Beelzebub's library

When this TV series first debuted, I found myself instantly disliking it, mostly because of the dialogue. I saw it weak from a story perspective, with a plot that was unfathomably drawn out and some very poor performances. My mother and some of my siblings binged the whole season, and I can to some extent understand why. The shows ability to be honest regarding how some people view sexual assault, rape, and suicide, was I think what drew attention in the first place.             Tha t said, and this is in no means an attack on those who enjoyed the first season or the second (which I refuse to watch, as there should never have been thirteen episodes of this show, let alone two seasons) it is a well-dressed piece of garbage.             The acting is not strong enough to carry the weight of the subjects, the leads are boring at best and aside from a couple moments, the villains are cartoonish. The p...

YA novel: Spy, m ystery, gothic fiction This review contains minor spoilers.  This book could have been what it bills itself as. It could have been a series of accounts regarding the titular character’s background, none of which is necessarily confirmed, with a lot of allusion to events referenced in A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Beatrice Letters (The latter of which I have not read, it’s possible that the thing I wanted was in there instead of here).             That’s not what this book is. In fact, after starting with some backstory on Lemony Snicket’s early childhood and induction into the VFD, the book quickly descends down rabbit hole after rabbit hole into a series of obscured and never totally explained mysteries that surround people tangentially related to him and the secret organization he is involved with. And that’s fine. Daniel Handler, the man behind the pseudonym, has made a point of not ans...