Stacy Kingsley - The blog of author Stacy Kingsley

Book Review - THE HUNTING PARTY by Lucy Foley

3/18/2019

After awaiting the long, drawn out arrival of the novel The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley, I was sad to say I was disappointed in it. The novel follows several different characters, Miranda - the princess, Katie - the quiet one, Heather - the one who takes care of the lodge, Doug - the gamekeeper, and Emma - the outsider. The group of friends, Miranda and her husband Julian, Giles and his wife Samira, Mark and Emma, Nick and Bo, and Katie, has decided to come to a lodge for some hunting and a chance to have a fun New Years Eve. Instead, one of the characters ends up dead.

This book had almost nothing to offer. It went back and forth in time between the present and just a few days before the murdered body was discovered. The nuances of a book like this is generally in the way the characters are written and the secrets of the characters who narrate the story. Unfortunately, the characters in this book aren't very well developed, nor are they at all interesting. Katie is bland and over and over laments the hard work she has to do and how difficult and dull her life it. Miranda is constantly pushing and asking questions she shouldn't, often being a total bitch. Heather is a little dull, and her character is often left questioning something. Doug is a military veteran who is at the Lodge because he can't be anywhere else, and he enjoys the solitude it provides. Emma is a young woman who emulates some of the characteristics of another character.

When one character discovers her cheating partner she bounds off and tries to make sense of what is going on. When that character dies I am not upset, I felt they deserved to die. Also, the murderer seemed to be obvious to me from the beginning of the party.

I will admit that when books like this came out (books that reveled in not revealing anything, not even who the body was) it was a little exciting, but now it is overdone and dull. When you don't find out who the body is until almost three quarters from the end of the book, I get frustrated. Also, characters who no one can like is also overdone and dull. Lastly, the fact that we change characters so often is overdone. I don't mind changing points of view, but I'd rather if it were fewer characters.

I won this in a goodreads giveaway, that took too long to get to me. I was disappointed in many things. I can't recommend this book.

March 9-March 17

3/8/2019

I will most likely not be posting anything on this blog this coming week. I am participating in a writer's retreat, which means I will be fully immersed in my novels. I plan on spending all of the days, and all of the hours, and every minute I am a awake and not showering or eating, working on editing, and writing, and editing, and proofreading, and writing.... so much writing.

I hope that by the end of the week I have between 50-100 pages written, which I know is a hefty goal, and it is also why I will not be posting anything. Nor will I be on social media, or email, or really anything that is distracting. If I do this, I will likely have a complete first draft of my last zombie novel, I will have a complete second draft of the science fiction book I wrote last year, I will have a complete draft of my stupid things people say after someone dies book, and I will have my conversations with my cat book in the proper format for if I have to self-publish it.

After all of this, I may be on lightly, as I have work and a medical issue that I am currently taking care of. I will know more in in the next two weeks about where my life is going, and what I will be doing int he future.

But, before I go, I'd like everyone out there in internet land to wish me luck, as I've never participated in a writer's retreat, and have no idea what to expect. I have also never taken the time to immerse myself in my writing for a week, uninterrupted, 100% of the time.

So, lovely internet people, adieu, see you on the flip side of the week.

Movie Review - OUT OF THE DARK (2014)

3/5/2019

Out of the Dark stars Julia Stiles, Scott Speedman, and Stephen Rea as American's who live and work in Columbia. Julia Stiles is the daughter, Sarah, of Stephen Rea, Jordan, and she has moved with her family to Columbia to take over part of her father's paper mill. They live in a fancy house with a nanny, who takes care of their young daughter, Hannah. Once their daughter disappears they realize that things are not what they seem, and their house is haunted by the past, as houses often are. Jordan has kept a dark secret from not only his daughter and her husband, Paul, but also the town surrounding the mill.

The only reason I watched this movie was because I had some time to kill while I worked on grading papers. I often have movies or music or something on in the background so that I am not sitting in silence, which annoys me. I should have chosen to sit in silence rather than watch this movie. It wasn't that it was a bad movie, but it wasn't developed and it didn't make sense why the daughter, Hannah, was the one being tortured by the ghosts when it was her grandfather, Jordan, who knew why the house was haunted.

I often don't like movies for one of two issues, one is the acting, and the other is often the plot or story, or lack thereof. The acting in this was just so-so. I thought Julia Stiles was wasted, in fact most of the characters were wasted in this movie. Stephen Rea plays another man looking for answers who is willing to sacrifice himself if he needs to, just like in the movie Fear.com. Julia shows a variety of emotions, but we don't know why she has decided to uproot her family from London to live in Columbia and work at the mill. We get almost no information about Scott Speedman's character, Paul, except that he is an illustrator for children's books. This is basically all of the information we are given about the characters. The problem with this is that I am given no reason to care about the characters, and at an hour and a half there should be a reason to care about the characters.

The plot of the story revolves around the deaths of a few children twenty years earlier, and a ritual holiday that is put on for them. The children disappeared after or just before their deaths, and no one knows where the bodies are. This movie tries to build up suspense, but the scenes are often so dark that it is hard to even tell what is going on. When the climax happens it is almost impossible to tell what is really going on because the scenes shift too rapidly between Paul, Sarah, and Hannah, and everything is dark. I don't know if it is really ghosts haunting the couple or if it is real people who are running around terrorizing the family.

The ending is predictable, which is not good for a horror film, and doesn't make it any more interesting. We never really find out why Hannah was the one who was focused on. I can't recommend this movie, This seems like one of those movies that the actors do just so they can make some money. It is too bad that this wasn't better than it was because often movies set in a foreign land can use the backdrop of that place to build fear. There are often local legends or legends that can be built upon to strike fear into the souls of audiences.

So, maybe skip this one and watch a movie like Zombie Strippers or the weirdly popular ZomBeavers.

My first Writer's Retreat

3/4/2019

Next week I am going to my very first Writer's Retreat, and I am both excited and nervous. I have never been to one because they have always been very expensive and I am often broke. Unfortunately, recently I have come into a little bit of money, and decided I must do one. It is close to home, only an hour away, but I will be staying in a cabin and camping is fun!

I am currently writing 3 books, editing one, and formatting another. None of them relate to each other. Of the books I am writing one is horror, one is a murder mystery, and one is non-fiction. Of the other two books, the one I am editing is a science fiction book I wrote last year for NaNoWriMo, and the other is a humorous novel about conversations I had with my cat. I am all over the place because none of my character will shut up.

I don't know what to expect from this retreat. I was expecting some homework, but I am unable to get onto their website, so I guess I should email the developers. I have a packet that I am reading slowly. I am freaking out about if my work is good enough. I am bringing a copy of each of my published zombie books, in case I need reference materials. I am gathering all of the information I have that is for the zombie series. I am starting to plan the placement and the pictures for the humorous book. I am going insane, or edging past that line.

Then there are the life issues. There has been a mass found in my lung. It is a four centimeter mass in my upper quadrant, and we don't yet know what it is, so I am distracted. Some days I am overwhelmed by anxiety and stress and I want to stay in bed crying. Some days I can't sleep because of the stress and anxiety. In a week I will have an MRI, then I am off to the retreat, then I get to talk to the doctor to find out what the mass may be. I'm distracted.

I don't sleep anymore and I worry that this affects my writing. I was an insomniac before, but now I have to find drugs to help me sleep so I can work, or I don't sleep.

I worry that I am failing my students.

I struggle every day, but I hope this retreat will help me get back on track. I don't think anyone understands what the last three months have been like. I was told about the mass back on December 17th. I have been distracted since December 17th.

This is all the honesty I have in me right now, because if I focus too much on it I may not sleep again tonight. I have students to think of, as this is the last week before SPRING BREAK! But I am nervous.

Does anyone have any tips of what to do at a writer's retreat? I am really nervous. I am always nervous. I think it is probably imposter syndrome. Then again, don't we all struggle with it?

Book Review - ELEVATION by Stephen King

2/26/2019

I miss 1970's Stephen King. The guy who used to tell great horror stories. The guy who I couldn't read late at night without shaking and checking under the bed. The guy who I wanted to be. However, I have only seen that Stephen King in the Mr. Mercedes series. Elevation, while an interesting idea, was not a great story.

Elevation is about a man, Scott Carey, who starts to lose weight, for no reason, and without help. He gorges on food, but still loses weight. He comes to the aid of a couple, a lesbian couple to be exact, who have opened a Mexican restaurant. No one wants to eat there because they don't approve of the lifestyle of the women. Once Scott enters and helps DeeDee win a marathon, they become friends, and try to figure out how to help Scott. Along with a local retired doctor and his wife, the friends try their hardest to help Scott, before he loses so much weight he dies.

Elevation is a character study and a story about how friendships form more than anything else. It is an easy read, but I think that may be more the formatting of the book rather than the book itself. While the characters were interesting, they were also a little flat. We don't get to know much about anyone outside Mr. Scott Carey. We learn a little about the lesbian couple, and we learn a little less about the doctor and his wife. There are things in the book that seem like assumed knowledge. It almost seems as if we already have the information, we just aren't smart enough to understand what is going on or what we might be missing.

Unfortunately, Elevation isn't told with King's normal descriptions or interest. It seems as if this was a book that was written to fill space, as it was small, and not the most descriptive. Even now, after having finished it, I can't tell you what any of the characters look like, besides the fact that throughout Scott was noticed to be overweight in stature. It was a constant point, that written about, that he was losing weight but his looks hadn't changed, and he looked the same as he always has.

I bought this book because it was on sale at Barnes and Noble, but I don't think I would recommend it or have bought it if I knew how it was going to read. The idea behind the book was interesting, but I also felt that a lot of it verged on a previous King novel, Thinner.

Book Review - IF I DIE IN A COMBAT ZONE by Tim O'Brien

2/18/2019

If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home by Tim O'Brien is a harsh look at war and what it meant to be subjected to Vietnam when you are an unwilling participant.

This is the true story of O'Brien' s experience as he was drafted into the war, and his own feelings as he tried to figure a way out. Instead of finding a way out he found part of himself he didn't know existed. Of course, this didn't mean he was happy about it, nor did he start thinking he was a willing or good soldier. Yet, O'Brien survived while so many he was with didn't. There is a bit of mourning in the book, as O'Brien describes each death, some with heart behind it and some with a sense of normalcy.

I enjoyed this book, but not as much as I enjoyed his novel The Things They Carried. While I understand The Things They Carried was most likely fiction, I felt there was a little more heart in it, which may be part of how the stories work. I mean, if we look at the two books, the deaths of some of the soldiers are described as if they just happened, and this might be how it is when one is in actual war. One death becomes another death and another death is only one more day. War causes people to become numb to life and death, but often to hope for more life.

This was an honest look at a young man, and his torn ideologies, and not wanting to disappoint his family. He tries to be okay with going to Vietnam, but he also tries to figure out a way to Canada, and someplace far away. I feel that many people might benefit from reading this book as it has insights about what a soldier might feel on his way to war. I feel especially these days, as we continue to send young men and women to places like Iraq and Afghanistan, that it might give insight to people who know little to nothing about the military.

Now, this isn't to say this is the experience of every military member, as some are proud to go to war and represent the country. However, there are a lot of books out there about the honored soldier, and the man who died serving his country. There aren't a lot of books out there that represent those who are unwilling participants.

While I didn't enjoy this as much as I did The Things They Carried, I did enjoy it.

I am excited to say that I will be going to see a reading with Tim O'Brien in April. I can't wait to see the man who has enchanted me with his tales of Vietnam (and not in a wow, I want to go to Vietnam and war is cool type of way).

Book Review - DOLLHOUSE by Tim Miller

2/11/2019

I was torn between recommending and not recommending Dollhouse by Tim Miller. I will be honest, my problem wasn't with the writing, mostly. The story revolves around Jodi, a woman who has a bad attitude at times, and a needy, or strong attitude at other. Ernie Lester is a man on a mission, to build a dollhouse full of his new family. He loves his family, and he believes that his family loves him, even though they can't respond to his questions or advances. Ernie meets Jodi one day and can't get her out of his mind, so he decides to make Jodi one more addition to his dollhouse.

This is registered as extreme horror, and I expected a little more graphic violence throughout. I wondered if it was extreme because of how many "fucks" were said throughout, but even the rape scenes seemed a little toned down, especially if you have read authors like Edward Lee and Richard Laymon. I honestly would have like a little more direct and explicit violence, and I would have liked a little more brutality. In the book there were three main characters, Jodi, Ernie, and Bob. Bob adds an element of brutality, but he doesn't quite go there enough. I also would have liked a little more backstory to the characters. Parts of the story were just a little confusing as Ernie states that all of his issues started when there was a death in his family, but another minor character states that it was a different death that changed who he was, and so we never really know what started him collecting his dolls. We never really know why he chooses Bob to be his buddy after a time either.

That being said, my big issues with this were the bad grammar and wording throughout. I hate the continuous use of the word "just" as it often doesn't need to be there, or can be replaced with "only." There were several misspelled words. or the use of the wrong word. The characters all spoke the same, so the dialogue started to run together and it didn't differentiate the characters enough from one another. In fact, I wished that one or the other would use a word besides "fuck." Ernie kept saying that he had been doing this for a long time, but the reader is never given any insight as to how long. However, even with all of this, I could have read the book and not had issue with it. My main issue with this book is that the spacing was double or triple per page, and the end of each chapter was like three to five lines in the middle of a separate page, which made this a fast and frustrating read. I feel like, for this version, it was a waste of money as a book that claims to be 206, if formatted properly, would have been under 100 pages. This type of formatting doesn't make indie authors look good, and it causes people not to by a book written by an indie author.

Now I know Tim Miller has done well for himself, and this is in no way meant to cut him down. He has been successful, and continues to be successful, making sure he continues to write a new book as often as he can, and going to as many conventions to help stay known and relevant. I admire him for that. And, this book was not a bad read, although I could have used a little more depth, and less of a predictable ending.

I really wasn't a fan of the formatting, and I personally found the errors and the formatting very distracting. I can't say I do or don't recommend book by Tim Miller, as several of them sound interesting. I, personally, might let this book percolate before picking up another.

Book Review - 20TH CENTURY GHOSTS by Joe Hill

2/4/2019

I enjoy a lot of what Joe Hill writes, in fact NOS4A2 was a favorite of mine. I really enjoyed it, and decided I needed to read more of Joe Hill's works. I didn't care for Heart Shaped Box, but I have to say I did enjoy some of the stories in 20th Century Ghosts. The first and second stories were my favorite. The title of the first was "20th Century Ghost" and the second story title was "Pop Art." The first story was about a woman who haunted a movie theater, and the second story was about a boy whose best friend was an inflatable boy. Both stuck with me and were very good, very interesting, and made me wish I wrote at least the second one. There were some hits and misses among the other stories, but besides "My Father's Mask" and "The Black Phone" they weren't really spooky, frightening, or even suspenseful.

My issue with a lot of these short stories were that a lot of them ended by not ending. They were open ended or they suggested that there was more to the story. My least favorite story was "Abraham's Boys" which may or may not have been about vampires and Van Helsing. It was unclear if the father was a vampire, was somehow related to Drac, or how he might have been related to Mina. The two children remind me of the children in the movie Frailty, and how the father in the movie treated his two sons, one son who believed him, and one son who thought his father was insane. It was the same with Abraham's two sons. One son believes that there are vampires and believes that their father is a protector (maybe), and the other son, who doesn't know of the old country or doesn't remember things from the old country, and he believes in what is true for most American kids, that most monsters are the things of legend. Now, what happened in the end was a little startling, and I thought creative, but it lead to more questions.

I'm not sure I would recommend this, but since these are short stories, and it is a fast read, I'd recommend at least trying it. Sometimes, especially with short stories, people have differing reactions, or thoughts on a story. One person might like one story, while another person might hate that same story. So, if you like horror, or suspense, and you don't mind reading things that make you think a little, read this.

Book Review - OUR HOUSE by Louise Candlish

1/28/2019

Our House by Louise Candlish was a chore to get through, such a chore I almost didn't finish it, but at a certain point I just had to know how it was going to end. There will be SPOILERS so if you don't want to read those, skip this review.

Fi is a woman in love, until she finds her husband knocking boots with someone not her in their children's playhouse. This isn't the first time Bram, her husband, has been caught cheating. The problem this time is that the woman he cheats with is someone they both know, someone Fi has considered a friend. Fi is given the lead, and Bram hopes that she chooses to save their marriage, and save him. She suggests something called a "bird's nest" arrangement, where the parents keep the children in the house, while the parents take turns in the house with the children. It works for a while, until Bram's mistakes become bigger and bigger until he can't do anything to save himself, and he is close to killing his family. Bram is blackmailed by a dangerous couple. The crime, he has been driving with a banned license (meaning he has no license to drive with at all) and has an incident with one of the blackmailers, and an accident happens. Bram makes a decision, and Fi makes a decision, and both of them end up hurting the other. Fi loses the one thing that seems to mean anything to her (her house), Bram loses the one thing he should have realized wasn't worth giving away (his freedom and his life), and Bram, once again, screws over Fi, by telling the truth about one of the characters, who Fi states she does not know.

I had a tough time getting through this book. Part of my issue with this book was the writing. There are basically three sections, present day, Fi recording an interview after the fact, and Bram after he has sold the house and before he has killed himself. The sections with Fi are boring, and the writing was very dull, I didn't get to know Fi, and I didn't care about her or what happened. If I could have, I would have skipped all of her parts in this, until the very end when she finally became a little interesting. The writing for Bram was poor in the dialogue. He continually says things through text, dialogue, and his own thoughts, and everything he says is cliche.

The characters themselves weren't very interesting. In fact the only things I took away from the way the characters looked were that Fi is a little overweight, and Bram has blond curly hair. As characters they are boring. Fi is naive and doesn't seem to care for anyone but herself, and she doesn't seem to talk an interest in the changes that are happening to her soon-to-be ex-husband. Bram continues to whine about how he should have been a better husband, and time and time again he has a chance to come clean and doesn't, for absolutely no reason at all.

The only thing that made this book semi-worth it was the very end. We know throughout the book that Bram is going to kill himself, but what we don't know is the bad thing Fi does towards the end, nor do we know what Bram has been writing his story down for.

I can't recommend this book. It was difficult to get through and every day I read it I wished I was reading something else. I only finished it because I was wondering how it was going to end, and if Fi was going to get to keep her house or not. But, the characters weren't likeable, and the story was so incredibly slow.

Movie Review - YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE

1/22/2019

2017 saw a movie that never really got much attention, even though it should have. You Were Never Really Here is about a traumatized veteran, who is not afraid of violence. His job is to track down missing girls. When a job spins out of control, Joe's nightmares overtake him as a conspiracy is uncovered leading to what may be his death or his awakening.

Joe, played by Joaquin Phoenix, is a man who does what he needs to, providing he is paid. He has a job to do, and it is to track down missing girls who were taken in the name of sex trafficking. Most of the time he may not be successful in getting the girl, but he does exact vengeance when it is asked of him.

Joe, throughout the movie, does have some obvious issues. He takes care of his aged mother, and he remembers childhood trauma that causes him to risk his own life almost every night. There isn’t much given about his past, but the audience does see that there is one incident when he is working with either the military or after, that has caused him to take on the role of a paid savior.

This movie is a slow burn. It begins in a hotel room and ends in a diner. There are scenes which seem to be placed just to confuse the audience as to what is really going on, but overall it is a movie in something of the same vein as Leon: The Professional. Joe is sent to find and rescue Nina, the daughter of an elected official. Her father finds out who has taken his daughter and is understandably upset when he finds it is the man he is working on a campaign for. The man has been so taken with Nina that when she is rescued, she is immediately retrieved, setting off events that cause death to those Joe loves, and causing him to do what he has learned to do best, kill.

This movie was slow and weird, but there were several scenes that were interesting. One scene is Joe laying next to a man he has been fighting with. They are both laying on the floor, one dying and one exhausted from the fight. A song comes on and they both sing softly to it, holding hands as the man dies. There are several other intense scenes which makes one question the sanity of Joe, or what his plans are. He is searching for something, and in the end, like Leon had Matilda, Joe has Nine to save him from himself.

You Were Never Really Here is not a bad movie, but I don’t think everyone will enjoy it. It is a thought provoking movie, and for me, it made me wonder once again, about man’s inhumanity to man.