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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated The Swap in Books

Jun 25, 2020  
The Swap
The Swap
Robyn Harding | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry, Thriller
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Low Morrison grows up on an isolated island, known for its free-loving ways. Her parents take this to the next level, living a polyamorous life that leaves Low embarrassed, ashamed, and a social outcast. When she spots the beautiful Freya at her school, she's enthralled. She sees Freya hanging up signs for a pottery class and knows she must join. She's Freya's only student and quickly becomes besotted with her teacher. Freya has no problem sharing all of her secrets and desires with her young apprentice. That's until Freya meets Jamie, who owns a local shop in town. The two become quick friends, leaving Low feeling left out and an outcast once again. One night Freya and her husband Max invite Jamie and her husband Brian over for dinner; they have no idea a jealous Low is lurking in the shadows. The foursome partake in drugs and a crazy night occurs, changing their lives forever. It also gives Low a chance to hold something over their heads.

This was a slightly insane and improbable thriller that I sped through in an entire day. It was fast-paced and nearly impossible to put down, as you just knew the characters were hurtling toward disaster. It's filled with a variety of fairly unsympathetic characters, though I felt for Low, unwanted in her own busy family and toyed with by Freya, who cares only for herself.


"I'd had to share all my life. I was done with it."


The story is told from Low's perspective, along with Brian, Jamie, and Max. We never hear directly from Freya, whom all of these characters seem to hold on a pedestal. Why exactly, we can never be sure, as she seems self-centered and cruel, playing with and torturing each of them to get exactly what she wants.

I found this to be a spellbinding read--it pulls you in as only Harding can do. Low's obsession, Freya's narcissism, Jamie's naivete. We can sense it all combining into something propulsive and horrible.

Overall, while I didn't love this one quite as much as The Arrangement, Harding's previous novel, I still enjoyed it. It's a fast-paced and creepy read, plus it's different and fun. 4 stars.
  
Pretty Little Wife
Pretty Little Wife
Darby Kane | 2021
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Slow to start, but ultimately an intriguing and unique thriller

Lila Ridgefield's husband is missing. A beloved high school teacher, his boss, colleagues, and brother cannot believe that Aaron Payne would just disappear. He's certainly not the type to simply not show up for work one day. As for his wife, Lila is known more for her cold and quiet demeanor (and, let's be honest, her beauty). She's also pretty confused, because the last time she saw Aaron, she was rather convinced she was looking at his dead body. So where's his car she left behind--and the body? Investigator Ginny Davis is called to look into Aaron's disappearance. At first it seems unrelated to that of a missing local student. But the more Ginny digs, the more she starts to wonder. And the more Lila digs, the more she fears her husband is still alive.

"Despite all her careful planning, he was gone. She had to find Aaron before he found her."

Well, this was quite a book. The beginning was a bit slow for me--it took too long to get to the exciting part, and it was repetitive. It felt like bits and pieces were rehashed over and over. I wanted to shake Lila and tell her to get on with it!

But, once everything gets moving, this is quite an exciting thriller. The last fourth of the story especially is incredibly electrifying and, for the most part, keeps you guessing. (I had a decent idea about whodunnit, but it didn't diminish my enjoyment at all.) I loved the concept of a mystery where the woman kills her husband, yet the main story is, surprise: he disappears anyway. The dynamic between cunning Lila, whom you're never sure you can trust, and Ginny, who is a straightforward and honest investigator, is excellent. I enjoy a book with strong female protagonists and these two are excellent.

Overall, even though this dragged for a bit, it's certainly worth a read. For one thing, it's different, which is so refreshing in the thriller genre. It's also dark, intriguing, and surprising. 3.5 stars, rounded to 4 here.

I received a copy of this book from HarperCollins Publishers and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review.
  
Fieldwork Footage (1928)
Fieldwork Footage (1928)
1928 |
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"The last one I think might be the most unusual one and this is footage shot by Zora Neale Hurston, who we know as a writer, a novelist, the author of Their Eyes were Watching God (the basis for the eponymous film), which is her best-known work. [She] was also a playwright, short story writer, and screenwriter for a while in her career. Really a Renaissance woman. When she was a student, she was studying anthropology with France Boulez at Columbia, and she was doing her fieldwork as an anthropologist on the kinds of communities that she grew up in, in Florida. In the late 1920s, she had a car and a 16-millimeter camera and she drove down to Alabama and Florida and she shot footage, ethnographic footage, as a part of her research. We featured some of this material on the Pioneers of African-American Cinema box set that I co-curated that was released by Kino. The footage is not narrative and it’s not exactly documentary either, in the sense that she never put together a work that then she was sharing with other people — it was for her research purposes. But she shows men who are logging, for example. My favorite passage of the footage was when she shows children playing games. The can game, and games when they’re in a circle or square and trading off movement and those kinds of things. We can see she’s capturing information that she’s going to use to talk about these cultural practices in her academic writing. It’s also really clear in the attention she pays the children and the attention that she pays to the movements of women, the way that she captures, even in the silent films, the rhythm and the musicality of church service. We can see visually the style that she’s developing that then she folds into her writing practice. We can say, because we know about this work that Zora Neale Hurston seems to be one of the first African-American women filmmakers, and so it gives us a deeper sense of her creative practice and her intellectual practice as well."

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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Bad Habits in Books

Feb 18, 2021  
Bad Habits
Bad Habits
Amy Gentry | 2021 | Philosophy, Psychology & Social Sciences, Thriller
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Claire "Mac" Woods is now a well-respected professor in academia--making her the person she's always dreamed of becoming. But ten years ago, she was just Mac. A poor student at university: part of The Project, with her best friend Gwen Whitney. When Gwen moved to Mac's hometown, her life changed. Through the lens of Gwen's wealthy life, Mac saw another future for herself than one with an addict mom; a sick sister; and a deadbeat dad. But while part of The Project, Gwen and Mac are sucked into the power dynamics of a married professor couple, with disastrous consequences. Meeting by accident a decade later, the two are hashing things out--but will uncovering long buried secrets do anyone any good?

This was a well-done and suspenseful book, but it took me a while to get into it for some reason. Mostly by design, the characters are incredibly unlikable and nearly impossible to feel any attachment for. Even Mac, our supposed protagonist, has her irritating and questionable moments. I think of this book as dark and twisted people doing dark and twisted things. But, there's some delight in that, sometimes, right? Because Gentry gives us really twisted people and what happens can be really dark.

If you're someone who came up in academia, this book will really hit home, as most of our characters' motivations center around getting ahead in that world. Mac envies Gwen and her "easy" life more than anything. And the two professors? Well, I'm not sure I can even *explain* them without giving away any spoilers. Let's just say it's a cutthroat world out there.

There are certainly some twists here--more at the end, where things pick up. There's an "event" that we know happened, and we don't really find out what transpired until near the book's conclusions. At times this is suspenseful; at others, frustrating. Is the power grab that's happening really worth it all? Only our characters can truly say, I suppose.

Overall, this a dark and sometimes slow-moving novel, but it has its share of surprises. It will be especially intriguing if you love academia-themed novels and power-grabbing characters. 3 stars.
  
Superbad (2007)
Superbad (2007)
2007 | Comedy
It's been about ten years to the day that me and my middle school friends saw this for the first time on television, naturally it became a classic from there since we were the embodiment of all of these guys, in spades - their demeanors, writerly crassness, even their *looks*. Plus it was just funnier than hell on top of that. At the time we saw college and the possible divide of our respective friendships as something that was untouchable, so far away that you couldn't even picture it if you tried. Ten years later, now in my fourth year of college and no longer friends with any of those guys, I view this through a completely different lens - and it's even better now than it was back then. This is still, and forever will be, one of the greatest comedies of all time - nay - one of the greatest *movies* of all time. The way as a middle schooler it depicted what was to come, and now the way it depicts what was - both nostalgic for the past and for the future, it's no wonder every teen sex comedy from then on copied this because it's a goddamned fully optimized template to use. Comedies that touch the two hour mark better be funny as sin and/or at least do some decent emotional heavy lifting. This does both with a colossal ease. I can wax lyrical about my love for this all day: the amount of respect it has for and in spite of all its (totally realistic) crudeness, the way I'm always doubled over in crippling laughter from Cera singing "These Eyes", Christopher Mintz-Plasse giving the Holy Grail of teen sex comedy performances (though... everyone is spotless), the picturesque time capsule of being in that awkward high school/college transition that's done so effectively that we as middle schoolers couldn't see at the time even though now as a college student I can see it depicted right there before my very eyes a la real life, etc. I really don't think a single element is done any lesser than it should be. Hope to still be watching this expertly-made masterpiece again another ten years from now. Comedy perfection.