#izzy grimshaw

[the-readhead]

The Bear and the Nightingale

The Bear and the Nightingale review #the_readhead #bookreview

‘Frost-demons have no interest in mortal girls wed to mortal men. In the stories, they only come for the wild maiden.’ Katherine Arden’s debut novel The Bear and the Nightingale follows the irresistibly wild young heroine Vasya in the wilderness of ancient Russia. Far from the big cities, Vasya’s world is one of snow, hardship, and old folklore surrounding the Winter King. Offerings of bread are…

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The Witch: A New England Folktale

The Witch: A New England Folktale

The directorial debut of Robert Eggers and gaining extremely positive reviews at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, The Witch (click to see the trailer) is a historical horror, following a Puritan family and their strange encounters in the woods surrounding their New England farm. As a general outline of the plot, the film has extremely religious tones throughout which add to its eeriness. William,…

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The Essex Serpent

I know there’s been endless raving about The Essex Serpent, so it’s inevitable I’d have to do this post. As the Waterstones book of the year you can’t go into a bookshop without seeing its cover (an extremely beautiful cover I might add, especially the gift edition.) But the praise is well deserved. Set in the late nineteenth century, Perry’s novel explores Victorian issues of medicine, science,…

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The Dressmaker

A dark comedy, emphasis on the dark. The Dressmaker,starring Kate Winslet was pretty much slated in reviews – which actually meant I didn’t get around to watching it for a while. I’ll admit I still have mixed feelings about it. The Dressmaker, directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse and set in the 1950s, presents Tilly Dunnage (Kate Winslet) returning to her dusty backwater hometown in Australia after…

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The Grownup

The Grownup, a short story released which won the Edgar Award for Best Short Story in 2015, is written by Gillian Flynn – the acclaimed best- selling author of Gone Girl. I, like most people, loved Gone Girl. Yes, the characters were all awful people but that worked well in within the many twists and turns of the novel. I can absolutely see why Gone Girl was such a fantastic success. The Grownup,…

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Grief is the Thing with Feathers

Grief is the Thing with Feathers

One shiny jet-black eye as big as my face, blinking slowly, in a leathery wrinkled socket, bulging out from a football-sized testicle. SHHHHHHHHHHH. Shhhhhhhhhh. And this is what he said: I won’t leave until you don’t need me anymore. I’m not even sure quite how to describe Max Porter’s Grief is the Thing with Feathers; perhaps a novella interspersed with poetry? What is clear is that Grief is…

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Stone Mattress: Nine Wicked Tales by Margaret Atwood

Stone Mattress: Nine Wicked Tales by Margaret Atwood

Stone Mattress: Nine Wicked Tales, the new collection from Margaret Atwood will not disappoint; dark, witty, inventive and surreal these nine tales border on dry fairy and folk tales. A woman is mistaken for a vampire, an ancient crime is revenged in the Arctic by a 1.9 billion-year-old stromatolite and a woman accepts the little people shes been seeing. Despite heavy themes of aging, most of her…

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Crimson Peak

“Ghosts are real – this much I know…” After marrying the charming and enigmatic Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), Edith (Mia Wasikowska) finds herself swept away to his remote gothic mansion in Cumbria. Also living there is Lady Lucille (Jessica Chastain), Thomas’ mysterious and erratic sister. Edith tries to unlock the mystery behind the horrifying ghostly visions which haunt her new home and…

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