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Books to Read Based off of Your Favorite Taylor Swift Album!
Books to Read Based off of Your Favorite Taylor Swift Album!
By: Brianna Zogby
By: Brianna Zogby
Two of my favorite things in the world are Taylor Swift and books. They go hand in hand; Swift’s lyrical writing always makes me think of my favorite book characters. I firmly believe that there are multiple books that correspond with each Taylor Swift album, but I’ve shortened the list so this article doesn’t become twenty pages long!
A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole
Many people forget about Swift’s self-titled Debut album, because it is overshadowed by her extremely popular ones, but her Debut album deserves some hype too! Swift wrote many of the songs on Taylor Swift at fifteen, so the album focuses on life from a teenage viewpoint. I think that A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole is the perfect book for this album. It is a heartfelt, unique teenage romance novel, which really made me connect it to this album. It has a lot of that teenage angst and emotion, which matches that of Taylor Swift’s. I think that “I’m Only Me When I’m With You”, “Tim McGraw”, and “Stay Beautiful” really fit this book!
Better Than The Movies by Lynn Painter
Fearless, her second album, also focuses heavily on teenage romance and first love. Better Than The Movies by Lynn Painter immediately reminded me of Fearless. The novel features the classic childhood friends to lovers trope, and is filled with all the goodness and magic that makes first love so special and surreal, just like Fearless does. “Fearless”, “Hey Stephen”, “You Belong With Me”, “Today Was a Fairytale”, and “Jump Then Fall” are all songs I listened to when thinking about this book!
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
Speak Now is a fantasy esq album, with mentions of dragons, castles, and forbidden love, typical themes that come to mind when you think of the word fantasy. I can’t listen to Speak Now without thinking about the fantasy genre! Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross is the perfect fit for this album; a fantasy romance about two rival journalists set during a mythological war honestly screams Speak Now to me.
SHARED STORIES AND SHARED FEELINGS!
READ THE BOOKS TO HAVE A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING AND CONNECTION TO HER SONGS
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
Although Red is mostly an album that navigates the complexities of heartbreak, it also focuses on themes of falling in love and fate. This is why I recommend The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon, even though it’s a romance novel with a tragic and heartfelt ending (The ending will DEFINITELY make you cry). This novel takes place on a fall day in New York (very , if you ask me) and focuses on Natasha, a Jamaican teenage girl who has one last chance to plead her case before she and her family get deported, and Daniel, a Korean teenage boy who is tired of trying to live up to his family’s expectations. The novel follows the story of how they met and slowly began to fall in love over the course of the day. Songs from Red that best fit this novel include “Message in a Bottle”, “Begin Again”, “Holy Ground”, and “Come Back…Be Here.”
Image Courtesy of Amazon
Dress to Impress - Game + Lore Review
Dress to Impress - Game + Lore Review
By Deeala Ahmed
By Deeala Ahmed
What is Dress to Impress?
Dress to Impress is a multiplayer dress-up game on Roblox that was released on November 11, 2023. The objective is simple- players are given 5 minutes to carefully design an outfit based on a specific theme. Then, players are teleported to a runway where they can rate outfits of other players, and show off their own. The ratings are determined by a range from 1 to 5 stars: 1 star being terrible, and 5 stars being great. Once everyone has shown their outfits, every star calculated is tallied and featured on a podium. After the round ends, players are shown how many stars they received and their ranking from the round.
Why is Dress to Impress so popular?
Dress to Impress isn’t just your typical run-of-the-mill dress-up game, it's one of the most-played games on Roblox for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, the game itself balances simplicity and complexity. Despite the clothing options seeming austere, or ornate, many players can create staggering outfits. They are able to layer various clothing articles, combine different hairstyles, customize their in-game makeup, or even access more features through gamepasses. Another reason for Dress to Impress’s popularity is due to their recent collaboration with the renowned artist Charli XCX. Charli XCX is an English singer who released an album labeled Brat on June 7, 2024, featuring many songs that reached billboards, such as Apple, 360, and 365. It quickly exploded in popularity during the summer of 2024, leading to the term ‘Brat Summer’. During that summer, Dress to Impress released an update, commonly referred to as the Brat update, which featured a series of clothing items, new themes that correspond to the Brat theme, and even a neon-green runway. Both parties received prominence from this collaboration, popularizing both Dress to Impress and Charli XCX.
“Dress to Impress has this ambiguity that cannot be implemented elsewhere, hence why it attracts so many players”
Courtesy of All Dress To Impress Codes (October 2024) - GameRiv
Courtesy of All Items From The Brat Update In Roblox: Dress To Impress (thegamer.com)
What is the Lana lore?
Amidst the variety of clothing items you are able to select, the poses you strike when walking down the promenade, the hair and makeup you carefully select, or even getting your nails done by a highly-qualified nail tech, Dress to Impress has a side to it that contradicts the glamorous image of the game his eerie side of Dress to Impress is colloquially known as the “Lana Lore”. Lana, also known as the “Nail Lady” is the NPC that paints the nails of the player. Even though there isn’t much about Lana that meets the eye, Lana has a past of misery, incarceration, and dread.
During the April Fool’s update of 2024, Lana is shown with tears in her eyes and runny mascara, likely due to crying. A diary is shown right next to her, expressing her contempt with her occupation as a nail technician, because she is underpaid and extremely distressed.
The diary consists of vengeant writings describing how she wants to burn down the nail studio. Right next to it, is a list of every single developer in Dress to Impress, likely a hit-list. Lana is later replaced with a doppelganger, leading to her disappearance and eventually her being found in a basement, locked in a cage due to her violent and vengeful nature. Clues are written in the diary, with Lana pleading that the nail technician isn’t her and that she has been incarcerated.
On August 30, 2024, “Lana” is replaced with Lina, a new nail technician, who is speculated to be involved in Lana’s absence. It is heavily theorized that Lana was captured by Gigi, the lead developer and owner of the game, with the intent of sacrificing Lana. Fast forward to October 19, 2024, where a major halloween update is released, which features new makeup, clothing items, hairstyles, gamepasses, poses, and even a revamped lobby and runway, but the most indispensable of them all, is a 3-chapter quest which features Lana’s backstory, and more information about both Lana and Lina.
Final Verdict:
I personally love Dress to Impress. Not only are you able to test your creativity and fashion abilities using a limited amount of outfits, but also the thrilling lore raises so many questions, leading to more curiosity about the game itself. Overall, if competitive dress-up, mythology, and horror is something that you like, download Roblox and give Dress to Impress a try!
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