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Darkness the Color of Snow: A Novel
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Like No Country for Old Men and Snow Falling on Cedars, a haunting, suspenseful, and dazzlingly...
Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Girls of Brackenhill in Books
Nov 5, 2020
As a kid, Hannah spent several summers at Brackenhill, her aunt and uncle's beautiful mansion in the Catskills. Joined by her older sister, Julia, they enjoyed a peaceful time away from their troubled mother and her boyfriend. But that final summer, Hannah made the journey home alone after Julia disappeared. Now, seventeen years later, Hannah is back at Brackenhill, accompanied by her calm and steady fiance Huck, to deal with the aftermath of her Aunt Fae's death. Her uncle Stuart is quite ill and Hannah must handle the necessary affairs. But once at Brackenhill, long buried memories flood to the surface, along with some undiscovered family secrets.
"She'd escaped Brackenhill once. She could do it again."
I read this completely captivating thriller in one breathless day. It's such a wonderfully eerie and ghostly mystery that excellently captures the spooky atmosphere of Brackenhill. I'm all for a read with a creepy castle, ghostly happenings, and a history of missing girls. Told in a then (Hannah and Julia's summers at Brackenhill) and now format, Moretti sucks you in from the beginning, making the reader feel as if they are a part of the haunted happenings at Brackenhill.
"The Ghost Girls of Brackenhill are an urban legend."
The result is a twisted and dark story--a true Gothic ghost tale. I figured out a few pieces, but still found this impossible to put down. Moretti excels at weaving in the devastation of family secrets and small town mystery. As Hannah unravels the mystery of her family history and her sister's disappearance, we do as well, and you'll share her sense of dread and the overall foreboding that sweeps across the pages.
I wished the ending offered a bit more resolution, but this is an excellent, haunting, and spooky supernatural read. You'll be madly flipping the pages (with the lights on)! 4+ stars.
"She'd escaped Brackenhill once. She could do it again."
I read this completely captivating thriller in one breathless day. It's such a wonderfully eerie and ghostly mystery that excellently captures the spooky atmosphere of Brackenhill. I'm all for a read with a creepy castle, ghostly happenings, and a history of missing girls. Told in a then (Hannah and Julia's summers at Brackenhill) and now format, Moretti sucks you in from the beginning, making the reader feel as if they are a part of the haunted happenings at Brackenhill.
"The Ghost Girls of Brackenhill are an urban legend."
The result is a twisted and dark story--a true Gothic ghost tale. I figured out a few pieces, but still found this impossible to put down. Moretti excels at weaving in the devastation of family secrets and small town mystery. As Hannah unravels the mystery of her family history and her sister's disappearance, we do as well, and you'll share her sense of dread and the overall foreboding that sweeps across the pages.
I wished the ending offered a bit more resolution, but this is an excellent, haunting, and spooky supernatural read. You'll be madly flipping the pages (with the lights on)! 4+ stars.
Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Ace of Spades in Books
Jul 22, 2021
A dark thriller that delves into racism
Devon and Chiamaka are both Senior Prefects at Niveus Private Academy, a super elite school for the wealthy. Chiamaka has been working her entire life to attain success and popularity at Niveus, while Devon, a scholarship student, focuses on his music. The only black students in their school, they aren't exactly friends. But then the two of them suddenly become the target of Aces--an anonymous texter and bully who seems determined to ruin their lives. Aces knows all their secrets, ones that could destroy everything they've worked for. This seems beyond a high school prank. Who is Aces and what do they want?
This was a very hyped book and while I enjoyed it, it didn't live up to the hype for me. This is a really rare opinion, so please take it with a grain of salt. It got better over time, but I had a hard time getting into it, finding it slow and choppy. The plot seemed disjointed and when the big twists are revealed, they seem off with the earlier pieces of the story. I understood the concept, but couldn't really see how it all related, or believe that it all worked together so seamlessly.
The book certainly is timely and its themes of racism and hatred are strong and well-done. It's terrifying because it's true, so to speak. You'll feel for Chia and Devon, though I found myself wishing I knew more about them and that their stories didn't jump from one place to another. Perhaps taking a step back, seeing the tale as an allegory, helps more, but even then I'm not sure (trying to avoid spoilers).
Overall, this is an interesting story, but it was jumpy and made some crazy leaps at times. 3.5, rounded up to 4 stars here.
This was a very hyped book and while I enjoyed it, it didn't live up to the hype for me. This is a really rare opinion, so please take it with a grain of salt. It got better over time, but I had a hard time getting into it, finding it slow and choppy. The plot seemed disjointed and when the big twists are revealed, they seem off with the earlier pieces of the story. I understood the concept, but couldn't really see how it all related, or believe that it all worked together so seamlessly.
The book certainly is timely and its themes of racism and hatred are strong and well-done. It's terrifying because it's true, so to speak. You'll feel for Chia and Devon, though I found myself wishing I knew more about them and that their stories didn't jump from one place to another. Perhaps taking a step back, seeing the tale as an allegory, helps more, but even then I'm not sure (trying to avoid spoilers).
Overall, this is an interesting story, but it was jumpy and made some crazy leaps at times. 3.5, rounded up to 4 stars here.
ClareR (6081 KP) rated False Witness in Books
Jul 27, 2021
False Witness is a standalone thriller by Karin Slaughter, and what a fantastic read it is!
It’s set during the Covid-19 pandemic, and we can see the drastic effect it’s had on people’s everyday lives, as well as the working life of a Leigh, a lawyer.
When Leigh walks in to a meeting with a new client - a man accused of violently raping a woman - she doesn’t expect to see someone from her past. It’s a past that she doesn’t talk about, and has told no-one about in its entirety. Even her husband.
Trevor Tennant is the boy that Leigh and her sister, Callie, used to babysit, and now it seems that he has picked up some of the bad habits that his father had: violence against women for one thing. Except Buddy Waleski, Trevors father, also liked very young girls.
Somehow, Trevor has found out what happened between his father and the sisters on the night Buddy disappeared, and blackmails Leigh in order to get him off all charges. He sees the acts of his paedophile father as acceptable, that Callie enjoyed the abuse - in fact he doesn’t believe it was abuse at all. The entitlement is strong in this story - as well as a twisted view of life in general!
Callie is such a vulnerable character. As strong as her sister is, Callie hides behind heroin. It’s a life of existing and getting to the next fix. She’s a really caring person though: she loves animals and she repeatedly puts others before herself.
This is a really dark, high paced, intelligent novel, and it kept me riveted to the screen as I read it in instalments on The Pigeonhole. It was torture waiting for the next instalment, and I’d definitely recommend it!
It’s set during the Covid-19 pandemic, and we can see the drastic effect it’s had on people’s everyday lives, as well as the working life of a Leigh, a lawyer.
When Leigh walks in to a meeting with a new client - a man accused of violently raping a woman - she doesn’t expect to see someone from her past. It’s a past that she doesn’t talk about, and has told no-one about in its entirety. Even her husband.
Trevor Tennant is the boy that Leigh and her sister, Callie, used to babysit, and now it seems that he has picked up some of the bad habits that his father had: violence against women for one thing. Except Buddy Waleski, Trevors father, also liked very young girls.
Somehow, Trevor has found out what happened between his father and the sisters on the night Buddy disappeared, and blackmails Leigh in order to get him off all charges. He sees the acts of his paedophile father as acceptable, that Callie enjoyed the abuse - in fact he doesn’t believe it was abuse at all. The entitlement is strong in this story - as well as a twisted view of life in general!
Callie is such a vulnerable character. As strong as her sister is, Callie hides behind heroin. It’s a life of existing and getting to the next fix. She’s a really caring person though: she loves animals and she repeatedly puts others before herself.
This is a really dark, high paced, intelligent novel, and it kept me riveted to the screen as I read it in instalments on The Pigeonhole. It was torture waiting for the next instalment, and I’d definitely recommend it!
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Deadly Friend (1986) in Movies
Sep 14, 2020
Death By Basktetball
Deadly Friend- is a good movie. The best sence is the basketball kill. It was gory, horrorfying and terrorfying. Other than that this film is basically Frankenstien but instead of a monster its a robot. Which does turn into a monster.
The plot: Its plot follows a teenage computer prodigy who implants a robot's hardrive into the brain of his teenage neighbor after she is pronounced brain dead; the experiment proves successful, but she swiftly begins a killing spree in their neighborhood.
Originally, the film was a sci-fi thriller without any graphic scenes, with a bigger focus on plot and character development and a dark love story centering around the two main characters, which were not typical aspects of Craven's previous films. After Craven's original cut was shown to a test audience by Warner Bros., the audience criticized the lack of graphic, bloody violence and gore that Craven's other films included. Warner Bros. executive vice president Mark Canton and the film's producers then demanded script re-writes and re-shoots, which included filming gorier death scenes and nightmare sequences, similar to the ones from Craven's previous film, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Due to studio imposed re-shoots and re-editing, the film was drastically altered in post-production, losing much of the original plot and more scenes between characters, while other scenes, including more grisly deaths and a new ending, were added. This version was criticized by test audiences for containing too much graphic, bloody violence and gore.
In April 2014, an online petition for the release of the original cut was made.
Its a intresting movie see it for yourself and see if you like it.
The plot: Its plot follows a teenage computer prodigy who implants a robot's hardrive into the brain of his teenage neighbor after she is pronounced brain dead; the experiment proves successful, but she swiftly begins a killing spree in their neighborhood.
Originally, the film was a sci-fi thriller without any graphic scenes, with a bigger focus on plot and character development and a dark love story centering around the two main characters, which were not typical aspects of Craven's previous films. After Craven's original cut was shown to a test audience by Warner Bros., the audience criticized the lack of graphic, bloody violence and gore that Craven's other films included. Warner Bros. executive vice president Mark Canton and the film's producers then demanded script re-writes and re-shoots, which included filming gorier death scenes and nightmare sequences, similar to the ones from Craven's previous film, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Due to studio imposed re-shoots and re-editing, the film was drastically altered in post-production, losing much of the original plot and more scenes between characters, while other scenes, including more grisly deaths and a new ending, were added. This version was criticized by test audiences for containing too much graphic, bloody violence and gore.
In April 2014, an online petition for the release of the original cut was made.
Its a intresting movie see it for yourself and see if you like it.
LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated It Follows (2015) in Movies
Oct 9, 2020
There are plenty of positive aspects to It Follows. The concept for one is decent and an original idea for a horror film. A sexually transmitted disease that causes an entity to relentlessly hunt you down at the pace of a Romero era zombie, never giving up until you're dead, unless you pass it on to someone new.
It's a very modern take on horror, acting as an age old cautionary tale about casual sex, masquerading as a creepy stalker flick.
The image of a person slowly walking towards you, staring at you the whole time is unsettling enough, but the entity's appearance will frequently change. This allows even people in the background shots to carry a weight of danger in the times where the audience is unaware of its whereabouts. It's a simple yet clever trick that gives It Follows a steady undercurrent of dread.
There's some really nice cinematography on display as well. Lingering shots of empty spaces are intimidating (I found myself constantly scanning for the entity, and got caught out more than once) It also has a phenomenal synth soundtrack courtesy of Disasterpiece. It will switch from ethereal to jarring in a flash and contributes greatly to the dark tone this film carries.
I wasn't a huge fan of the constant frame dissolves and screen wipes. It's kept taking me out of the narrative a bit, and the film suffers greatly with it's characters constantly making silly decisions. Although Maika Monroe is a solid lead.
Overall, It Follows is a genuinely unsettling horror-thriller with some truly chilling moments. It's just a little frustrating that the great concept isn't explored as much as it could have been.
It's a very modern take on horror, acting as an age old cautionary tale about casual sex, masquerading as a creepy stalker flick.
The image of a person slowly walking towards you, staring at you the whole time is unsettling enough, but the entity's appearance will frequently change. This allows even people in the background shots to carry a weight of danger in the times where the audience is unaware of its whereabouts. It's a simple yet clever trick that gives It Follows a steady undercurrent of dread.
There's some really nice cinematography on display as well. Lingering shots of empty spaces are intimidating (I found myself constantly scanning for the entity, and got caught out more than once) It also has a phenomenal synth soundtrack courtesy of Disasterpiece. It will switch from ethereal to jarring in a flash and contributes greatly to the dark tone this film carries.
I wasn't a huge fan of the constant frame dissolves and screen wipes. It's kept taking me out of the narrative a bit, and the film suffers greatly with it's characters constantly making silly decisions. Although Maika Monroe is a solid lead.
Overall, It Follows is a genuinely unsettling horror-thriller with some truly chilling moments. It's just a little frustrating that the great concept isn't explored as much as it could have been.
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