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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper in Books

Feb 13, 2018

Lizzie Pepper became a famous actress as a teen -- growing up before America's eyes on her TV show. Eventually Lizzie meets America's most famous movie star, Rob Mars -- and quickly their courtship and marriage becomes tabloid fodder and her life changes forever. At first, Lizzie is head over heels in love with Rob and all that he brings: romance, lavish trips, and instant stardom. But soon, her life is taken over by Rob's wealth and fame -- his constant absences, a complete lack of privacy, and a world overshadowed by Rob's total commitment to One Cell Studio, a form of study and practice that nears cult status. Once they have children, Lizzie begins to doubt everything about their relationship -- and what her husband stands for.

This was a fun book. Written by Hilary Liftin, a celebrity ghostwriter, Lizzie is a really enjoyable and insightful character. The book is clearly supposed to be based on Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. I kept imagining Rob Mars as a creepy twist between Tom Cruise and Rob Lowe, which was a little frightening. The One Cell piece is oddly disconcerting, as it's supposed to be, and made me want to delve more into the weirdness that is Scientology. Lizzie's evolution was fun to read about (I enjoyed, on a personal level, that she had twins) and she remained a realistic and relatable character, despite being elevated to movie star status. It truly makes you think about some of the insanity that movie stars have to go through, especially those that have children. It also gets you thinking about various religious cults and the power they have over people. In the end, probably a 3.5 star book, as it's a quick, fun read, but with a surprising depth behind it in places. After all, in the end, a marriage crumbling is a marriage crumbling, even in Hollywood.

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Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa, Shaan M. Raza and Edward R. Laws

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Sophia (Bookwyrming Thoughts) (530 KP) rated The Fall in Books

Jan 23, 2020

The Fall

Bethany Griffin | 2014 | Young Adult (YA)

6.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

*puts on best announcer voice* Ahem.

I'd like to present to you the most confusing book of the year, The Fall by Bethany Griffin. It's a very odd and peculiar book based on Edgar Allen Poe's short story, The Fall of the House of Usher. In Griffin's retelling, Madeline Usher believes that she can break the curse on the Ushers, but then she wakes up in a fabulously claustrophobic box called a coffin.

In all seriousness, The Fall is actually a retelling on one of Poe's stories that I didn't actually read, but watched instead (so bad, it was good). From reading the synopsis of Griffin's retelling, it sounded like Madeline Usher had spent most of her life trying to break free from the curse.

I ended up with something different. At least, that's what I would probably end up with if I actually made it to the end of the book, which I chose not to. I totally admit I peeked at the last few pages just to see what would happen, and it was nothing special.

Griffin starts us out right when Madeline wakes up in a coffin. The rest of the book, however, is all flashback from Madeline's childhood, starting from when she was nine. It's a little out of order, but has a pattern to it in a way – one chapter is nine, the next is fifteen, and occasionally there's a diary/journal entry from Lisbeth Usher. I'm no fan of chapters being even remotely out of order (they can get confusing when you're busy and come back to the story a few days later), but at least Griffin had a pattern.

At least, until about page 150. WHERE IS THIRTEEN AND WHY ARE YOU SKIPPED.

Of course, we go back to thirteen in the next chapter and continue the pattern. In my little game of peek-ahead, I found out there is no particular pattern. My hypothesis to all this is Griffin portraying Madeline's madness increasing as her age increases. As Madeline grows older, she becomes madder. How's that for implementing science?

Anyways, about 50 pages later, I'm pretty much going, "Your point is..?" in a very uninterested mental voice that may or may not include a mental eye roll or two in the process. Here's all that I've found out from what I read:
<ol>
<li>Madeline wakes up in a coffin – Go figure.</li>
<li>She and her brother Roderick is cursed – Knew that.</li>
<li>The House of Usher is, well, alive – Knew that.</li>
<li>The House of Usher is malicious – Knew that, but this was ten times creepier from the cheesy short film.</li>
<li>Madeline has a desire to break the curse on her family – It's very subtle.</li>
</ol>
In the long run, The Fall is written in a scattered format (see my hypothesis!) to emphasize the fact that the House of Usher is alive, malicious, and will do anything to keep an Usher within its walls for all eternity. It's nothing remotely impressive if you read or watched the original.

And this is when the book club kills me.

<a href="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/dnf-review-the-fall-by-bethany-griffin/"; target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>