Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 269
January 31, 2021
January Book Wrap
I am on track to read my target of 100 books this year. In-fact, your friend here is ahead of schedule, because she managed to read 10 books just in January, that’s apart from the 50+ manga comics that she devoured on the sidelines. Okay, referring to me in the third person is getting creepy now.
Anyway, while I have been putting up every book review on the site here, there’s also a new podcast episode up on YouTube where I review all 10 of them under 10 minutes for those who may have missed the older reviews or just don’t have the patience to read 10 different long-ish posts.
If you like the podcast, please do subscribe to the channel and show support.
January 30, 2021
Digital Weddings & Some Memories
Ever since the Covid19 pandemic pushed us into our homes, I have attended three weddings via zoom. Pretty sure there are people who have attended at least 50 zoom weddings by now. I am just not that social.
But this time it was different, it was a pre-wedding ceremony of a school friend, who I have known since we were just eleven. That feels like a different century now. He changed schools two years later and we lost contact. But half a decade later, he managed to get my number from somewhere & staying in touch became a little easier – thanks to Facebook.
We’ve met only a few times since then, in different cities, when by some luck, we would be in the same place. When I was watching the ceremony via a Zoom link today, it made me nostalgic and made me wonder how the pandemic might have distanced us from people physically, but in some ways, it’s also brought a lot of us closer. Had there been no pandemic, I am not sure if I would’ve been invited & even if I were… I don’t know if I would’ve been able to attend it. But now that everybody is broadcasting their special events online due to present circumstances, a lot more people are able to be part of memories they would have otherwise missed.
Hopefully, this trend will continue, pandemic or not. Because we had a very small wedding (way before the pandemic) and our grandparents weren’t able to attend, due to health & various other reasons. Now that I think of it, we could’ve set up a camera and just streamed it for them, even back then. It just never struck us. But now, nobody needs to feel left out of anything, at least as long as they have a good internet connection.
P.S – AbstractAf also has a podcast channel on YouTube now, be sure to check us out & subscribe.
January 29, 2021
The Dig Movie Review – Not Enough Shoveling
Just saw the 2021 Netflix film ‘The Dig’ directed by Simon Stone, starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan in the lead roles. You can choose to either listen to the podcast version, or continue reading the review.
The film is a historical drama based on a real life story of how landowner Edith Pretty hires an amateur archaeologist Basil Brown to dig what resembles burial mounds on her property. What Brown goes on to discover becomes one of the most important archaeological finds in British History.
If you are not a history buff, this movie might not be something you would want to pick for the weekend, but if find crumbling palaces and ancient corpses intriguing, you will dig ‘the dig’. The cinematography is stunning for most parts because the makers capture the rural beauty Suffolk England, be it during rain or sunshine. While Ralph Fiennes plays the self-taught excavator Basil Brown, the much younger Mulligan plays Edith Pretty.
Moving on to the plot, the story is pretty straightforward – how an unknown archaeologist discovers an ancient ship, at a time when the country is at war, what follows is a credit battle & debates on which museum gets to keep it all. There’s a subtle class warfare at play in the film, we are shown how at first the local museum authorities weren’t keen on lending Basil Brown for a private excavation that they assumed would lead to nothing. But as soon as Brown digs up a significant find to indicate there might be something stunning underneath the mounds, the museum authorities become keen to sideline the poorly educated Brown and take over the excavation.
The film is a little slow and overtly emotional, the broody gloomy music does little to uplift the mood. There is barely any humour or comic relief and the tone is somber. Towards the second-half a few new characters come in and there are new sub-plots. Neither the characters, nor the actual dig gets enough script for the viewer to begin caring, the focus is split, but not well, so you get a little bit of a muddle in the end. A reduction of at least 15 minutes in the runtime would’ve made it a lot more gripping.
To the credit of the makers, the scene when the archaeology makes their first discovery to indicate that the site dates back to not just the Viking, but even further back to the Anglo-Saxon age, their triumph is shot beautifully. The viewer would rejoice at their victory too. Unless you are not a history buff.
The cast is pretty convincing in their parts, Actor Lily James was adorable as the nerdy historian Peggy Preston and the kid who plays Robert, Edith’s son, was a joy to see on screen. The climax was quite satisfying. I would give this film a solid seven.
January 28, 2021
Brazen Book Review – Buy It!
Finished reading book number 10 in January – Brazen by Penelope Bagieu. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book! It’s like a graphic novel, with the cutest artwork, but badass stories about ‘rebel ladies who rocked the world’.
I almost teared up at the first story about Clementine Delait, a French woman who used to rock a full-blown beard and ran a Cafe called ‘The Bearded Lady’s Cafe’. She lived a rich & rather successful life. It’s a story about embracing yourself with all your oddities and displays perfectly how the world would celebrate your ‘quirks’, if you do it first. Since the book only has cartoon panels, I looked up Delait online and here’s what she looked like –
Picture source – https://wellcomeimages.org
‘Brazen’ is filled with such stories of women, some of who aren’t celebrated enough, who we might have never heard of before, but who really changed the world for women around them. Their lives are given a dash of magic in the colorful and playful panels drawn & narrated by Penelope Bagieu. She has chosen a very eclectic mix of women, you have political activists, rulers, rappers, athletes, artists, journalists, volacanologists… the list goes on.
Which brings me to one story that gave me the chills – that of Katia Krafft, America’s first woman volcanologist, who died while filming a volcanic eruption. Katia & her husband had been researching eruptions for over two decades, always being inches away from death, but Katia an interview had said “I’ve seen so many eruptions in 23 years, that if I die tomorrow, I don’t care”. That’s the kind of spirit only somebody who is living life on their own terms can have.
Pictured above is Katia and Maurice Krafft. Source – Website of the USGS
Even though ‘Brazen’ is a book about women, the stories have universal themes of courage, hard-work and the human spirit. It’s a book that I absolutely adore and will treasure. If you are looking to gift somebody a book, buy this! The diversity on display will blow your mind and the stories of their wit & grit will make you emotional. It will make you want to go back in time and give these woman a bear hug… and tell them they are ‘AWESOME’.
It’s a 5/5 for me. If I could give it a 10 on 5, I would.
January 27, 2021
Abstract AF Is A Podcast Too!
You read that right. Abstract AF is a podcast on YouTube now, so if you feel to tired to read us, you can just hear us!
For the first episode I discuss small things or habits that can help you read more books in a year.
Please show your support & subscribe. We’ll subscribe all of you right back.
Link to the first episode – How To Read Over 100 Books In A Year
January 26, 2021
The Gods Lie – Manga Review
Book number 9 this year – The Gods Lie by Kaori Ozaki. It’s a stand-alone Manga/Graphic Novel about Natsuro Nanao, a boy who loves football and who girls in his school avoid talking to. One day, a girl called Suzumura speaks to him and soon the two become friends.
It’s an interesting book that finishes too soon and has some weird little comic scenes that only the Japanese could insert in a kids Manga. Ozaki explores themes like toxic parenting, abandonment issues and it’s hard to believe that the protagonists are just a pair of pre-teen kids. Natsuro & Suzura’s feelings for each other escalates very quickly.
The author uses the classic trope of ‘opposites attract’, Natsuro is ambitious & wants to become an international football player, while all Suzumura wants is to be happily married when she grows up. However it is perhaps a common factor that strengthens their kinship – the fact that both of them are raised by single parents.
‘The Gods Lie’ is an uncanny mixture of childhood innocence and dark themes – a story about how children sometimes grow up quicker than their parents, pushed by circumstances and not choice. The ending is slightly tragic, but ends on a hopeful note. It’s an enjoyable read, but could have done with more pages and story.
Made a quick little sketch off the book after I was done reading.
January 24, 2021
Get a FREE Copy of Bad Town Kids
My debut contemporary fiction novel ‘Bad Town Kids’ is FREE for 12 hours across all kindle stores, so please grab a copy and leave a small review if you end up reading it. And just in case you were wondering – it is available for free for everybody and not just Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
The novel released on December 26, 2020 & made it to the Top 10 Amazon Bestsellers list under ‘Literature & Fiction’. Here’s an excerpt from the first Amazon review of the book, the reader had given it a five star –
Where do I start?
Wow
*whew*
I don’t read a lot of non-fantasy-genre books. I like my books to be neatly packaged with a couple of quests, the good and bad guys clearly identified, witty repartee galore and rounded off with all the nice folks getting their happy endings.
Bad Town Kids was NONE.OF.THAT.
Anita, Saira, Maadesh and Mokshit’s coming-of-age journey starts off soft — like ambling along a lazy, idyllic river — an innocent childhood, childish pranks, tall stories and scary-but-exciting discoveries. The author does not romanticize the Indian small-town setting with some Enid Blyton-esque picturization — Jaiswal firmly disabuses the reader of any such notions from the first sentence itself.
Then, my dear reader, the idyllic river of childhood crashes down as a wild and uncontrollable waterfall. The pace builds rapidly — scattered incidents that interlock in the end. The reality of Indian society — its patriarchy, toxicity, abuse — is conveyed in blunt, honest prose.
AMAZON REVIEWER
Full disclosure – the reviewer is a friend, but they had given my last book a 4 star rating, so even if there was some bias in their review, it doesn’t change the fact that they read the novel in one go and loved it.
If ‘Bad Town Kids’ sounds like something you would like to read get the free copy now. Kindle also allows you to email the ebook as a gift to your friends (they don’t have to know it’s free). And like I said earlier, reviews will be appreciated wholeheartedly, it means a LOT to independent writers like me. Dropping a few country-wise links –
Happy reading!
Eli Review – This Horror Film Cheats You
The only reason I managed to survive the 2017 horror film ‘Eli’ was due to the earnest performances of the cast. When I mean survive, I don’t mean a heart-attack from being scared, but from falling asleep.
Directed by Ciaran Foy, this film is the story of Eli, played by Charlie Shotwell, who suffers from a rare health condition that makes him develop severe rashes if he is exposed to ‘unsanitised air’. Basically, he is allergic to the world at large.
Things start to get bizarre when his parents take him to a remote ancient Bungalow, where a certain Doctor Horn can cure him. Classic horror trope – old large mansion in the middle of nowhere, with creepy things moving around. The first half is slow and made worse by the fact that Foy uses a lot of predictable jump scares.
However, what really creeps and worries the viewer are the brutal medical procedures little Eli is subjected to. Each time Eli is in a medical bed, you are at the edge of your seat with anxiety. Points to the director for managing to make us care about the protagonist.
‘Eli’ does have a great plot twist, but it comes too damn late, and by that time you feel cheated. Because throughout the course of the film you are sighing about the mundane tropes that take place, wondering why certain idiotic things are happening and then boom – you have a twist that’s absolutely unpredictable, but too short & too late. Some viewers will probably not even understand what the F happens in the end.
The makers should have foreshadowed the twist a little earlier and built the suspense in a different manner. It’s like reading Cinderella – but after she marries the prince, you find out she is actually the evil-stepmother, who somehow managed to lock Cinderella up, take her form & is the new princess of the kingdom. The story-telling needed more work and the special effects could have been better.
It’s a 5/10 from me.
January 23, 2021
The War That Saved My Life – Book Review
I started reading ‘The War That Saved My Life’ by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley after a late dinner and did not put the book down till I finished reading all of it by 3.50 AM! This historical novel set during World War II is a compelling tale of 11-year-old Ada Smith, who frees herself from the clutches of an abusive mother & learns to walk after crawling all her life.
It’s written lucidly and is narrated in first person by Ada, who starts by describing the squalid conditions in which they live in and how terribly her mother treats her – like a crippled dog confined to the four walls of their tiny flat. She isn’t allowed to go outside, not to school, not to church, not anywhere, because her mam (mom) is ashamed of the child. Ada manages to slip from her mother when the UK government decides to evacuate all children from London over fears of being bombed by Hitler.
Ada and her six-year-old brother Jamie are reluctantly taken in by an odd unmarried lady called Susan. How will the kids settle in with a woman who isn’t keen on having them and will Ada be able to fulfill her dream of riding a horse? Or will they find themselves in the claws of a negligent mother again? That forms the rest of the story.
Having lived a hard life with her mother, Ada is mature beyond her age and is almost like a mother figure to her brother Jamie. The author tenderly portrays the affection between the two siblings and their struggle to fit in a place they don’t belong. While with their mother in London, the siblings were starved, suppressed, dirty and almost savage-like, but life with Susan in Kent brings out the stark contrast between their poor past and their seemingly richer present.
What really struck a chord with me was the brilliant way in which the author narrates the crippling anxiety Ada suffers at various points due to her traumatic childhood. The little girl experiences panic attacks during stressful situations and the reader can feel the pangs of her fear. Her slow transformation from a shy guilt-ridden isolated child to a more confident girl is brought about beautifully.
This story is not just about the extraordinary courage of a young girl who was branded a ‘useless cripple’ all her life, it’s also about how the friends and family have the power to significantly shape our lives. Susan ended up being my favorite character, a Harvard-educated woman from a humble family, who refused to be chained by the shackles of marriage. Her character development from an elusive lady forced to take two kids under her wings, to becoming an almost ideal mother figure was heart-warming.
This novel had me hooked to every page and was easy to read, especially because there were limited characters, which meant less confusion. Towards the second-half, the story gets more exciting because the war efforts reach Ada’s region. There is a lot of blood, death, bombings and war rationing. A violent war is seamlessly merged with a 11-year-old child’s story.
“The War That Saved My Life” is very little about the larger war fought by nations, and more about the internal wars we wage against ourselves. The internal wars that stop us from reaching our full potential. Wars we must fight to win, to become who we really want to be.
It’s a 5/5 for me, for the sheer fact that I didn’t take a single break while reading this well woven tale.
January 22, 2021
Color Rush – Korean Series Review
Imagine only being able to see the world in shades of grey – that’s how everything appears to Choi Yeon Woo, the protagonist of the 2021 Korean mini-series ‘Color Rush’. Played by the handsome actor Yoo Jun, Yeon Woo is a ‘mono’ in the show, a label for people who suffer from a neurological colour blindness.
Adapted from a web novel of the same, viewers are explained that monos can see colors only when they come in contact with a certain someone, kind of like a soulmate, who are branded ‘probes’ in the series. So when a ‘mono’ meets a ‘probe’ for the first time, they experience a ‘colour rush’, an overwhelming onslaught of colors and life in all its shades. But when the probe is not around, they lose their ability to see colors again.
Directed by Park Sun Jae, ‘Colour Rush’ has just 8 episodes, some of which are just 16 minutes long. While the whole ‘Mono-Probe’ business sounds romantic, ‘Monos’ are portrayed as obsessive individuals in the series, who usually end up kidnapping/murdering their ‘probes’. So the hero Yeon Woo hopes that he never finds his ‘probe’, but fate has other plans. Woo meets his probe while still at school – an elusive student called ‘Go Yoo Han’ who is training to be a K-pop idol. The rest of the plot is about Woo trying to avoid Yoo Han & the heady ‘colour rush’ he gets when he’s around his ‘probe’; Go Yoo Han on his part tries hard to woo Woo. (Really wanted to write that)
The series felt slightly rushed and over-dramatic. Yeon Woo is a little too morose for a boy in his late teens & the character of Go Yoo Han doesn’t have any back-story, making him one-dimensional. Actor Heo Hyun Jun who plays Yoo Han wears a mask for most parts of the series and when he takes it off, he comes off as a smug siren. Also, the make-up team put a little more make-up than necessary on him. There’s no doubt that the lead pair is great too look at, but there’s very little chemistry between them. They don’t even come off as friends, just two strangers having one uncomfortable encounter after another. Forget potential lovers. However, there was one episode that’s shot creatively, where the two attend an art exhibition together & share some sweet moments. But that easy camaraderie fizzles out soon.
Mostly shot indoors, the screenplay is done quite well. The background score wasn’t very memorable, but blends just fine with the events. I quite liked the disco-kind of music that plays every-time Woo experiences a ‘colour rush’, it irked me a little when they changed it after a few episodes.
Since the story is quite interesting, ‘Colour Rush’ manages to hold the viewer’s interest and isn’t too bad for a one time watch. A major problem with the story was a sub-plot about Woo’s mom, who is a ‘mono’ too and goes missing. What really happened to her? We never find out. There is an interesting little twist towards the end of the climax, which felt slightly contrived. While it ends on a sweet note, it’s not as fun as some of its other Korean BL counterparts. I would give it a 6/10.
