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Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated The Unadjusteds (Book #1) in Books

Jan 20, 2023  
TU
The Unadjusteds (Book #1)
Marisa Noelle | 2023
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
11 of 235
Kindle
The Unadjusteds ( Book #1)
By Marisa Noelle
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

IF YOU COULD ALTER YOUR DNA WITH ONE PILL…WOULD YOU?
THE UNADJUSTEDS is perfect for fans of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Divergent by Veronica Roth, Maze Runner by James Dashner, Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi & The Darket Minds by Alexandra Braken.

When the president declares all unadjusteds must take a nanite, sixteen year old Silver Melody has no choice but to flee the city. She has no genetic enhancements. She is 100% human, and wants to stay that way.

Escaping with her family and friends, Silver plans to hide out and deal with an awkward love triangle while her scientist father makes a cure. But she doesn’t count on her father being captured, on the president setting an immortal army and hellhounds on her tail, or dealing with her crippling anxiety.

Her only chance to recover her father involves teaming up with a new group of unlikely friends and rescuing him before the unadjusteds are wiped out.



Well holy crap that had me hooked! From start to finish I just couldn’t put it down. I love the concept and characters it was a really good YA. This is the second book I’ve read from Marisa and I am really enjoying her writing style. She touches on things that we can all relate to and writes it well. Highly recommended for YA fans. I have to ask would you take that pill?
  
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Bob Mann (459 KP) rated The Death Of Stalin (2017) in Movies

Sep 29, 2021  
The Death Of Stalin (2017)
The Death Of Stalin (2017)
2017 | Comedy
8
7.6 (13 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Death…. Torture…. Child Abuse…. LOL??
Armando Iannucci is most familiar to TV audiences on both sides of the pond for his cutting political satire of the likes of “Veep” and “The Thick of It”, with his only previous foray into directing movies being “In the Loop”: a spin-off of the latter series. Lovers of his work will know that he sails very close to the wind on many occasions, such that watching can be more of a squirm-fest than enjoyment.

Rupert Friend (centre) tries to deliver a eulogy to his father against winged opposition. With (from left to right) Michael Palin, Jeffrey Tambor, Steve Buscemi and Simon Russell Beale.

It should come as no surprise then that his new film – “The Death of Stalin” – follows that same pattern, but transposed into the anarchic and violent world of 1950’s Russia. Based on a French comic strip, the film tells the farcical goings on surrounding the last days of the great dictator in 1953. Stalin keeps distributing his “lists” of undesirables, most of who will meet unpleasant ends before the end of the night. But as Stalin suddenly shuffles off his mortal coil, the race is on among his fellow commissariat members as to who will ultimately succeed him.

Stalin…. Going… but not forgotten.

The constitution dictates that Georgy Malenkov (an excellently vacillating Jeffrey Tambor) secedes but, as a weak man, the job is clearly soon going to become vacant again and spy-chief Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale) and Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi) are jostling for position. (No spoilers, but you’ll never guess who wins!). Colleagues including Molotov (Michael Palin) and Mikoyan (Paul Whitehouse) need to decide who to side with as the machinations around Stalin’s funeral become more and more desperate.
The film starts extremely strongly with the ever-excellent Paddy Considine (“Pride”) playing a Radio Russia producer tasked with recording a classical concert, featuring piano virtuoso Maria Yudina (Olga Kurylenko, “Quantum of Solace”). A definition of paranoia in action!

Great fingering. Olga Kurylenko as Yudina, with more than a hand in the way the evening’s events will unfold.

We then descend into the chaos of Stalin’s Russia, with mass torture and execution colouring the comedy from dark-grey to charcoal-black in turns. There is definitely comedy gold in there: Khrushchev’s translation of his drunken scribblings from the night before (of things that Stalin found funny and – more importantly – things he didn’t) being a high point for me. Stalin’s children Svetlana (Andrea Riseborough, “Nocturnal Animals”) and Vasily (Rupert Friend, “Homeland”) add knockabout humour to offset the darker elements, and army chief Georgy Zhukov (Jason Isaacs, “Harry Potter”) is a riot with a no-nonsense North-of-England accent.

Brass Eye: Jason Isaacs as the army chief from somewhere just north of Wigan.

Production values are universally excellent, with great locations, great sets and a screen populated with enough extras to make the crowd scenes all appear realistic.

Another broad Yorkshire accent: (the almost unknown) Adrian McLoughlin delivers an hysterical speaking voice as Stalin.

The film absolutely held my interest and was thorougly entertaining, but the comedy is just so dark in places it leaves you on edge throughout. The writing is also patchy at times, with some of the lines falling to the ground as heavily as the dispatched Gulag residents.
It’s not going to be for everyone, with significant violence and gruesome scenes, but go along with the black comic theme and this is a film that delivers rewards.