I think the point is to try to understand why people want to commit suicide and why so many people choose the Golden Gate Bridge over several other choices. There’s a romantic quality involved–much more romantic than just blowing your brains out, I guess. So the bridge itself becomes a character in the film, this creepy, hypnotic Pied Piper that lures people to their deaths. Kinda. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. Here’s the trailer:

It’s a really heavy film, tragic and fascinating. You look at the people on the bridge and think you know which ones will jump,  but it’s never who you think it’ll be. There’s one scene with a photographer on the bridge. He starts taking pictures of a woman climbing over the railing and stepping right to the edge of the bridge to jump. And then he realizes he’s not just taking pictures, he’s watching a girl who’s about to kill herself. So he grabs her and saves her, even though she tries to fight him off.

And that’s how I felt while I was watching. My mind kept trying to convince me that none of it was real, but it is real. Boy, is it real. A total mindjob, and I highly recommend it.

It just kills me that no one’s ever heard of these books.

The first one, The Melting Season by Celeste Conway, has kind of a girly, fluffy cover which does NOT match the tone of the novel AT ALL. I mean this is me, folks–you know if I like it, it’s got to have some element of darkness, right? It isn’t supernatural or anything, but it’s very gothic: there’s this frail beautiful heroine named Giselle who lives in old penthouse with a decaying garden–her father’s garden which hasn’t been touched since his death–and dark family secrets. And romance. When people ask me who my favorite YA crush is, I usually say Will, Giselle’s love interest. He’s sweet, but very straight-forward, even pushy, which is just what Giselle needs because there are many things in her life she doesn’t want to face. Here’s a cookie from The Melting Season, which is told from Giselle’s point of view:

My mind sort of blanked as Will (I absolutely loved his name–willpower; act of will; will to live) started giving directions. He used his hands to demonstrate. His beautiful right forearm represented the various streets, and he used his left hand, held in a karate chop position, to indicate the compass directions. It was very intense to watch.

Giselle comes from a family of famous ballet dancers and she herself is studying to become one. She’s worldly and well-traveled, but kind of embarrassed by her own sophistication. Her observations tend to be grim yet hilarious. She’s such a great character, and The Melting Season is an awesome read.

Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon has everything going for it that The Melting Season doesn’t from a marketing point of view–great cover and jacket copy, plus it’s paranormal which is huge right now–yet no one is reading it. It boggles the mind.

Silver Phoenix is about a girl named Ai Ling who decides to go to the Palace of Fragrant Dreams to try to find her father who has been missing for a long time. If Ai Ling finds her father, she can save herself from a forced marriage to a lascivious jerk. But while making the long journey to the palace, Ai Ling keeps getting attacked by monsters, almost as if she was attracting them in some way. Here’s a cookie:

[She] walked with her arms folded tightly around her, the hairs on her neck rising each time she heard the rustle of leaves or soft scrape of dirt. Ai Ling did not have the courage to look back, imagining dark shapes following her–Master Huang on a horse in pursuit or even lost ghosts, seeking the warmth of a living being.

She cursed herself for ever reading The Book of the Dead.

How can you not want to read something like that? Plus the writing is literally delicious; after reading all the food descriptions, I guarantee your mouth will be watering by the end of the book.

I think that people who like Bleeding Violet will really like Silver Phoenix because, like BV, there are monsters (there’s a monster in SP made out of CORPSES which is so twisted I can only bow to Cindy Pon in awe)  and a few disturbing sexual situations, if you’re into that sort of thing–and admit it, you are–so seriously, if you liked BV even a little bit you’ll LOVE Silver Phoenix.

So go find The Melting Season and Silver Phoenix and give them a try, and then when you swoon from the awesomeness of these two books, send me a thank you note–it’s the least you can do. ;p

It’s super low-budget though (the people who made the film couldn’t get any money or studio support so I don’t think this was even released in movie theaters). It doesn’t have the look of a movie, but rather a really high-end TV show with awesome special-effects and fight scenes, but that got cancelled before anyone even saw the first episode.

INK was directed and written by some guy named Jamin Winans and all I can say is how stupid is the movie industry that when a guy comes at them with something as awesome as this movie is, they just ignore it? Even GYMKATA got released in theaters for crying out loud! It just kills me when actual hardworking, deserving people can’t get a break.

All I’m saying is, if you wanna see something super incredible, GO BUY THIS MOVIE; I bought my copy on Amazon.

And just for the record, there’s no sex/sexual situations or anything disturbing. There are fight scenes but nothing more intense than you would find in a Buffy episode. I don’t even remember seeing any blood. The main character does drop the f-bomb quite a few times when under stress, though, but that’s it. Here’s the trailer:

Isn’t that awesome? And just for the record again, no I’m not being paid to promote this ;p. I don’t know any of these people. Someone on Amazon recommended this movie to me, so I’m just passing along the love.