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＊✿❀ Maki ❀✿＊ (7 KP) rated Selfies in Books

May 3, 2018

Selfies was a fun combination of modern day vanity and the old belief that taking a picture of someone captures a part of that person's soul.

It was...okay. I liked how the story was told in a series of photo descriptions. The build up towards the ending is pretty well paced, although the strange break at the beginning where the random kid delivers exposition felt a bit out of place. It felt like it would have served better as an epilogue, rather than an opening.

My biggest problem was that I really couldn't take the story seriously. It was never scary or creepy for me.

I guess I've just read one too many <a href="http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Creepypasta_Wiki">creepypastas</a>;. (I had an addiction to them earlier on in the year.)

This short even follows the general format of a creepypasta, down to the girl getting the phone from a creepy old man in a store that mysteriously disappears after the phone is passed off on her. The story was at least well-written, and properly edited, which is more than I can say for most creepypastas out there.

You can read it for free <a href="http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/09/selfies-lavie-tidhar">here</a>;.

Kudos

Robert Lindsay (9 KP) rated Renaissance Men by The Wildhearts in Music

May 26, 2019

Loud, heavy and exciting (3 more)

Stuffed with catchy hooks and singalong choruses

First new album in 10 years

Diagnosis could be the best song they've ever written

Best Wildhearts Album In Years

The wildhearts are the best British band you've never heard of. Their story is one of survival against the odds, as various members have struggled with loss, addiction, mental health and freak brushes with death. And despite all this the music they make still sounds like an allmighty shout of joy, even when lyrically it is crammed with righteous anger.
The easiest way to describe them is to imagine Metallica crossed with cheap trick or the beatles. The crushing heaviness and aggression is there, but always tempered with sunny pop sensibilities. It sounds mental but it's a style that will change your life for the better.
This new album finds the band in renewed vigour, having reclaimed original bassist Danny mccormack and recorded their first new album in a decade. They come out of the gates like a band half their age, seemingly out to prove they're still the best of their generation with the songs and chops to match.
Standout tracks include, Let Em Go, Fine Art Of Description, Diagnosis, Renaissance Men, Pilo Erection

Kudos

ClareR (5916 KP) rated The Only Story in Books

Mar 7, 2018

The Only Story

Julian Barnes | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry

9.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

A beautifully sad love story

"Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only really question."
This is a book to be savoured and to have time taken over it. It just seems so personal and private, and frankly, I felt nosey reading it. It illustrates a 19 year old boys great love - a 48 year old woman who he meets at a tennis club during his holidays from University. This love endures through disapproval of both families and many hardships before the end.
It was interesting that the book moved through the use of first person when the love was new and exciting, second person when the relationship began to encounter problems and third person at the end when he is more detached from his lover, Joan. Watching the slide of someone in to addiction and eventually, dementia, was a particularly sad part of the novel, with his personal guilt and inaction increasing the melancholy and sadness of the whole situation. At the end of this book, I finished the last page and found myself sitting and thinking about it for a while. It really is a very affecting book.

Kudos

Kristy H (1252 KP) rated The Wolf Wants In in Books

Oct 31, 2019

Sometimes I foolishly put off reading a book because I think it sounds “too smart” or something for me. I made that mistake with The Wolf Wants In, and I was such an idiot! This was such a wonderful, well-written psychological thriller. I don’t know what I was thinking!

Wolf is told from the perspectives of Sadie and Henley, who both live in the same small Kansas town. Sadie has recently lost her brother, Shane, and she’s looking for answers about how he died—even if no one else seems too concerned. Meanwhile eighteen-year-old Henley comes from a long line of known troublemakers: many of whom are drug dealers and users. She’s determined to leave town and her family behind. But events transpire that make that harder than she envisioned. Overshadowing everything is the town’s opioid crisis and the discovery of a child’s skull in the woods.

The characters in Wolf are vivid and nuanced. They have such depth and feeling. McHugh captures small town life so well—as well as how easily addiction can ravage families. What I loved was how she layered a mystery against all of this: the result was a completely compelling read. I was totally captivated by this one: definitely recommend! 4+ stars.