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ClareR (6106 KP) rated The Persians in Books

Feb 3, 2025

The Persians

Sanam Mahloudji | 2025 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry

8.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

On the face of it, The Persians is filled with vacuous, materialistic women, but as I read further, these women had been either torn from their homes in order to escape the new religious government in Iran, or were having to live there, having remained. Trauma has a large part to play in the make up of these women.

Both the women in Iran and those in the US are non-conformists, rule breakers - and some more than others. There’s the obvious Shirin, who’s arrested on prostitution charges at the beginning of the book, and Bita, who decides to break away from her family history and wealth, and make her own way. Then there’s the matriarch, Elizabeth, who remains in Iran and uses her age and family name to get away with not following the rules of Islamic law (to some degree), and her granddaughter Niaz, who is arrested and put in a Tehran jail.

A lot of secrets are revealed (there are some big secrets to be revealed!), and when mothers and daughters are honest and truthful with one another, relationships can be repaired. But will they?

A very enjoyable, somewhat escapist read - I mean, the wealth of these people is startling!

Kudos

Sarah (7800 KP) rated Sucker Punch (2011) in Movies

Sep 20, 2018

Sucker Punch (2011)

2011 | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

6.2

(59 Ratings)

Movie Rating

All style, no substance

Apologies in advance to all of the male Smashbombers, but this film basically feels like a teenage boy’s fantasy. I saw it when it first came out at the cinema and wasn’t impressed in the slightest, but I thought I’d give it another go in case I was wrong. Unfortunately I wasn’t.

Girls wearing barely anything, mental asylums, brothels, monsters, war zones, robots, dragons, zombies.... did nobody stop to think that this was maybe a bit too much? Zack Snyder has compared this to Alice in Wonderland, but it is far from it. The plot could’ve worked better if it had just stuck to a girl resorting to a inner fantasy world to escape reality in a mental asylum, but instead it just gets far too ridiculous and silly. Visually it looks very good, although I don’t think the CGI looks quite as good on the small screen as you’d hope, and the soundtrack is great, it’s just a shame the rest of the film is so dull and laughably bad. You’ve got some great actors in here (even a brief cameo from Jon Hamm) but they really are wasted in this.