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ClareR (5561 KP) rated The Animals at Lockwood Manor in Books

Apr 3, 2020

The Animals at Lockwood Manor

Jane Healey | 2020 | LGBTQ+, Romance

10.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

The Animals at Lockwood Manor is a creepy, gothic tale, set during World War Two. Hetty Cartwright is unusual, in that she has been put in charge of the Natural History Museums mammal collection, and the task of removing it from London to Lockwood Manor. She is expected to keep the collection safe, and to keep it in good condition. She is well aware that she only holds the post because the men who would have had the post have all gone to war. Hetty knows that the role will be challenging, but she hasn’t counted on Lord Lockwood, who is bullish, overbearing and opinionated. His daughter, Lucy, is another matter. She seems to be completely controlled by him, and is constantly reminded about her delicate mental health by her father. Hetty feels drawn to Lucy, and tries to help her with her anxiety and her grief at the loss of her mother and grandmother.

This is no fast-moving thriller, but it is creepy, haunting (in fact, is Lockwood Manor haunted?) with a malevolent undercurrent. It’s like the Manor itself is alive. It’s also a story of secrets: family secrets and secret love.

This was a pleasure to read; it’s richly descriptive language described the house, people and the time in history beautifully. If you enjoy a creepy, slow burner, you’ll love this book. I did.

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David McK (3185 KP) rated Loki - Season 1 in TV

Jul 25, 2021

Loki - Season 1

2021 | Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

6.4

(10 Ratings)

TV Season Rating

The most recent (at the time of writing) of Marvels post-Endgame TV series (after both WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) and, once again, this is a very different beast than any of those two previous.

In this one, Tom Hiddleston portrays Loki, as he was just after stealing the Tesseract during the time travel heist of Avengers: Endgame ie before this version of him had lived through those events that occurred after Avengers Assemble (eg Thor: Dark World, Ragnorak, Infinity War etc etc) and is almost immediately arrested by the Time Variance Authority (the TVA), an organisation whose sole purpose is to police the 'sacred timeline'.

Over the course of the series, things prove not always to be as they seem, with this series also (or so I've heard) leading directly into Marvels phase 4 of the MCU.

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Show all 4 comments.

Cori June (3033 KP) Jul 27, 2021

I'd say it's because it's slow. There's a lot of exposition and it can be draggy. That would be why I'd rate it lower. Worth watching, just be aware.

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Erika (17788 KP) Jul 28, 2021

I disliked the show completely, the only reason I rated it as high as a 5 is because when I averaged the ratings for each episode, the 2 good episodes outweighed the other trash episodes.
It was boring, it turned Loki into a vanilla-boring character, and the writing was terrible. The only reason I continued after the 3rd episode is because of Hiddleston, as I'm a huge fan, and he said that eps 4 and 5 were where it got more interesting. Episode 4 was an abomination. The plot was nonsensical and Hiddleston's acting was cringey. Seriously, the Ragnarok flashdance hair flip occurring multiple times was odd and annoying. I'm in the minority, I apparently watched a completely different show. It caused me to have zero interest in the MCU beyond Shang Chi.

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