Leilani Kaiser: LMST345

  Blog Posts: The Comet: 5 pts Frankenstein: 4 pts Interview with the Vampire: 6 pts The Orange Eats Creeps: 5 pts A Wild Sheep Chase: 6 pts Annihilation: 6 pts Akata Witch: 5 pts Lud in the Mist: 6 pts The Night Circus: 6 pts     Classes Attended: 7 pts     Total: 56 pts

     Throughout my journey into  The Night Circus , I had only one quote running through my head, and it wasn't even from the novel itself. It was from the first Star Wars prequel: The Phantom Menace, with the quote being Qui-Gon Jinn's, "There's always a bigger fish". At first, it seemed like my brain was just pulling up funny quotes for the hell of it, but the further I read on, the more I realized that it was referring to the amount of manipulation being done by the characters in the story. The story begins with Prospero and the man in the gray suit pulling Celia and Marco's strings, but after the circus is established as the venue, Celia and Marco begin to pull their own strings as well. Soon enough, the entire circus staff is under their control, as well as the exhibitions of the circus itself. Yet, despite manipulation having a negative connotation, there were some people in The Night Circus who used manipulation for good deeds. For example, Celia and Ma

     I'm going to be completely honest here. Despite all the glowing reviews from people like Neil Gaiman and Mary Gentle, Lud in the Mist  did not have me hooked at all... at first. I did not care for Ranulph freaking out and screaming over everything, or Nathaniel Chanticleer's mayoral duties and upper class mannerisms, or the Crabapple Blossoms getting trolled by a dude named Willy Wisp. Everyone's got way too many syllables in their names, the fact that Fairy Fruit could be considered an analogy for homosexuality made it hard for me to take everyone's fear of it seriously (especially in this day and age) and for the love of all things holy, if "toasted cheese" was meant to be a serious exclamation of surprise, then I was not having it at all. It was too whimsical and silly for me. I think part of it has to do with the way we see fairies nowadays, with images of Tinkerbell and sparkly children's characters coming to mind. Sure, they can be mischievous,

     Yeah. I said it. You Potter fans can say I'm wrong all you want, but I honestly enjoyed this novel better than any of the HP books. Don't get me wrong, Rowling's series is still classic and enjoyable, but it just didn't really stick with me, and it took me reading Akata Witch  to figure out why.  It's the way Okorafor plays into the senses to develop her magical world. Every description of the world around Sunny kept me hooked and reading more. It really sucked me into this world of spirit faces and juju knives. For example, the way she described Leopard Knocks really made me feel like I was in Sunny's shoes, experiencing this world firsthand. I could practically feel the clay of the buildings, hear the hustle and bustle of the people and shopkeepers in the streets. You can tell that Okorafor planned out every single detail of the city in order to immerse her reader. There were two scenes that really enraptured me and made me feel like I was in Sunny's