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Sticks and Stones
Sticks and Stones
Jo Jakeman | 2018 | Crime, Thriller
7
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is the debut novel for this author and, I think, a pretty accomplished one at that; a little unbelievable at times I admit but quite a satisfying read. Dealing with the difficult subject matter of domestic violence, this book is more about the subtleties of this abhorrent crime rather than the "in your face" violence although there is some violence.

The books starts with the funeral of a decorated Police Officer but thoroughly unpleasant man - Phillip - and "mourning" his death are 3 women; Ruby, Imogen and Naomi.

Ruby is the first wife who has never moved on and remains under Phillip's spell.
Imogen is the current but estranged wife and mother of their son.
Naomi is the girlfriend and soon to be third wife.

Phillip is an absolute a**hole; a master at manipulation and control, a bully and downright despicable person however, the tables are turned when Imogen manages to lock him in the cellar and so begins the story of the developing relationship between the three women, their growing strength and confidence and their common goal of getting revenge on the man that has caused them so much pain and heartache ... but, how did he die?

Well written with a good pace and well developed characters, this is a great debut psychological thriller and Jo Jakeman is certainly an author I will watch out for.

My thanks go to the publisher, Random House UK Vintage, via NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review.
  
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Courtney (149 KP) rated Foxlowe in Books

Nov 27, 2018  
Foxlowe
Foxlowe
Eleanor Wasserberg | 2016 | Contemporary, Thriller
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Makes you think (2 more)
I really connected with pretty much all of the characters
Very good attention to detail making it easy to picture yourself in the story
Left some questions unanswered for me (1 more)
It could have gone on a lot longer and delved into the characters’ lives after the main plot came to an end
Brilliant read
Every so often I go through a spell where I can’t connect with the books I’m reading (through no fault of the books), yet this book snapped me right out of that. I was reading it at every available moment and found myself really thinking about it in the times when I wasn’t reading.

This book tells the story of a ‘family’, particularly focusing on three children; Green, Toby and Blue. This ‘family’ is a community of people who live together in an old, crumbling house and who indulge in very understandable superstitions and rituals to keep all things bad at bay.

As well as a thrilling, charming and downright unsettling premise, this book very cleverly looks at family ties and how love can be so closely related to what can be described as nothing less than torture and torment.

There is no way that I could possibly sum this book up in a few paragraphs, all I can do is wonder why this book doesn’t have more recognition and implore you to find out for yourself all about Green, Blue, the Bad and how much ‘silly’ superstitions can take hold and rule people’s lives.
  
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8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The idea of The Austen Project is for six modern day authors to have a go do writing a modern day re-imagining of each of Jane Austen's major works. The first was Joanna Trollope's version of Sense & Sensibility, where the reviews seem to have been fairly lukewarm. This is the second offering, Northanger Abbey as re-imagined by Val McDermid.

Now, I've not read of of McDermid's works before, although I did think she was pretty smart when she won on Celebrity Mastermind. After reading this, I remain impressed. The novel tracks the original very closely and it's quite clever in how it does this. It is hard to imagine someone quite as naive as Catherine Morland in this day and age, but McDermind's 'Cat' Morland does pretty well. It's a very slangy novel ("amazeballs!"), sprinkled with 'txt spk', but then the original is quite slangy - especially the parts with Isabella Thorpe! I do think that to appreciate it you have to know the original quite well and have a passing knowledge of current popular culture. Catherine believing the General Tilney has murdered his wife or has locked her up somewhere is slightly fantastic, but rather more grounded than Cat's idea that the family may be Vampires.....! Still, if you can suspend your disbelief this is a fun and engaging read - in fact, a very 'nice' book... and with a very 'nice' hero. And I'm pretty sure this Henry Tilney would spell out all his texts properly - no want of grammar and total inattention to stops here!
  
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Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated the Xbox 360 version of Dead Space in Video Games

Oct 21, 2019  
Dead Space
Dead Space
Action/Adventure
Rachel is Dead
Contains spoilers, click to show
This game, is so great. The plot, the setting, the psychological, the horror, the twist, the ending. Lets talk about it...

The Plot: it puts the player in control of an engineer named Isaac Clarke who fights Necromorphs, monstrous reanimated human corpses, aboard an interstellar mining ship, the USG Ishimura.

The player controls Isaac Clarke, a ship systems engineer who must fight his way through a mining starship infested with an alien scourge. The crew has been slaughtered, and their corpses reanimated into creatures known as "Necromorphs". Various types of Necromorphs appear throughout the game, each with different abilities and requiring different tactics to defeat.

The game has a strong science fiction atmosphere and is set in a spacecraft. It is also set way in the future.

Lets talk about the twist:

This was nothing more than another hallucination from Isaac. He’s gone mad, and in his mind, has somehow turned Nicole into one of them. The real Nicole is still dead.

Finally take the first letter from each mission to reveal a secret message… and it spells out Rachel is Dead, which is a intreating easter egg, that comes true. No one really thought about that, until years laters. To take the first letter from each mission and spell it out.

It is a great twist and when you find out, later on in the game, like close to the end, you are surpised.

I highly reccordmend this game, it is great and horrorfying.