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Saint Anything
Saint Anything
Sarah Dessen | 2015 | Young Adult (YA)
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Sydney is a high school kid with a seemingly average life - navigating homework and a new school and typical teen problems. Except that Sydney is at a new school because she's trying to escape the shadow of her older brother, Peyton, who has recently gone to jail for injuring a local kid while driving drunk. For her whole life, Sydney has felt like her parents have focused on Peyton and his antics - and even with him in jail, it seems like nothing has changed. At her new school, Sydney meets Layla Chatham, a member of the Chatham family. They run the local pizza parlor near her new school and soon Sydney feels comfortable and nearly adopted by her Layla and her parents, her older sister, Rosie, and her brother, Mac. They are everything her family is not.

This was a good book, with a typical Dessen teenage drama and love story plot, but it wasn't anything earth-shattering. Sydney is a good kid and I liked her character, and I very much liked Layla and Mac, as well. Sydney's back-story with her brother is a good one, but seems a little unbelievable at times, and her rigid mother is almost too uptight and clueless. Her father is totally spineless and frustrating. For much of the story, you're waiting for something to happen and then when it finally does, it all seems a bit anti-climatic and it all gets fixed up rather quickly to seem truly plausible.

Still, a fun little read, but I do prefer "Lock and Key" or "Someone Like You." (However, I feel like a sequel featuring the Chathams would somehow be awesome.)
  
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
1989 | Comedy, Drama

"First one on my list is Do the Right Thing. Spike Lee, man. I actually saw that twenty times in the theaters. That’s before VCRs; I mean, that was like right when the VCRs were kind of happening, and you had to wait a year for something to come out on VHS. It wasn’t the quick turnaround like we have right now. But Do the Right Thing changed my life in so many ways, because I had never seen… it was a movie that was comedic, yet so powerful. I didn’t really have a definition, because I’d never seen black people on screen like that, and it was just one of those things. It was my era; it was my generation. There was a lot of blaxploitation before that, you know, and you could see people on TV, and all this stuff. But I remember I was in college, and it was kind of like this empowerment. Spike had made She’s Gotta Have It, but then Do the Right Thing really broke it down. It changed my life. It made me want to get into the business like never before. Totally. I was like, I am a Spike Lee nut; I want to do this. I thought it should have won Best Picture that year; it just meant so much. It just meant a lot to everybody. There was a lot of race relations stuff, and just think of the stars that came out of that: Sam Jackson, Martin Lawrence, and Spike himself, and Rosie Perez, and John Turturro. I mean, it’s just… Whew! It just changed the game, changed the game."

Source
  
Pure
Pure
2017 | Drama
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
TV Show Rating
Conflict of Conscience & Crisis of Faith
Pure is a crime/drama series created by Michael Amo and directed by Ken Girotti. It is produced by Two East Production and Cineflix and airs on the WGN network. The show stars Ryan Robbins, A.J. Buckley, Peter Outerbridge, and Rosie Perez.


Noah Funk (Ryan Robbins) is a newly-elected Mennonite pastor, who is tired of drug traffickers in his community and is determined to get rid of them. He finds that things are not that simple when after planting drugs in the home of the ring leader, he is forced to become the head of the Mennonite drug trafficking operations, endangering his community, his family and himself.


This show has constantly surprised me with its ups and downs and twists. I'm usually not into these kind of shows but it just really has me hooked especially with this new season. I feel so much for the main character Noah because he is a good person and almost all the people in their community are good people too. And how his actions come to plague him and weigh on him are dreadful. He does everything to protect his family and still they get dragged into things. His wife Ana Funk is also quite a great character and his brother Abel, a recovering drug addict comes into play greatly too. The dialogue isn't always the greatest and sometimes the acting isn't so good from supporting characters but there isn't a show quite like this. I like seeing the character fall from grace and struggle with his conscience and doing the right thing when he's the only one trying to fight the corruption in his community. It really is a great show, I give it an 8 out of 10.
  
The Darkness Within
The Darkness Within
Lisa Stone | 2017 | Romance, Thriller
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
121 of 250
Kindle
The Darkness Within
By Lisa Stone

Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments

 
A gripping new crime novel from the global bestseller Cathy Glass writing as Lisa Stone

‘The Darkness Within hooked me from the start. Once you start you won't be able to stop!’ Katerina Diamond, No.1 bestselling author of The Teacher

You know your son better than anyone. Don’t you?

When critically ill Jacob Wilson is given a life-saving heart transplant, his parents are relieved that their loving son has been saved.

However, before long, his family are forced to accept that something has changed in Jacob. Their once loving son is slowly being replaced by a violent man whose mood swings leave them terrified – but is it their fault?

Jacob’s girlfriend, Rosie, is convinced the man she loves is suffering from stress. But when his moods turn on her, she begins to doubt herself – and she can only hide the bruises for so long.

When a terrible crime is committed, Jacob’s family are forced to confront their darkest fears. Has the boy they raised become a monster? Or is someone else to blame?

This is a spellbinding crime novel with a dark heart from the worldwide bestseller Cathy Glass, writing as Lisa Stone

This was such a good read. You as a mother always know your own children, you notice all the little changes in behaviour. This is such a rare thing to have happen. If there was one thing I didn’t quite like was him not being held accountable for the attack on Mary he definitely should have been! But definitely a good read.
  
Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
2020 | Action, Adventure, Crime
Exhibit no. 853928706 on why DC has been *crushing* Marvel these past four years. I do have my grievances: they pretty much skip all the actual Birds of Prey stuff (you know, what the movie is titled lmao) until the last twenty minutes, it takes a bit too much time at points, and not to mention this is a completely different character than what was presented in 𝘚𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘚𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘥 (for better and for worse) which I confess I would have liked to have seen more psychotic. Otherwise though this is pretty much exactly what movies were made for - a candy-coated live action cartoon sprinkled heavily with orgasmically choreographed savage violence, plentiful vulgarity, and the cheerfully dark edge that the aforementioned 𝘚𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘥 (which I still defend for at least being a good time) desperately craved. Robbie, Messina, and McGregor knock it out of the park and it's just great seeing Rosie Perez punch people in the face with brass knuckles. Furthermore this is one of the precious few recent studio 'girl power' movies where I actually bought that it gave a shit about the girls beyond superficial, insincere, and reductive woke points. At its core lies a legitimately poignant story about these women being chastised, abused, undermined, and taken advantage of for having the same traits (in a world that would already jump at the opportunity to eat them alive even if they didn't have them) that men get a pass and/or are even encouraged for having - so they respond by beating the ever-loving, merciless fuck out of them and it's deeply satisfying. No wonder usual superhero audiences who are used to female characters with zero personality or dynamism let this flop. Though I'm probably the only person on the planet who though that Leto's cracked-out Joker would have made a perfect addition to this.