"The Long Forgotten" by David Whitehouse - Review

 

David Whitehouses „Mobile Library“ was probably the first review copy I ever got, back in 2015 when I just started my book seller apprenticeship. It was also the first review I wrote for my bookshops website. And I was lucky, because I had come across a rare gem back then, so the memory of this first venture into my profession happened to be a very good one. I am still holding “Mobile Library” very dear, partially for nostalgic reasons but also because it was a brilliant book.

Now when you have read and loved someones debut novel, a second book being published is equally exciting and scary – your expectations are high, so there is plenty of room for disappointment. But like with most things in life, there is just as much room for things to go well.

I will admit it, it took me shamefully long to pick up “The Long Forgotten”. Not only because reading isn’t part of my job anymore and therefore, I find very little time in my day to day life to do so, or because my pile of shame is so much higher than I’d like to admit (but I will: Currently 55 books). I also was scared to be disappointed.

I was wrong, and I have never been this happy about being wrong in my entire life.

On the first glance, in “The Long Forgotten”, David Whitehouse tells not one story but three and at first it seems odd since these people do not seem to be connected in the slightest: Dove, an odd-ish young man from London with anger issues and memories that are not his own. Peter Manyweathers, a cleaner from New York in the 1980s who is swept away by a sudden obsession with botany. Professor Cole, a grumpy scientist who stumbled across the black box flight recorder of the lost flight PS570 in an incident that almost cost him his life.

These stories seem to be only connected by them being unlikely enough to be of interest but just likely enough to actually happen. For the sake of a spoiler-free review I will only say: They are connected, and it is astonishing how. Please do read the details yourself.

David Whitehouse has a talent to make the reader fall in love, with his language, with his characters and especially with whatever subject he decides to write about. I have never been this passionate about rare flowers and botany before. I have never related this much to an orphan curious to find his parents. And I certainly have never felt that much interest in cleaning in my entire life and hope to get some great accomplishments from this newly found and most likely shortlived obsession.

Whitehouses habit to find and portray the magical in the most mundane, to tell stories of such wonder in an every day life setting that you inevitably start to view your own life through completely new eyes, is remarkable. Personally, I hope to read much more from him.

Where are my struggles!? - Hollywood on Netflix - Review

I think one of the most important things I have learned in my Literature classes in school was one simple but effective rule: If you want your story to be interesting it needs conflict. There needs to be something your characters are going through that the audience wants to hear about.
The new Netflix show Hollywood had the perfect material for this rule to come into effect, a gay black writer writing a script to be directed by a half Filipino director, produced by a studio lead by a Jewish woman and a gay producer and a black actress and a gay actor competing for roles in 1940s Hollywood, with the topic of prostitution thrown into the mix - and then it dropped all that potential. Everything goes perfectly smooth, somehow everything is magically made possible, the black actress gets the main role, the writer, director, producer, studio boss, everyone just gets to do their job, and while I get the sentiment that it's amazing to see marginalized folks succeed - it does not make a great plot. In fact, it makes this story not only feel boring and overly polished, it also makes it feel unrealistic. A bunch of white studio executives just agreeing that of course the very talented black girl is the perfect cast for this major motion picture? I honest to god doubt that this would be realistic in 2020 Hollywood, let alone the 1940s. Now it is mentioned a lot that all these controversial choices the studio makes would cause trouble - characters discuss protests, murder threats, the KKK, people not getting any more work after coming out as gay, but nothing actually happens. Not only is this not a struggle or conflict, it also breaks the other very basic rule of writing, especially scriptwriting, "show, don't tell", and more importantly: It makes those very real problems that are imminent even now, 80 years later, seem like something marginalized people make up, they are shown as something people are afraid of but that are not actually real. That's what I'd call wasted potential because if all those issues were fleshed out more, this would have been an amazing and important story to tell. Additionally, because of the missing struggles, all of the characters become incredibly two-dimensional, which in itself is a waste of a very talented cast. What could have been a masterpiece has instead been a utopia, lovely to see, but hard to believe and harder to keep in mind. Personally I will easily forget this whole story in just a couple of days now, and I think that is sad.
Dear Netflix, you had gold in your hands here - I would love to see this rewritten as more than a beautiful but forgettable dream. Give me the harsh reality of 1940s Hollywood. Give me the harsh reality of a world where racism was even more imminent than nowadays, where homophobia was up another level, where sexism was a more profound issue than figuring out the details - don't give me a feelgood story that I couldn't ever believe no matter what decade it was set in. Give it a rewrite. Because the base material does deserve it. This can be done so much better.

Special - Review

Diversity in entertainment media is one of the biggest discussions of our time. After several centuries of the dyacis heterosexual white able-bodied male perspective being pre-dominant in out books, movies, tv-shows, voices get louder for more representation for other people. What we do, as humanity, is baby-steps, as usual - we as a society are still struggling to give dyacis heterosexual white able-bodied women some screentime and just let them have a win every once in a while, or any other group with just one of those factors changed from the aforementioned norm. The problem with that is: It's everything but an accurate portrayal of life.
Now while we are slowly (oh so very slowly...) getting better at this on the gender and race side, one of the groups still being let down on a regular basis are disabled people, and that is a shame.
Luckily, another baby-step was walked by Netflix who just released their new show "Special".
"Special" is the story of young Ryan Hayes, a gay man who also has a mild form of cerebral palsy, resulting in him having a limp and trouble coordinating his hands. He is living with his mum who fully lives for taking care of him. After a car accident, he decides to take his life into his own hands and to become independent. He starts an internship at an online magazine (very similar to Buzzfeed). All of his colleagues assume that his limp was a result of the car accident and instead of correcting them, he writes his article about exactly that.
The show is based on "I'm Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves" by Ryan O'Connell who also wrote the script for the show, executive produced it and plays Ryan Hayes on it - and he does all of that brilliantly.
Apart from the refreshing portrayal of layered minority identities (we also have Ryans best friend Kim who is fat and Indian - almost as if people can be more than one of those things) and the absolute honesty about gay and disabled realities, "Special" captivates with its unbreakable humour that really doesn't take prisoners and yet manages to walk the fine line between being gallows humour and being disrespectful.
That is also what makes "Special" an absolute fun thing to watch - none of this is a sad, tragic petty story so we can all feel sorry for someone, its a wonderful portrayal of someone's reality with all the downs, yes, but also all the ups, the happy moments, the friendships, the love. Dear media producers, please give me much, much more of that!

Disentchantment - Review

Yes, this is it: My first review for a tv show! So far, the reason I never did one was that most of the time, I am hella late to the party. Not this time, though - Disentchantment was released on Netflix on August 17th, and we binged it over the weekend real quick.

Disentchantment is about Princess Bean, the princess of Dreamland, a fictional medieval country located on a cliff. The whole setting is based on epic fantasy franchises like The Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones, but in old Matt Groening fashion, it takes the piss out of it. Princess Bean is a teenager, rebellious against her strict father, prone to drinking a lot and simply willing to have a good old time with booze and sex. Also, she misses her mother who got killed when she was a child, and feels very distant from her stepmother Una, who is some kind of fish-creature. The story starts with her getting married to a prince to form an alliance. Disguised as a wedding gift, she is sent a personal demon, Lucifer, who encourages her to go after her urges, and drunk Bean ruins her wedding and runs away. In the middle of it all we also meet Elfo, the elf (duh), who left the Elf Kingdom because everything was too happy and peaceful for his taste. Basically, Elfo and Lucifer act as the shoulder angel and devil for Bean, even though Elfo isn't very good at his job as the voice of peace. Beans dad thinks Lucifer is a speaking cat, and allows Elfo to the castle because with the help of his elf blood, he hopes to be able to find immortality.

While the first one or two episodes aren't that good, the story quickly picks up pace. The initial set-up, character introduction etc. is a bit lame, but it is worth to stick through that for the more interesting stuff. While I have to say that so far, I enjoyed The Simpsons and Futurama way more than Disentchantment, there is a lot of potential, and it is an overall enjoyable tv show after all. And as long as I enjoyed a thing, why should I not say it?

"Nicotine" by Nell Zink - Review

First of all, I want to say that "Nicotine" was not an easy read. It took me about 10 weeks to finish it. To be completely honest with you, I still don't know what exactly to think of it, because it was very strange. It was not exactly good in a classic sense, not the kind of book you just want to celebrate, but that doesn't mean it was bad either. Not at all! But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's try to give you a summary of what it is about first.

Penny Bakers life has never been normal or ordinary: Her father, a cult leader of sorts, married her mother, who's younger than his oldest son, after originally adopting her (yes, that does have a very Woody Allen vibe to it, you are not the only one thinking that). Penny used to rebell against her family by being the more conventional one until her father dies and with him the rental contract for the flat she lives in. Since she is unemployed this makes her face the problem of eventually becoming homeless as well. When she visits her grandparents house that is supposed to be a ruin and finds it alive and well and occupied by a jolly group of passionate smokers (who gave it the name "Nicotine") and falls in love with Rob, a self-proclaimed asexual bike repairman, she decides to not tell him and the others that this house belongs to her family and instead dives into the squatters culture and anarchist life style. All would be well if it wasn't for Pennys oldest brother Matt, who inherited the house from his father and wants to claim it - and also falls in love with Jazz, another occupant of the Nicotine, leading to a very unhealthy obsession with her.

I think its safe to say that "Nicotine" is a very unconventional book. To be honest it wasn't easy to narrow down the plot to the summary above because it has a lot going on given that it only has 336 pages. As someone who has experienced squatters and anarchist circles, I did recognize a few things as very familiar, other things seemed very odd or even wrong to me, but who am I to judge if that isn't exactly how people are like in the United States? If there aren't mostly occupied houses where all people occupying it are activists for the same cause (for example "smokers rights", or climate activists etc.)?

A thing I kinda liked was the uninhibited portrayal of sexuality and especially female sexuality, desire and pleasure (since that is still very thinly spread). However, it often gave me a somewhat voyeuristic feeling, the feeling of the reader being intrusive. It made me uncomfortable, and I guess that is the point. Not porn or overly romaticising, but absolute intimacy including things that only work in said intimacy between everyone involved, which makes the portrayal of sex in this book feel very natural, real and true.

On the other hand, we have the portrayal of sexual orientations which rubbed me the wrong way (no pun intended). As I said, Rob is asexual, but this gets questioned a lot by those wanting to sleep with him and is a huge topic throughout the book, including the narrative of people not able to have a relationship with him without sex. This is not discussed with him or realized after thinking stuff through, it is just a given and unlike Robs asexuality, it is never questioned by anyone.

SPOILER AHEAD

...of course it turns out that Rob isn't actually asexual but just insecure because he has a small dick and after realizing that no one gives a shit about dick sizes when they're in love everyone fucks happily ever after. My guys, I am mad. So much for acceptance in the portrayal of ace folks. Great. Just great.

SPOILER END

I already mentioned that another thing that rubbed me the wrong way was Pennys family in their entirety. Not because they show toxic, unhealthy family constellations (it does get a lot weirder than what I already told you) but because it is never questioned or put into perspective. It is portrayed as normal and ok and not to be viewed with concern. No one, not a single character stops to think "wait, should I really just accept this and not wonder if theres some serious manipulation playing into that old dude marrying his adopted daughter..?" That just never happens and to me does seem unrealistic and an unhealthy portrayal, especially since we're mostly dealing with leftist SJW characters here.
Overall, I think it's pretty obvious that I still don't quite know what to really think of "Nicotine". It did have it's moments and wasn't a bad read but it has a lot of problematic aspects, so I guess I wouldn't recommend to buy it, but if you can borrow it and feel up for something very weird and kinda uncomfortable, do your thing.

Justice League - Review

When it comes to movie adaptions of comics, I am definitely on the Marvel side of life. Sure, I like Heath Ledgers Joker as much as the next guy (and already know I might be roasted for this statement), but Marvel is just a lot more fun for me. Also, I think Superman is the lamest super hero ever (c'mon please, roast me!).
But I am also a highly impressionable person and when the whole of the internet praises Wonder Woman I can't resist the urge to go watch it (the only reason I did not review it is that I was too much in awe to form any straight thoughts about it that could word an actual review - please note the very intentional use of the word straight in that sentence). And when my lady, my wife, the mother of my adopted children returns to the screen, I am impressively able to endure Superman and Ben Afflecks Batman.
Let's start with Batman, actually. I did not see any of the movies building up to Justice League (except WW), and I don't plan to change that. I think it is clear by now that I don't care for Superman, but what is my problem with Batsy? Well... I actually did like the Dark Knight Trilogy a lot. But never necessarily for Batman himself. I never liked any of Batman for Batman himself, to be honest. What I do like is all the characters surrounding him. The villains, obviously, but also characters like Comissioner Gordon, Alfred and Lucius Fox, and for a good part, I liked them in the TDK trilogy because they were cast incredibly well. Therefore, my problem with Ben Afflecks Batman is neither Batman nor Ben Affleck (even though, despite him apparently being one of Hollywoods nice guys, I am not a big fan of his either. It's Alfred not being Michael Caine anymore. It has to be Michael Caine. It's Lucius Fox not being Morgan Freeman anymore - it has to be Morgan Freeman. It's Gordon not being Gary Oldman anymore - you get the drift. Ben Affleck actually plays a quite decent Batsy (but his chin looks weird in the mask, just saying), but everything surrounding him feels wrong.
But let's talk about the newcomers instead because they are the ones who are actually interesting.
The Flash is a character I never dealt with before. I don't know shit about the Flash, so I can't compare the Flash I saw in Justice League with anything. What I saw is a young, quirky character, so quick not only physically but mentally as well that he stumbles, again, not only physically but vocally as well - he's awkward and clumsy, and for the later, I think that little flaw makes him interesting and human. Yeah, I can run super fast but I trip a lot while doing so. He is the main comic relief of the movie without it feeling like laughing at his cost. He brings a bit of Marvel into this DC movie, and I really hope to see a stand alone Flash movie in the future. Also, Ezra Miller is briliant, as always.
Then there's Cyborg who, in my opinion, has the biggest character developement to show for. We have this kid who should have died in the car accident he went through and who is bitter about being alive but not human. He hurts a lot. Wonder Woman, as the compassionate being with the giant heart that she is, tries to take care of him, but it's everything but easy to get through to him. Yet, he learns to embrace his everchanging super body and the opportunity to do good in this world with it.
Last but not least: DC finally managed to make Aquaman cool, but I guess everyone is cool when played by Jason Momoa.The lovely thing about this is that they picked up a lot of the things that made Aquaman so ridiculous before and turned them around for himself to make fun of them. Sadly, of all the less established characters, Aquaman is still the one least threedimensional.
Now what happens to all those characters that makes Justice League an actual story?
The premise for JL is that after Supermans death, the world is pretty much broken and very vulnerable. This opens up a chance for the mother boxes to be activated again. The three mother boxes serve both as a powerful weapon when combined and as portals for the one using the weapons: Steppenwolf, a godlike creature, who attempts to conquer and reimagine planet Earth with his army of parademons. Thousands of years ago, he was defeated by the combined powers of mankind, the amazons, the atlanteans, the olympic gods and the green lanterns, and the mother boxes were separated and hidden away: One was guarded on Themyscira, one in Atlantis and one was burried by the humans so no leader could try to use the power against other human tribes. But step by step Steppenwolf reclaims the boxes kept by the amazons and the atlanteans. Leaves the one burried by the humans, and thus the Justice League gets together to protect it and protect Earth from Steppenwolf and his army.
Boiled down like this, the plot is in fact pretty thin, it is a simple good vs. bad story, but the characters and their side-plots are what keeps Justice League alive and going. Of course it was not an epiphany, but it was solid entertainment and I really enjoyed watching it and would watch it again.
But next time, let Patty Jenkins do it. Just let Patty Jenkins do all of the DC movies from now on. Yeah, Zack Snyder, I saw what you did. Making the amazons outfits more revealing again and make Gal Gadots butt peek out occasionally makes it worse. 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - Review

Ooga chaka ooga chaka ooga chaka I CAN'T STOP THIS FEELING that there is a new Guardians of the Galaxy movie and it's really awesome again!
That's it. That's the review. Peace out.
No, of course not, I do have to go in detail with all the gushing I have to do for this movie.
First of all, I want you all to know that when it comes to Marvel (or DC, for that matter), I am not a big comic reader. All those endless series is a bit too much for me to be honest. Don't hate me for that.
Accordingly, as in 2014 when I went to see the first Guardians of the Galaxy, I had really no idea what the second one would be about either, other than a group of... people? In space? The trailers are really vague about that. What it is about is that Peter Quill aka Star-Lord finally meets his dad. In the first movie we already learned that Peters father is not human. Instead, he turns out to be a celestial being with, apparently, unlimited godly powers. However, Gamora remains sceptical about him when Peters father takes her, Peter and Drax with him on his home planet. Might be due to his name, Ego, which does sound like you should stay woke around him, I'll give her that. With Ego is Mantis, a girl with feelers who can sense and, to a certain degree, change someones emotions by touching them. She is very sweet, naive and shy - and accidently reveals Peters love for Gamora in public which is a problem due to the "unspoken thing" between them. 
The second plot line is the Sovereign, a golden perfectionist race, chasing the Guardians of the Galaxy all through space because Rocket stole some batteries that they originally were hired to protect from a giant monster.
And last but not least there is Yondu standing against all Ravagers since he did not fulfill the codex and his own crew wants him gone since they think he's become "soft". With the help of Rocket and Groot, Yondu escapes and starts a new life helping the Guardians.
Admittedly, it is hard to summarize the plot without spoilers (I hope I did well) since there are a lot of puzzle pieces scattered all over the place but I promise you that all those pieces come together perfectly when you watch the whole movie.
Once again I am really in love with all the characters. While with the Avengers, I have favourites and characters I don't like that much, I couldn't do that with the Guardians of the Galaxy. The characters are so well-written, threedimensional and loveable, asking me who was my favourite would be like asking me which one of my children I love most. Within the movie, each one of them has a good amount of character developement going on, it is not much but the perfect amount to still have a proper plot and multiple very awesome fighting scenes. The new characters (Ego and Mantis) follow that direction perfectly.
I have one little bit of criticism for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but that's really complaining about first world problems: This movie, as the second one, lives from the amazing soundtrack, the Awesome Mix Vol. 1 is iconic by now. While Awesome Mix Vol. 2 is really cool too, it is, in comparison, a bit forgettable. I am missing a signature song or two, but that's it. That's all I can say about this movie (negatively). Other than that, it is another must see for everyone who enjoys space, aliens, talking raccoons and trees (baby Groot is the cutest) and a humorous Marvel masterpiece.

"The Keeper Of Lost Things" by Ruth Hogan - Review

Many people collect something in their free time. Stamps, coins, rocks, books... but it's a lot rarer you hear about people collecting lost things, things they find somewhere. Writer Anthony Peardew is such a person. Ripped off coat buttons, umbrellas and a mysterious cookie tin filled with ashes, Anthony keeps everything, puts a label on it stating when and where he found it and tries to give it back to its original owner. He does all of this to compensate for a lost locket he once got from his deceased love Therese.

When Anthony dies he leaves his house and his whole fortune to his assistent Laura – and with it the task to bring back the lot things to their rightful owners. Laura doesn't feel like she could handle that but she gets help from Freddy, the garderer she's secretely in love with, and Sunshine, a girl with down syndrome who lives in the neighbourhood that hardly ever leaves her side.

Throwback to 1974: Young Eunice starts working as an assistent to the attractive publisher Bomber. They share a big passion for movies and an incredible love for dogs and Eunice instantly falls in love with him. But she knows that they will never be a couple and instead she stays at his side as a trustworthy friend, both at the publishing company and in their private life where she helps him facing his sister who is spoiled by a big inheritance and doesn't understand why Bomber refuses to publish her shamelessly plagiarized manuscripts.

In her first novel „The Keeper Of Lost Things“, Ruth Hogan neatly puts those two plots together without being too intrusive – the full extent of the link is only revealed on the last pages. Both stories are full of British humour, heartwarming moments and a little bit of mystic. Lauras story is also bristles with short stories about the lost things in Anthonys possesion – if they are from the writers imagination or the actual backround stories is up to the reader. All that makes „The Keeper Of Lost Things“ a light summer read without too much kitsch that should delight fans of David Whitehouses „Mobile Library“.

"The Universe vs Alex Woods" by Gavin Extence - Review

In the middle of the night in Dover, a boy arrives on the ferry and is arrested. He is 17 years old. 130 grams of marijuana and an urn are found in his car. This and the partial epileptic seizure he has during his arrest are apparently not helping him against the police. At the police station he tries to explain that strange situation, but the officers aren’t interested in the whole story – and thus, he tells it to the reader.

Alex Woods‘ story starts with him being hit by a meteor at age 10. He survives with an injury of his brain that makes him an epileptic. As if that isn’t enough already he is bullied by his classmates for his gigantic interest in astronomy and neurology and so, one day fleeing his bullies he ends up in Mr Petersons garden.

Mr Peterson is an American, Vietnam veteran and a passionate fan of Kurt Vonnegut. Actually, he prefers to stay on his own, but he and Alex become friends pretty quickly who learns to love Kurt Vonneguts books as well. Based on their reading they start discussing profound philosophic and especially moral topics. When Mr Peterson is diagnosed with an incurable nervous disease years later, Alex has to show that he actually learned something about those topics. 

Gavin Extences first novel „The Universe vs Alex Woods“ convinces with bittersweet humor, curiosity for the world and, of course, the unspoken and yet so urgent call to think about the moral questions asked in the book yourself. The characters are likeable and the book read quickly – how else, when you can’t put it down?

"I'll give you the sun" by Jandy Nelson - Review

The twins Noah and Jude are inseperable – both are interested in art and have an artistic disposition but apart from this they are rather different. Noah, who draws, is closer to their mother, and the sewing and sculpting Jude has a better relationship with their father. Noah is an introvert original while Jude is popular and spends a lot of time with her surfer friends at the beach. Still, they are hand in glove with each other – until puberty hits and everything changes. Both want to attend the Californian School of Arts, and thus a rivalry for the mothers attention and support forms who seems to be somewhere completely else mentally. Noah discovers his homosexuality and doesn't really know how to deal with it, Jude herself makes first experiences with love, and slowly, the siblings grow apart more and more, become stranger to each other, and when their mother dies in a car accident, their connection is lost for good.

All of this is told from 13 years old Noahs point of view. Three years later, Jude tells us about the current situation where the twins' roles seem to have switched: Jude is attending art school, is seclusive, hardly cares for friendships and keeps boys away from herself, whereas Noah is cool and popular but gave up drawing. They hardly talk to each other. Jude has a hard time sculpting in school, all her clay works break mystically. She believes that her dead mothers ghost is so angry with her that she is breaking her works. Jude wants to make up for something, and for that she needs stone, a statue, and a mentor to teach her statuary. She finds that in the bizarre artist Guillermo – and with him, she finds Oscar, a mysterious English boy who makes it hard for her to hold her boycott on boys up.

Incredibly sensitive and gentle Jandy Nelson guides us through the exceptional twins' emotions. The subject of the siblings who love each other but still are in concurrence to each other is rarely found in young adult fiction in a way this unique. Jandy Nelson combines family drama, LGBT+ literature, coming of age story and, yes, a love story and manages to find an own style that is hardly comparable with other authors.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Review

I have to admit I am pretty new (read: late) to the Star Wars fandom. To be clear: I did watch the original trilogy as a teen, I also saw the prequels, but I wasn't caught yet until last year when The Force Awakens came out and my beloved boyfriend (oh such a Star Wars super-nerd) got me all hyped up - and Tumblr as well, admittedly. We went to see TFA, I loved it, I didn't stop talking about it for weeks, we went to see it again in English because we saw this video the night before and really liked Adam Drivers actual voice, I made Rey and Kylo Ren cosplays for my boyfriend and me (and spent the week before the convention in complete desperation), long story short: It got me. Which, really, wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for the hype beforehand.

In comparison, Rogue One almost sneaked up upon me. To be fair, I was pretty lazy when it came to watching teasers, trailers and so on in 2016. Honestly, I haven't even seen the most recent trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 yet. I remember watching the first teaser in April but only because my friend who I was staying with at that time watched it and I was a bit hyped back then, but that's it. It all just went down a bit more quiet.
Still, because I am my boyfriends girlfriend, we went to see it the weekend right after it came out. And again a week after that in English (because this is how we roll).

In case you don't already know: Rogue One is set between the prequels and the original trilogy and tells how the plans of the Death Star are stolen and brought to Princess Leia. The team doing so is Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), the daughter of Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) who worked on it's developement, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a Rebel Alliance Captain, the droid K2-SO (Alan Tudyk), the ex-Guardians of the Whills Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen) and Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen), Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), a former Imperial cargo pilot, and a small squad of other rebels who choose to come with them even though the idea to steal the plan is rejected by the Rebel council.

I'm starting with the (very few) negative remarks I have because why not?
I missed the intro text. I really, really missed being greeted by a wall of yellow text descending into space. Yes, we know what happened before, we even know already what happens afterwards, but the intro text just belongs to Star Wars movies, ok?
The second point I have is the timing. I was kind of looking forward to see more of Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron and was now confronted with an entirely new team inbetween. That is not inherently bad, but I think I would've enjoyed it more if Rogue One came out first or after the sequels, not inbetween. But well, this is complaining about first world problems, really.

...and that's everything negative that I can say about Rogue One. Isn't that telling? Except for those two points, I loved Rogue One. The characters had great dynamics with each other, their motives are completely legit, the story made complete sense and actually, it was pretty nice to see only "normal" people act for once instead of once again crying inside because I'm not force-sensitive. That's something, right?

Tbh, I can't write much more without spoilers, so I'll leave it as it is right now and have nothing more to say than: I can't wait for Episode VIII.

"My heart and other black holes" by Jasmine Warga - Review

Aysel is 16, depressive and plans to kill herself. Some may think that this is the typical melodramatic behaviour of a teenager. But Aysels problems are pretty atypical: She is the daughter of a convicted murderer, and no one in Langston, a small town in Kentucky, fails to remind her of that, not even her family who she feels left out of, and she herself. She fears that she might have inherited the „gene for evil“, for the rage and aggression of her father, and one thing is clear – waiting and seeing what happens? Not an option.

But Aysel is also scared that she might not follow through, that she might back down in the last second. A partner is needed, and she finds that partner online at „Smooth Passages“.

This partners name is Roman, respectively FrozenRobot, is 17 and lives in the nearby town Willis, even though „living“, in his case, means „existing“. Roman has to live with a whole different problem: He didn't watch his younger sister carefully enough and she drowned. He feels responsible for that. He, too, fears he might not actually do it, and thus he advertises at Smooth Passages and is found by Aysel.

Except for the shared wish for death, Aysel and Roman are quite different. While Aysel is more of a weirdo with her interest in classical music and science plus her Turkish heritage which is pretty uncommon in conserative Kentucky, Roman is popular, athletic, normal and somewhat fitting in. What they share is April 7^th, the day they chose to jump off a cliff into Ohio River together. But can you plan a suicide with someone you don't even know? Even if you just want to die instead of live together?

„My heart and other black holes“ is Jasmine Wargas well-made first novel. You don't wish upon her that she got inspired by her own life, yet, she started writing after a good friend of her died in 2013. Thematically, this young adult book is incredibly important. In a world where the rates of teenagers in therapy rise steadily it is a great approach to offer a reflection in the character of Aysel that touches the reader, may it be the reader that is affected themself or the happiest person in the world. And we follow this reflection, we understand Aysels emotions, her grief, her fear, her suspicion, and we witness her developement, see a possible progress of an illness that is hidden and ignored so easily. Still, „My heart and other black holes“ isn't meant to scare people. It's meant to help feeling understood, and this intention is met with bravour.

I'd recommend „My heart and other black holes“ to fans of John Greens „The fault in our stars“, to readers who like to sympathise, and of course to everyone who wants to feel understood in their sorrows just once.

"Masterminds" by Gordon Korman - Review

Imagine growing up in a small town in New Mexico. There is no crime, no one is unemployed, no poverty, everyone is peaceful, share everything justly and are completely honest with each other.

Sounds good, right? Almost too good.

Serenity is such a paradise. Although a bit boring. Except for the plastic factory that no one can enter without working there and the Serenity trophy, a gift from Roosevelt himself, there’s not much to see. Eli Baris still feels pretty good about living there, and most of his classmates agree with him. That’s why hardly anyone of them ever crossed the city borders, not even for a vacation with their parents. Why should they? Serenity holds everything you need, and out there you only get violence and hate.

And an old car that Eli and his best friend Randy want to explore, somewhere in the forest just beyond the city limits. But Eli never gets there because when reaching the border he suddenly collapses with pain and nausea. What fist seems to be a coincidence turns out to be a complex plan to keep Eli and ten other kids inside the city. But why them? And why does it seem as if in this peaceful idyll so much is a lie or even life-threatening?

“Masterminds” by Gordon Korman is an exceptional novel for young readers 12 years or older. In about 330 pages happens so much that would actually be part of a dystopian novel like “Hunger Games” or “Divergent”, and yet while reading you realize quickly that what’s happening in this book could happen just as well in real life. To be honest it is not easy to review this book without spoilers – and there’s much to spoil given the loads of revelations and plot twists “Masterminds” has to offer. Thus, there’s not much more to do than simply express a clear recommendation: For everyone who likes mystery, for everyone who’s flirting with the thought of reading “Divergent” but would prefer less death – and for everyone who likes to question right and wrong.

"Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Review

 One thing has to be clear from the very beginning: Yes, this book is about race. And about racism. No ifs, no buts. And yet without dividing the world into good and evil based on race and without a wagging finger. It’s evaluating the situation and it’s honest.

“Americanah” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (a name you’ll have to learn merely because you’ll be delighted by her work) is about two young Nigerian lovers. Ifemelu and Obinze meet in school and quickly become a couple. They are intelligent, determined and plan to leave Africa already while still at university. Ifemelu seems to be successful with that plan, but she has to learn that in the USA, her skin colour suddenly becomes a huge factor and that it’s not easy to establish herself, let alone earn money when you’re a black foreigner. After one especially bad incident the contact to her boyfriend Obinze breaks off completely. Later, she starts writing a blog about her observations about the topic race in America.

However, Obinze doesn’t get visa for the USA because he is a young man of colour and those are viewed with even more suspicion by the American authorities. Instead he manages to overrun a visa in London for a few years without being discovered. Shortly before he can get married for convenience he gets caught and deported.

Years later, Ifemelu decides to go back to Nigeria and she and Obinze meet again.

With “Americanah”, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie managed to write a classic right from the start. The young Nigerian writer tells her story in a style very comparable to literature Nobel prize winners. Her sober portrayal of an existence as a black person opens the readers’ eyes quickly for things you usually don’t realize as a person not affected by racism – and those are not even necessarily negative things.

I truly think everyone should read Adichie, literally anything she has written – but take care, she can get you addicted pretty quickly.