Dorothea Lasky

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Edelweiss. Content warning for violence.)

It’s a perfect temperature in here And everything is clean
Except the souls

This part is a fairy tale But only the ending of one

And when you finally
Get to the bottom of the glass You’ll find me
That terrible terror of being That’s me

***

Dorothea Lasky's THE SHINING is a feminist reimagining of the King novel and Kubrick film, in which she manages to transmogrify the already macabre into poetry that's sometimes more bizarre than the source material. Though it initially feels like we're thrust into the POV of Jack's wife Wendy, Lasky in fact places herself in the Overlook Hotel, perhaps as an unsuspecting guest who's terrorized by villains both worldly and supernatural. Through Lasky, the audience becomes the hotel's quarry.

Lasky's poetry is delightfully eerie and grotesque; my favorite line, perhaps, concerns the phalluses undulating on the green carpet running up and down the hotels stairs. It's been years since I've read or watched THE SHINING however, and I feel like I might have gotten more out of this collection if I'd refreshed my memory first. As it is, I suspect that many of the references went over my head.… (meer)

First of all this book is just about SUN signs. It starts out saying what a sun sign is,and the different modes and elements. And then a little about the moon and Saturn returns and mercury retrogrades and rising signs. If you have no knowledge of astrology I believe this would just confuse you rather then help. I felt like I was reading more of a fiction book rather then an astrology book. I did not feel like it was a guide at all. Every chapter starts out a different sun sign and tells about someone famous. I don't feel like you can explain a sun sign using a celebrity because there lives are nothing like an ordinary every day sun sign. Also it seamed to me the authors were taking there own perception of people they know as certain sun sign and making that all about that particular sign. People are not made up just by sun sign alone and I felt like most of this book was not accurate at all. All in all I was disappointed and don't feel its worth reading if your trying to learn astrology and its sun sign meanings.… (meer)

I thought this was a super fun book. It was a really casual, modern and interesting look at the horoscope signs with lots of emphasis on the everyday behaviors of each sign instead of the more textbook characteristics you usually get. For instance, they provide examples of what texting would be like between two signs. And some of them were laugh out loud funny. In fact I resembled a couple of them :) Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy. This opinion is entirely my own.… (meer)