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ClareR (6134 KP) rated Seascraper in Books

Apr 18, 2026  
Seascraper
Seascraper
Benjamin Wood | 2025 | Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I absolutely loved this book, and I still can’t understand why it didn’t make the shortlist of the Booker Prize (2025).

Thomas Flett is a shanker: he takes a horse and cart to the beach at low tide and scrapes across the shore for shrimp that he sells to a local merchant for cash. It’s a hard life, and the quality of the shrimp deteriorates as the pollution affects them.

Thomas is the result of his mothers relationship at just 15 with a school teacher. He never knows this man, as he joined up and was then killed in the war to escape the disgrace of what he’d done. He lives with her in his dead grandfathers house, and his mother suffers for having kept him. She remains unmarried still, and has had few opportunities in her life - much like Thomas. Life as a shanker is hard, repetitive and dangerous. So when a Hollywood film maker turns up on their doorstep offering a lot of money for Thomas’ knowledge of the seashore and tides, Thomas is more than happy to help him.

Seascraper covers themes of identity, social class, illusion vs reality and mental health - so much in just 176 pages. It’s no wonder that Thomas is interested by the offer of the film maker: he wants to sing at his local pubs folk nights, but he has to hide his guitar and his talent from his mother. She sees spending any money or time on anything other than work a waste of money. His life is relentlessly dull and hard.

Seascraper has stayed with me long after I read it, and I will be looking for the authors other books to read.
  
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Neon's Nerd Nexus (360 KP) rated The Addams Family (2019) in Movies

Nov 1, 2019 (Updated Nov 1, 2019)  
The Addams Family (2019)
The Addams Family (2019)
2019 | Animation, Comedy, Family
6
6.7 (35 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Everyone knows pink is a gateway colour
addams family attempts to bring the classic family into modern day and while not a bad little film it doesnt do nearly enough to make them as memorable for a new generation of kids/teens as it did for people my age growing up. I must say I quite admire this film for trying to differentiate its self from the constant barrage of animated features weve had this year. Its colour pallet is mostly drab, cold and dark colours which I enjoyed and fit well with the gothic/spooky vibe of the film. Theres also a lot of cool halloween things to look at in the scenes that are set inside the familys house and humor at times can be incredibly gross or darkly adult too which really made me giggle (most of which children are thankfuly to young to understand). Animation while not overly detailed was nice to look at also be it the warts on an old hags nose, spiders crawling the walls or the way the bottom of Morticias dress squirms around the floor as she walks are just some of the neat little attentions to detail making this world a little more strange and alive. Plot and story wise its a little dull and while I found some clever ideas implemented here they really are not executed very interestingly. I did find some of the ideas fun however like the way the movie pokes fun at current trends eg all the girls at the school wednesday goes to have those hidious duck lips, all look identical to one another and obsess over instagram. Everyone in the town also has odd habbits of thier own and the seemingly nicest person also has a much darker side to her, not to mention the entire town is filled with hatred for anything diffrent, easily influenced by social media, full of fake happiness and coated in hidiously garish colour choices which makes you question who the 'ugly' and 'strange' ones really are here. Subtle themes of child abuse, belonging, acceptance, being yourself, death, honour, pressure, loneliness as well as other heavy subjects strangely fit well here making the film a little darker than I expected too. Sadly theres not much here for kids who will undoubtedly be bored quick because big spectacle set pieces are few and far between/not very exciting either and what I found enjoyable ie the subbtle violence, gross adult humour, adult themes and gothic visuals wont likely intrest them either. Oscar isaac and Charlize theron voice work for Morticia and Gomez I found very enjoyable and the score at times really stood out to me a lot at times creating a nice eerie atmosphere. Not nearly as bad as people make out Adams Family may be a tad forgettable, have an extreamly rushed third act, story arcs that go nowhere its creepy, kooky, spooky, and enjoyable enough to warrent seeing at the cinema for sure.