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April Rose Mossow (93 KP) rated Sadie in Books

May 20, 2019  
Sadie
Sadie
Courtney Summers | 2018 | Young Adult (YA)
8
8.5 (11 Ratings)
Book Rating
When Sadie’s sister Maddie is found dead, it sets off a series of events: A road trip, uncovering secrets, but also, asking more questions than it answers. I really enjoyed this book, slowly the adrenaline just kicks you into gear and you’re rushing through the book to finish. It’s a murder-mystery, tangled with lies, family dysfunction, and vengeance. Told between podcasts and the perspective of its main character, it’s a different style of writing, written especially for this generation’s teens. You feel so deeply for Sadie, and the people she meets along the way. The story is fast-paced and keeps you thoroughly engaged. (I didn’t want to put it down!) Sadie is a well written, real character you root for through the entirety of the book. It’s such a sad chain of events, you don’t really know what to expect, but you hope against all hope that Sadie makes it out alive.
  
Rim of the World (2019)
Rim of the World (2019)
2019 | Action, Adventure, Comedy
....I'm thinking....that 1 funny camp counsellor (0 more)
Cheesy script & story, generic monster and awful TV movie ending. (0 more)
Stranger things this aint
Stranger Things is great and its brought a resurgence of the 80s style kids adventure films. Unfortunately for every Stranger Things & Scouts Guide to the apocalypse theres also one of these disasters...starts abruptly in space where the space station is attacked by a massive spaceship. Then it starts to introduce the stereotypical kids who all end up going to the same summer camp just as aliens attack Earth. The script is shoddy and the acting is pretty poor. It feels like a poor after school daytime TV movie - the fate of the Earth lies in these 4 kids hands blah blah. The aliens are pretty generic and unscary and it all leads to a pointless climax and ridiculous credits scenes. I was hoping for some mindless fun - i got half!!!
  
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Kayla (19 KP) rated If I'd Known in Books

Jun 4, 2018 (Updated Jun 4, 2018)  
If I'd Known
If I'd Known
Rebecca Donovan | 2017 | Young Adult (YA)
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Lackluster
I loved the Breathing Series. I've read them several times each and keep going back to them because I love Rebecca's story weaving and character development. This novella has neither of those.

If your looking for a rain cloud main character you may enjoy it. She's doom and gloom from beginning to end and it's kind of exhausting.

This novella (I keep calling it that because the length of this can't even qualify as a book) takes place during one single day. Just one. That one day is packed with so much drama, crazy happenings, and arguing that it leaves your head spinning.

You know nothing about any of the characters at the end of this, aside from that they're all incredibly flawed. You'd think you'd learn more about the main character at least, but we've been left with only her bitchy attitude and that she never lies.

As much as I love Rebecca's previous books, I just can't recommend this one.
  
HS
Hospital Sketches
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
It was a good thing to have read but it strongly underscored a painfully ignorant romanticized view of war that Americans are so fond of. She did not see children shot on the road in cold blood, she did not see officers give their men permission to rape any woman who disrespected them. She did not see the pow camps, did not see grandmothers and babies dead of exposure in the snow. She did not see the factory worker women (largely woc) kidnapped, raped over many days, and then abandoned hundreds of miles from home with nothing. There were no “white saviors” here or anywhere. War is not Romantic. Even the “Just Cause” lies on a bed of sending boys with little (if any) stake in the disagreement to maim and kill and torture other boys like themselves because old men can’t be bothered to work out their disputes at a table and instead delight in laying waste to their Nation’s youth.
  
First entry in George MacDonald Frase's Flashman series, in which he (re)introduces us to Harry Flashman: a totally reprehensible anti-hero, who (through the entire series) cheats, lies and connives his way through Victorian society and the great events of the era: in this case, the disastrous retreat from Kabul.

By all accounts, the history of the books are actually pretty accurate: most of the people Flashman meets and interacts with were real personages of note, and the novels contain several footnotes providing yet more historical info on the events described. While it is taken to extremes, I think it's also fairly safe to say that the character of Flashman and the way he behaves probably isn't really that far away from the way some members of society did ...

(oh, and trivia note: MacDonald Fraser wrote the screenplays for 1973s "The Three Musketeers" and it's sequel "The Four Musketeers" as well as the James Bond film "Octopussy", amongst others)
  
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ClareR (6054 KP) rated Bitter Orange in Books

Dec 21, 2018  
Bitter Orange
Bitter Orange
Claire Fuller | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, Mystery
10
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
A Fantastic Book!
Frances Jellico lies dying in a hospital bed in the present day. She has flash backs to 1969 when she was asked to go to a large, dilapidated country house to assess the gardens for its new owner. She leaves London just after her mother dies - a mother who she had taken care of on her own for a long time. Already there when she arrives are Cara and Peter. He is an antiques expert, and Cara is his wife.
There is such a lot going on in this book: Cara and Peter have a strained relationship, Cara is clearly unwell; the vicar in the local church is not happy in his work, and Frances seems completely incapable of understanding relationships - her upbringing seems to have been very sheltered.
This is such a good story. I enjoyed uncovering the layers and the last few chapters were stunning and completely unexpected.
  
Friday the 13th (2009)
Friday the 13th (2009)
2009 | Horror
7
6.6 (22 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Sleepaway Camp 2009
Since its Friday the 13th today, im going to review the remake/reboot of Friday the 13th film. The one that was actually pretty good. The one that was the 12th one. This one continued teenagers being teenagers. The one with Jason as the villian.

The Plot: Against the advice of locals and police, Clay (Jared Padalecki) scours the eerie woods surrounding Crystal Lake for his missing sister. But the rotting cabins of an abandoned summer camp are not the only things he finds. Hockey-masked killer Jason Voorhees lies in wait for a chance to use his razor-sharp machete on Clay and the group of college students who have come to the forest to party.

platinum dunes produce this one, and i actually like their horror remakes, and i think their really underrated.

This one continues to be scary, horrorfying, terrorfying and overall a good friday the 13th film.