Feature Follow Friday: Book Reviews

Every Friday Parajunkee and Alison Can Read hosts Feature Follow Friday. It's a great way to get to know the blogging community and they ask fun questions!

This week's Question is:

How do you write your reviews? - Suggested by Blue Books and Butterflies.

Before I started this blog, I blogged with my awesome cousin over at Books Are Bread. She is a much more organized blogger and reviewer then I am and her reviews are epic. So one day we came up with a guide to how we would review books (e.g. sections we would always include). I still follow that one because I think it works. 

It goes pretty much like this:

Title of Awesome Book

By: Really Cool Author

Genre: YA/MG Probably-Sci-Fi-but-I-also-read-other-genres

Publisher: Some Book Publisher

POV: First Person/Third Person

Rating: ? out of 5

Synopsis of book that I pretty much just take from Goodreads or backcover summaries.

Main Character: Where I try to describe the main character, but always fail to fully put my thoughts on paper.

Love Connection: Because let's be honest, EVERY YA book has one.

Allies and Enemies: Where I get to talk about the awesome secondary characters. Sometimes a secondary character takes a book from good to great, from great to awesome, from awesome to OMFG.

Diversity (optional): To be fair, I don't do this section as much (even though I'm a huge proponent of #WNDB). I just don't review as many books as I used to, but once I do I assume I'll be reviewing diverse books (since those are the ones in my TBR queue). And because I think having some genuine diversity in a book makes it super rad.

Setting: Pretty self-explanatory section.

Random Thoughts: My wonderful review of the book in general, and where I talk about the good, the bad, and the interesting.

And if it's a series review:

Series Rating: ? out of 5

Insert random thoughts about the entire series, the entire world, and the characters' overarching development. Also, include some random pop-culture references, and try to sneak in a Totoro or Gundam Wing reference.

How do you guys review books? Any suggestions for stepping up my reviewing game?

Top Ten Tuesday: FREEBIE - Covers/Titles that Made me buy the Book

The Broke and the Bookish host a weekly meme of Top Ten Lists.

This week's question is:

FREEBIE

So I chose from old TTTs: Covers or Titles that made you buy the book

 The Night Circus
By: Erin Morgenstern

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called "Le Cirque des Reves," and it is only open at night.
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead. 

Why: Well, to be honest, I wanted this book anyway (magicians, score! But the cover helped a lot with my desire to read it, it's just so well designed and cool.

Strange and Ever After

By: Susan Dennard

 Eleanor Fitt must control her growing power, face her feelings for Daniel, and confront the evil necromancer Marcus...all before it’s too late.
He took her brother, he took her mother, and now, Marcus has taken her good friend Jie. With more determination than ever to bring this sinister man to justice, Eleanor heads to the hot desert streets of nineteenth-century Egypt in hopes of ending this nightmare. But in addition to her increasingly tense relationships with Daniel, Joseph, and her demon, Oliver, Eleanor must also deal with her former friend, Allison, who has curiously entangled herself in Eleanor’s mission.
With the rising dead chomping at her every move and Jie’s life hanging in the balance, Eleanor is convinced that her black magic will see her through to the bitter end. But there will be a price. Though she and the Spirit Hunters have weathered every battle thus far, there will be consequences to suffer this time—the effects of which will be irreversible. And when it’s over, only some will be able to live a strange and ever after.

Why: I just like her dress, and the background, and her face. 

A Thousand Pieces of You

By: Claudia Gray

Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.
Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt—and her own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is more sinister than she ever could have imagined.
A Thousand Pieces of You explores a reality where we witness the countless other lives we might lead in an amazingly intricate multiverse, and ask whether, amid infinite possibilities, one love can endure.

Why: Again, I wanted this book based on the plot. But I also loved the cover. I saw it at ALA 2014 and it immediately spoke to my soul. I went over and grabbed it to see what it was all about and I was so happy that I loved the idea of the plot as well.

Falls the Shadow

By: Stefanie Gaither

When Cate Benson was a kid, her sister, Violet, died. Two hours after the funeral, Cate’s family picked up Violet’s replacement. Like nothing had happened. Because Cate’s parents are among those who decided to give their children a sort of immortality—by cloning them at birth—which means this new Violet has the same smile. The same perfect face. Thanks to advancements in mind-uploading technology, she even has all of the same memories as the girl she replaced.
She also might have murdered the most popular girl in school.
At least, that’s what the paparazzi and the anti-cloning protestors want everyone to think: that clones are violent, unpredictable monsters. Cate is used to hearing all that. She’s used to defending her sister, too. But Violet has vanished, and when Cate sets out to find her, she ends up in the line of fire instead. Because Cate is getting dangerously close to secrets that will rock the foundation of everything she thought was true.
In a thrilling debut, Stefanie Gaither takes readers on a nail-biting ride through a future that looks frighteningly similar to our own time and asks: how far are you willing to go to keep your family together?

Why: I don't think I usually buy books because of covers. Moreso, I look at a book in the store because of the cover. That's probably why I looked at this book and the plot is kind of twisted and intriguing.

Red Queen

By: Victoria Aveyard

The poverty stricken Reds are commoners, living under the rule of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers.
To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.
Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the centre ofthose she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.
But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win?

Why: I kind of followed the progression of this book as it was about to be published, so I knew about it before the cover reveal. But this cover is so creepy and beautiful at the same time, I like it a lot and it hints at the story inside, which I love in any cover.

The Girl of Midnight

By: Melissa Grey

Beneath the streets of New York City live the Avicen, an ancient race of people with feathers for hair and magic running through their veins. Age-old enchantments keep them hidden from humans. All but one. Echo is a runaway pickpocket who survives by selling stolen treasures on the black market, and the Avicen are the only family she's ever known.
Echo is clever and daring, and at times she can be brash, but above all else she's fiercely loyal. So when a centuries-old war crests on the borders of her home, she decides it's time to act.
Legend has it that there is a way to end the conflict once and for all: find the Firebird, a mythical entity believed to possess power the likes of which the world has never seen. It will be no easy task, though if life as a thief has taught Echo anything, it's how to hunt down what she wants . . . and how to take it.
But some jobs aren't as straightforward as they seem. And this one might just set the world on fire.

Why: I love epic fantasies, and this book has the makings of one for sure. Plus, the cover is beautiful, I had to see what it was about when I saw that design and I was not disappointed by the synopsis. I haven't read it yet, but it's definitely on my TBR.

 Blackbirds

By: Chuck Wendig

Miriam Black knows when you will die. 
She’s foreseen hundreds of car crashes, heart attacks, strokes, and suicides.
But when Miriam hitches a ride with Louis Darling and shakes his hand, she sees that in thirty days Louis will be murdered while he calls her name. Louis will die because he met her, and she will be the next victim.
No matter what she does she can’t save Louis. But if she wants to stay alive, she’ll have to try.

Why: I saw Chuck Wendig speak at a writing conference and immediately knew I wanted to read his books. He's got a very dry sense of humor and an unapologetic way of putting his words in front of you. But at the same time his words are worth listening to. 

The Paper Magician

By: Charlie N. Holmberg

Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic despite her dreams of bespelling metal. And once she’s bonded to paper, that will be her only magic… forever.
Yet the spells Ceony learns under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to be more marvelous than she could have ever imagined — animating paper creatures, bringing stories to life via ghostly images, even reading fortunes. But as she discovers these wonders, Ceony also learns of the extraordinary dangers of forbidden magic.
An Excisioner — a practitioner of dark, flesh magic — invades the cottage and rips Thane’s heart from his chest. To save her teacher’s life, Ceony must face the evil magician and embark on an unbelievable adventure that will take her into the chambers of Thane’s still-beating heart—and reveal the very soul of the man.

Why: I like the premise of this book. I liked it before I saw the cover (like all these books apparently, hehe). But I also really like the cover because it hints at the plot and I love those kinds of covers (as I've said above as well. I suppose you guys can see a pattern here...)

Oh The Glory of it All

By: Sean Wilsey

When Sean, "the kind of child who sings songs to sick flowers," turns nine years old, his father divorces his mother and marries her best friend. Sean's life blows apart. His mother first invites him to commit suicide with her, then has a "vision" of salvation that requires packing her Louis Vuitton luggage and traveling the globe, a retinue of multiracial children in tow. Her goal: peace on earth (and a Nobel Prize). Sean meets Indira Gandhi, Helmut Kohl, Menachem Begin, and the pope, hoping each one might come back to San Francisco and persuade his father to rejoin the family. Instead, Sean is pushed out of San Francisco and sent spiraling through five high schools, till he finally lands at an unorthodox reform school cum "therapeutic community," in Italy.
With its multiplicity of settings and kaleidoscopic mix of preoccupations-sex, Russia, jet helicopters, seismic upheaval, boarding schools, Middle Earth, skinheads, home improvement, suicide, skateboarding, Sovietology, public transportation, massage, Christian fundamentalism, dogs, Texas, global thermonuclear war, truth, evil, masturbation, hope, Bethlehem, CT, eventual salvation (abridged list)—Oh the Glory of It All is memoir as bildungsroman as explosion.

Why: Legitimately bought this because of the cover and the title. I was also in a bit of a memoir kick and this one is a doozy.

Cinder

By: Marissa Meyer

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. 
Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Why: To be honest, my cousin gave me this book. But she gave it to me in a stack of books and I immediately chose this one to read first because of the cover.

Throwback Thursday Review: The Babysitters Club

The Baby-Sitters Club

By: Ann Martin

Genre: Contemporary MG/YA

First Published: 1986

Publisher: Scholastic (can't you tell by that sweet block lettering?)
Books in the Series: 131 (plus 15 super specials)
POV: First Person - Each book is a different Narrator

Rating: 4 out of 5

Description:

Follows the adventures of Kristy and the other members of the Baby-Sitters Club as they deal with crank calls, uncontrollable two-year-olds, wild pets, and parents who do not always tell the truth.

Main Character: There are five main characters. Each book is told from a different POV:

Kristy - President - She's a tomboy, a planner, and the idea woman. She has a lot of ideas and a big mouth that she boss people around with. That sounds mean, but that's kind of how she's described as. It's not a bad thing within the series since the other characters all love her.

Mary-Anne - Secretary - She's Kristy's best friend, and she's very organized. She's the shiest of the bunch, but she also happens to be the only character with a more permanent love-interest. (Perhaps because I hear Ann Martin based Mary-Anne on herself.) She and Dawn become step-sisters when their parents get married.

Claudia - Vice President - Japanese-American and an artist. The best random detail about Claudia is that she has a phone in her room and therefore, she can take calls "after hours," having a phone in your room was a big deal back then (so 90s). She does not fit in with her book-smart Japanese family, and only her grandmother, Mimi, seems to get her.

Stacey - Treasurer - She's a little bit of the outsider in the beginning. She just moved to Stoneybrook from New York City. So she's more urban and funky. She becomes bffs with Claudia because they both love fashion. She has diabetes, which I don't think has a huge stigma attached to it (at least now), but for part of the series she tries to keep this fact a secret. Which makes me wonder, did people really care so much about each other's eating habits/diets in the 90s?!

Dawn - Alternate officer - The other outsider of the group, but from the other side of the country. Dawn is from California. So, she loves health food and the environment (sometimes I realize this series is a little cliche/stereotypical, but it means well, so I'll forgive it).

Setting: Stonybrook, CT.

Review: So my sister was the one who first read The Baby-Sitters Club, and because our family did things right, I first read Baby-Sitters Club Little Sister books before I graduated to the actual Baby-Sitters Club. The funny thing is that there's nothing really inappropriate about the Baby-Sitters Club books that younger kids couldn't read, so I don't really know why the Little Sister books were necessary (But I may be looking back in hindsight during a time when kids are reading the Hunger Games where kids are actually killing each other.)

Anyway, this series was fun. That's the best way I can describe it. There was a great television series made about it and a pretty decent movie as well starring a young Larisa Oleynik and Rachael Leigh Cook, ah the 90s. (I preferred the TV show, maybe because I liked the casting of Kristy and Claudia better).

The teen problems of the 90s (at least in fiction) were such innocent things. Stuff like the boy you like not liking you back. Or Claudia having to pass a math test even though she's obviously more of a creative soul. Don't get me wrong, there are also real teen issues as well. Like the fact that Mallory has a kajillion siblings. Or Kristy's big mixed family that includes a stepfather, stepsiblings, and an adopted sister. Or when Dawn and Mary-Anne's parents get married and they are suddenly siblings. 

At the end of the day, the series is about friendship. No matter what the girls (and some guys) are going through they always have each other. There are whole books that kind of drive that message home really hard (like when Stacey quits the club for a hot second and gets all new friends and then realizes that she misses the Baby-Sitters Club when her new friends are mean to her). To be honest, no individual book in this series really stood out to me. But I always enjoyed spending time with the characters. And the series was so 90s that it makes me both laugh and sigh with nostalgia. 

Recommendations: Sweet Valley Twins by Francine Pascal

Feature Follow Friday: Book Hangover Cures

Every Friday Parajunkee and Alison Can Read hosts Feature Follow Friday. It's a great way to get to know the blogging community and they ask fun questions!

This week's question is:

How do you cure a book hangover/blogging slump/reading slump? - Suggested by Take Me Away....

I see these as three different questions, so I will answer all of them separately:

 Book Hangover - I define this as being emotionally drained after reading a really great book or series. I feel like I can't even think or process anything because I've just gone through so many emotions (This also happens to me when I watch a really good show).

I have a detox book that I try to read to get me down from the emotional high. Ironically, it is also a very emotional book, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Perhaps it is because I've read the book so many times, or maybe because I feel like the book is very "real" feeling (even with the fantastical time travelling elements). Either way, it helps me detox from my book hangovers and I can go on living a normal life.

Blogging Slump - Not having any ideas of what to blog about, no time, or just no motivation to blog.

I rely heavily on Memes when this happens. And you can probably tell that I'm in a major blogging slump this month. I just try to power through and make sure I'm posting something at least once or twice a week because maybe I'll be inspired to write more posts eventually. I also try to pre-write a lot of reviews and posts when I am in an upswing, and use those as filler when I am in a blogging slump.

Reading Slump - I am always motivated to read, but I would define this as not knowing what to read next (often created by a TBR list that's just too big, or maybe being too emotionally drained aka in a Book Hangover).

I just start to read a bunch of books at the same time and whatever sticks, I just keep reading it. I have gotten into a lot of random series this way and it's actually really fun. So, for me reading slumps are often a great time :)

Adventures in Revising: Writer's Block

This post is written because of my own personal writer's block that I've been experiencing for a few months now. It is an issue of changing up my whole life (new city, new job, new apartment) and then letting that get in the way of writing. So I needed to find a way to pull myself out of my writer's block. 

I went to some of my favorite writing blogs to get advice:

Literary Rambles

Brenda Drake's Making Connections

Dorothy Dreye's We Do Write

Chuck Wendig's Terribleminds Blog

Krista Van Dolzer's Mother.Write.Repeat

1. I think critiquing another's work (as a CP) could help you get your mind around the basics of your own writing. Reading often helps my writing, and reading with the thought to lend constructive criticism makes your brain work in a slightly different angle. Looking at characterization of a character you didn't write, or the plot flow of a story you didn't craft. It helps loosen up your brain, like stretching before working out.

2. In that same vein, you should READ! Just read, get out a book that you loved, or crack open a new one on your TBR list and just read. I've had this conversation with many writers and one of the best ways to get better at writing is reading. I wholeheartedly believe that. 

3. Take a break. Sometimes I think I just get in my own head too much. I don't let myself breath. And I have these deadlines for my writing that I  just need to let go of sometimes. Now, I'm not saying don't have any deadlines. You totally should, you should have something to motivate yourself to finish that WiP and get it out there (if that is your main goal of course). But I think that arbitrary goals are why I would turn in mediocre work in school.

4. Go to a Writing Conference. Writing conferences are AWESOME! They really get you motivated to work on your MS. And they give great direction for things that are tripping you up as a writer. The speakers, the authors, the editors and agents, and the other attendees are all sources of inspiration. I love my critique group who I met all at a writing conference. We are always supporting each other and bouncing ideas off of each other, and we met because we all were so motivated to learn more that we went to the same writing conference.
Bonus: Writing Conferences are also great places to go to pitch your work to agents and editors. So there's always networking you can do there that you'll never accomplish at home behind your computer.

5. Have your friends go to a writing conference. This is something I just figured out. Haha. It might not be true for everyone, but for me, having my CPs and friends go to a writing conference (even if I didn't go) helps tremendously with motivation. I see them talking about all they learned (and sharing, because sharing is caring). I see them getting so excited about their writing and talking about what they just heard the keynote speaker say, and I get jazzed! All of my writing group went to a conference this year and I wasn't able to go because of work and life. But I saw them talking about it in our Facebook group and I got so inspired that I wrote a whole new chapter in the WiP that I've been stuck on for months!

6. Talk to Others about your writing. This is kind of a lesson from #5, talking about your writing helps tremendously. And if you are lucky enough to have friends who are willing to listen to you talk their ear off about your characters, story, and writing then you are truly blessed. I am blessed a dozen times over because of my previously mentioned critique group. I also happen to have a sister who just got a book deal and a cousin who is the best writer I know. So I have some great resources to talk to about my writing.

7. Stop overthinking and just write. The other best way to get better at writing is writing! Surprise! Hahaha. Seriously, I decided to write through my writer's block. And not only did that help the WiP I originally started writing, but I came up with a bunch of other story ideas by merely writing whatever popped into my head. I have so many google docs that I'm going to run out of that free storage they give everyone. (Nooo! I can't let that happen!)


Do you have any tips for breaking out of writer's block? Please share in the comments, because I'm always up for more suggestions!

Feature Follow Friday: Blog Title

Every Friday Parajunkee and Alison Can Read hosts Feature Follow Friday. It's a great way to get to know the blogging community and they ask fun questions!

This week's question is:

How did you come up with your blog title and address? Does it have a special meaning for you? - Suggested by The Paperback Princess.

I pretty much just made it up on the spot when Blogger.com asked me what the name of my blog would be. I had just decided to make my own blog after co-blogging with my cousin for awhile. And I thought to myself, "This is ridiculous, I don't have enough to say that other people would be at all interested. Wait...Ridiculous sounds like it has the word 'read' in it...Done. No more thinking."
My Brain: "Really? Is that smart?"
Me: "Quiet brain! You have no more power here!"
My Brain: "Okay, but I feel like you'll regret this decision when it's time to do your taxes."
And then Readiculous Blog was born.

My randomness was then shown again when I chose this meme as my first blog post (And I stand by that decision.)

Kat's K-Dramas: Gaksital - Bridal Mask

Bridal Mask (Gaksital)

각시탈

Genre: Action/Adventure, Historical, Romance

Episodes: 28

Aired: May 30, 2012 - September 6, 2012

Network: KBS

Starring: Joo Won, Jin Se-Yeon, Park Ki-Woong, Han Chae-Ah

Watch it on: Dramafever, Viki

Synopsis:

Lee Kang To lives in Seoul in the 1930s, oppressed under the Japanese rule. He is a rising star in the police force and works with the Japanese police to capture “Bridal Mask,” a mysterious freedom fighter who fights for independence wearing a Korean Bridal. A twist of fate puts the role of the Bridal Mask in Kang-to's hands.
Kimura Shunji is a gentle Japanese teacher who has come to teach in Korea against his father's will. He is best friends with Kang-to and shares a loving relationship with his Korean nanny. He also falls in love with the fiercely patriotic Mok Dan, a woman who is in love with Kang-to, a twist that begins to change him into a darker person.

 

Main Character: Lee Kang To is a police officer in the Japanese Imperial Police. As a Korean person this is kind of like betraying your people since the Japanese are the brutal imperialists that are terrorizing Korea in this pre-world war 2 story. He is the ultimate anti-hero. In the first 20 minutes of episode 1, I thought that it might be impossible for me to like a character that started out so low. I actually stopped watching the show altogether for awhile and didn't get back to it until I saw Joo Won in another show where I loved him. That's how low Lee Kang To starts, I just didn't think I could root for such a bad guy. However, like any good story they gave him just enough backstory and redeeming factors that I eventually found myself rooting for his character development that I knew was to come. That's a great main character if there is one.

Love Interest: Oh Mok Dan (Boon-yi). She is a strong female character, she is solidly on the Korean side. Her father is one of the leaders of the Korean Independence movement. What I kind of found facsinating was that she and Kang To were so solidly on opposite sides that he tortured her and almost had her killed in a public firing squad! It's the most adverse beginning I've ever seen in a love story. And the show just keeps layering tons of backstory, connections, and history on top of this to make it so much more complicated then it seems.

Second Male Lead: I loved Kimura Shunji (also romanized to Choonji) in the beginning. He is a Japanese man who was raised in Korea. Because his nanny was Korean, and he loved her so much, he is very empathetic to the Korean people's plight. He starts out kind, loyal, and with strong morals. He continues to be loyal and he definitely lives by a certain code the whole time, but these things get skewed greatly over time. Shunji has a character arc that is just as wide as Kang To and that makes him a good foil to Lee Kang To's character. He goes a little far into the dark side, and I mourned the wonderful Shunji I loved in the first few episodes.

Second Female Lead: Ueno Rie's character is so interesting to me. Just a bit of background info, she was a Korean girl whose parents died. She then became a gisaeng and was noticed by Ueno Hideki and he adopted her because he respected her strong will and disdain for Koreans who she sees as abandoning her. She returns to Korea as a spy for her father and she has a goal of capturing Gaksital. But this is all complicated by her internal struggle with being a Korean who hates Koreans (kind of like Kang To, so it was interesting symmetry).

Allies: Abe is Kang To's comedic friend in the Imperial police. Along with Mok Dan's circus troupe he is the source of a lot of the humor in the show.

Kang San is the source of so much of Kang To's initial angst. He is the older brother that Kang To revered and looked up to. So when Kang San is beaten by the Japanese Imperial Army for being a part of the Independence Movement and became mentally handicapped, Kang To realized that the Independence Movement had done his family many wrongs (Since his father had also died for being a high ranking officer in the Independence Movement).

Mok Dam Sari is Oh Mok Dan's father. He is a captain in the Korean Independence movement and he shows up sporadically in the show. But he is a symbol of the greater struggle of some Koreans who wanted their country back from Japan.

Random Thoughts: This show was set during a very interesting time in both Korean and Japanese history. It's a time that they don't talk about too much in dramas/films. However, it's a very important time to talk about when looking at how Korea became what it is today.

We look at the time leading up to World War II a lot from the Western world's point of view, but almost never from the Eastern world's. So I'm really happy that this show is out there.

Also, this show is great.

Really good characterization and story telling. The character arcs of Lee Kang To and Kimura Shunji are two of the most wide-reaching changes I've ever seen. And both characters go through so many stages. I will say I think that Lee Kang To's development was more dynamic than Kimura Shunji. He kind of became flat when he became "evil." I know he wasn't actually evil, he was just blinded by his rage and need for revenge. But I wish that he could have kept some of his original kindness and empathy that he displayed. I genuinely liked the Shunji in the first few episodes, and the fact that he was able to turn into such a vengeful man was very upsetting to me (but it worked really well for the story, and I know that).

I think that the show has a very underlying theme of brotherhood (which means major bromances!). However, because it is set during a time filled with so much conflict, these relationships are torn apart. Especially the epic friendship between Kang To and Shunji. This relationship broke my heart. That two people who could have been best friends in a time of peace must be pitted against each other in a time of war (wars are the worst!). And Shunji was only more important to Kang To because he lost his brother when he was beaten by the Japanese. Now that Kang San is no longer the man Kang To knew and loved, their relationship has drastically changed. Kang To does a lot of what he does in the beginning with the desire to get the original Kang San back (which makes an eventual plot twist all that much more tragic).

One thing that I kept thinking (and this might only be me) was that it seemed really weird when all of the Japanese officers and officials were yelling about how great Japan was and how Korea was a land to be subdued, but they were doing it in Korean. I understand it's a Korean show, so they should be speaking in Korean for the majority of the time. But I the scenes that tripped me up was where it was a bunch of Japanese officials sitting in a room by themselves yelling about how great Japan was...in Korean...it just kept thinking it sounded a little odd to me in that context.

I won't say the show was always at the top of it's game. There were a few episodes that seemed to draw out certain conflicts too much. The show lags a little around episode 8-10, but picks up again in Episode 11. And again the conflicts get kind of repetative between episodes 22-25. But Looking at that pattern it seems like the writers were trying to build up tension for some big splashy episode around the midpoint and the finale. So I can understand that from a plotting/writing point of view. However, as a viewer of the show I wish they would have sped it along (also, I know that the show got an extension before they got to episode 8, so I wonder if the writers took that opportunity to draw out things and ended up stretching the plot a little thin).

Overall, great show. One of the best I've seen in a long time. It had action, it had intrigue, it had history. But most of all it had great characters and great heart. I think this might go to show that even when writing falters a bit (and the writing in the show wasn't bad, but it was a tad flat at points) the acting and characters can carry a show through the rough patches. Also the scenery and the costumes (and the art direction in general) were awesome (maybe that's because I love this time period). It was just a really well done show about a period of time that was full of conflict and strife. It took turns that I never saw coming and I was super excited to watch each new episode.

Best Episodes
Episode 6 - Best reveal/Best emotion from Kang To (Joo Won's episode for sure)
Episode 7 - Best character development episode (by the end I wrote a message to my cousin, Axie, who introduced me to the show and said "I am feeling all of the emotions right now!")
Episode 11 - intrigue, characters colliding, love story development
Episode 17 - Great character development for Kang To
Any Episode after 25  - Most emotional!

Favorite Soundtrack songs:

Goodbye Day(굿바이데이) by ULALASESSION(울랄라세션)

Judgement Day (심판의 날 - 주원) Joo Won feat Lee Jung Hyun

(This song is sung by Joo Won, the lead actor in the show)

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

Spoilers ahead! Do Not read on if you don't want SPOILERS!

The things Kang To has to go through to develop as a character. It's almost too much sometimes. When his mom and Kang San die IN THE SAME EPISODE! That killed me. I was bawling!

I never thought I would be sad to see Kenji Kimura die, but I felt so bad for Shunji. Also, I did not think he would die so soon. This show really yanked my emotions around.

I really enjoyed seeing how Rie would watch Kang To. She obviously had feelings for him, but it was hard for me to think of it as love for a while. She is just so cold and detached because of her upbringing. And when she collides with Mok Dan in episode 11 and gets jealous of Kang To staring at Mok Dan, it was great.

I thought Mok Dan had the perfect reaction to finding out that Kang To was her Young Master. I think it was totally believable for her to kind of flip out on him. The image of this wonderful, self-sacrificing young man was shattered when she imagined the Kang To she knows (not the one we know obvi) is him all grown up. I wished in that moment that she could overlook all the mistakes he's made and believe in him. But if she had then I wouldn't have believed her. So I thought she had the perfect reaction to the news and I give both the show and Jin Se-Yeon major props for that scene.

The reveals were great. I loved how and when they revealed to Oh Mok Dan that Lee Kang To was Gaksital. And I like that she came to her understanding of him as a person more organically. It worked really well that she found out he was her Young Master before she found out that he was Gaksital.

Also, when Shunji finds out that Lee Kang To is Gaksital I almost died! I thought for sure it would be like ten episodes of him being in jail and Oh Mok Dan trying to break him out. But that super did not happen, and I'm glad.

On the flip side, there were way too many episodes where Lee Kang To and Kimura Shunji just tiptoed around each other, the whole time wondering what the other knew. I was getting really tired of it by the end.

OMG, the ending KILLED me! I can't believe they would kill Mok Dan like that. I know that it fits in a show that's about a hostile occupation and war. But the fact that they didn't get their happy ending really upset me. I'm still upset now. I've never watched a k-drama where the two mains don't get to be happy together in the end. Lee Kang To deserved his happy ending. He lost so much to get where he was by the end, and then he looses the woman he loves?!
Why world?! (shakes fists)

However, those kinds of plot twists are what made the show entertaining the whole time. And in the end, Mok Dan's character was more important as a symbol for the two male leads than she was important for herself (Feminist PSA: this is not a lesson for women, this is the opposite of how we should live our lives). The one positive that came from this is that Kang To was able to fight for himself and for his people after this. He started fighting for his brother, his mother, and his father. Then he continued fighting for Mok Dan. Now he fights for himself and to free his people. That's the best reason to fight.

Kimura Shunji's suicide death is fitting for where his character ended up. I found myself wondering if they knew he would kill himself and therefore chose to make him go too far so he couldn't live with himself. In the end, I like to think there was a bit of the original Shunji still in there, but then I'm conflicted because I wouldn't want that Shunji to die (even though he kind of did die, to make way for the evil Shunji). I was also really happy that Kang To didn't have to kill Shunji. it would have taken Kang To back to a dark place that he might not be able to escape if he had to kill his best friend. I wonder if Shunji knew this, and his last gift to Kang To was taking this last fatal act out of Kang To's hands. I know this is perhaps projecting a nobility to such a sad and hopeless act, but I can't help wanting there to still be something good in Shunji's character, even in the end when he's at his lowest.

So, I didn't think I would care at all about Ueno Rie's departure. She was a character I was really excited to learn about and they didn't really delve too deep into her (so sad! She was such an intriguing character in the beginning). However, they threw a hail mary pass in the end where they revealed Katsuyama loved her. I think this was actually alluded to way earlier in the show. I thought it would be corny, but their farewell scene was just so heartbreaking and beautiful. I loved it.

And the ending of the series finale was epic. Perfection! I loved that it wasn't all roses and happiness and, yay Korea is free now. Because that's not what happened. There was a long and winding path to that. But the bigger victory was that the Korean people fought back and retained their identity. And the final scene shows this big time! And all of the Gaksitals in the street were a great image to see in the end.

I like to think think that Kang To will be alright. He won't be completely whole without his family or Mok Dan, but he'll pull through all of this because he has something to fight for.