City of Ghosts
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Cassidy Blake's parents are The Inspectres, a (somewhat inept) ghost-hunting team. But Cass herself...
It’s Your Party, Die If You Want To
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Between a riverboat gambler-theme engagement party and a murder mystery dinner for charity, Dixie,...
Dark Secrets 1: Legacy of Lies and Don't Tell (Dark Secrets #1-2)
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Two girls haunted by the past...and destined to relive it In Legacy of Lies, Megan has to stay with...
The First Woman
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At once epic and deeply personal, the second novel from prize-winning author Jennifer Makumbi is an...
Historical Fiction Africa Uganda Feminism Literary Fiction Coming of age
Ghost Light Killer (London Podcast Mystery #2)
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Several months after their first brush with death, Dannel Ortea and Osian Garey are back with a...
MM Cozy Mystery
The Keeper (Crossing Realms Series #1)
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Nick Geary, jaded clan leader of human guardians the Keepers, is doomed to love a human woman...
Paranormal Romance
Darren (1599 KP) rated The Charnel House (2016) in Movies
Oct 14, 2019
Performances – Callum Blue in the leading role is fine without ever standing out in the leading role, which is going to be a theme when looking at the performances, nobody does anything to make themselves feel stand out in the film.
Story – The story here follows the re-opening of an old slaughterhouse as luxury apartments, but the ghosts of the old building are still there haunting the people that move in. this does give us the limited characters as the building isn’t officially opened, but will let people move into the property they have purchased early, this helps the story because an over crowded building would have only dragged the film down. The story is trying to be clever with certain connections only to fall mostly short with this side of the story telling. Once you do work out where the story wants to go you will work out the ending pretty easily which again disappoints and as for the supporting characters they seem to have no connection to the actual hauntings and are here just to give us a body count.
Horror – The horror in the film comes from the ghost visits and the technology not following the rules it should be, again simple scares which don’t give us anything to be frightened off.
Settings – The film is set in one house, we have an apartment building with history which gives us the haunting side of the film. it works well for the most part too.
Special Effects – The effects are not over used, they are simple when needed but nothing that becomes clear to what is happening in the film.
Scene of the Movie – Butch the Yorkie.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The pointless disposable supporting residents.
Final Thoughts – This is a very simple horror, it does the basics right without ever being put in the position of being anything special or standout, nothing is terrible, it is just average throughout.
Overall: Average horror.
Billie Wichkan (118 KP) rated The Haunting of Henderson Close in Books
May 22, 2019
Hannah has relocated to Edinburgh and now works as a performing tour guide regaling tourists with the goings on in the spooky derelict Henderson Close. Together with colleagues they bring the past to life as they play the parts of real people who lived there and spin tales of the spooky and historical past, some really gruesome. But then she starts to see shadows, she has flashes where she feels weird and, well, has some really rather scary experiences. But she's not alone, one of the other guides has experienced similar and then some of the tourists also start to see things. What is happening? Are the legends and stories of what went before coming back? Who are the people that Hannah keeps seeing, and what do they really want?
I was intrigued by the classification of The Haunting of Henderson Close as a horror, mystery and thriller novel as these are my favourites.
I loved all the hints at ghosts and supernatural activity but sadly it all got a bit confusing for me as it progressed. The flashbacks and present just seemed to clash and not move seamlessly together. At times I felt possibly the author meant for the book to be more of a Victorian mystery rather than supernatural.
The use of location was one of the main strengths of the book, as the descriptions of 19th century Edinburgh were detailed and made it easy to imagine just what Victorian Scotland used to look like; really amazing and descriptive.
The ending I found a bit lacking as I had an idea built u in my of something climatic and it wasn’t.
The story itself intrigued me, the setting especially; all in all, a story that kept my attention nicely throughout and left me mostly satisfied at its conclusion.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.
Austerlitz
James Wood, Anthea Bell and W.G. Sebald
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Austerlitz is W. G. Sebald's haunting novel of post-war Europe. In 1939, five-year-old Jacques...
The House on the Lake
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No matter how far you run . . . He's never far behind 'Gripping, poignant' Rosamund Lupton ...