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Mould (Liam Tate #1)
Mould (Liam Tate #1)
Steven Jenkins | 2023 | Horror, Paranormal
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
A really good, short story that despite its shortness, was packed full of great characters and a general overriding sense of the creepy.

I don't really read a lot of supernatural books now but every now and again I like to hark back to my teenage years and indulge myself in a bit of creepiness and Mould definitely hit the spot and I very much look forward to reading more in this new series to see which eerie place it takes me to next.

Many thanks to Steven Jenkins for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of Mould and for making me a part of his Advance Reader Team but this in no way influenced my thoughts on this start to a new series which I thoroughly enjoyed.
  
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)
2017 | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Also known as "Salazar's Revenge" (instead of "Dead Men Tell No Tales") in certain circles - I think maybe Dead Men is the American subtitle? - this is the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean film, with Johnny Depp again reprising what is (for me) his most iconic role of the Pirate Captain Jack Sparrow.

This ties itself closer to the original trilogy than the last entry ("On Stranger Tides"), with the return of certain key characters from that trilogy 'bookending' the plot, and with a close familial tie to one of the key characters of this.

Indeed, we're also back to basics with the plot of a supernatural threat to Sparrow, and of his wish to reclaim the captaincy of the Black Pearl (his ship), ALONGSIDE the return of Captain Barbossa (yet again)...
  
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)
2024 | Adventure
6
7.0 (7 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Who ya gonna call? The Spengler family.
Sequel to 2021s 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife', which moves the action away from the small town setting of the latter and back to the New York City of the original 1980s films.

(As an aside, I'm not sure whether to count this as #5 or #4 in the series, what with the atrocious Paul Feig 2016 version!)
(Aside to my aside: and what about the 2008 videogame?).

Anyway, this follows pretty much the same core cast as in Afterlife, although - personally - I found James Acaster to be rather an off-putting presence, as they struggle to find their fight and face down a new supernatural foe.

Lacks the magic of the original, I felt, maybe on par with Afterlife bit no better or worse.
  
The Weather Woman
The Weather Woman
Sally Gardner | 2022 | Fiction & Poetry, Science Fiction/Fantasy
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Weather Woman is a thoroughly lovely book about a girl/ woman who can predict the weather. When she’s orphaned, she’s adopted by a clockmaker who helps her to go public with her predictions from within an automaton. When she wants to debate with scientists (all men), she wears the disguise of a man. No one sees through it.

And then she falls in love with a young man - except he doesn’t know that the man he knows is actually a woman.

Despite the fantastical element, there’s a real sense of the time in history (Regency), with the attitudes towards women, the poverty and entertainments. All of this was woven together really well, so that the supernatural blended seemlessly with the history.

It’s a lovely story, narrated perfectly on the audiobook by Sophie Roberts.
  
TT
The Trust Casefiles
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author in return for an honest review, and I am pleased to say I very much enjoyed it.

It is, what reads like, a collection of stories which are based on a 'Trust' who protect the humans by destroying vampires and other supernatural beings. There are lots of different types of vampires mentioned, as well as lots of different 'agents' for the Trust.

The book has many positive aspects which make it a very good read, however there are a couple of areas that, with minimal work, could make this book much better and easier to read. Firstly, it's necessary to point out that it's not, in my opinion at least, an easy read. The snippets don't always seem to flow on from each other, and this can make it quite confusing as a reader. In addition, I feel there are too many characters to keep up with and the major characters could just do with a little more development earlier on in the book to encourage the reader to engage and invest more emotion in them from the early pages.

That being said, there are many positive aspects that are a credit to Cushing. Perhaps the best of these is the variety of vampires covered in this book. The imagination necessary to create not only one unique brand of vampires for a book, but to create a huge variety, and making out that they are as diverse as humans is a novel concept that I've not encountered in such detail before. The fact that Cushing also dabbles into other supernatural beings as well makes this book a must read for those interested in traditional stereotypes of supernatural creatures.

In addition, I feel huge credit has to be given for the plot in this book. Although not entirely easy to follow throughout, the amount of twists and turns that Cushing has included is admirable. Each chapter delivers something new and very fresh to the story, and that's something few books manage. Personally, it needs to be just a bit more careful in the plot structure, and a few more signposts are needed to really help the reader find their way through the book a little easier, but it is immensely enjoyable to read.

In conclusion, I would recommend this book to anyone who likes traditional vampire tales with a twist. It's a fast paced book with plenty of action and a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a few hours!
  
NL
Never Let You Go
Erin Healy | 2010
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I was originally drawn to this book because it was about a mother fighting for her daughter. As a mother of two young daughters who has already been through quite a bit of fighting for them, I can relate. Once I got into the book, I was a bit put off partly because I was introduced to too many characters so soon into the plot and a lack of unique characterization made it difficult for me to keep up with the plot (and this is coming from someone who has read Sara Douglass). A second reason was that it somewhat reminded me of another book I read recently with the meth theme. Drugs are just not something that I purposely want to read about in my fiction. The only thing that really kept me reading was Lexi's relationship with her daughter, Molly. Along the way, I discovered that there actually is a fantasy-like aspect to the book that is difficult to see for at least half the book. This is probably as close as you can get to the fantasy genre without actually qualifying for the classification. I so badly wanted the book to come "out with it" over the supernatural aspect that I flew through the rest of the book. The ending was mostly satisfying in that the bad guy gets his just desserts and all the lose ends are tied up appropriately, but my fantasy-loving side wanted a more fantastical intervention than what actually occurred. At times, the plot felt like a soap-opera, with Lexi's affair and two other characters being convicts, as well as Ward's constant harrassments and almost reality-defying omnipresence. I would describe the book as high-intensity suspense combined with overdramatic reality and a dash of supernatural.