Scan barcode
A review by stefhyena
Mayhem at the Orient Express by Kylie Logan
2.0
I was disappointed. I expected humour and cool, slightly nerdy references to the Christie classic (not crude pretentiousness with 2D characters). I knew there was a cat but he disappointingly barely figured.
The "literary ladies" disappointed me. They are hardly "literary" at all, being in an enforced book-club for acting like shrewish fish-wives. Yawn. Stereotype. The husband of the librarian sentences them to go to book club in a scene where the rational man has to deal with three harpies :( really this should have warned me about the gender yawn-inducing tropes ahead.
Chandra fits the word "literary" least, she doesn;t even read and takes an odd sort of pride in only watching the video. She is irrational in a tired and half-hearted sort of a way. From her name you could think she has some ethnic depth or something? But no she is just a hippy who thought her real name "Sandra" was too normal.
Kate is a scornful capitalist. She looks down on everyone and has a cruel streak. She admires nothing as much as business-sense and making money. The "good" thing about her is she doesn;t know anything good about herself.
Bea is a toasted marshmallow. She has a Great Secret but she hides behind dressing like a frump. She is supposed to be the intellectual of the group but I didn't see any signs of this. She protests that she does not have the hots for Levi, does not, does not, does not, does not until the reader who was apathetic both about the tiresome Levi and about her hormones says "just shag him already this is boring". Her friends are more obliging than the reader and actually care enough to tease her constantly about him. The many descriptions of Levi and his curly hair and tan or whatever are a great cure for insomnia, I'll give them that.
Every girl has a guy she desires in the book. Every girl-boy relationship has something creepy about it (Hank and Chunder are possibly the worst ones). There's a homophobic joke at one point but it would be a spoiler of sorts to say more about that. If there was actual humour somewhere I blinked and missed it but there is plenty of awkward slapstick and terrible dialogue.
There's a saying about falling off a turnip truck which at first I was going to put up with as an idiosyncrasy of one of the characters but by golly EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER in the book uses that odd phrase. They all speak the same.
I suspect the book was written in a tearing hurry. I expected more from an Orient Express spoof but never mind. I've got a horrific cold and needed something mindless to do and possibly this was less offensive than TV.
Probably.
Maybe.
The "literary ladies" disappointed me. They are hardly "literary" at all, being in an enforced book-club for acting like shrewish fish-wives. Yawn. Stereotype. The husband of the librarian sentences them to go to book club in a scene where the rational man has to deal with three harpies :( really this should have warned me about the gender yawn-inducing tropes ahead.
Chandra fits the word "literary" least, she doesn;t even read and takes an odd sort of pride in only watching the video. She is irrational in a tired and half-hearted sort of a way. From her name you could think she has some ethnic depth or something? But no she is just a hippy who thought her real name "Sandra" was too normal.
Kate is a scornful capitalist. She looks down on everyone and has a cruel streak. She admires nothing as much as business-sense and making money. The "good" thing about her is she doesn;t know anything good about herself.
Bea is a toasted marshmallow. She has a Great Secret but she hides behind dressing like a frump. She is supposed to be the intellectual of the group but I didn't see any signs of this. She protests that she does not have the hots for Levi, does not, does not, does not, does not until the reader who was apathetic both about the tiresome Levi and about her hormones says "just shag him already this is boring". Her friends are more obliging than the reader and actually care enough to tease her constantly about him. The many descriptions of Levi and his curly hair and tan or whatever are a great cure for insomnia, I'll give them that.
Every girl has a guy she desires in the book. Every girl-boy relationship has something creepy about it (Hank and Chunder are possibly the worst ones). There's a homophobic joke at one point but it would be a spoiler of sorts to say more about that. If there was actual humour somewhere I blinked and missed it but there is plenty of awkward slapstick and terrible dialogue.
There's a saying about falling off a turnip truck which at first I was going to put up with as an idiosyncrasy of one of the characters but by golly EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER in the book uses that odd phrase. They all speak the same.
I suspect the book was written in a tearing hurry. I expected more from an Orient Express spoof but never mind. I've got a horrific cold and needed something mindless to do and possibly this was less offensive than TV.
Probably.
Maybe.