Rainy Day's Books, Video Games and Other Writings

Failed Impressions: Yume Nikki

In what I hope to be my first and only post, Failed Impressions are going to be video game posts about games I attempted to play only to quit. I’ll have quit playing a game due to lack of interest, holes in storyline, and even rage quit.

So for my first Failed Impressions post, I give you Yume Nikki. Yume Nikki is a surrealistic adventure game that was developed by Kikiyama in 2004. The game centers around a young girl named Madotsuki as she enters this dream world where she collects Effects, objects that provide Madotsuki with special abilities. The object of Yume Nikki is to collect all twenty-four effects.

There are many reasons why I couldn’t get into playing Yume Nikki. When I first started playing, I was interested in giving this game a shot. I had seen so many things on the Internet about this game and thought it would appeal to me.

However, that’s not what happened. I immediately found myself frustrated with the game when I was in Madotsuki’s room. In her room, there is an opportunity for the player to play a mini game called NASU. In NASU, the objective is to catch a falling eggplant in the character’s mouth. I found the mini game itself to be interesting and intriguing, but quickly became frustrated when I discovered that I couldn’t exit out of it.

I tried furiously pressing every key on my laptop known to mankind to exit out of this mini game, but it refused to let me go. Even the ESC button didn’t work. So I’d have to reload Yume Nikki every time I tried to play NASU. And that frustrated me because it showed that the controls didn’t always work.

Another reason Yume Nikki didn’t appeal to me as a gamer is because of the lack of a storyline. When I play video games, I play for the purpose of being introduced to a whole new world where I can explore the mechanics of the game along with seeing an intriguing and interesting storyline and character development as I progress. In this game, the player is introduced to Madotsuki, a young girl who lives alone in her apartment.

But there’s no real story here. There’s Madotsuki and her dreams and that’s it. And while that can be interesting to some players, I want to know more about what’s going on and what I’m supposed to be doing in these dreams. Because while the environment Madotsuki was in was intriguing and interesting to explore, I was frustrated that there was no real story that I could sink my teeth into.

I also didn’t enjoy Yume Nikki because of getting lost in this game. While I don’t mind playing games where you can explore the environment around you, I found that the dreams going to other dreams to be more of a nuisance. None of the dreams connected together in a way that made sense to me as a player. And while I don’t mind getting lost in video games, not being able to find my way out without having to wake Madotsuki up really frustrated me. It meant that I would have to go back into the same dreams again just to make sure that I collected all of the effects before moving on to the next door.

I really tried getting into Yume Nikki. I really did. But because of the amount of problems I had while playing, such as being unable to play the game at all, I had to call it quits after only playing the game for an hour and collecting three effects. I really wish this game had turned out differently for me.

September 11, 2015 0

Book Review: Sweetwater Blues

Rating: 4 stars

Rodney Earwood and Palmer Cray had been best friends for as long as either could remember. They were brothers in all but the genetic sense, each born late in the lives of good women who had given up on the dream of motherhood by the time their respective miracles occurred.

They wandered the hills of North Georgia, hunted the pine woods, fished the cool, green streams, and camped under the stars. They shared each other’s clothing, each other’s families, and each other’s homes. They grew into tall young men, and on a hot May afternoon right after they turned eighteen, they both graduated from Sweetwater High School, numbers seven and eight in the crooked, sweaty line that held a class of thirty of Sweetwater’s finest. Shortly thereafter, Rodney and Palmer flew a Camaro into a tree, Palmer flew into a haystack, Rodney flew into the great beyond, and nothing in Sweetwater was ever the same again.

I really enjoyed this book. The story was interesting, wanting me to continue reading to find out what happened next to Palmer Cray. It was written at just the right pace to where I could continue reading the book from where I stopped.

I really liked the characters because they kept the story going. I really liked reading about Palmer’s relationship with his cousin Cheddar as he continued to live out his life in jail. Especially because Palmer didn’t expect to room with him and it really surprised me as a reader.

I also enjoyed reading Sweetwater Blues because there was a lot of character development for Palmer and Cheddar. Before the accident, Palmer was a carefree high school student who did what he wanted with his best friend Rodney. However, after what happened and spending time in jail, Palmer grew as a person. Even though he was guilty of the crime he committed, Palmer didn’t let the system get to him and became a better person as he continued his sentence. Cheddar also underwent character development throughout Sweetwater Blues. The reader can see this through his relationship with Palmer and through the way he acts as the story continues. The reader can see that Cheddar is a changed man and that he wants to do better for himself once he’s released. I love seeing these developments in Sweetwater Blues because the reader is able to better understand these characters and their predicament.

The only aspect of Sweetwater Blues that bothered me was the portrayal of jail life Atkins gives to the reader. I felt at times as if it wasn’t realistic and wished he included more detail about jail and how inmates have to cope so they can get out. I know part of that is because Palmer had good connections so he was very fortunate, but I wanted to see more of jail life for Palmer and see how he copes with being messed around by other inmates. While the reader does see some of that in Sweetwater Blues, I don’t think Atkins included enough to where I could get a good sense of what jail is really like for those placed in it.

Overall though, Sweetwater Blues was a wonderful read for me. I enjoyed every moment I spent reading this book and recommend it to anyone interested.

September 7, 2015 0

First Impressions: Alice Mare

Alice Mare is an adventure, horror and puzzle game created by Miwashiba in Wolf RPG Editor.

Alice Mare centers around a boy named Allen. After losing his memory, Allen is placed in a home where four other children live. While at this facility, Allen discovers there to be a World of Dreams. He also learns more about the other children he lives with through storybook telling.

Through exploration, the player will find out what’s going on but can also unlock a total of seven different endings.

Alice Mare is a game that I’m still struggling to figure out how I feel about it. When I first started playing, I was confused and trying to figure out what’s going on. This occurred because the game has the player jump right into the game without any detail. I like that the game did this because it made playing Alice Mare that much more interesting for me. However, I also felt confused when I was playing because I didn’t begin to realize what was going on until later.

What I do like about Alice Mare is the music. I feel that a lot of the music you hear while you play is really beautiful and makes the gameplay enjoyable for the player. Some of the songs that I really enjoyed from Alice Mare include Miracle of the Stars, Playing with Dolls, Murdered, and El Paradiso. It really helped set the tone of the game and gave the player an idea of how things were going.

Another aspect of Alice Mare I enjoy is the character’s stories. I love that Miwashiba gave each of the characters fairytale stories. I really love fairytales and it was easy to see how each of these fairytales was uniquely incorporated into the game. It also made the game enjoyable to me because while I was playing, I was trying to figure out which fairytale each of the children were a part of. I also found that I loved all of these different characters because the player could connect and feel sympathy for them.

Another aspect of Alice Mare I really enjoyed was the horror that was incorporated into the game. It wasn’t a whole lot, but enough to make the player see that there is horror in the game. The player could see a lot of these aspects not only through the music, but through the graphics as well. While the music in the game set the tone for each scene, the graphics themselves helped the player figure out what was going to happen to the characters next. This intrigued me while playing because I didn’t know what to expect from scene to scene.

What I didn’t enjoy while playing Alice Mare was the lack of plot explanation. The player knows that Allen is a young boy, new to the facility he has been placed in. However, the player doesn’t get a vivid explanation of these dream worlds and doesn’t know a whole lot about the characters other than what’s relayed in the game. The player never finds out who Alice is (though the game implies it’s you, though you don’t know for sure).

I also didn’t enjoy any of the puzzles and riddles you had to do to progress in the game. I found them to be confusing and the answers for a lot of them didn’t make a lot of sense to me. The only way I progressed at all was from looking at the Alice Mare Wiki to get the answers to the puzzles and riddles.

So while I did enjoy playing Alice Mare, I’m still conflicted on how I feel about it.

September 6, 2015 0

Book Review: Hades

Rating: 3 stars

Twenty years ago, two children were kidnapped and left for dead.
Raised by a master criminal, they grew up to become cops. Very unusual cops . . .

Homicide detective Frank Bennett has an intriguing new partner. Dark, beautiful, coldly efficient, Eden Archer is one of the most enigmatic colleagues Frank has ever worked with—that includes her brother Eric, who’s also on the Sydney Metro police force. All of them are tested to the core when a local man discovers a graveyard of large steel toolboxes lying at the bottom of the harbor. Each box contains a grisly trove of human body parts.

For Frank, the madman’s clues are a tantalizing puzzle. For Eden and Eric, the case holds chilling links to a scarred childhood—and a murderous mentor named Hades. But the true evil goes beyond the bloody handiwork of a serial killer…

Hades was a page-turner of a read. I was immediately hooked into the story about Frank’s new mysterious partner Eden. As a fan of crime novels, this book really intrigued me. I really liked reading Hades for a number of reasons. For one, I enjoyed seeing the novel switch back and forth from Frank’s perspective to learning more about Eden and Eric’s upbringing. I loved finding out more about why Eden and Eric acted the way they did so as to better understand their characters.

While I felt as if Frank and Eden should’ve had more of a connection throughout the novel, I was able to easily understand why that wasn’t the case. Eden is a very elusive woman and doesn’t want anyone knowing what she and Eric have been through. However, I felt as if Frank should’ve at least been clued into what was going on so as to better understand her character and her actions throughout. Another reason this book was an okay read for me was because I felt as if all of the characters in this book were extremely flat. I felt no reason to connect with any of the characters and that bothered me. While Hades is a crime novel that focuses more on the crime and catching the bad guy, I felt as if there should’ve been some characters aspects mentioned. We get that Eden and Eric are both cold blooded people because this book drives that point home enough. But I felt as if the rest of the characters didn’t have any real character flaws mentioned and if they did, they weren’t really explained.

I also was bothered that the novel didn’t delve deeply into Frank’s own past. The reader knows that Frank’s past isn’t perfect, but the reader never finds out more about Frank other than a couple of details in his life. He’s never fully explained and the novel focuses more on Eden and Eric than on him, even though the whole story is told from his perspective. Throughout Hades, he takes the role of being the backseat driver in the story, yet is seen as a main character since the novel is from his perspective. That bothered me because his own life and the choices he made are never explained quite as in depth as Eden and Eric’s life growing up with Hades.

So while Hades was a page-turner read for me, I found some details in the novel lacking that would’ve made the story more enjoyable to me. What made Hades worth the read was learning more about Eden and Eric’s past and the crime that took place that connected with their lives. I can’t wait to see what Eden has in store for me.

September 1, 2015 0

Book Review: Landline

Rating: 4 stars

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble; it has been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply — but that almost seems beside the point now.

Maybe that was always beside the point.

Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her — Neal is always a little upset with Georgie — but she doesn’t expect him to pack up the kids and go home without her.

When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.

That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts…

Is that what she’s supposed to do?

Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?

I really enjoyed reading Landline. It is the second book by Rainbow Rowell that I’ve read and has become my favorite so far. What I loved about this story was how Rowell carried it out. In the beginning of the book, the reader quickly realizes that Georgie’s marriage to her husband Neal isn’t perfect. While Georgie is at work, her husband Neal spends his day at home, taking care of the kids and everything around the house. But the reader is able to easily see that Neal isn’t happy with this arrangement. The reason I love these details being portrayed in Landline is because marriages aren’t perfect. And the reader gets to see this through Neal and Georgie’s marriage to each other and what happens over the next couple days.

I also love these details because Rowell shows her readers that relationships aren’t perfect. The reader can see this throughout Landline when Neal leaves for Omaha with the kids. While he’s away, Georgie feels guilty that she didn’t go with him to his mother’s house. She also begins to reflect a lot on their relationship and wonders if they were even meant to be together. Or if they would’ve been better off not getting married in the first place. I love that Rowell makes Georgie reflect on their relationship because while they aren’t perfect for each other, the reader learns from this book that if you love someone enough, being perfect with each other doesn’t matter. As long as you are willing to be by your love’s side, you will be able to conquer all of the problems your relationship brings to the surface.

I also enjoyed reading Landline because of Georgie’s relationship with her best friend Seth. While they make Seth out to be the guy Georgie was meant to be with, I’m really glad they didn’t end up together. Yes, the reader can easily see how good of a couple they could’ve been, but I feel that her relationship with Neal was much stronger than her friendship with Seth. I know that she and Seth have been friends longer then she’s been with Neal, but I felt a stronger connection between her and Neal despite their imperfect relationship. I also found Seth to be highly entertaining and funny and just couldn’t picture the two of them being together as a couple.

Landline was also an enjoyable read for me because of the different dynamics of relationships Rowell brought into the book. Not only do you have an imperfect relationship between Neal and Georgie, but the book also has Georgie’s younger sister Heather who turns out to be gay and Georgie’s mother is married to a man closer to Georgie’s age than her own. There’s also Seth, who they make seem to be Georgie’s soul mate but really isn’t. I really like that these relationships between characters are completely dynamic because it made reading Landline for me that much more enjoyable. The book not only had dynamic characters but dynamic relationships, which made the book not turn out the way the reader would expect. While I don’t mind reading books where best friends of the opposite gender end up together, it’s also very nice to see that they can also be friends without becoming a couple too.

The only issue I had when reading Landline was the ending. Without spoiling any of you, I felt as if the ending of the book was pretty flat. Yes, it did catch me by surprise because it wasn’t what I was expecting, but I also felt as if the book just suddenly ended and everything was okay in Georgie’s universe. The reader never gets to find out what happens after that Christmas and whether Georgie and Neal’s marriage does continue on and that really bothered me when I finished reading.

However, the ending of Landline didn’t make me enjoy reading this book any less. I overall really enjoyed reading this book more than I did Fangirl and can’t wait to read some more of Rainbow Rowell’s other novels.

August 21, 2015 0

Reliving Memories: Dark Cloud 2

Known as Dark Chronicle in Japan and Europe, Dark Cloud 2 is an adventure RPG dungeon crawling game made by Level 5. Published in 2003, Dark Cloud 2 centers around two characters: Maximillian and Monica Raybrandt.

An inventor and son of the wealthiest man in Palm Brinks, Maximillian works at Cedric’s shop, helping him repair parts. His adventure begins after a chance encounter with Flotsam’s Circus Troupe where he not only finds out about the outside world, but discovers that he has the Red Atlamillia, which allows him to go into the past. Monica Raybrandt is the daughter of King Raybrandt. She is the owner of the Blue Atlamillia and is sent into the past to help Maximillian stop Emperor Griffin from destroying the future after she witnesses him kill her father. Together, Maximillian and Monica work to repair the past in order to bring a brighter future to their world.

I remember as a child playing this game a lot. I had first heard about Dark Cloud 2 from a friend of mine at daycare in elementary school. Back then, I was the tomboy in my group of friends. I was the only girl at the daycare I went to who hung out with all the guys because most of the girls at my daycare I couldn’t relate to. I found out about Dark Cloud 2 from one of my friends there, started playing it, and haven’t stopped since.

I have so many fond memories of this game because it became one of my favorite games to play as a child. Now that I’m older, I’ve been playing Dark Cloud 2 with my boyfriend Zach so that I can relive all those moments of playing this game when I was little. Even though when I was younger I never got further than the second dungeon, there are a lot of things about this game that I liked even then.

For one, there are a lot of unique features this game has that I haven’t seen yet in other video games. For example, in order to recover the future, the player has to build Georamas. Georamas are a way of rebuilding the past in order to restore the future. In order to put a Georama together, the player needs the Carpenterion and Geostones. The Carpenterion is a machine that allows you to create the items you need to make the Georama. However, in order to make the Georama parts, the player needs Geostones, which holds the data the Carpenterion needs to create these parts. What I like about this feature in Dark Cloud 2 is that it is a very unique way of building items and that each Georama has its own sets of challenges that the player has to overcome if they want to progress further in the game.

I also enjoy playing Dark Cloud 2 because of the dungeons. Each floor in all of the dungeons in this game have unique monsters to fight and unique gate keys that the player has to obtain. In order to get to the next dungeon floor, the player has to fight monsters to obtain the gate key and I like that each dungeon has its own corresponding gate key that is different from all the others. I also like that each of the dungeon floors are randomly generated, which allows the player to have a unique gaming experience on each dungeon level. Another component to the dungeons I enjoy is the music. I enjoy that each dungeon has its own music that is unique to the area the player is exploring. I just find that the music in Dark Cloud 2 is beautiful and that it makes me enjoy fighting monsters all the more as I continue to play this game.

Dark Cloud 2 Rainbow Butterfly Wood Dungeon — Monica in Rainbow Butterfly Wood, the second dungeon in Dark Cloud 2.

Another aspect of Dark Cloud 2 I love is building up Max and Monica’s weapons. Both Max and Monica have unique weapons the player needs to build up to make stronger weapons the player can use to fight monsters. The building up process involves synthesizing items, such as crystals to strengthen Max and Monica’s stats. Once you have certain numbers for your stats, you are able to build your weapon up to a stronger wrench, gun, sword or armband. What I love about their weapons is that they are unique. For example, Max’s main weapon is a wrench, which is something I’ve never seen in any other game I’ve played. I also like that when you build your weapon up that the player has more than one option. This allows the player the ability to have two or three of the same weapon and increase different stats for each one to make the weapon something else. I like that you have multiple options when making your weapon because it gives the player the chance to create different weapons to handle different types of monsters.

However, there are also components to Dark Cloud 2 that I don’t enjoy. These features are going fishing and playing Spheda. As a person who doesn’t enjoy fishing as a hobby, I find playing fishing in this game to be boring because it doesn’t excite me in any way. While at times it can be peaceful after finishing a tough dungeon or battle with a monster, it’s more of a hassle to do. Especially when you first start playing Dark Cloud 2 before you have Fabio join your party. Spheda is a video game version of golf. The goal of Spheda is to hit your ball, which will either be blue or red, into the red or blue hole of the opposite color. If the ball and the hole are the same color, the ball will just bounce off the hole. However, the player only has a certain amount of hits they can do before the time distortion disappears. While Spheda can sometimes be fun to play, I find that I don’t enjoy it as much because it’s more of a pain to do. One of the reasons Spheda is a pain to play is because the player has to clear the dungeon floor of monsters before they can even play. Another reason I don’t like Spheda is because there are so many rooms for error that sometimes trying to clear the time distortion isn’t even worth it.

While playing Dark Cloud 2 with Zach, I’ve been able to discover my love of this game over again. I remember why I played this game a lot as a child, even though I never progressed as far as I have now that I’m playing with another person. Playing Dark Cloud 2 again is such a wonderful experience. I am glad that I am creating such wonderful memories with this game again that I’ll be able to look back on with fondness and a happy heart.

August 20, 2015 0

Book Review: The Prayer Box

Rating: 3 stars

When Iola Anne Poole, an old-timer on Hatteras Island, passes away in her bed at ninety-one, the struggling young mother in her rental cottage, Tandi Jo Reese, finds herself charged with the task of cleaning out Iola’s rambling Victorian house. Running from a messy, dangerous past, Tandi never expects to find more than a temporary hiding place within Iola’s walls, but everything changes with the discovery of eighty-one carefully decorated prayer boxes, one for each year, spanning from Iola’s youth to her last days. Hidden in the boxes is the story of a lifetime, written on random bits of paper–the hopes and wishes, fears and thoughts of an unassuming but complex woman passing through the seasons of an extraordinary, unsung life filled with journeys of faith, observations on love, and one final lesson that could change everything for Tandi.

This book was an okay read for me. It wasn’t what I was expecting to read, but I thought it was okay. What I liked about The Prayer Box was the background story the reader received about Tandi and why she was on Hatteras Island. Her dark past with her ex-husband was something I found I could relate to and pulled me into reading this novel. I also enjoyed Lisa Wingate’s writing. She is very descriptive about Iola Anne Poole’s Victorian house and it made me interested in finding out what Tandi was going to find in the home. She also described the scenery on the island well enough to where I could picture where Tandi and her children were living.

I also enjoyed reading about Tandi’s growing relationship with the people around her and her children. Lisa Wingate shows some strong character development with Tandi that I really enjoyed seeing as she was reading Iola’s letters.

However, there was a lot in The Prayer Box that was missing for me. The letters Tandi finds in the boxes that were written by Iola were really disappointing to me. I felt as if they didn’t really give the reader Iola’s character. If anything, the letters told us more about Iola and her past, but I didn’t feel as if I could understand her character from reading them. While I did enjoy hearing about Tandi’s past, the reader really doesn’t get a whole lot about why she and her children left. We know that Tandi’s ex-husband Trammel was bad, but I felt as if we as readers don’t get the full picture as to what happened with him. We also don’t get a whole lot about what’s going to happen to Tandi now that her ex-husband is in jail and that Iola’s house isn’t going to be destroyed. The book just suddenly ends with no real conclusion.

I also found Tandi’s character to be disappointing. While I do understand what she went through, I felt as if she didn’t really learn from her past. The reader can see this in The Prayer Box through her relationship with Ross and the relationship she has with her children at the beginning of the book. Ross is a lot like Tandi’s ex-husband Trammel and she even mentions that when she’s talking about him. However, Tandi doesn’t realize how bad of a man he is for her even after what happens with Gina. Instead, she’s upset about his cheating but doesn’t do anything. The relationship Tandi has with her children in the beginning of The Prayer Box is terrible. It is exactly the way Tandi says she was raised as a child. But Tandi doesn’t realize this at all when she talks about the way she was raised and doesn’t even realize her bad parenting until near the end of the book. Then when she tries to be a better parent it always falls flat to me. While I do enjoy seeing that she is trying to do her kids right by her, I felt as if Tandi never really learns from her experiences. Her character made reading The Prayer Box that much more difficult for me.

Part of the reason I struggled with reading this book was because I placed high expectations on this book. I was expecting a lot more than what I got out of The Prayer Box, but I just couldn’t connect with it on the level I wanted to. It just didn’t speak to me in the way it has with other readers and that’s why it’s an okay read for me. While there were parts of The Prayer Box that I enjoyed, it was an overall okay book to read. I definitely enjoyed reading The Story Keeper more and am interested in reading some of Wingate’s other novels.

August 14, 2015 0

First Impressions: Life is Strange

Released on Jan. 29, 2015, Life is Strange is an environmental interactive adventure video game. Developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix, Life is Strange is from the perspective of Max, a regular senior photography student at Blackwell Academy who discovers she can rewind time when she saves her best friend Chloe from being shot. As the two best friends figure out a way for Max to use her powers, they discover something strange is going on in Arcadia Bay. Together, they work to figure it out through finding out what happened to a missing Blackwell Academy student.

Life is Strange 2 — Max’s room in Life is Strange.

Life is Strange is a game that allows the player to rewind time. By rewinding time, the player is able to relive social interactions and change their decisions, which results in different consequences for Max in the game. This allows the player to relieve a variety of different endings for the game. Life is Strange is also divided into a total of five episodes, which gives the player the opportunity to change their decisions in the episodes if they want.

When I first started playing Life is Strange, I wasn’t sure what I was going to think of it. I knew it was a game that I wanted to play, but didn’t know what my feelings were going to be towards it after playing. But since I’ve started Life is Strange, I’ve gotten nothing but pure enjoyment from playing it. I’ve enjoyed Life is Strange since playing it because I love the high school vibe the game gives the player. You get to play as a high school student who is trying to figure out what to do with her new powers while still trying to get through everyday life. Max not only has to deal with how to handle her new powers, but how to deal with issues at school, such as bullying, suicide, rape, and abuse. These issues bring Life is Strange to a new level that hasn’t been explored in other video games and I enjoy seeing these issues brought to life in this game.

The heart wrenching scene with Kate in Life is Strange. Those who’ve played know what’s going on here. The choice you make here determines what happens to her next.

Another component to Life is Strange that I really enjoy is seeing how the choices you make in the game impacts the other characters. As I mentioned earlier, there are many different choices you can make when in uncomfortable social situations with Max. However, the choice you decide to stick with is what determines what’s going to happen later in the game. I love this aspect to the game because you can rewind time after having those uncomfortable conversations and make a different decision and then see how it plays out. It really brings to the surface the saying that “actions have consequences.”

Life is Strange is also an enjoyable game to me because I like how you can interact with the environment. From looking at an object to taking pictures of the world around you, there are so many little things as the player that you can look at that I find to be a charming aspect in this game. By looking at these objects and taking pictures, you are able to add more material to Max’s journal so that you get one step closer to collecting everything in Life is Strange.

The one thing in Life is Strange I don’t particularly care for are the controls. While moving Max around isn’t too bad, I find that whenever I play, there are a lot of times my game lags and I feel like I’m unable to do anything. It also affects my social interactions too because whenever I talk to people in the game, they sometimes say the same word over again two or three times during dialogue. I know that’s an issue I can’t control, but I don’t really like the controls for Life is Strange because of it.

Overall, I enjoy playing Life is Strange. The game has a lot to offer to those interested in playing and I would recommend this game to anyone interested. However, for those who aren’t comfortable with playing a game that deals with issues such as rape, abuse, suicide, bullying, and violence or don’t want to play a game that is very emotion heavy, I don’t recommend Life is Strange to you. For now though, I look forward to continue playing Life is Strange and seeing what’s going to happen next to Max and Chloe with the decisions I have made.

August 11, 2015 5

Book Review: In the Heart of the Dark Wood

Rating: 4 stars

A motherless girl hungry for hope . . . and the dream that could be leading her astray.

Almost two years have passed since twelve year-old Allie Granderson’s beloved mother Mary disappeared into the wild tornado winds. Her body has never been found. God may have spilled out his vengeance on all of Mattingly that day–but it was Allie’s momma who got swept away.

Allie clings to memories of her mother, just as she clings to the broken compass she left behind, the makeshift Nativity scene assembled in Allie’s front yard, and to her best friend, Zach. But even with Zach at her side, the compass tied to her wrist, and the Nativity characters just a glimpse out the window, Allie cannot help but feel lost in all the growing up that must get done.

When the Holy Mother disappears from the yard one morning, Allie’s bewilderment is checked only by the sudden movement of her mother’s compass. Yet the compass isn’t pointing north but east . . . into the inky forest on the outskirts of Mattingly.

Following the needle, Allie and Zach leave the city pavement behind and push into the line of trees edging on the Virginia hill country. For Allie, the journey is more than a ghost hunt: she is rejoining the mother she lost–and finding herself with each step deeper into the heart of the darkest woods she’s ever seen.

Brimming with lyrical prose and unexpected discoveries, “In the Heart of the Dark Wood” illustrates the steep transition we all must undergo–the moment we shed our child-like selves and step into the strange territory of adulthood.

This book moved me in ways I wasn’t expecting. When I first saw the premise of the book, I originally thought it was going to be an okay read with a very happy ending. However, this book took several turns I didn’t see coming. They were turns that enthralled me, making me want to continue reading. That is one of the many reasons why I enjoyed reading In the Heart of the Dark Wood.

I also enjoyed reading this book because I felt a strong connection with Allie. From the very beginning, I sympathized with Allie’s character because I knew exactly how she felt. While I myself haven’t lost my mother, I know what it’s like being without one parent, feeling as if a part of you is gone. In a way, losing anyone you care about is like that, and this book heavily portrayed that in a way that moved me emotionally. While Allie does struggle to let go of her past and to continue moving forward, when she does let go, it’s in a very adult way, which allows the reader to see her develop as a character.

I also enjoyed reading In the Heart of the Dark Wood because I enjoyed hearing about their journey and how both Allie and Zach were able to survive as the townspeople kept looking for them. I enjoyed hearing about their adventure because the author writes in plenty of detail, pulling the reader’s attention with every passing minute. The context of the text is very lyrical and beautifully written and really pulled at my emotions. When I was near the end of the book, I was crying because I was so emotionally invested in what I was reading. Allie is such a sympathetic character that it was hard not to feel bad for her and everything she has gone through.

However, one aspect of In the Heart of the Dark Wood that bothered me was how the time Allie and Zach spent in the woods dragged on. While reading about their time in the woods was enthralling, there were aspects of it that seemed to take forever to become interesting. One example is the creature in the woods that has been following them. They have encounters with this creature two or three times before they are finally able to see what creature is pursuing them. This bothers me because the reader doesn’t figure out what creature Allie and Zach encounter until the very end of the book. I was also bothered by how Allie finds her mother in the woods. While it’s good to know Allie finally has closure with what happened to her mother, I was hoping that things would go differently for her.

In the Heart of the Dark Wood was a pleasure to read. It kept me guessing at every turn of the page and really enthralled me emotionally.

August 7, 2015 0

Rainy Day's Books, Video Games and Other Writings

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Book Review: The Prayer Box

First Impressions: Life is Strange

Book Review: In the Heart of the Dark Wood

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