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ClareR (6256 KP) rated A Ladder To The Sky in Books

Oct 12, 2018

A Ladder To The Sky

John Boyne | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry

10.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

A fascinatingly awful main character!

Maurice Swift wants to be a writer. It doesn't matter that he isn't particularly gifted, because he has access to a great story. Erich Ackerman meets Maurice in a hotel in West Berlin in 1988 - and so begins Erich's fall from grace and Maurice's meteoric rise.
Maurice works his way through writers at an astonishing rate. He's a narcissist, I think. He needs the admiration of others and doesn't care how he gets it, and this manifests itself;f in the need to write books, be recognised as a respected award winning writer and make lots of money.
Not wanting to give anything away, but he does some really immoral, terrible things, and doesn't to have any guilt at all. He's an awful person. I don't know why a character like this can make such a good book. I can, actually. This book is so well written. I felt empathy for those he swindles out of their stories, and Maurice is a fascinating character. The reader is drawn to him, just as those poor writers are. I wanted to hate him, but just couldn't.
I loved this book and I've already started recommending it to everyone I know!
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this wonderful book.

Kudos

Vegas (725 KP) rated Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) in Movies

Jan 8, 2019 (Updated Jan 8, 2019)

All of the cast (2 more)

The Direction

Beautifully Filmed

Nothing (0 more)

An instant classic...

There are very few films that grab my interest as much as this one did. I knew nothing about it at all when I sat down to watch it, I was just intrigued by the title...

A fantastic opening scene is one of the best I’ve seen for a long time and sets up the movie a treat.

The cast of characters are played perfectly, are very well cast and compliment each other as if they have all worked together before.

A special mention should go to Cynthia Erivo for her vocal performance that was stunning and captivating.

The film takes place at the El Royale a hotel/motel straddling the border over two states, that has seen its busy days fade away to the point of only having one member of staff working, and tends to attract the more seedy members of society.

The flash backs, and back tracks in the narrative which explain the story, work in a non complicated way and are interspaced at just the right times.

On top of this, the soundtrack should be one on anybody’s playlist...

I actually can't say too many good thing about this film, it is one of the best new films I have seen for many years...

Kudos

Dean (6927 KP) rated Doctor Sleep (2019) in Movies

Oct 31, 2019

A bigger look at the Shining universe (0 more)

Some recreation scenes of the original (0 more)

Shine on

So I recently watched The Shining again to prepare for this. I've not read the book so can't compare it to that. It's mainly set some 30 years after the events of The Shining with Danny now a grown man and struggling in life. He finally finds a calling and seems to settle in a small town where he can use his Shine in a positive way. He discovers a new child with a great power and also of a group who want to hunt her down exploit her power.
For a long film it did whizz by as the story was very interesting. It's a different type of horror film to the original. Although it's still dark and disturbing in its content. We learn more about those with this power and the evil group who hunt down those with the power. It's good to see the overlook hotel again but in some ways this film didn't really need visit the old location. I guess it does give it more of a connection to the original. Although a couple of scenes there really would have been better cut out.
Overall it's a very interesting, entertaining film that might not be scary as such. It is very dark and menacing. A great expansion on the Shining universe.