Category: Reviews

Reviews and ratings of books and movies Toi has read or viewed for pleasure.

Categories
Books

The Cephalopod Coffeehouse #Review: Monstress 1 #fantasy #graphicnovel

The idea is simple: on the last Friday of each month, post about the best book you’ve finished over the past month while visiting other bloggers doing the same. In this way, we’ll all have the opportunity to share our thoughts with other enthusiastic readers. Please join us below.

“I’m late, I’m late. Late for a very important date.” (or something like that.) ~The White Rabbit

So, all month-long I’ve been reminding myself not to miss this post, and sure enough, that’s exactly what I did. Oh well, I tried. I’ve been doing a self-assigned graphic novel read-a-thon this month and I’m down to wire trying to squeeze in as many books as I can before nightfall on Wednesday. Of course, this would also be the month that my creative juices would start to flow, but I just don’t have enough time in the day. In any case, I’ll tell you what has been my favorite read so far, but I don’t have a full review for you yet. So sorry for that….

Below I’ve listed its stats, blurb, and my overall rating; however, I will say that the artwork in this book is so beautiful that even if the story wasn’t that great, I probably would have given it a 4.5 stars with an asterisk.

Title: Montress, Vol. 1: Awakening
Series: Montress #1
Author: Marjorie M. Liu & others
Artist: Sana Takeda
Genre: Fantasy, Graphic Novel
Pages: 192
Reading Level: Teen-Adult
Content: R (strong language, violence, brutality, crime, war, adult and mature situations, brief partial nudity, oppression)

Set in an alternate matriarchal 1900’s Asia, in a richly imagined world of art deco-inflected steampunk, MONSTRESS tells the story of a teenage girl who is struggling to survive the trauma of war, and who shares a mysterious psychic link with a monster of tremendous power, a connection that will transform them both.

Collects MONSTRESS #1-6

I give this book a 5.

Please stop by and see what others have read. 😀

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Categories
Books

The Cephalopod Coffeehouse #Review: The Abduction of Rupert DeVille #humor #book

The idea is simple: on the last Friday of each month, post about the best book you’ve finished over the past month while visiting other bloggers doing the same. In this way, we’ll all have the opportunity to share our thoughts with other enthusiastic readers. Please join us below.

Title: The Abduction of Rupert DeVille
Series: NA
Author: Paul White
Genre: Humor, Contemporary
Pages: 235
Reading Level: Adult
Content: R (language, violence, crime, adult and mature situations, comedic nudity, strong sexual content)

This is a very British dark comedy and I thoroughly enjoyed it, though I was disturbed a bit at times. This book takes you on an emotional journey, traversing every possible feeling, sometimes with no transitions or segues to ease the mental whiplash. Yet, somehow it all worked together, in the end, to make the story wonderful it a very specifically dark, funny, and unique way. And, don’t get me wrong; the writing is impeccable, almost lyrical at times. It was an easy and engaging read.

This emotional adventure starts with Rupert early in his day, contemplating the step-by-step (literally) plans he’d made for his special evening. Then he’s snatched off the street and the story begins. As the description explains, there’s a girlfriend and an employer worried about Rupert’s disappearance, and after you get to know him, you can totally understand why they’d worry so only after a few short hours.

Attempting to avoid spoilers, none of the characters in this book are quite what they seem. While Rupert is definitely mild-mannered, he’s also calculating, considerate, and most definitely a lover (not a fighter). George is probably my favorite character in this wacky tale of random events that all fit together perfectly, actually making sense in the larger scheme of things. He’s older and calmer than Rupert and Carla, but he might also be a bit scary (in the best possible way). Carla’s a simple girly-girl on the surface, but after taking a peek into her past, you learn that her perfect simplicity is hard-earned.

There are moments in this story that made me blush, made me feel a bit queasy, made me laugh out loud, and even made me feel sentimental. I imagine that it was like reading the screenplay of a Guy Richie modern adaptation of a classic whodunit. There was violence, sex, mystery, and all the complexities of family dynamics.

This is definitely an adult only read; perfect for fans of dark humor, British humor, tales of calamity, and upbeat characters in odd and sometimes violent situations. I hope this author has more stories like this.

I give this book a 5.

Please stop by and see what others have read. 😀


Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Categories
Movies

The Shape of Water #TheToiBoxOfWords #film #review

moviereview

It’s been a while since I’ve done a movie review so I didn’t even bother trying to write it down. I simply went straight to YouTube.

Wikipedia
Wikipedia

So, here’s a movie that people will either get or not. For that matter, some people probably won’t even give it a try, but I can’t blame them. This is a weird movie. Still, I enjoyed it; after getting over the initial shock of what was happening in front of me…

I don’t think I’m doing a good job of expressing how I really feel about this movie. It’s best you watch the review. If you want to skip a semi-spoiler I provide, watch the video in the YouTube browser so you can access the skip link.

In any case, I gave this movie a 4 ½ of 5 stars (bumping up to five because I’ve never really done halves before).

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords