I've been struggling with writing this review of The Bone Shard Daughter for what feels like the longest time. As I read the other great tour stops for #BoneShardDaughterPH (hosted by Kate), I keep asking myself, "Did I read the same book?" But don't get me wrong! This isn't to say that The Bone Shard Daughter is short of fantastic. Because it really is quite an impressive fantasy debut. It's just that in my case, my feelings about this book are a little less straightforward and a lot more complicated than everyone else's. With that said, I'm hoping to write a nuanced review that will ... Read the Post...
Monthly Synopsis: An August of Blogging Comebacks & Casual Job-hunting
As all of you know, I came back from a record-setting hiatus from blogging and content creation. In an ideal world where I have a lot more free time on my hands and an abundant amount of motivation to write, I would've written separate wrap-up posts for all eight months of this year. But alas, this is not an ideal world. As evidenced by the terrible pandemic that's turned our idea of 'normal' upside down. Additionally, a hundred other shitty things that have happened in 2020. I don't think I'm the only person who feels completely drained and exhausted by this shit-storm of a year. But ... Read the Post...
Spring Cleaning in September (ft. #goodreadance2020)
Before anything else, I live in the Philippines. 🇵🇭 Which only has two seasons: wet and dry. So, technically, spring isn't really ✨ A Thing ✨ here. This also means that I don't know anything about the four seasons unless we're talking about the delightfully fruity drink. But I needed a cute and witty blog post title. So, here we are! 2020 has been a huge mess. In just about every sense of the word, it seems. For instance, the Philippine economy is in shambles. Politicians consistently shit the bed. Regular schedules, such as the academic calendar, have been significantly disrupted. With ... Read the Post...
Books in Bullets: Highly Anticipated Sci-Fi Novels That Surprisingly Weren’t My Cup of Tea
I'm convinced that I am the slowest reviewer ever, and no, I won't be taking any arguments. It takes me at least a day or two to finish a ready-to-publish book review -- and that's me being very generous to myself and my brain cells. Although formatting takes a significant bulk of my time, sometimes the problem is simply that... I don't have a lot to say about a book that I've read. Hence, Books in Bullets is essentially a series of mini-reviews with a twist. I throw together a few books that share a similarity and evaluate them using bullet-point lists of their respective strengths and ... Read the Post...
31 Filipino Bookish Creators You Should Follow
We're down to the last week of August, and I've been stressing over what to do to commemorate this year's Buwan ng Wika. ?? Held every August, Buwan ng Wika is a month-long celebration of the many Philippine languages that we have. There are over 150 independent languages spoken in different parts of our country. In other words, we have a lot to celebrate. The topic of ✨ Philippine languages ✨ can readily become complicated, and more importantly, political. Our national language is Filipino. Additionally, it is heavily derived from Tagalog, which is native to certain parts of Luzon. I ... Read the Post...
7 Things I Wish I Had Known Before Book Blogging
I made my first blog in December 2015. Until now, I can still remember how clueless I initially was. I spent my first week reading and reviewing books en masse -- and get this -- not interacting with other book bloggers. I did know that book blogging was ✨ A Thing ✨ and a significant number of other people were doing it. However, I did not imagine that making friends through blogging was possible. Having zero knowledge about blogger-to-blogger engagement was only the tip of the embarrassingly huge iceberg of things I was clueless about. But somehow, I managed to stick around for nearly five ... Read the Post...
Shut up, Shealea 2.0: Relaunch & Giveaway
Eight months. It's been eight -- long and insanely eventful -- months since I formally announced my indefinite blogging hiatus on social media. And it's been ten(!!!) months since I last wrote a blog post, which was a positively glowing review of Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger.* To say that "it's been a while" hardly does justice to nearly a year's worth of FOMO (fear of missing out), existential anxiety, self-doubt, and exhaustion. But on a much brighter note, it was also many amazing months of soul-searching, focusing on my final leg of college (yep, I've graduated!), recovering from the ... Read the Post...
