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Scouse Gothic: The Pool of Life and Death
Scouse Gothic: The Pool of Life and Death
Ian McKinney | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
107 of 230
Kindle
The Pool of Life …… and Death ( Scouse Gothic book 1)
By Ian McKinney
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Melville wakes with a pounding headache – there had been too many hangovers recently, but this one felt different. What had he been drinking last night? Then he remembered – it was blood.
Enter the bizarre world of Scouse Gothic where a reluctant vampire mourns a lost love and his past lives, where a retired ‘hit man’ plans one more killing and dreams of food, and a mother sets out to avenge her son’s murder, and, meanwhile, a grieving husband is visited by an angry angel.
Set in present day Liverpool, vampires and mortals co-exist, unaware of each others’ secrets and that their past and present are inextricably linked.
But as their lives converge, who will be expected to atone for past sins?

This was a different unique take on vampire and their rivals! 3 vampire lives somehow become entangled with humans including a hitman and a mentally I’ll grieving mother. In a short space in time we see how all these lives collide. It was certainly different and I’m not exactly sure what I feel about it. 3.5 stars maybe instead of 3 or 4!
  
The Northman (2022)
The Northman (2022)
2022 | History, Thriller
10
7.9 (11 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Robert Eggers continues his winning streak with The Northman, surely one of the most visually stunning and compelling movies in recent years. A Viking revenge story presented in his signature style is just cinematic crack waiting to happen as far as I'm concerned.
The first third is a fast moving setup that effectively establishes the characters and shows off quite an epic production. After that, The Northman becomes a tight and slow burning thriller as Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård) exacts a psychologically torturous revenge on the people who killer his father. It's a perfect marriage of powerful character drama, weird imagery, Viking culture and beliefs, bizarre gore, and fantasy set pieces, and it's slower pace ensures that it's utterly captivating.
The whole film looks incredible from start to finish and is complimented by a wonderful music score.
It's all cemented by a stacked cast. Skarsgård is a capable lead for sure, and is just a big walking muscle in this, the manly bastard. Anya Taylor-Joy is great as always, and the supporting cast boasts the likes of Nicole Kidman, Willem Dafoe, Ethan Hawke, and Claes Bang who are all stellar.

I can't heap enough praise on The Northman, another homerun from Eggers. I'd happily call it a masterpiece.
  
ZI
Zombie Insurance ( Book 1)
3
3.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
114 of 220
Booksirens arc
Zombie Insurance ( Book 1)
By Dean Williamson
⭐️⭐️

Emma works for Zombie Insurance, a company selling what she believes to be bogus policies. The growing pile of bills are enough to quiet Emma’s conscience, and, to her, this is merely a job. With her father crashing on the couch of her small, one bedroom apartment, and dealing with the grief of her husband’s death five years prior, Emma is depressed, penniless, and desperate.

During a routine claim inspection, Emma makes the harrowing discovery that she is an unwitting accomplice in the zombie apocalypse. She is forced to contend with the startling discovery that zombies are real and that the movies, video games, and comics ill prepared Emma for dealing with their horrifying nature.

Emma must navigate through her emotions of revenge, sorrow, and loneliness as she faces trials that confront her past. Forgiveness and redemption are available should she summon the strength to take them.

This started well and had such a good concept. But it got bizarre and not in a good way it got way to “clever” and I got bored.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
  
Today Will be Different
Today Will be Different
Maria Semple | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
4
5.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Eleanor wakes up with the resolution that today will indeed be different. She will be a better person, a better mother, and a better wife. She will pay more focused attention to her son, Timby. She will have sex with her surgeon husband, Joe. She will go to her poetry and yoga classes. She will wear real clothes. She will pleasantly lunch with a friend she doesn't quite care for. But it doesn't take long for Eleanor's plans to quickly derail, as a series of mishaps rapidly start to add up: Timby is sick, it appears as if Joe is no longer going to work (and lying about it), and Eleanor's lunch date isn't what it seems, either.

I may be the only person left on the planet who hasn't read [book:Where'd You Go, Bernadette|13526165] (sometimes I'm stubborn about reading "it" books, ok), so I cannot compare this novel to that one. That may be for the best. This is the second novel--in a row--that I contemplated just not finishing, and again, that is so rarely my style. This book felt like a slapdash series of paragraphs thrown together about a crazy woman whose motivations and actions made entirely no sense.

The book veers back and forth in time: while the main action occurs all in one day (the one Eleanor vows will be better), she flashes back to her past, telling the story of her childhood, a long and confusing saga with her sister, Ivy, and Ivy's husband, and how she met her own husband. She also covers her time as working as an animator. It all happens sort of randomly and often in a stream of consciousness. This occurs among the crazy, insane happenings of Eleanor's day, where she sets off a series of bizarre actions that-to me-made no sense and came across as completely irrational. She was not endearing, she was not a little silly: she was just weird and somewhat unhinged, and I'm honestly not sure how she was still allowed to care for poor Timby.

There were a few glimmers about the frustrations of modern motherhood and marriage in this novel, but most were buried by the bizarre ramblings and incoherence of the plot. Some plot pieces were never resolved, some just popped up for no reason, and some dragged on and on endlessly. Maybe I'm just not familiar with Semple's style, but I have to pass on this one.

<center><a href="http://justacatandabookatherside.blogspot.com/">Blog</a>; ~ <a href="https://twitter.com/mwcmoto">Twitter</a>; ~ <a href="https://www.facebook.com/justacatandabook/">Facebook</a>; ~ <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+KristyHamiltonbooks">Google+</a></center>;
  
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Rick Astley recommended Hatful of Hollow by The Smiths in Music (curated)

 
Hatful of Hollow by The Smiths
Hatful of Hollow by The Smiths
1984 | Rock
9.5 (6 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Johnny Marr was quite young around this time, wasn't he? And Morrissey…some people are more lyrical than others and their conversation can use the language more [stylishly]. And he must have found that it came easily to him. But how does Johnny Marr play like that! Even people who hate The Smiths agree that Johnny Marr was a genius. To be honest, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce weren't a bad rhythm section either. How did they do that quite young? I don't know. One of my older brothers was into The Smiths and we shared a bedroom so I heard a lot of their music. We would have been teens about this time. I loved the fact that they were from Manchester. I saw Andy Rourke around this time in town and it made me think 'fucking hell! It happens! I've just seen HIM! He's in this band that are totally credible, cool, has put Manchester on the map and I've just seen him walk out of the Arndale Centre!' And so yeah, we bought records and got drunk in Manchester and it felt like the town was happening at the time. The first time I saw them was on a north west television show and they did 'This Charming Man' and I was like [mouth agape]. We had had the Duran Durans and Spandau Ballets who looked great and were very glamorous and then you're confronted with these guys from Manchester – very ordinary in a way you might actually see them in Manchester but they weren't ordinary in their music. They didn't dress in clothes made by someone in Soho. It was like they got their shirts in Afflecks Palace! It was almost anti-glamour. And that felt very touchable. What do I think of Morrissey now? For me, lyrically he's still incredible. I can't say I know the last album well but I just think, like anybody who is an artist, you can tell a story a number of times and it has a freshness about it but we know Morrissey's way [by now]. I don't want to judge him but I don't really get into what he says off record because sometimes you wonder if he's taking the piss? But I don't know, I haven't really followed it. Is he doing that to create something going? Will he come back and say 'I didn't mean it like that'? Surely he must know [his recent comments around Britain First] are not a cool thing to do. But he's bizarre and thank God he's bizarre. I don't want him to be normal in any way, shape or form."

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