When they first announced the TV show (2014-), I immediately jumped on board. Vampires? Yes please. Monstrous non-Twilight vampires? Hell yes. The day when I realized Kevin Durand was Joshua in Dark Angel (2000-2002), one of my favorites when I was an innocent 12-year-old, was surreal to say the least. The premise of The Strain was, if not entirely original or exciting, very intriguing and the entertainment factor seemed promisingly high. It might not have become my favorite show, but it was great to get my mind off everyday drudgery and watch something straightforward and... well, entertaining.

The show's book counterpart is exactly that as well, and I wasn't surprised, because del Toro is involved in both. Nothing revolutionary here, just simple fun that transports you to a world of supernatural. The downfall of the book, for me, was precisely the fact that I'd seen the show. Because the show really is faithful down to the events and characters, and I appreciate that. Especially the character part, because nothing is as annoying as witnessing important characters or characters that are your favorite getting completely mauled by completely clueless individuals, who probably haven't even read the book.

In this case, though, it would have benefited me to actually get around reading the book first, like I'd planned, because now I just couldn't get into the story the same way as I did with the show. Would have been nice to see how cool everything I'd just read looked in visual form.

Thing is, that's not the book's fault. I could still see objectively all its merits. Oddly enough, all its flaws that flew past me in the show were heightened on paper. Although I liked the portrayal of vampires (animal-like creatures gradually becoming more intelligent) and the infection theme, I didn't see the overall story arc as anything more than an awfully pedestrian and clichéd story about a bunch of (one-dimensional) people that try to stop an end of the world. It's when you start to think about it, it's really not that interesting nor haunting, although I think it should be, considering that the entire city of New York is turning into bloodthirsty worm vessels (those worms creeped me out the most in the whole thing).

The occasionally cringey writing doesn't help either. I wish I had written some of the worst parts down, but there were moments where I could hear the violins that must have been playing in the authors' heads, or moments where I was rolling my eyes so hard I thought they'd pop off. However, The Strain is still a page-turner. It may not be strong sci-fi nor horror, but in its middling class it's worthy of the time spent. I don't know how much del Toro participated in the writing process, but I think his visions are better suited for visual media.

Will I check out the sequels? Uh, don't think so. I am, however, interested in the comic adaptation. Here's hoping the artist is good, or otherwise the visual aspect is pooped as well.

3.5 stars
Thank god. I thought I'd be stuck with mediocre Amazon Original stories or average thrillers for the rest of the year. All I wanted was something light to get my mind off things and Aaronovitch delivered. I'm not really the target audience since I don't read urban fantasy, but the central ghostly mystery, the various supernatural matters, the light British humor, and the whizzing around the city in locations that were already familiar to me (the Covent Garden Market & Piazza being my latest love) made all the difference.

The descriptions of magic lessons and the practical aspect of magic were of zero interest to me, but hopefully, they'll be incorporated more naturally in the future. I'm also not sure about Grant yet (stop the leering, please), but I definitely want more Nightingale. I'm pretty bad at reading and finishing series, but I look forward to seeing where this goes.

The third installment in Dickens's series of Christmas books, The Cricket on the Hearth is perhaps not set during Christmastime, but it has the spirit of Christmas. When suspicion is planted in our hearts, it can eat away your soul, especially when one fails to see that some people are motivated by negativity. The wounds caused to mutual trust can be healed, though, and - because this is Dickens we are dealing with - trust is eventually restored and the warmth of love spreads into even the coldest of hearts. Isn't this what Christmas is about? It doesn't matter whether it's celebrated because of its religious background, or because eating yourself conscious and relaxing at the end of the year sounds tempting - everyone should have a sense of peace during this time of year and the understanding that everything will eventually turn out for the better. The ones who use Christmas merely for financial gain or cause harm to others are the misers.

Not all misers will change, but although excess sentimentality usually annoys me, I appreciate the hope Dickens tries to instill in his readers. The portrayal of domestic bliss of Victorian times is an interesting peek to the family values at a certain point in history, but the characters felt more distant and the plot not as interesting as in the previous two. The poetic and song-like prose I enjoyed in The Chimes (1844) didn't appeal to me here, instead the story seemed a bit too drawn out and contrived. I think the general homeliness was what made this more flat and uninteresting, but there was a bit of rehash going on in terms of some plot devices as well. Unlike the first two, this was wordy in all the wrong places and seemed unpolished, and the plot manages to be a mess while being very simple and boring at the same time (the most ridiculously implausible turn of events at the end certainly doesn't help).

Some would consider the Christmas books as Dickens at his worst, but I believe the approach is so much more different than in his regular novels that comparison is futile. Although with a basis in reality, the magical realist elements in the Christmas books place them in a different world, a world of fairy tales where ghosts, goblins, and fairies come to change people's lives. The sentimentality, therefore, is not a negative thing to be rejected, but to be embraced as something innocent and pure. Joy, forgiveness, understanding, and the desire to make your loved ones feel as comfortable as possible belong to the hearths of homes. I may not have liked The Cricket on the Hearth that much, but at least the message delivers.

Considering how much I love the Jazz Age, I'm surprised I didn't like the location change to 1920s NYC as much as I had hoped, but still a fun side story with fae, haunted instruments, and jazz clubs. I almost liked the sparkly Augustus "Gussie" Berrycloth-Young as narrator more than Peter, but only slightly more.