Hadeer Elsbai's Blog, page 3

best film and tv of 2024

one of my goals for 2025 (i’ll have a dedicated goals post later this month) is to watch more film and television, because i miss the feeling of watching really good visual media. i’ve been focusing so much on reading goals that i forgot television and film, but particularly television, used to be my Thing.

top 7 tv shows (in no particular order);

attack on titan: this has become one of my favorite anime of all time, thanks to its astonishingly complex plot, political machinations, and character...

december 2024 updates

before discussing anything end-of-year related i must first wrap up december, which began with a trip to jacksonville, florida. florida is…not my favorite place, shall we say, even though i was visiting some of my favorite people. i had a very nice time with said people, despite the locale.

otherwise, much of my attention this month has been dedicated to a kitchen renovation, which i won’t discuss much here because i’m dedicating a whole post to it when it’s finally done. it is much needed and mu...

november 2024 updates

i started november by heading out to portland, oregon (on the day of the cursed election no less), partly for a conference, partly to see portland and the oregon coast. portland’s one of those cities that’s always existed in my imagination in a very particular way, and seeing it in the flesh really shattered those imaginings, lol. isn’t that always the way?

i can’t exactly give voice to what i didn’t like about portland, but some cities, you just don’t vibe with. i did adore the coffee scene, th...

10 favorite first lines

"our dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley."

— uprooted by naomi novik

“in the myriad year of our lord – the ten thousandth year of the king undying, the kindly prince of death! – gideon nav packed her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and she escaped from the house of the ninth.”

— gideon the ninth by tamsyn muir

"on the second sabbat of twelfthmoon, in the city of weep, a girl fell from the sky."

— strange the dreamer by laini taylor

"it ...

oct 2024 updates

much of my media consumption plans for october were dashed because i spent the month editing my novella. it was a very eye-opening process — this is the first brand new thing i’ve written since the duology. i’ve been trying to be more attuned to my writing and editing style so that i can spare myself future despair when writing new projects. in theory, if i know what to expect from myself, the process will be easier. of course, every project is a little different, but i like to think that they a...

september 2024 updates

i wrote something! i finished something! ever since completing my duology i’ve been languishing in the no man’s land of writing — half-starting a variety of projects, outlining, not committing, then committing and writing nearly 20k words, only to decide to trunk that project. then, on a whim, i had an idea — what if a woman, left at the altar, was approached by an entity that gave her the chance to get revenge?

at first i thought, okay, a horror novel, but as i started planning and writing, i r...

character spotlight: emma swan

[Character Spotlight is a new series adapted from old blog posts where I talk about some of my favorite characters in various media.]

I fell in love with Emma Swan from the moment we met her, when she reveals herself as an undercover bail bonds person to her blind date, who is actually her mark. What a way to come out swinging. (Sidenote, for the sake of this post, please ignore the steadily declining quality of Once Upon a Time.)

At first, Emma Swan is the epitome of lonely, friendless orphan. Sh...

august 2024 updates

it has been far too long since i’ve sent an updates newsletter, mostly because…there has not been much to report, but i would like to be better at keeping track of the media i’m consuming so that i don’t end up forgetting half of what i want to say about it.

on the book side of things, i will say that sometime in the next few months i will have fun news regarding the alamaxa duology, something i’m pretty excited about! so watch this space (and instagram).

writing-wise, i’m chugging along, editing...

house of the dragon season 2 review

predictably, i completely dropped the ball when it came to weekly reviews; i am nothing if not inconsistent. now that the season is over i’d like to wrap up these reviews by discussing my thoughts on the season generally, and the finale specifically.

there are a lot of divisive takes regarding the finale out there. personally, i liked it a lot! yes, it was a bit slow, there weren’t any battles or explosives, but a ton of stuff happened and several storylines were wrapped up.

first, alicent: her ...

house of the dragon season 2 episode 3 review

there is a crystal clear theme in episode 3: war is circular and pointless. it’s a snake eating its own tail. we see this said rather plainly by rhaenys and ser simon strong, but it’s encapsulated thematically with the episode’s opening battle between two houses, and the closing sequence with alicent and rhaenyra.

a lot happens in this episode — pieces are starting to fall into place, the dance of the dragons has begun. i felt a powerful sense of grandeur and epic scale watching this one, and it...