Contents

About me/preface........................................................................................... 3
My Subject Choices.........................................................................................4
History............................................................................................................ 4
German............................................................................................................ 4
Art................................................................................................................... 5
Modules............................................................................................................... 6
Dance............................................................................................................... 6
Craft................................................................................................................ 6
Art/Portraiture............................................................................................ 7
International Cuisine...................................................................................7
Fashion............................................................................................................ 8
Work Experience............................................................................................ 10
Rathfarnham Veterinary Clinic...............................................................10
Paddocks Riding Centre.............................................................................11
Rock Climbing................................................................................................... 12
SVP..................................................................................................................... 14
Book Reviews................................................................................................... 16
Song of Achilles..........................................................................................16
Intro.......................................................................................................... 16
Plot............................................................................................................. 16
My Thoughts............................................................................................ 17
What I disliked.......................................................................................17
Recommendations...................................................................................18
They Both Die at the End.........................................................................19
 Intro.......................................................................................................... 19
Plot............................................................................................................. 19
My Thoughts............................................................................................ 19
What I Disliked......................................................................................20
Recommendations...................................................................................20
Comparison................................................................................................... 21
Knives Out....................................................................................................... 22
Intro............................................................................................................. 22
Plot................................................................................................................ 22
My Thoughts............................................................................................... 22
About me/preface
My name is Evelyn Miletinova. Like everyone doing the interviews
this year, I am nearing the end of my 4th year at Loreto Beaufort.
I’m 15 at the time of writing but will be 16 by the time of this
interview. I come from the Czech Republic, though I’ve lived in
Ireland for the vast majority of my life and speak better English
than I do Czech at this point. My dream job, and the job I am
currently working towards in school, is a zoo vet. I’ve always loved
animals and would love to work with them one day, particularly the
large and exotic animals one would encounter as a zoo vet. I have a
couple of animals of my own: a lovebird named Leaf, a tortoise named
Sandy and a boxer named James. Our house is also home to a
bearded dragon named Mushu, though he belongs to my sister.

I would consider myself an average student, with a learning style of

“Procrastinate, then Panic”. I tend to do pretty well in exams, but
schoolwork itself isn’t exactly my forte and most of my school year
is spent flying by the seat of my pants. Transition year, with its
relative lack of deadlines and relaxed atmosphere, gave me room to
enjoy myself during the year. I spent most of this year working on
personal skills, for example my art and writing. Classes involved a lot
more discussion this year than any other, which I quite enjoyed. I
tried to take part in a few activities this year, since I figured that
if I didn’t do anything fun this year, I definitely wouldn’t have time
to any other year. I took part in SVP and the transition year play,
which I will elaborate on later in this folder.
My Subject Choices
This year was the first time since 1st year that I got to choose my
own subjects. Naturally I had to stick with certain subjects, for
example Maths, English, Irish and Science, but other subjects were
entirely optional that had previously been mandatory. I appreciated
the freedom given to me in this regard. I gave up geography, as
though I didn’t dislike it, it was far from my favourite subject and I
wasn’t interested in it. I kept up with history, as I find it intriguing
(and I liked the teaching style of my history teacher). Not many
people chose to do history, which surprised me; many people opted
for Classics instead. I didn’t switch languages from German, as I like
it well enough and of all the countries I could travel to in future
Germany is the most likely (it’s remarkably close to my home
country, within driving distance). Finally, I kept art as my third
subject. Art is one of my hobbies and I enjoy doing it both in school
and out, so choosing it as a subject was an obvious choice.

History
History was one of my favourite subjects this year. It was very
different to how it was the last two years, with less of a focus on
notetaking and much more debate and discussion. The first half of
our year was spent studying civil rights in the USA and the
prevalence of these issues today. We watched videos about the
modern KKK and how it differs from the KKK of the late 1800’s and
early 1900’s. We also learned about women in history later in the
year, with a focus on women during the 1916 rising and onward. I’m
glad I chose history, although I will not be taking it next year.

German
I stuck with German for my language, as it interests me the most
out of the three options and is the most likely to be useful to me in
the future. This year wasn’t too remarkable, we mostly went over
topics from previous years. I think my German speaking skills have
advanced over this year, as I’ve learned a lot of vocab that I hadn’t
known before. I’m happy with German as a subject and will be
keeping it as my language for my final two years at Beaufort.

Art
I kept up with art this year, it’s one of my favourite subjects and I
enjoy the relaxed atmosphere. Most of this year was focused on a
huge collaborative project, painting a huge mural in the school
cafeteria. Participating in this project was fun and allowed me to
interact more with my friends. I was given lots of freedom to draw
whatever and however I wanted, which I appreciated. I won’t be
doing leaving cert art, but I would be if I had room for it among my
chosen subjects.
Modules
TY is all about learning new things, and one of the fun additions that
come with fourth year is the introduction of modules. These short,
interesting classes aim to teach us all sorts of brand-new things.
While this year wasn’t an ideal setting for many modules (for
example makeup and dance), I still enjoyed most of them and learned
a lot of new things.

Dance
If I recall correctly, dance was our first module of Transition Year.
It was a bit different from other years, for obvious reasons: due to
covid, dance partners couldn’t actually make physical contact. Add to
that the fact that we all had to wear masks, and the dance module
was sure to be an interesting and challenging one. Our dance teacher
made it work, though, and we learned many new dances. Off the top
of my head, we learned the waltz, the rumba and salsa dancing. We
also did a lot of fun warm-ups, for example the cha-cha slide and 5,
6, 7, 8. I always found myself getting very warm towards the end of
the class and we all stepped outside to cool off at the end. The
waltz was probably my favourite dance, as it’s very floaty and I like
the three-beat rhythm of the music we danced to. With all of the
dances we mostly learned the basic steps in a square rather than
doing any sort of advanced moves. We were split into “boys” and
“girls”, though really it’s just leaders and followers and doesn’t have
much to do with gender. I was a “girl”.

Craft
The craft module was a very relaxing class in my opinion. It was
focused on origami, which requires more focus on introspection than
it does physical skill or creativity. We made paper cranes, arguably
the most identifiable origami shape, and also drew said cranes using
charcoal pencils. Drawing the cranes and making the cranes were two
entirely different kinds of art and I liked the change in mindset one
had to have when transitioning from one to the other. We also made
interlocking “ninja stars” with the goal of creating an accordion-like
shape using all of the class’s stars. Collaborative projects like this
are always fun and I liked seeing the final product. I found the
origami incredibly relaxing as it was just following instructions and I
could shut my brain off for most of the class. I drew googly eyes on
my paper crane and named him Zoboomafoo after the lemur from
that one TV show. He was stapled to someone else’s work, which I
did not appreciate, but I think he’s still in the hallway and I like
looking at him when I pass the art corridor.

Art/Portraiture
The portraiture module was probably my favourite because I love
art and I consider myself decent at it. I struggle with portraits and
facial proportions, so this was a fun challenge for me. The portraits
we drew were different from the norm in that we had the option of
having our masks on in the photos, introducing texture and a focal
point to the portrait. We drew the portraits using grids, which is the
easiest way to draw them as you can keep the proportions correct
easier than if there was no grid. The class was, as most art classes
tend to be, relaxed and collaborative as we all compared drawings
and shared art advice (and pencils!). We had about 4 classes to
finish the portraits if memory serves, though a lot of us were done
ahead of time. We cut our portraits to size, placed them on black
sugar paper and printed out a quote to go underneath. Some people
chose to print serious or inspirational quotes, but I went with a
quote from a video on the internet I found funny: “A kitchen wench
is a kitchen wench forever”. I misattributed the line to the Eastern
philosopher Confucius because I found that absolutely hysterical.
International Cuisine
Though I dropped Home Economics after the junior certificate, I
still got my fair share of cooking via the international cuisine module.
Just like the dance module, changes had to be made in order to make
the module fit covid guidelines. We couldn’t actually use the
equipment in the kitchens, so we had to pre-make our cakes at home
and just decorate them in class. We were given a lot of freedom, and
though chocolate biscuit cake was suggested we were free to bring
whatever type of cake we wanted. I made chocolate biscuit cake
because I figured it was much easier than baking one from scratch.
While we technically weren’t allowed to work together, the class was
very collaborative in the sense that we talked to each other at a
distance and gave each other decorating advice. I decorated my
cake with blue, white, and black fondant organised into a sky design.
I used buttercream to stick the fondant on. The cake was a big
success with my family and was gone within 2 days of me bringing it
home.

The second thing we made in international cuisine was a gingerbread

village. This was very close to Christmas so thematically it made
sense. I forgot my gingerbread kit, but I was given permission to
help my friend Katelyn with her gingerbread house instead. I didn’t
decorate any gingerbread people, instead I worked on the house. I
think it turned out very nice, we gave it an interior with kitchen tiles
and a table. I enjoyed this module, though at times I was a little
stressed about the time limit of the class (as we only had the one
triple to finish all of our decorating).

Fashion
I’m not sure how the fashion module usually goes, but I assume that
it was also modified for Covid. There wasn’t much hands-on work,
mostly we just researched designers and worked on a project. We all
presented our projects in the form of Keynote presentations. I’m
not at all interested in fashion, to be completely honest. I found the
entire module a waste of time, and there wasn’t much teaching
involved. But nevertheless I did have to do the project on pain of
punishment, so I chose Lane Bryant as the designer I was doing a
project on. I chose this brand because it was the first one to come
up when I searched “plus size fashion”. I knew nothing about them
beforehand and honestly had some trouble finding information on
their financials and ethics. I did find out that they violated labour
laws for the sake of cheap labour, but that didn’t shock me because
the list of companies who don’t do that is shorter than the list of
ones who do. I liked the body-positive message of the company,
though I think getting borderline slaves to do your labour isn’t all
that body-positive.
Work Experience
One of the things I was most looking forward to, and thankfully one
of the few things we still go to do during Covid, was work
experience. If I wasn’t sure what I wanted to be or if I was gunning
for a boring, comfortable job when I’m older, then I’d probably have
enjoyed work experience much less. However, the field I want to go
into (veterinary medicine) allowed my work experience to be quite
fun. Of course, Covid limited my options quite a bit, but I managed
to snag spots at our vet and Paddocks Riding Centre respectively. I
gained a lot of experience over the two weeks that I worked for,
with the added bonus of getting to hang out with all sorts of animals
from horses to hamsters.

Rathfarnham Veterinary Clinic

Rathfarnham Veterinary Clinic is the vet clinic that we had been
going to for about 8 years prior to my work experience. In fact, this
work experience placement had been being discussed by the vet and
my mom even when I was in primary school. As the vet is quite old
and the clinic is small, I was pretty worried that I wouldn’t be able
to work there due to Covid-19. However, given necessary safety
measures, the vet was happy to take me in for a week. Rathfarnham
Veterinary Clinic is a family run clinic, and as such it’s not quite as
high-tech as a lot of veterinary hospitals you’d see on TV. The vet,
Dr. Manfred Neale, was highly experienced and made up for his lack
of tech with unrivalled skill and knowledge. I watched him perform
all sorts of treatments and surgeries, some small (putting ointment
in a hamster’s eye) and some rather large (removing mammary
tumours from a cocker spaniel). I wasn’t spared any of the gruesome
details, and got to see tumours, ovaries and testicles up close from
multiple surgeries. I’ve never been all that squeamish so I found it
fascinating, though upon recounting my experiences to classmates it
was clear that most didn’t think it was nearly as cool as I did. The
clinic mostly got dogs for minor issues or just grooming. I enjoyed
interacting with these dogs, as most of them were friendly. There
were a few cat visitors too, though I didn’t get to be as hands-on
with them because they didn’t stay very long. There was only one
animal that wasn’t one of these two, and that was a hamster with a
swollen eyelid. I also got to see Dr Neale’s two tortoises, who are
about 40 years old. Overall, I enjoyed my week very much.

Paddocks Riding Centre

My other work experience placement was in Paddocks Riding Centre.
While I don’t go horse riding as much as I’d like to, this is where I
have lessons when I can. Because I don’t go too often, though, the
staff didn’t know me all that well and it was a little tricky to get a
placement. Once I did, though, Covid wasn’t much of a concern as the
place is a big open yard and you don’t get much of a chance to
interact with people anyway. Another girl from our year also
happened to have a placement there, though we didn’t know each
other much. To start off we mostly did easy, hard-to-mess-up tasks
such as cleaning the tack or grooming the horses and ponies.
However, after about two days, we got to do more hands-on things
like leading the horses on lessons and ride-outs up the mountain,
replacing the horses’ shavings, tacking the horses, taking them out
to the field and bringing them back, and feeding the horses. I’ve
always found that the horse community in general is rather closed
off and difficult to feel like you belong in, and this was definitely
the case here. I often felt wildly out of my league, and that wasn’t
fun. However, I still enjoyed it, I got to hang out with horses and
learned a lot of things I hadn’t known prior. I worked from 9 to 6
and the work was mostly physical, so it was definitely exhausting,
but given that I’m considering becoming an equine vet I think it was
a worthwhile and valuable experience.
Rock Climbing
TY is meant to be fun, and as such Beaufort usually tries to organise
all sorts of outings for its students. For example, last year there
were transfers to Germany, the ploughing championship and a trip to
the DSPCA. I was incredibly excited for all this, especially given
that 3rd year was so stressful. But in the end, it didn’t turn out like I
hoped, with Covid greatly restricting what we could and couldn’t do
this year. No ploughing championship, no DSPCA and definitely no
trips to Germany. The only trip we managed to keep this year was
one to The Wall Climbing Gym.

The Wall is a relatively small indoor climbing gym. It’s the kind with
no harnesses, instead having soft floors and short climbing walls to
prevent injuries that having no harness would otherwise cause. Ms
Taylor organised the trip and announced it about 2 weeks before we
went. I believe the gym was actually closed at the time, but it
opened for our trip. We went in class groups, and Curie was the
second group to go. Obviously we couldn’t all just hop into a bus
together, so we had to organise our own rides there. Some people
took the Dublin Bus, but most of us had our parents drop us. This
was the case for me: my mom dropped me and my friend to the
Sandyford-based climbing gym. We showed up a couple minutes early
and were the first there, as our other friends decided to get
McDonald’s on the way there. The employees were cleaning when we
came in and showed us a bench where we sat and waited for the
others to arrive.

The rest of our class gradually showed up, and within 15 minutes we
were ready to climb. There were special flexible shoes that we were
given before we got on the soft mattress used as a floor in the
climbing area. I didn’t much like the shoes; they were cold and
possibly wet. But I managed, and soon forgot about them as we
began climbing. There were different difficulty levels to each
climbing route, marked by bright colours. I stayed on the easier
yellow tiles, though a few of my classmates went on to harder levels.
I got tired pretty quick, but the soft floor was pretty comfortable
to sit on so I enjoyed relaxing with my friends as much as I did
climbing. I think we climbed for about 2 hours, after which we all
thanked the employees and parted ways. The friend I carpooled
there with and I were being picked up later, so we decided to walk
to Stillorgan and buy McDonald’s. Overall I enjoyed the trip, though
I definitely would’ve enjoyed it more if we didn’t have to wear masks
the whole time as the masks got pretty gross pretty quick.
SVP
This year I wanted to take part in everything TY had to offer, as I
knew that next year, I’ll hardly have the time and resources for any
of it. This included the SVP committee, which is organised every
year and I’d been planning to join since 3rd year. I admired the fact
that it was almost entirely student-run; we got guidance and
permission from teachers, but we organised events such as the
clothes sales and the blue day ourselves.

Becoming part of the SVP committee was a little harder than just
showing up. We had to prepare small speeches about why we want to
be in the committee and what role we’d like to play. I have to admit
that I wrote mine the night before, but apparently I pulled off the
speech decently enough for the class to give me enough votes to join
the committee. On our introductory meeting in the hall, I got my
preferred role of graphic designer. I shared this role with two other
people. My job (outside of basic SVP stuff that everyone did) was to
design posters and such for the committee. I enjoyed this job, art
and graphic design are two of my favourite things to do. I designed a
poster for Blue Day, a day the committee organised where everyone
wore their own blue clothes for 2 euro which went towards the
charity.

The SVP committee is most active around Christmas, as we organise

gifts and events for disadvantaged children. At the beginning of the
year, we were hoping to go ahead with the annual Christmas party,
but as time went on and the pandemic only got worse it became
apparent that that wasn’t a possibility. We had to quickly decide on
an alternative in the months leading up to Christmas. In the
meantime we organised the usual hamper appeal, which went towards
St Aiden’s (the same school the party was usually for). People donate
lots of goodies every year, but being on the committee this time
around, I was honestly blown away by just how many gifts and sweets
we managed to get. The conference room was full of biscuit tins,
Haribo bags, selection boxes, fizzy drinks and much more. Once we
were close enough to Christmas, we packed up all the goodies and
sent them to St Aiden’s where they were portioned out and given to
students. We also decided on what we’d do for the students to
replace the Christmas party. Instead of bringing them to the party,
we brought the party to them. Every student in 4th year was
assigned a St Aiden’s student. We wrote letters to them asking what
they’d like for Christmas and bought them gifts based on that.
Named were pulled out of a hat to decide who (other than the
president and vice president of the committee) would get to deliver
the gifts to the kids. I happened to get my name pulled. On the day
of, we dressed up in festive outfits and carpooled in my mom’s car to
the school. We were too late to see the presents being given out,
but we got to see them open them. The kids were so happy to see
their Christmas presents, and it was heart-warming to watch them
play with them. We livestreamed the whole thing so that the rest of
the year could watch their presents being unwrapped.

The pre-Christmas SVP activities were incredibly fun. With the

show and interviews and all the excitement of 2021 I doubt we’ll be
able to do quite as much as in 2020, but I look forward to what we
do with the rest of the year.
Book Reviews
I’ve always been a fan of books, though my reading kind of dropped
after I left primary school. This is mostly just because secondary
school involves a lot of work and I couldn’t find the time. But in
fourth year I got the opportunity to catch up on my reading, both in
school and out. We read two books as part of the English curriculum,
Girl on the Train and One of Us Is Lying, but these didn’t really
pique my interest nearly as much as the following books. One, Song
of Achilles, was given to us as optional reading by our English
teacher. The other, They Both Die in the End, I read in my own free
time, though a lot of that was during lunch and free classes in
school. I enjoyed both of these books immensely. Interestingly
they’re very similar in that they feature gay relationships and have
tragic endings.

Song of Achilles
Intro
The first book I’m writing about is Song of Achilles by Madeline
Miller. This isn’t actually an original book, so to speak, but a retelling
of Homer’s Iliad. This is the famous Greek story of Achilles and
Patroclus and the tragedy that followed them.
Plot
The story follows Patroclus, a disgraced prince exiled to King Peleus’
kingdom after accidentally killing a noble. Here he meets Achilles, a
young demigod with a charming disposition and unrivalled physical
skill. His mother, the nymph Thetis, is highly protective of him and
wants him to join her as an immortal being. Patroclus and Achilles
bond over the years, and soon Achilles is too attached to him to join
his mother. To separate the now-lovers from each other, Thetis
sends Achilles to train with the fabled centaur Chiron. Patroclus, of
course, ends up going with him, and the two train together. After
years of training, a prophecy is discovered that Achilles was to die in
Troy. Thetis tries to protect him, but after a series of failed
attempts he ends up in the Trojan War. The last section of the book
is spent following their years in the war, which ends abruptly and
tragically when the two die one after the other. Patroclus is killed in
battle when pretending to be Achilles to lift spirits and scare the
opposition, and Achilles dies soon after taking revenge on the man
who killed Patroclus. They are eventually reunited in the afterlife
after Thetis gives Patroclus a burial.
My Thoughts
This is a truly heart-breaking book. You spend the whole story
attached to these characters, whose relationship with one another is
so brilliantly written that you feel all the highs and lows of it as if
you were experiencing it yourself. Patroclus’ death and the
aftermath were gut-wrenchingly tragic, Achilles’ reaction is so
visceral and real that you can’t help but cry along with him. It’s not
exactly a book for everyone, but I adore a good tragic ending and
this one damn near made me cry. The very last line added some
sweetness to the bitter ending; we are comforted by the thought
that the two will see each other again in the afterlife. It’s truly an
emotional roller coaster, and if you have the stomach for tragedy
then this book really fits the bill.
What I disliked
Honestly, there’s not much to dislike about this book. One could
dislike the tragic ending, but that’s missing the forest for the trees:
the book is, by definition, a tragedy, and should be read with the
looming knowledge that it can never end well. It’s a bit like
complaining that Romeo and Juliet ended with them both dying. I
suppose one thing I disliked just a little was that it was a bit winding
and there were a lot of time-jumps in short spaces of time. It made
it a little difficult to gauge what age the main characters were. This
is, however, just a minor nit-pick. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and
it definitely ranks among my absolute favourites.
Recommendations
I would recommend this book to young people over 14, especially
those in the LGBT+ community. I wouldn’t advise you to read it if
you’re into wish-fulfilment or rom-coms, as this book is neither
fantastical nor light-hearted. Despite the mythical figures and
creatures, it’s a very cynical and “real” story that doesn’t often stop
and let you relax.
They Both Die at the End
Intro
If the title hasn’t already given it away, this is yet another
depressing book. It’s a lot more modern than Song of Achilles, being
set in 2017 when the book was written. Though the ending is tragic,
and the themes are quite dark if you think about them for too long,
the book has a lot of light-hearted moments and takes on a much
more hopeful message than Song of Achilles about living life to the
fullest and forging relationships through impossible odds.
Plot
This book is written mostly in the first person and alternates
between two characters’ perspectives: Mateo and Rufus. The two
live in a world in which a company called Death-Cast calls you on the
day you are going to die to let you know you won’t see past the next
24 hours. Both of our main characters have received a call. Mateo, a
nervous but kind-hearted boy at 17 years old, got the call from his
bed and would rather do anything but step outside and live the rest
of his life. Rufus, a well-meaning but often unruly character,
receives the call while beating up his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend.
Rufus uses the first few hours of his End Day saying goodbye to his
friends (which ends with a police chase and no real goodbye),
whereas Mateo spends them at home for fear of dying too early.
The two meet using an app called Last Friends and Rufus convinces
Mateo to leave his apartment. Over the course of the book, Rufus
teaches Mateo to be adventurous and live his life to the fullest and
Mateo teaches Rufus to appreciate the little things and let himself
love. They eventually fall for one another, having a brief moment of
joy before their inevitable deaths.
My Thoughts
This book definitely ranks among my favourites of all time. It’s got a
very unique style and structure, interrupting our main characters’
perspectives with those of seemingly unimportant characters who
are actually deeply intertwined with the main plot. The consequences
of each character’s actions are shown and there’s a lot of “oh, that’s
the thing from earlier!” moments. For example, the way Mateo dies
is foreshadowed very early on in the book when he mentions that his
stove is broken and now that he’s dying he won’t need his neighbour
to fix it. At first this seems like a throw-away detail, but at the end
of the book he dies in a housefire caused by that very same broken
stove. This book never introduces a detail that doesn’t pay off and is
incredibly satisfying to read. It’s very sad at the end, but offers a
far more hopeful insight on death than Song of Achilles.
What I Disliked
I honestly liked everything about the book. The pacing was great,
the characters were vivid and three-dimensional, and the use of
Chekov’s Gun was nothing short of masterful. I’m sure it’s not
flawless from a critic’s point of view, but I enjoyed every single
aspect of this book.
Recommendations
They Both Die at the End is young adult fiction, and is suitable for
teens of most ages. It’s sad, but it’s hopeful enough that I wouldn’t
call it tragic. It’s geared towards LGBTQ youth and features a gay
relationship, but honestly I’d recommend this book to anyone
regardless of sexuality. If you like reading about friendship,
character growth and a fair share of depressing story beats then
this book is for you.
Comparison
These two books are very similar at first glance. They both feature
two main characters, a gay relationship on the forefront of the
story, the theme of death as an unavoidable threat and tragic
endings that are sure to make you cry. Of the two, I think I enjoyed
They Both Die at the End more just because it was easier to read,
and I related more to it since it’s based in the modern day.

The main difference between the two are the tone and theme. Song
of Achilles, appropriately enough for its Ancient Greek setting, is
fairly dark and features the Greek idea of a hero: a flawed individual
destined to meet tragedy. It has a theme of inescapable death, and
how no matter what you do you can’t escape your destiny. The ending
feels like a blur, as it would feel for Achilles in his fit of anger and
grief. They Both Die at the End is a lot lighter and more hopeful
despite its theme of death. It uses the inevitability of its
characters’ demise as a vessel to send the message that you have to
live each day to the fullest and one day of real living is better than a
lifetime of careful, paranoid living. Song of Achilles is about how no
matter what you do, you will die, and trying to prevent it will only
hasten your fate.

The writing of the two books was very different. Song of Achilles is
more complex and uses long words and sentences to emulate the
time period it’s based in. They Both Die at the End is simpler and
easier to read, with dialogue more reminiscent of real life
conversations. The culture is easier to understand, as it’s modern
day culture and not that of the Ancient Greeks.
 Knives Out
Intro
In English we focused on crime and thrillers, and thanks to this we
got to watch Knives Out. This is a genius mystery film directed by
Rian Johnson. It’s suspenseful, hilarious and rewards an observant
audience. I’d already watched it before, but I was happy to watch it
again because it’s probably my favourite film.

Plot
The plot focuses on the main character Marta. She’s the daughter
of an illegal immigrant and the personal nurse/friend of successful
crime author Harlan Thrombey. A famous detective, Benoit Blanc, is
hired by a mysterious party to solve the murder and the entire
Thrombey family is soon thrown into chaos. Through countless
twists, turns and red herrings, Blanc slowly unravels the mystery
with the help of Marta. I don’t want to spoil any more of it as it’s
the kind of movie you go into blind, but I doubt I’d be able to do the
incredibly complex plot justice anyway.

My Thoughts
I thought this movie was absolutely brilliant. It ranks among my
favourite films of all time, everything from the characters to the
plot to the humour is amazing. I get bored during films easily, but
Knives out is so fast-paced and colourful that it’s impossible to get
bored. The cinematography is beautiful, Johnson’s use of visual
foreshadowing and colour is great to look at. The movie starts off
fairly standard: there’s a murder, a dysfunctional family and a genius
detective. But it soon descends into enjoyable chaos and subverts
every expectation you may have going into the movie. Knives Out has
a great balance of heavy material and fast-paced humour and the
tone never seems unbalanced.
What I Disliked
There’s little to dislike about Knives Out in my opinion. It’s
incredibly well-made and the majority of its elements are placed
specifically to improve the film. However, the plot is filled to the
brim with twists, hidden details and sometimes contrivances. This
can get a little overwhelming especially on the first viewing. Some
moments will make you think “wait, what?” and require a second
viewing to wrap your head around. This is probably my biggest and
only issue with the movie, and I didn’t mind rewatching to grasp the
plot anyway as the movie is so strong.
TY Musical
The Transition Year musical is hands down my favourite part of TY.
I spent all of my 3rd year in lockdown worrying about whether the
show will continue or not given COVID. I’d been doing stage school
for years beforehand and wanted to participate in the musical.