Time is most powerful indeed!

 

We are always on the move!

Mother and Son

 

Decision making

 

Happiness...!

 

My review for the book ... The Darkness by Robbi Sommers Bryant

 

Robbi Sommers Bryant’s ‘The Darkness' is a good psychological thriller and horror story filled with exciting pivotal moments. Set in Seattle and Vegas, she has creatively explored the intensity of an evil – ‘The Darkness' – an incorporeal creature – its devastating effects through Edward – a lawyer.

Owing to a horrible past, already the iron had entered Edward’s soul. So, Darkness could easily conquer the ownership for his soul.

Darkness has dangerously turned Edward into a 'go scot-free' serial killer … hmmm … he has killed just 50 women for fun.

And The Darkness wouldn’t shut up. Always push-push-pushing Edward into rage ... Edward fell back onto the couch, the kill rushing through him … He howled like the predator he was. He was so drunk with pleasure he felt as if he could float with the clouds, dance with autumn leaves, sleep on the sea.

Gifted with his handsome personality, Edward can skilfully flatter women and seduce them so much that they fall head over heels for him – as blind as a bat. They feel that his smile itself must be a black-hole; nothing can escape it.

Cate, with a secret past, is a strong-willed and tough-minded nurse in an intensive-care unit of a hospital.

Unsuspecting Cate likes Edward as he made her comfortable. They are mutually attracted. He exuded confidence while remaining humble. A take-charge man yet respectful. She was like a spring flower and Edward, the sun. His charisma, his non-judgmental thinking, his protectiveness, and his edginess had caused her to bloom.

Edward treats Cate as his trophy. He deeply loves Cate - “I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride” (― Pablo Neruda).

Edward desperately wants to marry her. However, with a complex mindset, he is torn between his normal good-self and his obsessions dictated by the uncontrollable Darkness. Iron hand in a velvet glove.

Police enlist Will – a detective - to arrest the elusive serial killer, terrifying the people in several parts of the USA.

Will too gets attracted to an obliging Cate during the investigation. Will lived a life plodding through the muck of crime. Cate was a lone flower that had pushed through the crack in his cement heart.

A serious love conflict develops as Cate intimately likes both. Curious complications arise, endangering the safety of each.

Who survives?

Robbi has cohesively sewed an excellent story like an expert weaver. She glues the reader with her smoothly structured atmosphere settings, fast-paced storyline, unusual situations, dynamic behavioural patterns and details of the puzzling characters:

v  Cate: So much compassionate that she can kill someone with her kindness - - Without her, most families would have no one to talk to, to lean on, to understand their needs when their loved one’s life was balanced on the precipice of death.

v  Edward: Pitch perfect as if Robbi had interviewed him before writing! His behaviour as if he was sent back to earth from hell because the devil choked on his soul. A dreadful chameleon and a courageous liar:

o   But I had a happy childhood.” Lie. Lie. Lie. “I came into a nice inheritance, though.” Edward liked to throw in an occasional truth.

v  Ruby: a trustworthy friend of Cate at 80+ with innate understanding of people’s real motives, to guide Cate.

v  Darkness: Beware weak-hearted readers – Heart-wrenching horror! The Darkness relished the killing, but for Edward, it was the terror in the eyes; the fading irises; the scream unable to push its way out the girl’s blue lips—all of it.

Disliked:

v  Flat characterisation of Will.

v  Abrupt ending

v  Inappropriate depictions

v  Unexplained sequences

 

Liked:

v  The powerful story

v  A good suspense build-up.

v  Picturesque absorbing writing style - as easy as A.B.C to read, with a balance between narratives and natural dialogues:

o   Calm down. Worrying about what may happen is a waste of time. You lose today when your mind sits in tomorrow.

v  Smart scenes with sprinkled humour … Ruby thought as she put on enough lipstick to make up fifteen beauty queens.

All about this book - from plot to world-building, to the characterisation – praiseworthy!

Worth the read as you will be increasingly eager when you flip through the pages. Get awestruck with the climax of this thoroughly enjoyable thriller-diller. Yes! Robbi has infused fresh air into the genre.

A Collection of superb, hard hitting, humorous comments on govt, politics, bureaucracy.

 

*"In my many years I have come to a conclusion, ... that one useless man is a shame, two [useless men] is a law firm and three or more [useless men] is a government."*

~John Adams 

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*"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed."*

~Mark Twain 

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*"I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."*

~Winston Churchill 

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*"A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul."*

~George Bernard Shaw  

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*"Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries."*

~ Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University 

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*"No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session."*

~Mark Twain (1866)

                             

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*"The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other."*

~ Ronald Reagan  

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*"The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin."*

~Mark Twain 

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*"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office."*

~Aesop  

                

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*"If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!"*

~P.J. O'Rourke

Covid - an interesting perspective

 

Covid 19 prediction in 2008 by Sylvia Browne!

 

My review for the book - "Eyes" by Nghich Tu and Viet H Nguyen

 

In ‘Eyes’ - a supernatural adventurous fantasy thriller and dark horror with mystery, Nghich Tu has presented us a well-contemplated story absorbingly. It is filled with realistic depictions of - black magic, phantom horse, maggots with human-like faces, ghosts, pigheaded demons and treachery, to keep us entertained. It revolves around Vu Thanh, a college girl who goes to her village to celebrate festivals.

Dien Mục a naive in interpersonal relationship, a paradoxical eccentric who can’t see ghosts but a ghost catcher(!) tries befriending Thanh. A 500-year-old 'Spirit' man is his mentor-guardian.

Thanh is a quiet, reserved person. She talks when she ceases to be at peace with her thoughts (--Kahlil Gibran). So, she is cynical towards Muc rejecting his friendship gestures, unable to anticipate needs must when the devil drives.

Pulled by a nursery rhyme en route, Thanh would not have dreamt a horrible journey through a ghost village – a topsy-turvy image of her familiar world.

 

She meets her friends but is in a dilemma of whom to trust when conflicts arise, whether Muc or her long-term friends …that’d all been a ruse, a clever trick to shift suspicion onto Mục… to make Thanh trust them.

Thanh and Muc must survive the horrific onslaught of the antagonists.

Thanh suffers immeasurable agony...really, oh my God! To save her life, Thanh develops a strange bond with Muc to defeat the unadulterated evil, tooth and nail. Adversity makes strange bedfellows.

To achieve success in their mission, the aggressive antagonists create perplexing tactics to trap Thanh and Muc. The misled protagonists use powdered lime, raw garlic, pineapple leaves, peach wood pin and salt, to parry the wicked. They struggle to identify the core antagonist that is as cunning as a fox. Nghich surprises you here!

The fresh and intriguing plot thickens with amazing twists and nail-biting portrayals - blood and gore. It spirals into downright horror.

 

Nghich admirably introduces the puzzling characters creating irony and surprise. He takes us inside Thanh's experiences and her dynamic emotions. He has beautifully developed diametrically opposite characters in Thanh and Muc and their friendship. He has genuinely portrayed myriads of conflicts between the protagonists and antagonists.

v  Thanh: unselfish simple girl who acts scientifically even under dire circumstances; extraordinarily courageous, as brave as a lioness…she was staring death in the face … Thanh still didn’t want to just simply sit still and wait to be rescued.

v  Muc: Thanh’s friend in need. Independent problem solver. An interesting half-alive character with duality.

v  Crafty Oldman: secretive and invisible with amazing powers leading the protagonists.

v  Antagonists: Possessed cannibals with clever ploys.

Nghich as an intelligent storyteller is vivid in world-building … Within the mirror’s surface, Hùng’s soul was trapped, pounding the glass with both hands, which caused ripples to spread out the glass surface as if it was actually made of water.

‘Eyes’ captures varieties of myths suspensefully. Nghich depicts thoroughbred evil with unusual situations. His cultural settings with an original dose of folklore and unique structure of storytelling amused me:

        Horror: Depictions of chilling experiences of Thanh… wanted to weep, to scream out loud, to cry for help… wanted to get out of this cursed place.

        Interesting belief systems: … each living person has three souls and seven spirits.

        Creative imagination: Nghich keeps you wondering with interesting concepts … she’d stabbed just now a ghost; spiritual energy bullets; spy-moon – deserves a special mention.

 

Unexplained mentally challenging subtleties in twists hinder the flow. However, detailed magical practices and extraordinary torture scenes carry the story forward … millions of pupil-less black eyes were staring at her, Thanh felt cold to her bones.

The climax attacks the senses with terror! If you want something that scares the hell out of you, “Eyes” will surely give you hair-raising moments. It met my expectations as it’s full of ideas. It has wonderful paradigms for you:

The Lotus flowers… when understood in a positive way, represent radiant beauty shining through the black mud, unstained. But when understood negatively, it actually means, ‘the beautiful surface serves to hide the bad, stinky roots.’

Nghich has achieved his purpose. Magnificently!

Bill and Melinda Gates divorce