So I gotta be honest here and admit that yes, I can imagine a world where Mystery Queen doesn't get a season two. When I read something online - before people knew about the second season - about how the ending was so awful because there's no guarantee of a second season, I thought the drama would end with someone on the floor bleeding out from a gunshot wound or something. That didn't happen: season one of the drama actually finishes off quite nicely. I guess I do see what people mean though, especially after that huge reveal about a minute before season one of the drama ended. I'm used to those endings because it's the same kind of thing American shows do at the end of the season, hoping that they get renewed, but with know way to be one hundred percent sure about it. I haven't seen anything similar in a drama yet, however, so I suppose I can comprehend the hysteria that must have overtaken fans.

Luckily for me, I literally only just finished season one of Mystery Queen, and I enjoyed every bit of banter it offered. I'm a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, so this show with the main character reminiscent of him and her wonderful, wonderful partner has been really great, not to mention refreshing thanks to the lack of romance. Or I suppose it's a perceived lack of romance, because there's tons of chemistry between the two - I guess we'll see if it goes any further in the next season. I love the two the way they are now, and honestly, I can't easily imagine a romance between them, but...we'll find out in the next couple of weeks. Personally, I'm up for anything, but hopefully whatever the writers choose to do doesn't take away from the pair's beautiful partnership.

Season two premieres this Wednesday, February 28.

Edit: What in the world was I thinking, saying that I couldn't imagine a romance between the two leads within the confines of this drama? I'm one episode away from finishing the second season and the romance is the only way to go following season one. Writers, actors, I applaud you.

Me describing this book to people: It's about a married couple that finds out that they're both super healthy and have a good sixty-eight years ahead of them. Instead of being happy about their long life expectancies, they begin freaking out about how they're going to make their marriage work for that long, because apparently when people make marriage vows and claim they'll love each other forever, they don't actually mean forever.

I was pretty hesitant going into this book, both when adding it to my tbr as well as when I actually picked it up and began reading. I've read a couple Sophie Kinsella novels before, and loved quite a few of them, but this would be the first one I've read that features a married couple, and I wasn't sure I'd be into that. And taking that further, a married couple story always leaves a window open for affairs and whatnot, and I'm certainly not here for something as depressing as that. Nevertheless, I figured I'd give the book a chance, because the only Sophie Kinsella I've read that bored me to tears was The Undomestic Goddess, and what are the chances of that happening again? (And you'll be happy to note that thankfully, this is not a married couple story that revolves around that open window.)

As I continued reading Surprise Me, I grew convinced that an alternate title for the book could be "Marriage: You Should Know What You're Getting Into". Things went so horribly wrong - sometimes hilariously - with the two partners, Sylvie and Dan, and at times, the stress of their marriage made we want to forswear marriage completely in favor of a happy and healthy mental state. Which begs the question the title of this post poses.

Luckily, I kept reading, because oh, this book so has that Kinsella British romance thing that her other books have. Also, apparently I was really in need of some British love and humor because this book totally did it for me despite my hesitancy in picking it up. The characters grow on the reader fairly quickly, and you really see the effort both Sylvie and Dan make to make each other happy, and wow, that's the kind of love you want, y'all. There's also an interesting bit about Sylvie's family that adds an extra oomph to the story; you don't exactly see it coming, but at the same time, you knew there was something off. I don't know how Kinsella writes such likable, well-rounded stories - that sounds so boring but I swear it's perfect - but there it is.

Additionally, I just adore the idea of poking your marriage with a stick. It's exactly as scary as it sounds.

Note: Perhaps don't read this post if you're not caught up on the sixteen episodes of Hwayugi that are currently out.

If you keep up with my twitter, then you know that for the past few weeks, the highlight of my kdrama watching has been binging Hwayugi episodes and temporarily messing up my eight hour sleep schedule. As soon as I watched the first episode, I was blown away; I absolutely could not stop myself from needing the next episode, and needing it then and there. I still feel that way, but at the same time, I think it's definitely time to publicly address the elephant in the room: Son Oh-gong is too smart for the drama's own good.

One of the things we learn in our screenwriting class is that if the stakes in your story aren't high enough, then nobody is going to be glued to the screen. That's what's happening with Hwayugi. I mean, I'm definitely sticking around, but my frustration grows as every single character continually fails to get the best of Son Oh-gong.

There's the evil priestess with her plans to marry Son Oh-gong and/or switch bodies with Sam Jang, i.e. Jin Seon-mi. She's got him under her spell - but oh wait, that's not the real Son Oh-gong, but one of the replicas. Oh dang, she took the geumganggo off him -- just kidding, same problem. The evil fairytale librarian trapped Sam Jang's child soul in a book and theoretically, she's the new owner of Son Oh-gong's love; but then right after, it's revealed that no, Oh-gong definitely does not love her, and Sam Jang is still the owner of the geumganggo. This happens over and over again, and just when it seems like things are going to get interesting, the beginning of the next episode reveals that nope, Son Oh-gong has figured out what's wrong. He doesn't fall for anything or anyone that tries to get the best of him, and thanks to that, the plot of Hwayugi is rather repetitive.

And while I'm on a roll complaining about the drama - I love it, but hey, it has its flaws - when is Son Oh-gong going to be free from the dang geumganggo? I've been as patient as the next person, but that thing went on in like episode three or something, and it's episode sixteen and it's still stuck on Son Oh-gong's wrist! We get it, he loves her because of the bracelet. Now can we please get it off of him so that we can see the dynamic between him and Sam Jang change to something other than "I love you and you're beautiful because you stuck this bracelet on me"?

Despite all of that, would I still recommend that you watch Hwayugi? Yes, of course, without a doubt. It has a super fun cast of characters, the beginning is reminiscent of Goblin, and I love the whole feel of the drama. There's a hilarious bromance, and this show is just a ton of fun to tune into each week. Granted, the lead female doesn't do much, but I guess I'm watching more for the demons, and of course, to keep my fingers crossed in favor of a positive fate for everyone's favorite zombie. The gorgeous soundtrack doesn't hurt either.

The only Leigh Bardugo book I haven't gotten around to yet is the second installment to Six Of Crows, i.e. Crooked Kingdom. I hear it's great, and yet I'm pretty positive that I'm not going to love it as much as The Language of Thorns because TLOT is so so beautiful. As in better than the original Grimm fairytales, beautiful.

Going into this collection of short stories, I never doubted that I would love it - even despite not being unquestionably in love with the author as I know many readers are. However, what I didn't anticipate is how much I would love it. If there weren't so many mature themes in this novel, you bet I'd be reading this to any little children that happened to come my way.

This is one of those books that I'm glad I own, because not only is the cover as well as the naked book absolutely gorgeous, but I can already see myself re-reading these Grisha fairytales time and time again. All six of the fairytales included are unique, one of a kind, and oh so memorable. They also have powerful morals that Grimms' fairytales certainly don't bother to explore. Honestly, I'd be so on board with some of these stories being full-length novels, especially the final story, "When Water Sang Fire".

I love this collection of stories in a way that I don't love either of Bardugo's other series (don't get me wrong though, all of her books are really good). Luckily for those of you who have yet to have the pleasure of reading a Bardugo novel, you don't have to have read her other books to read this one - TLOT is a collection of fairytales that characters in her stories aka the Grisha universe grew up on. I kind of wish I grew up on these stories as well.

My favorite thing about these tales: unhealthy love and stupid princes are knocked down at least fifty thousand rungs on the fairytale ladder.

After all the racist comments I've read concerning Sandhya Menon's books, I've come to enjoy diverse books especially when 1) they don't do through the trouble of explaining in detail every aspect of their culture, and 2) the main character isn't a demure girl but no, has quite a bit of fire in her. The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee does all that, plus also has non-stereotypical Asian characters, so yeah, you could say that this book is pretty darn good.

Although it may at first seem like the book is a bit unfair in its portrayal of Genie's mother as a stereotypical Asian woman who doesn't want Genie to hang out with boys but also wants her to find "the boy", it's quickly obvious that the portrayal of the main character's parents is actually anything but stereotypical. For one, Genie's mom and dad are separated, and while this is common in books about white people, I don't feel that it's shown very much with many Asian characters. Additionally, I feel that some things that are thought of as stereotypical - such as constantly studying Asians and importance placed on marriage, college, etc. - aren't always stereotypical. Sure, not every Asian is this way, but for many people, it's a part of their culture, and so it's a part of their lives. I can't speak to East Asians, but I certainly feel this way as an Indian. These things may be stereotypical, but sometimes they're also true. 

This book did a great job of making Genie Lo a realistic character. She studies a ton and pays to have her college essays looked over, but again, a stereotype is not a falsity. Genie also has such a unique, fiery personality, and the fact that her family isn't rich or living in a well-to do area brings up a demographic that's not often brought up in books or movies, in my opinion.

I knew I was in for something new with this book when early on, a boy named Quentin rips open his shirt and pulls out a monkey tail. I really enjoyed learning about Chinese mythology and folklore, and I adored what Yee did with it in this novel. She brought it into the present in an exciting way - not at all reminiscent of Percy Jackson, but something completely original. It's fast paced, easy to get into, and I am very much rooting for Genie Lo to slay all the demons whilst defying the pessimists and getting into Harvard.

I'm not sure if there's a second book and if this is a series, but I really hope it is, especially after that ending. I could see this story as a television show while I was reading it, and I am so ready for a second season of saving California from Hell beasts with a side of rubbing it in the faces of unhelpful deities.

I'm pretty late to the party in terms of reading Warcross, but I'm so glad I finally got to it because the hype is well deserved. The diverse cast and setting and the originality of the plot have got me head over heels for this book, and although there were a few things here and there that could have been been done differently, this was such a success of a novel. I had a great time reading it.

One of those things that could have been done a smidge differently is the romance between two of the main characters, Emika and Hideo. I feel that their romance didn't have much depth to it, and that the feelings between the two were there only because they're expected to be there by readers of the YA genre. I myself expected and looked forward to the romance - I squealed about it in the beginning, but as I continued reading, I stopped swooning since their love story felt so "by the book".

The world-building and the characters were a blast to read through, and I saw one part of the plot twist coming, but by no means thought that it would happen the way it did. I loved the twist so much that I was tempted to unconditionally love this book, but compromised with myself and figured that I could do that with book two if it lived up to its promise. The funny part is that by the end of this book, my heart began to stray, and I only expect that it's going to get worse once I finally get the second installment in my hands. I can't wait.

I remember back when Baby Driver came out, I was sitting in my Classical Film Theory class, completely unaware of the movie's existence until some people in class started talking about how good it was, and then the professor expressed her discontent at the fact that she wasn't able to watch it at the nearby theater because she had the wrong showtime or something. Understandably, sitting in a class full of smart film students, I felt that I was missing out on something big - so come holiday break, I sat my butt down and watched it.

One thing I will say for this movie is that it wasn't a chore to watch at all. Despite the length of the movie, it didn't feel exceedingly long, and after it finished, I was pretty satisfied. Granted, after about a fourth of the movie or so, my thoughts were a variation of "this is so weird but also it's not bad".

As you can probably tell from the earbuds in Baby's ear in the movie poster, music plays a huge role in the film. I love how the music is constantly synced up to diegetic sound and film sequences - I'm thinking of the "fireworks" sequence in Kingsman where everyone's head blows off to music - because it makes everything more quirky and fun, which is undoubtedly part of what this film is. I also really loved the long take right after the title screen, where Baby is walking to and from the coffee shop after another successful robbery (at least, I think it was a long take - by the time I started paying attention to the lack of cuts, it was nearly the end of the scene). Either way, this film did some really cool things with the shots and the music, and I may have enjoyed it for that more than for the plot.

At the same time, people were saying that this movie is so good and I don't feel that. It's so unique, yes, but not in a wow this is such a cool movie way, but in a this movie does cool things way. Also, at least twenty-five percent of the reason I watched this movie has to be the pretty posters - the one in this post and the other one with the gun shooting out a car, against a pink background. They're so eye-catching and I cannot stop staring at the shade of pink.