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There's Someone Inside Your House (2021)
There's Someone Inside Your House (2021)
2021 | Horror
7
5.6 (5 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Movie starts with a young teen coming home, the house is empty but the egg timer is ticking away, he calls out to see if anybody is home but there is no answer and he thinks nothing of it, finishes his phone conversation and goes to sleep. He is woken up in the middle of the night by the egg timer which is now in his room, this freaks him out and he calls the police, but is interrupted by random photos placed around the house of a secret he has been keeping and we soon have our first kill. A video of his secret is then sent to everyone and as this video also contains another jock, that jock is shunned at school and ends up sitting with a different group of teens, which is who the movie follows.
After the second kill, everyone becomes aware that the killer is going after those with a secret, meaning bad news for one of the teens.

This movie has many cliches used in teen Slashers, such as running anywhere but outside when trying to escape the killer, going to parties despite a killer being on the loose, the killer wearing a mask, people blaming each other and of course the killer having a plan to frame someone. Despite this (and the look a like masks which bared no resemblance to the victims) I did enjoy this movie. The acting wasn't spot on all the time but good enough for me. I also felt that the music wasn't right for the movie as it had more of a strangers things vibe than horror.
  
The Fourth Monkey (4MK Thriller, #1)
The Fourth Monkey (4MK Thriller, #1)
J.D. Barker | 2017 | Thriller
8
8.5 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
<img src="https://bookbumzuky.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/4mk-giveaway-v2.png"; width="430" height="430" alt="win the book!"/>

<a href="https://bookbum.co.uk/2017/06/27/4mk/">WIN A HARDBACK COPY OF THE BOOK HERE!</a> (UK only)

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I had so many opinions running through my head when I was reading this. At first I was excited and intrigued to find out more, then I was slightly reluctant to read it towards the middle (though I think factors outside of the book were influencing my opinion at that point) and then by the end I was super eager to finish it (in a good way) and see where it went.

This is a fast paced thriller that’s going to keep you rooted to your seat. I, unfortunately, had so much to do while reading this book (work and personal life) that I wasn’t able to sit and read huge chunks of it and I think that’s why I got a little slow to reading it towards the middle. If you’re going to read this book, my advice is to free up some of your time so you can bulk read it, otherwise some of the more shocking revelations and continuous fast paced action won’t have it’s desired effect.

The first thing I loved about this novel is the fact that our protagonist is an older man, not some sprightly new thing coming straight out of police school. It was nice to have that less popular character as our “hero”. The second thing I loved was the Diary entries. I (mainly) love books that jump back and forth between past and present so when these skin crawlingly creepy diary entries started, I was pumped! They never let me down, through the entire thing they were disturbing and really added something to the novel.

My only complaint? Well, this was a buddy read with my pal Annie @ The Misstery, and we knew who 4MK was the moment we met them. Kind of a bummer but at the same time it was quite fun to see if we were actually going to be right or not (we were). It was still good fun to find out how everything came together in the end.

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and I’m already excited to see another book in the series will be out next year. The ending lines of the novel are chilling and I can’t wait for them to be followed up!

<i>Thanks to HQ for sending me a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!</i>
  
Extraordinary Means
Extraordinary Means
Robyn Schneider | 2015 | Romance, Young Adult (YA)
10
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
<i>This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Extraordinary Means</i> is a coming of age novel by Robyn Schneider that promises to live up to the expectations of John Green and Stephen Chbosky fans. Set in the near future, Lane Rosen has spent his seventeen years studying and making sure he is always achieving his best at school. With high hopes of getting into Stanford, he is distraught when he is sent to Latham House, a sanatorium in the Santa Cruz Mountains, after contracting tuberculosis.

Although in today’s society tuberculosis is curable, Schneider has invented a total drug resistant TB, which is highly contagious, therefore needs to be contained. Lane finds himself in the middle of nowhere surrounded by other teenagers with the incurable disease. Here he meets Sadie Bennett with whom, after a shaky start, he develops a close relationship.

Ironically, whilst suffering with an illness that could kill him, Lane learns there is a lot more to life than school. With his new friends: Sadie, Nick, Marina and Charlie; Lane begins to become more adventurous and starts to relax and have fun whilst they wait for scientists to come up with a cure. The only trouble with this waiting game is that the odds of some of them not living long enough to see this cure is fairly high.

Narrated by both Lane and Sadie, <i>Extraordinary Means</i> is a love story with a heart-breaking ending. The readers really feel for the teens as they are separated from their family, and forgotten about by their friends. Unlike other potentially terminal illness, they cannot have support from their loved ones because of the risk of spreading the disease.

There is an underlying sadness to the novel, as the reader knows that no matter how much fun the characters have and no matter what their hopes and dreams, chances are something dreadful could happen. With this in mind, the story becomes much more powerful and moving as Sadie, Lane and friends determine to keep on going and enjoy their lives on a day-to-day basis.

Schneider is an excellent writer who has created a contemporary romance with a unique setting. The imagination involved with the tuberculosis could almost describe the novel as dystopian minus the science fiction genre. <i>Extraordinary Means</i> is the perfect novel for young adult fans, but warning: it could break your heart!
  
The Distant Dead
The Distant Dead
Heather Young | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry, Philosophy, Psychology & Social Sciences, Thriller
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
A dark and well-written tale of sadness and forgiveness
Adam Merkel left his job as a professor in Reno to come to Lovelock, a small town, to teach math at their middle school. He was mostly mocked by his students, except for one, Sal Prentiss. After the death of his mother, Sal lives outside of town with his two uncles. Mostly friendless, he bonds with Mr. Merkel over math, chess, and more. So when Sal finds Mr. Merkel's body on his way to schoool--burned so that it's nearly unrecognizable--it turns his small world upside down. It upsets Nora Wheaton as well. A colleague of Adam's at the school, she thought she recognized a kindred spirit in him. Both seemed trapped in Lovelock: Nora had to return to care for her father. After Adam's death, Nora starts looking into his past to see what led to his horrible undoing. But so much of what she finds keeps leading back to the boy who befriended him--and found his body. As she tries to befriend the wary Sal, it opens up old wounds of her own.

I really loved Heather Young's book The Lost Girls, and The Distant Dead didn't disappoint either. She excels at creating excellent atmospheric novels with well-drawn characters. The Distant Dead perfectly captures small town life: how nearly everyone knows almost everything about everyone, but rarely interferes. How a small town can feel so stifling and claustrophobic. How the secrets and lies pile up until a man finds himself burned to death.

Young also covers the timely topics of drugs and addiction, which run as a thread across the book. Opiates don't seem like a tired trope here, though, but something that is eating up the town and ruining people's lives. It's no secret that I'm a sucker for a book with a good kid character, and I pretty much fell for Sal immediately. He's a great kid: real, vulnerable yet tough, and smart. He was an excellent narrator, with his portions telling what led up to Adam's death and Nora and Jake (a local EMT/firefighter) telling us what happened after. The book is surprisingly tense, with Young's beautifully written words jumping off every page. She's such a lyrical writer, weaving an amazing tale of sadness and redemption.

This isn't a fast read or a page-turning thriller. But it's a well-written book, with characters you won't soon forget. There's a lovely, albeit sad and dark, story here. Definitely worth a read. 4+ stars.
  
Twin Peaks Soundtrack by Angelo Badalamenti
Twin Peaks Soundtrack by Angelo Badalamenti
1990 | Rock, Soundtrack
7.4 (8 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This has a similar story to Pixies and Beastie Boys in that it came out when I was in high school and me and all our friends totally lost our mind over it. We'd watch it every week and then the next day at school we'd confer and talk about what happened. Which is funny because so many of my conversations with my friends now are so similar. Especially now that you can binge-watch all of these TV shows and TV is just so good right now that it dominates all of our conversations. Especially with a show like True Detective which is kind of like a mystery and you talk about all the weird stuff, you theorise and come up with all these conspiracies. So it was like that with Twin Peaks and that was the first time that I ever had that relationship with a TV show. Then after that there wasn't another TV show that I replaced it with. It was very specific to Twin Peaks. And it was filmed in the region I lived in, the Pacific Northwest, and me and all my friends connected with that and felt a little bit of ownership over that. The music is really pretty and haunting. I actually bought the songbook so that I could learn how to play them. And I really like Julee Cruise, I thought her voice was really pretty. [Nancy played 'Twin Peaks Theme' as an intro the LCD Soundsystem's 'New York I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down' at their final show in 2011] When we first started playing 'New York I Love You…', I was still trying to learn how to play it, and I don't think I've ever played it the same twice. Even for the recording there was no music written for it. But then as I got more comfortable playing it I started doing different things with it. There's this bit in the middle where it slows down, like the bridge, or the part before the big outro, where it slows down and I can hear other songs that could fit in there. The first song I played in that little interlude was 'Empire State Of Mind', then I got bored of that and started doing Brian Eno's 'By This River', then we would even sing the whole of that song before going back into 'New York I Love You…' but my favourite is when I did 'Twin Peaks'."

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Beautiful Broken Things
Beautiful Broken Things
Sara Barnard | 2017 | Children
8
7.7 (6 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is Sara Barnard's debut novel and a good one at that! Beautiful broken things is an emotional rollercoaster, you are literally up and down on this suspenseful ride, With friendship, self discovery, school, family and abuse this novel certainly packs a punch!

Caddy has been best friends with Rosie for over 10 years despite attending different schools. Calling each other throughout the week and spending the weekends together they couldn't be closer, until Caddy is introduced to Suzanne a new girl from Rosie's school. Jealous of Rosie's new friendship she doesn't instantly take to her, Suzanne is pretty, bold, exciting and totally different from what Caddy is used to. Slowly Suzanne starts to reveal things about herself and the issues that she is hiding from her friends. With this new found knowledge Caddy suddenly sees Suzanne in a different light and wants to help her but also be involved in this interesting girls life and so their friendship blossoms but threatens to break them all apart for good.

Caddy goes to Esther's which is an all girls private school, she is on a tight leash with her parents, paying thousands of pounds per term for her education they are expecting A grades. With all work and no play nothing significant has happened in Caddy's life, she makes a vow for that to end this year and Suzanne is there to help. People around caddy don't think their friendship is a good idea as Suzanne is 'troubled' and leading her astray. Caddy is very naive and hasn't really be involved with boys or been to house parties but with her new-found friend and wanting to fit in she gets more involved and really comes out of her shell.

Suzanne is beautiful, funny and also a "troubled" teenager, living with her aunt starts speculation as to why this is. With a history of abuse, Suzanne is broken and is what people would call a bad influence, she drinks, she goes around with any boy who will have her and when things get tough she runs away. As she becomes friends with Caddy she is pulling her towards her way of life. Caddy would never have dreamt of climbing out of her window in the middle of the night or randomly catching a train without knowing the destination. But in her bid to help Suzanne she feels she has to be with her every step of the way.

This book explores the true meaning of friendship and love between teenage girls. This is a coming of age story with no romance involved and scarily realistic. It portrays mental health and teenagers sensitively and honest.


I loved that this book was set in the UK it felt so more relatable and exciting when your hometown gets referenced in the book.

There things that let down the book for me were the details of the abuser, there wasn't really any detail whether the abuser had been arrested or why Suzanne had or hadn't reported the abuser. It was sort of just glimpsed over this and neither Caddy nor Rosie questioned it which I thought was a little odd. Caddy was very annoying at points and was making some stupid decisions,I felt like shaking her and telling her to stop! JUST STOP!

I definitely recommend this book if you are looking for a realistic portrayal of mental health in young adults.

I rated this 4 out of 5 stars
  
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Darren (1599 KP) rated 2:HRS (2018) in Movies

Jun 20, 2019  
2:HRS (2018)
2:HRS (2018)
2018 |
7
5.0 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Verdict: Fun Family Film

 

Story: 2: Hrs starts as we meet teenage slacker Tim (Jarvis) who spends his time painting London with graffiti with his best friends Vic (Smith) and Alf (Fofana). While on the school trip to a museum, the three sneak off and interrupt a science conference being hosted by conman Groad (Allen) who has created a machine that can tell when the living object inside will die.

Tim goes in the machine only to learn that he only has 2 hours left to live, left shocked, Tim sets out a small bucket list of achievable targets and while the friends target these goals, they are being chased down by the people behind the experiment who want to research and make sure Tim dies on time.

 

Thoughts on 2: Hrs

 

Characters – Tim is a school slacker with a talent for graffiti, he has been acting out because of the death of his father, which has changed him, his friends see this and his rebellious ways puts his life in danger when he learns he only has 2 hours to leave from spending time in a machine which can perform a prediction of when someone will die. He must go through a life lesson as this film unfolds. Vic and Alf are the two supportive friends, that join him on the adventure, we don’t learn too much about them without giving away spoilers. Groad is the businessman/conman that is running the operation, he hides in his apartment with fake backdrops as he conducts meetings. He is always looking to create a good face story for any PR situation. We also have the younger sister Shona to Tim that wants to look up to him only to be left disappointed most of the time and the two bumbling idiots trying to catch the teenagers.

Performances – Harry Jarvis in the leading role does a very good job, we see how his character must change over the course of the film ad he shows us this in his performance. Ella-Rae Smith and Alhaji Fofana are both good in their supporting roles while Keith Allen gives us a good performance as the shady character we see behind the curtain about.

Story – The story follows three friends that decide to ditch a school trip and end up on there on adventure after being caught in the middle of an adventure when one of them learns they only have two hours to live. This does sound like a simple fun adventure family film, which it is, though it does have deeper meaning for Tim who must learn to life lessons in this time while dealing with his own personal tragedy after not doing so when it happened.

Family – This film keeps the films moments all around the family problems Tim is facing, it keeps everything PG even with jokes adults will understand.

Settings – The film is set around London, which is good because it shows how difficult losing a parent can be in the busy city and how easy it is to rebel.


Scene of the Movie – Poetry competition.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – That pet, what was that?

Final Thoughts – This is a family film that can be enjoyed by everyone, it has good laughs, a smart character development story and a nice adventure.

 

Overall: Family film for all to enjoy.

https://moviesreview101.com/2018/07/05/2-hrs-2018/
  
The Girl with the Ghost Machine
The Girl with the Ghost Machine
Lauren DeStefano | 2017 | Young Adult (YA)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Originally reviewed on http://www.frommybookshelf.com

Emmaline Beaumont's mother has passed away. Unfortunately, Emmaline's father has become fixated with building a machine that will bring Emmaline's mother's ghost back, and in doing so, he himself has forgotten about the living in his obsession with the dead, so in many ways Emmaline has lost both of her parents. The only people she can confide in are twins Gully and Oliver, her best friends in school. Yet for of their understanding and patience, Gully and Oliver are unable to fully understand Emmaline's loss as they have never lost someone so close to them as Emmaline's mother was to her. Her father's machine, however, may actually work, and it is then that Emmaline must decide whether the cost of operating the machine is worth the price paid, and will the twins help her in her decision, regardless of what that decision is?

Lauren DeStefano has created a beautiful and poignant story that I feel would be an important book for anyone to read who has recently (or not so recently) lost someone very close to them. DeStefano has a keen ability to cut to the quick of the emotions of loss and what that can feel like, especially for someone too young to have have lost a loved one. Her characters are not cliché and their feelings are quite real, and the story she has created feels honest and important. That's the best way I can describe it. A fan of her YA series The Chemical Garden Trilogy and The Interment Chronicles, I have not yet read her other two middle grade books, The Curious Tale of the In-Between and The Peculiar Night of the Blue Heart, and I think I'll be needing to rectify that soon.