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Allie Larkin is back home in Mystic Bay, Connecticut, recuperating from a broken ankle and helping her aunt Gully with her new Lazy Mermaid Lobster Shack. Aunt Gully has only had her business open for a few months, but it’s attracted enough attention to land her a spot as a finalist in the YUM! Network’s lobster roll contest. However, after sampling the first contestant’s entry, the judges start to collapse. Someone poisoned the rolls, but who was the target? And why?

This book opens the morning of the contest, so things get off to a strong start. It does seem to slow down a little in the second quarter, but it picks up again as Allie tries to figure out who the target of the poison was. This added twist was very welcome and helps the book stand out. There is room for the characters to grow as the series progresses, but we get to know several of them well here. The suspects are great at keeping us guessing until the end.

NOTE: I received a copy of this book.

Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2018/01/book-review-curses-boiled-again-by.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
  
The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
2018 | Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
Could've been so much more
I knew relatively nothing about this film but having been impressed by the recent Goosebumps films (not the new sequel), I had fairly high expectations. Sadly it didn't live up to them.

For me this film seemed to be nothing new. I was bored for the most of this and there were only a few parts that I really enjoyed. A lot of the humour and banter between the characters seemed a little too ott and forced and made me cringe more than it made me smile. The effects were alright and there were some truly creepy scenes, just not enough. Cate Blanchett probably saved this, as even Jack Black couldn't bring back the magic he had with RL Stine. And the evil warlock wasn't particularly scary or threatening, and the whole ending was lacking any sort of menacing terror or suspense.

I also spent the entire film thinking the kid was the one from Room (Jacob Tremblay), and wondering why on earth his acting was so bad. The kid was one of the problems in this, I won't lie and his crying was particularly horrendous. And then when the credits rolled I realised it wasn't him after all...
  
    Gruffalo: Puzzles

    Gruffalo: Puzzles

    Education and Games

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

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    Play with all the characters from 'The Gruffalo', the UK's favourite bedtime story! Perfect for 3 -...

The Pornographer (1999)
The Pornographer (1999)
1999 | Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"One has to love a film that has for its subtitle An Introduction to Anthropology. This hardscrabble tale of two blockheads dedicated to making a yen in the flesh trade is the most congruent homage to Laurel and Hardy one could dream of. Everything falls apart around them, but they keep forging on. The film does, too, ratcheting up craziness along the way: a carp in a fish tank—the reincarnation of a deceased husband—somersaults to show its disapproval of the widow’s sexual antics with her new beau; a depressed middle-aged woman jumps on the windowsill of her hospital room and masturbates, to the great joy of a crowd of workers that seems to have just exited the Lumière factory; a crumpled pornographer indulges in a bit of voyeurism that turns into a lesson in the use of angles in cinema, etc., etc.; and finally an ending in the waters off Osaka’s harbor that leaves one howling with laughter. All of it is filmed with an aggressive, unrelenting elegance that puts the viewer through rigorous ocular gymnastics. If you thought that Ozu was the alpha and the omega of the visual possibilities offered by Japanese home architecture, Imamura’s truculent epic will open your eyes anew."

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