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Such a Fun Age
Such a Fun Age
Kiley Reid | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry
9
7.2 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
Emira Tucker is a somewhat aimless twenty-five-year-old. While all her other friends have steady jobs, she's still on her parents' health insurance. Her main gig is working as a babysitter for Alix Chamberlain and her two young daughters. When Alix asks Emira to take two-year-old Briar to the grocery store one night, a security guard confronts Emira, accusing the black woman of kidnapping the young toddler. A group of shoppers gathers, someone films the incident, and Emira is angry and embarrassed. Alix feels like she has to make the incident right. Through the video, someone from Alix's past turns up, propelling Alix and Emira on a crazy collision course that will make them question each other and everything they know.

This was a fascinating book that was completely easy-to-read. Reid is a great writer, and I flew through this novel. It's a little difficult to review, but it's an incredibly thought-provoking book that focuses on so much: relationships, racial dynamics, social class, parenting, and more.

Reid's characters come to life before your eyes. I fell quickly for Emira, who seems to be floundering in her life. Everyone claims to know what is best for Emira, but once we get to know her, I found her to be an interesting character, who actually knows much more than anyone gives her credit for. Her love for Briar comes across loud and clear, too. Reid also does such a good job capturing Briar, an unique kid, and it's easy to see why Emira loves her so much.

This book is deep, even if the story flies by quickly. There's so much to unpack, especially with Alix, who thinks she so progressive, yet, well, isn't. Her obsession with Emira is completely baffling and once the second character comes in, post grocery store incident, we are constantly thrown back between Alix and them. Who do we trust? Why are these two vying for Emira? What I loved about this novel is that usually, one character ultimately proves to be good and another evil. That may not necessarily be the case here. As mentioned, there's so much nuance in Reid's writing.

I flew through this book, and I found myself completely caught up in Emira, Alix, and even Briar's world. I may not have entirely grasped everything I should have, but I found it moving, timely, and beautifully written. Honestly, I would have loved to see more of Emira's life (and Briar's). This is a different sort of novel, but I found it worth a read. Reid is a wonderful writer, and I'm excited to see what she comes up with next. 4.5 stars
  
    Otogi: Spirit Agents

    Otogi: Spirit Agents

    Games, Entertainment and Stickers

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

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    "Help wanted! Calling everyone with spirit essence! Become a spirit agent today!" Um… I just have...

Maneater
Maneater
2019 | Action/Adventure, Role-Playing
Playing as a shark (4 more)
Nice open world
Funny characters
Location collection quest
Story
Bugs (3 more)
Lack of targeting
Bit repetitive
Similar to other open world RPG titles
A game with Bite
Let me start by saying any game where you play as a "monster/ animal" against evil people is fun. This game is really fun and addictive.

The controls are simple enough and work, never felt I had no control over my shark. Graphics are not AAA for this generation and sometimes takes few seconds to render the Shark or some environment.

Gameplay by far is what I love about this game even when it is a bit repetitive. In fairness Sharks can only do so much. Nothing more fun than swimming around eating other predators and humans.

Game starts you of as a "pup" meaning you need to avoid alligators and eat as much as possible to level up to a "teen". Even then alligators will kill you 90% of the time. Once you get to around level 10 you grow to an "adult" then you can take it to the gators and pretty much anything in your first few areas.

Yes this game is open world, however it uses a trope seen in Witcher 3 and Assassin's Creed. Where by the story keeps you in areas to allow you enjoy the increase in difficulty. Letting you level up and evolve your shark before heading out into the ocean.

The games story is fun, full of over the top characters, like a throw back to GTA3 etc. Only just getting started. But the main Villain Scaly Pete is fair flushed out. Based on a sort of Ahab type character seeking revenge against sharks.

Gameplay is a mix of kill so many humans/prey, kill this predator/ human, collection quests and starting trouble to kill hunters which increases you infamy rating.

The ideas are not original, but they work really well. Knowing when to pick a fight with a rival predator is key. This is based on their and your level. As seen in AC Origns/ Odyssey and Witcher 3. Evolving reminds me of upgrading Max's car in Mad Max and feels fun. The story has elements of GTA or Saints Row with its OTT characters.

Sadly it can be a bit repetitive and sometimes feels bit of a slog having to swim somewhere to kill so many of something. But sometimes this is good as it is easy to drop in and out off. If you like Jaws, Deep Blue Sea, The Meg and any SyFy B Movie with killer sharks. Then this is the game for you.

It's a good game kept from greatest by few bugs and the limitations of being a Shark.
  
Scorched (Sapphire City, #1)
Scorched (Sapphire City, #1)
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I received this ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The cover drew me in. Isn’t it a thing of beauty?

When I requested this I assumed it would be more paranormal than it was. In fact it was more fantasy than anything. People who go around using their powers–known as the Augmented–to stop evil, dressed up in disguise. Superheroes?

I was quickly drawn into the story within the first chapter when we see Verity struggle to remember who she is and that she isn’t a bad person after being tortured by her arch nemesis’ minions in a mental asylum and her escape from there. She runs to a safe house and bumps into her brother who tells her she’s been MIA for nine months.

Can I just stop there for a minute and mention the Fortune siblings’ names? The eldest is Equity, then Adonis, then there is Verity and baby brother Chance. I love their names! If they don’t scream Superhero, I don’t know what does :D

Anyway, back to the story. On Verity’s return to her family, things don’t go smoothly and she realises things don’t add up. Is there a conspiracy in the works?

Throughout the story we see flashbacks of the night that Verity was captured and it is all very intriguing. At just over half way through I had my suspicions of what they would end up showing and I was right in my assumption about what some of it would show. I’m not going into detail as it would totally ruin in for you.

We meet a lot of other Augmented people: Iceclaw, Weasel, Glimmer. Some are good and some not so much. I liked the description of each and how they earned their names. They were thought out and I could picture them easily.

I grew to really like Glimmer, he seemed like a really nice guy. Verity, on the other hand, I couldn’t decide about. She seemed to like pushing people away and was full of self-loathing a lot of the time, unable to justify some of the things she’d done.

To start with I didn’t mind the lack of romance, as I was so caught up in the drama surrounding Verity, but the more I read the book the more I missed it. There was a bit; some kisses exchanged and nice words but nothing like the amount I like to read in books and that’s reflected in my rating.

It was full of action and intrigue. I liked the superhero vs. bad guys aspect. If you like the sound of it, then I’d suggest you go grab a copy.
  
Re-Animator (1985)
Re-Animator (1985)
1985 | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Jeffrey Combs (2 more)
Bruce Abbott
Stuart Gordan
Mad Man
Re-Animator- is frankenstien. But alot more gorer. So much gory, so much viloence, so much horror. Its different than frankenstein, but has a lot in common.

The plot: Loosely based on H P Lovecraft's classic horror tale, Herbert West is a young scientist who has a good head on his shoulders and another on the lab table in front of him.

Originally devised by Gordon as a theatrical stage production and later a half-hour television pilot, the television script was revised to become a feature film.

The film originally received an X rating, and was later edited to obtain an R rating for video rental stores.

The idea to make Re-Animator came from a discussion Stuart Gordon had with friends one night about vampire films. He felt that there were too many Dracula films and expressed a desire to see a Frankenstein film. Someone asked if he had read "Herbert West–Reanimator" by H. P. Lovecraft.

Originally, Gordon was going to adapt Lovecraft's story for the stage, but eventually decided along with writers Dennis Paoli and William Norris to make it as a half-hour television pilot. The story was set around the turn of the century, and they soon realized that it would be too expensive to recreate. They updated it to the present day in Chicago with the intention of using actors from the Organic Theater company. They were told that the half hour format was not salable and so they made it an hour, writing 13 episodes. Special effects technician Bob Greenberg, who had worked on John Carpenter's Dark Star, repeatedly told Gordon that the only market for horror was in feature films, and introduced him to producer Brian Yuzna. Gordon showed Yuzna the script for the pilot and the 12 additional episodes.

Yuzna described the film as having the "sort of shock sensibility of an Evil Dead with the production values of, hopefully, The Howling."

Naulin said that Re-Animator was the bloodiest film he had ever worked on. In the past, he had never used more than two gallons of blood on a film; on Re-Animator, he used 24 gallons.

The biggest makeup challenge in the film was the headless Dr. Hill zombie. Tony Doublin designed the mechanical effects and was faced with the problem of proportion once the 9–10 inches of the head were removed from the body. Each scene forced him to use a different technique. For example, one technique involved building an upper torso that actor David Gale could bend over and stick his head through so that it appeared to be the one that the walking corpse was carrying around.

Its excellent gory film