Book Review: Journey to San Jacinto by Melodie A. Cuate (light spoiler review)

Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! Today I'm going to be doing a book review. This review is for Journey to San Jacinto by Melodie A. Cuate, the second book in the Mr. Barrington's Mysterious Trunk series and the sequel to Journey to the Alamo. There are light spoilers for this book in this review.

Let's get into the review!

The second book in this series has a similar plot. Hannah, her older brother Nick, and her best friend Jackie end up getting whisked away into Mr. Barrington's trunk. However, unlike the last book, they travel to the time of the San Jacinto battle, the battle wherein the Texians won their independence from Mexico.

________________________________________

I like that Melodie A. Cuate decided to write from both perspectives of the war. It does a very good job of humanizing the Mexicans instead of vilifying them. 

To parade the fighters at the Alamo as heroes is a bit much to me. They were brave, yes, but I wouldn't call them heroes. Neither them nor the Mexicans who fought in the battle were complete heroes. 

In most books about the Alamo, the Mexican army and Santa Anna are the villains. They are horrible people. Now, Santa Anna did end up being a dictator, which is a bad thing, but to say all the Mexican army was evil is a bit of stretch, in my opinion. 

This book, while not talking about Santa Anna, mentions some of the other Mexican army troops who fought in the war and humanized them in a way that other books do not. I found this to be very refreshing.

It showcases that not everyone who was a part of the Mexican army was evil. Some were just innocent bystanders, such as Diego (a Mexican drummer boy; an unnamed Mexican drummer boy supposedly died at San Jacinto; Melodie A. Cuate later decided to name the boy Diego).

I like that Mrs. Cuate decided to include both sides of the conflict instead of just writing from the perspective of the Texians. It's very educational. It was handled very well, and I appreciated the change of pace.

________________________________________

The only thing I don't really like about this series so far is the fact that the events in the books are historically out of order. The first book was about the Alamo, the second San Jacinto, the third Gonzales, and the fourth Goliad. 

I understand why the Alamo was first as it is the most famous battle in the Texas Revolution, however, I got very annoyed that San Jacinto came before Goliad. Historically, the order is: Gonzales, Alamo, Goliad, then San Jacinto. 

So far, this is the only gripe I have with this series. We'll see if any other complaints pop up. I hope not.

________________________________________

Overall, I really liked Journey to San Jacinto. I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. I enjoyed continuing Hannah's, Nick's, and Jackie's story and am excited to read more books in this series.

That's it for this review! I hope you enjoyed it! 

Until next time, 

Lexi K🖌

Book Review: Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia (spoiler filled review)

Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! Today I'm going to be doing another book review. This review is for Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia. 

This is going to be a spoiler-filled review, so if you've never read this book and wish to, I'd recommend not reading this review.

Let's get into the review!

Eliza and Her Monsters was a pretty recent read for me. I read this book this year. 

This story follows Eliza Mirk, an eighteen-year-old girl. She's the anonymous webcomic creator of Monstrous Sea. In real life, Eliza is shy, friendless, and has anxiety, but online she is LadyConstellation and has millions of followers and fans. 

Her world is changed when a boy named Wallace Warland transfers to her school. Wallace writes fanfiction for Monstrous Sea. The two become friends, but Eliza doesn't tell him that she is LadyConstellation, the creator of the exact web comic he is a fan of. 

________________________________________

I loved Eliza. She was incredibly relatable and likeable. Wallace was a great love interest. In a lot of contemporary romance YA books I read, I don't tend to understand why the love interest of the main character gets so mad during the climax. A lot of times, the reasoning doesn't make sense. 

In this book though, I understood why Wallace got so upset after finding out that Eliza was LadyConstellation, even though I got angry with how much he was ignoring and getting frustrated with her. I was glad that the anger/climax was at least shorter than other books I've read. 

I really liked Church and Sully, Eliza's younger twin brothers. Sometimes the siblings in books don't feel like siblings. Church and Sully were written very well. They messed with Eliza, occasionally giving her a hard time, but they were there for her after their parents let Eliza's identity out. 

________________________________________

I loved this book. It was incredibly enjoyable. I tend to have a difficult time finding contemporary/realistic fiction YA novels that I actually like or don't get bored with. Because I am so artistic myself, this book really spoke to me. It was a fantastic tale of love, art, and fandom. I've heard so many good things about this book, and I am so glad I read it.

I particularly loved Chapter 34. This was a much better Chapter 34 than other Chapter 34s I've read in the past year (The Burning Maze by Rick Riordan killed me, particularly chapters 33 and 34). It was really nice for Eliza to find out that her brothers didn't hate her and that they even read Monstrous Sea.

I found this book incredibly unique. It had a charm to it. It's ironic because I started reading this around the same time I began reading Lore Olympus, a Webtoon webcomic by Rachel Smythe that I found out about when my sister needed to write an article about it for her job. 

________________________________________

Overall, Eliza and Her Monsters was a fantastic book. This is the first YA contemporary/realistic fiction novel I've read and enjoyed this much as the other contemporary/realistic fiction books I've enjoyed were Middle Grade novels (What Stars Are Made Of and Rebel McKenzie). I did like another YA contemporary romance novel I read last year, but I like this one even more.

That's it for this review! I hope you enjoyed it! 

See you Thursday, 

Lexi K🖌

Book Review: Journey to the Alamo by Melodie A. Cuate

Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! Today I'm going to be doing a book review. This review is for Journey to the Alamo by Melodie A. Cuate. 

Let's get into the review!

Journey to the Alamo is a Middle Grade historical fiction novel involving the Alamo. This is the first book in the Mr. Barrington's Mysterious Trunk series, a series that follows siblings Nick and Hannah as well as Hannah's best friend, Jackie, as they travel to different parts of Texas history through Hannah's teacher's trunk. 

My parents bought me this book when my family and I went to the Alamo in either 2012 or 2014 (I don't remember). I had started reading it then, but I was too young and got bored. I read it this year and really enjoyed it. 

This story follows Hannah, a seventh grader. A new history teacher is at her school named Mr. Barrington. He carries around a mysterious trunk. This trunk ends up being a portal to the past and Hannah, her older brother Nick, and her best friend Jackie are transported to the past. Particularly, March 1836, the exact month the Battle of the Alamo ended between the Texians and Mexicans. 

This book was very enjoyable. I liked the historical component to it, and I enjoyed the characters. I particularly enjoyed Hannah and Nick. This book kind of had an automatic advantage in my book as I tend to enjoy reading books that have siblings in them (as long as there's no incest). I don't know why, but I found that out last year when I realized a commonality between most of my favorite books and why they were my favorites.

I gave it 5 out of 5 stars on my Goodreads. Overall, it was a really enjoyable read. It took me long than anticipated to finish it, but I did get through it. The writing was very simplistic, but it's a Children's/Middle Grade novel, so I don't expect it to read like Pride and Prejudice or even Harry Potter as the genres and age ranges are completely different. I liked reading about Hannah, Nick, and Jackie and hope the other books in this series are just as good, if not better.

That's it for this review! I hope you enjoyed it! It's a very short review compared to most reviews I write, but because this book is so short (144 pages), I can't really say much about it without spoiling it.

Until next time, 

Lexi K🖌

Character Creation Tips from an Aspiring Author

Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! 

Today I'm going to be going through my tips for creating characters. I would arguably say that creating characters is my favorite part of the writing process, though if I'm being fully honest, there's really nothing about the writing process I don't enjoy. I even enjoy editing.

I am not a published author, however I have gotten compliments on my characters in the past. 

Keep in mind that these will not work for everyone. Tips are subjective. What works for me may not work for you. There's not one way to create a character.

On that happy note, let's get right into the post!

King, Alexandria. Musings of an Arthritic Artist. 2021.

1. Create Character Playlists

This is a personal favorite of mine. For every protagonist I create, I make a character playlist on my Spotify. These songs help me flesh out my characters. The songs either have a certain sound that makes them sound like what my character would listen to, or the lyrics describe parts of the character's personality or emotions.

This is the thing I do most often when creating characters. Then, while writing a certain character, I'll turn on their playlist. Because I tend to write from the perspectives from many different characters, it can be hard to switch to another character's voice. 

Creating playlists helps to keep me in a character's mindset. Then, if I write another character, I can switch to their playlist and repeat. It keeps me in check. It helps me to make sure my characters don't do anything/say anything out-of-character. 

2. Create Character Profiles

Another tip I can give is to create a character profile. On my profiles I tend to include name, nicknames, appearance, age, history, personality, family, talents and skills, positive traits, negative traits, habits, relationships, goal, motivation, fears, and songs that describe them. 

It's very detailed, but it's very handy to refer back to. I don't know how many times I've had to reread the history and appearance sections to make sure I've gotten everything right.

3. Use Pinterest To Create Character Boards

This is another step I do when creating characters. Basically, I create character boards on Pinterest. I name the character and use that board to pin things that pertain to them, whether it be quotes that sound like their personality or appearance things. 

When I first began doing this, I mixed both personality and appearance things. This became very problematic when I created the boards for my characters in one of newest novels. When the two things are merged, one of my boards would end up having 3,336 pins, while another would have 1,921. 

You could imagine how impossibly hard it would be to scroll through looking for appearance/personality things. So, I separated them into two different sections. One with appearance and the other with personality. 

Example - Evelina Perry: Personality and Evelina Perry: Appearance

This makes it way easier to find things. For the record, none of my characters are named Evelina Perry, nor do I know anybody with that name. I just got it off a random name generator.

This step is very useful when it comes to descriptions. I am a very visual person, often to the point that if I don't see an example, I can't imagine it. Having a character appearance board helps remedy that, allowing me to think of ideas. 

Alexandria K: Characters (opens in new window)

4. Look at Personality Traits

There are plenty of lists online full of personality traits for writers. If you haven't fully got an idea for character it can sometimes help to look at personality traits. Choose an equal amount of positive and negative traits. You can use these to create a character. 

I'd recommend choosing different personality traits at different times. I find that I tend to gravitate toward certain traits, especially for guys, so I have to force myself to get outside of my comfort zone a bit. Minus villains, most of my male characters are loyal, fairly sensitive, and protective. My female characters tend to be empathetic, stubborn, and independent.

5. Look at a List of Fears

Fears are very interesting. Sometimes, you can create characters from these fears. This isn't something I've done often, but it can help if a character refuses to formulate. Looking at a list of fears can help you choose what your character is afraid of, which will determine how they react in certain situations. 

You can also base a character off a fear. I've done it in the past. It takes a bit of work and creativity, but it can be really fun and interesting. This can especially be interesting to create villains. How many times have you heard someone compare another person to a snake? 

That's it for this post! I hope you enjoyed it! 

See you Thursday, 

Lexi K🖌