30 Day Book Challenge

It's been a while since I did anything other than a ranking or list on here, so I thought it would be fun to do something that used to be a regular series on here-- an entire 30 day tumblr challenge in a single post! AKA: a One Day Tumblr Challenge. If you want to see more of these type of challenges, there's a page linked in the sidebar to the right with all of the One Day Tumblr Challenges I've done.

Back in 2014, I did a different 30 Day Book Challenge. Oddly, many of the questions are the same, but either way, that was quite a while back and my answers are going to be pretty different this time around (trust me, I checked!). If you do want to check that out though, you can do so by clicking here.

1) Best book you read last year

Seriously, this book was amazing. Generally, my all-time favorite books are series. When I think of my favorite books, the first ones to come to mind are always books from my favorite series. But this book rose well above everything else that I read in 2016. It was everything I could ever want in a book-- amazing world, complex characters, intriguing plot, plus a cool magic system. I found it so easy to sit down and binge read it, but it wasn't one of those books where its addictive quality was the only good thing about it. It was just overall awesome. 

2) A book that you've read more than 3 times

Although I really enjoy re-reading books, this question actually made me realize that there aren't a ton of books that I've read more than 3 times. I wanted to choose something that wasn't obvious (AKA Harry Potter & And Then There Were None). So, I ended up going with All-American Girl by Meg Cabot. This is one that I first read back in elementary school, before even reading Harry Potter. This quickly became my favorite book and I read it over and over. It's been a while since the last time I re-read it, but I've probably read All American Girl upwards of 20 times.

3) Your favorite series

I wasn't going to go for the obvious, but I found that (for once) my second-favorite series was getting a lot of love on this list, so for the sake of variety I decided to talk about Harry Potter. It is, has been, and will always be my favorite book series. It's sheer perfection in every way and holds a very special place in my heart. 

4) Favorite book of your favorite series

Piggybacking off of the last question, I have a tie for my favorite book in the series. When forced to choose, I often say Half Blood Prince is my favorite, but occasionally Deathly Hallows wins out. They're just both really amazing in different ways. HBP gives so much backstory to Voldemort and it just enriches the entire world and story and Deathly Hallows follows an entirely new and unique structure from the other books. They're just both absolutely phenomenal. 

5) A book that makes you happy

This entire book is just really cute. I'm not necessarily saying that the ending made me happy (it might have, or it might not have-- no spoilers here!) but pretty much the entire way through, I found myself smiling at everything from the characters, to the plot, to Simon's voice. Overall, the book was just fun and happy throughout. 

6) A book that makes you sad

Once again, no spoilers for the ending-- I'm not trying to tell you whether or not the ending made me happy or sad. But this is just one of the most emotional stories I've read. The entire premise of the story is that our MC, Naho, is trying to save her new friend Kakeru from a seemingly negative fate. So, the entire story is full of emotional low points, tears, and just generally emotional people. I considered putting this in the happy field because a lot of the tears were happy tears throughout, but despite the fact that it's generally a heartwarming story, there are some really low, low, emotional points that can hit home in very sad ways. So I put it here. 

7) Most underrated book

I considered several books for this one, but settled on Coda because it had the least reviews/ratings on Goodreads. This is a dystopian novel in a world where the only legal music is addictive, government-sanctioned music. But, our MC, Anthem, is in a band and regularly performs and creates illegal music. It's just a really interesting plot and a really intriguing world on top of that. Some other criminally underrated dystopian novels that I considered mentioning here were The Chimes by Anna Smaill (long-listed for the Manbooker, and also dealing heavily with music), as well as The Body Electric by Beth Revis (a sci-fi dystopian that personally gives me Lunar Chronicles vibes).

8) Most overrated book

OK, hear me out. I considered listing several popular YA trilogies here, but the majority of them were series where I've seen many people with dissenting opinions. Series like The Selection (which many people do dislike), Divergent (I think we all hate book 3), and Shatter Me (which has pretty mixed reviews across the board) are all ones I considered. But everyone loves The Hunger Games and my general opinion toward it can be summed up by: *shrug*. I did enjoy hunger games, but it goes downhill from there. I didn't hate it by any means, but I just didn't see why everyone loves it so much. And I think most people have mixed or negative feelings about Mockingjay. The series is fine, but if you want a Hunger Games-esque story, check out Battle Royale by Koushun Takami, which did it both first and better. 

9) A book you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving

If I don't think I'll like a book, I typically just don't read it. Life's too short to read books you aren't interested in. So for this one, I turned to a re-read. I loved the Pendragon series, but this book, the finale, was a major disappointment the first time through. So, when I re-read the series, I wasn't really expecting to enjoy it. But the second time through, I really loved it as a conclusion. I'm not sure what changed between the reads-- maybe I was just more mentally prepared given that I already knew some of the explanations. But overall, the re-read really took it from a disappointing conclusion to a book that I gave 5 stars. 

10) Favorite classic book

Once again, I wanted to avoid the obvious (And Then There Were None). I don't read a ton of classics, but when I do, I read dystopia. It was a hard choice between 1984 and Brave New World, but I chose 1984 because the world terrifies me even more. Every single thought and word are monitored by Big Brother. It's just a terrifying reality to think of, and the book explored this world in such an interesting way. It's really awesome. 

11) A book you hated

Hate is a really strong word, and I'm hesitant to use it to describe books. But ugh, I really don't like this book. I hated the characters. Alaska was a manic pixie dream girl stereotype and I was not here for it. I thought that the book was pretty predictable and I honestly can't think of a single thing that I actually liked about it. Even though I liked The Fault in our Stars, Looking for Alaska has dissuaded me from picking up any more John Green books. 

12) A book you used to love but don't anymore

I mean, I'd have to go back and re-read it to be sure, but I think all of us have dealt with a huge shift in opinions when it comes to this book and series. Bella is such a pathetic character, and HOW did I not think that Edward was creepy to watch her sleep? I still totally recognize the inherent addictive quality to these books, but I think that's really the only good thing about it. That being said, I really do want to go back and re-read the series to see what my opinions are now. I mean, the books are super easy to find at used bookstores for $2, so maybe that'll happen. 

13) Your favorite writer

I picked up my first book by Brandon Sanderson almost 2 years ago, and I've never looked back. I've enjoyed every single one of his books that I've read so far, and many of them are among my favorite books that I've ever read. His magic systems and worlds are always so interesting and complex, his writing is well-done but easy to read, and I always find it difficult to put his books down. I've read 9 of his books so far, but I still have so many more that I still need to get to, because the guy publishes multiple books every year. It's just so impressive and overall, he's definitely become my favorite author. 

14) Favorite book of your favorite writer

The Final Empire absolutely blew me away. Not only is it my favorite Brandon Sanderson book to date, but it's my favorite book that I've read (for the first time) since discovering BookTube. Everything about it just really clicked with me and I fell in love with both Sanderson as a writer and with this book and series. Everything from the characters, to the world, to the magic system impressed me. It's such a good book and I really want to re-read the series sometime in the near future. 

15) Favorite male character

Per usual, I decided not to go with the obvious (Fred Weasley), so I went with my second favorite, Magnus Bane. Magnus is such a fun, snarky, sassy character who makes me laugh every time he pops up in a Cassandra Clare book. I haven't read the Dark Artifices yet, so I don't know if he's in that series, but he's popped up in all of the other Shadowhunter books I've read, and that's always one of the most fun aspects of Shadowhunter novels for me. 

16) Favorite female character

Once again, avoiding the obvious (Hermione Granger). I had such a tough time with this one, because I have a lot of female characters that I really like, but don't necessarily consider to be my favorites. I have some beef with the way female characters are written sometimes. However, eventually I landed on Paige from The Bone Season series. Paige is such a strong female character, but she has a lot of depth to her as well. I love her voice within the series, and I just think she's overall a really awesome character. 

17) Favorite quote from your favorite book

It's not my favorite book ever, but my favorite book quote ever is from my favorite series so I'll let it slide. And that quote is:

"Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here."- Albus Dumbledore

Not just that one line, but the entire scene surrounding it. This happens in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at the opening feast. The school sings the school song, with each student singing at their own tempo until only the Weasley twins are left, singing at a funeral march tempo, and Dumbledore conducts them. It's just such a wonderful moment, and that quote perfectly book-ends it. 

18) A book that disappointed you

The first book that came to mind was Where Futures End by Parker Peevyhouse. I was so excited about this book that I drove to Barnes and Noble (which at the time was a 30 minute drive) and bought it at full price. But in the end, I was really underwhelmed. The book is a collection of short stories that progress through the future, but for me everything remained at surface level and never got deep into anything. There were some other books I considered, like The Leveller by Julia Durango or Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, but with those books I'd already considered the possibility of disliking them. This one came out of left field. 

19) Favorite book turned into a movie

So this question is a bit vague to me. Is it my favorite book that has a movie adaptation, regardless of the quality of the adaptation? Or my favorite movie that is an adaptation, regardless of whether or not I liked the book? Or a book-to-movie adaptation where I loved both? You see my dilemma here, right? So, because of that, I've gone with the easiest answer. Harry Potter. Specifically, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I'll be doing a ranking of the movies in the series soon, so I don't want to spoil that, but when considering both the book at the movie and averaging everything together, this one typically comes out on top for me. Not sure that'll be the case in my actual ranking (there are a couple others that are really high up there), but that one wins out today. 

20) Favorite romance book

I don't really read "romance" romance books... if that makes sense. But as far as books where the central plot is a romance (AKA YA contemporary), my definite favorite is I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson. There are multiple other plots going on within the book, but the romance is always the one that stands out in my mind. Another book that came to mind was The Boys Next Door by Jennifer Echols, but this one is definitely higher on my favorites lists and stands out more to me in the romance department. 

21) Favorite book from your childhood

Once again circumventing the obvious, I'm going with the Charlie Bone series. This is a series that I really enjoyed as a kid. It combined the dark tone and quirkiness of the Series of Unfortunate Events with the magic school intrigue of Harry Potter and it was just a really interesting and unique series. It's probably for kids around the age of 10, but this is a series that I really want to go back and re-read and finish. I was reading it when the series was incomplete (by the time I caught up, I think that the 4th book had just been released), so I kept up with the series for the next couple books, but have yet to actually finish the series. It was popular at the time, but it's not a series I've heard many people talk about since then, so I definitely think it deserves a bit more attention, because it's really awesome. 

22) Favorite book you own

OK, so this is obviously the most vague question on this list, because I own almost every book on this list. So, I'm going to focus on my favorite copy of a book I own. The ones at the top of the list are my copies of HP 6&7 because I got them the day of their release, but next on the list is probably my copy of The Diviners. I bought a signed copy online, so it's not like I got to go to a signing and meet Libba Bray, but it's one of my favorite books and I have a signed copy of it, so that's probably my favorite. But I also have a signed copy of The Song Rising so I might have to go with that once I read it. 

23) A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven't

I think that one would have to be Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. I've had it on my TBR since I first started watching BookTube, and it's still one that really intrigues me... and yet I still haven't read it. The more I think about it right now, the more intrigued I get to pick it up, so maybe I'll pick it up sometime soon. 

24) A book that you wish more people would've read

I feel like this is kinda similar to the "underrated book" question, but I'll throw another one out there for good measure. I'd have to go with The Body Electric by Beth Revis. Out of all the books that I've loved, this is the one that's not super well known that I think a lot of people would like. Especially YA readers, and especially people who really love the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. I read this book first, and when I finally picked up Cinder, I found myself constantly seeing (good) similarities between the two. The stories are rather different, but the worlds are intriguingly similar. 

25) A character who you can relate to the most

The part of me that likes to see myself as a cool person reeeeally wants to say someone like Jace Wayland because I really like being snarky, sarcastic, and over humanity. However, realistically I think I'm some combination of Hermione Granger and Cath from Fangirl. I can be a huge know-it-all like Hermione, but I think that if anything, Cath is the one I relate to the most. She loves writing fanfiction and staying at home by herself and being on the internet all day. If that doesn't describe my life, I don't know what does. 

26) A book that changed your opinion about something

I really struggled with this one, because I don't think that I've had too many major changes in opinion because of a book. But the one that eventually came to mind was the Death Note manga series. I read my first comic series (Locke and Key) back in 2015. After that, I read a few more trade comics and was incredibly focused on the art style and colors, and less on the story. I generally enjoyed the trade comics but they never really hugely resonated with me. And then I picked up Death Note, and I fell in love. And it was in black and white, something that I didn't think I'd be interested in. Not every volume blew me away, but the series as a whole did, and it gave me a totally different perspective on visual books/storytelling as a whole. 

27) The most surprising plot twist or ending

Well that would just be really spoilery, so I'm not answering that. I hate when people even mention that there's a plot twist in a book because then I just find myself figuring out what's going to happen and looking for little hints dropped throughout the book to confirm my suspicions. So instead, I'm going to mention a series that constantly kept me guessing and on my toes. And that is the Mistborn trilogy. 

I've mentioned it already a few times in this post, but this trilogy (and honestly, all of Sanderson's books) gives you so many twists and turns that you didn't see coming. He keeps you constantly guessing as to what's about to happen, and often takes you in directions that you could never have guessed... ever. This is why I love both this trilogy and his books overall SO MUCH. 

28) Favorite title

I haven't really talked about it too much in this post, so I'm finally going to shout out my favorite standalone, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. The original title of the book was really awful-- if you didn't know, the original title included a racial slur that I'm definitely not going to repeat here. However, I love the title And Then There Were None. It captures the mood of the book so well and is just overall a really cool and foreboding title. Definitely my favorite title ever. 

29) A book everyone hated but you liked

I've said this a few times, but typically if everyone hates a book, I also dislike it. Not because I'm trying to agree with everyone, but because if most people think a book isn't very good... the book probably isn't very good. However, when I was scrolling through Goodreads, I discovered that one of my favorite books from last year has a rating of 3.4/5, which is embarrassingly low. Typically, even the most mediocre books fall somewhere around 3.6-3.75, so seeing such a beautiful book with such a low rating makes me sad. And that's why I typically don't think that this is a book for everyone. I think it requires a real appreciation and knowledge of music. Not that I think music novices wouldn't like it, but rather that the prose flows really simply and beautifully when you understand the musical terms that she's woven into the text as part of the language of the world. I dunno, I absolutely love this book and am sad to see that it has such a low rating on Goodreads. Both 3/5 and 4/5 are more common than 5/5 for The Chimes, which makes me sad. 

30) Your favorite book of all time

This one is super difficult. I typically try not to figure out my favorite book of all time, because it's so hard to compare a book in a series to a standalone. My favorite story of all time will always be the Harry Potter series. That's something that I find incredibly easy to say. But that's an entire 7 book series that spans thousands of pages. If I'm being honest with myself, my favorite book is probably:

Part of me really wants to declare a tie again, because realistically I always have trouble deciding between Deathly Hallows or Half Blood Prince when naming my favorite Harry Potter book. But when it gets down to the nitty gritty, Half Blood Prince feels like home every single time I pick up the book. Just reading the first few chapters brings me back to the first time I read it almost 12 years ago. The quote "Whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home" always rings most true when I pick up Half Blood Prince.


So, that's it for this 30 Day Challenge! I had a lot of fun doing this again. I can't say that this is going to for sure be the return of the "One Day Tumblr Challenge" series, but I definitely do want to do some of these again, as well as some normal book tags, so keep an eye out for more of these in the future!  

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Calling All Fans of The Mole!

I'm a self-proclaimed reality TV junkie. My list of favorite TV shows consists of mostly reality competitions. For the longest time, I refused to admit to myself how completely obsessed I was with reality TV, but that's definitely become a thing of the past. Over the years, I've discovered more and more reality shows that have been added to my favorites list. But, in recent memory, none of them has stuck with me quite as much as the purported "smartest reality show ever," The Mole. 

Quite honestly, there isn't a ton of discussion online anymore about the Mole, given its age, but I know that the fandom is small but mighty, given the things that I do see popping up around the internet (Rob Has A Podcast episodes, Twitter hashtags, and the constant questioning of Anderson Cooper). Because of this (and my obsession with the show) I came up with the idea of doing a blog series- or starting a separate blog- for all things related to The Mole. My ideas are all over the place right now, but I wanted to throw it out there to see who bites.

For the uninitiated, allow me to explain. In the Mole, a group of contestants compete in missions/games, each of which can earn them money for the group pot that a single contestant will win in the end. But, there's a catch. One of the contestants is a saboteur-- The Mole. This person is not competing for the money, but is instead working with production to sabotage the missions and make the group lose games, thus keeping them from earning money. The real contestants' prime objective is to discover which among them is the mole. At the end of each episode, they take a quiz, and whichever contestant scores the worst on the quiz is executed (eliminated from the competition), whittling down the contestants. Only the last 3 people make it to finale, where there is a winner, a loser, and a mole. 

Throughout the season, the audience is also in the dark as to The Mole's identity, which is definitely the most fun part of the show. Viewers are given hints throughout the season to help them discover the identity of the Mole, alongside the player's confessionals and hypotheses about who the Mole could be. 

If you're like me and enjoy the hidden saboteur trope a la Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, this series will be like candy to you. Or caffeine. Or drugs. You get the point. It's addicting and you won't want to stop watching. But, unlike a lot of other reality shows, this game is really smart and keeps your brain active throughout the entire process. You find yourself making accusations constantly and often distrusting someone that you trusted just last episode. I can't say enough about how clever and fun this show is. 

Side note: Anderson Cooper is the best host of all time.

So that's my pitch. I'd definitely suggest that if you haven't checked it out and the premise sounds interesting, give it a shot. I don't think you'll be disappointed. All the US Seasons are available on YouTube, and will be linked at the end of this post. However, persuading you to watch the show isn't the main point of my post. Instead, it's to discuss this potential blog series. 

As aforementioned, I've been wanting to start this for a while, but I have a ton of different ideas as to what to do with it, and I could use some guidance. I think that, at least as a starting point, I'd like to go episode by episode doing recaps and discussing everything going on. I think that the best way to do this would be to have a spoiler-free section of each post for newbies that might be reading, but then a spoiler-filled section at the end where I can discuss the clues and Mole activity throughout the episode. Other ideas that I think would be fun include rankings of the seasons and rankings of the moles. Maybe best winner rankings as well.  

Past that, I could use some advice. Mole fans, what would you like to see from a blog series on The Mole? What topics would you want to discuss? What do you think would be most helpful for the newbies in these posts?

Mole newbies: If you'd like to follow along with my posts and watch the show as I discuss it, that would be awesome! I'm going to start with US season 1 and work my way through in order. It'll be about a month before I get anything started (because I'm finishing up a series on Project Runway designer rankings), but I hope to get things going sometime in August. 

Let me know down in the comments what ideas you might want to see in a potential Mole series and what you think of the ideas I've discussed in the post!

The Mole (US) on YouTube:

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

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My Dream "And Then There Were None" Cast

Hey, y'all! I thought I'd do something a little out of the ordinary and talk about a book that is near and dear to my heart: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. This is one of my absolute favorite books. And while reading this book, I tended to picture certain actors and actresses as each character. No one has ever managed to make a decent movie version of this book, and no one has attempted to make one since the '70s. So, I figured that I should give Hollywood a little head start to hopefully prompt them to make a new one. Wishful thinking, but it was fun!

I’d also just like to preface this by saying that having all of these actors in one movie together would probably be WAY too expensive, but these are the people I would cast with infinite money. Also, I tried to find pictures that matched the way I want them to be styled as closely as possible. Enjoy :)

Ten little Indian boys went out to dine;

One choked his little self and then there were nine.

Anthony Marston played by: Ryan Reynolds

He was one of the easiest to cast. I’m not sure why, but he was exactly who I pictured when reading about Anthony Marston. 

Nine little Indian boys sat up very late;

One overslept himself and then there were eight.

Mrs. Rogers played by: Meryl Streep

When I first read the book, I pictured both her and her husband as a bit younger (late 40s to early 50s) but I now I tend to picture them as a bit older, and I think that Meryl Streep would fit the bill perfectly.

Eight little soldier boys travelling in Devon

One said he'd stay there and then there were seven.

General Macarthur played by: Anthony Hopkins 

I also considered him for the role of Justice Wargrave, because of how creepy he can get, but I think he could work really well as General Macarthur. 

Seven little soldier boys chopping up sticks.

One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.

Thomas Rogers played by: Richard Gere

This one gave me the most trouble. I REALLY wanted Michael Caine, but realized that he's just too old for the part. So, I went with Richard Gere. Honestly, I'd replace him rather quickly if I found someone better.

Six little soldier boys playing with a hive.

A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.

Emily Brent played by: Helen Mirren

I was kinda flip-flopping with Helen and Meryl as Emily, but I felt that Helen had more of the look I'd pictured for Emily. This was a pretty hard one to figure out, because I pictured an older woman, but not a specific actress!

Five little soldier boys going in for law.

One got in Chancery and then there were four.

Justice Wargrave played by: Jack Nicholson 

I mean, could anyone play this role better? He's brilliant, and can play characters who are covering up their craziness. I've just pictured him as Justice Wargrave since I first read the book.

Four little soldier boys going out to sea.

A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.

Dr. Armstrong played by: Gary Oldman

I feel like Gary Oldman could be styled in many different ways that would fit this role. Beard would work, the more messy hair would work, clean shaven, glasses or no glasses, there are just many different options here. But I feel like he would do an excellent job.

Three little soldier boys walking in the zoo.

A big bear hugged one and then there were two.

William Blore played by: George Clooney

I feel like he could work either clean-shaven or with the facial hair like this. I'm not a huge Clooney fan, but he definitely looks the part in my opinion.

Two little soldier boys sitting in the sun.

One got frizzled up, and then there was one.

Captain Lombard played by: Johnny Depp

Lombard is my favorite character in the book, and I kinda always pictured him as Johnny Depp, but with Captain Jack Sparrow's mustache. He's also the character that I'm still divided on. I think Jared Leto would also be a great choice...

However, I AM a rather biased person, because Lombard is my favorite character and I want him to be as attractive as possible and these are two of the most attractive actors working right now... but that's just in my opinion.

One little soldier boy left all alone.

He went out and hanged himself and then there were none.

Vera Claythorne played by: Natalie Portman 

I think she would be perfect. I considered Emma Watson for a little while, but I realized that the only reason I was considering her was because she's British and the character is British. But I'm sure Natalie Portman could fake a British accent. 

So, there you go! My dream cast of And Then There Were None. As you probably noticed, actors/actresses were chosen because they were what I pictured when reading the book, rather than for their acting abilities. In all seriousness, however, I really do hope that a *GOOD* movie version of And Then There Were None is made at some point, and I would really love to see these people play the respective roles.

So what did you think of my choices? Do you agree? Disagree? Think I'm crazy for choosing a certain person? Let me know in the comments- I'd really love to hear what you think!

Whodunnit? Episode 7: Party Crasher

Another one bites the dust!

The numbers are waning and waning and waning! Seriously, just look at all these people who used to be here! Remember when we were all just sitting here getting annoyed by Adrianna?!


We begin once again as the power goes out. We hear the chandelier fall and everyone starts screaming as they realize Geno is dead. They turn on a flashlight and Giles reads a note from the killer. They aren't going to go directly into solving this, because they have to go to their rooms for the night. They're told that this is going to be the most difficult murder yet.

In the morning, as always, they get to choose where they want to investigate.

Kam and Ronnie go to the crime scene, even though Ronnie originally was going to go with Lindsey to the last known whereabouts. They realized that the rope was lowered down, not cut. There is a huge spread of blood, as well as something that appears to be glow in the dark on the ground. Something that I thought was odd was that we see a close up of Ronnie’s shoes for some reason. It’s kinda odd considering that we had the shoe print last time and his feet don’t look very big, so they could've been stuffed like the killer's shoes were last episode. Kam looked all over the room for a trigger for the trap. Ronnie thought something was in the blood, so he kept looking at the blood. Behind a bust, Kam saw a timer plugged into a power outlet. It appears to have been set to short circuit and turn off lights. Kam manages to keep this from Ronnie, so all that Ronnie gets out of it is that the chandelier didn’t kill Geno.

Lindsey is the only one to go to the last known whereabouts. She finds a necklace with big black shells with green paint and key rings. There is a note pad with a note ripped off. She does the little pencil rub trick and finds that the last note written said "steal Giles’ cell phone and you will be spared". And that's really all she found in there.

Melina and Cris go to the morgue. There is a huge wound in Geno's neck and his chest on the belly button. In the stomach wound, there appears to be a bullet. What seems to be the wound from the chandelier is on Geno's back. Cris wants Melina to leave Ronnie to die. They open bags and find Giles’ cell phone in Geno’s pant pocket.

Melina and Ronnie talk and Melina isn’t sure about staying on his side, because she doesn't seem to totally trust him. All seems to be good on the team cool kid front.

Riddle time! They find Giles sunbathing by the pool. The gist of the riddle is that they'd be blind and have to find something to see in the dark, and something about twisting a knob to focus. And then they're blindfolded. They're led into a pitch black room and begin looking around. Ronnie finds night vision goggles and is able to see the riddle on the wall. It says to look for the light at the end of tunnel. Ronnie finds a tunnel and crawls into it, while the other 4 are still blindly wandering around the room completely clueless. The next clue talks about a cold bed and a lei, so Ronnie runs straight to the morgue and finds the lei beads. There are letters on the beads that are only visible under blacklight. He arranges the beads under the blacklight. The cool kids finally figure out how to get out of the room and go outside rather than the morgue. Melina finally gets out of the room and has the same mindset as Ronnie. She catches up to him, and they begin to try and figure it out. Unfortunately for them, the Cool Kids quickly catch up and actually figure the word puzzle out before Melina and Ronnie can. It leads them to monkey statues with clues below them. Kam is the one to find the solution. He opens a drawer and finds a suppressed 9 mm handgun and nightvision goggles.

After the riddle, Giles is still chillin' by the pool. They are given a hint. Giles asks them "How did Geno crash the party?" and says that the answer to that question needs to be worked into their accusations. Kam tells his group about the stuff in the drawer. They think that because he didn’t wear the necklace, the killer had to resort to “plan B” which is killing him with a gun. Melina goes over to talk to the Cool Kids, but is refused info.

And then, possibly the most ridiculous thing I've heard... possibly all season? "Is it possible he had a trained monkey?" NO, RONNIE, it is NOT possible that there is a trained monkey!!!

They begin stating their cases, and everything seems to be going alright, since Ronnie seems to have decided that there was a gun in the drawer, but then... RONNIE WHY ARE YOU SAYING MONKEY?! IT’S NOT A MONKEY! He legitimately just said that he thought it was a monkey. Seriously.

At dinner, they have more comfort foods than fancy foods, and Ronnie actually tells them that he thinks it’s a trained monkey. Kam doesn't believe him because it's just so crazy, and I don't blame him! More on this in a minute...Ronnie finally tells them that he’s a detective/ bounty hunter. He's a bounty hunter AND HE STILL SAID MONKEY.

And then Giles comes in and announces that Lindsey won. Not Kam? Really? I figured he would have to win. 

The killer broke into Geno’s room, left him the necklace, and wrote him note to steal Giles' phone. (Also, I'm still not totally sure what Giles' phone had to do with anything?) He fell for it and stole the phone. Killer had already set blackout timer. The killer painted the crest with glow in the dark paint so it was visible in the dark, and they would know where the body would need to go to make it look like the chandelier killed him. Plan A was to strangle Geno, but he didn’t wear the lei to the luau. So, the killer had to improvise for plan B. Geno was shot with silencer, and then the killer released  the chandelier.

The spared/ scared cards are handed out and this time, it's only Ronnie and Melina who are scared.

And then, in my opinion, Giles delivered the game-changer. He said, "And then there were four." I'll explain why this made me freak out as soon as we get past the death.

So, the next morning, all 5 of them arrive to breakfast, and are told that they're going to be treated to a spa day, and everyone is telling Melina and Ronnie not to do it.

Melina gets a facial. Kam gets a royal massage. Lindsey gets a mani pedi. Ronnie gets the hot tub. Cris does yoga. The camera flashes back and forth between Melina and Ronnie, when suddenly, there's a huge boom and Ronnie is blasted out of the hot tub. He lands in the pool and the other contestants rush outside and find him.

OK, so back to Giles "And then there were four" comment. First off, I immediately knew that this was a reference to the book And Then There Were None. I've mentioned it before in my Whodunnit? blogs, and have compared it to this show quite a bit. For those of you who don't know, And Then There Were None is a classic mystery novel written in the 1930s by the "Queen of Mystery," Agatha Christie. The premise of the book is that 10 strangers are enticed to this island, believing that they are guests of the owners of the island and the huge mansion upon it. They then start dying one by one and realize that there is no owner, and that one of the guests is the killer. There's even a riddle! The only difference is that the riddle describes how they die one by one. Each stanza of the poem ends with "And then there were ____" and the blank gets filled in with whatever number of people are left. So, as I said, much like Whodunnit? because the killer is pretending to be one of them. 

This is where I'm going to throw up a *SPOILER ALERT* for anyone who has not read the book, but does not want the ending ruined. 

Basically, in the book, it gets down to five guests left. The "death poem," as I'll call it, mentions that the next death will be a red herring. The guy who dies in the pseudo 5th place in the book is actually the killer. He faked his own death so that he could throw suspicion off himself and be able to pull off the other murders easier. And that stanza ends with "And then there were four." So when Giles said that "And then there were four" line, I knew there was no way that was a coincidence. Now, it could just be a harmless little reference to And Then There Were None, since the two are obviously very similar. However, I find it extremely odd that Giles would choose to whip that one out just coincidentally on that specific death, rather than long before. And to add to my suspicion on this, Ronnie comes up with the most ridiculous theory about random monkeys on the episode he was eliminated on? Huh? Is it just me, or does it seem obvious that he totally made some really stupid statements and made up crap about monkeys JUST so that he could have this "red herring" death and pretend to be dead? I'm sorry, I may be reading into this way too much, but when Giles made that reference, that's immediately where my mind went. Of course, at that point, I was telling myself that the red herring death would be Melina, since I've thought she was the killer. Now, not so sure. I'll go straight into my opinions. Yay!

Cris: Once again, I don't think she's the killer. She definitely has the intelligence and the cunning to be the killer, but I think Lindsey and Melina are WAY better suspects.

Kam: I think that I've once again ruled him out as a suspect, but I almost feel like we can't rule anyone out.

Lindsey: I'm still suspicious of her. I did see something that was a great point: she's an engineer. And that rig with Don's death was definitely a pretty engineer-y thing to do.

Melina: If I'm going off of regular game rules, i still suspect Melina of being the killer. And finally, someone accused her! It took Geno dying to get Kam off his trail!

Ronnie: Until he got eliminated, I felt like I could trust him. Now, I'm not so sure. That shot with the feet- maybe that was to show us a small shoe size? And of course, the way he went out, with the And Then There Were None reference, and the crazy monkey theory... I don't know. But I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he showed up at the finale and they found out he was the killer.

So, there you go, mortals! What did you think of my latest Whodunnit? blog? Did you think the And Then There Were None reference was as important as I did, or am I way over-thinking things? Leave me lots of comments, especially if you're loving my Whodunnit? reviews. See you next week, mortals!