review series

Find Me I’m Yours – REVIEW SERIES – Part VIII

Part I ; Part II ; Part III ; Part IV ; Part V ; Part VI ; Part VII

Some real heavy, beautiful stuff has been happening with Mags. Which I don’t want to ruin for the reader but which made me want to hug her some more.

And, what do you know, remember that call to that smoker’s-voice lady, Sylvia? Well, she’s a STRIPTEASE PSYCHIC. Yup. Extension 69 (HA) and she tells you about her service but that alas she’s not taking on new clients at the moment.

Mags’ next clue leads to a tattoo shop, with an actual address. I looked it up and street view, and I found something that felt like it came right out of the book. Some very cool street art:

Cool street art at address for tat shop

I’m feeling like I’m blending with Mags, starting to see clues in her world whether they’re there or not. Mindfulness, paying attention to our surroundings, thinking outside of ourselves – that’s what this is all about, right?

 

Next Mr. WTF video is a HUGE SPOILER so I’m not going to tell you anything about it except that a theory I had for a while, and one that I was REALLY HOPING FOR proved to be true, which makes me over the moon for reasons that you’ll understand once I reach the last review that will include a huge spoiler alert at the beginning and will be not so much live-bloggy like these have been and a lot more BIG IDEA-y.

…and that’s it. I’m done. I finished reading. I am happy and a little tearful.

Next up is the WRAP PARTY version of the review, in which I will tell you why this book is important and why I have been putting so much effort into writing about it and why I am a huge fan even though I am not usually a lover of New Adult or Romance or whatever genre this book would fit into if it so obviously didn’t.

 

Find Me I’m Yours – REVIEW SERIES – Part VII

Part I ; Part II ; Part III ; Part IV ; Part V ; Part VI

Mags makes a seriously good point about logos being all wispy when updated. Here’s another example that I found all on my own:

Old logo:

CokeWithoutWisp

 

VS. new logo:

CokeWithWisp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And again with the freaking awesome websites that are just hilarious and must have been sooo fun to make/research – a website devoted to giant things in LA. The pointless kind that’s just kind of hilarious – the giant donut on top of stores, the giant statues of creepy-looking people, all that cheesy 50s (or is it 60s? 70s? Erm… showing my age here) decor. I love this novel’s devotion to all things pop-y and slightly cheesy and the fact that it is all completely unironic. In this hipster culture, I appreciate things like WorshipTheBrand and Giant Things LA because there’s serious admiration for pop art behind them. Does that make sense or am I rambling at this point?

And you gotta love an author who gives you a whole website dedicated to burlesque with an Amanda Palmer lookalike in the first photo:

Stripping

 

In this website, we’re supposed to find a specific review and I think I figured it out before reading on! And while it might not be part of the actual puzzle, there’s totally a link in the bottom right corner leading another website that DEF is part of the chase. Or wait, maybe not? Ahhh!!! Gotta keep reading to see if I’m figuring things out right or am on a wild goosechase!

NOOO I WAS TOTALLY WRONG! But it was the only 4-star review! Dammit, Mr. WTF! I guess I should never take you literally… Which I couldn’t, since you’re literally reserved for Mags.

Carlip is SO in tune with the crazy shit our culture is into… She’s invented Laughcersize, a laughing-to-lost-weight regime. The website is so incredibly legitimately weird, like all exercise/diet websites are. It’s so authentic it hurts.

Oh Mags! Babes! Hons! Sweeties! I want to hug her, even though she’s the kind of person who I always think of as way too cool to ever want to be friends with me. But seriously, while I feel like her roommate Shari might end up being a nicer person than Mags thinks she is or something, I still can’t help but despise her for her inappropriateness. Not in the sexual way – go her and her pinup-pics. No, she’s simply socially oblivious, unintentionally cruel, but that doesn’t excuse how terrible she makes me feel on Mags’ part.

At least she gets to vent her frustration with some legal graffiti (can that be a thing, please, for real, kthxbai).

 

Find Me I’m Yours – REVIEW SERIES – Part VI

Part I ; Part II ; Part III ; Part IV ; Part V

On a more serious note: what this book does very well is show how even someone super privileged, coming from a middle class background, can be totally broke and fearing for her well-being, her ability to keep her apartment, her actual physical inability to pay for food. Yes, okay, so she had money and spent it badly, or she used it on things that weren’t essential, but how many people do that in our culture? Many. Because we’re almost supposed to. But being a starving artist is no joke, when it comes down to that person’s reality, and you can come from all the privilege in the world, but when you’re broke, you’re broke.

And just when there is a moment of true downness, where I am so emotionally there for Mags, the author gives me a chance to alleviate my sadness and my secondhand anger at her roommate and her ex and just all of the #feels. Because she links to a website that includes this on its home page:

HamsterI’m not going to tell you what happens next (and it actually isn’t what you think) but there’s a WEDDING REGISTRY:

Wedding registry

 

 

 

 

 

AND a honeymoon registry:

Honeymoon registry

 

AND a donation registry:

Donation registry

 

…I think Carlip must have had a blast creating those. I know I would have. Oh, Mags too probably!

When I get to the picture of a missing dog sign, I can’t bring myself to call the number (which I can juuust make out) because I worry – what if this is a REAL missing dog poster? What if I’d call and they would just be really sad that I haven’t found their dog and don’t even live in LA? I wonder if I’m missing out on something, but it would just make me too sad and embarrassed to try.

Which, speaking of, I really hope that there’s a website out there like this one or that this one is turning legit because this is a brilliant idea: ISpottedYourDog.com. SO USEFUL.

And entirely NOT useful, but absolutely mesmerizing is http://www.paintbynumberinvasions.com/ – I really want this Al artist dude to be real and to get some killah sales off this book because I love his idea. I totally wrote to him, of course, asking if he’s real or if it’s Carlip’s artwork!

See, that’s the thing, she’s such a tease is Carlip! Like look, I really want to go to this bar:

Tanked Tiki

But what if she made it up?! I bet she did, and that makes me sad (and happy too, because how often do I get to at least visit the website of the places in books? There’s no Pemberly.com website – or… is there? – NOPE. There isn’t. Go buy it now if you want.)