Fear Street Mini-Reviews: The New Girl, All-Night Party, and Killer's Kiss by R.L. Stine

Nostalgia re-reads! I read every single Fear Street book I could get my hands on as a kid and I'm rereading them to see how they hold up over time.

* The New Girl by R.L. Stine

Gymnast Cory falls for Anna without knowing anything about her. He loses interest in everything but her and she isn't who she seems. This is the very first Fear Street novel and it shows. Cory is an absolute idiot, throwing everything in his life away for a random girl he sees a few glimpses of. He has no idea that his best friend Lisa has a crush on him no matter how overt her feelings. The book is choppily written and doesn't have a lot of connective tissue. The only really interesting parts have Cory escaping a house out of a tree with his gymnast skills and visiting the very spooky Fear Street with its abandoned mansion and eerie residents. The ending ties up a little too neatly and the whole thing is a bit forgettable.

My rating: 1.5/5 fishmuffins

* All-Night Party by R.L. Stine

It's Cindy's birthday so naturally her friends kidnap her and take her to Fear Island for an all night party. Cindy is killed during the night. Was it one of her friends, her boyfriend, or the escaped convict? This is #43 in the series. The writing feels more fluid and the story more complete. This is a nice intro to murder mysteries. Most of the characters have some sort of motive and plenty had the opportunity. We follow Gretchen as she works to figure out who killed her best friend on a remote island with no phones and pre-internet. The characters feel a bit like paper dolls and not real teens, but it's so much better than The New Girl. The dialogue in particular feels unnatural. The ending is clever and unexpected with suspicion cast on many. I didn't predict who it was in the end and that impressed me.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins

* Killer's Kiss by R.L. Stine

Delia and Karina compete over everything from a prestigious art scholarship to their unknowingly shared boyfriend Vincent. Delia is terrorized with worse and worse instances of destroying her work or physical attacks, making everyone suspect Karina. The escalating harassment and attacks get pretty scary for a teen book of this era. I don't like Vincent at all, who works to keep both girls in the dark about his relationship with the other, and I wonder why these two talented girls bother with him at all. It all seems so misogynistic like girls have nothing better to do but fight over trivial things. This type of relationship between girls is seen in almost all the Fear Street books I've reread. I guess it's a sign of when it was written, but it's disappointing nonetheless. I remember Killer's Kiss being a favorite of mine as a kid because of the crazy twist at the end which seems more obvious reading as an adult and the ending monologue out of nowhere seems a bit bizarre. 

My rating: 2.5/5 fishmuffins

I'll be covering a few more and hope the supernatural stories are a bit better. With the Netflix movies, people are charging kind of a lot for second hand copies, so special thanks to the LA County Library system for having all of these on Libby to borrow. Kindle Unlimited also has a few Fear Street titles. 

Yes, Daddy by Jonathan Parks-Ramage

* spoilers *

Jonah Keller is struggling to make it in New York with very little money or prospects for more than minimum wage pay. He dreams to be a playwright, but has no connections to the industry. His grand plan is to spend money on an exorbitantly expensive outfit and seduce rich, powerful, and successful playwright Richard Shriver. The plan works and after a little while, Jonah is invited to Richard's luxurious commune with other writers and artists. This should be his in to a career and being mentored by titans of the industry, but things don't turn out as planned.

Yes, Daddy starts out a bit like Joe from Caroline Klepnes' You with shallow, selfish Jonah essentially cyberstalking Richard Shriver and writing out topics for future conversations. He selfishly expects his mother to fund his expenses while he uses his own money to appear rich and ensnare his prey. I found him pretty insufferable, but intrigued at where the story was going. The romance goes as one would expect: instant connection and attraction with some ups and downs. 

The meat of the story comes in when they go to Richard's artist commune together. It's not all relaxing and extravagant dinners. At first, Richard's friends are hard to please and enjoy making Jonah feel like an outsider. Then, red flags start to present themselves with missing people, knowing references, and  The gothic novel element comes in with half remembered assaults and blackouts caused by excessive drinking and drugs in Richard's commune where he has complete control over everyone and everything. All the others act like everything is normal, but Jonah knows he's being gaslit even if he can't remember everything. This part of the novel is extremely well done, revealing Jonah's evangelical past and showing the dark underbelly of Richard's commune.

The book falls flat in the ending where Jonah finds solace in religion once again after being abused in both the evangelical church of his childhood and in another church after he escapes Richard's commune. It felt like a bait and switch and didn't really make sense to me after he had so many negative experiences with various branches of Christianity. Besides the ending, Yes, Daddy is a compelling twist on the gothic novel that kept my interest through every twist and turn.

My rating: 3.5/5 fishmuffins 

Horror Movie Mini-Reviews: The Bad Seed (2018) and Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

* The Bad Seed (2018)

David Grossman is a single father living with his seemingly perfect daughter Emma. When a boy is awarded a citizenship medal over her, that boy is found drowned. As the body count piles up, Emma has to figure out how to keep her involvement a secret and keep seeming innocent to her dad.

When I heard there would be a Lifetime remake of The Bad Seed, I automatically assumed it would be terrible. I settled in to watch and I was pleasantly surprised. It's been updated and changed enough from the original story to seem fresh without retreading too much of the same territory. Emma is almost the polar opposite of Rhoda: dark haired, prone to wearing red, and only stays sweet as long as it benefits her. She breaks her facade the minute she's out of sight and honestly isn't very good at murdering people because it only creates compounded problems. This makes sense for a fairly sheltered, privileged child and it's equally plausible that police wouldn't look too closely when an innocent child is involved. She kills people who threaten her, have things she wants, or express too much interest in her dad.

Other characters are well done. Chloe, Emma's babysitter, is interested in David and knows what type of person Emma is. Her only mistake is underestimating Emma. Rob Lowe is a sympathetic, but oblivious David. The cinematography is actually really beautiful and many scenes take place outside, the complete opposite of the claustrophobia of the original. The only drawbacks of the film are the painful looking CGI and the ending. Overall, The Bad Seed remake takes a completely different take on the story and sets itself apart. The original is of course vastly superior, but this was a fun watch.

My rating: 3/5

* Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

In 1970. a group of seven strangers stay at the deserted El Royale Hotel, which straddles Nevada and California. Each of them has hidden secrets that will come out during the course of the night. I was pleasantly surprised by this film. I was expecting a much darker thriller or horror film. It turned out to be more of a character study with lots of flashbacks to fill in backstory. This cut down a lot of the tension and inturrupted the flow of the film. On the other hand, I loved that each character was fleshed out and felt real.

The best characters are David Flynn, Darlene Sweet, and Billy Lee. Jeff Bridges plays David Flynn, a thief posing as a priest. He has Alzheimer's and has trouble remembering anything sometimes. Bridges truly portrayed the pain and confusion of not remembering his own name at one point. Darlene is a Motown singer, who isn't very famous because of the whims of powerful white men in her industry. I loved her fire and defiance in the face of almost certain death because she's seen similar men and knows what makes them tic. Billy Lee is a cult leader, similar to Charles Manson. Chris Hemsworth pulls off the role with his usual affable attitude with a dark, manipulative underbelly that rears its ugly head especially when he feels challenged.

Bad Times at the El Royale gave each character a fully fleshed out backstory and development. The plot itself is twisty, dark, and violent with a cult, a mysterious blackmail organization, and seven strangers with their own ulterior motives. My favorite part was Billy Lee and his cult because it brought a crazy element in about halfway through the film that I didn't expect. This film is definitely worth your time.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Searching (2018)

David Kim goes about his daily life, not thinking anything is wrong. He checks in with his daughter Margot to shame her for not taking out the trash and see where she's going to be, then goes to sleep like any normal day. When he wakes up, the trash is still not done and she doesn't pick up her phone all day. After some misdirections and 36 hours go by, David discovers that Margot is missing. Detective Rosemary Vick is assigned to his case and he helps the investigation by questioning all of her Facebook friends and finding out when they last saw her and their alibis. He throws himself into the work, hoping that she will be found alive.

Searching takes the Unfriended format of the computer screen as the only view and takes it into the more restrained thriller genre. The beginning is brilliant. It shows the parents' computer home screens from Windows XP and scrolls through videos, photos, emails, and calendars to show Margot being born, growing up, David's wife Pamela being diagnosed with cancer, the family bonding together and working out with her to get healthy, and her remission. When Margot is in middle school, the cancer comes back and doesn't go away. The way it's shown is in videos and photos from Pamela's hospital room and in the calendar. Her coming home date moves forward a month and then gets deleted, which was surprisingly heartwrenching. Without any narration, the story of this family is told to inform what's going on as the story moves forward.

John Cho as David Kim shows every emotion a parent would if their child was missing. He's indignant if anyone implies anything negative about Margot. He repeatedly insists that he knew her (when he clearly didn't) and tries to make amends by doing absolutely anything he can to help the investigation. He calls people, talks to them on Facetime, and even plants some cameras when he thinks he's got the perpetrator. His desperation is palpable and he clearly deteriorates as the film goes on due to sleep deprivation and emotional distress. Debra Messing is equally good as Rosemary Vick. She keeps her cool as a police officer and seems very professional in how she goes about the investigation. The only subpar acting was Rosemary's son Robert. He's supposed to have some sort of special need, but I initially thought he was just intimidated by his overbearing mom who is always whisking him out of the room or yelling at him. I assumed that was the intent, but the acting didn't really convey that.

David's journey changes drastically as more and more time passes. Everyone he interviews seems pretty unconcerned, kind of over the whole situation, and awkward. No one seems to be close to her. She eats lunch alone every day and no one seems to anything about what's going on with her. When she's officially missing and the case goes public, those same people completely change. Suddenly, everyone is praying for her and clutching their pearls when they had already heard about it. The same teens who couldn't tell her from anyone else are making videos crying crocodile tears for likes and views or making incredibly insensitive jokes about the situation. This is a fairly minor part of the story, but it rang so true to me.

The clues for the mystery are carefully plotted out. Seemingly insignificant details have greater significance later in the film or if you have an eagle eye. I caught some details early in, but I was lulled into thinking it was insignificant since it didn't come up again until the end. There are still red herrings, secret conversations, insensitive commenters online, and a variety of other misdirections. The rift with his daughter and her odd behavior really boils down to not being able to process or talk about her mother's death with the only person who would understand. David never mentions her, maybe to spare Margot from pain, but it proves to build a wall between them instead. She chooses to cope on her own, sometimes in unhealthy ways, and isolating herself from everyone in her life. Having this as the base of the film really grounded it and made the stakes mean something.

Searching is a thriller with a heartfelt squishy center. The ending surprised me, especially when there was a sort of false ending where I thought "this ending sucks!" until more information came to light. I don't feel the need to spoil it since it's not ambiguous or anything, but it's definitely satisfying without being completely fantastical. I want to see this movie again to catch the tiny details that I missed the first time.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

Jule West-Williams is running from something. She affects a British accent, wears wigs, steals passports, and pays for everything with cash. Jule seems pretty comfortable staying at a Mexican resort until a woman strikes up a conversation. Suddenly, that woman (who turns out to be a cop) is following her even when she thought she was stealthy. What is she running from and who is chasing her?

Genuine Fraud is one of the most unique teen thrillers that I've read. So many fall into the same tropes (a teen having an affair with a teacher, a love triangle, a new friend to be jealous of, etc etc.) that they blend together in my mind. This one doesn't fall into any of those tropes and stands apart from those thrillers. The book is told backwards. It took a bit to get used to and figure out what was happening in what order. I spent way too long looking at the dates trying to figure out the pattern, which is that each chapter backs up one month. Once I got it, the story flowed more freely for me.

Jule is a bit of an enigma for most of the book. She imagines herself as a bad ass secret agent, but we don't know her situation until the end. Her view is completely clouded by her fantasies, making her narrative completely unreliable. My view of her changed as the novel traveled backwards in time. At the beginning of the novel, Jule seems to be some sort of heiress with unlimited funds for resorts, luxuries, disguises, and payoffs. Then the police are following her and my mind races with possibilities. Her true origin is much less glamorous. I love how the story reveals the mystery, introduces characters, and uncovers twists and turns bit by bit.

Genuine Fraud is a surprising book that seems more adult than its YA marketing. The cover makes it seem like some sort of fluffy contemporary romance. Everyone involved is college age and I think it might have been better received as an adult thriller. There's a missing heiress, her jealous boyfriend, and Jule somehow fitting into it all. As thrillers go, this one surprised me and kept me guessing all the way to the end. It's a short book that only took me a day to read and it's definitely worth your time.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins 

Friend Request by Laura Marshall

In 1989, Louise had the choice between a real friendship or a hollow friendship with acceptance to the cool crowd. She chose the cool crowd and succeeded in making Maria's life hell with cruel pranks. In 2016, Louise is a divorced single mother who works as an independent interior designer and dotes on her son. One day, she receives a friend request from Maria, who has been missing since prom night 1989 and is presumed dead. Threatening messages follow and Louise has to confront her uncomfortable past and the people from it to find out what actually happened to Maria.

Friend Request is a thriller novel about the past coming back to haunt wrongdoers. Louise is pretty insufferable and spends most of her time bemoaning her teenage mistakes and mooning over her ex-husband who replaced her with a younger woman. Right from the beginning, their relationship was creepy because she said they were everything to each other and didn't bother having any friends. The way she spoke, he seemed to tell her (maybe in not so many words) that no one would want her if they knew what she did. She keeps saying how she's changed, but then goes back to those old bad habits and clearly hasn't. Her penchant for lying to police over and over after someone died is really frustrating and does nothing at all to help her.

The novel is told in chapters from 2016 and from 1989, so we get to see first hand just how Louise was as a teenager. I fundamentally don't understand her as she oscillates for real friends and fake popular friends. It's abundantly clear that Sophie, queen bee, only wants Louise as a "friend" to do her dirty work, to make fun of, and to make herself feel better. Maria wanted to be her real friend and support each other, but then Louise would be the target of those same pranks. Maria also had rumors about her swirling around her about what happened at her old school and that she was promiscuous even though she was harassed by a stalker. Louise gets more and more entrenched in the popular crowd until she commits an unforgiveable act.

Friend Request is a frustrating book with a horrible main character. She never seemed to act in her own best interests. I kept reading to find out what the horrible act was in her past and see what other secrets would be revealed. The ending wasn't suprising. I'm surprised I read the whole book and Laura Marshall's next book has to be incredibly intriguing for me to pick it up after this one.

My rating: 1/5 fishmuffins

The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas

Five years ago, five cheerleaders died: two in a car accident, two in a random murder, and one by suicide. The city of Sunnybrook was devastated and the cheerleading team was disbanded permanently. In the present, Monica becomes obsessed with her sister's suicide nearing the anniversary. She finds her sister's cell phone in her stepdad's desk. By itself, it isn't too suspicious, but he was also the first officer on the car accident scene and the officer who killed the supposed murderer. Is there more to these deaths than just random coincidence? Can Monica find out who killed all these girls?

The Cheerleaders is a teen thriller of a teenage girl going through a lot all at once. Monica had an abortion right before the beginning of the book and she's still cramping and bleeding afterwards. She pushes through it to try out for the dance team and is in agony. No one seems to know but her mom whose only response is that she wants Monica to learn something from it. Abortion isn't said in so many words (even though I wish it were), but it's heavily implied. I wish Thomas would have just said it if she is going to tackle the subject matter. On top of this, it's coming up to the 5th anniversary of her sister's death. Monica decides to delve into the deaths because some things just don't add up.

Monica delves into her sister Jen's life and finds out things she never knew while gathering a list of suspects. Jen's life wasn't as perfect as it seemed and she was going through a bit of a crisis. Her friends are changing, sniping at each other, and finding other interests (some of them illegal). Chapters from Jen's perspective are placed intermittently through the novel, showing what happened from her perspective. Mirroring her sister, Monica makes a new friend scorned by the school and all but abandons her own friends. As she gets more and more entrenched in this investigation, Monica gets into more and more trouble, sneaking around, lying, and hurting those around her. She can see the damage she's doing, but is still compelled to go forward. I felt for her and understood her motivation even if I disagreed with her actions.

The Cheerleaders is the best of all the thrillers I've been reading lately. The only flaw was how everything is tied up in the end. The last scene shows something that was never revealed during the rest of the book. It was an interesting reveal that told more about a character, but it was hamfistedly tacked on to the end. It's fine to have some loose ends. Real life has cold cases and unsolved mysteries all the time. Or integrate it into the story more organically. Other than that, I enjoyed the mystery and the twists and turns of the story.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Little Monsters by Kara Thomas

Kacey is new to the small town of Broken Falls. She moved there with a family she barely knows after living with her mother and her endless stream of boyfriends, getting fed up with their explosive relationship, and running away. Now, she has two best friends in Bailey and Jade, but they want to do things like sneak out at night when she would rather enjoy being with her fairly even tempered, loving family. Then Bailey doesn't make it home after a party and no one seems to know what happened to her. Kacey dives head first into her own investigation to find out what really happened to Bailey.

Little Monsters is a teen mystery thriller centered a disappearance. Of course, rumors swirl around what happened due to the bloody discovery at a historic crime site linked to an urban legend and the sordid reputation Bailey had. Bailey was blamed for a football star Cliff drinking, driving, and losing his scholarship because she was in the car with him. Never mind that he drank and drove of his own volition and had a way more promiscuous reputation than Bailey. The whole school turned against her after that and it's completely ridiculous. It shows how if you're a football star and a guy, you can basically do no wrong in people's eyes and if you're a girl, making out with one guy means you're a degenerate slut. This difference of perception and Kacey are what set this book apart from a lot of the other teen thrillers I've been reading lately.

Kacey isn't perfect, but she tries to be. When she lived with her mom, she was prone to fits of rage, blackouts, and physical fights with her mom. Now, she has an overly goody goody facade to hide who she used to be and consistently lies to people about her past. She kept feeling that she was evil or something was wrong with her for being so violent and angry. This rang true because girls are expected to express anger in much different ways than boys and then she went to the other extreme end of the spectrum to counteract it. Even though her father is distant, she's gotten to know her stepsiblings and stepmom much better and is starting to feel like she belongs. Bailey's disappearance and her own investigation land her in trouble over and over, almost like history is repeating itself. Kacey can't just let it go when the police seem to ignore things right in front of their faces. I felt for Kacey and her need for a fresh start. I understood her feelings of self loathing and need to conform to perfection.

Little Monsters is kind of like Sharp Objects for a teen audience. The mystery is well constructed and at the end, it's shown that seemingly insignificant details were much more important. I didn't see the ending coming and it blew my mind a little when everything was revealed. The story did have some flaws. I would have liked Kacey's temper and blackouts to be established earlier. It seemed to be shoehorned in when Thomas wanted us to suspect her. I also wish she didn't lie to the police so much since it only served to muddy the investigation instead of helping in any way. Other than that, the story was enjoyable and surprisingly dark. It replicated that feeling when your gut feels like it's falling and suddenly everything you know is wrong.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Unsane (2018)

Sawyer Valentini was stalked by a man named David in her hometown. To escape, she uprooted her whole life and moved to a city where she doesn't know anyone. She excels at her job, but isolates herself and avoids her coworkers. Sawyer's release is therapy where she feels free to vent about her woes. She's honest about some past suicidal thoughts and signs a contract without reading it on her next appointment. The contract was actually her voluntarily committing to a 24 hour hold at Highland Creek Behavioral Center. Sawyer has no recourse to leave and is forced to stay as long as the people who run the center see fit. Then she sees David, but no one takes her seriously. Is David actually there or is it a hallucination due to the trauma she has experienced?

Unsane is a psychological thriller centered around a traumatized woman. We never experience what Sawyer did when she was being stalked, but we see how carefully she stays away from people and how she's still looking over her shoulder. Every so often, she'll see a similar looking man and panics, transported back to probably one of many traumatic events. When she goes to therapy, she expects a safe place to talk about all this and only finds exploitation and manipulation. This aspect of the film is a commentary on our health industry motivated by profits rather than actually helping or healing people. Sawyer tries to do what she can to move on and protect herself, but the trauma obviously affects her more than she admits to others.

While I like parts of the film, especially how the back and forth between if an attendant in the hospital is her stalker or not, Sawyer is a frustrating character that rarely acts in her own best interests. It's overwhelming to be imprisoned essentially against your will, but never sign something without reading it first. Right after that, she tries to call the police (which obviously doesn't work) and then becomes more and more violent, giving the authorities more fairly legitimate reasons to keep her even longer than the 24 hours required. This behavior continues for days afterwards and leaves her further and further from freedom. Sawyer also treated others like they were beneath her consistently through the film perhaps to keep that distance and protect herself, but the result was offputting.

This movie that was entirely filmed on an iPhone 7. For most of the film, I wouldn't even have noticed, but some of the shots later in the film didn't look grainy and out of focus. The shots inside the asylum weren't affected and the method contributed to the claustrophobic atmosphere. I think it's an innovative way to show other filmmakers that they don't need expensive equipment to make a film. On the other hand, the low budget approach led to some very bad acting on the part of the side characters. The main three actors stood out while the others paled in comparison. Stephen Soderbergh is not an indie director and the success of the film was more due to his name and the number of screens it played on.

Unsane is a bit frustrating to watch, but I still feel for Sawyer as she fights through. The ending goes places I didn't expect and shows that with this capitalistic, corrupt health system, people are expected to go on with their lives and act normally even if they are still living with trauma, PTSD, and/or anxiety. It's a well made film for the budget with a few good performances. It's worth your time, but nothing spectacular.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins

Upgrade (2018)

Grey Trace rebuilds old, analog cars and sells them to the very rich and his wife Asha works for Cobalt, a technology company. One day, he asks for her help to transport a car to a rich client, who happens to be the head of the company Vessel that rivals Cobalt. On the way back, their self driving car goes berzerk and crashes in the middle of an impoverished area. They escape the crash injured, but a gang of illegally augmented men kill Asha and paralyze Grey. The loss of his mobility and his wife puts him in a depression. When the head of Vessel offers an experimental augmentation called STEM that acts as another brain and will allow him mobility once again, Grey agrees when he realizes he has the chance for revenge.

Upgrade is a bit of a rollercoaster to watch. It starts off as many action films do, establishing our main hero, Grey, and his loving, perfect wife Asha. He enjoys working with his hands and doesn't use much of the fashionable technology (that includes implants in the body) that does everything for you. She is the opposite and works at a company called Cobalt that specializes in technological human augmentations. The world is futuristic enough to have some unfamiliar technology, but includes things we recognize like self driving cars and smart houses. Their marriage is adorable. They don't agree about some things, but they seem to be fine with that. Of course, this makes it all the more tragic when Asha is murdered and Grey is paralyzed from the neck down. This part of the film annoyed me as it's a tired trope that makes the woman a prop and the man so tortured and justified in his revenge. Grey becomes depressed, attempts suicide, and doesn't see the point of living until the head of Vessel offers him illegal technology to gain his mobility back.

This is where the film vastly improves. Grey has to pretend to be paralyzed when he isn't going out at night to find and kill the people who killed his wife. The varieties of technological enhancements is impressive, ranging from guns imbedded in arms to visual enhancements. Grey's puts them all to shame. The fight scenes show that he is essentially a puppet in all of this and have an efficient, mechanical style. He moves in ways no human should be able to and the camera follows him to give it an uncanny air. Grey himself is running around aimless trying to follow each clue while dodging criminals and police alike. STEM guides him and talks to him throughout his messy journey. He also doesn't have the stomach for torture or killing, opting to let STEM control his body while he closes his eyes and turns away. The ending smacked me in the face. I expected the typical ending of a hero victorious, but the trope is turned on its head. I should have seen it, but I was lulled into a sense of security by their use of tired tropes. This changed my perception of the whole film and I want to watch it again to catch all the clues.

I wasn't expecting a lot from Upgrade and the beginning met my expectations. The rest of the film exceeded them and surprised me. Logan Marshall-Green, who looks uncannily like Tom Hardy, keeps Grey sympathetic even when he's smashing faces and breaking arms. Harrison Gilbertson as Eron Keen, the head of Vessel, was the weak link acting-wise. It's as if he was trying to act as if he had autism or just bad social skills, but it came off horribly. Other than that, Upgrade is a fun sci-fi thriller that keeps you guessing.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

A Line in the Dark by Malinda Lo

Jess Wong and Angie Redmond are best friends, but Jess wants more from their relationship. Afraid of ruining their friendship, Jess hasn't said anything. Then Angie meets someone, a girl named Margot who steals from the cafe Angie works at while flirting with her. The situation instantly makes Jess hate Margot and creates a rift between best friends when Angie starts to date Margot. As Angie is drawn more and more into Margot's circle, Margot's best friend Ryan disappears and no one seems to know what happened.

A Line in the Dark is a dark contemporary teen novel that accurately shows the growing pains of friendship and the pain of unrequited love. Jess isn't the nicest person, but being inside her head feels authentic. She's not idealized or perfect and it's nice to see an accurate depiction of someone's inner thoughts and feelings. Jess loves Angie, but either doesn't want to ruin their friendship or is too afraid of rejection to reveal her feelings. As with any friendship that has one of the members finding first love, the relationship becomes strained when Margot and Angie date in addition to the gnawing jealousy Jess feels. Margot starts to keep secrets, dresses differently, wears more makeup, and starts to adopt Margot's mean girl tendencies. Jess starts to dig into Margot and Ryan's secrets to discredit them and get Margot back. She does turn into a bit of a stalker, following Margot and Angie around. My favorite part of Jess is her art. She draws in an anime style and has a fully realized world with ciphers for herself, Margot, and Angie to work out her feelings. It also led to some interesting revelations within her art that had a large impact on the story.

The lesbian characters are all varied and not portrayed as all evil or all good, but some sort of shade of grey in between. Angie at first seems like a genuine person, but she turns out to be extremely manipulative and pitting Jess against Margot to get what she wants. At first, we see her through Jess and her crush, so she is shown idealized, perfect in every way. Margot is a bit of a mean girl even when the Jess hate filter is taken away. She and Ryan seem to spread rumors about people and destroy their reputations for crossing them. Ryan has a secret affair with a teacher, exposed by the letter they leave for each other in the woods. I really hated how this abusive relationship was shown as totally fine and understandable. Maybe it's because it was from the point of view of high school students who see themselves as more adult, but it's not great to tell your target audience that affairs with teachers are ok.

The mystery with Ryan's disappearance makes the book take a turn. Suddenly, there are gaps in Jess's narrative and we don't know what actually happened the night of a party when Jess finds and picks up a gun and fights with Ryan. The interviews with the police are shown in transcription form and the stories Angie, Jess, and Margot tell are weirdly and similarly cagey. They all also don't seem affected at all by Ryan's disappearance when it hits rather close to home. While the mystery was interesting, the story didn't have much tension leading up to the reveal. The twists are laid out rather casually and the ending has a bizarre change from first person narration from Jess's point of view to third person omniscient. It was jarring, unnecessary, and distracted from the story. The reveal makes sense and blew my mind a little bit. It was unexpected and not at all satisfying.

A Line in the Dark shows a toxic lesbian love triangle going to extremes. While I liked the overall story, I felt that more tension could have been built. Classifying it as a thriller makes it seem like there is something missing. Maybe it was purposeful to show something about Jess, but there were quite a few runon sentences that just annoyed me. I read the book over the course of two day. I was enthralled and the pace is quick. However, the move from first to theird person felt super awkward and the reveal made me so angry. I enjoyed most of the book and I appreciate it, but I wouldn't revisit it.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins

Lovemurder by Saul Black

Valerie Hart and her boyfriend Nick Blaskovich are adjusting to a new dynamics where she is a homicide detective, available at all hours, and he transferred to forensic technology with consistent hours. They are trying to have a romantic weekend when a murderer who hasn't killed in 6 years strikes again out of nowhere. His accomplice Katherine Glass was given the death penalty and waits in jail. The mystery killer demands the she be released or he will continue to kill. With each murder, they get closer and closer to Valerie and her loved ones. The only clues sent are ones that Katherine can decipher due to shared memories and references. Can Valerie catch the killer before he does irreparable damage to her family?

Lovemurder is the second book in the Valerie Hart series. The first was good, but I had some problems with it. This second one is so much better. Valerie is in a much better place. Her relationship with Nick is stable and she's even thinking about having kids. They're adjusting their dynamic since Nick transferred out of homicide. He's the househusband, cooking dinners, making plans, and being left alone when she has to rush off on an investigation. Since he's done the job, he completely understands her and there's really no conflict there, just a bit of guilt on her part for becoming so absorbed with her job. I love their relationship. They fit together so well and there's no hidden resentment or grudges. It's heartwarming and balances the dark parts of the book.

On the other side, Katherine Glass captured public hatred due to the brutal nature of crimes she committed that contrasts with her beauty and intelligence. She knows how to get under someone's skin and enjoys mind games especially with Valerie. I liked seeing how their dynamic had changed since the first time they interacted with Valerie beocming much less easy to shake and Katherine a bit cowed by her time in prison. Katherine's relationship with her murderous partner looked so similar to a loving relationship in the videos they made while they raped, tortured, and murdered women that it's grotesque. Working with her is a nightmare since she enjoys making everyone as uncomfortable as possible and it gives her leverage for getting things she wants. You never know if she's just bored or if she has some sort of plan going on underneath it all. The only think known about her partner is that he's amazing with technology and as well educated as her. I didn't know who he was at all and I was pretty surprised when it was revealed.

Lovemurder has a bit of a silly title, but contains lots of twists and turns that I didn't expect. Black's writing kept me reading for hours and replicated a Lecter-Starling-esque relationship that wasn't a carbon copy. The tension builds as it goes along and gets more intense. I found it far superior than the first in the series and I would love to see where it goes next. There's no sequel listed anywhere, but I'll have my eye out for it.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Providence by Caroline Kepnes

In a small New Hampshire town, Jon and Chloe were best friends in high school, on the way for their relationship to become something more. Then, Jon was kidnapped by a substitute teacher when he was taking a shortcut through the woods to school. Chloe is frantic and eventually rebels when no one seems to care. Eventually, she returns to her popular friends and acts like everything is normal. Four years later, Jon wakes up in a mall basement with no memory at all of the time elapsed. He finds that he somehow hurts people by being near them and runs away until he can get a handle on the power after he kills someone. Chloe goes on to be a successful artist and a detective named Eggs starts to follow mysterious heart attack deaths with interest. Will Jon ever have a normal life or will his crimes catch up with him before that can happen?

Providence is a  much different book than Kepnes' previous two book, You and Hidden Bodies. Some fans of those books are going to be disappointed with a Lovecraftian, supernatural story. However, the mutual obsession between Jon and Chloe brings in that intense point of view that she did so well. I love supernatural books, so this wasn't an issue for me. The plot has a lot of positive elements. I can't help but feel for Jon, abused by others as a child, kidnapped, robbed of four years of his life, and saddled with toxic powers to those around him. The Lovecraftian elements are well done and friendly to those not familiar with his work. Passages from The Dunwich Horror are provided for context and integrated into the story as Jon's obsession because it was the only thing left by his captor. His actual powers are mysterious for much of the book, but make sense and something I haven't seen before. I also enjoyed how unhinged Jon became nearing the end of the book.

Unfortunately, I had numerous problems with the book as well. First, the book plods along and my interest phased in and out as it went. Second, Chloe is always defined by Jon and never really moves on unless it's to a toxic ex from high school. She never seems to know how to survive alone or find someone completely outside of her hometown and her trauma. It was incredibly frustrating to witness because of her potential and talent for art. Third, the way Chloe treated Jon when they were teens was pretty awful. She would hang out with him and treat him nice alone and then act like she didn't know him in front of popular people. She would never call anyone out for teasing or bullying him and seemed to just be using him. Fourth, so much would have been solved with a simple phone call, text, or email from Jon to Chloe.

Providence is an interesting novel that combines Lovecraftian horror with a mystery thriller. It's a bit out of the box for Kepnes and I enjoyed it about as much as her You series. Even though I have mixed feelings about most of her books, I enjoy the unique ideas she brings to her novels. I would still be curious to read whatever new releases she comes out with, particularly if it has a more fantasy or horror angle.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Thoroughbreds (2018)

Lily and Amanda couldn't be more different even though they both go to the same school. Lily comes from a rich family with every opportunity and hates her cruel, callous stepfather. She hides herself behind a perfect facade, never showing any negative emotions and always doing what a young woman of her status should. Underneath, she's an odd combination of deeply emotional and fiercely competitive. Amanda, on the other hand, is infamous around school due to her killing a horse. She has no emotions at all and only pretends to mimic them when it benefits her in some way. After some awkward moments where Lily gets caught lying, they settle into an interesting friendship of sorts.

Both of these young women are dealing with societal pressures that make them hide parts of themselves to be acceptable. For the first time, they have the freedom to be who they really are with someone for the first time without judgment. Lily can rage and show the real her underneath all the perfection and Amanda doesn't have to pretend to have emotions. At times, they fundamentally don't understand each other. Lily doesn't understand that Amanda takes no offense at harsh comments, never gets angry, or feels anything. Amanda doesn't understand Lily's emotions or her penchant to lie in order to spare feelings or to hide things about herself. They sporadically spend time together and get to know each other over pretending to study and watching old movies. Their interactions aren't the fuzziest and often involve challenging each other to push boundaries.

Lily's stepfather Mark is every bit as horrible as she thinks. He treats women as objects, pressuring Lily's mother into dressing and acting in the specific way he desires. When she challenges him in anything, he's quick to cut her emotionally to force her back into submission. He treats Lily the same way. When she was expelled from her prestigious school, Mark saw her as an object that lost all value to him. His plan is to disinherit her when she finishes high school and her mother won't lift so much as a finger to help her. Even though Amanda wouldn't judge her for all her problems, Lily still keeps her expulsion from her to appear much more perfect than she is. She puts value in the veneer even when the audience literally doesn't care and continues to keep parts of her life only to herself when Amanda lays it all out in contrast.

Amanda eventually asks Lily if she ever wanted to kill her cruel stepfather that leads to a small rift between them. When Lily is finally honest with herself, they make a plan together. Apart from each other, they would never do something like this. Lily would never admit it to herself or bring herself to do it even if she did and Amanda simply wouldn't have the motivation. This film shows a perfect storm of the two that turn into a destructive force. Anya Taylor-Joy and Olivia Cooke play their roles perfectly with icy calculation and a matter of fact nature. All of the violence is offscreen. We only every see right before and right after which lets our imaginations fill in the gruesome details. The ending had me at the edge of my seat and could be interpreted many ways. I believe that the two had a genuine friendship in their own way. I highly recommend this off kilter, dark film with a vivid visual style and a very different take on female friendship.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Book Mini-Reviews: Gunslinger Girl by Lyndsay Ely and The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls by Emilie Autumn

* Gunslinger Girl by Lyndsay Ely

Serendipity Jones lives with a father who doesn't respect anything she does. She inherited some revolvers and killer aim from her mom, but there's not much use for her talent. Her father decides to marry her off to another commune, so she decides to run away with her best friend to make a new life. On the way, her friend dies and Serendipity is captured by outlaws who decide to help her. She has the chance at a new life.

I didn't finish Gunslinger Girl. I ended around page 70 because I wasn't invested in the story. Serendipity Jones is a wet blanket of a protagonist. She's supposed to be this badass gunslinger and then doesn't follow through and is the least compelling character in her own story. Her best friend Finn is so much more interesting and gets killed off so early in the book. (I expect that she isn't really dead for a future twist.) Anyway, Serendipity is called Pity throughout the book which is just awful. This plot checks a lot of boxes that I like. However, it feels formulaic and dull. The criminals had really no reason to help her and then she descends into the hedonistic world of Cessation, the complete opposite of her restrictive upbringing. It's a clearly feminist novel, but in such an obvious, manufactured way that I didn't enjoy.

Gunslinger Girl has an interesting world where a second Civil War fractures the US into disparate factions.  However, it wasn't enough to keep my interest. There are just so many other books I would love to read that this one felt like I was wasting time.

My rating: 2/5

* The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls by Emilie Autumn

The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls is Emilie Autumn's semi-autobiographical account of being in a mental institution paired with a fictional parallel story of Emily in Victorian England who is forced into a torturous mental asylum. This pairs well with many of her songs that openly criticize the mental health industry and speak of her personal experiences with bipolar disorder and its treatment. I highly recommend her music, which is a unique fusion of classical music and industrial metal.

The modern part of this story exposes the hypocricy, inefficiency, and inhumanity of the current mental health industry. Emilie admitted to being suicidal to her therapist who then refused to further prescribe her bipolar medication until she voluntarily commits herself to an institution even though she is no longer suicidal. So she goes to institution that strips away any privacy, labels her as having an eating disorder, and forcing her to take numerous drugs without concern for her physical or mental health. She's treated as a malicious invalid and diagnosed completely ignoring any answers she actually gives. It's a frustrating, dehumanizing experience.

The other half of the story is with Emily during Victorian England where she is sold to a prestigious school by her poor family to develop her musical talent for free. Nothing suspicious about that. When she gets older, she finds it's a glorified prostitution ring and fights against her captors only to land in the Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls. It's even worse than every other place she's been with extreme abuse and experimentation. This part of the story was a little too over the top and fantastical for my taste especially compared to the other story. All of the characters are pretty black and white, only in extremes of good and evil. The horror elements are surprisingly well done. As a whole, the novel is enjoyable, but the modern half is a bit better than the Victorian half.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins

Final Girls

Quincy Carpenter survived a horrific attack right out of a slasher movie that left her the sole survivor. Her college friends were all brutally murderered. It’s no surprise that the media labeled her a final girl along with two other women who survived similar experiences. When One of the final girls Lisa is found dead and her apparent suicide labeled a murder upon closer scrutiny, Quincy is under a media microscope. Sam, the other final girl who isolated herself, comes out of hiding to connect with Quincy, creating a media frenzy, but Sam seems to half ulterior motives for being there.

Final Girls was one of my most anticipated books of the year and it proved to be a mixed bag of a book. I love the concept of the book. The author takes references and situation from slasher films and amalgamated them into the three final girl situations. Each woman deals with the aftermath of their trauma differently. Quincy tries to throw herself into normalcy, denying that her horrific experience had any effect on her at all. She’s about to marry a sweet man who works as a district attorney and works as a baking blogger who makes perfect cutesy treats. Underneath it all, she’s still rages, has blackouts, keeps people at arms’ length, suffers from depression and loneliness, and buries it all under her normalcy shield, Xanax, and wine. Sam crashes into her life and wants Quincy be to admit her anger. Sam is messy, abrasive, and most likely homeless, but she processes her past in a way Quincy refuses to. Lisa was my favorite final girl because she saw her situation as an opportunity to help other people through the darkest moment in their lives.

What follows in the book is frustrating from character actions to the way the twist is handled to the writing. Sam coaxes Quincy into playing vigilante in Central Park in the middle of the night. Not only is it incredibly stupid and dangerous, but it also takes up way too much of the book. I found it a waste of time in the book and it didn’t end up being very significant. It only served to give Sam power over Lisa. The twist at the end is unnecessarily spoon fed to the reader. The overall way of writing really bothered me because of the horrible characterizations of women and so much wrong information about them. Quincy wants everyone to read her mind and give her exactly what she wants without communicating. Of course she doesn't truly love her nice guy boyfriend because "women don't like nice guys." Sam ruins everything she touches. All are horrible female stereotypes. Small things bothered me as well like the author having absolutely no idea how bras work and claiming that true crime blogs are ran only by men because they have the time to waste??? The ID channel, Lifetime, the huge success of My Favorite Murder and podcasts like it, and all the female true crime enthusiasts would like a word with you.

Final Girls is probably the biggest let down of the year for me. I had heard such positive things, but it didn't live up to any of them. The protagonist made the most horrible decisions and the vigilante subplot just became the plot for most of the book. The obviously male author made so many generalizations about women and had no knowledge about things he should have looked up or asked about. Now I know not to read any books by Todd Ritter, the actual author of the book.

My rating: 1.5/5 fishmuffins

The Doll House

Corinne and Ashley are sisters who lost their father almost a year ago. Both went on with their daily lives, but are still emotionally affected by the loss as they were always close to him. Corinne is also trying to have a baby and down to their last round of IVF (paid for by Ashley). She starts finding pieces of her childhood dollhouse at first thinking it's a good omen for the future, but they seem threatening after while, appearing and disappearing so others don't take her seriously. Ashley feels her husband pulling further and further away from her while she cares for their three children on her own. As she grows frustrated at being on her own most of the time, her infant never sleeps through the night and her oldest seems to be getting more and more in trouble. Do their problems have perfectly reasonable explanations or is something more sinister afoot?

The Doll House is a psychological thriller with some twists and turns. It's told mainly from three different voices: Corrine, Ashley, and a third unnamed girl in the past. Corrine is kind of fragile. From the very beginning, she's easily startled, still reeling from the death of her father, and devastated that she might never become a mother. I found her story the most frustrating because pretty much everyone in her life dismissed her very real concerns of her home being invaded. I found Ashley the most sympathetic because she is trying to a run a household and take care of three kids at very different stages while her husband spends more and more time at work (if that's what he's actually doing). She expected to have help and having everything thrown in her lap is only making her feel resentful and incredibly stressed as her children's problems worsen over time.

The third woman remains unnamed for most of the novel. Hints are dropped here and there to make her relationship to the other girls more clear. Her mother mistreated her growing up, forcing her out at all hours to spy on another family. Over time, her mother's obsession became her obsession. I felt sorry for her, but only up to a point. The identity of this woman and her mother came as a huge surprise to me. By the end of the book, I was puzzled as to why they would choose to plan as they did. It seems like they would be easily caught by the end, successful or not, so why bother to be so secretive and perfectly planned only to give a stereotypical villain monologue revealing everything.

The Doll House is an overall enjoyable book. My main problems with it are in the villains and the horror aspects. Based on the cover, I thought it would be more horror  I also thought there was an inkling of supernatural that would grow into something more, but everything stayed squarely in reality. Other than that, it's a decent thriller that's well plotted and interwoven between the three main characters.

My rating: 3.5/5 fishmuffins

The Nanny (1965)

* spoilers *

Nanny has always taken care of Virginia Fane and by extension her children. She takes more care of emotional Virginia now since her daughter Susie died two years ago by the hand of her older son Joey, who was sent away afterward. He's finally coming home and Virginia is a nervous wreck while Nanny, as always, calmly does what needs to be done. Joey is convinced that Nanny will kill him, won't eat any food she cooks, and plays cruel pranks on her and whoever else happens to cross his path. Is Nanny really homicidal or is Joey just a disturbed boy?

I expected an adult version of The Bad Seed when I saw this, but it turned out to be much more nuanced and emotional. From the beginning of the film, Nanny charms with her calm, serene, and respectful demeanor. She takes care of everyone and anticipates their needs, putting her charges above herself. On the other hand, Joey, although he's around eight years old, is insufferable and cruel. He wants to prove his independence, but ends up creating more messes for Nanny to clean up. His other antics include unsuccessfully dropping flower pots on a milkman's head and screaming at Nanny for no real reason. The one time he really get her with a prank is when he leaves a doll in a full bathtub.

This film is inflammatory for the time in a few ways. First, the Nanny isn't a cold blooded killer. Her mind simply couldn't handle it after she accidentally drowned Susy, her beloved charge, right after she found out her own neglected daughter died in a back alley abortion. Her awareness shifted between seeing the dead child floating face down and seeing a cheerful, living child bathing. Dead children in film is still incredibly taboo, so I was surprised to see that there is an extended, horrific scene of the drowned child. I was also surprised that Nanny's portrayal is quite nuanced and emotional. I felt so sorry for her that both of her children were taken from her in tragic ways after putting herself second for so long. After she realizes her evil deeds, she saves Joey and seems to turn herself in.

The Nanny is a sad film for a thriller that has nuanced characters (except for hysterical and childlike Virginia unfortunately) and a much more complex plot than I expected. The only frustrating part of the movie is that Joey, hellion child, is never punished for any of his wrongdoings. He's more annoying and malicious than the kid in The Babadook and he's proven to be right. Ugh. Joey will probably harp on that I told you so for the rest of time. Other than that, The Nanny is a surprisingly good movie with strong performances.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

The Beguiled

It's three years into the Civil War and Martha Farnworth continues to run her school for girls after most of the students, staff, and slaves have left, leaving only Ewina Morrow and five students who have nowhere to go: Amy, Alicia, Jane, Emily, and Marie. Amy finds an injured Union soldier named Corporal John McBurney when picking mushrooms for dinner and helps him back to the school where they give him medical attention. He rests in a locked room while they decide what they want to do with him, but all visit him frequently and build a relationship with him. He fears returning to the war, but how far will he go to stay in the school?

Based on the advertising, I expected The Beguiled to be a thriller through and through. It turned out to be mainly a drama with a sprinkling of thriller in the latter half, so I was a little disappointed. However, the film won me over with its beautiful cinematography, gorgeous costumes, and nuanced performances from the actresses. So many screenshots were simply works of art that the slow pace was welcome to enjoy them. The costumes, while beautiful, aren't really realistic for the time. They would have had very few resources especially with very few if any paying students attending the school, so their beautiful clothing and full table don't seem realistic. Effort is made to show the students mending clothing, but even mended it wouldn't look that nice. It does give an almost fantastical air to the film and to the women with their similar blond hair and white clothing since they are so removed from the war that it rarely interacts with them directly at all.

Corporal McBurney's arrival is the most exciting thing to happen in the school in years as the sounds of war have become a dull backdrop to their lives. Not much is truly known about him since he puts on a different persona depending on his audience. Each of the women had a different type of attraction him based on their stage in life, which he is quick to exploit. Amy, the youngest of the main characters, has a bit of a crush and appreciates being spoken to as an adult and as a friend. He calls her his favorite and praises her whenever he can, making sure to be nonthreatening. Teenage Alicia lusts after him as her isolation has left her burgeoning sexuality with no outlet. McBurney is cordial to her in public and equally lustful behind closed doors. Edwina is an adult who wants romantic love and a husband to secure her future. She isn't able to achieve her ideal life with a family where she is. John plies her with romantic platitudes and promises of elopement. Martha is an older woman more interested in a worldly companion to share stories with, which John eagerly provides. He is a master manipulator and plies the women so he won't have to return to war.

As his injury heals, John tries to make himself indispensible to the household by working in the garden, an activity the women and girls don't have time for. His manipulations work wonders as the women make him fancy meals in their best finery and bicker with each other for his attention. His luck changes when he advances on Alicia and is caught by Edwina. A horrific accident follows leaving John with a leg severed at the knee. When he sees he can no longer get what he wants with flattery, he turns to violence and abuse. Most of the women reject him, but Alicia and Edwina still pursue him. They try to call for help, but John becomes more violent. The conclusion has all of the women (except Edwina) banding together to take care of their problem in way that John never expects. They take a stereotypically nurturing, feminine action/event and take the power and agency of themselves and their home back. I loved it and found it a powerful ending.

The Beguiled has a few flaws, but overall, it's a beautiful film that has two very different halves. The first is light and happy as John brings an excitement to the house that hasn't been seen in years. The second is dark as he turns to abuse to get what he wants after what he perceived as their attack. John would do whatever it takes to get what he wanted, but he underestimated the intelligence, ingenuity, and capability of the women who he masterfully manipulated. My only other criticism is that the story is pretty straight forward without any subplots to speak of that could have filled out the story a little more. Other than that, I would say it's a drama with a splash of thriller that is well worth your time.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

The Handmaiden

Sook-Hee has been specifically chosen to help a conman posing as Count Fujiwara marry rich heiress Lady Hideko, dump her in an insane asylum soon after the wedding, and take her fortune. It all seems to go smoothly as the plan moves forward, but deception lurks in even the most unexpected places. Plus Sook-Hee is developing real feelings for Hideko, making it harder and harder to lie to her face. Can she keep the con going to escape her tedious life or will she tell the truth?

The Handmaiden is based on Sarah Waters' novel Fingersmith, but set in 1930's Korea under Japanese rule instead of Victorian era England. This story has so much in it: horror, drama, mystery, intrigue, revenge, humor, and romance. The setting is important to show the position the main characters are in. Uncle Kouzuki is the person with the most power in whole film. He has embraced the Japanese regime and abandoned his Korean roots. His house is an awkward mishmash of Japanese and American architecture, symbolizing the forcible way Japan (and the US through Japan) introduced modern ideas and conventions. Hideko should have the most power because she is both noble and Japanese, but Kouzuki threatens her and abuses her at every turn. Sook-Hee and Count Fujiwara are Korean lower class people looking for a way out of their dangerous lives.

The story changes drastically in each act by changing perspectives and backtracking to reveal different meanings and extra scenes. The first act of the film is through Sook-Hee's point of view. It's hard to see why she was chosen for this job since her acting skills are subpar and really should have been fired the first day. Her actions and reactions are refreshing, realistic, and raw. She isn't a professional spy, but a run of the mill pick-pocket who is in way over her head. Her attraction to Hideko is well paced and feels organic. It started with some sexually tense moments here and there, then blossomed as they got to know each other, and finally exploded when they had sex.

The second act of the film shows the first act from Hideko's perspective and changes the meanings of a lot of the scenes from the first act. Small things that weren't focused on are explained now with estra or extended scenes to add. Her relationship with Uncle Kouzuki is much more abusive than Sook-Hee saw. Since she was a child, she was forced to read antique erotic novels out loud in addition to other abusive training that we never see. Her uncle expects her to marry him to complete his ascension to power. She knows about the fake count and works with him to plan to throw Sook-Hee in an insane asylum while switching identities. All the men in her life tell her she's cold and her personality is very controlled for protection from years of abuse. Sook-Hee makes her happy for the first time and complicates her plan for escape.

The love scenes in this film are strictly between two women and the most explicit I've seen in a film. These scenes are beautifully filmed and all about the relationship between Hideko and Sook-Hee instead of the male viewer like so many other lesbian sex scenes. I love that in the second act of the film, it's clear that some of these sex acts are the same as some of the loathed stories she's forced to read, transforming them into something pleasurable for herself and her partner. The couple talks quite a bit during their lovemaking and much of it made me laugh. This film pushes boundaries with these erotic scenes by making them lengthy and meaningful for the characters involved.

The Handmaiden is a unique, boundary pushing film that I didn't have high expectations for. Looking at the poster, I thought it was going to be another misogynistic film from Chan Wook Park like Thirst. However, it's completely driven by women who work to overthrow the men trying to control them. The film is heartwarming and sweet with moments of horror, discomfort, humor, and mystery. The costumes, sets, and cinematography are gorgeous and give the film elegance. All performances are wonderful all around. It's definitely worth your time.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins