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Danielle (6 KP) rated A Little Life in Books

Jul 25, 2017  
A Little Life
A Little Life
Hanya Yanagihara | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.0 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
Queer relationships (3 more)
Character driven
Insanely engrossing
Beautifully written
Million trigger warnings (0 more)
Read this months ago and I'm still crying over it
oh my god. this fucking book. IT MADE ME CRY THREE TIMES. AND I'M NOT ONE TO CRY OVER BOOKS.

I loved this book. It was so incredibly engrossing and heart wrenching. I am surprised that I liked this book though because most of the themes in this book (mental health issues, self-harm, self-deprecation, that pretty much all the characters in the book were men) would typically have me going "ehh, this wasn't for me".

As the reader I felt like I was in the same boat as Willem and Harold where we were all in love (in some fashion) with Jude and we all just wanted to shake him and be like "talk to us, Jude! it's okay!".

I also found this book to be unbelievable only because I am doubting how good humanity could be. Like I found it unbelievable that Jude had people like Willem, Harold, Andy, Richard who all just unfaltering were there for him over and over and over again. How did they just not give up on him? Regardless, I think I also loved the book for these same reasons that I found unbelievable.

Also, the cover of this book is just so fucking perfect. I would have the book on my desk at work and I would always flip it over so I didn't have to look at how heartbreakingly sad the man looked on the cover. Then I found on the back sleeve that the photo is titled "Orgasmic Man" and ughhhh it's all just so perfect for this story.

UGH. MY HEART. IT'S TOO HEAVY.
  
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Hazel (2934 KP) rated Unseen: No. 7 in Books

Jan 12, 2018  
Unseen: No. 7
Unseen: No. 7
Karin Slaughter | 2013 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
I haven't read any previous novels with these characters so didn't know any background to them but it didn't seem to matter to me as Karin was adept at shedding light on history but not too much that the story became confusing and bogged down which can happen.

I found it to be an exciting story that, unfortunately, is very plausible in this day and age (wow, I sound like my mum!) and it kept me interested throughout. The descriptions of places, people, situations, injuries, etc were vivid and, I felt, accurate enough to enable me to develop detailed pictures in my mind as I was reading which made it all the more real.

Some of my thoughts on the main characters:

Lena - I didn't like her at first but once the character started to develop I found myself on her side and defending her like she was a real person.

Sara - annoying but likeable in a strange way. She came across to me as quite a hard and unforgiving person but I think I warmed to her in the end.

Will - my favourite loved him - a very complex character that I want to know more about. A tough exterior with a very soft centre and a good heart; brave and fearless and someone you would want on your side.

There was one negative that I found and it was that I thought the chapters were way too long - I hate stopping midway through a chapter but if you only have a short amount of time to get a few pages read, you have to with this book which I found quite frustrating.

Overall though, I enjoyed it so much I will be reading more and would definitely recommend to people who love a fast paced crime thriller.
  
'Master and Commander'
'Master and Commander'
Patrick O'Brien | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Believable Characters (0 more)
Difficult to get into, Technical Sailing Vocabulary which was difficult to understand (0 more)
An Interesting Maritime Adventure
This book was recommended to me by a friend who has read all of the books in the series and this, is the first. I thought because I had watched the film version of this novel, that I knew what the story was going to be about, but the book is very different from the adaptation.

At first, I found this extremely difficult to get into. After about 100 pages I actually put this book down, because I found the maritime vocabulary, impossible to follow. However, I decided to pick it back up again and actually, when the character Stephen Maturin, the ship's doctor, comes into the story, I found that, because he was a novice with ships, he was asking questions about the different mechanisms etc of the ship and that helped me to feel that I had some idea of what it was all about.

I also found some of the battle scene a little bit static and difficult to visualize.

Even though this was a challenging book, I really like the relationship between Stephen and Jack Aubrey, the ship's captain. The writing was very humorous at times and I also liked how some of this book featured places in the Mediterranean that I'm really familiar with.

Being the first in the series, I'm sure as the novels progress, I might find this easier to get into. I won't be rushing out to read any more at the moment, I think you need to be in the right mood to read them. However, I may read more of this series in the future.

My Rating ***
  
Grave Encounters (2011)
Grave Encounters (2011)
2011 | Horror
5
4.0 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
A few good jump scares (0 more)
Found footage done to death (0 more)
Found footage is here to stay
Even though it has been done to death over the last few years there is still something unnerving about found footage horror. Now and again I like to go back and dip my toe in it if anything for the enjoyment of scaring myself shitless for a few minutes.

Recently I came across Grave Encounters. For the first half, it’s a tense thriller the second it completely loses its way, nothing more than abject horror. The premise is too good to be true. While taping an episode of their ghost hunting reality show a group of paranormal investigators get a little more than they bargained for inside an abandoned mental hospital.

Watching an empty space in the dark via night vision camera may seem like flogging of a dead horse but as an audience, we still find ourselves hypnotised. The standard set up unravels brief character development, although we don’t really care too much as we know they aren’t going to be around for much longer.

As the group move from one room to the next with increased frustration that nothing is manifesting itself the shit really hits the fan when they discover they can’t actually get out. Cause for panic as each one is picked off leaving one loner to discover the horrors the hospital is hiding.

It’s not all bad. The acting is more solid than most and there are some good scares, many however are all too predictable. It’s safe to say that found footage genre is here to stay, all that needs to be done is to weed out the good from the downright awful.
  
The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
6
7.7 (10 Ratings)
Book Rating
This book was an excellent history lesson. I seriously learned things I didn't previously know about our nation during slavery. I would highly recommend the book for that reason.
It was easy to read and hard to put down, but I also found it very impersonal. There were a lot of "action sentences" and not much reflection or introspection. The book is written in third person, which may be why I found myself reading about rape and mistreatment without flinching. I also considered maybe the author was trying to show the reader that most people born into slavery during that time had become so accustom to seeing other people mistreated that they showed very little reaction. Either way, it's not a novel that will cause you to reflect on it for weeks to come, which is ultimately what I expected.
  
Marvel's Jessica Jones - Season 2
Marvel's Jessica Jones - Season 2
2018 | Drama
My unpopular opinion for today is that I was not impressed by Jessica Jones Saeson 1. A lot of people's highlight is Kilgrave, but I found him one-note and boring. And the lead character, Jessica, doesn't really grow and neither do the characters around her.

Enter Season 2, characters that actually change throughout the story. And not just Jessica. Hogarth, Trish, Malcolm. They all experience real growth and I interesting ways.


I was blown away by the midseason twist. That was when I was totally sold.


I will admit that I was a little disappointed with the ending, of for no other reason than found it anticlimactic. That's the final point it didn't get. But as far as keeping me involved in the characters for 13 episodes, I think they nailed it. Can't wait for Season 3.
  
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Chloe (514 KP) rated Rampage (2018) in Movies

Mar 14, 2019  
Rampage (2018)
Rampage (2018)
2018 | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
underated
I found this film very underrated. everything from the especial affects to the actor has a big box office hit written all over it and on top of that it has a great plot. and yet to my surprise this movie did not make it up there with the big movies of the year.
I found myself so disappointed that those around me had not watched the movie and I had no one to talk about it with this is honestly my biggest complaint and its not even about the movie more about the lack of advertisement of this movie.

I would recommend this film to anyone kids and adults; family's and singles. Although to be honest maybe I'm a little biased due to this film including Dwayne Johnson but then isn't everyone biased when it comes to him?
  
Fallen Academy: Year One: Volume 1
Fallen Academy: Year One: Volume 1
Leia Stone | 2018 | Paranormal, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
10
9.0 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
Great story (1 more)
Characters with different personalities
I picked this book up due to some friends who said it was good. I didn't think much about it until the story sucked me in. I really enjoyed the take the author had on the Heaven versus Hell aspect and how it affects humanity. This book had me wanting to finish it in one sitting. I enjoyed how Brielle and Lincoln seemed to be at each other's throat constantly. Brielle and Shea were my favorite character duos. I found it inspiring on how much Brielle was willing to risk, not just to ensure her freedom but to protect those she cared about. This book held suspense, romance, comedy and lots of action. I found it hard to put down and even more upsetting when my Kindle died. I definitely recommend it to everyone.
  
Blackberry Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen, #17)
Blackberry Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen, #17)
Joanne Fluke | 2014 | Mystery
8
8.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
It's been four months since Hannah last found a dead body, and the only thing on her mind is getting her mother to settle on something for her wedding. That is until a sever summer storm forces Hannah to lose control of her car and hit a man, killing him. But no one recognizes him. Who is he? And what was he doing in Lake Eden?

There is little that changes in the lives of the characters, but I still enjoyed visiting them again since I found them their normal charming selves. The cliffhanger at the end definitely made me want the next book out soon. Can't believe I have to wait a year to find out what happens next.

Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2014/03/book-review-blackberry-pie-murder-by.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.