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Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Darius the Great is Not Okay in Books
Dec 25, 2018
This novel got a lot of hype before and after its release - and it deserves it. It has great minority representation, from Persian (and bi-racial!) to Zoroastrian and Baha'i, to clinical depression and male friendship. You could also read gay and/or asexual into it, but that's not explicitly mentioned. Romantic love is just never addressed; perhaps because the story just doesn't involve it, but you could definitely read the main character as ace.
Darius is a great main character. He's funny, self-deprecating, and complex. He has clinical depression, is medicated for it, and can sometimes tell when it's the depression making him think a certain way, but sometimes he can't. He's biracial, visiting Iran and his mother's Persian family for the first time, and adjusting to Persian social norms and traditions while trying not to lose sight of his American life. His connection with his father is tenuous and fraught with miscommunication, and lot of the book is spent wrestling with that relationship. His new friend, Sohrab, is a great foil to that, as his father is completely absent from his life, having been arrested and thrown in jail prior to the start of the story, largely for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and being part of a minority religion.
There are so many small things touched on this book - suspicion at customs when flying through, bullying at school for being Persian, not speaking his family's language because his mother didn't teach it to him (and feeling cut off because of it) - all little things that a lot of immigrant children deal with.
Aside from the cultural things the book addresses, there's also the mental health aspect. Both Darius and his father have clinical depression, and there's stigma attached to having the diagnosis, and to taking pills for it. We see how their mental states affects their relationship with each other and with the rest of their family, and it's quite powerful. The author talks about having clinical depression in an afterword, and includes some resources that helped him. This is an #ownvoices novel in more ways than one, and it really shows. Excellent book.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
Darius is a great main character. He's funny, self-deprecating, and complex. He has clinical depression, is medicated for it, and can sometimes tell when it's the depression making him think a certain way, but sometimes he can't. He's biracial, visiting Iran and his mother's Persian family for the first time, and adjusting to Persian social norms and traditions while trying not to lose sight of his American life. His connection with his father is tenuous and fraught with miscommunication, and lot of the book is spent wrestling with that relationship. His new friend, Sohrab, is a great foil to that, as his father is completely absent from his life, having been arrested and thrown in jail prior to the start of the story, largely for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and being part of a minority religion.
There are so many small things touched on this book - suspicion at customs when flying through, bullying at school for being Persian, not speaking his family's language because his mother didn't teach it to him (and feeling cut off because of it) - all little things that a lot of immigrant children deal with.
Aside from the cultural things the book addresses, there's also the mental health aspect. Both Darius and his father have clinical depression, and there's stigma attached to having the diagnosis, and to taking pills for it. We see how their mental states affects their relationship with each other and with the rest of their family, and it's quite powerful. The author talks about having clinical depression in an afterword, and includes some resources that helped him. This is an #ownvoices novel in more ways than one, and it really shows. Excellent book.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
Lenard (726 KP) rated Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) in Movies
Jul 28, 2019
John Hughes Film Inside a Superhero Cartoon
Spider-Man: Far From Home is the prototypical teen film from the eighties that was not written with the keen insight of John Hughes or one of his proteges. There is the teen girl who kind of likes this boy, but they are friends and she is afraid of losing him as a friend if they start to date. She doesn't flirt with embarrassingly tossed off factoids that only attract him more. There is also a dorky guy who is in love with a girl in his school so instead of directly asking her out he comes up with an elaborate plot to win her over. But at least the plan doesn't end in rape where the sex causes the dream girl to fall head over heels in love. In addition to our lovers, there is a romantic rival who blackmails the guy so he can't attempt wooing the girl. There is a horndog best friend who tries to convince the guy to give up a monogamous relationship for casual sex with multiple partners on an European vacation. There is the bully who hates the dorky guy, but is smitten with the hero who is the dorky guy in disguise, i.e., Teen Wolf. There is a second milquetoast girl who makes occasional appearances in the film so it is not some sausage fest with one female character in search of love. Then, there are a lot of ineffectual adults in the film except for one sympathetic adult who serves as a mentor. The mentor tries to help out teen to win the love of his life and figure out his path in life. And, there is also a heartless boss the teen has to work with who rides his ass and makes him want to quit, but he needs the money. Against all odds, the dorky guy succeeds and transitions into a functional adult male of some character.
Overall, the movie is extremely satisfactory and sets up a whole new set of Marvel movies. But it leaves several huge questions due to the credit cookies, one of which is Where is Maria Hill? (not really a spoiler)
Overall, the movie is extremely satisfactory and sets up a whole new set of Marvel movies. But it leaves several huge questions due to the credit cookies, one of which is Where is Maria Hill? (not really a spoiler)
Terry Whitaker (120 KP) rated Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019) in Movies
Nov 25, 2019 (Updated Nov 25, 2019)
Lets get one thing out of the way. Fast and Furious started off semi serious. Then it got a little boring. Then Fast 5 went to Brazil and it got really good, but still semi serious. Then 6 was ok and 7 was nostalgic and touching. 8 was, a bit forgettable and a lot silly. This is not Fast and Furious. Its Fast and Furious Presents. It's not semi serious. It's not serious at all. Now that's cleared up, heres what i think.
The kids use words for the different use of the word that they use. Keeping up? Sick, doesn't actually mean you are going to actually be sick. If something is sick, it can actually mean its crazily awesome. Yeah, I know, kids huh?! Ridiculous doesn't mean it's so stupidly impossible, it can also mean it's awesomely good fun. I know, go figure?!
However, 'Ridiculous' is a perfect word for this film, both meanings of it in equal measure. It's so ridiculous, its ridiculous and all the better for being so!
Statham and Johnson have banter that wouldn't be out of place in a Dad Joke competition. They're so bad, they're bad!
The action and stunts are over the top and outrageous but you enjoy every thread of outrageousness. There is a bit of a story in amongst it all. But this is all about the action, not the story...and you don't really care. You want story, then maybe the Jason Bourne films will be up your street (and bloody good movies they are too!)
Hobbs and Shaw are what Saturday evenings are made for. Complete nonsense for your ears and eyes. Your senses will love you for it as your brain takes the night off to relax. It's full on Alpha- Male- Ego childish nonsense. The lads will lap it up. As may the ladies....ok, they might not but they will put up with it because they love you.
This is everything that you can't believe but everything you want to watch.
You want sensible? Sense and Sensibility is over there somewhere. You want to enjoy a film, then watch this. You deserve it.
The kids use words for the different use of the word that they use. Keeping up? Sick, doesn't actually mean you are going to actually be sick. If something is sick, it can actually mean its crazily awesome. Yeah, I know, kids huh?! Ridiculous doesn't mean it's so stupidly impossible, it can also mean it's awesomely good fun. I know, go figure?!
However, 'Ridiculous' is a perfect word for this film, both meanings of it in equal measure. It's so ridiculous, its ridiculous and all the better for being so!
Statham and Johnson have banter that wouldn't be out of place in a Dad Joke competition. They're so bad, they're bad!
The action and stunts are over the top and outrageous but you enjoy every thread of outrageousness. There is a bit of a story in amongst it all. But this is all about the action, not the story...and you don't really care. You want story, then maybe the Jason Bourne films will be up your street (and bloody good movies they are too!)
Hobbs and Shaw are what Saturday evenings are made for. Complete nonsense for your ears and eyes. Your senses will love you for it as your brain takes the night off to relax. It's full on Alpha- Male- Ego childish nonsense. The lads will lap it up. As may the ladies....ok, they might not but they will put up with it because they love you.
This is everything that you can't believe but everything you want to watch.
You want sensible? Sense and Sensibility is over there somewhere. You want to enjoy a film, then watch this. You deserve it.
ClareR (5885 KP) rated Frankissstein in Books
Aug 6, 2019
A novel with a lot to think about!
I feel a sense of satisfaction having finished this book. I loved it, and I can really see why it has made the Booker Prize longlist (2019).
It is set in two different timelines. The first begins in 1816 with Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley (actually, before they were married), Lord Byron, Mary’s stepsister and Byron’s lover, Claire Clairmont and Polidori, Byron’s doctor. During a particularly wet two weeks on Lake Geneva, Byron sets them all the task of writing a horror story. And so Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is born.
In the modern day, we follow Ry Shelley, a transgender doctor, Victor Stein (a ‘mad’ scientist), Ron Lord (a very successful sexbot producer), Clare (a staunch Christian, who seems to be working undercover in the most unlikely places!) and Polly Dory (a journalist for Vanity Fair. Do you see what she did here? It took me a couple of ‘chapters’, sadly! This is the Frankenstein of the modern age. Where Mary Shelley was terrified at the idea of creating a living man from parts of the dead, Victor Stein in the present day wants to preserve the brains and thoughts of the dead - and it’s equally terrifying.
Mary Shelley and Ry Shelley are very similar (the same, but in different times?) characters, even though they are in two very different times. Mary is at the mercy of her female body - she falls pregnant and loses two babies before she has the third who survives. Ry is trying to change his body from female to male so that he has control over it. But society has very fixed ideas about these characters in both timelines.
It’s a very current book with mention of Brexit and Trump, but I think it will hold up well in the future because it is so well written, and it has a lot to say about society and gender.
I thoroughly enjoyed it - and now I’m going to go and find more books in Jeanette Wintersons back catalogue!
Many thanks to Penguin Random House/ Jonathan Cape and NetGalley for a copy of this book (which I actually went and bought as well - it needs to be sat on my bookshelf!)
It is set in two different timelines. The first begins in 1816 with Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley (actually, before they were married), Lord Byron, Mary’s stepsister and Byron’s lover, Claire Clairmont and Polidori, Byron’s doctor. During a particularly wet two weeks on Lake Geneva, Byron sets them all the task of writing a horror story. And so Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is born.
In the modern day, we follow Ry Shelley, a transgender doctor, Victor Stein (a ‘mad’ scientist), Ron Lord (a very successful sexbot producer), Clare (a staunch Christian, who seems to be working undercover in the most unlikely places!) and Polly Dory (a journalist for Vanity Fair. Do you see what she did here? It took me a couple of ‘chapters’, sadly! This is the Frankenstein of the modern age. Where Mary Shelley was terrified at the idea of creating a living man from parts of the dead, Victor Stein in the present day wants to preserve the brains and thoughts of the dead - and it’s equally terrifying.
Mary Shelley and Ry Shelley are very similar (the same, but in different times?) characters, even though they are in two very different times. Mary is at the mercy of her female body - she falls pregnant and loses two babies before she has the third who survives. Ry is trying to change his body from female to male so that he has control over it. But society has very fixed ideas about these characters in both timelines.
It’s a very current book with mention of Brexit and Trump, but I think it will hold up well in the future because it is so well written, and it has a lot to say about society and gender.
I thoroughly enjoyed it - and now I’m going to go and find more books in Jeanette Wintersons back catalogue!
Many thanks to Penguin Random House/ Jonathan Cape and NetGalley for a copy of this book (which I actually went and bought as well - it needs to be sat on my bookshelf!)
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