The Vampiric Letdown of the Century

Let me start with some context. In both books of the Shadow Histories duology, but for this topic we will be discussing the first one only, titled A Declaration of the Rights of Magician, which follows the lives of 4 major characters across the span of the French Revolution. Fina, a former Jamaican slave with the power to see through others' eyes who is now a part of the Haitian Revolution, Pitt (is his last name) who is the prime minister of England for the most part, Wilberforce (also his last name) who has no magic and is just some guy in parliament who is friends with Pitt and keeps trying to end slavery, and Maximillian Robespierre, our only character in France and a major member of the French Revolution. For this discussion, Most of these characters are irrelevant in most instances. This character’s mystery is major, vampires are thought to be extinct so we have no idea who this guy is, as he manipulates the French state to subtly take control over time, festering in the minds of his subjects, which is a power Vampires have in this world. I do not have time to explain the specific fundamentals of this breed of vampire but just know that they are somehow fundamentally linked to the government of their country, specifically royalty. How they are fundamentally linked, is unclear. Now throughout this very long book, we hardly get to see what this man looks like, only in brief glimpses of his general silhouette in dreams, and a brief look by Fina in Haiti. Throughout this very long book, I suspect that this vampire is going to turn out to be Napoelean, using Robspieree to set the scene until he can come into full view of the world. And after chapters and chapters, and hundreds of pages, as Robespierre dies, we come to find out that he is not, in fact, Napoleon, he has never been Napolean, and Napoleon will take the place of Robespierre in the next book. And man this made me so annoyed. I told everyone who would listen that I thought this vampire would be Napolean, and I was wrong. This is a lesson in dreams, and how they will be ruined by a vampire invading them.

Book Men That I Love to Despise

Does this title need any more of an introduction? So we start with Hans, a character I only remember the name of because he truly embodies his name. He is from the book Greymist Fair and is all around the worst. He has two friends in this small town: the fisher boy who is the best boy and has no excuse to be friends with him still, and a noble girl who also has no other options. He leaves the noble girl to die, and the only reason for his being alive is that he is so full of himself that he doesn't fear death. Death is a character who lives in the forest by the way, who is also the literal manifestation of Death. Since he doesn't fear death, he is practically immune to the terrors of death. The funniest thing about his character is that he wished to be king of their small village, where time was sort of rewritten to make him king, going back about 3 years, and because he is so awful villagers in the modern day have decided to try to revolt against him, and when everything is fixed and death is trying to kill everyone, all the villagers are just like “go outside and die, you suck,” and that's just the best. He also hates the other best boy so I double hate him. The other character I hate is this guy named Kang from a book whoose title is too boring to remember. The reason I remember this guy's name is because every time it was his POV I loudly said “KANG” because I did not like him. He wasn't even an awful character by the way he was just kind of stupid, the worst thing a character can be. Anyway, this was the main character's love interest so you better believe that I had “fun” reading this book series. Yes, it is a duology, he was only a POV character in the second book, but he was present in both. 

-Austin

     Getting back into school from a long break might be one of the hardest things to do for some students, like myself. Though others don’t mind and actually enjoy this. I for one think this is ridiculous, and I still dislike the five days in two days off concept of school days.

     But whatever. School sucks, especially coming back from breaks, but, it also occasionally supplies me with the needed drama for these articles, and let me just say- IF you remember the last time I went over dramatic things in my friend group- yeah that’s still going on.

     It’s annoying, yes, and my entire friend group expect for those two are just awaiting the holy moment where they finally stop bothering each other and either making up to the point that they’re neutral, or just entirely ignore each other. Either way, it would be fine for me.

     Yada yada, I’m not watching grammar and typing this on my phone as well- whatever, you beautiful people, have an excellent weekend away from that torturous building and event they call ‘school’.

-Charlotte