Thendral's Take: May 2022
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
My Thoughts
So this book had a fantastic premise: "A female apothecary secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women from the men who have wronged them - setting three lives across centuries on a dangerous collision course." And it delivered on that with an exciting start, the suspense was great, I loved all the chapters that were set in the 1700s to feature the female apothecary, Nella. The young child tugged at my heartstrings, and I loved how her character was concluded. It was all promising. But as the book progresses, the present-day setting that features the character "Caroline" to parallel Nella became increasingly redundant. It also becomes harder and harder to see how it all ties together and then, guess what? Things don't tie together and the ending single-handedly destroyed the entire book for me! I was left high and dry!
Nella and the young child will stay with me for months to come, I'm sure of that. But I've already forgotten everything about the present setting and the character Caroline. I feel it would have read much better if it had stayed in the past. That way, it would have been one of those rare 5/5 reads for me. But Caroline's irrelevance and unlikeable qualities make it hard to keep the review positive since she does take up half the book.
Overall
I would say check it out, yes, because Nella and the young child are worth it. But don't go in expecting too much and the three lives described were certainly not on a collision course.
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Overall
I’m…confused by this book. It was SUCH a promising blurb, and it started off so exciting. But after a while, it started to feel like something was really lacking. Which is odd because there was SO much going on in the book: an array of characters, subplots, still, something about it couldn’t sustain my attention. I think one of the issues is that for a book told from a few different points of view, it read the same from start to finish; there weren’t many tonal differences and it felt a bit monotonous for some reason. In my humble opinion, I feel other books with a similar concept have done this much better (The best in my humble opinion is Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi - I still think about that book from time to time). I wasn’t a fan of the writing either, yet, I can’t bring myself to say I didn’t enjoy this book.
Survive the Night by Riley Sager
Overall
I read this book a couple of weeks ago and I have completely forgotten about it to the extent I had to go and look up the plot to write this. Loved the author’s previous work “Home Before Dark”, found it very unique so I came into this with HIGH expectations. Enter the world’s … dumbest lead? I started to speed read this because I just wanted to see the ending, which I probably shouldn’t have because it just made me more annoyed with the book. Skip this. That’s all I have to say. You don’t even need to know why other than that I really didn’t enjoy this book. This was four hours down the drain.
My Thoughts
First of all, I need you to know I might be a bit biased with this. The premise (Egyptian gods + dissociative identity disorder + superheroes) might as well have read "THENDRAL, WATCH THIS". So, I went in already liking the show if that makes sense and I found enough things to like which means things that might be major qualms for me in other shows might be negligible in the context of this show.
Now, to get on with the technicalities. Oscar Isaac is BRILLIANT. It's incredible how much his performance draws you in from the first episode. Pair that with the script and you can't help but get invested in Marc Spector within the first two episodes. It had that old school marvel vibe (like the first iron man) to it. But that's all the similarities there are with previous Marvel works - I think this might be the most tonally different MCU show and I'm completely here for that deviance. Some of the episodes were so dark and heavy and it made for such a great watch. Special shoutout to the background score, it's STUCK in my head. Also want to give a HUGE shoutout to the CGI in episode 3. I WISH we could have seen it in a theatre, on a ginormous screen. I watched it on my laptop, and it didn't take away the magic but still - my jaw was on the floor for that entire scene. May Calamawy's character is also *very* cool.
It does sag at some points, and some of the scenes feel like they would have been downright laughable if Oscar wasn't committed to the role as much as he was. And I didn't like Arthur Harrow/Ethan Hawke as a villain - I found him far more creepy and terrifying in Taking Lives for some reason. But like I said earlier, in the grand scheme of things, this is not a major point of contention for me.
Overall
Yes, please watch this. I think you don't even need prior Marvel knowledge to be able to understand this show. It's unique, it's shot really well, and you have some powerhouse performances (Plus, come on. Oscar Isaac. I mean).
Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness
My Thoughts
Long story short, I felt it was slightly below the recent TV series by Marvel and a full step below Marvel movies. I feel like the multiverse concept wasn't sufficiently explored for a movie that promised to do that and things felt a little chaotic with inconsistency in plot. The horror element was great and if you looked at it from a horror movie point of view, it checks the box of how you're IN the moment but once the movie is over, the plot holes stick out and you're left with questions like "Wait so why did this happen?" and "why didn't they do that?"
The biggest disappointment were the cameos!! They felt so pointless considering how exciting their premise was!! It's fine with me if someone came on screen for all of 5 mins. Because it's not about how long they're on screen, it's about the relationship they build with the audience which Marvel's What If was able to better achieve. And for a movie that is supposed to be a Dr Strange movie, despite how much he was on screen, I feel like Dr Strange didn't leave enough of an impact. I don't know if this is because Elizabeth Olsen's performance overshadowed his.
As for the good things, Elizabeth Olsen is TERRIFYING as the scarlet witch and somehow still brings this element of vulnerability. Just give her all the acting awards for her performance in this, please. Xochitl Gomez, the girl who acted as America Chavez is ✨ sparkling ✨ I love America's powers too and that they involve a star shape. Completely here for how Wong had more screen time in this movie.
Overall
I left feeling frustrated. The entire movie felt like a lost opportunity, like I read the first draft of a book where you can see potential but the misses and areas that can be improved REALLY stick out. I also think if the movie was titled something like "Dr Strange and The Escape from the Scarlet Witch" I might have gone in with the mindset required for this movie.
Overall
Nothing TOO extensive to share about this, as it falls under the "mindless watch" category, so here's a quick one:You know how sometimes you just want to laugh and don't care if a plot is predictable - that. It's silly, it's sometimes stupid, it doesn't take itself too seriously. Which makes it perfect for the weekend when you want to detox from a crazy work week. It had a dose of "good messages" thrown in there too, which is a personal preference for me! It's also nice to see Rebel Wilson in this kind of "coma" setting movie, feels like a step-up from the previous Netflix movie she did, "Isn't It Romantic" As a warning, I think there are a couple of jokes in there that might be considered too edgy for some!
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