I started reading Peter Straub a long time ago, and then forgot about him. Then I remembered Ghost Story, and picked up The Talisman. I was hooked by his very detailed and realistic take on horror. One of the last runs to Half Price Books I picked up The Hellfire Club. Wow.
The Hellfire Club is about Nora Chancel, wife of Davey, son of the head of a big publishing company. Women in her Connecticut suburb are dying violently, and Nora can’t shake the feeling she is next. After being accused of kidnapping a supposed victim, Nora is kidnapped herself by the madman murderer, and she travels with him into her deepest fears. Chancel House has a book called Night Journey, a book that has an illicit past. It’s a book that seems to capture the minds of those who read it, and causes an obsession in its fans that borders on psychotic. Davey is under its spell, and Nora is now in the arms of a man who is determined to protect the history of the book at all costs. She has to find strength deep within herself to survive, and to search out the truth behind Night Journey and the family she married in to.
The Hellfire Club is less a horror story and more a mystery-thriller. Peter Straub builds a pretty tight plot that moves along rather quickly once you get introduced to all of the characters and Nora ends up tethered to the crazy killer. I figured out the secret behind Night Journey and some of the other elements pretty quickly but it didn’t lessen my enjoyment of the story. The only things I really didn’t like were Davey and some of the torture of Nora. Davey was an annoying, whiny, faithless baby and I could never figure out exactly why Nora married him in the first place. I also hate rape scenes, and I could have done without reading Nora getting abused that way. Those scenes were horrific and made my stomach churn. But, to be honest, both of those elements didn’t make me put the book down. It was too good of a story and a mystery to quit before I finished it.
I liked The Hellfire Club and I like Peter Straub. I’m not sure I’d put The Hellfire Club at the top of my list of his books, but if you like a good mystery-thriller, touched with fantasy like elements and Vietnam memories, you’d like Peter Straub’s books and definitely like The Hellfire Club.
Rating: 3 ½ Purrs for a tightly-woven plot and an excellent and tense last few chapters
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Stay Alive
I’ll admit I rented Stay Alive because I think Sophia Bush is just delicious. Later, I bought the DVD used because I thought it was just too much fun. Yes, it’s silly, and the end is a bit lame, but dang it, Sophia Bush is in it.
Stay Alive is about a group of gamers who get a copy of an unreleased video game based very inaccurately on Elizabeth Bathory, The Blood Countess. Naturally, in true horror movie fashion, they play the game and when people die in the game, they die in real life. Then, the game starts taking on a life of its own. It’s a pretty simple plot, but fun, non the less.
There’s nothing terribly special about Stay Alive. It’s got some funny inside jokes that gamers should get. All of the characters are pretty standard horror fare, with the pretty blond (Samaire Armstrong), the Goth chick (Sophia Yum Yum Bush), the dorky gamer (Frankie Muniz), the hero with the troubled past (Jon Foster), and the smart alec (Jimmy Simpson). You even have the detective who doesn’t understand what’s really happening or believe the kids when they explain what’s going on.
I did like how the movie and the game would flip back and forth and some of the deaths were fun. I’ve liked Jimmy Simpson ever since I saw him in D.E.B.S., and he was just as fun here. The New Orleans setting was creepy and lovely at the same time. Everyone was okay with the amount of substance they were given, outside of the detectives and Frankie Muniz. He just annoys me.
Overall, I say Stay Alive is fun, if you like the regular, Scream type fare that seems to be churned out as horror these days. I bought it used because of my Sophia Bush crush, not because the movie really warranted a whole lot of in depth thought or brought on any real scares on a second viewing. But to be honest, that won’t stop me from watching it again, and again.
Rating: 3 Purrs (5 Purrs for Sophia Yum Yum Bush)
Stay Alive is about a group of gamers who get a copy of an unreleased video game based very inaccurately on Elizabeth Bathory, The Blood Countess. Naturally, in true horror movie fashion, they play the game and when people die in the game, they die in real life. Then, the game starts taking on a life of its own. It’s a pretty simple plot, but fun, non the less.
There’s nothing terribly special about Stay Alive. It’s got some funny inside jokes that gamers should get. All of the characters are pretty standard horror fare, with the pretty blond (Samaire Armstrong), the Goth chick (Sophia Yum Yum Bush), the dorky gamer (Frankie Muniz), the hero with the troubled past (Jon Foster), and the smart alec (Jimmy Simpson). You even have the detective who doesn’t understand what’s really happening or believe the kids when they explain what’s going on.
I did like how the movie and the game would flip back and forth and some of the deaths were fun. I’ve liked Jimmy Simpson ever since I saw him in D.E.B.S., and he was just as fun here. The New Orleans setting was creepy and lovely at the same time. Everyone was okay with the amount of substance they were given, outside of the detectives and Frankie Muniz. He just annoys me.
Overall, I say Stay Alive is fun, if you like the regular, Scream type fare that seems to be churned out as horror these days. I bought it used because of my Sophia Bush crush, not because the movie really warranted a whole lot of in depth thought or brought on any real scares on a second viewing. But to be honest, that won’t stop me from watching it again, and again.
Rating: 3 Purrs (5 Purrs for Sophia Yum Yum Bush)
Friday, March 09, 2007
The Sultan’s Seal by Jenny White
It’s my understanding that this is Jenny White’s first jaunt into the mystery genre. It is a very good first attempt, and it offers a glimpse into a world that is not often visited by mystery writers. It is uneven at times, and the switch between storytellers a bit jolting in places, but overall it is an enjoyable read and a good mystery.
The Sultan’s Seal takes place in nineteenth-century Istanbul, where a young English woman has been found on the shores of the river, stripped of her clothes and drowned. It looks like murder to Kamil, the magistrate, who enters into an investigation that might end in more than the loss of his job. He discovers the murder might be tied to a prominent family, or perhaps even as high as the Sultan’s household, and also might be tied to another English woman murdered 12 years before. Sybil, the daughter of the British Ambassador, her cousin Bernie, and his coroner, Michel, aid Kamil in his investigation.
I like that the mystery is slowly uncovered, with the perspective switching between Sybil, Kamil, and another woman, Jaanan, who has some connection to the murdered women, although you don’t know how they are connected until almost the very end. It’s the best-kept mystery of the book, and adds depth to the story that other popular, M is for Murder type mysteries don’t usually have. You are slowly introduced to the world where these murders have taken place, and you get a good sense of the struggle the Ottoman Empire was having at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The new world and customs from England and the like are butting heads with the traditional Muslim and transplanted Jewish customs, and Kamil tries to straddle those worlds and solve the mystery.
Kamil is a more rounded character than what you regularly find in mysteries, and so is Jaanan, but Sybil is not very fleshed out. Her character feels two-dimensional, especially in comparison with the other two. It was a disappointment, because she is a very important character, but just seems lacking. The tone of the book was uneven at times, and switching between the perspectives of Jaanan, Kamil, and Sybil was sometimes not very smooth.
Other than that, I really enjoyed The Sultan’s Seal. It took me to a place I hadn’t visited, the mystery (or at least the deeper one) wasn’t obvious from the first. If you are looking for a mystery with a little more to say than say, a top 10 type like Sue Grafton, you should try Jenny White’s The Sultan Seal. It’s rich in history and details, with some really beautiful prose.
Rating: 4 Purrs
The Sultan’s Seal takes place in nineteenth-century Istanbul, where a young English woman has been found on the shores of the river, stripped of her clothes and drowned. It looks like murder to Kamil, the magistrate, who enters into an investigation that might end in more than the loss of his job. He discovers the murder might be tied to a prominent family, or perhaps even as high as the Sultan’s household, and also might be tied to another English woman murdered 12 years before. Sybil, the daughter of the British Ambassador, her cousin Bernie, and his coroner, Michel, aid Kamil in his investigation.
I like that the mystery is slowly uncovered, with the perspective switching between Sybil, Kamil, and another woman, Jaanan, who has some connection to the murdered women, although you don’t know how they are connected until almost the very end. It’s the best-kept mystery of the book, and adds depth to the story that other popular, M is for Murder type mysteries don’t usually have. You are slowly introduced to the world where these murders have taken place, and you get a good sense of the struggle the Ottoman Empire was having at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The new world and customs from England and the like are butting heads with the traditional Muslim and transplanted Jewish customs, and Kamil tries to straddle those worlds and solve the mystery.
Kamil is a more rounded character than what you regularly find in mysteries, and so is Jaanan, but Sybil is not very fleshed out. Her character feels two-dimensional, especially in comparison with the other two. It was a disappointment, because she is a very important character, but just seems lacking. The tone of the book was uneven at times, and switching between the perspectives of Jaanan, Kamil, and Sybil was sometimes not very smooth.
Other than that, I really enjoyed The Sultan’s Seal. It took me to a place I hadn’t visited, the mystery (or at least the deeper one) wasn’t obvious from the first. If you are looking for a mystery with a little more to say than say, a top 10 type like Sue Grafton, you should try Jenny White’s The Sultan Seal. It’s rich in history and details, with some really beautiful prose.
Rating: 4 Purrs
Sunday, March 04, 2007
The Wicker Man (Remake)
When I first heard they were remaking The Wicker Man, I was a bit excited. I really liked the original mostly for its campiness and Christopher Lee’s turtlenecks, so I didn’t have a lot invested in the original to get riled up about in a remake. As luck would have it, I have not been so disappointed in a remake in a very long time.
The plot of the movie follows fairly closely to the original. Nicolas Cage is Edward Malus, a policeman who is called to the remote island of Summersisle to help an old flame, Willow find her missing daughter. What he finds there gets his back up, as he finds an island filled with women who laugh at him and have men as second class citizens. No one will help him, and he digs deeper and deeper to find the truth. Little does he know the truth will be deadly.
Neil La Bute has directed several movies about the battle of the sexes, and so this time around, The Wicker Man is all about men vs. women instead of Christian vs. pagan. I have to say that is probably my biggest beef with the whole remake. The battle of the sexes feels very outdated, and in these times, a commentary on the religious right would have been very applicable.
I did love the visuals in this movie. The costuming is beautiful and the locations are enchanting. Beyond that, I didn’t find much to like. The actors, even though there were several of note, were just deadpan. Nic Cage, Ellen Burstyn, Frances Conroy, and Molly Parker all are excellent actors, but for some reason they were all cardboard this time around. LeeLee Sobieski was completely wasted. I was shocked.
I wouldn’t recommend this remake to anyone, especially to any die hard fans of the original. Heck, I wouldn't recommend it to people who just saw the original. It’s just not worth the two hours. There was so much possibility here, and it was just not realized in any way.
Rating: 1 Hiss, for totally missing the mark this time around
The plot of the movie follows fairly closely to the original. Nicolas Cage is Edward Malus, a policeman who is called to the remote island of Summersisle to help an old flame, Willow find her missing daughter. What he finds there gets his back up, as he finds an island filled with women who laugh at him and have men as second class citizens. No one will help him, and he digs deeper and deeper to find the truth. Little does he know the truth will be deadly.
Neil La Bute has directed several movies about the battle of the sexes, and so this time around, The Wicker Man is all about men vs. women instead of Christian vs. pagan. I have to say that is probably my biggest beef with the whole remake. The battle of the sexes feels very outdated, and in these times, a commentary on the religious right would have been very applicable.
I did love the visuals in this movie. The costuming is beautiful and the locations are enchanting. Beyond that, I didn’t find much to like. The actors, even though there were several of note, were just deadpan. Nic Cage, Ellen Burstyn, Frances Conroy, and Molly Parker all are excellent actors, but for some reason they were all cardboard this time around. LeeLee Sobieski was completely wasted. I was shocked.
I wouldn’t recommend this remake to anyone, especially to any die hard fans of the original. Heck, I wouldn't recommend it to people who just saw the original. It’s just not worth the two hours. There was so much possibility here, and it was just not realized in any way.
Rating: 1 Hiss, for totally missing the mark this time around
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Black Harvest by Josh Howard
I found Black Harvest accidentally. I had heard of Dead at 17, but I hadn’t read any of them before, and when I saw this on the rack at Titan it looked cool so I snatched it up. I wasn’t disappointed, and now I have the husband looking for all of his Dead at 17 issues in his long boxes so I can catch up on all of Josh Howard’s work.
Black Harvest takes place in Jericho, Texas, where the yearly Jericho Lights bring out the alien watchers and tourists to stare at the skies. This year, Internet blogger Daniel Webster has come out to see the Lights and see if he can find out their cause, but instead he finds Zaya Vahn, a girl who vanished mysteriously 3 years before. The people of Jericho think maybe Daniel had something to do with it, and he is strangely drawn to Zaya on his own. Something’s afoot in Jericho, and Zaya has come back to make things right, with Repent etched into her skin and vengeance in her heart.
I loved this graphic novel. I know I can’t marry it, since I am marrying Snakes on a Plane already, but I would at least date it regularly. I like Josh Howard’s art style, and I love the fact that he’s a Texas guy who writes about Texas without making us look like freaks. If you like tough chick comics with a weird supernatural slant, pick up Black Harvest and give it a try.
Rating: 5 Purrs for hot Texas chicks in comics and the Marfa lights
Black Harvest takes place in Jericho, Texas, where the yearly Jericho Lights bring out the alien watchers and tourists to stare at the skies. This year, Internet blogger Daniel Webster has come out to see the Lights and see if he can find out their cause, but instead he finds Zaya Vahn, a girl who vanished mysteriously 3 years before. The people of Jericho think maybe Daniel had something to do with it, and he is strangely drawn to Zaya on his own. Something’s afoot in Jericho, and Zaya has come back to make things right, with Repent etched into her skin and vengeance in her heart.
I loved this graphic novel. I know I can’t marry it, since I am marrying Snakes on a Plane already, but I would at least date it regularly. I like Josh Howard’s art style, and I love the fact that he’s a Texas guy who writes about Texas without making us look like freaks. If you like tough chick comics with a weird supernatural slant, pick up Black Harvest and give it a try.
Rating: 5 Purrs for hot Texas chicks in comics and the Marfa lights
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
