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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated The Death of Mrs Westaway in Books

Mar 10, 2019  
The Death of Mrs Westaway
The Death of Mrs Westaway
Ruth Ware | 2018 | Mystery, Thriller
8
7.0 (7 Ratings)
Book Rating
Spooky & fun read
Things aren't going well for Hal, who has been struggling financially and emotionally since her mother passed away. So when she receives a letter stating that she's a beneficiary to a well-sized inheritance, she thinks it may be the answer to her prayers. She also quickly realizes that the letter was sent to the wrong person, but she hopes to use her abilities as a tarot-card reader to claim the money. Once at the funeral of her supposed "grandmother," Hal finds herself drawn to her fake new family, something she never had growing up. She also starts to feel like something is off about the supposed situation and the odd, imposing home where they are all residing.

This novel wasn't what I was expecting, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It's a creepy, almost gothic book--not your typical whodunit--but more a slow-burning thriller in a Agatha Christie type style. The star of the show is Harriet, aka Hal, whom the book focuses on and who is our narrator for the majority of the novel. We get most of the story from her point of view, with the exception of excerpts of diary entries from the 1990s. Luckily Hal is an interesting character, even if she's in a bit of trouble, having borrowed money from some disreputable sources, and basically just being over her head since the death of her mom a few years ago. She's young and while it seems insane that she'd go off on this quest to claim an inheritance that isn't hers, you can sense and understand her desperation.

Once Hal arrives at Trespassen, the imposing yet decreipt mansion of the woman who is supposed to be her grandmother, the gothic style of the novel ratchets up, and it is really quite eerie at times. We get introduced to a trio of men who should be Hal's uncles, if she was who she claimed. The cast of characters is limited and the story isn't fast-paced, per se, but I found it quite compelling, as the reader, along with Hal, is trying to work out a variety of things. We realize that Hal does have ties to this family, but nothing is truly as it seems, and all is creepy and foreboding.

Overall, I enjoyed this one. It's a bit slow at times, but still quite interesting, and I enjoyed Hal's character. It's spooky and a fun read.
  
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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Her Pretty Face in Books

Mar 10, 2019  
Her Pretty Face
Her Pretty Face
Robyn Harding | 2018 | Mystery, Thriller
8
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Compulsively readable with some great twists & turns
Frances is struggling. She feels overweight and socially inept, struggling to keep up with the beautiful, wealthy mothers at the fancy private school, Forrester Academy, that her son Marcus attends. That struggle is made even harder by an incident with Marcus and a classmate, Abbey Dumas, that sets the other moms against her. Even worse, no one knows about a horrible event in Frances' past that haunts her: not even her husband, Jason, and Marcus. But she feels rescued when she forges a friendship with a beautiful mother, Kate Randolph. She's funny, irreverent, and almost seems to recognize a kind of darkness in Frances. Suddenly, life at Forrester--and life in general--seems bearable. Meanwhile Kate's teenage daughter Daisy feels as if her mother has stopped loving her. Every few years her parents uproot her and younger brother to move yet again. What is the purpose of trying at school--in life--she wonders? Then a startling discovery comes to light, changing everything for Frances, Kate, and Daisy.

The format of this novel makes it an incredibly quick read: we get present-day events told by Frances and Daisy, interspersed with snippets told by a young boy named DJ, whose older sister, Courtney was murdered by a man named Shane Nelson in the 1990s. I found this to be a fascinating thriller: it keeps you wondering the entire time, with some very interesting and unexpected turns. I always appreciate a novel with some twists that I'm not expecting. I especially enjoyed how Daisy grew on me--her character was really well-done and while, at first, she seemed out of place in the story, by the end, she was my favorite, and I couldn't imagine the book without her.

In many ways this is a more character-driven book than a straight-up mystery. While, as mentioned, there's definitely some unexpected moments, there was no explosive ending, which I thought might happen for a while. In the end, though, I think that was appropriate--you become somewhat attached to these characters and Harding does a good job of bringing you into their (often twisted) worlds.

Overall, I enjoyed this one. It was compulsively readable, with some great twists and turns and interesting characters. I've had THE PARTY on my Kindle for a while--this has definitely motivated me to push it up higher in my TBR pile.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review (thank you!)
  
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Eduardo Sanchez recommended Do the Right Thing (1989) in Movies (curated)

 
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
1989 | Comedy, Drama
8.0 (4 Ratings)
Movie Favorite Watch

"Spike Lee’s third film. I had just started doing films in high school and Do the Right Thing came out, and there was just this burst of creativity in a drama, of creative energy, and also just the social commentary, and Spike being in it, and the music, and the color, the production design. Then I read the book on the making of it. I read the book that he wrote for She’s Gotta Have It. I really became, like, a Spike Lee connoisseur, you know? But again, just to kind of open my eyes, it took me from kind of like what we were talking about before, like the shiny effects, you know, that kid of shiny object interest of childhood, to movies that can really make you think, and make you talk, make you think about what is going on, and his social commentary really affected me. It really took me from kind of like a Spielberg/Lucas type of filmmaker toward a more socially conscious filmmaker. I actually did a film that was very inspired by Do the Right Thing called Gabriel’s Dream that never got distributed. But it was about these workers in a particularly hot summer in Maryland, and they were trying to get A/C in their factory, and that was basically the story. Like, workers’ rights. It kind of really took me in a direction that I never thought I would go in. And it never came out, it did some festivals, and we never got distribution for it, this was like early 1990s. But it definitely opened my eyes to the power of cinema as a social statement, as a social tool. And I wrote two or three scripts after that that were very much inspired by Do the Right Thing, kind of touching on social issues. I was really that kind of filmmaker when I was in film school. But then we came up with the idea for Blair Witch and all of a sudden, we became “horror filmmakers.” But still, I love the idea of always having a little bit of the deeper meaning in material. And some films are just for fun and made that way, but there are others where you want to dig a little deeper. If you can get one person coming out of the theater thinking about what happened in the movie, I think it’s great. And Do the Right Thing consumed me. It was such an important film in my upbringing, you know?"

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