The blog of author Stacy Kingsley

Book Review - THE ROANOKE GIRLS by

5/8/2019

The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel is about a young girl, Lane, who has to move in with grandparents she never knew, and a wild cousin, Allegra. The reason for this is her mother's death, and her mother seems to have had a complicated relationship with her parents. Lane, has also had a complicated relationship with her mother, often feeling as if her mother did not, nor has ever, loved her. When there she falls in love, and learns of a dark family secret. Years later when Allegra disappears, Lane returns to Roanoke house to search for her, or clues as to why she might have left. While there she learns that the family she left behind continued to be as screwed up as they were the one summer she was there.

*Spoilers*
First, let me state that if you have any issues with sexual misconduct, molestation, rape, incest, any deviation in a person's sexual life, you should not read this book. Also, this book wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. I thought this would be more of a domestic noir, but it wasn't quite that either.

Lane finds out that her grandfather has been having sex with Allegra, and this is why she left when she was sixteen. The reader is also given the stories of the rest of the Roanoke family. Yates (the grandfather) has had sex with his sisters, his niece/daughter (who he is unable to consummate the relationship with due to an accident), his wife (who bore him three daughters), and two of his three daughters, as one died in infancy. Allegra was left behind when her mother ran away, and when she reached the age of fourteen Yates started having sex with her as well. He claims that the females of the family all wanted to do it, and from the stories told most of them entered into the sexual relationship willingly, and continued because there was something about Yates that drew them to him.

I was disturbed by this novel, as in the fourth chapter (or about there) it went straight to incest between Yancy and his sister, Jane. I didn't expect to read a story about continual, generational incest, otherwise I would not have picked up this book. I am really not interested in reading about incest, which is why I stopped reading the Game of Thrones novels.

The story itself was frustrating as Lane was not a likeable character, nor was she reliable narrator, always going between anger, and pretty much nothing else, it was always anger. It bothered me as there didn't feel like there was any relief for the reader.

The story was predictable, and the ending was a little obvious, as there was some foreshadowing to what might have to happen for Allegra to leave Roanoke. It was at times a very interesting story, but then at times it was predictable what the characters were all going to do.

I found the incest to be a little overwhelming, and the grandmother's attitude was a little off and off putting. I wouldn't have minded if there were more signs of what Allegra wanted, or why Lane didn't try to stay and help her, or find help. The family issues were all huge and yet, in the story, they all seemed so small.

I don't know if I would recommend it or not, it wasn't anything like something I have read before. So I guess that is a good point, and the reason I was stuck between 3 and 4 starts.

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Movie Review - THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS

4/8/2019

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The Girl With All the Gifts does share some similarities with the novel, but it isn’t really a lot like the novel. There are a lot of places in the movie that the divergence is clear, and it starts in the beginning, which I think might also be understandable. The book has a lot of information in it, and they cut some of it, probably due to the length of the movie. If they had kept it all it would have been longer than it hour and fifty-one minutes.

This movie is about a girl, Melanie, a scientist, and a teacher, who are trying to survive a dystopian/apocalyptic future full of zombies, which are called hungries in both the movie and the novel of the same name. In one instance everything changes, and Melanie finds herself defending her teacher in a way she didn’t know she could, and the teacher, scientist, a couple of soldiers, and Melanie find that they need to find a way to safety, to the Beacon of hope. However, a landscape full of hungries stands in their way, and they don’t know if they will survive, if they will be eaten, or if they will become a monster themselves. Of course, one question a lot of movies like this pose is who is the real monster?

Throughout the movie, Melanie, played by Sennia Nanua, portrays an innocent, playful, inquisitive child, well. She does not know what she is, although she does know that she is different. While she does still seem to be the same character in the movie as she is in the book, I feel that the movie made her a tad more intelligent and inquisitive than she was in the book. She still loves her teacher, Helen Justineau, and she does what she can to help her, but she isn’t as curious about the other children, nor is she as frightened as she was in the novel towards Doctor Caroline Caldwell.

Speaking of the other children, the movie makes a hasty introduction, but it isn’t really as thorough of the book, so it feels as if some of the information that made the story interesting is left out. The interactions between the children and the instructors and soldiers, isn’t as built as it could have been. In the novel, the reader knows how Melanie feels about Helen because there are several interactions, however in the movie there is only one scene in the schoolroom, and one outside, before everything goes to hell. The viewer of the movie doesn’t get as much background on the rest of the children, so there is no reason for the viewer to have as much sympathy for them as there was built in the novel.

Throughout it was obvious that several things had been changed due to the time restrictions of the film. The only monsters they had to face were the hungries, whereas in the book there are not only the hungries, but also humans with nothing to live for but their own selfish survival. The ending is a little different, but it isn’t a bad movie. Part of it, like a lot of movies, are a little slow, but overall, not bad. I will say, this is another case of I prefer the novel over the film, but that isn’t always true. I felt there was more depth to the novel that was lost in the film’s translation.

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Book Review - DOLLHOUSE by Tim Miller

2/11/2019

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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.

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Book Review - OUR HOUSE by Louise Candlish

1/28/2019

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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.

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Book Review - BIRD BOX by Josh Malerman

1/14/2019

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Bird Box by Josh Malerman is about a young woman, Malorie, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world where if you look at the world around you, you either go crazy and kill others, or you kill yourself. Malorie must choose what to do, to protect not only herself, but her child and a child she saved just after birth.

The premise of the book is that there is some sort of creature which when gazed upon makes one go crazy. Malorie and her sister, Shannon, are alone at their apartment when they find out about this issue. At first, not a lot of people believe that looking at something is going to make them go crazy, then the stories get spread worldwide. Soon people are covering their windows with blankets and cardboard and anything they can to keep the world out. When things become unbearable and Malorie is forced to leave her house she drives to hope, all while closing her eyes and pregnant.

Malorie finds safety for a while, but then that safe haven is destroyed by a madman with goals unknown to everyone but himself. Malorie survives long enough to find a new safe haven, but to get there she must risk everything.

I enjoyed most of this book, although it was a little slow in parts. There were scenes when Malorie was rowing and most of them were trying to build up suspense and be creepy, but overall, I found them dull and a little tiresome. The scenes in the second house, where Malorie and the others left are trying to figure out what to do and how to survive in a world where they can't look outside, are more interesting as there is more going on. They only added to the story a little though. The characters are not as developed as they could be, I mean I like a little more background story for my characters. I did enjoy the idea of the story, but the trope of an unseen or unknown monster is becoming overdone and dull.

Unless all of these books and movies with unseen or barely seen monsters are going to explain the monsters in future books or movies (which the Cloverfield series has yet to do), then stop making them. I don't need a book that tells me of man being evil and homicidal towards men, that is the plot of life, who is evil and who is compassionate and kind.

Then ending of Bird Box is a little predictable, and I do wish that it had gone another way. There were things that foreshadowed the ending too much, and basically the story gave away what was going to happen in the end. While I did enjoy the story, I enjoyed the idea more than the story. It wasn't as developed as say Dean Koontz's From the Corner of His Eye, about a boy who goes blind and the man he becomes. The main character is blind and the story is not only more developed, but more suspenseful, and creepy.

I do recommend that before watching the movie you read the book for Bird Box. I always recommend reading the book before watching the movie, of any book, except Harry Potter, I could not get through those books. Sorry, not sorry.

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Book Review - INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS by Jack Finney

12/12/2018

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Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney is all about what the title sounds like, an invasion, of body snatchers. Doctor Miles Bennell discovers something is off in the town of Mill Valley, California. He is frightened, and concerned, as well as intrigued. Learning that several of his patients have concerns about loved one being different, he visits one, and notices that nothing seems amiss, that is until he is called to the house of a few of his other patients. What he finds there is something he doesn't understand, nor does he know what to do. With the help of his patients, Jack and Theodora, and a recently divorced woman he used to, and still does, love, Becky, they see answers and learn secrets about pod people taking over their town, with aspirations to take over the world.

This book first appeared as several stories in a magazine in 1954. The story takes place in 1976, and the reader can see some of the way life was in the 1950's in the 1970 version. The way the women react and are treated, like fainting flowers, is the way women were looked at often in the 1950's. This was the most disturbing part of the story.

The book was interesting in regards to the idea of the pod people. They had no emotions, because they weren't needed. They came down and counted themselves as parasites that wanted to survive, like all lifeforms. The alien pods do have issues, they don't last long, and they can't reproduce unless they are cloning something else, and they can't clone something they have already cloned. Once the pod people realize that the lifeforms on earth, ie the humans, don't want to die, the alien lifeforms realize they may not be able to take over the world as easy as they thought they would.

It is an interesting book, and it does make one wonder how humanity would survive, or what the survival instinct of humans would be. How far would we go and how hard would we fight. I enjoyed the sneaky way that the pod people inserted themselves into the lives of others, or took over the lives of others. It was also interesting because if one thinks about it, what if there are aliens here right now, and we don't know because they have been slowly taking over. It reminds me of the movie They Live.

I should add, I have only recently seen one the original two movies, although I have seen The Invasion (Not great) and The Thing (which is the same type of story). The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) is not the same movie as the book, although there are some things about it that are the same. For example, there is a main man, who is in love with his female counterpart. There is a doctor who says it is all mass hysteria. And there is a couple who find they are being cloned and taken over. I think the original movie might be the one that is closest to the book, so if you read the book, you might want to start there.

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Book Review - THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS by M.R. Carey

11/23/2018

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The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey was an interesting zombie book about a bunch of children who don’t know they are anything but. The characters are there to protect themselves, teach the children, and to use the children to find a way to save humanity. Dr. Caldwell has one mission, and she keeps doing it, even if it goes against everything else everyone else wants. She doesn’t care about the cost, or repercussions of what she has and continues to do. Melanie is the main character, and the smartest child in the classroom. She waits every day for her favorite teacher, Miss Justineau. Justineau shows that she cares for the children, but she isn’t supposed to care, nor is she supposed to forget what they are – monsters.

The characters were all very interesting, although I did get frustrated with Dr. Caldwell and Sargent Parks. Caldwell is over and over only concerned with the children, and when she loses some of them she treats Melanie like property. I know this was part of the book, and that Dr. Caldwell had a purpose and wasn’t supposed to be liked. I realize that she was there to find the answers for the greater good. But, there could have been one moment of humanity from her, one moment, that made me not dislike her, one moment where she learned something from what she had been doing.

Sargent Parks could have been a little more interesting as well. He was the typical military man, only doing what his orders required him to do. Keeping the humans safe, not worrying about the “Hungaries” or zombies, and watching out for the “Junkers” – the men and women who survived the infection and live their lives as scavengers. I do get a little tired of seeing stringent military men, who follow the code, no matter what happens. They always end up the same way in books like this, dead, learning slowly along the way that they don’t have to treat the monsters as they do, because in reality, the monsters are the humans.

The relationship between Melanie and Miss Justineau was interesting, as it did make me wonder where the children who these people are using came from. Justineau was a mother figure to some, and a savior to at least one. The mother/daughter relationship develops in a way, that in the end one wonders who is the mother and who is the daughter.

The idea of the “Hungaries” in this book was interesting, although I would have like a little more backstory, as I didn’t see enough of what made the zombies different, besides a desire to eat human flesh. However, the idea of how these children will develop, and what they will do for the future. It all brings up the question, how will humanity save humanity? In the end will the human race find their humanity, or will they find ways to continue to destroy it.

In today’s society, and the political and moral climate that we currently live in, this book begs the question: how should we treat those who are different? And what steps should we take to protect and save those who can’t always save or protect themselves. It’s a frightening time, and this book, again about an apocalypse, makes one thing about their own humanity.

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Book review - GIRL OF NIGHTMARES by Kendare Blake

10/12/2018

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I didn't realize that I had this book on my TBR shelf. I received it for free, exchanging it for another book I had. I wouldn't have exchanged it if I had read Anna Dressed in Blood first. I didn't like Anna Dressed in Blood, and I didn't like Girl of Nightmares.

Now am I saying that Kendare Blake is a bad writer, no, I am not. I am only saying that these books weren't good. I thought the main character was conceited and annoying. He had friends and yet he continually states, "You don't have to do (blah) with me." He, Cas, knows full well that his friends are going to join him no matter what. Another problem with this book is that the setting in some parts just don't make sense. At one point they are walking through the Suicide Forest, and everyone knows that the Suicide Forest is in Japan, yet the characters are not in Japan. It didn't make sense, and I wonder if the author knew what she was doing at that point.

Another thing that annoyed me, these kids are under the age of 18, yet no one seems to care when they jet off to England, or that they skip school, or that they continually put themselves in danger and get hurt.

I also disliked the characters because none of them were really developed, again, and I didn't care that they were looking for Anna. I didn't care about Cas and his nightmares or desires because he is NOT a nice person. There is nothing about him that I like. Zero. The only character I think has any redeeming qualities is Thomas, and he is constantly put on the back burner, forgotten and left to whither.

I am not a fan, and after reading that this was the last book in the series (of two books) I am also frustrated. I feel as if Blake has so much more that she could say, and more to develop so that readers will care for these characters, yet she leaves things hanging and says there won't be a third book.

Meh. Not for me.

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Book Review - THE ROANOKE GIRLS by

Movie Review - THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS

Book Review - DOLLHOUSE by Tim Miller

Book Review - OUR HOUSE by Louise Candlish

Book Review - BIRD BOX by Josh Malerman

Book Review - INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS by Jack Finney

Book Review - THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS by M.R. Carey

Book review - GIRL OF NIGHTMARES by Kendare Blake

Stacy Kingsley

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