Search
Search results
Saul Sailing Snapper (211 KP) rated Bosch - Season 5 in TV
May 20, 2019
Cast are superb (1 more)
Taut thriller with many plot lines.
A slow burn but worth it.
Bosch season 5 is another slow burning police procedural following several cases being investigated by the LAPD West Hollywood Division.
Harry Bosch was created by Michael Connolly in a series of books and has been adapted very well for the small screen. Titus Welliver (Lost, Deadwood) is perfect in the lead role as the gifted detective who has a troubled past.
This series opens with Bosch having fallen on hard times. With ruffled hair, leg in a brace and a cane, he is ushered off a bus in a make shift camp in the desert. Shuffling in a line of desperate addicts he waits for his reward for a day's work, a dose of opioids. After a run in with another addict he is caught snooping around the camp by one of the guards. He is taken to the head kingpin who thinking he is spying on them puts one bullet in the gun found in Bosch's backpack and points it at his head about to pull the trigger...
This series is possibly one of the best crime/detective shows around at the moment. It's pace is deliberate and slow with detectives taking their time finding vital clues (or missing them) but cleverly working multiple plot lines throughout the entire 10 episodes.
Harry Bosch was created by Michael Connolly in a series of books and has been adapted very well for the small screen. Titus Welliver (Lost, Deadwood) is perfect in the lead role as the gifted detective who has a troubled past.
This series opens with Bosch having fallen on hard times. With ruffled hair, leg in a brace and a cane, he is ushered off a bus in a make shift camp in the desert. Shuffling in a line of desperate addicts he waits for his reward for a day's work, a dose of opioids. After a run in with another addict he is caught snooping around the camp by one of the guards. He is taken to the head kingpin who thinking he is spying on them puts one bullet in the gun found in Bosch's backpack and points it at his head about to pull the trigger...
This series is possibly one of the best crime/detective shows around at the moment. It's pace is deliberate and slow with detectives taking their time finding vital clues (or missing them) but cleverly working multiple plot lines throughout the entire 10 episodes.
Sara Cox (1845 KP) rated The End of the Ocean in Books
Nov 18, 2019 (Updated Mar 15, 2020)
This story follows two characters in two different timelines. The older timeline is following a woman who is an environmentalist and is fighting to keep the ice in the northern countries. It follows her relationship from childhood with Magnus. He disappoints her by becoming involved with the business society of the modern world and forgetting what was in important to the Earth. To prove a point she steals some ice that he is deporting for the use of drinks in this high society and sails across the sea to show it to him. The newer timeline follows a young father and his daughter during the world's biggest drought. He worked in "desalinity" (if that's even a word) and as the oceans started to dry up and spontaneous fires ignited across the country he had to flea to find a place that was cooler and with water. Along the way he looses track of his wife and son and plan to wait at a refugee camp for them. The atmosphere becomes tense among the refugees as water and food become even more scarce. He and his daughter takes walks away from the camp and find a boat.
The story telling of this book is amazing! I really enjoyed reading it. A lot of the way through I was curious as to how these timelines interlinked. I'm glad I stuck with the curiosityy because the way that they do is truly beautiful.
The story telling of this book is amazing! I really enjoyed reading it. A lot of the way through I was curious as to how these timelines interlinked. I'm glad I stuck with the curiosityy because the way that they do is truly beautiful.
Prunes for Breakfast
Book
This is the story of John Searancke's parents, told mostly from the side of his father, Eddie...
Topo maps - Finland
Navigation and Travel
App
The most accurate topo maps for Finland with versatile tools. • Property information • You can...
Kristy H (1252 KP) rated The Last Time I Lied in Books
Mar 6, 2019
Enjoyable, foreboding thriller
Fifteen years ago at Camp Nightingale, three of Emma's fellow campers disappeared, never to be found again. Ever since then, Emma has felt guilt about the incident and her actions that night. She idolized the three girls, especially beautiful Vivian, the leader of the pack, who bossed around Emma and the other two campers, Allison and Natalie. Since then, Emma--now a painter--has been painting huge canvases of landscapes, where she (secretly) paints the girls within each scene. She holds a successful show of her works, but now she's stuck, unable to paint anything else but "the girls," as she calls them. So when the owner of Camp Nightingale, Francesca Harris-White, turns up at Emma's show and tells her she's reopening the camp and she wants Emma to come back as an painting instructor, Emma agrees. Perhaps this will give her the closure she has always lacked and a chance to move on, to begin painting something else. But once back at the Camp--in the same cabin where her friends disappeared-Emma feels watched. Strange things begin happening and Emma starts to wonder more and more about what really happened fifteen years ago.
Well, this was just a fun thriller and a completely engaging read. I'm so glad I gave it a chance, as--unlike most of the reading population, I actually wasn't a huge fan of Sager's FINAL GIRLS and I wasn't entirely sure I was going to read this one. But it was definitely worth the read! This is a quick read and really enjoyable.
Sager populates the novel with a bunch of mysterious pieces that begin to add up across the story--clues, if you will--but you are left constantly wondering as you read. I personally was guessing up until the end, which I really liked. I am always a fan of a thriller that isn't utterly predictable. The novel is told from Emma's perspective, but flips between the present and the past (fifteen years ago, when the three girls went missing initially). This turns out to be an amazingly effective and compelling storytelling format: I read the entire book in about 24 hours and the first half in one setting. You can't quite pinpoint what draws you in, but you find yourself compulsively turning the pages.
Emma is a wonderful unreliable narrator. I enjoyed that she wasn't the requisite annoying unreliable narrator that we seem to see so often: she's tough, engaging, and just happens to be fairly untrustworthy at times to boot. Just when you start to get a bit frustrated and ready to truly know what Emma lied about, Sager spills the beans and the saga continues, with more crazy reveals.
The scene setting in this one is great; while I've never actually been to camp, Sager sets the stage so perfectly: you can just picture everything. The entire novel has this wonderful layer of creepy and mysterious on top of it all. So much of it seems foreboding, which adds to the suspense. And, as many have mentioned, there is a great twist to the ending, which I personally liked.
Overall, I really enjoyed this thriller. It's foreboding, quite readable, and features a main character who draws you in. Between not enjoying FINAL GIRLS and then seeing so much hype for this one, I was ready to be disappointed, but THE LAST TIME I LIED proved me wrong: it was a really engaging and suspenseful read. 4+ stars.
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review (thank you!).
Well, this was just a fun thriller and a completely engaging read. I'm so glad I gave it a chance, as--unlike most of the reading population, I actually wasn't a huge fan of Sager's FINAL GIRLS and I wasn't entirely sure I was going to read this one. But it was definitely worth the read! This is a quick read and really enjoyable.
Sager populates the novel with a bunch of mysterious pieces that begin to add up across the story--clues, if you will--but you are left constantly wondering as you read. I personally was guessing up until the end, which I really liked. I am always a fan of a thriller that isn't utterly predictable. The novel is told from Emma's perspective, but flips between the present and the past (fifteen years ago, when the three girls went missing initially). This turns out to be an amazingly effective and compelling storytelling format: I read the entire book in about 24 hours and the first half in one setting. You can't quite pinpoint what draws you in, but you find yourself compulsively turning the pages.
Emma is a wonderful unreliable narrator. I enjoyed that she wasn't the requisite annoying unreliable narrator that we seem to see so often: she's tough, engaging, and just happens to be fairly untrustworthy at times to boot. Just when you start to get a bit frustrated and ready to truly know what Emma lied about, Sager spills the beans and the saga continues, with more crazy reveals.
The scene setting in this one is great; while I've never actually been to camp, Sager sets the stage so perfectly: you can just picture everything. The entire novel has this wonderful layer of creepy and mysterious on top of it all. So much of it seems foreboding, which adds to the suspense. And, as many have mentioned, there is a great twist to the ending, which I personally liked.
Overall, I really enjoyed this thriller. It's foreboding, quite readable, and features a main character who draws you in. Between not enjoying FINAL GIRLS and then seeing so much hype for this one, I was ready to be disappointed, but THE LAST TIME I LIED proved me wrong: it was a really engaging and suspenseful read. 4+ stars.
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review (thank you!).
Louise (64 KP) rated Camp Midnight in Books
Jul 2, 2018
I received an advanced readers copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Skye is on her way to her fathers house for the summer, since the seperation of her parents she spends the holidays with him while her doctor mother travels to Rwanda. Skye really hates staying with her father and not because she doesn’t love him, it’s the evil step-mother (Gayle) or in Skye’s terms step-monster! Skye’s father, step -monster and even mother have a suprise in-store, instead of staying with her dad she is to go to Summer Camp! To Skye this is worse than staying with the Step-monster, but to make her father happy she agrees to go. Only when they arrive at the station they are very late and buses are starting to leave, in haste her father sees the bus ‘Camp Midnight’ and informs Skye thats her ride. Upon stepping on the bus Skye soon realises that some of these other kids are not normal and she is clearly on the wrong bus. She befriends Mia and they plan to stick together throughout their time at camp. Camp Midnight is full of witches, werewolves and other monsters of the night, Where the regime is to sleep through the day and wake at midnight. There are all sorts of activities which Skye is set that she is not participating, the group want her to reveal her inner monster but can she?
I enjoyed this book it was an easy quick read and humourous in places even when there were no words the pictures alone were comical (no pun intended) The writing text that was used was sometimes hard to read i.e. Mia looked a lot like Ma because it was so close together. I wasn’t a massive fan of the artwork it had a retro feel to it, the colours were mostly blue, red, orange and green but did complement the story well.
Skye obviously never took her parents separation well and with becoming a teenager, along comes the bitterness and sarcasm which is ineveitable in this stage of life. She is hostile towards her step mother and generally not a nice kid to be around. But true to its form a story like this would’t be worth telling if it didnt have, self discovery, friends, a love interest and also that can people can be different to what they appear to be.
Mia is the timid friend that Skye meets on the bus. Discovering that Mia has been here before and that she has enjoyed it they vow to stick with each other to ride the time out. Mia is very shy, appears to being picked on at the camp for being different and likes to be by herself but will not reveal her true-self to Skye as she believes that she will leave and once again become friendless.
The parents were just vulgar and neglectful, the step-mother was a bitch (sorry had to be said) and the father was easily persuaded by her and backed down and obeyed her demands like a dog…….THIS IS YOUR FRIGGIN KID FOR GOD SAKE!!!. Though I have to say, why is the step mum always evil? I know some great step mums! Annoying trope alert.
This book is not scary whatsoever, yes it has witches, werewolves and other mosters in there but the monster is used as a metaphor for teenagers, with them being confused of who they really are, moodswings etc etc….you get what I am getting at.
I would say this is for middle-grade to teens – it’s not scary but send out an important message.
Overall I rated this 3 stars
Skye is on her way to her fathers house for the summer, since the seperation of her parents she spends the holidays with him while her doctor mother travels to Rwanda. Skye really hates staying with her father and not because she doesn’t love him, it’s the evil step-mother (Gayle) or in Skye’s terms step-monster! Skye’s father, step -monster and even mother have a suprise in-store, instead of staying with her dad she is to go to Summer Camp! To Skye this is worse than staying with the Step-monster, but to make her father happy she agrees to go. Only when they arrive at the station they are very late and buses are starting to leave, in haste her father sees the bus ‘Camp Midnight’ and informs Skye thats her ride. Upon stepping on the bus Skye soon realises that some of these other kids are not normal and she is clearly on the wrong bus. She befriends Mia and they plan to stick together throughout their time at camp. Camp Midnight is full of witches, werewolves and other monsters of the night, Where the regime is to sleep through the day and wake at midnight. There are all sorts of activities which Skye is set that she is not participating, the group want her to reveal her inner monster but can she?
I enjoyed this book it was an easy quick read and humourous in places even when there were no words the pictures alone were comical (no pun intended) The writing text that was used was sometimes hard to read i.e. Mia looked a lot like Ma because it was so close together. I wasn’t a massive fan of the artwork it had a retro feel to it, the colours were mostly blue, red, orange and green but did complement the story well.
Skye obviously never took her parents separation well and with becoming a teenager, along comes the bitterness and sarcasm which is ineveitable in this stage of life. She is hostile towards her step mother and generally not a nice kid to be around. But true to its form a story like this would’t be worth telling if it didnt have, self discovery, friends, a love interest and also that can people can be different to what they appear to be.
Mia is the timid friend that Skye meets on the bus. Discovering that Mia has been here before and that she has enjoyed it they vow to stick with each other to ride the time out. Mia is very shy, appears to being picked on at the camp for being different and likes to be by herself but will not reveal her true-self to Skye as she believes that she will leave and once again become friendless.
The parents were just vulgar and neglectful, the step-mother was a bitch (sorry had to be said) and the father was easily persuaded by her and backed down and obeyed her demands like a dog…….THIS IS YOUR FRIGGIN KID FOR GOD SAKE!!!. Though I have to say, why is the step mum always evil? I know some great step mums! Annoying trope alert.
This book is not scary whatsoever, yes it has witches, werewolves and other mosters in there but the monster is used as a metaphor for teenagers, with them being confused of who they really are, moodswings etc etc….you get what I am getting at.
I would say this is for middle-grade to teens – it’s not scary but send out an important message.
Overall I rated this 3 stars
Lee (2222 KP) rated Jojo Rabbit (2019) in Movies
Dec 17, 2019
During the opening credits of Jojo Rabbit, we're treated to The Beatles singing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" while documentary footage plays showing crowds of Germans going absolutely nuts for Hitler, sieg-heiling and cheering for him. It's a fairly good indication of the kind of humour you can expect from Jojo Rabbit and writer/director Taika Waititi, who hit the big time after directing 'Thor Ragnarok', but has previously been responsible for a wide range of brilliantly quirky movies such as 'What We Do in the Shadows' and 'Hunt for the Wilderpeople'.
We begin by meeting 10 year old German boy, Johannes 'Jojo' Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis), as he nervously prepares to head off to Nazi youth camp in order to fulfill his dream of serving Adolf Hitler. Heading up the camp is one-eyed Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell), aided by a bunch of inept instructors, including Fraulein Rahm (Rebel Wilson) and Finkel (Alfie Allen). At the camp, boys get to play with knives and hand grenades, girls are taught the importance of having babies (Fraulein Rahm has given birth to 18!), while all of the children are taught about the evil monsters that are the Jews. Accompanying Jojo at the camp are best friend Yorki (a brilliant Archie Yates, soon to be starring in the recently announced remake of Home Alone) and Jojo's imaginary friend Hitler (Taika Waititi). When Jojo refuses to wring the neck of rabbit during a lesson on killing (earning him the nickname Jojo Rabbit), and is hospitalised following an unfortunate incident with a grenade, he is forced to leave the camp behind, returning home to be with his mother Rosie (Scarlett Johansson).
While his mother is out during the day, Jojo discovers a teenage Jewish girl named Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) hiding out in the wall-space of his sisters bedroom. Jojo is initially shocked, and repulsed, by this hideous Jew, even more so when he discovers that it was his mother who was responsible for hiding her. As time goes on though, Jojo and Elsa begin to form a friendship, with Elsa feeding Jojo a series of made up ridiculous stories and tales regarding the origins and ways of Jews so that Jojo can write a book about them. All the while, Rosie remains completely unaware that Jojo knows anything of Elsa. The bumbling, goofy Hitler occasionally shows up too when Jojo needs words of encouragement, or when times are tough, and provides us with some welcome light relief. More humour is provided in the form of various smaller characters, including gestapo member Stephen Merchant and his team during what is essentially a pretty serious and dramatic scene as they show up and ransack Jojo's house.
But Jojo Rabbit is a movie about relationships. The Jojo/Hitler dynamic begins to take a backseat as things start to get more serious and we focus more on the bond between Jojo and his mother, and the relationship between Jojo and Elsa, as the final months of the war play out. The child actors in Jojo Rabbit are all outstanding and we also get to see a wonderfully different side to Scarlett Johansson. Sam Rockwell is hilarious and Rebel Wilson is just, well, Rebel Wilson! Occasionally though, we are dealt an unexpected gut punch, and it's fair to say that you'll be crying at Jojo Rabbit just as much as you'll be laughing. If I'm honest, I really wasn't expecting that side to Jojo Rabbit and it did more for me and my enjoyment of the movie than the comedy did, which wasn't really as laugh out loud as I thought it would be. Overall though, Jojo Rabbit is simply wonderful - funny, heartbreaking, sad and poignant - and unlike anything you've ever seen before.
We begin by meeting 10 year old German boy, Johannes 'Jojo' Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis), as he nervously prepares to head off to Nazi youth camp in order to fulfill his dream of serving Adolf Hitler. Heading up the camp is one-eyed Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell), aided by a bunch of inept instructors, including Fraulein Rahm (Rebel Wilson) and Finkel (Alfie Allen). At the camp, boys get to play with knives and hand grenades, girls are taught the importance of having babies (Fraulein Rahm has given birth to 18!), while all of the children are taught about the evil monsters that are the Jews. Accompanying Jojo at the camp are best friend Yorki (a brilliant Archie Yates, soon to be starring in the recently announced remake of Home Alone) and Jojo's imaginary friend Hitler (Taika Waititi). When Jojo refuses to wring the neck of rabbit during a lesson on killing (earning him the nickname Jojo Rabbit), and is hospitalised following an unfortunate incident with a grenade, he is forced to leave the camp behind, returning home to be with his mother Rosie (Scarlett Johansson).
While his mother is out during the day, Jojo discovers a teenage Jewish girl named Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) hiding out in the wall-space of his sisters bedroom. Jojo is initially shocked, and repulsed, by this hideous Jew, even more so when he discovers that it was his mother who was responsible for hiding her. As time goes on though, Jojo and Elsa begin to form a friendship, with Elsa feeding Jojo a series of made up ridiculous stories and tales regarding the origins and ways of Jews so that Jojo can write a book about them. All the while, Rosie remains completely unaware that Jojo knows anything of Elsa. The bumbling, goofy Hitler occasionally shows up too when Jojo needs words of encouragement, or when times are tough, and provides us with some welcome light relief. More humour is provided in the form of various smaller characters, including gestapo member Stephen Merchant and his team during what is essentially a pretty serious and dramatic scene as they show up and ransack Jojo's house.
But Jojo Rabbit is a movie about relationships. The Jojo/Hitler dynamic begins to take a backseat as things start to get more serious and we focus more on the bond between Jojo and his mother, and the relationship between Jojo and Elsa, as the final months of the war play out. The child actors in Jojo Rabbit are all outstanding and we also get to see a wonderfully different side to Scarlett Johansson. Sam Rockwell is hilarious and Rebel Wilson is just, well, Rebel Wilson! Occasionally though, we are dealt an unexpected gut punch, and it's fair to say that you'll be crying at Jojo Rabbit just as much as you'll be laughing. If I'm honest, I really wasn't expecting that side to Jojo Rabbit and it did more for me and my enjoyment of the movie than the comedy did, which wasn't really as laugh out loud as I thought it would be. Overall though, Jojo Rabbit is simply wonderful - funny, heartbreaking, sad and poignant - and unlike anything you've ever seen before.
Bad, Dad, And Dangerous Anthology
Rhys Ford, TA Moore, Bru Baker and Jenn Moffatt
8.0
Rate It
Book
Bad, Dad, and Dangerous Anthology When the kids are away, the monsters will play. School’s out...
Paranormal Romance MM MF
ClareR (5864 KP) rated The End We Start From in Books
Nov 12, 2017
A disturbing, distressing look at ecological disaster.
This is such a good book, but also deeply disturbing. Set during an environmental disaster, initially set in London, then Scotland in a refugee camp.
The way it's written reflects the shock and despair of the main character - sparse and disjointed. Time moves in a strange way (which will be interesting to see how this will be handled if it makes it to the big screen).
This is well worth a read, but make sure you're mentally in a good place first! The whole book made me feel uncomfortable, and there is no happy ending. Call me odd, but that's the kind of book that I really enjoy!
The way it's written reflects the shock and despair of the main character - sparse and disjointed. Time moves in a strange way (which will be interesting to see how this will be handled if it makes it to the big screen).
This is well worth a read, but make sure you're mentally in a good place first! The whole book made me feel uncomfortable, and there is no happy ending. Call me odd, but that's the kind of book that I really enjoy!
The Craggus (360 KP) rated Greta (2019) in Movies
Apr 25, 2019
Greta (2019) is a dark urban feminist fairy tale masquerading as a B-movie potboiler.
Neil Jordan has taken the streets of New York City and turned them into the sinister forest of a dark urban fairy tale only this time, it’s the evil witch herself leaving the trail of breadcrumbs across the city – in the form of emerald green handbags – all the better to lure the unwary children to her home for (spiked) milk and cookies. It riffs on fairy tale tropes from Hansel and Gretel to Sleeping Beauty, with the magnificent (maleficent?) Isabelle Huppert weaving her terrible and terribly camp spell at the core of this poisoned Big Apple...
FULL REVIEW: bit.ly/CraggusGreta
FULL REVIEW: bit.ly/CraggusGreta