30. None of This is True by Lisa Jewell

listened on Libby
380 pgs.

2023
Adult psychological "thriller"
Finished 4/3/24
Goodreads rating: 4.15
My rating: 2....barely
Setting: contemporary London

My comments: Nope.  Not for me.  Do you want to be sad, depressed, and bored for over ten hours of your life?  Then this is the book for you!  Slow and repetitive with barely any surprises that you couldn't figure out were coming.. this is a very popular "thriller." that just didn't do it for me.  I did enjoy the setting of contemporary London, though.....

Goodreads synopsis:  Lisa Jewell returns with a scintillating new psychological thriller about a woman who finds herself the subject of her own popular true crime podcast.

Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins.

A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.

Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.

But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.

Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?

20. The Au Pair by Emma Rous

listened on Audible
read by Elizabeth Sastre
Unabridged (11:31)
2019, Penguin Group
379 pgs.
CRF with Flashbacks, lots of them...
Finished 2/21/2019
Goodreads rating: 3.72 - 3363 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting:  Contemporary Norfolk, England seaside, with half the book flashing back to a period 25 years prior.

First line/s:   "We have no photographs of our early days, Danny and I."

My comments: Another wonderful book that I read in one long gulp.  It was told in two voices 25 years apart, by two innocent young women, one whose decisions and silence profoundly affected the life of the other. A mystery that one could almost… but not quite… figure out.  Well defined characters. Lovely British setting.  And read beautifully by Elizabeth Sastre.

Goodreads synopsis:  Seraphine Mayes and her twin brother Danny were born in the middle of summer at their family’s estate on the Norfolk coast. Within hours of their birth, their mother threw herself from the cliffs, the au pair fled, and the village thrilled with whispers of dark cloaks, changelings, and the aloof couple who drew a young nanny into their inner circle.
          Now an adult, Seraphine mourns the recent death of her father. While going through his belongings, she uncovers a family photograph that raises dangerous questions. It was taken on the day the twins were born, and in the photo, their mother, surrounded by her husband and her young son, is beautifully dressed, smiling serenely, and holding just one baby.
          Who is the child and what really happened that day?
          One person knows the truth, if only Seraphine can find her.

16. An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

listened on Audible (11:40)
read by Barrie Kreinik and Julie Whelan
2019 St. Martin's Press
375 pgs.
Adult Psychological Thriller
Finished 2/2/19
Goodreads rating:  4.02 - 14,110 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary NYC

First line/s:  "It's easy to judge other people's choices."

My comments:  This was fascinating to listen to and fun to watch unfold.  The so-called "surprise" ending wasn't too, too surprising once the personalities of the protagonists were illuminated.  Listening to it being read by two different readers, both who nailed the nuances of their characters, made it even better.  Oh, such twisted minds there are in the world!

Goodreads synopsis:  The next novel of psychological suspense and obsession from the authors of the blockbuster bestseller The Wife Between Us.
          Seeking women ages 18–32 to participate in a study on ethics and morality. Generous compensation. Anonymity guaranteed.
          When Jessica Farris signs up for a psychology study conducted by the mysterious Dr. Shields, she thinks all she’ll have to do is answer a few questions, collect her money, and leave.
          Question #1: Could you tell a lie without feeling guilt?
          But as the questions grow more and more intense and invasive and the sessions become outings where Jess is told what to wear and how to act, she begins to feel as though Dr. Shields may know what she’s thinking… and what she’s hiding.
          Question #2: Have you ever deeply hurt someone you care about?
          As Jess’s paranoia grows, it becomes clear that she can no longer trust what in her life is real, and what is one of Dr. Shields’ manipulative experiments. Caught in a web of deceit and jealousy, Jess quickly learns that some obsessions can be deadly.
          Question #3: Should a punishment always fit the crime?
          From the authors of the blockbuster bestseller The Wife Between Us comes an electrifying new novel about doubt, passion, and just how much you can trust someone.

MOVIE - Glass

PG-13 (1:50)

Wide release 1/18/19

Viewed 1/22/19 at Carlisle 8

IMBd: 7/10

RT Critic:  37  Audience:  74

Critic's Consensus:  Glass displays a few glimmers of M. Night Shyamalan at his twisty world-building best, but ultimately disappoints as the conclusion to the writer-director's long-gestating trilogy.

Cag:    4/Liked it a lot

Directed by M. Night Shyamalen

Universal Pictures

Bruce Willis, James McAvoy, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah Paulson

My comments:  Good move, what I would call a psychological thriller.  James McAvoy was wonderful as the multi-split-personality creepo that he apparently portrayed in the movie Split a year or so back.  Wish I had seen it.  Then I discovered that the Bruce Willis character and the Samuel Jackson characters were in a previous movie together, and this must've been somewhat of a continuation?  It didn't matter because you didn't have to see either one of those to totally get drawn into this one.  I was a little nervous that I was not going to understand, at the end, what we really going on, but they did give enough information to make it completely understandable.  It take place in Philadelphia and was filmed in Philadelphia and Allentown, apparently.   Good entertainment.

RT/ IMDb Summary  From Unbreakable, Bruce Willis returns as David Dunn as does Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price, known also by his pseudonym Mr. Glass. Joining from Split are James McAvoy, reprising his role as Kevin Wendell Crumb and the multiple identities who reside within, and Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey Cooke, the only captive to survive an encounter with The Beast. Following the conclusion of Split, Glass finds Dunn pursuing Crumb's superhuman figure of The Beast in a series of escalating encounters, while the shadowy presence of Price emerges as an orchestrator who holds secrets critical to both men.

MOVIE - The Dinner

R (2:00)

Limited release 5/5/17

Viewed 5/8/17 at The Majestic Theater in Gettysburg, PA
IMBd: 5.5

RT Critic: 53   Audience:  17
Critic's Consensus:  The Dinner's strong ensemble isn't enough to overcome a screenplay that merely skims the surface of its source material's wit and insight.

Cag:  3/ Liked some of it a lot, didn't like some of it a lot....

Directed by Oren Moverman

Chubbco Film Company

Based on the novel by Herman Koch

Richard Gere, Laura Linnley, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Hall, Chloe Sevigny

My comments:  This was one bizarre movie.  And what will follow contain spoilers, I'm sure. Because you can't talk about this movie without mentioning spoilers.  Mental illness is not the biggest theme in the movie. Overprotecting children, total and complete selfishness, "bad" kids, and good politicians - all the major themes are almost polar opposite of what we would like to think we believe - as "good" people of the world.  And as I let this movie sit, and sink in, and stir inside my head, I'm incredulous.  The only sane, good person, was the politician.  The rest were so totally flawed that that the only redemption might come to the brother with mental illness.  But not unless he rids himself of his ridiculous wife.  Mental health issues are a sickness, and this point is made abundantly clear (thank goodness) in this movie.  But the director really copped out when it came to the ending.
     I can't believe that I watched this movie in a theater in Gettysburg, not knowing that part of it was set in Gettysburg. That was quite a surprise. A great surprise.  One of the shots was the exact same shot I took a couple of weeks ago! The actors were superb.  But I think the story was confusingly woven in a way that the majority of viewers will get really confused.  I know that for me not to have someone to discuss it with is a huge downfall.  I need Sheila!
     And after the cop-out ending, the music BLARING from the screen was "Don't let them fuckers get you down."  The whole experience was a bizarre one.  I know that all the other people in the theater with me (about a dozen) left the theater complaining and/or scratching their heads.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  When Stan Lohman (Richard Gere), a popular congressman running for governor, invites his troubled younger brother Paul (Steve Coogan) and his wife Claire (Laura Linney) to join him and his wife Katelyn (Rebecca Hall) for dinner at one of the town's most fashionable restaurants, the stage is set for a tense night. While Stan and Paul have been estranged since childhood, their 16-year- old sons are friends, and the two of them have committed a horrible crime that has shocked the country. While their sons' identities have not yet been discovered and may never be, their parents must now decide what action to take. As the night proceeds, beliefs about the true natures of the four people at the table are upended, relationships shatter, and each person reveals just how far they are willing to go to protect those they love.

MOVIE - 10 Cloverfield Lane

PG-13 (1:45)

Wide release 3/11/16

Viewed opening day at The Roadhouse with Julee

RT Critic:  91  Audience:  87
Critic's Consensus:  Smart, solidly crafted, and palpably tense, 10 Cloverfield Lane makes the most of its confined setting and outstanding cast -- and suggests a new frontier for franchise filmmaking.   I wholeheartedly disagree.
Cag:  2- Some parts of it were okay

Directed by Dan Trachtenberg

Bad Robot Productions

John Goodman

My comments:  Smart?  Palpably tense?  Not to me....for me it was stupid and not really tense at all.  S-L-O-W (Maybe I've seen too many action films lately?)  Not high on my list...in case you can't tell.....

RogerEbert.com review here.  3 stars (?!!??)

RT Summary:  A young woman wakes up after a terrible accident to find that she's locked in a cellar with a doomsday prepper, who insists that he saved her life and that the world outside is uninhabitable following an apocalyptic catastrophe. Uncertain what to believe, the woman soon determines that she must escape at any cost.

16. HeartSick - Chelsea Cain

#1 Archie Sheridan/Gretchen Lowell
Audio read by Carolyn McCormick
Audio Renaissance, 2007
7 unabridged cds
10.5 hrs.
336 pages
Rating: 5

This was quite an unusual story. Archie Sheridan is a savvy Portland, Oregon police detective who spent ten years heading up the task force looking for the Beauty Killer. But then, she caught him. Gretchen Lowell is gorgeous. She is also psychopathic. She mutilates her victims while they are awake and feeling. She is loving to them.....and kills them slowly. She does the same to Archie Sheridan. She feeds him all sorts of drugs, including hallucinogens. She breaks ribs with nails and a hammer. She removes his spleen. She carves up his chest with an Exacto knife. And then she poisons him by having him drink drain cleaner. All this without anesthesia.

Gretchen has always killed her victims, numbering 200. However, she spares Archie and allows herself to be caught and jailed. Now, two years later, Archie, totally addicted to various pain killers in large quantities, goes back to work heading another task force, to find a new serial killer that's killing 15 year-old schoolgirls.

The story weaves in and around Archie's current investigations, his memories of the time he was abused by Gretchen, his Sunday visits with Gretchen in prison, and the thoughts and life of Susan Ward, the mid-twenties journalist who has been assigned to profile Archie for the Portland Herald. Pink-haired, frisky, smart, and flawed by her father's death when she was 14, she is a character that pulls us in and makes us like her whether we want to or not.

And what a story this is. It was absolutely mesmerising. I can't wait to find out what's in store for the next installment. It looks like Chelsea Cain has just published her fourth about Archie Sheridan and Gretchen Lowell. I hope they all include Susan, too.

Next books in the series: Sweetheart, Evil at Heart, and Night Season, which was just published four days ago.

MOVIE - Black Swan

A bit too much ballet, but otherwise an intriguing psychological story.
Limited release 12/3/10
R (1:48)
Viewed 12/20/10 at the AMC Theater at Pacific Place, downtown Seattle
RT: 88 Flixter: 91 cag: 85
Director: Darren Aronofsky

Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis

Natalie Portman is an obsessed ballerina in NYC, having just been chosen for the part of the Swan Queen in Swan Lake. Her entire life has been ballet. She has no friends. She lives with her mother, who is a piece of work herself. She has kept her her daughter completely under her wing, making sure she gets the dance opportunities she herself lost when she got pregnant. Nina's bedroom is still pink and babyish and full of stuffed animals. Her mother falls asleep watching her.

Slowly we realize that Nina's at war within herself. She sees a twin of herself in strange places- a disappearing flash that we soon realize is in her head. We discover that she scratches herself and picks at the skin around her cuticles bloody when she's stressed. She wants to be the perfect dancer. That's all she lives for, all she thinks about and dreams about.

Enter another ballerina, played by Mila Kunis, who is after Nina's role. She starts playing with Nina's head, encouraging her to try things she has never tried before. She begins messing with Nina's already messed-up,uptight, frigid world. And then it really starts getting interesting. The first half was slow. The second half was really good. She can dance the part of the white swan beautifully, but will she ever be able to dance the part of the black swan?

Natalie Portman was really, really good. She did all the dancing. She's a terrific actress, she portrayed this obsessed, lost girl beautifully. And what an ending!