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    DRAGON QUEST

    DRAGON QUEST

    Games

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    ******************** The game that started the legend of DRAGON QUEST is here at last for mobile...

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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated The Heron's Cry in Books

Sep 16, 2021  
The Heron's Cry
The Heron's Cry
Ann Cleeves | 2021 | Contemporary, Crime, Fiction & Poetry, Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
An excellent, complex character-driven mystery
Detective Matthew Venn is called out to a farm/artist retreat where Dr. Nigel Yeo has been killed. He's found dead in his own daughter's glassblower studio, stabbed with a shard of one of her vases. Dr. Yeo seems like a nice man: adored by his daughter and a public servant, working to help bring understanding between the public trusts. When a second body is found--killed in a similar way--Matthew realizes that he must dig deep into the secrets and lies of his community to find a killer.

I adore this series and the fact that Detective Matthew Venn, our lead, is a gay man. As with all of Cleeves' books, this is an excellent, solid mystery, with an interesting plot and a team whom you can easily become invested in. Each of her characters is well-written, strong, and original. It's so refreshing, honestly, to read a tale without a crazy unreliable narrator but instead one that simply relies on a strong story and excellent characters. There is a slate of people who could be potential suspects, and we also get backstories for our various detectives: Matthew, Ross, and Jen. Everyone is entwined in this small town (and honestly, if I were them, I'd be a bit worried how many people seem to die there! Cabot Cove, anyone?).

This book kept me guessing the entire time, which I love. I was constantly second guessing myself and wondering who killed whom. It was filled with twists, but nothing wild or unbelievable. This is easily becoming one of my new favorite series. 4+ stars.

I received a copy of this book from St. Martin's Press / Minotaur Books and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review.
  
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LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated An Elephant Sitting Still (2018) in Movies

Oct 28, 2021  
An Elephant Sitting Still (2018)
An Elephant Sitting Still (2018)
2018 | Drama, International
9
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
RIP - Hu Bo

Misery porn with gigantism, the most contagiously bleak movie I've ever seen to the point where my mind went to some very dark places of isolation during viewing - and I nearly had to shut it off. The uncomfortable closeness of the shots, the pitch-black subject matter, the merciless length consisting of sparse cuts and only extremely sporadic uses of any sort of music... it all adds into such a memorably unsparing experience. And yes, of course Hu Bo tragically committing suicide before the film was released does cast an unshakeably morbid shadow over the film as well - but there's so much more to it than just that. Still not convinced much of this works though, a lot of the melodrama on display is pretty basic and cloying which initially turned me off from it. But as a technical feat the thing is simply astounding: the long takes are beyond impressive, the performances are all a true feat of acting, the visuals are grim without sucking the beauty out of them, and every song from the score adds into some of the most evocative pieces of music ever used in a film. I can't imagine the kind of discipline it would take to make a film like this, let alone the intelligence. The masterful way in which it never gives up its deep feeling of savage cruelty for almost four whole hours actually even makes the beginning stuff - which at first rang pretty regressive/simplistic (even suffocating at times) for me - retroactively pretty good in my mind. It's rare you see a swing this fuckin' wide and *this* fuckin' confident out of the film industry, a work only capable of a real artist - kills me that we won't get to see anymore films from Bo, a genius with a crystal clear vision.