Tranquillum House is an exclusive and upmarket wellness retreat, run by the mysterious and ethereal Masha (Nicole Kidman with a dodgy Russian accent). Attendance is by invitation only, so when nine highly stressed guests arrive, it's a guessing game as to what might connect a family reeling from suicide, a formerly successful romance novelist, a … Continue reading Nine Perfect Strangers (season 1)
"'You're a blasted idiot, is what you are,' the old man growled in a voice too loud for the middle of the popular downtown diner." I've got a real liking for a 'palate cleanse' of a cosy mystery in between more serious reads, and finding a new series to try is always exciting. I've got … Continue reading Digging Up Trouble – Kitt Crowe
"Keep far away from Orion Lake." Welcome back to the Scholomance, the school that makes Hogwarts look like day care and the most brutal prison seem palatable in comparison. Four years without real daylight, proper food, or any supplies you didn't bring with you at the start. Sure, there are no teachers, but the classes … Continue reading The Last Graduate – Naomi Novik
Of all the new MCU tv shows - WandaVision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier - the one I was most looking forward to was this, Loki. Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is a fascinating character, as is his evolution in the Marvel universe: from pure, if faceted, villain in both Thor (2011) and Avengers (2012), the character was so … Continue reading Loki (season 1)
"The bike lay on the side of the road beneath a grey oak, the handlebars at an odd jutted angle, as if it had been thrown with angry force." It seems like such an appropriate coincidence to have an historic tennis finale happen just as this book publishes, as it tells a tangled story of … Continue reading Apples Never Fall – Liane Moriarty
"Nail lacquer, the woman called Helge reflected as she paused in the antechamber, always did two things to her: it reminded her of her mother, and it made her feel like a rebellious little girl." The first time I read The Bloodline Feud I wasn't wholly impressed, and despite buying the next two volumes I never quite … Continue reading The Traders’ War – Charles Stross
Welcome to Free City. It's here that Guy (Ryan Reynolds) works as a bank teller, dealing cheerfully with the daily hold-ups and naively blind to all the mayhem and destruction constantly going around. That is, until he meets the woman of his dreams, steals a pair of sunglasses, and suddenly sees... everything. Because Free City … Continue reading Free Guy (2021)
"Homo sapiens had been gazing up at the stars for about three hundred millennia before they finally managed to launch themselves off the planet of their origin toward those countless points of light." After the success of the first two Alien movies, the early nineties tried to replicate the success by continuing the franchise. We'd left Ripley escaping … Continue reading Alien 3: The Lost Screenplay – Pat Cadigan & William Gibson
"I decided that Orion needed to die after the second time he saved my life." In a world where magic is real, the downside is the existence of maleficaria (mals): nasty, dangerous creatures that feed on wizards and their mana, or power. Children, coming into their powers, are prime targets, and so a few hundred … Continue reading A Deadly Education – Naomi Novik
While I would never say that Suicide Squad (2016) was a great movie, I didn't seem to hate it quite as much as the rest of the world. And now it seems I really don't love the slightly-sequel-y reboot anywhere near as much as everyone else. Seriously, people are raving about this like it's the best comic … Continue reading The Suicide Squad (2021)
