Trials of Apollo The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan Review (Mainly Me Just Gushing About How I love Everyone Except Nero)

There are going to be spoilers for The Hidden Oracle in this review! There is a brief, spoiler-free explanation of this book just below this. I highly recommend this book. If you like books that can make you cry laughing and cry with fangirly feels, any Rick Riordan book is for you. I would recommend starting at the beginning of his Greek/Roman/Egyptian/Norse books, Percy Jackson and The Olympians which is one of my favorite book series of all time.  

Plot (Spoiler Free):

I am not great at summaries so here is the one from the author's website, "How do you punish an immortal? By making him human. After angering his father, Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus.  Weak and disoriented, he lands in New York City as a regular teenage boy. Now, without his godly powers, the four-thousand-year-old deity must learn to survive in the modern world until he can somehow find a way to regain Zues's favor.  But Apollo has many enemies-gods, monsters, and mortals who would love to see the former Olympian permanently destroyed.  Apollo needs help, and he can think of only one place to go...an enclave of modern demigods known as Camp Half-Blood" - http://rickriordan.com/series/the-trials-of-apollo/

 Don't read the rest of this if you haven't read the book.

ALSO CRAZY FANGIRL WARNING! 

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I know this isn't the main focus of this book but...LEO SUPER SIZED MCSHIZZLE VALDEZ IS BACK MAMACITA!!!!!

LOOK HOW CUTE HE IS! But more on him later.

Today I'm gonna review Trials of Apollo by Rick Riordan.  I finished this book about a month ago and I wanted to rant about my fan girl feelings, um I mean "review" it but, I just haven't gotten around to writing a review yet. And I know its been six months since this book came out so I am a little bit late to the party.  I had a lot of reservations about reading it.  

Oh how I hate the fact these books sucks all the money out of my pockets! And at first I was mad that all this didn't end at The Last Olympian but Rick Riordan could make a quantum physics textbook entertaining. How could I say no to such an interesting story idea and cameos from my favorite characters?
I loved every book of his I've read (with exception of The Blood of Olympus, but that is a whole different post). This book was certainly no BoO in my eyes, I loved it as I've already stated. It was just so beautifully and hilariously written (I loved how all the chapter titles were haiku, it killed me). The characters are constructed to be so light-hearted and fun yet with a lot of emotion and depth.

Speaking of characters, that is how I am going to review this book because they are my favorite parts of any Rick Riordan book.

Lester Papadopoulos (aka Apollo):

I just love this. The idea of the god Thalia Grace described as "hot" turned into a chubby, acne covered, awkward teenager like me! Its fantastic!
As I've already stated I loved this book and the idea behind it. I am a very passionate reader and when I read about the gods in Rick Riordan's books I just get so angry because they're so arrogant and feel just so useless (also just terrible parents).  So this book was really cool to see Apollo be kicked off his high horse and have to deal with the mortal world (Though, I wish the guy who kicked him off his high horse got similar medicine *cough* Zues *cough* suck it *cough*).
I also really felt for him with him losing his godly abilities and memories. Like that must have sucked so bad, as he so explained in the book.  Like the memory part but I guess gods deserve it after Percy and Jason.
I really loved his interactions with other characters, specifically Percy and his children. When he was with his kids it started out really awkward but grew into this really adorable relationship.  And when Kayla and Austin went missing my heart broke! "But there was one thing I did know: the Beast was right, I had no choice. I had to find my children...my friends." If that won't break your heart, I don't what will!
The only time I ever really got frustrated with him is when he made that stupid promise on the Styx. Bro really?  You're gonna promise to never use the only useful demigod skills you have? What are you thinking?   

Meg McCaffrey (Crotch Kicker McCaffrey):

Oh Meg.  I got the feeling as soon as we met you that you were going to be a trap, but how could you not love a person called "Crotch Kicker McCaffrey"? Like isn't that the best nick-name ever? She is just so adorable and broke my heart a little bit.  And like obviously I was gonna hate Nero for uh, TRYING TO BURN CAMPERS AS TORCHES!  But like what he has done to Meg just intensified how much I hated him.  

She was just so cute! I loved her little crush on Percy and her interactions with Sally.  I loved her little spit fire and how she has no filter.  She is just too adorable!!! I loved when she stayed up all night with Lester/Apollo, it was so adorable.  

She is so loyal and that is part of the problem, how can we expect this loyal kid to not follow the man who she perceives as her father?  It just broke my heart and I hope we find her again soon. 

Peaches:

I was concerned when he first showed up because our first interaction with Karpoi wasn't great but he's so cute! I loved him! He's so freakin' cute! I don't really have much to say about him, he's just cute. 

Apollo's Children and Nico (OTP = Solangelo):

I love them! 

"'But you're mortal?' Kayla asked. 'As in completely mortal? Does that mean I'm going to lose my archery skills? I can't even qualify for the Olympics until I'm sixteen!'

'And if I lose my music...' Austin shook his head. 'No, man, that's wrong. My last video got, like, five hundred thousand views in a week. What am I supposed to do?' 

I loved that moment so much! It was so great.  They are so adorable. 

Lets talk about Will, I love him so much! He is just so sweet and level headed. I just loved getting to know him better especially after he was important in The Last Olympian and then seemingly got sidelined for a while.  

LOOK AT HOW CUTE HE IS!!!

I loved seeing Nico so happy and fitting in with friends at camp half blood! I'm so glad he said at camp! I just loved him.  He stole my heart from the beginning as a cute little kid with his mythomagic cards and I just love that he's finally at camp and accepting people's friendships.  

Nero:

Look at that neck beard.  That's so disgusting.
I HATE HIM SO MUCH!!!!!!!! When he was talking to Meg, ahhh so flippin' creep and irritating! Plus don't touch Meg or Kayla or Austin or Miranda or Ellis or Cecil! He is my most hated Rick Riordan villains! 

Our Favorite Jacksons:

(I know this has nothing to do with the book but look at how cute it is!) 

Just to start out, I am really feeling for Percy lately because I took a PSAT and I would rather have hung out at Camp Half Blood than prep for these stupid tests!

SALLY IS PREGNANT!!!!! It was so great until I talked to my friend Macor and we came to the following conclusion: 

Percy goes missing so you think you can just replace him? Really, Sally?

But outside of that, how can you just not love them.  I just get really happy when I read about them. Like they are just so kind and they are literally my childhood.  They define my greatest achievement which was making these blue cookies with no assistance from a recipe: 

But I appreciated Percy taking things easy and focusing on his future. He's done enough for everyone, I just want him to relax. I worry about him though. 

Caleo:

LEO! Oh how I just love him! Welcome back friend! I missed you so much.    

Calypso, in the begging I didn't like her or want to like her but I just love her so much.  She just has like no filter and is hilarious.  

But this is the most uncomfortable I have ever felt:

"When they first saw each other, Percy and Calypso had hugged awkwardly. I hadn't witnessed such a tense greeting since Patroclus met Achilles's war prize, Briseis." 

JUST MAKES ME FEEL SO UNCOMFORTABLE!

But regardless I love Caleo as people and their relationship.

I can't wait for them in the second book!!!    

Stoll Bros:

Travis, please come back. You can't separate the Stoll brothers! That is all. 

Harley:

(insert an adorable fan art of Harley, WHY DOESN'T THIS EXIST)

I saved the best for last. He is just the cutest thing! I loved revisiting characters from HoO that had previously been kinda pushed aside, specifically Harley.  He broke my heart! He is so sweet and just wants to have fun. Also so smart and loving. And he brought us back Leo! And for that I am eternally grateful. He's just so cute!   

Future Books: 

I haven't finished Magnus Chase but I have a feeling they will cross over in later books.  I also get the feeling Annabeth is going to be a key player since, as far as I know she is the only character that knows about all the mythologies. AND I'M SO EXCITED FOR CALEO IN BOOK TWO!
And I really want them to go to Camp Jupiter because there are some people there that own Leo a straight up bitch slap, including Annabeth, but I don't know when this will happen.

Who was you're favorite character?

I hope you have a fantastic day,

Megan

P.S. Sorry to post twice in 24ish hours, I've just been in a writing mood lately.  Feel free to keep scrolling to read my Halloween post. 

HALLOWEEN, Society's Appetite for Fright, My Personal Fears.

HALLOWEEN IS ONLY THREE DAYS AWAY!

I love Halloween! Candy, costumes, and horror stories/movies?  Sign me up!

Now, I'm to old to go trick or treating but I enjoy the night of Halloween movies and passing out candy. I also enjoy dressing up, this year I am dressing up as a student at Hogwarts this year. But my favorite part of this time of year is the ghost stories.  But why?  Well, we've been talking about this in my English class.  Here's a little something I had to write for the class:

Society's Insatiable Appetite for Fright

Its October! Halloween is just around the corner and in my English class we've been discussing the idea of horror stories and movies.  We've been reading short stories and poems by Edgar Allan Poe, the man some call the father of horror.  Poe’s poem about a man driven insane and killed by his own fear and insanity is one of the most famous poems in American culture.

There is a whole industry dedicated to scaring the crap out of people, everything from scary movies to haunted houses. According to the Hustle, "The National Retail Federation says people will spend around $6.9 billion dollars for Halloween this year. And Hauntworld -- the haunted house publication that's the industry bible -- estimates around $400 million of that will be on haunted attractions." That is a lot of money and that isn't even accounting for the money horror films make. What is it about the horror industry that makes it so popular?

I know for me I like things like this for the rush, the sensation of tricking your body into thinking there's danger when you know you will be perfectly fine. And my research backs this up.  According to the Daily Beast, "A 1995 study found that the higher people score on a scale that measures sensation seeking, the more they like horror films."

My Fears and My Appetite for Fright:

When It comes to horror, I'm not always the bravest.  I hate haunted things.  But I love a good scary story, particularly ghost stories.

As for fears, they go as follows:

• Bugs, specifically centipedes and those kind of bugs
• Falling
• And I don't know if this is a fear so much as something I'm paranoid about and thats being followed.  

What are your fears and what is your appetite for fear?

Happy Early Halloween, Hope you have a great day,

Megan

Sources:

• http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/10/25/why-our-brains-love-horror-movies-fear-catharsis-a-sense-of-doom.html
• http://thehustle.co/you-can-make-a-lot-of-money-scaring-people-for-a-living

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Movie Review

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

In the month and two posts that I have had this blog I have discovered I'm quite terrible at coming up with things to write about.  So I asked the lovely internet. Here is the idea I'm going with: "#2 Review books/products/films – Reviews deliver a lot of value to your followers, and people are constantly looking for honest opinions, not the fake ones that the web is full of." -http://startbloggingonline.com/101-blog-post-ideas-that-make-your-blog-hot/

I went to go see Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children's movie adaptation this weekend.  As a movie I thought it was great.  As an adaptation of an amazing book, quite terrible.  I gave it a C+ overall.  

Going into it I knew there were going to be a ton of changes.  I mean obviously, the book and the move are never the same.  There were even some changes I was excited about. But because its easier I am going to start with my problems with the film.  I color coded them. Pink are problems with the movie as a movie and green are problems with the movie as an adaptation:

• The villains were just not threatening at all. The movie is rated PG-13 for "intense sequences of fantasy action/violence and peril".  Maybe that made me higher my expectations.  I just felt like it was very juvenile. The villains were the main source of comedic relief in this story which just felt wrong to me.  I felt like it cheapened the movie as a whole.  
• It all felt a little rushed.  I was with my friend who had only read the first half of the book and she literally looked at me twenty minutes into the movie and whispered, "This is as far as I've gotten."  I just felt like they didn't set anything up. They barely told you anything about his family or where he worked and why he worked there.  They didn't tell you much about Jacob's emotional turmoil.  It was very clear to me they were rushing to get to the children's home and I wished they would've slowed things down. Even if I hadn't read the book first I still think I would have felt it was to slow.
• They never buried Victor. Or even really explained who Victor was. I guess the bigger problem that I had that stemmed off of things like this is that they didn't really seem to care about the story at all. I get that of course they don't that its Hollywood and they just want to make a buck. And it was not as bad as it could have been.  I just felt like they neglected the emotion in the book. I know its hard to translate the emotion of the book into the movie but I felt like they didn't even try.
• MILLARD! He's the one who has the loop memorized, not everyone else!
• They left the loop! They don't leave the loop! That is not how it happened! That is not how a lot of it happened! That is not how it ended! And that is all I will say about the ridiculous amount of plot changes.   

Here are the things I really liked:

• I loved the casting.  There were a few characters I would've casted differently but other than those few I was really pleased. They were all just as adorable in the movie as they were in the book. 
• I really liked movie Enoch.  Which is weird because he is SO DIFFERENT from book Enoch. I just liked him better as an older character.  He also lost his creep factor and I was okay with it.
• I really loved the set for the children's home.  I thought it was fantastic.  
• It was entertaining, when I was mad at the previously stated things. 

So there are some of my thoughts about the movie.  One thing I wanted to mention that I didn't list was the change of Olive and Emma.  I was more upset with the change in Olive's age then their peculiarities. I just wasn't all that bothered by the peculiarity change in the movie which I was surprised by. I am currently trying to read Hollow City but I've got a book I have to read for English first.  What did you think of the movie?  I'd love to hear what you thought and if you agree or disagree with anything I said. 

I hope you have a lovely day,

Megan 

Sources: 

• http://startbloggingonline.com/101-blog-post-ideas-that-make-your-blog-hot/
• http://parentpreviews.com/movie-reviews/film-info/miss-peregrines-home-for-peculiar-children

Dear Clowns

Dear Clowns,

What the hell? Why? I mean I'm laughing on the outside but I'm terrified on the inside. I feel like I'm trapped in a Batman movie. 

Today my school received a clown threat via social media. It was obviously a hoax but we still went into a soft lock down as a precautionary measure.  People at my school actually had to waste time checking for a clown on campus.  This is an actual thing that actually happened.  

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about here is a link to a news story about it: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/10/05/clown-hoaxes-force-police-nationwide-to-check-pranks-for-real-threats.html
From this it has just spiraled out into this giant national (United States) prank.

It shut down two schools in my state recently: http://kutv.com/news/local/clown-related-threats-cause-two-ogden-schools-to-lock-out-visitors

This just so ridiculous. SO RIDICULOUS! Like who woke up this morning and said, I'm gonna make fake threats about a clown coming to harm high school students? Like honestly?  Who and why?

I know this is just trolls being trolls.  It just spiraled out of control.  Part of me finds it hilarious and the other part of me just feels like seriously guys?

Anyways sorry this is so short and random.  Its just something that occurring around me this week. I am planning on getting into a regular schedule eventually.       

Anyways, I hope you have a fun, clown-free day,

Megan