Magic

#13 The Greatest Showman… WOW

Posted on by Pumpkin Spiced Lass

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I know that I will not be the first to tell you that this film was incredible. I went into the cinema with no expectations because I really didn’t have any idea what the story would be like, or the music, but with my love of circus themed things, as you should all know by now, I just had to go!

It was also a really fun night out with my sister and within the first twenty seconds of the film beginning, I had turned to her and said, “I already know that I am going to love this!”

The Music

I honestly cannot fault any of the songs and I have been listening to the soundtrack on repeat ever since I watched the film. Of course I loved to hear Hugh Jackman’s voice after his incredible performance in Les Miserables and I will not lie and tell you that I was not a total sucker for Troy Bolton in high school, so it was so much fun to see Zac Efron in another singing role.

It is so difficult to try and pick out my favourite songs, but ‘The Greatest Show’ is at the very top of the list. It is such a powerful song and makes me want to jump up and throw an impromptu dance-athon. Another that I cannot get out of my head is ‘Rewrite the stars’ which was sang by Zac Efron and Zendaya. Their voices worked so perfectly together and the choreography was amazing.

The Bearded Lady’s belted lines are amazing and I think that her character made me smile the most. She had such a powerful voice and her confidence was inspiring (Yes, I do realise that this was just a film).

The Story

There are so many issues breached in this film; it is very much about acceptance from other people and also accepting yourself as you are. For that reason, it was such an uplifting story.

The colourful outfits to the dance moves made this film a must for anybody who loves musicals, or just a film that will make you grin from ear to ear.

Apparently, this film is based on a real person names P.T. Barnem who was a complete fraud which wasn’t shown through the movie. However, I do not believe that this was an intentional pardon for any of the things that Barnem did, and that the film only used this character to show what could have been.

I must admit that I wasn’t always a fan when the focus was taken off the main stars for me; the rag-tag bunch of misfits that Barnem had rounded up. The ‘Swedish Nightingale’ Jenny Lind was a huge distraction from the main act and I wasn’t the biggest fan of her character nor the way she lashed out at Barnem for using her when it was quite clearly a mutual thing between them. I had the same problem at the end when circus animals (that had not been used anywhere else in the film, may I add) appeared and took some of the limelight off the actors.

Despite this, it was such a fun film, incredible music and I am desperate to go and see it again!

PSL x

#12 The magic of Caraval

Posted on by Pumpkin Spiced Lass

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This is my first book review so far, and I intend to keep them up as monthly reviews. I have only read the one book so far in 2018 because of the busy month January has turned out to be.

I am kicking off the New year with the magic that is: Caraval. I was completely drawn to this book as soon as I caught sight of it on the shelf because of its complete ‘Night circus-esque’ name and cover. I should probably add now, for those of you who do not know me, that The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern has been my favourite book for four years now and I will never not recommend it to anyone. So therefore, from the very beginning, this book had some high expectations to live up to.

The base settings are very similar; a circus/carnival, magic and a game. But from there, the stories are completely different. A basic overview of this story would be that two sisters: Donatella and Scarlett are desperate to get away from their abusive father, but one has a much more elaborate idea than the other. They find themselves in the middle of ‘Caraval,’ a game in which nothing is as it seems. The sisters are soon seperated by the mysterious, but no less dashing show master and Scarlett must do everything that she can to find Tella and get back home before their Father realise where they have gone.

It is a story of magic, believing in yourself as well as strangers and heartbreak (mostly mine, of course). A stunning story with beautiful scenes and carefully created characters.

The author, Stephanie Garber has a very unique way of describing the scenery which I absolutely love because as a writer myself, I am always trying to find new and more exciting ways to describe things.

‘An iridescent blue waterfall streamed down like melted peacock feathers, disapearing into the ring of sun-rise tinted clouds.‘

The images that Garber evokes are breathtaking and they continue throughout the book as the scenery changes and becomes much darker and twisted. Different to most other books that I have read in which there is a clear definition of whether the plot is set in that past, present or future, Caraval seems to be set in a world completely seperate of our own. However, through the dialogue and clothes, it is definitely presented in a historic way especially with Scarlett so keen on preserving her chastity. Whatever it was that Garber was trying to create, she did it brilliantly; I am in awe of the magic of ‘Caraval.’

‘Open: Sometime Around Midnight. Other signs said Come Back Yesterday.’

Being the sucker for romance that I am, it is no surprise that I completely fell in love with the hunky sailor ‘Julian’ even though Garber makes it impossible to know whether we should ever truly trust him or not. Furthermore, the characterisation of almost everyone in the story- be them major or minor characters- are given very believable and different personalities which I loved because in many books I have read, especially in teen novels today, characters can become quite repetitive. In Caraval, each person had their own desires and motives- even if we’re not sure of them half of the time.

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Something I am asked in my exam essays is: ‘To what extent was the ending of *insert name of book/play here* satisfactory?’ When applying this question to Caraval, I can assure you that the last few pages are jam packed with revelations and plot twists. Things happen that I could never have seen coming, and some of them I wasn’t completely taken with.

I was a fan of the plot twist every page for the final twenty pages for about the first three. The constant back and fourth of all of these questions had my head hurting almost as much as Scarlett’s must have been- I get that this is the point but a lot of the developments, I found uneccesary and quite frankly, I felt very sorry for Scarlett. She was the only one in the whole book not keeping a huge, bring the roof down on me, kind of secret.

Despite the busy ending, Carval was a complete pleasure to read and I would certainly recommend it to anyone looking for a change of normality and a mystery.

PSL x