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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2206 KP) rated Drawn and Buttered in Books

Feb 28, 2019

Drawn and Buttered

Shari Randall | 2019 | Mystery, Thriller

10.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Allie is Drawn into Another Murder

It’s a couple of days before Halloween, and things have slowed down some at the Lazy Mermaid Lobster Shack. The summer tourist families are long gone, but some tourists are still in the area looking at the fall colors. However, there’s still plenty of excite going on, like the discovery of a giant lobster. Quickly dubbed Lobzilla by the community, he’s almost big enough to beat the world record. However, the morning after he’s found, he’s vanished.

If that were all Allie Larkin had on her mind, it would be one thing, but other odd things are happening in town, including a local witch who is doing everything possible to get Aunt Gully to join her coven. Then, on Halloween night, Lobzilla shows up again, only he’s next to a dead body. Can Allie figure out what is going on?

While the body doesn’t show up right away, we still have plenty of plot happening, including some sub-plots and time spent setting up suspects and motives. Everything continues to be blended together well after the murder takes place. The climax is creative and everything is explained by the time we turn the final page. I thought the sub-plot involving the witch might make the book darker than I would enjoy, but I thought it was handled perfectly. It gave the book a touch more Halloween atmosphere, but the characters treated it much like I would like to think I would. The characters have gotten sharper as the series has progressed, and that was true here again. The suspects are well drawn, Allie is a great lead, but my favorite continues to be Aunt Gully. Everything came together for a book I couldn’t put down and the strongest in the series to date.

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Steph Freeman (26 KP) rated The Shape of Water (2017) in Movies

Mar 5, 2018

The Shape of Water (2017)

2017 | Drama, Fantasy

7.6

(107 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Cinematography was excellent. (1 more)

Character development was perfect, not a lot of detail but enough to fall into their lives.

Tried a little too hard to be unique. (0 more)

The Shape of Water - Visually Stunning

The Shape of Water, as discussed in other reviews, follows Eliza Esposito through a snapshot of her life. She has a clear love of water from the beginning, bordering on a fetish, and she connects with few people due to her mutism. The people around her are flawed. Her neighbor is fighting through a new advertising world that no longer values true artwork, her coworker Zelda has a painful home life with a husband that won't participate. Even the characters that are not part of Eliza's life have their struggles depicted within this movie. We see snapshots, just enough to understand these people are flawed, their lives are flawed, their relationships are flawed. Everyone in this movie is struggling towards a goal, though Eliza is the clear focus.

The cinematography reflects the 60's, from the lighting, to the sets and even how the cameras move with the characters. It's a world that engulfs the viewer, suspension of disbelief is a guarantee. The majority of the film is shot in drab, dark colors to reflect the loneliness of the characters, and the fear of the era. It's extremely effective at creating the unspoken sense of unease the country would have felt during the height of the communist scare.

As the movie moves towards the conclusion it becomes more fairy tale than reality. It was still beautiful, and the story still riveting, however, the transition to the more fantastic style was abrupt and could have been handled with more grace. I did appreciate the open ended conclusion, it's rare in American cinema to see, as most American film-goers prefer the ending tied up in a pretty bow.

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A Bíblia Sagrada (Portuguese Bible)

Book

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A Bíblia Sagrada (Portuguese Bible) LoudReader, an advanced iPhone reader application,...

Bibelen (Danish Bible)

Book

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Bibelen (Danish Bible) Bibelen (1933 års danske udgave) LoudReader, an advanced iPhone reader...

Jez Williams recommended track Truckdrivin' Neighbors Downstairs (Yellow Sweat) by Beck in Mellow Gold by Beck in Music (curated)

Mellow Gold by Beck

1994 | Indie, Rock, Singer-Songwriter

8.5

(13 Ratings)

Album Favorite Watch

Details

Truckdrivin' Neighbors Downstairs (Yellow Sweat) by Beck

(0 Ratings)

Track Watch

"The thing about Beck was that he felt like a well-kept secret for a while. I can’t actually remember how I stumbled upon him, but it was way back around the time of his second album Stereopathetic Soulmanure, that was before he had his big breakout, crossover albums. This track is from Mellow Gold, which was his third album and had ‘Loser’ on it, so other people were starting to pick up on him, finally. I couldn’t believe that nobody else had heard of this amazing talent; he was completely doing his own thing and you could tell he had real soul. The fact that this was around the time of Britpop just made him stand out all the more to me, I couldn’t stop listening to his early stuff. ’Truckdrivin Neighbors Downstairs (Yellow Sweat)’ sums up what I loved about him in those days and why I still do now. It crystallised the appeal of those records, it’s got such an amazing narrative and it was obvious that it was a true story, that he really had lived above or below that truck driver who was on weird speed or angel dust. He just encapsulates that sort of nightmarishness of having problems with the neighbours and the pitched-down vocals make it sound totally ominous. There’s such an experimental flavour to it musically and lyrically and you can hear how he would cut and paste ideas. That’s how those early albums were - every track different to the last. I love everything he’s done really and that experimental flavour has never really left him, all the way up to making a pop record with Colors. I absolutely battered his first few albums though and for a while I felt like I was the only one. The guy’s a real one-off."

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