejudice: I'm putting these two together because I think they'd be good friends if they met, and I'd love to see the two of them travelling around Europe together, Marianne could play her music and Lydia could act on the stage, because frankly they both deserved better marriages than the ones they end up in. Especially Marianne, because at Lydia can hold her own and still have a bit of fun with Wickham, whereas Marianne gets a General who, while he may be lovely, is far too boring for her.

Desdemona from Othello: Othello's a prick. That is all.

Anna from Frozen: Elsa won't let her marry a guy she's known for a day, but apparently a guy she's known for two days is fine. I don't really like Frozen anyway, I think it's full of plotholes and one day I may write a post about it, and this is one of the reasons why. It tried to be witty with its 'oh isn't it funny how Disney princesses marry men they barely know?' only to repeat the same mistake.

Snow White from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Disney one's fine, albeit old-fashioned, but in the original tale the Prince carries Snow White away while he thinks she's dead, only for the apple to dislodge from her throat and wake her up. In other words, the original Snow White marries a necrophile. Poor girl.

What did you talk about this week?

Fandon Mashup | We Will Rock You

Fandom Mashup is an original featured created and hosted by the lovely Micheline @ Lunar Rainbows Reviews. Each week she proposes a unique fictional scenario and then invites you to build a dream team of five fictional characters from five different fandoms to help you to complete the task. Make sure you check out Micheline's blog for more info!

I've been meaning to join in with this for ages now but because I tend to be so lazy on a Sunday I forget about it, but this week I remembered! (Just in time). Thanks for creating this fun feature, Micheline!

This week's scenario: You find yourself in ancient Rome lined up to become a Gladiator. Woah.  The one upside is that you get to pick your own team to train you up for the task. Who do you pick?

(I don't know about you, but whenever I think of gladiators I think of that Pepsi advert with Beyonce, P!nk and Britney Spears...)

Finnick Odair

Finnick is essentially a futuristic gladiator, right? He even uses similar weaponry. Not only that but he already knows how to coach people to help them use their own skills and he knows how to appeal to the crowd, too, because your survival could all be down to how popular you are with the crowds in Ancient Rome. Just like the Tributes in Panem, Ancient Rome's gladiators were celebrities, too.

Wolf

Lunar Chronicles - Wolf © Laura Hollingsworth

Scarlet first sees Wolf fighting and the guy's pretty brutal - he's been biologically altered into a killing machine - so I think he could teach me how to fight dirty, which I'd definitely need to do if I wanted to win.

Éowyn

Any woman who can take down the Witch King of Angmar is a worthy teacher in my book, plus Éowyn is probably my favourite character from The Lord of the Rings and I feel as though she doesn't get as much love as she should. This woman is the ultimate warrior princess, and the inspiration for so many others.

Xena

Speaking of warrior princesses, I'm pretty sure there's nothing about gladiatorial combat this woman couldn't teach me. If Xena spends her days fighting evil, I'm sure she can spare some time to teach me how to kick someone else's butt.

Wonder Woman

If Wonder Woman can't teach me how to win a fight (or at least survive one) then I don't know who can. She's the original feminist superhero and I'd want her on my team. Plus if I'm not doing so well, hopefully she and Xena will step in and defend me...

Who would you choose?

Top Ten Tuesday | Stories & Songs

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is all about music and books, and I just happen to have a feature on my blog called Stories & Songs where I pair a book with a song. Today I've made a new list; there are a couple of books I've done before that I think fit particularly well, but most of them are brand new. I'm quite pleased with this list! As always book titles will take you to Goodreads, and song titles will take you to the song on YouTube.

Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier + Wildest Dreams by Taylor Swift: Say you'll remember me, standing in a nice dress, staring at the sunset, babe. Red lips and rosy cheeks, say you'll see me again even if it's just in your wildest dreams.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen + Girls & Boys by Good Charlotte: Educated, with money. He's well-dressed, not funny. And not much to say in most conversations, but he'll foot the bill in all situations, 'cause he pays for everything.

Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia + A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum: And so it was that later, as the miller told his tale, that her face, at first just ghostly, turned a whiter shade of pale.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins + Glory and Gore by Lorde: You could try and take us, but we're the gladiators. Everyone a rager, but secretly they're saviours. Glory and gore go hand in hand, that's why we're making headlines. You could try and take us, but victory's contagious.

Lolita by Vladimir Nobokov + Missed Me by The Dresden Dolls: Missed me, missed me, now you've gone and done it; hope you're happy in the county penitentiary. It serves you right for kissing little girls, but I will visit. If you miss me.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman + Halo by Ane Brun feat. Linnea Olsson: Remember those walls I built? Well baby they're tumbling down; they didn't even put up a fight, they didn't even make a sound.

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman + Black Magic by Little Mix: Take a sip of my secret potion, I'll make you fall in love. For a spell that can't be broken, one drop should be enough. Boy you belong to me, I got the recipe, and it's called black magic.

Feed by Mira Grant + O Children by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: Pass me that lovely little gun, my dear, my darling one. The cleaners are coming, one by one, you don't even wanna let them start. They are knocking now upon your door, they measure the room, they know the score. They're mopping up the butcher's floor of your broken little hearts.

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng + I'm Still Here by Goo Goo Dolls: I am a question to the world, not an answer to be heard or a moment that's held in your arms. And what do you think you'd ever say? I won't listen anyway. You don't know me, and I'll never be who you want me to be.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli + It's Time by Imagine Dragons: It's time to begin, isn't it? I get a little bit bigger but then, I'll admit, I'm just the same as I was. Now don't you understand that I'm never changing who I am.

What did you talk about this week?

Top Ten Tuesday | A Whole New World

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten Historical Settings You Love/ Ten Historical Settings You'd Love To See or Top Futuristic Books You Love/Ten Futuristic Societies I'd Love To Read in Books', but instead of talking about generic settings this week I'm going to talk about some books, five historical fiction and five sci-fi, in which the world building is amazing.

Historical Fiction

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton: I still can't quite believe this is Burton's debut because it's one of the most stunningly written books I've ever read. Set in 17th century Amsterdam, Burton fills each page with sumptuous detail and lyrical prose. So worth reading!

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent: Set in 19th century Iceland, Hannah Kent's debut novel is the perfect novel for the winter because the bitter cold oozes from the pages. This is also a book that'll break your heart in two. Just so you know.

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks: Year of Wonders is the novelisation of a true event in which a village called Eyam in Derbyshire closed itself off to the world when its residents began to succumb to the plague, in hopes of preventing the spread of the disease. The village itself almost becomes a character in this novel, and Brooks describes the isolation wonderfully.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: I didn't love this novel as much as I'd hoped I would, but there's no denying that Morgenstern's circus is wonderfully fantastical. I want to go to the Night Circus, too.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: What I love about this novel is that the setting's unusual. So many historical fiction books set during the Second World War are set in Britain, France or America, so it was so refreshing to read a book set in Germany during the war which painted Germans fairly. It's good to remember that the vast majority of the German and Austrian population hated Hitler more than anyone else did.

Science Fiction

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: I love dystopian fiction that could be a fathomable reality, and in my opinion Collins succeeded with this trilogy. If we were to broadcast a show like The Hunger Games you can guarantee people would watch it, and that's what makes these books so terrifying.

Feed by Mira Grant: Ah Feed, my love. What I love about Feed is that it's a post-post-apocalyptic novel. Zombies exist but not every single society in the world has collapsed. Grant's world building is so well thought out and thorough. I just love this book!

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers: I think I'd marry this book if I could. It includes so many things that I'm passionate about and Chambers' world building is astounding. Read this!

Delirium by Lauren Oliver: We all know by now how much of a trainwreck Requiem was, but I thought Delirium was a beautifully written YA dystopia - in all honesty I wish it had been a standalone. When I first heard it was set in a world without love I thought it was going to be really cheesy, but Lauren Oliver has put a lot of thought into what a world without love would really mean and it's so bleak. Wonderful novel, just pretend the latter two don't exist.

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer: Obviously this series was going to be on the list. I love it and I love Marissa Meyer's futuristic universe. No more need be said.

What did you talk about this week?

The Book Bloggers and Books Tag!

I saw Alexa @ Alexa Loves Books do this tag, originally created by Kaitlin @ Reading is My Treasure, and I thought it looked like too much fun to pass up. The Book Bloggers and Books Tag basically involves talking about some of your bloggers and the books you think they're advocates for, or the books you most associate with them.

So I've selected a handful of my fellow bloggers, and I'm going to do just that!

Natalie @ A Sea Change

Natalie is a huge fantasy fan. She loves Terry Pratchett - she's recently been reviewing the Tiffany Aching books on her blog - and Uprooted is one of her favourite books of the year, in fact I ended up reading it myself because she loved it so much. Poor Natalie also has the misfortune of knowing me in real life, which means I'm constantly throwing books at her while screaming 'READ THIS AND THEN TALK TO ME ABOUT IT', which is basically what happened with The Lunar Chronicles. It's one of those series I've been pushing on all of my friends, and luckily for me Natalie will often seek out the books I recommend to her. What a good egg.

Mallory @ The Local Muse

Mallory's one of the few people I know who makes me want to give Austen a second chance. For some reason Emma is always the Austen I associate with Mallory, I think purely because I can vividly remember her very enthusiastic review of it. She's also a huge Cat Winters fan, she's really made me want to check out her work, and I've lost count of the amount of times she's told me I should read The Handmaid's Tale. I promise I'll get to it, Mallory! I really recommend checking out her blog, especially if you're a fan of classics.

Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight

Is this cheating? Nah. I love The Hunger Games, I think it's an excellent trilogy, but I've never met anyone who loves it as much as Shannon does. I love it when people talk about the books that mean the most to them, and it's very clear that this trilogy is very important to Shannon - she's the blogger I most associate with it. Even if she does like Peeta...

Check out Shannon's blog for even better gif usage!

Micheline @ Lunar Rainbows

A very blue-toned selection for Micheline! I really like how those three look together, actually. Like Natalie, Micheline's another blogger I associate with fantasy. She wrote a post all about how much she loves Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for Harry Potter Month, which she co-hosted with Faith @ GeekyZooGirl, and I know she's a big fan of Brandon Sanderson and Garth Nix, too.

Deanna @ Deanna Writes

If there's one thing I've learned about Deanna, it's that she loves Meg Cabot. Somehow she's one of those authors who managed to pass me by when I was younger, but Deanna loves her books so much I really want to check one out for myself. She recently wrote a post all about her love for Ready Player One for Sci-Fi Month, hosted by Rinn @ Rinn Reads, which is another book I need to get to. Basically Deanna's responsible for a lot of the books on my TBR...

Cait @ Paper Fury

There are three things I know for certain that Cait loves: Maggie Stiefvater, Derek Landy and dragons. Basically if Stiefvater and Landy teamed up to write a dragon book I think it'd make all of her dreams come true. The Raven Boys is yet another book I still need to get to, but I read Demon Road a few weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Unfortunately I've never been able to get into A Song of Ice and Fire - I've tried reading it and I've tried listening to it - but the books have such a huge fanbase (including Cait!) so I'd like to give it another try in future.

I'm not going to tag anyone because I'm lazy, so if you want to do this tag then do it - I'd love to see which books you associate with other book bloggers!

My Problem with Peeta (AKA The "Nice Guy" Complex)

Time and time again on my blog I've mentioned my dislike for Peeta, and then immediately said something along the lines of 'but that's a discussion for another time' or 'but I won't get into that now', and I figured it's about time I got into it. 

Now if you're a big Peeta fan you're most welcome here - people can like whichever characters they like as far as I'm concerned - but if you're the kind of Peeta fan that can't bear to see any criticism of your perfect baby angel, then it's probably best that you stop reading now. Because I don't like Peeta Mellark.

(I'd also recommend you stop reading now if you haven't read The Hunger Games/haven't finished the trilogy yet - I don't want to spoil anything for you!)

First thing's first, I think it's important to stress that I don't hate Peeta, in fact there are quite a few things about him that I really like. For example, I love that Peeta plays around with gender stereotypes in much the same way that Katniss does; I think it's fantastic we have this couple in YA who are completely opposite to what we might expect from a stereotypical couple. It's Peeta who likes to bake and paint, Peeta who doesn't like violence, Peeta who wants to fall in love and start a family, while Katniss enjoys hunting - she's good at it - and she'd much rather be left alone than have anyone fawning all over her. The two of them completely subvert common gender stereotypes, and I love that, because as much as it's important for women to know they don't have to like typically feminine things, it's just as important for men to know they don't have to like typically masculine things.

I can also appreciate that the two of them do make a good team in the arena. While Katniss handles all the brutal stuff within the arena, Peeta handles all the political, backstabby (it's totally a word) stuff outside the arena. He knows how to win over a crowd, and he does it well.

And perhaps most importantly in terms of this post, I understand why Katniss and Peeta make sense as a couple. Ultimately no one's really going to understand what the two of them went through like the other can, and this series is all about surviving through the consequences of war and these two need each other to survive because without each other their mental state can fall into a dark, dark place.

BUT

I'm personally not a fan of the two of them as a couple. Don't worry, this isn't going to be a post for Team Gale or any of that crap - screw Team Peeta and Team Gale, I'm on Team Katniss.

First and foremost, I read Katniss as aromantic: someone who doesn't experience romantic attraction. Someone who is aromantic isn't necessarily also asexual, but unfortunately, like asexuality, it's something which is often overlooked. That's not to say she is aromantic - the only person who knows that for certain is Suzanne Collins - but she always felt that way to me; she kisses both Peeta and Gale when they're upset because she doesn't know how else to comfort them, and she's aware that people kiss the ones they love. There's no denying that she loves Peeta, in the same way that she loves Gale, but in my opinion it's not necessarily romantic love so much as it is companionship. For me, Katniss's most important relationship is always going to be her relationship with Prim.

Even when Katniss claims to be in love with Peeta, it still doesn't feel quite like romantic love to me so much as it feels like the plea of a young girl who needs the one person around her who can understand her.

As much I'm not a member of Team Gale, just as I'm not a member of Team Peeta, I do hate the way Gale is treated by a lot of fans. Gale and Peeta are pretty shitty towards Katniss, particularly in Catching Fire when both of them are pressuring her into being in love with them when frankly Katniss has bigger fish to fry. On top of struggling with PTSD, she's also a 16 year old girl who has accidentally started a rebellion and because of that the President himself is threatening her friends and family. But neither of them take that into account at first, despite the fact that Peeta wouldn't be alive if it weren't for Katniss. How can he expect feelings she had to develop to stay alive to be completely true? How can he expect her to even think about something like romance when it's a struggle for her just to get out of bed on a morning? Still Gale's the one who seems to get the most hate. Why? Because Peeta's nice.

Constantly Katniss is told that someone like her should feel lucky that someone like Peeta loves her, that she doesn't deserve someone so nice and good and sweet:

"You could live a thousand life times but you will never deserve that boy."

Now obviously other characters saying that isn't Peeta's fault, but it doesn't make me like the guy anymore. Katniss is such a compelling, fantastic heroine; she's flawed and selfish and selfless and brave, and yet all anyone cares about is how much of Peeta's love she's earned.

The thing that makes me dislike Peeta most, however, is the epilogue to Mockingjay. The epilogue made me so uncomfortable. Obviously this isn't a light, fluffy trilogy so perhaps it'd be weird if I didn't feel uncomfortable, but it didn't make me uncomfortable in the way I expected it would. Don't get me wrong, I love the way Collins writes characters who are never going to be okay again; Katniss and Peeta have been royally fucked over by war, and no amount of medication or therapy is going to make them better. I love that realism behind the series. Yes, Katniss began the revolution that will prevent the annual deaths of hundreds of children in years to come, but at what personal cost?

What I hated most was the way Katniss talked about her children. In the very first book Katniss tells us she doesn't want children. For the most part we can assume that's because there's the chance they'd be reaped and have to compete in the Games. I'm sure we can all understand that. However, there may be something deeper to it - perhaps I'm looking into it too much, but maybe Katniss never wants to have children period. It could be marriage and children is not something that interests her, which further supports my theory of her being aromantic.

To me it felt as though Katniss did NOT want those children, regardless of how much she loves them now they've been born. Let's look at the way she talks about them, shall we?

'It took five, ten, fifteen years for me to agree. But Peeta wanted them so badly. When I first felt her stirring inside of me, I was consumed with a terror that felt as old as life itself. Only the joy of holding her in my arms could tame it. Carrying him was a little easier, but not much.'

Not 'we'. Peeta. Katniss had children because Peeta wanted them, because over the course of 'five, ten, fifteen years' he finally managed to wear her down and he got what he wanted. I'm not trying to suggest that Peeta's an abusive husband - I don't think their marriage is an unhappy one, though I doubt either of them are ever really happy either - but it is possible for people who don't want children to basically be bullied into having them, and those lines just made me so uncomfortable.

I hate this idea that because Peeta's nice, he gets to have everything he wants. I'm not saying he doesn't suffer because the poor guy really does - he gets tortured by the Capitol, for heaven's sake - but there are a lot of fans out there who think he can do no wrong when actually, you know what, he can. He's not an angel, he's human. Yes we can argue that Katniss just happened to change her mind about having children, but the fact of the matter is she's so broken by the end of Mockingjay it probably wouldn't have been too hard to get her to do pretty much anything if you kept going on and on and on about it. All throughout her teens she was surrounded by people who were constantly telling her how much of a terrible person she was compared to Peeta, so it's no wonder she ends up giving the guy what he wants. 

I don't think people shouldn't like Peeta - I completely understand why he's a fan favourite - I just wish some fans would look at the trilogy a little more critically. I'm not suggesting we should purposefully read things to talk about what we don't like about them, that's not what it means to read critically, and I'm also not saying you have to read critically. Read however you want! But sometimes just look at something a little differently. Look at this trilogy, not as a series of books about a teenage girl who has to choose between two boys, but as a series of books about a teenager whose life is literally threatened by her government, who's been feeding her family since childhood after the death of her father sent her mother into a severe depression, who tried so hard to protect her little sister and still wasn't strong enough to protect her from a bomb because how could she be? Then reread that epilogue, and see how it makes you feel.

My perfect ending for Katniss was for her and Prim to go and live somewhere peaceful and quiet, selling cheese from Prim's goat and enjoying the tranquility of the countryside while Prim became a fantastic doctor and looked after Katniss when the nightmares came. If not that, I'd've loved to have seen Katniss and Johanna together romantically or not, I don't care travelling Panem and smashing the patriarchy. But that's just in my own little fantasy...

Katniss: my precious baby angel.

So there you have it. That's why I don't like Peeta. I'm sure you're all just willing me to shut up, but I figured it was about time I actually talked about this.

So, what are your thoughts?

Monthly Wrap-Up | March 2015

I'm trying out something a little different today! Since I started blogging I've pretty much always done reading wrap-ups at the end of each month to share what I read that month and what I thought of the things I read. I still want to do that, but then I thought I might broaden it out and just talk about my month in general in the hopes of making my wrap-ups a little more personal.

Not only that, but I took part in the blog hop What's Up Wednesday until last week when the lovely hosts Jaime and Erin decided it was time for them to wind it down. I enjoyed talking about my writing progress and other more personal stuff during that blog hop, and now that it's over I want to continue to talk about it and what better way to do that than in a big monthly wrap-up?

So now, as well as sharing with you what I read each month, I'm also going to talk about things I've watched, things I've done and anything else in between!

(I'm also going to choose a different colour each month, because there are so many pretty colours out there. I think March is a very green month.)

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman (4.5 Stars)

Reviewed here!

The Ice Dragon by George R. R. Martin (4 Stars)

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll (4.5 Stars)

The Great God Pan and Other Stories by Arthur Machen (3 Stars)

Coraline by Neil Gaiman (4 Stars)

Reviewed here!

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson (5 Stars)

Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (5 Stars)

Reviewed here!

March ended up being a pretty good reading month for me. I'm glad that I've been able to consistently read, except for the odd couple of days, since my great reading start to the year in January. Signal to Noise was definitely the highlight of the month for me, and, alongside Rat Queens, has been my best read of the year so far. I absolutely loved it, and it's definitely earned itself a place on my favourite books list.

There are a few books I'm in the middle of I haven't gotten around to finishing yet, but I'm hoping to finish them in April!

Relic by Renee Collins

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Mistress Firebrand by Donna Thorland

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan

I'm much more likely to sit down and watch a film than I am to watch a TV show. There are some amazing TV shows out there, but I'm just really bad at watching TV; I have to work myself up to watching a new show because I really have to concentrate and I get bored very easily. If a show doesn't impress me within the first ten minutes then the likelihood is I'll turn it off. I'm very fussy.

I managed to watch quite a bit this month, though, including the entire first season of Penny Dreadful. Congratulations, Penny Dreadful, on keeping me interested for the entire season! I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with season 2. I think I'm a little bit in love with Ethan Chandler.

I also watched the first episode of 12 Monkeys and the first episode of Vikings, but neither of them left me feeling particularly interested. I'm much more likely to go back to Vikings, I've certainly heard amazing things about it as the series progresses, but I gave up on 12 Monkeys. I just thought it was rubbish.
Mockingjay: Part 1 is out on DVD! I treated myself to a copy and watched it for the first time since I saw it in the cinema, and I still like it. I know a lot of people really dislike Mockingjay, but I found the whole aspect of making propaganda and fighting a war with words - "moves and countermoves" - really interesting. I think Francis Lawrence is fantastic.

I also watched the film adaptation of If I Stay for the very time this month and really enjoyed it - I thought it was a really good adaptation. I didn't cry while reading the book, but the scene in the film between Mia and her grandfather in the hospital did make me tear up. Chloe Grace Moretz did a good job as Mia, too.

And on Sunday I went to see the new Cinderella film. I didn't love it - I didn't think it'd be possible for something to be too Disney, but this film was so twee I'm pretty sure I came out of it with diabetes. Or maybe that was just all the popcorn - but I did love the way it looked. The colours and the costumes were gorgeous; I want basically everything Cate Blanchett wore. Plus Richard Madden was a very adorable Prince; it was nice to see him fleshed out a little more, because so often the Prince in Cinderella is just a generic Prince Charming figure. Was he an entirely original character? No. Was he a cutie pie? Hell yes.

And it was nice to see him attend a wedding and live through it.

Saw some upcoming films that look pretty cool, too; there's one coming out about the Queen and her sister, the late Princess Margaret, in their youth who are allowed out for one night with a pair of chaperones. It looks like a lot of fun! There's also an upcoming adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd which looks lovely. I've never read it - I'm not the biggest fan of Thomas Hardy - but I would like to see that.

Pan also looks amazing, but I really don't want to see a film where Tiger Lily has been whitewashed.

Game of Thrones is back in April - I wonder who they're going to kill this time...

Work's starting to get a little busier - for any of you who don't know but are curious, I work at an independent publishers in Wales! - but I'd rather have plenty to do than nothing at all! I'm pretty much in charge of the blog now, and it's a lot of fun being able to write blog posts and get paid to do it, not to mention the fact that I'm also basically getting paid to use social media!

Last Friday I met up with a friend of mine who was on my MA course and who has recently moved down to South Wales. I've talked about this a little bit on my blog before - usually in my What's Up Wednesday posts - but I'm living back with my parents after finishing my MA in October until I'm more firmly on my feet. The only real problem is my parents live in South Wales, and all my friends live in the north of England. Needless to say, I've been pretty lonely since I moved back home, although I've met some great people through work.

I went round to her lovely new house and also met another friends of hers, who I'd actually already met, just not in person, because last year I did a little proofreading for her feminist Harry Potter magazine, Sonorus. Yes, this lady has a feminist Harry Potter magazine - and they're currently open for submissions!

We had a really fun evening involving pizza, dragons and Victorian lesbians. It was so nice to just be in the presence of one of my friends again, because I really miss them.

I may also be taking driving lessons again soon. I know what you're all probably thinking: 'you're 23 and you can't drive?' but the thought of getting behind the wheel of a car again terrifies me. I took lessons while I was in sixth form - I even took a driving test! - but unfortunately I failed, and then before I could take another one I was off to uni. Now I'm craving the independence that will come with being able to drive myself anywhere, but I'm still really scared. I have to stop letting fear hold me back, though.

Oh and, on a final note, my story 'Coffee Break' was published on Flash Fiction Magazine this month! Yay!

What did you get up to in March?

Characters I'd Invite to Christmas Dinner! | Twelve Days of Christmas!

My Twelve Days of Christmas continue, and today I thought it'd be fun to do a Christmassy version of a tag that was wandering around the world of Booktube a while ago: The Literary Dinner Party Tag. The original tag, in which you select various literary characters you'd invite to a dinner party, gave you eleven characters, but I've added an extra one for the sake of keeping up with the twelve theme!

I've kept some of the character types you have to choose from the original tag, but also added/altered a few just for my own enjoyment. And if any other bloggers out there want to give it a try then please do!

So, without further ado, let us begin!

1) One character can can/likes to cook

Perhaps a bit of a weird choice, but I would invite Hannibal Lecter. As long as you're not rude he's a perfect gent even though he's a cannibal. Plus in my head Hannibal looks like Mads Mikkelsen, who portrays him in the show and makes my mouth water (hurr hurr hurr). If you've seen the show then you'll know what I mean when I say the way he cooks people looks delicious.

2) One character who owns a house/estate/apartment/palace where you would like to host your dinner

I'd go with Chandresh from The Night Circus. Just imagine eating your dinner in that circus, and you'd have some great entertainment!

3) One character who would bring the best presents

Maybe a bit of an odd choice, but Sherlock Holmes. He's done so many bizarre things and been to so many different places that I feel as though he'd just have an accumulation of weird stuff to hand out to people at Christmas.

4) One hero

Harry from the Harry Potter series. That guy must have had so many awful Christmases as a child that I'd love to invite him over for a great party.

5) One heroine

Georgia Mason from the Newsflesh trilogy. I love her, and I'd love to have a conversation with her.

6) One villain

Jude from the Noughts & Crosses series. I suppose it's debatable as to whether or not this guy is really a villain, but he certainly ain't pleasant. Having said that he always fascinated me, so I'd be interested in listening to what he had to say for himself.

7) One romantic couple

Cinder and Kai from The Lunar Chronicles. I love these two a lot.

8) One non-romantic couple

Katniss and Prim from The Hunger Games. These girls need some good food to eat.

9) One under-appreciated character

Rubeus Hagrid. Such an awesome guy who gets barely any credit, why Harry and Ginny named their son after Dumbledore and Snape and not this guy I'll never understand.

10) One character of your own choosing

I will always love Sirius Black, so he'd be given that extra seat at my dinner table.

If you'd like to have a go at this then go for it! I'd love to see what your answers would be.