thereadingmum's reviews
657 reviews
The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike
3.5
Kate Reading delivers it in a American suburbian tone that gives this quite diabolical tale an interesting flavour, which I think is what Updike was going for?
In any case, I enjoyed it overall and felt it was a good attempt by a man of addressing the issue of women coming into their own once they've shed their male dependency. Yet it is also a man who comes between the women of this story and subverts their powers into evil that ultimately backfires on him or does it?
Some think this is the opposite of female empowerment because of the character of Daryl Van Horne coming between the three women, but I disagree. His betrayal serves to show them their faults and brought out their vindictiveness, but in the end, they made their own choices.
The eroticism was muted somewhat by the reading so I sometimes didn't even realise it was there. This also worked in its favour IMO as the sexuality is given a purpose instead of being sex for its own sake.
This is one of those books I know will be very different from the movie because it would be impossible to capture the right tone and I can already tell Hollywood has bastadised it. Though I love Jack Nicholson and all the actresses in it and think they would have portrayed the characters perfectly, if the story had been maintained. In any case I will still try and watch it.
In any case, I enjoyed it overall and felt it was a good attempt by a man of addressing the issue of women coming into their own once they've shed their male dependency. Yet it is also a man who comes between the women of this story and subverts their powers into evil that ultimately backfires on him or does it?
Some think this is the opposite of female empowerment because of the character of Daryl Van Horne coming between the three women, but I disagree. His betrayal serves to show them their faults and brought out their vindictiveness, but in the end, they made their own choices.
The eroticism was muted somewhat by the reading so I sometimes didn't even realise it was there. This also worked in its favour IMO as the sexuality is given a purpose instead of being sex for its own sake.
This is one of those books I know will be very different from the movie because it would be impossible to capture the right tone and I can already tell Hollywood has bastadised it. Though I love Jack Nicholson and all the actresses in it and think they would have portrayed the characters perfectly, if the story had been maintained. In any case I will still try and watch it.
Daphne du Maurier's Classics of the Macabre by Daphne du Maurier
3.5
I read this in tandem with The Folio Society collection Don't Look Now and Other Stories, which contains all the same stories and a few more but does not have "The Alibi".
My review is thus the same but I will add a mini one for The Alibi at the end.
Disclaimer: I am a very hard to please short story reader. To me, the format requires very good, very succinct writing with absolutely no excess and hits you so hard you are left reeling either emotionally or intellectually. As such, I have only come across a handful of writers who can write really good short stories. This includes writers whose full-sized novels I have loved, yet somehow couldn't pull off the short format.
So it is with Du Maurier, whose novels I have enjoyed. To be fair, two of the stories here I think are quite good, The Blue Lenses and The Apple Tree, which were creepy AF and exciting from the get go with excellent endings. The rest though kinda fell flat. I was particularly disappointed with The Birds. It is very frightening with how sudden and unexpected the violence and group psychotic behavior of the birds was, but then the ending had this extreme hopelessness, which I really didn't like. I know now that I have read it before and the fact that I forgot how it ended reinforces my critque. I felt that it needed a bit more in terms of the struggle and the explanation, perhaps just one or two more radio communiques to graduate the despondency.
"The Alibi" starts off fairly intriguing as a future murder is indicated but then it devolves into a strange story of deflecting murderous intents with art. The ending was also odd and I may remember it for that rather then being macabre.
My review is thus the same but I will add a mini one for The Alibi at the end.
Disclaimer: I am a very hard to please short story reader. To me, the format requires very good, very succinct writing with absolutely no excess and hits you so hard you are left reeling either emotionally or intellectually. As such, I have only come across a handful of writers who can write really good short stories. This includes writers whose full-sized novels I have loved, yet somehow couldn't pull off the short format.
So it is with Du Maurier, whose novels I have enjoyed. To be fair, two of the stories here I think are quite good, The Blue Lenses and The Apple Tree, which were creepy AF and exciting from the get go with excellent endings. The rest though kinda fell flat. I was particularly disappointed with The Birds. It is very frightening with how sudden and unexpected the violence and group psychotic behavior of the birds was, but then the ending had this extreme hopelessness, which I really didn't like. I know now that I have read it before and the fact that I forgot how it ended reinforces my critque. I felt that it needed a bit more in terms of the struggle and the explanation, perhaps just one or two more radio communiques to graduate the despondency.
"The Alibi" starts off fairly intriguing as a future murder is indicated but then it devolves into a strange story of deflecting murderous intents with art. The ending was also odd and I may remember it for that rather then being macabre.
Don't Look Now and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier
dark
tense
medium-paced
3.5
Disclaimer: I am a very hard to please short story reader. To me, the format requires very good, very succinct writing with absolutely no excess and hits you so hard you are left reeling either emotionally or intellectually. As such, I have only come across a handful of writers who can write really good short stories. This includes writers whose full-sized novels I have loved, yet somehow couldn't pull off the short format.
So it is with Du Maurier, whose novels I have enjoyed. To be fair, two of the stories here I think are quite good, The Blue Lenses and The Apple Tree, which were creepy AF and exciting from the get go with excellent endings. The rest though kinda fell flat. I was particularly disappointed with The Birds. It is very frightening with how sudden and unexpected the violence and group psychotic behavior of the birds was, but then the ending had this extreme hopelessness, which I really didn't like. I know now that I have read it before and the fact that I forgot how it ended reinforces my critque. I felt that it needed a bit more in terms of the struggle and the explanation, perhaps just one or two more radio communiques to graduate the despondency.
So it is with Du Maurier, whose novels I have enjoyed. To be fair, two of the stories here I think are quite good, The Blue Lenses and The Apple Tree, which were creepy AF and exciting from the get go with excellent endings. The rest though kinda fell flat. I was particularly disappointed with The Birds. It is very frightening with how sudden and unexpected the violence and group psychotic behavior of the birds was, but then the ending had this extreme hopelessness, which I really didn't like. I know now that I have read it before and the fact that I forgot how it ended reinforces my critque. I felt that it needed a bit more in terms of the struggle and the explanation, perhaps just one or two more radio communiques to graduate the despondency.
Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie
4.0
For those wondering if this is the book A Haunting in Venice is based on, yes it is. If you're wondering if it follows the plot closely, not at all. The only similarities are the names of the characters, the Halloween party for kids setting and the killer.
The movie is a lot darker than any of Christie's books and takes some liberties with Poirot's characterisation that fans may not like. Though the crime(s) in the book could be seen as darker given that it is a child of 13 who is murdered.
Poirot seems to have regained a bit of favour with the authoress in this novel as he comes across less idiosyncratic and arrogant and he plays a much larger role in the investigation.
The movie is a lot darker than any of Christie's books and takes some liberties with Poirot's characterisation that fans may not like. Though the crime(s) in the book could be seen as darker given that it is a child of 13 who is murdered.
Poirot seems to have regained a bit of favour with the authoress in this novel as he comes across less idiosyncratic and arrogant and he plays a much larger role in the investigation.