so it’s a new year and here’s a little update…

January 1st, 2017.

We’re right at the start of a new year, which is generally a time where we take a look back at what has happened the year before and where we try to figure out what the next twelve months will bring us. I’m not going to delve into clichés like “New Year, New Me” or “I’m going to do better this year”.
However.

I think we can all agree that 2016 wasn’t the best year. A lot has happened, both great as well as devastating things. Every year has its ups and downs, 2016 just had a lot of them. For me personally, it wasn’t the best year either, though I also can’t say that it was an awful year. I experienced some great things too this year. Things I can be proud of, things I can’t look back on without getting a smile on my face and just a lot of small things that make life so much better. So I’d like to put my focus on the joyful events of this year and here are a few of the biggest ones. I’ll probably forget to mention a lot of things, but I’ll give it a try.

Are these really #Squadgoals?

IMDB | Letterboxd | Trailer

A bunch of super-villains are forced to become a team and fight something even more evil. That’s the short premise of Suicide Squad, this year’s most anticipated summer blockbuster movie. It’s the third movie in the DCEU and promised us a lighter and funnier tone than the previous two and it did give us just that. It also has the most unique characters that exist in this universe, but they’re let down by an unimaginative and generic story.

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The latest trend in superhero movies is that they’re not just superhero movies. They’re thrillers, space operas and action-comedies while still very much feeling like a superhero movie. This is just a superhero movie, but that doesn’t make it less fun or enjoyable. However, this is also one of the problems I had with the movie. It’s a standard story that we’ve seen countless times before. A group of heroes, or misfits in this case, come together to form a team and fight a villain that wants to destroy our world.

Mountains, Waterfalls and Seasickness

The first month of summer break has passed, which means that I already went on vacation. Usually, my family and I would go to a country near the Mediterranean Sea, like Spain or Greece. While I really like going to these places, I wanted to go somewhere completely different this year. A place with a different kind of landscape and where it’s less hot. I’m not the biggest fan of running around in high temperatures, however, my sister does. She likes to lie on a beach chair near the pool with a book in her hands. To get something that could satisfy both of us, we settled on going on a cruise through the Norwegian Fjords. Here’s how that went.

Watch These Trailers // vol IV

Now who doesn’t love a good trailer? I know I do. 
In Watch These Trailers, I make a list of ten recent trailers that look promising or are worth talking about. Find the trailer I’m talking about by clicking on the title.
This volume has mostly trailers that came out of San Diego Comic Con, except for the last two. The convention took place last weekend and saw the release of many trailers for some of the most anticipated upcoming movies. I have already talked about the Marvel/Netflix series and their new trailers in detail, so they are not included here.

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Wonder Woman
This is probably one of the most talked about trailers from the convention. It’s the first time that we’re getting a female-led superhero movie. There’s been a lot of talk about a standalone Black Widow movie, which we still aren’t getting, and the Captain Marvel movie, which is set to premiere in 2019. This means that Wonder Woman is the first one to star in her own movie and from what we can see in this trailer, it’s going to be awesome. It’s set during the first World War and seems to offer some amazing action scenes. The movie sees Gal Gadot reprise her role as the titular character after she already appeared in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Chris Pine, Robin Wright and Connie Nielson will appear alongside her. She later will again portray the character in Justice League, but more on that later.

The Summer That Melted Everything | eARC Review + Author Interview

Goodreads | Trailer | Book Depository (Affiliate)

The Summer That Melted Everything sees the devil invited to a little town called Breathed. What ensues are a series of strange accidents, an unsettling heat and questions about whether a small boy could really be who he claims to be.
Author Tiffany McDaniel was very kind to offer me an eARC of her debut novel. This, however, in no way influences my review. The book comes out tomorrow, July 26 in the US, and I encourage you to give it a try. There’s also a short interview with Tiffany McDaniel at the end of this review.

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The story is actually kind of simple. The devil, depicted as a little boy, comes to a little town and its inhabitants get anxious when bad things start to happen. It’s a simple scenario, but it’s way more complex than that. This story revolves a lot about how people react to being near the devil. It’s interesting to see how they gradually turn against him, even though it’s just a little boy.

Marvel And Netflix Defend Their Upcoming Series With New Trailers

As everyone is trying to build their own cinematic universe, the company that did it first is coming at us with another one. After their immensely successful MCU, Marvel is teaming up with Netflix to extend this universe to television. While this is old news, as the plans were made three years ago and two series have already seen the light of day, yesterday at SDCC we got a look at what’s up ahead and how the expansion will continue.

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On the first day of San Diego Comic Con, Marvel and Netflix held a joint panel where they made some announcements and released quite a few trailers.

Why Do I Care? | The Fundamentals of Caring Review

IMDB | Letterboxd | Trailer

The Fundamentals of Caring is the seventh original movie released by Netflix and is based on the novel of the same name by Jonathan Evison. The movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and came out almost a month ago, which is also when I saw it.

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The movie is very much dependent of its characters and mostly the dynamics between them. Paul Rudd is great as always. He’s bringing his excellent sense of humour and comedic timing and adds some great dramatic acting to that. However, this is mostly also thanks to his interaction with Craig Roberts, who delivers a tremendous performance as Trevor. His sense of humour resembles mine a lot and you really could believe him using humour as a way to deal with his situation. Lastly, there’s Selena Gomez. She does alright as Dot and gives the movie some fun moments.

Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell | Review

Goodreads | Book Depository (Affiliate)

Kindred Spirits was released in celebration of World Book Day, which I honestly had never heard of, where every year there are a few authors who write a short story that’s being sold in order to promote this day and reading in general.
I quickly want to thank Kat from Life and Other Disasters, since I won a copy of this book as part of her 3 years of blogging giveaway.

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My first thoughts were: “A story about being a fan of Star Wars? I’m in.”
I hadn’t yet read a contemporary novel or even a YA one, so this one was a first in both cases. With this being a short story, you can’t really expect it to have a grand story that has a lot of elements to it. Still, Rainbow Rowell delivers a fun story that keeps you interested while not requiring a lot of thought. It’s a story that could have just as easily happen to me in real life, which made it very enjoying to read.

Listen To This | Vol IV

Listen To This is a series where I introduce you to some of my favourite songs at the moment. These are some of the songs that blew my mind, surprised me in some way or are just plainly awesome. I listen to these songs on repeat so often that I wonder how it’s even possible that I’m still not tired of hearing them. As I listen to music every single day and it’s a big part of my life, I feel like it’s important to let other people know some of these songs so they don’t miss out on greatness.
The titles contain a link to the corresponding Spotify-page of that song, so you can just go ahead and listen to these right away and I highly encourage you to do so.

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Say It – Flume ft. Tove Lo
I was kind of sad that Flume played at Rock Werchter, a large music festival in Belgium, on a different day than the one when I was there, but that doesn’t stop me from constantly playing his songs. There are quite a few songs on his second album Skin, which was released this year, that are worth mentioning, like Say It and Never Be Like You.

People – Youth Club
This upbeat and fun song by Youth Club is the excellent song for the summer season. In 2014 they released their debut EP called Colours and this song is already from their second one called Brothers. Breathe is one of their other great songs.

Watch These Trailers | Vol III

Now who doesn’t love a good movie trailer? I know I do.
In Watch These Trailers I list a few trailers which I thought were important or significant enough to be mentioned. Find the trailer I’m talking about by clicking on the title. I’m fully aware that some of these trailers came out a while ago, but they are still worth talking about.

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★★★½

Assassin’s Creed
This looks interesting. I’ve played the game a few times and I really liked it. As far as what they show in the trailer, this looks like it’s fairly good at adapting the idea behind the game. The characters are completely new, but the overall feel and story do seem like they could come from the game. The visuals are stunning and the cast, including Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, is promising.

Moana
The next Disney Princess is almost upon us and she’s called Moana. Moana Waialiki seems like great character that can stand her own. However, I’m afraid that Dwayne Johnson as demi-god Maui will grab the attention as he’s already featured heavily in the trailer. The animation looks stunning and the soundtrack for this movie is something I’m very much looking forward to.