Wickham and Service Dogs
Aug. 15th, 2025 01:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearThe other day, we went to see Being Mr Wickham, a one-man show starring the guy who played Wickham in the 90s BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. It was set on his 60th birthday and was an hour-long monologue by him, about his perspective of the events of the novel and what had happened since.
And it was pretty good. There was more nuance and more emotional layers than I was expecting. It was funny in places, poignant in others, sad at times and challenging in some ways. Adrian Lukis was also really good. But I just didn't really connect to it for some reason, which was a shame.
Blind Fear by Hilary Norman is a thriller about a woman who trains service dogs and who is enticed to go to America to provide a dog for a blind sculptor. Little does she know, there's a serial killer on the loose in the area...
The writing isn't the best - a lot of the exposition is pretty clunky and some of the dialogue feels stilted. But I got totally into the completely mundane story of Joanna and her journey. So much so that the intermittent bits about the serial killer actually annoyed me! I would have been very happy for the whole book to be a fascinating exploration of disability and art, relationships with dogs, and a slow-burn romance. Of course, 100 pages from the end, everything got very silly and very tense and very over-the-top, though I did feel like the climax was too dragged out. I also had some issues with some of the author's choices regarding racial and cultural presentation of certain characters. But overall, I was engaged throughout and a lot of it (outside of the thriller aspects) was very involving.
And it was pretty good. There was more nuance and more emotional layers than I was expecting. It was funny in places, poignant in others, sad at times and challenging in some ways. Adrian Lukis was also really good. But I just didn't really connect to it for some reason, which was a shame.
Blind Fear by Hilary Norman is a thriller about a woman who trains service dogs and who is enticed to go to America to provide a dog for a blind sculptor. Little does she know, there's a serial killer on the loose in the area...
The writing isn't the best - a lot of the exposition is pretty clunky and some of the dialogue feels stilted. But I got totally into the completely mundane story of Joanna and her journey. So much so that the intermittent bits about the serial killer actually annoyed me! I would have been very happy for the whole book to be a fascinating exploration of disability and art, relationships with dogs, and a slow-burn romance. Of course, 100 pages from the end, everything got very silly and very tense and very over-the-top, though I did feel like the climax was too dragged out. I also had some issues with some of the author's choices regarding racial and cultural presentation of certain characters. But overall, I was engaged throughout and a lot of it (outside of the thriller aspects) was very involving.
