Summing Up "The Night Bird"

Hello, everyone!  I have officially finished my first book in 2017 :)

*waits for applause to die down*

Thank you for the acknowledgement ;)

So for each summary of the books I've read on my book list, I'm going to be filling out a survey of sorts.  Just a fun and easy way to disseminate each book.

Without further ado:

• Why I Chose This Book:  As an Amazon Prime member, I get a free book each month, and there are usually 6 books to choose from.  For January, this book seemed the most interesting to me, so that's why I chose to read it.
• Book Rating (1-5 Stars):  I'm going to give this book 4 stars.  It was a good book - well-written and extremely riveting, but due to the fact that it's a Thriller (which is not usually up my alley), I probably would never read it again.  Plus some scenes freaked me out a little.
• Setting of the Book: The book took place in modern-day San Francisco.  No world-building here.
• About the Author: Brian Freeman is a best-selling author of psychological thrillers, and The Night Bird is his most recent book.  It's on the Amazon #1 Bestseller's list right now.  He specializes in books with haunting characters and lightning-fast paces.
• Plot of the book in one sentence:  People keep dying by having mental breakdowns out of nowhere, and a cop is trying to figure out why.
• If I Could Rename the Book:  Don't Read This Book Unless You Want to Have Nightmares About a Guy Wearing a Creepy Mask
• Genre: Psychological Thriller
• Point of View: Third Person Limited.  The POV alternates between the three main characters.
• Favorite Character: The cop, Frost Easton (cool name, right?)
• Least Favorite Character: Obviously, the killer.  And the decoy killer.  lol
• Other (Main Characters): A therapist name Frankie Stein (haha, Frankenstein) and a 25-year-old woman named Lucy Hagen (who has the hots for Frost - will they end up together?  You'll have to find out! Muahahahaha)
• If the Book was made into a movie, who would play the main characters?
  - The cop, Frost Easton, would be played by Reagan Osborne.  He's a pretty great actor. lol
  - The therapist, Frankie Stein, would be played by Victoria Justice.  But like, Victoria in about 5 years, because she's only 23 now.
  - The 25-year-old, Lucy Hagen, would be played by Dreama Walker.  Don't know who that is?  Look her up ;)
• Favorite Scene of the Book: Honestly, I didn't really have one.  Like I said, I'm not a huge fan of Thrillers.  One thing I DID appreciate about the book was it's psychological-ness.  You see, all of the victims are former patients of Frankie Stein.  They came to see her to get help facing their worst fears (triggered by a past event in their lives).  What Dr. Stein would then do would be to administer memory reconsolidation where she has them relive the memory of the past event, but she reframes it or changes details of it so the emotion tied to the memory is no longer debilitating for the client.  It's pretty fascinating, really.
• Least Favorite Scene of the Book: Probably the climax of the book when the cop, therapist, and 25-year-old are all in the same room as the killer and stuff gets real.  Like, REAL real.  It's freaky.
• Favorite Quote of the Book: "Everything in life came down to memories. The good. The bad. The real. The imagined. Put them all together, and that was the person you were."
• Did I like the Ending? Meh. Not particularly. But I didn't hate it either.
• Which of my friends could I see loving this book? Probably Reagan.  He's the only person I know who likes scary movies, so he may like this book.
• Which of my friends could I see hating this book? There's not one specific person that comes to mind, but pretty much any friend who usually likes romance novels, because this is not that.  At all.
• This book left me feeling: Creeped out.
• How Long Did It Take Me to Read It: About 3-4 hours :)

So there it is.  My book summary for "The Night Bird."  What do you think?  Would you read it based on my review?  What other questions should I add to my book survey?  Do you like Psychological Thrillers?  Let me know!

Erikson & Graham

So the title of this post isn't in reference to a law firm - don't worry, I'm not going to court or anything.  Whew.

Although (side note) I am currently addicted to this show on Netflix called "Drop Dead Diva."  Ever heard of it?  Ever watched it?  It's about this model who dies in a car accident and her spirit gets recycled into an overweight lawyer's body who just so happens to WORK WITH THE MODEL'S EX-FIANCE!!!!  Say what?!!  I know, it's crazy.

ANYWAY...

Back to what this post is for real supposed to be about.  Have you heard that song "7 Years" by Lukas Graham?  Read the lyrics here.  Or just watch the below video.  Whatevs.

Okay, so anyway, I was listening to this song the other day, and it kinda reminded me of when we used to study Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development in my college Psych classes.  For those of you who didn't take Intro to Psych in college, the stages of development can be broken up into the following:

1. Stage 1 - Trust vs. Mistrust.  Occurs between ages of birth to one year old.  The child develops trust based on care of primary caregivers, and without the formation of this trust, the child can grow up to be insecure and distrustful for life.
2. Stage 2 - Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt.  Occurs during early childhood.  The child becomes more independent and starts making choices about personal preferences and clothing selection.  If this stage isn't navigated successfully, the child may experience feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt.
3. Stage 3 - Initiative vs. Guilt.  Occurs during the preschool years.  The child begins to develop leadership and social interaction skills through play.  Successful completion of this stage will give a child confidence and leadership skills; without it, they will have self-doubt and lack of initiative.
4. Stage 4 - Industry vs. Inferiority.  Occurs between ages 5-11.  Through social interactions and encouragement from parents and teachers, the child develops confidence and pride in their skills and abilities.  If this stage isn't successfully completed, the child will have doubts about their ability to succeed in life.
5. Stage 5 - Identity vs. Confusion.  During Adolescence.  Which is kind of a hard word to spell, amiright?  Anyway, basically this stage is like, "Who am I, really?" and can usually last well into adulthood.  Sad.
6. Stage 6 - Intimacy vs. Isolation.  Early Adulthood.  When the adult looks around and realizes, "Hey, I'm single, and I'm not okay with that," and they try to find someone to marry them.  According to recent statistics, it only works out about 50% of the time, so a lot of people are failing at this.  (NOT IT! hahahahahhaha)
7. Stage 7 - Generativity vs. Stagnation.  Adulthood.  AKA finding a career beyond working at Mickie D's during high school and excelling at said job.  This is hard, y'all.  I should know.  I'm still trying to surmount this.  #adultingsux
8. Stage 8 - Integrity vs. Despair.  During old age.  When you're sitting in your recliner (hopefully by choice and not because you no longer have use of your limbs) and you look back on your life and think, "Was it a good life?"  We all pray the answer will be yes...and also, we hope that we can remember that far back.  #alsheimersawareness

So those are the stages.  If you've made it this far into the post, congratulations, you're a reader!  For all the rest of the people, I don't have a message, because they won't see it anyway.

So back to the "7 Years" song.  Here are the ages he mentions and what happened to him during those ages.  Let's see if he failed or succeeded:

• 7 years old - Trying to make some friends and learn stuff.  Social interaction - check.  Learning (which probably involves parents and teachers) - check.
• 11 years old - Smoking, drinking, and told to find a wife by his dad.  I'm sorry, what?  Things just went waaaaay off track.  He's still supposed to be gaining confidence in his skills and abilities, not hindering them by being drunk or high all the time!  Also, his dad doesn't sound like a great, encouraging role model.  Just sayin'.
• 20 years old - Sometime between age 11 and now, he started writing songs/stories like his dad did.  I guess that's a good way to find identity, so we'll say he completed this stage...ish.
• 30 years old - He hopes to travel, continue learning about life, spend time with friends and his woman and children.  By the way...what exactly does it mean when someone refers to someone else as his "woman"?  Shouldn't that be offensive?  Because I would be offended if Tyler called me his "woman."  I'd be like, "Call me that one more time..."
• 60 years old - He's hoping his kids will come visit every once in awhile and warm the cold years.  A worthy goal, I'd say.

Overall, I'd say this song does a good job of following Erickson's stages.  Except for age 11.  Don't know what happened there.  #tweenlifecrisis

Well, that's just my little random thought of the day.  What do you thing of Erickson's stages?  Which one are you in now?  Are you having trouble, or acing it like a boss?  Do you like the song "7 Years"?  Are all of these questions annoying?  Lesbi-honest.  Haha.  Pitch Perfect reference.  Sorry.

And with that, I'll leave you with these two recent Pentatonix songs I just discovered, so I'm fangirling a little bit over here.  Watch them and you're welcome in advance for enriching your life.  Have a good day!