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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated The Clairvoyants in Books

Feb 13, 2018

The Clairvoyants

Karen Brown | 2017 | Mystery, Thriller

6.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

Martha has had an interesting childhood and upbringing. As a young girl, she saw the ghost of her aunt, a nun, in her grandfather's barn. As a teen, the dead frequently appeared to Martha, though she rarely knew what to do with these apparitions. Also in her teen years, Martha's younger sister, Del, wound up sent to an institution. Incredibly close as children, Del's slow decent into some sort of madness also haunted Martha. So she decides to depart her family's farm and move inland to college. Once in Ithaca, Martha falls in love, is reunited with Del, and frequently sees the ghost of Mary Rae, a missing woman from a neighboring town, who stands beneath Martha's window for hours, wearing her coat and with her hair covered in ice. Martha had hoped to escape the dead in Ithaca, but it seems like somehow everything is going to converge on her nonetheless.

This book was not at all what I had expected; it's less a supernatural thriller and more a literary treatise as we watch Martha deal with the events in her life. The chapters switch between present-day in Ithaca and flashbacks to Martha's life growing up. Sometimes it's a little confusing, but also quite interesting. I had expected the book to be more of a mystery as we try to figure out what happened to Mary Rae, but honestly, it's pretty apparent from the beginning who is responsible for her disappearance, even if the "how" is unknown. Still, the book is incredibly suspenseful and very compelling; I found myself trying to read it every chance as I had.

The psychological/mystical aspect isn't really as much at play here as you'd think from the summary, but that's okay. I didn't find it as creepy as some of the other reviews, but as I stated, still very spellbinding. There's an "aha moment" when you're reading and things come together that is masterfully done. While I wasn't in love with the character of Martha, I was intrigued by both she and Del, and I found all of the characters to be fascinating and intricate in their own way. The ending was a little quick for me, but somewhat redeemed by one particular portion (don't want to give away a spoiler). Overall, this was a different book--unlike ones I typically read--and while I didn't find it amazing, it was an engrossing and suspenseful novel. 3.5 stars.

Kudos

Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Alan Wake in Video Games

Oct 31, 2019 (Updated Oct 31, 2019)

Alan Wake

Action/Adventure

9.0

(4 Ratings)

Video Game Rating

Flash The Darkness Demons

Contains spoilers, click to show

Alan Wake- is one of those games that is highly underrated. It is a great game. It mixs horror with suspense with thrills with adventure and action.

The Plot: The story follows best-selling thriller novelist Alan Wake as he tries to uncover the mystery behind his wife's disappearance during a vacation in the small fictional town of Bright Falls, Washington, all while experiencing events from the plot in his latest novel, which he cannot remember writing, coming to life.

In its pacing and structure, Alan Wake is similar to a thriller television series, with episodes that contain plot twists and cliffhangers. The game itself consists of six episodes, and the storyline is continued by two special episodes, titled "The Signal" and "The Writer", that were made available as downloadable content (DLC) within the same year of the game's release. Together, they make the first season of a possibly longer story. Additionally, a six-episode live-action web series called Bright Falls acts as a prequel to the game, and a number of related books also expand upon the Alan Wake story.

Lets talk about the game: Alan Wake is described by Remedy as "the mind of a psychological thriller" and "the body of a cinematic action game" put together. In interviews, the game's creators hold that the game does not belong squarely in the survival horror video game genre.

The player controls the eponymous protagonist Alan Wake. In the game, a "darkness" is taking over humans, animals and objects. These enemies, dubbed the "Taken", are murderous shadows that attack Wake, wielding weapons of their own, ranging from.

The Taken are protected by a shield of darkness, initially rendering them impervious to attack; they can only be injured with a firearm after exposure to light, which burns the darkness away. This puts significant emphasis on flashlights in conjunction with conventional weapons, such as a revolver or shotgun. Flashlight beams act as a reticle.

The player is often encouraged to take advantage of environmental light sources and placing, and to use other light-based weapons and accessories, such as flare guns, hand-held flares and flashbangs.

So this game mixs survival with fantasy with reality with horror with suspense and so much more.

I would highly reecordmend playing this game.

Kudos

Neon's Nerd Nexus (360 KP) created a post

Dec 23, 2019

'The Neon Demon' 2016 is my film of the decade and also my favourite film of all time too.

'The Neon Demon' is all my passion, my addiction, my love for cinema and everything that inspires me, excites and drives me in life all crammed together into one cinematic masterpiece. In fact I think this film is so perfect and it means so much to me that its become a huge obsession of mine to the point where I think about it on a daily basis and even have my phone/room themed around it, tattoos of it, clothing/earnings based around it and it also influences most photos I take too. Directed by Nicholas Winding Refn and just like 'Only God Forgives'/'Drive' its visually immense, beautiful, intimidating, full of mystery and chock full of raw emotion too. Every scene is dense, rich and stylish with clearly a lot of time, care and thought put into each one be it the colours, lighting, camera angles or object placement everything in the frame is there for a purpose both visually and metaphorically. This film invokes and awakens so many emotions with me every single time I watch it that every time it ends I feel I've learnt something new not onlu about the film but about myself too. With next level acting and such an unnerving yet spellbinding soundtrack 'The Neon Demon' almost sends shivers down my spine and catapults me into a hypnotic state of immersion still when rewatching it to this day. Clearly inspired by Dario Argento movies such as 'Suspira' this film also has such a nostalgic feel to it as well containing very similar themes and uncomfortable visual/psychological horror too that many will no doubt find disturbing but to me it helps ramp up the tension, create a chilling atmosphere and adds huge emotional impact to the film. I doubt any film will ever replace this film as my top spot and although its slated by pretty much everyone (Jena Malone however said she was proud of it when I met her) the sheer depth, horror, inspiration, courage, enlightenment and joy that I personally get from watching it makes me feel so alive that if I met NWR I think I'd just burst into tears of gratitude.

Tom Nanni aka Neon Nans Reviews