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Sassy Brit (97 KP) rated It's Always the Husband in Books
Jun 5, 2019
It’s Always the Husband by Michele Campbell was an unusual psychological drama detailing the lives of three main girls, Aubrey, Kate and Jenny who met at college and stayed friends for life. At least that’s what they’d like you to believe, from the outside looking in. Really, they were thrown together and kind of stuck with each other.
Relationships are tricky things, some best friends at school can totally be your worst nightmare, but if you’re too weak willed to get out of such a toxic relationship, before you know it, you’re stuck. I mean, if you’ve invested so much time and energy in a friendship, why would you give it all up? Especially now, when you’re all adults in your 40s, shouldn’t things be different?
When I say this story was unusual, what exactly did I mean by that? This is just my sort of book, I love psychological thrillers, but unfortunately I just didn’t feel for any of the characters at first. The story started slow, and I don’t think as much detail about their elite Carlisle college life at the beginning was needed. Maybe the odd flashback to something important, to show how the “Whipple Triplets” had pledged to be friends forever, when in fact it’s instantly obvious to the reader they’re actually frenemies from the day they first met. Again, I love books featuring frenemies, but there was just something about that whole first section which did not enthral me at all. However, as we moved on through to their later years where we meet them as adults, the pace picked up a bit, and like the blurb says, when someone is standing at the edge of the bridge and someone else is urging them to jump, I wanted to find out who and why! I didn’t get this far into the book to just give up!
We do get flashbacks every now and then and the suspense does pick up somewhat. I kind of knew payback was going to happen to the bitch of the group, but the unexpected twist at the end was interesting. There was just something clunky about the way the whole book was put together, like either I was missing something or it just did not read as smoothly as I’d have liked.
In addition, I get that their college life is all about popularity, money, sex, and much of it went by in a blur of drugs and alcohol, but at the same time, there was a lot of it going on in the story, and I half thought most of the substance abuse goings on was just too repetitive and didn’t really focus on the psychological issues they could have had at college. I don’t think all of it was needed.
Even so, I did finish this book, and I did like the ending, it just wasn’t completely enthralling enough for me to rate it higher than 3 stars, which is my ‘jolly good’ read, but not ‘really, really enjoyable’, and definitely not up there with ‘I’m going to talk about this for weeks’ five stars. Although, I could actually be talking about this for weeks, just not in the best light.
Relationships are tricky things, some best friends at school can totally be your worst nightmare, but if you’re too weak willed to get out of such a toxic relationship, before you know it, you’re stuck. I mean, if you’ve invested so much time and energy in a friendship, why would you give it all up? Especially now, when you’re all adults in your 40s, shouldn’t things be different?
When I say this story was unusual, what exactly did I mean by that? This is just my sort of book, I love psychological thrillers, but unfortunately I just didn’t feel for any of the characters at first. The story started slow, and I don’t think as much detail about their elite Carlisle college life at the beginning was needed. Maybe the odd flashback to something important, to show how the “Whipple Triplets” had pledged to be friends forever, when in fact it’s instantly obvious to the reader they’re actually frenemies from the day they first met. Again, I love books featuring frenemies, but there was just something about that whole first section which did not enthral me at all. However, as we moved on through to their later years where we meet them as adults, the pace picked up a bit, and like the blurb says, when someone is standing at the edge of the bridge and someone else is urging them to jump, I wanted to find out who and why! I didn’t get this far into the book to just give up!
We do get flashbacks every now and then and the suspense does pick up somewhat. I kind of knew payback was going to happen to the bitch of the group, but the unexpected twist at the end was interesting. There was just something clunky about the way the whole book was put together, like either I was missing something or it just did not read as smoothly as I’d have liked.
In addition, I get that their college life is all about popularity, money, sex, and much of it went by in a blur of drugs and alcohol, but at the same time, there was a lot of it going on in the story, and I half thought most of the substance abuse goings on was just too repetitive and didn’t really focus on the psychological issues they could have had at college. I don’t think all of it was needed.
Even so, I did finish this book, and I did like the ending, it just wasn’t completely enthralling enough for me to rate it higher than 3 stars, which is my ‘jolly good’ read, but not ‘really, really enjoyable’, and definitely not up there with ‘I’m going to talk about this for weeks’ five stars. Although, I could actually be talking about this for weeks, just not in the best light.
Darren (1599 KP) rated 100 Streets (2017) in Movies
Jun 20, 2019
Story: 100 Streets starts as we meet our characters, troublemaking drug dealing thief Kingsley (Dramah), former rugby player Max (Elba) who is going through a marriage problem after his own affair with his wife Emily (Arterton) who in an act of revenge is dating photographer Jake (Cullen). The final couple we meet are cabbie George (Creed-Miles) and Kathy (Wareing) who are trying to adopt a child, though his past is causing problems in this pursuit.
As the lives cross-paths the people must learn about the mistakes they make to prevent themselves from making any more mistakes.
Thoughts on 100 Streets
Characters – Max is a former England rugby captain, since retiring he started cheating on his wife and getting caught up with the drugs, seeing his future career going up in smoke, he needs to clean up his own actions in any hope of winning his wife back. Emily is the wife of Max who has been going through the struggles of her husbands action, thinking about getting back into acting and trying to move on with her life. Kingsley is the streetwise drug dealing thief that has been caught up against the law, even though he believes he could go onto something bigger, he receives the guidance required to escape this life. We have a cabbie that makes a terrible mistake and must learn to live with the consequences and a photographer that wants to be part of Emily’s life.
Performances – Idris Elba, Gemma Arterton are both great in their roles in the film, we know and expect it from them. Elsewhere we get the less known actors in Franz Drameh and Charlie Creed-Miles that shine in this film.
Story – The story follows the lives of three people, the problems they are facing and the changes that will define them. We get three different worlds, one is the celebrity world and marriage, where the vices can control someone, the middle-class who just want normal lives which can fall apart from past action and the lower-class that must fight for a chance or face the same circles of crime. The way the three lives cross without interaction shows how people can be going through their own struggles meters away from you. Each life will be changed by the events in the film, which is important to see and we can see how theses moments can do the moments that create a future.
Settings – The film is set in London with the idea that we are within 100 streets of each other, in a position where lives can cross paves.
Scene of the Movie – Leaving the gang.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Not sure what will happen with Jake next.
Final Thoughts – This is a wonderfully engaging drama that shows the lives people are living without you knowing within metres of your own life. Strong performances throughout do help the film stand out too.
Overall: Drama well worth watching.
https://moviesreview101.com/2019/02/02/gemma-arterton-weekend-100-streets-2016/
As the lives cross-paths the people must learn about the mistakes they make to prevent themselves from making any more mistakes.
Thoughts on 100 Streets
Characters – Max is a former England rugby captain, since retiring he started cheating on his wife and getting caught up with the drugs, seeing his future career going up in smoke, he needs to clean up his own actions in any hope of winning his wife back. Emily is the wife of Max who has been going through the struggles of her husbands action, thinking about getting back into acting and trying to move on with her life. Kingsley is the streetwise drug dealing thief that has been caught up against the law, even though he believes he could go onto something bigger, he receives the guidance required to escape this life. We have a cabbie that makes a terrible mistake and must learn to live with the consequences and a photographer that wants to be part of Emily’s life.
Performances – Idris Elba, Gemma Arterton are both great in their roles in the film, we know and expect it from them. Elsewhere we get the less known actors in Franz Drameh and Charlie Creed-Miles that shine in this film.
Story – The story follows the lives of three people, the problems they are facing and the changes that will define them. We get three different worlds, one is the celebrity world and marriage, where the vices can control someone, the middle-class who just want normal lives which can fall apart from past action and the lower-class that must fight for a chance or face the same circles of crime. The way the three lives cross without interaction shows how people can be going through their own struggles meters away from you. Each life will be changed by the events in the film, which is important to see and we can see how theses moments can do the moments that create a future.
Settings – The film is set in London with the idea that we are within 100 streets of each other, in a position where lives can cross paves.
Scene of the Movie – Leaving the gang.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Not sure what will happen with Jake next.
Final Thoughts – This is a wonderfully engaging drama that shows the lives people are living without you knowing within metres of your own life. Strong performances throughout do help the film stand out too.
Overall: Drama well worth watching.
https://moviesreview101.com/2019/02/02/gemma-arterton-weekend-100-streets-2016/
Phil Leader (619 KP) rated Everything to Nothing in Books
Nov 13, 2019
Everything to Nothing follows the story of three young women and the paths their lives take after one fateful night when they each end up with a man. The repercussions of the events lead by turns to each of them losing everything they had, even if they had nothing or everything to start with.
Sarah is at college and struggling to cope with an absent father and an alcoholic mother. She escapes from this life by clubbing and sex until the night in question when she is introduced to the highs available from hard drugs.
Michelle is at college with Sarah and they sometimes meet out clubbing. Michelle is looking for a man who likes her for who she is rather than what she looks like. Could Simon be that man?
Sally is Michelle's best friend. She is also the daughter of a billionaire businessman and lives a life full of servants, fast cars and designer clothes. She has it all except a man who is not interested in her because of her money.
This story is a real rollercoaster of a book. It did take a while to get going and introduce the characters, taking it time to fill in their personalities and circumstances but this is time well spent for later. Of the three Michelle is necessarily less well developed since there is no specific hook to her storyline beyond her association with both of the others. All the characters are well drawn with a sense of realism, even for Sally who lives a lifestyle entirely outside of the experience of 99.99% of the population. They have their flaws but this a real strength and the various dalliances and romances are painted very well and are not in any way forced.
The emotions the story evokes run the whole gamut. Laugh out loud humour at the antics of David's gran; wanting to shake Sarah out of her clearly stupid and self destructive decisions, down to the very harrowing end of the book.
And that ending is the most powerful part of the book and will stay with you for a long time. This is not a morality tale where bad things only happen to bad people and the good guys ride off into the sunset. Bad things can happen to good people and often for little or no reason and the complete deconstruction of the worlds around the three women in final act, although requiring some suspension of belief at some of the coincidences and circumstances, is shocking. And then becomes even more shocking with every page. You have been warned!
The book is not perfect; it is a little slow at times and the 'flashback' sections when the characters are introduced I felt could have been covered with a couple of paragraphs rather than pages of close description of the events as they happened. And occasionally the prose is a little clumsy when trying to express some fine or complex point about a character. But overall this is definitely worth a read. But only if you don't like happy endings.
Note: This book is rated Adult due to frequent and detailed descriptions of sexual acts and drug use
Sarah is at college and struggling to cope with an absent father and an alcoholic mother. She escapes from this life by clubbing and sex until the night in question when she is introduced to the highs available from hard drugs.
Michelle is at college with Sarah and they sometimes meet out clubbing. Michelle is looking for a man who likes her for who she is rather than what she looks like. Could Simon be that man?
Sally is Michelle's best friend. She is also the daughter of a billionaire businessman and lives a life full of servants, fast cars and designer clothes. She has it all except a man who is not interested in her because of her money.
This story is a real rollercoaster of a book. It did take a while to get going and introduce the characters, taking it time to fill in their personalities and circumstances but this is time well spent for later. Of the three Michelle is necessarily less well developed since there is no specific hook to her storyline beyond her association with both of the others. All the characters are well drawn with a sense of realism, even for Sally who lives a lifestyle entirely outside of the experience of 99.99% of the population. They have their flaws but this a real strength and the various dalliances and romances are painted very well and are not in any way forced.
The emotions the story evokes run the whole gamut. Laugh out loud humour at the antics of David's gran; wanting to shake Sarah out of her clearly stupid and self destructive decisions, down to the very harrowing end of the book.
And that ending is the most powerful part of the book and will stay with you for a long time. This is not a morality tale where bad things only happen to bad people and the good guys ride off into the sunset. Bad things can happen to good people and often for little or no reason and the complete deconstruction of the worlds around the three women in final act, although requiring some suspension of belief at some of the coincidences and circumstances, is shocking. And then becomes even more shocking with every page. You have been warned!
The book is not perfect; it is a little slow at times and the 'flashback' sections when the characters are introduced I felt could have been covered with a couple of paragraphs rather than pages of close description of the events as they happened. And occasionally the prose is a little clumsy when trying to express some fine or complex point about a character. But overall this is definitely worth a read. But only if you don't like happy endings.
Note: This book is rated Adult due to frequent and detailed descriptions of sexual acts and drug use
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Looper (2012) in Movies
Aug 7, 2019
In the world of 2072, it is learned that time travel has been invented and is declared illegal by all the governments of the world. Naturally, the criminal elements of the future embrace the technology. Apparently getting rid of bodies and people in the future is tricky because of innovative tagging and tracking technology.
The criminal bosses of the future send a man named Abe (Jeff Bridges) 30 years into the past to serve the criminals of the future with a new type of hit man called a Looper. In the new film “Looper” Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Joe, a Looper who never lets morals get in the way of his job. He is happy to promptly dispatch anyone sent from the future without a second thought.
Joe is well paid for his work, and is happy to enjoy the drugs and women that come with his job. Yet Joe desires to leave it all one day and travel to France. For a Looper to be retired, he is forced to kill a future version of himself, and in doing so, gets a fantastic retirement payout and 30 years to live it up since that is how long it will take for time travel to be invented. Naturally an older version of yourself cannot be sent back to be killed by your younger self for at least 30 years. But the increase in retirements is a bit disconcerting for Joe.
Things change drastically for Joe when his older self (Bruce Willis), appears and manages to escape before he can be killed by his younger self. For a Looper to have his target escape is a serious infraction, and in no time, Joe finds himself not only hunting his older self, but also on the run from his former friends and allies who have made him both older and younger a priority.
At this point in the film, I was hooked, as my mind raced with twists, possibilities, and the promise of the film. Sadly the momentum grinds to a halt in the second half as the older Joe attempts to ally with his younger self to stop a future crime boss while he is a child. This quickly becomes a very blatant “Terminator” rip off as older Joe attempts to locate and kill children who may be the future crime lord while younger Joe is biding his time hiding from his former associates while protecting a young child and his mother from his older self.
It does not take much thought to see where this is going but sadly the remainder of the movie is underwhelming and disappointing as the film recycles scenarios that we have seen many times before in better movies. The second half lacks any real action and climactic finale to give the audience the well-deserved payoff they waited for.
Willis, Bridges, and Gordon-Levitt do solid work but seem to be going through the motions as they never really earn any sympathy from the audience. Much like last year’s “In Time”, “Looper” has a great premise that starts well and then fails to live up to its potential.
The criminal bosses of the future send a man named Abe (Jeff Bridges) 30 years into the past to serve the criminals of the future with a new type of hit man called a Looper. In the new film “Looper” Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Joe, a Looper who never lets morals get in the way of his job. He is happy to promptly dispatch anyone sent from the future without a second thought.
Joe is well paid for his work, and is happy to enjoy the drugs and women that come with his job. Yet Joe desires to leave it all one day and travel to France. For a Looper to be retired, he is forced to kill a future version of himself, and in doing so, gets a fantastic retirement payout and 30 years to live it up since that is how long it will take for time travel to be invented. Naturally an older version of yourself cannot be sent back to be killed by your younger self for at least 30 years. But the increase in retirements is a bit disconcerting for Joe.
Things change drastically for Joe when his older self (Bruce Willis), appears and manages to escape before he can be killed by his younger self. For a Looper to have his target escape is a serious infraction, and in no time, Joe finds himself not only hunting his older self, but also on the run from his former friends and allies who have made him both older and younger a priority.
At this point in the film, I was hooked, as my mind raced with twists, possibilities, and the promise of the film. Sadly the momentum grinds to a halt in the second half as the older Joe attempts to ally with his younger self to stop a future crime boss while he is a child. This quickly becomes a very blatant “Terminator” rip off as older Joe attempts to locate and kill children who may be the future crime lord while younger Joe is biding his time hiding from his former associates while protecting a young child and his mother from his older self.
It does not take much thought to see where this is going but sadly the remainder of the movie is underwhelming and disappointing as the film recycles scenarios that we have seen many times before in better movies. The second half lacks any real action and climactic finale to give the audience the well-deserved payoff they waited for.
Willis, Bridges, and Gordon-Levitt do solid work but seem to be going through the motions as they never really earn any sympathy from the audience. Much like last year’s “In Time”, “Looper” has a great premise that starts well and then fails to live up to its potential.
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Kurt Vile recommended The Sun Years by Jerry Lee Lewis in Music (curated)
Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) rated The Girls Are All So Nice Here in Books
Jun 30, 2021
I love a good psychological thriller. In fact, that's one of my favorite genres. When I read the synopsis of The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn, I knew it was a book I had to read. It was giving me Pretty Little Liars vibes in a way. I ended up really liking this book.
I really enjoyed the plot of The Girls Are All So Nice Here, and the pacing was perfect. To say I devoured this book is an understatement. I had to know more. I had to know more about Amb, Sully, and Flora. I was totally invested in this story. I will say that most of the book is predictable with a few unpredictable plot twists. It's quite obvious, for the most part, how the story will end and who the guilty party is. However, the execution was done very well that knowing what was going to happen didn't put me off reading the book. I wanted more backstory for my theories, and the author did not disappoint. I enjoyed that the story alternated between Amb in college and Amb in the present time. One thing I didn't predict was what happened to Sully and Amb at the end of the book. I will say the ending was a tad rushed and a bit unbelievable with how easy it was for one such character to get away with what they did. However, this book does try to convey the lesson of be careful how you treat people.
I found the characters in The Girls Are All So Nice Here to be fleshed out enough to feel more like real people instead of just some random characters in a book. I really, really did not like Sully and Amb, not because they weren't written very well (which they are written amazingly), but because they were just so mean and selfish. They were the total mean girls at college. I think everyone knew at least one mean girl at some point in their life. I enjoyed reading about Sully and Amb then and now. It was fun to learn how much they had (or hadn't in some cases) matured. I really loved Flora and how much she genuinely seemed to care about everyone even those she never met. I wanted to be friends with Flora, and when I read about how mean Amb and Sully were to her, it broke my heart. Flora did not deserve any hate.
Trigger warnings for The Girls Are All So Nice Here include profanity, promiscuity, many sex references though not super graphic, rape, murder, mentions of suicide, underage drinking, drugs, and gaslighting.
Overall, The Girls Are So Nice Here is an intriguing read that will pull its readers in from the very first page. With characters the reader will love to hate and a story line that sucks you in, this is one novel that you won't soon forget. I would definitely recommend The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn to those aged 18+ who are after a well developed story that will leave you gasping by the last page.
I really enjoyed the plot of The Girls Are All So Nice Here, and the pacing was perfect. To say I devoured this book is an understatement. I had to know more. I had to know more about Amb, Sully, and Flora. I was totally invested in this story. I will say that most of the book is predictable with a few unpredictable plot twists. It's quite obvious, for the most part, how the story will end and who the guilty party is. However, the execution was done very well that knowing what was going to happen didn't put me off reading the book. I wanted more backstory for my theories, and the author did not disappoint. I enjoyed that the story alternated between Amb in college and Amb in the present time. One thing I didn't predict was what happened to Sully and Amb at the end of the book. I will say the ending was a tad rushed and a bit unbelievable with how easy it was for one such character to get away with what they did. However, this book does try to convey the lesson of be careful how you treat people.
I found the characters in The Girls Are All So Nice Here to be fleshed out enough to feel more like real people instead of just some random characters in a book. I really, really did not like Sully and Amb, not because they weren't written very well (which they are written amazingly), but because they were just so mean and selfish. They were the total mean girls at college. I think everyone knew at least one mean girl at some point in their life. I enjoyed reading about Sully and Amb then and now. It was fun to learn how much they had (or hadn't in some cases) matured. I really loved Flora and how much she genuinely seemed to care about everyone even those she never met. I wanted to be friends with Flora, and when I read about how mean Amb and Sully were to her, it broke my heart. Flora did not deserve any hate.
Trigger warnings for The Girls Are All So Nice Here include profanity, promiscuity, many sex references though not super graphic, rape, murder, mentions of suicide, underage drinking, drugs, and gaslighting.
Overall, The Girls Are So Nice Here is an intriguing read that will pull its readers in from the very first page. With characters the reader will love to hate and a story line that sucks you in, this is one novel that you won't soon forget. I would definitely recommend The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn to those aged 18+ who are after a well developed story that will leave you gasping by the last page.
Lee Ronaldo recommended Dancing In Your Head by Ornette Coleman in Music (curated)
