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ClareR (5885 KP) rated The Scribe in Books

Jul 8, 2019  
The Scribe
The Scribe
A A Chaudhuri | 2019 | Crime, Fiction & Poetry, Thriller
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I’ve vacillated between 5 and 6/10, and decided on 6.

I liked this novel about a serial killer who murders female lawyers and butchers them in a most unusual way. It kept me guessing at the identity of the killer until the end, and threw some red herrings in along the way.
What I wasn’t so keen on, was the way in which DCI Jake Carver was portrayed: not very quick on the uptake, relying heavily on the brains of Madeline Kramer who went to the Bloomsbury Academy of Law with the victims. I have no problems with Maddy being involved with solving the crimes, but at the expense of Carvers ability - not so keen.
I do feel that the story was rushed, but this may have been an effect of the serialisation on The Pigeonhole (the book was split into 10 parts over 10 days). If I’d had the actual book, I would have read it in 2 or 3 sittings.
What I didn’t like at all was the general bitchiness of the female characters towards one another. Frankly, the murdered women deserved their grisly ends. Are women who work in high profile jobs in the City really like this? If they are, I’m glad I don’t work there!
In conclusion, this is a fun, quick read, a bit irreverent in places (women in their 60’s are referred to as elderly - err, I have friends in their late 50s, and they’re anything BUT elderly!), but good for a debut novel. I wish the author good luck with her next book, and many thanks to The Pigeonhole for choosing another great book.
  
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
1989 | Horror
3
6.1 (10 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The fall of the franchise.
Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris) now has a psychic connection with Michael Myers, she has visions showing who and where he is going to kill next.

If that sounds dumb to you, then trust me, the movie will feel dumb too.
Halloween 5 feels more like a Friday the 13th movie, filled with dumb teens getting picked off one by one, featuring some unrealistic subplot to distinguish it from other entries.
Gone is the eerie suspense, the music is a shadow of the original's score. Gone too is the tension of asking "where is Michael?" As Jamie's visions literally show us where he is.

 There is also a weird change, in Halloween 4 Leslie L. Rohland played the part of Lindsey Wallace, shown as a friend to both Jamie and Rachel (Ellie Cornell), Leslie did not return for H5. In Halloween 5, they cast Wendy Foxworth as Tina Williams. What's confusing is Leslie and Tina are very similar to one another, they look alike and their characters were similar. In H5 they played off like Tina had known Jamie from before. So it begs the question, if you had to recast why not keep the same character? And if you had to change character, why not cast someone unlike Leslie? I don't know but it's always bugged me.

There are a couple of good things to say about it. Some death scenes are intense and brutal, the ending is good, intense with a decent twist.

Overall though, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is the first entry in the series that really truly disappointed me, mostly due to its dumb story.
  
This was an interesting story!

I love the cover of this book. It becomes more intriguing the longer I look at it. Summer Flash Burn is the second book in Erin Unger’s Worthington Agency series. The stories (so far) follow a group of friends in a detective agency, kind of reminds me of Charles Angels . I had not read the first book in the series before this one. I would definitely say this book can be read as a stand-alone, it does make reference to the first book but not in a way that makes you feel lost.

Based on the description I thought I knew what I was getting in to with this book. However, it took me on some unique twists and turns leading to an ending that was a good surprise. The main characters Christopher and Shauna deal with issues of self-worth, body image, grief, decision making, reliance on God… So many different emotions in this book. They all flow together quite seamlessly to make a good storyline. I loved Shauna’s military backround and her struggles with civilian life, they made her really come to life. I also liked how Christopher worked for the railroad! I have never met anyone who does that. The only thing I didn’t particularly care for was that the characters seemed to be overdramatized in their reactions to the things that happen. Otherwise, it was a fun read and I will definitely be going back to read the first book in the series. Thank you, Erin Unger, for being another new to me author .
  
The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale #2)
The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale #2)
Margaret Atwood | 2019 | Dystopia, Fiction & Poetry
6
8.5 (12 Ratings)
Book Rating
An alright but unnecessary sequel
I very much enjoyed The Handmaid's Tale (the book, never seen the series) however I didn't read it and immediately want more. For me it was one of those books that had such a good open ending that a sequel would ruin it. And whilst The Testaments is a decent and enjoyable book at times, I was right in thinking it is an entirely unnecessary sequel.

The Testaments is set over 15 years after the events of the first book, and for me this is the main problem with this story. The ending of The Handmaid's Tale was so open that you'd expect a sequel to at least follow on from this in a way. However it was disappointing to find out that despite a small mention of Offred and a potential implied suggestion of how her life turned out, this book completely avoids any direct resolution of her story. It's not that the story of the three main characters in this book is uninteresting, as it's not. The story in this is at least interesting and enjoyable to a point, especially as we find out more about Gilead. The teenage girls get a tad irritating at times and I do feel like this drags on a lot longer than it needs to (I may have dozed off reading this on a few occasions), but overall the story is good.

It's just that this is not the story I wanted from a sequel, and I didn't want a sequel at all. Whilst overall it's a decent and entertaining read, it is just entirely unnecessary as a sequel.
  
The Beatles (White Album) by The Beatles
The Beatles (White Album) by The Beatles
1968 | Pop, Rock
9.0 (14 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"The thing about The Beatles, whether or not you think they’re good, as an introduction into like pop music, experimental music and avant garde music, it’s literally like every album is one of those text books you had at school, Beatles 1, then Beatles 2, then you’re ready to more on to Beatles 3. There’s some of their records that with hindsight weren’t particularly interesting, but The White Album is kind of mad. Often you remember it as better than it is, but as a product of what’s possible in terms of releasing music as a hugely popular band, what you can do if you want to do it, I think it’s a really brilliant thing. Without them having done that, someone else would have had to make that idea a reality for the world of music. And it’s got some really good tracks on it! I do think it’s becoming more and more acceptable to dislike the Beatles and that’s what I’m saying – you can totally not like them, but you’ll struggle to find another band that will teach you about music in such a beautiful way. The curious thing about The Beatles, speaking as a musician, is that everything you thought was magic, isn’t magic. They had press and radio people, people to create this event when they arrived in America, it wasn’t this spontaneous thing. I remember watching the Beatles anthology when it came out and finding it incredible, then I watched it recently and it feels really horrible. And you know that they themselves weren’t necessarily nice people, I feel duped!"

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Nancy Whang recommended Silence Yourself by Savages in Music (curated)

 
Silence Yourself by Savages
Silence Yourself by Savages
2013 | Alternative
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I wanted to include something current and with Savages you can hear all these influences of Joy Division, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Wire, etc; this distillation of all my favourite bands from my adolescence. I like being able to hear all of those influences, but although it sounds like their influences it doesn't sound at all derivative. It still sounds new and fresh and fierce. It's four ladies playing this really tough music. I bought the record and I thought it was pretty good, it sounded like it was made for me. And then I went to see them live and I was blown away. It was so tough. It's hard to pinpoint what made it so tough. It's these four women on stage, taking up every corner of the stage, all dressed in black and giving no eye contact to the crowd. They had such presence, you could feel their energy. It was really moving. My boyfriend turned to me during the show and said: ""I'm really enjoying this because it's really good but also because I know 15-year-old you is totally freaking out right now."" And I said: ""She is! She is! I think I might cry!"" In fact the last time I saw them I actually did cry. They did a cover of Suicide's 'Dream Baby Dream' and it was just all too much for me. So after seeing that first show I went back and re-listened to the record and it took on a whole new sound to me. I can now hear all of that energy coming out of the record."

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LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Summer of 84 (2018) in Movies

Sep 26, 2020 (Updated Sep 26, 2020)  
Summer of 84 (2018)
Summer of 84 (2018)
2018 | Horror
Contains spoilers, click to show
I have mixed feelings about Summer of 84, another 80s love letter following in the wake of the cataclysmic popularity of Stranger Things. Probably easier to break this one down into bullet points.

- The four main characters are pretty hit and miss. The actors are all fine, but some of the dialogue and pop culture references seem very forced. They provide the movie with some funny moments for sure, but their characters are fairly cliché and the chemistry goes through some flat moments.
- The story is pretty straightforward and decent, and provides an entertaining mystery, but some of the plot points are odd and a lot of the characters are just insufferably stupid.
- The ending is conflicting as well. Considering the majority of the film is quite comedic and seems intended towards a family audience, the ending is pretty bleak. My initial thoughts were "fair enough, quite ballsy" but now I can't decide whether it was in fact just plain mean spirited. Either way, it left a nasty taste in my mouth, and I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.
- A couple of positives - I really enjoyed the music score, and the cinematography. The film has a lovely aesthetic to it.
- Not sure how the babysitter character was supposed to be portrayed, but she seemed a bit too old for a love interest to the 15 year old protagonist. Made me feel uncomfortable...

Summer of 84 is an entertaining enough psuedo-slasher thriller, but it suffers from pacing issues amongst other things that stops it being as good is it could have been.
  
Paper Girls: Volume 1
Paper Girls: Volume 1
8
8.4 (11 Ratings)
Book Rating
Okay, as I wrote in my Comments for Reading Progress, this was a re-read, as I recently purchased Vol 4 as part of the SDCC Sale this past weekend on Comixology. I may have run through it first time out, because so much of what I read seemed as if this were my beginning go-round instead of a re-read. Hmm.. Time Slip anyone?

So, yes, just as with other BKV-helmed series, the characters are well-defined, given depth that is a progressional unfolding. Each issue allowed for me to see each of the main characters - Erin, KJ. Tiffany and Mac - for who they were and some of their moral fibers, if you will.

As good as Vaughn was at the writing, equally impressive was Cliff Chiang's art. The muted colors (except where needed, as deep red for a wound) really helped the story, making me feel like it was really the eighties instead of 2018! From the cars driven to the newspaper headlines to the housing developments layouts, it felt just like the time frame as the setting!

The easiest way to sum up this series is it is like Netflix's STRANGER THINGS but with all-girl main characters. I recall the later volumes being more science fiction-y as the series progress, but, yeah, definitely like STRANGER THINGS.

All I can say in closing is this is an awesome series! It is a lot of fun, and it is clear during reading it that BKV and Chiang had as good a time making it as I did reading! DEFINITELY CHECK IT OUT!