#CJ Skuse

[rubypomegranates]

"Even when I’m at home, I’m acting a part. I never know which bits of me are real. I wonder what it’s like to truly feel, to truly ‘be.’ Exhausting, I’d imagine."

C.J. Skuse "Sweetpea"

[cantsayidont]

SWEETPEA Series 1 (2024): Disjointed, unpleasant, racist black comedy, adapted from a C.J. Skuse novel, about a mousy young white woman named Rhiannon (Ella Purnell) whose simmering rage at being ignored and disrespected by everyone in her life takes a dark turn when she realizes that her social near-invisibility will let her get away with murder. Violently expressing herself gives Rhiannon's dead-end life a big boost, but it becomes more complicated when she sets out for revenge on her one-time high school bully Julia Blenkingsopp (Nicôle Lecky), now a bitchy estate agent whom Rhiannon's unsympathetic older sister has commissioned to sell their late father's house, and attracts the attention of detective constable Marina (Leah Harvey), who is a lot like Rhiannon and thus is the only one to see through her.

Much like the thematically similar 1993 movie FALLING DOWN, which starred Michael Douglas as a seemingly ordinary guy who finally snaps one hot day, SWEETPEA leans too hard for too long on the assumption that viewers will find Rhiannon's sense of frustrated entitlement relatable and basically sympathetic — a hard sell if you've ever been on the receiving end of an unhappy white woman taking out her anger on "safe" targets — and it refuses to engage with the obvious racial dimensions of Rhiannon's two worst enemies being the only Black women on the show. (The parallel the story attempts to draw between Rhiannon and Marina only makes sense if you presume there's no racial component to the way Marina is marginalized and disrespected, which there plainly is.)

Paradoxically, it might have worked better as a black comedy if it had pushed Rhiannon's violence to greater extremes (which it apparently is in the book); instead, the show tries unsuccessfully to build sympathy for her (with the first episode a grueling enumeration of all the ways her life is bleak) before turning around and declaring that she's just crazy after all. CONTAINS LESBIANS? No, although there's a definite homoerotic aspect to Rhiannon's conflicts with Julia and Marina that the story doesn't know what to do with. VERDICT: Not absurd enough to be funny, too disingenuously racist to work as satire, and sometimes punishing to watch (be warned that something bad happens to the cute little dog!). Even if you love Purnell, it's just not worth it — watch SERIAL MOM instead.

[gcballet]

Finished listening to "Dead Head" - these are the pulpiest books I've read in years I love them. Hard to know how to approach possible spoilers bc Sweetpea only just aired it's first series. They probably won't get as far as adapting "Dead Head" though.

Spoilers below the break and also something about "The Red Notebook" by Antoine Lauraine, "Private Peaceful" by Michael Morpurgo, and "Lessons In Chemistry" by Bonnie Garmus

I didn't think I'd miss Georgia Maguire doing her Ray Winston foetus voice for Ivy, but the Mexican baby voice she gave Matilda made up for it. I was fully just picturing Rhiannon at a cartel safe house playing Sylvanian families with Dora the Explorer.

I listen to these while walking my dog in the morning, and every single scene and chapter, if I relisten, I can picture exactly where in the park I am.

For the final standoff scene of "Dead Head" I literally just sat in the conservatory and listened because GIRL. Your HAND. And during Rhiannon and Raphael fighting those guys I was in the shops buying acrylic paint varnish.

I genuinely love the sincere awareness of weird true crime stans and hibristophiliacs and the meta commentary, warning us off enjoying Rhiannon too much. It reminds me of a video essay I watched on Bojack Horseman - something about the audience being culpable of wanting to see this toxic character go off the rails. I like it, it's smart.

I get the feeling that "Thorn In My Side" might be a lockdown narrative. I'm sure Skuse will do a good job, I just don't enjoy the media we made during them. Didn't have a fun lockdown personally, I don't vibe well with them.

For my book club this month I also read "Private Peaceful" by Michael Morpurgo and boy was that a blast from the past. I remember at least one other English set in my school did that as set group reading way back in 2005.

Side note - why don't Scholastic book fairs for adults exist? Zero vat, book fair popups with Millennial nostalgia. Original concept do not steal.

No idea who in book club put "Private Peaceful" in the jar, but it was appropriate for November I suppose. The audiobook had dreadful interstitial keyboard trumpet music between chapters. Probably it was for back when it was released on tape and the music is to tell the bored ass teacher that the chapter is over.

It was fine. Wasn't exactly "War Horse," though. Very KS3.

So I have repeatedly started and given up on "Lessons In Chemistry" by Bonnie Garmus this year - like four times with both a library book and audiobook, and then, what pops out of the book club jar? "Lessons In Chemistry". I could've spit.

So I pushed through a bit more and there were immediately scenes of "oh the super smart neurodivergent woman gets abused in academia and r*ped"

This isn't fun for me.

And then there's a visceral death scene and brutal depictions of grief.

This is a dark comedy??

I get so bored of period fiction where the conceit is just "DID U KNOW SEXISM USED TO BE WAY WORSE AND PERMISSABLE??? WATCH THIS LOVELY WOMAN SUFFER"

And why is it so long??? The only good thing is it got me to make a lasagna.

So I might not finish it. I'm sure it could get better, but I don't read books to get triggered and depressed. And I recognise that is hypocritical when I'm talking about how great the Sweetpea series is.

And the third one we got for book club is "The Red Notebook" by Antoine Laurain. We normally only get two books but this one and "Private Peaceful" were shorter so three it is. Halfway through it and it's so delightfully Paris in 2007, but annoyingly male gazey in the academic sense of the word. Like an Amelie/While You Were Sleeping mashup.

Got another hour on the audiobook so I'll finished that one tomorrow when I walk the dog, then I'll start "Thorn In My Side"

[sophiekarim]

ELLA PURNELL as RHIANNON LEWIS

Sweetpea (2024)

[latrodectal]

tagged by @loisfreakinglane thank you darling ♥️

1 ) three ships right now: max guevara/alec mcdowell, elektra natchios/matt murdock, and marty mcfly/jennifer parker.

2 ) first ever ship: i think it was kimberly/tommy from mighty morphin power rangers.

3 ) last song: is it over now? by taylor swift

4 ) last movie: lol currently watching bttf2

5 ) currently reading: i haven’t started anything new yet but the last things i finished were a court of silver flames by sarah j maas and the collective by alison gaylin. oh, and i just listened to sweetpea by cj skuse.

6 ) currently watching: i’m guessing this means tv soooo i just started the vampire diaries again and for whatever reason began watching family ties in earnest since i found out it’s on pluto tv? i also wanted to finish wilderness and gen v.

7 ) currently consuming: water and english toffee

8 ) currently craving: chicken katsu and a $8 latte. (not together, just in general.)

9 ) nine people: jesus uhhhh @astromechs @queelez @knowlesian @tarantulabassett @ellivia @shiegra @musewhipped @o6666666 @ladyculebras and/or whoever else likes filling these out ♥️

[news-buzz]

'Sweetpea' Shocking Season Finale Death, Explained by Writer News Buzz

[This story contains major spoilers from the season finale of Sweetpea.] Starz’s dark comedy drama Sweetpea is based on the book series of the same name by English author CJ Skuse. But the TV series starring Ella Purnell isn’t so much an adaptation of the novels as it is a prequel detailing how her protagonist Rhiannon Lewis transforms from a meek administrative assistant who feels invisible…

[omeletsforpepper]

If They Liked This, They Might Also Like...

Over at @reactingtosomething​ we wanted to get into the holidays in a way that was more or less on brand. So in the spirit of a Netflix recommendation algorithm, here are some book suggestions for what to buy friends and family who may have liked some of the same movies I did in 2018.

If they liked Wildlife or Widows: The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness

As I say in my Amazon review, this is the best applied ethics text I was never assigned. In fairness to my professors, attorney-turned-journalist Jill Filipovic hadn’t written it yet when I was a philosophy student. Filipovic is also not a philosopher. But she is a brilliant writer and a rigorous thinker, and The H-Spot is fundamentally and explicitly an Aristotelian ethical project. That is to say, it takes the starting position that political organization should be aimed at the goal of human flourishing (as opposed to, say, economic growth). From there Filipovic builds a case, or maybe it's better to say several cases, for specific ways in which American policy fails women and disproportionately women of color in this aim, and concrete ways in which it could address this failure. She does so largely through first-hand accounts of several women across America, in a wide range of socioeconomic circumstances. Although the institutions and less formal systems in play are complicated, the questions at the heart of all this are simple: What do women want? What do women need?

Filipovic asks these questions without pre-judgment, and without assuming that any answers are too unrealistic to consider. Not that anyone she talks to asks for anything "unrealistic." Partly this is because they often speak from too much experience for the unrealistic to occur to them as something they deserve to ask for, but also, the idea that woman-friendly policy is unrealistic is a Bad Take to begin with. Filipovic doesn't need to be pie-in-the-sky utopian to show how things could be much better for women (and by extension, it should but still doesn't go without saying, for everyone).

I left academic philosophy over five years ago, but I really think each chapter (built around topics like friendship, sex, parenting, and food) is brimming with potential paper topics for grad and undergrad students of ethics and/or political philosophy. Whether you’re philosophically inclined or not, if you think “women should be happy” and “the point of civilization is to make happiness easier for everyone” are uncontroversial claims, The H-Spot is the book for you -- and for your friends who loved the several underestimated women of Widows, or Carey Mulligan’s captivating portrayal in Wildlife of a woman doing the best she could within the restrictions of her era.

If they liked Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet

Though it helps to have some familiarity with the Avengers storylines that led up to Ta-Nehisi motherfucking Coates’s first year on the Black Panther comic -- as well as with the excellent opening arc of Matt Fraction’s Invincible Iron Man -- here’s all that even a new comics reader really needs to know before jumping into Nation: King T’Challa, the Black Panther, was recently unable to prevent several consecutive disasters in Wakanda. Both as a cause and as a result of these disasters, T’Challa worked with the so-called “Illuminati” (Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Stephen Strange, and other intellectual and strategic heavyweights) to prevent the end of the multiverse itself. That crisis averted, T’Challa has returned to Wakanda to resume his royal duties.

Coates takes as a starting premise that Wakanda, the most advanced nation on earth, would only still have a hereditary monarchy if the monarch was uniquely suited as a protector of the people. In the wake of the Panther’s failures in this regard, Nation opens with a rebellion against T’Challa’s rule on two fronts: domestic terrorists with an unknown agenda on one hand, and on the other, former officers of the Dora Milaje (the all-female royal bodyguard corps beloved by fans of the movie) rallying Wakandan women who have suffered great injustices unaddressed by the crown. The leaders of the latter, lovers Ayo and Aneka, are nominally antagonists to T’Challa, but to the reader they’re parallel protagonists. You root for both T’Challa and the Dora Milaje, even though their agendas are in tension, not unlike the way one might have rooted for both Tyrion Lannister and Robb Stark in early Game of Thrones. (Shuri’s around too, though she’s quite unlike her movie counterpart.)

When he’s not fighting or investigating, T’Challa does a lot of soul-searching and debating about his responsibilities as king, the ways it conflicts with his career as a globetrotting superhero, and whether and how the government of Wakanda must evolve. Though Wakanda is too small to be considered a superpower, the domestic terror angle, an interrogation of historical injustice, and the struggle between moral idealism and political reality make Wakanda a proxy in some important ways for modern America. (You may have noticed that Ryan Coogler did this too.) Coates’s meditation on leadership and political power made A Nation Under Our Feet not only a great superhero comic but -- this is not an exaggeration or a joke -- my favorite political writing of 2016.

Nation is illustrated mostly by Brian Stelfreeze and Chris Sprouse, with colors by Laura Martin; some of Stelfreeze’s designs clearly influenced the movie.

If they liked Thoroughbreds: Sweetpea

When a clever, mean-spirited would-be journalist with airhead friends learns that her boyfriend is cheating on her, old traumas bubble to the surface and she becomes a serial killer who targets sex offenders. Darkly, often cruelly hilarious, Sweetpea is what you’d get if American Psycho was set in southwestern England and for some reason starred Amy from Gone Girl. Protagonist Rhiannon is a self-described inhabitant of an Island of Unfinished Sentences, de facto Chief Listener of her “friend” circle, and a maker of lists. Lists of the things her friends talk about (babies, boyfriends, IKEA), signs she’d like to put up at work (please close doors quietly, please do not wear Crocs to work), and oh, the people she wants to kill. Like her boyfriend, at the moment. Or ISIS, when news coverage of a terror attack pre-empts her beloved MasterChef.

Author C.J. Skuse smartly chooses not to have Rhiannon wallow in her traumatic past as many superheroes do. We get glimpses for context, but Rhiannon is committed to moving forward, to escaping her demons rather than being defined by them. It matters that she wants to get better, even if she also hates that she’s bought into society’s definition of “better.” (#relatable)

It’s worth noting that Sweetpea leans seemingly uncritically into a lot of dated gender tropes, in Rhiannon’s assessments of the women around her. (Body positive she is not.) Then again, she’s an unreliable narrator -- one of the best demonstrations of this is a scene in which she’s convinced of her ability to fool the world into believing she’s normal, then overhears her dipshit co-workers talk about how unsettling she is -- so arguably we’re supposed to laugh at how terrible she is without necessarily agreeing with her. This is, I think, a perfectly legitimate approach to a protagonist, even if some find it unfashionable.

The book is not quite as thematically rich as it first appears, at least on the topic of sexual violence; it indulges a “stranger danger” picture of rape that doesn’t feel entirely contemporary. (For a more nuanced treatment of rape culture, see the sadly short-lived but wildly entertaining vigilante dramedy Sweet/Vicious.) But as a portrait of a vibrant, layered, genuinely Nasty-and-you-kinda-love-her-for-it woman -- given Oscar-caliber-portrayal-worthy life by Skuse’s wickedly sharp voice -- Sweetpea is too fun to pass up.

Upgrade or Infinity War: The Wild Storm

Castlevania showrunner Warren Ellis helped redefine superhero comics with 1999’s The Authority, which at DC’s request he's given a Gritty Reboot (along with the WildCATS, whom some of us remember from this extremely 90s cartoon) in The Wild Storm. Ellis has always been interested in The Future, both its potential wondrousness and its probable horror. Fans of Upgrade’s refreshingly unsanitized (and unsanitary) take on human enhancement through body modification will find much to like in Ellis’s spin on the trope of second-skin powered armor. (He semi-famously wrote Extremis, one of the comic arcs that inspired Iron Man 3.)

art by Jon Davis Hunt, from The Wild Storm #1

Angela Spica, a reimagining of Ellis’s old Authority character The Engineer, is a cybernetics expert who stumbles onto a sort of shadow government conspiracy related to her employer, and goes on the run with the armor she’s designed for them. (When not deployed, the armor is stored inside her body.) Angela is quickly targeted by multiple covert organizations, one of which rescues (?) her and brings her in on a secret history of technological arms races and contact with extraterrestrials. The Wild Storm is full of big action and bigger ideas, and for smart, generally curious superhero movie fans who find the decades-long continuities of the DC and Marvel universes intimidating, it’s a great entry -- with a blessedly planned ending -- into sci-fi-comics.

Happy holidays, and have fun shopping! Hop over to the full post for @supersnarker3000’s gift guide.

[danaandthebooks]

The physical ARCs I've been lucky enough to get! It's not a lot compared to other bloggers, but it always makes me happy seeing these on my shelf 😊

[yasminwithane]

Book collage for Pretty Bad Things by C.J Skuse

I made this as a present for my tutor, about her debut book, as a leaving present. Thought I’d stick it up here too.

Pretty rad book if anyone wants to take a read (But I recommend The Deviants by her over this)

[ralphwreckedtheinternet]

Over the past week I’ve read Through His Eyes by Emma Dibdin and The Deviants by CJ Skuse. Both were brilliant and I’d recommend both to people.

Through His Eyes took a couple of chapters before it really got going, but I knew that this was to set the scene and was necessary for the story to make sense. Once it did start getting into it, it was intriguing and pulled me in to read more.

I’d decided to read The Deviants as I recently read a couple of other books by CJ Skuse and loved them. This certainly didn’t disappoint and I read it so quickly (especially for me). It had a good amount of suspense in it and kept drip feeding information, keeping me reading. I’m still not over the ending!

[altheaphotography]

Sweet Pea by CJ Skuse

Sweet Pea by CJ Skuse

I had read a synopsis of this book, but I was not prepared for it. 

(more…)

[rubypomegranates]

"Even though our relationship had soured over the eight years since Priory Gardens, to lose your mother is to be partially unanchored to the Earth. Like there had always been these ropes fixing me in place – Mum and Dad. When Mum went, one of the ropes snapped. When Dad went, I didn’t feel like I was anchored anywhere."

C.J. Skuse "In Bloom"

[alexsfictionaddiction]

Review: Sweet Pea by C.J Skuse

A couple of years ago, I read Monster by CJ Skuse. It was a fast-paced, YA thriller/mystery that kept me guessing until the very end and I really enjoyed it. Sweet Pea is Skuse’s first adult novel and when I read the synopsis I knew I had to pick it up. I have been really craving an exciting psychological thriller recently and Sweet Pea really satisfied.

We follow Rhiannon, a 27-year-old underappreciated editorial assistant at a local gazette near Bristol. When she was a child, she was the sole survivor of a terrible crime which earned her a degree of sympathy and local celebrity with the public. Since then, she has gone on to lead a seemingly normal adult life but Rhiannon has a kill list. How far can she go before everything catches up to her?

The above quote is an example of the kill lists that open up most chapters. As you can see, Skuse injects plenty of humour into an altogether dark, twisted novel. She is great at confusing our feelings towards Rhiannon. Our narrator goes from dishing out the same casual criticism of her friends, colleagues and celebrities that we all do to submerging us in a scene of cold-hearted vicious violence. Several times I was actually concerned about how much I could relate to her or how many times she made me smile. Skuse is incredibly clever at writing narrators who play with our emotions constantly.

Rhiannon is not a random killer. She seems to have a preference for killing men who prey on women and children, which could paint her as some kind of local hero in the eyes of some. She certainly sees it as a duty and that she is doing society a favour. However, we’re then reminded that there are a few cases where we see that she is capable of killing anyone for who she summons enough motive.

‘Do I love him? I haven’t known what love is in a long time. He says he loves me but isn’t that just something that gets said?’

There were points where I could understand Rhiannon and what she was doing. Yes she does terrible things and sometimes her voice chills you to the bone but she also has a past full of loss and grief and fear. She doesn’t have a close-knit loving family. She doesn’t feel that she has anything in common with her friends. She is under-valued at work and her boyfriend is a lying cheat. Not that any of this is grounds for becoming a serial killer but there was so much in both her past and present that I could literally see how her urges had developed. I found myself wanting her to be OK and even championing her so many times that I actually came to the conclusion that anyone could do what she does. Despite her past, she isn’t predisposed to murder because in the right (or wrong) circumstances, anyone could be Rhiannon.

Sweet Pea literally races to its finish. The last 30% or so was jam-packed full of revelations and drama that I was totally caught up in. Then it dropped me hard and fast with an ending that I certainly didn’t see coming at all. I never suspected that Rhiannon would change her ways. It always seemed a little too late for that but the twist really... well, twisted me! In fact, I didn’t really twig what was happening until I was RIGHT THERE, full of a feeling of repulsion and total astonishment. 

I’ve never had so many questions for myself or had so much concern for my own status as a decent person, as I had while reading Sweet Pea. It has been compared to American Psycho but I don’t ever remembering liking Patrick Bateman. I don’t ever remember laughing at a casual bitchy remark that he made or fully understanding his motives or where his feelings really stemmed from. I felt all of that with Rhiannon. I liked her. I saw myself in her. She made me wonder whether I could be her if my past were also full of tragedy coupled with a present full of unfulfilled dreams and people who don’t treat me well. She scared me but mostly because she represented an evil twin that I never knew existed.

[gcballet]

Why did nobody tell me that Spotify Premium has only 10 hours audiobook listening time per month I cancelled all my Borrowbox library reservations already??? Partway through listening to Dead Head by CJ Skuse and it just stops and demands £8.99??? If renting isn't owning indeed.

[dreamescapeswriting]

i was summoned by Book 👁👄👁 i can speak of Books here? ehehehehehehhehehehe what are some of your recent faves?

\zxcvbnm,./ you can speak books to me whenever you want! I love speaking about books!! Ahhh it depends on what genre we’re speaking, I’m really into thriller/Psychological thrillers at the moment and my current favs are 

“My darling” By Amanda Robson

“The Alibi Girl” By CJ Skuse, I’m having to literally tear myself away from it to write but I am trying to get into some more fantasy type ones as I love being able to get lost in a different world. What are some of your favs?

[cwtchupbooks]

Sweetpea - C.J. Skuse

Sweetpea – C.J. Skuse

A psycho serial killer has never made me laugh out loud so much.  Sweetpea is dark, shocking, witty and absolutely bloody hilarious. I loved it and cannot recommend it enough!  Rhiannon has a boyfriend, a dog and a job she hates. So far so everyone. She also makes a daily list of people she’d like to kill. Slow walkers, the guy in Lidl who bruises her apples, drivers with no manners, you know the…