It’s so hard to believe we’re already two months through the year and I feel like I say that every year LOL, it’s crazy how fast time flies. Even weirder how in the moment it feels like time moves so slowly and then one day you wake up and it’s already March.
Anyways, let’s dive into February!
Please note: there will be a few spoilers in the book section so if you’d like to avoid them, feel free to scroll on to the next section :))
Books
Circe – 5.0 ⭐
This is the only book I read for all of February and for great reason, I promise. I do this thing where if I love a book/story so much I self-sabotage by putting off finishing it as much as possible since I don’t want it to end (I started Circe on February 3rd and finished February 24th) and the more I love a book/story, the longer I draw it out – which means I don’t have as much time to read other books within the same month. But reading is supposed to be fun and enjoyable so I will gladly put off completing it so I can enjoy it more. It’s an odd phenomenon, but it makes the ending so much sweeter.
This was my first time reading it and about 30% of the way into the book I knew it was going to be a five star. I absolutely love the feminist perspective that Madeline Miller chose to take and how Circe made something for herself (in regards to her exile – turning the island into her place, and not just some island). I really loved following her story and path as she grew into her own person; how she really stepped into her power – both witchy powers and her personal power.
I found this ending in particular to be incredibly bittersweet. I really loved how she came full circle and went back to undo all the “wrong” she caused earlier in her life. And the final conversation between Circe and Helios, oh my god… I absolutely love how she told him to not mention her name when talking about his children – talk about talking back your power, holy shit.
I actually wrote down quite a few quotes from this book which isn’t something I actively try to do, I try to let myself just enjoy the story first time around before going back and grabbing quotes, but I felt called to snag a few – mainly the ones about constellations. I love Madeline Miller’s writing style so much, I can’t wait for her next release – which I’ve recently learned is allegedly a Persephone retelling. My favourite part is how she makes it so easy for me to feel like I’m there experiencing everything myself. I especially love in Circe how it feels like she herself is telling us about her life through her memories and stories.
I highly recommend this book to anyone, especially those wanting to read more Greek myth retellings or those wanting more books centered around feminism, but believe anyone would love reading this. It’s become a staple in my collection, and will absolutely be recommending to my reader friends and some family members. It’s been a few days since I finished it as I’m writing this post, and I genuinely cannot get over it. It’s easily secured a spot as one of my top reads of the year (and it’s only March).
Movies and Shows
The Divergent Series
I decided to watch these after watching The Hunger Games last month and actually don’t mind the first movie on its own, I think it’s just the rest that are shit. I’ve never read the books before and don’t plan on reading them based on a plethora of reviews from multiple people saying it’s not worth your time. In fact, I think the only somewhat decent thing to come out of the Divergent series is the relationship between Tris and Four, and even then it’s not amazing.
It’s interesting as well because each time I watch this series, I always forget that they never made the second part for Allegiant. I’m honestly kind of glad it was never made though because it just got so incredibly unhinged in Insurgent; I genuinely don’t know what they would’ve added to the plot to make it even more dystopian, and I’m okay with not ever knowing. Like it reminds me too much of how unhinged and outlandish The 100 became after about season five (if you’ve seen this show before, you know exactly what I’m talking about).
Ariana Grande: Excuse Me, I Love You
Loved it when it first came out, and still love it five years later. I saw a post on TikTok the other day that said every girl has that one concert they regret not going to, and the Sweetener world tour is one hundred percent mine – that and One Direction.
I’ll get more specific when I get to the music section later on in this post, but I’ve been really loving music from 2018 and 2019 lately, and I never realized the amount of hits she has on both Sweetener and Thank U, Next albums. But by listening to her music from those years – Positions could be included in the list too – prompted me to watch her documentary/movie again. I remember learning the choreography to Be Alright after watching it for the first time and I am here to report my muscle memory is still going strong as I hit every move with her and the dance crew as the song came on.
I’m going to age myself here for a second (I forget the exact year this happened) but I remember so vividly when Ariana became the first solo artist to occupy the top three spots on Billboard Hot 100 because they announced it over the PA at my high school. They always played music over the PA ten minutes before classes started as a signal to get students to class and they played all three of those top songs that morning. Absolutely iconic.
Young Royals
I believe this was either my third or fourth time watching this series. I had found it not too long after the first season released and was immediately hooked. I am forever holding space for Wilmon and honestly just the entire show in general will forever be a favourite of mine. The very last episode will never fail to make me bawl my entire soul out in tears, especially when the montage starts oh my god, absolute cinema.
Their relationship, between Wilhelm and Simon, is utterly adorable and genuinely just incredibly wholesome, like tooth-achingly sweet. This show will have you rooting for them from the very moment they meet and you will absolutely be rewarded. The amount of screentime we get from just the two of them in the first season alone is chefs kiss and it just keeps getting better as the episodes go on. You will not be disappointed if you decide to watch this show.
If anyone is looking for a show featuring diverse characters, I highly recommend Young Royals. One of the main side characters has AuDHD (a combination of both Autism and ADHD), the popular girl is Black compared to the stereotypical white blonde we’ve grown to expect, both the male main characters are gay/queer, and there’s quite a few other queer characters as well.
To those in the Young Royals fandom, can we just take a second to talk about how absolutely fed we were this month? I fear I will never recover from Edmar in London, oh my god.
H2O: Just Add Water
I have just made my way into Season Two so this blurb will mainly be focusing on Season One – my Season Two and Three blurbs will for sure be featured in my March Wrap Up once I’m finished the show.
I watched this show countless times when I was younger with my sister and even introduced a few of our childhood friends to the show as well. We had a pool in our old home so whenever said friends would come over for playdates, we would always go swimming and pretend we were in H2O – mermaid tails, powers, and everything – it was the best.
I really do miss when shows would give us twenty episode-long seasons each with an average of twenty minute run time – I did a whole blog post about how I don’t like watching new shows for this exact reason which you can read more about here if you’re interested. It made me realize that if H2O was made today then Lewis wouldn’t have found out about their tails until the very last episode of season one which would’ve been the sixth or eighth episode. To be fair though, Zane did find out in the last episode of season one so that set up a plot line for season two, however, his had a whole other dilemma added onto it unlike Lewis.
I do wish the entire series was still available on Netflix – it switched to Prime Video not too long ago – and I’ve only run into problems when I try to binge a few episodes, they suddenly just won’t load. It gets blamed on my internet bandwidth but when I check YouTube, it loads fine? so I’m not sure what the problem is, but it’s very annoying.
Music
Backseat Daydreams of a Hopeless Romantic
My newest playlist! I didn’t make a new playlist in January which is why there wasn’t one included for that month, but I was growing a wee bit bored of my reading playlist and decided to create another one with the same vibe but different songs :)) Thus, the backseat daydreams of a hopeless romantic was born.
The goal of this playlist was to emulate the feeling of sitting in the backseat of a car and staring out the window daydreaming while listening to your favourite songs. All the songs I added are songs that give me that vibe, and I hope they give you that same feeling too :))
If you do end up adding this playlist to your spotify, please note that my playlists are never really “complete” as I’m constantly in search of new tunes and will forever be adding songs where I see fit.
There’s Still a Light In the House by Valley
I found this song while looking for tunes to include in my aforementioned playlist and was immediately hooked. The amount of dopamine this song manages to release into my brain is insane. If summer could be summed up by a singular song, I think this one would one hundred percent take first place, no question. It also feels like if summer 2018 was a song.
One thing I’m always looking for in songs to deem them library worthy is texture. A vast majority of my favourite songs utilize many textures; the more textures, the better the song and dopamine hit will be for me. I’ve mentioned this song before and if you’ve read any of my previous posts, you’ll already know what song I’m going to mention, and yes, it’s Evangeline by Stephen Sanchez. The way he uses his voice as an added layer of texture gives the song an entirely new meaning in terms of how dynamic it can get, while already having such strong instrumentals. Another song is Warrior of the Mind from Epic: The Musical; so many textures, I’m so in love.
And this song by Valley perfectly hits the nail on the coffin with the dynamics. They also use their vocals as an added layer of texture which immediately makes this song a banger.
Not Complicated by Greg Gontier
I stumbled across this artist while doing my nightly TikTok doom scroll and quickly found myself yet another indie artist to add to my never ending collection.
I took extended French while in elementary school and for two years in high school. I’ve always loved the language and immediately lost it since I didn’t use it much once my classes ended, but since listening to Greg’s songs, he has me wanting to relearn the language over again. This song has a good mix of what us Canadians call Franglais, which is a mix of French and English. The chorus is in French while the verses are in English.
In terms of instrumentals, they remind me so much of Jack Johnson’s easy going style, so when you take the luscious voice Greg Gontier has and mix it with an easy listening backing track, you already know I will be listening – and for days. So many days in fact that this number managed to sneak its way to being my second top played song for the last week of February.
He also just recently released a new song so definitely give that a listen as well.
Talking to a Mirror by Shiloh
While I’m so incredibly in love with this song, I am holding a very small and slight grudge against the artist as they’re not on Apple Music. However, the melody of this chorus is so incredibly well written that I am willing to put aside my atom-sized grudge for a few seconds to talk about this absolute bop of a tune.
I’ve had this on my reading playlist for the longest time and added it onto my backseat daydreams playlist due to the amount of love I have for this song. Every time it plays when I’m reading, you already know I’m swaying my head along with the drums. It’s just such an amazing song with mellow instrumentals, and it makes me want to name this as The indie alternative-pop song, as that’s how strongly I feel this song captures the entire genre.
Little Acts of Violence by Ray Bull
Ray Bull’s new EP! I had first discovered this group in August of 2024 when they opened for Stephen Sanchez in Toronto and immediately fell in love with their music.
They had played one of their newly released songs at the concert, Better Than Nothing, and since the EP released it feels like I’m back at Massey Hall watching them perform this live again. My favourites from this EP though are definitely Little Acts of Violence, Better Than Nothing, and Reelin; although my top favourites in their entire discography are Love Is Hate, Mole Life, and Name Something Better.
The cello/violin bits in the chorus of Little Acts of Violence adds a whole new layer of emotion to the song. The acoustics and emotion in Reelin are so sweet, and I’m not usually a fan of slower tempo songs, but this chorus goes above and beyond to make up for it. The Parasite instrumentals reminds me a little bit of songs in coming-of-age movies from the two thousands, so it has that subtle nod of nostalgia hidden within it.
If anyone was to ever ask me for an example of an artist that perfectly knows how and when to add texture to their songs, I would shove earbuds in their ears and run to immediately Ray Bull. I need everyone and their second cousins listening to their music.
Free Spirit by Khalid
As I said earlier, February was a month of music from 2018 and 2019 so of course I had to include this album. I remember walking the halls of my high school with his songs playing in my earbuds.
From this album though, I only listened to Right Back, Twenty One, Self, and Hundred. And it’s so difficult for me to believe that these songs are amongst the least played on this album because these ones were always, and will always, be my favourites on this album. However, I did mainly listen to Right Back and you’ll never guess the reasoning behind that… if you guessed texture then you’re correct. It’s just such a fun song, and that’s all I have to say about it and this album. It’s fun.
Ariana Grande
I’ve been mainly listening to her Sweetener and Thank U, Next albums and have been having a blast. It will forever floor me as to how she didn’t win a Grammy for either of these albums, especially with the amount of hits she had back to back? Are you kidding? Can you get anymore iconic? With the amount of no skips too, like there isn’t a song on both of these albums that I won’t listen to.
I actually bought her albums on vinyl when they came out since my local record store carried them, and I just knew I needed to hear some of these songs from my record player. Max volume earbuds simply isn’t enough, I need these songs injected into my soul.
I would love to talk more about each song, but that would be yet another blurb rooted in texture and instrumental dynamics. I fear it would be redundant to write more about it at this point – I totally could, but I will restrain myself for now LOL.
Highlights
So one of my highlights for this month is that my elder cousins, sister, and I surprised my grandma with a sleepover during the Family Day weekend. She absolutely loved it and let this be your sign to surprise your grandparents with one if you’ve been thinking about it. We’ve already agreed that we’re doing another one either later this year or next year but at a different date so she won’t suspect anything.
It was super fun and nice to see my cousins during a non-holiday. My grandma would always host us for a few days during the summer and march breaks when we were younger, but since we’ve all grown older, those don’t happen anymore which means we don’t get to see each other unless it’s a holiday. And with other family members there at the same time, we don’t really get a lot of time between the four of us.
We stayed up late playing Mario Kart 8 and my cousins brought their Poker set, so I learned how to play that and Black Jack. We didn’t play with real money on the table, we just played with the chips, but it was hilarious watching my one cousin play the game as if it was a legit poker game. We ordered a pizza too so she didn’t have to cook for us, although our salsa and chip consumption was endless, but I don’t think she minded.
We played Scrabble as well – which is where my competitive side shines – and when we were done playing a regular round of Scrabble (with actual words from the English language), we did brain-rot Scrabble, where all the words and letters placed on the board had to be an ode to brain-rot. The words got pretty illegible very quickly, and we even put words to a vote depending on how brain-rot they were. We had accepted acronyms as well, so “AITA” for ‘Am I The Asshole’ and “NNN” for ‘No Nut November’ made it onto the board. I had even placed “FNAF” for Five Nights at Freddy’s. The idea came from the TikTok trend of making a non Gen-Z or Gen Alpha read brain-rot words – which we also made our grandma do. It was the hardest I had laughed in a long time, so if you’re looking to put a twist on regular Scrabble, I definitely recommend trying Scrabble Brain-rot edition.
Will definitely become a yearly tradition amongst the elder cousins, inviting the younger ones once they’re a bit older.
So that’s February in a nutshell. Feel free to leave a comment if I mentioned any of your favourite books, shows/movies, or songs/artists.
I didn’t have time to proofread/review before posting LOL, if you find a mistake kindly let me know and I’ll fix it ASAP
I have quite a few fun things lined up for March and am super excited and looking forward to this month :))
See you in the next
– julzy
julzy 
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