Book Review: “Problem Child” by Victoria Helen Stone

Hi 🙂

I wasn’t expecting to read this book so soon after I finished the first book a few months ago. I actually had it on my list for what I want for my birthday and I will say, I was prepared to wait four to five months until that day to check out the newest story of Jane. All of a sudden, my mom decided we needed Kindle Unlimited and then one night I went scrolling through the catalog and there it was; I almost shit my pants, I was so happy but shockingly, I didn’t grab it right away. and I’ll explain my reasoning for that in a minute.

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She’s cold, calculating, and can deceive with a smile. Jane Doe is back in the Amazon Charts bestselling series – and this time she’s met her match.

After a brutal childhood, Jane Doe has been permanently wired to look after herself and only herself. Now, looking next to normal, Jane has a lover and a job. But she hasn’t lost her edge. It sharpens when she hears from her estranged family.

Jane’s deeply troubled sixteen-year-old niece, Kayla, has vanished, and no one seems to care. Neither does Jane. Until she sees a picture of Kayla and recognizes herself in the young girl’s eyes. It’s the empty stare of a sociopath.

Jane knows what vengeful and desperate things Kayla is capable of. Only Jane can help her – by being drawn into Kayla’s dark world. And no one’s more aware than Jane just how dangerous that can be.

taken from Goodreads.

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As I had just finished reading the first book, the author was busy promoting this one, and I saw it every day on social media for about two months and so I became very interested in what this new book could be about, but I only knew that it had to deal with a family member and the possibility that this person could be like Jane, a fellow sociopath.

I was intrigued by the idea that someone else in her family could be a sociopath in the beginning. I thought this could be really interesting to see how it developed in this person as we know how it came about with Jane. And I think this is where I began to lose interest because I quickly realized they had similar background stories, and maybe too much if I’m being honest. However, I would love to see this relationship grow and see what kind of trouble these two can get into if the author decides to continue the series.

The one thing I did enjoy was Jane’s relationship with Luke and I’m very glad it was hanging on strong in the plot. Despite the fact that Jane cannot feel love for other people, especially ones she’s close to like Luke, you do start to see a sliver of affection towards him as the story ends. She might keep spinning her wheels with him, but I do think something will happen later on where she might lose him for good and might actually regret never giving him the attention and care they both deserved in the end.

So, when I was done, I gave it a sensible rating on Goodreads, I didn’t give it five out of five stars like I had hoped I would but I did give it three stars. Now to me, since they only have five stars, I feel three is a fair choice. It wasn’t awesome nor great, it was good, so it deserved that amount of stars.

Have you read the second book of Victoria Helen Stone’s Jane Doe series yet? If you have, what were some of your thoughts you liked or disliked about it? What did you end up rating it on Goodreads?

Book Review: “P.S. I Still Love You” by Jenny Han

Hello!

It’s time!

Originally, I wanted to finish before the film came out on Netflix so I could watch and be apart of the discussion on Twitter, but then I received a tablet for my birthday and all of my physical books were basically left in the dust. Several months later, my mom told me about the possibility of bringing my tablet outside to our new deck so whenever the cats were done with me, I could stay out there to read.

Honestly, I laughed at her but once she brought out this foot stool (we call it a bench!) we have so I could take pictures of the cats. After about five minutes, the cats ran away and I was left on our porch without anything to do, but then I quickly remembered I had this book inside the hollow space of the stool and immediately took it out to start reading it.  By the end of the month I was wanting to read more than take pictures of the cats!

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Lara Jean didn’t expect to really fall for Peter.
She and Peter were just pretending. Except suddenly they weren’t. Now Lara Jean is more confused than ever.

When another boy from her past returns to her life, Lara Jean’s feelings for him return too. Can a girl be in love with two boys at once?

In this charming and heartfelt sequel to the New York Times bestseller To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, we see first love through the eyes of the unforgettable Lara Jean. Love is never easy, but maybe that’s part of what makes it so amazing.

taken from Goodreads.

 

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By the time I wrote this post, I still hadn’t seen the film. I wasn’t a big fan to the first one so I really wondered if doing one without the other would be better for me? I really started to think this when I wasn’t reading the book at all and I just wanted to know what was coming next! Edit: I have watched the beginning but have decided not to finish or watch the rest of the films.

I thought the beginning really had the same lovey-dovey feelings I felt while reading the first book, but once the author brings in the drama of the video and this new character, another one of Lara Jean’s former loves into the picture, at first I thought uh oh, this isn’t going to end well! I was really surprised on how slowly I went from being Team Peter to Team John Ambrose. As much as I loved Peter in the first book, you could see he was conflicted between his feelings toward Genevieve, somebody he’s been with for so long to Lara Jean, a girl who’s love letters were sent out by mistake. You didn’t really know which direction these two characters should go, and for once in her young life Lara Jean had two guys fighting for her affections and I’m still not convinced she made the right choice in the end.

Besides of the romance, I loved the inclusion of the residents of the nursing home. Stormy sounds like a hoot to be around, and I should know because there were times I was reading and it made me miss being around my nana. I have also volunteered at nursing homes and I love being around the ladies there. They are really fun but you do have to be careful because they can be very mischievous! I haven’t been told I’d be perfect for one of their grandsons like Lara Jean, but still I have been around them while playing bingo! They’re competitive women let me tell you!

I feel like if I continue with this, I’ll just ruin the whole thing for you and I don’t want to do that to anyone! I already feel bad for the spoilers I’ve said in this post, so I apologize for doing that! I have purchased the final book in the trilogy, and I’m very excited to get into that but I may wait and make it my twentieth book of my Goodreads Challenge for the year.

Have you read “P.S. I Still Love You” by Jenny Han yet? For those of you that just read the book and skipped the film, do you regret your decision on it? What were your thoughts on the events that happened in the story?

REVIEW | The Society

Howdy!

This month was a good month to catch up on TV shows that I’ve been meaning to watch for a while, like The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, Supergirl and finally The Society. I know this one came out in May, but I kind of kept dodging it because I really didn’t think I would enjoy it, but then I caved and realized I was wrong with my initial impression of it.

Backstory

The Society is a story of 200+ teens who think they are about to go off on a camping trip as part of their final field trip together before graduating from high school an making their way to various colleges. They are dropped off at main square of their hometown of West Ham, to find themselves not with their families anymore. So, what’s their first reaction to this news? Well, to have a big party of course! Afterwards they find out the hard truth of how to be an adult and survive on their own without anyone helping them.

It is up to them to either work together or create chaos. When someone ens up killed, they have to figure out how to achieve justice an protect everyone when they no longer have a police force in their wing. Everything normal teenagers take for granted on a daily basis, is being thrown in their faces to the harshest reality that they will have to rebuild what they love an move on from their childish games.

What I Really Thought

Okay, so I will try my harest to not reveal everything, but I do have a lot of thoughts so if you want to, you can just skip this section!

There were a good balance of what I like and what I didn’t like about it. I guess in a way, I half expected it to have some supernatural effect to it, which in a way it does, but I mean like a mythology beast that haunts the town or something like that. When that never happened I was kicking myself a bit because I was so iffy about the show itself. It wasn’t until the last episode that I actually started to like it more.

The things that I did like about it were things about the characters, such as their personalities and the fact that we get elements of everyday life. I think adding both the deaf and LBGTQ+ communities were great! They never shied away from the possibility of gun violence, domestic violence, mental illness, pregnancy and inexperienced childbirth being parts of the story. It is modern story of survival and it was nice to see 17-19 year old kids telling the story for once.

It was also like a test to see how much they remembered their studies too. After everything that happened with the trail of you-know-who, I immediately went into the bowels of my brain to see if there was a way that they could serve justice is by a firing squad, which is what they demonstrated on the show and I have to say, that is a very brave thing to do for many reasons. If you don’t have a way to secure your prisoners besides locking them up in wine cellars, the death penalty could be an option. A lot of people may not agree to it, but in order to show others that if you’re stupid enough to make a choice like this, this is what happens as a consequence. I hate that fact a single person had to make that type of result, but I fully agreed with that person.

Now there were some things that I didn’t like, kind of goes with the previous paragraph as the leader demands that all guns are to be taken away. I know they needed to be tested to see if they matched the bullet that killed “C” but keeping them for safe keeping really strike a nerve with me as I think this is wrong. I don’t think anybody else what do anything like that again–then maybe besides Campbell! That’s one of our biggest arguments now, whether or not to remove all firearms, but it’s like demonizing the pit bull breeds, it’s not their fault, it is the one that yields the power and in both cases people are the heart of the issue.

Lastly, I wasn’t thrilled when it was announced that instead of continuing the role of being the leader of their establishment, they held elections. I know this is another part of being an American, but considering how the season ended, I really hated the idea. The thing about having chores or living together to save resources were smart! When “H” vowed that things should be different, people should be thinking of themselves and not of the others living next door really made me angry because that’s just somebody’s ego talking and not giving a damn about what happens in the future. By the time the new season returns, we’ll see that these new rulers of West Ham were just in over their heads and chaos will really take place.

Have you watched Netflix’s “The Society” yet? What were some of your thoughts about the plot and overall story? did you enjoy it or hate it?

 

 

A-Z Disability Challenge | F : Treat Your Friends In The Way You’d Want To Be Treated

I know I’ve said this for almost every post, but for today it is really important. The topic I will be discussing is how you should treat your disabled friends. I wish this was common sense, but I guess for some people, they lack knowing how to act while hanging out with a person with any kind of disability in both private and publicly!

I am purely basing this off of my own experiences I had while I was in school, because this was the time that I saw anybody outside of my family really making the conscious decision to really hang out with me outside of having a sleep over and of course, seeing each other in classes. This was also the point in my life that I realized that I was truly different than my “friends” because whenever I was around them, I made myself forget that I was disabled. I wanted to be like them so badly that I never felt accepted to be myself, so I wanted to write this post for both sides.

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I loved birthday parties! I enjoyed getting out of the house and spending time with my friends outside of school. Although, from the ages 7 to about 10, there wasn’t anything too major that we all did together. I never played spin the bottle or seven minutes in heaven like most preteens did. Now whenever I had birthday parties and sleepovers, I was in a more controlled environment and everybody was basically forced to do what I wanted to do. After my 7th birthday and having over 20+ kids, that included a bunch of rowdy boys, came over to our house, I never had boys over ever. So, I never really had the chance to play spin the bottle like I really wanted to!

I think my favorite parties were over at Haley and Zack’s houses. I’ve been friends with both of them for YEARS! I met Haley in kindergarten, she was my first true friend and Zack’s grandparents lived really close to mine, so we’d see each other almost every other weekend. Anyways, I loved going to their parties. Whenever I would go over to Haley’s, we would be indoors, but when I was attending Zack’s, we were mostly outdoors, sitting by the bonfire, or at least I was. Both made sure to include me as best as they could, but there were a lot of things that they were doing that I knew I couldn’t do, so I felt conflicted a lot of the times, but whenever I’d get in that little funk, I’d end up talking to their families. I love both of their mothers, and whenever I see them, we’ll talk and hug each other!

Once we all got into high school, it was almost like, everybody was too uncool to have sleepovers. I had the hardest time finding people that wanted or had the time to sleep over at my house. I rarely slept at anybody’s house other than my friend Haley and with my cousin Kristi. There was a reason for this though, after I had my back surgeries I grew a lot both in height and weight,  in a short period of time, and it wasn’t until probably 2008 that I began to feel okay with somebody touching my back again. I was still pretty fragile by the time I hit middle school to the end of junior year of high school. This is why I only hung out at two people’s houses, because only two adults were really comfortable and basically took up the challenge to lift me up stairs, beds, couches, etc.

It wasn’t until the end of high school, were things really started to change. There is nothing like a broken heart, especially when it’s caused by your friends. Boys will come and go, but I think I cried more about not being to hang out with my friends. It was never like I wasn’t allowed to go out because my parents said so, it was the fact that nobody would do it. It wasn’t until my 18th birthday that I actually had a friend of mine, take me out. One person.

So, imagine the disappointment when I was told that I was going to get picked up to go out to eat with some friends and I never got a call or a text that said “they were right outside.” In that moment, I truly hated the body I was born in, because I thought if I wasn’t like this, I could be driving my own car, picking them up, and we’d be happy as clowns. Instead, I sat in my room permanently attached to my mom’s shoulder as the minutes trickled by and I received no messages.

It wasn’t until my mom basically said this is not right and packed us up, she texted my cousin Kristi to see if she wanted to go putt-putting that afternoon. While we were at a stop light, I got a text message from the same person I was supposed to be waiting on, asking if I was there already because they’d seen my mom’s car–still didn’t get the message that they were going to pick me up like they said–so I quickly realized that the whole thing was a big joke and that I got excited for no absolutely fucking reason! I know it’s been over 8 years, but I still feel somewhat hurt about this! Friends should never make you feel like that, ever! I can never literally look forward to anything because of this one outing that never happened. It’s okay though, my mom, sister, Kristi and I had fun at miniature golf anyways!

I do worry about these younger generation of disabled kids and teens, because I know how I was and how I dealt with my pain of never feeling like you are enough for roughly anybody. It wasn’t healthy and I know that now. It wasn’t until 2012, two years after I graduated from high school, that I truly began to really love myself for who I was. I started treating myself better! Unfortunately, I’m still not good at keeping up with my friendships, and it’s probably stemmed from this past experiences and other stuff. That’s why it’s highly important to always remember to treat your friends, whether they are able or disabled, like you would want to be treated.

The End.

Do you have any advice for the younger generations on how to treat other people? Were you ever put in the same situations? How did you make it out? Let me know!

6 Halloween Movies For Teens!

Howdy!

So, this post will generated for the teenagers in your life that want to explore the mysterious and possibly a little blood for this Halloween! There is not a cartoon movie on it, and I did that for a reason. No teen wants to watch a kiddie film, but I also didn’t want to go too far because despite the whole rating of PG-13, I know some parents will not approve really violent movies either, so I’m hoping I’ve picked out a well-balanced batch of films to satisfy their ever-maturing tastes!

Beetlejuice (1988)

In my last post, I talked about the fact that I was influenced by my sister and our friends to watch several of the films I had listed, but for this, all but the last two, I fell in love while watching them with my mom. Beetlejuice being the main boss, and even now if one of us see it on our guide, we’ll record it. However, I wasn’t a real fan of the character Beetlejuice, he used to scare the living daylights out of me! As an adult, I enjoy the dark tones throughout the movie. The abstract art (I know) and how much black Lydia wore in the film, but my ultimate favorite part is when Adam and Barbara go down into the underworld, I don’t know why I’ve always liked it but I do.

This is definitely not a kid-friendly movie as I remember watching it before I was the age of seven, and as I said, I was absolutely afraid of it. There are still scenes that make me uncomfortable, but for the most part I can get through it in one piece! It’s really funny, all of the characters are different and add an comical element to every scene. So, this is a good middle ground film for teens.

The Addams Family (1991)

Here’s an interesting tale for you, I actually remember watching the old black and white Addams Family episodes on TV Land years ago! I’m pretty sure I watched them with my papaw but I could be wrong too. Anyways, the films are very beloved between my parents and I, I’m not quite sure about Blondie as her tastes have always been in the adults section compared to mine, but she could still love it I guess! I think the first is the best, even though I do think the attempted killings of the baby brother in the second movie are pretty hilarious! For me, I just enjoy the weird brotherly bond between Gomez and Finister, and you should already know what I think about Gomez and his wife Morticia. She’s one of the fiercest women ever!

The Addams Family in many forms is usually very fun to watch, because you don’t want to believe that there are people out in the world like that, but in reality there are! They are also in many forms all around the continent, but the movies that came out in the 90’s are still interesting despite being close to 30 years old now! They’re fun movies and should be respected as such I think.

Casper (1995)

I have never met a person who doesn’t love the character Casper! If I was a ghost, lonely as can be, I’d probably do the same thing he did and force somebody to bring me a friend! I think the film in general is so good, and definitely a guilty pleasure for sure! There are scenes that are real serious but the majority of it is flat out hilarious! My favorite scene is when Casper cooks Kat breakfast, and basically scares her for the second time!

I know if a teenager is reading this post and wondering why I’d put this on here, is because it does still have some ominous elements featured, such as death, performing exorcisms, and the downside to the haunting of ghosts. It’s a nice medium of in between being a pure kid movie to a young adult, mostly because for the rowdy and slightly mean uncles: Stretch, Stinky and Fatso!

Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire (2005)

I really adore the Harry Potter films, but I had to really think of one that could fit this list, and the only one that has always made me feel uncomfortable is Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire mainly because of the games and how disturbing and serious the ending was when Voldemort’s physical form was shown and of course the death of Cedric Diggory.

There is a lot of graphic violence in every movie, but I always thought this was probably the worst because it was the first time where a beloved character was killed off in the story. I feel it would be too much for a young kid to watch that scene because it is pretty intense. I’m not saying the death of both Sirius Black and Dumbledore wasn’t that bad, I mean, they clearly were to everyone, but this was different. The whole tone of this film was darker and got you ready for what was to come later in the rest of the movies.

Twilight (2008)

Twilight came out before the premiere of The Vampire Diaries so it wasn’t even on my radar until about 2011, and I finally gave in and watched it for the first time because everybody around me, family included, kept driving me crazy about who I liked the most and when I didn’t have an answer to their question, they’d freak out! However, I’d get away with it once they found out I liked TVD, so that was my saving grace at the time! Anyways, I think the first movie and the final part of Breaking Dawn are my favorites! They both have different directors, so there are scenes that I think are perfect to set the tones apart.

Despite for the outside vampires: Laurent, Victoria and James it is actually really clean. You do have to keep in mind that it is about vampires and werewolves, so you know there will be lots of blood and graphic violence involved. The first film is the ideal teenager fantasy based, especially if your teen hasn’t watched anything like this before. I don’t recommend letting them watch part one of Breaking Dawn for the sex scenes featured in the story!

Dark Shadows (2012)

I watched this for the first time ever last Halloween! I decided that I was going to watch all of the spooky movies that appeared on Freeform that year, and this was the only one that I actually liked out of the four films! I really liked all of the female actors, they all had strong roles but my favorite was Michelle Pfeitter as Elizabeth Collins Stoddurd, she was intimating as hell, but then again I’ve always said that about Michelle! She scares me. Johnny Depp’s character Barnabas was creepy, but I thought he was a funny guy too. I’ve always had a tough time watching a Johnny Depp film, especially when he dresses up in full make up and basically transform into this other being that you can barely recognize him.

This is a perfect vampire based movie for teens that I could find, because it wasn’t too bloody but it still had those scary moments that (maybe not) everybody loves to watch during this time of the year! It was entertaining and kept my attention, even through the many, many commercials. I also know that the network probably took out the gory scenes, maybe that’s the reason why I enjoyed it so much! If you’re worried about that too, it might be better to have your teen watch it on that channel too.

I am not going to lie, but I am happy to be done with this section! It was pretty difficult to come up with films that I’ve watched more than once and that could be counted for teenagers! I was always afraid of paranormal things growing up and I can barely get through Ghost Adventures in one piece as an adult, so you can just imagine how I was years ago! Before I finish this, I want to add a couple of spooky television shows that your teen might like to watch if they’re not into movies: The Vampire Diaries, Shadowhunters, and Charmed. 

Do you have a favorite on the list above? How were you watching more mature scary movies or TV shows like these as a teen? Can you name any more that could fit the criteria?