Welcome to WeeklyWilson.com, where author/film critic Connie (Corcoran) Wilson avoids totally losing her marbles in semi-retirement by writing about film (see the Chicago Film Festival reviews and SXSW), politics and books----her own books and those of other people. You'll also find her diverging frequently to share humorous (or not-so-humorous) anecdotes and concerns. Try it! You'll like it!

Category: Reviews Page 47 of 65

“San Andreas” Showcases San Francisco & Dwayne Johnson

“San Andreas,” the film about San Francisco and a lot of the rest of California falling apart during a 9.6 “largest-in-recorded-history” earthquake, makes you want to move away from the Bay area if you live there. [Full disclosure: I once went through a small earthquake while a student at Berkeley. It was a weird feeling to find that the ground under your feet was moving. I remember bracing myself in a doorway until the shaking of the very earth beneath my feet stopped.]

“San Andreas” is a film in the grand tradition of such disaster films as “Earthquake” and “Towering Inferno.” I once took a busload of students to the Cinema Showcase in Milan to see both of those on a double bill; it was dubbed the “Shake & Bake Special.”

I also just saw “Mad Max: Fury Road” (Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy) and I can reliably report that each film reduces the script to almost no lines of dialogue while non-stop action (some of it implausible) is run by the audience. It’s almost as though Hollywood believes that the attention span of the average theater-goer these days is that of the average gnat and has decided to cater to an audience (usually younger) that can barely concentrate on anything for more than 5 minutes. (And certainly not without getting out their cell phones to text something to someone.)

“Mad Max” may get the edge for having the craziest set design, but the C.G. (computer graphics) team that has simulated a record-shattering earthquake followed by a “Perfect Storm” like tsunami, gets points for visually stunning us with those images. I  wrote down some of the names of the special effects whizzes who helped make this earthquake movie and, after I had listed hy drau lx, Method Studios, CineSite, Atomic Fiction, Soho VFX, and Image Engine, I was surprised to learn that most of the film was shot in Australia.  (Abbey Road studios is also given credit for the score and British Columbia gets a shout-out.)

For acting, I’d have to give the nod to “San Andreas'” crew, as the rationale for anything that happened in “Mad Max: Fury Road” was lost in the incomprehensibly thick accents of the first 30 minutes and the total craziness of the entire concept. At least in “San Andreas” we understand that, like Brad Pitt in “World War Z,” The Rock wants, most of all, to save his family from a natural disaster.

To that end, we learn that The Rock knows how to  hot-wire a car, drive a mean speedboat, pilot both a helicopter and a regular airplane, parachute from a plane he is abandoning in the air, swim quite capably when required, and can also bring people back from the dead. I was going to say “Leap tall buildings in a single bound” but that’s a different hero.

When my husband and I were in Las Vegas recently, listening to a time share presentation, the attractive young girl who led us through the Hilton shared with us the information that her husband is “The Rock’s” stunt double (and she did some stunt work in film, as well). If this is true, that man certainly got a workout in “San Andreas,” which is loaded with stunts and CG effects.

Dr. Lawrence Graver, the scientist at California Institute of Technology who has been warning about a major earthquake event for years, is played by the always-convincing Paul Giametti. Carla Giugino (“Night at the Museum”) who plays the Rock’s about-to-be ex-wife is fine in her part. The twenty-ish daughter, played by Alexandra Daddario, is good—although she looks NOTHING like either one of the actors playing her parents. The annoying British brothers could have been crushed under a car in the parking garage who help the damsel in constant distress could have been crushed in the parking garage with no noticeable loss to the movie—especially the actor playing Ben Taylor (Hugo Johnstone-Burt), British accent and all. His younger brother, Ollie (Art Parkinson), is no less annoying, but the family dynamic that drives Dwayne Johnson’s heroic rescue attempts will keep you rooting for the home team (pun intended).

I would have cast Ioan Gruffudd (who plays mogul Daniel Riddick) as the love interest for the well-stacked Alexandra, but he is relegated to looking good (great hair!) in his private plane and his huge buildings (“The Gate”), right up until he turns into a cowardly cad. (I did  wonder: how did the character played by Carla Gugino ever meet a millionaire mogul like Daniel Riddick? Young unmarried girls want to know!) At first, I honestly thought that Daniel Riddick was going for help for the hapless Alexandra. Later, he is portrayed as a cad, over and over, to the point of outright laughter, almost. To say he is not missed when his character arc ends is putting it mildly.

Two other actresses in the cast deserve mention.  Archie Punjabi, who has capably played the investigator character Kalinda on “The Good Wife” until recently, turns up as a TV newswoman named Serena. The role of Daniel Riddick’s ex-wife Susan is played  by singer/actress Kylie Minogue, who takes the wrong staircase in her attempts to escape the catastrophe when it strikes.

This New Line/Village Roadshow/Ratpac-Dune Entertainment offering was as entertaining as “Mad Max: Fury Road,” although you have to give a nod to the “real” stunts that were pulled off in the latter. Even though I took Earth Science in college and learned about upthrusting and down faulting, I have no idea if the statistics and historic facts cited in the movie are true or false.  Is it true that the worst earthquake in history was a 9.5 in Valdiva off the coast of Chile that lasted for eleven minutes? Is there even a place called “Valdiva”? Did the earthquake in Anchorage, Alaska in 1964 really measure 9.1 on the Richter Scale? Did a tsunami really level Hilo, Hawaii, 8,000 miles away from a big earthquake? Was that big previous earthquake really the equivalent of 10 million atom bombs? Is Iran capable of leashing this earthquake power?

I kept remembering Naomi Watts in her 2012 tsunami movie “The Impossible,” for which she earned an Academy Award nomination. I remembered how her exposure to the water in the Thailand tsunami made her cuts and scrapes horribly infected, whereas Ben Taylor (Hugo Johnstone-Burt) has a large piece of glass stuck  in his upper thigh (which would probably have severed the femoral artery and killed him) but walks around and swims around as though it is merely a twisted ankle with no noticeable long-term problems.

I know none of these answers, but would refer you to Carlton Cuse, the unknown director who also co-wrote the script.

Meanwhile, here are a couple of observations: the opening sequence is a testimony as to why young people should not text and drive. The young girl in the car is listening to Taylor Swift when she texts and crashes. It’s an object lesson. (“Let that be a lesson to you!”)

Lines that I enjoyed: When the question is asked “Who should we call?” as the crack earthquake-tracking team at Cal Tech is realizing the severity and seriousness of the situation, my spouse leaned over and said, “Ghostbusters!”

When “The Rock” and his lady land in whatever the name of the baseball park is in San Francisco  (I’m so old that it was Candlestick, when I attended a game at that San Francisco ballpark in 1965), they parachute in, land on the playing field, and The Rock says, “It’s been a while since I got you to second base.”

I’d say that if you are so hyped up on video game action that you are one silly millimeter away from being diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (with hyperactivity), you will enjoy both “San Andreas” AND “Mad Max: Fury Road” but I have to warn  you that I nearly went deaf in Chicago from the volume of the soundtrack at the Icon on Roosevelt Road. I’ve also been warned NOT to bother with 3D

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yftHosO0eUo

for “San Andreas” as some who saw it in 3D said the color was washed out.

So, now you know, if you’re thinking of taking in either of the two new films in town in the near future.

 

 

Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen Dish at Chicago Theater on May 16

Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen are friends who have taken their friendship and celebrity on the road for an evening of gossip and commentary. Since both are mega-stars in their respective fields, the Chicago Theater was sold out, and the entertainers did not disappoint.
The two interviewed each other and interspersed their comments with film clips.  I knew very little about Andy Cohen, since I do not watch his “Real Housewives” series, and that was a disadvantage as the evening wore on and numerous women lined up to ask the less-serious Andy about his shows. One woman asked: “Which is the dumbest housewife?” but Cohen chose not to diss that one.

Some brief biographical information was conveyed through film and commentary, and I learned that when Anderson Cooper’s 23-year-old brother, Carter, committed suicide (Anderson was 21) he jumped from the 14th floor ledge of Gloria Vanderbilt’s Manhattan penthouse while she watched. This, said Cooper, has informed everything he has done in life since. He indicated that perhaps he likes to be where tragedy has struck to see how others deal with it and survive.

Another bit of gossip concerned Gloria (Vanderbilt’s) hooking up with Marlon Brando, something that Carol Matthau (wife of Walter) arranged back when Brando was in his prime. As he put Gloria in a cab in the morning, he said, “You have Japanese skin.” (Whatever that means.) This was Brando in his prime and sexy days, Cooper stressed.

Another interesting story concerned the gentleman that does a cheek swab and then traces one’s lineage. He discovered that the Cooper side of the family had a great great grandfather who had owned slaves and had, in fact, been hacked to death by one of his slaves, using a hoe. (Ben Affleck recently called and asked that this information be omitted from his geneology report.)

The evening was a hit for fans of either gentleman, gays, and fans of the real Housewives of wherever. The only real housewife I had ever heard of was Theresa Guidici because she went to jail. After that, Nene Leaks was another I knew had been on one of his shows, because she appeared on “The Celebrity Apprentice” and, also, briefly on “The New Normal.”

I enjoyed the evening, as I knew I would,  and the event was sold out.

Australian Author/Illustrator Pens Children’s Book About Depression

 

Austalian author/illustrator Susan Day.

Austalian author/illustrator Susan Day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Australian artist/illustrator Susan Day has turned out another in her colorful Astro series. (ISBN 10 – 1507782748; ISBN 13 = 978-1507782743 from www.grannyshillpublishing.com) [Astro, for those who know the series, is a dog.]

This rhyming Astro book is designed to help young children cope with depression. It is Day’s hope to be able to place a copy of her book in every school in that country, an admirable goal.

As Susan Day and fellow-educator Jenny Graham explain, this is a teaching resource book, meant to assist in helping create kids who are resilient. The authors recommend sending a note home from school to parents to notify them if a unit is going to be taught on depression, anxiety or suicide, to have a box set up that would allow troubled youth to post anonymous letters, and to have posters on display that advise of places where students can turn for help. The authors even give a “hot line” number (which, in the United States, is 1-800-273-8255 for the USA Lifeline.) 

The book features Day’s delightful colorful illustrations of dogs who stop by to advise Astro about how to cope with his depression. With a title like Astro is Down in the Dumps, the author, through characters like Digger, Alfie, Stella, Indy, Rocky, and Dotty the Dal suggest, in order, food, painting, exercise, writing, drawing and, of course, sharing one’s depression/ emotions with others.

And the book rhymes, too!

The quote “Anyone can create art. All you do is make a start” immediately made me think of George W. Bush’s post-presidential foray into the art world. I don’t know why, but that depressed me. I generally am depressed thinking about anything George W. Bush ever did, and his art work was particularly amateur-ish (Anybody else remember his portrait of Vladimir Putin? Bueller? Bueller?)

So I decided I would follow Rocky’s advice: “I grab my journal and write, About being so uptight. I don’t stop until I’m feeling great, Even if it’s getting late.”(For me, if I’m writing, it’s always late).

That advice cheered me up a lot about “W’s” artwork (although not the rest of his legacy) and I thought Stella’s advice (“I call my friend from far away, Not once, but nearly every day. And she listens while I explain , About the things that cause me pain.”) was very good, as is this book.

Astro's Down in the Dumps rhyming children's book about depression.

Astro’s Down in the Dumps rhyming children’s book about depression.

 

 

 

 

 

Last, but certainly not least, was this thought: “To be kind is more important than to be right; many times what people need is not a brilliant mind that speaks, but a special heart that listens.”

New Review for “Hellfire & Damnation III”

on March 17, 2015
Format: Kindle Edition
This is simply a great book and if there’s any one story that stands out to me, it’s Circle 5: Wrath and Sullenness. I don’t want to spoil that tale or any of the others but that one stands out to me and by itself represents what made this a great book.
When a writer like C.C. Wilson taps into something that is so resonant and powerful as the material covered in Circle 5, you can never tell where you will end up. In just a few pages, Wilson is able to craft and spin a yarn that pulls you in and takes you to some of the darker recesses of the human spirit, the darker side of our very nature. Sometimes an author can tell you a story about a monster stalking you and it will be spooky and creepy. Wilson, though, she tells you that the monster isn’t lurking in the shadows and dogging your every step, it’s inside of you, trying to get out and that the worst aspects of human nature are where the real monsters come from and that sometimes . . . it’s not all going to be okay. Spectacular work!

New Blog Tour Review from the U.K.

Here’s a link to today’s review from Nylah in the United Kingdom. There are also 12 other reviews up on Amazon.

Check out Nylah’s Words of Wisdom:

Winter Reads : BOOK TOUR: Hellfire and Damnation III by Connie Corcoran || INTERVIEW, REVIEW,…

sunshinesunscreenandabook.blogspot.co.u

Correction: Complete Virtual Tour List Below

 

 

It has been called to my attention that I did a poor job of posting all the stops on the blog tour. I left off half of them. Therefore, the complete list is printed below:

Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus Mar 13 Spotlight & Giveaway

Xmas Reads Mar 16 Interview & Giveaway

Amber Stults – Reviewer and Writer Mar 19 Review & Excerpt

Lisa’s Writopia Mar 20 Review

Indie Review Behind the Scenes Mar 20 Live I 6 pm cst

Cassandra M’s Place Mar 23 Review & Giveaway

What U Talking Bout Willis? Mar 25 Review & Excerpt

Pinky’s Favorite Reads Mar 31 Interview & Excerpt

TrulySimplyPink Apr 1 Review & Excerpt

fuonlyknew Apr 10 Review, Excerpt & Giveaway

Deal Sharing Aunt Apr 14 Review

Not Now…Mommy’s Reading Apr 28 Review, Interview, & Giveaway

Let it also be noted that there is a give-away of an E-book copy from this blog, and a give-away of 5 paperback copies from Goodreads, if you apply there. Also, watch for some upcoming news of KDP Kindle dates for reduced price or (potentially) free dates in future newsletters. (To make sure you get the notification, sign up at the top of this page.)

Apologies to the bloggers for my oversight. My laptop is in the shop and it has been a nightmare working without it.

 

Virtual Tour Starts Today (March 13th)

Aside from suddenly realizing that this tour is beginning on Friday the 13th (ahem), I will repeat the information that there should be a review and a giveaway up on a blog entitled Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus today.

Next tour stop will be on March 16th at XmasReads with an interview and a give-away.

On March 19:  Amber Stults: Reviewer and Writer, with a Review and an excerpt.

March 20:  Lisa’s Writopia – Lisa has already posted a review of H&D II, so now read her reaction to H&D III.

March 20 -Indie Review Behind the Scenes with a radio interview, live at 6 pm. CST.

March 23 – Cassandra M’s Place – Review and Give-away.hellfireanddamnation3

And there is still time to get in on the give-away ongoing on Goodreads.

“Chappie” the Movie: Robot Cops for Johannesburg AND Chicago?

Rahm Emanuel, locked in an unexpectedly close race for Mayor of Chicago, might want to take in a showing of Neill Blomkamp’s new film “Chappie,” which suggests that robots could effectively police a crime-riddled city. Chicago—indeed, all of Illinois—is broke. We have “smash and grab” gangs pulling robberies on Michigan Avenue’s Miracle Mile. The South Loop is not safe after 7 p.m.— ( a woman waiting for the red line at 1:15 p.m. got mugged a couple days ago.) Despite Emanuel’s front-page “Time” spread some months ago (“Chicago Bull”), there seems to be no way to get the gangs—or, for that matter, the recalcitrant teachers—under control. So check out the idea of robot cops, Rahm!

We are told in the first few moments of the film that the robotic police officers (known as “Scouts”) have prevented 300 murders or violent incidents in Johannesburg (South Africa) on a daily basis. Given the fact that thugs have been stealing women’s pocketbooks in broad daylight just one street over from Michigan Avenue, as the ladies wait for their morning bus ride to work, a robotic policeman doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. And say what you will about the fact that robots as cops aren’t exactly a revolutionary concept, the robots in “Chappie” are truly amazing, special effects-wise.

Back in 2004, Blomkamp made a 1.5 minute film called “Tetra Vaal” that posited a robotic police force for 3rd world countries. In his second film, “Elysium,” such a robotic police force existed. The thuggish police robots in “Elysium” were trying to keep all the Worker Bees on Earth while the wealthy folk, led by Jodie Foster, lived on a completely different plane above them. It was, if you will, a story about the “haves” and the “have nots” The dwellers on Earth were like Occupiers, and the rich folk were up above swimming in their pools and curing all their diseases with superior medical technology.

 Reviewers were not kind to Matt Damon’s star turn in “Elysium,” but almost everyone loved Blomkamp’s first film, “District 9,” in which Sharlto Copley (the voice of Chappie) slowly turned into a horrible creature and we all cringed as it occurred. Me? I liked both movies, and I liked this one, too. Blomkamp’s films show me a part of the planet I will probably never get to visit, and he grapples with real-life Big Issues without being preachy. He has a keen eye for the sets and special effects, and the music by Hans Zimmer was also good. Add it all up, complete with some tear-jerker moments rooting for the childlike robot being bullied by the bad guys, and he had me at “I am Chappie.”

I found the special effects of this film to be amazing, with Image Engine of Canada and New Zealand’s Oscar-winning Wetta Workshop collaborating. The motion capture performance is much superior to normal CG work; Blomkamp spent 6 months working with F/X technicians to create 3-D models that could mimic human mobility down to our real-life double-jointed knees.

The echoes of bigger themes, [much like “Elysium’s” attempt to deal with class warfare], in this case is voiced by the child-like robot who says, to Dev Patel playing the programmer (Deon Wilson) who built him [and has identified himself as the robot’s Maker], “My Maker wouldn’t make me just to  die.  Why did you just make me so I could die? I don’t want to die.” I could certainly relate to that, and so could Logan in “Logan’s Run,” now celebrating close to its 40th year on film.

Chappie was damaged while on line as Robot 22 and was scheduled to be scrapped, since his battery cannot be replaced, because it is now fused within his metal frame.  Deon takes him out of the factory to work on creating a superior robot that can actually think and feel—a robot with human consciousness.

Of course, there is always a “bad guy” who views anything new and different as a threat  and wants to destroy it without any effort to get to understand it. In this case, that individual is Hugh Jackman as Vincent Moore. Jackman’s character is not only jealous of the success of Dev Patel’s (Deon Wilson) scouts, he a bullying jerk. Half the time, his Aussie accent and expressions were as foreign as the thick accents of the South African thugs. Who has heard the expression, “You made me as cross as a frog in a sock?” Another Jackman line: “The whole thing is going tits up” I had heard—but not recently.  I think you can see that, between the South African accents and setting and Jackman’s odd expressions, explanations are needed for a mere Midwesterner.  And who “shadows” someone while driving a bright red truck?

 It was easy to understand why Jackman is jealous that his large, ungainly, awkward prototype “Moose” (think Transformers) is not as big a success with the publicly traded weapons industry. When police administrators come for a demonstration, they actually say, “We don’t want this. It’s expensive, big and ugly.”  Plus, Vincent’s funding keeps getting cut by Corporate CEO Sigourney Weaver as Michelle Bradley (who has a bit part about as wasted as her other sci fi venture as the Director in “The Cabin in the Woods.”)But Moose is Vincent Moore’s baby, so of course he is going to do everything in his power to undermine Deon Wilson’s (Dev Patel’s) work, even if it means bring total chaos to the city and destroying most of the fleet of hundreds of robot policemen.

The sub-plot and actors were fine by me, Boss, but some reviewers are crying crocodile tears about the casting of non-actors Yolandi Vi$$er and Ninja (real names: Anri du Tort and Watkin Tudor Jones) as “Mommy” and “Daddy” to Chappie. They are career criminals who badly need Chappie to help them earn $20 million in just one week, which has to do with a drug deal gone wrong and their need to repay the Boss Man, Hippo

.In real life, Yolandi and Ninja are vocalists in Die Antwood, a South African rap-rave group singing Zef, and appeared at Coachella.

The 30-year-old blonde Yolandi raps about working class white South Africans, (especially those in Cape Town), and has a child with her former partner, Ninja. In the film, the usually idle Yolandi has the Big Bright Idea of kidnapping Dev Patel, Chappie’s programmer, and getting him to work with them in turning Chappie into “the illest gangster on the block” but the criminals initially think “You gave me a retarded robot.” In fact, “Daddy” takes poor Chappie out into the world before he has become acclimated to it. Nor does Chappie have the worldly experience to understand what is happening or to protect himself. It Is a bit like throwing your small child into ten feet of water and urging him to “sink or swim.” Bad things happen.

In those heart-tugging scenes, I was reminded of Frankenstein’s Monster, who was mercilessly hunted by the townsfolk, or any other film about intelligent life visiting earth (“The Day the Earth Stood Still”) where there is always someone who wants to destroy what they cannot initially understand.  Chappie survives and manages to find his way back to “Mommy” and the dilapidated abandoned factory where Yolandi apparently sits around all day smoking (she is seldom shown doing anything but waiting there, alone, for the others to return.)

Another philosophical discussion is about “being different.” It is raised by Chappie’s love of a book about a black sheep. There is also the discussion of life after death, which is discussed as “going to the next place.” You just know that some of Johnny Depp’s “Transcendence” mumbo-jumbo is going to work its way into the plot sooner or later—which is too bad, given how bad that film turned out to be.

In the meantime, however, you have a lot of shoot-‘em-out scenes and some interesting moralizing about whether it is right to engage in criminal behavior. (Chappie only does so when he is tricked into it by “Daddy.” I did begin to wonder if Daddy was right when he said that he had been given a retarded robot, because Chappie doesn’t seem to catch on very quickly to the basic dishonesty of the lead criminal). This group convinced me they could easily be underworld figures dealing drugs, among other crimes, and Yolandi has an interesting blonde, futuristic look, aided by a really unusual haircut.

I often wondered how Deon Wilson ( Dev Patel) could drop out of work so quickly, jump into company-owned vans, and rush off to work on his robot creation. It never worked that way for me in my jobs.  Or how he could enter restricted areas after hours at the factory whenever he wished with little or no trouble. I finally decided that this weapons facility had the worst security in the world.

I almost needed sub-titles to be able to understand what Brandon Auret as ‘Hippo,” the rival head of another gang, was saying. It also seemed that the Moose, when that machine is finally pressed into service to keep the peace, was the chief weapon of “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.” Old Hippo the mob boss had way more lives than the 9 lives of most  cats, and the heroic self-sacrificing of “Daddy” at a crucial moment late in the film seemed out of character for him, given what a sleazeball he was before that.

But, on the way to the finale of this 2-hour movie, I was thoroughly entertained by the multi-dimensional machine star, the fights, the office politics, and the moralizing about God and life and life after death and being different and child-rearing practices, among other sundry sub-topics. The film was very entertaining and I look forward to Blomkamp taking over the reboot of the “Alien” franchise as has been rumored is to occur.

“Chappie,” the Movie, from “District 9” Director, Entertains

New Review of “Hellfire & Damnation”

 The following review appeared on March 3 on Lisa Binion’s blog. It is of the second book in the “Hellfire & Damnation” series, which precedes H&D III about to go on tour.

Hellfire & Damnation II – A Review

Remember the nine circles of hell written about in Dante’s Inferno?  From a frozen corpse bent on revenge to the horrors awaiting an organ donor, Connie Corcoran Wilson takes one on eleven terrifying trips through these dark regions.

hellfireanddamnationthebook com

The Stories:
“Cold Corpse Limbo” – I’m sure you’ve read stories where a person wronged is bent on revenge.  What about a dead person?  Sure, some have come back as ghosts or been reborn as vampires, werewolves, or zombies, but what about a corpse?  The corpse of one man is out for revenge.

The creepy cover brings to life the cold corpse of Ole Monson.  His dead hand reaching for the cross while he peers through the top of his casket is enough to send chills down the spines of many.  Me?  I love it!  The cover promised creepy, somewhat horrifying stories, and it delivered on its promise.

“The Shell” – A young lady on vacation with her family likes to lay on the beach.  Little does she realize that she is being watched by someone who isn’t quite all there.  Once kidnapped, she finds strength she hadn’t realized she possessed, but is it enough for her to get away?

“Tempus Fugit: Resurrection Cemetery” – A woman has a meeting with a bartender at Chet’s Melody Lounge to talk about Resurrection Mary, the local ghost, and the cemetery.  What could go wrong?  Well, there is something about this bartender she doesn’t know.

“The Champagne Chandelier” – For some people, their greed continues even after they are no longer alive.  Can having too many objects be considered gluttonous?

“A Spark on the Prairie” – What was it really like between the Indians and the white men during the frontier days?  This tale takes you back to 1833 to take a closer look at the experience one tribe of Indians had with these new settlers.

“M.R.M.” – How long does it take for a woman to drive her husband to the edge of insanity?  Once he goes over the edge, what will he do?

“A Bridge Too Far” – A person’s spouse can drive one to the edge of insanity, but other people can push one there too.  Have you ever known a person who was convinced he knew it all?

“Letters to Claire” – Family secrets are brought to light in this tale.  A brother finds evidence of an extremely high paid doctor bill left behind by his dead sister.  What was it for? Was it the reason for her death?

“Room Service” – Do not ignore the writer.  If you make one mad for too long, the consequences could be deadly.

“Oxymorons” – Political corruption and murder run rampant in this tale.  If you know too much, will you be killed?

“The Bureau” – Love, infidelity, and betrayal all play their part in this chilling tale.  It might make you think twice before becoming an organ donor.

My favorite out of this collection of stories?  There is no way I can pick a favorite, but I can tell you which four stories I liked the best.  They are “Cold Corpse Limbo”, “The Shell”, “Room Service”, and “The Bureau”.

Favorite Sentences
Had my blood not been frozen, it would have boiled in indignation.

He is mumbling and his breath stinks of old mushrooms that have rotted.

Her eyes remind me of vampire movies where Dracula can hypnotize by merely staring into the eyes of his victims.

Who would have predicted that by nightfall I’d be a murderer?

New Words Learned:
incautious – not cautious; careless; reckless; heedless

sacristy– a room attached to a church or chapel where the sacred vessels, vestments, etc, are kept and where priests attire themselves

palapa – a simple, thatched-roof dwelling, usually open on the sides

banquette – a long bench with an upholstered seat, especially one along a wall, as in a restaurant

keened – wailed or lamented

appurtenances – accessories or equipment

I was sent a copy of this book free of charge by the author in exchange for an honest review.  If you would like to purchase your own copy of this book, all you have to do is click on the Amazon link below.

Amazon link: Hellfire & Damnation II

Page 47 of 65

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén & Blogarama - Blog Directory Best Entertainment Blogs - OnToplist.com