justjonsbooks's reviews
180 reviews

Empire of Storms? More like empire of sexy time!

‘I have a lot of proof that the world is conspiring to make me happy’

Alright, alright, alright, my first finished book of 2021 and I couldn’t be more pleased for this one to lead the way into the new year. It’s the first time I’ve ever read / listened to something like this so I wasn’t certain on what to expect or whether I’d actually enjoy it... but I really really did. It was everything I hoped for it to be and I loved it! So much so that I’m definitely keeping it on my Audible to listen to again some day.

I actually first learnt about this book from Mathew himself while he was on the YouTube show Hot Ones. He did a great job at eating the wings and getting me hyped for this new book he was releasing. I love Mathew and I’m also always down for some psychological stuff so I thought why the hell not!

I know some people may not be a fan of his, but I personally love listening to his voice and charisma generally and it’s no different in this audiobook. He has a great confidence but always sounds sincere and laid back. It’s so easy to listen to and become immersed in his stories.

The stories were pretty great too, they were funny and engaging and helps you see how he became the man he is today. The experiences and lessons that’s helped shaped him. It’s hard to pick a favourite one!

I also really enjoyed the additional sections of this book including the ‘note to selfs’, ‘prescribes’ and ‘bumper stickers’ which were like poetry after smoking a blunt! These extra thoughts and ideas intertwined within his storytelling makes this book feel much more than just an autobiography, it’s relatable, eye opening, inspiring and funny. He’s just a great writer!

I loved the ending about 2020. A crazy year that he spoke about beautifully. (It’s still hard for me to comprehend that the pandemic lasted so long that people were able to speak about it in their work and release that work while still in the pandemic…)

So I personally can’t think of any faults with this book unless you simply don’t like Mathew McConaughey. Which is fair enough, I know he has an interesting character that might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Although I do find it rather strange to see some reviews from people who seemingly can’t stand him… why listen to an audiobook from a person you don’t even like?

Anyway, he even made the acknowledgments at the end awesome. I listened to those last two sections twice because they were so great and while writing this I already want to listen again!

An excellent second volume to this series. The pieces are being put together of what happened to his family and how he became the skilled Ronin that he is today.

It was again a little short for my liking but I found the pacing much better with the cool flashback sequences between the present day conversations. There wasn’t much in the way of story progression but I enjoyed the conversations with April and her daughter who we are just introduced to.

I really appreciated the amazing artwork in this volume too. The sequence with Raphael had some incredible shots and I liked the different art style used for Michey’s. It makes me excited for any more creative elements to come.

Been wanting to check this comic out ever since I saw the title and artwork. I’m loving the futuristic world that it’s set in and this volume makes for a cool introduction to our protagonist.

You can quickly tell that the others are in his head through their greyed out colours and speech bubbles coming from behind him, but I like how it doesn’t immediately reveal which Turtle our Ronin is until the end of the volume. I was pleasantly surprised because my initial guess was wrong.

So far there’s an interesting blend between the lighthearted convo that we expect from the Turtles and an obviously more serious tone with the story and circumstances. It doesn’t feel as dark as I was hoping (compared to Hush and Harleen for example) and maybe that’s down to the volume being a little on the short side, but the story is interesting enough that I’m sure when the series is complete we’ll have a decently sized journey.

Thanks Derek, you’ve finished me again

I absolutely loved this video game and recently just had the itch to consume as much stuff surrounding it as I can.

I don’t really know if you can call this a book it’s more what it says in the title; containing artwork, initial sketches and other images from the game. But it’s here on goodreads so I’m adding it!

While what was there was really cool I’m only giving it a 3 because I wish it was longer and that there was a bit more to it. I need this but with 70+ pages instead, and a bunch of text detailing the world and characters. Maybe there is something like that out there that I need to look for.

This really wasn’t what I expected and that’s probably on me for not doing more research before starting it, but I liked the cover art, the reviews were great and it sounded like something different to explore. What I was hoping for was a mature graphic novel retelling this story from Greek Mythology in a modern world with amazing artwork as a bonus. But what it turned out to be was a collection of episodes from a webtoon which felt like it was made by a teenage girl for teenage girls while the story and writing felt very basic and fan-fictiony.

But look, I don’t want to bash it too much because it’s clear I’m not the target audience and even if it’s not for me I can still appreciate the work that was put into it. The art style was the main thing that kept me from calling it quits. It wasn’t as extravagant as I was hoping and there are flaws that other reviewers have mentioned such as the simple and reused character designs, but it all suits the unique style where they’re all cute and sexy Gods with their own colour schemes. And that aside there we’re some very beautiful shots and creative designs. In fact I preferred the pages between dialogue, whether it be a transition between scenes, portraying a drifting thought or just a full sized atmospheric image, as they were the moments where the creative imagery sparked and you can appreciate the style more.

I don’t know much about webtoons and they kinda remind me of those pop-up ads with animated characters that are bordering on NSFW. But it’s clear that this is on the higher end of what is posted there and with the unique art style it really stands out. It seems to have a great following that supports and communicates with the creator as episodes are released and I can see why it has its appeals.

But yeah I have to give it only 2 stars for now since it simply wasn’t for me but if I ever do get round to reading the following volumes in order to experience the full story then maybe my rating will go up. But for now it doesn’t really match up to other books and comics that I have rated 3 stars.

Really darn cool. Fantastic sound design and some great actors. Meanwhile the story was unique and showed many of the characters in a whole new light. I didn’t want it to end!

Honestly I didn’t even realise how diverse the cast was until I looked it up, I was just so into it that I never clocked we just got a black Batman and Wayne family. So cool! And I’d love to hear or even see more of it in the future because Winston Duke’s portrayal of Bruce Wayne was brilliant. The character that really stole the show for me however was Hasan Minhaj’s Riddler who I reckon deserves a whole series of his own. And on top of that hearing some of my favourite voice actors from video games that I love such as Ashley Burch (Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn / Forbidden West and plenty more) and Sam Witwer (Deacon from Days Gone and plenty more) made me giddy. They were truly brilliant.