151. Evil Eye - Madhuri Shekar

Listened on Audible - freebie/Audible Original
narrated by many readers
Unabridged audio (1:38)
2019
doesn't say, will count 80 pgs.
Adult CRF Epistolary US & India
Finished 12/12/20
Goodreads rating: 4.06 - 4810 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Phone conversations & voicemails between a daughter of Indian background living in LA and her parents in India

What I posted on Goodreads:  same as below

My comments: Spoke theater, the whole thing is telephone conversations and voicemails between a mother, a daughter, the father, and the boyfriend.  It gets creepy.  Creepy fun.  I quite liked it.

Goodreads synopsis: Pallavi is an aspiring writer living in California. Her mother, Usha, is thousands of miles away in Delhi - and obsessed with finding her daughter a husband.

          In Madhuri Shekar’s ingenious Evil Eye, hilarious back-and-forth via phone and social media takes a shocking, supernatural twist when Pallavi meets the perfect man - leading to a climactic showdown that will leave listeners on the edges of their seats.

          (from another reader) this was a chilling and captivating story that I couldn't get enough of. Told through a series of telephone conversations and voicemails, a mother living in Delhi becomes increasingly concerned when her independent and career driven Indian -American daughter begins to be involved with a new man. Although Usha wants nothing more than her daughter, Pallvai to marry, an uneasy feeling begins to grow. Except everyone else thinks Usha is going crazy.

92. The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

listened to audible borrowed from Bosler Library
narrated by Brittany Pressley and Kirsten Potter
Unabridged audio (11:00) though my "timer" said 12:19 at the end of listening
2020 Berkley and
327 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 6/6/2020
Goodreads rating:  4.10 - 25,405 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: 1982 & 2017 Fell, NY

First line/s:  "The night it all ended, Vivian was alone."

My comments:n  A ghost story.  A real, believable ghost story - and I don't believe in ghosts.  A serial killer.  Two 20-year-old protagonists, 35 years apart. 1982 and 2017.  Aunt and niece, both following the same clues and encountering the same ghosts.  A good story.

Goodreads synopsis:  The secrets lurking in a rundown roadside motel ensnare a young woman, just as they did her aunt thirty-five years before, in this new atmospheric suspense novel from the national bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.
          Upstate NY, 1982. Every small town like Fell, New York, has a place like the Sun Down Motel. Some customers are from out of town, passing through on their way to someplace better. Some are locals, trying to hide their secrets. Viv Delaney works as the night clerk to pay for her move to New York City. But something isn't right at the Sun Down, and before long she's determined to uncover all of the secrets hidden…

TV Show - The Strain

Premiered: July 13, 2014
Four Seasons, last season July, 2017
Number of Episodes: 46 (13-13-10-10)
Length of Episode: 45 minutes
IMBd: 7.3
RT Critic's Consensus:
Season 4: 100% The Strain concludes on a high note with a climactic season that will remind viewers of the series' initial bite.
Season 3:  55% Consensus: Content with mediocrity, The Strain suffers under the weight of a stagnant story, scraping by on the pedigree of its style and visual effects.
Season 2:  77% he Strain's gory action helps compensate for an unfocused narrative, while the show's political and philosophical subtext add necessary heft for adult viewers.
Season 1:  84% The Strain makes the most of its familiar themes through an effective mix of supernatural thrills and B-movie gore -- though it may not appeal to everyone.
cag: 4/Liked it a lot for some unknown reason....
Produced by FX, watched on HULU
Wikipedia

Characters:
Dr. Ephriam Goodweather (Corey Stoll)
Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley)
Vasily Fet (Kevin Durand)
Dutch (Ruda Gelmintas)
Mr. Quinlan (half vampire, son of The Master) (Rupert Penry-Jones)
Palmer (who became The Master) (Jonathan Hyde)
Eichorst (undead vampire) (Richard Sammel)
Zach Goodweather (Ephraim's son) (Max Charles)

My comments:  Weird and creepy, and I loved it...for the most part.  The Master vampire (who can switch from body to body with the gorriest transfer of worms flowing from mouth to mouth, yuck!) and his army of ghouls who suck blood and turn humans in a particularly creepy way with a fat, long snake-like tongue, take over America.  This is about a small group of people who band together to try to take The Master down.
     It is really nice to come to some sort of completion in the conclusion.
     I've watched this off and on for years.

Storyline from Wikipedia: The show centers around Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, the head of the CDC's New York-based Canary Project, who is called upon to investigate an airplane landing wherein everyone aboard is dead. What his team discovers is a viral outbreak that has similarities to an ancient strain of vampirism. The virus begins to spread and Goodweather works with his team and a group of the city's residents to wage a war to save humanity.

MOVIE - Get Out

R (1:44)

Wide/ 2/24/ (though it took FOREVER to get anywhere near here)

Viewed 3/8/2018 
IMBd: 7.7/10

RT Critic:  99 Audience: 87
Critic's Consensus:  

Cag:  5/Loved it

Directed by Jordan Peele

Universal Pictures

Daviel Kaluuya, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford

My comments:    Bizarre.  Creepy.  Wonderful, fun and even funny.  I love it when you have no clue what is going on buy you totally know that that's okay and you are able to follow along with no problem at all.  I immediately got inside the protagonist's head and knew that he would figure everything out and be okay in the end, which made the scary bits extra fun and not quite so scary.  Catherine Keener was so incredibly creepy!  And Daniel Kaluuya, the guy who played Chris Washington, was marvelous.

RT/ IMDb Summary:   Now that Chris and his girlfriend, Rose, have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate with Missy and Dean. At first, Chris reads the family's overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter's interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he could have never imagined.