Welcome back! Today we’ll discuss the second installment of the Six of Crows duology; ‘Crooked Kingdom‘. Author Leigh Bardugo also wrote this book, it was published in September of 2016.

Continuing where we left off in the last post, Inej is being held captive by Jan Van Eck and is slowly losing hope that the Dregs will ever come to save her, it is implied that she is tortured for information on the Dregs and Kaz. She refuses to say anything so Van Eck decides to lure Kaz using Inej in an attempt to finally kill him.

However, Kaz and Wylan manage to kidnap Van Eck’s pregnant wife, Alys, and use her as leverage to get Inej back. During this hostage exchange, Van Eck reveals he has accused Kaz of kidnapping his son (Wylan) to the stadwatch (Ketterdam police). Both the stadwatch and shu-soldiers (Soldiers from Shu-Han who are looking for Grisha) attack the dregs, but they manage to flee.

Simultaneously, Jesper’s father, Colm Fahey (A farmer in Novyi Zem), arrives in the city. Colm took out a loan on his farm to pay for Jesper’s education and the bank recently moved up the collection day on the debt. He attempts to contact Jesper through the university as he believes he is still a student there but once this proves useless he goes to Ketterdam himself.

He finally reunites with his son minutes before the attack from the stadwatch and shu-soldiers force them to escape. The dregs spin several lies to convince Colm that Jesper has just temporarily paused his studies and is not fully a gang member, unconvinced, he gives Jesper three days before they both return to Novyi Zem. In the meantime, Kaz arranges for him to stay in a hotel.

Kaz is still determined to ruin Jan Van Eck and get the rest of his money so he hatches a plan to destroy his business (Van Eck is a sugar merchant) by infesting Van Eck’s sugar silos with weevils. Nina and Inej agree to help him as long as he promises to help them smuggle the persecuted Grisha out of Ketterdam and into Ravka. They decide to steal Van Eck’s ship to transport the Grisha.

While the plan is being carried out, Jesper and Matthias stay in their hideout protecting Kuwei. Kaz and Wylan break into Van Eck’s home to find his seal, which they need to forge documents to take the Grisha on his ship. Nevertheless, they are stopped by Pekka Rollins, who is now allied with Van Eck (Over their mutual greed and hatred for Kaz), and escape unable to steal the seal.

Meanwhile, Inej and Nina infiltrate the sugar silos. Pekka Rollins sends an assassin named Dunyasha after Inej who ambushed her while on top of the silos. Inej is losing the fight and about to fall to her death when Nina, in a desperate attempt to save her, summons an army of dead bodies (A power she did not know she had) to protect Inef from the fall. Jesper and Matthias are also attacked by Pekka Rollins’ men in another attempt to kidnap Kuwei. The dregs manage to escape unscathed once again and reunite in Colm’s hotel room.

During this time, Nina reveals to the group that she now has the ability to control dead bodies, attributing it to her previous consumption of Jurda Parem, and Kaz hatches a new plan.

Hello again! Now that we’ve established both the characters and the settings, we can start to explore the plot of Leigh Bardugo’s Six Of Crows. This book follows Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Wylan, Matthias and Nina.

The book starts with a seemingly random character called Joost, a new guard at the house of a Ketterdam Councilmember. One night he and other guards are summoned to the boathouse where he sees a Grisha Corporalki girl, Anya, inside a cage with a boy. The councilmember cuts the boy’s arm and instructs Anya to heal it. After she does, he cuts the arm again but this time he gives her a mysterious drug and tells her to heal it again. This time, the girl’s power seems to enhance and she is able to control the guards’ minds to let her go and tells them to wait so she has time to escape; everyone in the room dies waiting for another instruction.

We then go to Kaz’s point of view. He is summoned by a rich council member, Jan Van Eck, who offers him a job for 20 million of kruge (Ketterdam money). He has to liberate a Shu scientist called Bol Yul-Bayur from the Ice Court in Fjerda as he was captured for creating a drug capable of enhancing a Grisha’s powers in unimaginable ways; Jurda Parem.

Kaz accepts this job and decides to finally help Nina break Matthias out of Hellgate as he needs someone who knows the Ice Court as well as a Fjerdan drüskelle (No one has ever been capable of breaking into the Ice Court, nevermind stealing someone from inside). Along with Inej and Jesper, Nina and Kaz manage to break Matthias free after creating a distraction and switching him for a disguised dreg made to look like him (Nina is Corporalki so she can change someone to temporarily look like someone else). He accepts to help in exchange for a pardon.

Before leaving, Kaz also enlists Wylan for his knowledge of explosives, he’s the only one who knows that Wylan is the son of Jan Van Eck so he also serves as a sort of insurance (Kaz still doesn’t know that Jan tried to have Wylan killed).

Breaking into the Ice Court is an Odyssey type of adventure. The crows first survive an ambush and manage to get in their ship towards Fjerda (Inej is almost killed and Kaz ignores his aversion to touch and his limp to carry her to the ship while running, here we see a glimpse into the romance between Inej and Kaz).

Then they break into a prison wagon and break themselves out of their cells (Because they don’t have any weapons, Jesper reveals he is a Grisha Fabrikator and uses the iron bars to create a lockpicking tool). They separate as Inej climbs through an incinerator (Veeery stressful part of the book) to the roof so she can throw a rope at the other crows and they can escape the prison.

Everyone separates again and after double-crossing his former drüskelle mentor, Jarl Brum, Matthias and Nina attempt to find Bol Yul-Bayer. They discover he is actually dead and his son, Kuwei (Also Grisha), is being forced to recreate Jurda Parem for the Fjerdans. Kuwei, Nina, and Matthias escape with the help of Kaz and leave the Ice Court via an underground spring.

Meanwhile, Inej had tried to infiltrate a royal party taking place (Nina was with her until Jarl Brum captured her) but her cover was blown by Tante Heleen (She was there providing prostitutes). After a fight, Inej is able to flee with Wylan and Jesper (Who have been developing a romance of their own). The three of them steal a tank and forcibly break out of the Ice Court.

The crows reunite in the port where their ship waits but a Fjerdan army with Grisha who appear to have taken Jurda Parem intercepts them; before they are killed, Nina ingests some of the Jurda Parem Kuwei brought and puts the army to sleep and everyone escapes back to Ketterdam. (Nina is very affected by the drug and almost dies from withdrawal on the ship).

One in Ketterdam, Kaz arranges to meet Jan Van Eck on a little island away from the city. Once he has Kuwei, Van Eck goes back on his promises and reveals he will use Jurda Parem to create his own army and take over the whole continent (Villainous behavior). Nevertheless, the Grisha powers wear off and it’s revealed Kuwei was actually Wylan disguised so Jan instructs his men to take the money and kill the crows. Here, Kaz makes the mistake of looking at Inej, revealing his weakness, so Jan instructs them to take her as well.

The book ends as a desperate (and kind of feral honestly) Kaz creates a new plan to free Inej and get his money.

I genuinely love this book and its sequel, Crooked Kingdom, so in the next post, we’ll talk about the continuation of this story. In the meantime, if you don’t feel like reading this du0logy, I recommend watching the two seasons of Shadow and Bone on Netflix as you can see the story of the Shadow and Bone characters and also a sort of prequel to the Crow’s story.

Hi again! As promised, in this post we are going to continue exploring the grishaverse and the world of Six Of Crows.

Now that we’ve already met the characters, I think it’s only right that we establish where all of this is taking place. Author Leigh Bardugo often explains she was heavily inspired by Russian history and geography so a lot of the locations we see in the books are based on real Russian places; Kerch is both a city in Crimea and in the grishaverse.

The world of Shadow and Bone is quite extensive so for today we will only focus on the setting for Six of Crows; Kerch and Fjerda.

In the books, Kerch is an island nation located in what is known as the True Sea. It’s best described as a sort of archipelago; it’s made up of one main island, three smaller islands, and multiple even smaller islands. Its capital city is Ketterdam, located on the main island. Some of the other islands are Imperjum (Known for its shipyards), Zierfoort, Terrenjel (Where Hellgate is located, a.k.a, where Matthias is imprisoned), Eli Komedie, Lij, and Vellgeluk. Because Kerch is in the middle of the main ocean, it’s connected to all the other fictional nations of Shadow and Bone; Novyi Zem, Fjerda, Ravka, and Shu Han.

The country is extremely wealthy (Considered the financial capital of this world) thanks to its access to the sea and trading capabilities. Because of this, they are able to be neutral and maintain political power as they act as lenders to poorer nations, like Ravka (We’ll talk about them in later posts). Kerch is understood to be an oligarchy as it is ruled by the ‘Merchant Council’, a group comprised of the thirteen most powerful Kerch families. Befittingly, Kerch religion focuses on the god of industry and commerce (Ghezen).

Even though it’s a rich nation, Kerch has the biggest criminal underworld of the Grishaverse; there are multiple gangs of thieves and smugglers, one of them being the Dregs (Who are main characters are a part of).

The second place Six of Crows takes place in is Fjerda. This country is a monarchy located to the north of Ravka with the True Sea to the west. It’s characterized by its cold weather and mountain range; Sikurzoi (Known as ‘the elbows’). The capital city is Djerholm which contains the greatest military stronghold in this universe, the Ice Court. It also has many smaller cities and towns; Engelsberg, Avfalle, Elling, Felsted, Gäfvalle, Gjela, Kejerut, Hjar, Halmhend, Overüt, and Kjerek.

The Ice Court contains two vital elements of Fjerda; Fjerdan nobility (Most importantly, the Grimjer Royal Family) and the drüskelle. The drüskelle are a group of ‘holy’ soldiers trained to capture and kill Grisha all over the continent. Fjerdans regard Grisha as dangerous and unnatural, which is why they are at war with Ravka, a country that has an army of trained Grisha. The drüskelle are said to be appointed by the will of Djel, one of the gods worshipped in Fjerda, he is believed to be the first Grisha hunter.

Well, I hope this brought a little bit of clarity to the geographical magnitude of the grishaverse. Now that we have the basic foundation, we’ll begin discussing the plot of Six of Crows in future blog posts.

Good morning! Continuing with my new year’s goals, in this post we are going to explore yet another fantasy series. This book can best be described as what would happen if you mixed teenagers, trauma, and magical powers (I know that this description can apply to a vast range of literature); today’s book is ‘Six of Crows’, by Leigh Bardugo.

Leigh Bardugo is an Israeli-American author, famous for her fantasy and paranormal fantasy novels. This book is actually part of her ‘Shadow and Bone’ saga. There are three previous books exploring the universe in which this book is set but with different characters and plotlines, it also has a sequel where some of the earlier characters make appearances, and some of its own characters appear in the last books of the saga. There is a lot of material to explore so we will keep talking about this saga for a few more blog posts to come.

There are six main characters in this story; Kaz Brekker, Inej Ghafa, Jesper Fahey, Nina Zenik, Matthias Helvar, and Wylan Van Eck.

Kaz, nicknamed ‘Dirtyhands’, is the leader of a gang called the ‘Dregs’ and is known for his violent and ruthless character. When he was young, he and his brother Jordie were scammed by a man named Pekka Rollins which caused them to live on the streets so Jordie got sick and died. Kaz has the desire to get revenge on Rollins.

Inej, ‘the wraith’, is part of the ‘Dregs’ as a spy. As a child, her family were travelers and operated a circus so she is trained in acrobatics; she uses this for spying as Inej can easily climb buildings and maneuver through tight and unstable places. She was kidnapped by a woman named Tanta Heleen at fourteen. Heleen forces her to work in her brothel ‘indebted’ until Kaz pays off her debt and trains her to join his gang.

Jesper ‘sharpshooter’ Fahey. He was originally a university student in Ketterdam (The fictional city where ‘Six of Crows is set) but through his gambling addiction, he loses everything and goes into debt. After being unable to pay a lender, Jesper almost beat to death until Kaz saves him. Brekker realizes Jesper is a very talented marksman and invites him to join the ‘Dregs’.

Nina Zenik is what’s known as a Grisha, more specifically, a Corporalki. These are people who have the ability to manipulate the human body, there are other Grisha orders like the Etherealki who control natural elements such as fire, wind, water, etc and the Materialki which have the ability to control composite materials. Nina was originally part of the Grisha army until she is kidnapped by the drüskelle (Grisha hunters from a country called Fjerda) and sailed away to Fjerda. During the travel, the ship sinks. Nina and one drüskelle are the only survivors but as they return to Ketterdam, the drüskelle is arrested and Nina is contacted by Kaz as he wants to use her power for his gang.

Matthias Helvar is a Fjerdan soldier, more specifically, a drüskelle. He is the only survivor of the shipwreck along with Nina and is imprisoned in a place named Hellgate (You know a prison is awful if it’s literally called Hellgate). After years of harsh imprisonment, he is rescued by the ‘Dregs’ at the request of Nina.

Wylan Van Eck is the son of a Ketterdam merchant, Jan Van Eck. His father was extremely abusive with him as Wylan could never learn how to read or write. When his mother ‘died’ (We later discover his father hid her away to get rid of her) his father remarries a woman named Alys and once she gets pregnant, Jan attempts to have Wylan killed. He survives and begins working for the ‘Dregs’ creating bombs to be protected from his father.

The ‘Grishaverse’ is really one of the most vast and complex fantasy series I’ve ever read. The worldbuilding of Leigh Bardugo is truly insane; there is religious lore, intricate geographical composition, political and social conflicts, etc. In my next blog post, we will begin exploring the actual plot of ‘Six of Crows’ and how it ties in with the previous storylines and worldbuilding of the ‘Shadow and Bone’ saga.

Hello again! Continuing my last post, today we’re going to focus more on the characters of  ‘Fire and Blood’. Now, there are way too many characters in this book and even if we only focus on those involved in ‘House of the Dragon’ there would be at least twenty characters to analyze and this would become a Game of Thrones blog. To avoid that, I’ll be talking about whom I consider the most important characters; Rhaenyra and Alicent.

Rahenyra is a very interesting character to me. Her father, Viserys, constantly and very openly wishes to have a son so they can inherit the throne; Rhaenyra is never truly considered. That is until her mother and Viserys’ wife, Aemma, dies in childbirth when he sacrifices her in the hopes of saving the baby and having a son; the baby ends up dying shortly after. After this tragedy, Viserys decides to name Rhaenyra heir against tradition as she is a woman. Even though her duty increases tenfold, she never sacrifices her freedom which becomes very clear when she has children who very obviously are not her husband’s.

Alicent is a sort of parallel version of Rhaenyra. She is the only daughter of Otto Hightower, the hand of the King (Being the hand of the king is like being an advisor). The Hightowers are an incredibly religious family, they control the epicenter of the Faith of the Seven (Like Christianity but Game of Thrones version) in Westeros; Oldtown. Because she is his only daughter, Alicent always had an incredible responsibility to her father, just like Rhaenyra had to Viserys. But instead of wanting his daughter to be content in her life like the king, Otto seeks to use Alicent to fulfill his own ambition; He arranges her marriage to Viserys, he pushes her to train Aegon to be king, he decides the marriage between Aegon and Helaena (Alicent’s children) and he attempts to dismiss Rhaenyra’s own son as heir.

In the show, Alicent and Rhaenyra are childhood friends with a very close bond. Rhaenyra relies on Alicent for support when her mother dies and Alicent relies on Rhaenyra to escape her overbearing father. In the book, they are further apart in age and never really have a close relationship but I think this change for the show really helps the audience empathize with both sides of the conflict and maximizes the impact of their future rivalry.

Their falling out in the show occurs after Rhaenyra is seen with her uncle (I know, gross.) engaging in ‘improper activities’ and Otto has to tell King Viserys. Alicent confronts Rhaenyra who vehemently denies it (Even though it did happen) and Alicent confesses that Otto knows of it. Rhaenyra convinces her father that the accusations are made up by Otto to dismiss her as heir in favor of his grandson, Viserys believes her and exiles Otto from the capital. Alicent never forgives Rhaenyra for it and becomes fearful she might try to banish her children once they become a threat to her reign.

Their past relationship and consequent falling out is the primary reason why a war of succession is fought; Alicent resents the freedom Rhaenyra had and stops trusting she would not harm her children once queen, and at the same time Rhaenyra recognizes the danger of Otto’s control and Alicents own ambition against herself and her children. More than just hatred and disagreements, it’s the consequence of the love that Rhaenyra and Alicent once had for each other.

We’re back! With the new semester, I thought it was time to give this blog a little bit of a fresh start. One of my new year’s resolutions for 2023 was to broaden my literary horizons so I’ve decided to begin by reading a genre that I was extremely reluctant to; fantasy. Because I obviously could not make this any easier for myself, I began with one of the most divisive books that I could find in the reading community; George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones prequel ‘Fire & Blood’.

I think that by now ‘Game of Thrones’ is a household name. Everyone knows what it is, whether you love it or want to behead the showrunner’s heads. For most of my life, I had refused to even entertain the possibility of coming near the books or the show itself as the genre never really appealed to me; I always considered fantasy books to be too unrealistic for me to really immerse myself in the story. But when I saw the trailer for what claimed to be the prequel of Game of Thrones (‘House of the Dragon’) I decided to finally give fantasy a chance. This quickly became my favorite show and led me down a rabbit hole until I finally decided to read ‘Fire and Blood’.

This book details the story of a family,  the Targaryens, which basically rule the world where Game of Thrones is set; Westeros; for over three-hundred years. Because the book expands over centuries there are multiple stories but my favorite was the one on which ‘House of the Dragon’ is based. This is the one about a civil war called ‘The Dance of the Dragons’.

It all starts because one of the Targaryen kings, Viserys, doesn’t have any male children so after much turmoil he decides to name his only daughter, Rhaenyra, heir to the throne (This is a huge deal because of misogyny and whatnot). Nevertheless, years later he does have a son with a woman named Alicent Hightower. In the show, she and Rhaenyra were very close friends which makes this all the more awful but in the book, they are never really close. Even though Rhaenyra is the official heir, Alicent and her father plan to actually make her half-brother, Aegon, the heir once Viserys dies. It all gets more complicated when Rhaenyra has kids which are rumored to be bastards (Because they don’t look like either her or her husband) so her claim to the throne is even more endangered.

Once Viserys finally dies, both Rhaenyra and Aegon crown themselves as Queen and King respectively which divides the kingdoms into the ‘Greens’ and the ‘Blacks’. The ‘Greens’, because House Hightower’s color is green, support Aegon and the ‘Blacks’, because the Targaryens often wear black and red, support Rhaenyra.

This leads to a civil war in which basically everyone involved ends up dead; some of the only survivors are Aegon’s daughter, Jaehaera, and Rhaenyra’s son, Aegon. They marry each other to finally end the war (Yes, they are cousins).

I think the main reason why I liked this book so much was that although the story is fantastical in nature, it treats itself as though it was a historical account. The events and the people mirror human history (Minus the dragons); You have ambitious monarchs who ruin their kingdoms, peaceful kings and queens, civil wars, religious wars, conquests, defeats, etc. It feels as though you are reading a history book for class and suddenly you realize none of it is actually real.

Because this is such a large book, my next blog post will be a deeper dive into the characters themselves and how their own beliefs and ambitions drive the plot forward. In the meantime, I really recommend reading this book or any of the other installments of the Game of Thrones story but if you don’t feel like reading over eight-hundred pages ‘House of the Dragon’ is an awesome show to check out.

What’s the craziest thing you have done for a crush? Maybe you started listening on repeat to an album they said they liked? Or maybe you took a longer route to class so you could ‘accidentally’ bump into them? Anything it was, don’t worry yourself too much. Just remember nothing you’ve done (or at least I hope) is as crazy as what some fictional characters are willing to do just for their crush to notice them.

Maybe I’m giving myself too much credit here, but I think that with that description, the book for this week is pretty obvious; we’re talking about ‘The Great Gatsby‘.

I know this book might bring back some not-so-great memories for some people; you’re in class and your teacher keeps asking you about the symbolism behind the green light or some eyes while you are just waiting to leave and never open the book again.

Nevertheless, I feel like the seriousness with which our education regards this classic has taken the fun out of reading this book for what it actually is; the tale of a 20th century simp.

In case you haven’t already been tortured with this book in high school, ‘The Great Gatsby’ is a novel written by American author F.Scott Fitzgerald (Although it is said he actually plagiarized this work from his wife Zelda) and published in the year 1925. This book relates the story of a rich man named Jay Gatsby through the lens of Nick Carraway; a World War I veteran who just moved to New York from the midwest. Throughout the book, we discover that before Gatsby had amassed his fortune, he had been in love with Nick’s cousin, Daisy Buchanan, but she rejected him in favor of marrying a wealthy man called Tom Buchanan. Nevertheless, Gatsy is still in love with her after all these years and does everything in his power to get her back; he buys a house right across from her, he hosts massive parties in the hopes that she will attend one, he befriends her cousin Nick, and he even takes the blame when she murders her husband’s mistress. In the end, Daisy abandons him and he is shot to death by the husband of Tom Buchanan’s mistress.

While reading this story, I could not help but wonder why was Gatsby doing all these things for a girl who so clearly valued money over any love that he may feel for her? But then I realized that this book is supposed to be a critique of the ‘American Dream’ and I realized that perhaps Daisy was intended to be the physical embodiment of this idea. No matter how much wealth, power, or popularity Gatsby earns, he can never truly reach Daisy and the closer he gets to her, the quicker it all falls apart. Just like Daisy, the ‘American Dream’ is unattainable to Gatsby no matter how hard he tries.

This is a read that I would honestly recommend to anyone, maybe even more to the people who already read it in high school. It is an extremely interesting take on the traditional American ideals and the realities behind them.

But, if you don’t feel like going through this book again I also really recommend the 2013 film ‘The Great Gatsby’ starring Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway, Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, and Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan.

As Halloween approaches, I thought it would only be appropriate to explore a book to get us in the spooky mood. After all, what could be more terrifying than living in a town full of puritans? You guessed it; today we’re talking about “The Crucible”.

This book (Although it’s –technically- a play) was written by Arthur Miller; he was an American playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and I would even call him a sort of activist. (Fun fact, he also was Marilyn Monroe’s husband for a time)

“The Crucible” relates (in a fictionalized manner) the events of the Salem Witch Trials, it illustrates the dangers and consequences of blind faith in religion. Although there are many important characters, the main ones are John Proctor and Abigail Williams.

(SPOILERS!) Abigail is a young girl in the town of Salem who worked for John Proctor and his wife; they have an affair and he ends it. One night she goes into the woods to dance with her friends and a slave called Tituba, the town reverend sees them. Afterward, Betty (One of Abigail’s friends) falls into a coma-like state and wakes up ‘possessed’, because of this, Tituba is harshly questioned and ‘admits’ to doing black magic and accuses other people of Salem of also dealing with the devil. Abigail joins her in the accusations (Fueled partly by fear and her hatred of Proctor’s wife).

Basically, everything escalates from there thanks to Abigail until John himself, his wife, and other women are taken as witches and killed when John refuses to give a false confession.

This book depicts multiple themes such as hysteria, faith, corruption, fear, and indoctrination. The blind devotion of this puritan society to virtue gives way to mass hysteria and chaos. Each individual is so consumed with saving themselves that any semblance of rationality is abandoned in favor of protection and ‘salvation’; the town may genuinely believe that the devil has infiltrated their community and they are willing to commit heinous crimes to get rid of him. “The Crucible” explicitly demonstrates just how dangerous this kind of mentality can be; blind belief and false accusations will kill if we let them.

An interesting fact about this book is that it not only aims to portray the mass hysteria against witches and the devil in a repressive puritan society centuries ago, but its purpose was actually to serve as a warning at the time of its publication.

Arthur Miller published his work in the year 1953 and if we trace back to see what was happening at that time we’ll find ourselves within the ‘Red Scare’. One could say that at this time the United States was having a second round of witch trials, except this time their target was communists. The McCarthy trials were frighteningly similar to what is depicted in “The Crucible”: Mass hysteria takes over a group of people who are so terrified of being accused of a certain evil that they turn on anyone and everyone to save themselves even if it means condemning another.

I believe that through this book Miller shows a really interesting example of how authors can create an allegory for events within their own time and provide an opportunity to view the situation with hindsight while it occurs. I definitely recommend everyone give it a read. And if you don’t feel like going through three acts of puritans fearing the devil I would also really recommend the 1996 movie of the same name with Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder.

Have you ever had one of those friends who is really obsessed with skincare and how they look? Well, in today’s entry we’re going to see what can happen when the newest skincare trend is murder!

In case you hadn’t guessed by now, the book we’re talking about today is ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’. This book is the only published novel by author Oscar Wilde.

This novel relates the story of a young man, Dorian Gray, who meets the artist Basil Howard and lets him paint his portrait.

Everything changes when Howard introduces him to his friend; Lord Henry (or Harry) Wotton. Henry is the kind of man who believes that being youthful and beautiful is the best thing in life (Besides alcohol and sex) and Dorian quickly becomes obsessed with the idea of youth.

After his portrait is finished he resents it for the beauty and youth it will hold while he ages so he wishes that the picture grow old instead of him. Lucky (or maybe not?) for Dorian, his wish comes true and he will stop at nothing to protect his secret (Yes he kills people).

Until I read this book I only recognized Wilde for his playwrights but this story truly shows the talent he possessed. Even though his writing explores dark themes with suspense and tension, the dialogue and characters remain witty and humorous. He builds complex and interesting characters with intricate wants and motivations, the events and dialogues flow with a solid rhythm, and the language used, even if it was written in 1891, is not too difficult to get through.

The concept that this book explores is extremely interesting to me as we see a character descend into madness in the search for eternal, not life, but beauty. Dorian had no particular desire of living forever, his obsession was with the beauty that youth ensures, and while that might seem incredibly frivolous when we see the lengths he goes to preserve it I think it showcases a much larger issue that our society has.

It appears that since this book was written the world truly has not changed; we are still obsessed with being young and beautiful. Though individuals don’t attempt and commit murder for it in real life I would argue that’s just because it’s not as effective as plastic surgery. Since childhood, we are exposed to the desire that people have to remain as they once were and at some point in our lives, we start to share that belief. I would argue that ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ is a cautionary tale of the insanity that is wanting to hold on to the past.

Now, there are plenty of adaptations of this book but I have to admit that my favorite one is the 2009 film ‘Dorian Gray‘. This movie stars Ben Barnes as Dorian Gray, Colin Firth as Lord Henry, and Ben Chaplin as Basil Howard. Objectively, it is not the best adaptation as it skips over some events and characters. Nevertheless, I would say that my favoritism comes from its aesthetic so if you are not really interested in reading the entire novel I definitely recommend you watch this film to enjoy both the story and the visuals.

Hello! Another post, another day to convince you guys I actually know what I’m doing. In today’s entry, I’ve decided to venture outside of my usual reads and into the modern world to explore a truly unique book; Daisy Jones and the Six.

I have to admit that I first heard about this book through TikTok but I ask everyone to at least hear me out before judging it. This novel was written by Taylor Jenkins Reid and it tells the story of a young upcoming music star called Daisy Jones and the band she is paired with; the Six. The band is made up of Billy and Graham Dunne, Warren Rhodes, Eddie, Karen Sirko, and Pete Loving. In the book, we explore the conflicts and personal struggles that arise in the reckless and excessive world of artists and fame (Drugs, sex, trauma, and messy relationships).

Personally, I think this book is a masterpiece. The story is told through an oral-interview style; the characters are interviewed by an (to avoid spoilers) unknown narrator.  They each relate the events through their personal perspectives and opinions; sometimes the accounts differ, sometimes the same occurrence is viewed completely differently, sometimes a character has no idea of world-changing incidents for another character, etc.

I had never read a book written like this and it truly created a completely new literary interaction for me, it helped me connect with the characters and genuinely understand their actions and motivations because I could see the full picture of the story through all the possible lenses simultaneously.

What I also love about this book is its portrayal of its main character; Daisy Jones. She is a strong female protagonist who truly feels like a real person. I know that may sound weird but I’ve found that oftentimes when we read books centered around a female protagonist some authors tend to portray them with little to no flaws, or they will try and make their not-so-perfect characteristics into something endearing.

This novel subverts this and shows Daisy as an extremely talented and beautiful individual with issues, and flaws, who can make bad decisions. She is just as inspiring as she is disastrous.

She realizes from a young age how the people around her will try and exploit her and her talent for themselves but refuses to provide inspiration without recognition.  This situation actually provides one of my favorite quotes from the book; “I had absolutely no interest in being somebody else’s muse. I am not a muse. I am the somebody. End of fucking story.”

And as much as that determination is admirable, she is also oftentimes a self-destructive person. (SPOILER WARNING). Throughout the book, she is constantly struggling with drugs but after she kisses Billy; Daisy impulsively abandons the country, gets married, almost overdoses, gets divorced, and then almost overdoses once again; “It scared me that the only thing between this moment of calm and the biggest tragedy of my life was me choosing not to do it.”-Daisy Jones. She is a complex and remarkable character.

I consider this to be a book truly unique to its genre. The fiction within it is so well crafted and realistic that for the longest time I genuinely thought it was some sort of fan fiction for Fleetwood Mac. I cannot recommend this novel enough AND it’s soon getting an on-screen adaptation so if you don’t really feel like reading it you can always wait for the show.