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Halloween (2018)
Halloween (2018)
2018 | Horror
I got chills
#halloween? while at times extremely #silly is a very enjoyable & fitting tribute to the #johncarpenter original. I must confess I hadn't seen the #original Halloween until a few weeks ago (its 4k release) & found it to be incredibly tense, dripping in dread, unnerving & extremely #creepy with an awesome soundtrack. #Halloween2018 manages to lovingly recreate everything people love about the first one but doesn't manage to do it quite as well. While I did enjoy this film a heck of a lot it does have a lot of problems - first of all the first half fails to create a chilling atmosphere & any tension for that matter, there's just far to many silly jokes/bad humour & the pacing is far to fast with scenes rushing by quicker than a #michaelbay movie. This leaves no time for dread, tension or the #chills the creepy lingering shots the first film brought us & I really hoped it would slow down at some point & thankfully it does. Approaching the second half things take a real turn & the movie really starts to have #fun feeling less like a tv movie & more like a #horror film, there are some great stationary camera shots, cool cinematography moments, great imagery, messy deaths & some really suspenseful stalking scenes with genuinely scary reveals/brutal attacks. Soundtrack wise it also switches it up a bit while still feeling #nostalgic too & there's an amazing garden scene where it really heightens the fear & dread. Themes of #depression & how it can make us feel cast out/alone & how our mental burdens can be passed down & effect our our children are handled well while metaphors for fighting our demons together as a family also feel refreshing & current. Overall its opening 10 minutes are brilliant then the film makes some really bad choices but recovers itself well enough to make it a film that's so worth seeing at the cinema. A big #nostalgia trip done right & with all its flaws looking at the film now as a whole I think it works well & is a great #love letter to #80s #slasher films & to #terminator2 haha. #odeon #odeonlimitless #jamieleecurtis #michaelmyers #killer #gore #horror #scary #retro #fridayfeeling #filmbuff #filmcritic #mask #frightnight
  
Venom (2018)
Venom (2018)
2018 | Action, Sci-Fi
We arnt Venom
#venom is this years biggest flop. Inconsistent, #boring, generic & makes even #spiderman 3 look good in comparison. What wound me up most is the characters/the acting, every single person in this film underreacts not only to situations but to each others presence too. There's simply no #emotion towards anyone or anything, #sadness, shock, #horror & #panic all feel missing from everyone giving each of them a hollow & cartoonish feel. Characters also lack #motivation for any of their actions making a good chunk of them completely disposable. Tone wise its a mess with the sparce #horrific/#dark scenes edge taken away instantly because they are followed by such a #childish/out of place slapstick #comedy vibe. Infact Venoms tone felt more like watching #Jumanji rather than a 15 certificate #film with most of its runtime feeling like an over simplified dumbed down #family film. There's so many inconsistencies too like relationships going from hostile to fine with no explanation, characters figuring things out first time without having found evidence, people appear out of seemingly nowhere on multiple occasions & nobody ever notices any of the #death/destruction being caused around the city. Its all so obvious that it feels like either huge chunks of the film is either missing or someone was really bad at editing & keeping consistency. Action is poor, forgettable, generic & anticlimactic & the cgi #feels cheap, #lazy & unimaginative like a straight to dvd #movie. Plot is borderline offensive its that basic with so many early visual cues to whats going to happen that its really #inteligence insulting at times. #tomhardy is great as always & really seems like he's giving it his all but the bad writing & awful script kill what #charm & likability his character has completely & the interaction between him & Venom lacks punch & believability too. #Upgrade proved this year that you dont need a big budget to make a great film about losing control of yourself & yet Venom with all its backing doesnt even come close to doing anything right. Last years #life would of made a far better venom movie than this. #wednesdaywisdom #filmcritic #stanlee #mcu #comic #marvel
  
Pretty Ugly Lies
Pretty Ugly Lies
Pamela Crane | 2018 | Thriller
8
7.7 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
In “Pretty Ugly Lies” Pamela Crane reveals the lives of four very different women in this dramatic, intimate domestic noir, of which I could not put down, especially upon opening the book to suddenly discover how someone is killing a whole family!

As the story unravelled I found myself really keen to find out who had murdered not just the husband but the kids in such a horrific way! We hear, through the voices of four women, Jo Trubeau, Ellie Harper, Shayla Kensington and June Merrigan, how their seemingly unconnected lives and problems eventually intertwine in this cleverly written tale of domestic bliss gone wrong.

We also hear the evil thoughts of the kidnapper and for me that made this read even more entertaining, sending chills down my spine!

Overall, Pretty Ugly Lies raises some series issues, from kidnapping a child, stalking, and infidelity, to marriage breakdowns, autism, and suicidal thoughts. There’s certainly a huge amount of problems within these girl’s lives and the neighbourhood they live in. I wouldn’t want to live there, however affluent it looked on the outside.

If you love a book full of some pretty ugly lies, then the killer secrets and domestic misery within this dark thriller will have you double checking what’s lurking in the shadows as you read! Not to mention checking where your kids are. A powerful statement of how a twisted, disfigured need for love can evolve into a terrible tragedy with disastrous consequences!

Oh, and as a side-note, I loved how, at the very end of this story, Pamela’s daughter Talia (7) wrote her own version of “The Girl Who Got Kidnapped” and why! It’s such a cute, Grimm Fairy Tale like story, (totally different to the actual book) and pretty well written for such a young age. I can safely put money on Talia definitely following in her mum’s footsteps as a writer herself! I hope I get to see that day!

My thanks to Bloodhound Books and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own and not biased in any way.
  
A History of the World in 100 Objects
A History of the World in 100 Objects
Neil MacGregor | 2012 | History & Politics
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Well formatted, brief chapters (0 more)
When I first read this I didn’t realise that this was a book to accompany a very successful radio show on BBC Radio 4, which is thankfully still available to listen to.
I’ve had this for 6 years and have been reluctant to read this as I have to be in the right frame of mind for certain non-fiction books. Especially ones that seem like they are going to be a stream of facts with not a lot of context, so “A History of the world . . “ pleasantly surprised me. This book isn’t weighed down with facts and history, the author doesn’t go into too much uneccesary detail or waffle on too much. He provides just enough information to peak your interest.

Each object has its own chapter, and each chapter is reassuringly only a few pages long and nicely segmented. Its a bite-size history of the era in which the object was made, the story of the finding the object, and a couple of ‘expert’ opinions on the objects impact on the world.

When I read Non-fiction I like to come away from the experience with a ‘Party fact’ (you know, that bit of useless trivia you tell people at social gatherings to either fill a silence or sound interesting) and I certainly got my fair share with this book.

My party fact would be the flood tablet, the story on the tablet tells the tale of a man who was told by his god to build a boat and load it with his family and animals because a deluge is about to wipe humanity from earth. The thing that made this stick in my mind was that it pre-dated the Noah story by about 400 years.

Of course, since reading I’ve looked into this and found out that there are many flood stories that pre-date Noah, but at the time I was thinking “How does the world not know about this?” “Does Richard Dawkins know about this?” A little research has prevented me from a social faux pas, but still it’s all intriguing.

The History of the world in 100 objects, does exactly what it says on the tin!
  
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Kyera (8 KP) rated Red Rising in Books

Feb 1, 2018  
Red Rising
Red Rising
Pierce Brown | 2014 | Dystopia, Fiction & Poetry, Young Adult (YA)
8
8.4 (34 Ratings)
Book Rating
I did not immediately fall in love with Red Rising. Rather the storyline slowly built over the first third of the book and then I found myself wanting to know what happens next. Darrow’s life as a Red is important to experience so you know what made him the man he is today, but didn’t captivate my attention.

The world that he knows is a lie. He is not the sacrificing pioneer his society led him to believe, but rather little more than a slave. His entire outlook and being is altered so that he may fight his way to the top, and maybe change the Society.

Darrow is filled with love for his people and his family, but does not understand the world at large. He must learn, and quickly, to fit into this new world without losing himself in the process. Each character in the book is unique and contributes differently to the story. Some force Darrow to question his resolve to the cause, others show him a different side of humanity, while a rare few make him wonder if all Golds are bad.

Mustang and Sevro are probably my two favourite supporting characters. Mustang is smart, strategic and caring even though she was not raised to be that way. Her father is the leader on Mars, so she led a sheltered but harsh childhood. Sevro is a strange human, but he grows on you over the novel and his dark humour is infectious.

The most fascinating parts of the book were when he was attending the Institute and proving that he had what it took to become a Peerless Scarred. It was almost a study on the absolute lowest that humanity can sink to, the darkness they can embrace when there are no consequences to their actions and the leaders that can rise despite it. It was disgusting and horrifying at times, but you can’t put it down.

Relationships form and are torn asunder, lies build and fester, and humanity sinks lower. The book was well written and I kept picking it up, needing to know what happened next, despite the darkness. I would recommend it to older young adult/teen readers, or adults, who enjoy science fiction novels.
  
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Zuky the BookBum (15 KP) rated Copycat in Books

Mar 15, 2018  
Copycat
Copycat
Alex Lake | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry, Philosophy, Psychology & Social Sciences, Thriller
8
8.0 (7 Ratings)
Book Rating
Sometimes you come across a really easy to read and exciting thriller novel, that doesn’t take up too much head space, and is alotta fun… Copycat is exactly that! This one really helped me out of a reading slump, hallelujah!

I can’t turn around to you and say this is the most menacing, gripping and terrific thriller I’ve ever read, but I can say that it’s worth picking up if you’re looking for a non-challenging but exciting read.

The characters in this one are nicely developed, but there was a bit of a lack of connection between me and our main character Sarah. I think if I’d been able to get to know her better, I might have had more sympathy for her in parts, but alas. I found a lot of the family related situations to be very realistic, and liked the dynamic between husband and wife.

As for the rest of the story, the plot wasn’t particularly realistic, but that didn’t ruin the book in any way. Sometimes you just need a story to take you away from real life and give you a fun fictional tale to follow. Now, just because I didn’t feel like this one was extremely realistic, doesn’t mean I didn’t find parts of it creepy! Some of the “stalkers” ploys at getting Sarah nervous and afraid were really creative and menacing!

In the end, I had guessed how the story was going to play out, but I didn’t have a reason as to why it was going to play out that way. Even though I had my theory on the “stalker”, which turned out to be correct, I didn’t find this took away from the excitement of the end of the novel. I still got to enjoy the now knowing of how the book was going to conclude.

Overall, I really enjoyed this thriller and would definitely say it’s one to look out for if you’re looking for something a little less challenging, but still just as exciting to read as some other darker, more meaningful thrillers on the market (like Watching Edie or My Sister’s Bones, for example).

Thanks to HarperCollins for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
  
<i>Mean Streets</i> is one of the best anthologies I've read in a while. It only has four different pieces in it, but they're all novellas, and all by strong, experienced writers. I don't think any of them are here riding on someone else's name on the book cover.

Jim Butcher's "Warrior," the first piece, is very good. It follows Harry and the Carpenter family after they experienced some major changes in the last Dresden novel. I could have stood a little more Molly, but Harry and Michael were the focus characters and they worked out some things that really needed to be dealt with. I'm glad I read this before the next Dresden novel, because I feel there's important character development. I seriously recommend this book to all Dresden fans.

I haven't read any of Simon R. Green's novels, though I've heard of the Nightside series and thought about picking one up. If "The Difference a Day Makes" is typical, though, I may not bother. He is a good writer, so I'm not sure what it is that bothered me so much. I know that something framed as one of the nastiest things people could choose to do in this piece isn't even in my top 10, but I feel there's something else that I just can't quite articulate yet.

I've read all three of Kat Richardson's Greywalker novels and enjoyed them enough that I plan to keep reading. "The Third Death of the Little Clay Dog" is my favorite piece of her work, hands down. There's more light, somehow, and that's important to me.

"Noah's Orphans" is my first exposure to Thomas E. Sniegoski, as far as I can recall. It was an interesting piece. I found myself wondering about Remy Chandler's past, about how the character has developed. If there are novels featuring that character, I may give them a read. In any case, it brought up some interesting questions about faith and obedience. I think it would have been more personally relevant to me about 20 years ago, though.
  
The Butterfly Summer
The Butterfly Summer
Harriet Evans | 2016 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
6
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
<i>I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

The Butterfly Summer</i> is the latest novel by the Sunday Times bestselling author Harrier Evans. It is a story full of mystery and secrets that, although primarily set in 2011, whizzes back and forth in time. In London 2011 the narrator, Nina Parr, a young divorced woman of 25, is living with her mother and stepfather in the house she grew up in. In 1986 her father went on an expedition to Venezuela in search of the Glasswinged butterfly where he supposedly met his fate, thus never returned. However, after a brief but strange encounter with a confused old lady, Nina questions the truth about her father’s death.

Other mysteries begin to crop up from this moment forth. Nina hears of a woman named Teddy who she apparently looks like, and learns that the mansion from her favourite childhood book is a real place. But how are these things connected to Nina’s father?

As Nina begins to unravel her previously unaware of family secrets, the reader also learns more about Teddy – her past, her experiences and her connection with a house called Keepsake.

To begin with <i>The Butterfly Summer </i>was exciting and refreshing, the cryptic storyline pulling you in and not letting go. However from the midway point it began to considerably slow down and become rather dull, stale. Nina is such an interesting character that, by contrast, the snippets (rather extensive ones) about Teddy’s past were difficult to plow through.

One thing to commend the author on – although others may disagree – is the limit she put on romantic affairs. For me there was just the right amount of reference to these relationships to provoke the feeling of heartbrokenness yet not to detract from the main storyline.

For those who enjoy women’s fiction of a similar nature (e.g. Jill Mansell, perhaps) <i>The Butterfly Summer </i>is definitely a book to look out for. For me however, even though the first half I really enjoyed (four stars out of five), I had begun to work out the remaining mysteries myself and found the latter half less exciting.
  
The Heart&#039;s Invisible Furies
The Heart's Invisible Furies
John Boyne | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
8
9.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
*I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

As always I do things back to front, John Boyne is famously known for writing ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’,I have not got round to reading this book but have watched the film adaptation and found it heart-breaking. Anyway on to his newest book on the market. This book is delightful, laugh out loud hilarious, an emotional rollercoaster and you will no doubt fall in love with Cyril Avery.

The story is told from our protagonist Cyril Avery, the story starts off when he is still in the womb and how he came to be put up for adoption and then every 7 years thereafter. The whole book follows Cyril throughout his whole life and the struggles he comes across living in Dublin in the 1950’s and coming to terms with his identity and sexuality.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I adored Cyril Avery, he had this awkwardness about him, and seemed to get in some truly awful situations. For him growing up was anything but ordinary, he was adopted by ‘The Avery’s’ but was continuously told that he wasn’t a real Avery and never would be. With his strange adoptive parents, Cyril takes everything in his stride until he meets Julian Woodbead and realises that he might just be attracted to boys.

John Boyne’s writing was breath-taking and I was enchanted from the start – I slowly read this book as I didn’t want it to end. The characters in this book were great and all had amazing personalities. It also shows how homophobic the country was back in the 1950’s and how people were scared to ‘come out’ for fear of being attacked and disowned by family members.

This book does delve in to Irish politics and was something that I had not read before but due to my lack of knowledge was not something that interested me.

This story told by Cyril Avery is about Love, Relationships, Politics, Religion, Violence and Identity.

I rated this 4.25 out of 5 stars
  
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Alice (12 KP) rated Skitter in Books

Jul 3, 2018  
Skitter
Skitter
Ezekiel Boone | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
<i>Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review </i>

This review can be found on my blog <a href="http://wp.me/p5y0lX-1NL">here</a href>

Skitter is part two of The Hatching trilogy and though it did sort of fall victim to the second book in a trilogy trope it was actually pretty good regardless. 

It was a general lull in the mania that was The Hatching that gives you the idea that Boone hasn't finished with the spiders and he hasn't finished telling his story that's for sure. 

Skitter is more of a plateau for Boone to pitch the following ideas of where the story is going to go; it follows the same characters from The Hatching and plenty of new ones as they all experience the changes from the first wave of spiders and the transition to the second wave. 

The survivalists Gordo, Shotgun and their significant others Amy and Fred become integral to the storyline whereas in the first book they were merely amusing side characters. Development of a weapon that is supposedly able to destroy the spiders takes a good precedent. 

Although the series so far has been dark this book was infinitely darker with a lot more death and destruction mostly at the hands of government officials who are in a respect doing what they believe to be the right move.  Agent Mike Rich has holed up with his family on an island in the woods and he's feeling particularly twitchy when some folks appear from nowhere. 

There was some more scientific deductions about these spiders that potentially could not be actual spiders but could actually be spiders - if that made any sense whatsoever yay. It's left open to have the story continued and hopefully the next book will give me the info I crave. 

Skitter wasn't particularly creepy and there was minimal spider action with only a few people being eaten, some weird experiences from civilians and some people jumping the gun with regards to the egg sacs.

In all, the book wrapped up some trailing story arcs nicely and left the story wide open for the next book.