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Drop Dead Gorgeous (Return to Fear Street #3)
Drop Dead Gorgeous (Return to Fear Street #3)
R.L. Stine | 2019 | Horror, Young Adult (YA)
6
7.2 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
Great pacing (1 more)
Interesting plot
Cheesy Characters (1 more)
Not enough backstory
Cheesy but an Alright Read
I grew up reading R.L. Stine books especially his Fear Street series. When I heard there was going to be a new Fear Street series, I knew I had to read it. I loved the first book in the series, You May Now Kill the Bride. I was not impressed with the second book in the series, The Wrong Girl. I thought the latest book in the series, Drop Dead Gorgeous, was just an alright read.

The plot for Drop Dead Gorgeous was fairly interesting. Morgan Marks is the new girl at Linden High. No one knows where she came from, and her answers to everything are vague. She has a magnetic pull over all of the males in and around Linden. When I found out that Morgan was a vampire (not a spoiler, don't worry), I rolled my eyes and thought I wouldn't like this book. I'm not a big fan of vampire books (or films) since they've over-saturated the market. However, Drop Dead Gorgeous turned out to be alright. Anyway, someone is killing off the residents of Linden and draining their blood. Is it Morgan or could be be someone else? The world building was written to be believable enough even if some of the characters weren't believable. There were a few plot twists. A couple of them I didn't see coming, but I did predict a major plot twist.

All of the males in Drop Dead Gorgeous were beyond annoying and immature. All they could talk about were hot girls it seemed. They were really one dimensional, and I found myself not caring about Liam, Winks, and Zane. They would all brag how great they were, especially Winks. I'm sure there are some people like this, but I felt like it was a bit over the top having all three males in the book being so vapid and conceited. The females in Drop Dead Gorgeous had a little more depth to them thankfully. I still didn't care much about Delia, Amber, or Julie because there was no back story, so it was hard to connect to them. Out of the three girls, Delia seemed to feel the most real. Morgan was a good character. I enjoyed her backstory even if it was short, but hey, at least she had some backstory. The dialogue between the characters was extremely corny in some places, and I know I haven't been a teenager in many years, but I've never heard any teenage conversations like the ones in Drop Dead Gorgeous.

I will say that the pacing was done fairly well for Drop Dead Gorgeous. The first few chapters are a bit slow, but the pacing definitely picks up not much longer after that. I found myself immersed in what was happening in Linden.

Trigger warnings for Drop Dead Gorgeous include violence, death, murder, some gore, older man and underage girl kissing, and underage drinking.

Overall, Drop Dead Gorgeous was just an alright read. It wasn't great, but it wasn't a bad read either. If you can look past the overly cheesy characters, this is a good read. I would definitely recommend Drop Dead Gorgeous by R.L. Stine to those aged 15+.
  
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018)
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018)
2018 | Adventure, Comedy, Family
There's a fun bunch of actors in the cast of this one. I was a little disappointed that Jack Black wasn't doing the whole film, but his little piece in it is entertaining. There's also a fun little cameo by R.L. Stine in there too. It was a little off putting seeing Chris Parnell, it hurt my brain a bit. Walter was a great character but all I could hear were Jerry and Cyril Figgis.

I always feel like I'm getting old when I watch a kids film and think, "that's quite scary for little 'uns". But there are a few good moment that give you a little jump.It's exactly what you'd expect from the film, fun spooky stuff. Nothing more, nothing less.

My favourite part of the whole movie is the last red gummy bear... keep and eye out for it.

Sorry this is such a short review, but honestly there isn't much to say about it. That's not a bad thing. The acting was good for this sort of film, it's a fun story line, the effects are quite good (thankfully no baby Jack Black like his last film) and you come away feeling like you've been entertained.

What you should do

A good halloween movie to see as a family, it's worth seeing but you could probably wait until it's out for home viewing.

Movie thing you wish you could take home

I'd say a talking gummy bear, but they're a little homicidal, and if they weren't I'd probably be in danger of eating the squishy little thing anyway. If it were possibly to get something from the film that wasn't actively trying to kill me then I'd probably books that bring things to life.
  
TS
10
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
<b>4.5 stars</b>

<b>The Seance</b> was one of those books that I just could not put down! Addictive, fast-paced, thrilling, and thoroughly fun, it had everything I wanted to read - mystery/suspense, romance, paranormal - and reminded me of R.L. Stine for adults. Of course it's not 'serious' fiction, who wants that when picking up a book that looks like this? It's fun brain candy, plain and simple, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I haven't had an easy time finding books to read because my concentration level has taken a nosedive, but this book had me hooked from the back synopsis - and kept me hooked throughout. Yes, there are some editing issues, coincidences, red-heads seem to be the main populace, redundancies (e.g. victims are attractive red-heads, beautiful red-heads, gorgeous red-heads, and did I mention Christina's a beautiful, attractive, gorgeous red-head also? Argh, it was annoying! I got it the first time; I don't need it repeated ten million times.), and I figured out who was behind everything in the first-seventh of the book, which could have used more of an explanation for the why at the end, but my problems are eclipsed by the engaging plot.

After Christina called Gen, I wondered if there was a previous book with her, Thor, and Adam, and there is called [b:The Vision|731809|The Vision (Harrison Investigation, #3)|Heather Graham|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1308964367s/731809.jpg|717999], and I've already ordered it from the library - I can't wait to read it! I'm thinking Heather Graham's romantic suspense novels might just be the key that'll keep me reading all the way to the end of a book. :) So, overall, I liked the characters, the story was great, and even though it isn't even close to Hallowe'en, I would still recommend it for a thrilling good read.