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Acanthea Grimscythe (300 KP) rated Glow in Books
May 16, 2018
I have a love hate relationship with Glow, an upcoming young adult novel from Megan E. Bryant. Earlier this year, I read The Radium Girls by Kate Moore - an absolutely horrifying account of injustices committed against young women under the guise of patriotism. Before Moore, I cannot recall ever hearing about the dial painters. This book provides a fictional account based heavily on true stories about the girls that met their untimely demise.
The main character of Glow is a young woman of eighteen by the name of Jubilee - but don't you dare call her that! She prefers Julie. After making the ultimate sacrifice for her mother, she spends the summer unraveling the mysteries behind paintings she finds at thrift stores while her best friend prepares for college.
Between each chapter, readers find an epistolary account from the mind of Lydia Grayson. Like her sisters, Lydia is one of the many girls that worked for the American Radium Company (I think I got that right). The Grayson sisters, for those that haven't read The Radium Girls in order to make the comparison, appears to be based loosely on the Maggia sisters, while the company is, obviously, a fictionalized version of the United States Radium Corporation. (Amelia "Mollie" Maggia was the first of the Radium Girls to die.)
Unlike most books that attempt this method, I do not find the switch between perspectives and styles to be detrimental or clunky - if anything, it is inconvenient. Rather than wrap up preceding chapters, Bryant uses these switches to leave Julie's story on a cliffhanger more than once throughout the book. This style can easily be avoided, considering the letters written from Lydia to her boyfriend are interesting enough on their own to propel the reader forward.
While Julie's story offers an plot that appeals to younger readers, I feel Glow would have worked just fine without it. For that purpose, I'm caught between a three and a four on this book. Ultimately, I lean toward the latter and must applaud Bryant on the amount of research she obviously put into writing this book. Julie's story is unbelievable and full of things that I simply have no interest in, but the haunting tale that the Grayson sisters weave is horrifying.
I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book for the purpose of unbiased review.
The main character of Glow is a young woman of eighteen by the name of Jubilee - but don't you dare call her that! She prefers Julie. After making the ultimate sacrifice for her mother, she spends the summer unraveling the mysteries behind paintings she finds at thrift stores while her best friend prepares for college.
Between each chapter, readers find an epistolary account from the mind of Lydia Grayson. Like her sisters, Lydia is one of the many girls that worked for the American Radium Company (I think I got that right). The Grayson sisters, for those that haven't read The Radium Girls in order to make the comparison, appears to be based loosely on the Maggia sisters, while the company is, obviously, a fictionalized version of the United States Radium Corporation. (Amelia "Mollie" Maggia was the first of the Radium Girls to die.)
Unlike most books that attempt this method, I do not find the switch between perspectives and styles to be detrimental or clunky - if anything, it is inconvenient. Rather than wrap up preceding chapters, Bryant uses these switches to leave Julie's story on a cliffhanger more than once throughout the book. This style can easily be avoided, considering the letters written from Lydia to her boyfriend are interesting enough on their own to propel the reader forward.
While Julie's story offers an plot that appeals to younger readers, I feel Glow would have worked just fine without it. For that purpose, I'm caught between a three and a four on this book. Ultimately, I lean toward the latter and must applaud Bryant on the amount of research she obviously put into writing this book. Julie's story is unbelievable and full of things that I simply have no interest in, but the haunting tale that the Grayson sisters weave is horrifying.
I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book for the purpose of unbiased review.
Sarah (7800 KP) rated Line of Duty - Season 5 in TV
May 18, 2019
Gripping and thrilling
What can I say, Line of Duty have done it again with another hugely gripping series with twists, turns and a stellar cast. Again I won’t say too much at the risk of giving away any spoilers, but this series continues the investigation into the mysterious ‘H’ and they really do pack a lot of intrigue and twists and turns. It’s good to see the wonderful Stephen Graham in this, I couldn’t imagine anyone else more fitting for the role of Clayton and it’s also good to see a bit more of Adrian Dunbar who has been slightly sidelined in past series in favour of the characters of Arnott and Fleming. The plot itself is action packed with a lot of twists you just wouldn’t see coming. Of course unsurprisingly the series ends with a bit of a bang but also doesn’t quite wrap everything up neatly, leaving me screaming for another that I’ll now have to wait for. Damn you BBC.
My only criticism about this show, other than the fact that some plot lines have been left hanging until the ends series, is a bit of a back handed compliment. From working in a police environment I cannot stress to you how realistic a lot of aspects of this show are. Yes they’ve obviously made the storylines thrilling and action packed and made up, but the little nuances and parts of daily ordinary police life are very realistic. Whilst I really love they’ve made it this realistic, there’s one part I find very irritating and that’s mainly because it annoys me on a daily basis at work. I can’t stand the dated way police officers refer to those of a higher rank as ‘Sir’ or ‘Ma’am’, it seems very outdated in a world where we’re all meant to be equal, except when you’re a higher police rank then you can’t be called by your first name by a lower rank... Doesn’t seem right to me, and you certainly wouldn’t catch me doing that at work - calling someone by name doesn’t mean you don’t respect their position any less. So I do get a little irritated with this hierarchical nonsense sometimes on the show, especially with Kate and Steve. But very realistic to say the least! Rant over ?
My only criticism about this show, other than the fact that some plot lines have been left hanging until the ends series, is a bit of a back handed compliment. From working in a police environment I cannot stress to you how realistic a lot of aspects of this show are. Yes they’ve obviously made the storylines thrilling and action packed and made up, but the little nuances and parts of daily ordinary police life are very realistic. Whilst I really love they’ve made it this realistic, there’s one part I find very irritating and that’s mainly because it annoys me on a daily basis at work. I can’t stand the dated way police officers refer to those of a higher rank as ‘Sir’ or ‘Ma’am’, it seems very outdated in a world where we’re all meant to be equal, except when you’re a higher police rank then you can’t be called by your first name by a lower rank... Doesn’t seem right to me, and you certainly wouldn’t catch me doing that at work - calling someone by name doesn’t mean you don’t respect their position any less. So I do get a little irritated with this hierarchical nonsense sometimes on the show, especially with Kate and Steve. But very realistic to say the least! Rant over ?
Louise (64 KP) rated The Girl in the Red Coat in Books
Jul 2, 2018
This book is every parent/guardians worst nightmare! This book made me feel anxious and sick at how realistic this is. For my daughter to be the same age as Carmel is just terrifying to me. This story line will definitely bring out your emotions even if you are not a parent. The premise was what drew me towards reading this book, child abduction is something that we will see on the news occasionally and something that could happen to anyone.
Carmel Wakeford is 8 years old and intelligent for her age, recently Carmel has been “Away with the Fairies” and occasionally wanders off. Beth (Carmel’s mother) is on constant edge when they visit a children’s festival, so much so they Carmel becomes agitated by her mothers clingyness that she decides to remove herself from her mothers grasp just for a while. When Carmel returns to the spot her mother is no where to be seen, a grey haired man appears and introduces himself as Carmel’s grandfather. With never actually meeting her grandfather before and him knowing her parents, she believes him when he tells her that her mother has been in an accident and he is there to look after her. Beth is frantically searching for her daughter realising her worst fear is becoming a reality.
The book is told from two alternating point of views, Beth and Carmel’s. Though this is a crime book, it is not told from the investigation perspective as we are used to, it’s more of the mother/father/family/child’s suffering. Hamer has captured the emotions of the mother really well with feeling guilty and the grieving process and I could feel her despair and knew if I was in the same position I would be feeling exactly the same way. I enjoyed reading from Carmel’s perspective, it’s interesting when the author writes as a child it needs to come across realistically which Hamer managed to pull off.
I found this story to be quite slow even with the alternating POV’s and some parts I was bored but I continued reading as I needed to know what happened to Carmel. The ending all seemed to be a bit rushed and left things unexplained. The writing was really good and packed full of emotion.
This is a great debut novel from Kate Hamer and would be interested in reading her future work.
Overall I rated this 3.5 out of stars
Carmel Wakeford is 8 years old and intelligent for her age, recently Carmel has been “Away with the Fairies” and occasionally wanders off. Beth (Carmel’s mother) is on constant edge when they visit a children’s festival, so much so they Carmel becomes agitated by her mothers clingyness that she decides to remove herself from her mothers grasp just for a while. When Carmel returns to the spot her mother is no where to be seen, a grey haired man appears and introduces himself as Carmel’s grandfather. With never actually meeting her grandfather before and him knowing her parents, she believes him when he tells her that her mother has been in an accident and he is there to look after her. Beth is frantically searching for her daughter realising her worst fear is becoming a reality.
The book is told from two alternating point of views, Beth and Carmel’s. Though this is a crime book, it is not told from the investigation perspective as we are used to, it’s more of the mother/father/family/child’s suffering. Hamer has captured the emotions of the mother really well with feeling guilty and the grieving process and I could feel her despair and knew if I was in the same position I would be feeling exactly the same way. I enjoyed reading from Carmel’s perspective, it’s interesting when the author writes as a child it needs to come across realistically which Hamer managed to pull off.
I found this story to be quite slow even with the alternating POV’s and some parts I was bored but I continued reading as I needed to know what happened to Carmel. The ending all seemed to be a bit rushed and left things unexplained. The writing was really good and packed full of emotion.
This is a great debut novel from Kate Hamer and would be interested in reading her future work.
Overall I rated this 3.5 out of stars
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Morgan (2016) in Movies
Jun 19, 2019
Producer Ridley Scott has teamed with his son Luke for the new
Horror/Suspense film “Morgan” which blends Horror and Suspense in what may
well be a new franchise for FOX.
The film follows an isolated research facility surrounded by trees where
an experiment named Morgan (Anya Taylor-Joy), has had an “incident” which
has caused the parent company to dispatch a troubleshooter named Lee
Weathers (Kate Mara) to evaluate the program.
The cold and no-nonsense Weathers meets some hesitation from the research
team as they see her as a company tool intent on closing their program and
years of research and being unable to see the potential and progress of
their work.
As Weathers and the audience gets to know Morgan, they learn that she is a
genetic creation who became aware and functional at a very early age and
her recent act of violence has her confined to a cage where she listens to
music, plays Chess, and spends her time dreaming of her former visits
outside.
As Morgan is evaluated it appears that there is far more to her than first
appears. The creation is capable of great empathy, wisdom, and
appreciation for beauty, but also has a very dark side, which can appear
out of nowhere.
As the complex study and interactions with Morgan unfold, Lee and the
scientists are faced with a series of difficult decisions that sets things
on a course from which they may not return.
The film takes a while to get up to speed and does not have anything that
viewers have not seen before. I was able to figure out the twists to the
film early on and an incident that is referred to in the film would have
made a far more interesting film than what we were given. Perhaps it is
being saved for a possible prequel because as it currently stands,
“Morgan”, is an interesting if formulaic film that borrows from several
other films.
The funny thing about it is that like “Prometheus” the more I
thought about it, the more questions I had and perhaps like his father,
Scott is using the film to setup a much larger universe and future films.
I only wish there was a bit more to this as the premise though interesting
does not have enough for the versatile and talented cast to do and they
deserved much better.
http://sknr.net/2016/08/29/morgan/
Horror/Suspense film “Morgan” which blends Horror and Suspense in what may
well be a new franchise for FOX.
The film follows an isolated research facility surrounded by trees where
an experiment named Morgan (Anya Taylor-Joy), has had an “incident” which
has caused the parent company to dispatch a troubleshooter named Lee
Weathers (Kate Mara) to evaluate the program.
The cold and no-nonsense Weathers meets some hesitation from the research
team as they see her as a company tool intent on closing their program and
years of research and being unable to see the potential and progress of
their work.
As Weathers and the audience gets to know Morgan, they learn that she is a
genetic creation who became aware and functional at a very early age and
her recent act of violence has her confined to a cage where she listens to
music, plays Chess, and spends her time dreaming of her former visits
outside.
As Morgan is evaluated it appears that there is far more to her than first
appears. The creation is capable of great empathy, wisdom, and
appreciation for beauty, but also has a very dark side, which can appear
out of nowhere.
As the complex study and interactions with Morgan unfold, Lee and the
scientists are faced with a series of difficult decisions that sets things
on a course from which they may not return.
The film takes a while to get up to speed and does not have anything that
viewers have not seen before. I was able to figure out the twists to the
film early on and an incident that is referred to in the film would have
made a far more interesting film than what we were given. Perhaps it is
being saved for a possible prequel because as it currently stands,
“Morgan”, is an interesting if formulaic film that borrows from several
other films.
The funny thing about it is that like “Prometheus” the more I
thought about it, the more questions I had and perhaps like his father,
Scott is using the film to setup a much larger universe and future films.
I only wish there was a bit more to this as the premise though interesting
does not have enough for the versatile and talented cast to do and they
deserved much better.
http://sknr.net/2016/08/29/morgan/
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016) in Movies
Aug 6, 2019
The new Dreamworks Animation release Kung Fu Panda 3 has several big name actors voicing the characters. Among them are Jack Black as Po, Angelina Jolie as Tigress, Kate Hudson as Mei Mei, Bryan Cranston as Li, Dustin Hoffman as Shifu, Jackie Chan as Monkey,
Seth Rogan as Mantis and Lucy Liu as Viper.
Po discovers a long-lost relative who travels with him to a secret enclave of Panda relatives. Meanwhile, the trapped super-villain Kai escapes, and begins to defeat all the king-fu masters across the land.
Po must gather his new-found relatives and his long-time friends, and tries to train them to work together to defeat Kai.
What results is a heartwarming tale of friends & family working together to beat the odds, and of discovering that your strengths and abilities can be used in situations that might seem otherwise hopeless. It shows you that no matter what your capabilities are as an individual, working together can achieve great things.
The music throughout the film was engaging, and the graphics and animation were superb. This is one movie that is released in 3-D that is actually worth seeing in 3-D!
I had the 3 kids with me and they all loved it. The youngest, a girl, is 6, and her comment was ‘That movie was AWESOME!’, and her favorite part was ‘all the cool fighting scenes’
The oldest, a 9 year old boy, said ‘it was a GREAT movie!’, and his favorite part was when Po discovered his dad again.
The middle child, 7, a boy says ‘I thought it was so great that I wanted to cry’, and his favorite part was the baby pandas doing their tricks to help defeat Kai.
From an adult perspective I thought it was a great family film, with a message of acceptance and working together despite our differences in order to accomplish a common goal. I loved how Po’s adopted father and natural father worked together and got along and that they all ended up as ‘family’, without sides being chosen. I felt that was a really great message in this day & age.
I would give this movie a solid 4.5 out of 5 stars, and recommend it for any family looking for a fun activity to head out to on the weekend.
Seth Rogan as Mantis and Lucy Liu as Viper.
Po discovers a long-lost relative who travels with him to a secret enclave of Panda relatives. Meanwhile, the trapped super-villain Kai escapes, and begins to defeat all the king-fu masters across the land.
Po must gather his new-found relatives and his long-time friends, and tries to train them to work together to defeat Kai.
What results is a heartwarming tale of friends & family working together to beat the odds, and of discovering that your strengths and abilities can be used in situations that might seem otherwise hopeless. It shows you that no matter what your capabilities are as an individual, working together can achieve great things.
The music throughout the film was engaging, and the graphics and animation were superb. This is one movie that is released in 3-D that is actually worth seeing in 3-D!
I had the 3 kids with me and they all loved it. The youngest, a girl, is 6, and her comment was ‘That movie was AWESOME!’, and her favorite part was ‘all the cool fighting scenes’
The oldest, a 9 year old boy, said ‘it was a GREAT movie!’, and his favorite part was when Po discovered his dad again.
The middle child, 7, a boy says ‘I thought it was so great that I wanted to cry’, and his favorite part was the baby pandas doing their tricks to help defeat Kai.
From an adult perspective I thought it was a great family film, with a message of acceptance and working together despite our differences in order to accomplish a common goal. I loved how Po’s adopted father and natural father worked together and got along and that they all ended up as ‘family’, without sides being chosen. I felt that was a really great message in this day & age.
I would give this movie a solid 4.5 out of 5 stars, and recommend it for any family looking for a fun activity to head out to on the weekend.
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