hestia8 / It’s Thursday night, let’s get it right (Reply)

~~ETA: I have no idea why half this entry is in bold, I can't even see the relevant tag in the html. Might try to fix it again later but having no luck rn.~~ Fixed thanks to delgaserasca.

…It isn’t Thursday night, obviously. It’s a Monday morning, and I’ve had no sleep, thanks to my idiot neighbour (the nice one, not Downstairs Man, he is a prick) who went out and left his computer game on pause, playing the same short piece of music over and over and over and over ALL NIGHT.

ALL. NIGHT.

I am going to have a word with him later and if that does not include me screaming in his face, he should count himself lucky. Presuming I go home tonight – tempted to go over to my parents’ but I am already going over there for two nights this week so probably best if I do go home. Also I have stuff to do (photos).

[NB: I am posting this on Wednesday morning, and I have spoken to him, and turns out a few people were annoyed by this music, FANCY THAT. Turned out to be his computer screensaver, but I don’t think he’s going to be leaving it on again in a hurry. Also I’ve now had two good nights’ sleep, so am feeling a bit more like myself now]

So, in other news, I went to Hastings with the parents and Pudding a couple of weeks ago, but that’s a separate post (posted last night). Since getting back I have been working like a loon, reading, trying to catch up on TV and occasionally going out for things that are not food, but mostly not (by which I mean supermarkets, not restaurants).

Cut for spoilers (books/film):

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronvitch

I know I keep saying I’ll do a ROL rec post, and I will get to it soon, promise. Funnily enough, reading the fourth book helped with that. I tried to hold off, as I was deep into a ROL/Luther crossover, but even the vaguest of spoilers indicated to me that there were some similarities between my fic and the book, so I decided it was best to read it before I finished the fic after all.

Yeeeeah, there were quite a lot of similarities. I am alternately annoyed and sort of impressed. So I’m working on rewriting the fic, changing location, antagonist, and methods of attack the antagonist uses etc etc etc.

HOWEVER, I’m also glad I read the book as it was very very good. I really enjoyed the development, and the plot, and oh, PETER (I still find him very frustrating as a character though). The post I am eventually going to write will have a lot more detail.

Dandy Gilver and a Deadly Measure of Brimstone by Catriona McPherson

This is the latest Dandy Gilver book (another series I must do a post on), and it was just as enjoyable as all the others. Dandy is one of my favourite detective protagonists, and this book includes more of her family, which was interesting. I like the portrayal of her husband Hugh and their marriage – they’re aristocrats in 1920s Scotland, so it’s not the most affectionate marriage, but there was more development of them in this book and I really liked it. Also, Alec <3 <3.

London Calling by Sara Sheridan

Yes, I did in fact pick this book up at Charing Cross Library because it was on a ‘crime picks’ shelf and it was called London Calling. Yes, I am the most predictable person on the face of the planet, I know.

However! It then turned out to be something a bit different to what I was expecting. The plot has superficial similarities with Dancing on the Edge, but it’s better than that (shorter to get through, for one thing), so if you liked the idea of DOTE but felt the execution needed some work, this book is worth a go. Basically a black jazzman is accused of murdering a white debutante in 1950s London, and he runs to his friend in Brighton for help. Said friend is the assistant of a female ex-SOE agent PI, and they investigate.

I’ve not finished it yet, but so far the author has managed varied and well-drawn female characters, black characters and a gay character (all written with an awareness of the respective difficulties they’d face), and a really nice sense of time and place. Unless it goes terribly downhill in the last third (I doubt it but will update), this is a very strong recommendation. It’s part of a series too, although I don’t know how many other books there are. My only slight criticism is that there are a few too many infodumps at the beginning.

[ETA: now finished this book, the plot was a lot more interesting than I expected, and would still recommend it, and it’s the second in a series

The Killing Moon by NK Jemisin

I picked this up in the library on a whim after deciding that, having seen NK Jemisin's name around online for years, I really should give her stuff a go. I'm glad I did - I don't normally like straight fantasy as much as I do Urban Fantasy, but the world building in this book (the first in a series) was AMAZING, and the plot was interesting and resolved in a very satisfying way. Another strong recommendation.

Blancanieves

A few weeks ago I went with delgaserasca to see Blancanieves, the Spanish silent B&W Snow White retelling. I have a lot of feelings about it, which can basically be summed up like this:

If you want to see this film, stop at the moment just as Snow bites the apple and then make up your own ending.

Most of the film was amazing. I loved the look of it, the sound, the melodrama, and what I thought was the sweet love story.

The ending almost completely ruined what had come before. I spent quite a long time the next day ranting to my manager about it (he had seen it previously, I wasn’t just ranting at anyone), about how everything up until the apple bite seemed to be leading to triumph for Snow, how she basically got the hero’s story played straight, with no reference to gender, which was great. I loved it. I was ON BOARD. I thought it was heading for a final triumph in the ring and then she would get together with the love interest (one of the dwarves). I basically had a little future fic mapped out in my head.

AND THEN. Snow bites the poison apple, fine. The evil ‘queen’ gets her comeuppance, yep, great. And then. Snow ends the film alive but frozen, as part of a sideshow in which people pay to kiss her to try to ‘wake’ her (she signed a contract earlier in the film, saying she was employed by this dude for the rest of her life). And the love interest stays by her and looks after her and sleeps next to her at night and the last image of the film is a single tear coming from her eye so she’s aware on some level of what’s going on OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK.

It was horrible. It was so utterly tone deaf compared to the rest of the film as well. It made me wonder whether the writer/director (think it was the same person) was even aware of what they’d been doing for most of the film. What film did they think they were making? Why did they feel the need to end it like that?

I haven’t finished Top of the Lake yet, but it’s nice to watch a show where if something doesn’t quite make sense, there’s a fair chance it’s not just me, it’s the show.

Haven’t watched that thing on BBC One on Sunday nights atm (What Remains? Something like that) but am intending to get to it soon.

Currently watching Vera, which I am enjoying as ever. Last night’s was particularly heartbreaking in various places, and featured Saskia Reeves and Hugh Simon (!). Joe continues to be lovely.

Can’t think of what else has been on. Emmerdale is super annoying, I haaaaaate one of the new doctors on Holby (even more so after the most recent episode) and Casualty is pretty good. I have seen a few episodes of Coronation Street and I saw one episode of Eastenders and would like to know what happened in Devon, but other than that I don’t care. I’ve been watching quite a lot of CSI New York (ideal background show for me) and a few episodes of The Mindy Project here and there.

I need to rewatch Luther so I can do a proper entry about the series. And also work out if 303 & 304 actually do hang together at all (based on one viewing I’m veering towards no).

I'm going to try to catch up on TOTL tonight, while I do various boring things that need sorting now I've had enough sleep to deal with them.

In other exciting news, I am getting a haircut on Friday. WOOHOO! Going to go quite short this time, although I haven't decided how short.