Lee
Fancast:
Director: Ben Affleck
Ted: Matt Damon
Lily: Riley Keough / Meghann Fahy
Miranda: Blake Lively / Anne Hathaway
Brad: Casey Affleck / Bobby Cannavale / Wyatt Russell
Eric: Callum Turner / Jacob Elordi
Det. Henry Kimball: Joel Edgerton / Clive Owen
Det. Roberta James: Jodie Turner-Smith
David: Michael Douglas / Timothy Dalton
Sharon: Sharon Stone / Susan Sarandon
The Meg meets Journey to the Center of the Earth, with a heavy focus on dinosaurs. Simple action fun with some decent yet unexpected character development. I would very much like to read a teased sequel.
Fancast
- Mackenzie: Charlize Theron
- Ian: Jason Statham / Aaron Pierre
- Babo: Djimon Hounsou
- Nash: Sharlto Copley / Chris Hemsworth
A vibrant portrayal of life presented in jazz form: messy, loud, improvised, collaborative, and irreverently original. This is what you would expect from a literary icon who helped found an entire movement. Jack Kerouac's iconic novel On the Road truly lives up to its positive reputation and embodies a life-affirming joie de vivre. This is my first Kerouac read, though I am familiar with various quotes from him, with one of my faves being: “Nowhere to go but everywhere, so keep on rolling under the stars.”
Like the quote, On the Road unfolds like a stream of consciousness as the author embarks on a somewhat autobiographical journey across the country several times. Each journey features a unique assortment of supporting characters, inspired by real figures from Kerouac's life, who enhance the reverie of existence. Figures of the Beat generation such as Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, among others who embody the sentiment of the free spirited and unconstrained of their generation. Ultimately it’s a story about embracing life to its raw fullest; to live in the moment without hesitation or judgment amidst all its highs and lows.
Film Recs:
- Easy Rider
- Babylon
- Y tu Mama Tambien
- American Honey
- Kill Your Darlings
Seeing that I’m currently viewing House of the Dragon with friends, the grandiose fantasy worlds filled with white hair protagonists were destined to be compared. As I said in my previous Witcher log (Blood of Elves, which S02 of the Netflix show uses a lot from), I’m writing these partly in hindsight, as I have been pushing myself to use GoodReads more as I begin to regain my literary stride. I had a couple pages left apparently, so I just finished it up with haste in order to pick the series back up. Time of Contempt, while not bad, is certainly the most dense and convoluted of the series so far. On one side of the blade, if you’re not invested into this world and its politics by this point, good luck getting through this one. But on the opposite side of the blade, there’s a similarity to the sociopolitical dynamics of Game of Thrones (the elongated banquet chapter specifically).
The fourth entry—if reading in chronological order of events—Time of Contempt sees most of the chess pieces prior set, all fall into place: traps, betrayals, deaths, and deceptions all ignited. By now, we are comfortably familiar with the majority of the big names, the complex world and its multifaceted politics, and the inevitable dawn of the Second Great War. What I’m trying to hit home, is that a lot happens in this book. A lot. So much that Geralt himself is forced to finally break free from a Witcher’s neutrality and pick a side.
Those who were upset that Ciri had a lot of focal time will be glad to hear that the balance with her adoptive father, Geralt, is much more aligned here. Yenn and almost all of the sorceresses get moments to shine here (particularly in the aforementioned banquet chapter), and even Dandelion/Jaskier aren’t forgotten in the giant mix of tumultuous events. There are various reunions of crowd faves, long-time-coming face-offs, and the lifting of the veil for the established cogs of destiny to begin speeding up. Suffice it to say the book does live up to its title quite well.
If their pacing and timeline is what I think it is, I’m both concerned and interested to see how the next season of Netflix’s The Witcher manages to include all of this. I brought up HotD earlier because I can foresee S03 of Witcher also struggling to balance the lack of action with the abundance of dialogue, royal court negotiations, and political espionage that is overtly present and pivotal in Time of Contempt. It’d be smart of the show runner to break this book into two parts, were it up to me (I wouldn’t want to miss smaller detailed moments like Codringher & Fenn, Yenn & Ciri dealing with tuition costs, Black Rayla, and Geralt & Yenn’s romantic daydreams of impossible love and peace).
Undeniably influenced by the telekinetic elements of Stephen King’s Carrie and End of Watch, Psychic Teenage Bloodbath is exactly what it says on the tin. I'd actually even throw in some similarities to Stephen Graham Jones’s Night of the Mannequins and I Was a Teenage Slasher. You get a, well, psychic teenage bloodbath. Alrighty then, thanks for reading! Ok, seriously, as my first Carl John Lee (side penname for Scottish horror afficiando and writer, David Sodergren) I must say it did not blow me away. Granted, I have an incredibly high tolerance for all things violent and disturbing—actively searching for things to gross me out—but I was expecting things to get far more out of hand in its marketed extreme gore. In fact, the book opens up with a forward from fellow horror writer Judith Sonnet who goes into non-spoiler detail about things to expect, paired with a trigger warning list at the back: effectively a warning to the reader. Now don't get me wrong, very messed up things do take place within this revenge tale (including but not limited to attempted rape, necrophilia, cannibalism, castration), but it just wasn't enough to get a blip from my clearly dark soul.
I'm relatively new to the Splatterpunk scene (the best I've liked so far being Dead Inside and Brainwyrms), so take my subjective critiques with grains of salt. I did enjoy my time with Psychic Teenage Bloodbath, but in the words of the iconic Colin Farrell, “Not to sound pear-shaped, but I wanted it to be a little spicier.” The scenes of gore weren't necessarily added just for the sake of gore, as many of them fit the character motivations and mental states, but most if not all of them were also seen coming. Additional fair warning, this does get more sexual than most of the Sodergren books I've read so far.
—•—
Film Recs:
- Carrie
- Tragedy Girls
- Freaky
- Malignant
Stoner fancast:
- William Stoner: Timothée Chalamet / Adam Driver
- David Masters: David Jonsson
- Gordon Finch: Harris Dickinson / Paul Dano
- Archer Sloane: Ethan Hawke
- Edith Stoner: Florence Pugh / Jessie Buckley
- Grace Stoner: Emily Carey
- Hollis Lomax: Cary Elwes
- Charles Walker: Fred Hechinger
- Katherine Driscoll: Nell Tiger Free / Lily Sullivan
John Williams presents perhaps one of the most profoundly human protagonists in his classic novel Stoner, effectively contrasting romanticism with stark realism through the decades of William Stoner's life. Williams meticulously crafts a narrative steeped in poignant naturalism, revealing a sincere authenticity in the portrayal of our mundane existence. This theme resonates with Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human, although it navigates through a somewhat less oppressive lens. Just as smilarly, Wim Wenders’s Perfect Days film echoes in its exploration of everyday life, although Wenders finds a bit more nuanced optimism.
As a character, Stoner embodies the intricate balance of stoicism and relatable ordinary humanity, serving as a cautionary figure against the perils of indecision and complacency. It is essential to clarify that this portrayal does not imply that Stoner squandered his life or allowed his aspirations to dissipate; rather, it encapsulates the quintessential struggle of seeking a meaningful existence as opposed to the hazards of passively drifting through life with a mindset of mediocrity and inaction. As much as Stoner comes off as likable, there were myriad a chapter where I found myself infuriated by his inability to take charge when it mattered.
This resonates with the sentiment of Hippocrates: "Ars longa, vita brevis," emphasizing the enduring nature of art against the ephemeral nature of life, inviting inner reflection on the pursuit of fulfillment amidst the brevity of our mortal existence.
Weird Tales ranked:
- The Call of Ctulu
- The Third Guy
- Disappear Donna
- The World Breaker
- Black God's Kill
- Up from Slavery
- Bait
- Church at the Bottom of the Sea
- The Damp Man
- Dead Jack and the Case of the Blood Fairy
- The Game
- Blood Moon
- Prezzo
- Legal Rites
- The Vengeance of Nitocris
- Jagannath
- Worms of the Earth
- The Scythe
- How to Make the Animal Perfect?
- Slaughter House
- Cupid is a Knavish Lad
- Vampire Chaser
- Lady Cataract Comes to the Mosque
I can see this easily being adapted into an anime. It's a whimsical retired assassin goes off the grid for love, but is never fully out of the game scenario. Leon the Professional as a chubby yet still nimble and deadly grocery store owner. Nothing new to the game, but still entertaining and with decent art.
Carnal, intimate, raw. Terrific world building within an incredibly brisk read that immediately made me think of a Fahrenheit 451 meets Soylent Green. Now before some of you look up the latter, do yourself a big favour and go into it blind. It's nowhere near disgusting enough as much word of mouth has indicated, but then again I'm just used to whatever is thrown at me. What I really love is the way Augustina Bazterrica weaves her dystopian narrative where human meat has been made legal in order to help with overpopulation, starvation, and various after effects of a global pandemic—there were a handful of pages that got a little too close to our COVID plagued reality. And if you think generally accepted cannibalism is where it stops, you'd be sorely wrong. Bazterrica treats us an assortment of twisted yet not too unbelievable scenarios like human poaching fields, sex clubs where dinner is the show, slaughterhouses that detail the efficient slaughtering of humans now called “heads,” and much more. If Goodreads allowed it, this rating would be a 3.5, not 3. I mentioned 451 earlier, and I do think the story and our protagonist Marcos, could have benefited from a Captain Beatty foil. My biggest gripe is that it wraps up a little too fast and despite its subtle thematically mind lingering coda, is rather anticlimactic.
Tender is the Flesh is very ready to be adapted to the screen, HBO miniseries or film, but I'm picturing Diego Luna as our lead, Ana de Armas as Marisa.
Post-apocalyptic food truck vendor with a mysterious—yet skilled—past stumbles upon a naked girl in the middle of the desert one day. What ensues is a quick paced, action comedy road trip of sorts as the two begin to learn more about one another while hunting for food, cooking delicious looking meals, struggling to find customers in the wasteland, oh, and being chased by an elite government military task force. A classic loner older man with a simple life meets naive young girl who gives him reason to fight again and live life scenario: there's definitely a Leon the Professional angle to the story with these two characters. Worth noting that there is a lot of nudity from Arisa—the mysterious “plot” girl—but the protagonist food truck chef balances it out by acting like her concerned father and always making an effort to cover her and teach her basic human lessons in comical ways. Crazy Food Truck doesn't reinvent anything nor does it particularly have an overwhelming originality angle, but it's drawn well, and leaves enough crumbs to the world that I'm intrigued to see it explained more. While I'm not rushing to get the following volumes, I will eventually check back in down the line. Like Sakamoto Days, I can see this becoming an anime adaptation.
This is where it really starts to rev up. Not to say everything prior was bad—not at all—but things begin to escalate and flesh out narratively here, establishing the tone and more meaningful stakes moving forward.
[4.5/5 if I could]
A must read for fellow fans of Yellowjackets, Netflix's Dark, Annihilation, The Forest game, and the recent Paramount+ show Significant Other. S.A. Harian's Briardark is an excellent psychological thriller with hints of sci-fi, and an interesting gamer/streamer perspective. I was as surprised as anyone to read the words Dead Space pop up in character, but it made me enjoy this relatable cast even more. It's a bit of a long read that does begin to drag towards the third act—losing some of the eerie traction—but I cannot wait to continue the exhilarating and often times creepy mystery in the follow up book! This would make for an excellent mini-series or movie.
FANCAST:
Siena DuPont: Mackenzie Davis/Maika Monroe
Cameron Yarrow: Kristen Stewart
Emmett Ghosh: Riz Ahmed/Dev Patel
Isaac Perez: Diego Calva
Holden Sharpe: Penn Badgley/Regé Jean-Page
Angel: Aubrey Plaza
Dr. Wilder Feyrer: Richard Jenkins
Dr. Meidei Chari: Indira Varma/Golshifteh Farahani
Ranger Frank Soledad: Gil Birmingham
Meet Sandy Kurtz, a 31-year old married man, soon to be father, history major, with a voracious albeit unique appetite. To put it mildly, Sandy is somewhat content in his dull life as an assistant floor manager in bathroom fixtures at his rural Michigan Lowes. But like many other people, Sandy struggles with finding meaning in his drab life: his sex life is minimal within the struggled marriage, he feels emasculated, and his small Midwest town is filled with Sasquatch fanatics, coworkers trying to get him into LARPing, and a bad case of unfulfilled small-town living. Oh, and I almost forgot, once a month—on a full moon—Sandy's body stretches, contorts, tears open, pops tendons, distends its jaw, and grows a thick layer of fur and matching razor sharp teeth and claws as he transforms into a bipedal hulking 7 foot tall, behemoth of a werewolf, prowling the woods near his home for wildlife to consume. The thing is, like with his everyday boring life cycle of Lowes kitchen sales, lack of friend circles, and a marital life in shambles, wildlife just isn't cutting it anymore; Sandy craves tastier meat, hungers for more than rodents and deer, needs more...deserves more so he thinks.
Darrin Doyle's dark comedy werewolf horror story packs a whole lot of wit and juicy gory detail into each of his sentences. There's an entertainingly fulfilling pleasure to his prose, making for quite a page turner—a popular literal appraisal I don't use liberally. I couldn't wait to sit back down and open up this beautifully covered book—seriously, the vibrant yellow cover with a prominent blood red man-wolf on the cover begs to be pulled off shelves—sinking my teeth in to feed my ferocious appetite. There's a really fun dichotomy to Sandy's struggle, stuck on autopilot within his own body throughout his dead-end job and lacklustre domestic life, contrasted with his momentary bloodthirsty apex power trips as the unstoppable lycanthrope. But Beast in Aisle 34 isn't all violence, blood, gore, and fur, Doyle does a great job at adding complex depth to his protagonist, while also painting a strikingly fervent depiction of cold rural Midwest life. I've already bought one of Doyle's prior books, The Dark Will End the Dark.
I highly recommend The Beast in Aisle 34 to any fellow fan of dark wit and werewolf tales—no surprise to see Doyle thank an early childhood viewing of An American Werewolf in London in the end. Beast in Aisle 34 would make for a great film, and I'm picturing Jesse Plemons as Sandy.
Finished this in one sitting right before bed. A little underwhelming, but the writing easily crafts mental images as you turn each creatively designed page. It is certainly one of the cooler aesthetic books I have read through.
A nostalgic feeling coming of age drama with hints of suspense. Reading this makes you feel like your own summer is coming to a close as the fair comes to town and your last chance to see some friends and shoot your shot at your crush arrive once more. I respect King for exploring different genres every once in a while, and I’m always pleasantly surprised when I read anything slightly raunchy coming from him—not to say Joyland is filled with it. This will definitely get picked up and adapted into a miniseries or film.
[NetGalley Advanced Copy Review]
From what I can tell, this manga (?) is from the Zombie Makeout Club clothing brand's webtoon: Deathwish. It doesn't take many pages for the heavy Junji Ito influence and deliberate emo Hot Topic horror aesthetic to ooze off the pages, filled to the brim with heavy thematic elements of suicide, body horror, gore, and overall existential dread. There is an explicit warning label on the backside, as I once again reiterate, this is a violent story that includes but is not limited to decapitation, blowing off one's jaw with a gun, limb dismemberment, plentiful killing, and various forms of grotesque mutilation. Yet despite all that, there wasn't anything here that made me cringe or dread looking at in further detail, so for fellow gore hounds and fans of body horror films and such, you're not going to run into anything extraordinarily original here. Some nice visuals that keep the tone consistent, but I personally need more than just cool looks.
The premise without spoiling anything revolves around a group of young adults who find that they've all come back to life for unknown reasons; each of the four main characters all committed suicide, and each of them apparently have an inexplicable bloodthirst. There's not a lot of meat to the plot, as there is a clear emphasis on style over substance thus far. As I read through, I got the overwhelming sensation that the author and artists were more interested in the aesthetic of the edgy characters and violence, than actually piecing together a coherent narrative with world building. I don't mind the art style—quite the opposite—as it's more so the lack of story that holds this back from reaching a better result. It felt as if each page was just another moment to show off someone being sliced and diced, or shot up in relation to the underlying suicidal foundation of each main character. There is certainly potential for growth here—as many manga take a few volumes to really get the ball rolling—all of which will be further benefitted from giving the readers a better perspective on the world these character inhabit and perhaps some more clear rules to their undead dilemma.
The copy I was granted to read by the fine folk at NetGalley was the entirety of volume 1, which is comprised of 168 pages, and is set to be released on November 22, 2022.
Not the best pacing, and a twist that I sort of like yet think would have worked better had this been a sequel book. Butcher and the Wren is unfortunately far too reliant on superior pop culture references to the point it became very tedious to get through the author's constant desires comparisons. I swear Silence of the Lambs is brought up at least 10 times. By the time things start to pick up, the book is nearly over and by the time the ending arrives, it over far too quickly and extremely underwhelming.
2.5 if GoodReads could. Far too bogged down by the high-school drama despite the characters all being in their late 20s-early 30s. The action and suspense was disappointingly far more sparse than one would expect from the synopsis, the alluring cover, and the word of mouth surrounding The Shuddering. This is my second Ahlborn book (I liked Brother), and given the Until Dawn vibes, I was expecting to really love this one; I'm a sucker for a isolated winters set thriller. As many others have made note of, the ending here certainly does leave a sour and lacklustre taste in the mouth, and I really wished Ahlborn had committed more to the survival action at hand.
ADAPTATION FANCAST:
- Jane: Zoey Deutch
- Ryan: Glen Powell
- Lauren: Halsten Sage
- Sawyer: Alden Ehrenreich
- April: Anya Chalotra (Yenn in The Witcher)
Not the best introduction to Grady Hendrix perhaps, as I found this IKEA parody comedy-horror to be lacking in both departments. It's a very cool concept—and one that an indie game Styr is being sued by IKEA for I believe—but one that just wasn't executed neither hauntingly nor comedic ally enough for my tastes. I won't spoil the reveal, but once we learn what is causing all these spooky occupancies at the Örsk store, I knew it wasn't going to be my jam; having not read the synopsis, I was actually under the assumption that this was about a supernatural killer hunting down the night crew at a knock-off IKEA. There is death, violence, and suspense throughout the story, but I just didn't connect to any of the characters, and nothing in particular gave me a vivid mental sensation of a eerie big box furniture store when nobody else is around. Not bad, not great, it was fine.
By no means am I going to stray from Hendrix's various positively spread word of mouth catalogue, but I can't shake the initial reaction that it wasn't everything I heard it praised to be.
Definitely suffers from not having Hodges as a starting character, instead reserving him and other familiar names from Mr. Mercedes till the back half of the book. Morris Bellamy is nowhere near as riveting and layered as Brady Hartsfield, which causes the plot to move quite slowly, and the tension to be quite tame. I do find it interesting that King dabbles into some thematic realms of art, artist, and admirer; with the antagonist essentially killing a world famous author because he had gripes with his style. And don't worry, this is info included in the synopsis, not a spoiler.
My friend has informed me that S02 of the Mr. Mercedes show is actually loosely integrates End of Watch (the third book in the Hodges trilogy), whereas S03 is a loose adaptation of Finders Keepers. So I guess I have to finish reading the trilogy before I can even start S02 of the show. Luckily for me, by coincidence it looks like we're getting a new Stephen King book soon, related to a character from this trilogy: Holly. Perfect timing.
Explicit scifi/action coming of age with horny teenage characters who are seemingly transported to a purgatory room upon death, and tasked by a mysterious future gear providing tech orb with hunting down a random alien threat. Should you succeed, you are sent back to your no longer normal life, unsure of when and where you'll be summoned back by Gantz. Recommended to me by my best friend for good reason, because he knows my anime/manga tastes very well—many of them being present within these pages—and because I liked the animated film on Netflix. Both the manga and the movie blend “plot” with depressive realism in mundane life, cool weapon/creature designs, and creative action sequences in accordance to the various unique Gantz weapon functions. Strong recommendation to fellow fans of Battle Royale, Akira, and Psycho-Pass. I have yet to dive into them, but I've been told that fellow seinen, Inuyashika and Blame! also share similar dark themes, mature development, and wtf moments.
[3.5]
Not counting short stories, I'd place Gerald's Game as my third fave King book, behind Mr. Mercedes and The Gunslinger. As some of you may know, I've been only now diving into Stephen King, but I also wanted to see this book's supposedly very good film adaptation from familial trauma expert, Mike Flanagan. I can now officially say that the Netflix released Gerald's Game might be one of if not the most accurate adaptation of a King work. I wouldn't have called this book “unfilmable,” but I guess I could understand elements of the book that would make some lesser travelled readers a bit queasy and uncomfortable. Of course there are some changes in the film, but nothing that ruins the experience nor anything added for no good reason.
If like me, you were expecting some cool horror/thriller twist based on how the book markets itself, avoid this. In a Dark Dark Wood is one of the most basic books I've read in a while, and the protagonist is one of the most idiotic. Really?!? 10 years from a teenage relationship, in addition to answering this decade old long cut off friendship invite?? Really? What are you thinking, and move the hell on.
Imagine the first act of a zombie apocalypse movie, but replace the undead hordes with waves of carnivorous spiders. As the first book of its series, it sure felt a little exhausting setting up the slew of underdeveloped characters and various settings due to its globetrotting nature bouncing around. I'm hoping the sequel is far more action/horror oriented, as the best parts of Hatching were the descriptive segments detailing the spiders hatching within living bodies and eating their way out.