Book Review - Murder Road by Simone St. James

Title: Murder Road
Author: Simone St. James
Genre: Thriller/ Mystery/ Horror
Published: 2024
 
Description: July 1995. April and Eddie have taken a wrong turn. They’re looking for the small resort town where they plan to spend their honeymoon. When they spot what appears to be a one hitchhiker along the deserted road, they stop to help. But nor long after the hitchhikers gets into their car, they see the blood seeping from her jacket and a truck barreling down Atticus Line after them.
 
When the hitchhiker dies at the local hospital, April and Eddie find themselves in the crosshairs of the Coldlake Falls police. Unexplained murders have been happening along Atticus Line for years and the cops finally have two witnesses who easily become their only suspects. As April and Eddie start to dig into the history of the town and that horrible strtch of road to clear their names, they soon learn that there is something supernatural at work, something that could not only tear the town and its dark secrets apart, but take April and Eddie down with it all.
 
Review: April and Eddie, a young newly-wed couple, have taken a wrong turn. They pick up a woman by the side of the road, who clearly needs help. When she enters the car, they see she’s bleeding and drive her to the hospital. The hitchhiker dies and April and Eddie are the prime suspects.
 
When trying to find out the truth, the road that they found the hitchhiker called Atticus Line, has a dark history. It seems that many people have been found dead there. The police is not really being friendly to April and Eddie, but they get help from a few of locals.
 
I consider Simone St. James one of my favorite authors. I have read three other books by her, which I had all rated 5-stars. I had high hopes for “Murder Road”. Even though I didn’t give it a perfect score this time, I really enjoyed her newest novel.
 
Where we normally follow different timelines in St. James’ stories, we only follow one in “Murder Road”. The story is set in 1995, which I really loved. I loved the 90s vibes, the nostalgia, pop culture references and the fact that the main man is called Eddie (Vedder, from Pearl Jam anyone?). The book had a supernatural element to it, which is also something this author does a lot. And again I enjoyed it. It’s a fast paced thriller that I couldn’t put down. I liked reading about the history of the town and that titular murder road. But, I did found the story a bit predictable and the ending felt a little lackluster.
 
Yet another win for Simon St. James. She still has a large backlist that I need to get to. “Murder Road” is not an all-time favorite, but I would recommend it to people who have loved her books before.
 
Rating: 4/ 5

Book Review - Pines by Blake Crouch

Title: Pines (Wayward Pines # 1)
Author: Blake Crouch
Genre: Mystery/ Science Fiction/ Thriller
Published: 2012
 
Description: Wayward Pines, Idaho, is quintessential small-town America, or so it seems. Secret Agent Ethan Burke arrives in search of two missing agents, yet soon is facing much more than he bargained for. After a violent accidents lands him in the hospital, Ethan comes to with no ID and no cell phone. The medical staff seems friendly enough, but sometimes feels… off. As days pass, Ethan’s investigation into his colleagues’ disappearance turns up more questions than answers.
 
Why can’t he make contact with his family in the outside world? Why doesn’t anyone believe he is who he says he is? And What’s the purpose of the electrified fences encircling the town? Are they keeping the residents in? Or something else out?
 
Each step towards the truth takes Ethan further from the world he knows, until he must face a horrifying fact – he may never get out of Wayward Pines alive…
 
Review: Secret service agent Ethan Burke arrives in Wayward Pines, Idaho, with one clear mission: to search and find two federal agents that were sent here month ago and went missing. But Ethan gets into an accident and ends up in the hospital. When he wakes up, his ID and cell phone are missing. He quickly realizes that something is very wrong in Wayward Pines. While investigating, Ethan gets more questions than answers.
 
“Pines” is the first book ne the Wayward Pines trilogy, by author Blake Crouch. There was a TV-show based on this books series, which was canceled after only two seasons. A shame, because I highly enjoyed the show and always wanted to know what would happen next. But, we never got that answer. I didn’t even realize that series was based on Blake Crouch’s books. I was ready to delve into the book series.
 
We mostly follow Ethan and his investigation. He is an interesting character. We know just as much as him, trying to find out the secrets of Wayward Pines. What happened to the two special agents? Why is this enormous electrical fence surrounding the town. Who took his personal belongings? Why can’t he get in contact with his wife? There are so many questions and just can’t stop reading, because you want to know what is going on.
 
“Pines” is a very action-packed and eventful story. It is a thriller, with mystery, horror and science fiction elements. And you constantly feel frustrated for Ethan, because nobody seems to be very helpful in Wayward Pines. There is a good character development for Ethan, we get know his background thoroughly and understand him.
 
I absolutely loved “Pines” and I will most definitely continue this series and want to read more by Blake Crouch. This is just right up my alley.
 
Rating: 5/ 5

Book Review - At Home with the Horrors by Sammy Scott

Title: At Home with the Horrors
Author: Sammy Scott
Genre: Horror/ Short stories
Published: 2022
 
Description: Just when you thought it was safe to go home again…

In this chilling collection of short fiction, Sammy Scott dares to explore the horrors that lurk behind your front door. In “Katherine” a lonely woan finds an unlikely companion when she discovers that her new house is haunted. A couple’s mundane argument quickly evolves into a night of terror in “Wat We Have Here”. A harried wife finds herself the victim of her husband’s pranks when he launches a YouTube channel titled “Scared Mary”. An antisocial teenager encounters a mysterious world when he begins looking into the windows of his neighbors’ homes in “Peeping Tommy”. A mourning widow is forced to relive her husband’s death when he calls her daily on her cell phone in “Theresa”. In “People You May Know”, a happily married man turns his life upside-down when he send a Facebook friend request to an old college flame that no longer remembers him. A woman sets a trap for her runaway cat and is horrified to find that she has captures “Something Else Entirely”. And in the conluding novella “Emil Boens”, a librarian regrets the day she reads a mysterious little book left behind in the library’s drop box.
 
Exploring both the natural and the supernatural, the alien and the ghostly, the chilling and the horrific, these fourteen diversions first root themselves in the mundanity of everyday life before extending their branches into the very things and ideas that terrify us all. In “At Home with the Horrors”, Scott brings the nightmares to the one place where we should all feel the safest, and shows us that when it comes to horror, grief, loss and guilt can be just as terrifying as ghosts and goblins.

Review: When it comes to short story collections, horror is my preferred genre. In “At Home with the Horrors”, author Sammy Scott tells 14 short stories that are all set within the safety of people’s own houses. The one place you should always be safe in. Each story starts out as an everyday type of story, but all have twisty tales to tell. This is one of the best short horror story collections I have ever read.
 
I’m not going to write about every story individually, but I’m going to shine the light on a few that really stood out and were favorites.
 
The first story that I really found scary was “Sisters”. I don’t believe this is a story that most people love or have on their favorites list, but I really enjoyed it. We follow Andrea who becomes the caregiver of this elderly lady, whose dead sadistic sister seems to be haunting her. It had such a creepy twist and it gave me the chills.
 
“Peeping Tommy” was not so much scary, but it really creeped me out. And the fact that Tom is making a habit of looking inside other people’s homes is not even the disturbing part, gives you an idea.
 
The two opening stories, “What We Have Here” and “Theresa” were really perfect for setting the tone of the book. They really got me in the right mood.
 
My favorite story was “Something Else Entirely”. Amy and Eric’s cat Sybill escapes home. Eric has to travel for work and Amy stays home trying to find Sybill. We follow the story from the perspective of Eric, who stays in contact with his wife via text and phone messages. When Sybill finally has returned home, Amy feels something is off and Sybil is not the same. I had major “Pet Semetary” vibes and I loved this story.
 
Another amazing story was “Emil Bones”, which is the longest story in the book and actually a novella. Helena works in a library, where she finds a mysterious book with an eerie poem in it about someone called Emil Bones. After reading it, strange things start to happen in her home. This was without a doubt the scariest story in the book.
 
A few stories I rated 3,5 stars, but the rest was al 4 or higher. “At Home with the Horrors” is a very solid horror story collection, that I can recommend to anyone who loves reading shorts horror stories.
 
Rating: 4/ 5
 

Book Review - First Lie Wins by Ashely Elston

Title: First Lie Wins
Author: Ashley Elston
Genre: Thriller/ Mystery
Published: 2024
 
Description: Evie Porter has everything a nice, Southern firl could want: a perfect, doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence and a garden, a fancy group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter does not exist.
 
The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and a location by her mysterious boss Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job.  
 
Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job will be different. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s staring to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes. Especially after what happened last time.
 
Because the one thing’s she’s worked her entire life to keep clean, the one identity she couls always go back to, her real identity, just walked right into this town. Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher, but then, Evie has always liked a challenge.
 
Review: When I read the synopsis of this book, I had a completely different vision of the story. I believed it to be a domestic type of thriller, about a woman with a secret past, telling lie after lie to keep that life a secret. “First Lie Wins” gives you something completely different and it’s a lot more complicated and layered as you might expect.
 
What we get is a game of deception in which Evie has to try to be one step ahead at all times. Which she doesn’t always manage to do. I loved the fact that the characters constantly tried to outsmart each other.
 
The story is told from the point of view of Evie, a woman you don’t know much about at the start. Secrets start to unfold along the way and you realize she is not who she claims to be. We have several flashbacks throughout the story, that give you a lot of backstory about Evie and her past life. It was very thrilling.
 
One thing did bother me though. Evie is supposed to be the best, or at least one of the best, in her field of work. For someone of that level of expertise, Evie makes a lot of strange, dumb and bad decision and mistakes. I’m not saying she is bad at her job, she certainly isn’t. But I found it hard to believe she was one considered one of the best.  
 
Even though the book took me by surprise, by turning out to be really different from what I expected it to be, the story itself doesn’t have many big plot twists. It wasn’t predictable, but there were no moments in the book where I was left shocked about what was happening.
 
I think “First Lie Wins” is a solid thriller, I did enjoy it for the most part. But it’s one of those books I will probably have forgotten about reading at the end of the year.
 
Rating: 3/ 5

20s Movie Review - Wonka

Director: Paul King
Genre: Musical/ Fantasy/ Adventure/ Family/ Comedy
Runtime: 116 minutes
Year: 2023
Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Oliva Colman, Calah Lane, Keegan-Michael Key, Jim Carter, Matt Lucas, Paterson Joseph, Hugh Grant, Sally Hawkins

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2024 MOVIE CHALLENGE
WEEK 14: A FANTASY FILM
 
Description: With dreams of opening a ship in a city renowned for its chocolate, a young and poor Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) discovers that the industry is run by a cartel of greedy chocolatiers.

Review: A young Willy Wonka has traveled all over the world, and is now ready to settle down somewhere and reveal his homemade chocolate to people. Easier said than done, especially since the mall in which he plans to open his own business us run by an evil trio of chocolatiers. Soon Wonka finds himself locked up working in a laundry basement, where his dream feel impossible.

There are many unsublte references to “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” and the original book. However, they are woven into the story and are not just simple crowd pleasers.

Wonka has been eccentric since he was a child. Timothée Chalamet took some mannerisms from Gene Wilder’s rendition. But her otherwise plays him in his own way. He portrays an energetic and naïve Willy Wonka who has yet to experience the necessary fall backs and has too much faith in human kind. Logical to approach it that way. Chalamet carries the movie effortlessly. Is there anything he can’t do?
Besides Willy Wonka, only two characters were in the original story: the Oempa Loempa and Slugworth as one of the evil chocolatiers. The other characters are all new and feel like they come from Roald Dahl’s imagination. Especially the ruthless and opportunistic adults.

“Wonka” contains a number of original songs. Again, not forced copies from the old movie, but no heavily modernized either. They are charming and some have the potential to be memorable.

The bond between Wonka and the young girl Noodle was so heartwarming, that scene in the zoo stole my heart and made me so happy. I also loved the backstory of Noodle. Sad, yet hopeful in the end. I was kind of skeptical about Hugh Grant as the Oompa Loompa, but he was surprisingly funny, even though I still believe it looked a bit weird.

“Wonka is a delightful film for the entire family, and adventure with good characters against the bad without becoming one-dimensional. I absolutely loved this film and that it also happens to be a musical is just a major win for me.

Rating: 4,5/ 5

90s Movie Review - Happy Gilmore

Director: Dennis Dugan
Genre: Comedy
Runtime: 92 minutes
Year: 1996
Starring: Adam Sandler, Carl Weathers, Julie Bowen, Christopher McDonald, Kevin Nealon, Allan Covert

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2024 MOVIE CHALLENGE
WEEK 13: A FILM FROM THE 1990S
 
Description: After his grandmother’s house is repossesses by the IRS, bad tempered hockey player Happy Gilmore (Adam Sandler) takes his talents to golf to earn the big bucks and get his grandmother’s house back.

Review: Adam Sandler can always pleasantly surprise you. He is not considered one of the best actors out there, but her has proven his acting cops several times. I have to say that “Happy Gilmore” is not one of those films, but it is one of the funniest Sandler films I have ever seen.

Sandler plays hockey player Happy Gilmore, who tries his luck at golf after his grandmother’s house has been repossessed by the IRS. He wants to make easy money. “Happy Gilmore” has a high entertainment value and is absolute worth watching. I love Adam Sandler’s hot tempered character, I somehow always find it funny when he start yelling.

I can honestly say that “Happy Gilmore” is a real good time and a good comedy.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

Movie Review - Poor Things

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Genre: Comedy/ Drama
Runtime: 141 minutes
Year: 2024
Starring: Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef
 
Description: An account of the fantastical evolutions of Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe).

Review: The intense cinematography takes some getting used to. The Victorian world in which monstrous Dr. Godwin Baxter conducts scientific experiments. There are all sorts of strange creatures running around that he has pieced together himself. His latest creation is Bella, brought to life, stomping around the house adrift and throwing everything around like a toddler. Everything is painfully sharp and oppressively portrayed.

Bella is a child inside a grown woman’s body, literally. She develops from a little girl to an adult in a very short period of time, has no understanding about social conventions, has to refine her motor skills. A toddler in a grown woman’s body is frightening and disruptive to watch, but Emma Stone at the same time makes her completely disarming in her dumbfounding looks when she is not allowed to do or say something. Stone won an Academy Award for her role as Bella, which makes perfect sense. She master the art of portraying Bella, she keeps you completely enthralled. She puts everything in her facial expressions and motor skills. It’s also a very daring role for Stone. She was already my favorite, but no one can beat her now. Stone is fantastic in “Poor Things”.

Willem Dafoe plays Bella’s father/ creator. For some reason Dafoe fits this film and its style perfectly. Mark Ruffalo plays the scummy lawyer Duncan Wedderburn, a completely different role for Ruffalo. He is also really strong.

“Poor Things” is wonderfully directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. His previous works, such as “The Killing of a Sacred Deer”, The Favourite” and “The Lobster” are also masterful pieces of art. But “Poor Things” will most likely become a new classic. For the average moviegoer this will be way too weird, because it’s a very weird film. But the good kind and I absolutely loved “Poor Things”. I already had high expectations, but it exceeded them.

Rating: 5/ 5