A Study of Sherlock

My friend got me hooked to Sherlock (the one with Benedict Cumberbatch) over Thanksgiving break, and it's high time I review the show. But instead of reviewing the series collectively, I've decided to give a breakdown of my thoughts on each episode.

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Season 1

Episode 1: A Study in Pink

One of the best lines of the episode (credit)

• Fun fact: I watched this episode three times in one week: by myself, with my family, and with a family friend to try to get them hooked.
• Super super super good! I love how they explain Sherlock's deductions in a realistic way. He was absolutely mind-blowing in the scene where he first met John Watson.
• Animation/transitions are done super well.  Time slows down as Sherlock puts the pieces of the case together, and I really feel like I'm in his head.
• A lot of the episode was watching Sherlock figure everything out. After a while I stopped trying to solve the case, lol.
• The mystery was very intriguing, and so was the killer's motive.
• Overall, 10/10!

Episode 2: The Blind Banker

• First time I noticed that the intro scenes are done very well! I was dying to know what the museum employee had seen that shocked her.
• Decent mystery, but it was a pretty standard, action-packed story. In fact, it reminded me a lot of the Tintin books (especially when they mention Black Lotus, this is really similar to the The Blue Lotus).
• Overall, 8/10.

Episode 3: The Great Game

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• First time we meet Moriarty, one of the two major villains of the show!
• I actually did not enjoy the structure of this episode; I liked it better when the episode focused on a large case. Moriarty kept giving Sherlock cases, and he solved them. Because we know Sherlock would solve every case, the episode's repetitiveness got boring fast.
• Killer ending though, no pun intended.
• Overall: 9/10.

Season 2

Episode 1: A Scandal in Belgravia

• This was a lighter episode, a nice break from the seriousness of S1E3.
• I liked that Irene's character was bold and that she was a cunning adversary for Sherlock.
• Irene's fate (the end of the episode) is very funny.
• Overall: 9/10.

Episode 2: The Hounds of Baskerville

Sherlock says he has doesn't have friends, but then John storms away, so he says the above quote. My heart melted (credit).

• Nice mystery; I was very confused the entire time ;).
• Some parts almost made me jump! I also think Watson is very brave for running into an empty cage when he thought the hound was chasing him; I never would've thought of that personally.
• I have to admit, Sherlock guessing the password to open someone's laptop was too extreme. I don't believe Sherlock is that genius.
• Overall: 9/10.

Episode 3: The Reichenbach Fall

• SO SO SO GOOD. I haven't seen a better season finale for any show, ever.
• I cried at the end, even though I'd read ahead on Netflix and seen what was going to happen in Season 3.
• I really, really liked that Sherlock was stuck and practically hopeless and that he finally takes Molly's help.
• Overall: 11/10. I would definitely rewatch this one!

Season 3

Episode 1: The Empty Hearse

• I love Mary :).
• Best line of the show: "I don't shave for Sherlock." I really want a t-shirt with this on it; it's so catchy.
• Sherlock was very cruel to John, but it was written in such a funny way with all of John's punching, so I couldn't help but feel a little bad for Sherlock.
• We didn't really get to see Sherlock dismantle an entire network of people working for Moriarty, he said everything was done from S2E3 to S3E1. But to be honest, I really just wanted to see him united with John and Mrs. Hudson again, so I guess it's fine ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
• Speaking of which, Mrs. Hudson's reaction when she saw Sherlock was the best <3. 

Episode 2: The Sign of Three

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• Such a wholesome episode! 
• Sherlock's speech is so sweet!
• This episode is also especially funny. For example, Sherlock shows a kid gruesome pictures and the kid is enamored, and nearly mentions this to his mother.
• Overall: 10/10.

Episode 3: His Last Vow

• WOW Mary is a queen!

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• Pretty good mystery. It didn't really draw me in as much as some of the others, but it was still fascinating. 
• Overall: 9/10.

Special: The Abominable Bride

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• Creepy
• but also fun! 
• Molly honestly looks nice in short hair. I would keep the look.
• I could not fathom this one at all until Sherlock revealed what was going on. Really well done, again!
• Overall: 10/10! Though I probably would not rewatch it just because of how chilling it was.

Season 3 was my favorite season because it was a lot lighter and happier than the rest, which was probably to prepare for the gloomiest season, season 4.

Season 4

Episode 1: The Six Thatchers

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• Sherlock talking to Rosie is one of the funniest moments of the show.
• Pretty interesting, and it's nice to know what's on that flash drive Mary gave to John. Mary is literally my favorite (after Sherlock and John, ofc ;)).
• BUT THEN THE END CAME AND EVERYTHING WAS VERY VERY VERY BAD. AND I WAS SCARED BECAUSE SHERLOCK AND JOHN WERE BROKEN AND I DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO FIX THEM.
• Overall: 9/10.

Episode 2: The Lying Detective

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• SO Sherlock was not okay. And John was not okay. Surprisingly Mrs. Hudson seemed to be doing okay, though she was obviously sad.
• Good mystery, though I don't know why Culverton Smith made confessions and erased people's memories on a regular basis; he definitely would have been caught one day anyway.
• Overall: 9/10.

Episode 3: The Final Problem 

• I was intrigued by Eurus's high IQ and persuasiveness. 
• I was shocked when she revealed that there was no glass between her and Sherlock when he first went to see her. 
• Still, the premise of this episode was hard to believe. I found it hard to believe Eurus could control everything on the island she lived on, no matter how high her IQ.
• Also, the show can't keep making people up. First, there's Sherlock's sister. She was never mentioned before, but fine, I understand if you want to add her into the show. But someone new also came in at the end (I want to reveal more but I can't because it's a spoiler). It got ridiculous.
• I can't believe how stupid Mycroft was when he gave Eurus a Christmas present. But he made up for it when he kept insulting John so Sherlock would get angry and shoot Mycroft.
• Not a super satisfying conclusion. I wish we'd gotten to see what happened with Rosie, Molly, Greg, Mrs. Hudson, etc. (besides just a few flashes of everyone hanging out).
• Overall: 9/10.

I normally don't really watch/read mysteries, but this show kept me on my toes the whole time. I was intrigued by Sherlock's deductive ability, and loved how realistically he could deduce things. (Although, obviously, some clues were just written in conveniently, but still.) I also loved the characters: cocky Sherlock, eager Mrs. Hudson, caring John, and cunning Mary. They all go through a lot of character development, especially Sherlock.

This show was super fun and I hope to see similar shows in the future. But maybe I'll wait until after final exams this time ;).

What did you think? Have you watched Sherlock? Have you watched any similar shows to Sherlock? Do you like mysteries? Let me know below!

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Book Review: When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

Goodreads Synopsis: Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right?

Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself.

The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not?

Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.

My Review: Oh god. I don't even know where to start with this review; my thoughts are all over the place. This was literally like reading a Bollywood movie, but instead of skipping the cheesy parts, I had to read through all of them and cringed every time. 

Let's start with the good:

• Insomnia Con was fun.
• Dimple's drive and focus was admirable. 
• Rishi was a really sweet character.
• The dual POV narration worked really well!

And a couple of not-so-good things:

• This book focused way too much on the romance. Every time the two characters said a sentence to one another, they were "falling for each other". Please, this is instalove in disguise. I would've enjoyed more about Dimple's coding experience.
• I am actually Indian in ethnicity as well, and no one I know uses as much Hindi/Urdu while conversing with friends as these two. And while I appreciate Dimple wearing kurtis with jeans, I don't know anyone who does this as consistently as her (this may be just me though, maybe I'm unexposed?).
• The writing seemed a little juvenile.
• Rishi was nice, but also a little desperate. He doesn't even know Dimple at all and still falls for her! In fact, this pretty much sums up the book:

Dimple: *exists*

Rishi: Will you marry me?

Overall, not what I was hoping for, and I give the book 2.5 stars. What do you think? Have you read WDMR? Was it good rep.? Tell me below!

Bookstagram Reflection #1

Hi everyone! I recently started a bookstagram which you should definitely follow (shameless advertising but this is my blog so :P). It's been a few months so far, so I thought I'd reflect on what I learned and some of the stuff I want to implement. So here's 5 things I learned since September about bookstagram.

1. The more hashtags the better (until a certain point, ofc).

For one of my posts, I wasn't following/being followed by 8 of the people that reacted to it because I used the hashtag #bookstagram and #bookreview. In addition to using many tags, try to use generic ones to get people's attentions.

2. Choose popular books, and feature as many books as you can per post.

For the aforementioned post, I used Caraval, which is pretty well-known (in fact, the third book in the series is a winner in the best YA fantasy category in the Goodreads Choice Awards!). I also put 10 pretty well-known books in the background of that photo, and I think that helped.

3. Use props.

I use candleholders, baked goods, ceramic pots I make, faux flowers, pumpkins, etc. etc. These are really essential to add aesthetic appeal to your photo.

4. Lighting + Color is everything.

If you don't have natural light when taking your photo, apply one of Instagram's darker filters so the lighting looks intentional. For the Caraval photo, the colors of all the books were different and the picture didn't look good, but when I made everything black and white, the photo turned out quite nicely!

5. Sometimes angles, photos, and props just don't work out.

I've had to scrap some photos because they just didn't look good no matter how much I edited them. But that's okay; bookstagram is a learning process!

Baking, setting the stage, and photos I didn't really like and didn't post.

Setting up for a photoshoot.

Before the magic of editing!

Yum (except not really)!

This one looked okay, but I wasn't completely happy with the colors so I decided not to post it.

Overall, these past few months have been fun, and I've enjoyed using bookstagram! I'll be doing a few posts reflecting on my experiences from time to time. Until then, what do you think of bookstagram? Do you have any suggestions/tips/tricks for me? Let me know below! And please make sure to follow me @not_a_prima_donna_girl :).

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Book Review: The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo

Goodreads Synopsis: From the author of I Believe in a Thing Called Love, a laugh-out-loud story of love, new friendships, and one unique food truck.

Clara Shin lives for pranks and disruption. When she takes one joke too far, her dad sentences her to a summer working on his food truck, the KoBra, alongside her uptight classmate Rose Carver. Not the carefree summer Clara had imagined. But maybe Rose isn't so bad. Maybe the boy named Hamlet (yes, Hamlet) crushing on her is pretty cute. Maybe Clara actually feels invested in her dad’s business. What if taking this summer seriously means that Clara has to leave her old self behind?

With Maurene Goo's signature warmth and humor, The Way You Make Me Feel is a relatable story of falling in love and finding yourself in the places you’d never thought to look.

My Review: This reminds me so much of The Unexpected Everything (which, coincidentally, I haven't reviewed yet, so this might be a sort of dual-review). Both books involve:

• girls living with their fathers + managing their relationships with their parent
• friendship trouble
• getting a summer job
• changing perceptions through summer experiences

And both of them are very similar in style, too! I'd actually call these book twins (and I will be making a post about these!).

But going back to TWYMMF, I first and foremost enjoyed the diversity of the story. I drooled reading about KoBra and the Korean-Brazilian food (and definitely need to try both cuisines!); the main characters had different cultures and stories (a lost Korean-Brazilian girl, an African American girl struggling to be the best, and a Chinese boy trying to fit in); the story discussed microaggressions; and mental health was briefly touched upon. Clara was also a likable MC, her pranks were entertaining, and her relationship with her father was sweet. From reading about Clara's changing friendships, pool fun, and summer job, I enjoyed a peek into summer break.

At its core, though, the story was really a standard contemporary; though fun to explore and read, there wasn't really anything new I'd taken away, and the story was largely predictable. Clara was also very impulsive and didn't really change, even at the end. Additionally, Clara's parents are divorced, and there was a vibe of a good parent/bad parent; I'd like to see more stories where both parents just have different lives to lead and are equally loving to their kid(s). But I suppose in this case Clara's mother's character was important to Clara's character development, and I might have to let that point go :). 

Overall, The Way You Make Me Feel was a solid, diverse read, and I give it 3.5 stars. Have you read this story, or any other books my Maurene Goo? Let me know below!