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A Bagful of Shiny Things
Oct. 21st, 2019 09:36 amVicious by VE Schwab:
This book tells the story of two friends who discover a way to give themselves superpowers by killing themselves and having the other one bring them back. They both succeed but things then go terribly awry, with violent consequences and an ongoing vendetta. The book weaves the story together from different timelines in a very effective way and absolutely kept me hooked from start to finish. There are some aspects that don't quite work if you think about them too hard (if there are so many powered people in such a small area, wouldn't people know about them?) and the writing trips itself up every now and then (there are several scenes where the point of view is quite muddled), but overall I was fully invested in this story throughout. This surprised me, since I'm generally a very character-focused reader and this book is full of bad guys! I guess the little girl, Sydney, isn't bad, and the book tries a bit too hard to make the sidekick, Mitch, a sympathetic character (and does so very effectively, since he was my favourite). There's also an awesome dog.
But the main appeal is the exploration of how the various powers affect the characters psychologically. I particularly liked the portrayal of Eli's relationship with Serena (everyone does whatever she tells them) and the fine line they tread between love and hate. All the inter-relationships were interesting, as well as the individual characters' thoughts about the nature of their power and what they might possibly have lost in gaining it. The ending was a bit anti-climactic (it's difficult to maintain the sense of threat when one of the characters can bring people back from the dead) and I can't see how the sequel can be anything other than basically the same story over again. But I'm intrigued enough to read it and find out.
Chihuly Nights at Kew Gardens:
Thursday was a day of gradual spontaneity, culminating in a late-night visit to the illuminated glass sculpture exhibition at Kew Gardens. Wandering round Kew Gardens in the dark is a pleasure in itself, and having that be punctuated by sudden spectacular glowing coloured glass was quite an experience. There were perhaps too many too-similar sculptures in the temperate house (though the one hanging from the ceiling in the centre was probably the most amazing), but the ones outside both before and after that bit were beautiful and startling, and well worth the trip, even taking into account the long journey to arrive home at midnight.
House of Burlesque: Reverie:
Friday night saw me at Grace Hall on Leadenhall Street, which turned out to be a very sophisticated, columned space, and an interesting venue for a burlesque show. It wasn't the best House of Burlesque show I've seen (a couple of the acts fell a bit flat in my view) but it had the tremendous advantage of being entirely new to me. I've seen them perform a lot, and they recycle a lot of stuff. But this was all new acts - and it was great to see Trixie and Gracie doing unfamiliar stuff (both awesome), as well as Tempest in some great new costumes (I also very much enjoyed her rendition of Seven Nation Army). So, very much worth a visit.
Official Secrets:
Saturday saw me at Picturehouse Central to see Official Secrets, the first film Keira Knightley's done in a while that I've actually wanted to see. I'm quite a fan of true-life whistleblowing or investigative journalism stories (Spotlight, The Post, Snowden, All The President's Men, etc) and this one was a well-done staple of the genre. Considering the high-stakes, high-tension bit basically involved someone printing a piece of paper, the film did well to convey an effective sense of peril. And there was plenty of intellectual interest in the working out of the legal case. But, in the end, the whistleblowing act didn't really achieve anything, and the clever machinations of the legal team weren't really required, so it was perhaps a bit of a damp squib. Still, the cast was excellent, the plot was well-crafted into an interesting arc, and overall I enjoyed the film.
The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss:
This has been on my reading shelf for years and I finally got around to reading it over the weekend. It has a note from the author at the start, warning the reader that this may well not be the story for them, and a lengthy section at the end talking about how the story came about and how it defies the normal conventions of storytelling to a very large extent. It only has one character, there is no dialogue, and the whole thing (about 150 pages) just follows a young girl around a set of underground rooms and passages as she goes about her days. But it's beautiful and haunting and delightful and heart-breaking and clever and mistifying all at once. It's the single most effective and relatable depiction I've ever read of what it's like to live with mental illness. Auri's world has very specific rules that seem utterly nonsensical to an outside eye, but make absolute sense to her, and the way she perceives things is very different to most people, but her actions and reactions make perfect sense within the context of her world and feelings. The use of language is masterful and the whole thing carried me along with Auri on her adventures in a way that touched me deeply. Highly recommended to anyone who feels different or alone in the way they experience the world. And every more highly recommended to those who fit in easily and need to understand that isn't the case for everyone.
This book tells the story of two friends who discover a way to give themselves superpowers by killing themselves and having the other one bring them back. They both succeed but things then go terribly awry, with violent consequences and an ongoing vendetta. The book weaves the story together from different timelines in a very effective way and absolutely kept me hooked from start to finish. There are some aspects that don't quite work if you think about them too hard (if there are so many powered people in such a small area, wouldn't people know about them?) and the writing trips itself up every now and then (there are several scenes where the point of view is quite muddled), but overall I was fully invested in this story throughout. This surprised me, since I'm generally a very character-focused reader and this book is full of bad guys! I guess the little girl, Sydney, isn't bad, and the book tries a bit too hard to make the sidekick, Mitch, a sympathetic character (and does so very effectively, since he was my favourite). There's also an awesome dog.
But the main appeal is the exploration of how the various powers affect the characters psychologically. I particularly liked the portrayal of Eli's relationship with Serena (everyone does whatever she tells them) and the fine line they tread between love and hate. All the inter-relationships were interesting, as well as the individual characters' thoughts about the nature of their power and what they might possibly have lost in gaining it. The ending was a bit anti-climactic (it's difficult to maintain the sense of threat when one of the characters can bring people back from the dead) and I can't see how the sequel can be anything other than basically the same story over again. But I'm intrigued enough to read it and find out.
Chihuly Nights at Kew Gardens:
Thursday was a day of gradual spontaneity, culminating in a late-night visit to the illuminated glass sculpture exhibition at Kew Gardens. Wandering round Kew Gardens in the dark is a pleasure in itself, and having that be punctuated by sudden spectacular glowing coloured glass was quite an experience. There were perhaps too many too-similar sculptures in the temperate house (though the one hanging from the ceiling in the centre was probably the most amazing), but the ones outside both before and after that bit were beautiful and startling, and well worth the trip, even taking into account the long journey to arrive home at midnight.
House of Burlesque: Reverie:
Friday night saw me at Grace Hall on Leadenhall Street, which turned out to be a very sophisticated, columned space, and an interesting venue for a burlesque show. It wasn't the best House of Burlesque show I've seen (a couple of the acts fell a bit flat in my view) but it had the tremendous advantage of being entirely new to me. I've seen them perform a lot, and they recycle a lot of stuff. But this was all new acts - and it was great to see Trixie and Gracie doing unfamiliar stuff (both awesome), as well as Tempest in some great new costumes (I also very much enjoyed her rendition of Seven Nation Army). So, very much worth a visit.
Official Secrets:
Saturday saw me at Picturehouse Central to see Official Secrets, the first film Keira Knightley's done in a while that I've actually wanted to see. I'm quite a fan of true-life whistleblowing or investigative journalism stories (Spotlight, The Post, Snowden, All The President's Men, etc) and this one was a well-done staple of the genre. Considering the high-stakes, high-tension bit basically involved someone printing a piece of paper, the film did well to convey an effective sense of peril. And there was plenty of intellectual interest in the working out of the legal case. But, in the end, the whistleblowing act didn't really achieve anything, and the clever machinations of the legal team weren't really required, so it was perhaps a bit of a damp squib. Still, the cast was excellent, the plot was well-crafted into an interesting arc, and overall I enjoyed the film.
The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss:
This has been on my reading shelf for years and I finally got around to reading it over the weekend. It has a note from the author at the start, warning the reader that this may well not be the story for them, and a lengthy section at the end talking about how the story came about and how it defies the normal conventions of storytelling to a very large extent. It only has one character, there is no dialogue, and the whole thing (about 150 pages) just follows a young girl around a set of underground rooms and passages as she goes about her days. But it's beautiful and haunting and delightful and heart-breaking and clever and mistifying all at once. It's the single most effective and relatable depiction I've ever read of what it's like to live with mental illness. Auri's world has very specific rules that seem utterly nonsensical to an outside eye, but make absolute sense to her, and the way she perceives things is very different to most people, but her actions and reactions make perfect sense within the context of her world and feelings. The use of language is masterful and the whole thing carried me along with Auri on her adventures in a way that touched me deeply. Highly recommended to anyone who feels different or alone in the way they experience the world. And every more highly recommended to those who fit in easily and need to understand that isn't the case for everyone.
