#louise benton
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
carpethedamndiemdejavu · 10 months ago
Text
Tumblr media
Louise Benton, Creation Sun
72 notes · View notes
commoninfected · 7 months ago
Text
Tumblr media
doodles of kewt boyz
4 notes · View notes
witchbeat · 2 years ago
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
more st agatha city stuff i never posted
@st-agatha-city @audio-drama @jimmersive
5 notes · View notes
pigtailedgirl · 17 days ago
Text
Never not laughing over Fraser's deadpan "Crabs and Things" restaurant suggestion of where Ray should bring Louise St. Laurent.
Absolute petty b move Benny Benton Fraser. I see you. Perfection.
7 notes · View notes
incorrectoldgodsquotes · 9 months ago
Text
Clover: It’s hard to resist, I’m really sorry- I mean, considering your approach thus far, you’ve had us locked up in here for- what? Hours? And you haven’t even had us confirm what exactly we are?
Erebus: Well, what are you?
Clover: I’m a Virgo!
Jade and Anthony: HA!
19 notes · View notes
white-cat-of-doom · 1 year ago
Text
A two show Caturday in Taichung City, Taiwan for Asia Tour 2022-2023 (15 July 2023).
Tumblr media
We finally get a Griddlebone photo from the tour of Francesca Benton-Stace.
Il mio amore è importante 🤍.
Tumblr media
Francesca as provides me with some Jellydots with Amy Louise Whittle as Jennyanydots.
Tumblr media
We are not done with Jelly quite yet, with a nice mirror photo of Francesca.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Francesca also manages to sneak in with Katie Hutton as Rumpleteazer and Taryn Donna as Cassandra and their usual photo! Katie is back as Rumpleteazer after a two day break.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Gabrielle Parker covered Victoria both shows today, with Oliver Ramsdale as Admetus performing the lift.
Tumblr media
A throwback to South Korea with Lydia Gerrard covering Grizabella and Quinlan Kelly covering Old Deuteronomy.
49 notes · View notes
therealmrpositive · 1 year ago
Text
Cabin Fever (2016)
In today's review, I find some viruses never go out of fashion. As I attempt a #positive review of the 2016's Cabin Fever #SamuelDavis #GageGolightly #MatthewDaddario #NadineCrocker #DustinIngram #RandySchulman #GeorgeGriffith #DerrickRMeans #LouiseLinton
There was a time when the world didn’t feel as (for lack of a better term) wild as it does now. Sure, those days are long behind us now, and some may doubt there ever was a period of calm. In 2016, over 14 years after Eli Roth’s directorial debut, he’s back producing a remake of the odd virus story that became a cult classic, a tale of Cabin Fever. The cabin has had a facelift, but the story…
Tumblr media
View On WordPress
3 notes · View notes
thebestestwinner · 2 years ago
Text
Top two vote-getters will move on to the next round. See pinned post for all groups!
1 note · View note
greensparty · 2 years ago
Text
Remembering Melinda Dillon and Louise Harrison
Here is my combined remembrance of two we lost today:
Remembering Melinda Dillon 1939-2023
Actress Melinda Dillon has died at 83. She was one of those actresses you didn’t see too often, but was always good in everything she was in no matter how small the role. She was Oscar-nominated for two films:��Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Absence of Malice. How awesome was she as single mother Jillian in Close Encounters, searching for her son! 
Tumblr media
Dillon and Cary Guffey in Close Encounters
Other notable performances include Hal Ashby’s Bound for Glory, the hockey classic Slap Shot, Ralphie’s mom in A Christmas Story, and Reign Over Me. But one of her greatest performances was as Rose, the wife of Jimmy Gator in Magnolia. That’s an incredible cast and she definitely shined in the scene where she confronted Jimmy. She was also notable on Broadway, where she was Tony-nominated for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
The link above is the obit from Hollywood Reporter.
Remembering Louise Harrison 1931-2023
The older sister of George Harrison has died at 91. She was 12 years older than George. After she got married she moved from Liverpool to the U.S. to Missouri. By 1963, she was now living in Benton, IL. Just as The Beatles were taking off, George went to visit his sister in Benton. He was the first Beatle to visit America. There’s a good documentary A Beatle in Benton Illinois all about George’s visit to Benton in 1963 to visit Louise. In 1964, when Beatle-Mania hit, Louise went on local radio to promote her brother’s band. She even wrote a book My Kid Brother’s Band A.K.A The Beatles.
Tumblr media
George and Louise in 1964
The link above is the obit from Courier and Press.
0 notes
harrisonarchive · 1 year ago
Text
Tumblr media
Photo by Dezo Hoffmann.
George’s first American visit, part 2 —
“When the trio [George, his brother Peter, and sister Lou] arrived, they were informed that Marcia [Raubach] had already gone home for the day. At the station were Art Smith, an advertising salesman, and Joe Browning, the weekend announcer. Smith remembers George Harrison as being ‘a very nice fellow,’ and Browning agreed. But Browning added, ‘I thought he needed to get a haircut.’ […] When [Marcia] arrived [back] at the station, [she] recalls, [George] was very excited about the car she was driving. It was her father’s black 1959 Oldsmobile Delta 88 with tail fins. ‘He really looked it over; he asked me if it was my car,’ she said. ‘I told him no, but he was really impressed with it. He was impressed with a lot of things.’ Marcia recalls [George] as being ‘very, very clean cut,’ wearing a white shirt, jeans and brown sandals. […] Raubach said she found the young British musician to be ‘really soft-spoken and almost hesitant to ask me questions.’” - Before He Was Fab: George Harrison’s First American Visit (2000) “George told Marcia that he was an apprentice electrician, but that the Beatles were really taking off back home. ‘He really liked my dad’s Oldsmobile Delta 88,’ Marcia recalls. On her radio show that day she played ‘From Me To You’ and ‘She Loves You,’ but it’s her recollection that the songs made little impression on her listening audience. George gave her a copy of ‘She Loves You,’ which she keeps in a safe deposit box at the bank. ‘I wish I’d have asked him to autograph it,’ she says. Marilyn Lewis, who also interviewed George, for the Echo, the Benton Community High School newspaper, says she did it ‘mainly as a favor to Louise.’ […] George told her that so many fans mobbed his band at one appearance that they had to be smuggled into the venue in a garbage truck, but Marilyn wasn’t overly impressed. Was he cute? ‘Heavens, no,’ the now-retired Ohio teacher says. ‘He looked kind of pitiful.’” - Smithsonian Magazine Please note: You can find photos taken during this vacation featured in Living In The Material World. (x)
134 notes · View notes
starryclown11 · 8 months ago
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Gillion Tidestrider🪼⚡️
/Benton James Kessler/Eight by Sleeping at Last/Anonymous & b0nkcreat/Gillion Tidestrider/Destiny Calls by Megan Shumway/Louise Glück/Frank Bidart/Gillion Tidestrider/
37 notes · View notes
bracketsoffear · 4 months ago
Text
Stranger Leitner Reading List
The full list of submissions for the Stranger Leitner bracket. Bold titles are ones which were accepted to appear in the bracket. Synopses and propaganda can be found below the cut. Be warned, however, that these may contain spoilers!
Ames, Alison: It Looks Like Us
Benton, Jim: The Frandidate Berger, Terry: The Haunted Dollhouse Blish, James & Robert Lowndes: The Duplicated Man Bradbury, Ray: Marionettes, Inc. Brooks, Mike: Alpharius: Head of the Hydra
Calvino, Italo: If On A Winter's Night A Traveller Campbell, John W.: Who Goes There? Christie, Agatha: Dead Man's Folly Crowley, Nate: The Twice-Dead King
Dahl, Roald: The Witches Damico, Gina: Wax Dick, Philip K.: A Scanner Darkly Dick, Philip K.: Upon the Dull Earth Dostoevsky, Fyodor: The Double
French, Tana: The Likeness
Gaiman, Neil: Coraline
Hendrix, Grady: How to Sell a Haunted House
Ito, Junji: The Enigma of Amigara Fault Ito, Junji: Uzumaki
Jensen, Ruby Jean: MaMa
King, Stephen: Battleground King, Stephen: The Outsider Krulik, Nancy E.: Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo (series)
Lovecraft, H.P.: The Outsider
Martin, Ann M. & Laura Godwin: The Meanest Doll in the World Miles, Lawrence: This Town Will Never Let Us Go
Nettel, Guadalupe: El huésped (The host) Nix, Garth: The Ragwitch
Peck, Richard: Secrets of the Shopping Mall Poe, Edgar Allen: William Wilson Pratchett, Terry: Maskerade
Rayner, Jacqueline: EarthWorld Robinson, Justin: Everyman Ross, Louise: Collective Imagination: Goncharov (1973) (2022) as a Model for Communal Filmmaking
Schwartz, Alvin: Harold Scroggs, Kirk: Tales of a Sixth-Grade Muppet Sleator, William: Among the Dolls Sleator, William: The Duplicate Spark, Muriel: The Only Problem Spatola, Mike: The Monstrous Makeup Manual Springer, Nancy: Possessing Jessie Starling, Caitlin: Last to Leave the Room Stevenson, Robert Louis: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde Stine, R.L.: The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight Stine, R.L.: Night of the Living Dummy
Topping, Keith & Martin Day: The Hollow Men
Vida, Vendela: The Diver's Clothes Lie Empty
Wells, H.G.: The Invisible Man
Ames, Alison: It Looks Like Us
Shy high school junior Riley Kowalski is spending her winter break on a research trip to Antarctica, sponsored by one of the world’s biggest tech companies. She joins five student volunteers, a company-approved chaperone, and an impartial scientist to prove that environmental plastic pollution has reached all the way to Antarctica, but what they find is something much worse… something that looks human.
Riley has anxiety--ostracized by the kids at school because of panic attacks--so when she starts to feel like something’s wrong with their expedition leader, Greta, she writes it off. But when Greta snaps and tries to kill Riley, she can’t chalk it up to an overactive imagination anymore. Worse, after watching Greta disintegrate, only to find another student with the same affliction, she realizes they haven’t been infected, they’ve been infiltrated--by something that can change its shape. And if the group isn’t careful, that something could quickly replace any of them.
Benton, Jim: The Frandidate
Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist, has always had her eye on world domination, and she has to start somewhere...like her class elections! If people vote for her, they’ll be giving her all the control she wants.
But Franny’s platform doesn’t have the same appeal as her competitors who are offering new playground equipment, so she creates The Frandidate. Made of DNA samples from a dog, a chameleon and a parrot, along with a scrap of carpet (so she’ll know where people stand), Franny’s special suit helps her say and do exactly what people want! But when The Frandidate starts making promises she knows she can’t keep, Franny realizes she might have gone too far…
Berger, Terry: The Haunted Dollhouse
On her thirteenth birthday, Sarah wishes that she would wake up inside of her dollhouse -- and her wish comes true. The book follows her throughout her day, with pictures that show the increasingly disturbing nature of the world in which she now exists.
Blish, James and Robert Lowndes: The Duplicated Man
The central premise of this novel concerns a cloning device that requires six different people, one for each duplicate to be created, to be hooked into the machine. Turns out while the memories are copied the personalities and appearances are affected by the subjective views of the various individuals. E.g., one copy is actually a bit shorter and more cowardly than the original because that's how its creator perceived the original while another due to her hero worship was a physically and mentally perfected version of the original.
Bradbury, Ray: Marionettes, Inc.
A man acquires a robot to stand in for him at home while he goes away. (A very sophisticated robot that eventually develops sentience, but still one that, if you place your head to the chest, you can hear a clock ticking instead of a heart beating.) However, the robot decides that he likes the original man's life and doesn't want to be stored away in a box in the basement. The solution? He betrays his owner by locking HIM in the box forever while he (the robot) lives the life of the owner, his family completely unaware of the switch. Meanwhile, another man considers doing the same, only to discover that his wife has already replaced herself.
Brooks, Mike: Alpharius: Head of the Hydra
As this post--https://www.tumblr.com/bracketsoffear/718600953914327040/wasnt-here-in-time-for-the-stranger-poll-but--says, "Alpharius is the Primarch of the [...] Alpha Legion, and aside from the ones that have been fully expunged from all Imperial records, he's the primarch we know the least about. We're fairly confident he's actually two twin brothers pretending to be the same guy, Alpharius and Omegon, and that he specializes in infiltration. Beyond that, all bets are off. Literally every event in his life has at least two versions that have been printed in official books and directly contradict each other. The book that compiles his backstory in a neat and sensible manner that doesn't have any internal or external contradictions opens with the blatant admission that all of it is a complete fucking lie. Supposedly, he died at the battle for Pluto, but then he is reported to have been killed several centuries later somewhere else by a completely different guy. Only complicating matters is that pretty much every member of his legion undergoes extensive plastic surgery to look exactly like him. Most of them introduce themselves as Alpharius. It might very well be that both of the times he supposedly died, it was actually just a body double and he's still out there, pretending to be a normal legionary. Every single member of the Alpha Legion is Alpharius, and an alarming number of them actually believe themselves to be him." Anyway, this is the backstory book in question.
Calvino, Italo: If On A Winter's Night A Traveller
The book is a story about reading the first chapters of multiple books that appear to be If On A Winter's Night A Traveller, but are not.
Campbell, John W.: Who Goes There?
A group of American researchers, isolated in their scientific station in Antarctica towards the end of winter, discover an alien spaceship buried in the ice, where it crashed twenty million years before. They recover an alien creature from the ancient ice. Thawing revives the alien, a being which can assume the appearance, memories, and personality of a living thing it devours, while maintaining its body mass for further reproduction. Unknown to them, the alien immediately kills and then imitates the crew's physicist, a man named Connant; with some 90 pounds of its matter left over, it tries to become a sled dog.
The crew discovers the dog-Thing and kills it midway through the transformation process. Pathologist Blair, who had lobbied for thawing the Thing, goes insane with paranoia and guilt, vowing to kill everyone at the base to save mankind; he is isolated within a locked cabin at their outpost. Connant is also isolated as a precaution, and a "rule-of-four" is initiated in which all personnel must remain under the close scrutiny of three others. The crew realizes that they must isolate their base and therefore disable their airplanes and vehicles, yet they pretend that everything is normal during radio transmissions, to prevent any rescue attempts. The researchers try to figure out who may have been replaced by the alien (simply referred to as the Thing), to destroy the imitations before they can escape and take over the world. The task is found to be almost impossibly difficult when they realize that the Thing is shapeshifting and telepathic, reading minds and projecting thoughts. A sled dog is conditioned by human blood injections (from Copper and Garry) to provide a human-immunity serum test, as in rabbits. The initial test of Connant is inconclusive, as they realize that the test animal received both human and alien blood, meaning that either Doctor Copper or expedition Commander Garry is an alien. Assistant commander McReady takes over and deduces that all the other animals at the station, save the test dog, have already become imitations; all are killed by electrocution and their corpses burned.
Everyone suspects each other by now but must stay together for safety, deciding who will take turns sleeping and standing watch. Tensions mount and some men begin to go mad, thinking that they are already the last human, or wondering if they could know if they were not human any longer. Ultimately, Kinner, the cook, is murdered and accidentally revealed to be a Thing. McReady realizes that even small pieces of the creature will behave as independent organisms. He then uses this fact to test which men have been "converted" by taking blood samples from everyone and dipping a heated wire in the vial of blood. Each man's blood is tested, one at a time, and the donor is immediately killed if his blood recoils from the wire. Fourteen men, including Connant and Garry, are revealed to be Things. The remaining men go to test the isolated Blair, and on the way, see the first albatross of the Antarctic spring flying overhead; they shoot the bird to prevent a Thing from infecting it and flying to civilization.
When they reach Blair's cabin, they discover that he is a Thing. They realize that it has been left to its own devices for a week, coming and going as it pleased, as it is able to squeeze under doors by transforming itself. With the creatures inside the base destroyed, McReady and two others enter the cabin to kill the Thing that was once Blair. McReady forces it out into the snow and destroys it with a blowtorch. Afterwards, the trio discover that the Thing was dangerously close to finishing the construction of a nuclear-powered anti-gravity device that would have allowed it to escape to the outside world.
Christie, Agatha: Dead Man's Folly
So, the entire propaganda section for this one will be a spoiler because to explain why this book works as a stranger Leitner is to reveal a major plot twist. So as a start here is the book's description from goodreads:
Whilst organising a mock murder hunt for the village fete hosted by Sir George and Lady Stubbs, a feeling of dread settles on the famous crime novelist Adriane Oliver. Call it instinct, but it's a feeling she just can't explain...or get away from. In desperation she summons her old friend, Hercule Poirot -- and her instincts are soon proved correct when the 'pretend' murder victim is discovered playing the scene for real, a rope wrapped tightly around her neck. But it's the great detective who first discovers that in murder hunts, whether mock or real, everyone is playing a part.
In this novel a young girl Marlene is killed during a village fete at Nasse House, a home owned by Sir George Stubbs and his wife Hattie. After the murder, Lady Stubbs goes missing just in time for a visit from her cousin, whom she hasn't seen in years. At the end of the novel, it transpired that both Sir George and Hattie were not who they seemed. Sir George being a fake identity of James Folliat, son of the family that owned the Nasse House for centuries, who was thought to be dead. His mother, Amy Folliat, introduced him to the original Hattie, a wealthy but naive girl. James stole Hattie's money and had her killed and replaced by his actual wife, who later spent years pretending to be Hattie with only Amy Folliat aware of the replacement. Due to the news that real Hattie's cousin, who could uncover the ruse, was going to visit. Fake Hattie again transformed to blend among the tourists that came to the fete. To me, this works great as a stranger Leitner due to the book antagonist both pretending to be somebody else and the strong element of kill and replace.
Crowley, Nate: The Twice-Dead King
Fundamentally about alienation from one's own sense of self and how in order to become yourself you have to become someone else; the main character goes through a major identity crisis and it involves flaying people and wearing their skin
Dahl, Roald: The Witches
A dark fantasy, the story is set partly in Norway and partly in England, and features the experiences of a young English boy and his Norwegian grandmother in a world where child-hating societies of witches secretly exist in every country.
Damico, Gina: Wax
Wax is a young adult mystery novel by Gina Damico (author of Croak). It was published in 2016.
It takes place in the fictional town of Paraffin, Vermont. Our hero is Poppy Palladino, a teenage girl who wants to be an actor, but is haunted by memories of being humiliated multiple times in the past, especially by a bully named Blake Bursaw. Paraffin is home to the Grosholtz Candle Factory, a popular tourist site. While taking a tour in the factory, Poppy wanders off into a secret workroom where she meets Madame Grosholtz, an eccentric maker of wax sculptures. Soon after, the factory mysteriously burns down, but not before Poppy is given a living wax sculpture, who she names Dud, and a candle engraved with a strange message.
Things just get stranger from there, and Poppy must save the entire town from a sinister conspiracy that stems from hundreds of years ago. She becomes unsure of who she can trust, but with the help of Dud, her best friend Jill, and her school theater club, she must make a plan.
***
Paraffin, Vermont, is known the world over as home to the Grosholtz Candle Factory. But behind the sunny retail space bursting with overwhelming scents and homemade fudge, seventeen-year-old Poppy Palladino discovers something dark and unsettling: a back room filled with dozens of startlingly life-like wax sculptures, crafted by one very strange old lady. Poppy hightails it home, only to be shocked when one of the figures—a teenage boy who doesn’t seem to know what he is—jumps naked and screaming out of the trunk of her car. She tries to return him to the candle factory, but before she can, a fire destroys the mysterious workshop—and the old woman is nowhere to be seen.
With the help of the wax boy, who answers to the name Dud, Poppy resolves to find out who was behind the fire. But in the course of her investigation, she discovers that things in Paraffin aren’t always as they seem, that the Grosholtz Candle Factory isn’t as pure as its reputation—and that some of the townspeople she’s known her entire life may not be as human as they once were. In fact, they’re starting to look a little . . . waxy. Can Poppy and Dud extinguish the evil that’s taking hold of their town before it’s too late?
Dick, Philip K.: A Scanner Darkly
"The main character, Bob Arctor, leads a double life as an undercover police agent infiltrating a drug dealing ring. As a part of his cover he starts taking the drug and becomes addicted, and the drug causes the hemispheres of his brain to function separately leading to the emergence of two separate personalities - 'Bob' when he is a drug dealer, and 'Fred' when he is a police agent. both of these personalities do not recognize each other, so for example when he is reviewing footage of him as Bob, he thinks he is spying on some other man. Also, in this world there are 'scramble suits' - special coats that make it impossible to distinguish anything about the wearer's appearance or their voice, and the protagonist is required to wear one of these when he is not undercover. That worsens his split personality, as he has no one who remembers his appearance as 'Fred', and he forgets he was undercover at all and just starts acting as a genuine drug dealer. The distortion of memories, erasure of appearance and the personality swap from Fred to Bob reminds me strongly of not!them. Fred not!themmed himself."
Dick, Philip K.: Upon the Dull Earth
Short story in which a woman dies, and her boyfriend makes a deal to bring her back. Trouble is, he brings her back... too much. It'd be a funny old world if we were all the same, wouldn't it? Link
Dostoevsky, Fyodor: The Double
In Saint Petersburg, Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin works as a titular councillor (rank 9 in the Table of Ranks established by Peter the Great[3]), a low-level bureaucrat struggling to succeed.
Golyadkin has a formative discussion with his physician, Doctor Rutenspitz, who fears for his sanity and tells him that his behaviour is dangerously antisocial. He prescribes "cheerful company" as the remedy. Golyadkin resolves to try this, and leaves the office. He proceeds to a birthday party for Klara Olsufyevna, the daughter of his office manager. He was uninvited, and a series of faux pas lead to his expulsion from the party. On his way home through a snowstorm, he encounters a man who looks exactly like him, his double. The following two thirds of the novel then deals with their evolving relationship.
At first, Golyadkin and his double are friends, but Golyadkin Jr. proceeds to attempt to take over Sr.'s life, and they become bitter enemies. Because Golyadkin Jr. has all the charm, unctuousness and social skills that Golyadkin Sr. lacks, he is very well-liked among the office colleagues. At the story's conclusion, Golyadkin Sr. begins to see many replicas of himself, has a psychotic break, and is dragged off to an asylum by Doctor Rutenspitz.
***
Constantly rebuffed from the social circles he aspires to frequent, the timid clerk Golyadkin is confronted by the sudden appearance of his double, a more brazen, confident and socially succesful version of himself, who abuses and victimizes the original. As he is increasingly persecuted, Golyadkin finds his social, romantic and professional life unravelling, in a spiral that leads to a catastrophic denouement.
French, Tana: The Likeness
A detective assumes a dead woman’s identity and moves into her shared house, believing one of the housemates to be her killer. She is accepted as the victim (!!!) and becomes obsessed with her doppelgänger, trying to stay in character and live the life that she would have lived. She ends up getting psychologically consumed by the part she’s playing, losing track of her own identity. Once she’s completely confused, only person knows for sure who she is—the killer.
Gaiman, Neil: Coraline
The presence of another world that resemble the one you know but different, the Other Mother whole deal and the fact that she spies on people using dolls and sews buttons in place of her victim's eyes.
***
A short novella that focuses on 9-year-old Coraline Jones as she fights to restore her family from the clutches of the evil Other Mother.
Hendrix, Grady: How to Sell a Haunted House
Synopsis: "When Louise finds out her parents have died, she dreads going home. She doesn’t want to leave her daughter with her ex and fly to Charleston. She doesn’t want to deal with her family home, stuffed to the rafters with the remnants of her father’s academic career and her mother’s lifelong obsession with puppets and dolls. She doesn’t want to learn how to live without the two people who knew and loved her best in the world.
Most of all, she doesn’t want to deal with her brother, Mark, who never left their hometown, gets fired from one job after another, and resents her success. Unfortunately, she’ll need his help to get the house ready for sale because it’ll take more than some new paint on the walls and clearing out a lifetime of memories to get this place on the market.
But some houses don’t want to be sold, and their home has other plans for both of them…"
Ito, Junji: The Enigma of Amigara Fault
You see the hole which perfectly matched you. It haunts you. You can’t resist the urge to climb inside.
It’s your hole, it was made for you.
Once you enter, you keep going, and your limbs begin to lengthen and contort. At the other side of the mountain, you emerge. Miserable, in pain, and spaghetti’s to the point you barely look human.
It’s your hole, it was made for you. But you have to be changed to fit inside. And you will.
(People have been memeing this story but it’s actually excellent body horror. Highly recommend!)
Ito, Junji: Uzumaki
It’s about a town cursed by spirals that corrupt you and drive you mad, but can’t be ignored forever
Jensen, Ruby Jean: MaMa
Once upon a time there lived a sweet little dolly. Her porcelain like face was so smooth, just like a baby. Her mouth even had a tiny hole so she could eat and breathe. But her one beaded glass eye gleamed with mischief and evil. She had waited a long time in the attic for someone to set her free...
Once upon a time there lived a sweet little girl. The only place she was happy was in the attic with her dolly. If she could have seen her little doll's legs kick, she would have been frightened. If she could have felt her little doll's arms squeeze, she would have been shocked. But if she could have read her little doll's thoughts she would have run from the attic forever--for her sweet little dolly only had killing her on her mind...
King, Stephen: Battleground
A toymaker gets his revenge on his killer with a battalion of toy soldiers that invade his apartment.
King, Stephen: The Outsider
An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.
As the investigation expands and horrifying answers begin to emerge, King’s propulsive story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can.
Krulik, Nancy E.: Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo (series)
Katie is an ordinary third-grader-except for one very extraordinary problem! She accidentally wished on a shooting star to be anyone but herself. But what Katie soon learns is that wishes really do come true-and in the strangest ways... When the magic wind blows, watch out! Katie switches bodies with someone or something else and hilarity and havoc ensues.
Lovecraft, H.P.: The Outsider
There's nothing I can say here that won't ruin the twist. Link: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/o.aspx
Martin, Ann M. and Laura Godwin: The Meanest Doll in the World
Annabelle Doll and Tiffany Funcraft are two dolls who have been best friends since they met in Kate Palmer's house at 26 Wetherby Lane. In this sequel to The Doll Peopl e, they hitch a ride in Kate's backpack and find themselves in the biggest adventure of their lives, a day at school! But when an attempt to return home lands them in the wrong house, they're in far deeper trouble than they imagined. Along with a host of new doll friends, they also encounter Mean Mimi, the wickedest doll of all. Mean Mimi is mean-really mean-and she's determined to rule all of Dollkind or else destroy it. Will the world ever be safe for dolls again?
The main horror aspect of this series is the threat of 'Permanent Doll State' -- a divine punishment that will transform violaters permanently into nonliving dolls, though possibly with their sentience still intact.
Miles, Lawrence: This Town Will Never Let Us Go
This is the source material of Tiffany Korta: ""Pop star. Her image was carefully maintained and groomed by her bosses, the skull-masked Executive/Faction Paradox. She became haunted by the concept of her uber-self, the variety of ways in which her image was used -- officially and otherwise -- and the impassible divide between her identity and the perceptions that other people had of her. She began to see her image on screens moving out of sync with her, or saying things that she could not remember saying, as the image she presented to the world evolved beyond her comprehension and control. Eventually, when she confronted the Executive about their plans for her, they destroyed her and replaced her with a different version of herself that went on to destroy her credibility, Not!Them-style. Meanwhile, other versions of her went on homicidal rampages around the world."
Nettel, Guadalupe: El huésped (The host)
A story about a girl who feels she has a "sister" that lives within her. She haunts her constantly and devastates her life. We never know whether that sister is real or not, but the mere thought of her drives the girl to paranoia and madness. Her main goal is to destroy her, and to do that, she must become just like her.
Nix, Garth: The Ragwitch
Ten-year-old Paul and his sister Julia are on vacation at the beach one day when they find a shell midden on the shore. When they climb it, they find a crow's nest with a creepy little ragdoll in it. Paul distrusts it immediately, but Julia is entranced, and brings it home, where their parents don't seem to be able to see it. The next morning, Paul hears someone moving around, and follows the sound out to find his sister, possessed by the doll, building a strange blue fire on top of the midden. She freezes him helplessly in place, then jumps into the fire and disappears. Paul rebuilds it and follows Her through, determined to rescue his sister.
So begins a quest to stop the Ragwitch and save his sister (and maybe the world he finds himself in on the side). Throughout, the narrative switches between Paul's journey and Julia Fighting from the Inside despite the Ragwitch's attempts to control her mind.
Peck, Richard: Secrets of the Shopping Mall
Trying to escape the vicious King Kobra gang and troubled life at home, eighth graders Barnie and Teresa flee the city. With only four dollars between them, they hop a bus, hoping to find a new life at the end of the line. Destination: Paradise Park. But Paradise Park turns out to be a cement-covered suburban shopping mall--not quite the paradise they had hoped for.
With no money and no home to retum to, they are forced to stay. And paradise park takes them in--in more ways than one. Barnie and Teresa spend their days and nights in the climate-controlled consumer paradise of a large department store. And just when they think they can live there unnoticed forever, Teresa and Barnie find that even Paradise Park has its secrets. Even in the dead of night, they are far from alone...."
(Spoilers: It's not actually living mannequins, but dispossessed and mildly insane teens who dress as mannequins and stand perfectly still all day to avoid detection! Which... I'm not sure is much better.)
Poe, Edgar Allen: William Williamson or William Wilson
The story of a doppelganger. A man with William Wilson's same name and face. A man who begins to act and sound more like him over the years. A man who becomes hostile. A man who haunts him.
***
William Wilson is about a man named William Wilson (or something similar to it) who meets a man with the exact name as him. Gradually, the double begins to resemble him more and more. The double keeps being a general nuisance to him until eventually he kills his double. Only to look in the mirror to see “ mine own image, but with features all pale and dabbled in blood”.
"In me didst thou exist—and in my death, see ... how utterly thou hast murdered thyself.”
To me, William Wilson is a perfect example of a Stranger Leitner because it conceptualizes the fear of the other through fear of the self. There is no stranger more unknowable than the stranger in the mirror, staring back at you.
***
The story follows a man "of noble descent" who goes by William Williamson because, although denouncing his profligate past, he does not accept full blame for his actions. William meets another boy in his school who has the same name and roughly the same appearance, and who was even born on the same date. William's name embarrasses him because it sounds "plebeian" or common, and he is irked that he must hear the name twice as much on account of the other William. The boy also dresses like William, walks like him, but can only speak in a whisper. He begins to give advice to William of an unspecified nature, which he refuses to obey, resenting the boy's "arrogance". One night he steals into the other William's bedroom and recoils in horror at the boy's face—which now resembles his own. William then immediately leaves the academy and, in the same week, the other boy follows suit. William eventually goes to university, gradually becoming more debauched and performing what he terms "mischief". For example, he steals from a man by cheating at cards. The other William appears, his face covered, and whispers a few words sufficient to alert others to William's behavior, and then leaves with no others seeing his face. William is haunted by his double in subsequent years, who thwarts plans described by William as driven by ambition, anger and lust. In his latest caper, he attempts to seduce a married noblewoman at Carnival in Rome, but the other William stops him. The enraged protagonist drags his "unresisting" double—who wears identical clothes— into an antechamber, and, after a brief sword fight in which the double participates only reluctantly, stabs him fatally. After William does this, a large mirror suddenly seems to appear. Reflected at him, he sees "mine own image, but with features all pale and dabbled in blood": apparently the dead double, "but he spoke no longer in a whisper". The narrator feels as if he is pronouncing the words: "In me didst thou exist—and in my death, see ... how utterly thou hast murdered thyself."
Pratchett, Terry: Maskerade
‘There’s a kind of magic in masks. Masks conceal one face, but they reveal another. The one that only comes out in darkness …’
The Opera House in Ankh-Morpork is home to music, theatrics and a harmless masked Ghost who lurks behind the scenes. But now a set of mysterious backstage murders may just stop the show.
Agnes Nitt has left her rural home of Lancre in the hopes of launching a successful singing career in the big city. The only problem is, she doesn’t quite look the part. And there are two witches who would much rather she return home to join their coven.
Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg have travelled to Ankh-Morpork to convince Agnes that life as a witch is much better than one on the stage. Only now they’re caught up in a murder mystery featuring masks and maniacal laughter.
And the show MUST go on . . .
Rayner, Jacqueline: EarthWorld
Synopsis: "Anji Kapoor has just had the worst week of her entire life, and things aren't getting any better. She should be back at her desk, not travelling through time and space in a police box with a couple of strange men.
The Doctor (Strange Man No. 1) is supposed to be returning her to Soho 2001 AD. So quite why there are dinosaurs outside, Anji isn't sure. Sad sixties refugee Fitz (Strange Man No. 2) seems to think they're either in prehistoric times or on a parallel Earth. And the Doctor is probably only pretending to know what's going on — because if he really knew, surely he would have mentioned the homicidal triplet princesses, the teen terrorists, the deadly android doubles (and triples) and the hosts of mad robots?
Anji's never going to complain about Monday mornings in the office again... "
Why it's Stranger: The setting alone is uncannily bizarre -- a theme park on one of Jupiter's moons devoted to Earth history, with research drawn from mistranslations, myths, and popular fiction. Sinister androids populate the place, and everyone is hiding the most terrible secrets. Meanwhile, Fitz Kreiner is having an identity crisis about being a clone, which is only made worse when he has to battle an Elvis impersonator to the death.
Robinson, Justin: Everyman
Ian Covey is a doppelganger. A mimic. A shapeshifter. He can replace anyone he wants by becoming a perfect copy; taking the victim’s face, his home, his family. His life. No longer a man, but a hungry void, Ian Covey is a monster.
David Tirado is a massive, hideous colony organism, a gestalt entity. The sum of Covey’s discarded parts. A roiling, chaotic patchwork of vast and varied personalities, memories, and physical forms that used to be a man − many men − David Tirado is a monster.
Sophie Tirado’s identity has been eroded by the tides of a long relationship, and now the man she gave herself up for has been stolen away and replaced by a mimic. Caught between the Doppelganger and the Gestalt Entity, she will try to save her husband, but there might be nothing left of him.
Virtue has a veil, vice a mask, and evil a thousand faces.
Ross, Louise: Collective Imagination: Goncharov (1973) (2022) as a Model for Communal Filmmaking
Schwartz, Alvin: "Harold," Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill your Bones
Two cow farmers, Thomas and Alfred, were bored with their monotonous work one day, so they decided to make a scarecrow out of old sacs stuffed with straw. They based its appearance after another farmer they both hated, even giving it the name: Harold. They tied it to a pole and made fun of it, doing impressions of what his crazy voice might sound like or even just taking their cruelty out on him by kicking or punching him, or smearing food over the sac that was its face. One day they heard a grunt that could only have come from Harold. Thomas suggested throwing him in the fire, but Alfred insisted it was nothing to worry about. Then, Alfred noticed that Harold was growing bigger, but again told themselves it was just their imagination from being in the mountains too long.
Then one day, Harold stands up, walks out of the hut in front of Thomas and Alfred, then climbs up onto the roof and starts stomping around on it like a horse on its hind legs. Terrified and wanting to get away from Harold, they leave with their cows that same day, but halfway there they realize they forgot their milking stools and have to go back. The farmers convince each other that there really is nothing to be afraid of and draw straws to see who will go back. It is Thomas who drew the shorter straw, and now has to go back to to the hut, telling Alfred that he will catch up with him later. When Thomas does not return, Alfred returns to look for him, and sees Harold on the roof of the hut laying out Thomas' skinned corpse to dry in the sun.
Scroggs, Kirk: Tales of a Sixth-Grade Muppet
It's a series where a boy turns into a Muppet, and things only get wilder from there. It only really hits proper mind and body horror by book 4, as the entire world begins to undergo MUPPETMORPHOSIS!
Sleator, William: Among the Dolls
When her parents give her a gloomy old dollhouse for her birthday instead of the ten speed bike she's expecting, Vicky is disappointed. But she soon becomes fascinated by the small shadowy world and its inhabitants. The hours she spends playing with the dolls is a good way to escape from her parents's arguments. As Vicky's life becomes more troubled, she starts to take out her frustration on the dolls, making their lives as unhappy as hers. Then one day, Vicky wakes up inside the dollhouse, trapped among the monsters she's created. Bewildered, Vicky is sure she's dreaming. Can she find her way out of this nightmare world?
Sleator, William: The Duplicate
When David finds a mysterious machine that can copy living things, he thinks his problems are over. Now he can be in two places at once: at his grandmother's and out on a date. While the other David is in school, the real one can spend the day at the beach. The possibilities are endless. And they turn terrifying. David's duplicate has a mind, ideas, and desires of his own--and one of them is to see the real David dead.
Spark, Muriel: The Only Problem
So, in this novel, the main character, Harvey Gotham's estranged wife, Effie, apparently joins a terrorist organisation, which causes no end of problems for him. One of the problems being that Harvey refuses to believe that the person in the organisation really is Effie. When shown photographic evidence and even when shown her corpse he remains doubtful that it's her. Nobody else, with the sole exception of his semi-crazy aunt, has any doubts that Effie really is terrorizing Europe. This could be explained by Harvey lying to himself for various reasons or maybe... maybe Effie was replaced by the Stranger and only Harvey can tell. I propose that The Only Problem is really a Stranger's Leitner describing the torment Harvey suffered at the hand of the Stranger.
Spatola, Mike: The Monstrous Makeup Manual
Springer, Nancy: Possessing Jessie
Quiet, cautious Jessie had always lived in the shadow of her dynamic younger brother--her mother's clear favorite. His recent death leaves Jessie and her mother numb with grief. That is, until the morning Jessie cuts her hair and dresses in Jason's clothes, swaggering out of the house in an uncanny imitation of her brother. Her mother is visibly cheered, and for once Jessie is the center of attention at school. But each day Jason takes over Jessie more and more. Can she escape his power?
Starling, Caitlin: Last to Leave the Room
The city of San Siroco is sinking. The basement of Dr. Tamsin Rivers, the arrogant, selfish head of the research team assigned to find the source of the subsidence, is sinking faster. As Tamsin grows obsessed with the distorting dimensions of the room at the bottom of the stairs, she finds a door that didn’t exist before - and one night, it opens to reveal an exact physical copy of her. This doppelgänger is sweet and biddable where Tamsin is calculating and cruel. It appears fully, terribly human, passing every test Tamsin can devise. But the longer the double exists, the more Tamsin begins to forget pieces of her life, to lose track of time, to grow terrified of the outside world. As her employer grows increasingly suspicious, Tamsin must try to hold herself together long enough to figure out what her double wants from her, and just where the mysterious door leads…
Stevenson, Robert Louis: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece of the duality of good and evil in man's nature sprang from the darkest recesses of his own unconscious—during a nightmare from which his wife awakened him, alerted by his screams. More than a hundred years later, this tale of the mild-mannered Dr. Jekyll and the drug that unleashes his evil, inner persona—the loathsome, twisted Mr. Hyde—has lost none of its ability to shock. Its realistic police-style narrative chillingly relates Jekyll's desperation as Hyde gains control of his soul—and gives voice to our own fears of the violence and evil within us. Written before Freud's naming of the ego and the id, Stevenson's enduring classic demonstrates a remarkable understanding of the personality's inner conflicts—and remains the irresistibly terrifying stuff of our worst nightmares.
Stine, R.L.: The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight
Evil scarecrows terrorize a small farm.
Stine, R.L.: Night of the Living Dummy
Lindy Powell finds a mysterious ventriloquist's dummy and Lindy decides to call him Slappy. Lindy uses her dummy to gain popularity, and her sister Kris quickly becomes jealous. Lindy and Kris's parents ask the two girls to share the dummy. However, when Kris tries to take Slappy from Lindy, Slappy hits Kris in the face. The next morning, Mr. Powell reveals that he has bought a ventriloquist dummy for Kris from a pawn shop. She decides to call him Mr. Wood. Various strange incidents of Mr. Wood apparently doing horrible things happen, which are eventually revealed as a prank by Lindy. She was tired of Kris being a copycat, so she decided to pull this big prank on Kris. Kris finds a small card in Mr. Wood's pocket that reads, "KARRU MARRI ODONNA LOMA MOLONU KARRANO,". After reading the card out loud, Kris thinks she sees Mr. Wood blink. That night, the Powell's elderly neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Miller, come to visit them. Lindy and Kris's parents ask that their daughters perform a ventriloquist act for their neighbors. Lindy decides to go first, and hers is a success. Before Kris can perform her act, Mr. Wood begins to insult the elderly couple, making fun of their appearances and their breath. Because of this, Kris is grounded but still allowed to attend the school's spring concert the following day. At the concert, while Mrs. Berman is adjusting a microphone for Kris, Mr. Wood begins to insult the teacher for being overweight. Mrs. Berman demands an apology, but Mr. Wood responds by spewing a green substance on the teacher and the audience. Mrs. Bergman tells Kris that she will be suspended from school for this, possibly for life. Mr. Powell announces he will return the dummy to the pawn shop on Monday. Kris locks Mr. Wood in a closet and goes to sleep. Kris is awakened by the sound of footsteps. When Kris decides to investigate, she discovers that Mr. Wood is alive. Mr. Wood tells her that she and Lindy are now his slaves and that the magic words brought him to life. Kris tries to fight the dummy, but Mr. Wood hits her fiercely in the stomach. Kris crawls away from Mr. Wood and screams for help. Lindy hears her sister and goes downstairs to find out what has happened. While Kris tells her sister that the dummy is alive, Mr. Wood surprises the girls. Lindy manages to pin the dummy to the ground and keep him from fleeing. When the girls' parents arrive, Mr. Wood stops moving. Lindy and Kris try to explain what has happened, but their parents refuse to believe the girls. Mr. and Mrs. Powell begin to question Kris's mental well-being, suggesting that they should take her to a doctor. As soon as the parents leave, Mr. Wood comes back to life, insisting that Lindy and Kris are his slaves. The girls try to decapitate the dummy, but they are unable to harm him. Next, the girls trap Mr. Wood in a suitcase and bury him in the backyard. Since they are exhausted, Lindy and Kris go to sleep. When the girls wake up the next morning, they discover that Mr. Wood has freed himself and is waiting for them. Lindy and Kris seek help, but their parents have gone out. To show how serious he is, Mr. Wood begins to choke Barky, the family dog. In an attempt to separate the two, the girls drag Mr. Wood and Barky outside. When Mr. Wood releases Barky, the girls chase the dummy into the path of a nearby steamroller being used for construction at the house next door. Mr. Wood dodges the first steamroller and tells them that both will be his slaves forever. He doesn't notice the second steamroller, however, and it crushes Mr. Wood. A mysterious green mist rises from the smashed dummy's body. The alarmed driver of the steamroller rushes out, thinking it was a kid he ran over, but the kids assure him it was nothing more than a dummy. Lindy, Kris, and Barky return home. When the girls get to their room, they find Slappy waiting for them. Slappy asks if the other dummy is gone.
Topping, Keith & Martin Day: The Hollow Men
Well to start with, doctor who aside, doesn't the title just sound like a stranger leitner? And getting into the plot, it heavily features animate scarecrows made from people. And the main reason I'm submitting this is because it fucked me up real bad. It's thematically way darker and more mature in content than I was expecting from a doctor who novel when I read it at the tender age of 14.
Vida, Vendela: The Diver's Clothes Lie Empty
The whole plot is about a woman who goes on vacation, loses her documents and decides to roll with it, acquiring new identities through a series of questionable decisions. She gets someone else's passport and credit cards, moves into a different hotel, gets hired as a double of a famous actress, introduces herself with false names, and is very paranoid about being found out. We never learn her actual name, but we do learn that she has always disliked her face and has always tried to choose activities that would draw attention away from her face, so she can pretend it's not even there.
Wells, H.G.: The Invisible Man
The opening of "The Invisible Man" focuses on outside perspectives of the titular character, and the narrative itself refers to him simply as "the stranger". His looks are unusual: he wears large clothes and covers his eyes with tinted glasses, and underneath those, he's covered in bandages, as if he's had some sort of horrible accident. His behavior is strange, too. He's rude and reclusive, holed up in his at an inn and working with bizzare chemical concotions, causing accidents and damage constantly.
Throughout the story, the man, Griffin, becomes increasingly erratic. His attempts to reverse his condition all fail, but the things he can do when he goes unnoticed are increasingly violent and cruel.
When he finally becomes fed up with everything, he reveals himself to the proprietors and patrons of the inn, who are prepared to see anything under the bandages, any manner of injury or disfigurement, but instead, run screaming from the establishment, when he reveals nothing at all.
***
The way other characters interact with Griffin the Invisible Man really reminds me of The Stranger. Throughout the plot he's treated as some sort of impostor/invader/not human anymore. Doubly interesting since we see the uncanny-valley-assigned person's POV, meaning it could work even better as a Leitner that makes a statement giver experience something similar
10 notes · View notes
commoninfected · 2 years ago
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Jordan is really shy, but he and Axel like to go to events together and ruin them. Axel will crossdress and pretend to be Jordan's TERRIBLE girlfriend, and then they will have (fake) public fights at like. Open house showings for rich people's McMansions
3 notes · View notes
wondereads · 2 years ago
Text
Personal Review (03/26/23)
Tumblr media
Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker
Summary
In a version of New Orleans where magic is as common as cellphones, Clement and Cristina, twins, try to unravel an old conspiracy to protect their family. Clement has always admired generational magic, but his own attempts to practice it always seem to fall short. Compared to his sister, Cristina, who excels, he seems completely inept, but Cristina has stopped practicing magic due to a spell gone wrong that she's told no one about. When the twins discover a hex doll in their sick mother's bed, they are pulled into a mystery that spans generations and could change New Orleans for good.
TW: racism, homophobia (light), child abuse, blood, institutionalization, lynching
(Sorry I’ve been gone so long! You’ve no idea how busy I’ve been!)
Plot 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
This was a great combination between magical realism and mystery, bringing in healthy elements of each. The magic played a real and necessary role in the story, but it never overshadowed how important unraveling the mystery was. It was also a little unique in that the question wasn't who but how and why. Clement and Cristina know from the get-go who committed the murder, they just need to prove it to the public.
I also really like the magic of this story. It felt just more down-to-earth than the sweeping, dramatic spells that typically come with fantasy. There's a lot of detail about how certain spells work and how components contribute to that, and it feels like the author is familiar with the practice, or at least did a lot of research. The take on gods and their interactions with humans is also quite refreshing. The gods are involved in human life in a way I don't often seen in fantasy, with them appearing in bars and on people's doorsteps. Still, they don't lose the power and otherworldliness that would typically be associated with a deity.
One thing that I found difficult about this book was a general lack of urgency. While there are many great scenes with good tension, the moments were Clem and Cris are just researching or talking or anything, the momentum stalls. This is mostly because while this is a very important thing to the twins, there is ultimately no time limit. They aren't trying to get ready for an event or beat the clock on a spell or anything like that. As such, the tension, which is quite good in individual scenes, is lost in the in-between moments.
Characters 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
Cristina and Clement are twins and share most of the narration, but they're pretty distinct in terms of personality. They have different ideologies concerning a lot of things, such as magic and morality, which generates a lot of conflict. Cristina was my personal favorite, just because I found her guilt and flexible morality quite interesting, and her arc felt complete. Not that I didn't like Clem, I just prefer my protagonists willing to commit murder, though he seems on his way by the end of the book. The way this book deals with grief is quite good, and Clem bears the brunt of it.
My favorite side character was probably Valentina. Don't get me wrong, I despised her, but I found her to be a great character with a lot of insight into the other side of things. I'm really interested to see how she develops in the next book considering what she's going through at the moment. Jean-Louise, who gets one chapter from his perspective, is incredibly complex, but it doesn't seem like we'll be getting more of him, which sucks. The other perspective side character, Zachary, can rot in hell, I don't want to see anything about him.
While I appreciated how complicated things were in Cris and Clem's family, I feel like it isn't addressed enough. Their mother and aunts have been estranged for quite a while, and while this is only the first book, Mama and Aunt Ursula have a reconciliation that seems rushed. I also feel like the only aunt I really know is Ursula—the rest are barely there.
Writing Style 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
The writing itself didn't particularly stand out to me. There was nothing bad about it, but nothing took my breath away either. I think there's a good balance between the more archaic, flowery writing associated with magic and fantasy and the modern, casual speech of today. There are very few pop culture references, and they are kept vague enough that it won't date the material. I think the pacing was good; other than those stalls I mentioned earlier, the build is steady and feels like a natural progression.
My major gripe is probably the style of narration, in that it has little variation. While Cris and Clem are very distinct in terms of personality, their narration is very similar. I often found myself flipping back to the chapter title to check who was speaking or checking which twin was actually getting called by their name since it was in first person. My final issue is with the texting. There is no indication as to who is sending which text, and sometimes people were double- or triple-texting, and I basically had to make educated guesses as to who was speaking.
Meaning 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
This book isn't as focused on modern issues as other contemporary stories are, but it by no means ignores it. Cris and Clem are Black, which affects their day-to-day lives significantly, and the backdrop of the story is filled with 'Redeemers', those who advocate for regulating magic. Gen (generational) magic is specifically a Black practice, born from necessity during American slavery. White people have their own magic, light and shadow magic, but the desire of certain white characters to be involved in gen magic plays a huge role in the story, especially how gen magic is targeted more than light or shadow.
My one issue is that I can't really pinpoint how the author wants us to feel about the Redeemers. It is an obvious issue that their efforts are the result of a long-ago murder of a white woman (that ended in a lynching) and inordinately targets gen magic. However, direct comparisons are drawn between it and gun control, which makes me inclined to support at least some restrictions, especially considering how magic is utilized for truly horrible means in this book. The characters never outright say how they feel about the Redeemers, but it seems to be mostly negative, which I am hesitant to side with.
Overall 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
I think this is a good book. The plot is interesting with a unique take on magical realism, the main characters are complex, and it addresses some important issues with magic as a stand-in for all kinds of cultural practices. I have my issues, mostly with the lack of urgency, narration, and unclear message, but they are by no means dealbreakers. The cliffhanger is attention-grabbing, definitely enough to get a reader to want to read the next book, and I just love Cristina so much. This book comes out on April 4th, so be sure to give it a shot!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital advanced reader copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.
The Author
Terry J. Benton-Walker: American, also wrote Alex Wise vs the End of the World and The White Guy Dies First
The Reviewer
My name is Wonderose; I try to post a review every week, and I do themed recommendations every once in a while. I take suggestions! Check out my about me post for more!
16 notes · View notes
sporadiceagleheart · 6 months ago
Text
Here's my Tribute edit called your tears for Ava Jordan Wood, Saffie-Rose Brenda Roussos and Skylar Annette “Sky” Neese, Cal Franklin Blackerby, James Michael “JJ” Brown Jr., Christian Lee Chandler, Ethan Zane Frensley, Jesse McCord Lewis, Aadon Blu Olmsted, Chase Alexander Wethington Padgett, Ryan Wrigley Parmeter, Autumn Elayne “Auttie” Rust-Kukuk, Teagin Nathanial “Bubby” Rust-Kukuk, Kirsten Mariah Rust-Reynolds, Tiffany Lynn “Tiffy” Searle, Gage Michael Stevens, Jacob Frank Williams, Lincoln Grace Sutton, Rachael Marie Tisdale, Alyssa Kay Logue, Eric Jefferson Jones, Zoe Savannah Garcia, Evynn Chandler Michelle Garas, Veralee Marie Craft, Bella Jane Blackiston, Leontine Juliette Susan Amsterdam, 1 June 1931 – Auschwitz, 19 November 1943Reached the age of 12 years, Kaylie Kristin “KK” Russell, Jerris Rhea Pelts Beacham, Gerald Alfred Gaddy, Saffie-Rose Brenda Roussos, Lucia Isabella “Lucy” Jackson, Rosemary May “Rosie” Pazin Williams, Joyce Louise Tacadena Graham, Roberta Mae “Butch” Tacadena Bohannon, Kathryne Louise “Mo” Daley Tacadena, Dennis J. Delia, Nevada A. “Vada” Duncan, Theresa Eleanor Burns Perrine, Stella Frederick Camp, Nancy Elizabeth “Dollie” Haun Burns, Lydia Mary Bussing Buchanan, Frances Ann Cranston Bussing, Sophia Ruth Bussing Henry, Ruth Jones Graves Wakefield, Tyler Benton Bales, Barbara Minnich Bierly, Milton H. Bierly, Herbert Johnson “Herbie” Bierly, Uriah Lee Maguire, Christina-Taylor Green, James A Hellems, Fannie Koontz Roach, Lance Solomon Reddick, Richard Jay Belzer, Jimmy Dean, Johnny Paycheck, Lucy Craft Laney, Danielle Van Dam, Alicia Lynn Clark, Sarah Evelyn Isobel Payne, Murder of Sharon Lee Gallegos, Anna Celeste Lowe, Judith Barsi, Heather O'Rourke, Rachel Scott, MOA LEONTINE BJÖRK, Katelyn Nicole “Dolly” Davis, Amanda Michelle “Manda” Todd, Semina Mary Halliwell, Avery Jean Lane, Avery Lana Linda Brown, Sadako Sasaki, Dale Earnhardt American race car driver, Colonel Harland David Sanders, Bray Wyatt, Davey Allison, Chuck Connors, Young Dolph, Sir Michael John Gambon, and more as we honor those Colonel Sanders, Bray Wyatt, Davey Allison, Chuck Connors, Young Dolph, Sir Michael John Gambon, more names to remember
1 note · View note
fredzeppelin · 1 year ago
Text
Tumblr media
This is a photo and related article my grandfather sent me by Email, I hope you guys enjoy
It Happened In The 60s
Before Beatlemania set in, George Harrison visited his sister in Illinois on 16 September 1963, becoming the first Beatle on American soil.
Beatle John has the story:
“When a young man with long dark hair and a thick British accent first told Dorothy Burkitt, a chaperone at the old West Frankfort Teen Town, that he played in a band called the Beatles, she laughed. ‘Why would you name a band after an insect?’ she asked. But other than that she didn’t give it much thought.
At the time, Burkitt and her husband, Fred, were both chaperones at the teen town, which was located above Van-Wood Electric in a two-story building on West Main Street. It was there that she had her brief encounter with George Harrison, although she doubted much of what he said. ‘He was so sweet,’ she recalls. ‘We must have talked for a good hour, but I’m sorry I didn’t even shake his hand.’ Burkitt said George told her he was visiting over here from England with his sister, and he came to the teen town to see the band and hear its vocalists. She remembers him sitting on an old red couch in the lobby.
The next time Burkitt saw George Harrison, he was on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ several months later. ‘Oh, my gosh, Fred, there’s that kid that came to our teen town,’ she said. ‘He was telling the truth.’”
- Before He Was Fab: George Harrison’s First American Visit (2000)
Additional background from George:
According to George, “I went to New York and St Louis in 1963, to look around, and to the countryside in Illinois, where my sister was living at the time. I went to record stores. I bought Booker T and the MGs’ first album, Green Onions, and I bought some Bobby Bland, all kind of things.” George also bought James Ray’s single “Got My Mind Set On You” that he later covered in 1987.
When the Harrisons arrived in Benton, George and Louise hitchhiked to radio station WFRX-AM in West Frankfort, Illinois taking a copy of “She Loves You” which had been released 3 weeks earlier in Britain and on the day of George’s arrival in America. “She Loves You” got a positive review in Billboard but very little radio play, although WFRX did play it. According to DJ Marcia Raubach: “He was unusual looking, he dressed differently than the guys here. He was very soft-spoken and polite.”
It’s often claimed that in June 1963 Louise took a British copy of “From Me To You” to WFRX that she had been sent by her mother and that Raubach played it. This is probably true but the claim that this was the first time The Beatles’ music was broadcast in America is not. “From Me To You” was released in Britain in late April and then topped the British singles’ chart for seven weeks’. With the Beatles at No. 1 in Britain, Vee Jay Records released their single of ‘From Me To You’ / ‘Thank You Girl” as VJ 522 on May 27, 1963. The single was made ‘Pick Of the Week’ by Cash Box magazine, but was not a success.
With the Beatles success in Britain in early 1963, Parlophone were anxious to take advantage of their new asset and so contacted their sister label in America, Capitol Records that was owned by EMI. Capitol was underwhelmed by the Beatles records and so decided against releasing any of their records. Instead, Parlophone turned to a small US label called Vee Jay, a company started by a husband and wife in Gary, Indiana that specialized in black R & B music.
It was an irony probably not lost on the Beatles who loved and had been influenced by exactly that kind of music. In February 1963, two days after “Please Please Me” made No. 1 in Britain, Vee Jay released it as a single in the US. VJ 498 did get some airplay from the major Chicago top 40 radio station WLS and it even made their own chart for a couple of weeks, but nothing happened nationally on the Billboard charts. Not helping the band was the fact that Vee Jay managed to miss-spell the band’s name on the record as “Beattles.”
Article thanks to Richie Havers at www.udiscovermusic.com
6 notes · View notes