Not Worth the Wait

One thing that has always bugged me about ADELE was that she never did anything to stay relevant while taking time to raise her son. Her social media presence was nonexistent, she didn’t do any covers or charity concerts, no major appearances. While I think it’s great she was able to lie low, I feel disrespected as a fan. We’re great when she wants to make money for her art but otherwise, whatever.

I do like that she didn’t do the insane amount of media hype for her new music. We found out she had a new song when the video debuted and we could download it. It wasn’t like Katy Perry doing very dramatic stunts to hype her singles and albums. There it was. Because Adele is incredibly talented, we all accepted it.

Adele said the reason she waited so long to do anything was because she was afraid of making a lackluster product. Unfortunately, I think that’s exactly what she did. There was one song on her album that instantly grabbed me like ‘Turning Tables’ and ‘One and Only.’ River Lea was not good enough to make up for a prolonged absence and an underwhelming record.

Am I saying it’s not good? No. It’s a good record. I don’t think any song on it is bad. But 21 set such a high bar that anything less is disappointing. It’s good and will probably grow on me with more plays but on the first couple of listens, 25 can’t hold a candle to 21. You can’t follow up phenomenal with something that’s just good.

PopSugar Reading Challenge Book 32 or Killer Puppies

For a book by an author I've never read, I opted for Deadpool: Paws by Stefan Petrucha. It's part of the Posehn universe with our beloved Agent Preston. His assignment? Puppies. I wanted to know what they could do with this that wouldn't massively offend anybody.

Turns out, these puppies are monsters in disguise. Something triggers them into becoming flesh hungry monsters but they start out as sweet little creatures that people want to nature and protect. S.H.E.I.L.D. has to take them down but killing puppies is enormously bad P.R. Enter Deadpool. 

The ending was a bit random and the whole solution was a major dues ex machina. I still have some questions but all in all it was a fun read, good addition to the universe, and had plenty of fun superhero cameos.

PopSugar Reading Challenge Book 31 or The Horror, The Horror

I completed another book on my challenge list. I read something that scared me, In the Dark: A Horror Anthology edit by Rachel Deering. 

I discovered this anthology at Baltimore Comic Con. It was one of the first things I saw and I hesitated to buy it since it was $50 but I knew pretty quickly that I had to come back to it. It's gorgeous with a ribbon to mark your place and a lovely smooth texture. People greatly under appreciate the sensory experience of physical books.

My favorite stories were The Unseen, Famine's Shadow, All Things through Me, When the Rain Comes, In Plain Sight, Not All There, Shadows, Doc Johnson, Lost Valley of the Dead, Gestation and Inside You. While we all have favorites, there was nothing in here I didn't like. Even the history of horror comics at the end was incredibly interesting.

I think my favorite thing was that it was numbered. I'm hoping to see more of these in the future. A big thanks for putting this one together.