#character: margo kang.

[carriessotos]

tag dump! nana's version - 03.

[daisyjoners]

tag dump! nana’s version - personagens.

[poppywrights]

                               CHARACTER DUMP.               

park sungyu: vinte e quatro anos, estudante de medicina veterinária. fc: oh sehun.

kang dawon: vinte e cinco anos, idol (main vocal e visual do nevaeh). fc: joy.

seo hoyeon: vinte e nove anos, dono de uma escola de artes. fc: lee dohyun.

shin miso: vinte e três anos, estudante de ciências aeronáuticas. fc: bona.

avery malhotra: vinte e seis anos, ex-bailarina e estudante de literatura inglesa. fc: simone ashley.

son haseul: vinte e cinco anos, atriz. fc: krystal jung.

melina durmaz: vinte e seis anos, garçonete e fotógrafa. fc: bahar sahin.

nam sunmi: vinte e quatro anos, estudante de moda & administração. fc: go minsi.

jung hyeri: vinte e sete anos, maquiadora. fc: han sohee.

aaron jenkins: trinta e cinco anos, arquiteto. fc: richard madden.

harper wakefield: trinta e dois anos, detetive. fc: lily james.

min eunhye: vinte e quatro anos, modelo. fc: moon gayoung.

on chaeyeon: vinte e seis anos, cabeleireira. fc: jennie kim.

jeon solji: vinte e dois anos, idol (main vocal e líder do nyx). fc: winter.

astrid dawson: dezoito anos, estudante de hogwarts e monitora da lufa-lufa. fc: olivia scott welch.

daniel yang: vinte e oito anos, funcionário em uma empresa de roupas. fc: suho.

margo kang: vinte e cinco anos, aspirante a atriz. fc: kim jisoo.

evan hawkins: vinte e três anos, estudante de cinema. fc: michael evans behling.

madeleine hawthorne: vinte e um anos, estudante de pré-medicina. fc: madelyn cline.

victor alexander musgrave: vinte e sete anos, duque de devonshire. fc: paul mescal.

heath crawford: vinte e quatro anos, ator. fc: archie renaux.

emre özdemir: trinta anos, roteirista. fc: alperen duymaz.

erik bergström: vinte e três anos, drüskelle. fc: evan roderick.

leonard schultz: trinta anos, músico (vocalista, guitarrista e líder da the guess). fc: fabien frankel.

beatrice willa zhang: vinte e sete anos, enfermeira. fc: jessie mei li.

viviana rossi: vinte e oito anos, atriz da broadway. fc: simona tabasco.

robert cole driscoll: trinta e nove anos, cirurgião ortopédico. fc: chris evans.

lawrence stokes: trinta e dois anos, jogador de futebol americano (running back). fc: keith powers.

marina sampaio: vinte e cinco anos, jogadora de vôlei na seleção dos estados unidos. fc: alba baptista.

charlie gibson: vinte e seis anos, veterinário.fc: corey mylchreest.

[nikihawkes]

Title: Swarm

Authors: Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti

Series: Zeroes #2

Genre: Teen Fantasy

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

The Overview: They thought they’d already faced their toughest fight. But there’s no relaxing for the reunited Zeroes. These six teens with unique abilities have taken on bank robbers, drug dealers and mobsters. Now they’re trying to lay low so they can get their new illegal nightclub off the ground. But the quiet doesn’t last long when two strangers come to town, bringing with them a whole different kind of crowd-based chaos. And hot on their tails is a crowd-power even more dangerous and sinister. Up against these new enemies, every Zero is under threat. Mob is crippled by the killing-crowd buzz—is she really evil at her core? Flicker is forced to watch the worst things a crowd can do. Crash’s conscience—and her heart—get a workout. Anon and Scam must both put family loyalties on the line for the sake of survival. And Bellwether’s glorious-leader mojo deserts him. Who’s left to lead the Zeroes into battle against a new, murderous army? -Goodreads

The Review:

Zeroes was an interesting YA read – I liked the concept, the writing voice(s), and the characters (all but 1, anyway). What I didn’t like was that the events within it seemed a little inconsequential. In Swarm, I found that much needed substance in the second half of the book and, incidentally, liked it better.

It finally utilized that “good vs evil” vibe, diving further into each teen’s magical abilities, bringing in that fine distinction of moral boundaries. I thought it was quite creative, even if it is an old concept. The characters are definitely the selling points behind the series so far. The authors did an excellent job diversifying and representing minorities (and not in a “token” way, by any means). I’d love to see more such diversification in books, and was pleasantly surprised to discover it here.

All that said, it was still a good 75% in before I felt truly emotionally invested in the story. So here I sit, now fully invested after all that effort, looking out for the release of the final book (Nexus) which should be released sometime in September 2017. The trouble is, there’s not even a cover, much less a solid date. This is the epitome of my luck – as soon as I decide I want to know what happens next in a series, its outlook becomes shaky.

Overall, this wouldn’t be my first recommend of the genre, but at the end of the day I liked it and was kept interested the whole way through. For subject matter and language, I would only hand this to older teens (and adults like myself who refuse to grow up).

Other books you might like:

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Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Control by Lydia Kang

Maximum Ride by James Patterson

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

by Niki Hawkes

Book Review: Swarm by Scott Westerfeld & Co. Title: Swarm Authors: Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti Series: Zeroes #2…

[500wordsblr-blog]

Ink on her skin: tattoos, body modifications and the female form

NB: These are excerpts from what will, hopefully, form a larger, more extensive piece of writing.

“Wear your heart on your skin in this life” - Sylvia Plath

Tattoos can be seen as having extensive symbolic meaning, for some the external pain of having a tattoo becomes a manifestation of internal anguish, a way to turn a feeling into something more tangible and thus, make it easier to process. This notion is supported by Sarnecki’s statement that “ having a part of your body tattooed serves as a conduit to understanding and incorporating both a physical and psychological loss while also regaining some sense of control and a new sense of individual empowerment”. Therapeutic tattooing is not solely a contemporary idea. Civilisations such as the Ancient Egyptians believed in the tattoos curative powers - the seemingly meaningless dots found tattooed on mummies were actually covering traces of arthritis and other such conditions, thus tattooing can be seen as somewhat medicinal. Often, the pain of the tattoo becomes an important, almost positive entity -  supported by Victoria Pearce ( as cited in an interview National Geographic 2013) who claims tattoos are an “affirmation of self ownership of the body.” Ultimately, the rationale of tattooing after trauma is not uncommon as Quillan states “in the wake of Hurricane Katrina – tattoo parlours in New Orleans saw a huge amount of people clamouring for tattoos related to the incident”, thus they can serve a way in which to remind and to, eventually, heal, for many.

Nevertheless, the process of being tattooed has not always had such positive connotations, in fact that process itself can prove a source of trauma, as exemplified by the notion of punitive tattooing. Punitive tattooing was, historically, a means through which people were branded in order to either homogenise or dehumanize the human body (normally by the ruling classes.) Within Nazi concentration camps, people were marked with numbers, in order to strip them of their identity and their humanity. Further, the Ancient Greeks used to tattoo their slaves on the face - marking offences such as gluttony and laziness. The ground-breaking documentary Modify (2005) explores the fragile nature of the distinction between mutilation and modification, we see that, when planned, tattooing can be empowering but when out of one’s control it becomes a punitive, mutilating and uncomfortably permanent entity.

 The female tattooed body is viewed in a contradictory light – it can be seen as a way to simultaneously attempt to subvert but also appeal to the male gaze. For some, the choice to become tattooed serves as a means for women to regain power over their body. If we view the needle as a phallic entity, by choosing to be tattooed females are in control of their own penetration. The empowering nature of tattooing is supported by the assertion in Dan Browns fictional work The Lost Symbol that “the act of tattooing ones skin was a transformative declaration of power, an announcement to the world: I am in control of my own flesh.” In addition, female tattooing serves as a subversion of patriarchal norms given that it overcomes this notion of the placid female body. This is supported by Margo de Mello’s assertion that “ many Victorian women were drawn to tattoos as a way of demonstrating that they were less likely to accept the idea of the quiet, pale and bounded female body.” Therefore tattoos subvert expectations and also the male gaze, forcing the eye to look at the female body in a different light. Additionally, it allows the female to “reclaim their body from the everyday experience of feeling unattractive”, The notion of tattoos as attractive is not unfounded, they are seen as sexually appealing in a variety of cinematic sources such as Wanted ( Timur Bekmambetov, Universal Pictures, 2008) where the tattoo is used to further enhance the sex appeal of Angelina Jolie’s character, Fox. In one scene, she drops her towel to reveal a design of Kmher Characters on her shoulders and a large Bengal Tiger on her lower back. This placement leads to a sense of intrigue and inferred promiscuity. The vulgar contemporary phrase “tramp stamp” refers to a tattoo on the lower back, suggesting negative connotations, sexually, about it’s owner. This notion of the tattooed woman as promiscuous is shown in a historical juristic example as cited in Kang and Jones where  Albert Parry describes a rape case in the late 1920′s in Boston in which the prosecutor, upon realising the young woman he was defending had a tattoo, requested that the case be dropped. Thus, the tattooed body is seen as less pure and damaged goods.

Moreover, there is a view that such body art is indicative of deviance. This is not entirely unfounded given that there is a history of tattooing in relation to criminality. In Japan, horomono ( tattoos) were a sign of belonging to part of the Yakuza - the criminal underworld. Moreover, Japanese criminals were often given tattoos by the authorities, thus begun to hide them with decorative patterns in order to conceal their criminality. Additionally, anthropological approaches towards tattooing ( the existence of this approach inferring a primitiveness in itself) such as Lombroso’s “ Criminal Anthropology ( 1895) and his subsequent “ The savage origins of tattooing ( 1896) cast a prejudicial shadow on tattooed individuals. Lombrosso (1986) claims that criminals sometimes used tattoos as a semiotic tool of cataloging crimes. However, this view of the tattooed criminal, or underclass is increasingly becoming diluted - with Roberts and Ryan ( 2002) arguing that it is outdated, given “ The recent rise in the prevalence of tattooing might well attenuate the traditional link between tattoos and perceived deviance through social learning processes.”

[daisyjoners]

tag dump part two. ( h - m )