Thendral's Take: January 2023
Who is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews
Let me tell you what I liked about the book: 1. It had very smooth writing and voice; there are moments of brilliance in the writing. 2. An antihero lead; I believe she's fairly unique in the literary setting and won't be one to soon forget. 3. The Morocco setting, and how ambient those chapters were - it was *so* easy for me to visualise things despite having never been to Morocco. What especially blew me away was how the book progressively became a mirror image and how twisted it got. Which was just *wow* for a debut novel. Very cool writing, and very well-planned out on how the wrier wanted to shock/ confuse/ engage the reader.
Unfortunately, the things I liked about the book were also the things that bugged me slightly about the book: 1. The starting was a bit slow, so it was hard to get into the book. 2.I believe the lead is meant to be unlikeable: she's entitled, self-important and self-centred. I don't like such people in general so I got a bit impatient with some of her actions/ thought processes. 3.The book took quite some time to get to Morocco and from there, it was a race to the finish. Some of the plot in Morocco also felt unnecessary.
Overall, I liked it, it was a good way to spend some time it's just that I didn't LOVE it - if you asked me "Hey, I saw you had read this book, would you recommend it?" I would probably say, "Sure, check it out!" not "OHMYGOD you NEED to read that book, trust me!!" But! I would keep my eye out for future works by this author!
The Change by Kirsten Miller
Imagine taking every female fury ever and turning them into a book - I'm not even talking about women being paid less than men kind of fury, I'm talking about the very primal angers we have - that would be this book. A no holds barred, female revenge fantasy. Which is why I don't think this is for everyone - some of the characters can be narrow stereotypes and I think that's because this book is not so much about plot or character growth as it is about helping people process some very just anger and fury we would have in our everyday lives. It's fairly violent (I honestly think the reason I got through it is because I read it so close to my period.) and many interpret the main message to be as "all men are bad". Despite the turns the book took, I don't think that's the case. The conclusion, which rammed the lesson "don't teach your kids to be wary of strangers, teach them to be wary of STRANGE behaviour" in my face couldn't be clearer. I'm not a complete fan of the writing but I did enjoy the mystery. At 480 pages (I KNOW!), I can only encourage this as reading material if you're able to look past violence and the idea of processing your personal grievances through a book sounds particularly appealing. The blurb promises some humour but I didn't come across much of it. I also enjoyed reading about women discovering there's more to life beyond menopause - the idea of women unlearning how menopause is not the end and exploring their lives during and after this change fairly unique.
The Family Holiday by Elizabeth Noble
I’m not going to share my thoughts on this book because I don’t think I’m the target audience. It’s a simple, heartwarming story about a man inviting his children and their families to celebrate his 80th. And the book takes you through the lives of each of the children’s families and the man’s. But something about this felt too close too home in the sense that everything felt too familiar rather than a source of escapism; it could have been my family I was reading about and I know my family enough so I don’t need to read a book about them.
Ticket to Paradise
I can't believe I'm saying this but just skip this movie. It breaks my heart to say this but this is one of those instances where the trailer was better than the movie. With rom coms, you're just there for the feel good vibes at the end of the day. You just want to laugh and have fun. That's it. But even George Clooney and Julia Roberts' charisma (and I really liked George Clooney's vibe in this movie) couldn't pull this movie off. Something about this just felt like there was no heart in it. The only 2 things I liked about the movie was 1. Julia Robert's fashion and her bags (GOD she had such cute bags!!) and 2. the idea of a rom com set around people in their 50s/60s. Things I didn't like were how the movie felt like segments pieced together rather than a holistic movie, how you literally couldn't follow the thought process of anyone and couldn't understand the actions of anyone, how flat the entire thing was, and how much a lack of effort can essentially kill the starpower of George Clooney and Julia Roberts. Oh and my personal sacrilege - presenting Australia as Bali. Listen, I can respect movies making do with COVID-19 restrictions. But I CANNOT in good faith accept Queensland as Bali!! It just throws off the entire aesthetic of the movie! All in all, a very disappointing way to spend about 90 mins.
*Subscribe to my monthly newsletter, "Thendral's Telegraph" here!*
