Miscellaneous Monday: Teens, Monsters, and Teen Monsters

Miscellaneous Monday is my new weekly post in which I will talk about things that I'm doing or am interested in that are not related to books, or in many cases, are only vaguely related to books. I'm going to keep it as a journal throughout the week and post on Monday mornings. I'll try to stay organized, but it may get a bit "rambley", so feel free to read, reply, or ignore at your heart's content.

Welcome Home, Ghoulia

First up, I want to mention Ghoulia Yelps--the Monster High doll I received as a present from my fiance. I'm not sure how long Monster High has been around, but I just noticed them a few months ago and instantly thought they were adorable. And your never too old for toys, right? Ghoulia is a zombie, and is currently my one and only doll. I display her proudly.

I've been to MonsterHigh.com, which has games and character bios and that sort of think. I recommend watching the webseries, if you're at all inclined to watch cartoons. There are a lot of episodes, but they're only about 2 minutes long each. A few of them are actually quite clever.

There are also Monster High novels. I'm considering ordering the first one just to give it a try. From the description I think they're meant for preteens/young teens, so it would be outside my usual genre.

The Secret Circle

Out of curiosity, I watched the pilot of The Secret Circle. This new show is based on the book series by L.J. Smith. I have no intention of reading the books at this time. I read her Vampire Diaries books before the show first aired, and to be honest, did not care for her writing style. I also never got around to watching the show, though I intend to.

Anyway, for a pilot, I thought this was a pretty good episode. We meet Cassie, our main character, who is honestly a bit bland. We establish that magic is real (and can be kind of pretty--aw, floating water drops). We meet the other two corners of the love triangle (or possibly square, not sure yet)--Diana and Adam. And there's a whole host of shady characters and villains. This includes Faye who, so help me God, I wanted to drop a rock on. The actress's performance is so over the top, I kept thinking it would be more efficient to have her wear an "I'm An Evil Bitch" T-shirt. But it's the first episode, so I'll cut them all some slack for being new to the parts. It's probably too early to say whether the show is going to be hit or miss for me, but I will say that I'm inclined to like it.

Most girls go through a witch phase. For me, it was Charmed, and to some extent Harry Potter. I know there are lots of books and movies about witches that are geared toward teens. Point is--there is always a market for this kind of show.

Supernatural Season Seven

I'm a huge fan of the Supernatural TV show. Never heard of it? Here, have a link! Seriously, I don't watch much TV--there are maybe two or three shows that I actively follow. This is one of them. It's urban fantasy at it's core, with the entire show based on the idea that urban legends and myths are real--and generally unfriendly.

Incidentally, there are Supernatural novels, but I gently caution against reading them--unless you're a huge fan of the show and a very patient reader.

Anyway, Friday's season seven premier was interesting in that it put our heroes in kind of a helpless position where the "monster" is a close friend who they really don't want to have to kill. After six seasons, we're starting to see some repetition in theme and character development. So it wasn't the best episode, and it wasn't the worst.