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Louise (64 KP) rated Flame in the Mist in Books

Jul 2, 2018

Flame in the Mist

Renee Ahdieh | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry

7.3

(8 Ratings)

Book Rating

*I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

This was my first time reading anything by Renee Ahdieh, as usual I do things back to front. Her Wrath and the Dawn duology has got nothing but praise so when I saw she had another book coming out I jumped at the chance to read it.I was really intrigued as I heard it was a Mulan retelling and plus the cover is absolutely stunning.

Flame in the Mist follows Mariko, she is 17 years old and is destined to marry, she has had a sheltered life and brought up for the sole purpose to marry to support his social standing. She is on her way to marry a prince from another part of Japan when her litter and convoy are attacked by the Black Clan. Mariko manages to make it out alive, instead of returning home to her family she decides to disguise herself as a boy to find out who tried to kill her and why.

I found this story hard to get into at the beginning, I wasn't totally gripped and didn't have the inclination to carry on reading. I didn't know what to expect with Renee Ahdieh's writing style but I was pleasantly surprised and she had this knack for creating an atmosphere and world building. The downfall to this book was that Mariko was a very boring character. We were told how smart she was several times but we wasn't shown. She was headstrong and knew that she was born the wrong gender to be perceived as anything other than marriage material.

I liked the romance and loved the buildup of tension between the love birds even if it did have some problems. I didn't see the twist at the end coming. This is supposed to be a fantasy but there were no fantastical creatures and very little magic involved. The Mulan retelling is 'loosely based'.

I think for me I am going to have reread this book at a later date - it didn't hold my attention enough to take a lot of it in. I still would like to read her Wrath and the Dawn duology.

I rated this 3 out of 5 stars

Kudos

Kelly (279 KP) rated Bird Box (2018) in Movies

Jan 7, 2019

Bird Box (2018)

2018 | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi

7.1

(144 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Enjoyable

Contains spoilers, click to show

I had been eager to watch this for some time after reading reviews, and was not disappointed. Having never read the book in which the film is based, I did not know what to expect. I knew that the film was a horror, but am not easily shocked or scared, so was not expecting much from this point of view, however I did find the film enjoyable in terms of the storyline.

The story is based around a reluctant mother, played by Sandra Bullock, who finds she has to raise the child she never wanted as a result of an apocalyptic event. The general premise of the story is that there are creature, which if you see, result in impending insanity and suicidal thoughts. Malorie, the main character seeks refuge in a house with other survivors (who predictably don’t make it to the end of the story) in order to ride out the apocalypse. Realising that her position is not stable, the story also flashes to the future, showing Malories escape towards a safe haven with her son and the child of one of the other survivors. The path to the safe haven is taken blind folded (to avoid looking at the invisible threat), aided by a small box which contains birds, who can sense the presence of the evil. Having seen a fair few horrors, I am pretty desensitised to the use of fear in the movie - basically, I didn’t find it too scary, however I did feel that the story was intriguing.

One of the most interesting aspects of the film was the story of the relationship between Malorie and her children. The reluctant mother never named the children formally until the end, and we see the relationship and her feelings towards them both evolve over the course of the movie.

I felt that this was one of the better roles Sandra Bullock has played, and she acted well throughout the movie, her scenes that portrayed uncertainty and fear were believable and she evolved the character well as the story line develops.

Would I lose sleep after watching this, no- the film was not that scary, but ultimately I found it an enjoyable story with a sweet twist at the end. I look forward to reading the book next.