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Review of “Tender is the Flesh”

“Tender is the Flesh can be found on Kindle

This book was never intended to grace the premise that is my Kindle library. Not this on early in our relationship, anyways. Typically, it takes a while for me to warm up to a novel so quickly; especially when I’ve seen “Tender is the Flesh” by Agustina Bazterrica talked about across the internet. I’ve relied heavily on Book of the Month and the aisles of department stores in person and online for my self-assigned reading list. My shopping list is easy, it’s accessible, and my spending problem also includes never cancelling subscriptions once I buy into them. If I hear about a book online, it will typically hibernate on some wish list until one day I add it into a shopping cart. I read too slow for libraries and spending sprees at bookstores I keep for rare occasions and mental health days.

On social media my timelines would be swarmed with divided opinions of this book. Everyone was reviewing this book, and some claimed that it was too mature for human consumption. The boundaries this book was said to push was going too far…so of course I had to read it. How could I say no?

First Impressions

The cover of the copy I downloaded is visually split vertically with a sepia portrait on the lower half of the novel and a red outline of a bull on the top half of the book. The cover is black, and there is a quote alongside the novel’s title by an author proclaiming this to be her newest novel of the year. On the top half of the book behind the red bull is black, which is a stark contrast, and the sepia portrait on the bottom half is offset by pink. The pink could be contrasted against the sepia, but it is not as stark as the contrast between the red and the black up top.

It is a bit of an eerie front cover, but it looks like a horror paperback book that I’d find at a used bookstore. The title makes the book standout for me because readers wouldn’t know what sort of horror genre this is just based off the title. Let’s be real, “The Haunting of Hill House” is probably a great book, but we know what it’s about. “Tender is the Flesh” let’s the imagination wander until you read the back cover.

Once you read a back cover summary for this book it’s game on.

During Reading

This book is horrifying and repulsive. I would love to compare and contrast this book to another dystopian novel one day, perhaps George Orwell’s “1984” because there’s a lot to unpack here.

There are reasons why I cannot see how an entire society would resort to cannibalism if we were no longer allowed to eat pork/beef/poultry, but a horror novel doesn’t have to make sense to work. With that being said, this book still made my skin crawl.

This book may be too disturbing for some to finish. It’s a very visual book and the narrator gets lost within his own train of thought a lot. There were some points that I had to read slower than others to really process what in the actual eff was happening. Some of the content was very graphic and because there’s jargon being used that I’m not familiar with I had to slow down.

After Reading & Star rating

I read this book within a day. Yes, it was disturbing but it was a fantastic dystopian horror novel. The author had a message they needed to convey about society, and they did so masterfully. This book will make the reader think about the darker side of humanity and about the meat processing industry. It’s meant for the reader to feel uncomfortable about these topics.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

My first 5/5-star rating in 2022 belongs to “Tender is the Flesh“. If you’re a reader with a vivid imagination you may have some trouble getting through this book because the material is very graphic at times. However, if you don’t mind the subject matter then I highly recommend this book.

Posted on by Destiny

Review of “A Quiet Place” I & II

Back in October I had originally penned a review about “A Quiet Place” but I didn’t want to post it until after I had watched “A Quiet Place Part II“. I had a lot of questions still after watching the first movie, and before I was going to pass judgement on another horror movie, I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt and watch the second half before I decided to rate it so poorly. Was I disappointed? Let’s get into it.

Before Watching

It’s been a year since the sequel had came out and three since “A Quiet Place” was released in theatres. It’s crazy now looking back on it, because this was one of the last movies I remember being hyped before the pandemic happened and the world fell into general chaos. I remember hearing mostly positive reviews when both of these movies had came out. I remember this being a breakthrough movie in the deaf community for having a deaf actress.

I was aware this movie was a dystopian, taking place after an apocalyptic event. I knew this was a thriller, with the main antagonists being a species of aliens that did not like noise. I wasn’t sure if they made noise that would kill people, or if the noises people would make would cause the creatures to eat them– I really wasn’t sure how the plot was going to be spun, but I knew that basis of it.

I knew John Krasinski and Emily Blunt played husband and wife in the movie. Which at least I had hopes that meant their onscreen chemistry would be believable, considering they’re married IRL. John Krasinski also directed this movie, which feels a bit like he just wanted to play in a movie with his wife. Which is…sweet, I guess.

Overall, my hopes were fairly high for the first movie.

During Watching “A Quiet Place”

I had so many questions. Had these creatures really taken over the Earth in a year, and everything had fallen into this state of ruin so quickly? When the family is in town we get a glimpse of a dilapidated grocery store, and overgrown train tracks as they’re walking home. I know nature will take over without the interference of human beings over a period of time, but that quickly?

Where was the government during all of this? Did the United States give their entire Armed Forces a day off and that day happened to be the day the creatures decided to take over? You cannot tell me we wouldn’t have at least made a dent in their numbers. Especially this family in the middle of bum-hell nowhere. Have you not ever seen the inside of a rednecks house? Terrifying. Those creatures would’ve been dead.

Great work I guess on the set crew, considering they did a bit too well at making this world look dystopic.

During Watching “A Quiet Place: Part II”

That baby would’ve been dead.

If anything else would’ve been certain in this universe, it would’ve been that baby would’ve been gobbled up by these ET wannabes. There’s only so many times you catch the baby before it cries out and something snatches it. Also, they’re keeping the baby in a renovated suitcase…what’s going to happen when the baby becomes a bratty toddler? How are you going to keep it quiet then? Have you seen a toddler have a tantrum? Have you HEARD a toddler have a tantrum?

I had more questions following Part II than I did even following Part I. I felt at this point the writers were just throwing characters away because to hell with it. Why not? Also, why didn’t they use their newfound weapon against the creatures every.single.time they saw one of those things coming for them? This would have for sure spared a few people.

Final Thoughts

I really don’t see what everyone saw in this movie. The movie had a lot of plot holes. The creatures were not believable, albeit fascinating to look at. For the cinematography, this movie did a pretty decent job. This movie did give a platform to the deaf community. But this movie had a lot of plot holes. I had a lot of questions, and at some points I was frustrated with the characters.

Overall, I’m going to give both of these movies a 3/5. They aren’t bad and they kept me entertained, but I do think the movie could’ve been better.

Rating: 3 out of 5.
Posted on by Destiny

Review of “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires”

It’s that time of the year again.

It’s spooky season.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and this year it holds extra special sentimental value. This time a year ago, I was preparing to launch this blog. Even though it was a soft launch and even a softer year as I don’t post much, this blog has brought me back to reading. It has helped me carve out a space on the internet where I can write what I think to my little hearts content and that’s something to celebrate.

As a form of celebration, I finally sat down to share with you guys one of my favorite books from this year. It’s the perfect book for October, and I’ve been recommending this book nonstop online. “The Southern Book Clubs Guide to Slaying Vampires” by Grady Hendrix is a contemporary masterpiece.

There, I said it.

Do not get me wrong, he has a few authors he holds the spotlight with this season. Sophia Moreno-Garcia is another exceptional horror writer I’m recommending this season and Ali Hazelwood knocked it out of the ballpark with her academic romance novel. But Grady Hendrix brought vampires back for me, just as “Midnight Sun” was prepared to crush my hopes and dreams.

First Impressions

I picked this book up when I was shopping at my local Barnes & Noble. What attracted to me first was of course the name. I love a chunky name if done right, and something about “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires” had my curiosity peaked. The book cover was a close second.

The southern peaches with blood dripping from gaping bite wounds was a “hidden between the lines” temptation for me. This book was daring me to imagine what it was trying to say by just the cover. Was a handsome vampire going to swoop into a southern belle’s heart (and bed…) while the reader begs her to understand what he truly is? Was the book club a clan of hardened criminals living on the edge of society and slaughtering vampires while reading smutty fanfiction?

During Reading

This is the first book I’ve read by Grady Hendrix, although I’ve had “My Best Friend’s Exorcism” in my mental TBR reading pile for a couple of months. I’ve heard this book is pretty mild as far as his other works are concerned, but I cannot attest to that. I do enjoy the book clubs reading lists for the timespan taking place in the book, and I do enjoy the rudimentary maps that were included in my copy as well. I am a visual person, and I always love when authors include extra materials in their books to help the readers better disappear into their world.

This book follows a group of 90s housewives as they find out the mysteries surrounding their neighbor and fellow book club member, James Harris. What follows is some female badass-ery as these housewives navigate the dark waters of what happens behind the closed doors in a sleepy Southern town. I don’t want to get into too much detail because I know I’ll end up spoiling something, but this book is going to be great for someone who:

1.) Doesn’t mind dark themes including – child murder, rape, suicide, kidnapping, domestic abuse and violence.

2.) Graphic content being drawn out figuratively across the page

3.) Likes novels with contemporary historical themes (it takes place in the 90s)

4.) Dislikes complex plots; this book is pretty clean cut, and is not for someone who likes longer length narratives.

Honestly, to me this book was pretty mild as far as language goes and content, but I would say it does have some pretty mature content that wouldn’t be suitable for younger readers.

After Reading & Star Rating

I really liked this book. The author tackled pretty hard hitting topics such as classism and sexism, and overall Grady Hendrix did a great job. I never thought I needed a book where housewives take on a creature of the night, but lo and behold here it is.

My biggest gripe with this book would be that we aren’t introduced to some of the background characters as much as I would have liked to be. Most of the book clubs family members are just mentioned in passing, and much of the husbands characters can be summed up in a descriptive word or two. I think if he had made these characters more complex he could have expanded further on sexism. Where it stands, most of the husbands I could either cared less about or they were just so self-centric it was easy to hate them.

Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Overall I give this book a 4/5 stars and highly recommend you reading this book during the month of October.

Posted on by Destiny

“Blue Lagoon” Did NOT Age Well

Whats up everyone? Today while I was home and bored I decided to watch this movie on Netflix. I had a deeply unlocked memory of Brook Shields playing in it during the infancy of her career, but I had never watched it. What I wasn’t ready for was a 1980 film portraying a couple of Victorian era children being stranded on an island and having a sexual awakening for an hour an a half of run time.

Before Watching

As aforementioned, I had a bit of background knowledge going into this movie, but not by much. I knew Brooke Shields had played in this movie, and I vaguely remember a sequel/remake coming out of this movie a few years ago. I had never watched the remake of the movie. My mother I remembered mentioning how she hated that all of her era movies were being rewritten for the big screen once more. Due to that, I knew this movie probably dated somewhere in the 70s-80s; my mother is a boomer and will go absolutely rabid for remakes of movies during this time.

During Watching

For all intensive purposes, the background to this movie is as follows: Ship gets shipwrecked, two children and the ship cook Paddy survives. Paddy dies and leaves the children to fend for themselves on an island only inhabited by a tribe on the other side of the island. There’s not much to know there, except that Paddy forbids the children from going to the other side of the island, claiming that it is “by law” they cannot ever go join the tribe. I sort of wish there was more to the tribe than that, but all you’ll really see is a couple minutes of screen time of the tribe as they kill someone.

So the movie ages up the two children, Richard and Emmeline pretty quickly after the cook dies. Not too weird unless you were prepared to watch “Lord of the Flies” — but they decide to age the children up to puberty and then decide to ditch the clothes for the majority of screen time.

Which is only made more awkward by two actors that are teenagers themselves. Upon googling I realized that Brooke Shields herself is 14 and Christopher Atkins is 19.

Weird. Talk about very weird and uncomfortable.

I know it’s a different time, but even then I still feel that unless I was a teenager myself this would’ve made me feel a bit uncomfortable back in the 1980s as well. This movie really likes the idea of sexualizing innocence. This was seen in many different scenes and scenarios throughout the movie. For example, Emmeline gets her period in one take and doesn’t know what’s happening. Richard wants to come closer and to take a look at where she’s bleeding from and then Emmaline shies away from him before he could get any closer. The way the characters talk to each other is very child-like. I know that they are portraying two children that had grown up outside of society and social norms, but some scenes are uncomfortable to get through because of this. Then to top it all off they are scantily clad the entire time.

The worst part of all was when they ended up conceiving a baby and then they had no clue what to do with it/him. I thought perhaps survival instinct would take over in these sort of scenarios, but that isn’t the case as they try feeding him coconut water as opposed to breast milk. After they seem to figure out how to feed them all seems well again, until they end up on a lifeboat they had and drift too far from shore after fighting a shark.

Yes they had a lifeboat. Yes they fought a shark.

I could go into an entire rant about the 70s fetishising young teenage girls and hatred of sharks as shown by Jaws– but thats an article for another day.

Final Thoughts

When this movie had came out in June of 1980, it was met by mixed reviews by critics for an array of reasons; Brooke Shield’s performance, the overall movie and execution being called out in the process (source). But it was a box office success, so make of that what you will if you’re planning on watching it. I will give the Blue Lagoon this: it took risks. Were the risks worth it? Up to you. For me I’m not the biggest fan of the movie.

Rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Overall I give this movie a 1/5 stars. I didn’t like the oversexualization of teen actors. The premise of the movie didn’t make sense as there was multiple chances for the children to get off the island to the point it was almost comical. This movie didn’t feel romantic and it didn’t feel suspenseful. It just felt…wrong.

Posted on by Destiny

Gossip Girl 2.0

A Gossip Girl Reboot appeared on HBO Max this morning for those of us in the United States–

https://www.hbomax.com/

The trailer for the show premiered earlier this year, and looked to be the next generation has finally graced the halls of Constance Billard. I had grown up watching Gossip Girl when it had first premiered in 2007, so I was of course a bit more reserved about this next generation. However, I can appreciate that my Gossip Girl I grew up with was tailored towards a millennial audience whereas this new show will be more than likely fit for viewers of a Gen Z audience.

But there’s a few moments of the new Gossip Girl that had me going “What the hell?” and here they are…

For those of you who don’t want to find out what happens…SPOILER ALERT!

Gossip Girl is Not Unknown to Viewers – and It’s Creepy

Gossip Girl is not unknown to viewers in this new reboot. Which is fair, since Gossip Girl was exposed at the ending of the old series. However, the direction the writers decide to take with the new Gossip Girl is…questionable.

Why would they choose the teachers to be the new face behind Gossip Girl? Just why? Why are grown adults this involved in the inner workings of the student body? The fact that they’re doing it as a form of “teaching their students a lesson” is a little more than veiling the true malice beyond their actions.

We get it, teachers of Constance. They’re spoiled and self-entitled brats and you don’t want them to become “the next Brett Cavanaugh” as one of the faculty members put it. But I don’t think standing outside their homes taking candid photos of students really is going to send them the right message, thanks.

So the teachers are actively trying to protect their crummy, underpaid jobs as academics by giving those snotty, power-wielding shitheads a complex and turning them against one another. Okay, got it.

Missing the Soundtrack

Where is the music? From the starting sequence of Serena Van Der Woodson on the train back in ’07, Gossip Girl had a great soundtrack for the time. The first premiere episode was lacking in this category.

Remember when Serena crashed Blair’s party? Yeah, you wouldn’t remember that scene if “What Goes Around…Comes Around” by Justin Timberlake wasn’t playing in the background.

Fashion, Fashion, Fashion

The reboot had some great fashion choices again, and that’s what’s held true throughout both shows. This reboot was much bolder and more daring with the fashion choices in a very fashion forward and feminine and powerful way. Shaved heads, bright colored hair, bold neon dresses and stunning heels, this premiere really stepped up to take the fashion choices to the next level.

The fashion show during A and Z’s stand-off was eye-catching, and is probably the only post on Gossip Girl that would have really made sense on an Instagram timeline. The show-off was a powerful landing.

Diverse Characters – Let Me Love Them

Contrast to it’s 2007 original show, the new version of Gossip Girl would feature a much more diverse cast. It’s 2021 and it’s about time we’re starting to see representation of all communities and backgrounds in shows. There’s no reason why Gossip Girl would have reasoning to pick a cast type based off of any certain background, since the most important background of these characters are the same–Upper East Side (at least part time).

The cast of the new show are newcomers to Hollywood, and I would really like to see their acting potential. However this dialogue is about as dry as a bottle of champagne, with some moments making me cringe. I really hope the next episode does this group justice.

Random Sex

I know there was talk about this show being more risque than it’s original– but come on now at least make the sex scenes make sense. There is a total of at least four sex scenes, with one even in the middle of a very crowded party. Come on now, even Chuck Bass is jealous of the amount of time these teens have just to get it on. It would make much better sense if the sex was at least being used as a plot device, but so far it doesn’t seem to make much sense beyond trying to grab an audience and drag them in.

Gone are the days of Virgin Queen B.

So far, this just seems like it’s going to be a corny one season run-off of an otherwise great show if something doesn’t change. If you haven’t watched it yet, I’d suggest passing up on it to watch the original.

Posted on by Destiny

“Happy & You Know It” Book Review

Ah, yes. The book has been sitting on my shelf since I started my Book of the Month Club membership over a year ago. Why had I not ever picked this book up before? To be quite fair and honest, I had picked this book up multiple times over the past year, even going as far as to reading the first few chapters or so before putting it down and picking up another book. It seems almost a typical case of literary abandon where you pick out more books than you ever could possibly finding yourself reading and throwing them down to the back depths of your closet until you decide to pick it up again months after. 

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Wildling, the Underrated

Photo taken from Wikipedia

One of the movies I watched while being snowed in during February was “Wilding” an IFC Midnight Film that can currently be found on Netflix in the United States. Originally I wasn’t even going to touch this movie, but it honestly had me taken by surprise so I felt like I would cover it in one of my posts before I forgot about this movie all together.

I watched this movie last Saturday when Kevin and I were both bored and searching for things to watch on our streaming services. Kevin’s a bit fickle when it comes to shows, but I’m not picky and it was my time to pick so I just randomly picked this Netflix movie. If you guys have ever wondered where most of my content comes from, this is my method for picking content typically. This very crucial bored moment of “I dunno. Let’s go with this because the title sounds good I guess.” And I’ve honestly found some cool hidden gems by using this method.

I fell asleep midway through the movie as I sometimes have a bad habit of doing and then…waking up feeling very confused and wondering for a good ten or fifteen minutes if I was still watching the same movie.

So for those who are going into this like me and who have literally no idea what this movie is about…if you go in thinking this is going to be about a child being abducted by her forlorn and vengeful father who lives off the grid and you wake up to…well….a human boy having sex with a werewolf in the woods, you’re going to be very confused.

I had to watch this movie twice just to figure out what the hell had just happened when I was knocked out, and it honestly wasn’t that bad of a movie. For those of us who have yet to be able to endure watching “Splice” by themselves, this movie is probably not going to be for you since it has something of a similar theme and fashion as that movie had, minus of course with this movie working from a $2 million budget as opposed to a $30 million budget, and still doing awful.

This movie I wouldn’t be disappointed in if they decided to do a Netflix sequel, and perhaps it’s because my standard for Netflix movies has a bar set so low sometimes that I’m beyond ecstatic when it’s not a total miss on everyone’s part. This is an IFC Midnight movie, so I was expecting a little bit weird and out there, which this movie was able to provide. I feel like perhaps this was a prequel to an even bigger plan, and I’m a bit upset that it leaves off with an ambiguous ending since I haven’t read where there’s a sequel out there somewhere. I feel like I was left in a class with a mediocre anthology story that left off partially through a chapter book.

That being said, I would definitely give this movie a watch if you haven’t done so already. I don’t think you’re going to be disappointed, especially if you’re at the bottom of the barrel looking for movies on Netflix to watch as well like the rest of us.

Posted on by Destiny

Review of “Normal People”

Going into this book, I didn’t have much idea as to what I was expecting. Last year I had heard about “Normal People” quite a lot, with a fair share of mixed reviews going both this way and that on whether this book was absolute garbage or it was a literary masterpiece.

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The Maybelline Products to Look For This Season

It is finally the beginning of the Spring season in the fashion world, and we’re here to bring you the latest and greatest things from the leading brands within the industry. Here at Life and Destiny, we don’t discriminate between mass and prestige brands because, dear reader, I like to use both. One brand I have used and promoted for a long time as a beauty advisor is Maybelline cosmetics, and I am looking forward to trying out their latest additions to the tried and true makeup brand line.

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