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The Dead of Winter
9.0
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It was supposed to be an easy job. All Detective Constable Edward Reekie had to do was pick up a...
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Unlike typical Forums and Review Apps with different sub categories, with Smashbomb you are able submit your individual reviews, and read reviews submitted by others, all in one place. Personally, I think that this is imperative as I have found myself exploring alternative genres of books, movies and music that I otherwise would not have without the reviews submitted by yourselves.
The Community here on Smashbomb is not comparable to general Communites that are prevalent throughout Social Media and Apps. Here, we value each others opinions, and we are grateful for those opinions and differentiating genres that then allow ourselves to expand our current genre taste.
Smashbomb also provide giveaways. I myself was fortunate enough to be picked as a winner for a giveaway which was a Funko Pop. I won this giveaway an approximate two years ago, and that same Funko Pop is on my shelf watching as I write this review.
Join, and stay as a member of our Community.
Unlike typical Forums and Review Apps with different sub categories, with Smashbomb you are able submit your individual reviews, and read reviews submitted by others, all in one place. Personally, I think that this is imperative as I have found myself exploring alternative genres of books, movies and music that I otherwise would not have without the reviews submitted by yourselves.
The Community here on Smashbomb is not comparable to general Communites that are prevalent throughout Social Media and Apps. Here, we value each others opinions, and we are grateful for those opinions and differentiating genres that then allow ourselves to expand our current genre taste.
Smashbomb also provide giveaways. I myself was fortunate enough to be picked as a winner for a giveaway which was a Funko Pop. I won this giveaway an approximate two years ago, and that same Funko Pop is on my shelf watching as I write this review.
Join, and stay as a member of our Community.
Bethr1986 (305 KP) rated Constitution Check (Dungeons and Dating #4) by Katherine McIntyre in Books
Sep 24, 2022
Independent Reviewer for Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
This is book number 4 in the Dungeons and Dating series and I have to say I have loved every one so far. The series is centred on a group of people who run a business called the Tabletop Tavern and have come together through their love of board games, particularly Dungeons and Dragons.
Each book focuses on different characters and their love life and life in general. This book focuses on Kelly who is trying to get over a domestically violent relationship that ended with the death of her then-girlfriend and Tabby who has never felt any good for anybody.
Katherine is an absolute wizard with words and you get a clear understanding of what each character is going through. She tackles the tougher subjects abuse/homophobia/grief etc in such a delicate but powerful way. It is a pleasure to read even though some of it is heart-breaking.
I 100% recommend reading not just this book but the whole series. Fantastic Katherine.
** same worded review will appear elsewhere **
This is book number 4 in the Dungeons and Dating series and I have to say I have loved every one so far. The series is centred on a group of people who run a business called the Tabletop Tavern and have come together through their love of board games, particularly Dungeons and Dragons.
Each book focuses on different characters and their love life and life in general. This book focuses on Kelly who is trying to get over a domestically violent relationship that ended with the death of her then-girlfriend and Tabby who has never felt any good for anybody.
Katherine is an absolute wizard with words and you get a clear understanding of what each character is going through. She tackles the tougher subjects abuse/homophobia/grief etc in such a delicate but powerful way. It is a pleasure to read even though some of it is heart-breaking.
I 100% recommend reading not just this book but the whole series. Fantastic Katherine.
** same worded review will appear elsewhere **
LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Hellraiser: Inferno (2000) in Movies
Mar 29, 2022
The 5th entry in the Hellraiser series is certainly a mixed bag. It's has a script and narrative that clearly threw in Hellraiser elements as an afterthought, really scales back on the cenobite stuff, and has some truly dodgy effects work.
With all that being said, everything about Inferno that's surrounds those points is pretty positive. The corrupt cop who cheats on his wife/snorts coke/is a general asshole whilst trying to solve a huge case trope has been done a million times, but it lends itself well to the conditions of the lament configuration. The films whole vibe screams David Lynch, and there's some genuinely creepy imagery delivered with ambition by a feature-debuting Scott Derrickson, clearly showing off some stylistic choices that he would go on to hone in his future successful career.
Throw in some decent gore and a pretty solid cast, and we're left with a Hellraiser film that would 100% be seen in a more favourable light if it had been afforded a bigger budget.
With all that being said, everything about Inferno that's surrounds those points is pretty positive. The corrupt cop who cheats on his wife/snorts coke/is a general asshole whilst trying to solve a huge case trope has been done a million times, but it lends itself well to the conditions of the lament configuration. The films whole vibe screams David Lynch, and there's some genuinely creepy imagery delivered with ambition by a feature-debuting Scott Derrickson, clearly showing off some stylistic choices that he would go on to hone in his future successful career.
Throw in some decent gore and a pretty solid cast, and we're left with a Hellraiser film that would 100% be seen in a more favourable light if it had been afforded a bigger budget.
Ashes
8.0
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A deeply touching novel about two young women whose differences, which once united them, will tear...
Historical fiction World War 2 Holocaust
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2393 KP) rated Stuff Dreams Are Made of in Books
Feb 16, 2023
“There May Have Been a Murder”
Skip Lesser and James Moore have renovated James’s truck to use it to serve food at the revival meetings being help by Reverend Cashdollar. They quickly start to hear rumors of several deaths connected to this ministry, including someone Skip met 10 years ago. Will they figure out what is going on over the course of the weekend?
Obviously, this “reverend” is not preaching anything I would consider Biblical, and I appreciated the fact that I never got the feeling anyone was taking it seriously as such. While this set up might sound like it, this isn’t a cozy, with a liberal amount of foul language and a bit more violence. The pacing was very uneven, with some page turning twists and suspenseful scenes being slowed down by lots of recaps and talking. Still, I do like Skip and James and their struggles with life in general. I don’t think this will be a favorite series, but I’m glad I am finally getting to book two.
Obviously, this “reverend” is not preaching anything I would consider Biblical, and I appreciated the fact that I never got the feeling anyone was taking it seriously as such. While this set up might sound like it, this isn’t a cozy, with a liberal amount of foul language and a bit more violence. The pacing was very uneven, with some page turning twists and suspenseful scenes being slowed down by lots of recaps and talking. Still, I do like Skip and James and their struggles with life in general. I don’t think this will be a favorite series, but I’m glad I am finally getting to book two.
David McK (3600 KP) rated Infernal Devices (Mortal Engines #3) in Books
Dec 12, 2021
Third entry in Philip Reeve 's Mortal Engines quartet, set 16 years after the end of Predator's Gold, and which largely shifts the focus away from Tom Natsworthy and Hester Shaw onto their daughter Wren, whilst also - at least in the first section - finishing off the story of Freya and Caul (the former Lost Boy).
As before, I found this to be uncertain of its own identity: the language and general style of the prose would lead you to believe it was written for children (or even the so-called tweenage audience), but then you get into the 'meat' of the story, with child slavery, death and mutilation all abounding!
Professor Pennyroyal also makes a return, with Hester Shaw herself coming across more - in this - as a complex anti-villain than she did in the previous entries, and with this also seeing the return of the Stalkers Shrike and Fang, both of whom largely drive the plot.
Worth a read, but maybe not the best 'jumping-on' point.
As before, I found this to be uncertain of its own identity: the language and general style of the prose would lead you to believe it was written for children (or even the so-called tweenage audience), but then you get into the 'meat' of the story, with child slavery, death and mutilation all abounding!
Professor Pennyroyal also makes a return, with Hester Shaw herself coming across more - in this - as a complex anti-villain than she did in the previous entries, and with this also seeing the return of the Stalkers Shrike and Fang, both of whom largely drive the plot.
Worth a read, but maybe not the best 'jumping-on' point.
ClareR (5945 KP) rated No One Saw a Thing in Books
Jun 2, 2023
No One Saw a Thing is a great thriller that races along at a breakneck speed. It left me guessing right up to the point where Andrea Mara decided the reader should know what was happening - I wasn’t going to be able to work this one out myself!
If you’ve ever been near a train or the underground with small children, telling them not to move an inch from your side, and they start to walk ahead, then you’ll get the general feeling of this. Except Sive’s children DO get on the train ahead of her. And the doors close. And then the race is on to catch her 6 and 2 year olds at the next station. When she gets there however, only the youngest has been found.
There follows one of the most tense stories I’ve read in a long time. I was suspecting everyone, and I was still wrong! And the thing about it, was that it all seemed completely believable!
This was a thrilling read - and recommended!
Thanks to The Pigeonhole and to Andrea Mara for reading along.
If you’ve ever been near a train or the underground with small children, telling them not to move an inch from your side, and they start to walk ahead, then you’ll get the general feeling of this. Except Sive’s children DO get on the train ahead of her. And the doors close. And then the race is on to catch her 6 and 2 year olds at the next station. When she gets there however, only the youngest has been found.
There follows one of the most tense stories I’ve read in a long time. I was suspecting everyone, and I was still wrong! And the thing about it, was that it all seemed completely believable!
This was a thrilling read - and recommended!
Thanks to The Pigeonhole and to Andrea Mara for reading along.
Yankee Doodle Dead
7.0
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Master mystery spinner Carolyn Hart gives us the tenth high-spirited entry in her Agatha, Anthony...
David McK (3600 KP) rated Warriorborn (The Cinder Spires 1.5) in Books
Dec 27, 2023
It's been like, what, eight years since the last (and first) of Jim Butcher's Cinder Spires novels (The Aeronaut's Windlass)?
I actually re-read that recently, as entry #2 had been released (The Olympian Affair) and it had been so long since the first that, whilst I could remember the general gist (steampunk, basically), not so much the actual ins and outs.
Which is probably a long-winded way of saying that I feel that this novella was released for others in the same boat: to ease them back in, as it were, to the world and its inhabitants.
In this, the Warriorborn Benedict Sorelin-Lancaster is charged by the Spirearch of Albion to investigate the mysterious reason why the colony of Dependence has cut off all contact with the outside world, and finds himself in charge of a cadre of other Warriorborns, all of whom he has arrested in the past and who have reason to mistrust him. It also shows more why the denizens of this world are so afraid of the surface than I remember from the previous entry ...
I actually re-read that recently, as entry #2 had been released (The Olympian Affair) and it had been so long since the first that, whilst I could remember the general gist (steampunk, basically), not so much the actual ins and outs.
Which is probably a long-winded way of saying that I feel that this novella was released for others in the same boat: to ease them back in, as it were, to the world and its inhabitants.
In this, the Warriorborn Benedict Sorelin-Lancaster is charged by the Spirearch of Albion to investigate the mysterious reason why the colony of Dependence has cut off all contact with the outside world, and finds himself in charge of a cadre of other Warriorborns, all of whom he has arrested in the past and who have reason to mistrust him. It also shows more why the denizens of this world are so afraid of the surface than I remember from the previous entry ...