Search

Search only in certain items:

    Toca House

    Toca House

    Education and Entertainment

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Welcome to Toca House! Help the five friends to do fun chores around a cosy house. Let your kids...

On the Come Up
On the Come Up
Angie Thomas | 2018 | Young Adult (YA)
8
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
This was an excellent follow-up to THE HATE YOU GIVE. Man, Angie Thomas can just flat out write, and the characters and worlds she creates are second to none. This book occurs in the same neighborhood as THUG, picking up a year after the riots. The neighborhood is still reeling, and nothing is quite the same.


"I'm a hoodlum from a bunch of nothing."


Bri is a wonderful character--a realistic teenager struggling with her love life and school, as well as the systematic issues of poverty, racism, drug dealing, and more facing her neighborhood, peers, and family. She's severely affected by what happened to her parents: the death of her father, who is famous in the Garden, and her mom's past drug use. The book does a great job of showing the pressures on everyone in Bri's family--her older brother went to college, but is back, living at home and working in a pizza shop, trying to help his mom out. Her mom is still paying for her past sins: trying to get a job isn't easy, nor is it easy to keep the faith of your teenage daughter, who calls her mom by her first name. And Bri--well she wants to become a rapper and earn money to get her family out of poverty. As such, she doesn't always make the best choices. And, to her, it almost seems like rapper is the only choice for freedom.


"That's how it goes though. The drug dealers in my neighborhood aren't struggling. Everybody else is."


Don't get me wrong, though. While this book is beautiful and does such a great job at showing so many of the challenges facing Bri and the Garden's community, it's also an engaging and funny read. As I said, Thomas is such an amazing writer. The church scenes in this novel are priceless: I was laughing at loud at some points. And Bri is just so vivid in her characteristics. She's a self-proclaimed "nerd" who loves things like Star Wars and some of her references and jokes in the books are just hilarious.

The supporting cast in this one is great--Bri's brother, her friends (including a gay BFF!), Aunt Pooh, the church biddies, and more. They all jump off the pages just like Bri. Much like THUG, this is a story of family at its core and even if you'll want to shake Bri for some of her bad decisions, it's pretty much impossible not to love her, her family, and her friends.

Overall, I really liked this book. It's well-written, tackles some serious topics in a great way, and yet is funny and poignant as well. I highly recommend it. 4+ stars.
  
Guarding His Melody (Enhacned World #1)
Guarding His Melody (Enhacned World #1)
Victoria Sue | 2018 | LGBTQ+, Paranormal, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
loved this addition to this world!
Independent reviewer for Divine Magazine, I was gifted my copy of this book.

This is billed as book 1 in the Enhanced World Standalones series, but you don't need to have red the 3 books in the main series, before this one. I have listened to book one, Five More Minutes, and am currently part way through book two, Who We Truly are and will get to Beneath This Mask after that. Mild spoilers, is all. and a hint at what I have to come.

After getting meningitis as a child, Seb is left deaf. Throw in mark of the Enhanced that appeared when he was 12, and life has thrown him a double whammy. When there are death threats, Seb hires Gray as a bodyguard. But the Threat is getting worse, after the death of his previous bodyguard and that of his music teacher. If Seb could shake these crippling headaches, and just play his piano, he'll be happy.

I'm really enjoying these books! They are different and different is always good in my book!

Seb is pretty much housebound, but the first thing Gray does, is drag him out of bed at stoopid o'clock to do Tia-Chi in the garden. Helped him, so gotta be worth a try, right?? And that there, is what I particularly LOVED about this book.

The HINTS at what Gray suffered. You don't get the FULL story, not at all, just hints and clues along the way that make you put together a picture, a bigger picture at what Gray suffered, HOW much he suffered and how he got through it. But you just know, that someone else will put together a different picture, with the same clues. And I LOVED that!

Seb's threat isn't who I thought it was, but it was just as bad. I do love being proven wrong!

The chemistry between Gray and Seb bubbles along for much of the book, and I did, at one point, think we wouldn't get to the main event, but we do, and it is glorious!

Talon and Finn (Five Minutes Longer) pop up at the end, and the others are mentioned at various places in the book, so ties the books together.

The Enhanced status of Seb plays very much second fiddle to his deafness.
But I'm not left wanting to LISTEN to this book. Nick J Russo narrates the other books, and I hope he does this one too. I'm eager to see how Seb's voice comes across.

I originally wrote 4 stars at the top of the page (and yes, i do WRITE them up by hand before I post them!) but, actually, I can't find anything to knock that star off, so...

5 full stars!

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
  
Aeon Flux (2005)
Aeon Flux (2005)
2005 | Action, Sci-Fi
Story: We get a future world where humans have been nearly wiped out by a virus, good start. We have information about a dictator who has taken over because he had the cure of the virus and making sure his family stays in charge, Aeon is hired to kill him so a change can happen, but the first of many twists stops this. We have two people that both sides in a potential war want dead but these two hold the secret that could save mankind forever. We have seen it all before and in the future world we struggle to see a truly original idea, the twists save this from being plain boring but with very little use of supporting characters we don’t get much here. (6/10)

 

Actor Review

 

Charlize Theron: Aeon Flux deadly assassin who is assigned to kill Trevor Goodchild, but when she has a past connection with him she helps him uncover a truth that can change the future forever. Solid performance trying to make something out of a little known source material. (7/10)

 aeon

Marton Csokas: Trevor Goodchild leader of the people who has cured the remaining people of a deadly virus but he is still working to uncover a truth that could save the peoples real future. Good performance in the supporting scientist role. (7/10)

trvor

Johnny Lee Miller: Oren Goodchild brother of Trevor who has always supported him but when the future could change he plans to take over and keep things running as before. Good villainous role wanting to make sure he can live forever. (7/10)

 ohnny

Director Review: Karyn Kusama – Creates a basic entertaining film that never really challenges the audience. (5/10)

 

Action: Plenty of action but most is the same each time. (7/10)

Sci-Fi: Interesting look at the future after a virus that looks at many different parts of it including improving surviving. (7/10)

Settings: We are in one city for the whole film but it really doesn’t get used as well as it should have been. (6/10)
Special Effects: Basic special effects used in Aeon Flux with most of it being upgraded technology. (7/10)

Suggestion: I think this could be tried, it isn’t as good as it could be but can be entertaining at times. (Try It)

 

Best Part: Aeon entering a poisonous garden.

Worst Part: Been here seen that.

Action Scene Of The Film: Final battle

Believability: No (0/10)

Chances of Tears: No (0/10)

Chances of Sequel: No

Post Credits Scene: No

 

Oscar Chances: No

Box Office: $52 Million

Budget: $62 Million

Runtime: 1 Hour 33 Minutes

Tagline: The future is flux.

 

Overall: Fun but not original action

https://moviesreview101.com/2014/11/16/aeon-flux-2005/