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ClareR (5779 KP) rated Gun Island in Books

May 21, 2021

Gun Island

Amitav Ghosh | 2019 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry

8.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Gun Island is a beautifully written story about a rare book dealer Deen Datta, and how his trip to a small island in the Sunderbans sets in motion a series of events that affect him deeply, opening his eyes to the world around him - a world far beyond his own experience. His journey takes in history, folklore, magic, climate change and ecological disasters. We see how climate change has an effect not just on animals, but also on people - causing the refugee crisis and the consequent reaction of Europe - especially those countries who feel they’re most at risk of being overwhelmed by the flood of refugees.

Deen Datta certainly gets around on his journey. From New York where he lives, to the Sunderbans in India, then onto a California on fire and a more flooded than usual Venice. This could have been a book that preached about the perils of climate change, but it didn’t. It did lay the stark reality out for the reader, but this was just as much a part of the story as the relationships Deen has with the people he meets, and his friends. There is a real feeling that Deen doesn’t have a firm identity: he’s detached from his Bengali roots, and he doesn’t fit in to New York either. But I think he does feel a sense of belonging by the end of the book, with the help of his friends. Cinta, a Venetian, is an old friend, and someone who always seems to push him into doing what’s good for him. Then there are his Indian friends, Piya and Tipu who help him to learn new things about himself and the world he lives in.

I loved this book. It ticked a lot of boxes on my favourite themes list: the environment, India, history, folklore, the search for identity. It’s such a thought provoking, magical novel.

Kudos

Suswatibasu (1702 KP) rated Pay the Ghost (2015) in Movies

Nov 4, 2017 (Updated Nov 4, 2017)

Pay the Ghost (2015)

2015 | Mystery

3.5

(2 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Another terrible Nicholas Cage horror

I was bored so I decided to watch this film knowing that it has terrible ratings. And I can definitely see why.

It surrounds Cage's missing child who disappeared on Halloween. There emerges a rather unclear pattern of missing children and bizarre otherworldly messages. Given that it is New York, it's difficult to see how they established a sequence of missing children as there were far more than just three children going missing on this day every year. And somehow Celtic folklore gets drafted in, where a mother, who was burned at the stake with her three children, seems to be the one taking these kids in revenge.

The end battle is almost comedic, as Cage gets strangled by a burnt witch while hovering in the sky and rotating simultaneously. It's pretty ridiculous - there's nothing that threads the story together, going from all out supernatural to thriller back to supernatural. A flakey story no doubt.

Kudos

Suswatibasu (1702 KP) rated The Hazel Wood in Books

Mar 2, 2018

The Hazel Wood

Melissa Albert | 2017 | Mystery, Paranormal, Science Fiction/Fantasy

7.4

(33 Ratings)

Book Rating

A little too over the top

I think I completely lost the plot trying to follow this fairytale within a fairytale. A modern day version of a Brothers Grimm-style folklore, the story follows Alice, who is trying to find her missing mother, and discovers that all is not what it seems.

The main thrust of the novel asks whether Alice is a character in a tale herself? And if she can escape her fate by running away from her story. And while I can appreciate the author's creativity, there's very little character development and there appears to be a fair few loose ends. The prose is heavy in metaphors to the point that the first half seemed far too long.

While many have described the book as a dark and creepy fantasy, I think it may have been a little overhyped - it's more of a weird version of Alice in Wonderland. Interesting, but not for me.