Media journal!

This media journal contains all things media! I will keep a log of the media I consume, give ratings, write mini reviews.

Current media

• Reading: Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys
• Watching: The Office, Stranger Things, Peaky Blinders
• Playing: Palis (PS5), Mirror's Edge (PS5)
• Listening: Pretty Please by Jackson Wang, Master of Puppets by Metallica

Things I like in media!

• Shows with good soundtracks!! I love listening to soundtracks. 3/5 tops artists on my Spotify Wrapped were artists who made the soundtracks to some of my favourite shows
• I love movies and shows with time travel or space travel or dimension travel or even atomic travel. It's just so interesting to me.
• I love groups. I love different personalities in one space. That is probably why I loved music groups. I just love when a cast has different types of people and I love seeing their different dynamics.
• I love guitar riffs.

Library

Vampire Diaries: The Awakening

Initial thoughts: This was written before Twilight but all I can think about while reading this is how similar it is to Twilight. I disliked Bella's character so I have a feeling I will come to dislike Elena's character too. Let's see!

Summary

Elena meets new boy Stefan who seems to be avoiding her. Elena will do anything to have him. Strange things happen in the small town and Elena soon learns Stefan’s big secret.

Characters

I did not particularly like Elena’s character or any character in this book. I would say the most likeable character would be Matt but he is a very grey character who just kind of lets things happen to him. What I did like about the main character is that she isn’t a complete stereotype. I feel like in high school romances the main character is either a popular mean girl or an unpopular sad outcast. Elena is popular and still a little mean but I think she is sweet (or maybe she wants to seem sweet because to me it didn’t feel authentic but then again maybe I am hung up on the ‘popular mean girl’ stereotype). I can tell the author wants us to like Elena but I didn’t really feel anything towards her. At times, I did feel frustrated because she really is boy-crazy. The part where the three girls share blood and make an oath and Elena says "I swear not to rest until he belongs to me" was so funny to me because they are really taking this so seriously. The obsession over Stefan reminded me a lot of Bella (Twilight) and her obsession with Edward. Reading Twilight was very annoying because Bella is literally Obsessed with him. If I had to choose between Elena and Bella, I would choose Elena because she at least cares about others aside from her boyfriend (Bella does care for Jacob but it doesn’t feel the same).

Aside from learning about Stefan’s backstory, I don’t feel like I learnt a lot about his character. Like he just seems meh. He is kind, soft, protective, a gentlemen. Maybe because it’s too predictable it bores me. Same with Damon: menacing, dangerous, evil. I need characters with a little more depth and layers to their personalities. This is just the first book so maybe we learn more about the characters later. Maybe we see a softer side to Damon but that too is too predictable.

I did like Bonnie’s character. She is more eccentric than the rest which is probably why I like her. I tend to like the weirder characters. I feel like there is more to her character that we will see in the later books. I’m not too sure about the Vampire Diaries world but there may be some other mythical creatures like Banshees. I think Bonnie may be similar to Lydia from Teen Wolf in a way; she seems like she can sense danger and death.

I feel like none of the characters are really that interesting. Some just seem like they aren’t really necessary. But then again this is only the first book in the series. I feel like Meredith wasn’t a necessary character. I think the story would have been just the same without her in it. Also, I thought Caroline would be a bigger character but she literally wasn’t around for most of the book. I think in a later book she’ll be more important and she’ll have a plot line with either Stefan or Damon.

Of course the mean bully is called Tyler. Tyler SMALLWOOD and DICK Carter. HAHAHAHA!

Plot

The plot was very basic. I mean I wasn’t expecting anything groundbreaking or a major plot twist. As a reader, we already know Stefan is a vampire because of the title even before he reveals it (although the actual word is never mentioned). The only ‘twist’ may be that the crow and evil man Elena saw before was actually Damon. But that was very predictable and not surprising. I think the most surprising thing would be Bonnie’s behaviour at the cemetery when she froze and a voice that wasn’t hers spoke from her mouth saying "Elena, there’s someone waiting out there for you." That was a little creepy. It wasn’t explained what possessed her but I guess we can infer that it was Damon possessing her with the Powers he has.

At the end of the book, Elena has a nightmare about Stefan being hurt after reading her missing diary. I’m guessing that could be a foreshadowing of something that happens in the next book. I think Damon took her diary and may be altering or adding new entries and then showing it to Stefan to manipulate him and show him who Elena really is: not the soft and innocent girl he thought she was.

Overall, I think this book is just meant to be a fun read for people who like vampire romances. I wonder what people who like Twilight think of this book. Some things in this book reminded me of Twilight. In my mind Twilight is so much more popular than Vampire Diaries and I wonder why. Is it because Twilight was movies instead of a long series? Is it because the main character was more relatable: not super popular, not super pretty? Is it because in Twilight we follow Bella’s life as a new girl whereas with Elena we are sort of plopped into her life? Maybe because of the year it was released? Or maybe the story is just better? If that is the case, then I don’t know if I will continue reading this series because I didn’t like Twilight that much. I liked it when I watched it the first time when I was 14 but reading and rewatching the first two books/movies, I wasn’t that into it. I bought the Vampire Diaries book (books 1 + 2) at a charity shop for 50p because I have been wanting to watch the show because I heard it was good. I saw it on the shelf and I thought it was funny for some reason so I had to get it. I will be finishing the seconf book (The Struggle) since they came together and from there we shall see if I will continue reading the series or just start watching the show.

My rating for this book? I honestly don’t know. I feel like I give most books that are just okay 3 stars. But then I look at the books I read and some 3 star books were quite good and objectively better than other 3 star reads. So… maybe 2 stars for this. Because it wasn’t anything crazy. I didn’t like the characters, the plot was very basic. I wonder if I prefer werewolves. I did very much enjoy Teen Wolf.

Movies

Aftermath

I really enjoyed this movie because I, for some reason, love hostage movies. I haven't seen Dylan Sprouse seen Suite Life on Deck so it was nice to see him again! Every time he was on screen, I just thought "Wow, he looks so much like his brother." Hehe. I love when I recognise actors in movies and shows. Dichen Lachman from Severance is in this movie. I don't think this movie was anything groundbreaking but I personally really liked it because I just love movies where there's high-stakes and lots of tension. It was a fun movie, I liked the old veteran man, love Dylan Sprouse and Dichen Lachman.

Update: I read some reviews on Letterboxd and people HATED this movie omg! I do agree that the dialogue was bad, but when I'm watching a movie and I think something was a little cringe or bad, I immediately think that I'm the problem and I just don't understand cinema. Apparently, some scenes used AI, which to be honest I didn't catch. This is a just fun mindless watch.

Games

Palia

Mirror's Edge

Media wishlist

Books

Stand-alone books

Series books

DNF books

Movies

Live-action movies

Animated movies

Series

Live action series

Animated series

Games

DS games

XBOX 360 games

PC games

Albums