Sarah (7800 KP) rated Gwendy's Button Box in Books
Mar 18, 2019
For the most part, Gwendy’s Button Box falls into the first category. Admittedly this is only a novella, but I couldn’t put it down. It was such an easy read with an intriguing plot and a well developed and likeable main character. There’s just enough intrigue to keep you reading yet it doesn’t explain too much and still leaves you with questions at the end. Any story set in Castle Rock is always a safe bet too. Gwendy is a very likeable character and King always manages to write his child characters well without them seeming too young and childish, which is often a frustration with other books that feature children (especially YA).
My only criticism is that I think this story was far too short. The button box is a great idea and i think they’ve not done it as much justice as it deserves. This could easily have made for a much longer and detailed novel, and would’ve been all the better for it.
ClareR (6256 KP) rated The Hunting Party in Books
Jan 7, 2020
I thoroughly appreciate a book that keeps me guessing at who both the victim and the murderer are right up to the end! And to be honest, it couldn’t have happened more deservingly to a group of such thoroughly unlikeable people. They’re all entitled, self absorbed, spoilt, oversized children. Can you tell I don’t like them? I’ve come to realise that really horrible characters are my crack. The more deviant they are, the more I enjoy the book. This delivered in spades. I LOVED to hate them. The staff at the remote Scottish lodge that they spent New Years at, had my complete sympathy.
Everyone in this novel has a secret, and some of them are huge. They were all so cleverly revealed, and the suspense was immense! This is one of my top books of 2019(the list is hovering around the 20 mark) - it just snuck in as I read it over Christmas!
Oh, and I’m not saying that this book was necessarily responsible, but we’re going to stay in a (much smaller) lodge in Scotland for our summer holidays. Just no snow and/ or murders please!
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole for serialising this, and Lucy Foley for reading along!
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Lee (2222 KP) rated Instant Family (2019) in Movies
Jan 24, 2019 (Updated Jan 24, 2019)
Instant Family is based on the real life experience of the director Sean Anders and the adoption process he went through with his wife. In the movie, the couple are called Pete and Ellie (Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne), who earn their living by flipping houses (buy, renovate, sell). After Ellie has an argument with her sister regarding kids, they begin thinking about having children of their own. Worried about their age, they begin looking into fostering, with a view to eventually adopting an older child.
They visit an adoption agency, where they are joined by a number of other couples and single parents all looking to find out more and begin their journey to becoming parents. Octavia Spencer and Tig Notaro are social workers, there to guide them all through the process. A very funny double act, providing a lot of the movies hilariously well timed lines. In fact, all of the other potential adopters are well written and funny, continuing to crop up throughout the movie as we revisit how everyone is getting on with their fostered children. None of this is zany, particularly goofy or over the top though - it's made very clear that many of the children in the foster system have had a pretty awful life so far, and this honest piece of reality is never downplayed.
At a meet-and-greet with potential adoptive children, organised as an outdoor event in a park, Pete and Ellie are drawn to Lizzie (Isabela Moner), a fiery teenage girl who is hanging out with the other older kids - separated from the main gathering, having resigned themselves to the notion that they're never going to get chosen by the prospective parents. When the couple mark her down as a potential for fostering, they learn that she actually comes as part of a package, having a younger brother Juan and even younger sister Lita. Pete and Ellie decide to go for it and foster all three, convinced they can make a difference in these kids lives.
There follows a period of new parents being thrown in at the deep end - the stressful night time routine, the problems with getting kids to eat and dress properly, problems at school etc. But again, it's not over the top - rooted in reality and successfully managing to walk the line between comedy and drama without resorting to exaggerated comedy set pieces. The problems experienced are made all the more challenging as the couple trying to care for and raise children who haven't had a great start in life, and have been used to a very particular way of living. Made even more difficult when the children's birth mother appears on the scene later in the movie.
I wasn't expecting to enjoy this movie as much as I did. There are more laugh out loud moments than any movie I've seen in recent years that bills itself as a comedy, but at the same time it's also a really heartwarming feel-good drama. So many enjoyable characters too, and with a sharp script that brings out the best in them all. Hugely enjoyable.