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Phil Leader (619 KP) rated The Red Grouse Tales: The Little Dog and Other Stories in Books

Nov 25, 2019

Related as stories told between friends in the Red Grouse pub, each of these tales has a thread of the paranormal and philosophy running through them, to varying degrees. There are four stories to enjoy (I have also reviewed each of these separately in depth)

The Little Dog is the story of a forester who is forced to work with a much disliked colleague for a week. Each day is tense and stressful, but is Blackman just unsociable or actually evil?

The Crow focuses on a local politician, generally held in high regard but the tale of his life as related by a bitter and dying priest casts doubt on his motives.

The Golden Tup is the tale of a local couple who are notorious for having killed their baby. But just perhaps not everything is as it seems. Has an old evil been awoken?

The White Hart finishes the stories with a very rare thing - a heartwarming and feelgood ghost story that touches on the power that men wield over women, and vice versa.

Each of these tales has a different tone but are a complete story in their own right, even if some make mention of places and events in others. The story telling makes this a great collection to dip into and read. As each story also carries a philosophical theme they have a depth and resonance beyond the actual tale being told.

A good collection of paranormal and interesting stories, definitely worth a read. Each story is also available separately (and I have posted full reviews for them separately too)

Kudos

A Bibliophagist (113 KP) rated Red Rising in Books

Jan 26, 2020 (Updated Jan 26, 2020)

Red Rising

Pierce Brown | 2014 | Dystopia, Fiction & Poetry, Young Adult (YA)

8.4

(34 Ratings)

Book Rating

Good characters (3 more)

Good development

Well paced

Fun

YA tropes at times (2 more)

Derivative

Gary Stu

Lord of the Flies revisited

Lord of the Flies, meets Battle Royale, in the future to determine the strongest to lead the ruling class.
I will open with, had the main character been a woman, I completely believe this would be considered a YA book. All the bullet points are there, future society, classes, a lowest class person who is chosen to overthrow higher class. This person is perfect, attractive, intelligent, strong. He assumes the role of a higher class, taking over their life Char Aznable style, so they can enter an "institute" where all the smartest and strongest are placed to... kill each other until the strongest survive.

Every time I tried to describe this book, I got a little embarrassed, I was met with eye-rolls and "wait let me guess...". However, overall I'm a sucker for these violent stories a la Lord of the Flies and a sucker for SciFi so I ate it up and really enjoyed it. Most reviews claim the main character to break the "mary sue" mold, he doesn't, he's super mary sue, likable, but Mary Sue nonetheless. The other characters really drew me in on this one, and his interactions with them, and his feelings toward them even though they were his enemies, I loved every part of that.
So even though it was incredibly derivative, and very much the fixings of a YA, I devoured it, and immediately bought and read the second, I almost read all three in one week, but took a break on the third to read something else.

Kudos

JT (287 KP) rated The Intruder (2019) in Movies

Mar 10, 2020

The Intruder (2019)

2019 | Thriller

6.6

(9 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

When are couples moving into a new home going to realise that there is a lot more to worry about than just making sure all of your stuff arrives in one piece. If it’s not things going bump in the night or uninvited demons, it’s seemingly sweet as pie neighbours with an ulterior motive.

Annie (Meagan Good) and Scott ( Michael Ealy) think that they have found their dream home, away from the concrete jungle of the city with an idyllic setting in which to start a family. Step in Charlie (Dennis Quaid), a kind hearted widower who is selling in order to start a new life with his daughter in Florida – or so it would seem, as we know, looks can be deceiving.

Dennis Quaid nails the disturbed seller turned psycho
The film has been battered with reviews saying that it forgoes plot in favour of setting up a good jump scare, but do you know what? I don’t mind that.

I’ve always been a sucker for this type of genre and this one is no different. There are the obvious plot holes, some laughable, like how come it takes Annie so long to realise that Charlie has psychotic tendencies, despite Scott practically spelling it out for her? Or the fact that everyone seems to be drawn to a particular linen closet. It moves along enough to keep you entertained with Quaid giving a good account of himself and clearly having fun.

Director (Deon Taylor) seems inspired by classic home invasion thrillers but offers nothing new that we won’t have already seen before – you can just throw this one onto the pile with all the rest.