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The More you Ignore me
Jo Brand | 2022
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
31 of 230
Book
The more you ignore me
By Jo Brand
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Celebrity obsession, coming of age and cow shit - an hilarious, poignant and darkly comic novel by the Queen of Comedy.

Alice is a young girl growing up in a dysfunctional family in Herefordshire in the 1980s. Her mother is suffering a mental illness - she is on medication, is put away in an institution, but constantly escapes - while her father, Keith, very sweetly, tries to keep everything together. His in-laws, the Wildgooses, are a bunch of reckless, lawless country bumpkins and can offer very little help or sensible advice, preferring instead to remain in the pub or to use a shotgun to solve life's little problems. The only thing that gives meaning and hope to Alice as she makes her way through childhood, school and teenage trauma is her obsession with the singer Morrissey of The Smiths. She is desperate to see The Smiths at a live gig, but somehow her family always manages to derail her plans. Gradually her mother begins to share her fascination with the rock god and his presence in their lives goes someway to healing her and repairing her relationship with her long-suffering daughter.

This was really good! It was funny and darkly so. It follows the life of a young girl dealing with the effects her mothers mental illness has on her and her father. It’s has a dark underlay that as someone who struggles mentally I can relate too. So much better than I was expecting.
  
Belfast (2021)
Belfast (2021)
2021 | Drama
10
8.3 (4 Ratings)
Movie Rating
In short, Belfast is a very human and truly wonderful piece of cinema.
It's visual style is both stunning and simple, and is brimming with plenty of striking imagery.
It's themes are rich. The setting explores the civil unrest between Protestants and Catholics in 1960s Belfast. This turbulent moment in time is a constant presence for sure, but the main bulk of the narrative deals with a working class family who are struggling with debt, and are looking to potentially relocate to England in light of the city wide violence. The very heart of the story though is found in Buddy, the young son of the family who is dealing with growing up and not wanting to leave. Buddy's actor, Jude Hill, is excellent. He embodies innocent childhood and the adventure that comes with it. He's an 11 year old actor, holding his own against screen veterans such as Ciarán Hinds and Judi Dench (both fantastic as always).
Other than Buddy, most of the heavy lifting is undertaken by the mother, played by Caitriona Balfe, who really deserves an Academy Nomination for her role here. Jamie Dornan also stars, who proved to be a pleasant surprise for me, only knowing him from the obvious, and is a welcome addition to an all round stellar cast. Throughout this, the narrative touches upon loss and loneliness, and the moments of life that manage to be bittersweet.

Belfast is a sometimes heartwarming, powerful, occasionally funny, and often melancholy tale told with a lot of love and care. Kenneth Branagh has delivered a slice of cinematic gold.
  
The Serial Killer's Sister
The Serial Killer's Sister
Alice Hunter | 2023 | Crime, Thriller
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This might be the third in the series but can definitely be read as a standalone; they are not linked and you can read them in any order.

Once again, Alice Hunter has created an intriguing story. Anna hasn't had the best start in life but she has managed to shake that off and build a good life with her husband and all is looking good until the police turn up on her doorstep to tell her that her brother is a serial killer and she may hold the key to catching him or could she be the next victim?

Written over two timelines and mostly from Anna's perspective, the short chapters make this feel fast paced and despite there not being a lot of the usual gruesome descriptions that are the norm with serial killer books, Alice Hunter uses the growing sense of tension to put you on tenterhooks and racing to find out what's going to happen. This is a great story with unexpected twists and just when you think you've got it, another one happens that turns the story on it's head.

I don't think I actually liked any of the main characters but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the book and I would recommend to those who enjoy a good serial killer book without a plethora of violence and gore and my thanks must go to Avon Books UK and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of The Serial Killer's Sister.
  
In Our Stars (The Doomed Earth #1)
In Our Stars (The Doomed Earth #1)
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
If you were to ask me to name a Jack Campbell series of books, or main character in said series, I probably would have said somebody like 'Black Jack' Geary, the main protagonist of his 'Lost Fleet' series and it's spin-offs ("Beyond the Frontier" and "Outlands", with guest appearances in "The Lost Stars" or following his ancestors in "The Genesis Fleet").

Which mad it all the more surprising, to me, that there is absolutely no mention (yet) of him or his ancestors in this, the first in the latest series by the author.

What we have, instead, is a sci-fi (natch) time travel romance action-adventure, following the 'Alloy' (Human with non-Human DNA) Genji who is somehow thrust back in time following her witnessing of the destruction of Earth, and is now on a self-imposed mission to change the circumstances leading to said destruction.

In the 'present day' (our future) of the novel, she meets semi-disgraced officer Kayl Owen of the space fleet the Earth Guard, who - unlike his superiors - is not concerned about the non-human DNA in her make-up.

Surviving numerous assassination attempts and growing closer along the way, the two characters are attempting to change the future (I was getting shades of The Terminator here, with "The future is not set ... There is no fate but what we make..."), uncertain if even doing so will lead to Genji no longer even existing.

I'll be following this series with interest.