Wolves and girls. Both have sharp teeth.

I'm about to lose my shit.

These two girls are kidnapped by a guy, they manage to escape, he finds them, saves them from a bunch of rapists and then the girls do what? They help him get to a safehouse, heal him and cook dinner.

When I found The Strain, I was so glad. I had just finished watching The Strain FX's series and found it was amazing. I didn't like the protagonist, but I loved every other character that appeared, mostly the female. I mean, Nora is a badass non-white woman that is also a scientist and Eph and Setrakian main allie. She was there for every fight, for every discovery, and her relationship with her mom was simply amazing. The final scene, of her having to kill her mother, who became a victim of the vampires in the show was beautiful.

Besides her, there is also the presence of Kelly, Eph's wife, who didn't have much presence on the series, but when she appeared, it was to show she was her own woman. The chapter in which shows her transformation into a vampire was also amazing, my favorite to date. It was well constructed and so sad to see her attacking her best friend and family.

To add to these amazing women, the series also had Dutch, a hacker hired to ruin the internet inside New York City to make sure nobody found out about what was happening inside the city (ie a vampire apocalypse!). It was a truly amazing idea, even more when she met our protagonists and then becomes one of them. Fighting the man she hired because, you know, he is a selfish bastard.

I'm not here to review the TV series, but these three (four, with Nora's mom always in my mind) women were the main reason I loved The Strain and decided to read the books. So I read and I was truly disappointed: the book The Strain is still about Eph, though he is more likable, and it does not have the overwhelming presence of these women.

Yes, I am focusing this review on the lack of female characters inside a book that inspired a TV series with amazing female characters.

Nora appears more in the beginning, then she is mentioned in the middle and is barely there in the end. Nora becomes the woman who Eph slept with during his divorce with Kelly and was barely there during all the books. Every moment I read I longed to see some of that sparkle of the series, in which Nora learns how to kill and saves her mother all by herself before meeting up with Eph again. I longed for the woman who killed her own mother so she wouldn't become one of those horrible creatures. I longed for the woman who was there in every battle.

Book Nora was not there in the battles. She appeared on some moments in which they were fighting the first vampires, but she was asked to stay behind to take care of Zach and carry on on the battle, in case they failed. Which is kind of stupid, because none of them would be able to fight the infection off all by themselves. Setrakian did it, sure, but he was prepared for this. He prepared his whole life, ever since he was a young man, to this. Nora does not even know where to start.

Book Kelly was also a disappointment. She was closer to her character in the series, but she still saw herself as someone who needed validation from a man. There wasn't in the book the moment in which she stood up for herself and told her boyfriend it wasn't any of his business what happened between her ex and her. Kelly still trusted Eph, enough to not call the police when he became a wanted man. In the book, her trusts on her ex-husband's words and work were ignored because Matt told her they wouldn't leave that day. It was kind of horrible and it didn't show her fight against her turned boyfriend after he came back for her. It also didn't show her transformation, which was a great way to make people feel sympathy with her.

I could say something about Dutch, but, hey, she has not been introduced in the book yet. Or maybe she never will.

In other words, I read this book mostly because the characters I was presented to in the series stole my heart. In the end, all I got was more Eph Goodweather, more Setrakian and more Fet and less Nora, less Kelly and none Dutch. I am glad the writers of the book decided to give the women more power on the series and give them more space. It's kind of ironic, to tell the truth. So many pages for you to use in books and a limited time to use in TV series, and still FX did a better job.

Here's hoping Nora will be more important on the second book of this trilogy. Not that I will know it, of course. At least, not now. I'm waiting for The Strain's second season, so I can watch some awesome ladies being awesome before I get my hands on a better edition of the second book (the word size of my current one is too small!!).

Still, the book was a fascinating read that showed more and more of the vampire's lore the TV series will likely add in the next season(s). I also found the explanations over certain things an amazing way to explain to the reader how this and that worked, without being tiring. If you watched The Strain and the fact women's role was diminished, you'll like this book.

My new favorite comic book writer is Nick Spencer. I still love Peter David dearly, but Nick Spencer. What a cool guy.

...Mostly because I'm getting tired of it.

Don't get me wrong. I love books. I love reading. But my major is what Americans call the French Literature, except it isn't like that. In Brazil, not only you study the literature from the language you chose (in my case, French), but it is also required for you to study Portuguese and Brazilian literatures, plus Linguistics, Portuguese (the language), Philosophy and at least two other classes from another course. Plus, if you want you can also take all the classes required to be able to become a teacher in middle or high school.

It's... It's a lot of classes and a ton of texts of things you don't even like sometimes. To top all that, I actually did take all the English literature classes that were available. So, yeah, I'm a little sad to say I don't have much love for the act of reading a book, right now. It's super sad, but it's like a friend of mine said: you just get tired of something you love and you have to stay away from it. You have to take a step back.

But how do you stay away from reading? I read fanfics, I read comics, I read books, articles, tweets, tumblr posts, anything that looks interesting to me. And yet I can't take the time to read something longer than a few pages, because that's what I have been doing for the past five years (college only).

Right now, however, I feel pretty awesome: I am currently reading The Strain, and I was so hooked today I read almost a hundred pages. It felt good to be this connected to a book, because it's been almost six months since I stopped reading like a maniac.

I remember one time when I read seven books in a month, and then started reading A Song of Ice and Fire. It was 2011 and I read the last Harry Potter book (got me hooked up on the series again); Memories of a Gueisha (a disappoitment), Book Thief (cried so hard I took two days to mourn it properly) and many others, and I thought I could keep going, until I started reading the fourth book of A Song of Ice and Fire, which is so boring it took me a fucking year to finish. BAM! My addiction to books ended there.

I started reading a lot again when I started working last year. Many colleges in Brazil are actually free and mine is one of these, so I had this opportunity to study and not need to work. But last year I decided to get a work and, even though it was a horrible experience for my healthy, I got to create a pretty awesome schedule. First, I watched dozen of different TV series while I was going to work and leaving for home, and then I decided I could do the same with books! So, yeah, I read all my books for my English literature classes (The Crucible and Pygmalion were two of these), plus the one I bought for my research, plus The Hobbit, some of H. P. Lovecraft and many others (also? comics). When I left my job, I lost that careful calendar and all my love for books, comics and TV series went with it.

So, I'm trying again. I managed to catch up with all my TV series and now I'm back at reading books and loving them as much as I love writing. Comics will be the next thing in my list, and then I'll create a better calendar so I can have some free time to write too.

Speaking of writing, I think I'm going to use this blog to write about what I'm writing (yep!), because I like to remember the in between while I develop a book or a fanfic (more a fanfic than a book, but ok). Also, this blog will be great for me to post me favorite comics and why. IDK, I just want to write about everything I do that is related to books and literature.

I think I'll add this to my calendar, too.

TORO, Guillermo Del & HOGAN, Chuck. The Strain. New York: Harper Fiction, 2014. p. 386.

I may have forgotten to do this before I reblogged that amazing joke, but I had to. It is an amazing joke.

Well, my name is Helen and this will be my blog about books and comics. I already have a social network of books and comics, named skoob, that is mostly famous in my country, Brazil, because we're amazing like that. We actually have a facebook-like social network and I loved it, but the idea of reblogging reviews and making a blog about books and comic books? That is high quality, honey.

Once I tried to maintain a blog about comics, but it has long been forgotten because of many reasons. This one is the one I want to keep, because it was specifically made for this. How amazing is that?

Anyway, this is what you should know about me: my name is Helen, I am Brazilian, I am 22 years old and I love books. Books and mangas and comics and tv series and films, but mostly books and comic books. I am finishing my college on French language and literature and decided to add English literature too because it needs some lovin'. Nobody said anything I needed to graduate.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT ME (book related):

Favorite writer: Stephen King.

Favorite comic book writer: Peter David.

Favorite manga writer and artist: Yoshihiro Togashi.

Favorite book: Do not have.

Favorite comic book: Daredevil: End of Days.

Favorite manga: Yu Yu Hakusho.

Favorite book character: Do not have.

Favorite comic book character: Pietro Maximoff aka Quicksilver (Marvel) and Helena Bertinelli aka The Huntress (DC).

Favorite manga character: Hiei.

PS: My English isn't perfect because I speak Portuguese (no, not Spanish), so forgive my mistakes and don't be a douche :D