We are all Completely Fine

We are all Completely Fine
by  Daryl Gregory

Genre:  Horror; Speculative Fiction; Fantasy
Publisher: Tachyon Publications on 
12 August 2014
Source:  NetGalley - 182 pages
Reading with my ears:  Unabridged 
04 hours 14 minutes
Narrator:  Tavia Gilbert

Harrison is the Monster Detective, a storybook hero. Now he’s in his mid-thirties and spends most of his time not sleeping.
Stan became a minor celebrity after being partially eaten by cannibals. Barbara is haunted by the messages carved upon her bones. Greta may or may not be a mass-murdering arsonist. And for some reason, Martin never takes off his sunglasses.
Unsurprisingly, no one believes their horrific tales until they are sought out by psychotherapist Dr. Jan Sayer. What happens when these likely-insane outcasts join a support group? Together they must discover which monsters they face are within and which are lurking in plain sight.

My thoughts:
I have not been in therapy myself but this was exactly as I would imagine group therapy sessions to be.  Awkward meetings that slowly turn into meetings that are looked forward to. Strangers that turn into friends or at least people you are comfortable with.

Off course it would have to include those in the group you would like and those that just want to share too much all the time.  And even in this little group of trauma survivors, this is true.  You will like some of the characters and others will leave you cold.

This small group has been the victims of some terrible crimes and slowly you begin to see that their perpetrators might not be all human all the time.   You are given little tidbits of the crimes as the novella progresses and all seems a little "off".  

I don't want to give too much away - this is a story that you have to into blind.  It is only a short novella so there is not much fluff to fill out pages.  The story is presented to you in black and white.

I will recommend it for a few hours' escape.

{Movie}Review: Anna (2013)

Anna (2013)
Starring:   Mark Strong, Taissa Farmiga, Brian Cox

In the near future or an alternate reality, there are memory detectives, people who have the ability to enter other peoples' electronically aided memories. They often are used to resolve psychological conflicts, and sometimes to exonerate someone from a crime. John was at one time the top in this field but he has been recovering from the death of his wife, and a stroke. To get back into work the head of the small firm he works for offers him what is supposed to be a simple job, getting 16 year old Anna to start eating again. However, the "simple job" turns into his most challenging.

My thoughts:
Why it that people that should know better always get sucked into bad situations.  They are supposed to be trained professionals.  John is a "memory detective" that get's sucked in by Anna's memories and don't see the signs.
Unfortunately we saw it all and we guessed some of the vital facts of the movie early on.  But it was still an enjoyable few hours watching John being manipulated by a very clever young girl.

{Audiobook}Review: The Rapture

The Rapture
by Liz Jensen
  
Genre: Apocalyptic Thriller
Date Read:  20 July 2014 
Reading with my ears 
Narrator:  India Fisher   
Unabridged audio - Length: 12 hours 42 minutes

It is a June unlike any other before, with temperatures soaring to asphyxiating heights. All across the world, freak weather patterns—and the life-shattering catastrophes they entail—have become the norm. The twenty-first century has entered a new phase.; But Gabrielle Fox’s main concern is a personal one: to rebuild her life after a devastating car accident that has left her disconnected from the world, a prisoner of her own guilt and grief. Determined to make a fresh start, and shake off memories of her wrecked past, she leaves London for a temporary posting as an art therapist at Oxsmith Adolescent Secure Psychiatric Hospital, home to one hundred of the most dangerous children in the country. Among them: the teenage killer Bethany Krall.Despite two years of therapy, Bethany is in no way rehabilitated and remains militantly nonchalant about the bloody, brutal death she inflicted on her mother. Raised in evangelistic hellfire, the teenager is violent, caustic, unruly, and cruelly intuitive. She is also insistent that her electroshock treatments enable her to foresee natural disasters—a claim which Gabrielle interprets as a symptom of doomsday delusion.
But as Gabrielle delves further into Bethany’s psyche, she begins to note alarming parallels between her patient’s paranoid disaster fantasies and actual incidents of geological and meteorological upheaval—coincidences her professionalism tells her to ignore but that her heart cannot. When a brilliant physicist enters the equation, the disruptive tension mounts—and the stakes multiply. Is the self-proclaimed Nostradamus of the psych ward the ultimate manipulator or a harbinger of global disaster on a scale never seen before? Where does science end and faith begin? And what can love mean in “interesting times”?
With gothic intensity, Liz Jensen conjures the increasingly unnerving relationship between the traumatized therapist and her fascinating, deeply calculating patient. As Bethany’s warnings continue to prove accurate beyond fluke and she begins to offer scientifically precise hints of a final, world-altering cataclysm, Gabrielle is confronted with a series of devastating choices in a world in which belief has become as precious - and as murderous—as life itself.

My thoughts:
The blurb above sounds very attractive, doesn't it?  Unfortunately the main character, Gabrielle Fox, detracted from the story so much that I had to slog through just to get to the end.

That woman needs someone to slap some sense into her.  She has a running inner-monologue throughout the book and all she seems to be grieving for is her lost womanwood because she is paralyzed.  It really gets a bit tedious to have to listen to it very few pages.  Because I had developed such a dislike for Gabrielle, it was difficult for me to keep an open mind but the story still kept me listening. That says a lot for the author.

Just imagine if you knew someone that was accurately predicting disasters and then started predicating the apocalypse.   Would you believe them?  And what would you do with that information?  

I will not comment on the ending except to say that it was perfect.  When I was getting near to the end of the mp3 file, I was getting nervous that so much still needed to be said but Liz Jensen just nailed it.  As I said . . . perfect.

If you are able to keep from wanting to kill Gabrielle, you will love this book.  It is definitely a different way to see the end of the world . . .  

{Audiobook}Review: Mr Mercedes

Mr Mercedes
by Stephen King
 
Genre: Crime fiction
Date Read:  13 June 2014
Reading with my ears
Narrator:  Will Patton   
Unabridged audio - Length: 14 hours 21 minutes

A cat-and-mouse suspense thriller featuring a retired homicide detective who's haunted by the few cases he left open, and by one in particular - the pre-dawn slaughter of eight people among hundreds gathered in line for the opening of a jobs fair when the economy was guttering out. Without warning, a lone driver ploughed through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes.

The plot is kicked into gear when Bill Hodges receives a letter in the mail, from a man claiming to be the perpetrator. He taunts Hodges with the notion that he will strike again. Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing that from happening. Brady Hartfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. And he's preparing to kill again. Only Hodges, with a couple of misfit friends, can apprehend the killer in this high-stakes race against time. Because Brady's next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim hundreds, even thousands.

My thoughts:
Mr Mercedes is the journey of Bill Hodges, a police detective, with nothing to live for after his retirement from the force.   He puts away his father’s gun (and thoughts of using it) as he begins to tract the one crazy killer he was never able to catch. 

Brady Hartfield is very sick.  It is scary to think that he lives in real life too.  People blending nicely into society but with grandiose thoughts of being famous as the greatest killer. 

I loved how King revealed only little bits of the support characters at a time.  We never really got to know the the other characters in the book, just enough to give us glimpses into the reasons for Brady’s psychosis. 

One of these characters is Freddy, Brady’s younger brother.  He is only mentioned a few times in this book but I felt such empathy for him.  A poor little lost soul, born into a family that ultimately killed him.  Freddy was always slow and suffered brain damage during his short life which made caring for him a huge burden on the family.  I understand the frustrations that the family must have felt but poor little Freddy did not deserve his life.  Thankfully he would not have understood all that went on.

If you are looking for a scary horror by the great master, then you will be disappointed.  Mr Mercedes is only scary in the way that an insane person can be scary.   And Brady is scary . . .
This is instead a great detective story, defining the phrase “cat and mouse games”. 

Will Patton once again showed why he is such a beloved narrator.  He did an excellent job and the story flowed beautifully from scene to scene.  He is a true professional.  Love him!

{TV series}Review: Helix

A team of scientists are thrust into a potentially life-or-death situation in this thriller, which begins with the group being deployed to the Arctic to secretly investigate what could be a disease outbreak.

This is a roller-coaster ride of a series.  I loved it!  Each episode had you believing another version of what the truth might be!  The whole series is played out in a “secret” arctic science lab where more that just lawful experimentation might be going on.    A group of CDC scientists are up against a decease that not even the director of the lab can (or want to) fully explain.  The first season ended on a cliffhanger of sorts and I am very happy that a second season will follow in 2015.

{Audiobook} Review: 14

14
by Peter Clines
Genre: Mystery, Horror, Science Fiction
Date Read: 07 May 2014
Reading with my ears
Narrator: Ray Porter
Unabridged audio - Length: 12 hours 38 minutes

Padlocked doors. Strange light fixtures. Mutant cockroaches.
There are some odd things about Nate’s new apartment.
Of course, he has other things on his mind. He hates his job. He has no money in the bank. No girlfriend. No plans for the future. So while his new home isn’t perfect, it’s livable. The rent is low, the property managers are friendly, and the odd little mysteries don’t nag at him too much.
At least, not until he meets Mandy, his neighbor across the hall, and notices something unusual about her apartment. And Xela’s apartment. And Tim’s. And Veek’s.
Because every room in this old Los Angeles brownstone has a mystery or two. Mysteries that stretch back over a hundred years. Some of them are in plain sight. Some are behind locked doors. And all together these mysteries could mean the end of Nate and his friends.
Or the end of everything...

My thoughts:
This book was such a nice surprise.  I had started the ebook a while back but had to set it aside for a shiny new title and totally forgot about it until a friend suggested I give it a try.  I expected horror (I love horror!).  But this story was more of a mystery.  The first three quarters of the book, we are trying to figure out where the crazy was coming from (and there are a lot of crazy!).  Huge illuminating cockroaches anyone (I would have not even unpacked!)
Very soon, the tenants of the apartment building getting to know each other, having fake movie-nights so that they can discuss the mystery without the supervisor noticing.  I loved the way that all the friends had their own story and background explained.  There were not many that were not very quickly a beloved part of the story.  

This was a four star read for me until just a few chapters from the ending.  I do not want to give away spoilers, so I will just say that the book took a strange turn that I did not enjoy.  But all in all it was an enjoyable experience.
Audio:  I really enjoyed the voice of Ray Porter.  I think I could listen to him read the phonebook.  His voice is so smooth – it just flows over you.  I just felt sorry for him when he had to read some of the drama in the last few pages – wonder what he was thinking

{Movie} Review: Unthinkable

Unthinkable (2010)
Starring:  Samuel L. Jackson, Carrie-Anne Moss, Michael Sheen

A psychological thriller centered around a black-ops interrogator and an FBI agent who press a suspect terrorist into divulging the location of three nuclear weapons set to detonate in the U.S.

My thoughts:
Unthinkable is literally about the unthinkable.  Samuel L. Jackson is an interrogator that has no limits.  He will not stop until the terrorist reveals his secrets.  Agent Helen Brody has more of a moral dilemma with his integration methods.  But can she stand idly by when so many (including themselves) could die in the next few days.

This movie is about what is morally right.  Is torture only wrong if is not done for your own noble reasons.  How about if it is to save millions of lives?  What if you could prevent three nuclear bombs from detonating.  What would you allow to be done to the one man that knows the locations of these bombs?

I found this movie very entertaining but be warned it has a few gruesome torture scenes.

{Movie}Review: The Tall Man

The Tall Man (2012)
Starring:  Jessica Biel, Jodelle Ferland, William B Davis

This film is about a legend that has been started by the town folk of Cold Rock. Since the children in the town have been going missing, people have said it's an entity known as 'The Tall Man' who has been taking them. Julia Denning ('Jessica Biel' ) is the local nurse whose husband died years earlier. She is soon personally involved as her child is taken. She tries to track down where the child is taken, but finds that there's more to what's happening than she knew. The towns-folk start to turn on her and the truth comes out. But there's still more to the story--who is 'The Tall Man'? And what is the truth behind the disappearances?

My thoughts:
This movie started out very slowly.  Everything was so bleak.  What a sad life the citizens of Cold Rock had fallen into.  Since the mine closed down, life has been pretty bad for everyone in town. Stores are closing down or abandoned.  Everything (and everyone) is run down, dirty or broken. Money is tight or non-existent.
Julia, a trained nurse, has stayed on even after her husband, the beloved town doctor, has gone. She is trying to keep the town going. But children are going missing. More and more rumors are circulating about "the tall man", the one everyone believes are stealing the children.
One of the best aspects of this movie is that it will take you completely by surprise with it’s plot twists.  So no spoilers from me!  This is a movie that you have to go in blind.  And when all is revealed at the end, you will want to start a debate with your friends about the ethics of it all.
  

{Movie} Review: Ender's Game

Ender's Game (2013)
Starring:  Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Viola Davis
Genre:  Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi 

The Earth was ravaged by the Formics, an alien race seemingly determined to destroy humanity. Seventy years later, the people of Earth remain banded together to prevent their own annihilation from this technologically superior alien species. Ender Wiggin, a quiet but brilliant boy, may become the savior of the human race. He is separated from his beloved sister and his terrifying brother and brought to battle school in orbit around earth. He will be tested and honed into an empathetic killer who begins to despise what he does as he learns to fight in hopes of saving Earth and his family.  (from IMDb)

My thoughts:
I have been ill for some time and even though I do have the audiobook, I decided to watch the movie of Ender's Game instead.  

I was under the impression that this would be full blown action sci-fi movie from start to finish.  And there was action, a lot of action, with beautiful special effects but this movie was more about the relationship between Ender and Colonel Graff  - his teacher and mentor. (not something that my husband was very interested in -so for him, this movie came up short.)

Ender and Colonel Graff have a difficult relationship and it was hard seeing that Ender was purposely put into conflict with his schoolmates to make him become the leader he was meant to be.  Colonel Graff was continuously very hard on him and kept on saying "you are Earth's last hope".  A lot of pressure for a young boy.  I thought that came through very clearly throughout the movie. 

Even though I enjoyed the movie and was caught up in the excitement of the war, I am not sure that I will be listening to the book or any of the sequels.  I have been reading some reviews of devoted fans of the books and I am not sure if this was maybe a compilation of parts from more than the first book.  Either way, I did not enjoy the ending of the movie and am not really interested in where it might lead in the rest of the series.

But for a few hours of fun, this fit the bill perfectly.

 

 Perfect for a lazy afternoon.

  

{Audiobook} Review: The Rules

The Rules
by Mark Troy 

Series: Prequel to The Ava Rome Mysteries
Publisher: Ilium Books
Date released: 27 December 2013
Genre: Short Story
Source: Review copy via Audiobook Jukebox
Date Read: 24 January 2014
Narrator: Julie Hoverson
Unabridged audio: Length: 1 hour 14 minutes 

Personal Protection specialist Ava Rome follows three rules: A professional never calls attention to herself or her principal; a professional never leaves her principal; and, the most important rule, a professional never gets involved with her principal. To break the rules is to die. Paul, her principal, comes from a powerful family with many enemies. Murder and kidnapping are just means of business in Paul's family. Ava believes he is not like the rest of them. Good looking, intelligent, he has everything women want. And many women want him, which makes Ava's job harder. Does she want him too? She recognizes that the greatest threat comes not from the outside, but from her own growing desire. In order to save them both, Ava must leave Paul, against his wishes and in violation of one of her rules. Ava was wrong. A greater threat lurks outside Paul's secure compound. Two threats, in fact. One human and the other a hurricane. Ava focuses on the hurricane. She and Paul make preparations to ride out the storm. It arrives and so does the intruder. Now Ava is in a fight for her life as nature's fury assaults the house from the outside and a serial rapist stalks her on the inside.

**For adult audiences only**

My thoughts:
Ava Rome is a professional. She knows the rules. And up until now, she has followed them religiously. But Paul is making it all very difficult for her to remember them every minute of every day. He does not want to take no for an answer. And sometimes Ava does not want him to.

I really enjoyed Ava. She is a strong leading lady and she can definitely take care of herself and her principal. She takes charge of every situation and her training kicks in before she actively thinks about it. Loved that! She is a kickass heroine. 
Paul, on the other hand, did not sit well with me from the first sentences. He was sleek, rich and . . . well, slippery. I just could not put my finger on it but I mistrusted him immediately. And boy, was I right!

I do not like to read about love triangles, or abuse of any kind and definitely not rape. Yes, I

do read crime novels and all of those can be part of the plot but it is usually told in the past tense and in broad strokes. The Rules makes us part of this terrible event and we are inside Ava's head all the way. The blurb did warn me but I did not pick up on it. My fault. By the time the climax of the book started, I was already invested in the story. I admit that I considered not going any further but I wanted Ava to survive. And looking back, it was not as “in-your-face-awful” as it could have been. I think Mark handled it with a lot of sensitivity.

In the end, this is a brutal story where we cheer Ava on and she gives us the ending we want. I definitely want to read more about her and luckily this is only the prequel. Look out for The Splintered Paddle, the first in the The Ava Rome Mysteries series, coming later in 2014.

I loved the narration by Julie Hoverson. I have read a bit of her facebook page and it looks like she is not actively doing a lot of narration. But what a job she did in the novella. She has a strong voice and she quickly became Ava for me. She does change her voice somewhat for the other characters but it was easy on my ear and did not distract from the story at all. I hope that she will be narrating the upcoming series as I loved her voice flowing into my ears.