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Lou Grande (148 KP) rated Sarah in Books

Jun 29, 2018  
Sarah
Sarah
J.T. LeRoy | 2001 | Fiction & Poetry
5
6.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
There is so much wrong with this book, and not just because it features a victim of child sex trafficking as the protagonist. The story of JT LeRoy is more interesting than Sarah. LeRoy doesn't exist. The person writing these books was a white woman in her forties. However, she claimed to be someone like the character in this book: a male or intersex child prostitute raised by a drug addicted mother. The media EXPLODED over this. Garbage wrote a song about these characters ("Cherry Lips" on Beautiful Garbage); Asia Argento adapted Sarah into an unsuccessful film, and Gus Van Sant designed the cover! When it came time to make a media appearance, she hired her sister-in-law, who was kind of masculine, to portray the "character" of JT LeRoy.

Thing is, this book is basically Hogg by Samuel Delaney. He's a gay man who wrote a similar book three months before the Stonewall Riots. It's full of anger and rage, and it's more depraved and weird than anything LeRoy could conjure up. The parallels are clear: both feature underage protagonists who are largely nameless and passive, used for sexual purposes, usually at the hands of truck drivers. And Hogg is better in every way. It punches you in the face, where Sarah pulls back at the last second.

Is the story fun to read? Sure, in a sick kind of way. But the fact that it was done before, and better, and by someone who lives in the LGBT community, makes it hard for me to stomach. As it is, this feels like LGBT fanfiction.
  
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Haley Mathiot (9 KP) rated Triangles in Books

Apr 27, 2018  
Triangles
Triangles
Ellen Hopkins | 2012 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.7 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
The thing about Ellen Hopkins is she writes about the stuff that everyone knows happens, but nobody is willing to admit to. She gives emotion and reason to why people make the choices we do, and what they feel like in the middle of a messy hurtful situation. She is the opposite of happyland syndrome. She tells it how it is.

I had read a little bit of Hopkins's work before: I started Crank (When I say started I mean read the first few pages) and loved it, but I was busy and never got the chance to get into it. But I got an ARC of Triangles, so I sat down and read it—and after one page I was hooked.

If you've been reading my blog at all, you know I'm not a person who likes stories about love gone wrong and marriages failing and extramarital sex etc. because I'm a Christian, and a romantic, and a softie (read 'wimp'). But I went ahead and dove into this book, because I knew Hopkins is a good writer.

It surpassed my expectations. I should have expected her to be this awesome, since obviously she's pretty famous and everyone else figured it out before I did, but I really am blown away, not only by her blunt yet graceful storytelling, but by her nerve to tackle the stories nobody wants to tell: a dying child, a gay son, a pregnant teen, sexual disease, threesomes, a woman sleeping with her best friend's husband… it's all in here. Yet, it's not plot overkill. She made it work. Somehow.

Though, be warned. Since she does say it like it is, this book is not for the easily offended. But if you're willing to look past the content, there's a gem waiting for you about forgiveness, hope, and what love really means.

Content/recommendation: explicit sexual content, swearing. Ages 18+
  
Murder, D.C.
Murder, D.C.
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Sully Carter is a journalist in Washington, D.C. When he starts to investigate the murder of Billy Ellison, the son of a prominent African American family in the area, he finds out a lot more information then he had planned to. With so many questions about this death and curious circumstances about talking to the family about it, Sully is determined to get to the truth, even if his own life may hang in the balance because of it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Viking for the opportunity to read and review this book. This is the first book I have read by Neely Tucker and I look forward to more that he has. I enjoy reading books in and around Washington DC as I have lived in this area most of my life.

This book had a very interesting story line and a few twists and turns along the way. Billy Ellison is gay and his family is very well known throughout the DC area. His family wants him to follow in his father's footsteps and become a lawyer, but this isn't something he is interested in. He enjoys exploring his family's rich and illustrious past in Washington, but then he discovers something very disturbing. After his death, Sully Carter, picks up where Billy left off and tries to find out what in the research could have gotten him killed. As Sully gets closer to the truth, his life is on the brink of ending as well.

In the book, Sully works for "The Paper" not sure which that would be, but I'm assuming its the Washington Post, the largest in the area. Sully is a character who you can love or hate, really. He didn't grow on me too much. The story overall had a good plot, but there were parts of it that my eyes read but my brain did not digest.

Overall the book is good and if given the opportunity, I will read more books by Neely Tucker.
  
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Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Cold Pursuit (2019) in Movies

Jun 22, 2019 (Updated Sep 25, 2019)  
Cold Pursuit (2019)
Cold Pursuit (2019)
2019 | Action, Drama, Thriller
What can I say about Cold Pursuit? It's bad. Unfortunately it's not in the "so bad it's good" category.

From its opening with an Oscar Wilde quote and music that sounds like a mix of the 80s and Sherlock Holmes I was intrigued. I knew I wasn't expecting a masterpiece but I had hoped for something entertaining at the very least.

One thing that I was quickly baffled by was the between scene captions, a terrible font pops up with the relevant information and then it blows away as if made by snow... but not every time. I did wonder if even the graphics people got bored of doing it.

SOP for me and new movie releases is that I make 2 A5 sides of notes, for Cold Pursuit I made 7... SEVEN... and the general consensus of most of them was "WTF", "ridiculous" and "why?!" In fact those were probably the most used words on all the pages.

The characters are all over the place. Viking's relationship with his son, the token gay relationship that felt like it had just been wedged in and White Bull's gang dubious frolicking... I just don't even know what to say about it.

I can't sit here and list all the bizarre things, neither of us have the time for that so let's skip to the things I enjoyed. There are just three things, much quicker than covering the other stuff!

Wingman's wife was a star for me, and that nail sharpening technique was inspired... totally stealing that.

One of the scenes has Coxman chasing his next target with his snowplow. He comes up on him quite menacingly and then the film did a great job of fooling me, I was expecting one thing and given another. That part of the scene came together quite well, it's just a shame about what followed.

Viking's son was surprisingly wise in almost all of his scenes, very laid back, just going with the flow. Out of all of it though I loved the scene about fantasy football when he's talking with Mustang. It was was a nice little addition.

That's it, I'm done with the things I liked.

The cinema was "full" when I saw it. There were 30-40 people, which for our cinema and this type of film on opening night in a small screen, wasn't bad at all. There were old and young, there were people who snored and people who laughed, I fell into neither of those last categories. Honestly I was in too much shock to do anything other than pick my jaw up off the floor.

Ultimately Cold Pursuit is another prime example of why you shouldn't put some of your best scenes in the trailers. The whole thing could probably have been sold on lesser scenes in the trailer and then the impact of the bigger ones would have potentially given it a few more stars.

What you should do

I can't in good conscience recommend this to anyone, Neeson has performed much better acts of revenge in many of his other films... just watch one of those... perhaps from behind a snow globe to make it seem like you're watching Cold Pursuit.

Movie thing you wish you could take home

Please could I have Coxman's ability to get into places where he clearly doesn't meet the dress code.
  
Architecture & Morality by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
Architecture & Morality by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
1981 | Pop
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"There are certain bands that are hard to talk about, OMD, Simple Minds, where their earlier records were just phenomenal, and later on they made records that were too commercial and not quite as strong as their earlier ones. The first OMD album, Dazzle Ships and Architecture & Morality were flawless. They were beautiful, experimental, inspiring records, then a few years on they were making music for John Hughes movies, and they were good at it and I'm glad that they had success with it, but it wasn't nearly as creatively inspiring as the first three records. Architecture & Morality, I mean it's not hard to overdo the hyperbole, but it's a perfect album, so cohesive, and every song perfectly speaks to the other song, the unapologetic emotional quality of it is really inspiring. Even the artwork by Peter Saville, everything about it is perfectly crafted. One of my very odd musical moments was years ago when I was at South By South West in Austin and OMD were doing a reunion show at a BBQ at three in the afternoon, and they asked me to play bass with them. I found myself playing bass with OMD on 'Enola Gay' at a BBQ at three in the afternoon in Texas. It was one of those moments where you told me that actually I'd just done way too much mescaline and I was currently lying on a bed somewhere and making up the whole thing, I'd believe you. It's a shame that a lot of people came to know of OMD through the last couple of records that were more commercial. It's like Simple Minds, the first five albums are amazing, and then they became a stadium rock band. Now you mention Simple Minds and people think about 'Alive And Kicking' and 'Don't You Forget About Me' which aren't terrible songs, but the earlier stuff was experimental and textural and weird. Maybe someone sees OMD on this list and immediately thinks of a John Hughes movie, maybe they'll be inspired to back and listen to Architecture & Morality."

Source
  
The Problem (Single Dad Support Group #1)
The Problem (Single Dad Support Group #1)
Piper Scott | 2018 | Contemporary, Erotica, LGBTQ+
10
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
bloody LOVED this!
Independent reviewer for Gay Romance Reviews, I was gifted the audio version of this book.

I'm turning this review on it's head, writing about the narrator first, cos, you know, I can, it's my review :-)

Michael Ferraiuolo has been a bit of an enigma for me, I either love his work, or hate it, I won't lie. But THIS time? I freaking LOVED it!

Alex has synesthesia, which means he sees his emotions in colour. The whole book, Alex was seeing how Laurence was affecting him, and he wasn't sure what it meant. The best bits of this book were when Alex was describing his colours/emotions, to Laurence, to himself. I have no doubt I would not have been so moved by those scenes, had I READ this book. Ferraiuolo nails it, he really does. Moved me to tears in places!

Laurence is solid, a good man, with his 16 year old son, Matthew. I liked how, very quicky, he was wanting more from Alex, not just for the sex(but PHEW!) no. But MORE. He has lived his life for his son, and in one meeting, Alex makes him see that he still has life to live, that he does not have to been locked away. Matthew is growing, making *quite literally* a life for himself. Laurence needs Alex, and rapidly, Alex sees that he needs Laurence too.

I loved the voices given to all the characters, but I especially enjoyed the voices given to the Support Group when they were chatting. It annoyed me a little bit at first, I will admit, but once I got used to the way the group chats were delivered, I loved them.

When the reason Alex behaved the way he did, before Laurence, becomes clear, I was out walking. And I stopped in the middle of the street, and cried. And cried to whole way through that bit. THEN, when other things happen?? I stopped in the middle of the street, and NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO came out my mouth, so loud, the woman across the road shouted to see if I was okay! I did NOT see that coming at me, no way, never in a million years!

So, yeah, loved the book, and loved the narration.

And now I'm left with a bit of a pickle! This is the only one of the series that is available in AUDIO, the books are out, all 6, but I don't like to flip from listening to reading in a series (or vice versa) So my pickle is, do I READ the next one? Or do I wait (im)patiently for the next one in audio? ARGH! Such decisions!

5 stars for the book
5 stars for the narration
5 stars overall

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
  
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Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated The Wrong Stars in Books

Aug 26, 2018 (Updated Aug 26, 2018)  
TW
The Wrong Stars
Tim Pratt | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Diversity (2 more)
World-building
Amazing alien species
I've watched my fair share of Space Opera (Firefly, Dark Matter, Farscape, Star Trek, Star Wars - don't try to tell me those last two aren't Space Opera, THEY TOTALLY ARE) - but I haven't read much of it. I picked up The Wrong Stars mostly because reviews said it had a demisexual main character, rather than because it's a Space Opera. Regardless, I am SO GLAD I DID. The book is excellent.

First off, the diversity! Over the course of the story, we meet people who are, in no particular order, gay, bisexual, demisexual, asexual, transgender, and non-binary. The story is set 500 years after Earth sends out its first colony ships, and in that time, culture has evolved. Marriage is not common, but contractually-bound relationships exist. Promiscuity and non-monogamy aren't viewed any different than monogamy, and in the same way, the distinctions between gay, straight, and bi don't carry any negative connotations. It's not a complete utopia - it's still a capitalist society, and there is still scarcity - but socially, at least, it has definitely evolved a lot from the present!

Elena, one of our main characters, was a biologist sent out on one of the first colony ships. Stocked with seeds, crude replicators, and cryo-sleep pods, a small crew was sent out, in stasis, on a five-hundred year journey to a system with probable life-supporting planets. They were called Goldilocks ships, in the hope they'd find a planet that was "just right." What humanity didn't expect was that in the intervening five hundred years, they would make contact with an alien species and be given the means for true space travel via wormholes. Some of the ships arrived at their destinations to find human colonies already thriving on their target planets! Elena, however, found something quite different, and it's a very disconcerting difference. She is rescued by the motley crew of the White Raven, and they quickly get drawn into the mystery.

I really enjoyed the world-building and characterization in The Wrong Stars. The science of it made sense to me, but I'm not very versed in science, so I can't really say how realistic it is. It was at least pretty internally consistent. I'd like to learn more about how the AIs are created, though. Luckily, there is a sequel coming! The Dreaming Stars should be coming out this September, and I'm DEFINITELY going to read it.

If you like Dark Matter, Firefly, or Farscape, you should definitely read The Wrong Stars. There's a little bit of light romance threaded into the larger plot, and one fade-to-black sex scene. It's definitely not the focus of the book. There is some violence, but nothing incredibly graphic. I would put it at about the same maturity level as Star Trek.


You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
  
Alpha's Embrace (Omega Misfits #3)
Alpha's Embrace (Omega Misfits #3)
Wendy Rathbone | 2020 | LGBTQ+, Paranormal, Romance
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
a needed addition but falls far flat of the other two books
Independent reviewer for Gay Romance Reviews, I was gifted my copy of this book.

This is book 3 in the Omega Misfits series, but you don't need to have read Trust No Alpha (book 1) or The Alpha's Fake Mate (book 2) before you read this one. They all take place in the same world, but can totally be read as a stand alone read. I HAVE read them, although I did not write reviews for them as I read them via the Unlimited programme.

And I found THIS one the weakest of the three.

Alphas are supposed to mate with Omegas and ONLY with Omegas. However when 2 Omegas mate, and produce a child, that child is a Sylph. Sylph children are removed from society and kept locked up for their own good. They live with a constant Burn, unlike Alphas who get them regularly, and most do not live into adulthood for going insane.

Misha is such a child. Well, not a child, he is well into adulthood and a bit of an anomoly. He can control his Burn, and be a productive member of society, BUT for the fact he is Sylph. Geo is an Alpha and the new general manager at the facility where Misha lives. When Geo touches Misha without gloves, a bond begins. A bond that is as illegal as it is dangerous. To BOTH of them.

Both Misha and Geo know this is different, whatever they are feeling, but Geo is best able to voice it and rationalise what is happening between them. Misha is, for want of a better explanation, away with the fairies most of the time, but then again, being locked up all the time would make anyone so. Misha KNOWS he is Sylph, he KNOWS he cannot bond, so he doesn't know what this is between him and Geo. He KNOWS he wants Geo, in a way that is different to his usual want (Sylphs want everyone) he just doesn't know what to do. Geo makes the decision, but Misha is given a choice. I liked that it took time for them to act on the bond, to consummate it. They both have thoughts about the other, it just takes time for them to act on it. I've filed it as m-preg, cos it is talked about and does appear in other books in the series, but there isn't any here.

Both guys have a say, in the first person. Misha's voice is a little airy-fairy, like I said and Geo's is very much an Alpha, but he does go a little off the rails, and that comes out of nowhere, to be honest. I found Geo the least liked of the three Alphas in these books and I cannot pinpoint exactly why.

I liked how it all sorted out, but I would have liked a bit of an epilogue, a some-time-later type thing, to catch up on them, and how things pan out after what they did, and whether things had changed for Misha with a fully formed bond.

A nice read, a GOOD addition to the series though and I think it really was needed, a story about the Slyph children, who are talked about in the other books. This book just didn't push my buttons as the other two did, I'm afraid.

3 good solid stars

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**