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Bornless Ones (2016)
Bornless Ones (2016)
2016 |
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Take 4 Outrageously good looking guys and gals, A 5th guy with some sort of life challenging disease… Move them into a new out of the way house with a secret history, not to far from an Institution, Have them desecrate and destroy what look to be supernatural symbols boarding up the windows and you have Bornless Ones… Oh and there is scary possession, Craziness and a fair bit of really well done gore, Seriously well done Gore!!!

Now that’s not to say that this movie lacks originality in any way because it really does not. Ok we may have seen the creepy house in the middle of nowhere that scares the crap out of its occupants before, but can we really ever get too much of that. The difference I found was that Bornless Ones is in many ways a spiritual cousin to movies like Evil Dead and in many ways actually betters what has come before in its Genre. One of those ways is the performance our cast put in.



Emily (Margaret Judson – The Newsroom) has decided that she cant look after her Cerebal Palsy suffering brother Zach (Micheal Johnston – MTV’s Teen Wolf) anymore, she is going to move him to an institution. However fearing he is going to be too far away from her, Emily and her boyfriend Jesse (Devin Goodsell) buy a house nearby, the house has a past. Emily and Jesse are accompanied by there friends Woodrow (Mark Furze – Home and Away, Underbelly) and Michelle (Bobby T) to help them move in. That’s when the movie cranks it up to 11 and everything goes nuts as our core characters are taken hold of by a paranormal force one by one and must fight for survival.

My horror kick has absolutely continued into 2017 and Bornless Ones was a fantastic place to start. Its a hell of a lot more Evil Dead than the Evil Dead Remake which sucked and this movie really had me in from the start. It does help that it wastes no time at all, no sooner had they all moved in and the shenanigans began.

Alexander Babaev has done a great job on Directing and Writing with this movie and while it falls into the Indie bracket of movies it deserves to be seen by a wider audience. The acting from our core cast is better than you might expect, infact they all smash it out of the park. The acting once possession has taken hold is creepy as shit and utterly compelling.

Bornless Ones is definitely worth a watch if you are a fan of this genre, it is a lot better than most of the possession movies coming out these days. Give it a try…
  
The Mandore Rose
The Mandore Rose
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Mandore Rose by Cyril James Morris is set in the early 1950s yet, for the most part, it feels like it could be set in modern-day. It also has a prologue from the 1700s but it takes a while for the connection to be made. This book can easily be read in a day or two.

Just Riley is a young Romany girl who is ordered by her elder to take her caravan and run away. This is not because of anything she has done. She must run in order to protect herself from the man pretending to be her uncle after her mother died just so he can steal from her. Just Riley now has to survive on her own with her horse Pixe and her spirit guide, The Bangled Lady for companions. That is until an accident at the beach puts her in contact with Big Pierre and Rhys.

Rhys teaches her how to hunt for crabs and they quickly become friends. Big Pierre owns and works on a crabbing boat and gives Just Riley some work. When Pierre takes Riley with him one day she meets the Monks and Lady Caldey on their island. The Lady agrees to have an instrument repaired for Just Riley and the two feel a bond right away. After learning to trust one another Just Riley learns that they each have a ring identical to the other. It is with these rings and a little bit of luck that they start on an adventure that may lead them to the truth about who Just Riley really is.

What I liked most was how the main character is called “Just Riley”. At first, I found this to be annoying and awkward, but after the reason is explained I fund it to be cute, if not a little sad as well. What I did not like was that I wish the book would have explained the difference between Romany and Gypsey. This is because on multiple occasions people in the book confuse the two and Riley seems to be insulted by that. I feel like many people (myself included) do not know the difference and would benefit from the explanation.

People who enjoy historical mysteries would enjoy this book the most. This book is appropriate for just about all readers even those in middle school. It is not too heavily historical that it is not enjoyable. I give this book a 3 out of 4 ratings. While there is not anything wrong with this book I could not give it a perfect score. The book just was not compelling to read. While it is classified as a mystery it really doesn't have a quality that made me curious about what was happening.

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The Vanishing Season
The Vanishing Season
Joanna Schaffhausen | 2017 | Crime, Thriller
8
8.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Ellery Hathaway is the only female police officer in Woodbury, Massachusetts. She's also the only one on the force who believes Woodbury has a serial killer--one who is picking off people every July. Ellery was once Abby Hathaway, who was kidnapped at fourteen in a very famous case: she was the seventeenth victim of serial killer Francis Coben. And the only one who lived. Now Ellery is convinced these people in Woodbury--who are going missing around her birthday--are tied to her own incident. So she calls the only person she can think of: Reed Markham, the FBI agent who rescued her from the Coben's closet all those years ago. But Reed is battling his own issues. While Ellery's case--and the subsequent book he wrote--made him famous, he's on forced leave after messing up an investigation, and his wife has kicked him out. His most famous moment revolves around Ellery, but did he truly save her? And now they both are about to be sucked back into the case.

Wow, what an excellent start to a series! I loved this book and was drawn immediately to Ellery ("Ellie") and Reed! They are a dynamic duo, with a truly complicated history, and this was a compelling page-turner from the beginning. Schaffhausen has an easy writing style that brings Ellie and Reed to life (along with Ellie's awesome hound dog "Bump"), and I sped through the book in a couple of hours.


"Ellie knew 'touched' could mean gifted or insane. Maybe she was both. But she wasn't wrong, and if anyone out there was ever going to believe her, it was Reed Markham. Because he'd been touched once too."


The story is a dynamic one, tying back to Ellie's original kidnapping, but working in present-day disappearances in the town where she's escaped. Ellie is desperately trying to start over: no one on her police force knows about her old life. (This is the one thing that seems a little crazy--how did that background check fly? And how does she get so far along in these new cases without spilling the beans?)

Still, I'm willing to overlook it, because this is a captivating dark read that keeps you guessing. I figured out a few things here and there, but it in no way diminished my interest. The dynamics between Ellie and Reed are sizzling, and the twists and turns exciting. I love a good mystery/police procedural, and this one did not disappoint. It's deep and creepy, with a powerful lead female character, and I cannot wait to read the next two books! (I finished this book three days ago, and I'm already in the middle of the third book, just to illustrate how much I enjoy this series!) 4 stars.
  
A Good Neighborhood
A Good Neighborhood
Therese Anne Fowler | 2020 | Contemporary, Erotica, Fiction & Poetry
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Oak Knoll is a close-knit multiracial neighborhood in North Carolina where everyone looks out for one another. Valerie Alston-Holt, a professor and single mother, has raised her biracial son, Xavier, there since he was small. Their calm life changes, however, when the Whitman family moves in next door. First they raze the current house and build a "Mcmansion," whose very existence threatens the health of Valerie's beloved historic oak tree. Brad Whitman is a local celebrity, known for his charisma and commercials for his company, Whitman HVAC. His wife, Julia, has long escaped her trailer park days and is now raising her daughters Julia and Lily in a privilege she once dreamed of. But soon the Alston-Holts and Whitmans find them themselves fighting over the oak tree's well-being and then, the budding romance between Julia and Xavier.


"An upscale new house in a simple old neighborhood. A girl on a chaise beside a swimming pool, who wants to be left alone. We begin our story here, in the minutes before the small event that will change everything."


This book took my heart and spit it right out again. Oh my goodness. It's a different, beautiful, and absolutely heartbreaking read. We're told from the very beginning--by our omniscient third person narrator--that something bad is going to happen. And yet, I lived in denial that this was true. I devoured this book in two halves. It's utterly engrossing, and the characters just pop off the pages. The teens, especially. Oh Juniper and Xavier. I will not easily forget either of you.

A Good Neighborhood tackles a host of timely topics, and it handles all of them deftly. Race, religion, sexism, feminism--none of these are exempt in the pages of this novel. We see whiteness as a symbolism for purity, and we watch as Juniper struggles with the set of values being pushed upon her by her mother and stepfather, including a "purity vow" to remain both a virgin and loyal to her future husband. And then there's Xavier, a talented musician, who has been raised by his strong mother after his father's death. She wants so much for her son to do anything, but yet lives in fear because he is biracial. Juniper, Xavier, and Valerie were such powerful characters.

I do not want to give much of the plot away, but I can tell you that this book is heartbreaking and beautiful. It will get you to think about racism and sexism. The strong themes of good versus evil are presented in such a unique and compelling manner. Adding the third-person piece just gives an extra piece to the story. This book is incredibly well-written and will stay with you for quite some time. 4.5 stars.