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Awix (3310 KP) rated La derniere vague (The Last Wave) in TV
Aug 8, 2020
Le goings-on spooky in the south of France: a mysterious, apparently sentient cloud which may or may not embody nature's vengeance on civilisation abducts a group of surfers for five hours and then returns them, with strange powers. (Not that the media takes any notice of any of this.) This provides everyone in town with un beaucoup lovely chance to work through all their various personal issues before the end of the last episode.
Comes across a bit like a mid-table Stephen King novel, or possibly just a very glossy soap opera with a guest appearance by Giant Space Monster Dogorah. Fairly engaging stuff, though unlikely to feel terribly original to the clued-up viewer; passes the time nicely without demanding your full attention. Avoids too many explanations (they're clearly hoping for a second season), which could be irritating, but the end-of-series cliffhanger is okay.
Comes across a bit like a mid-table Stephen King novel, or possibly just a very glossy soap opera with a guest appearance by Giant Space Monster Dogorah. Fairly engaging stuff, though unlikely to feel terribly original to the clued-up viewer; passes the time nicely without demanding your full attention. Avoids too many explanations (they're clearly hoping for a second season), which could be irritating, but the end-of-series cliffhanger is okay.
David McK (3425 KP) rated Unruly: A History of England's Kings and Queens in Books
Sep 29, 2024 (Updated Sep 29, 2024)
David Mitchell, the comedian.
NOT David Mitchell, the author of "Cloud Atlas" (never read it).
I know the comedian best from his involvement in various TV panel gameshows, most noticeably BBCs "Would I Lie To You?", as well as as from the sitcom "Upstart Crow", where he plays William Shakespeare.
In all cases, his persona is of an uptight, repressed, middle aged man.
So I had a good idea what to expect of this, especially as I knew the audiobook was narrated by none other then he himself - indeed, the only reason I picked up the ebook version over the audiobook version is simply because the ebook was on sale (plus I find I can read faster than I listen).
Billed as 'Horrible Histories for Grownups' (as an aside, anyone remember the Horrible Histories with the links by Stephen Fry?), this is actually both quite entertaining and educational, with Mitchell taking it chapter about to tell the story of England's various Kings and Queens, from their earliest days and right up until the reign of Elizabeth I.
OK, the humour may be a bit, ummm, ribald (and sweary) in certain places, but if you go in knowing what to expect (as I did) ...
NOT David Mitchell, the author of "Cloud Atlas" (never read it).
I know the comedian best from his involvement in various TV panel gameshows, most noticeably BBCs "Would I Lie To You?", as well as as from the sitcom "Upstart Crow", where he plays William Shakespeare.
In all cases, his persona is of an uptight, repressed, middle aged man.
So I had a good idea what to expect of this, especially as I knew the audiobook was narrated by none other then he himself - indeed, the only reason I picked up the ebook version over the audiobook version is simply because the ebook was on sale (plus I find I can read faster than I listen).
Billed as 'Horrible Histories for Grownups' (as an aside, anyone remember the Horrible Histories with the links by Stephen Fry?), this is actually both quite entertaining and educational, with Mitchell taking it chapter about to tell the story of England's various Kings and Queens, from their earliest days and right up until the reign of Elizabeth I.
OK, the humour may be a bit, ummm, ribald (and sweary) in certain places, but if you go in knowing what to expect (as I did) ...
Hadley (567 KP) rated Soul Drinker in Books
Jul 25, 2020
The writing (2 more)
No character development
No ending
One of the classic horror tropes is Heaven versus Hell, angels versus demons, good versus evil (like a boogeyman versus an innocent child, or a killer versus a group of teenagers, or even an evil spirit versus an exorcist) and we always know how it's going to end: good triumphs evil, every time. Some of the most well known films with this trope are Constantine (2005), the Exorcist (1973) and more recently, Stephen King's IT : Chapter 2 (2019).
That, along with a little romance, mystery, and historical elements make up this novel that features three main characters who are stuck in a struggle between good and evil while having to face mistakes from the past.
Welcome to the hellish world of Soul Drinker by newcomer, Matthew Yard.
Deep description is what makes up Yard's storytelling, so much so that the book is extremely hard to read. Only 132 pages long, Yard spends most paragraphs describing one single thing in many different ways, such as a young woman's hair, which only needs one sentence to tell such a detail, but instead, took an entire paragraph.
During an ancient civilization, a deity appeared named Destroyer, it found a way to break through the boundaries that separates realms and universes - - - finding our realm, Destroyer leaves his son Luther to build powerful followings through cults run by Pagans.
The novel's villain, Luther, isn't present enough to feel like a real threat for the reader. And the three main characters, other than their physical descriptions, are lifeless because of the extreme lack of character development.
Our main character, Devin, is a college student who constantly has nightmares of his best friend's murder. He also lives at house in the woods which he has no idea how he attained it and this is never explained. After Devin and a classmate named Vic have an encounter with a supernatural cloud, they end up at this house, where readers find out that Devin isn't the only one who has been having nightmares.
Vic is a beautiful, young woman, who Devin seems to be enamoured with, but she is still busy getting over her first love. A few chapters in, readers get flashbacks of Vic's father and mother before she was born. Vic's father was also haunted by this supernatural cloud, which seems to have had a tighter grip on him than Vic - - - her father's flashbacks are the most interesting part of this story.
Vic's father, Jacob, is fast asleep next to his wife when a giant face wakes him up, telling him that there is work to do. Jacob follows the face out into the hallway, when it begins to sway, as if through the eyes of a drunk. Jacob fights the urge to continue to the stairs, wanting to turn back and protect his sleeping wife.
A little while later, we find out that Jacob is psychic: he can see the dead and/or the past. But for anymore development on that interesting piece of information, readers get one glimpse of what Jacob sees - - - and that's it. Jacob's wife, Nina, is an even flatter character, which we only get to see in bed either asleep or waking up. Even Jacob's mental and spiritual fight with the 'face' is disappointingly short with no real tension, no climax, or feelings of betrayal when something finally happens in the end of that scene.
Love, the supernatural, and Pagan cults are what make up the plot of this book. The story jumps between Devin, Vic and Jacob, but the story gets caught up in moments that shouldn't be more than a paragraph, which caused me to become bored with the story. And Yard's writing made this book read like a fan fiction: a lot of inconsistencies throughout, tons of misspellings, and a major overuse of the same words, sometimes even in the same sentence.
Unfortunately, this book was almost unreadable, and the heavy descriptions were extremely off-putting, as was the end of the story- - - the book ended suddenly, and with no sequel in sight. I can't recommend this book to anyone.
That, along with a little romance, mystery, and historical elements make up this novel that features three main characters who are stuck in a struggle between good and evil while having to face mistakes from the past.
Welcome to the hellish world of Soul Drinker by newcomer, Matthew Yard.
Deep description is what makes up Yard's storytelling, so much so that the book is extremely hard to read. Only 132 pages long, Yard spends most paragraphs describing one single thing in many different ways, such as a young woman's hair, which only needs one sentence to tell such a detail, but instead, took an entire paragraph.
During an ancient civilization, a deity appeared named Destroyer, it found a way to break through the boundaries that separates realms and universes - - - finding our realm, Destroyer leaves his son Luther to build powerful followings through cults run by Pagans.
The novel's villain, Luther, isn't present enough to feel like a real threat for the reader. And the three main characters, other than their physical descriptions, are lifeless because of the extreme lack of character development.
Our main character, Devin, is a college student who constantly has nightmares of his best friend's murder. He also lives at house in the woods which he has no idea how he attained it and this is never explained. After Devin and a classmate named Vic have an encounter with a supernatural cloud, they end up at this house, where readers find out that Devin isn't the only one who has been having nightmares.
Vic is a beautiful, young woman, who Devin seems to be enamoured with, but she is still busy getting over her first love. A few chapters in, readers get flashbacks of Vic's father and mother before she was born. Vic's father was also haunted by this supernatural cloud, which seems to have had a tighter grip on him than Vic - - - her father's flashbacks are the most interesting part of this story.
Vic's father, Jacob, is fast asleep next to his wife when a giant face wakes him up, telling him that there is work to do. Jacob follows the face out into the hallway, when it begins to sway, as if through the eyes of a drunk. Jacob fights the urge to continue to the stairs, wanting to turn back and protect his sleeping wife.
A little while later, we find out that Jacob is psychic: he can see the dead and/or the past. But for anymore development on that interesting piece of information, readers get one glimpse of what Jacob sees - - - and that's it. Jacob's wife, Nina, is an even flatter character, which we only get to see in bed either asleep or waking up. Even Jacob's mental and spiritual fight with the 'face' is disappointingly short with no real tension, no climax, or feelings of betrayal when something finally happens in the end of that scene.
Love, the supernatural, and Pagan cults are what make up the plot of this book. The story jumps between Devin, Vic and Jacob, but the story gets caught up in moments that shouldn't be more than a paragraph, which caused me to become bored with the story. And Yard's writing made this book read like a fan fiction: a lot of inconsistencies throughout, tons of misspellings, and a major overuse of the same words, sometimes even in the same sentence.
Unfortunately, this book was almost unreadable, and the heavy descriptions were extremely off-putting, as was the end of the story- - - the book ended suddenly, and with no sequel in sight. I can't recommend this book to anyone.
Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Final Girls in Books
Jan 21, 2018
Disappointing, especially after all the hype
In college, Quincy Carpenter goes on vacation to a remote cabin (Pine Cottage) with a group of friends and ends up being the lone survivor to a massacre. The horrific event puts Quincy in the "Final Girls club"--so deemed by the press--a group of women who are also lone survivors of other similar massacres. Lisa survived a bloodbath at her sorority house and Samantha a brutal attack at a motel. The women have never met, but Quincy and Lisa have spoken on the phone. They all share two things--being a "final girl"--and trying to move on with their lives. And Quincy is really trying. With the help of Xanax, she has a successful baking blog and a good relationship with her understanding boyfriend, Jeff. But Quincy's attempts at moving past Pine Cottage are derailed when she receives a call that Lisa has died, found with her wrists cut in her bathtub. Shortly after, Samantha shows up at Quincy's apartment. Reporters are breathing down Quincy's neck and between Samantha and the press, Quincy feels forced to confront the past she's tried so hard to leave behind. But once she does, what will she really discover?
I had really high expectations for this novel, as the "first great thriller of 2017" blurb from Stephen King is prominently placed on the cover, and its been highly reviewed in a variety of magazines. Maybe I'm just a cynical soul, but it just didn't live up to the hype. For about the first 3/4 of the book, I just couldn't get into it, and I almost decided not to finish it. I actually started and finished another book between starting (and finishing) this one. The book switches between present day and flashbacks to Pine Cottage; the Pine Cottage portions were far more intriguing, and I just kept wanting to flip forward to those pieces.
Thankfully, the last fourth or so of this novel is much better: things pick up, the various parts come together in fairly dramatic fashion, and the story grows much more tense and hard to put down. It's the last portion of the book that makes it difficult to give it a truly negative review, even if I did find a few parts of it a tad unbelievable.
Indeed, you definitely have to suspend disbelief a bit for this one. Quincy is a pretty good character herself, but once Sam arrives, she sends Quincy on a path that is just hard to stomach. Quincy's reactions to Samantha and the actions she takes once she arrives irked me and often, I found them almost implausible. (Also, how gullible and unaware was Jeff?) Samantha was an unlikable character and she seemed to cloud everything she touched.
So, overall, I was a little disappointed by this one. I had to slog through a lot to get to the payout at the end and even then, it all seemed a little crazy and hard to buy. I liked Quincy well-enough, but no other characters in the novel were of much redeeming, or interesting, value. The story was fairly engaging, especially at the end, but not the shocking, amazing novel I'd hoped for. Alas. On to the next one! (And most people loved this, so take my review with a grain of salt!)
I had really high expectations for this novel, as the "first great thriller of 2017" blurb from Stephen King is prominently placed on the cover, and its been highly reviewed in a variety of magazines. Maybe I'm just a cynical soul, but it just didn't live up to the hype. For about the first 3/4 of the book, I just couldn't get into it, and I almost decided not to finish it. I actually started and finished another book between starting (and finishing) this one. The book switches between present day and flashbacks to Pine Cottage; the Pine Cottage portions were far more intriguing, and I just kept wanting to flip forward to those pieces.
Thankfully, the last fourth or so of this novel is much better: things pick up, the various parts come together in fairly dramatic fashion, and the story grows much more tense and hard to put down. It's the last portion of the book that makes it difficult to give it a truly negative review, even if I did find a few parts of it a tad unbelievable.
Indeed, you definitely have to suspend disbelief a bit for this one. Quincy is a pretty good character herself, but once Sam arrives, she sends Quincy on a path that is just hard to stomach. Quincy's reactions to Samantha and the actions she takes once she arrives irked me and often, I found them almost implausible. (Also, how gullible and unaware was Jeff?) Samantha was an unlikable character and she seemed to cloud everything she touched.
So, overall, I was a little disappointed by this one. I had to slog through a lot to get to the payout at the end and even then, it all seemed a little crazy and hard to buy. I liked Quincy well-enough, but no other characters in the novel were of much redeeming, or interesting, value. The story was fairly engaging, especially at the end, but not the shocking, amazing novel I'd hoped for. Alas. On to the next one! (And most people loved this, so take my review with a grain of salt!)