Finding Your Harmony Review (2020)

Author: Ally Brooke

Price: 17.99 (Purchased during Prime Day, now listed as 24.99)

Published: October 13, 2020

I’m a huge fan of Fifth Harmony and I really miss the music this group made. Like many around the world I was one that was left floored when they announced their hiatus. So when I decided to buy this book, it was with the intentions of getting a glimpse as to where the troubles had started for Fifth Harmony and what eventually led to the break up. I’m pretty sure that’s probably what the publisher and Ally’s team was hoping for, curious Harmonizers wanting to know the details. My goal is to not say too much in regards to what is in the story because it was a very good read for me. I’m only going to focus on the parts that I particularly came for and a few points outside of that.

It was definitely interesting to get more insight on how Ally got her start and what it was that she was doing before Fifth Harmony and her plans for her career afterward. I had no idea that she was pursuing a career before X-Factor at all and the way that she described that time made me respect her parents a lot for all that they sacrificed in order to help her achieve success. I really related a lot to the struggles she described with her body and feeling insecure about it. I’m in that phase very strongly right now regardless of when people say my size is okay. This is something though I wasn’t too shock to hear, but it made me feel even worse for her as she talked about reading comments saying she was built like Sponge bob. I don’t think a lot of the younger fan base of Fifth Harmony realizes how much their words can affect someone. It was also surprising how she spoke about her faith. I got kind of use to most mainstream artists only really mentioning God and religion when either something bad happens or when they are accepting an award of some sort, so it was really different how she constantly spoke of her faith and had God in her mind all throughout her time before Fifth Harmony, with the group, and now as she embarks on a solo career.

I’m not even going to lie about my disappointment when the topic of the Fifth Harmony disbandment was touched on for the briefest of brief moments and when I realized that the girls that the group would often say was like their sisters were only mentioned once or twice. The thought that was reinforced however was that Fifth Harmony wasn’t going to last as a group anyways. Ally had spoke about having only a line or so in their first single ever and my mind immediately drifted to the BlackPink documentary that’s currently on Netflix. Jisoo had stated something along the lines of everyone knowing their roles and how there isn’t any battles in regards to who gets to be in the center or over singing lines and that is how they create synergy and work so well together. This synergy wasn’t there for Fifth Harmony for a few reasons, the first was that they were all originally solo artists which would definitely explain Ally’s push for more lines and to sing choruses. This could also be the reason why most in the group felt like you didn’t get to hear the real them while in the group as well, seeing as the line distribution for the songs weren’t exactly even until their self-titled album. Something else I noticed is during Fifth Harmony’s last days, they spoke as if this was just purely a hiatus so that they can explore themselves individually, but when Ally spoke of the situation she stated things that would make me think that this is more of a permanent disbandment. It was both realistic and disheartening for me.

This was actually my first music memoir I read so I think initially I was expecting to learn some secrets and behind the scenes things in the music industry, but surprisingly again she spoke very favorable of everyone including Simon. Maybe that speaks more to the character of Ally in regards to how no one was spoken about negatively at all and could pull out positivity from all of the situations. In all, the book confirmed for me that Ally is actually how she is portrayed to be to the public and it is amazing that even after being in the limelight and in the sometimes toxic music industry and Hollywood for so long she was able to hold onto the beliefs that she was raised with. Overall, I enjoyed the read very much despite not getting what I had originally been seeking.

Thanks for reading this far and for your continued support of my blog!

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Inferno of Silence Review

Author: Tolu’ A. Akinyemi

Website: https://tolutoludo.com/books/inferno-of-silence.html

Twitter: https://twitter.com/toluakinyemi?s=20

Price: 11.29 (3.99 Kindle version)

Inferno of Silence is a collection of short stories that offers different points of view from the lives of black individuals. And before I actually get into anything thanks again to Tolu’ for sending me this review copy. It is MUCH appreciated.

Something I had to do for these stories that I haven’t had to do in a long time was utilize Google to find out what some terms meant due to me having a different cultural background from the author and there not really being an explanation for the meaning of some of the terms and things mentioned. For example, I had no idea what an Aso-ebi, mentioned in Inferno of Silence. All I was able to interpret right off hand was that it was an important item for the upcoming wedding ceremony. It would have been nice to have either a brief description of the terms or perhaps a glossary section in the back of the book.

Something I found myself longing for is more. I felt in some instances in stories like Black Lives Matter, I hadn’t grasp completely a central event of the story and was really looking forward to hearing more of it. With Black Lives Matter, there was a car accident and an event immediately following that had a significant effect on the story that followed that I felt I needed more of because I thought I had missed something between the start of the event and the aftermath. Overall, I felt myself just wanting to read more about the story in general.

My favorite of the short stories was Inferno of Silence, which focuses on the standards society has placed on the main character, Kunle, who is unhappy in his marriage. Even though I am a female and found myself just thinking I would never want to be in a relationship with someone if either of us felt the way this man does. It really shows how much people are pressured into staying with someone all for the sake of appearances and religion. I really enjoyed the insight to the beginnings of the relationship and the escalation of tensions and hidden personality elements slipping out. I loved little details like noticing how glasses were rearranged differently since his love had stayed over/practically moved in with him. This is one of two short stories I wish I could have had a good 200+ pages of.

Overall, I enjoyed majority of the stories in the book. The ones that I highly Recommend is Inferno of Silence and Blinded by Silence. I’ve added the Amazon link to purchase the book above as well as the author’s website in case you would like to purchase from there as well. I know I’m going to definitely look into whether the author has a full length book ready for my hard earned cash.

If you made it all the way down here, THANKS A BUNCH FOR READING! If you have any suggestions on how I can improve my posts feel free to let me know below.

Game of Thrones Season 8 Trailer

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I didn’t expect for this to be my first post on my new blog page, but I am just bubbling with excitement with the release of the season 8 trailer for the Game of Thrones. I actually teared up watching this and that speaks volumes to me in terms of how devoted I am to seeing the end game for some of the characters. Below I’m going to post the scenes that stuck out to me the most while watching the trailer and my immediate thoughts:

The trailer opens with Arya looking frightened and running from something in the crypts

Does the dead Starks in the crypts actually get brought back to life?
Does the dead get inside through the crypts and begin to overtake Winterfell? Doesn’t seem too likely as she isn’t overrun by any of the dead. Unless it’s a White Walker silently stalking prey.
She’s clearly already been fighting based on the wound to the side of her head. When is the last time you’ve seen Arya scared?

“I know death, he has many faces” cuts to Varys

Is Varys a faceless man? Are his motives finally going to be revealed and lead to his death?

What I am presuming is the Golden company on Euron’s ships

Is Euron going to keep up his end of the bargain with Cersei or will he betray her and keep the company and throne for himself since Cersei really doesn’t have many men?

Will the Golden Company break their contract to help Dany?

Will everyone realise the dead is the bigger issue and come together to fight?

“Everything you did brought you to where you are now” shows Tormund, Beric, Eddison have survived the attack on the wall and shows Bran and Sam together with Sam turning his head to look at someone

Beric and Tormund will make it to Winterfell and help fight the army of the Dead, but I don’t think they will be walking away from that battle.

Are we seeing the seconds before Jon’s heritage is revealed to him?

“Where you belong”
Cersei and Qyburn at Kings Landing with The Mountain and what looks to be duplicates of him as well.

Their own army of dead?
Sansa sees her first dragon and she doesn’t look as frightened as I thought she would be or she’s just good at masking her feelings

Gendry in a forge

It was always suspected that Gendry would help make the dragon glass weapons. Finally giving him more purpose because this is an important factor in fighting the army of the dead.

“They’re coming. Our enemy doesn’t die, doesn’t stop, doesn’t feel”
Greyworm and Missandei kissing
Brienne and Jaime on the battlefield surrounded by fire
A shot of the iron throne
Cersei drinking wine tears in her eyes

What’s sure to be a goodbye kiss in the strong instance he doesn’t make it back from battle, which I’m certain he won’t.

The grittiness of the long battle we are about to see. Maybe the shot of Jaime is right before they retreat or trying to muster up more strength and drive to continue fighting.

I doubt Cersei is having regrets and crying about it. Maybe she miscarries the baby she is pregnant with or receives word of Winterfell’s demise and knows Jaime, the man she loves went there.

“I promise to fight for the living”
Greyworm donning his helmet
Jon at the Godswood
The Hound

I couldn’t possibly imagine looking at a large army and having to try to mentally and physically prepare myself while remaining calm for the soldiers under my command.

The Starks definitely love clearing their mind at this tree. Wonder if he goes here after being told who his parents are, or after finding out the wall has been broken through.

“I intend to keep it that promise”
Jaime speaking
Jon on the battlefield
Charging through a doorway or gate
Dany and Jon walking up to the dragons
Arya fighting with a spear

My first impressions is that the dead breaks through the first lines of defense for Winterfell and they are charging as sort of a last stand and to buy others time to escape.

Jon is going to ride a dragon! Where are him and Dany right now? I doubt there’s a lot of time to spend with your significant aunt when the dead is so close.

Arya on the field fighting makes me nervous. I know she has skills fighting but that puts her at a greater risk of dying. I am not prepared for that at all.

Winds howling during a shot of the Unsullied
Brienne and Podrick at the front lines
Jorah at the front watching the dead approach

The wind blowing during this scene stood out to me as I have just started reading the series and when Jon finds Ghost he asks the other people with him if they can hear it and all Bran can hear is the wind and the horses. Later on, Bran tries to say his father heard him and Blood Raven tells him his father heard the wind. Not that it is related to that in this sense but I immediately thought of this.

Brienne, Jorah, and Podrick are in the front lines and once again it turns my nerves to s**t. But, honestly, this can be expected of all the characters here especially when fighting for something bigger than themselves.

The wait for April 14 is going to feel so long because of the excitement I have now. It’s going to be sad to see this series go because of how impactful it has been, but hopefully, the show will end with a release date for the Winds of Winter to keep me happy in life. What are some of you guys interpretations of the trailer and who do you think will survive the Game of Thrones?