Mystery

All posts tagged Mystery

Stay Awake

Posted by cat2002116 on August 6, 2024
Posted in: Books, Mystery, Reviews, Thriller. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

I actually heard about this book when I watched a YouTube video about horror/scary books that should be made into TV series. The explanation of the plot sounded so intriguing, I was immediately interested and looked up the book on Amazon Kindle. It wasn’t very expensive, so I bought it…and then the YouTuber commented that the book wasn’t all that great, in spite of the interesting premise.

Since books (and movies, TV series, video games, etc.) can be subjective, I decided to give this book a try anyway, and I did find it a really quick, easy read. I will say, however, that it did hit a couple of my dislikes when it comes to books. For instance, there was a huge amount of info dumping in Detective Halliday’s sections of the book…and the book also kept switching between first and third person and present and past tense, which unfortunately made the book a little confusing and hard to follow at times.

A lot of this book made me think of the movie Memento, which this book had a very similar premise to. I did find Liv to be a character who was really easy to relate to and empathise with. Right from the very first scene, when she’s in the cab going back to what she thinks is her apartment, I was able to feel her confusion and disorientation about what was going on. It was clear that she didn’t have any memory of what had happened and why she had a bloodstained knife in her hand, and I could definitely empathise with her confusion and fear as the news reports start talking about the murder scene with the words Stay Awake written in blood at the scene; the same words that Liv has written on her own skin, because every time she falls asleep, her memory resets.

I will say that the constant flashbacks to two years ago made it really hard for me to follow the exact timeline in the present day. Later on in the book, it’s heavily implied that the entire murder investigation took place in a day…and I’m sorry, but that just didn’t feel realistic to me. I know, I know. It’s a book about a person whose memory resets every time she goes to sleep; it’s not exactly realistic. But suspending my disbelief about that was vastly different to suspending my disbelief about two detectives doing so much in less than 24 hours.

While I did find the constant flashbacks to be quite confusing, it was good to learn about what had happened to Liv gradually, as she herself learned about what had happened two years ago. However, I do think there could have been a different, better way of gradually revealing that information, since the constant changes in tense and voice made it difficult to switch focus.

Despite the problems, I did actually enjoy reading this book. It had a really interesting premise, and the main character was someone I really cared about and empathised with. I would be interested in reading more books by this same author in the future, so long as just one style is used when writing!

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Season One

Posted by cat2002116 on July 14, 2024
Posted in: Reviews, Television, Thriller, Young Adult. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

So, I really liked the book A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. When my oldest nibling told me that the TV series was available to watch on BBC iPlayer, I was immediately interested in watching it…and I watched all six episodes in one night.

While I did have some mixed feelings about this series, I did like Pip in the series. My sister mentioned that she felt Pip’s autistic traits were more obvious in the TV series than in the books, and I’m inclined to agree…though Ry always felt that Pip was obviously autistic to them in the books.

It’s hard not to compare the series to the book, as it was obviously based on that. I will say that a lot of the actors portrayed the characters they played really well. I’m more used to seeing Matthew Baynton in comedy roles than serious ones, but I did think he did a particularly good job at portraying Elliot Ward.

While the book was always going to be better, I was kind of disappointed that so much was left out of the series. There was a lot of intrigue that wasn’t included…and I really didn’t like the fact that one of the main characters had her entire backstory completely changed (Nat Da Silva). One of the really good things about the book was just how many secrets Andie was revealed to have, showing that she wasn’t the ‘good’ girl everyone had assumed her to be. I can’t really say that there was subject matter the series didn’t want to touch on, either, as it didn’t shy away from showing what had happened to Becca.

I did like the flashbacks to Pip as a child and when she saw Andie for the last time, but I did kind of feel that that particular flashback was shown a lot more than was really necessary. While it was good to gradually know more about that situation (such as Pip telling Sal where Andie was), I didn’t think it needed to be shown as many times as it was.

I mentioned above that I was disappointed in one of the characters having her backstory changed…and I have to say that I didn’t like the way her brother, Daniel, was changed in the series. The series really didn’t need a charming potential love interest (it was a bit weird that Pip called him cute, since he was always angry, and older than her…not to mention married…in the book), especially as the series already had Ravi!

I did like Naomi and Cara and their relationship with each other, as well as their friendship with Pip. I thought that Yasmin Al-Khudhairi did a really good job of capturing Naomi’s personality, along with the guilt that clearly affected her after the car crash and everything that happened with Sal. And I really liked Cara’s interactions with Pip. I can’t really say the same for the rest of Pip’s friends, though. I didn’t feel any real connection to them, as I didn’t feel their characters were developed very much throughout the series…which is a shame, as there were a lot of good things about Pip’s interactions with them in the book.

I did enjoy Pip’s interactions with her father in this series…but I didn’t really like her relationship with her mother as much. Her mother seemed to be trying to parent sometimes, only to be distant and preoccupied later on in the series. Plus, unlike in the book, Pip showed very little sign of her project affecting her in a negative way. Yes, she went out to a party…but her parents seemed entirely on board with her doing that. In that respect, I’d say that the series dropped the ball a little.

I do think that the series stands well enough on its own, but it’s not a truly faithful adaptation to one of my favourite books. While I can understand having to change certain things when switching from one medium to another, there was too much changed in this series that actually took away from the story instead of adding to it, in my opinion.

If you watch the series on its own merits, you’ll probably enjoy it. But as an adaptation, I will say that I was a bit disappointed in many of the changes that were made from book to TV series.

The Reappearance of Rachel Price

Posted by cat2002116 on May 27, 2024
Posted in: Books, Mystery, Reviews, Thriller. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

After reading the Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series, Holly Jackson quickly became one of my favourite authors. So my sister and oldest nibling didn’t need to encourage me too much to buy this book and read it.

I will be honest that I wasn’t really that fond of Bel as a character for a lot of the book. I thought she was kind of mean, especially to Ash. I did like Ash as a character, so I felt a bit protective of him when Bel wasn’t really treating him very well.

From the book’s title, it was obvious that Rachel Price was going to appear after having been missing for so long. Having said that, I appreciated the fact that there was a buildup to her appearing again. By that, I mean Rachel didn’t just show up right at the start of the book. I had the chance to get to know Bel, and Bel’s relationship with her father, before Rachel came back into their lives and turned everything upside down.

While I wasn’t particularly fond of Bel as a character, at least to start with, I did enjoy seeing her relationship with Carter. I felt that was one of the strongest parts of the book, and Carter was a really well-rounded character. I did not like Sherry very much at all, considering that it felt like she was trying to be really controlling over Carter, and I felt like she didn’t really care about her daughter at all. Bel comments about a mother fighting for her daughter much later in the book, and I have to agree with her thoughts about Sherry fighting for Carter.

Throughout most of the book, I was trying to figure out what had happened to Rachel; why she’d disappeared, and why she suddenly returned. I had a mental list of theories that ranged from the extreme and unlikely (Rachel had been dead and dug herself out of her own grave, which was why she looked so bad when Bel initially saw her) to something that might have actually been possible, if it hadn’t been debunked by DNA testing (someone pretending to be Rachel in order to get fame/money). I can safely say that by the end of the book, I hadn’t even considered what had really happened, so Holly Jackson did a really good job of seeding the clues through the book without making it obvious what had really happened.

Outside of all that, I did feel that Bel reacted fairly realistically to having her mother suddenly show up after all those years, and I could easily relate to her need to find out what had really happened and what the truth was.

All in all, I really found this book engaging and easy to read. I had to find out what was going to happen next. If you enjoyed A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, I would definitely recommend reading this book.

And Then There Were None

Posted by cat2002116 on April 30, 2024
Posted in: Mystery, Plays, Reviews, Thriller. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

I enjoy a lot of things based on Agatha Christie’s work, to be honest. There’s Poirot, with David Suchet (who is the only Poirot, because he just portrays the character so very well), but there are other films/TV series based on her books that I’ve enjoyed as well.

And Then There Were None was not a book I was familiar with, whether under its original name or one of the changed titles, so I had no real idea what to expect when I was going into the play. I think that was good, as I didn’t go into the play with any expectations of what I was about to see.

I have to say that the monologues at the beginning were a little bit boring. My attention unfortunately did wander a little bit as the characters introduced all of the reasons why they’d gone to Soldier Island…although that might have also been due to other factors, such as not realising the play started half an hour earlier than I’d assumed and trying to quietly eat food after giving myself insulin right before the house lights went down!

Anyway, once the play actually started in earnest, I found it really engaging. There was some mystery surrounding each of the characters as they interacted with each other and it became clear that none of them had actually met their host(s) in person…and then, when the phonograph recording was played, there was a rapid rise of tension. I’d originally thought that maybe all ten of the people had been responsible for the same murder(s), but the recording made it very clear that each person, or ‘soldier’, was responsible for a different crime.

The play felt very much like a slasher movie, with each of the characters being picked off by an unknown assailant in ways that matched the ten little soldier boys rhyme. It was interesting that there seemed to be a vaguely supernatural element to the play, as the spirits of some of the victims seemed to linger, staring at the spot where their body lay, There was also a really bizarre scene towards the end of the play where four of the characters start playing music and dancing. This gave such a different, weird vibe to the play as a whole, and I honestly thought that there was going to be an ending similar to that of Murder on the Orient Express.

On the whole, despite some slightly more weird moments in the play that made me think it was going for a subtly different genre, I did find this play to be engaging and filled with tension, despite the slow start. I’m definitely glad I got the chance to go and see this.

Anatomy of a Fall

Posted by cat2002116 on November 6, 2023
Posted in: Drama, Movies, Mystery, Reviews. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

This wasn’t actually a movie I would have chosen to see on my own, but I occasionally choose to go to the secret showings at Cineworld…because sometimes I like to be surprised by a film that’s showing. I was really happy when I saw one secret showing and it turned out to be Dungeons and Dragons! (I did guess that, but only because I was asked what movie I thought would be showing. I 100% didn’t think it would actually be that movie).

Anyway…I wasn’t especially taken with the movie. I think part of it was due to not being able to connect emotionally with the main character, Sandra, who was accused of killing her husband. Most of the movie involved the court case where evidence was presented and unfolded to reveal secrets and lies to the jury who were to decide if she was innocent or not. Unfortunately, while that could have been done really well, this movie just…did not.

There was no real mystery in the movie…or perhaps I should say, I didn’t care about the mystery. I didn’t care about finding out if Sandra had killed her husband or not. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why, but there’s one point where she’s getting food from the fridge and she says, ‘I’m so tired of crying!’ and…she doesn’t cry. She’s never shown to cry, even when she complains that she’s tired of doing so.

I kind of wish that this movie had stuck to the French language, rather than constantly slipping into English, because I think that ruined the effects of the movie. I’m fine with subtitles, but it wasn’t really necessary to keep having the English language forced into the movie. It might have contributed to my lack of connection to Sandra, as it was made clear that she didn’t enjoy the French language and made little attempt to speak it even when she was in the country.

I felt like the best character in this movie was Daniel. I wasn’t sure if he was saying things because he was trying to save the parent he had left, or if he really believed them…and that ambiguity was one thing I did feel that the movie got right.

I think this movie did far too much telling rather than showing, particularly when it came to insisting that Sandra was bisexual, or that she had affairs. There was actually nothing in this movie to show that she was bisexual, or that she’d had affairs…and I actually rolled my eyes when she said, ‘I didn’t have an affair, because I told him exactly what I’d done!’, because…for someone who was supposed to be intelligent (as a writer), that was just so stupid.

I don’t think this is a movie I would recommend watching. I felt that the main character just didn’t carry the plot of the movie…which is my own opinion, of course. She was just really difficult to empathise with, which is important for a main character of a movie. But if you’ve seen the film and have your own opinions, I’d love to hear those!