Ever since I passed along my copy of Megan Miranda’s The Last House Guest, my sister has been flying through most of her bibliography. Such a Quiet Place is only my second read from her, but I know now that I’ll be reading everything else she has to offer eventually. It’s good stuff!
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Book Review: The Escape Room by Megan Goldin
As I was searching through the bargain section of my nearest bookstore, I picked up Megan Goldin’s The Escape Room because I was curious if it had any relations to the two-film horror franchise, Escape Room. Alas, it did not, but this was still a pretty darn fun read.
We are first introduced to an icy group of Wall Street investment bankers who have been invited to participate in an escape room. They all think it’s part team-building and part proving themselves. The company is likely to make cuts soon, and they all feel they need to prove themselves in order to stick around. Alternating chapters are told from the perspective of former employee, Sara Hall. For a while, I wasn’t sure at all how these people’s stories overlapped, but it soon became clear that Sara endured some ridiculous things at Stanhope and Sons. Really, for her whole time at the firm she was enamored by the money and the things she could afford with it. Though compared to her other co-workers, Sylvie, Julian, Sam, and Vincent, she was modest and moral.
Sara did manage to form a friendship with Lucy, who’s on the spectrum, but extremely brilliant with numbers. She was the team’s secret weapon until she found out some things they didn’t want found out. Lucy ends up dead and from there, Sara’s life starts to spiral out of control. It was crazy to read about how Sara started off in the workforce like most college-broke people, then rose to financial highs, then brought to the lowest of lows both professionally and personally. I found Sara’s story much more compelling than that of her despicable co-workers stuck in their elevator escape room. They definitely deserve worse than that, and without giving too much away, they kind of do end up getting their lumps in the end.
The details in this book made me cringe so hard, and makes me regret ever wanting to work on Wall Street. While I’m sure things have changed significantly over the years, the wrongs described in this book still have to happen all the time. I know it’s still primarily a boys club, and even the women are as corrupt, if not more to prove themselves, then the men. Now, despite all of the uncomfortableness, this book was still really enjoyable, and I was interested to see how the fates of Sara’s co-workers all turned out. More importantly, I was interested in finding out about Sara’s outcome. That woman endured some serious crap in her life. A fun, twisty read if you’re interested.
Suspicion – Season 1
This new Apple+ political thriller, Suspicion, left me feeling both happy and disappointed by the end of its eight episode-run. Let me explain.
Read moreBook Review: The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda
I picked this book out for myself a while back then wised up and had my mom gift it to me for Christmas. Sure, it took away the surprise a little bit, but at least it was something that caught my eye. And, as it turns out, I really liked it, too!
Read moreBook Review: With Teeth by Kristen Arnett
I don’t quite remember adding With Teeth by Kristen Arnett to my must-read list, but a couple of weeks ago when I was looking through it and what was available at my local library, it popped up. I bit (pun intended) and gave it a go.
Read moreBook Review: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Much like other immensely popular things, I choose not to believe the hype about Delia Owens debut fiction effort, Where the Crawdads Sing. This usually means I’ll never check these things out (here’s looking at you Harry Potter), or I will check them out many moons later. I realize the 2018 wasn’t all that long ago, but really got me interested in reading this bestseller was the film adaptation involvement of excellent actor, Harris Dickinson. With that being said, I was still really hesitant to read this book about a swamp hick.
Read moreBook Review: Ragdoll by Daniel Cole
If this title of this crime thriller seems familiar, it’s probably because I wrote a review about the show a short while ago! While watching that six-part saga, I learned that it was based off a book series and knew I had to get my hands on Daniel Cole’s work ASAP. Thus, here is my review of the novel, Ragdoll.
Read moreBook Review: The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
After enjoying Grady Hendrix’s latest novel, The Final Girl Support Group, I knew I needed to check out more of his work. Luckily, my local library had another one of his novels in stock! After reading The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, Hendrix has definitely earned himself a spot on my favorite authors list.
Read moreTruth Be Told Season 2
The first season of Truth Be Told ended up pleasantly surprising me with how mysterious it was, so I was relatively excited to catch the new season. They took it in the direction of an anthology, with a new mystery that Poppy gets herself entangled with this season.
While last season saw an intense story involving the Cave family, this season focuses on a long friendship between Poppy and now worldwide influencer, Micah Keith. Poppy and Micah grew up together and helped each other survive, with each woman finding immense success as adults. Micah published a book about her time living on the streets and all other sorts of hardships that come along with that. After leaving an exhibit honoring the book an the work she now does at a facility called Shelter, the group head back to her husband’s loft to find him dead.
From there, Micah asks for Poppy’s help, and thus, Poppy has her next podcast topic! There was another guy found dead with Micah’s husband, Josh, so the question is were they lovers? Nope. Answered pretty quickly that it was his son that Micah never knew about. While I thought that would have been an interesting take, the twists and turns this season takes really took me on a journey. They find their next suspect in Micha’s assistant, but that theory is put to rest when a Shelter employee, Holt, kills him. From there, Poppy learns that Holt and Micah are lovers and that they lived together on the streets. Well, I’d agree with Poppy in that it makes Micah look pretty dang guilty.
In the end, some gang is fairly involved, too, but the reveal kind of reminded me a little of Legally Blonde. You’ll have to watch to see what I mean. I suppose when that reveal happened it made sense, and it was perfectly satisfying. What really beefed things up this season, just like last season, was the personal lives of these people. It turns out Micah’s book was made up of stories that belonged to the life of another friend, Rose. Yikes! Before all that gets revealed though, Poppy must also come forward about the abuse she suffered at the hands of Miss Shirley, who watched Poppy while her father was in prison. This eats away at her father, but it gets turned up to eleven when Poppy questions whether or not he’s her real father. She thinks she gets an answer, but at the end we find out he’s not, and burns the evidence to prove otherwise. Poor Poppy also gets served divorce papers, too!
All in all, it was another compelling story. Kate Hudson was actually pretty dang good as Micah, and as always, Octavia Spencer is magnetic in this role, just like all her others. I know this show already got picked up for another season, so I’ll be interested to see if any new characters carry over and what kind of mystery Poppy will get wrapped up in next. Great thriller if you’ve got the time!
Long Movie Weekend
You know, for getting another long weekend for the end of the year, I didn’t really out-do myself. Kind of disappointing, but I’m sure with the Sundance Film Festival hitting at the end of the month, I’ll more than make up for it.
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