non, je ne regrette rien

I read a whole two books in less than a week! \o/

The first one was If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo, which is a nice straight forward story about a transgender teenage girl. I really liked it, and found it really readable. It's just a nice, hopeful story, and I really needed something like that right now.

(People complain about how idealised the situations are in the book but, to be honest, it came across to me exactly like the books I read as a teenager? Except that the female protagonist was trans instead of cis. But I actually think those people who complained wanted it to be about how angsty it is being transgender, and I'm glad this didn't go there).

The second one was Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard, which I've heard a lot about recently, presumably because the TV series based on the books has just finished. While I thought it was written OK, I found irritating because:

a) apparently I am supposed to feel sorry for these navel-gazing spoilt rich girls. I don't.
b) she was clearly intending to write a series from the beginning, and so nothing is resolved by the end of the first book and
c) it's essentially wish-fulfilment plus a book version of a soap opera and ugggghhhh. *rolls eyes*

I did like the way she wrote the relationship between Emily and Maya, though. That was about the only genuine feeling thing in the entire book.

I bought both of them on a whim as WH Smiths was having a three for two on YA fiction (I also picked up Fans of the Impossible Life, as I had been thinking about getting it for myself anyway. I then went back the following day and acquired three quarters of the Raven Cycle, which was all they had, and which mum paid for, which was nice of her).

~

I have not bought my copy of FFXII yet. I was going to go for the steelbook, but I think I won't, since the only difference between that and the ordinary copy (apart from the price) is the cover, and a download of the soundtrack.

~

I watched Inception again the other night, as it was on TV anyway, and I thought it'd be nicer to put the DVD on, since there would be no adverts.

I'm glad I still like it (because I do), though I wish I hadn't watched it, as I was in entirely the wrong frame of mind to deal with ( this spoiler )

and also everything to do with Fischer and his dad. So, by the time it finished, I was essentially a sobbing nervous wreck, and I didn't think I'd be able to get to sleep (luckily, I was so knackered that I did).

I'm still sad that Saito doesn't get more to do, but that's probably just my Ken Watanabe bias talking... ;)