The blog of author Stacy Kingsley - Stacy Kingsley

Book Review - IN A DARK, DARK WOOD by Ruth Ware

9/23/2019

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware should have been an interesting book, it should have been a fabulous and suspenseful book, but it was in fact not. Not because of the book itself, no, it was because of other books like it.

Nora is a fictional crime author, one who doesn't often leave her flat. She is invited to her once best friend’s "hen" party, a party for brides-to-be before their weddings. She hasn't seen Clare in ten years, so it is all a surprise to her that she is invited, that is until she finds out who the groom is. Once at the party site Nora, her old friend Nina, Clare, and a few of Clare's friends, Flo, Melanie, and Tom, start the party. Flo wants the party to be perfect, for some reason she feels Clare has saved her life, although we only find out a little bit about that. Nora finds out a devastating fact, and things wander around from there. In the end the reader sees Nora in the hospital, being questioned by the police, about the last day of the hen party, and a shooting that happened.

The issue I have with this novel is not on that is based on the novel itself, but instead it is based on other novels like this. I can compare this novel to Girl on a Train, Final Girls, Our Little Secret, or Tell Me What Happened Again. All of these books have one thing in common, they all involve a woman who has lost part of her memory after some sort of trauma or tragedy, and the police are wondering what happened, and trying to figure it out. In a Dark, Dark Wood, would have been better if it had been the first of this trope that I had read, but unfortunately, it was not, and the story is one that has already been told and I have already read.

While Nora could have been an interesting character, I think both Nina and Flo were more interesting characters, and I honestly wouldn't have minded getting to know Tom a little more. Melanie seemed to be a superfluous character, and besides being there to set Flo off a little more and make her seem a little more unhinged, she didn't seem to be a necessary character.

Beyond the fact that this is like a lot of other books I have recently read, it is actually well written, and more interesting than some of the others mentioned above. I do not think that due to this book trope being overdone that I will never read anymore of Ruth Ware's novels. In fact, I look forward to reading more of her books, I'm just not sure which. I need to get through more of my TBR pile before I pick up a brand new book and bring it home.

Book Review of THE OTHER SISTER by Dianne Dixon

7/29/2019

The Other Sister by Dianne Dixon was a quick read, but it was also an unsatisfying read. I read this over a few hours, and was incredibly disappointed that I wasted my time with this novel.

The plot of the book sounded interesting. Morgan and Ali are fraternal twins. Morgan feels Ali has had all of the luck and that maybe, just maybe, life would be better for her if Ali never existed. The end of the synopsis adds, "As their lives spin toward something neither one of them can control, a terrifying crime reveals how those who know us best can destroy....or save us." This made the book sound like a crime thriller, which it was not. It wasn't a domestic thriller either. I don't think this book knew what it wanted to be.

The character of Morgan was an annoying and underdeveloped character. She had only part of her own self in this story, and most of the time she spent was feeling angry or jealous of her fraternal twin, Ali. Part of this is understandable. Ali is engaged to and eventually marries a man named Matt. This man met Morgan first, and he was interested in her, until he met her sister, Ali, then he fell in love quite quickly. Morgan feels like this sums up her life with Ali as her sister. Everyone loves her Ali and Morgan is always second best.

When tragedy strikes and Morgan feels that her sister has abandoned her, things begin to change. This is really where the story got dull. In the beginning it seemed like it would be a story of revenge or of sisters who eventually learn to love each other, despite the terrible things one sister has done. Then it acted as if it was going to be a thriller or mystery, as Matt left and was discovered the next day looking beaten and abused, by Morgan. Then it changed again after the tragedy happens and Ali has several decisions to make. It never really makes up its mind what genre it wants to be, or what story it wants to tell. Instead it tried to accomplish too much and became very dull.

In the end several things happened, and a few of them didn't seem at all realistic, or even true to the story. The crime committed seemed to be put into the novel only to force something bad to happen to a character, and for another to discover what everyone would eventually know before she breaks her silence. It also made several of the female characters look dumb, like they all only cared about one thing, money, not love, or their children, or even what was going on in their marriages.

Of course, there is a lot of stuff around the husbands, and the secrets every is keeping, some of which are really stupid.

So, after stating all of this, would I recommend this book? No. Nope. Zero percent. Skip it, this is one book that is just too frustrating to read.

June 27th, 2019

6/27/2019

Paradox by Catherine Coulter is my first experience with her and her novels. While Paradox is the #22 book in the series, I feel like only a little bit of the information within the novel about the character relationships was a little lost.

The novel follows three FBI agents, Dillon Savich, Sherlock, and Sala Porto, and the chief of police of Willicott, Maryland, Ty Christie. It begins with the attempted kidnapping of Savich and Sherlock's young son, Sean, and continues with Ty Christie witnessing a murder from her own lakeside dock.

This novel started out fast, and it kept going for the first few chapters, then it let me down. Like other books I've read, this one gave up who the bad guy was in the first few chapters, leaving nothing for the reader to question. Then another story, or crime, pops up when the body of the first victim is pulled from the lake, and things become a little too intermingled.

I don't think the author should have told us so early who the first killer was. My reason? It was obvious what was happening and what would happen towards the end of the book. There was almost no reason to continue reading. Then at the funeral for this same first victim, it was obvious who the other party to the killer was. The second crime, which was come upon by happenstance, was a lot more interesting than the first, and it took a little longer to figure out what was going on.

There were a few other issues with this novel. There were too many characters, and it got confusing when Savitch was referred to as Dillon, and all of the names began to run together. Then there was the issue of a couple of the characters changing or being obviously someone who the FBI agents and Ty were looking for.

The main killer, or the murderer of the first, and original, victim, gets to be a little repetitive and dull, and I did wish that someone would just end it for him. The killer was whiny and overly reactionary, the plans made didn't make sense, and I was never sure why they were even introduced as the killer. They really didn't seem to have a plan, or reason to do what they were doing. The second crime however, was much more interesting. Also, the second crime was more detailed and the reasoning was more intriguing.

So, while I did enjoy this novel, and there was enough to keep me reading until the end, I don't think I will read any more of this particular series, and I'm not sure I'll read any of Catherine Coulter's books. I just don't think her style of writing is for me, plus I like my thriller/mystery/suspense novels to be a little more suspenseful.

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.

Apologies and Movie Review for STRANGERLAND

1/7/2019

Before I review this movie, I'd like to apologize to all of my readers for the lack of posts these last few weeks. I was on break from work and unfortunately I spent most of that time sick. I am back to work, but I am also feeling much healthier, which means back to real life and all work. I am working on two books, one I am sending queries out for, and the other I am writing. Sometimes my writing has to take a backseat as I have papers to grade, but I am down to three classes this semester and I feel that I've managed my grading time well. So, without waiting any longer, here is my review of Strangerland. You may not have heard of this movie, and now you can read my review before deciding on if you want to or not.
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Strangerland starring Nicole Kidman, Joseph Fiennes, and Hugo Weaving, is a movie about a family who has moved to a rural area in the outback (is there any other area?) and try to escape the doldrums of this new life.

The family, of which Kidman and Fiennes are the parents, have been forced to move to this new town because of the actions of their teenage daughter. They have two children, their daughter, Lily, and their son, Tom. These two children are precarious and I found them incredibly annoying. The couple have some serious issues in their marriage and they seem to be on their way to divorce, as the audience sees they don’t sleep in the same bed, and they don’t seem to be on the same page when their children have issues.

In the movie Kidman seems to be a desperate mother, while Fiennes is a distant father. Kidman walks through the movie trying to figure out her daughter and save both of her children, while Fiennes not only continues on with his regular day, but he doesn’t see the trauma he is causing his wife to endure. In the end, this family seems broken, and there is no way to fix them or put them back together.

I have to say the most interesting characters were Kidman and Weaving, as they both go through a lot in the movie. The movie itself however, wasn’t a very engaging one. As the family goes through a huge trauma nothing about them, or what they are going through, falls strongly with the viewer. There are issues that don’t make them interesting, and I couldn’t feel anything but blah for them. I wanted to be more interested in what they were dealing with, and I wanted to feel something about what was happening to them, especially since they were dealing with the possibility of losing their children. I just didn’t feel sympathy or happiness or anything for them.

The ending of this movie didn’t settle well with me either. It left the movie unfinished, which isn’t horrible, but it is a little overdone, as a lot of movies seem to end with a mystery still left to be solved. I wanted it to have an actual ending. I wanted this movie to give me answers, but instead it created more questions.

While I enjoyed the acting of the top actors, they weren’t enough to keep me interested, nor were they a reason to watch this movie.

My recommendation is to skip it. Don’t even waste time watching it on streaming, it isn’t worth the time.

Book Review - FINAL GIRLS by Riley Sager

10/10/2018

For the book Final Girls bu Riley Sager, I was torn about reading it. On the cover I have it has a quote by Stephen King, "If you liked Gone Girl, you'll like this." I almost didn't buy this book, only because of that quote. See, I hated Gone Girl, hated it with a passion. I hated it because there was only one character to like and he wasn't int he book enough. Otherwise, it was overrated and not at all interesting. Plus, I don't mind a twist, but I don't want to read an entire book of lies (which almost half of Gone Girl was). However, this isn't about Gone Girl, this is about Final Girls.

This book revolves around Quincy, a young woman who ten years earlier survived one of the most horrific experiences of her life. A night that was supposed to be fun turned into a night of betrayal and tragedy. In that night, Quincy and five of her friends, including her best friend, Janelle, were staying at a cabin. At the end of the night, only Quincy survived. Now, years later Quincy is pert of a group of three girls called the "Final Girls" all surviving a night of horrific tragedy, where several others were killed and they were the ones to survive. Suddenly, the original "Final Girl" is found dead of a supposed suicide, and Quincy's life is dramatically changed when the other "Final Girl" Sam shows up wanting to talk. What does Sam want to talk about? Not the death of Lisa, no, she wants to help Quincy remember what happened that night at Pine Cottage.

This book started out strong, and for a while kept me going, wanting to find out what happened to all of the girls and why Lisa, the strongest of the three, would kill herself after all of this time had passed since her tragedy. All three girls, Lisa, Sam, and Quincy, had been in a situation where they had become a "Final Girl," and in fact Lisa is the one who came up with the name. I didn't start getting frustrated with this book until Sam starts pushing Quincy, and her maybe Fiance, Jeff, keeps telling her that she is fine. How could anyone thing she was fine, and how could he have been so blind to what was happening to her? Sam, on the other hand, was too pushy and her personality was so abrasive that it started to wear on me.

I, throughout the book, also found Quincy to be too much of a pushover. I don't know how I would react if I had survived what she had gone through, but for me, I didn't think she was realistically written at certain points in the book. I found the younger Quincy, the one in the flashbacks, to be almost the same as the older Quincy, as if the tragic events of ten years earlier didn't affect her, but there was no telling how she was dealing, or how she did deal, other than she was put on Xanax. This to me, seemed unrealistic. I doubt that she would just find Xanax to be the cure, and that she would show other destructive behaviors. However, I did the book and the final twist at the end.

One other thing that bothered me about this book, was the time it took to develop anything. There was so much in between the first and last scene that I felt a lot of it was filler. It was almost as if Quincy was standing in a room, just spinning around, and that was what the reader was seeing. I would have liked a little more involvement from the outside characters, a little more to make me feel something deeper, some sense of urgency or, well, anything. As with other books I have read recently, the only character that stood out was Sam, she was well described, and I could see her each time she appeared, often disheveled and awkward. None of the other characters stood out to me, and I didn't even get one bit at the end because I couldn't remember it being described much in the beginning.

Of course, this doesn't mean I disliked the book. I was thrown off by the ending, and not expecting it at all, and it really made the book much more interesting. It was something that I didn't see coming at all, and was happy to have the surprise, especially when most of the book I've read recently were obvious where they were headed.

I do recommend this. I would love to be able to give it a strong recommendation, but can't because of the the slow parts and the fact that none of the characters were really developed (Jeff was super flat).

Book Review - Madame Zero: 9 Stories by Sarah Hall

9/12/2018

What can I say about Madame Zero: 9 Stories by Sarah Hall? A lot and yet a little.

So this is a book of nine stories, and some are interesting while some are not. I wasn't sure what I was getting when I won this book in a goodreads giveaway, but I loved the cover and I loved the description so I was excited when I won it. When I received it I couldn't wait to look between the pages to see if it was as beautifully written as it looked.

Of the nine stories I didn't care for a lot of them, because honestly a of them felt unfinished, or like I was missing something. I felt at one point that they were a little pretentious. I did however enjoy "Goodnight Nobody," "Evie," and "Mrs. Fox." All of these seemed to have some element of horror to them though, "Goodnight Nobody" made me think of life and how children are often treated. How much freedom we give them and really how often we depend on them to care for themselves. Also, it was a little freaky if you know the children's book Goodnight Moon.

"Evie" was an interesting story because it was a frightening story about the self and how things might change and we might notice, until something awful happens. It made me think about all of the choices my friends, family, and even those I've made, that might be controversial.

The last was "Mrs. Fox." This was a sad story to me. It was about how we lose things, and can't be around them anymore, even though we want to, and how humans are creeping too far into nature and the natural habitats of the animals we share the world with. It was beautiful, and sad, and lovely.

The rest of the stories didn't touch me as much. I would have liked more involvement for me with the characters. I think this may be what bothered me the most, I didn't get a visual of many of the characters. In fact the most visual images I got were when "Mrs. Fox" and her children were described. Other than that there wasn't a lot of description, or sensory detail, and I would have loved there to be more of that throughout the stories, something to stitch them together.

I can't say I recommend it, but I can't say I don't as I did get a lot out of the stories I did like. But, I know not everyone will enjoy these, or the ending that some of them have, or don't have.

Book Review - VENDETTA by Iris Johansen

8/5/2018

Have you ever read a book where every character is the same? If not, read Vendetta by Iris Johansen, because every character is the exact same character, male and female. The synopsis from amazon makes it sound a lot more interesting than it was:

With his dying breath, Carl Venable, head of the CIA task force on terrorism and Jude Brandon’s final link to terrorist ringleader Max Huber, gives Brandon a mandate: keep his daughter, Rachel, safe at any cost. But Rachel Venable has a shocking, twisted past of her own, one that comes rushing back after her medical clinic in Guyana is attacked by Huber―the same man who murdered her father and kept her imprisoned for months.
Brandon and Catherine Ling, Rachel’s longtime ally and fierce protector, are determined to keep Rachel out of danger, but she knows that it’s impossible to stay hidden when Max Huber wants you dead.
As Rachel and Brandon race against the clock to bring Huber down before he can orchestrate a disaster that will lay waste to half the country, they also fight a growing attraction to each other – an attraction that could prove just as dangerous as Huber himself.

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway, and while it says it is an "Eve Duncan Novel" it is not as there is no character named Eve Duncan, so I am hoping that there is a fix in the cover before this novel is released in October.

While the book synopsis makes this sound like an interesting book, this is a flat book. All of the characters are exactly the same, with the same types of speech patterns, and the same physical attributes or movements. I couldn't get involved in any of the characters because they were all blunt and forward, and they ended up blending into each other. I would have liked at least one character who wasn't trying or pretending to be strong. In fact the most interesting character was Huber, because he had childish outbursts, which made him stand out from other characters.

Also, this book is a little long, and it took a while to get through. I wasn't interested enough and some of the scenes could have been deleted. I just wasn't a fan.

I think that, to be honest, I am not a fan of Iris Johansen's writing, so I will most likely not read another one of her books.

Movie Review - THE LOFT

7/23/2018

The Loft is a 2014 movie that I had wanted to see in the theater. The movie revolves around five married men who join together to secretly share a loft. This loft provides a place of their own where they can take their extramarital affairs if they so choose. One day the unthinkable happens, and they find a body in their loft. They must decide what to do, and which of them might be the murderer.

This movie, when I first saw the trailer, looked like it might be an interesting horror film. It is actually more of a suspense movie, with a little extra infidelity in it. None of the men are really good guys as they all either want to or do cheat on their wives. The movie does however start with a shock as we open on a car being struck by something heavy, which one can only presume to be a body due to the tone of the movie. This beginning also sets up the overall dark tone of the film itself.

Of the five men the leader, or the one who provides the loft, is Vincent. Vincent is a man who doesn’t seem to care for anyone, his wife, his friends, or the women he sleeps with. Marty is a drunk who tends to do whatever he wants, and say whatever he wants, when he is drinking. Chris tries to believe he is a good guy, but he is like every other guy, although his wife doesn’t make things any easier as she doesn’t seem to like him, or any of his friends. Phil is a man who plays until the day he marries, and he really does play until the DAY he is married. Lastly, there is Luke, a man who seems to have his life together but who also seems to have a secret, which everyone thinks is his attraction to other men.

Throughout most of this movie it goes round and round, showing all of the bad deeds done by the men. Each one of them confesses to a problem they have had, and each one shows how little they care for others. This movie didn’t have many likeable people in it. The only one any of the audience could feel in the least bit sorry for is the character of Sara. But, to talk about her too much is to give away a lot of the story.

There was suspense, as we could wonder throughout who the killer was, and who the victim was. Also the depth into which the men go to live their lives as degenerates, it makes none of them likeable characters. In the end we do want to know what is going on, but it is almost a little anti-climactic. The story behind it was a little tedious, and finding out that some of the men get what they deserve while some of the others don’t was a little frustrating.

This was not a movie with a happy ending, and when it did end I felt bad for Luke. If you do end up watching it then you’ll understand why. His character was very sad, and he even though in the end he was not a great guy, just like his buddies, he did leave us with something to feel.