strange and random happenstance

Another dumpster fire of a year done and dusted. Well, not everything was horrible, but looking back on the year? Yeah, it kind of was. I am more grateful than you can imagine for friends, family, and books. If it wasn't for the escape and the love, what would we have? We'd have insanity. I'd be way more crazy than I actually am. As for landmarks of the year? I turned forty and celebrated by re-reading all of Harry Potter. Now that was a good thing. Trying to be proactive and get all my medical checkups done prior to turning forty was perhaps overly ambitious. Why is it when you try to accomplish one thing it snowballs and has all these horrid aftershocks? But I now have beautiful new fillings in my teeth and no cavities and a knowledge to NEVER take the gas offered at the dentist's office. Want to know what an instant panic attack feels like, take gas! But enough about that, let's get to the books I read this year! There were a lot of good ones and oddly a lot of bad ones that for some reason I was reading for book club... it was not a good year to let fate choose anything for you I guess. Onward to books!

1) Lovers' Lane: the Hall-Mills Mystery by Rick Geary: Still the best book in Rick Geary's true crime graphic novel series. I mean, so good, it was one of my best reads of 2017!

2) Giant Days #28 by John Allison: There is NO WAY I'm going to remember anything that happened in any of these individual comic issues I read at the beginning on 2018. Seriously, I can't. I'm even looking at the cover as I type and there's nothing...

3) Giant Days #29 by John Allison: Ditto.

4) Giant Days #30 by John Allison: Oh, I hated Daisy's girlfriend. I can tell that from the cover!

5) Giant Days #31 by John Allison: Nope, nothing.

6) Giant Days #32 by John Allison: Ditto.

7) Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach: My main problem with this book wasn't that it was macabre, it's that I already knew all the information. Between a love of CSI, true crime, and taking tons of art classes, this was all old hat and therefore boring.

8) Afterlife with Archie, Vol. 1: Escape from Riverdale by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa: I like that the zombie apocalyspse started because Jug tried to save his dog. But other than that it was forgettable and I've been on the hold list at my library for so long for volume two I have a feeling I will have forgotten everything from volume one by the time I get it.

9) Giant Days #33 by John Allison: See above, no idea.

10) Giant Days #34 by John Allison: Ditto.

11) Giant Days 2016 Holiday Special #1 by John Allison: I think this was the "if they had never met" scenario, which is, in my mind, so played out. Though better than the Love Actually parody. God I hate Love Actually.

12) Deadly Class, Vol. 1: Reagan Youth by Rick Remender: Mishmash of a series about an elite high school for assassins which I read in anticipation of the new show based on it. Personally, I think it looks great as a show from the previews because they can infuse the eighties into it more. As a comic it failed to deliver.

13) The Professor's Daughter by John Sfar: I hated this so much after years of looking forward to it that I have fully blocked everything about it from my mind.

14) Jane by Aline Brosh McKenna: Meh graphic novel modern retelling of Jane Eyre. Just read Jane Eyre. 

15) Turning Japanese by MariNaomi: Graphic novel/travel diary of visiting family in Japan. The actual travel, family, and history was fascinating, the whole personal relationship problems was a slog.

16) The Magicians by Lev Grossman: After falling in love with the TV series I thought it was only fair to give the book another shot. I enjoyed it more than the first time, but I enjoy the series so much more and am counting down the days until season four begins. I am such a dork for that show, I even met Q at a comic convention this year.

17) Giant Days 2017 Holiday Special #1 by John Allison: THIS was the Love Actually parody. Seriously, why do people like that movie? I hate it.

18) The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O'Neill: Adorable book wherein you have dragons as your companions and they record you memories and experiences together and then if you brew tea from the leaves they grow you can re-experience your time together. Delightful and beautifully drawn. I also now want a tea dragon.

19) Riverdale Vol. 1 by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa: I'm a huge fan of Riverdale but this comic was pointless because it was all the stories leading up to season one, but we had learned them all in flashbacks on the series, so what was the point?

20) Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory: This book is not what the description says it is. It's not about a family that has psychic powers, though they do, it's more about a family of con artists who have fallen on bad times and a lot of weird sex stuff. As one of my members of book club said, when the most interesting character is dead that's a bad sign. Avoid it if you can.

21) Monstress #13 by Marjorie Liu: There's a reason this series is so well regarded. Go check it out now!

22) Giant Days #35 by John Allison: No idea what happened in this issue.

23) Snotgirl #9 by Byran Lee O'Malley: No clue what happened in this issue, though I am now interested to read it again because I gave it four stars and overall this series has been very lackluster so what happened in this issue to make me like it?

24) Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos: Wow. If you've only scene a film or play version of this film perhaps you should just leave it there. Because this is just an epistolary novel of rape.

25) The Double Life of Miranda Turner Vol. 1 by Jamie S. Rich: If You Have Ghosts by Jamie S. Rich: The lead's dead sister was a superhero, I think... very unmemorable.

26) The Princess Bride by William Goldman: A classic. Easily one of my favorite books of all time. True love, pirates, six-fingered men, I'm here for all of it. Bittersweet typing this though with the passing of William Goldman this year.

27) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 11: Giles #1 by Joss Whedon: I never thought that there'd be something in the Buffyverse I hated more than some of the comic arcs in season eight or say the season two episode about the eggs... I was wrong. This was godawful.

28) Dubliners by James Joyce: I can see why this is a classic of Irish literature, but at the same time I felt that the book relied to heavily on stereotypes. Yes, on the one hand it shows the universality of the Irish experience, on the other it played into the stereotypes and put them down for all time so that the Irish people are now expected to behave a certain way.

29) The End of Temperance Dare by Wendy Webb: Wow, this was so not what I expected. I expected something actual Gothic, but instead this reads as a writer's seminar living out Somewhere in Time and concentrating on the romance. Ugh.

30) Roots by Tara O'Connor: Yes I know this was something Irish something... but I've blocked all memory of it...

31) Lumberjanes, Vol. 7: A Bird's-Eye View by Shannon Watters: Was this the one with giant sky birds? I'm guessing from the title it is... but this series just gets more out there and less appealing as the quality has taken a steep nosedive, the drawing suffering the worst. 

32) Road to Riverdale Vol. 1 by Mark Waid: Hmm... maybe this was the Riverdale volume with the prequels we already knew about... I was just very underwhelmed by this series overall and have thus stopped reading.

33) Giant Days #36 by John Allison: I hope this is where Daisy and the evil German broke up... that was a long time coming. 

34) Home Time: Under the River by Campbell Whyte: Children lost in a magical land full of secrets and adventure after falling into a river? Could they be in an upside down world? How will they get home? This has all the wonder and magic of a eighties kids movie that you still cherish. I can not wait until the next volume is done.

35) Murder, Magic, and What We Wore by Kelly Jones: Oh, to find a new Regency Magic book is magic indeed! This book by Kelly Jones is wonderful, full of magical clothes, dual identities, and an ending that relies on brains and know-how, not on finding a mate.

36) A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab: This was a re-read from I believe last year... can't be sure. The first time I was way into this story, but the second time you realize there's not much going on, just a lot of setting up the world building of three magical and non-magical Londons.

37) Jim Henson's Labyrinth: Coronation #1 by Simon Spurrier: Oh, this turned out to be WAY better than I expected. Though my expectations were very low, classic movies and TV shows done as comics have always seemed to let me down. But Simon Spurrier is onto something, keeping the spirit of the original but telling an entirely new story, how Jareth became the Goblin King!

38) Monstress #14 by Marhorie Liu: Again, always awesome, but it all merges together in my brain, getting the shield up and fixed, Kippa needing more story time, you get the idea.

39) Harrow County #29 by Cullen Bunn: I NEVER wanted this series to end. But I feel like having Hester come back from the grave for a final showdown was a great "big bad" fight that led to a satisfying conclusion.

40) Miss Moon: Wise Words from a Dog Governess by Janet Hill: This book about a dog governess was weird. The drawings were cute, but the typesetting a font choice seemed out of date. What's more the story wasn't very good. A picture book needs balance, good art AND good narrative, suffer in one and it just doesn't work.

41) Monstress #15 by Marjorie Liu: More Monstress goodness! And it's Kippa time!

42) A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss: SO adorable. I love that we have people like Stephen Colbert and John Oliver out there taking the piss out of hate-mongers by turning their words and their lives against them to make them inadvertently do good with books about inclusivity and caring. Here's to Marlon Bundo! 

43) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 11: Giles #2 by Joss Whedon: WHY!?! Just why would you write this shit about Giles!?!

44) Jim Henson's Labyrinth: Coronation #2 by Simon Spurrier: Thankfully after reading about Giles, ugh, I got to spend some time in a slightly older and mysterious Labyrinth.

45) A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab: What a difference time does to the reading of books. I originally disliked this middle volume of Schwab's series because nothing happens, but this time around I liked spending time just getting to know the characters better. Even if it's just a different take on The Hunger Games..

46) Snotgirl #10 by Bryan Lee O'Malley: Back to B.S. This series really has no forward momentum or actual arc. Does Bryan Lee O'Malley actually have an endgame? My guess is no.

47) Giant Days #37 by John Allison: Daisy's bitch of an ex destroys Daisy's relationship with Dasiy's grandmother. Ugh, die bitch, die!

48) A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab: I really didn't like this ending, because it wasn't really an ending. They vanquished the evil "for now" and then resolved nothing and sailed off into the sunset? Um, no. That's not fair to the readers. Conclusions and then little openings for the future, not gaping openings for the future and no resolution!

49) Mother of Souls by Heather Rose Jones: This third volume in Jones's Alpennia series surprised me. I really liked it! She finally is including a wider range of characters while still keeping the old cast around. It's going full on Game of Thrones (ensemble-wise) and I'm loving that.

50) Harrow County #30 by Cullen Bunn: Please don't go!

51) Jim Henson's Labyrinth: Coronation #3 by Simon Spurrier: More awesomeness in the Labyrinth.

52) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 11: Giles #3 by Joss Whedon: Grumble, rumble, Giles sucks. Also it really doesn't make sense...

53) Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi: I would say this is the most over rated book of the year... but there's actually another that holds that honor. Sloppy worldbuilding and an ending that left many people wondering if a main character was dead, not to mention the desert hunger games that wastes water and this book will have you complimenting the cover and not much else.

54) Giant Days #38 by John Alliso: No idea what happened in this issue. 

55) Stack the Cats by Susie Ghahremani: Did you know that adorable illustrations of cats being stacked on each other is a sure fire way to get a five star review out of me? Because it is!

56) Lumberjanes, Vol. 8: Stone Cold by Shannon Watters: My most hated volume to date! Can't remember exactly why I hated it, but I did.

57) I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara: Firstly, how cool is it that they actually caught The Golden State Killer!?! But what makes this book about him work is Michelle McNamara's more personal insights into what drew her to the case. The book was obviously incomplete at the time of her death with structure and timeline issues that a good editor would have fixed and the ending was slapped together by her friends when I think a good ghostwriter would have done a better job. But still, a must read for the true crime aficionados.

58) Chi's Sweet Adventures, Vol. 1 by Konami Kanata: This was odd because it basically backtracked the original series ending with the family moving to Paris and instead repeated some older tales as well as showing newer tales in the older timeline... I would have preferred new stories in Paris rather than something obviously written to sell the Amazon show.

59) Monstress #16 by Marjorie Liu: More Monstress awesomeness.

60) A Castle in England by Jamie Rhodes: No memory of this at all. And yes, I do find it odd that I blocked it so completely...

61) Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings: I read this because it's the basis for the wonderful TV show Killing Eve. The book is odd in that they give you everything about Villanelle up front instead of it being a mystery, which threw me a bit, because the mystery is what keeps it going. If you're expecting the TV show, it's not at all like that. It's female James Bond, if Bond were a villain. Still entertaining, but in a different way than the stellar show.

62) The Lives of Sacco and Vanzetti by Rick Geary: It's weird when I can't remember what happened in a Rick Geary book, but so it is here... though I believe this was about blatant profiling and discrimination by the cops...

63) And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander: The first in Tasha's Lady Emily series. Oh, how I adore this series and this entry about Emily's young widowhood, then learning her husband might have been murdered, and then that he might still be alive!?! Edge of you seat Victorian thrills!

64) Hello, Mr. Hulot by David Merveille: Shitty book, watch the movies instead.

65) Hildafolk by Luke Pearson: I have a new favorite blue haired girl, sorry Coraline, but Hilda is awesome and Scandi and has cool sidekicks and friends made of wood!

66) Hilda and the Midnight Giant by Luke Pearson: I love that this volume isn't just about Hilda's adventures but shows a valuable lesson about interdependency and ecosystems relying on each other.

67) Hilda and the Bird Parade by Luke Pearson: Why did Hilda have to move to the city? WHY!?!

68) Hilda and the Black Hound by Luke Pearson: I love black ominous hounds. They are awesome. Love live the Grim!

69) Hilda and the Stone Forest by Luke Pearson: This was an evil trick! I binged all the Hilda books and the last one ended on a cliffhanger with Hilda turned into a troll!

70) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 11: Giles #4 by Joss Whedon: Make it stop! Oh it's stopped? This is it. Whew.

71) The Woods, Vol. 1: The Arrow by James Tynion IV: Seeing as I'm writing this with hindsight, what I thought was a series with potential, about a high school transplanted to another planet, is really starting to live up to said potential. Also, Wisconsin represent!

72) Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill: OMG! Locke and Key where have you been all my life!?! Big old spooky house, keys with magical properties, a family being torn apart? YAS! Thanks go to my friend Jess for making me read this finally.

73) Southern Bastards, Vol. 1: Here Was a Man by Jason Aaron: This series actually makes football compelling, in that it shows how it's the lifeblood of this town and how it corrupts all it touches.

74) A Poisoned Season by Tasha Alexander: Lady Emily book two, which is, in my mind, the weakest in the series, but what's interesting is that the character of gentleman thief, Sebastian Capet, who we are first introduced to here, has become one of my favorite characters.

75) Head Games by Joe Hill: A key to unlock your head and take out bad memories or impulses or whatever you want? Now that is a dangerous and fasincating concept. More Locke and Key stat! It was seriously painful waiting for these volumes to arrive from the library. Thankfully I now own them.

76) Harrow County #31 by Cullen Bunn: The penultimate issue!

77) Jim Henson's Labyrinth: Coronation #4 by Simon Spurrier: More awesomeness in the Labyrinth. Yeah, that's also me covering for not remembering much...

78) Crown of Shadows by Joe Hill: Not exactly sure what happens in this collection, I remember the series now more as a whole then the individual arcs. How could people stand waiting for these all and not have the luxury to binge?

79) Keys to the Kingdom by Joe Hill: The weakest in the Locke and Key series only because we get short vignettes of what all these other keys do without having the full adventures. I want the full adventures.

80) The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates: What was interesting about this biography is that Ta-Nehisi is about the same age as me so we have similar overall cultural touchstones, but vary so drastically in where and how we were raised. Still a slog to get through in the end and his writing style and concept of a timeline are all over the place.

81) Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero: How did this book get such good reviews? It's just Scooby-Doo slash with major transphobia issues.

82) Clockworks by Joe Hill: Again, can't remember exactly what happened here, but all the pieces of past and present started to fall into place for the final showdown...

83) Giant Days #39 by John Allison: I think this is where Daisy finds her calling as an RA. I would like Daisy as my RA.

84) Monstress #17 by Marjorie Liu: Have you started Monstress yet? If you've read this far you've had time to read an issue of the comic. 

85) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 12 Issue #1 by Joss Whedon: Oh, looks like Joss is putting all the pieces into place for a big BIG bad showdown as well as tying up the Fray/Buffy loose ends.

86) The Grave's a Fine and Private Place by Alan Bradley: I always love a Flavia De Luce story, and this one didn't disappoint as the clan go on holiday down the river, where of course Flavia finds a body and they get sucked into the weird town where the body is from. The only gripe I have is that a few of the odd characters, such as the new priest, have plot points left dangling, leaving it not the neatest of Flavia's stories.

87) Alpha and Omega Joe Hill: I was literally crying at some of these characters deaths. LITERALLY! Why couldn't everyone survive? I know that's not realistic, but I love all these characters way too much. MORE!

88) Harrow County #32 by Cullen Bunn: And a satisfying ending. What to do now? Go back to the beginning and read them all again!

89) Locke and Key: Heaven and Earth by Joe Hill: This was a Locke and Key prequel that I felt lacked the feel of the original series. More trying to pull on heartstrings with the history of one of the keys. Too sappy.

90) The Lost Path by Amélie Fléchais: Stupid pointless story about kids getting lost.

91) Locke and Key: Small World Deluxe Edition by Joe Hill: Whereas this Locke and Key prequel was awesome. CATS SAVE THE DAY! I also found out that you can actually get real copies of the keys!

92) Lumberjanes: Bonus Tracks by Holly Black: Huh, so getting a whole bunch of different artists and authors made me realize that this series still has life in it if the reigns are handed over...

93) Southern Bastards, Vol. 2: Gridiron by Jason Aaron: An interesting volume in that we get the background of our villainous football coach and kind of sympathize with him but at the same time know what an evil man he is...

94) Runaways, Vol. 1: Find Your Way Home by Rainbow Rowell: OMG this was horrible. Not only do you have to really know your Runaways, but the story is totally unoriginal. I expected far more from Rainbow Rowell. I will not be picking up any more of this series.

95) The Woods, Vol. 2: The Swarm by James Tynion IV: I like that this series is willing to spend a lot of time on the backgrounds of the characters so we can see why they make the choices they make now that they are trapped on an alien planet and don't know what to do.

96) Giant Days #40 by John Allison: Not sure... was this when Ed broke his leg?

97) Far Arden by Kevin Cannon: So weird. Very Canadian, like overly Canadian, which made me wonder if it was a parody. Doesn't really come across as such though and it's weird in what it's goal is...

98) The Secret Life of Mrs. London by Rebecca Rosenberg: A fascinating historical fiction book told from the POV of Jack London's wife who happened to be Houdini's lover. Really gives insight into the two men and how this one woman was important to them both.

99) A Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander: All Lady Emily's third book made me want to do was go to Vienna. Immediately. But Lady Emily's Vienna. I think I need a time machine.

100) The Bridal Strain: Emily and Colin’s Wedding by Tasha Alexander: A little reverie showing Emily and Colin's wedding.

101) Carnet de Voyage by Craig Thompson: While I hated Craig Thompson's famous Blankets, I have to say this book of his travels won me over more because of the cats and the diarrhea jokes.

102) Monstress #18 by Marjorie Liu: Have you started reading Monstress since I last mentioned you should?

103) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 12 Issue #2 by Joss Whedon: Ah, it's said looking at this with hindsight, because this is when I still thought that Joss could end Buffy's journey well... oh how wrong I was...

104) The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle: There's NEVER a bad time to re-read The Hound of the Baskervilles for all it's Gothic goodness. It is easily the best tale of Sherlock Holmes hands down. I should know, I just keep reading it again and again!

105) Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith: I read this book to be ready for the forth book coming out in the fall and instead decided that this will forevermore be the best Cormoran Strike book ever. more intimate and personal with bigger stakes. I was hooked.

106) Jim Henson's Labyrinth: Coronation #5 by Simon Spurrier: I'm currently behind on reading this, which means I have to get at it! It's such a great companion to the original film, unlike that manga series.

107) Moonstruck, Vol. 1: Magic to Brew by Grace Ellis: Mishmashed worldbuilding of werewolves and coffeshops that failed to deliver on every level.

108) Giant Days #41 by John Allison: No idea what happened, but it was awesome.

109) The Infinite Loop by Pierrick Colinet: HATED THIS! A bizarre futuristic world of punishing homosexuals and trying to omit them from history. It made no sense!

110) Tears of Pearl by Tasha Alexander: Book four of Lady Emily's adventures take her on a working honeymoon to Constantinople and inside the hidden world of women and their power.

111) Kill or be Killed, Vol. 3 by Ed Brubaker: Could our vigilante be clinically insane? And could it be hereditary?

112) Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay by J.K. Rowling: The reason I love the Fantastic Beasts film franchise more than the Harry Potter one is that this is exactly J.K.'s vision. There is no distortion, no omissions, just her words as she wanted it.

113) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling: OK, how did I never catch that Erised was desire spelled backwards? I feel like a dolt.

114) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling: Oh, finding all these hidden gems, the vanishing cabinet! 

115) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling: I have never really liked Sirius Black, I know, gasp in horror here, but now that I've cast him as Aiden Turner in my head I'm liking him far more.

116) The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi: Wow, this graphic novel for middle grade readers shows clearly how not to do worldbuilding. It's all over the place and not in an interesting way. I'm never reading more in this series...

117) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling: Still my favorite Harry Potter book.

118) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 12 Issue #3 by Joss Whedon: And then it went to hell. Why bring back the Mayor? Seriously. No.

119) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling: I love Neville so freaking much. And Luna just breaks my heart.

120) The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin: Hey look, it's the most over-rated book of the year! Bullshit storytelling that's too fast and loose and you don't care about any of the characters. I really disliked it and the bad spell of books chosen for book club continued...

121) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling: For some reason this read I connected more with the book and it's now way higher in my ranking, which changes every read if I'm honest...

122) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 12 Issue #4 by Joss Whedon: Well that was a lame and lackluster finish. Perhaps not cookie dough lame... also I swear there are some words missing at the end because Buffy makes no sense...

123) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling: No more Harry Potter to read! What will I do. Small voice in my head... read them all again...

124) Giant Days #42 by John Allison: No idea. At all.

125) Snotgirl #11 by Bryan Lee O'Malley: I should really stop reading this series, but it's like a train wreck, I can't look away.

126) The Hogwarts Library by J.K. Rowling: This includes all the "textbooks" and tales, and I got to say, when J.K. said she was making a  movie out of one of the texbooks I said it couldn't be done. I was wrong.

127) Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts I and II by John Tiffany: So many inaccuracies and so wrong on so many levels, but it pulls at the heartstrings and you can't help but love it.

128) The Woods, Vol. 3: New London by James Tynion IV: There are other people on the planet!?! A whole civilization? Aren't they worried about germs? I would be. Could wipe out everyone.

129) Southern Bastards, Vol. 3: Homecoming by Jason Aaron: I love that things are falling apart for the football coach. Can't wait until justice is served.

130) X-Men Noir by Fred Van Lente: OMG, this was just shit. I just can't even. SHIT!

131) Giant Days #43 by John Allison: An evil Christmas playland? Um, yeah, I'm kind of reading about that right now too, though written by Joe Hill... So far far darker than this.

132) Revival, Vol. 1: You're Among Friends by Tim Seeley: Nope. I picked this up on the recommendation of Patrick Rothfuss and the fact it takes place in Wisconsin, but it's just a gibbering mess of a new zombie mythology. No thank you.

133) Black Magick, Vol. 1: Awakening, Part One by Greg Rucka: Pick up this book for the amazing art, but stay for the story of witches working for the greater good, but an organization that thinks they might be evil and is trying to stop them.

134) Dangerous to Know by Tasha Alexander: Lady Emily's fifth adventure pits her against what those around her are calling the French Ripper! Lady Emily at her Gothic best!

135) A Crimson Warning by Tasha Alexander: Lady Emily's sixth adventure sees her dealing with secrets and politics in the heart of the London season during a heatwave!

136) Voodoo Dreams: A Novel of Marie Laveau by Jewell Parker Rhodes: All the no in the world to this book where there is some of the creepiest child molestation I've ever read.

137) Death in the Floating City by Tasha Alexander: Venice is the setting for Lady Emily's seventh adventure which sees her actually called in to help an old "friend." At the end Emily gets something she never expected...

138) Behind the Shattered Glass by Tasha Alexander: For Lady Emily's eighth outing she's ensconced out on her country estate and living the Upstairs, Downstairs life.

139) Black Magick, Vol. 2: Awakening II by Greg Rucka: The problem with finding great series that aren't complete, like Locke and Key, is that now I'm all caught up and need more!

140) The Counterfeit Heiress by Tasha Alexander: If anyone can make cemeteries fascinating it's Lady Emily!

141) Star of the East by Tasha Alexander: A wonderful little Christmas tale from Lady Emily that is very reminiscent of The Moonstone.

142) The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell: A Gothic tale about flat painted wooden people haunting a house that could have been a bit scarier... though the house itself was well described.

143) The Adventuress by Tasha Alexander: Lady Emily's dear friend Jeremy takes center stage in this tale about his engagement party in the south of France.

144) That Silent Night by Tasha Alexander: A chilling tale of ghosts and lost family which is perfect for a cold winter night.

145) A Terrible Beauty by Tasha Alexander: This installment of Lady Emily's adventures, besides giving me all the feels for when I studied Art History in school, also had so much Greek goodness I think it's now my most favorite of Tasha's books!

146) Whose Boat Is This Boat?: Comments That Don't Help in the Aftermath of a Hurricane by Donald Trump: Ugh. This is painful to read because you realize that the president can't even speak words in a way that makes sense.

147) Amid the Winter's Snow by Tasha Alexander: Another winter tale from Tasha about Lady Emily helping her tenants deal with a beast who isn't what he seems. Think more the Beast from Beauty and the...

148) Death in St. Petersburg by Tasha Alexander: Winter, Russia, dead ballerinas, Bolsheviks, yes, Lady Emily is on the case!

149) Uneasy Lies the Crown by Tasha Alexander: Murders made to look like the deaths of kings? I wish I had such fascinating cases to solve. I really am jealous of Lady Emily sometimes. And yes, I know she's fictional.

150) The "Rebecca" Notebook: And Other Memories by Daphne Du Maurier: I should just not read Du Maurier's nonfiction. It's too heavy on the incest and other really horrid topics.

151) The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi: After all the historical fiction, AKA, my Tasha Alexander binge, a goofy space opera is just what I needed. It's heavy on witty one-liners and light on descriptions, but it's a fun, fast read.

152) Giant Days #44 by John Allison: Reading about Valentine's Day in December? I think this issue should have been pushed back a few months...

153) Giant Days: Where Women Glow and Men Plunder #1 by John Allison: Ugh, I had hopes for Ed's Australian Adventure, but it was blah. Just goes to show you that the women are the stars here with the men being very necessary secondary characters.

154) Kill or be Killed, Vol. 4 by Ed Brubaker: And he was dead all along? I find that kind of ironic given how our narrator was trying to be so "honest" and hid the truth in plain sight. The fake out ending was a bit of a cheap shot and seemed to be filler, but thankfully wasn't the ending.

155) The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi: The second volume in Scalzi's new series, because once I read the first I HAD to read the second. This one is far more Douglas Adams, and I love that this isolated interdependentcy are the loser humans and their are far smarter humans out there. 

156) Rebecca's Tale by Sally Beauman: Ah, to hear Rebecca de Winter's tale... I really wish I hadn't if I'm honest. Sally Beauman has balls to think she could continue the famous author's tale. She of course failed miserably.

157) Mrs. de Winter by Susan Hill: And more Rebecca sequels... this one isn't as bad, but both seem determined for Max to pay for his crime against Rebecca. Guess what? Neither were nice human beings let them both suffer as they will.

158) Berlin, Vol. 1: City of Stones by Jason Lutes: Wow. Not what I expected. I wanted kind of Isherwood and got politics and people who all looked the same. If you're doing a graphic novel the least thing you need to do is be able to draw people who look like different people, not ALL the same. It's confusing otherwise. 

159) Giant Days #45 by John Allison: And Ed's girlfriend has a drinking problem. Oddly real and dark for this series, but also something that everyone faces at some point in college.

160) The Decemberist by George Mann: A wonderful advent calendar of a book with a little one hundred word Newbury and Hobbes story for each day in December. A perfect little book to end out a year of very uneven reading.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm by Christopher Paolini
Published by: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: January 1st, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The internationally bestselling fantasy sensation is back, with brand-new stories set in the world of Eragon and the Inheritance Cycle!

A wanderer and a cursed child. Spells and magic. And dragons, of course. Welcome back to the world of Alagaësia.

It's been a year since Eragon departed Alagaësia in search of the perfect home to train a new generation of Dragon Riders. Now he is struggling with an endless sea of tasks: constructing a vast dragonhold, wrangling with suppliers, guarding dragon eggs, and dealing with belligerent Urgals and haughty elves. Then a vision from the Eldunarí, unexpected visitors, and an exciting Urgal legend offer a much-needed distraction and a new perspective.

This volume features three original stories set in Alagaësia, interspersed with scenes from Eragon's own unfolding adventure. Included is an excerpt from the memoir of the unforgettable witch and fortune-teller Angela the herbalist...penned by Angela Paolini, the inspiration for the character, herself!

Relish the incomparable imagination of Christopher Paolini in this thrilling new collection of stories based in the world of the Inheritance Cycle. Includes four new pieces of original art by the author."

I've been wanting to re-read the Inheritance Cycle, perhaps this new book will be just the push I need!

The Secrets of Winterhouse by Ben Guterson
Published by: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication Date: January 1st, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Bookish puzzles, phantom mysteries, and evil curses await as Elizabeth returns to Winterhouse in Book 2 of this magical series.

Back at the Winterhouse hotel for another holiday season, Elizabeth and Freddy dig deeper into the mystery surrounding Riley S. Granger, a hotel guest who left behind odd artifacts―one being a magical book that the evil Gracella Winters once attempted to use to gain destructive power over the entire Falls lineage. The two friends follow a trail of clues, inadvertently attracting the attention of a suspicious new hotel guest: Elana Vesper. The clock is ticking as Elizabeth and Freddy struggle to figure out whether Elana is merely a pawn or a player in the plot to revive the spirit of Gracella. If that wasn’t enough, Elizabeth suspects she is coming into her own special powers―and she’s fearful it might lead her right into Gracella’s vicious web. Mystery, adventure, and a winning friendship combine in this much anticipated sequel."

For my friend Marie who saw the first book at Barnes and noble the other day and was delighted by the cover. 

Kingdom of Needle and Bone by Mira Grant
Published by: Subterranean
Publication Date: January 1st, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 128 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"We live in an age of wonders. Modern medicine has conquered or contained many of the diseases that used to carry children away before their time, reducing mortality and improving health. Vaccination and treatment are widely available, not held in reserve for the chosen few. There are still monsters left to fight, but the old ones, the simple ones, trouble us no more. Or so we thought. For with the reduction in danger comes the erosion of memory, as pandemics fade from memory into story into fairy tale. Those old diseases can't have been so bad, people say, or we wouldn't be here to talk about them. They don't matter. They're never coming back. How wrong we could be. It begins with a fever. By the time the spots appear, it's too late: Morris's disease is loose on the world, and the bodies of the dead begin to pile high in the streets. When its terrible side consequences for the survivors become clear, something must be done, or the dying will never stop. For Dr. Isabella Gauley, whose niece was the first confirmed victim, the route forward is neither clear nor strictly ethical, but it may be the only way to save a world already in crisis. It may be the only way to atone for her part in everything that s happened. She will never be forgiven, not by herself, and not by anyone else. But she can, perhaps, do the right thing. We live in an age of monsters."

It's hard enough keeping up with reading all of Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire's work, imagine being her?

In a House of Lies by Ian Rankin
Published by: Little, Brown and Company
Publication Date: January 1st, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Rebus' retirement is disrupted once again when skeletal remains are identified as a private investigator who went missing over a decade earlier. The remains, found in a rusted car in the East Lothian woods, not far from Edinburgh, quickly turn into a cold case murder investigation. Rebus' old friend, Siobhan Clarke is assigned to the case, but neither of them could have predicted what buried secrets the investigation will uncover.

Rebus remembers the original case - a shady land deal--all too well. After the investigation stalled, the family of the missing man complained that there was a police cover-up. As Clarke and her team investigate the cold case murder, she soon learns a different side of her mentor, a side he would prefer to keep in the past.

A gripping story of corruption and consequences, this new novel demonstrates that Rankin and Rebus are still at the top of their game."

Rebus! I love a good cop whose retirement just can't stick. 

Book Love by Debbie Tung
Published by: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Publication Date: January 1st, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 144 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Bookworms rejoice! These charming comics capture exactly what it feels like to be head-over-heels for hardcovers. And paperbacks! And ebooks! And bookstores! And libraries!

Book Love is a gift book of comics tailor-made for tea-sipping, spine-sniffing, book-hoarding bibliophiles. Debbie Tung’s comics are humorous and instantly recognizable—making readers laugh while precisely conveying the thoughts and habits of book nerds. Book Love is the ideal gift to let a book lover know they’re understood and appreciated."

Books!!! Yes, that might be my doppelganger on the cover... 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alagaseia, Ben Guterson, Book Love, Christopher Paolini, Debbie Tung, Ian Rankin, Kingdom of Needle and Bone, Mira Grant, Rebus, Seanan McGuire, The Fork the Witch and the Worm, The Secrets of Winterhouse

Rebecca's Tale by Sally Beauman
Published by: HarperCollins e-books
Publication Date: 2000
Format: Kindle, 466 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

Colonel Julyan has always wondered if he did wrong by Rebecca. He was her only real friend when she was the mistress of Manderley and he never looked too closely at the verdict of suicide once it was revealed she was dying of cancer. Could her husband, Maxim, have killed her in a jealous rage without ever realizing she was using him to end her life? Ever since that day in London, before Manderley burnt to the ground, the Colonel has had questions and has never searched for the answers. Almost twenty years have passed, Maxim is now dead, but the sensational tales of Rebecca de Winter and Manderley are still dredged up by the press every few years. There are even a few books circulating about. But the Colonel thinks that he has put the past behind him. That is until Terence Gray appears asking questions and giving the Colonel nightmares. The Colonel has always kept his suspicions close to his chest. Never even telling his daughter about his misgivings. But his health is failing and perhaps the last thing he needs to do before he dies is settle his score with Rebecca and that might just begin with letting Terence Gray in. Because Terence knows that the Colonel holds all the cards, the village gossips have given him tons of hearsay, but he needs the truth. He needs the truth about Rebecca, because it might just be his truth as well.

For years I have staunchly refused to read Rebecca's Tale. Having had a bad experience reading Susan Hill's Mrs. de Winter I swore off all books that were prequels, sequels, or retellings of Rebecca vowing to cling only to the words of the great Daphne Du Maurier. And then I waivered. Why did I waiver? Why couldn't I have been steadfast? Why couldn't I have found some other something, anything, to fill this last day of Du Maurier December instead of forcing myself to slog through this book? Because Rebecca's Tale is way longer than you'd think, the almost 500 pages are set in eight point font if you buy the book and then return it to Amazon realizing your eyes can't take eight point font and instead read it on your Kindle. But my main problem is the hubris to think that you can write a sequel to Rebecca and even use Daphne Du Maurier's famous opening line slightly tweaked as if you had the genius to come up with it on your own? Oh Sally Beauman, shame, shame, shame. There's a reason there are so few reimaginings of Rebecca versus the work of Jane Austen. Everyone else knew better! Everyone knows not to randomly take plot points from other characters and make then apply to Rebecca. Everyone knows not to purposefully defecate on a classic with reinterpreting every little thing and hating on that which Du Maurier held dear. Everyone but you that is.

Yet if this book is any indication of Sally Beauman's ability as a writer she's just not that good. She doesn't go in for subtly or nuance, instead using a blunt instrument to hammer home every point a thousand times over. While Du Maurier might have lacked nuance in her earlier writing or some of her dramatic reveals, she was unparalleled in using the nuance of language to covey her story. So Beauman couldn't have been a worse choice to carry on Du Maurier's legacy, a writer like her isn't humble enough to understand there are some things you just can't improve on. Instead she used heavy-handed narration. Repeating ad nauseum that a narrator has a bias, thus casting aspersions on Du Maurier's own writing! As for her own? She shows bias by making Colonel Julyan a misogynist who doesn't get the irony of his repeatedly telling Terence to beware bias. Remember bias, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, and here's a bat over your head if you haven't grasped the concept of unreliable narrators. But with all the heavy-handed foreshadowing you might just have missed the neon warning sign of bias. Between all the "no inkling then of the revelations that were to come today" and "I...wasn’t to understand its significance for several days" or "and it was then that she gave me information that would prove crucial, though I didn’t realize that immediately" you might have started a drinking game to pass the time and passed out in the process.

As for what drives Rebecca's Tale? There really aren't unanswered questions or loose ends to tie up from Du Maurier's story so the majority of this book is laboriously rehashing the details of Rebecca over and over and over. Big reveals being things we already knew but these characters didn't, like Rebecca's inability to have children. Did we need two hundred pages leading up to this reveal that shocked Terence to his core? NO! Because Du Maurier had done and dusted it before. What loose ends Du Maurier did leave are not answered here at all. Because the only wise move Sally Beauman makes is to know that she is ill equipped to answer those things which are better left unanswered. So we have a book with hundreds of pages devoted to revealing that what we knew and then when she does start to diverge, when she does start to create her own story she decides to purposefully leave everything open-ended. Excuse me? So this book is basically the characters from Rebecca analyzing their own story and then coming to no solid conclusions? But not in a fun Jasper Ffordian way, in a horrible, stodgy, dissertation sort of way? Why would anyone want to write this book let alone read it? Sally Beauman purposefully not filling in the blanks from Maxim's father's will to what really happened with Rebecca and her father filled me with such rage that I almost threw my Kindle across the room until I remembered it wasn't the Kindle's fault. It was Sally Beauman's.

Though by far the most frustrating section of this book is when we finally read "Rebecca's Tale." Here's the first person narration of Rebecca we've been waiting for all along and boy does it disappoint. Because ironically, the characters searching for answers we already knew at least had a bit of mystery, a bit of a forward momentum. Here Rebecca elliptically lays everything out. And while she omits a lot it's too straightforward. There's no way to connect to the story. There's no element of the hunt anymore so these revelations don't feel earned by the writer or the reader. Plus the misogynistic tone of Colonel Julyan starts to spill into Rebecca's own story. If I didn't know for a fact that Sally Beauman is a women I'd say she was a man who really hates women. Maybe she's just a woman who hates other women? Because how else can I account for the victim blaming which oozes off these pages? Rebecca was raped as a seven year old child in France by a fourteen year old boy. She isn't just blamed by her mother and all the locals, Max blames her and even starts to identify with her rapist. What. The. Fuck? If this was a gimmick to tar Maxim, it doesn't work, instead it tars the author. She comes across as someone who wouldn't support the #MeToo movement and in fact might go on television and claim he sexual assault was all her fault. Yes, Du Maurier did write a story about the destruction of a strong willed woman. But she would not have written her ever as a victim.

The biggest problem though with Rebecca's Tale is that while Sally Beauman obviously knows her Du Maurier she doesn't understand it. She can throw out as many hints to her life and work from J.M. Barrie to The Birds, but she doesn't understand the true underpinnings of Rebecca. Instead she tries to force a statement about women and marriage and subservience that doesn't connect to her source material at all. Rebecca had it's roots in Jane Eyre, and both stories deal with the roles women have in society and what that means. Yet both the second Mrs. de Winter and Jane in the end are the ones with power. They love and care for their husbands but they are in complete and total control. By entering a state of wedded bliss they didn't give up their power they eventually found it. Therefore to have Colonel Julyan's daughter throw away her past as a caretaker and deny herself marriage for freedom shows just how ignorant Sally Beauman is, she doesn't understand the power shifts. The whole point of Du Maurier's book is that women can have power in traditional roles that you wouldn't think would give them power. As much as I have mixed feelings over Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea at least she understood her source material. She GOT Jane Eyre and therefore made a classic in her own right. She understood women and power and wasn't about distorting the original but about giving it an even deeper meaning instead of victim blaming and sweeping the ashes under the carpet.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 3 comments  

Labels: #MeToo, Daphne Du Maurier, Du Maurier December, J.M. Barrie, Jane Eyre, Jasper Fforde, Jean Rhys, Kindle, Mrs. de Winter, Rebecca, Rebecca's Tale, Sally Beauman, Sequels, Susan Hill, The Birds, Wide Sargasso Sea

If you follow me on social media you might have heard some rather declarative statements on November 14th when Netflix announced they were doing a new version of Rebecca starring Lily James and Armie Hammer. It's not that I object to their being a new Rebecca, I just happen to object to almost everything we know so far about this project. Let's start with Armie Hammer... um, he's not British. Not that I'll hold that against him... what I hold against him is that he's only three years older than Lily James. Maxim de Winter is about twenty-five years older than his twenty-one year old bride, not three! Lily could work, I honestly have liked her in everything she's been in, she just needs a different leading man. Because of all the actors out there, you need a certain something to BE Maxim de Winter, something indefinable. For example I was just watching The Addams Family last night and Raúl Juliá, he would have been an amazing Maxim. Armie, not so much.

Now let's break down the other aspects of the production. The book is being adapted by Jane Goldman, best known for two of the worst X-Men films and the Kingsman franchise, big budget superhero blockbusters don't exactly mesh well with Daphne Du Maurier unless you're keeping maybe two ideas and scrapping the rest of the story like Hitchcock did with The Birds. Yes, Goldman also adapted Stardust, which I liked, but she also did The Woman in Black, which I hated, making her hit-and-miss with adaptions. As for the director Ben Wheatley, having two episode of Doctor Who I disliked AND that horrid adaptation of High-Rise on his resume aren't endearing him to me in the least. Then I have questions for the team, is it going to be a jam-packed two hour production or a lavish four hour miniseries, because there's more chance in doing justice to the book if it's four hours. But with Netflix it could go either way... Here's hoping they salvage something good out of this star-crossed crew instead of making me hate it more than I hate the Charles Dance version.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 1 comments  

Labels: Armie Hammer, Charles Dance, Daphne Du Maurier, Doctor Who, Du Maurier December, High-Rise, Hitchcock, Lily James, Netflix, Raul Julia, Rebecca, Stardust, The Addams Family, The Birds, The Woman in Black, X-Men

My father had only one rule for Christmas—it had to be snowing when we went for the tree. Snow had to be in the air. My father had a reverence for seasons. He also believed in magic. This was, after all, the man who in late October would sit at dawn in his duck skiff waiting for the Mallards to rise in the morning mist. It was all about reverence and magic.

So, I would sit anxiously looking out my bedroom window at the grey, smudged sky waiting for it to open, waiting for God to make our neighborhood a gently shaken snow globe. My father expected patience. In the tradition of his own boyhood, the tree would not be put up and decorated until Christmas Eve. We had time.

Then it happened. It always happened. The heavens began to sift snow down on our little town of De Pere. The wind coming off the Fox River blew it up between the houses and the adventure would begin. Sherpas in search of our destiny! We bundled into the car and headed for the Hockers Farm on the outskirts of town, a little way beyond the city limits, just past the Mile-Away Tavern.

It was a working farm that was transformed each December. Snow fencing was run around the barnyard and Christmas lights were strung on poles. The Hockers brothers had harvested the trees and they were set against the fencing and leaned against the barn. The lights, the trees, the smells from the warm barn, the snow swirling about awakened our imaginations to the possibilities of the days ahead. If I had fretted by my bedroom window in anticipation, I was now a dizzy snow angel.

It was always a time of ritual when Doc Lefebvre arrived at Hockers. Large of heart, but with little means, the brothers relied on my father’s kindness throughout the year. There were, of course, the eggs that would appear on the porch in an old wire basket and the occasional plucked chicken arrived in time for Sunday dinner, but it was the ritual of the tree where the Hockers expressed their deepest appreciation to my father. Their affection was real and even as a boy, I could feel it though my fingers and toes were numb, numb from waiting in the snow for the adventure to unfold.

It seemed to me that we inspected every tree in the yard, discussed its merits and then, ultimately, heard the brothers’ verdict—it was not good enough. Then, finally, frostbitten and tired, we would come upon the tree, the tree that the brothers had hand selected much earlier. It was hidden for that special moment of discovery and revelation. The procession of carrying the tree and tying it to the car was done with the greatest reverence—it outdid the celebration of Midnight Mass. As always, it was a gift, no payment could be negotiated despite my father’s protests.

This was the way we celebrated the choosing of the Christmas tree during the first half of the 1950s. It was a time of joy when simple friendship and kindness guided us to the perfect tree.

My father had been ill for a long time. Diagnosed with cancer in 1946, he struggled to live until the autumn of 1956. He died two weeks after my eighth birthday on a clear October day when the ducks were flying out over Green Bay. I was bewildered and lost.

My mother had never gone to get the Christmas tree with us. I heard her on the telephone talking to one of the Hockers brothers telling him that we would be by. When we arrived on a late, cold, snowless afternoon, the brothers were standing in the yard holding a perfect tree. They tied it on the car without saying a word. My mother did not say anything either. As we drove off, I could see these big men in their overalls and huge coats wiping tears from their eyes with their red kerchiefs.

It was the last year that my mother and I would ever have a tree. In the years that followed, we would pack ourselves up and visit family elsewhere. We never talked about the Christmas tree or the Hockers. We never talked about my father.

I keep a snow globe on my desk and when Christmas approaches, I gently shake it and I look closely to see if a small boy and his father make it to the barnyard illuminated with lights, the barnyard that lives on in my memory.

I tell this story now, years later, to honor my father and to remind myself of the lessons I learned from him. I hope that they hold meaning for you—this is my prayer in the close and holy darkness of Christmas.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 1 comments  

Labels: Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas Tree, De Pere, Lefebvre, Merry Christmas, Snow

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Reckoning by Joss Whedon
Published by: Dark Horse Books
Publication Date: December 24th, 2018
Format: Paperback, 112 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Joss Whedon's Buffy and crew are confronted by a future Big Bad who has traveled to the present, intent on stealing the power of the Slayers, becoming all-powerful, and destroying the world as we know it!

The lives of Buffy and the Scoobies haven't been too eventful for a while - at least as far as fighting demons and the forces of darkness are concerned. But that all changes when Angel brings news of an amassing a force that must be reckoned with: Wolfram and Hart, a legion of demons, and Harth, vampire from the future. Buffy knows Harth and his twin sister - the Slayer, Fray - from her meeting with them and Dark Willow in the future. But this army that has been gathered is more than she and her crew were expecting...Narrowly escaping an initial encounter, the gang travels to the future to recruit Fray and learn of their dismal fate should they fail to defeat this legion that has invaded the present. Harth is after the power of the Slayers, and being in possession of all their memories, he knows how to rewrite the outcome of this ultimate battle before it occurs. This is the reckoning...and it could be the end of Buffy, Fray, and all the Slayers, forever."

Not many books are released on Christmas Eve... but here's some Buffy. I'm not saying it's good. It's the end of the comics though. Clunky, just like the rest of the run. 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Christmas Eve, Comics, Fray, Joss Whedon, Tuesday Tomorrow

Rebecca
Based on the Book by Daphne Du Maurier
Starring: Emilia Fox, Charles Dance, Faye Dunaway, John Horsley, Jonathan Stokes, Diana Rigg, Tom Chadbon, Geraldine James, Denis Lill, John Branwell, Jonathan Cake, Kelly Reilly, Anthony Bate, Ian McDiarmid, Timothy West, and Lucy Cohu
Release Date: April 13th, 1997
Rating: ★
To Buy

The gregarious Mrs. Van Hopper has hired herself a mousy little companion to accompany her to Monte Carlo. Yet she's put out that the old crowd aren't around and then laid up with a sniffle. Her young companion uses this time to become close to the one person in Monte Mrs. Van Hopper is fascinated with, Maxim de Winter, the inconsolable widow and owner of the great house Manderley. When Mrs. Van Hopper decides to decamp Maxim gives the little mouse a choice, go to New York with her employer or come to Manderley with him as his wife. It isn't a hard choice to embrace being the second Mrs. de Winter, a choice that even Mrs. Van Hopper approves, because at least someone bagged him. Back at his luxurious estate in England Maxim's young new wife feels that the shadow of his first wife, Rebecca, looms large. But even despite the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, and her doom and gloom, nothing can stop the newlyweds love for each other. That is unless Maxim is still in love with Rebecca... the discovery of Rebecca's scuttled boat in the bay will try their relationship, destroying everything or bringing them closer together.

The 1996-1997 season of Masterpiece Theatre was rare for me in that I caught it entirely. I was taking a year off before college and therefore had time to luxuriate in my much loved passions of reading and watching miniseries. The adaptation of Nostromo starring Colin Firth and A Royal Scandal starring Richard E. Grant were highlights that year. In fact when I recently learned A Royal Scandal was an extra on The Queen's Sister I instantly bought the DVD, despite my dislike of The Queen's Sister. Now if they'd just release Nostromo on anything other than VHS I'd be set because I'm seriously dying with only my old taped copy. But what I wasn't looking forward to was the season ending remake of Rebecca. This was at the height of my Hitchcock fanaticism, having taken film classes in high school and planning on taking more in college, and I couldn't comprehend why anyone would remake a classic.

Yes, Hitchcock didn't get it 100% right, but you can not deny that Laurence Olivier IS Maxim de Winter. It won best picture at the Oscars! So I planned to boycott the remake. The problem when living with your parents is that they have their own opinions on what they want to watch and seeing some of Rebecca turned out to be unavoidable. What little I saw made me instantly withdraw from the television room. My mom didn't last very long either, despite her love of Diana Rigg. For almost twenty years I have shunned this adaptation shuddering from the memory of those few glimpses. So I thought perhaps I should give it a second chance. Maybe Diana Rigg could be a superior Mrs. Danvers? Perhaps the beauty of Manderley would be done more justice in color with it's lush abundant floral growth? Or perhaps I should have trusted my gut reaction and avoided this piece of crap entirely.

What is striking about this adaptation is they have assembled some of the most talented actors in the British Isles and beyond and somehow sucked the life out of them. If it weren't for Faye Dunaway and Jonathan Cake I don't think a single line would have been uttered above a dull monotone. Rebecca is full of emotion and passion, both repressed and on full display, and yet here it comes across as the most flat and emotionless story ever. It should be turbulent and forceful like the sea, not fake and false like that shitty shack that was slapped together on the beach. After the first episode my dislike became more and more audible. Three hours and nothing went right. I was visibly cringing at all that they got wrong. The second Mrs. de Winter isn't just shy with a can do attitude but meek! Oh the rage! But even if I hadn't been comparing it to the book, it was awful. I kept making myself step back and think, if I hadn't read the book would I enjoy this? The answer was no time and time again.

While the heavy-handed foreshadowing might have been driving me loopy, if Du Maurier was still alive I know what she'd hate most... they made this adaptation into a romance. Yes, there are romantic elements in Rebecca, but that is NOT what the book is. The moniker of "Romance Writer" hung around Du Maurier's neck like a millstone her entire life. To have her greatest novel reduced to being nothing more than a romance? No. She would have snapped. Plus, I like Charles Dance very much, don't get me wrong, his performance of himself in Jam and Jerusalem, Clatterford stateside, is one of my favorite cameos on TV ever; but to see him groping and pawing awkwardly at Emilia Fox's cheek and sucking her face so that it looks like he's eating her. Eww. The book STRONGLY hints that the de Winters had a sexless marriage and yet here the demonstrative affection is overwhelming. It's the exact opposite of the book, yet oddly passionless. And that lame excuse made for their lack of children? Like Maxim would run into a burning building to save Mrs. Danvers? NO!

Yet, I have to give props where props are due. These go to Diana Rigg and Jonathan Cake, Mrs. Danvers and Jack Favell, Rebecca's maid and blackmailing cousin, respectively. I think these two actually read the source material, which Arthur Hopcraft obviously didn't when adapting this because who would purposefully change the famous introductory chapter and slap it into an upbeat coda? But enough about Arthur Hopcraft because this obviously ended his career if you check out IMDB. As for Hitchcock he proves that even the greats can get it wrong and he just didn't get Mrs. Danvers, and went camp and over the top. Diana Rigg nails it. The sadness that is behind that stiff facade. As for Cake, I don't think I can pay him a higher compliment than saying I really thought he WAS Favell. Rigg and Cake got the menacing down perfectly. Yet they also had the depth Du Maurier demanded of these characters. While they had the menace, they also had the vulnerability, and ultimately the patheticness of these two and how hollow their last act, destroying Manderley, really is.

But in the end, seeing as this miniseries was called Rebecca, you'd think they'd at least get her right? Yet they didn't. It's almost as if Rebecca is an afterthought. She should be front and center, there, oppressing Maxim and his new wife every single second of their time at Manderley, but she's oddly not there. It's like Mrs. Danvers and Jack Favell are the only ones who remember and it's only when they are around that Rebecca still lives. Otherwise it's as if she's long dead and long gone, not "haunting" them as should be the case. But this couldn't very well have been a romance if they concentrated on the Gothic nature of the book with Rebecca haunting Manderley now could it? As for when Rebecca actually appears... she's impressionistic and the camera is just too fucking close to her face. I wouldn't know it was Lucy Cohu, an actress I quite like who stared in the aforementioned movie The Queen's Sister, if it wasn't for the credits. Therefore we can say that like the book, there's a problem with Rebecca. Here it's her irrelevancy, there it's her possession of you body and soul. Let the book possess you and avoid this catastrophe. 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Adaptation, Charles Dance, Daphne Du Maurier, Diana Rigg, Du Maurier December, Emilia Fox, Hitchcock, Jonathan Cake, Lucy Cohu, Manderley, Masterpiece Theater, Mrs. Danvers, Rebecca, Richard E. Grant, Romance

Rebecca
Based on the book by Daphne Du Maurier
Starring: Joanna David, Elspeth March, Jeremy Brett, Hugh Morton, Richard Willis, Anna Massey, Terrence Hardiman, Vivian Pickles, Leon Sinden, William Morgan Sheppard, Julian Holloway, Virginia Denham, Sylvia Coleridge, Harriet Walter, Neville Hughes, Victor Lucas, Richardson Morgan, Robert Flemyng, and John Saunders
Release Date: 1979
Rating: ★★★★
Out of Print

Mrs. Van Hopper has her own friend of the bosom. Paid to be her companion, but really acting as her dogsbody. When Mrs. Van Hopper falls ill her friend catches the attention of widower Maxim de Winter and when Mrs. Van Hopper decides to head home to New York Maxim gives the young girl a choice; New York with Mrs. Van Hopper or Manderely with him. As his wife. She hastily marries Maxim and becomes the second Mrs. de Winter. Though she worries and frets that she won't be up to the job, especially once she sees Manderely in person and meets the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers. She feels overwhelmed and Mrs. Danvers does everything in her power to make things worse for her new mistress. It doesn't help that Rebecca has left her imprint everywhere, not just physically, but emotionally. She is in the hearts and minds of the staff, the locals, and even Maxim and his family. So much is expected of the new bride, even a lavish costume ball, just like Rebecca used to host. How is she to continue when Maxim is obviously questioning the wisdom of returning to Manderely? But is it the place or the new bride he regrets more? Only the revelation of a horrible secret will show the truth to the young bride. 

If you are looking for the most accurate adaptation of Rebecca you couldn't do better than this version made by the BBC in the late seventies if you tried, and oh how I've tried. While my heart will always belong to Alfred Hitchcock's version as the obsession of my youth, this one is now my favorite, in spite of the whole last episode being out of sync. This was just chock-a-block with 1970s BBC goodness. If shows like The Pallisers, The Duchess of Duke Street, and Upstairs, Downstairs are your idea of what quality TV should be, then this one's for you! There's a nostalgic quality to shows that went for acting chops over everything else. The sets might be recycled and familiar, yes, that is the window from the maid's garret in Upstairs, Downstairs in a dowdy room in Monte Carlo, and that is the drawing room from The Pallisers transplanted to Manderley with a desk hiding a certain broken cupid, but that just gives you the familiarity that makes this adaptation feel like coming home. While I had never seen this adaptation before, Jeremy Brett and Joanna David surrounded by so many actors I have seen for years and years on the small screen just made me giddy that for once I'd found a Rebecca with less to complain about that made me feel like I was visiting an old friend.

Though, this is me, so you know I will have something to complain about; and that complaint is Joanna David, though it's through no fault of her own. Or maybe a little because I didn't like how they bracketed the show with how she was telling someone about her dream about Manderley while wearing pearls, but that was the director's fault. So the reason I had issues with Joanna David was because of the 1997 adaptation of Rebecca staring Emilia Fox and Charles Dance. Emilia Fox not only played the second Mrs. de Winter, a role here played by Joanna David, but she happens to be Joanna David's daughter. I've never really thought of them looking too much alike, but watching this adaptation from the seventies, I'd occasionally catch a similarity, the way Joanna tilted her head or pursed her lips and I wouldn't be seeing her anymore I'd be seeing her daughter and seeing the same expressions flit across her face was almost unnerving. Oh, how I wish I had seen this adaptation first. Because to constantly remind me of the atrocity that was the 1997 adaptation is a sin. Yet it's a sin that, logically, I shouldn't hold against them because this other adaptation was almost twenty years in the future. But then again I am fickle. Thankfully Jeremy Brett is no Charles Dance.

Yet then there's the perfection of Anna Massey as Mrs. Danvers to make you forget your woes. If I were to gather up all the Mrs. Danvers she would win hands down. She is perfection without ever veering too far into the crazy skid. She's not self-immolating like Judith Anderson or the only bright, yet undeniably unhinged, spot in a horrid production like Diana Rigg. She's simply perfection. Because the truth is Mrs. Danvers is a real human, not a caricature, and despite all her actions, they are rooted in her connection and love for Rebecca, no matter how obsessive that love was. I first fell in love with Anna Massey's acting when I watched He Knew He Was Right. This is a pitch perfect adaptation of Anthony Trollope's book that I love so much I even mentioned it to David Tennant that time I met him. Anna Massey stands in the way of a marriage but will break your heart when she relents to the match. After this I started searching out her work and realized I'd seen her for years in everything from Midsomer Murders to The Darling Buds of May. Yet it's the scene in Rebecca's bedroom when she shows it off to the second Mrs. de Winter that she will destroy you with her range. Going from triumph to boasting to melancholy all in the blink of an eye. Grief as restrained madness. Perfection! 

You'd think with all this superb talent that everyone is perfection in the cast. Well, you'd be wrong because there's Jack Favell... Jack is usually the character that is always gotten right even in the worst of productions. But here? Julian Holloway isn't Jack. Not. One. Bit. Jack is a slimy character, a smooth operator who has no moral compass and you could easily see as jumping into bed with his cousin. Therefore he needs to be equally repellent and alluring. Here he's just repellant. He's a "good old boy" who you'd expect to see wandering around the grounds in plus fours! Rebecca wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole! Oddly enough there's a modern equivalent acting today, Rory Kinnear. This Jack IS 100% like all the characters Rory Kinnear played for years. I have spent years bemoaning him being everywhere, especially in National Theatre Live productions. Two years ago I swear he was in every single production so I avoided that season like the plague. But for as much as I dislike him, annoying me to no end with his profuse body of work, he at least has range, and a few productions I actually liked him in. This proto-Kinnear? He has the range of a teaspoon.

There is one thing though, besides giving this version a proper release, that would easily upgrade it in my opinion, and that is if the music were fixed. The score of this adaptation is literally all over the place. At the beginning of the third part for about three minutes I thought they might have finally gotten it right and then it slid back into a mish-mash of styles. You will catch glimpses of Debussy, which might have occasionally worked, especially as it sounds like, according to my brother, that they might have been using "La Mer" which would be appropriate, but then as the happy couple approaches Manderely the music goes all old school cinema. You feel like you're watching an old reel where the dastardly villain is twirling his mustache while he ties the maiden to the tracks and waits for the train to arrive. I assume the train in this musicians mind is Mrs. Danvers, but who knows. It's almost comical in it's appearance. But for how much that music might have been too old school and inappropriate, don't worry, here are some synths thrown in to make it modern or to, I don't know, remind you it's the seventies despite the fact Rebecca doesn't take place in the seventies? Seriously, the music needs an overhaul.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Adaptation, Anna Massey, Daphne Du Maurier, Du Maurier December, Emilia Fox, He Knew He Was Right, Jeremy Brett, Joanna David, Midsomer Murders, Rebecca, Rory Kinnear, The Pallisers, Upstairs Downstairs