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Everless
Everless
Sara Holland | 2017 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
8
7.8 (17 Ratings)
Book Rating
The estate of Everless is formidible in Sempera. For Jules it is a symbol of what life was. Both she and her father had been cast out several years before and now live in squalor in the village of Compton, struggling to survive. In Sempera however there is a way to make money, it is terrible and dangerous and has brought her father close to death - blood iron. Time distilled through bloodletting. An hour, day or even a year can be taken but clearly with a toll for those who rely on it to as a means to survive on only the most basic of means. When an opportunity arises to gain work on the Everless estate, Jules sees an opportunity to lift her and her father out of debt, as long as she can remain unnoticed by the Gerling children, her childhood playmates. However, the work being offered is preparing the estate for the upcoming wedding of her childhood beau Roan and the Queen of Sempera's Ward, Ina; will Jules be able to stay away from her past?

As Jules becomes more embroiled in the wedding preparations she finds herself forging an unlikely friendship with Ina and stumbling down a path that reveals more about her past than she ever could have imagined and also a danger which shakes her to the very core.

Everless for me was a really enjoyable read. When I read the first chapter, I had to eye roll massively as we start out with Jules, the young female protagonist out as a huntress in the forest, searching for food for survival, this was thankfully one of only a few tropes and it quickly found it's own feet. Despite the shaky start for me, Jules is an immensely likeable character. She feels horribly wronged by the Gerlings and with good reason, she saved Roan's life, but in one of Everless's best kept secrets she was simply blamed for the burning down of her fathers forge on the estate and they had to flee. Her father, once highly skilled, has now suffered so greatly by the giving of time through blood iron that he hangs on by barely a thread. She shows immense bravery by wanting to attend the blood letters herself to pay the rent debt, but like so many things in the story her best intentions are always taken out of her hands. Only just 17 and having been treated so badly in the past, she is incredibly trusting, despite outwardly projecting otherwise. I was surprised how easily she was able to forge friendships, however there is much to be said for solidarity.

Her inquisitiveness far outweighs her common sense though and despite many warnings she continues to follow a path of investigating her heritage born out by a strange ability to slow the passing of time when she is emotionally heightened. The twists and revelations in relation to this are fantastic, there was so much I didn't see coming and I really enjoyed the excursions out of the Everless Estate (perhaps a lovely map wouldn't go amiss in book 2) which really helped prevent the story becoming stagnant in a single setting.

Everless was a huge page turner for me, I really love this kind of traditional fantasy and although there were a few points that didn't really work for me (like why would she throw away a year blood iron into the lake a breath after saying she would search through the mud if she has lost one) for the majority I found the story to be utterly engaging with a huge amount of originality. I am looking forward to hopefully having some aspects of the story explored further in book 2 as the true story of Jules's heritage for me was captivating
  
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Cat Danger Allan (29 KP) rated The Princess Bride in Books

Jan 27, 2020 (Updated Jan 27, 2020)  
The Princess Bride
The Princess Bride
William Goldman | 1973 | Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
10
8.6 (52 Ratings)
Book Rating
Top notch story telling (0 more)
Nothing. Nothing in this book could ever be bad! (0 more)
It is still my favourite book in all of the world. And more then ever, I wish I had written it
Contains spoilers, click to show
I watched the movie and loved how closely it related to the fairy tale in the book. We have Wesley and Buttercup who fall in love. However, when Wesley goes to make his fortune his ship is taken by the dreaded pirate Rogers, who never leaves a man alive. So Buttercup in her depression agrees to marry Prince Humperdink. One day Buttercup is kidnapped by a swordsman, a giant and the brains of the group. And so it goes.

This fairy tale has everything you could wish for. True love, a giant, a deadly forest, sword fighting, magic, pirates. You name it, its probably in there.

But what makes this writer so incredible. Is the abridgement section. Goldman writes this as if he's talking about his childhood story, alas this is all a fairytale too. The introduction where he talks about getting a copy of this book for his child's birthday like his father had done for him is one big hoax. He talks about removing all the sections and chapters from the book that never existed. He is just a great writer

The reunion scene he leaves an address to his publishers and promotes people to write in and ask for a copy of the scene. But this writer is so incredible, he replies back to these messages with a new fake story. It is all about how he is getting sued by Florin and cannot release the scene. If you would like to read the response I found a copy on twitter:

https://twitter.com/LettersOfNote/status/1063443712666161154?s=09

I just found that the storytelling was just so perfect, there was nothing you could not enjoy.
  
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Fighting with My Family (2019)
Fighting with My Family (2019)
2019 | Biography, Comedy, Drama
It's been many years since I last watched any wrestling, and I certainly haven't seen anything of the WWE Divas, or more specifically Paige - the wrestling name of the young British girl whose story is featured in Fighting With My Family. I first got into WWE wrestling, or WWF as it was known back then, sometime during 1986 - just in time for Wrestlemania 3 and the classic main event of Hulk Hogan Vs André the Giant in front of a crowd of over 93,000. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before, and I was hooked. Following that, I used to have to wake up my younger brothers at around midnight whenever there was a major wrestling event on TV, so that we would be able to watch it live from the US. And then eventually, in 1992, they brought Summerslam to Wembley Stadium, and we were able to finally attend an event a little bit closer to home.

Fighting With My Family begins with a young Paige, real name Saraya-Jade, enjoying the WWF wrestling on TV with brother Zak and trying out some of the moves and holds on each other, similar to how I managed to perfect the figure four leglock on my younger brother.... But, that's where the similarities end as Saraya-Jade and Zak are positively encouraged by their parents to beat the crap out of each other, whereas I would probably have been grounded for making my brother cry or something. Their parents, Patrick ‘Rowdy Ricky Knight’ and Julia ‘Sweet Saraya’ are former wrestlers themselves who now run World Association of Wrestling (WAW), where grown up Saraya-Jade (Florence Pugh) and Zak (Jack Lowden) now fight each other for money in regular evening shows. Each day they head out in their WAW van to pick up a bunch of local kids, who would otherwise be headed down a path of criminality, and head to the gym to train them in the ring. Elder brother Roy was also a wrestler, but is currently in prison. It's a simple, close-knit working class family - all looking out for each other, highly passionate about wrestling and each having (or had at one point) a dream to one day make it big in the WWE.

One day that dream has a chance of becoming reality when tryouts for the WWE come to The O2 in London and Zak and Raya are selected to come along. WWE Coach Hutch (Vince Vaughn) puts them through their paces but only Raya is selected to move onto the next stage in Florida. While she heads out to continue her dream, a rejected Zak resigns himself to the fact that he's only ever going to be a small time wrestler. Raya becomes Paige and sets about trying to prove herself as the ordinary Brit girl in among all the dancers, models and cheerleaders who are also with her at boot camp. She's resentful of the others, as they were 'only selected for their tits and ass' and are without any kind of wrestling background. She's lonely, angry and lacking the self confidence she needs to really make it happen. Meanwhile, Zak is struggling with missing out on heading to Florida - disinterested in his new born baby, undertaking grueling matches in front of small crowds, and picking fights in bars just for the hell of it.

Fighting With My Family boasts some real laugh out loud moments, but there is also a lot of relatable family drama and emotion. The cast are all incredible, particularly Florence Pugh as Raya/Paige. Vince Vaughn is a lot of fun as the coach and The Rock also brings a lot of comedy to the few scenes he's in. I absolutely loved everything about this movie and couldn't really fault it at all. Despite knowing beforehand the outcome for Paige, the whole movie just has you wondering throughout if she's going to make it or if she's going to quit, which makes the ending all the more enjoyable. And when you see clips during the credits of her real life family, you appreciate just how spot on some of the casting and acting is too!