Book Review - Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

I decided to read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline after I heard a few YouTubers mention it and my housemate also recommended it. I started the book last Wednesday and I finished it Sunday because oh my god I could not put it down. This is the first book in a while that has really captured my attention and I just need more people to read it please (especially before the film adaptation comes out next year)

Ready Player One is set in the not-too-distant-future the 2040's where environmental problems has left much of the planet in desolate states and poverty... except the entire world can also access the OASIS, an interface sort of Virtual Reality type service and game where you can essentially live without ever having to physically go outside. The OASIS was created by James Halliday, a child of the 1980's, so the book is littered with pop culture references (which I absolutely loved); when he dies, his avatar makes an announcement that, just like any good video game, there are Easter Eggs hidden within them. 3 keys will lead to 3 gates and whoever clears all of them with the highest score will become the heir to his fortune and to the OASIS. The book is told from the POV of Wade Watts, or Parzival as his avatar is known, who becomes the first person to make any progress with the Easter Egg hunt. I won't go too much further as I'll start spoiling things but let's just say there's also some people on the Hunt who wouldn't use the OASIS for good...and they won't stop at killing people. 

The writing itself was perhaps a little shoddy at time, things seemed to move on very fast and towards the end, it seemed a little rushed to wrap up some plot holes. However, the story itself had me hooked, you found yourself really wanting to find out what the end of the quest was as well as finding out more about the other people behind their avatars, for example Ar3temis and Aech... we only ever see their avatars until towards the end. Every character is well-rounded. Despite a straight white male protagonist, there is good diversity within the book ranging from sexuality and race not to mention the fact that Ar3temis is clearly the smartest of the main characters and she's female so yay! 

I give this book a strong 9/10 and highly recommend it. If you like sci-fi but also obscure pop culture references, this is a definite read. I'd also say it doesn't have a particular gender preference and the ages of 14 up could read this. 

Thanks for reading! Laura x

#SheInspiresMe

As it's International Women's Day today I thought it would be a good idea to throw together a little post about the women in both my personal life and in the media who inspire me, who remind me everyday that women are absolutely badass, that I can do whatever I put my mind to etc etc. Thanks for everything guys.

The ladies in my fam but namely my lovely mother and sister Rebecca, thank you for being solid constants in my life with support and anything else I could possibly ask for. Mum has taught me to be resilient and take things in my stride. Becks, I can only hope I've been a good big sister so far and I'm so glad you're growing up to be a delightful young lady.

The lovely ladies I'm proud to call my friends; Jem, Jess, Mel, Holly, Amalah, Grace, Laura, Emily, Vicky. You are all absolute angels and thank you for being my friend. You all bring something wonderful to the world and to my life. I cannot wait to see what else you're all gonna do but I know it's gonna be fab.

The ladies in the media across TV, film, music, books and YouTube who inspire me in some way or another is probably a list too big but here are my absolute faves and I'm sure if you've heard of them, know me or have seen their work you'll know why  - Emma Thompson, JK Rowling, Emma Watson, Hazel Hayes, Carrie Hope Fletcher, Emilia Clarke, Aisling Bea, Viola Davis, Uzo Aduba, Helena Bonham Carter....there's countless more I assure you.

The reason for an International Women's Day is to highlight the important issues facing women around the world today, to uplift and inspire the women in your life and to hopefully shut up all the men who ask 'why isn't there an International Man's Day?!?!' - there is. November 19th. Celebrate ladyhood today and be proud of it.

A Response to Dodie Clark - Youtube and the Media

Recently there's been a lot of (for lack of a better word) 'drama' about Youtubers and how the mainstream media portray them. Apparently Zoella is to blame for teenagers not reading....despite the fact the woman has three best-selling books and runs a book club through WHSmiths. But obviously because she talks about make-up, she's a monster.

The lovely Dodie Clark (Doddleoddle online) did this video about how the media talk about and portray Youtubers and she asked for responses. So here is mine. Because oh my god it bothers me how some of them get talked about. 

I've been watching YouTubers since I was about 14/15 (I'm 20 now) and they are some of the people I look up to the most. Is it not better that I look up to people who I've watched grow as both internet personalities and people over the years, who've worked bloody hard for what they've got and what they do, continue to make even better and bigger projects? I've watched some YouTubers before they made it 'big' I guess and it's so wonderful to see people achieving great and inspiring things, particularly when they also genuinely seem like good, kind-hearted people.  For example, Dan and Phil did a worldwide stage tour, Carrie Hope Fletcher played the role of Eponine on the West End and in Dubai (and no she didn't get the role because she's famous on the internet, she got it because she's fantastic), Dodie release an EP, Bry go on tour with Twenty One Pilots, Jack and Dean have their own show....I could name many more wonderful things Youtubers have done. It's inspiring to see people I do hold some form of affection for go on to do brilliant, wonderful things.
On a personal level, I struggled with being homesick, being anxious and some other health problems my first year of uni, if I hadn't have watched certain YouTubers (namely D&P thanks boys lol) I would have been a lot more sad and it helped me get through rough patches as it was 10-15 minutes of my day where I was distracted from my own head. If a YouTuber has made one person feel better about a crappy day what harm can they really be posing to the world? Ask yourself that mainstream media. 

In response to the Guardian article that's caused this discussion, how on earth they can think Zoella is 'ruining literacy', I've got zero clue. My little sister has read Zoe's books and she's not a massive reader - if Zoe's online presence has meant young people have picked up a book instead of their phone or laptop, again what harm is being done? None. 

Some mainstream media seems so obsessed with how much money YouTubers earn. Why on earth does it matter? These people work hard for a living, they are literally all running their own businesses - their channel-  and alongside that, some are working on music, writing books etc. Anytime I've read a newspaper article about YouTubers, it almost always mentions how much they're worth. Louise Pentland, when on Celebrity Mastermind, was asked how much she earns, to which her response was "well how much do you earn?" - no other person in the spotlight would get asked that... but for some reason, being famous online makes it more okay for the media to be invasive. I won't go into the whole PewDiePie drama from the not so distant past as that's a different issue but he did mention the fact that journalists have turned up at his door and I seem to remember a newspaper once printed Zoe and Alfie's address...not only is it awful but it borders on a crime surely.
It really does seem that because some in the mainstream media don't quite understand how these 'kids' online make their money (and be very successful at the same time), they decide to just shame them instead. There does also seem to be a lot of dismissal/misinformation that the main YouTube audience are just 'young teenage girls'. While those who are younger are perhaps more vocal in the YouTube community, I also think that a lot of the audience has grown up with the YouTubers they watch - like I said before I've been watching since I was 14. Therefore this would make the demographic of audiences somewhat older than the media makes out. Some articles I've read dismisses the 'fame' of YouTubers because their audience are young and female - bit sexist innit?

The wonderful Carrie Hope Fletcher made some excellent responses in this video in that YouTube needs the mainstream media so it isn't enough to boycott it but also that the media uses clickbaity titles (as some YouTubers do) in order to get attention/views/clicks on their article. Everyone is doing the same thing so it isn't necessarily a case of new vs old media. It does perhaps need some time for things to merge together but I feel that if some mainstream media got over 'I don't understand this' and researched YouTubers and worked with them rather than against them, the entirety of digital media would become a lot more friendly. Outlets like the Huffington Post and Buzzfeed seem to be doing this crossover quite well in my opinion.

Well this is a somewhat rambling post I do apologise. I hope it makes sense - thinking about it I might write some more pieces on YouTube as it is a part of my life that I'm passionate about. Thanks for reading and see you soon :)
Laura x