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Jar of Hearts
Jar of Hearts
Jennifer Hillier | 2018 | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
9
8.3 (8 Ratings)
Book Rating
Compelling, twisted story
Fourteen years ago, Georgina "Geo" Shaw's best friend, Angela Wong, disappeared without a trace. The girls were only sixteen years old. Now Geo is a successful executive--and it comes to a surprise to everyone (except Geo) when she's arrested at her pharmaceutical firm for her role in Angela's murder. It turns out, fourteen years ago, Geo was involved while her older boyfriend, Calvin James, killed Angela and buried her remains in the woods behind Geo's childhood home. Calvin has gone on to become a serial killer known as the Sweetbay Strangler. But to Geo, he's Calvin, her first love, despite their abusive and turbulent relationship. For all these years, Geo carried the secret of what happened that fateful night with Calvin and Angela. She told no one, not even the girls' best friend, Kaiser Brody, who is now a detective with the Seattle PD and working on Angela and Calvin's cases. Geo is sentenced to prison and all her secrets appear to be out in the open. But are they truly? And what does it mean when more bodies start appearing, killed in the same manner as Angela?

This was just a great thriller. It alternates its viewpoints, with pieces of the novel told from Geo and Kai and changing between the past and the present. The result is completely captivating. I was mesmerized by this compelling and well-executed novel, which draws you in from the start. The characters in this one are excellent; rarely do you get two such strong vivid main characters, but I felt drawn to both Kai and Geo.

The story slowly works its way back to that fateful night. Hillier unravels things so adeptly that I was kept guessing for quite some time, meticulously starting to work out pieces of the plot, feeling quite triumphant when I was proved right. This novel is just so intricately plotted and incredibly creepy at times--it's simply a pleasure to read. It's deep and dark, propelled by its wonderfully written characters. Honestly, I can't rave enough about both the plot and the characters.

Overall, you can't go wrong with this one. It features compelling characters and a twisted, dark story that will keep you reading until the very end. I need to track down more of Ms. Hillier's books and soon! Highly recommend.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review (thank you!).
  
Tolerance by The Blue Aeroplane
Tolerance by The Blue Aeroplane
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"It's not quite finished, and that's why it's a classic example of what they were becoming, and that's why I love it. I love coming across a record when you can hear what the band could become. Unfortunately with them, I don't think they really ever got there. For me, they could have been the British R.E.M.. I remember myself and Nick saw the band at WOMAD fest in 1986. We decided we had to go to one festival to see what everything was about - it was either '85 or '86 - and we saw James, when they'd just come out with 'Hymn From A Village', when they were a completely different band, and they were brilliant to be honest. We saw Siouxsie And The Banshees and Arrow, and I think The Housemartins were there, and we also saw The Blue Aeroplanes. They were fucking amazing; one of the best live bands I've ever seen. It was pre-Bez and they had a dancer with them onstage; he was called Wojtek [Dmochowski] and the singer was just scatting poetry over the music. For a band that made quite delicate music they were full-on, they were moving lots, it was just pure fully formed erudite freneticism. It was just lovely. We came away thinking, "Wow, we'd love to be in a fucking band who connect onstage like that, with what's in their music and really physically trying to impose yourself on an audience." I love this record because it's got a song on it called 'Arriving', which has the line: "I saw the sun shimmering on a broken breeze." Nick was obsessed with that line when he was young. There's another song called 'When The Wave Comes' which is beautiful, the actual song 'Tolerance' is just brilliant. It's not a perfect album but you can hear this promise of what this band could have been. Me and Nick went to this festival and we fucking hated the experience of going to this festival, we hated people were trying to sell us drugs, but we loved seeing The Blue Aeroplanes. It was a little Damascene moment which made us really, truly believe about how physical a gig could be. We were determined to not be a band that stood still and just looked at our feet or guitar fretboards after that; we were determined that we would move round shitloads. We walked away quite loftily saying, "We're never coming back to a festival unless we play one," which just shows how snotty and fucking deluded we were."

Source
  
Near Dark (1987)
Near Dark (1987)
1987 | Horror, Mystery, Western
Vampires without vampires
The cast of Aliens (I think this movie was directed by James Cameron's former spouse lol) reunites one year later in this stylized vampire flick even though they never mention the "V" word.

A young man falls into an unusual new crowd in his small town. He finds out more about them including their hatred for sunlight. His new friends have a proclivity to bloody violence to which he does not appreciate especially when his family gets involved. His loyalties are tested when events turn violent and he has to decide who's team he's on.

Geeing Bill Paxton and Lance Henrikson together again was just fantastic; however made me miss Bill even more. He steals every scene he is in just like Aliens and is sheer joy to watch.

The film is a unique take on the traditional bloodsucking genre and very entertaining.

  
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! (2018)
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! (2018)
2018 | Comedy, Musical
The actors are still the same from the previous film (apart from the ones from the flash backs) (1 more)
They still stick to Abbas songs
They made a few things that didn’t match the first film (0 more)
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!
Contains spoilers, click to show
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again is a sequel that takes place when Dona dies and Sophie decides to re-open the hotel in her moms memory while she finds out she’s pregnant in the meanwhile. It also has flash blacks on Donas life since she graduated until she got pregnant with Sophie.

It’s fun. It’s emotional. And it definitely has the Mamma Mia vibes.
Apart from the things that don’t match the first film (for example the order that Dona met Harry, Bill and Sam isn’t correct) I really enjoyed the film and it definitely makes me dance to it.
It also has really good new actors, for example Lily James as young Dona and Cher as Sophie’s grandmother.
  
First entry in George MacDonald Frase's Flashman series, in which he (re)introduces us to Harry Flashman: a totally reprehensible anti-hero, who (through the entire series) cheats, lies and connives his way through Victorian society and the great events of the era: in this case, the disastrous retreat from Kabul.

By all accounts, the history of the books are actually pretty accurate: most of the people Flashman meets and interacts with were real personages of note, and the novels contain several footnotes providing yet more historical info on the events described. While it is taken to extremes, I think it's also fairly safe to say that the character of Flashman and the way he behaves probably isn't really that far away from the way some members of society did ...

(oh, and trivia note: MacDonald Fraser wrote the screenplays for 1973s "The Three Musketeers" and it's sequel "The Four Musketeers" as well as the James Bond film "Octopussy", amongst others)
  
    Texts From Founding Fathers

    Texts From Founding Fathers

    Education, Book and Stickers

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

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    Get daily texts from the Founding Fathers of the USA. Get daily tidbits of wisdom and historical...

The Conjuring (2013)
The Conjuring (2013)
2013 | Horror
I can't believe it took me 7 years to watch this film.
The story of Ed and Lorraine Warren who are demnologists that investigate supernatural and paranormal phenomena. In an opening we are also introduced to Annabelle (more of her to come) a possessed doll and how the Warren's dealt with her.
The film depicts the events from the Perron family haunting. A family who bought an old farm house only to find they may not be alone.
This is beautifully shot, the dark looks so good, cinematography is amazing as is the use of sound. From the score to the use of voices and creaks that populate the house the feeling of "something " been there is constant.
James Wan shows he is a master of his craft the film delivers on all the ghost story/haunted house/ possession vibe it's going for.
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are very likeable leads as the Warren's

Who would think clapping is scary?