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Cyn Armistead (14 KP) rated The Nightmare Stacks: A Laundry Files Novel in Books

Feb 23, 2018

Another fun entry in the Laundry Files series, this one is narrated by Dr. Schwartz, from the previous novel. Poor Alex is trying to come to grips with his sudden career change and living life as a PHANG (vampire, to the rest of us). He has also fallen into social interactions with an actual female person, which is vastly unusual in his life. In fact, having a social life is rather foreign.

There are a fair number of cringe-worthy scenes, if you (like me) are embarrassed when anyone else is. Of course, this is a comedy/horror/science fiction/fantasy series, so there are the requisite horrid things in the plot. If you've gotten this far in the series, I shouldn't need to warn you about that. I really wouldn't choose this volume as an entry point if I were you.

Kudos

Merissa (12066 KP) rated The Claiming (Dark Desires #1) in Books

Dec 17, 2018

The Claiming tells of Francesca's story. She was betrothed at a very young age, and only finds out on her eighteenth birthday who it is to. She doesn't know him, his likes/dislikes, and has no idea how he will treat her. Although she gets more than she bargained for to begin with, she soon accepts her situation and is happy to make the most of it.

This is well-written, with a smooth yet fast pace. Although this is a contemporary story, there is almost a paranormal feel to it. I kept expecting him or her to turn into a vampire! This is the first book in the series, so you can expect more to come from Julieanne Lynch.

* I received this book from Totally Bound Publishing in return for a fair and honest review. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!

Kudos

Barry Newman (204 KP) rated Near Dark (1987) in Movies

Feb 1, 2020

Near Dark (1987)

1987 | Horror, Mystery, Western

7.6

(16 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

A relatively simple tale of a recently turned vampire and his initiation into a sadistic group of other vampires (we assume that’s what they are as the V word isn’t said once in the film) is an atmospheric and compelling watch that stylistically is more like a western than anything else. Kathryn Bigelow’s use of a fair chunk of future husband James Cameron’s ‘Aliens’ cast is largely successful (apart from some quite hammy overacting from Bill Paxton) and they make for thoroughly nasty adversaries (that bar scene being particularly brutal). I also liked the haunting Tangerine Dream score which adds nicely to the atmosphere but didn’t really buy the fact that vampirism could seemingly be so easily cured by a simple blood transfusion. That was a minor quibble though and overall I thought the film worked well.