#cj skuse

[gcballet]

Anyway happy pride and happy Darling Bud release day to Ivy Silverton sorry about the serial killer bio mum, the dead adopted mum, the dead bio dad, the groomer step dad, the useless solicitor godmother, the absent american uncle, the closeted girlfriend, the gold digging australian aunt and step uncle and step cousin, the serial killer mexican step dad, the violent ten year old half brother, and traitor house rabbit.

[beanoramo]

Sweetpea - Thoughts, Opinions

Hey guys, first post on Tumblr sorry if I'm a bit awkward or doing this wrong idk...

Anyways I just wanted to rant a little bit about the series Sweetpea that I literally just finished watching an hour ago (obviously spoilers if you haven't watched).

I. Fuckin. Loved it. First of all, that.

Ella Purnell is a truly incredible actress with some surprising range! I went into the series worried that she wouldn't be able to portray the correct.. vibe (?) of a killer (I straight up forgot about Arcane I guess) but wow I was wrong. Nicôle Lecky was also a standout performance for me, at first I didn't like her acting style but it grew on me with every episode, as did her character.

Aesthetically I was enamored. The set was so fun to look at, and the costuming?? Hats off to whoever was in charge of getting Rhiannon and Julia fitted the fuck up.

I wonder if Rhiannon's character reminded anyone else of Joe from YOU? Especially considering how she gaslights herself into believing that her murders are justified simply because her victims were "bad people." But similar to YOU, Sweetpea asks us to second guess our own morals. Who exactly is a bully? Who is in the wrong here (clearly Rhiannon, but I suppose I mean more in regards to Julia's bullying and how it effected Rhiannon)? Do some people deserve to die, and who decides that? Many moral dilemmas that I find interesting to think about.

The introduction to the series is also super underrated! I really dig the song and the collage-esque graphics. It looks like criminal investigation board, but the colors make it seem almost childlike? Oh that's something else I wanted to talk about...

Rhiannon is clearly stuck on this thing that Julia did to her in grade school. And the lesson is that she should've just moved on, it's difficult but moving on is the best thing to do in this situation. However, Rhiannon clung to these events so intensely, I feel like she's still a teenager in many ways. She lives with her father and has childish posters of Robert Pattinson on her wall. But on the flip side, she has a job with aspirations of promotion, drinks, goes out. I don't know if anyone else felt this (and maybe I'm reaching a bit) but to me at least it felt like Rhiannon was in this weird limbo of adulthood and childhood? Having temper tantrums and getting stab-happy with an entitled landlord... It all feels so very childish. Yet she's also so in control? Rhiannon plays Craig like a fiddle, stealing the USB port and even boiling her knife in hot water after her first murder (how tf did she know to do that). I'm not sure if this tangent means anything revolutionary, but it was something I observed during my own viewing.

I think there was also an air of campiness to the whole story that I loved to see embraced. I was almost disappointed to see Julia actually come to her senses and realize she needed to get away from Rhiannon, because I was kind of digging the little friendship they were developing. Of course, it's realistic for Rhiannon's entire wellbeing to be hinged on Julia, and for that to scare the fuck out of her, but like come onnnn just go for a sleepover..

Also, SEASON TWO?! I'm not sure how to feel. Nowadays it seems like many narratives run themselves into the ground, with companies aiming for profit over well-done storytelling. I kind of like the open end of the final episode, leaving the rest up to the viewers imagination. In my mind, it's clear that Rhiannon gets sent to prison after her sister catches her, and Julia finds a new life elsewhere. However, it could fun for Rhiannon to rope Seren into her crimes somehow, similar to how she did with Julia. A little bit of guilt-tripping, "this only happened because you weren't here" type shit. But in order for the series to be more respected (85% on Rotten Tomatoes isn't bad but personally I'm a perfectionist), I look forward to season two tightening up some loose ends and expanding on Rhiannon's character, because she’s very much trapped in one mindset during most of season one.

Does anyone know if the books are any good? I know the series is based off of a book series, and I'd be interested to see what details were taken out, if we see any character development in unexpected places. Although I don't want another Killing Eve situation (those books were not as good as the show in my opinion).

If you've watched the show, let me know what you think! Any opinions, theories?

[danaandthebooks]

The physical ARCs I've been lucky enough to get! It's not a lot compared to other bloggers, but it always makes me happy seeing these on my shelf 😊

[yasminwithane]

Book collage for Pretty Bad Things by C.J Skuse

I made this as a present for my tutor, about her debut book, as a leaving present. Thought I’d stick it up here too.

Pretty rad book if anyone wants to take a read (But I recommend The Deviants by her over this)

[beakys-book-hoard]

Backlog #25 - 04/20/25

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Sweetpea by CJ Skuse Published: April 20, 2017 Genre(s): Thriller Page Count: 472

My Rating: 1⭐ of 5⭐

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I had seen a trailer for the upcoming show and it had really caught my attention. Upon looking into it, I found out it was a book series. So obviously I chose to read the book(s) first.

I should've DNF'd but I forced myself to continue this one. It left me confused on how it became a five book series.

I really did not like the MFC. She was just so annoying, and awkward to read. I didn't like how everything was written. I also didn't like how many real world things were added in. I read books to escape like many other people. So when real life stuff gets added in, I pretty much immediately dislike whatever I'm reading.

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[goodjohnjr]

Sweetpea Season 1

File:Sweetpea (TV series) title card.png What Is It? The 2024 British TV show Sweetpea Season 1. Sweetpea Season 1 Trailer Sweetpea Season 1 Teaser This is how Wikipedia describes this TV show: Sweetpea is a British dark comedy-drama television series created by Kirstie Swain for Sky Atlantic. The show is based on the 2017 novel of the same name by CJ Skuse. It features Ella Purnell in the…

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[gcballet]

Finished listening to "Dead Head" - these are the pulpiest books I've read in years I love them. Hard to know how to approach possible spoilers bc Sweetpea only just aired it's first series. They probably won't get as far as adapting "Dead Head" though.

Spoilers below the break and also something about "The Red Notebook" by Antoine Lauraine, "Private Peaceful" by Michael Morpurgo, and "Lessons In Chemistry" by Bonnie Garmus

I didn't think I'd miss Georgia Maguire doing her Ray Winston foetus voice for Ivy, but the Mexican baby voice she gave Matilda made up for it. I was fully just picturing Rhiannon at a cartel safe house playing Sylvanian families with Dora the Explorer.

I listen to these while walking my dog in the morning, and every single scene and chapter, if I relisten, I can picture exactly where in the park I am.

For the final standoff scene of "Dead Head" I literally just sat in the conservatory and listened because GIRL. Your HAND. And during Rhiannon and Raphael fighting those guys I was in the shops buying acrylic paint varnish.

I genuinely love the sincere awareness of weird true crime stans and hibristophiliacs and the meta commentary, warning us off enjoying Rhiannon too much. It reminds me of a video essay I watched on Bojack Horseman - something about the audience being culpable of wanting to see this toxic character go off the rails. I like it, it's smart.

I get the feeling that "Thorn In My Side" might be a lockdown narrative. I'm sure Skuse will do a good job, I just don't enjoy the media we made during them. Didn't have a fun lockdown personally, I don't vibe well with them.

For my book club this month I also read "Private Peaceful" by Michael Morpurgo and boy was that a blast from the past. I remember at least one other English set in my school did that as set group reading way back in 2005.

Side note - why don't Scholastic book fairs for adults exist? Zero vat, book fair popups with Millennial nostalgia. Original concept do not steal.

No idea who in book club put "Private Peaceful" in the jar, but it was appropriate for November I suppose. The audiobook had dreadful interstitial keyboard trumpet music between chapters. Probably it was for back when it was released on tape and the music is to tell the bored ass teacher that the chapter is over.

It was fine. Wasn't exactly "War Horse," though. Very KS3.

So I have repeatedly started and given up on "Lessons In Chemistry" by Bonnie Garmus this year - like four times with both a library book and audiobook, and then, what pops out of the book club jar? "Lessons In Chemistry". I could've spit.

So I pushed through a bit more and there were immediately scenes of "oh the super smart neurodivergent woman gets abused in academia and r*ped"

This isn't fun for me.

And then there's a visceral death scene and brutal depictions of grief.

This is a dark comedy??

I get so bored of period fiction where the conceit is just "DID U KNOW SEXISM USED TO BE WAY WORSE AND PERMISSABLE??? WATCH THIS LOVELY WOMAN SUFFER"

And why is it so long??? The only good thing is it got me to make a lasagna.

So I might not finish it. I'm sure it could get better, but I don't read books to get triggered and depressed. And I recognise that is hypocritical when I'm talking about how great the Sweetpea series is.

And the third one we got for book club is "The Red Notebook" by Antoine Laurain. We normally only get two books but this one and "Private Peaceful" were shorter so three it is. Halfway through it and it's so delightfully Paris in 2007, but annoyingly male gazey in the academic sense of the word. Like an Amelie/While You Were Sleeping mashup.

Got another hour on the audiobook so I'll finished that one tomorrow when I walk the dog, then I'll start "Thorn In My Side"

[cantsayidont]

SWEETPEA Series 1 (2024): Disjointed, unpleasant, racist black comedy, adapted from a C.J. Skuse novel, about a mousy young white woman named Rhiannon (Ella Purnell) whose simmering rage at being ignored and disrespected by everyone in her life takes a dark turn when she realizes that her social near-invisibility will let her get away with murder. Violently expressing herself gives Rhiannon's dead-end life a big boost, but it becomes more complicated when she sets out for revenge on her one-time high school bully Julia Blenkingsopp (Nicôle Lecky), now a bitchy estate agent whom Rhiannon's unsympathetic older sister has commissioned to sell their late father's house, and attracts the attention of detective constable Marina (Leah Harvey), who is a lot like Rhiannon and thus is the only one to see through her.

Much like the thematically similar 1993 movie FALLING DOWN, which starred Michael Douglas as a seemingly ordinary guy who finally snaps one hot day, SWEETPEA leans too hard for too long on the assumption that viewers will find Rhiannon's sense of frustrated entitlement relatable and basically sympathetic — a hard sell if you've ever been on the receiving end of an unhappy white woman taking out her anger on "safe" targets — and it refuses to engage with the obvious racial dimensions of Rhiannon's two worst enemies being the only Black women on the show. (The parallel the story attempts to draw between Rhiannon and Marina only makes sense if you presume there's no racial component to the way Marina is marginalized and disrespected, which there plainly is.)

Paradoxically, it might have worked better as a black comedy if it had pushed Rhiannon's violence to greater extremes (which it apparently is in the book); instead, the show tries unsuccessfully to build sympathy for her (with the first episode a grueling enumeration of all the ways her life is bleak) before turning around and declaring that she's just crazy after all. CONTAINS LESBIANS? No, although there's a definite homoerotic aspect to Rhiannon's conflicts with Julia and Marina that the story doesn't know what to do with. VERDICT: Not absurd enough to be funny, too disingenuously racist to work as satire, and sometimes punishing to watch (be warned that something bad happens to the cute little dog!). Even if you love Purnell, it's just not worth it — watch SERIAL MOM instead.