Review: Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes

This is my first time reading this author, and I have to say I was quite impressed. I had heard of this author and how good her book, The Shining Girls was. So I decided to check out this book as it was readily available at the time.

This book is about a murder that takes place in Detriot but it was not the typical crime scene. No, this scene was something out of a nightmare....the body of the victim was grafted with the back end of a deer. Who did this? And what kind of person would do this?  Soon more bodies show up that are "transformed" and the detective working this case realizes they have a serial killer on their hands. Other bodies are discovered that are monstrous constructions. But the truth may be more sinister than anyone involved can imagine.

This book was told from the vantage point of five characters. At first, I wasn't sure how all of these very different people would later connect. There is a subtle idea of them all having dreams for the future. At some points, the killer is referred to in the 3rd person as "the dreamer". There isn't much of a mystery about who the killer is for most of the story. Sometimes the story kind of sidetracks into the personal lives and backgrounds of the characters and seems unnecessary But I think these breaks into the story helped to solidify the personality traits of the individuals involved in order to appreciate their role in the finale of the story.  And by the end of the book, each character kinda drifts or is drawn into the final showdown. But the suspense and scenes are evenly paced with a surprise near the end. What you thought was happening quickly becomes something else.

I found this to be very well written, and it even reminded me of other horror authors such as Peter Straub and Stephen King. The story was interesting and captivating enough to be very enjoyable. I rated this 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.com, and am looking forward to reading a few of her other books.
                                                UK and Canada - click here to purchase 

All other nations can shop through this link -  http://www.bookdepository.com/?a_aid=geekpron

 

Movie Review: Goodnight Mommy

This film has been on my watch list for quite some time, and I just recently got the chance to watch it. For those who have not heard of it; it is an Austrian film about twin boys awaiting the return of their mother from the hospital after she has had plastic surgery. it's never explained why she had surgery, but that is not really important for the flow of the story. She returns and is acting differently than before, such as taking photos out of the family album and walking in to search the boys' room.  There is also one scene which is featured in the trailer where she walks out into the woods to disrobe.

Odd behavior that normal people just do not do, such as going for naked walks in the woods and ripping photos out of the family album. So the boys question whether she is their real mother or someone who has taken her place.

This film is very slow to get going and you the viewer mostly follow the twins around the estate doing what boys usually do. They explore and run through the woods near their home.  The mother does do some strange things and we see the boys start to question who this lady is. Is she a doppelganger? They even ask her at one point "Where is our mother?".  Is there something sinister going on? 

Not until the very last 10- 15 minutes of the movie do we understand what is really going on. I won't spoil it for you as this is the plot twist that gives you the aha moment where strange past scenes start to make sense. You may even want to go back and rewatch this after the ending so that things come out more clearly.  I'll admit I got bored at times with this film, but the end all I did enjoy it and rated it 3 out of 5 stars. 

Review: Clean Room Vol. 1 Immaculate Conception

This was on my recommendations list for quite awhile before I finally got around to reading it. I mean the title seems not to lead to any real clues as to what it's about and the cover seems kind of generic. So that was why I was not in a big rush to read this. But this is not too bad. I totally did not expect it to be what it is. Which is kind of hard to explain and even harder to pinhole this into one genre alone. I would say Weird fiction is the best match as it combines elements of horror, the supernatural, and possibly science fiction....along with a good dose of mystery and suspense.

The story revolves around a few major players who are apart of the mystery which I will not go into detail as that would spoil part of the charm of this book. Others have compared this to Fatale, and I can see the comparison being a worthy one, as that series also relied heavily on supernatural and mystery elements to keep the reader interested. But with this being said this is not a book for everyone. It does contain mature subject matter and at times disturbing scenes/imagery. I rated this book 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. Some folks loved this and others just didn't like it. I thought it's a decent enough read and I will continue on with the next 2 volumes although I did find some things kind of silly.

Click the above link to purchase your own copy. 

Orphan Black Comics(Media Tie Ins)

I'm assuming you have discovered this post because you are a fan of the Orphan Black TV series. Most fans of the BBC America show are unaware of the media tie in comic book series. I too did not know about these comics until I got the chance to read and review Orphan Black: Helsinki from Netgalley. This volume helped to flesh out the characters that were recently introduced in this past season of the show.  I enjoyed learning about Mika, and her involvement in discovering the clone conspiracy.
These comics help to fill in some of the gaps in the TV show. It's not required reading but if you want to learn more about the characters I would suggest reading these books. Below I have included links to where they can be purchased.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I have, and thank you for reading this brief post. Please feel free to subscribe to see more geeky posts.

Book Review: California by Eden Lepucki

When I first heard about this book, and that it was considered a Post Apocalyptic fiction I was immediately intrigued. I guess growing up during the cold war and seeing many films that dealt with the threat of doomsday have created this fascination with this media for me. So I added it to my to be read list, and decided to get to it sometime in the future. Working in a library I am bombarded by books everyday( an occupational hazard), and I saw that we had this book on our best sellers shelves.

Upon reading this book you are introduced to the two main characters, Cal and Frida. They are a married couple living in a simple what is best described as a shack in the middle of nowhere.  One of the things that makes this book so interesting is the mystery of how this future came to be within the story. As you get further into it you are given small tidbits of what occurred to these people to make them end up living in the forest, and on the edge of civilization. For instance at the start of the book Frida often thinks of how things used to be, and she keeps random "treasures", which she calls her artifacts. One of these items is something that is obviously a piece of technology that is only referred to as the device.  We are given clues about the economy failing, and extreme weather conditions.  The mystery, the secrets, and lies definitely help make this a page turner.  While reading this it made me think a lot about what makes a civilization, and how vital interacting with other people is, and how sometimes it can be so dangerous too. The things we don't think about such as human nature, and elements of government.  How would we react to the failing of our society, and  a stunted economy. Choosing to only interact with close communities. While reading this it brought to mind a lot of the things that we tale for granted when it comes to society,civilization, and just what being human means to survive. This book could be a stand alone but leaves room for a sequel. I do not know if the author intends to pick up the world of California again or to leave it be? I rated this 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. If you are into dystopian or thrillers this book may appeal to you.




 

The New 52 Joker makes me want to read more Batman Comics

I recently finished reading Joker: Death of the Family, which is a New 52 book.  I'm really enjoying this revamp of DC's characters. I mean I didn't mind reading the occasional Batman book, but this new rendition of classic heroes, and villains has got me wanting more. This book in particular features a more mature, and grisly storyline that past Bat books didn't live up to. For some reason the Joker had removed his face and went into hiding leading everyone to believe he was dead. But he returns to let the Bat Family know that he is alive, and out to make their lives complicated. Batman, and a few other players are trying to analyze just why the Joker has done this, and why he seems to love torturing Batman.

I loved the way the story was introduced by Joker wannabe's staring trouble throughout Gotham, and the Bat gang had to solve the crime. This lead into Harley Quinn discovering that her lost love is still alive, and she has conflicted emotions about it. I will not get too much more into the story, as I do not want to spoil it. But It would have been nice to learn why Joker had removed his face, and I am going to read some back issues to discover this for myself. The artwork was great, and the Joker himself looked especially demented and nightmarish looking almost like Leatherface with his own face being worn as a mask. The further use of grotesque imagery just made this story that much better. Also the surprise ending of each comic book with the covered tray, and the wanting to know just what is under it kept me wanting more. The suspense of just finding out what he was up to compelled me to fly through this very large graphic novel.  If you are a fan of Batman/Joker already and you have yet to read this you really should soon. If you have never really gotten into Batman, but you are a fan of mystery, and horror you should check this volume out.

The Unwritten : The mystery, fun and a boy Wizard

So Goodreads recommended The Unwritten to me, and since I have been reading comics that they recommend I decided to give it a try.

The first volume really had me in awe. I had fallen hard for this book, and the reasons for this were mostly because of the mystery of just what was the true reality behind this story.

Here is my review of the first volume.

So being that I loved the first volume I couldn't wait to get into the second volume, and I enjoyed it, but it just seemed to lack something that I quite couldn't place my finger on. This didn't discourage me, because let's face it not every part to a series is going to be great.

So then I got to volume three, and was let down hard. So the author no longer eludes to the mystery of the main character being a boy wizard, but he is the persona from the story books. Plus there was supposed to be this big reveal about Lizzie Hexam, and her background story, which turned out be nothing but a cheap "choose your adventure" spin. There was no clear answer to the background of this character, and no matter how many ways you tried it, as they were all varied.  This gave me the impression that the author didn't take the role of this major character that seriously, and why should I the reader either.

Even after all of this I picked up and started to read what I later discovered was to be a prequel to the whole series, and some had said was the book that should introduce new readers to the storyline.  I will admit that I had to drag myself through this read, as I found the whole "boy wizard" theme with latin spells too be really silly and frankly very immature for a mature recommended story.  This is probably one of the main reasons why I have yet to read Harry Potter.  So I was very disappointed by the maturity level of what should have been an adult book. It seemed as if the author is only trying to appeal to the Harry Potter fans, and I may read another volume, but this is one series I could care less to finish in it's entirety. 

I had found out from researching this book that the whole series was "never intended" to be like Harry Potter, but I kind of doubt that. The author had said that the main point of this series was how a child could have a book series fashioned after them and the fame of dealing with that. He used the example of Chris Milne, who was the basis for Christopher Robin in the Pooh books. I also discovered that this story later crosses over with another Vertigo series that I enjoyed in the beginning Fables.