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John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
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America's foremost expert on criminal profiling provides his uniquely gripping analysis of seven of...
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FearlessLover (27 KP) rated Dunkirk (2017) in Movies
Jul 31, 2017
Stunning cinea
It' s 1940, 400,000 allied troops are cornered and cut off on the beaches of Dunkirk; with the enemy closing in, and no cover or defence, they await annihilation or a miracle. We experience the moment as the characters do, without unnecessary exposition or dialogue! This proves quite the departure for Nolan; there is a lot here that owes more to silent cinema than anything else, but his images often say all that needs to be said.
An opening frame invites us to join a group of soldiers. Next, the loudest onslaught of gunfire kicks the film into another gear. We are given as much pause for thought as the soldiers we follow. We run with Tommy, played here by a Fionn Whitehead, and like him, we are aware of comrades falling dead next to us, but it is all panic and no time; we will lament their loss later. Set to the ticking of a watch, we feel Tommy's heart pounding with ours, and we know the tone for this audacious movie has been set.
We see the event from different perspectives and from within different time frames. Right now, not many directors can build momentum like Nolan. The jumping to and from different characters' point of view, the corkscrewing impression of the editing, events echoed and mirrored by Hans Zimmer's Shepherd's Tones and persistent, all enveloping score, acting at times more like sound design than music; it all results in a constant rise in tension, to the point of almost being exhaustive.
This said, the editing also serves another purpose. The "Miracle of Dunkirk" is a grand story, with every soldier, every pilot, and every civilian having their own point of view. Nolan wants us to build up an overall picture of the event purely through subjective experience, so of course we spend a tiring week with the terrified boys. Of course we spend a desperate day with a fisherman as he and his familial crew sail their way into action. Lastly, given the fuel constraints of the RAF, whose decisions had to be immediate and impulsive, always a choice between defending the beach or getting home, why would we spend any more that an edge-of-your-seat, quickly-cut hour in the cockpit of a Spitfire, as they do their duty and enter into dogfights to keep the German aircraft at bay? Each timeline is contracted or dilated to give everybody equal measure and importance, whilst staying true to and very much in their situation. Yes, this means we're kept on our toes; we have moments of confusion as timelines cross over and we see the same thing happening from another point of view, but as we head into the finale, as well as the aforementioned tension and release (which is just exciting cinema), we also get to see how, despite very different perspectives, everyone was working together, and how sacrifice and struggle for duty were par for the course for all involved, whether other people knew it or not. It is important that we the audience recognise this bigger picture, and as everything clicks together in an emotive final convergence of efforts, we not only see the justification for the techniques adopted, but struggle to imagine the story told another way. That is, at least, without going down a standard route, with objective storytelling employed.
A proper review not being complete without comment on the elephant in the room, it must be said that Harry Styles does not stand out like the proverbial sore thumb at all. Frankly, he carries his scenes with aplomb, and surely, following the Heath Ledger lesson, and now this, it is time we learned that, maybe, Christopher Nolan just knows what he's doing better that we do? As to the other big names, there are moments from that remain with me so long after having seen it: Kenneth Brannagh and Mark Rylance can say so much with so little, their faces and gestures doing the heavy lifting to deliver a lot of the human emotion, and it would appear Tom Hardy has Oscar-worthy eyes! You need see nothing more through the course of his drama to have a complete sense of the type of man his Farrier is. We talk about great acting and achieving realism through imagination, but with the knowledge that Nolan actually took everyone to Dunkirk, sank real ships, sailed real ships, flew real Spitfires overhead, employed real explosions on the beach, and even rejected green screen and CGI in favour of cardboard cut-outs, it seems imagination wasn't too necessary for these already consummate actors.
Nolan's principle fan base will be well prepared for what they get; but with his insistence on holding back from the audience any perspective not afforded his characters, ala 'Memento', some knowledge of the "Miracle Of Dunkirk" might put the more casual viewer in better stead. Regardless of which camp you fall into, or indeed of whether or not the movie does it for you, certain things are for sure: With no melodrama or cheese, and no superfluous fluff or emotional subterfuge, 'Dunkirk' is a purely experiential movie, a technical marvel of a war film unlike any other I can name. It also stands as a beacon in Nolan's career, characterised by his desire to cultivate an audience willing to keep up with him. And perhaps most importantly, this is a key moment in world history that is often overlooked; a disaster averted which, had it not been, would have seen the history books written very differently. That this event has been marshalled by a confident and sincere director, who has surely by now cemented his name alongside those of his own heroes, is reason enough to see 'Dunkirk'.
An opening frame invites us to join a group of soldiers. Next, the loudest onslaught of gunfire kicks the film into another gear. We are given as much pause for thought as the soldiers we follow. We run with Tommy, played here by a Fionn Whitehead, and like him, we are aware of comrades falling dead next to us, but it is all panic and no time; we will lament their loss later. Set to the ticking of a watch, we feel Tommy's heart pounding with ours, and we know the tone for this audacious movie has been set.
We see the event from different perspectives and from within different time frames. Right now, not many directors can build momentum like Nolan. The jumping to and from different characters' point of view, the corkscrewing impression of the editing, events echoed and mirrored by Hans Zimmer's Shepherd's Tones and persistent, all enveloping score, acting at times more like sound design than music; it all results in a constant rise in tension, to the point of almost being exhaustive.
This said, the editing also serves another purpose. The "Miracle of Dunkirk" is a grand story, with every soldier, every pilot, and every civilian having their own point of view. Nolan wants us to build up an overall picture of the event purely through subjective experience, so of course we spend a tiring week with the terrified boys. Of course we spend a desperate day with a fisherman as he and his familial crew sail their way into action. Lastly, given the fuel constraints of the RAF, whose decisions had to be immediate and impulsive, always a choice between defending the beach or getting home, why would we spend any more that an edge-of-your-seat, quickly-cut hour in the cockpit of a Spitfire, as they do their duty and enter into dogfights to keep the German aircraft at bay? Each timeline is contracted or dilated to give everybody equal measure and importance, whilst staying true to and very much in their situation. Yes, this means we're kept on our toes; we have moments of confusion as timelines cross over and we see the same thing happening from another point of view, but as we head into the finale, as well as the aforementioned tension and release (which is just exciting cinema), we also get to see how, despite very different perspectives, everyone was working together, and how sacrifice and struggle for duty were par for the course for all involved, whether other people knew it or not. It is important that we the audience recognise this bigger picture, and as everything clicks together in an emotive final convergence of efforts, we not only see the justification for the techniques adopted, but struggle to imagine the story told another way. That is, at least, without going down a standard route, with objective storytelling employed.
A proper review not being complete without comment on the elephant in the room, it must be said that Harry Styles does not stand out like the proverbial sore thumb at all. Frankly, he carries his scenes with aplomb, and surely, following the Heath Ledger lesson, and now this, it is time we learned that, maybe, Christopher Nolan just knows what he's doing better that we do? As to the other big names, there are moments from that remain with me so long after having seen it: Kenneth Brannagh and Mark Rylance can say so much with so little, their faces and gestures doing the heavy lifting to deliver a lot of the human emotion, and it would appear Tom Hardy has Oscar-worthy eyes! You need see nothing more through the course of his drama to have a complete sense of the type of man his Farrier is. We talk about great acting and achieving realism through imagination, but with the knowledge that Nolan actually took everyone to Dunkirk, sank real ships, sailed real ships, flew real Spitfires overhead, employed real explosions on the beach, and even rejected green screen and CGI in favour of cardboard cut-outs, it seems imagination wasn't too necessary for these already consummate actors.
Nolan's principle fan base will be well prepared for what they get; but with his insistence on holding back from the audience any perspective not afforded his characters, ala 'Memento', some knowledge of the "Miracle Of Dunkirk" might put the more casual viewer in better stead. Regardless of which camp you fall into, or indeed of whether or not the movie does it for you, certain things are for sure: With no melodrama or cheese, and no superfluous fluff or emotional subterfuge, 'Dunkirk' is a purely experiential movie, a technical marvel of a war film unlike any other I can name. It also stands as a beacon in Nolan's career, characterised by his desire to cultivate an audience willing to keep up with him. And perhaps most importantly, this is a key moment in world history that is often overlooked; a disaster averted which, had it not been, would have seen the history books written very differently. That this event has been marshalled by a confident and sincere director, who has surely by now cemented his name alongside those of his own heroes, is reason enough to see 'Dunkirk'.
Great writing (1 more)
Unpredictable
Some typos (1 more)
The mom was a waste of a character
In horror books and movies, we often see dolls as the main source of scares( such as Annabelle or Child's Play). In K.R. Alexander's Bury Me we get another scary doll to add to the list with some pretty good spine chilling moments, too.
We start with Kimberly Rice, who is a kid with a vivid imagination that can imagine up anything her heart desires, but because of this, people don't believe her when strange things begin to happen in Copper Hollow. She has two friends named Alicia and James- - -but Kimberly feels like she doesn't fit in with them because they live in houses while she lives in a trailer. "I wait for them to say, Hey, Kimberly, do you want to come over for dinner? They don't. They never have. It hurt my feelings at first, but I got over it fast. They're still my best and only friends, so I can't really complain when they don't have me over to their houses. It's not like I can really invite them over to mine. " Kimberly explains.
Although she states that they are her best friends, there is another part that may suggest otherwise. At first, we read about Kimberly being ashamed of her home although she states she has never tried to invite her friends over - - - as far as we know - - - but during a scene where Kimberly goes over to Alicia's home for help with this doll, Alicia doesn't invite her inside, which Kimberly points out.
But Kimberly's dysfunctional friendships aren't what the story is about. The book is about a doll that suddenly shows up with the words 'bury me' written across its dress in black ink. The perfect setting for a horror story. Kimberly teams up with her friends, Alicia and James, to figure out what this doll wants.
Alicia convinces Kimberly to do what the doll's dress says: 'bury me.' But even after they do this, the doll somehow shows up again, without having disturbed its burial place. They finally begin to question whether or not the doll is possessed by an evil spirit because the doll's mouth moves on its own, making frowns and even seeming to silently scream at one point, and no matter what they do, the doll always comes back completely intact. Yet, the only one the doll seems to be 'haunting' is Kimberly, although James and Alicia participate in trying to get rid of it. Kimberly is also haunted by dreams that aren't exactly her own, but she doesn't reveal these to her friends- - - which doing so may have helped in the long run. As a result, the friends never really figure out how to get rid of the doll, it seems that only Kimberly's dreams can figure this out (it just takes her nearly the entire book to figure it out).
The horror elements in this story are pretty good, but as the book recommended age states, it's for pre-teens. Yet, Alexander did a better job on this than 'The Collector' when it came to those elements. I honestly really enjoyed this book, even as an adult.
We continue with Alicia and James beginning to question Kimberly, thinking that this is just a prank she has come up with because their town is boring: " 'Did you do this?' Alicia asks, looking straight at me. Once more, my heart throbs- - -but this time, with a note of anger.
'Why would I do something like this?' I ask.
'Because Copper Hollow is boring and you're trying to make it fun with another one of your wild stories?' She doesn't sound accusatory; she sounds like she's running out of options that make sense, and she doesn't like that at all. "
Kimberly also has to deal with a history book on Copper Hollow that only shows blank pages to her, even when she shows it to adults, they seem to go into a daze as if the book doesn't even exist to them. Even when she asks the Mayor about this very book, he has no idea what she's speaking of. " I try to change the subject. 'I finished that book. The one about our history.'
'Book? ' Mayor Couch asks. 'What book?'
'The one I showed you.'
He chuckles. 'You and your imagination. I don't remember you showing me a book. ' "
Readers and Kimberly still have no idea what is going half way through the book. "Something weird is going on with him. It makes me wonder. . . is it linked to the doll? Or maybe he just has some sort of memory loss? "
While Kimberly is going through all of this, her mother seems like a wasted character to introduce. She, who is rarely home and works double shifts throughout the entire book, is never there for Kimberly, but also,Kimberly never goes to her mother for help.
The story starts quickly, getting right into the doll appearing, and by the end, we learn something that was not predictable - - -this is good writing. Bury Me is what YA horror books should be: suspense, unpredictable moments and likable characters. And compared to Alexander's first book, The Collector, his story telling is getting better to the point that I am looking forward to reading his other recent books, but hopefully he sticks to telling stories with children and not adults.
I highly recommend this book to fans of R.L. Stine's 'Goosebumps,' because I truly believe we have our next R.L. Stine. Great story, great writing.
We start with Kimberly Rice, who is a kid with a vivid imagination that can imagine up anything her heart desires, but because of this, people don't believe her when strange things begin to happen in Copper Hollow. She has two friends named Alicia and James- - -but Kimberly feels like she doesn't fit in with them because they live in houses while she lives in a trailer. "I wait for them to say, Hey, Kimberly, do you want to come over for dinner? They don't. They never have. It hurt my feelings at first, but I got over it fast. They're still my best and only friends, so I can't really complain when they don't have me over to their houses. It's not like I can really invite them over to mine. " Kimberly explains.
Although she states that they are her best friends, there is another part that may suggest otherwise. At first, we read about Kimberly being ashamed of her home although she states she has never tried to invite her friends over - - - as far as we know - - - but during a scene where Kimberly goes over to Alicia's home for help with this doll, Alicia doesn't invite her inside, which Kimberly points out.
But Kimberly's dysfunctional friendships aren't what the story is about. The book is about a doll that suddenly shows up with the words 'bury me' written across its dress in black ink. The perfect setting for a horror story. Kimberly teams up with her friends, Alicia and James, to figure out what this doll wants.
Alicia convinces Kimberly to do what the doll's dress says: 'bury me.' But even after they do this, the doll somehow shows up again, without having disturbed its burial place. They finally begin to question whether or not the doll is possessed by an evil spirit because the doll's mouth moves on its own, making frowns and even seeming to silently scream at one point, and no matter what they do, the doll always comes back completely intact. Yet, the only one the doll seems to be 'haunting' is Kimberly, although James and Alicia participate in trying to get rid of it. Kimberly is also haunted by dreams that aren't exactly her own, but she doesn't reveal these to her friends- - - which doing so may have helped in the long run. As a result, the friends never really figure out how to get rid of the doll, it seems that only Kimberly's dreams can figure this out (it just takes her nearly the entire book to figure it out).
The horror elements in this story are pretty good, but as the book recommended age states, it's for pre-teens. Yet, Alexander did a better job on this than 'The Collector' when it came to those elements. I honestly really enjoyed this book, even as an adult.
We continue with Alicia and James beginning to question Kimberly, thinking that this is just a prank she has come up with because their town is boring: " 'Did you do this?' Alicia asks, looking straight at me. Once more, my heart throbs- - -but this time, with a note of anger.
'Why would I do something like this?' I ask.
'Because Copper Hollow is boring and you're trying to make it fun with another one of your wild stories?' She doesn't sound accusatory; she sounds like she's running out of options that make sense, and she doesn't like that at all. "
Kimberly also has to deal with a history book on Copper Hollow that only shows blank pages to her, even when she shows it to adults, they seem to go into a daze as if the book doesn't even exist to them. Even when she asks the Mayor about this very book, he has no idea what she's speaking of. " I try to change the subject. 'I finished that book. The one about our history.'
'Book? ' Mayor Couch asks. 'What book?'
'The one I showed you.'
He chuckles. 'You and your imagination. I don't remember you showing me a book. ' "
Readers and Kimberly still have no idea what is going half way through the book. "Something weird is going on with him. It makes me wonder. . . is it linked to the doll? Or maybe he just has some sort of memory loss? "
While Kimberly is going through all of this, her mother seems like a wasted character to introduce. She, who is rarely home and works double shifts throughout the entire book, is never there for Kimberly, but also,Kimberly never goes to her mother for help.
The story starts quickly, getting right into the doll appearing, and by the end, we learn something that was not predictable - - -this is good writing. Bury Me is what YA horror books should be: suspense, unpredictable moments and likable characters. And compared to Alexander's first book, The Collector, his story telling is getting better to the point that I am looking forward to reading his other recent books, but hopefully he sticks to telling stories with children and not adults.
I highly recommend this book to fans of R.L. Stine's 'Goosebumps,' because I truly believe we have our next R.L. Stine. Great story, great writing.
Chris Sawin (602 KP) rated Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) in Movies
Feb 19, 2022 (Updated Feb 19, 2022)
Wasted backstories that go nowhere. (3 more)
Rehashes and recreates the original film while not offering much of its own material.
New characters fall flat.
Feels like a half-cocked attempt at a new "film. "
Tearing the Face Off of a Horror Franchise
Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a direct sequel to the original 1974 film nearly 50 years later. Directed by David Blue Garcia with a screenplay by Chris Thomas Devlin and a story by Fede Alvarez (co-writer and director of the 2013 Evil Dead remake) and Rodo Sayagues (Don’t Breathe 1 & 2), Texas Chainsaw Massacre follows a group of young 20-somethings as they venture from Austin to Harlow, TX; a seven hour drive.
Dante (Jacob Latimore, Detroit) and Melody (Sarah Yarkin, Happy Death Day 2U) are business partners with somewhat of an impressive internet following. Dante is a chef who is looking to expand and Harlow is just the type of remote town to do it in. Melody’s teenage sister Lila (Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade) and Dante’s fiancé Ruth (Nell Hudson) have tagged along mostly for emotional support.
With bank investors on the way to scout the location, the young foursome discovers a dilapidated orphanage with an old woman (Alice Krige, Gretel & Hansel) still living inside along with the last of what she refers to as, “her boys.” Dante and his friends awaken the mostly dormant monster known as Leatherface. Sally Hardesty (Olwen Fouéré) has been searching for Leatherface since he killed her friends all those years ago and now she can finally have the vengeful closure that she deserves.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise is mostly trash. Leatherface has gotten the manure treatment outside of the original film, the 2003 remake, and maybe the 1986 sequel. The timeline is as messy and inconsistent as Halloween as whatever takes place behind the scenes between sequels, remakes, and reboots all seems to result in lackluster or sometimes atrocious outings for one of the most recognizable horror movie icons.
This new film can’t seem to decide what it wants to be. Sally is brought back for a half-hearted cameo as she does nothing but wear a cowboy hat, stare at a picture, cock a shotgun, and gut a pig. She’s meant to be the connection between this film and the original and it just doesn’t work. Texas Chainsaw Massacre also just seems to lift aspects from the original film as well as other non-genre films without ever offering its audience anything original or actually worthwhile.
The ending is basically lifted directly from the original as is the aspect of a group of young people running into trouble on a road trip far away from home. It’s young, city outsiders versus born-and-bred country veterans. The film also has a weird amount of homage to Terminator 2 (Melody’s leg wound and the shotgun blasts to Leatherface by the water being similar to Sarah Connor’s showdown with the T-1000 near the end of T2). It also feels like it’s trying to capitalize on the success Halloween has had since it follows a similar format (making a direct sequel to the original film decades later).
On the bright side, the kills and the gore are mostly satisfying. The wrist breaking scene followed by being stabbed in the neck with the broken bone is gnarly. There’s a brutal head smashing scene with a hammer and the bus sequence is essentially horror movie fan heaven even if the setup and dialogue in said sequence is awful. The swinging door kill feels like it could have been better than it was since it covers up more than it reveals. You can either leave the brutality to the audience’s imagination or show everything in its nasty and gruesome glory; trying to do both in the same sequence just results in disappointment.
You can make the argument that you watch a film like this for the gore and not the story anyway, but that isn’t the point. When there’s this much of a wait between new entries fans deserve better. The frustrating aspect is that Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues are capable of providing a worthwhile story along with the blood and guts because they gave it to us with Evil Dead. There’s nothing here worth the nine year gap between this and the last Texas Chainsaw film (Texas Chainsaw 3D) or the five year gap between this and Leatherface. When it’s not recycling gags from the original film or borrowing from other franchises, it’s just young people being dumb for the sake of a cheap scare or kill.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre isn’t as unwatchable as some reviews are making it out to be, but it’s not a good film by any stretch of the imagination. It’s barely 80-minutes long, so it has a relatively quick pace and the kills are solid. But the story is seriously lacking as there are elements that literally go nowhere; Lila’s backstory about why she’s so quiet doesn’t add much of anything other than a reason for her to never leave a padded cell when and if a sequel to this is ever made.
The problem now is that the successful film formula revolves around nostalgia, rehashing familiar sequences and storylines, and bringing back survivors for one final confrontation. This has all proven to crush the box office, especially during the pandemic. This results in there being no originality or creativity anymore; it’s just a repetition of what we’ve already seen. Until Leatherface can get a fresh face to wear, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise is doomed to run in circles with a sputtering chainsaw on a mostly deserted road no one wants to travel down.
Dante (Jacob Latimore, Detroit) and Melody (Sarah Yarkin, Happy Death Day 2U) are business partners with somewhat of an impressive internet following. Dante is a chef who is looking to expand and Harlow is just the type of remote town to do it in. Melody’s teenage sister Lila (Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade) and Dante’s fiancé Ruth (Nell Hudson) have tagged along mostly for emotional support.
With bank investors on the way to scout the location, the young foursome discovers a dilapidated orphanage with an old woman (Alice Krige, Gretel & Hansel) still living inside along with the last of what she refers to as, “her boys.” Dante and his friends awaken the mostly dormant monster known as Leatherface. Sally Hardesty (Olwen Fouéré) has been searching for Leatherface since he killed her friends all those years ago and now she can finally have the vengeful closure that she deserves.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise is mostly trash. Leatherface has gotten the manure treatment outside of the original film, the 2003 remake, and maybe the 1986 sequel. The timeline is as messy and inconsistent as Halloween as whatever takes place behind the scenes between sequels, remakes, and reboots all seems to result in lackluster or sometimes atrocious outings for one of the most recognizable horror movie icons.
This new film can’t seem to decide what it wants to be. Sally is brought back for a half-hearted cameo as she does nothing but wear a cowboy hat, stare at a picture, cock a shotgun, and gut a pig. She’s meant to be the connection between this film and the original and it just doesn’t work. Texas Chainsaw Massacre also just seems to lift aspects from the original film as well as other non-genre films without ever offering its audience anything original or actually worthwhile.
The ending is basically lifted directly from the original as is the aspect of a group of young people running into trouble on a road trip far away from home. It’s young, city outsiders versus born-and-bred country veterans. The film also has a weird amount of homage to Terminator 2 (Melody’s leg wound and the shotgun blasts to Leatherface by the water being similar to Sarah Connor’s showdown with the T-1000 near the end of T2). It also feels like it’s trying to capitalize on the success Halloween has had since it follows a similar format (making a direct sequel to the original film decades later).
On the bright side, the kills and the gore are mostly satisfying. The wrist breaking scene followed by being stabbed in the neck with the broken bone is gnarly. There’s a brutal head smashing scene with a hammer and the bus sequence is essentially horror movie fan heaven even if the setup and dialogue in said sequence is awful. The swinging door kill feels like it could have been better than it was since it covers up more than it reveals. You can either leave the brutality to the audience’s imagination or show everything in its nasty and gruesome glory; trying to do both in the same sequence just results in disappointment.
You can make the argument that you watch a film like this for the gore and not the story anyway, but that isn’t the point. When there’s this much of a wait between new entries fans deserve better. The frustrating aspect is that Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues are capable of providing a worthwhile story along with the blood and guts because they gave it to us with Evil Dead. There’s nothing here worth the nine year gap between this and the last Texas Chainsaw film (Texas Chainsaw 3D) or the five year gap between this and Leatherface. When it’s not recycling gags from the original film or borrowing from other franchises, it’s just young people being dumb for the sake of a cheap scare or kill.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre isn’t as unwatchable as some reviews are making it out to be, but it’s not a good film by any stretch of the imagination. It’s barely 80-minutes long, so it has a relatively quick pace and the kills are solid. But the story is seriously lacking as there are elements that literally go nowhere; Lila’s backstory about why she’s so quiet doesn’t add much of anything other than a reason for her to never leave a padded cell when and if a sequel to this is ever made.
The problem now is that the successful film formula revolves around nostalgia, rehashing familiar sequences and storylines, and bringing back survivors for one final confrontation. This has all proven to crush the box office, especially during the pandemic. This results in there being no originality or creativity anymore; it’s just a repetition of what we’ve already seen. Until Leatherface can get a fresh face to wear, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise is doomed to run in circles with a sputtering chainsaw on a mostly deserted road no one wants to travel down.
Merissa (12006 KP) rated Tau's Pride: Sacrifice in Books
Oct 26, 2017
Tau's Pride: Sacrifice by Wendi Kelly & Deborah Dorchak
Tau's Pride: Sacrifice continues in the world of Angels, shifters, demons, Talutha, and goodness know's what else. I'm sure we've only scraped the top of the barrel as far as Kelly and Dorchak's imagination goes! Although this is only the second book in this series, I would highly recommend you read the first series, just to get a handle on the different characters and the relationships they have.
You may remember that I fell out with Cole in the last book. Well, he is making efforts to redeem himself, but to be completely honest, it's not really working with me. Then again, I have always been biased towards Harry. The fallout/effect from the last book is shown in this one, with the affects being far-reaching to everyone connected to Regina. I love that woman, I really do, but she really needs to start focusing on the bigger picture. She has so much help on hand, people who love her, that I wish she could take a moment to simply breathe. Actually, I related to Olivia in this book A LOT! There is always drama, always some crisis going on, and as for who is with who - well, I've actually given up on that now. I just figure that they are all together, in one way, shape, or form, and that will have to do. With so many characters, new and old, all interlinked in so many different ways, I just can't keep track in my mind over who is with whom! Another thing that Olivia mentioned is the fact that it is now the Pride, not the Pack. In fact, the pack is now given a lower-case when it's mentioned. I get that they are doing something completely new, and with new comes chaos, but I do feel a sense of sorrow that the cats seem to be taking over.
Now, with that all being said, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book, and read it in one sitting. You have bad guys, you have good guys, and then you have bad guys that you actually feel sorry for and want to help (Victoria and Simon anyone?). This book is extremely well written, with no editing or grammatical errors to disrupt the reading flow. The scenes also smoothly flow from one to the next without any jarring. The world building is amazing, and I am in awe of these two authors for not only providing such a distinctive story, but in a world is intricate and intriguing, and it will keep you turning the pages. Definitely recommended by me.
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and my comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
You may remember that I fell out with Cole in the last book. Well, he is making efforts to redeem himself, but to be completely honest, it's not really working with me. Then again, I have always been biased towards Harry. The fallout/effect from the last book is shown in this one, with the affects being far-reaching to everyone connected to Regina. I love that woman, I really do, but she really needs to start focusing on the bigger picture. She has so much help on hand, people who love her, that I wish she could take a moment to simply breathe. Actually, I related to Olivia in this book A LOT! There is always drama, always some crisis going on, and as for who is with who - well, I've actually given up on that now. I just figure that they are all together, in one way, shape, or form, and that will have to do. With so many characters, new and old, all interlinked in so many different ways, I just can't keep track in my mind over who is with whom! Another thing that Olivia mentioned is the fact that it is now the Pride, not the Pack. In fact, the pack is now given a lower-case when it's mentioned. I get that they are doing something completely new, and with new comes chaos, but I do feel a sense of sorrow that the cats seem to be taking over.
Now, with that all being said, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book, and read it in one sitting. You have bad guys, you have good guys, and then you have bad guys that you actually feel sorry for and want to help (Victoria and Simon anyone?). This book is extremely well written, with no editing or grammatical errors to disrupt the reading flow. The scenes also smoothly flow from one to the next without any jarring. The world building is amazing, and I am in awe of these two authors for not only providing such a distinctive story, but in a world is intricate and intriguing, and it will keep you turning the pages. Definitely recommended by me.
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and my comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!