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Hazel (1853 KP) rated Runaway Girl: A beautiful girl. Trafficked for sex. Is there nowhere to hide? in Books

Dec 14, 2018

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

Casey Watson is a specialist foster carer who temporarily houses vulnerable children in emergency situations. Since working in this field for decades, she has been documenting her experiences in a series of books, each one focusing on a different child. Her thirteenth, and most recent book is Runaway Girl, aptly named about a (supposedly) fourteen-year-old girl, running away from several distressing situations.

Adrianna arrives on Casey’s doorstep with no possessions, no English and no passport. Apart from knowing she is Polish, Adrianna is a complete mystery to the Watson family and the services involved. With her sixth sense tingling, Casey is certain there is something important that Adrianna is hiding and, despite all her attempts, it is not until an emergency hospitalization that the frightened Polish girl starts telling the truth.

With a background of abuse, homelessness and sex trafficking, Adrianna’s story will open readers’ eyes to the shocking situations many foreign children find themselves. Unfortunately, Adrianna is only one out of 5,000 girls in the last decade and a half to be brought to England illegally and forced into prostitution.

Fortunately, Adrianna is lucky to have escaped and found a safe place to stay in the Watson household. Without Casey’s care and determination to provide a future for her, Adrianna would have remained one of the “hidden children” that arrive in England every year.

Casey writes in a novel-like format, describing Adrianna’s circumstances from a carer’s point of view. Slowly revealing the secrets of Adrianna’s past, Casey keeps the reader interested in the same way a fiction author would with a clever plot line. Emphasising the difficulties Adrianna has, not only coming to terms with the abuse she has faced, but also worrying about whether authorities will allow her to remain in England, Casey appeals to the readers’ emotions, making it clear that, although here illegally, trafficked children have every right to be protected and looked after by British authorities.

Although Casey writes under a pseudonym, and assumedly alters all names within the book, it is not certain how much of the storyline is true, or whether the situation has been accentuated in order to capture the reader’s attention. This, however, is not important – people will read this for entertainment, therefore the accuracy of the content is not as significant as the way in which it is told. Runaway Girl, whilst shocking, is engaging and easy to read, with a satisfying ending.

Runaway Girl is the only book I have read from Casey Watson, yet I can tell she is a worthy and successful author. Her stories – at least the blurbs – seem similar to other authors, such as Torey Hayden, who also write about their experiences helping vulnerable children. Casey Watson’s book need not be read in any particular order; therefore Runaway Girl is as good a place as any to begin.

Kudos

Phil Leader (619 KP) rated The Moonstone in Books

Nov 20, 2019

Of all the books I had to read at school, The Moonstone was probably the only novel I really enjoyed. It is one of the first 'whodunnit' type of books and, remarkably, it manages to hit virtually every requirement of the genre dead centre. If this book was written today, it would still be a classic.

The Moonstone of the title is a rare yellow diamond, stolen from an Indian shrine by colonialists. Thought to be unlucky it is left to the young Rachel Verinder. The night after her 18th birthday party the stone is stolen from her rooms, and the rest of the novel describes how the various players eventually manage to solve the crime.

The plot features twists and turns galore, false trails and red herrings enough for two detective stories. Although the crime involved is 'only' theft rather than the more usual murder it is no less engaging as a story. The characters are well drawn and - social reformer that Collins was - there are strong women and intelligent and interesting servants as well as the landed gentry and philanthropists that inhabit the world of country estates in the mid 19th century that the novel is set in.

One feature of the book is that the story is told from the viewpoint of a number of the players. Firstly (and for nearly half the book) we are introduced to the Verinders and the theft by Gabriel Betteredge, a long serving family retainer who is head of the staff and a sort of de facto butler. Betteredge's narrative is charming and witty, full of dry asides and observations. His habit of picking passages from Robinson Crusoe and applying them to daily life is a quirk that is completely in keeping with his character.

Once the story moves to London, the narrative is taken up by various other characters, sometimes just for a short journal entry, sometimes for extended periods of time. Collins imbues each of these parts with a different voice really skillfully, keeping each character very separate.

The solution to the mystery of who stole the diamond and why is convoluted but also very simple. The whole story is well crafted and fits together really well.

The only negative points really are those imposed on Collins by the time he was writing this. There is an overlong introduction about the diamond in India (it seems that in Victorian novels the long winded introduction is somehow expected by the reader) and the pace slows somewhat in London as there is a lot of description about the character's social standings and financial affairs that just aren't as relevant today.

Nevertheless this really is as good a book as I remember. I certainly rate Collins a lot higher than Charles Dickens as a writer. Definitely recommended for anyone who likes a detective mystery which will keep the reader guessing until the very end.

Kudos

JT (287 KP) rated Sleep Tight (2011) in Movies

Mar 10, 2020

Sleep Tight (2011)

2011 | Drama, Horror, Thriller

6.8

(4 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Jaume Balagueró brought terror to our screens with [Rec] in 2007, a tightly filmed horror set inside the walls of an apartment block over run with flesh eating zombies.

In Sleep Tight Balagueró again goes back inside an apartment block, this time the zombies are replaced by normal residents and a concierge with a sinister secret. César (Luis Tosar) is unhappy, and has been pretty much all his life, from the opening shot we see him standing on a ledge high above the streets preparing himself to drop to the concrete below.

He goes about his daily business with meticulous routine greeting the residents with a wry smile and engaging them in conversation day to day, but deep down he loathes it.It seems that his quest is to make others just as unhappy as he is, with main target being the gorgeous Clara (Marta Etura). Initially César seems pleasant enough, he’s polite and courteous and is always making himself available to those who need his help, whether it’s from feeding dogs to fumigating apartments.

It’s when we finally see him under Clara’s bed lying in wait that you realize that Balagueró is about to deliver us a 21st century boogieman. The lengths that César will go to to put Clara in harm’s way will leave you with your jaw open. The idea being that he wants to break her, “we’ll wipe that smile off her face,” he tells his bed ridden mother in hospital.

This almost nods right away to a Hitchcockian feel to the film, think of César as the Spanish version of Norman Bates without the dress, although at one point he does toy with the idea of using a large kitchen knife. During his torment of poor Clara he infests her house with bugs, injects things into her moisturizing products and even goes so far as to sleep in the same bed, with a little help from chloroform.

It would be unfair to explain anything more as it would give too much of the story away, and when Clara’s boyfriend Marcos arrives on the scene things only get worse. During the film you almost feel sorry for César and you’d be guilty for feeling anything but admiration towards him, at his dedication the very least.

It’s a voyeuristic nightmare, more so for the audience as Clara doesn’t really have much of a clue what is going on. Even when César is caught in the apartment during one of the films more gripping scenes he has an embarrassed excuse.

Balagueró proves to critics that he can capture as much tension and suspense through conventional cameras as opposed to the point of view of a hand held camcorder, which he used so effectively throughout [Rec] and its sequel.

Sleep Tight is an edgy slow burning thriller, a different take on the horror genre that will leave you gasping after the final act.