Normal by Graeme Cameron Review

**SPOILERS**

Published: 2015 by Harlequin MIRA

"He lives in your community, in a nice house with a well-tended garden. He shops in your grocery store, bumping shoulders with you and apologizing with a smile. He drives beside you on the highway, politely waving you into the lane ahead of him. 

What you don't know is that he has an elaborate cage built into a secret basement under his garage. And the food that he's carefully shopping for is to feed a young woman he's holding there against her will—one in a string of many, unaware of the fate that awaits her."

This book seems to be anything from "Normal", I have to admit it really was nothing like what I was expecting (see below), the cover suggests a book full of crime and mystery with an unexpected twist at the end but it seems almost like a romance. In all honesty I much preferred this to what I was expecting.

Unknown, as we never once discovered the name of the main character is a serial killer with a cage in his basement. I rarely read books written in first person as I find that over time they can confuse me or just get boring but somehow this book kept me hooked throughout. Last night I was up till 3 o'clock in the morning with my nose in this book because I literally couldn't put it down, this is the first time in a while I've read a book that has woken me up more as the night progressed instead of making me fall asleep. The paragraphs I found were snappy and didn't talk a great deal into unnecessary information.

The most interesting character I found was not Unknown, but Erica... Her character developed, I think most throughout the whole book but not in the way that a lot of people talk about character development. Micky Smith from the Doctor Who reboots had a positive character development between season 1 and season 4, Erica most certainly didn't although it was extremely interesting psychologically. Not to say I didn't find Unknown's character very interesting, the psychopathic inability to understand emotional feelings was very well portrayed in how this book was written, including quite a deep connection to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs [1], which is suggested that psychopaths would only ever need to reach the first two stages which are Physiological needs and safety needs. This is shown quite plainly that Unknown hasn't reached the third stage, Love and belonging in the quote, "It doesn't depress me that I don't get birthday presents. I've got all the material things I want." [p.147] But to continue the quote, "Although I'd maybe like to have received a card, just to show that someone, somewhere was thinking about me", it can be noticed that the quote is about in the middle of the book cause this clearly shows that the stages he had originally hit (stages one and two) had began to progress to Love and belonging, stage three.

To sum up in three words: fantastic, chilling, abnormal

Any book that I can't put down till 3 o'clock in the morning deserves high praise from me.

5/5

Would highly recommend, warning contains strong language and sexual stuff...

xx

Memories - short story

Standing on the road, smoking a menthol cigarette the building looked tired. Like it had seen better days. Callum was looking at me not the motel with an expression on his face I couldn't read. He has been looking at me like that since I met him, everyday the same expression, not all the day but there is never a day that that face didn't appear suddenly. As I finished smoking the cigarette Callum put his arm over my shoulders and I snuggled close to him. There was a chilling breeze and I hadn't thought to bring a coat. We had been walking for hours, since the car had broken down about five miles back. No cars had driven past in two hours, not another soul had we seen. I was just thankful that we were having a good day. And by that I mean we weren't an inch from ripping each others throats out. We had met at a shitty motel like the one we were standing in front of. He had been staring at me the whole time I had been unpacking my car, it was the same expression I still couldn't read. Just an expression and depending on my own mood it could make me feel hated by the whole world or loved more than anything by this one person. Today it was the latter. I smiled into his neck as he pulled me round in front of him wrapping both arms tight around me. Then as he slowly moved his face in front of mine he touched his lips against mine so lightly I almost didn't feel it pulling back he looked into me then his lips came crashing against mine. We stood in our own little bubble of passion until a car horn sounded, I spun around suddenly and he looked over me. There in the road was a tow truck with the car hitched on the back. After explaining that the car was ours we got into the truck with the driver. That car was our prize possession, the vintage light blue always caught the light perfectly. We had bought it together about a year before it broke down. Callum's arm rested on my shoulder, leaning into him and taking one last look in the rear view mirror at the motel that had no memories at all.

(http://www.creativewritingink.co.uk/resources/writing-prompts/)

Quirky

while lying in my bed about 2 seconds ago I was just thinking about me. I recently wore weird mouse ears that I got for a pound from Poundland.

I then shaved my head for charity, see here for details.

Now I look like this ^

I don't need to wear the ears, I always like being quirky though I only recently realised how much I used to try. I'm quirky, without trying! and that makes me happy. it's not easy to be happy sometimes. BTW the dye in my hair is CosmicBlue by the Schwarzcoft one. It's permanent. but cute.

BTW raised £2000 + for WAY - Widowed and Young. thank you Norton College, the boys who waxed their legs for the cause. the girls who made up the amazing charity team, the teachers who got soaked and Gemma, thanks for all the help to make that day so successful.

xx

The Lobster (2015) Review

In a dystopian society in the near future, single people must find a mate within 45 days or be transformed into an animal of their choice.

Featuring Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz

The music in the movie was probably the most fascinating aspect, or so I thought. When there was a chase scene, with Farrell and a woman who strongly reminds me of Ruby Rose, there was no music but during a surgery the music was so intense you would think the doctor was trying to disarm a bomb not do surgery on a patient.

The theme in this movie was also intriguing, the blurb says in the "near" future meaning this is "based" in what, 10 odd years maybe a wee bit more but not much, and to think it puts you into a society where you fall in love due to one common characteristic, or if you don't get turned into the animal of your choice. Farrell character decided on a lobster which I think is really quite an interesting choice because I know if I was asked what animal what I would want to turn into, I'd say maybe a Panda. 

...

I just realized while writing that it is still pretty weird, all I know is I wouldn't choose a lobster because I am in fact scared of the deep sea... Anyway this movie uses some quite vulgure language but then you have to remember it is classified as a 15 so it is to be expected. I would recommend it so long as you don't mind dead animals...

If you want a movie where they defeat all the bad guys, go against the system and win, go and watch The Hunger Games or The Divergent Trilogy but as someone who as watched the movie, if that is what you are expecting this is not the movie for you.

3.5/5 x

The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid Review

I took me just over a month to read this book, but in my defense I did stop a few times to to read other books like, Picture of Dorian Gray, Mockingjay and the Harry Potter Prequel (3 pages but still). It was fantastic! The way McDermid had written this book is outstanding, she knows what she is writing about and it makes the story brilliant. I am hugely fascinated by psychology as I am studying it as an A Level in 6th Form College. My mentor from school gave me this book saying it's gruesome but you might really enjoy it so I thought why not give it a go! (Thank you Mr. Kirk)
The way McDermid jumps from Tony Hill and the Bradfield police's perspective to the killers fantastic, in my opinion it keeps you on your feet and you are able to see what the poice are at that moment trying to work out. Some of the torture methods used by the killer though was really quite disturbing, and occasionally even giving me a funny tummy but those scenes never lasted long and it was intriguing to see Dr Tony Hill's progression, not only as a character but of his thought process while he was trying to get into the head of Handy Andy.

Characters
DI Carol Jordan
Dr Tony Hill
Handy Andy - The Queer Killer / Killer
Penny Burgess - News reporter
ACC John Brandon
+ More Characters, the ones above are just the ones that really caught my attention as characters.

Goodreads rating 5/5!

Photo Credit: Ella Dijle (www.instagram.com/elladijle_)

Death Cab for Cutie

I had a free period so naturally I was playing David Bowie out my laptop while doing the Psychology homework that I should have done the weekend before. I was in the Media room and one of the technicians was trying to fix the Macs cause they are 9 years old and pieces of shit. The technician also known as Mr Austin (Nick) was helping my friend when suddenly he said "is this Death Cab for Cutie?" and obviously I got offended and said, "well no, it's Bowie." His reply was "Really it sounds like Death Cab for Cutie. You should listen to them." So I paused my music and opened up the good old YouTube and searched them, the first song I listen to of theirs was 'I Will Follow You into the Dark' I thought it was alright. I continued listing to them now I am obsessed, my favourite song are 'The Ghosts of Beverly Drive' and 'Cath...'!!

Death Cab for Cutie is an American alternative rock band, formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997.
Newest Album: Kintsugi released March 31st 2015

(http://deathcabforcutie.com/)
x

Fundraising for WAY

Hello.

I am going to shave my hair for charity... It'll be scary, and exciting.

The money will be going to the WAY foundation, Widowed and Young which is a charity that supports people who have lost their partners. I lost my dad and it has helped me over the years, I really hope I can get some support in my head shaving.

I have set up a JustGiving page, http://justgiving.com/ella-dijle, also a mobile donation thingy where you text BMWB99 £... to 70070 to donate, all the money will go straight to the charity.

I also created a YouTube video that explain in a bit more detail what I'm doing. Here

I hope I can have your support,

Thanks x

The charity number is 1164988

Diamond Rings are Deadly Things by Rachelle J Christensen Review

I was sent this book by www.ebooksforreview.com in return for an honest review.
I did the bad thing of reading the second book first and the first book second, so a couple of times it took me back to Adri's referral to what had a happened and it caught me out just a few times. If you love plot twists and most strong women in your books this is perfect, I'm 16 and I would recommend this to most girls my age and I know I'm going to be going up to my mum later and begging her to read it.
Throughout this whole book I completely fell again in love with Adri's character but also with Lorea who's the fantastic friend and colleague with no barrier on what she says. Dallas was probably the only character who you saw a great deal of development from my point of view he seemed to escalate quickly from the shy fellow to a more independent man. And throughout the book I was slowly but surely falling for Luke, man the guy I had in my head from the description was good looking.
The storyline kept me hooked and especially in the last few chapters my heart was racing as much as Adri's was described to be, I even started holding my breath and completely caught me in the moment.
This is one of those books where you put it down til you are at the end. And I can't wait for the third one to come out!

Becoming Tonks - Nymphadora Lupin

Monday.
Today I was retold that in the performing arts faculty we were required to dress up as Harry Potter characters for this years World Book Day on the 3rd of March. To begin with I was really torn up, because I didn't know who to go as. Then one of my teachers, Gemma said what about Tonks aka Nymphadora Lupin. I thought that was perfect, unfortunately when asking if I could go all out and dye my hair purple, she still said no, so decision number 1 I'm going to spray purple dye in my hair Thursday morning.
First thing to do is research, GOOGLE!
Tuesday.
Today I went to Yorkshire Trading Company and bought black nail polish for £1. And then when I got home I did the courageous thing of going outside to get a wand, which has a pretty pattern on.
Wednesday.
My friend Daisy brought in a big greenish coat for me to wear, I also have another coat at home which we found yesterday, I've worked out without seeing them together that they would look quite good together (fingers crossed). After school I'm going to go round the local charity shops and perhaps find a dress or skirt to wear underneath it all. I found my make-up bag and I have my eyeliners and eye shadows ready for tomorrow morning! Also the dyes are ready, I've decided to do a bit of a mixture of both pink and purple because I have both colours.
Thursday Morning.
OMG. So I've done my nails, my hair is purple and pinky although I think I've killed my hair from the hair spray. I've got my red boots on, black jeans, black top that says thieves of NY on it, a witchy cloak thing, the coat I borrowed from my friend, a pentagram necklace and a choker made of ribbon, also make up. It's weird I have my wand ready and my Psychology text book.
Thursday at school.
I looked so much like her, and I was told that by quite a few people though other people did go, and who are you supposed to be? It was so fun our head of 6th form was dressed up as Professor Trelawney and my friend Owen was dressed up as Professor Lockhart, and apart from the hair which was ginger, as opposed to golden.

Need to get:

• Ripped jeans Black (maybe stripy grey?) ✓
• Stripy top
• More Hair dye ✓
• Leather Jacket or something of that sort ✓
• Choker of sorts ✓
• Black Fingerless gloves
• Long Black skirt
• Fishnets ✓
• MAKE A WAND! ✓

xx

Honourable Mention 

http://www.ehow.com/how_4464261_dress-like-tonks-from-harry.html

http://www.polyvore.com/nymphadora_tonks_costume/set?id=38585191

Living in my illusion

A while ago I wrote a blog post called "Creating an illusion" (here) And I have decided I want to expand on that rather short post. First... I don't actually remember writing it... secondly... I'm living in slightly less of an illusion, I'm 16 now, I am going to school that I do love slightly more than I used to. All honesty I finished my GCSE years and I wasn't keen but now I am enjoying myself doing the 6th form thing.
My illusion still includes me not having money troubles. Not suffering from losing people. The cat still dislikes me a great deal and the house isn't to my taste, but the kitty did lick me yesterday which I like to think is her way of giving me a wee kiss. I'm also slowly redecorating... This means that what was going on in my head is slowly becoming a reality. It's an illusion coming to life.
I still have my perfect world in my head, my own illusion. And I still believe we all also have this "illusion" of our own, for our own reasons...