Kaz

Book Worm and Movie Buff

Female

Valencia, Spain

22. January

Joined: May 14, 2019

I'm a 30 something nerd who loves books, writing and watching films.

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For anything and everything to do with books and reading. Rave about your latest read or wax lyrical...

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Queen Camilia

Sue Townsend

6.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

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From the back cover: 'What if being royal was a crime? The UK has come over all republican....

Added: Jul 15, 2019, 12:09:38 PM

Fiction Royal Family Sue Townsend Political Humour

'Impression of a Dilemma'

Ann Sharples

8.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Book

From the 'blurb' on the back cover: 'An incident at the 'Portcullis' hotel changes the dynamics...

Added: Jun 30, 2019, 8:39:43 AM

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The Hole

Guy Burt

7.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

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The 'Blurb' on the back cover- 'It was only supposed to be a bit of fun to round off the term....

Added: Jun 12, 2019, 10:34:51 AM

Never Say Spy- Book 1 of the 'Never Say Spy' Series

Diane Henders

7.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

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Despite her penchant for weapons and ripe language, Aydan Kelly's resume reads 'Book Keeper', not...

Added: May 18, 2019, 7:27:29 AM

'Master and Commander'

Patrick O'Brien

6.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

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This, the first in the splendid series of Jack Aubrey novels, establishes the friendship between...

Added: May 15, 2019, 1:02:50 PM

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Kaz (232 KP) rated The Girl In Between in Books

Nov 5, 2019

The Girl In Between

Laekan Zea Kemp | 2014 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)

8.8

(4 Ratings)

Book Rating

Great, characters, imaginative mix of Fantasy and issues connected with Disability (0 more)

Nothing (0 more)

‘The Girl In Between’ was the first book I read for the ‘Disability Read-a-Thon’ in October and, because this was a free download, I didn’t have high expectations for this book at all. However, I was very pleasantly surprised.

This book’s main character Bryn has a sleeping syndrome, which means that she can suddenly sleep for weeks and months on end. This didn’t mean however, that she a poor defenseless girl, in fact she was the opposite. She was funny, sarcastic and a fully rounded teenager and I thought she was relatable and likeable.

This book wasn’t just about Disability but the book does cover some of the issues that, even though I don’t have the same condition as Bryn, I could relate to, when I was growing up. However, it was also a complex mix of real life, fantasy and Bryn’s condition, which was seamlessly and imaginatively, incorporated into the story.

There were a couple of times when I thought that this book would develop into a slushy teen romance, but thankfully, this just managed not to turn into this and any kind of romance was maturely and sensitively handled.

I found the pace of this to be excellent. In no part of the book did I feel the story dragged and I really wanted to know what would happen to the characters.

I think that the ending was really good and it resolved enough to feel satisfied at the end, but it left enough for me to want to read the rest of the series.

I will definitely be reading the rest of this series at some point. I would recommend reading this book, whether you want to read something with a strong main character who has a Disability, or you enjoy a good Fantasy read.

My Rating ****

Kudos (1)

Kaz (232 KP) rated The Dead Ex in Books

Nov 5, 2019

The Dead Ex

Jane Corry | 2018 | Crime, Mystery, Thriller

6.8

(4 Ratings)

Book Rating

Interesting characters but not entirely well executed, one plot line was interesting (0 more)

Negative depiction of someone with Epilepsy, poor ending (0 more)

‘The Dead Ex’ was a buddy read, I had never read anything by Jane Corry before. To be quite honest with you, it will possibly be the last book I will read by this author.

Firstly, this book is split into several threads of story. We have the main character Vicki’s point of view, a little girl named Scarlett and a woman named Helen. Lately, whenever I have read a book which had more than one story thread running through it, I’ve been frustrated that one plot was good and the others, disappointing. With ‘The Dead Ex’, this was the same. I liked Scarlett’s story line and found it particularly moving. The power of this story was let down, by the weaker threads running along side it.

The characters were mostly ok, but I found some of their behaviors to be too exaggerated. This book would have been a good read for this month’s ‘Disability Read-a-thon’ (I read this just before the beginning of October), because the main character in this book, has Epilepsy. The sad thing for me though, was that this book would have been the perfect example of how NOT to portray a person with this condition.

I felt annoyed that, whenever anyone discovered that the main character had Epilepsy, she was instantly treated with suspicion. To me, this didn’t highlight the condition, but in some ways, demonized people who have to deal with Epilepsy and this wasn’t fair.

The plot of this novel was, for the most part, intriguing and I wanted to continue reading to find out what was going to happen. Whilst the many threads of story were tied up in a satisfactory way, there were a couple plot twists, which I felt to be weak, or really silly.

Overall, I think that this book was trying to highlight many social issues. Unfortunately, this need to cram a lot into the pages of this book, resulted in a weak and messy read.

This book was ok, but nothing that I would recommend rushing out to read.

My Rating: ** 1/2 Stars

Kudos (1)

Kaz (232 KP) rated The Finisher (Vega Jane #1) in Books

Nov 5, 2019

Interesting idea and characters (0 more)

Confusing use of vocabulary, poor ending (0 more)

I'm a fan of Fantasy and Sci-fi and, in a recent conversation with a friend on the subject of reading, they recommended and lent me, the 'Vega Jane' Series.

Book one started with great promise. Vega Jane and the rest of the characters were very well formed and I liked the initial underlining feminist message, running throughout the story.

However, I found many problems with this novel. Firstly, the writing was a major problem for me, particularly the vocabulary that was used by the characters.

Wormwood is supposedly a fictional place, on an unknown planet. So it didn't come to surprise, that the characters used a fictional language.

The problem with that was, when a character used a fictional word, as a reader, you had to hazard a guess at to what the characters were talking about. Also, made up words were used, where they weren't particularly necessary. For example, ''Lights' were 'days' and 'slivers' were 'time'. For me, it wasn't entirely necessary to use alternative words for these things and this vocabulary was being thrown in, to try and make the setting of the story, more interesting. I would have preferred the use of fictitious words for some of the more exotic things, found in the environment of Wormwood.

Also to confuse things even further, more modern words like 'bloke' were used, which gave this weird mish mash, between the modern and the fantasy world, the book took place in. I think what David Baldacci was trying to do, was to make the situation and characters more relatable to its predominately teenage audience. What this combination of language actually did, was to cause me to step out of the world that was being created, rather than being drawn into it.

The plot was generally good. Although, as Vega was learning more about her powers, there were no real explanations as to why she had them. I know this is a series and I suppose that during the course of the novels, there will be more explanation, but I felt like something should have been explained.

Also, Vega inexplicably finds weapons at the exact times she needs them, without any explanation about where they came from. It was as if David Baldacci found Vega in a tight spot, so he decided to drop weapons from the sky. For me, that wasn't logical and was a bit lazy on the writer's part.

I did enjoy the tension which ran through the book and that kept me reading until the very end. I was fully prepared, as I neared the end of book one, to continue reading the rest of the series. However, the last three chapters totally put me off reading the rest of the books, for several reasons.

Firstly, Vega Jane was a strong female character, who had guts and fought to survive. So it was totally out of character, at the end, for her to start worrying about what she looked like and what boys thought of her. To me, that totally contradicted the message that the rest of the book was trying to send.

Also the resolution to the novel, like some of the other elements in this book, seemed to come from no where. I felt totally disappointed at the weak ending.

This novel had interesting promise and a great female protagonist, but it missed the mark entirely for me.

If you like reading fantasy novels, with strong female characters, I wouldn't suggest reading this. Read the 'Hunger Games' Trilogy instead.

Kudos

Kaz (232 KP) rated Pet Sematary (2019) in Movies

Jul 31, 2019 (Updated Jul 31, 2019)

It's relatively close to the original text. for the most part. (0 more)

The Ending (0 more)

A film which I can't figure out.

Contains spoilers, click to show

I read the novel 'Pet Semetary' last year and, although there are some questionable elements to the story, I thought that generally, it was a good, creepy read.

Having just watched the 2019 remake, (I must point out that I haven't watched the original film) I'm not sure what to make of it.

For me, the novel 'Pet Semetary' is really dark and creepy. What this film version does, is add to that atmosphere and made it even more sinister, which I really liked.

Another good thing about this adaptation, was that it stayed pretty close to the original text, for the most part. Usually I don't like changes when a book is being made into a film, but actually, thinking about it, some of the changes in 'Pet Semetary' were wise, due to practicalities,

For example, in the novel, Gage is the one that dies and not Ellie. I would imagine the producers of this film, might have thought that it would either be too extreme to show a 2-3 year old running around with a knife and also it would be difficult to direct a child in this type of scene. So I understand why this was changed.

I thought that the acting was ok, but nothing special. I think John Lithgow was underused as Judd and actually, I thought his character was much less likable, than Judd in the book. I would give a special mention to the child actor who plays Ellie, as I thought she played her role well.

Now, let's talk about the ending. Whilst I thought the ending of the book was rather questionable, I could understand the thinking behind it. This book's general theme is grief and so Louis' decision to resurrect his wife, illustrates that his grief was so powerful, that he would do almost anything to bring his loved on,e back from the dead.

The ending to the film version though, was very disappointing. For me, Stephen King, not only writes books which satisfy a reader's enjoyment for being scared, but also has other themes and messages running through them too. So, by changing the ending to this film, it kind of took away that sad, powerful message of grief and replaced it with a conventional, 'horror film' ending. This was really disappointing for me, because by putting in that ending, it kind of demeaned everything that the book was trying to do.

This film was ok and had some positive points, but I don't think it does the original book, sufficient justice.