Reinventing Myself...Again.

Been thinking about this blog again (Yes, for over a month). I apologize for not giving further updates, especially considering my inactivity.

I've decided to reformat quite a few things, but all my renovations should be complete before the weekend is over. Stay tuned, for soon this baby will be back up and running.

Film: Glorious "Inglorious Basterds"

The Monocle Review (Pictured Left)

The Screaming,

Monocle, Fedora,

and Rubber Chicken

Review

(Pictured Right)

*****

First off, I want to apologize for the late update. I got caught up in a trip to Boston and the update managed to slip my mind.

Also, thank you for all the feedback you have given me. I am getting a lot of suggestions for books and movies, and I now have a fair list of titles I am preparing to review. Please continue to support the blog through your suggestions. Thank You.

*****

Synopsis:

“Inglorius Basterds” is a compilation of five intertwined stories. The first chapter begins with a French Jew named Shosanna being discovered, and then escaping from, a German SS Officer named Col. Hans Landa. The second chapter centers around Lt. Aldo Raine, an American officer who builds a commando team of eight Jewish American soldiers known as “The Basterds.” His unit travels around Germany hunting and killings Nazis. The third chapter returns to Shosanna, revolving around her life years later in the city where she is the owner of a movie theater trying to find another life. The fourth chapter returns to The Basterds where they are enlisted to take part in an operation to assassinate Hitler. The fifth and final chapter of the movie is when the plan to assassinate Hitler is enacting, which happens to be taking place at the theater which Shosanna owns.

*****

Plot:

In terms of a story, Shoshanna’s tale had much more substance than that of the titled Bastreds. It told the tale of a young woman struggling not only to survive, but to learn to live in an environment where she is perpetually surrounded by her oppressors, living in constant fear of discovery.

The Basterd’s story, unfortunately, could be summarized by, ‘Killing Nazis because they’re Nazis.” There was virtually no attempt made to add any deeper meaning to their fight other than simple entertainment through violence.

Characters:

The characters in this movie were almost exclusively one-dimensional. The face most of the characters wore upon their introduction and the face they kept at the end of the film were identical. The only character to even undergo a moderate change was Fredrick Zoeller, a German war hero who spent much of the movie pining after Shosanna, and even his was an abrupt, and change with no foreshadowing change rather than a legitimate development.

Visual / Audio Effects:

This was both a strong and weak suit of the movie. The graphic effects were convincing; although I cannot say they were altogether necessary. Much of the visual effects were of Nazis being brutally mutilated and massacred. Heads being scalped, scars being carved in bodies, and bullets entering flesh…all were shown in great detail

The music in the film was strong, catchy, and memorable. It was well composed and fit the scenes nicely. The soundtrack was one of my favorite aspects of this movie.

Overall:

Overall, there was not a lot of depth to this movie. One aspect I did highly enjoy, was that the dialogue of the movie was all spoken in the native language of the countries the movie took place in. Most of the film was spoken in either German or French – English was used quite sparingly outside of the parts featuring the Basterds. However, this was not alone to salvage the film, which was more concerned with action and being more historically inaccurate than “300” than it was with being a movie of any actual substance.

2 / 5 Stars

*****

Plot:

This movie is awesome. What’s it about? It’s about beating Nazis to death with a god-damn baseball bat, that’s what. It’s also about shooting Nazis, stabbing Nazis, burning Nazis, and blowing up Nazis. If there’s a way to kill a Nazi, they do it. It rocks.

Characters:

Lt. Raine is awesome. First off, whenever someone talks to him they say his title and military titles are badass. He is also the top-man in the Basterds; who are the ones who do the majority of the Nazi-killing in the movie. Hans Landa is probably the coolest Nazi you will ever see. He’s pretty much chill with everyone, and is clever as hell. If he weren’t a Nazi, he would toally be a badass.

Most of the characters in the movie are badasses, actually (except Hitler. He sucks.) But everyone pretty much does something awesome at some point.

Visual / Audio Effects:

This movie looked pretty good. There weren’t many explosions, or anything like that, but you got to see exactly how they killed all the Nazis. They also showed you when the Basterds were scalping the Nazis’ heads, and that was pretty cool.

The music was awesome. The main theme to the movie was catchy as hell – it was also one of those songs that will get stuck in your head; but you don’t mind that it’s stuck in your head. It’s awesome.

Overall:

This movie rocks. It’s got action, it’s hilarious (there are tons of jokes in this thing too,) and the ending is awesome. If you haven’t seen this, you should.

4.5 / 5 Stars

*****

ANSWER TO MONDAY QUESTION OF THE WEEK:

Q: How long before Octipus overthrow humans as the dominant species on earth?

“The Mayan apocalypse is undoubtedly going to be caused by an octopus god (Cthulu).” – Dan

“I thought banana slugs were the dominant species on earth.” – M

SATURDAY QUESTION OF THE WEEK:

What country do you think will be coming out of the Olympics with the most Gold medals?

What other movies do you want to see reviewed? Leave a comment and let me know!

Book: Reading "The Reader"

The Monocled Review

(Pictured Left)

The Screaming,

Monocle, Fedora

and Rubber Chicken Review

(Pictured Right)

*****

Sorry about the delay, here is the review of “The Reader.”

Next week is “Twilight” and after that no other books have been suggested: so remember to leave a comment!

*****

Synopsis:

“The Reader,” by Bernhard Schlink focuses on the life of Michael Berg, a fifteen year old boy from Germany. One day he meets Hanna Schmitz, a 34 year-old tram conductor. The two begin a sexual relationship which lasts for several months before Hanna suddenly disappears.

Life goes on for Michael, and years later he meets Hanna again; this time in a courtroom where Hanna is on trial for war crimes committed during World War II. As he watches the trial, Michael begins to gain a greater understanding of both Hanna’s and his own emotions and lives.

Plot:

The plot of this movie cannot be judged as much by what happens, but by how it happens and how it is handled by the characters. The back-cover synopsis sums up the total events of eighty percent of the plot quite nicely; but this story is about so much more than simply what happens.

The book is comprised of three parts. The first being Michael’s meeting with Hanna and their experiences together: Secret visits to Hanna’s house, a summer biking excursion, Michael looking for Hanna on the tram where she works… the book goes into great depth detailing the experiences which Michael and Hanna built their relationship on.

Characters:

The characters are what make this book, despite their only really being two: Michael and Hanna. All the other characters in the books are blatantly secondary and do not receive much development.

Michael is shy individual who is gradually changed through his experiences with Hanna. He is heavily dependant on others, often turning to them to tell him how he should act and live his life. He is constantly mulling over his emotions within himself; and throughout the book he is always trying to determine how he should feel about what is happening to him.

Hanna is a wonderful and mysterious character. Throughout the book, we are gradually given hints concerning her personality and how her mind works. We are never given too much information, and as a result Hanna holds the same mysterious air to us as she does to Michael.

Writing:

I loved the language in this book. All of the scenes were vividly painted with fluid language. The workings of Michael’s mind were clear: the writing was excellent in conveying Michael’s thoughts to me as a reader.

Compared to other pieces I have read, this book had very little dialogue; but the dialogue which was included was very good. The book was originally published in German, but all of the dialogue retained a very fluid feel even after translation.

Overall:

I loved this book. The writing was excellent throughout, and the characters were wonderfully developed. They were human: layered, flawed, and sympathetic. I recommend this book with a caveat: there are plausible interpretations to the story that would make it seem sympathetic towards the German internment and concentration camp guards of World War II. That being the case, if the camps are a personal subject to you, you may want to skip reading this book.

4 / 5 Stars

*****

Plot:

Not a whole lot really happens in this book. You got pretty much a montage of a relationship, a montage of a multi-week court case, and an epilogue. There was only, like, one or two twist in the entire book and for the primary one it was like, ‘Okay. And?’ You spend the book waiting for something to happen, but then nothing happens.

Characters:

Michael is great. He’s a total player, hitting on anything within sixty feet of him, and that’s only in part one. In the second part of the book he turns into the classical badass gentleman – the type of guy from the olden days who defined anything to do with giving into physical or mental discomfort as womanly.

Hanna was awesome: she didn’t take shit from ANYONE. Even when she was being accused of god damn war crimes, she was treating the accusations like a check-the-box restaurant survey. It was either ‘Yes, I did it,’ or ‘No, get off my case.’ No bullshit, just truth. Nice.

Writing:

This guy is kinda like Shakespeare in the ‘Why use three words when you can use twenty seven?’ train of thought. He would describe EVERYTHING in a scene, even things that really didn’t matter – like curtains. The book still moved pretty fast, but I could do without knowing the color and shape of every little object in the room.

Overall:

This book iffy. The characters were awesome, but everything else was slow and overinflated. It also kinda seemed like it was painting the Nazis as good guys. If you have a lot of free time on your hands, try this thing. If not, you aren’t missing much.

2 / 5 Stars

*****

ANSWERS TO SATURDAY QUESTION OF THE WEEK:

“I’m thinking the Colts will win 31-17.” -- Eric

And… that’s the only one we got.

MONDAY QUESTION OF THE WEEK:

Recently there has been proof that Octopi have learned to use coconut shells as tools for protection and hunting. The question is:

How long before the Octopus species develops further and overthrows humans as the dominant race on earth?

What other books do you want to see reviewed? Leave a comment and let me know!

Delayed Update

The update is going to be a little late today. I had a bit too much fun watching sports over the weekend, and shamefully didn’t finish the review by this morning.

The review will be up by 6 pm tonight, if not a little sooner. To tide you over, I've included a picture of a cymbal-monkey. Sorry about the delay, and thanks for your patience.

--David F. Ducey IV

Film: Trippin’ Over “The Lovely Bones”

The Monocle Review (Pictured Left)

The Screaming, Monocle,

Fedora, and Rubber Chicken

Review (Pictured Right)

*****

Thanks for the suggestions. See? I'm listening. The next book to be read will be “The Reader” by Benhard Schlink. After “The Reader” will be “Twilight” by Stephanie Meyer.

As for movies, I had a suggestion to review some of the Oscar Nominees. I couldn’t get my hands on any of them this week, but next week I will be starting that with “Inglorious Basterds”, followed by “District 9”, “The Hurt Locker”, and “The Blind Side.” That’s probably all I’ll have time for before the Oscars on March 7. After the Oscars, it will be back to other suggestions by you, or the AFI Top 100.

Thanks for the suggestions, and keep ‘em coming. Hope you enjoy the reviews.

*****

Synopsis:

Susie Salmon was an average fourteen year old girl. She went to school, got into arguments with her parents, and held crushes on guys…until she was murdered. “The Lovely Bones” centers around Susie’s ghost trying accept her death, and on the efforts of Susie’s family to find her killer.

Plot:

When critiquing the plot of this movie, I found it important to distinguish which plot I was reviewing. There was the one plot about Susie venturing through the after-life, trying to come to terms with leaving the world of the living. There was the plot of the father trying to hunt down Susie’s killer while still holding the family together. Finally, there was plot of the post-death romantic relationship of Susie and her crush. The qualities of the plots were fair, impressive, and poor, respectively. Susie’s afterlife seemed like an extended dream-sequence: completely surreal with imagery being tossed to and fro in an attempt to convey a deeper meaning. The plot of the father and the family was that of an average mystery. The final plot seemed to be there simply as an underdeveloped excuse to keep Susie occupied in her struggles with moving on. None of them meshed together successfully, and the resulting product gave the film a schizophrenic feel rather than a sophisticated one.

Characters:

The characters were the strong suit of this movie. All of them had depth beyond what was originally presented, and all of them (exempting the killer) changed over the course of the movie. Susie was a likeable character, albeit only because she saved her brother’s life in the very beginning of the movie. Her struggles were also realistic to those of a young girl, even in death. The father was my personal favorite. His struggle with accepting Susie’s death, and his slow spiral and gradual disconnect with logic and reason was one of the most interesting facets of the film. The killer was also an interesting character. The film does an excellent job of delving just far enough into his mind to understand him, but not far enough to bring us to sympathize with him. I enjoyed this, as I had a feel for who he was while keeping my sense of satisfaction when he received his inevitable karmic retribution.

Visual Effects / Audio:

The visual effects were impressive. Granted, they needed to be considering a good half of the movie took place entirely within a computer generated world of imagery and surrealism. All of Susie’s afterlife sequences were jammed full of special-effect enhanced metaphors. Personally, I think that it was overdone. A lot of the messages the film was trying to convey could have been communicated with much less complication. The audio was, unfortunately, entirely forgettable and left no lasting impression at all.

Overall:

While not a bad movie, I can’t say that “The Lovely Bones” was particularly good either. I wouldn’t suggest seeing this in theaters; but if you have some spare time on your hands once it comes out on video, I would say give it a look then,

3 / 5 Stars

Plot:

The movie was okay. In the beginning, there was a kick-ass car chase, but after that, things slowed down. A lot. It was mostly suspense after car scene. I normally don’t mind suspense, but this had absolutely no tension. There wasn’t anything thrilling about it. The suspense scenes were just the movie going, ‘I’m gonna do it! I’m gonna do it! I’m stillllll gonna do it. BOO! HA! I did it!’

Then again, tt wasn’t all bad that the movie was like that. There were a few scenes, such as Susie’s visit to an otherworldly bathroom, where I think they were trying to be dramatic, but came off as ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS instead. Kinda like Vader’s “NOOOOOOOOOO!” from Star Wars.

Characters:

A lot of the characters in this movie are annoying idiots. Susie is clingy whiner, the dad is an obsessive nutcase, and the killer is, well, a wack-minded psycho. None of them have an ounce of common sense, and the only reason the killer wasn’t found twenty minutes in was because everyone else was just as stupid as he was. The only person with a brain at all is Susie’s sister. By the way, she is also the only one who does anything productive when trying to find the killer.

Visual Effects/ Audio:

When I was watching this movie, half the time I didn’t know whether I was in a theater or on a drug trip. Seriously, trees were melting, beach balls were the size of random islands, and the environment changed more times than Brett Favre’s retired.

Overall:

This movie is pretty bad. There are maybe two or three cool parts in the entire thing, and I, personally, was happy when the main character died for good. Skip this one.

1.5 / 5 Stars

*****

SATURDAY QUESTION OF THE WEEK:

Who do you think is going to win the Super Bowl?

Best Answers (Read: Most Entertaining) to be posted along with next question.

What other films do you want to see reviewed? Leave a comment and let me know!

--David F. Ducey IV

No Refuge From Terri Blackstock’s “Cape Refuge”

Cape Refuge is a small town off the coast of Savannah, Georgia. Like most small towns, it is as close-knit and peaceful as a place can be – until the old couple in charge of the town’s halfway house is brutally murdered. The town, thrown into turmoil, searches desperately to find the killer while dealing with the emotional blow of losing two of its most beloved members.

Story:

The story starts fairly quickly. Shortly after you are introduced to the primary characters of the tale, the murder is discovered and a presumably innocent suspect is arrested. Unfortunately, the story stalls at that point for almost the entire rest of the book. The characters struggle with the loss of their loved ones for the entirety of this section, but not in a convincing fashion. By the time a little progression returns to the plot, you are over halfway through the book. Even then, the plot is so slow to move it is hard to notice any progression at all. The pace finally picks up at the very end of book, but that is long after any interest in the plot and story fades away.

This is a story about nothing. Early on, there is a murder, so you get all psyched up for a mystery story... but then nothing happens. And nothing continues to happen for the entire book. There was maybe one event worth reading per every fifteen chapters – and there are nearly 90 chapters in this thing.

Characters:

The characters are static and uninteresting. Once the murder happens, the rest of the book is spent exclusively in grieving. Their grief isn’t as much consistent as it is redundant. The same things are saddening them, and there really isn’t much depth to their anguish outside of the obvious. I was simply unconvinced that the characters had any sort of depth.

This book is full of idiots. I hated them all. The only guy I kinda liked was thrown in jail at the beginning of the book and never let out. Most of the characters were over-emotional morons with the common sense of a desk lamp.

Overall:

I can’t say I cared for this book. The plot progression was slow, and I found the characters to be uninteresting and unsympathetic. Throughout the book, there was also an extremely heavy-handed religious message – the book could be more likened to a sermon than a mystery. I don’t see myself reading anything else by this author.

2 / 5 Stars

This book is just not interesting. The only part which was interesting was the final climax like, eighty chapters in. Don’t bother with this one.

1 / 5 Stars

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What are some books you want to see reviewed? What do you think of my review format? Leave a comment and let me know!

Lawrence of Arabia: Badass in Classical Clothing

Story:

“Lawrence of Arabia” details the story of T.E Lawrence during World War I. Lawrence was a British officer, who while quite intelligent, was also unruly and unorthodox. He is sent to Arabia to find one Prince Feisal, and take account of his intentions in Arabia. Once Feisal is found however, Lawrence ends up leading the various and divided Arab tribes on an epic journey to fight, and ultimately drive out, the Turks from Arabia. Not only is it an excellent story-driven film, but it also an wonderful character study, delving deep into the intriguing character of T.E Lawrence as well as those who surrounded him during his campaign.

This movie is epic. When I was first checking this movie out, I was like, “Four hours? Damn, this is gonna take forever to watch.”

I was so, so wrong— it’s four straight hours of awesome; and when you watch it, it seems more like forty minutes. It’s about this British guy called Lawrence (who is a total badass, as I will elaborate on later) who goes and curb stomps the Turkish Army in Arabia because he feels like it. This movie has everything: motorcycles, air raids, firefights, explosions, machine guns, canons… it’s crazy.

Sound and Cinematography:

Both the sound and visuals of the film are absolutely astonishing. The soundtrack was fitting and memorable, and the wide, beautiful shots of the majestic Arabian deserts and cliffs were simply awe inspiring. Due to circumstances, I was unable to watch this film on the silver screen. However, with the scale of grandeur I felt even seeing this film on a small screen; I can scarcely imagine the magnitude of grandeur when seeing the movie in its intended format.

This movie was made in 1962. 196-freaking-2. You can not tell by the things you see on the screen. I was watching and thinking, “Damn, that’s some nice CGI.” Then I remembered that this was made in 1962, and that there was no CGI. Everything was real. I want movies to go back to filming in real environments. Screw making everything on a computer, I wanna see more scenery in movies that actually exists.

Characters:

Lawrence is one of the most deep and interesting characters in cinema history. Throughout the entire story, we are shown Lawrence’s struggles with both who he is and what he is doing. A peaceful man, Lawrence is thrust into an environment of death and harshness. Yet, Lawrence’s strength is astounding. Each challenge he is faced with he meets with starch determination and resolve. His turmoil of the exterior and of the self is brilliantly portrayed by his actor, Peter O’Toole, who gives us an excellent display of Lawrence’s struggle to decide whether to follow what he feels is right, or what he knows is best.

Lawrence is one of the biggest badasses in film history. This man is virtually immune to pain—actually, ‘immune’ isn’t the right word. He just doesn’t give a shit. According to Lawrence, the ‘trick’ to withstanding any kind of pain is “not minding that it hurts.” This guy puts out fires with his bare hands, is tortured without so much as a grimace, and even brushes off getting shot. Lawrences gets blown off the top of a train, and he just stands up and stares at the guy who shot him. Mind you, this is while the guy continues shooting and him, emptying an entire clip at Lawrence. And the entire time, Lawrence just stands there, staring at him, deflecting the bullets with an aura of sheer awesomeness. I don’t have space to get into all the other epic shit he did, but essentially; if someone said something was impossible, Lawrence just said ‘Screw you,’ and did it anyway.

Overall:

It is easy to see why this movie is considered one of the greatest of all time: an intriguing plot, phenomenal audio and visuals, and fantastic characters and performances. This movie stands the test of time, and remains one of the greatest pieces of film ever made.

5 / 5 Stars

This movie is epic. It’s long, but doesn’t seem long. There is a lot of talking and not a lot of doing in a couple of places, but they get done with that fast. The movie has got a ton of action and it has an epic badass. If you haven’t seen this movie, you should.

4.5 / 5 Stars

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What other movies would you like to see reviewed? Leave a comment and let me know!

Update and Schedule

Okay, so I’ve figured out a schedule, and now have a better idea of what I want to do with this blog. I will still be giving multi-viewed reviews, but I won’t be making sports updates anymore. I figure focusing on one item will make for a more interesting blog than trying to juggle a couple of ideas at once.


Movies: Update once a week; Saturday at Noon

The movies I’ll be reviewing will, hopefully, be chosen by you, the readers. I love movies, so I’ll watch and review essentially anything. Old movies, new movies, foreign movies – anything goes. So let me know what you want to see reviewed. Until you let me know what you to hear my opinions on, I’ll just be reviewing AFI’s Top 100, starting with “Lawrence of Arabia.”

Two parts to explaining the movie reviews. Because I know a lot of people couldn’t give two bike horns about older movies, on the first Saturday of each month I will review a movie currently in theaters. Two reasons for this: One, I am a college student and can’t afford to go to the movies more than once a month. Two, I still want to review old movies because a lot of them (like Casablanca) are completely and unexpectedly amazing. (I am serious. If you haven’t watched Casablanca since you were at least sixteen, watch it again. Virtually every character is a total badass.)


Books: Update once a week; Monday at Noon

I'll choose books to review much the same way I choose movies. The ones I review will be decided by you, the readers. Once again: new books, classics, ancient literature – everything is fair game so long as it’s a book (and I can get my hands on a copy.)

For books, I have a personal queue I have been meaning to read, so I’ll be working from that until you let me know what you want reviewed.


And, that’s that. See you on Saturday.

Remodeling

Hey, I have been thinking about how I have been running this blog, and decided I need to make a few changes. I am still working out the details at the moment, but I am hoping to post an update on what direction this blog is going to go by tomorrow morning or evening (depending on whether or not I wake up on schedule for class). Either way, I’ll have an update schedule to post then, so it won’t be a random gamble checking to see whether or not I’ve posted an update.

Even the new format will be experimental. If anyone has any advice, or comments about what they’d like to see, by all means leave a comment. I’d appreciate it.

Sports Around the Leagues

Hurray for behind schedule postings. This time on Ducey IV: Sports!

NFL Championship games were great. Indie’s comeback surprised me, and the Vikings-Saints OT nail-biter is one of the best games I’ve seen in recent memory. Though, I do wish that the Vikings had played better than they did. It’s hard to take the Saint’s seriously as one of the Super Bowl participants when they barely won even with +4 turnover margin. There was also the major miss-call earlier in the game that gave the Saints a touchdown they had fallen short of. I personally think that Vikings – Colts would have been a more interesting Super Bowl match-up. But hey, the Saints are still a good team and it should be a good game. Also, at least now the seven Vikings players who might have had to sit out of the Pro Bowl for fear of injury can get in there. Maybe the Pro Bowl will be worth watching this year after all.

Fun Fact: Brett Favre’s last pass as an Atlanta Falcon was an interception. His last pass as a Green Bay Packer was an interception. His last pass as a New York Jet was an interception. And, if he decides to retire this year (again), his last pass as a Minnesota Viking will be an interception.

Caps are still hot; won 4-2 over the Coyotes on Saturday, extending their win streak to five. I am glad we got a two day break between the Coyotes and Islanders – we had been playing every other day for almost two weeks. We get a couple more two-day breaks until our final three games (two back to back, all on the road) and the Olympic Break.

In Baseball news – Yes, baseball; it’s our national pastime and Spring Training games are only a month away. As I was saying, in baseball news, it looks like the O’s came to an agreement and managed to get Miguel Tejada off the Free Agent market. Both sides have reportedly agreed to terms, and now the deal just needs to be finalized. I am pumped about this. Tejada is an amazing player, and we needed a strong anchor like him on one of our corners. This is gonna be a great year.

Book Review -- "Exposure: A Novel" by Brandilyn Collins

Synopsis:

Kaycee Raye is single woman with an incredible fear of, essentially, everything. All her life she has dealt with almost crippling phobias and paranoia. To Kaycee, there is always the possibility that someone is hiding in the shadows, watching her and waiting for a chance to attack. To cope with her fears, Kaycee writes a newspaper column where she discusses fears; both her own and fears her readers send into her. Kaycee has her world rocked when she returns home one day to find a camera sitting in her kitchen; on it, the picture of a dead man. Kaycee is forced to deal with her worst fear head on, all the while struggling to find out if the photo and her fear of being watched are real, or if she is losing her grip on reality…


Story:

“Exposure” is a simply intriguing tale of mystery and suspense. The story squanders no time initiating the conflict of the protagonist, and the story’s pace does not slacken in the slightest from that point forward. “Exposure” quickly introduces another storyline in the earliest part of the book; this one concerning a young man, and his struggle to support his unprosperous family of a young wife and a four year-old daughter.

The story is an exhilarating adventure of suspense and mystery, filled with serpentine cosa nostra, enigmatic abductions, and the arduous inner conflict of a woman trying to come to terms with not only her own fears, but attempting to unveil what it means to be afraid.

This book is awesome. Right out of the gate: BAM! Picture of a dead guy. End of Chapter 1. Damn, shit just got real. You wanna know what’s going on! But then zoom, you got this other guy. He’s a money-counter or something in a bank which just closed. Slowed down, right? Wrong. Bunch of guys with automatics just bust in right out of nowhere and rob the bank – AND it turns out they are from the mafia. Holy shit. It just goes back and forth between mafia bank robbers and a woman trying to catch a guy who won’t stop sending her this picture of a guy who was capped in the face. Then, here’s the great part, it all comes together in the end! You never see it coming. You’re just there reading, the book is being awesome, the stories get connected, and you are just like OH SNAP THAT JUST HAPPENED.

This entire thing is just awesome. You got the mafia, you got a psychotic killer, you got action scenes (Since it’s suspense, imagine all the action. It’s the same, only the bad guy is freaking invisible. Intense).


Characters:

The characters are deep and layered. No one is simply as they appear. Each person has their own past, their own life, and their own motivations. Of course, like all humans, none of them are flawless.

Kaycee is a truly interesting individual. Throughout the story, she attempts to cope with her fears, thinking back to a uneasy childhood with her mother and how that relationship shaped who she was. She grapples with her fears and her current relationships, striving to discover who she is as a person.

Martin Giordano, the primary protagonist of the robbery storyline is a proud individual, concerned first and foremost with the security and happiness of his family. His dearest wish is for his daughter, Tammy, to get well. He is an emotional character, full of love, as well as strife over what society dictates to be right, and what he knows is right for his family. Martin is a noble example of how far a father is willing to go for the sake of his family.

The secondary characters are intriguing as well: Mark, the well-meaning policeman who gives faith to Kaycee’s tale; Lorraine, Martin’s wife who fights a newly grown distrust of her husband; Hannah, a young girl very dead to Kaycee due to being estranged from her family and step-mother; and Nico, the Mafioso responsible for the bank robbery, and everything which must happen after.

For someone being stalked, Kaycee keeps her cool damn well. She’s damn smart too. As soon as she saw the picture of that dead guy, WOOSH – she was outta that house in a second. A lot of people probably woulda been stupid and stuck around, looked through the rooms, then followed a ‘strange noise’ they heard in the attic. Not Kaycee. She went straight to the police, told them to give her some damn help. She’s got serious guts – even though she’s got a creeper on her, she keeps her cool and goes on about her business.

Martin is all cool. When the bank’s getting robbed, he is just like, ‘Whatever, man. Tell me when you done, I don’t wanna be here late tonight.’ He’s even claustrophobic, so they toss him and his coworkers into the vault. But he stays cool – doesn’t give them the satisfaction. He also stays chill so his friends don’t panic. A true Bro.

It ain’t just the main guys who are awesome, either. Everybody is. You got Mark, a cop who’s always got Kaycee’s back. You got Lorraine, who works a job AND raises a kid at the same time (Respect). You got Hannah, whose family kept giving her shit, so she just up and left at eleven at fucking night (she’s nine by the way). Then you got Nico, who worked up the mob ladder from scratch to get where he is, and has still gotta to prove himself to his boss who hates him for being too awesome.


Overall:

This was a delightful read. The twisting plot, as well as the real and easy to relate to characters, kept me hooked from start to finish. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys suspense or thrillers. Even if you don’t know whether you like suspense and thrillers or not, I would still suggest this novel. I find it to be an excellent example of what an exquisite suspense story should be. 4.5 / 5 Stars.

This book was awesome. Whenever I had time, I was reading this thing. The chapters are nice and short, so even if you’re busy, you can still read this in small chunks. Give it a read, it’s great. 4.5 / 5 Stars.

Random Tidbits

Bit of awesomeness there to start us off. Yeah, yeah; it might be fake – still awesome though.

I’ve started to use stumbleupon.com recently. It is great and the second-most potent time sink I have ever had the terrible pleasure of falling into. Essentially, it’s a site which asks you what you are interested in, and then throws you to a random page on the internet relevant to one of those interests. So far everything I have come across has been SFW, so no need t worry there. I love the thing, massively entertaining and a great way to spend a few minutes hours.

Caps game tonight -- taking on the Red Wings. They aren’t doing that well in the standings, but they are still the freaking Red Wings. Theo has been playing a lot recently, so I think he might get the night off despite how dominant he has been. It’ll be interesting to see if Neuvirth does get the start over Theo, and if he does, if he can rebound from the Tampa Bay game. Outside of Goalie we are pretty healthy, though; I am looking forward to a good game.

UPDATE: Whoo! Caps win it 3-2. Theo got slotted in rather than Neuvirth, and he was god-like. Allowing only two goals on forty-six shots, hot damn. Offense wasn't on fire, but they were efficient enough to win. Nice game.

Anyway, to close things out: Today is Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday. So to celebrate, go read The Raven or anything else that Poe wrote. You know you want to.

Dashingly Dynamic David Ducey's Dismounting...Into Blogging.

Hey all, my name is David Ducey. To be more specific, my name is David F. Ducey IV. I am currently a Professional Writing major at Champlain College in Burlington, VT. Been looking at blogging for awhile now, but never really thought to start one of my own. Full name of this blog was gonna be, "Ducey's Deuce Dissertations and Discourses," but I decided it was too long and decided to go for something catchier.

A lot of this blog will be me writing whatever strikes my fancy on any given day. I plan to do reviews: movie, video game, and pretty much any media I encounter and feel like reviewing; I also plan to write short stories and a little bit of poetry and throw that up as well. I am also gonna be putting up a few sports postings, when they are relevant.

Now, you are probably wondering what makes my blog any different than any other of the millions floating around cyberspace. I am gonna tell you now. All my blogs have two opinions: one a critical and intellectual examination of the subject -- an opinion backed by facts and careful analyzing. The other opinion is how atomically charged, flamethrower-strapped-to-a-monster-truck, granite shatteringly AWESOME something is.

I've always been under the impression that critics take things too seriously. But, being a writer, I also like to know why I like the things I like, why the classics are considered classics, and how I can learn from that to get filthy stinking rich one day elevate my own work. So, I do both -- analyze and receive mindless entertainment.

Well, that's what this blog is gonna be about in a nutshell. I am gonna have a lot of fun writing this thing, and I hope you viewers have a fun time reading it.

--David Ducey