A Series Of (Un)Fortunate Reviews

Broadchurch is a British TV series trilogy that stars David Tennant (of Dr. Who fame) and Olivia Coleman (you may also know her from The Night Manager ) as well as Jodie Whittaker (the new Dr. Who ) and Andrew Buchan.  If you watch a lot of British TV, you may recognize these actors's names as well as a lot of the supporting cast.  I watched the first season of Broadchurch a few years ago when it aired in the U.S. on BBC America, which is how I also watched the second season.  The long wait for the third and final season is over, so I decided to re-watch the first two seasons before I watch the third season.  I'm reviewing them as I watch them again.  Also there are spoilers, so a word of caution before you keep reading. In Broadchurch season one when twelve year old Daniel Latimer's body is found dumped on the shoreline of Broadchurch, the ensuing police investigation uncovers the town residents' secrets and threatens to rip both the Latimer family and ...

Not A Sound is the sixth novel by Heather Gudenkauf.  It's the fourth novel by Gudenkauf that I've read and reviewed here on the blog.  Go here to find those reviews. Two years after a hit and run driver left Amelia deaf and another woman dead, Amelia, a former trauma nurse and sexual assault nurse examiner, is still picking up the pieces of her life.  Still adjusting to being deaf and struggling with staying sober, Amelia is rebuilding her life after her depression and alcoholism caused her to lose her job, her husband, and her young stepdaughter.  Then Amelia discovers the partially nude body of another nurse, who was also a sexual assault nurse examiner and a former friend, in the nearby river on a morning paddle board excursion.  As Amelia's drawn into the homicide investigation, her life is upended and endangered as it never has been before. When Amelia finally lands a part-time job data processing for the local cancer treatment center, she discove...

The Perfect Stranger is Megan Miranda's follow up to All the Missing Girls .  I read and reviewed All the Missing Girls back in January.   The Perfect Stranger differs in structure to All the Missing Girls which largely unspooled its story backwards.  While  The Perfect Stranger follows a more traditional story structure, it is no less gripping. After Leah Stevens torches her career in Boston in pursuit of the truth, a seemingly chance encounter with her former, post-college roommate, Emmy Grey, spurs the two women to move to western Pennsylvania.  Both women are in search of a fresh start and while Leah finds hers as a high school English teacher, Emmy flounders in nameless, nondescript, dead end jobs.  When a woman who bears a striking resemblance to Leah is found left for dead on the shores of the nearby lake, Leah soon realizes that her roommate has been missing for an undetermined length of time.  And Leah realizes that it is the beginnin...

Miss Shayne returns this week with another movie review! I'm a pretty big fan of Spidey. As big a fan I can be without reading the comics, that is. Unfortunately for me, I had just gotten used to Andrew Garfield as the poster boy for Spider-Man. So when I heard they were doing ANOTHER Spider-Man reboot, I didn't know if my heart could take it. Just how many Spideys must we toss aside until we get it right?! Perhaps… no more. Spider-Man: Homecoming follows the typical Spider-Man recipe, though there are some differences. Though Peter Parker's origin story is mentioned, we don't have to sit through the spider bite   again. The movie starts out with Parker on a trip to train with the Avengers under the cover of interning for Stark Industries. Upon his return home, Parker discovers some sketchy guys selling weapons that use alien technology, making them especially dangerous. Naturally, these weapons help some criminals do some pretty bad things. Peter Parker t...

Miss Shayne is back with a movie review! Released in 2012, Looper stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis in a twisted sci-fi-esque movie. I am a big fan of movies such as these, and, as far as twisted films go, this movie is one of the better ones I have seen. Though it can be hard to follow, the ending is worth all of the initial confusion. Time travel has not been invented yet, but thirty years in the future, it has. To keep things relatively clean, when the future mob needs someone whacked, they send them back in time to be killed by hired guns called "loopers." This is all well and good until the future mob boss starts to "close the loops" by sending back the loopers' future selves to be whacked. Unfortunately, the young loopers don't realize they killed their future selves until they see their payment is gold bars instead of silver. Joe is one of these loopers who is trying to save up enough money to leave this lifestyle behind. Unfo...