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His Hideous Heart
His Hideous Heart
Dahlia Adler | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry, Horror, Young Adult (YA)
10
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
His Hideous Heart is an anthology collection of 13 re-imagined tales inspired by works of Edgar Allan Poe. The book is split into two sections: The Tales Retold and The Original Tales. What I liked about the layout of this collection is that it’s easy for those of us who’ve read the originals to revisit them before or after reading the retold stories — and it’s also convenient for readers who’ve never been introduced to Poe before. When it comes to retellings in any form, catching on to the fact that a story was inspired by another can be a challenge, especially if the inspiration is rather loose. But that’s another reason why I love the layout of this collection: It’s clear as to which original story inspired a retelling, and I loved reading along, connecting the dots and yet, being surprised by all the new twists and turns.

In a perfect world, I’d love to review each and every retelling in this collection, because many of them were downright gorgeous and grotesque. However, my absolute favorites were:

1. It’s Carnival! by Tiffany D. Jackson
2. Lygia by Dahlia Adler (inspired by “Ligeia”)
3. Happy Days, Sweetheart by Stephanie Kuehn
4. The Glittering Death by Caleb Roehrig

Check out my full review to find out WHY I adored these stories: https://bookishvalhalla.com/his-hideous-heart-by-dahlia-adler-a-poe-etic-review-of-genre-bending-tales/
  
And Another Thing...(Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #6)
And Another Thing...(Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #6)
Eoin Colfer | 2009 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I adored the first couple of books in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams, and although this isn't by the same author, I was still pretty excited to read it.

Colfer has managed to capture the voice of Adams incredibly well, including the same nonsensical tone and randomness that made the first books so popular. The main difference between the writers is the length of the book; this addition to the series is considerably longer than the originals.

All our favourite characters are back, including the mean green dude who's insulting everyone in the universe. This guy, who we discover is named Bowerick Wowbagger, has a surprisingly important role in this novel.

Arthur, Random, Trillion, Ford and Zaphod are all causing havoc yet again, unintentionally as per usual. They find themselves on Nano, a new planet colonised by the last remaining Earthlings after the destruction of Earth. Thor becomes Zaphod's client, the immortal Bowerick has his mind set on death, and Trillian finds herself strangely attracted to this suicidal being. So yeah, everything's normal.

I did get a little lost and uninterested during certain parts about Nano, but some of the little bits of dialogue or subtle jokes are just fantastic. If you didn't already know this was by a different author, you may not have even noticed.

I'm not sure the series needed to be six books long, as the best books are definitely the first couple. But none of the books in this series are bad, and are all worth reading in my opinion. Sometimes I wasn't sure this book deserved more than 3 or 3.5 stars, but by the end I decided it should get 4.
  
Saw II (2005)
Saw II (2005)
2005 | Horror, Mystery
Guttural. Few other horror franchises loathe their characters as deeply and as passionately as 𝘚𝘢𝘸 - not even two minutes into the movie and it already proceeds to chuck these people down the garbage disposal without remorse. Has the worst outlook possible on life as a whole, revels in such an instantaneous breakdown of the human body and mind. Trades out the 'knucklehead Shakespeare' vibes of the original to double down on its endlessly creative gore, which is a fair tradeoff if we can't get both I guess. Can't believe this is the same Darren Lynn who directed 𝘚𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘭 - which I not only am beginning to dislike more and more with each revisit to the originals, but which also gets next to no points for being pro-ACAB when this one did it first *and* better 16 years prior. Filled with a multitude of anxious cuts and cool-as-hell camera trickeries (plus such a tantalizing MTV filth aesthetic), often unfairly shunned for being amateurish I'd actually argue the opposite - quick flashes of people in agony, everyone turning against each other and scrambling for answers with each passing second, visually emulating the final stages of a person's fight-or-flight mode like no other horror series before or after. The hypodermic needle pit still remains an all-time skin-crawler. In an age filled with such intolerably self-conscious bleakness in cinema, it's refreshing to see it done so sincerely with these.
  
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Tom Jones recommended Greatest Songs by Little Richard in Music (curated)

 
Greatest Songs by Little Richard
Greatest Songs by Little Richard
1995 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"It's got all the classics on it: 'Good Golly Miss Molly', 'Rip It Up'. It's tremendous, when you put that thing on: from start to finish, it's boom all the way! First of all, I thought he was a girl, because I heard him do 'Rip It Up' and I'd heard Bill Haley & The Comets - they covered a lot of things where we didn't know what the originals were at first, but then you'd hear them - sometimes in movie houses funnily enough, like in Pontypridd, between films, they would play records. Sometimes they'd play the original American ones, but that's when I heard 'Rip It Up' by Little Richard. I thought, 'Some chick has covered Billy Haley & The Comets', but it was the original record. And then the same thing with 'Ain't That A Shame' - I heard the Pat Boon version before I heard Fats Domino. We never got to them that early - there was always somebody covering them first, getting the jump on it. It definitely made me appreciate the songs more when I first heard it, no doubt about it. Americans - they're paranoid about the lyrics that might be a little risque. With Big Joe Turner, on his version of 'Shake Rattle and Roll', there's some - 'you're wearing those dresses, the sun comes shining through / I can't believe my eyes, all that mess belongs to you' - [laughs] well, they cut that back out straightaway! Bill Haley & The Comets: 'Wearin' those dresses, your hair done up so nice / you look so warm, but your heart is cold as ice' - they changed it"

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