I’ve been a fan of board games since I was a child and I do love roleplaying games, too. So seeing a board game that’s played using an app. The whole idea and the finished board game prototype looks pretty good.
The campaign is only running for six more days and is in the final stretch before prices go up. I would recommend taking a look, as the gameplay and storyline, along with the miniatures, look awesome.
Here’s the link if you’d like to check it out:
(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review).
For a long time, I’ve enjoyed horror. Slasher movies, psychological horror…gore or not. So when I originally read the blurb of this book, I was immediately intrigued with the idea.
I felt this book came across more as a snippet into a world. It was good to be thrown into the action almost straight away with Jenkins and his job. However, because there was very little background or information about his past, I was completely thrown about what was going on. In the book, I only had the word of the characters that something was wrong with the jobs they’d gone on. As a reader, nothing seemed out of the ordinary with what I understood was going on.
I was intrigued by the different versions of the ghost/hologram that the four main villains/bad guys had apparently met and who had recruited them, but I did feel like I missed an awful lot of world building and character development. There were hints of a history in Castle and depth to his character, but I was left with one major question: Just how did these people get convinced to murder everyone?
I liked the whole idea of the multiverse and that it was a lot bigger than Jenkins initially realised. Martin and the presenter were intriguing characters, from what I saw of them, though I was a bit lost about exactly what the presenter’s role was.
The short story at the end of the book was another interesting glimpse into the world and it raised a really interesting question. However, I did feel that there were some contradictions during the course of the father’s interactions with his daughter. But I found it really thought-provoking to see how things might progress if a father took his child’s pain so she didn’t have to experience it.
This book could have been expanded and been a lot longer, with other missions and jobs shown. There was a lot of gore in the book, as promised, which provided for some good visuals. I just think that this was a very short book for a very wide universe, or multiverse.
The scariest things are always what you don’t see.
This movie starts out pretty harrowing right from the start. It’s easy to relate to Cecelia as she desperately tries to put her plan of escape into action. I found myself holding my breath as she checked continually to make sure Adrian was still asleep. And I came close to jumping out of my skin when she kicked over the dog’s bowl.
Having said that, because of the movie’s close focus on Cecelia, I found it difficult to see the other characters as people in their own right. They seemed to exist solely for the purpose of driving Cecelia’s story forward. There was little about their history with each other. With her. Cecelia talks about how strong her sister is. That she has to control everything. Yet very little of that is actually shown.
The feeling of isolation Cecelia experienced in the movie came across very clearly. I didn’t really feel she went through a satisfactory journey. The ending wasn’t entirely unexpected, but the path she took to get there didn’t really make a whole lot of sense.
The movie was intense to watch, but at the end, it felt like that was it. No real sense that the characters would continue past that point.
Something about the movie kind of just felt flat. I was looking forward to watching it, but it just didn’t resonate with me.
Remember Me
by Chelsea Bobulski
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Release Date: August 6th 2019
Genre: Young Adult, Horror
Synopsis:
In this eerie and suspenseful YA, a teen girl discovers what connects her to the hotel she calls home as horrifying visions lead her to the truth.
Nell Martin is moving again, this time to the Winslow Grand Hotel, built in 1878. As Nell is settling in, strange things begin to happen. Doors lock of their own accord, writing appears on bathroom walls–and most horrifying of all–visions of a dead boy permeate her waking life. Thinking it was her mind playing tricks on her, she soon finds the past and the present colliding as she learns horrific details of a murder that happened at the hotel in 1905 involving a girl named Lea.
Nell and a mysterious bellboy must relive that day in hopes of finally breaking a curse that imprisons them both. And Nell discovers what truly links her to the history of the Winslow Grand Hotel.
(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
Ideally, I’d give this book 3.5 stars out of 5. When I read the blurb, I was hugely excited. That, along with the cover of the book, really grabbed my attention. And there were a lot of bits that I really liked about the book. For example, the main characters. Both Nell and Lea were well-written, well-rounded characters, although I did feel that Lea slipped a bit too much into the rebellious young woman stereotype.
One thing I really struggled with was the switching viewpoints. This probably wouldn’t have been such a problem had the chapters been longer, but some of the chapters were so short, I’d barely got my head around the time period I was in before I was thrust back into the modern day. Or vice versa.
I liked the other characters in the book, but I would have liked a bit more detail about what Alec was going through. I saw everything from Nell or Lea’s point of view, but apart from a few vague hints, all I saw of the love interest was someone who was miserable most of the time.
I did like that the stakes were quite high in the book. The premise and the characters were strong enough to keep me reading. But I was left with an awful lot of questions even as I learned more about Lea’s history; and I felt that plot devices were a little over-used in places.
I wasn’t especially sold on the love triangle aspect between Nell, Alec and Max. I would have liked to see more of Max standing on his own two feet, not just as another area of conflict that I see all too often in young adult books. There were glimmers of his own personality coming through, but by the end of the book, I felt he was very much there as another plot device. The strongest supporting characters were his mother and Nell’s father.
I did feel that the ending was kind of anticlimactic. I was left with a very strong sensation of, ‘Wait. That was it?’ The whole buildup throughout the book was awesome, but I did feel like the ending let it down somewhat. There were a lot of hints that I felt didn’t really come to fruition.
I would read more books by this author in the future, but although I did enjoy reading this book the first time through, I think it’s one I got all of my enjoyment from in the mystery threaded through the pages. I would recommend reading it.
Chelsea Bobulski was born in Columbus, Ohio, and raised on Disney movies, classic musicals, and Buckeye pride. She’s always had a penchant for the fantastical, the stories that teach us there is more to this world than meets the eye. She has a soft spot for characters with broken pasts, strange talents, and a dash of destiny in their bones. After graduating from The Ohio State University with a degree in history, she promptly married her high school sweetheart and settled down in Northwest Ohio with her notebooks and daydreams and copious amounts of chocolate. THE WOOD is her debut novel.
AUTHOR LINKS
Prize: Win (1) copy of REMEMBER ME by Chelsea Bobulski (US Only)
Starts: 06 August 2019
Ends: 20 August 2019
(This review may contain spoilers).
This might be one of the only book-to-movie adaptations where I actually enjoyed the movie more than the book.
I really liked the idea behind this book, even though I knew how it would end from having seen the movie. It was really nice to see some glimpses of the world all around them and a bit about the society and the limit set on the children.
While I did find Ender an easy character to empathise with and understand, it was harder to empathise with his siblings, even Valentine. The main reason for that, I felt, was that there was too much telling and not showing. For instance, with Peter and Valentine creating entirely new identities that were supposed to cause a lot of controversy – and yet there was absolutely nothing shown about what those identities were actually saying and what other people had picked up from them.
It didn’t really feel like there was a lot of threat from the aliens and even though there was a lot of urgency in how fast Ender was pushed, it felt more like the teachers were trying to break him into pieces than mould him. I actually did find that the ending was very anticlimactic for what it was.
I would have liked a bit more made of the hints of depth to Peter. It would have been more interesting to see parts of the story from his perspective, rather than Valentine’s – who came across as a much worse character than she’d first been shown.
I did like the use of the battle rooms and it was interesting to see how the children worked together and how they had to cope with being forced into battle simulations. I liked seeing them all finding ways of beating each army, but it really wasn’t clear how many armies there were in total.
I would have liked to see more of the secondary characters, such as Dink and Petra. There wasn’t really a lot of foreshadowing and by the end of the book, I was disappointed not to see much of anything revealed about the aliens. The Fairyland aspect was really intriguing, but there was little setup to the end reveal.
I don’t think I’ll read the next books in this series – which is a shame, because I had really high expectations when I started reading.
Deep Ocean Blues
I found the concept of this whole world a really intriguing one, but I felt that Parul was the only character with any real depth to her. At least the only human one. The AI and the octopus were quite intriguing characters in their own right and it was good to see something of the society Parul was in.
I did think there was too much in the way of information dumping and summarising, especially when she reached out to contact the others. I would have liked to see the interactions between her and the other human characters, rather than a couple of throwaway lines.
Reading about the way Parul was adapting to her extra arms was really interesting and it was nice to see there were some difficulties in regards to adapting to that. I wasn’t really sure what her job was truly supposed to entail, though. Since she seemed to spend a lot of time drinking and then trying to help the octopus that wasn’t part of her job, it looked like she had a lot of free time on her hands.
While there was a lot of action towards the end of this novella, I wasn’t really sure what was going on, as the story became a bit more choppy. I did find the ending to be quite intriguing, but there wasn’t a lot of foreshadowing to build up to it.
I felt that the world was an interesting one and I would have liked to see more of it and more of the wider area, rather than just the short scene right at the end. I was left with more questions than answers by the end, but it did make me want to read other books by this author in the future.
The Memory Hacker
(This review may contain spoilers).
I really liked the blurb of this novella. It was an interesting idea, but by the time I got to the end, it felt like it had veered sharply off into the fantastical.
While I did find Talia an engaging character, with some very obvious goals, it was hard to see her as Yorke described her – smart and resourceful. I had so many questions, such as where she’d even got a gun. And while there were some small parts of foreshadowing, I felt there wasn’t nearly enough for what was ultimately revealed at the end.
I did think that Talia’s greatest depth came when her memories were unscrambled, which was quite a unique way of handling the memory loss. And seeing her struggling to remember when she’d lost something was heartbreaking to read about, even though I would have thought there’d be contingency plans in place for what had actually happened.
This novella would have been more satisfactory if it’d been spread out over longer. I liked seeing the hints of society and technology throughout the book, but there was very little either added to the story. And by the end, it just seemed like there were no answers.
I’d love to read more stories set in this world at some point in the future and potentially get a better buildup of the world as a whole.
Melting Shlemiel
(This review may contain spoilers).
This world was a really interesting one to read about. While it’s not something I could necessarily see occurring in reality (there were all sorts of questions raised for me about things like procreation, for instance), I liked the whole concept and it was easy to picture, in my mind, people choosing to surround themselves with a hard shell to cover the vulnerable flesh beneath.
Shlemiel was a likable character, though I didn’t really understand why he was able to break his own bones and also break objects, as it had been made clear he wasn’t covered in the shell in the past. I did find myself intrigued along with him about the way the shell felt when it left his body. I have to say, though, despite them feeding on energy…there seemed to be something inherently disturbing about them pointing guns at each other.
One thing I was confused about was the violence in how some of the people communicated with each other. It was implied that it had been going on for a while, but I didn’t really understand why hitting the shells could communicate. It just seemed like a society that had raised itself on more violence.
I did find the religious aspects quite interesting and it was nice to see there were some conflicts, even if those weren’t explored too thoroughly.
In the future, I’d be interested in seeing more of this world; and, in particular, of Shlemiel. I feel like there’s a whole lot more to be explored.
The Camille
(This review may contain spoilers).
I liked the way all of the stories fit together and this one was no exception. It was interesting to note the way Andrea made use of her AI (Dan), while hating the AI her husband had left her for. I would have liked it if there had been more layers to that first plot, but it was quite good to see the plot change so drastically. And I really liked the usage of the technology.
There were some parts of this novella that were really creepy, especially when it came to what lay at the bottom of the tank. It was really easy to empathise with Andrea when it came to that; and although the voices she heard were a bit disorientating at first, it was good to begin to see them as characters in their own right.
While there was a lot of different technology shown in this novella, it was nice to see that it was more of a character-driven story and I enjoyed seeing something of the different Camilles; which was quite an interesting idea, even though I wasn’t very clear on their history or how they even came about.
This was also a world I would really like to read more of and to get some more answers about what was going on. There was a lot that was left hanging. A lot of questions were left that I wanted the answers to.
(This review may contain spoilers).
I have to say, I walked out of this movie feeling very disappointed. While it started out with a fairly common trope – a sceptic faced with the possibility that everything he’s spent his entire life trying to disprove is real – by the end, I really couldn’t tell what was going on.
I felt this movie was trying to do something clever with its plot, but there wasn’t enough foreshadowing for the ending to make any kind of logical sense.
The idea of the three cases was intriguing, but those involved in the hauntings really weren’t likable characters. The only one I felt any sympathy for was Simon and his story was derailed when I started trying to figure out if he’d seen a demon, a faun, a satyr, or if the bad lighting had made a human look mutated.
I did like the fact there was a recurring theme throughout the movie, even though the ending left me questioning if that was real or not. It at least linked three apparently unconnected stories together.
The movie did rely heavily on jump scares, which I think perhaps was its only saving grace, as the atmosphere in the first was suitably creepy, if very cliched. The other issue, of course, was in people telling the story after the fact. As a viewer, I could see they weren’t in any danger of death or permanent injury.
I felt this movie got completely ridiculous towards the end and by that time, I was only staying in the hopes it would find a way to redeem itself. In my opinion, it didn’t.
So, I felt this movie tried to be clever and failed to hit the mark personally. I left very disappointed in what I’d seen. I won’t be watching this movie again in the future.
This is the wolf’s head necklace my friend, Shani, made to go along with the book launch. Her and her business partner’s shop can be found here.
Don’t forget that there is a giveaway for a paperback copy of Ice Warriors: Key of Midgard that can be found here. It will be ending 31st July.
Paperback copies and Kindle copies of the book can be found on all the Amazon retailers, including Amazon UK and Amazon US. It would really help a lot if people would spread the word on social media and buy copies.
If you’re on the fence about reading it, hopefully, the blurb will pique your interest:
When one dies, the cycle begins again.
Ten years ago, a group of teenagers tried to battle the corruption in the Nine Realms. They failed. Now, in the present day, a familiar ritual murder draws Detective Danny Brown back to his murky past… and reunites him with a bitter history.
Find the keys. Stop Ragnorak. Save the world.
Amberley’s failure has driven her from her closest friends… her comrades… but as the Nine Realms are threatened, she is forced back to the place of her childhood… where she must confront her own secrets.
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(This review may contain spoilers).
Having watched and been entertained by the first season of this, I was quite eager to watch the second, even if it did take me a little while to get to it.
My favourite character in this series was probably Audrey. I felt she had a lot of depth to her and I enjoyed seeing her relationships and interactions with the others in the Lakewood Six. I also particularly liked Brooke and Noah. Brooke was a much nicer character than her popularity really indicated… and I especially liked being able to see her relationship with her father, as well as her feelings for Jake.
The first episode did a really good job of drawing me back into the series. There was a lot of tension and a lot that was disturbing about this series. It was particularly good to see the kind of games the killer was playing with the victims.
Although it had been a while since I watched season one, I didn’t find it difficult to be engaged with the plot and the characters again. I did, however, find Emma a bit of an irritating character in this series. While it was understandable she was affected by what had happened before, I did feel she made a lot of really bad choices.
It was interesting to have the opportunity to find out more about Piper’s history and the history of the town with Brandon James. I liked being able to see the conflicts with Maggie and the other adults in town, particularly in regards to the new Sheriff. I did like seeing his relationship with his son, though.
I was a bit disappointed in regards to Zoe. I noticed a lack of ethnic diversity in the town and the character in the previous season who was of a different ethnicity ended up dead.
I liked Noah and seeing the way he and the others were coping with the massacres. This series was much more violent in terms of the death than the first… but the games the killer was playing put me on edge; and there were other conflicts, in particular between Kieran and Eli, that did a good job of that.
There were a lot of red herrings in this series, but I felt there were a few too many of those. I did find the series entertaining, though, and there were still some answers I wanted… even though it was good to see some of the conflicts resolved and the strength demonstrated in many of the characters.
Ink of Blood 