AvidBards
Books

A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab Book Review

Have you ever had that moment when you’ve looked around you and asked yourself, “what if that didn’t exist?” or “what if things worked differently?” and you fall down the rabbit hole of imagining a whole different kind of world? Well, that is exactly what reading V. E. Schwab’s novel A Darker Shade of Magic did for me. A Darker Shade of Magic takes place in a world that holds multiple universes, four to be precise, and only those with magic can cross over into the other worlds. While so many things are different in each of the worlds, one…

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Books

Book Review – Normal People by Sally Rooney

Another book straight off the 2018 Man Booker long list, Sally Rooney, the author of Conversation with Friends, bring the long during and complex friendship between Connell and Marianne to life in Normal People. I had heard so many praises for Conversation with Friends over the years that when Rooney’s latest novel, and her first one since Conversation, came out I immediately knew I wanted to pick it up. Additionally, as a general rule, I am a huge fan of any and all popular guy/girl galls for the unpopular guy/girl. Not entirely sure why, but the dynamics and challenges that…

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Movies

Bohemian Rhapsody

A Review of the “Queen” Biopic Warning: light spoilers of Bohemian Rhapsody below. I have always been skeptical of biopic films. The reason is that there is a lot of biographical content out there that has skewed, glorified, or glamorized its subject. For example, while I loved The Danish Girl (2015), it didn’t take much research to find out that it was a heavily romanticized adaptation of its real life subject matter. Films like The Danish Girl cannot be relied on as historically accurate, but merely loose renderings. I have learned through watching various biographical films that one must always…

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Reflections

One Year Anniversary

Happy Sunday, readers! Today marks a very special occasion here at AvidBards – our one year anniversary! So much has happened in a year’s time, but one thing has not changed: our gratitude to you, our readers. You have helped us thrive, inspired us, and made our jobs as writers so incredibly fulfilling. In celebration of this special day, we’ve put together some of our highlights from the past year. From our most popular posts to the review requests we’ve received, we’ve had a more productive year than we could have ever imagined. Here’s to many more! In a year’s…

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Reviews

Dirk Gently: It’s All Connected

It took some persuading, but I have finally jumped aboard the Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (2016-2018) train. I’m not entirely sure why I didn’t give it a chance before. However, I have a feeling that the mouthful of a title had something to do with my deterrence. Essentially, the title makes zero sense until you’ve actually watched the show. While it may sound silly, I think a lot of us actually place preconceived notions about a show, book, or film based solely on its title. Dirk Gently didn’t give me any indicators, though, so I had to jump into the waters completely…

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Books

“The Haunting of Hill House”: Haunting and Tragic

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson – Book Review The name “Hill House” has definitely become more popular in the last year, in part thanks to the release of the Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House. But before it was a 10 part series, it was a book by Shirley Jackson. Moreover, it was considered one of the scariest horror novels of the 1950s and 60s. Shirley Jackson was an American author who doubled as a housewife. Stories were her way of keeping herself entertained. And not only did she succeed to keep herself entertained but so too the countless of readers…

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