terrifyinglyficional

Back and Better Than Ever! - Where I've Been + An Update

Wow, has it been a while!

The start of a new decade has been a crazy one for me and I bet, many of you readers as well! I decided to take a break from blogging and whatnot at the end of 2019 to gather myself for the new year; new goals, new expectations.

But what I had planned to be a week-long break, turned into a month; which then, evidently turned into a year and then some.

I've had so many changes in my life in the past year; from a new location, to then being married. I also have some of the same things that I was doing previously, but paused in the last year that I wanted to update you all on as well!

So grab a glass of wine, or a cup of coffee, and let's chat, like two old friends catching up with each other!

For starters, let's get the big elephant out of the room! I got married to what you all know as my "Handsome Boyfriend" yes, I see those Instagram messages - thank you. We had a very intimate wedding with immediate family only and it was lovely. I didn't announce it on my blog, but I did talk about it on my Instagram; Eric and I got engaged in December of 2019 and ended up getting married in October 2020 - very fitting for me, am I right!

We had to do two weddings for our "actual" wedding to work: a civil wedding and our church wedding. I did end up writing a quick blogpost on Vocal about our wedding, and how we had it during COVID-19. For those who would like to read it, the link for it is here.

I also ended up moving to Rhode Island from Toronto after we got married which has also been pretty fun! It's a huge change from Toronto, for me personally and I did struggle with a LOT of homesickness the first couple of months after I moved; particularly during the holiday season, but I really am starting to get used to being more independent which is nice!

I talk a bit about my move and my life on my Instagram stories; for those who are interested and don't follow me on there, my Instagram is @terrifyinglyfictional

Another change to my life is that we have two new furry sons!

My husband Eric adopted our dog Bruno in January 2020 from the Animal Shelter and he's the sweetest boy ever! Bruno is a 4-year-old Doberman Pinscher with Dwarfism and he's brought a lot of light into our lives - and our relationship! He's such a cuddle bug, who's obsessed with food (like any other dog) and loves belly rubs!

Although Eric adopted Bruno in January, I didn't get to actually meet Bruno until I moved to Rhode Island back in August and we've been inseparable since!

We also have a brand new addition to our family, we adopted a baby Holland Lop Bunny which we decided to name Gizmo last month (January 2021) and it's definitely been a new experience for me! Eric has been around a free-roam rabbit for most of his teen years, so he knew what to expect, but this is my first and it's been a learning journey!

Our lop has just recently gotten comfortable with us but I also realized, feels like he requires more effort than our pup as he's still a baby and wanting to bite everything!

My reading habits have changed a lot in the last year as well, I started reading a lot of Adult High Fantasy which has been my main favorite genre at the moment; I'm sure most of the reviews you'll see on my blog will be Adult High Fantasy. But I also discovered a couple of new favorite genres! I branched out a little, in terms of reading and found a new love for Manga, Community & Culture, and Non-Fiction which you'll see a bit of on my blog in the future as well!

In terms of writing, I'm also still very dedicated to publishing my own book! The genre and content of my book have changed throughout the years, but late last year, I was able to find a genre and plotline that I was really passionate about! I took a couple of writing classes in 2020 that really helped me find the genre and writing style that fits well with what I want to do; I also talk to my husband about my work in progress (WIP) very often and he gives me feedback and critics my work often as well! I won't go into full detail about my book just yet, but I am writing a Fantasy novel with Asian Mythology aspects!

I was also able to talk to a local publisher who specifies in publishing indie books and that has really heightened my excitement and determination to finally publish my book! It's been a long-time coming, but I want to make it happen!

Speaking of updates that aren't really new; I took a year-long break from working with publishers and authors to just gather myself and read what I really want to read, without feeling stressed or overwhelmed with the books I'm supposed to read. I didn't accept or request any ARCs (Advance Reader Copy) in 2020 because I really wanted to focus on my reading.

Last year, I read 98 books! And I was able to figure out a great system that allowed me to read a good amount of pages a day, whilst also balancing other things like work - I'm still trying to perfect the balance but February is the month for it!

That being said, I started accepting ARCs and Author Review Requests again! I'm really excited about this because there are a lot of ARC's I've received for books I'm really excited to read and review for you all! :)

*If you are an author or a publisher, and are interested in sending me a copy of your book to review, please email me at jessreadsalatte@gmail.com as it's highly unlikely that I will answer your DM Requests*

I also started bullet journaling which has been my way of organizing not only my life but also my reading and writing. I'm planning on doing more posts on my bullet journal spreads in the future as well because it seems like you all are pretty interested in my bujo journey!

As for my reading in 2020, not much has changed, other than genres. I read 98 books in 2020 like I mentioned and I really enjoyed most of my reads! Surprisingly, for being in quarantine for most of the year, I read roughly the same amount of books that I'd read any other year - I'm hoping to still write a blog post on all the books I enjoyed last year, but we'll see if I'm able to make that happen.

For this year's reading goal, I'm still aiming to read 75 books in 2021 but I'm hoping to add a lot more diversity to my reads this year; that means more authors by BIPOC, POC, people from the LGBTQ+ community, and more!

I'm really excited you all have been by my side, even after the 1-year hiatus I took from my blog but I'm excited for you all to see the posts that's I plan to do on here!

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, by jessreadsalatte

Whoa Stranger Things! - The Institute Review (Spoilers)

The Institute by Stephen King

The Institute follows our main character Luke, a very intelligent child who is kidnapped from his home in Minneapolis and woken up in a room that looks exactly like his own but no windows. Luke suddenly realizes he's at The Institute; home for other kids with telekinesis and telepathy. As Luke realizes something isn't right with this place, he desperately tries to escape; but no one has ever escaped The Institute before.

*Trigger Warning for abuse and suicide in this book*

I really wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I did!

When this book was just announced, I was really excited; mainly because I was worried that Stephen King wasn't going to publish anything this year. The more I read about the plot, the more I was really excited to read this.

The Institute screams Stranger Things. I know Stranger Things is based on several Stephen King works, including Firestarter, IT, and The Mist. But if you were to compare Stranger Things with one Stephen King book, it would be The Institute.

There's so many aspects of this book that made it absolutely incredible. For starters, the characters in this novel are so genuine. I find that Stephen King creates the best characters, especially his child characters; Danny Torrence from The Shining, young Jamie from Revival, Gage from Pet Sematary, The Losers Club from IT, etc. Luke Ellis was definitely no different.

I realize that I seem to love King's child characters more because you feel more sympathy for their pain opposed to his adult characters. Not that I didn't feel bad when John Coffey from The Green Mile was put on death row and executed for something he didn't do. But when kids are put in dangerous situation, it gives you a different feeling.

The torture Luke's friend Avery had to go through because he lied to protect Luke during his escape broke my heart. Luke's constant beating and being electrocuted because he didn't want to admit he "saw the dots" broke my heart. Seeing innocent children go through pain gives you a different kind of feeling in comparison to an adult.

I found the group dynamic to be super sweet and genuine as well. I loved Luke's interactions with the other kids at The Institute and have quickly fallen in love with each of them as they were my own children. Which by the way, if you've read The Institute at all, is it just me or does anyone else picture Jacob Tremblay as the perfect Luke Ellis? Intelligent yet funny and sweet.

Every single person Luke has met from Kalysha to Maureen to Tim to Avery was so genuine and they all wanted to help Luke and like-wise, Luke wanted to help them.

Which, speaking of characters, Avery and Maureen's deaths were both something I wasn't expecting. More so, Avery's I thought was really sad, although things were leading up to it and it was bound to happen now looking back, but Maureen's was so sad because I really wasn't expecting her to kill herself. When I read her death scene, I really did gasp out loud.

Writing-wise, Stephen King is known to write every single detail in his books. That means, some readers aren't a huge fan of his books because they sometimes seem to drag on. I personally don't mind it as I love reading anything King writes but I found The Institute to be one of his more gripping books.

This book is constantly go-go-go. There's very little moments that felt too slow or that King added parts that weren't necessary. Every part of this book was not only fast-paced but eventful as well.

I really enjoyed reading this mainly because it was so hard to put this book down! I think I easily finished the last 200-300 pages in about a day or two, it was just that good!

Now, I've seen mixed reviews for this book, mainly because Stephen King has been getting more and more political in his writing lately so I can see how some of the parts in this book (especially the last 200 pages) can be a miss for some. I personally don't really mind although I understand that most people are here to enjoy the content and not the politics added.

The only real problem I had with this book was that I really hoped they expanded a little more on why they're doing all the torture and testing on kids and how it affects them, generally.

I know it's expanded throughout the book, but very roughly. There's a scene at the end of the book where Bill (I believe is his name) is educating Tim on Precogs, BDNFs and why The Institute was made, but I was a little disappointed that King decided to throw all that detail at the end and give us a small piece of the apple.

If I were to pick, I'd love to have this information spread throughout the book, generously because I think that element is just as interesting and important as Luke's experience at The Institute.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed the book! I loved that King threw in his little references to his other works like he always does, where in this novel they mentioned several books but The Shining reference with the Grady Twins stuck out to me the most!

I know that before The Institute was out, a lot of people said it was similar to Firestarter and said it's a must to read Firestarter first and honestly, if you didn't I think you'd be okay! I ended up reading Firestarter though but found very little connection to the two other than the fact that the kids had similar powers!

If you, or anyone you know loves Stranger Things, I highly recommend this book!

If you've read The Institute, what did you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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, by jessreadsalatte

I've Been Waiting So Long Just To Do This! - TMI vs TID

Happy Monday friends!

I'm back with more tag posts because I love doing them and you all seem to love reading them.

For a while now, I really wanted to do emmmabooks' Shadowhunter tags (TMI vs TID and TMI vs TID vs TDA). If you aren't aware by now, I love the Shadowhunter world and always love diving into this world whenever I can.

I decided to do The Mortal Instruments vs. The Infernal Devices because they are the only two series I've read so far; although I am slowly getting through the first book of The Dark Artifices because I want to catch up before Chain of Gold comes out next year!

If you want to watch Emma's original video, the link will be here. With that being said, let's see which one I prefer better. (Although I think I know which one it is already and I think you guys know too lol)

Favourite Main Character: Clary or Tessa?

So I bet you all know how I felt about Clary during the first three The Mortal Instruments books, so I'll definitely have to say Tessa. I feel like I loved her character right from the start and she will definitely be one of my favourite female YA characters.

Favourite Herondale: Jace or Will?

Oh the Herondale boys. I end up loving any Herondale Cassie Clare writes, but you all know how much I love Will.

Favourite Love Triangle: Simon, Jace and Clary or Will, Jem and Tessa?

I personally didn't see Simon, Jace and Clary as a love triangle, whereas I was stuck on who Tessa should have ended up with so I'd say Will, Jem and Tessa are the better love triangle.

Favourite Villain: Sebastian or The Magister?

As much as I enjoyed The Magister's character, I didn't seem to hate him as much as I hated Sebastian. And I loved to hate Sebastian. I thought he was a very complex and dark villain so for this one, I'd give TMI a point.

Better Army: The Clockwork Army or The Dark Army?

If I'm being honest, both were quite terrifying. The Clockwork Army were terrifying because they were animatronics built to kill but I'm going to have to say The Dark Army for this one. Only because they're Shadowhunters themselves against the system and rules. "It really be your own people"

Better First Book: City of Bones or Clockwork Angel?

Clockwork Angel, hands down. I feel like because City of Bones was Cassandra Clare's first book, there was a lot of things lacking and it wasn't as well written or entertaining as Clockwork Angel in my opinion.

Favourite Female Sidekick: Isabelle Lightwood or Cecily Herondale?

I personally really love both characters, but I feel like Izzy can take the throne for this one. Only because she was in all 6 books whereas Cecily was only really in one.

Better Setting: The New York Institute or The London Institute?

I absolutely love both institutes. But I agree when I say as much as I'd love to live in The London Institute, The New York one seems to be more dated and technologically advance. It's also the first institute we are introduced to so it's easier to become attached to it.

Favourite Last Book in the Series: City of Heavenly Fire or Clockwork Princess?

To be honest, City of Heavenly Fire was an amazing last book. Not saying that Clockwork Princess wasn't because I do think it was just as good; I just feel like the suspense was built and I loved every moment of it. Clockwork Princess was a good ending but not a great ending in my opinion; a lot fell short for me and I think it's my least favourite book of the trilogy.

Better Epilogue: City of Heavenly Fire or Clockwork Princess?

Both epilogues are amazing. Although, I really have to give it to Clockwork Princess for this one. I really sobbed while reading it and I was quite satisfied with the epilogue itself. (I can't wait for Chain of Gold because of it!!)

Tallying up all my answers, I'm really surprised it's a tie!

The first three books from The Mortal Instruments series wasn't the greatest in my opinion in comparison to all of The Infernal Devices but I do admit that it picks up in the last three books!

I'm really vocal about how much I love The Infernal Devices so I'm really surprised that it was tied for me!

Take the little this or that quiz and let me know which one won for you: The Mortal Instruments or The Infernal Devices!

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, by jessreadsalatte

It's Better Late Than Never.. - April OwlCrate Unboxing

I know what you guys are thinking by just looking at the title. Yes, I am months late from this unboxing, haha whoopsies.

I had already written this post but I never ended up posting this because I went on hiatus -- where I also decided to rebrand everything, shortly after. But I asked on Instagram if you guys still wanted to see it and majority of you all said yes, so here we are!

I've been meaning to dive into more blog post topics other than reviews, as you guys can probably tell, and I've decided I really want to start getting into book box reviews as well.

I decided to purchase my first book subscription box (kinda, because I used to get comic ones a couple years back lol) and review it for you.

This was my first time buying an OwlCrate box. I see them often on my feed but I've never really been interested until recently. The only reason why I'm never really interested in subscription boxes is because you do get random items for random book series and sometimes, you aren't a fan of all of them.

The purpose of these reviews is to give you guys my opinion on the box, my first impressions, and whether or not I think the products are worth it.

With that being said, let's get into my review of my very first OwlCrate box!

Like I said above, I got the April 2019 box which the theme was The Dark Side.

For starters, what really drew me to this box was the fact that April's theme was based on YA villains, whom I love the most. I believe OwlCrate said there would be items based on books like Throne of Glass, Shadow and Bone, Six of Crows and something Schwab related; which I'm a fan of all of them so I decided to go for this one.

I wanted to mention that I do live in Canada, so for the box and shipping, I believe I paid roughly $50 and it arrived in a fair amount of time; probably a week to a week and a half since I got the shipping notice.

When I purchased this box, I wasn't really sure what to expect. Like I said, I've only really received comic-related boxes in the past and I was honestly quite pleased with them because the themes weren't so generalized.

I had previously received a Doctor Strange box that included all things Doctor Strange (from mugs, to Funko Vinyls, to shirts, etc.) and I've also received a general Marvel box (which again, I received comics, and collectibles). But because this box is so broad, I wasn't sure what to expect.

The first thing I pulled out was this purple scarf which is themed after The Darkling from the Grisha Verse by Leigh Bardugo. I'm pretty sure OwlCrate had given a little spoiler for this on their story, so I knew that this was going to be in the box. I don't typically wear scarves that are themed/have print on them but I was really excited to use this for photos -- although, I realized I haven't yet.

The next thing that was in this box is this piece of cloth, which is a map from The Wicked Saints from Emily A Duncan. When I first pulled it out, I really thought this was a handkerchief, but I was informed by a follower shortly after that it's a mini tapestry. Personally, I was the most confused for this item, because I didn't end up using it that way. I also think of the huge wall tapestries when I think of tapestries in general, so I was very confused.

The third thing I saw in the box was a snippet of Finale by Stephanie Garber. This, I was incredibly excited for because the Caraval trilogy is one of my favourites, if you guys didn't know. I have never received samplers just yet so I was excited when I saw this!

Another thing I was really excited for was these Six of Crow socks! Six of Crows is one of my favourite duologies so when I saw this, I was excited. I don't seem to wear a lot of fancy socks (I'm really a plain white sock kinda gal) but I have tried this on around the house and I do love them. I always have to hide them from my sister's dog though because he loves to steal these.

The next thing in the box is this pop socket that is themed around VE/Victoria Schwab's Vicious series. I personally haven't read it yet but when I saw this, I was excited. I was looking for a pop socket for a while now, but Schwab is also one of my favourite writers, so I was so happy to get my hands on this! I did end up putting this on my phone case when I upgraded phones shortly after and it didn't last as long as the pop socket brand, unfortunately. I think I only had it on my phone for about a week until it kept falling off so I was a little bit disappointed.

The next thing in the box was a Throne of Glass inspired notebook. This notebook is more like a notepad where the book opens up from the top instead of the side. I also don't usually use notebooks as I write everything on my iPad with my Apple Pencil but I did think this was really pretty and would definitely use this as props for photos.

I believe OwlCrate always includes a pin as well, so this was the pin for the month of April. I believe it's themed around this month's book but I could definitely be wrong. I don't really collect pins though; mainly because shipping to Canada is so expensive, so I wasn't really phased to see this either.

To go with the pin, OwlCrate also provided this banner to keep all your pins on, but again, it wasn't useful for me so I wasn't really phased.

The last thing that came in the box is the book of the month and of course, it's Wicked Saints by Emily A Duncan. I was actually really excited for this because I was eyeballing this book at work a couple of days previous to my unboxing. The OwlCrate edition has a black cover opposed to the white and I honestly prefer this cover way more! It also includes a letter written by the author which I also thought was really cool.

So with all these products and with how much I've paid, do I think OwlCrate is worth it?

Yes and no. Yes because for $50, you get so much stuff that are probably worth much more than $50. The book it itself it probably $25. So I do think money-wise, it's definitely worth it.

However, for someone like myself who look for specific things in boxes, I don't think it's worth it. Only because I expected more collectibles, prints, and maybe even mugs. I know for a fact that most of the things I received in this box will be sitting in my prop box for a while because I won't use it.

I know that OwlCrate changes the king of items you receive in every box so I am really excited to see what they include in the future, though.

What book subscription would you like me to unbox next? Let me know down in the comments or on my Instagram!

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, by jessreadsalatte

Bringing Reviews Back! - Strange Weather Review (Some Spoilers)

Guess what I'm bringing back to my blog! Reviews! A couple of people had asked me to bring back reviews because sometimes Goodreads isn't as easily accessible to them and what not, so I thought I would start bringing them back onto my blog!

But, because it was super draining that I was reading faster than I was blogging, I'm only going to post reviews of select books onto my blog; that might be because it's a popular book or because I have a strong opinion on the context itself. So, not every book I'll read will be reviewed on here to save me more time on blogging and will make me feel less drained!

I've been really excited to bring these posts back and hope you guys are excited too!

Strange Weather by Joe Hill

Strange Weather is a bind up collection of four novellas written by horror writer Joe Hill and it consists of Snapshot, Loaded, Aloft and Rain.

*So I wanted to do something a little different with this review, and I wanted to not only talk about this collection as a whole, but I also wanted to talk about each of the stories individually as well.*

**Trigger Warning for gun violence**

I definitely wanted to read this collection before Full Throttle had come out - which it is out now and I definitely did finish reading beforehand, mainly because I wanted these to be the expectation setter for the next collection as weird as that sounds. I just thought that four stories would be easier to consume first than the eight or however many is out with Full Throttle and I'm happy I did.

I genuinely enjoyed this collection as a whole and seemed to really enjoy Joe Hill's writing throughout the whole collection. I'll admit, a couple of stories were a little off for me or some parts bored me, which I'll get to in a little bit but I did really like this set for the most part.

Snapshot

Snapshot follows a kid who is haunted by a man that carries a Polaroid camera which steals memories. This story is probably one of my favourites in the collection because of how much the characters really consume you. (I cannot remember the kid's name for the life of me, so we're going to call him kid throughout the review lol) Right from the very start, I felt very attached to the kid as if he was my own son - as if we're that much apart age-wise lol, but I genuinely wanted to protect him at all costs. The fact that he's so driven to protect his previous babysitter who is now elderly was so precious to me, but he figured everything out when it came to the Phoenician and wanted to defeat it right away. I had watched an interview with Joe Hill after reading this novella and I loved how he related this novella to a person witnessing a loved one suffering with dementia and I thought that was the sweetest thing.

Loaded

Loaded follows a mall cop who had just gotten custody of his son, and has just witnessed a mistress shooting her boss. This was the story that made me feel the most uncomfortable. I can read anything; you guys know how much I love horror and all that, and I can even bare scenes with sexual assault and what not, but gun violence always gets to me, so this was a hard pill to swallow. For starters, this is the longest story between the four; I believe it's at least half the book. This story also has multiple ways of portraying gun violence, not just the one with the mistress who kills her boss; but also, the mall cop automatically assumes the lady who is Muslim and also in the shop (held hostage) is the reason why the gun violence is occurring, so he shoots her, not knowing it was not her and that she was also carrying her baby - which by the way, was so heartbreaking. What made me so uncomfortable is that this is a real-life thing; like it could potentially happen and thats scary. I also read an interview from Joe Hill about this story and he says he wants the readers to be uncomfortable because it seems like media coverage doesn't make people worry enough and after reading that interview, I get what he means. More people seem to be concerned about books and movies than they do with what's happening in reality so it makes sense that Joe Hill has incorporated this in his collection as well. It's a hard pill to swallow, but also a huge slap in the face.

Aloft

Aloft follows a man who skydives but falls on a strange cloud. I think this was my least favourite of the four. Not because it was written poorly but because I was really bored for most of it. I really liked the fact that Joe Hill tried to incorporate the whole "aliens are real" within this story and it seemed to fit the reality of what people in our society believe. (I think aliens are real, fight me). I'll admit it was quite interesting at first but it seemed that the more I read through the story, the more I was losing interest.

Rain

Rain is about a storm occurring across a city in Colorado, although it isn't raining water, but sharp crystals than can kill anyone or anything that isn't under a sustainable shelter. This was my second favourite of the four. I found the concept to be very interesting especially because of how vivid Joe Hill draws the scenes! You witness the main character's pain as he sees his future wife being ripped to shreds just a couple of feet in front of him and you can feel his heartbreak and devastation. And I think this is an important twist to a story to make people be afraid of all the climate change we are dealing with right now. I mean, I can't say if the sky will ever rain nails though.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this collection by Joe Hill. You can really see a lot of writing techniques and what not that Joe has inherited from his dad because at some points, I forgot that I was reading a Joe Hill book and not a Stephen King collection.

I also really enjoyed the fact that Joe Hill decided to dive into different societal occurrences that are popular right now and give it a little more horror twist - as if some of them even needed it; Snapshot with dementia, Loaded with gun violence, Aloft with aliens, and Rain with climate change. Although I did have a couple of rough spots with some of the stories, I do think some of them I'd read again (Rain and Loaded for sure.)

What do you guys think? If you'v read Joe Hill's Strange Weather, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Also, what do you guys think of this way of reviewing short stories? Love it? Hate it? Let me know on here or on my Instagram!