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 

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Review - Hellboy : Into the Silent Sea

Yet again Mignola does not let us down with another Hellboy tale.  Actually, I found this story to be better than previous HB stories due to the artwork. The art was what enthralled me and made me want to read through this story as quickly as I did. The art has an engraving/woodcut look to it that reinforces the time shift that HB experiences.

The use of nautically themed poetry adds to the mystery of HB's seemingly self-discovery trip of him wandering the world. The reader is reminded of how he quit the agency to do some soul searching at the beginning of this tale. 

Where he ends up is the main part of the story and one in which I cannot spoil for you. But this was well worth reading. I really enjoyed revisiting this character, and the outcome of the tale was satisfying as well. I rated this 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads, and recommend it for fans of Mignola's works.

Review: Abe Sapien Vol. 1 The Drowning

I've read a ton of Hellboy trades and a few BPRD books but I had never read this miniseries featuring one of my favorite HB sidekicks. Of course being that it's the merman, Abe Sapien this was Aquatic themed from the start, and he goes on a special mission that requires his aquatic abilities. The mission takes place in a small fishing village off the coast of France, and one that has a dark past. It turns out as do all of these Mignola tales that something sinister is afoot.

This was my first time reading an Abe solo story and wasn't sure how it would go, and the funny thing is that the title character feels and has similar doubts because he usually tags along with HB.

This read like a movie and it flowed beautifully. There were no dull moments with this first volume. I do not regret checking this out and honestly was not aware of this series until recently. Like I said it was action packed and of course paranormally packed too. I rated this 4 out of  5 stars on Goodreads and would recommend this to any fan of the Hellboy series.

                                                              

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: Injection by Warren Ellis Volumes 1- 3

I recently finished reading the third volume of this series which is weird, different and kinda great. In the words of Image comics taken from their site - "...there were five crazy people, and they poisoned the 21st Century. Now they have to deal with the corrosion to try and save us all from a world becoming too weird to support human life. It is science fiction, tales of horror, strange crime fiction, techno-thriller, and ghost story all at the same time." So yeah it's quite the mix of genres. 

The first volume introduces the concept of the Artificial Intelligence and how it is manipulating the world to create paranormal events, and we meet part of the team responsible for its creation. This was a great start for the series. I thought it was okay but it had enough to keep me interested and wanting to continue on with the series. The second volume introduces yet another member of this team and one who is kind of Hannibal Lector meets Sherlock Holmes kinda vibe. 

This story was way better than the first but left me feeling that the story did not live up to its expectations. The third and I'm assuming final volume (I assume final because the last issue was released in Nov. 2017 and there is no news about a follow up). Was very intense and I felt the story had finally reached its potential. Of course, the third volume ended on a cliffhanger, and I do not know if Ellis will ever finish this story. This last volume had the perfect blend of fantasy, horror, and science fiction, and a nice nod to Dr. Who with a comment from a student about it not really being bigger inside.

I rated the first volume 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads and the other 2 both 4 stars. I really hope that Warren Ellis picks this back up and continues on with this story because it would be bad to end this series just as it started to get good. I also called a few comics shops and there was no word of this very infrequent book coming back.  Below is the complete hardcover edition which features 3 volumes. 


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Review: Hellboy in Hell Vol. 2 Death Card

If you are like me then you absolutely love Hellboy. To be honest I don't think I have ever read a bad Hellboy book or even one that I did not enjoy. Of course one of the good things about Mignola's Hellboy is his stylistic drawing style that emphasizes heavy lines of shadow.

But enough of why Hellboy is so good. I read Hellboy in Hell Vol. 1 and of course I enjoyed that one too. So when I got the opportunity to read and review the follow-up, and finale for this series I jumped at the chance. This continues on with Hellboy's adventure through Hell. It features short stories about different people who have gone to Hell for some reason or another. Now I do not know if these are based on actual people, but there was a section of the book where it talked about them as if they were real people. The title is Death Card due to one short story being based on a gambler who could never lose. I really enjoyed reading this, and I rated it 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. This releases on Oct. 18, 2016. Below I have included a link so you can pre-order a copy now.

Stranger Things Season 1 Review

Lately, it seems that people are obsessed with things from the '80's. SO it's not really surprising to see a show with this theme. If you have not heard of this series yet....I would be surprised if you had not as everyone seems to be talking about it.
Every episode starts out with a scene where something happens to get you interested in seeing more, and then the title scene which kinda reminds me of some old '80's movies such as Stephen King's Cat's Eye or Halloween 3: Season of the Witch. There is even some toned down coloring to the logo and the eerie music really enforces this classic horror movie feel.

So the first episode starts out with the introduction of Will and his friends playing D&D. Immediately we get a liking to these kids because "hey that was us". Will rides home afterward and is approached by something we never quite see until much later in the series. After the title scene, we learn that he has disappeared.

The disappearance of Will and the mystery of just what it was is the main part of this show. Almost as a replacement, another character soon appears as a girl named "Eleven".  She is just as mysterious as the creature that has abducted Will. I will say no more about this series so as not to spoil it if you have not seen it.

This is definitely one of those shows that will have you hooked and I will admit that I watched all 8 episodes in 2 days. I was very impressed with this series, and the acting of Winona Ryder, although one of my friends was annoyed by her and thought someone else would have made the role better. I think she did a very good job of portraying a distraught mother who would do anything to get him back. The friendship between the boys as they imagine this to be like one of their D&D adventures to rescue their friend also made this quite enjoyable. I rated this 5 out of 5 stars, and cannot wait to see the second season. I do hope that any further seasons of this series will not disappoint.

This Week in Review: 2/26/16

So I read a few more books this week than last week. I read some interesting ones for sure.

1. 2. 3. 4.

5. 6. 7. 8.

9. 10.

Priest (2011) Film Review

Just finished watching this futuristic vampire apocalypse film from 2011. Like others who wanted to see this film... I saw the trailer and was impressed by the fast paced action scenes, and dark imagery.  It wasn't until I started to watch this that I discovered that it was based on a comic book from Tokyo Pop of the same name. So I never read this title, and may have to check it out due to having seen this movie.

Set many years in the future vampires have revealed themselves to humanity , and took over. An all out war happened, and the surving humans think they have eradicated the vampires.  Society is watched over by Vampire Hunting Priests...hence the title. A human girl (with ties that are later revealed in the film)is kidnapped, and the main character Priest (Paul Bettany) has the mission to recover her and try to kill the vampire queen. There are very few dull moments, and this is a very fast paced action packed film. I would say this is like "Mad Max meets Dracula" type of film. For those who like vampire films or action films this is a good one to see. Although I did only rate this 3 out of 5 stars on Netflix.  I just wished that a little more background and introduction to the main characters would have made this more enjoyable for me.

Under the Skin Film Review

I just recently viewed Under the Skin starring Scarlett Johansson, who is known for her role as Black Widow in the Avengers movie.  I found out about this movie because it's trailer was featured in another movie that I had watched. It seemed interesting because it is a horror scifi about an alien who kills unsuspecting men by swallowing them up into a black liquid. I now know in retrospect that really sounds lame, and it is. I figured at the time that if this actress took the time to work in this film that it must be decent.

First off I have to say that this film is strange, and weird. I get that it is trying to be an art film, and one where there must be something I missed. This films main plot is the star sitting in her van like a creeper waiting for men to approach her, and then like a "black widow" (pun intended) lures them back to her abode to eat them.  If they had made the alien a male this would not have worked because it is just plain stalkerish and creepy. But somehow these guys are dumb enough to go with her, and once they enter her house it's black all around...really?? I think that this is the directors way of implying that the preys focus is entirely on the alien seductress. She slowly undresses and they let their erections lead them into black pooling water until they are swallowed up by it. They are stored there until another guy gets swallowed up and then they are eaten. Which is another bizarre conveyor type scene of red and lights. I won't go into any details about this as it was just STRANGE.  But the strangeness doesn't stop there. At one point she even picks up this deformed guy, and you are wondering is this a mercy killing or is the screenwriter that cruel??? This alien also has helpers who ride motorcycles and they never explain what they do besides the fact that we know they help her get some guys. Plus the deformed guy runs naked from the house, but wait didn't he get eaten by the black goop too???? It's a serious of event like this that made my head spin and wonder what was going on in this movie. Near the end it gets even stranger, so I'll try to explain this without spoiling it.  She runs away from her stalker van and meets a guy on the bus....goes back to his place and actually has sex with him. But immediately afterwards pulls the lamp off the table and looks at her genitals....wtf??? I won't spoil the ending for you guys but it ends just as strange as this whole movie was. I rated this 2stars out of 5 on Netflix. Honestly the only reason to watch this film is to see the starlet, Scarlett Johansson nude. Other than that don't waste your time on this heap of crap.

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.