Book Review – The Running Man by Richard Bachman

 

The Running Man is set within a dystopian future in which the poor are seen more by the government as worrisome rodents than actual human beings. The protagonist of The Running Man, Ben Richards, is quick to realize this as he watches his daughter, Cathy, grow more sick by the day and tread closer and closer to death. Desperate for money to pay Cathy’s medical bills, Ben enlists himself in a true reality style game show where the objective is to merely stay alive.

A dystopian future novel before dystopian future novels were in style; written under Stephen King’s pseudonym, Richard Bachman.

It reminded me a bit of The Hunger Games (and reminded me of another one of his novels, The Long Walk, as well). Ben Richards, just like Katniss, felt what the government was doing to its poorer class was wrong. And like Katniss, he wanted to rise up and defeat them. He tried to let the viewers know what was really going on but was silenced. While not constantly filmed like The Hunger Games, The Running Man was televised. And I couldn’t help but picture Caesar Flickerman during the parts with Bobby Thompson, the show’s host.

Thus far, not my favourite of his novels, but I still felt it was a good read. I am looking forward to diving further into King’s work.

What were your thoughts on The Running Man?

Shelly

xx.

Book Review – Carrie by Stephen King

Carrie knew she should not use the terrifying power she possessed… But one night at her senior prom, Carrie was scorned and humiliated just one time too many, and in a fit of uncontrollable fury she turned her clandestine game into a weapon of horror and destruction…

YES, my faith in my love of Stephen King novels has been restored. Phew! I felt like I’d been reading a few too many that left me feeling confused or unfulfilled by the end.

I have known the story of Carrie for a long time; even though I’m pretty sure I’ve never actually watched the movie in full. But I knew the gist of it – outcast girl gets humiliated one too many times and unleashes her crazy power on the entire town. Simply put: I loved this book.

“Jesus watches from the wall,
But his face is cold as stone,
And if he loves me
As she tells me
Why do I feel so all alone?”

I had so much sympathy for Carrie. That poor, poor girl. A fanatical religious mother who treated her like garbage, no friends at school; it’s no wonder she went off the deep end and killed just about anyone who got in her way.

The shower/change room scene had me cringing – not because there’s no way Stephen King could know what it’s like to be a teenage girl in a female change room who just got their period, but because the way those girls treated Carrie was just so…unsurprising. And I don’t mean that in a “that’s so predictable” way. Girls are mean. Teenage girls are even worse. And I was once a teenage girl. And even though I never had tampons and sanitary napkins thrown at me, or pig’s blood dropped on my head (or me doing those things to someone else), it still didn’t feel beyond the realm of possibility that this would happen to someone. Okay, maybe the pig’s blood is less likely to happen to someone in real life, but that’s beside the point. Also, just goes to show you that teenage girls were horribly mean even back in 1974 when this book was written.

I read somewhere recently that even though King’s books are not a part of a series, many of them play off past characters and incidents that happened. Perhaps they are part of a larger universe, ya know what I mean? This intrigues me and makes me want to continue forth reading his work in order. And maybe that’s why there have been a few that left me confused. Perhaps I needed to have read earlier work to understand. I’m currently in the middle of reading The Running Man which he wrote under his pseudonym Richard Bachmann. It’s number 13 on his list of works, and unfortunately I didn’t read about “the order” before I had already started. So I’m a little off, but once I finish number 13, I’ll go back to number 2 on the list, Salem’s Lot.

With all that being said, I highly recommend this book. I think it’s a great place to start for those who have not read any of King’s stuff. This was, after all, his first published work and is a great baseline for his future work.

All in all I really enjoyed this book and am excited to get back into reading more of Stephen King’s other novels.

What did you think of Carrie?

xx.

Shelly

Book Review – The Pretenders by Lisi Harrison

I’m so disappointed with how this book ended up. It just…ends. Technically it is a cliff hanger, since you have absolutely no idea who released the journals or what happened to the characters. But…it doesn’t really leave you hanging the way a traditional cliff hanger would. It just finishes and that’s that. Sort of like when you see someone one day and not the next. You don’t know what happened to them but nothing big was going on in their life to make you curious about what’s happening with them. Frankly, I didn’t really care enough about any of the characters to really wonder what happens next. I will not be reading the second installment of this series.

I feel like this book had so much potential, but the author just didn’t deliver.

 I gave it 2/5 stars on Goodreads.

Has anyone else read it? What did you think?

xx.

Movie Review – American Made

This past weekend the boyfriend and I went on a lovely movie date to see American Made. This movie interested me most because I’m a huge fan of the Narcos series. The history of the drug cartel’s in Colombia is very interesting.  

American Made focuses on Barry Seal, who, if you watched Narcos, is the infamous American they referred to as Ellis McPickle. Now, if you haven’t watched Narcos I suggest you get on it, because you are missing out!  

Wikipedia says it best: Seal was an American airline pilot who became a major drug smuggler for the Medellín Cartel. When Seal was convicted of smuggling charges, he became an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration and testified in several major drug trials. He was murdered in 1986 by contract killers hired by Pablo Escobar, head of the Medellín Cartel. 

Never mess with the cartel.  

Now, all in all, the movie was pretty good. It helped that I already knew a little bit about the history here a la Narcos so the situations didn’t confuse me. I liked that they didn’t bore us with court and drug trial scenes. I feel that would have pulled from the focus of the man himself. I didn’t even mind Tom Cruise’s performance. I have not been a fan of his in recent years (circa his jumping-on-the-couch-on-Ellen days), but I found he fit this part quite well.  

Check it out!

xx.

 

Movie Review – Kingsman: The Golden Circle

I went and saw Kingsman: The Golden Circle last night. I really enjoyed it! It followed a very similar plot line to the first, so if you weren’t a fan then, you likely won’t be a fan now. But for me, it was pretty good, especially considering most sequels fail to compare to their counterparts.

You’ve got your villain…you’ve got your Kingsman…and now you’ve got PEDRO PASCAL. What more could you want?

[Okay, I may be a little bit biased because I LOVE Pedro Pascal. Admittedly I’ve only ever seen him in Narcos prior to this, but I am a big fan. He rocks the Southern gentleman style quite nicely. And I still think he should have been included in the movie poster.]

The movie combined just the right amount of comedy with action-packed adventure and intrigue. As I said, it did follow the original plot almost verbatim, but I think that’s what made both movies so much fun.

Colin Firth [Harry Hart], Taron Egerton [Eggsy], and Mark Strong [Merlin] have fabulous chemistry and comradery between them.

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel with Julianne Moore playing the villain, but she pulled it off. She was cheeky and fun and an absolute psychopath. You couldn’t help but laugh at the crazy way she runs things.

Elton John – that’s right, the Elton John – was such a fantastic addition to this sequel. He was the right amount of funny and sass.

While I did enjoy the film as a whole, at a 2 hour and 21 minute run time, it was a little too long. My attention started to waver a bit around the 1 hour and 45 minute mark. That being said, I generally struggle in long movies, regardless of how exciting the film is.

All in all, I really enjoyed this film and think everyone should give it a chance!

Have you seen the film? What were your thoughts?

xx.

Essential Oils

Whether or not you have any experience with essential oils, you’ve probably been hearing about them a lot lately.

No doubt there are many essential oil companies out there, but the big one at the moment is doTERRA. I first learned a little bit about essential oils and this company through a friend of mine. She’s a Wellness Advocate and a big believer in the power of the oils. She gave me some information but at the time I wasn’t really interested in taking things any further.

Then a few months later, she invited me to a make and take where I learned to make various household items using the oils – chapstick, bath salt, room spray, hand sanitizer and a household cleaner. I had a good time and learned a few things about the oils and was curious to learn more. After that, I signed up with her and have been ordering oils ever since. I buy a few a month and am slowly growing my collection. I’ve used them to treat headaches, hives, and muscle soreness from working out. I am not a Wellness Advocate myself but I do believe in the healing powers of these oils and think in some cases they are a great alternative to modern medicine.

The other night I had the pleasure of attending the doTERRA post convention tour. I learned so much interesting stuff about the company, where the oils come from, and how the oils are processed. I was fascinated by it all and am so glad I went. I met some great ladies and am eager to continue my journey in the world oils. I don’t plan on becoming a Wellness Advocate at this time but will always be happy to share what I’ve learned along the way.

Xx.

First blog post

Hello readers and welcome to my new blog!

I’d been debating creating a blog for months now. But what I really struggled with was what to focus on. Where to begin? What are my interests, what do I know? It finally came down to this. My life. My day to day struggles and battles with depression. Trying to figure out where I belong in this world.

I plan to use this blog for anything and everything. Book reviews, product reviews, fitness posts, mindless ramblings, whatever I can think of. Whatever I feel like writing about.

I’m Shelly, and this is simply a blog about me. Thanks for coming along for the ride!