my media digest: a blog analyzing fiction.
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Iron Man 2 Movie Review
4–6 minutes922 wordsNow that Tony Stark has revealed to the world that he is Iron Man, the entire world is now eager to get their hands on his hot technology – whether it’s the United States government, weapons contractors, or someone else. That someone else happens to be Ivan Vanko – the son of now deceased Anton Vanko, Howard Stark’s former partner. Stark had Vanko banished to Russia for conspiring to commit treason against the US, and now Ivan wants revenge against Tony – and he’s willing to get it at any cost. But after being humiliated in front of the Senate…
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Iron Man Movie Review
6–9 minutes1,419 wordsPlayboy Tony Stark has inherited the defense contractor Stark Industries from his father, Howard Stark, replacing Obadiah Stane, who had taken over the company until Tony was 21. Tony, aside from coming from wealth, was brilliant from a young age and graduated from MIT at just 17, with his father passing soon after. Since then, Tony Stark has created countless smart weapons used by the government and that have changed the world forever. Despite this, Tony has a distinct careless attitude, and his business strategies are far from traditional. On a trip to war-torn Afghanistan with his friend Lieutenant Colonel…
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You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love Album Review
11–16 minutes2,510 wordsSo, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love dropped last night. I have no words for this album, but I will still go on a long rant about it, lmao. This album is phenomenal; it’s probably my favorite album that she’s released, and I loved all that Olivia did before this album was released to showcase it off: giving us drop dead, the cure, begged, and what’s wrong with me before the album release date in studio and/or live versions. All of her advertising really paid off, and tens of millions of people had pre-saved the album…
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South Park Series Review
5–7 minutes1,081 wordsAn animated sitcom that gained popularity for its blatant profanity, dark humor, and satire, South Park has remained widely popular since its debut in 1997. The show is named after the town of South Park, a small town in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado, which, in the show, is home to Stan Marsh, Kyle Brofloski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick; 4 3rd grade students whom we follow as they experience a variety of events, ranging from relatively ordinary to surreal or even supernatural. The show initially gained viewers’ attention through its vulgarity and inappropriate content, and for the most…
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The Summer I Turned Pretty Book Review
3–4 minutes608 wordsBelly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer—they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.…
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Girl, Interrupted Book Review
3–5 minutes794 wordsIn 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she’d never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital. She spent most of the next two years on the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital as renowned for its famous clientele–Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor, and Ray Charles–as for its progressive methods of treating those who could afford its sanctuary. Kaysen’s memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers. It is a brilliant evocation of a “parallel universe” set within the kaleidoscopically…
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Speak Movie Review
3–4 minutes708 wordsThe young adolescent Melinda Sordino arrives at high school feeling confused, depressed, and alone. Her school peers call her “squealer” because she alerted the police during a summer party after she was sexually assaulted by Andy Evans. She refuses to tell anyone what happened. Her depression and distance from people are made worse by the increasingly large gap between her and her parents. She finds great support with her art teacher, Mr. Freeman, and her school friend, David Petrakis. Her feelings threaten to engulf her, but Melinda learns to grow from her experiences rather than repress the past emotions that…
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Speak Book Review
4–6 minutes956 wordsI am Outcast. The kids behind me laugh so loud I know they’re laughing about me. I can’t help myself. I turn around. It’s Rachel, surrounded by a bunch of kids wearing clothes that most definitely did not come from the East Side Mall. Rachel Bruin, my ex-best friend. She stares at something above my left ear. Words climb up my throat. This was the girl who suffered through Brownies with me, who taught me how to swim, who understood about my parents, who didn’t make fun of my bedroom. If there is anyone in the entire galaxy I am…
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Kill Joy Book Review
2–3 minutes497 wordsPippa Fitz-Amobi is not looking forward to her friend’s 1920s-themed murder mystery party. But when the game begins, Pip finds herself drawn into the make-believe world of intrigue, deception and murder. As Pip plays detective, teasing out the identity of the killer clue by clue, the murder of the fictional Reginald Remy isn’t the only case on her mind…[1] I liked this book; it wasn’t the prequel I was expecting when I first heard of it, but it gives a good setup for the story, with the Andie Bell case mentioned multiple times. It was interesting to see how people…
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Sunrise on the Reaping Book Review
11–17 minutes2,699 wordsWhen you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for? As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes. Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves. When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his…
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The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Book Review
6–9 minutes1,391 wordsIt is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute. The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely…
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The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Movie Review
6–9 minutes1,359 wordsCoriolanus Snow, an 18-year-old student at the Academy, the most prestigious high school in the Capitol, is assigned, with 23 other students in his grade, to mentor the 24 tributes of the 10th Hunger Games, where the winning tribute’s mentor will be awarded the Plinth Prize, a full-tuition scholarship to university. Coriolanus, son of the now deceased, wealthy, and high-profile Crassus Snow, has fallen into poverty and cannot afford to attend university without that scholarship. He will do anything he can to mentor the winning tribute. The Dean of the Academy announces the tribute assignments, and assigns Coriolanus the female…
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Mockingjay Part 2 Movie Review
11–16 minutes2,509 wordsKatniss, recovering from being attacked by Peeta, who was tortured by the Capitol to alter all of his memories of Katniss, is not doing so good. In an attempt to distract herself from the thought of Peeta, she immerses herself in the rebellion and gets sent to District 2 to try and get them to join the revolution, getting shot in the process. After recovering in the hospital, she attends Finnick and Annie’s wedding, where Johanna mentions a cargo ship that will depart for the Capitol the next day. Johanna covers for Katniss while she sneaks on the ship, where…
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Mockingjay Book Review
14–20 minutes3,208 words“My name is Katniss Everdeen. Why am I not dead? I should be dead.” Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Though she’s long been a part of the revolution, Katniss hasn’t known it. Now it seems that everyone has had a hand in the carefully laid plans but her. The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss’s willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for…
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Mockingjay Part 1 Movie Review
4–6 minutes966 wordsRecently rescued from the arena of the 75th Hunger Games and settling down in District 13, Katniss is having trouble adjusting. She’s struggling with the guilt of Peeta being taken by the Capitol and the news that District 12 was destroyed by firebombs, with most of the people she once knew being dead. Being underground doesn’t help either, and the strict militaristic schedule of District 13 isn’t easy to adapt to. She sees an on-screen interview of Peeta with Caesar Flickerman, where Peeta calls for a ceasefire, angering District 13 citizens, and leading her to agree to be the “Mockingjay”,…
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As Good As Dead Book Review
3–5 minutes789 wordsPip Fitz-Amobi is haunted by the way her last investigation ended. Soon she’ll be leaving for Cambridge University but then another case finds her… and this time it’s all about Pip. Pip is used to online death threats, but there’s one that catches her eye, someone who keeps asking: who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears? And it’s not just online. Pip has a stalker who knows where she lives. The police refuse to act and then Pip finds connections between her stalker and a local serial killer. The killer has been in prison for six…
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Catching Fire Book Review
5–7 minutes1,074 wordsAgainst all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just earned for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules, and now there are rumors of rebellion in the districts. Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.[1] Catching Fire, in my opinoin, is an amazing novel; it shows the beginning of the…
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Catching Fire Movie Review
4–6 minutes930 wordsIt’s now winter in District 12, and Katniss has settled down in her new home in the Victor’s Village with her family. She is about to embark on a ‘Victory Tour’ with her lover, Peeta, the problem being she hasn’t spoken more than a couple of sentences to him in months. After a particularly tense encounter with President Snow, where he demanded she convince the country of her love for Peeta, she is under even more pressure to perform her part. They return from the Victory Tour in low spirits, seeing firsthand how riled up the districts are and how…
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The Hunger Games Book Review
5–8 minutes1,259 wordsWinning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun. . . . In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to…
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The Hunger Games Movie Review
4–7 minutes1,032 wordsKatniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old girl in the poorest neighborhood of the poorest district in Panem, District 12, is just trying to get by and feed her family, when she volunteers for her 12-year-old sister Primrose who is chosen to compete in the “Hunger Games”, an annual televised event where each of the 12 districts send one boy and one girl tribute from the ages 12-18 to fight to the death until only one comes out victorious. Katniss travels to the Capitol with the male tribute from her district, Peeta Mellark, who she has had a run in with as a…
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Breaking Bad Series Review
3–4 minutes703 wordsWalter White is a high-school chemistry teacher in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with a 15-year-old disabled son and a baby on the way. His family has some financial issues, but they’re getting by. That is, until he gets diagnosed with inoperable stage III lung cancer. After learning of this, he keeps it from his family, fearing what their reactions would be. After Walter sees his DEA brother-in-law, Hank, take down a meth lab and sees how much money you can make in that industry, he visits one of his old students, Jesse Pinkman, whom he saw escape the previous crime scene…
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Gilmore Girls Series Review
2–3 minutes537 wordsRory Gilmore, a 15-year-old living in Stars Hollow, Connecticut, has been accepted into a prestigious high school in Hartford. Her mother, Lorelai, tries to scrape up enough money to afford the tuition, refusing to accept the help of her own estranged parents, Emily and Richard Gilmore. Eventually, with no other way to pay for Rory’s schooling, she visits her parents’ home in Hartford and asks for a loan. Emily agrees to pay for the school, Chilton, on one condition—Lorelai and Rory must have dinner with them every Friday night. Gilmore Girls is a 7-season drama/comedy about an independent, single mother…
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Good Girl, Bad Blood Book Review
3–4 minutes628 wordsPip is not a detective anymore. With the help of Ravi Singh, she released a true-crime podcast about the murder case they solved together last year. The podcast has gone viral, yet Pip insists her investigating days are behind her. But she will have to break that promise when someone she knows goes missing. Jamie Reynolds has disappeared, on the very same night the town hosted a memorial for the six-year anniversary of the deaths of Andie Bell and Sal Singh. The police won’t do anything about it. And if they won’t look for Jamie then Pip will, uncovering more of her…
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13 Reasons Why Series Review
4–5 minutes835 wordsHannah Baker, a student at Liberty High in California, took her own life two weeks ago. As her friend Clay Jensen is grieving her loss, he receives a mysterious package in the mail containing 13 cassette tapes. Searching through his garage, he finds his family’s old cassette player. As he inserts the first tape and presses play, his blood runs cold–It’s Hannah’s voice. Before she died, Hannah recorded 13 tapes to explain the reasons that led to her decision to kill herself. In the first tape, she warns that everyone who receives the package played a role in her suicide,…
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A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Book Review
3–4 minutes643 wordsEveryone in Fairview knows the story. Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town. But she can’t shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer? Now a senior herself, Pip decides to reexamine the closed case for her final project, at…
Got any book recommendations?