I had high hopes for this book. My wife enjoyed it and the two hosts from one of my favorite podcasts (We’re Doing Fine with Robbie and Lisa) both enjoyed it. I trust the tastes of all of those people so I figured there’s little risk in giving it a listen as I was in the market for a new audio book. So what did I think? Here’s my review for They Both Die In The End by Adam Silvera.




The title is very straight forward. It's about two kids who find out they’re going to die. There’s a service called Death Cast that calls people shortly after midnight and lets them know that they’re going to die. That way people can be prepared and spend their last day however they wish. Death Cast doesn’t know how or at what time, just the day. Mateo and Rufus don’t know each other. But they will after they both get the call and find each other using an app called Last Friend, an app for people who don’t have anyone to spend their last day with.

The title says they both die but they could still survive. However, for a story like this, it doesn’t matter. The journey is what counts more. It’s like any show or movie about the Titanic. You know it’s going to sink, but that’s not why you watch it. The main character could be like Jack and die or like Rose and survive on a piece of wood big enough for two. But either way you don’t sit down to Titanic thinking it’s going to have a happy ending.

I’m going to be honest. I spent half the book disliking the characters. Mataeo was a wuss. I would have been more understanding if it was revealed he had some sort of mental issue, but no explanation was given besides him being a wussy homebody who was scared of the world. Rufus sounded like someone who got a copy of “how to talk ghetto” for Christmas and was practicing as much as he could. Everything was “mad.” The sun was mad bright, the food was mad tasty, and the music was mad loud. Not just that, but he started out very one bland note.



I found myself liking the characters more as the story progressed. They were changing and it was for the better. Mateo was less of a scaredy cat and Rufus was developing more and his . In the first half of the book I just enjoyed the story and the setup while in the second half I grew to like the characters as well.

I’ve read quite a few reviews for this book and one of the biggest complaints I read was about instalove. I want to assure you that there is no instalove. In my opinion, instalove is what happens in cheesy romance books or Twilight when Bella sees Edward for the first time and she’s eternally, irrevocably, and haphazardly in love just from the sight of the creepy old vampire.

This was a cute book. A typical YA drama/romance. It wasn’t bad at all but I’ve also read better. Adam Silvera had a really good idea with this book that never fully got fleshed out. Mateo and Rufus get nice and complete stories but other parts of the book, like the world it is set in and how things work, are never explained.They Both Die In The End has many pros and very few cons so I whole heartedly recommend this book to anyone who’s a fan of YA drama and romance.

I still have quite a few question. How does death cast know how is going to die? Why are the doomed called deckers? Some people are killed because they get the call and then do something stupid. So is the call that killed them? Would they still have died if they didn’t get the call even though the fact that they got the call is what made them take a certain action that caused their death?

If that last question was a bit confusing, allow me to explain in a non-spolier example. Let’s say I get called by death cast. I find out I’m going to die today. Because I get that call, I decide to do something I never would have done otherwise. I go skydiving. While skydiving my parachute fails and I fall to my death. But I never would have been skydiving if I never got the call. So would I have died anyway? Is death unavoidable?

Those questions aside, I still liked this and would recommend it to any fan of YA. If you're not a read of the genre, then I might stray away from this book. Otherwise, give it a go.

They Both Die At The End gets a 7.5 out of 11

Star Trek: First Contact - Main Theme composed by Michael Giacchino

Flight from the Man of Steel soundtrack by Hanz Zimmer.

Princess Mononoke - Journey To The West by Joe Hisaishi

A few years ago my wife and I discovered that our local library has a room where they sell books people donated. It wasn't long after that discovery that we also discovered that libraries having books for sale was just a thing. So every few months or so we go on a library hop where we pick an area and make our rounds, buying up all the books we want. Seeing as the books are normally .50 cents for a paper back and 1 dollar for a hardback, this is why we have more books than we could possibly read but also, still have money for living. So what did this latest hop around the Santa Cruz County libraries bring? Here's the results.

Brawl In Cell Block 99

The Books

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

The Xanth Series bu Piers Anthony

The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente

Deception Point by Dan Brown

Let’s talk about movies that never stood a chance. Let’s talk about the Ghostbusters reboot from 2016, let’s talk about the new Star Wars trilogy, let’s talk about Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. What do those movies have in common? They’re all reboots or continuations of movies from the 80s. They’re movies a lot of us hold dear from our childhood. The Terminator series falls right into that trap. Terminator 2: Judgement Day was the last movie in the series that most fans liked. It’s now an iconic film. T2 came out in 1991 and it wasn’t until 12 years later that a sequel came out. It was a sequel that set the series in a downward spiral that it never quite recovered from.

Director Tim Miller (Deadpool) decided to take a stab at the series along with a group of writers including James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar) and David S Goyer (Dark City, The Dark Knight). Arnold Schwarzenegger  and Linda Hamilton came back to reprise their roles and it would be their first time together again since T2 back in ‘91.  So how did they do? Here’s my review.



Let’s be honest, Terminator: Dark Fate was never going to do well. There’s too much bad air around the series. Public opinion went down after the third installment. Terminator: Genisys flopped so hard that the proposed trilogy was tossed in the trash faster than a poopy diaper.

The story for this installment was formulaic but enjoyable. I could see where things were going from the very beginning but I didn’t mind because the journey was fun. It didn’t take long for the story to get headed, which was good because if it had a slower burn it could have wound up being boring. Though it was fast paced, it didn’t feel like the story was being ignored for the sake of action.

The acting was solid. Good for a blockbuster film. Arnold, as always, played a great Terminator. It was good to see Linda Hamilton again and she put on quite a performance. Where Arnold’s Terminator had the usual one note, Hamilton’s Sara Connor had more nuanced emotion behind a layer of ice.



As for the newcomers, Natalia Reyes (Birds of Passage) as Dani (this movie’s Terminator target) had a good arc of growth from a deer in the headlights to a woman with fiery resolve. Mackenzie Davis(Halt and Catch Fire) as Grace, the augmented human sent back to protect Dani, was a pleasant surprise as it introduced another character with a wider emotional pallet than Schwarzenegger’s Terminator.

Now it’s time to talk about the most important factor of a Terminator movie. The Terminator. This time we have Gabriel Luna (Agents of Shield) playing a never-before-seen killing machine that can split into two and seems even harder to kill than the T-1000. The most pressing question is “how good was he as an unstoppable killing machine?” He was exceptional.

This movie could go one of two ways. This could be it. It could be the new ending. Much like Halloween (2018) did, it reset the movie’s cannon. So this could be the final movie with the new cannon being Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, and now Terminator: Dark Fate. Or this could start a new set of movies. Terminator: Dark Fate hasn’t been faring very well in theaters or with critics so the possibility of a new series is slim, but not impossible.

I think the biggest problem people have when going into movies like this is they don’t have realistic expectations. You should go into this expecting a fun action film. That’s it. Should you expect it to live up to the original two? No. Should you expect a heart stopping cinematic experience? No. Should you just expect a fun action film with a familiar characters, story, and world? Yes. This movie is enjoyable as long as you can enjoy a simple action film.

Terminator: Dark Fate gets an 8 out of 11

I wouldn’t be able to consider this review complete without giving a few spoiler free examples of the cringiness from this book. Arthur feels like a stereotypical drama kid. He’s obsessed with the Broadway play Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen and can’t even comprehend why anyone wouldn’t also be a fan. He gushes over it so much I can just see him tweeting "Hamilton is life." Ben is writing a story called The Wicked Wizard War where he’s the main character and he puts all of his friends and family members in the book and it sounds like bad fan fiction. Also, Ben is in summer school and is so embarrassed! Can you imagine something as embarrassing as summer school? Yes. Yes I can imagine a lot of things more embarrassing as summer school. Out of context some of these things may not seem like big deals, but in context, when the characters were treating these like big deals, I was dying.

Anne and I love to do these book tag posts and we try to post them on the same day, unless I get forgetful and don't post mine. This one is based on things that make you... wait for it... HAPPY! Yay for being happy!

1. A book you can always go back to and feel happy

2. Your standoms (your number one joy filled fandom or fandoms)

3. Type of book cover you’ll always pick up in a bookstore

4. A book trope that you love

5. An anticipated release that makes you happy when you think about it

6. An author whose full canon of books you love

7. Your coziest go-to reading snack/drink

8. A book you’ve shared with with family or friends

9. A fellow booktuber or book blogger whose content always brings you joy

10. Name something about the content you create that you love

Kings or Pawns by JJ Sherwood gets a 11 out of 11

   I remember this already hyped Netflix original movie hitting theaters for a limited run before being available for all to stream. It had an all star cast and it's based off the events leading up to the Panama Papers, a recent event in our political history that... not much came of. Did the movie deliver more than the actual event? Here's my review.

     So Tom Hanks wrote a book? Tom Freakin’ Hanks? The guy who saved Private Ryan and survived Apollo 13? Yes. Yes he did. He may be an accomplished Academy Award winning actor, but he dabbles in the written word as well! But can he write as well as he acts? Here’s my review.



     Thomas Jeffrey Hanks loves typewriters. I’ve known this since his interview on The Nerdist podcast. They managed to rope in such a big star by sending him the gift of an antique typewriter as a bribe, which he loved.  Why am I mentioning this? Because Uncommon Type is a book of short stories with typewriters as a common theme, though they main not be a crucial element to each story. This book has 17 short stories that all fall in the general fiction genre. One story highlights Hank’s interest in WWII and another highlights his interest in space, which I think captures how diverse this book is.



  Just like most short story collections, this one runs the gamut of enjoyability. I liked some stories a lot more than others. Some characters were relateable and enjoyable while others felt a little over-the-top or try hard. Some of my favorite stories were Steve Wong Is Perfect, Christmas Eve 1953, and The Past Is Important To Us. Others like Our Town Today with Hank Fiset, Three Exhausting Weeks, and Who's Who . The good news is that I liked most of the stories. I switched between the physical book and audio book and certain stories did better with different media. My interest in the book waxed and waned as I read and listened. Some stories got me pumped and wanting to read more while some left me cold.

     Would I recommend this book? It depends. Are you a fan of short stories? Is general fiction your jam? If you said yes to either of those last two questions, sure, give this a try. If you said no to either one of those questions then don’t. In that case the most you could do is buy it as a book to place on your coffee table as a conversation starter. “Tom Hanks wrote a book?” your friend may say.  “Yes. Yes he did.” You’d answer. “Do you want to borrow it?”


Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks gets a 7 out of 11